Daniel Stewart Securities Plc Regulatory News (DAN)

3 Oct 2006 07:00

Daniel Stewart Securities PLC03 October 2006 3 OCTOBER 2006 DANIEL STEWART SECURITIES PLC ("DSS" or the Company") TRADING UPDATE The Board of Daniel Stewart Securities plc ("Daniel Stewart" or "the Company"),is pleased to announce that trading for the first half of the year has beenahead of the same period last year. The Company raised £81 million versus £43million on behalf of clients, resulting in increased commission income up from£1.4 million to £2.7 million. The Company also completed 14 Corporate Financetransactions against eight for the same period delivering a Fee Income increaseup from £1 million to £1.4 million. Total fee income across all areas was £4.8magainst £4.2m in the corresponding prior period. Recent events around gaming stocks have led to substantial reductions in valuein this sector. Daniel Stewart has been involved in a number of successful,gaming related transactions, and as a result holds a number of cash positionsand non-cash options in those companies, which are marked to market. At the yearend, the Company reported non-cash related profits associated with thosepositions of £1.6 million and as at today, those non-cash positions are valuedat circa £250,000, which will result in a £1.3 million negative impact on ourprofit and loss account in the period. There is no further exposure to thesector. It should be noted that as a policy we regularly hedge our optionpositions however we were involved in a corporate transaction in the gamingsector that meant we were unable to exercise our normal trading procedures. Daniel Stewart has completed a number of significant hires in the period, withstaff numbers having risen from 28 to 35, primarily at senior levels.Additionally, the Company has established offices in Manchester and an elementof these costs has been included in the period. Taking these costs into account,plus the relocation of our London office and the associated reduction in valueof our stock and option positions, primarily in the gaming sector, the Companyexpects to post a loss for the period of approximately £1 million. Peter Shea, Group Chief Executive, said: "We are obviously disappointed withevents in the US relating to the gaming sector. Our underlying business acrossall divisions remains strong with a burgeoning client base in a variety ofsectors. This, together with the recent staff and office expansion, reflects ourconfidence in the future of the business. The balance sheet and cash flow remainvery sound and the second half of the year has begun well. We believe that ourstrategy will continue to deliver value for our shareholders." For further information: DANIEL STEWART SECURITIES PLC Tel: 020 7776 6550Peter SheaAlastair Cade BISHOPSGATE COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED Tel: 020 7430 1600Maxine BarnesSophie Davis Notes to Editors: About Daniel Stewart Daniel Stewart Securities is an AIM-listed company providing a range ofinvestment banking services to Small Cap publicly traded and non-publicly tradedcompanies. The Group has two subsidiaries, Daniel Stewart and Company, theGroup's principal operating subsidiary, which is authorised and regulated by theFinancial Services Authority and is a member of the London Stock Exchange, andDaniel Stewart Capital, the Group's leasing and debt financing division. The Group also has a strong corporate finance team and a successful equityresearch department, which distributes to over 400 institutions, ensuringmaximum exposure for all of the Group's corporate clients. For further information visit: www.danielstewart.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange