Numis hails booming confidence in stock markets among firms and investors as profits soar more than five-fold

Updated: 20:04 EDT, 3 December 2013

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Bullish: Numis chief executive Oliver Hemsley

Numis hailed booming confidence in stock markets among firms and investors as its profits soared more than five-fold.

The blue-chip stockbroker and investment bank said a record level of activity drove profits up 451 per cent in the year to the end of September. But the buoyant results came as official figures showed mergers and acquisition activity remained flat in the three months to the end of September.

Despite growing optimism in the City, the Office for National Statistics revealed there were 116 M&A deals in the third quarter, compared with 112 in the same quarter the previous year.

The number of UK takeovers by foreign companies jumped 39 per cent compared with the previous quarter. But Numis chief executive Oliver Hemsley was bullish about the future. ‘Inflows are increasing and people are much more comfortable with equities than they were in the past,’ he said.

He added: ‘The deal pipeline is building strongly and we are optimistic that favourable conditions for equity issuance will prevail in the short and medium term.’

The firm (up 5.5p to 295p) recruited 28 corporate clients in the year and won business in seven floats, including those of insurer esure, housebuilder Crest Nicholson and cabling equipment maker HellermanTyton. More recently Numis worked as joint bookrunner for the float of estate agents Foxtons. Its revenues rose 55 per cent to £77.7m.

The firm this week moved into the top three spot of stockbrokers with the most FTSE 250 clients, beating Bank of America Merrill Lynch. It has 31 clients in the index, while JPMorgan Cazenove is top with 93 clients.

Hemsley said this was a sign that independent firms can take on giant investment banks.

He said: ‘There has been a huge change during the downturn. There is an opportunity for an independent firm to be a champion of UK listed companies.’

The board proposed a final dividend of 5p per share, making a total divi of 9p per share for the year – up from 8p in 2012.

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