LONDON (Reuters) -TP ICAP (LON:NXGN) Plc, the world's largest interdealer broker, reported a 9% fall in first-quarter revenue on Wednesday, to £483 million from £530 million a year earlier.
The revenue drop reflected an extremely volatile market in March last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said.
Trading activity in April this year had returned to normal levels and was in line with the group's forecasts, the company said.
The company stuck to its full-year forecast of low single-digit revenue, excluding results for Liquidnet, an electronic trading company for buyside firms that TP ICAP acquired earlier this year.
Born out of the merger of brokers Tullett Prebon and ICAP, the company acts as a broker between institutional customers for commodities, shares, currencies, interest rate swaps and bonds, and tends to thrive on market volatility. It will host its annual general meeting later on Wednesday.
Global broking revenues fell 10% in the first three months of the year, due to low client trading volumes in most asset classes, except for equities, the company said.
Revenue for its energy and commodities business declined 12%, also due to exceptionally high volumes a year earlier, while agency execution revenue fell 3%, the company said.
Parameta Solutions, the group's data and analytics business, and one of the world's largest providers of over-the-counter trading data, reported a 11% growth in revenues. The division benefited from new products and the diversification in clients, the company said.