Brexiteer tycoon Peter Cruddas declares his CMC Markets plan has worked

Peter Cruddas, founder and chief executive of spread betting firm CMC Markets, today hailed a strong set of results as vindication of his diversification strategy.

Cruddas has moved CMC’s focus away from small-time betters to focus on sophisticated professional investors while also offering the use of the firm’s trading platform to other companies. Australian bank ANZ is the biggest of these, using CMC’s platform for its retail broking clients.

Half year pre-tax profits to September 30 came in at £30.1 million against £7.2 million for the same period a year ago and is paying an interim dividend of 2.85p, up from 1.35p before.

Cruddas, a major donor to Boris Johnson’s election campaign and a co-founder of Vote Leave, said the new shape of CMC made it far less prone to the volatility of trading around elections. “We’ve had a change of tack and the good news is these results reflect what we’ve been doing over the last six years.”

The Financial Conduct Authority clamped down on the industry accepting naive investors last year.

Asked what he thought about the election’s impact on business, Cruddas said: “Vote Boris.”