IG Group is considering switching to a US listing, the company’s Chief Financial Officer said on Thursday.
Clifford Abrahams told Bloomberg that the brokerage group listing in the US would potentially be more attractive for staff and provide the business with a currency to make further acquisitions.
With regard to the former, UK firms have typically seen low valuations compared to some peers over in the US.
That being said, this was the logic that underpinned eToro’s decision to choose the US over the UK when it went public last year.
However, the company has seen a 43% decline in its share price since then, suggesting US investors may not be as keen on OTC derivatives brokers as they assumed.
There is no doubt that the US offers a more compelling growth narrative than the rest of the world though.
IG’s options business could easily be built on to offer a range of futures products, as well as prediction markets.
Meanwhile UK and European regulators seem intent on killing the sort of speculative trading activity that IG makes the bulk of its revenues from.
That being said, these claims should sometimes be taken with a pinch of salt. Plus500’s CEO David Zruia said in 2022 that the company was considering a US listing, although that never actually came to fruition.
