Stock market’s recovery gives a boost to brokers
TWO LONDON stockbroking firms yesterday said the resurging equity markets have helped boost their businesses in the past year.
Cenkos Securities said its work on more fundraising deals lifted annual revenues 19 per cent to £51.4m, while pre-tax profits rose 53 per cent to £10.7m.
“We have made a very encouraging start to the new year with 2014 revenues to date being materially ahead of the same period in 2013 and the current pipeline is strong,” said chief executive Jim Durkin.
The ten-year-old firm is now broker or nominated adviser for 125 companies, up from 119 a year ago. Cenkos is the biggest adviser of firms listed on the Alternative Investment Market. During last year Cenkos worked on 47 deals including six primary share issues.
Costs rose 11 per cent as the firm paid out bigger performance-linked bonuses.
Meanwhile, Numis said it is trading “significantly above” last year as the momentum in the stock markets encourage more firms to come forward for fundraising.
Numis, which is advising on the McColl’s float, Cambian’s imminent market debut and the Polypipe IPO, has completed 22 transactions in the year so far including five stock market listings. Shares in Cenkos closed up 8.2 per cent at 178p yesterday, while Numis’ shares fell 1.5 per cent to 315p.