In the Hot Seat by Miles Nolan

Its early July, but with the rain pouring down it’s hard to believe the summer is in full swing. As arranged, I meet executive chairman Stuart Lane at 10am in his swanky new offices in Gresham Street in the City.

He studied for an MA in history at Edinburgh University before serving in the army as an infantryman in the Royal Anglian Regiment.

From here, Lane applied for a role as a private secretary in Whitehall. Pitted against 14,000 applicants, he landed a job along with six others. The role suited his ‘interest in politics’ and allowed him to rub noses with politicians, working closely with Norman Tebbit and Ken Clarke.

The break into the City came in 1985 when Lane moved to blue-blooded broker Cazenove. Working in corporate finance in the mid- to small-cap market, he ‘learnt a lot about how to do business’. But restless Lane was hungry for more, so he joined start-up broker Beeson Gregory as a director.

He helped to build the fledgling firm, and just ahead of a successful IPO decided to move to rival Collins Stewart. After six happy years he then jumped ship to Seymour Pierce, where he worked as a director – largely in corporate finance.

The next move was to Blue Oar, a broker that was in the throws of consolidating the broking market. Later to be known as the ill-fated Astaire, he was ‘keen to extract the successful investment banking arm’.

Cherry picking
With the help of Canada-based broker Northland Capital he did just this and renamed the business at the same time. He took the ‘best of what we had’ and has been canny in picking up good people with a wealth of experience.

The business is profitable, with roughly half of its revenue generated outside the UK. Growth is likely to be organic, a point proven by its recent entry into market-making – it is now up to 100 stocks and plans to increase this.

Though the broking world has plenty of spare capacity, Lane, quite rightly, argues that you are ‘known by the quality of advice you give’.

Lane is ‘always hungry’ and describes the pipeline at Northland as ‘very strong’, with work that includes the forthcoming IPO of a natural resources company, which could lead to a £50 million fundraising. He argues that there is ‘cash out there’ for the right deal but that he remains selective, not wishing to jeopardise the firm’s integrity by chasing poor business. One recent transaction that has proved to be a success is the ‘transformational’ acquisition of Nokia’s messaging business, for $25 million, by AIM quoted Synchronica.

Northland has 42 employees, and the same number of listed clients. Though some see Northland as a largely resources house, Lane begs to differ. With six (soon to be seven) analysts on board, the broker follows sectors as diverse as cleantech, house-builders and building materials, support services and healthcare.

On the lookout
Northland has beefed up its sales and trading resource and is still on the lookout for people, but private client broking is not on the agenda. Though Lane is happy that all divisions are in the black, he has no intention of floating the business.

Last year the parent in Canada raised C$2 billion for corporate clients, and also serves as a useful referral of business.

At 61, he is full of energy, describing the City as a place with ‘a huge buzz’. Aside from Northland he is a non-executive director at AIM-listed Geong International and is also on the board of China-based Shigo Asia – the world’s largest blanket manufacturer. He starts work at just after 7am, lives in Cambridge and has a house in Italy. Apart from his three children, Lane’s hobbies include shooting, golf and walking.