Panmure Gordon grows profits after Bob Diamond-led takeover
Venerable British stockbroker Panmure Gordon grew its profits in 2017 after being taken over last year by a consortium that included ex-Barclays boss Bob Diamond.
Panmure Gordon’s parent company, Panmure Gordon Group, made profits after tax of £2.3m in 2017, more than double the £1.1m 2016 profits of the pre-takeover group.
The firm made net revenues of £14.9m in the year ending in December, according to its latest company accounts.
Read more: Will fortune favour brave Bob Diamond's Panmure takeover?
However, the bank’s figures were boosted by a £4.1m one-off accounting gain as the parent company took over Panmure’s old assets in what it deemed as ‘bargain purchase.’
Panmure made a statutory operating loss of £2.6m in 2017, compared to an operating profit of £1.6m in 2016, after absorbing £3.3m in acquisition fees and spending £1.2m in new investment. Underlying operating profit was £1.9m.
Diamond, who lost his role as Barclays boss following the Libor rate-rigging scandal, banded together with the investment vehicle of the Qatari royal family to buy Panmure last year.
The firm, which can trace its roots back to 1876, sustained heavy losses of £16.7m in 2015, prompting a wave of changes at the top and opening the way for the takeover.
Ian Axe, Panmure chief executive, said 2017 performance was “stable”, but added the firm had “started to transform both our infrastructure and seed the growth of new businesses and diversification for the coming years”.
The firm has expanded into mergers and acquisitions advisory and private capital, alongside more traditional broking activities. The firm’s headcount has risen to 130 people.
The group’s UK subsidiary, Panmure Gordon (UK), reported a loss for the year in separate accounts, although this was accounted for mainly by one-off acquisition costs, such as legal and financial advisers, of £2.5m after the takeover. The group’s measure of underlying profit in the UK business after tax was £1.6m.
Read more: You probably won't know of this adviser on the Panmure Gordon takeover deal
The firm said it made “significant investment” during 2017, mainly in regard to adjusting to compliance and regulation changes brought under Mifid 2, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. Mifid 2 roiled European stockbroking last year, with banks and brokers forced to comply with new rules forcing transparency on costs.