London Capital Group falls into the red, slashes dividend

Shares in AIM-listed financial services company London Capital Group dropped after announcing that it fell into the red last year, for which reason it decided to slash its total dividend by two thirds.

The company further reported that revenue decreased 27% to £28.6m. An adjusted loss before tax of £0.2m was recorded, in contrast to an adjusted profit of £7.1m in the previous year.

Net cash and short-term receivables of £20.4m were recorded at the year-end compared to £25.1m in 2011.

Divisional revenue was down 26% in the company' UK financial spread betting segment.

Financial spread betting average trades per day decreased 24% to 25,029 compared to 33,042 in the previous year. New client acquisitions were also down, totalling 10,123, slightly less than the 10,398 recorded in 2011.

Trade volumes decreased to $383bn from $544bn a year earlier in the group's institutional foreign exchange segment, while divisional revenue for this segment fell to £6.1m from £8.0m.

Chairman: lower volatility resulted in less trading opportunities for LCG customersGiles Vardy, Chairman of London Capital Group, commented: "As anticipated, 2012 proved to be a difficult year for the group. Financial results were disappointing with a marked decline in customer trading activity, especially in the second half of the year.

"Whilst it is often easy to blame market conditions, it remains true that lower levels of volatility in markets overall meant that there were less trading opportunities for LCG's customers to pursue. As a result revenues were 27% lower than 2011 and profits declined throughout the year leading to a £0.2m adjusted loss before tax for the year as a whole."

Dividend policyHe added: "Given the results, and having paid a 1.3p dividend at the half year, the board does not consider it appropriate to pay a final dividend. The board's policy is to pay dividends from available profits whilst considering the current and future capital requirements of the business."

London Capital Group's share price was down 4.04% to 47.50p at 12:54 on Wednesday.

MF