4th Dec 2019 09:26
(Alliance News) - Numis Corp on Wednesday reported a sharp drop in annual profit and revenue as the stockbroker blamed an "unfavourable" market hurting trading volumes.
In the year to September 30, the UK stockbroker's pretax profit fell 61% to GBP12.4 million from GBP31.6 million the year before.
Revenue slipped 18% year on year to GBP111.6 million from GBP136.0 million. Numis said Investment Banking revenue fell 16% to GBP74.3 million whilst Equities revenue dropped 21% to GBP37.3 million.
Numis said the "unfavourable" market conditions hurt all aspects of its business. Within Investment Banking, Capital Markets revenue dropped 18% and Advisory revenue was down 28%, but Corporate Retainer revenue was up 7.5%.
Within the company's Equities unit, Institutional Income fell 12% and Trading revenue plunged 58%.
Numis was able, however, to maintain its full-year dividend at 12 pence per share.
Co-Chief Executive Officers Alex Ham and Ross Mitchinson said: "It has without doubt been a challenging year for everyone in the industry ,and our results have inevitably been impacted by the persistent political uncertainty, macro-economic factors and subdued, yet volatile markets.
"But our ambitions for the business remain unchanged. We continue to add to our capabilities and to selectively hire brilliant people, taking full advantage of the opportunities that are presented by challenging times. We have the best corporate client list we have ever had; we have the best people we have ever had, and we have a broader offering for our clients than ever before."
Numis ended the year with 217 corporate clients, 7 more than the year before.
The company's operating margin slipped to 12.6% from 21.8%.
The co-CEOs added: "We continue to be actively focused on our clients and believe we are better positioned than ever to continue winning market share, achieving progress against our strategic objectives, and returning to delivering strong growth as and when market conditions improve."
Shares in Numis were down 0.8% in London on Wednesday morning at 235.00 pence each.
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
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