ICAP sees flat FY profits, LCH talks continue

By Daisy Ku and Steve Slater

LONDON (Reuters) - ICAP (IAP.L), the world's biggest interdealer broker, said it was on track to almost match last year's profit after a "solid" first quarter and remains in talks to buy clearing house LCH.Clearnet as part of a consortium.

The board of LCH.Clearnet last month rejected a bid for the clearing house from a 14-member consortium led by ICAP due to concerns about the details of the business plan, two people familiar with the matter said.

The consortium remains interested and is likely to return with a revised offer around September, one of the sources said. A spokesman for the consortium said it remained in talks with LCH.Clearnet, but declined to comment on specific details.

ICAP said in a trading update ahead of its annual shareholder meeting that revenue in the three months to the end of June grew by over 10 percent, aided by rising bond issuance and active commodities markets.

Profit before tax and one-off items for the year to March 2010 is on course to meet the average analyst forecast of 337 million pounds, the company said.

That would be down 2.6 percent from 2008-09 profit of 346 million pounds, which was up 5 percent on 2007-08.

Interdealer brokers match up buyers and sellers across fixed income, foreign exchange, equities and commodities markets, and have been more resilient than other financial firms during the financial crisis as they benefit from lively markets.

By 1100 GMT ICAP shares were down 13 pence, or 3 percent, at 429.5p. That mostly reflected the shares trading ex-dividend, meaning investors no longer qualify for a 12.35p dividend.