(Alliance News) - Numis Corp PLC on Friday posted what it called a record half-year revenue performance after strong trading across all business areas.
The stockbroker and investment bank, said half-year revenue for the six months ended March 31 was GBP115.4 million, soaring 83% year-on-year from GBP63.1 million, against a backdrop of recovery in equity markets since the start of the virus pandemic.
Pretax profit for the period was GBP39.3 million, multiplying from GBP7.3 million a year before.
Numis cited "improved investor sentiment toward the UK" following the Brexit trade deal late in 2020 and the recovery of UK equity markets for its impressive half-year performance.
Co-chief executives Alex Ham and Ross Mitchinson commented that Numis has "great momentum" and its "pipeline is strong", signalling an encouraging outlook for the year's second half despite short-term uncertainty due to the pandemic.
Fuelled by booming trading results, London-based Numis is lining up the opening of a Dublin office, which would offer opportunity to "leverage capital markets capabilities in Europe". It said it will open the foothold in the EU in first half of financial 2022, meaning after the start of October, subject to regulatory approval.
For the half-year period the firm's corporate clients list shrunk marginally to 185, down from 189 year-on-year but the average market cap of its clients almost doubled to GBP1.34 billion.
Numis will keep its interim dividend at 5.5 pence and noted it had spent GBP11.5 million on share repurchases for the six-months, compared to GBP5.5 million in the previous period
Ham and Mitchinson said: "Our consistent focus on enhancing the firm's capabilities and strengthening our client relationships has contributed to an excellent and broad-based first half performance.
"Attracting and developing talent will, as always, remain a priority for us as we continue to target long term strategic growth opportunities including the international expansion of our Capital Markets business."
Numis shares were up 1.3% at 396.15 pence in London on Friday afternoon.
By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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