IG Group, who have been without a permanent CEO since June Felix stepped down for health reasons in the summer, have now made an appointment. The spread betting CFD and share trading brokerage has named Breon Corcoran as the new boss of the business.
Though Mr Corcoran won’t take up the role until the end of January, at which point interim CEO Charlie Rose, the firm’s CFO, will hand over the reins, subject to regulatory approval.
Who is Breon Corcoran?
Mr Corcoran is an Irish businessman, he is 52 years of age and was educated at Trinity College Dublin and INSEAD.
Most recently, he was CEO of the cross-border money transfer app WorldRemit. Before that, he ws the CEO of Paddy Power Betfair, between 2016 and 2018.
He has also served as a non-executive director at both Bestinvest and Tilney Investment Management.
Mr Corcoran started his career at JP Morgan and Bankers Trust before joining Paddy Power in 2001, where he became a board director in 2004 and COO of the company in 2010. He became CEO of Betfair in August 2012.
Mike McTighe, IG Group’s Chairman said of the appointment:
“He (Mr Corcoran) is a proven leader of high-performing teams within multinational organizations, with an ability to deliver results for all stakeholders,”
he added that
“The Board is confident that Breon is the right person to lead IG and deliver the next phase of growth. I look forward to working with him.”
Challenges for the new IG Group CEO
Mr Corcoran has plenty of experience in both retail gambling and financial services businesses and on paper, he looks like an excellent choice to fill the top spot at IG Group.
However, he is joining the company at a difficult time for the online trading industry trading volume has been falling and costs have been rising. IG group recently announced a round of redundancies cutting its headcount by -10.0%.
The firm has also yet to fully leverage its US operations, which it expanded with the $1.0 billion purchase of options broker and educator Tastytrade in 2021.
Competition for business looks set to increase, for example, commission-free brokerage Robinhood will open in the UK in 2024, and the current low levels of stock market volatility could act as a drag on IG earnings throughout December, the New Year and beyond.
IG Group share price reaction
IG Shares have rallied by +6.82% over the last 5 days, effectively halving their year-to-date loss as they did so, in fact, IG shares have been rallying since mid-November.
Broker comments on the appointment of Breon Corcoran have been broadly positive with analysts at Barclays saying that his:
“Strong track record at Paddy Power, Betfair, then Paddy Power Betfair means that we believe this appointment will be taken well (by the market) “
They added that
“With a clear capital allocation framework in place and now a new CEO, we look through cyclical risk (s) and rate the shares OW”.
We wish Breon Corcoran all the best in his new role.
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