31st Mar 2016 07:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stockbroker and investment bank Panmure Gordon & Co PLC on Thursday confirmed it swung to a pretax loss in 2015 as deals were delayed, but said 2016 has started more positively.
Panmure already had flagged in December that it would post a loss for the year amid a decline in capital markets transactions in the second half and a number of deals being pushed into 2016 due to concerns about global growth.
Panmure posted a pretax loss of GBP18.9 million for 2015, compared to a GBP2.1 million profit in 2014, mostly as a result of goodwill and impairment charges that the company booked amid the second half slowdown.
The company will not pay a dividend for the year, having paid out 2.5 pence per share a year earlier.
Net commission and trading income for Panmure fell to GBP23.0 million from GBP29.4 million, driven by a decline in corporate finance fees due to smaller deal sizes and lower overall activity.
"2015 was a disappointing year with regards to our primary markets activities," said Chief Executive Patric Johnson.
However Panmure said 2016 has started well, with good progress made on operational efficiencies and 14 corporate transactions by the end of March, up from 6 in the same period a year before. For the first months of the year, the group is profitable, Panmure said.
Client numbers at the end of the year rose to 152, up from 123 a year earlier, and the group worked on GBP500.0 million worth of fundraising transactions in 2015.
"Despite this, we are under no illusion as to the potency of the dangers that lie ahead of us this year and the external factors that will weigh heavily on the fund raising opportunities in our market," added Johnson.
Panmure shares were up 1.2% to 61.75p.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
PMR.L