Mercia Asset Regulatory News (MERC)

AIM: MERC

Merchant Securities Group plc

("Merchant Securities" or "the Group")

Significant Expansion of Corporate Finance Team

Merchant Securities, which has recently been acquired by Sanlam Limited, the South African based financial services group, is pleased to announce that it has significantly expanded its corporate finance team. The corporate finance team previously at Evolution Securities' Leeds office headed by Joanne Lake will join the Group with effect from 6 March 2012. In addition, Jeff Keating has been appointed as a Director of Corporate Finance in London with immediate effect.

Joanne Lake joins as a Director of Corporate Finance and Head of Merchant Securities' Leeds office. Joanne has nearly 20 years' experience in advising both AIM quoted and Main Market companies, and prior to Evolution Securities worked for Williams de Broë and Henry Cooke Corporate Finance, having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse. Joanne is also Chairman of the London Stock Exchange Regional Advisory Group for Yorkshire and the North East, as well as of Financial Leeds, an organisation dedicated to promoting the strength of Leeds as a financial centre. The other Leeds team members are Peter Steel and Casper Kaars Sijpesteijn, who have worked alongside Joanne for several years. The Leeds team will continue to focus on providing corporate finance services to both quoted and private companies in Yorkshire and the surrounding regions.

Jeff Keating joins Merchant Securities' London office from Singer Capital Markets, where he was Joint Head of Corporate Finance. He is a member of the London Stock Exchange's AIM Advisory Group and was formerly a member of the QCA's Nomad Committee. Between 2001 and 2009, Jeff worked for Teather & Greenwood (which subsequently became Landsbanki Securities), latterly as Joint Head of Corporate Finance. He was also previously a partner in the corporate finance department of Smith & Williamson. Jeff qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young. 

Commenting on the appointments, Chief Executive of Merchant Securities, Patrick Claridge, said,

"We have been building our investment banking operations over the last year or so through key hires and these new appointments are part of our objective to grow our corporate advisory services substantially. I am delighted to welcome both Joanne Lake and her colleagues and Jeff Keating to our team."

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Notes to Editors:

Merchant Securities Group plc, which was recently acquired by Sanlam Limited, offers a broad range of financial services through its Investment Banking and Private Client Wealth Management divisions.

The Investment Banking division provides financial advisory and execution services to both publicly quoted and private companies. Focusing on small and medium sized companies, it offers a full range of services from corporate finance to equity research, institutional sales and trading.

The Private Client Wealth Management division provides discretionary and advisory wealth management services and financial planning advice to a broad client base, comprising private individuals, small and medium sized businesses, pension funds and charitable trusts. Through both organic growth and recent acquisitions, the division has developed significantly and it currently holds c. £421 million of assets under advisory management, approximately £80 million of which are under discretionary management.