Numis Corporation PLC (LON: NUM) have seen their shares in green on Wednesday morning, despite the firm reporting profit and revenue slumps.
Numis is one of the UK’s leading independent institutional stockbrokers and corporate advisors. We are recognised as being one of the leading providers of capital for UK listed companies.
Shares of Numis were boosted 2.53% to 243p on Tuesday morning. 4/12/19 10:52BST.
Numis have seen a mixed 2019, as the firm saw its shares plunge in February, after the firm alluded to political and economic uncertainties bruising their profits.
Numis have not been the only firm in the finance industry to have accused Brexit complications for poor performance.
AJ Bell (LON:AJB) said earlier in the year that negative market movements and political uncertainties led to a disappointing quarterly update, which saw their shares crash.
Numis today have not given shareholders much better news, but it seems that there is still an optimistic tone as reflected in the stock price movements this morning.
In the year to September 30, the UK stockbroker’s pretax profit fell 61% to £12.4 million from £31.6 million the year before.
Revenue slipped 18% year on year to £111.6 million from £136.0 million. Numis said Investment Banking revenue fell 16% to £74.3 million whilst Equities revenue dropped 21% to £37.3 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%.
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.”
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.”
On a positive note, Numis kept its full year dividend at 12 pence per share, which may have appeased shareholders in the short term.
Just as Numis have looked at the political tensions which have fallen upon the UK financial sector, yesterday Moody’s lowered the UK banking sector outlook from stable to negative.
It seems that the gloomy outlook has also hit the European Banks, as Deutsche Bank reported a third quarter loss which saw profits slump and announced the elimination of 18,000 jobs earlier in the year.