3rd Jan 2019 08:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - Newly-listed investment banking firm FinnCap Group PLC hailed Thursday a "strong" half-year performance despite profit and revenue falling as expected as it looks to pay an inaugural dividend.
For the six months ended October, pretax profit narrowed to GBP2.1 million from GBP2.7 million the year prior. This was after revenue fell to GBP11.8 million from GBP13.1 million the year before.
The weaker performance was due to the timing of one large corporate fee as well as a reduction in secondary commission as expected by the firm. Retainers, trading commissions and deal fees were all in line with its expectations, however, the company said.
"This has been an incredibly exciting time for finnCap - we performed strongly in the period, acquired Cavendish to enable us to offer a broader range of services to a larger number of companies both public and private, and joined our 125 public market clients by listing on AIM," FinnCap Chief Executive Officer Sam Smith said.
FinnCap had its initial public offering on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in early December. The IPO was conducted at 28 pence per share, giving it a market capitalisation of GBP47.1 million at the time.
Shares in FinnCap were untraded at 28.00 pence on Thursday.
At the same time as its IPO, FinnCap completed its acquisition of sell-side M&A advisor Cavendish Corporate Finance. The price of the acquisition was not specified.
"We are now exceptionally well positioned to advise ambitious growth companies on all of the major forms of financing, including debt, venture capital, IPOs, subsequent public offerings, as well as offering sell-side M&A, exit planning, bid defence and PLC regulatory advice," Smith added. "There are very few other firms that can offer such a wide range of services to our target client base, and we are very excited about the potential for our business."
FinnCap did not declare a dividend with its interim results. The firm does, however, plan to pay an "small" dividend in January after it has secured court approval for a capital reorganisation.
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