Numis looks to private markets

Shareholders were given fair warning. As forecast in a pre-close trading update two months ago, second-half revenues of £55.9m were in line with those booked at the half year, as an uncertain domestic political backdrop spread to corporate boardrooms and market participants. Fees were concentrated “amongst a far smaller group of deals” compared with recent years, as M&A work declined and institutional investors failed to return sales calls batting for UK equities.

Offsetting these declines, and echoing previous observations, Numis said that transactional activity in private markets continues to gain momentum. Indeed, a $460m (£350m) private fund raising for Swedish fintech business Klarna was the group’s largest single transaction of the year, although just £9m of its top line came from unlisted work.

Although management reports a strong pipeline in this field, and describes the start to the current financial year as “encouraging”, there is currently little balance between the income statement and balance sheet. After paying out £12.7m in dividends, and maintaining its share purchase programme, the cash pile has declined by a quarter.