Shore Capital eyes potential acquisitions after profit lift
BOUTIQUE investment bank Shore Capital yesterday said pre-tax profits doubled over the first half, despite a challenging period for the markets that included the election uncertainty and sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
Shore posted a pre-tax profit of £4.73m for the six months to June, boosted by comparison with £2.92m of balance sheet losses in the same period last year. Comparing the earnings of the operating businesses, profit dipped 11.7 per cent to £4.59m.
Managing director Graham Shore warned that the tough market conditions would continue for some time.
“The government has started to make its moves on cutting the deficit, which we wholly agree with, but it is not going to make for an easy ride in the short term,” he said.
He added that tricky conditions would make life difficult for competitors and that Shore was “keeping an eye out” for acquisition opportunities.
Shore said its equity capital markets arm, where revenue was broadly flat on last year, had been driven by a strong performance from the market making team, the second largest on Aim. The fund management arm saw funds under management drop slightly to £1.28bn over the period.