Panmure pays out first dividend since 2007 after a bumper year
Panmure Gordon unveiled its first dividend for eight years yesterday in a sign of the group’s resurgent fortunes during last year’s bumper crop of capital market deals.
The corporate finance house, led by chief executive Phillip Wale, will pay about £400,000 in total to investors through a 2.5p dividend after pre-tax profits almost doubled to £2.15m.
The group, which was beset by problems in the wake of a botched expansion into the US, said it was also in the market to make acquisitions if opportunities arose, after missing out on Charles Stanley’s securities business earlier this month.
“Since the start of the year we’ve been presented with four different opportunities to buy parts of businesses,” Wale said. “We’ll always be willing to look at them [acquisitions], but they need to make economic sense.”
Shares fell 5.9 per cent amid low trading volumes yesterday.