Spread betting and contracts for difference (CFD) provider IG Group has applied to the UK Listing Authority and the London Stock Exchange for a block listing of 1,000,000 ordinary shares, priced at of 0.005p per share, and to be admitted to the Official List. These shares will rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares, Europe’s largest online Trading Platform said in a regulatory filing.
The shares are to be issued under IG’s incentive plan for executive directors known as the Sustained Performance Plan (SPP), which provides an incentive mechanism to reward both annual and sustained long-term performance. The entirely share-based scheme encourages executives to build up a substantial stake in the company, thereby aligning their interests with shareholders’ objectives.
The application for the block listing was made on Monday, and it is expected that admission will become effective on Friday this week.
The news comes shortly after the spread better said last month it expects to post higher-than-expected revenue for its 2020 financial year, due to elevated market volatility created by the Covid-19 pandemic. IG, which is set to publish the full results for its 2020 financial year later this week, said that it now expects that net trading revenue for the whole of the fourth quarter of its 2020 financial year will be approximately £259 million.
The derivatives trading specialist had seen its revenues increasing in the first quarter by nearly 30 percent. This was the first growth in its quarterly revenues since ESMA banned the sale of binary options to retail investors and placed restrictions on the leverage offered for CFDs traders.
Britain’s biggest player in the spread betting sector, with a 40 percent share of the market, the company has also undergone several management changes over the last few months.
