Numis wants UK to take lead in tech deals
BRITAIN’S investors could get a chance to buy into more home-grown tech firms in the coming year, as the market becomes more mature, the boss of brokerage Numis told City A.M. yesterday.
Typically, UK tech firms sell out to US rivals, or float on stock markets over the Atlantic.
“Those firms don’t have to go to America,” Oliver Hemsley urged.
“There is plenty of finance here, the jurisdiction is good, the treatment from a tax perspective of intellectual property is attractive, there is a lot of expertise here, and a lot of service providers.”
He was speaking as Numis’ interim financial results showed revenues rose 20 per cent in the past year to £92.9m.
A strong supply of flotations and fundraisings pushed its pre-tax profits up eight per cent to £24.4m – Numis worked on 44 equity transactions including 16 floats.
The broker added 24 new corporate clients in the year, and its total of 171 includes 36 FTSE 250 businesses.
It increased its dividend by 10 per cent as a result to 5.5p.
Numis’ shares rose by 2.08 per cent.