In the Hotseat by Miles Nolan

Straight talking Imran Ahmad is the founder and chief executive of Allenby Capital, a fast growing broker based in Mayfair

We meet for breakfast at a prestigious hotel in the West End, just a stone’s throw away from the offices of Allenby Capital. The business is the brainchild of Imran Ahmad and though only founded in 2009 it already has
31 clients on the roster and is now ranked 14th in the latest Hemscott rankings. Prior to founding Allenby he was heading up the corporate arm of Hoodless Brennan but left to ‘do things differently’.

Allenby was established with £200,000 provided by Ahmad, who still retains a majority 80 per cent interest. He also enlisted the support of Jeremy Delmar-Morgan as executive chairman, an industry veteran of over 40 years who was a former CEO of Teather & Greenwood and once chairman of Hichens Harrison prior to its sale to Religare. He is also a director of the London Symphony Orchestra. Ebullient entrepreneur and Daniel Stewart investor Adam Wilson owns 10 per cent, as does HB Markets.

Allenby is named after a house at his former school, Haileybury, and is both a broker and nominated adviser. The firm provides services to clients that span natural resources and healthcare through to telecoms. Setting up in a recession has allowed Ahmad to cherry-pick key employees, with the team pretty lean at just 16 people. He says, ‘We have a flat structure with an informal atmosphere and reward staff according to performance.’

Business is brisk, with Ahmad pitching to up to ten businesses a month. Many of these are public companies that are being sidelined by larger brokers as they move upscale – a fertile trading ground for Allenby. He says ‘liquidity is key and there will always be money out there if the deal is right.’ Ahmad believes the institutional appetite for sub £100 million market cap companies will never be what it was – instead you have to be smarter to access capital.

A point not lost on his Mayfair base where he has tapped into several family offices – home to untold hoards of cash. On the Allenby website it states that clients seeking up to £30 million should get in touch. Recent deals include a £6 million fundraising for Urals Energy, an oil company in Russia, and Allenby was sub agent on the recent £11 million fundraising for Niche, the vehicle of mining deal entrepreneur John McKeon. However, Allenby was also the lead broker on Atlantic Coal, which recently raised £12 million, and Ahmad is confident a £20 million fundraising will not be far away. Another client, AFC Energy, has been a soaraway success and Ahmad also likes cloud computing minnow Nasstar.

Ahmad is a consummate networker, tending to attract new business from lawyers, accountants and financial public relations firms. Future potential deals include a filtration membranes business that turns stagnant water to that which is safe to drink. Emerging markets also appear to be an increasing theme as AIM continues to attract overseas players. To this end he has had interest from a China-based oil and chemical tankers business.

Allenby is profitable and growth in the short term will be organic – next on the list is the recruitment of a resources analyst. Further out he might be interested in acquiring a straight agency private client broker. Though Allenby has no FSA permissions to hold client money, this avenue could provide a solution as well as offering access to wealthy individuals.

He started life as an electronics analyst at BZW before moving to ARM Corporate Finance. Married with three children, he is a fan of cricket and fast cars, though not necessarily in that order.