IAP.L Regulatory News (IAP)

19 Mar 2008 07:01

ICAP PLC19 March 2008 Press Release ICAP plc Trading Statement London - 19 March 2008. ICAP plc (IAP.L), the world's premier interdealerbroker, is making this trading statement in relation to ICAP's financial yearending 31 March 2008 and particularly to the three month period from 1 January2008 to 31 March 2008. ICAP expects to announce its interim results for the yearending 31 March 2008 on 20 May 2008. Trading across the group in the second half of ICAP's financial year has beenvery strong and profit (before tax, amortisation and impairment of intangiblesarising on consolidation and exceptional items) for the financial year ended 31March 2008 is anticipated to be above the current consensus of analysts'forecasts. Highlights • Electronic broking has had an outstanding year with record volumes.Average daily electronic broking volumes in fixed-income products reached recordlevels in February. o Spot FX traded on ICAP's electronic platform EBS increased 34 percentyear on year in February to an average daily volume of $217.2 billion (February2007: $162.6 billion). Average daily spot FX trading on EBS was also up 32percent for the 12 months ending 29 February 2008. o Average daily electronic broking volumes in U.S. Treasury productsincreased 38 percent year on year to $187.7 billion in February, and 32 percentfor the 12 months ending 29 February 2008. Average daily electronic brokingvolumes of U.S. and EU repo products reached $505.1 billion in February, anincrease of 19 percent on February 2007. o Non Deliverable Forward Foreign Exchange trading in seven Asiancurrencies and the Russian rouble was launched on the EBS platform o ICAP completed the most recent phase of enhancements to its marketleading EBS Spot FX electronic trading platform. These enhancementssignificantly improve functionality, increase the frequency of market viewupdates and speed of data delivery, and provide greater order book transparencyfor all EBS customers. o The Belgian Debt Agency selected ICAP's BrokerTec platform for Eurogovernment bond trading. This will enable European primary dealers to fulfiltheir secondary market quoting obligations in the wholesale government bondmarket on BrokerTec, opening this market to competing electronic platforms forthe first time. • Voice broking volumes have continued to benefit from the higheractivity level created by increased volatility and continuing disruption in themoney markets. Steeper yield curves have provided a significant boost tointerest rate derivatives activity in many markets. The higher price of creditrisk has kept the credit derivatives very active, notably in single name creditdefault swap (CDS) and index products. ICAP benefits from having its activitiesspread over a wide range of markets and geographies with a variety of drivers ofgrowth in those markets. • ICAP Hyde, ICAP's global shipbroking firm, acquired CapitalShipbrokers Ltd, a privately owned shipbroker with 37 staff based in London.Capital Shipbrokers' extensive experience in the tanker market complements ICAPHyde's strong position in dry cargo. Combined, their services cover chartering,sale and purchase, freight derivatives and research in the tanker sector as wellas in dry cargo. • ICAP acquired a 15 percent stake in the Bolsa de Productos de Chile(BPC), a commodity exchange in Chile, to become the first international investorto have an ownership stake in a Chilean exchange. • Capital position - ICAP has access to sufficient capital to continueto develop its businesses under its already announced strategy of organic andacquisition driven growth. The Group has recently completed the refinancing ofits existing debt with a new three year revolving agreement for £520m of seniorbank debt, of which £170m was from new lenders. Commenting on the year, recent events and outlook, Michael Spencer, Group ChiefExecutive of ICAP said, "ICAP has enjoyed a very successful year; benefitingfrom higher volatility in the interest rate, foreign exchange, equity, energyand parts of the credit and emerging markets. The last three months saw acontinuation of the increased activity levels in the financial markets thatbegan in June 2007. Both our electronic and voice broking businesses felt thepositive impact of these higher levels of activity and we benefited from thesubstantial leverage in this business. Our market share grew again during theyear - further growth will come from our focus on expanding our electronic,energy, credit derivatives, emerging markets, equity and transport businesses. We remain positive about the outlook for the business. Steeper yield curves, thehigher price of credit risk and continuing disruption in the money marketssuggest that this period of increased activity may continue for some time thoughnot necessarily at the very high levels of the last few months." Notes: 1) The current forecasts for ICAP plc pre-tax profits referred to in thisannouncement are based on forecasts of profit before tax, amortisation andimpairment of intangibles arising on consolidation and exceptional itemsprovided by 11 equity analysts. The current consensus of those forecasts for theyear to March 2008 is £312 million compared with the results for the year toMarch 2007 when ICAP plc's profit was £252 million. The sources of theseforecasts were Bloomberg and Reuters. 2) ICAP plc held an investor and analysts briefing in its New Jersey offices onTuesday 18 March 2008. A recorded audio version of the briefing, with slides, isavailable on ICAP's website. To register for the webcast please go towww.icap.com 3) ICAP introduced the publication of its market volume data in selected marketson its website at the beginning of September 2007. The aim is to provide morefrequent, transparent, granular data about activity levels in the global OTCfinancial markets in which ICAP has a significant market share. For moreinformation please go to: ICAP volume data _____________________________________________________________________ ContactsMike Sheard Director of Corporate Affairs +44 (0) 20 7050 7103Candice Adam Corporate Communications +44 (0) 20 7050 7104 About ICAPICAP is the world's premier voice and electronic interdealer broker and thesource of global market information and commentary for professionals in theinternational financial markets. The Group is active in the wholesale markets ininterest rates, credit, energy, foreign exchange and equity derivatives. ICAPhas an average daily transaction volume in excess of $1.5 trillion, more than60% of which is electronic. ICAP plc was added to the FTSE 100 Index on 30 June2006. For more information go to www.icap.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange