IG Group
Holdings (LSE: IGG)
posted record total revenue of £1.12 billion for calendar year 2025, driven by
double-digit growth in net trading revenue and a surge in new customer
acquisition, fuelled by the Freetrade integration.
The
London-listed trading and investment platform also launched a strategic review
that could reshape its ownership structure, listing venues and corporate
composition, with results expected in autumn 2026.
Net trading
revenue for the twelve months to 31 December 2025 reached £1,004.6 million, a
10% increase on the £910.6 million recorded in calendar year 2024. That
prior-year performance had already impressed analysts, with IG beating
estimates in FY25 as net profit jumped 24% to £380 million, making the CY25 record all the
more notable for being built on an already-strong base.
That
growth, however, came alongside a 16% drop in net interest income, which fell
from £141.6 million to £118.8 million, as declining benchmark interest rates
reduced the yield on client cash balances while pass-through to customers
increased.
Net
interest income’s share of total revenue fell from 14% to 11%, reflecting a
deliberate business model shift toward fee and trading-based income. EBITDA
edged up just 1% to £531.1 million, while the EBITDA margin contracted from
49.9% to 47.3%, as the group reinvested efficiency savings back into marketing
and product development.
Breon Corcoran, CEO, IG Group
“Record financial results and accelerating customer growth demonstrate the strength of IG’s platform,” Breon Corcoran, the CEO of IG Group, said, “We operate in large and fast-growing markets being reshaped by structural drivers, and now is the time to raise our ambitions. Today we are launching a strategic review to ensure IG captures the full long-term opportunity ahead – evaluating routes to maximise shareholder value.”
The Numbers Behind the
Headline
Beyond the
top line, several operational and cost metrics reveal the true shape of IG’s
2025 performance. Marketing spend rose 31% to £108.8 million, a deliberate
acceleration designed to drive customer acquisition and fund new product
launches. Legal and professional costs surged 78% to £62.3 million, reflecting
M&A advisory fees, technology consulting and early-stage work on the
company’s legal entity structure.
The table
below offers a broader comparative view of IG’s key performance indicators
across calendar year 2025 and calendar year 2024, cutting past the headline
revenue figures.
KPI | CY25 | CY24 | Change |
Total Revenue | £1,123.4m | £1,052.2m | +7% |
Net Trading Revenue | £1,004.6m | £910.6m | +10% |
Net Interest Income | £118.8m | £141.6m | -16% |
EBITDA | £531.1m | £525.0m | +1% |
EBITDA Margin | 47.3% | 49.9% | -2.6pp |
The
adjusted EPS growth of 5% – from approximately 109.8 pence to 115.3 pence – was
supported by ongoing share buybacks that have reduced the share count by over
16% since May 2022.
The 29%
leap in basic EPS to 130.0 pence is more eye-catching, but that figure includes
a one-off £76.0 million gain from the disposal of Small Exchange to Kraken in a
$100 million deal completed
in October 2025. Strip that out and the underlying earnings picture is more
measured.
Customer Growth: Real and
Acquired
The
reported 174% surge in active customers from 270,300 to 742,100 is almost
entirely explained
by the acquisition of Freetrade, which was consolidated from 1 April 2025
and brought approximately 460,000 active customers onto IG’s platform. On an
organic, continuing-operations basis, active customers grew 6% to 281,300, a
more modest figure that nonetheless represents an improvement on prior-year
trends.
First
trades on an organic basis rose 54% to 103,800, suggesting that IG’s investment
in marketing and product development is beginning to attract genuinely new
trading activity rather than simply absorbing acquired users. As FinanceMagnates.com
reported, the group
had already signaled momentum building through fiscal year 2025, with active
clients rising 2% quarter-on-quarter even before Freetrade was folded in.
Fixed cost
to serve per customer fell 8% organically since the end of 2023, the company
said, as digital servicing, faster KYC processes and AI-powered onboarding
began delivering measurable savings.
tastytrade Pushes US
Revenue to £186.7m
IG’s US
division, built around its tastytrade
platform acquired in 2021 for $1 billion, generated net trading revenue of £186.7
million in CY25, up 18% year-on-year. Exchange-traded derivatives, the core
tastytrade product, contributed £153.2 million of that total, driven by higher
payment-for-order-flow rates and double-digit growth in active customers and
first trades.
Assets
under administration at tastytrade climbed 47% to £18.2 billion at 31 December
2025, benefiting from strong market performance, net inflows and a rapidly
growing customer base.
As FinanceMagnates.com
examined in February,
IG’s US bet now contributes meaningfully to the case that CFD-heritage brokers
can build durable non-OTC businesses, with tastytrade delivering 23% net
trading revenue growth in US dollar terms in 2025 alone.
Freetrade Beds In, Crypto
Ambitions Grow
Freetrade
contributed £24.2 million to total revenue in its first nine months as part of
the group, surpassing IG’s own guidance of approximately £20 million. Assets
under administration on the Freetrade platform reached £3.3 billion at 31
December 2025, up 34%, and grew further to over £3.5 billion by 28 February
2026.
The group
launched a zero-commission mutual fund offering in October 2025, which has
since expanded to over 760 funds across 40 managers, and introduced free SIPPs
in January 2026, which the company says have prompted over £250 million in
pension transfer applications.
On the
crypto front, IG secured both an FCA registration and a European MiCA licence
in 2025, and completed the acquisition of Australian cryptocurrency exchange
Independent Reserve on 30 January 2026 for a provisional consideration of
approximately £67.7 million.
IG launched
spot crypto trading in Australia in March 2026, powered by Independent Reserve,
with plans to extend the offering to Singapore and the UAE in the second half
of 2026. The group’s AI-driven
compliance operations, expanded
through a partnership with Adclear, now see 87% of marketing assets approved within target timeframes.
Revenue Mix and What Comes
Next
OTC
derivatives remain the dominant revenue engine, generating £781.4 million in
net trading revenue for CY25, up 8%, with customer income retention improving
by more than four percentage points to over 83% following spread realignment
and passive hedging adjustments introduced in late 2024.
Stock
trading and investments nearly doubled, rising 96% to £68.4 million, driven by
the rollout of zero-commission equity trading across the UK, Ireland, Singapore
and France, where organic first trades in the UK and Ireland alone grew 52%
year-on-year in the three months to 28 February 2026.
The
momentum carried into early 2026, with Q3 total revenue up 2% to £274.2
million, net trading revenue up 5% to £247.2 million, and assets under
administration on the IG platform reaching £19.5 billion.
For the
full year, the group guided to approximately 7% revenue growth in the first
quarter, full-year EBITDA broadly in line with consensus at £538.1 million, and
organic revenue growth towards the top end of its mid-to-high single-digit
target range over the medium term. A final dividend of 28.12 pence per share
was proposed for the seven-month transitional period, with the Annual General
Meeting set for 19 May 2026.
IG Group
Holdings (LSE: IGG)
posted record total revenue of £1.12 billion for calendar year 2025, driven by
double-digit growth in net trading revenue and a surge in new customer
acquisition, fuelled by the Freetrade integration.
The
London-listed trading and investment platform also launched a strategic review
that could reshape its ownership structure, listing venues and corporate
composition, with results expected in autumn 2026.
Net trading
revenue for the twelve months to 31 December 2025 reached £1,004.6 million, a
10% increase on the £910.6 million recorded in calendar year 2024. That
prior-year performance had already impressed analysts, with IG beating
estimates in FY25 as net profit jumped 24% to £380 million, making the CY25 record all the
more notable for being built on an already-strong base.
That
growth, however, came alongside a 16% drop in net interest income, which fell
from £141.6 million to £118.8 million, as declining benchmark interest rates
reduced the yield on client cash balances while pass-through to customers
increased.
Net
interest income’s share of total revenue fell from 14% to 11%, reflecting a
deliberate business model shift toward fee and trading-based income. EBITDA
edged up just 1% to £531.1 million, while the EBITDA margin contracted from
49.9% to 47.3%, as the group reinvested efficiency savings back into marketing
and product development.
Breon Corcoran, CEO, IG Group
“Record financial results and accelerating customer growth demonstrate the strength of IG’s platform,” Breon Corcoran, the CEO of IG Group, said, “We operate in large and fast-growing markets being reshaped by structural drivers, and now is the time to raise our ambitions. Today we are launching a strategic review to ensure IG captures the full long-term opportunity ahead – evaluating routes to maximise shareholder value.”
The Numbers Behind the
Headline
Beyond the
top line, several operational and cost metrics reveal the true shape of IG’s
2025 performance. Marketing spend rose 31% to £108.8 million, a deliberate
acceleration designed to drive customer acquisition and fund new product
launches. Legal and professional costs surged 78% to £62.3 million, reflecting
M&A advisory fees, technology consulting and early-stage work on the
company’s legal entity structure.
The table
below offers a broader comparative view of IG’s key performance indicators
across calendar year 2025 and calendar year 2024, cutting past the headline
revenue figures.
KPI | CY25 | CY24 | Change |
Total Revenue | £1,123.4m | £1,052.2m | +7% |
Net Trading Revenue | £1,004.6m | £910.6m | +10% |
Net Interest Income | £118.8m | £141.6m | -16% |
EBITDA | £531.1m | £525.0m | +1% |
EBITDA Margin | 47.3% | 49.9% | -2.6pp |
The
adjusted EPS growth of 5% – from approximately 109.8 pence to 115.3 pence – was
supported by ongoing share buybacks that have reduced the share count by over
16% since May 2022.
The 29%
leap in basic EPS to 130.0 pence is more eye-catching, but that figure includes
a one-off £76.0 million gain from the disposal of Small Exchange to Kraken in a
$100 million deal completed
in October 2025. Strip that out and the underlying earnings picture is more
measured.
Customer Growth: Real and
Acquired
The
reported 174% surge in active customers from 270,300 to 742,100 is almost
entirely explained
by the acquisition of Freetrade, which was consolidated from 1 April 2025
and brought approximately 460,000 active customers onto IG’s platform. On an
organic, continuing-operations basis, active customers grew 6% to 281,300, a
more modest figure that nonetheless represents an improvement on prior-year
trends.
First
trades on an organic basis rose 54% to 103,800, suggesting that IG’s investment
in marketing and product development is beginning to attract genuinely new
trading activity rather than simply absorbing acquired users. As FinanceMagnates.com
reported, the group
had already signaled momentum building through fiscal year 2025, with active
clients rising 2% quarter-on-quarter even before Freetrade was folded in.
Fixed cost
to serve per customer fell 8% organically since the end of 2023, the company
said, as digital servicing, faster KYC processes and AI-powered onboarding
began delivering measurable savings.
tastytrade Pushes US
Revenue to £186.7m
IG’s US
division, built around its tastytrade
platform acquired in 2021 for $1 billion, generated net trading revenue of £186.7
million in CY25, up 18% year-on-year. Exchange-traded derivatives, the core
tastytrade product, contributed £153.2 million of that total, driven by higher
payment-for-order-flow rates and double-digit growth in active customers and
first trades.
Assets
under administration at tastytrade climbed 47% to £18.2 billion at 31 December
2025, benefiting from strong market performance, net inflows and a rapidly
growing customer base.
As FinanceMagnates.com
examined in February,
IG’s US bet now contributes meaningfully to the case that CFD-heritage brokers
can build durable non-OTC businesses, with tastytrade delivering 23% net
trading revenue growth in US dollar terms in 2025 alone.
Freetrade Beds In, Crypto
Ambitions Grow
Freetrade
contributed £24.2 million to total revenue in its first nine months as part of
the group, surpassing IG’s own guidance of approximately £20 million. Assets
under administration on the Freetrade platform reached £3.3 billion at 31
December 2025, up 34%, and grew further to over £3.5 billion by 28 February
2026.
The group
launched a zero-commission mutual fund offering in October 2025, which has
since expanded to over 760 funds across 40 managers, and introduced free SIPPs
in January 2026, which the company says have prompted over £250 million in
pension transfer applications.
On the
crypto front, IG secured both an FCA registration and a European MiCA licence
in 2025, and completed the acquisition of Australian cryptocurrency exchange
Independent Reserve on 30 January 2026 for a provisional consideration of
approximately £67.7 million.
IG launched
spot crypto trading in Australia in March 2026, powered by Independent Reserve,
with plans to extend the offering to Singapore and the UAE in the second half
of 2026. The group’s AI-driven
compliance operations, expanded
through a partnership with Adclear, now see 87% of marketing assets approved within target timeframes.
Revenue Mix and What Comes
Next
OTC
derivatives remain the dominant revenue engine, generating £781.4 million in
net trading revenue for CY25, up 8%, with customer income retention improving
by more than four percentage points to over 83% following spread realignment
and passive hedging adjustments introduced in late 2024.
Stock
trading and investments nearly doubled, rising 96% to £68.4 million, driven by
the rollout of zero-commission equity trading across the UK, Ireland, Singapore
and France, where organic first trades in the UK and Ireland alone grew 52%
year-on-year in the three months to 28 February 2026.
The
momentum carried into early 2026, with Q3 total revenue up 2% to £274.2
million, net trading revenue up 5% to £247.2 million, and assets under
administration on the IG platform reaching £19.5 billion.
For the
full year, the group guided to approximately 7% revenue growth in the first
quarter, full-year EBITDA broadly in line with consensus at £538.1 million, and
organic revenue growth towards the top end of its mid-to-high single-digit
target range over the medium term. A final dividend of 28.12 pence per share
was proposed for the seven-month transitional period, with the Annual General
Meeting set for 19 May 2026.
