FinnCap and Seymour top Aim advisers
KEITH Harris’s stockbroker Seymour Pierce has remained the City’s top nominated advisor to small and medium-sized listed firms in the past four years despite unprecedented change in the market, research group Morningstar reveals today.
Seymour Pierce remains the biggest of all City Nomads, even though its client base has slipped from 101 companies in October 2007 to 73 today.
But the financial market turmoil over the past four years has changed the face of the independent broking community, pushing names such as FinnCap, Northland and Strand Hanson into Morningstar’s Nomad top 20 ranking for the first time.
Andrew Parson, publisher of the Morningstar Professional Services Rankings Guide, said he had observed the “formidable rise” of some of the advisors.
“These firms, and others, have demonstrated remarkable stories of their own these past four years, delivering a set of rankings quite different to those in our first AIM edition in 2007,” he said.
Cenkos is the biggest Nomad gainer, jumping from 19th place in 2007 to second place today as its client base has almost doubled from 33 to 63.
FinnCap has also soared and is now ranked third, above Evolution Securities, Panmure Gordon and Numis with 62 clients, after being unranked in 2007.
FinnCap is also now jointly top of Morningstar’s ranking of AIM-focused stockbrokers with Seymour Pierce, as both have 70 clients. FinnCap was also unranked in the 2007 AIM ranking – but Seymour Pierce shed 22 clients since then.
Cenkos, Numis and Evolution also saw large jumps in their relative share of the AIM market, but rivals Collins Stewart, which fell 11 places from second to 13th, and Brewin Dolphin, which is down from seventh to 15th, have seen their client bases pared back over the tough period.