March 25 (Reuters) - Investment bank Panmure Gordon & CoPlc's full-year profit nearly doubled, as it signed newclients and got a boost from the pick-up in British IPO activityin the second half.
The 138-year-old stockbroker said net commission and feeincome - an important metric for investment banks - rose 29percent to 27.32 million pounds ($45.05 million) in the yearended Dec. 31.
Pretax profit from continuing operations rose to 1.17million pounds from 595,000 pounds a year earlier. ($1 = 0.61 British Pounds) (Reporting by Esha Vaish and Richa Naidu in Bangalore; Editingby Joyjeet Das)