Tough year sees Shore profit drop
AIM-listed investment bank Shore Capital saw a pre-tax profits drop by a third to £8.37m in 2010 but said that it was a “strong performance” given “tougher conditions” in the middle of the year.
Its market-making business bucked the trend, however, improving revenues by 5.8 per cent.
Chief executive Howard Shore told City A.M. that growing the bank’s market-making range is a priority: “We’re a wholesaler. If you’re a pure wholesaler you have to be a specialist and have the right links to enable you to maximise your links to the retail community.”
The bank also splashed out €2.885m (£2.5m) on a controlling stake in Spectrum Investments, a vehicle for buying a majority share of DBD, a German telecoms business.
Its venture capital trust business saw mixed results, with two trusts seeing negative returns, offset by double digit returns in three other trusts.
The results also show that Shore paid £2.1m in taxes last year.