3 April 2024
Peel Hunt
Limited
("Peel Hunt" or the
"Company")
Year End Trading
Update
Another resilient performance
in challenging market conditions
Peel Hunt, a leading UK investment
bank, today announces a trading update for the financial year ended
31 March 2024 ("FY24").
Financial performance
Revenue for the full year is expected
to be consistent with market expectations at approximately
£85.5m (FY23: £82.3m), an increase of approximately 4% year-on-year
despite equity capital markets remaining challenging throughout
FY24. However, this was not quite sufficient to offset cost pressures and consequently we expect
to report a loss for the full year broadly in line with market
expectations.
The overall increase in revenues was
driven largely by Investment Banking, with M&A revenues in
particular accounting for a large proportion of Investment Banking
deal fees. This shows demonstrable progress with our strategy to
diversify revenues across different investment banking products.
Whilst research payments were resilient, there was less
institutional trading activity market wide in the period and so we
saw a modest reduction in overall Research & Distribution
revenues. Execution Services revenue reduced, again in line with
overall lower market volumes.
Further strategic progress
During the year, we made good
progress in delivering on our strategic priorities, putting us in a
strong position for when market conditions
improve.
We continued to evolve our corporate
client base, with 18 new client wins during the period, including 5
FTSE 350 clients. We now act for 150 corporate clients of which 43
are in the FTSE 350, and the aggregate market capitalisation of our
clients has risen by 5.81% in the period to over
£110bn.
During the year we invested in the
platform in a measured way, taking advantage of our strong balance
sheet and market dislocation to add talent in key areas such as
senior hires into our Investment Banking and Institutional
Electronic Trading teams. We also further strengthened our European
mid-cap distribution with the opening of Peel Hunt Europe,
headquartered in Copenhagen.
RetailBook has raised the funds for
the next stage of its growth and received FCA approval on 2 April
2024. We envisage that RetailBook will begin to operate fully
independently of Peel Hunt during the first half of
FY25.
Outlook
Market trading volumes remain low and
ECM issuance continues to be subdued. We expect these trends to
continue until there are meaningful signs of recovery in the UK
economy and fund outflows reverse. However, we continue to be
active in public M&A, with financial advisory mandates on both
the buy and sell side. Whilst IPO activity in the UK remains muted,
there has been more activity in Europe and sentiment towards IPOs
is improving in the UK, with investors increasingly willing to
engage in relation to high quality companies.
Notice of full year results
The Company intends to publish its
FY24 preliminary results on 13 June 2024.
For further information, please
contact:
Peel Hunt:
via Powerscourt
Steven Fine, CEO
Sunil Dhall, CFOO
Powerscourt (Financial
PR): +44 (0)20 7250 1446
Justin Griffiths
Gilly Lock
Russ Lynch
peelhunt@powerscourt-group.com
Grant Thornton UK LLP (Nominated
Adviser): +44 (0)20 7728 2942
Philip Secrett
Colin Aaronson
Enzo Aliaj
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
(Corporate Broker): +44 (0) 20 7710
7600
Alistair McKay
Alberto Moreno Blasco
Fred Walsh
Akshman Ori
Notes to editors
Peel Hunt is a leading UK investment
bank that specialises in supporting mid-cap and growth companies.
It provides integrated investment banking advice and services to UK
corporates, including equity capital markets, private capital
markets, M&A, debt advisory, investor relations and corporate
broking. The company's joined up approach combines these services
with expert research and distribution and an execution services hub
that provides liquidity to the UK capital markets, delivering value
to global institutions and trading counterparties alike. The
company is admitted to trading on AIM (LON: PEEL) and has offices
in London, New York and Copenhagen.