HALMA RINGS THE CHANGES AND HIRES BROKERS WITH PAST LINKS
THEY say that a City broker’s relationship with a client is usually a significant one and so it has proved at Halma, the safety, health and sensor technology group, which yesterday hired Investec and Credit Suisse as joint brokers. Out goes JP Morgan Cazenove.
Both Investec and Credit Suisse benefit from relationships made by two of their broking stars while they were plying their trade for different employers.
Investec’s Chris Baird used to broke the £1.5bn-valued Halma when he was at Dresdner Kleinwort and Credit Suisse’s John Hannaford did the same when he was broking at HSBC.
Investec’s case is bolstered by the presence of sector analyst Chris Dyett, a close watcher of Halma, and Michael Blogg who has joined the firm from Arbuthnot.
The new mandate has gone down well at Investec, which recently merged with Evolution, and the firm’s Keith Anderson wouldn’t be surprised if more followed. “There’s a lot of pitching going on,” he said yesterday. Last month Investec won the brokership for Ricardo.
The jilted team at JP Morgan Cazenove, which still retains more FTSE 100 clients than any other house, declined to comment.