Wednesday 07 December 2016 4:34 pm

Numis boss glosses over sterling’s demise after posting record revenue growth

Stockbroker Numis raked in the cash after posting its best ever revenue growth over the last year.

Despite 2016's shock events one of Numis’ two co-chief executives said he was feeling positive about next year.

“We’re expecting M&A activity to pick up next year, after a relatively flat period,” Ross Mitchinson, co-chief executive, told City A.M., adding, “Brexit and the moves from sterling are not a particularly big deal for us, though we do pay close attention to them."

Revenues were boosted by 13 IPOs and 47 equity raisings over the year. They jumped by 15 per cent to £112m.

Meanwhile, profits were up by even more, increasing by a quarter to £33m, driving cash balances up by nearly 50 per cent to £89m.

However, it wasn't all good news as shares fell by two per cent during trading.

The long delayed Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II), expected to come into effect in January 2018, will likely have a significant impact on the company.

The controversial overhaul of financial standards will cover everything from from how market research is funded to the transparency of bond markets but has faced multiple delays due to complexity of the industry and slower than expected IT upgrades.

Mitchinson warned the company is expecting to spend a lot of time getting their operations and clients up to speed ahead of Mifid ii’s introduction.

“We’re talking about it a lot with clients,” he said, adding, “Numis will be a relative winner from Mifid ii in the long run.”

The co-chief executives, Mitchinson and Alex Ham, took over from founder Oliver Hemsley in September. The co-leadership situation can often be difficult to manage but both said they are happy with the current setup and don’t see it changing in the near future.