WorldSpreads group chief executive steps down

CONOR FOLEY has stepped down as group chief executive from the spread-betting company he co-founded in 2000.

Dublin-headquartered WorldSpreads Group announced yesterday that Mr Foley had resigned “with immediate effect to pursue other interests”.

According to Lindsay McNeile, non-executive chairman of WorldSpreads, Mr Foley will retain his position as the largest shareholder in the group “and remains fully supportive of the group’s strategy and expansion plans”.

Roger Hynes, a former chief executive of WorldSpreads Ltd, the group’s UK subsidiary, will take his place as interim chief executive. Mr Hynes resigned from his position in July 2010 for personal reasons, but retained a non-executive role.

Mr McNeile yesterday outlined the reasons behind the move.

“Conor is an entrepreneur of extraordinary talent and has been instrumental in building this company from virtually nothing to a major player in UK market with a unique global footprint,” Mr McNeile said.

Mr Foley’s departure came about due to “a new paradigm” in the spread-betting market which called for a “very professional high-tech management team, to build on the vision and foundations that the entrepreneur created”.

Last month, in a trading update, the company revealed that a “combination of benign market conditions and low volatility in certain key markets significantly impacted revenues” and it expected to report a loss for the full financial year, which ends on March 31st.

Last year it recorded an operating loss of almost €800,000.

It also revealed that the group had been experiencing “an unusual pattern of client trading”.

Niall O’Kelly, who joined WorldSpreads in 2004 as chief financial officer, has also now left the firm.

The Irish division of WorldSpreads was acquired by local management in December 2009 for €11 million and was renamed MarketSpreads. This company is now embroiled in a €1.7 million court case with former executives Brian O’Neill and Fergus Rice.

MarketSpreads also faces being struck off the register of companies for failing to file accounts on time.