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Trading Statement

29th Sep 2011 07:00

RNS Number : 1695P
ICAP PLC
29 September 2011
 



ICAP plc Trading Statement

 

London, 29 September 2011 - ICAP plc (IAP.L), the world's leading interdealer broker, announces its trading update ahead of the close period for the half year ending 30 September 2011:

Group revenue in the six months ending 30 September 2011 is expected to be marginally ahead of the same period last year. Our current view of the full year performance remains broadly in line with that at the time of our AGM in July 2011.

Group CEO comments:

Commenting on ICAP's first half and the outlook, Michael Spencer, Group Chief Executive of ICAP, said:

"The first six months of the year has seen ICAP continue to focus on organic growth, increasing the number of asset classes our post trade business supports and developing our electronic and hybrid initiatives. We have also seen higher volumes on our pure electronic platforms, with for example $407bn traded on EBS, our FX platform, on 4 August, the third-highest volume day in its history.

"Due to continuing political and economic uncertainty, we expect the recent high levels of volatility in financial markets to continue for the rest of the year. We remain confident that the diversity of our products and services will continue to assist our customers around the world to do business and reduce risk in these uncertain times.

"Finally I want to thank Mark Yallop, our Group Chief Operating Officer, who leaves us tomorrow, for his huge contribution to ICAP's success during the last six years. In Mark Price, our new Group Chief Operating Officer, we have an outstanding replacement with substantial operational and risk management experience in financial markets."

 

Solid volumes in core voice broking:

During the first six months, volumes were solid with a marked increase in August. Volumes in rates were boosted by the threat of technical default and downgrade in the US as well as the sovereign debt crisis and threat of contagion across Europe. These factors also increased activity in emerging markets as investors switched to alternative markets. There was increased activity in commodities, especially oil.

 

Our voice broking team in Singapore has now been substantially rebuilt and is performing well. We saw improved revenue performance and profitability across most of our products and offices in Asia, most notably in Hong Kong. In Brazil we have continued to execute on our strategy, growing revenue and market share across a wide array of products and whilst the path to profitability has been slower than we had hoped, we expect breakeven to occur next year, with current year losses in line with last year.

 

Increased volumes in electronic broking:

In the five months to the end of August 2011, total average daily volumes on the EBS and BrokerTec platforms reached US$884.6bn, an increase of 18% year-on-year. In fixed income products, total average daily volumes on the BrokerTec platform were $711.5bn, an increase of 20% year-on-year and average daily forex volumes on EBS increased 12%, to $173.1bn. European repo volumes reached $309.7bn, up 22% year-on-year. US Treasury electronic broking volumes increased 5% year-on-year, to $145.6bn and US repo volumes were $256.2bn, up 27%.

 

Earlier this month, i-Swap, our electronic market for trading Euro interest rate swaps (IRS) with market maker support, completed its first year of operations. Trading volumes have exceeded our expectations with a nominal value of over €590 billion matched to date through the electronic order book, accounting for more than 20% of ICAP's Euro IRS trades of this type. As you would expect in a comparatively young electronic market, we saw a shift back to voice broking in July and August, due to very significant volatility in European financial markets in this period. However, we expect electronic IRS volumes to continue to grow and ICAP's combination of voice, hybrid and electronic offerings remain a compelling proposition for our customers.

 

Separately, ICAP has provisionally agreed with Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to co-invest in iSwap, ICAP's electronic interest rate swap platform. ICAP will continue to run and consolidate the results of iSwap. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals. There is potential for additional investment by other user banks. ICAP believes this co-investment will assist in the growth and development of the platform as Swaps trading becomes increasingly electronic.

 

Progress in post trade risk and information services

Performance in our post trade risk and information businesses was strong across all the businesses. TriOptima's triReduce service, which allows customers to tear up their existing trades to eliminate cost, credit and operational risk and reduce capital requirements, recently undertook the largest dollar interest rate swap tear-up to date for SwapClear, with $7.1 trillion notional principal eliminated from LCH.Clearnet's SwapClear service.

 

Notes

 

1. This document contains forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results and business of ICAP plc. By their nature, forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainty and there may be subsequent variations to estimates. ICAP plc's actual future results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements.

 

2. ICAP reports all of its broking and post trade volumes on a single count basis.

 

3. ICAP expects to announce its results for the half-year ended 30 September 2011 on 16 November 2011.

 

4. EBS is ICAP's leading trading platform for spot FX, precious metals, NDF and NDS (Non-Deliverable FX Swaps). BrokerTec is ICAP's leading electronic trading platform for the fixed income markets, providing innovative technology solutions across a wide range of products to customers in more than 50 countries around the world.

 

Conference calls

A conference call for analysts and investors will be held at 08.30 BST on Thursday 29 September 2011 to discuss this statement. To dial in, please call +44 (0) 20 3003 2666. The access password is broker.

 

A conference call for media will be held at 09.30 BST on Thursday 29 September 2011 to discuss this statement. To dial in, please call +44 (0) 20 3003 2666. The access password is ICAP.

 

Contacts:

Brigitte Trafford

Director of Corporate Affairs

+44 (0) 20 7050 7103

Alex DeeNeil Bennett

Head of Investor RelationsMaitland

+44 (0) 20 7050 7123+44 (0) 20 7379 5151

 

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
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