City broker Peel Hunt to IPO on UK’s AIM by end of the month
Peel Hunt, the London broker for mid and small-cap companies, is to float on London’s AIM market following a pandemic-fuelled trading boom.
The employee-owned group has announced it will go public by the end of the month, in a bid to raise money for its expansion plans, which include a move into Europe.
As well as its intention to float, Peel Hunt reported a full-year revenue surge to £197m in the year to March 2021, up from £96m the year earlier. Trading activity for the broker boomed during the pandemic, as companies sought cash to weather the first economic lockdown and then sustain a wider recovery.
“Having expanded significantly over the last ten years, Peel Hunt is now well established as a leading UK mid and small-cap focused investment bank,” Chief Executive Steven Fine said in a statement.
“The IPO represents an important milestone in our journey and allows us to accelerate our growth plans, building on the strong momentum in our business,” he added.
Founded in 1989, Peel Hunt is majority-owned by current and former employees, after staff and investors led a buyout of the company from Belgian bank KBC in 2001.
Alongside its placing of ordinary shares for the IPO, the group will conduct intermediaries and employee offers.
In addition to its trading services, the group provides corporate broking and equity research. As at the end of last month, it has 157 corporate clients with an average market cap of £775m, and distributes its research to more than 1,200 institutions.
Peel Hunt’s trading platform makes markets in over 10,000 instruments in 38 markets, and is an increasingly significant provider of trading services to the UK’s retail platforms and brokers, with 47 per cent of all retail trade value in the UK dealt on its platform in the year to March 2021.
It’s not the first time the group has been listed on London’s AIM market. Peel Hunt floated in February 2000, only to be bought out by KBC ten months later.
The broker also announced it has appointed Lucinda Riches, the former global head of equity capital markets at UBS, as non-executive director, ahead of her taking over as chairman after Simon Hayes steps down later this year.