In the Hot Seat by Miles Nolan

It’s perhaps a little ambitious, but we meet the morning after the AIM Awards, the annual event where the great and good of the junior market meet to compare notes.

Decked in braces, Peter Shea greets me having just returned from Monaco, where the smaller company specialist Daniel Stewart has just played host to a conference for more than 60 wealthy individuals.

Such initiatives are proof that the Jewry Street-headquartered firm has moved on a fair way since its foundation in 1989 as a corporate finance boutique. When working for its major client, BAE, it found a funding need for a number of the engineering giant’s companies. From here, it carved out a niche as a promoter of Ofex companies – the forerunner to PLUS.

Shea left school at 18, but after pulling out of his original plan to train as an accountant he started work as a debt collector for the Metropolitan Water Board. From there he worked at Chase Manhattan in London and New York, and set up the corporate finance department at Bear Stearns.

With a view that the time was right, he established Daniel Stewart with business colleague (and now chief economist) Alastair Winter – their middle names were used to establish the new namesake. Having enjoyed strong demand from private clients for a number of Ofex issues, it decided to launch its own fund – branded after its then postcode, EC2. It was this investment vehicle that Daniel Stewart reversed into, before later moving to AIM.

The full monty
With a 54-strong team, Daniel Stewart provides a full range of broking services spanning corporate finance, broking, research and CFD trading. Backed by the retainer fees of 60 corporate clients, it is clearly doing pretty well.

In the year to March, sales leapt 236 per cent to £8.5 million, as pre-tax profits came in at £1.1 million (2010: £2.9 million loss). It also helped to raise £107 million for its clients. The current year has started well, but as always results will be second-half weighted.

However, Shea admits ‘you can’t just rely on the UK market for business’. He has been spearheading a move into the US market, by providing advice to clients seeking a listing on the OTCQX market. Recent entrants to this ‘highly liquid market’ include Nighthawk Energy, Atlantic Coal and Gulf Keystone Petroleum.

Wealth of opportunities
From a standing start less than two years ago, wealth management is also proving to be lucrative. It already has £170 million under management, and is regularly winning new mandates – particularly from the Middle East. This has been buoyed by the contact base of shareholder and adviser Adam Wilson, the former head of broker Hichens Harrison.

Wilson sold Daniel Stewart his advisory business, MENA, which had a licence to trade in Dubai. He also helped establish an office in Malaysia, helping to advise companies in the former colony on floating here. Next up is a deal with Hong Kong-based broker Celestial Asia Securities. This should help in its quest to source funds for its upcoming float of China-based shoe manufacturer Naibu. Shea admits that there are ‘far too many brokers out there’ but is in no rush to acquire anything ‘for the sake of it’.

Shea helped set up the Daniel Stewart Charitable Trust, which has provided funds for a number of small charities. Every year a sports team is sponsored £1,000, to help pay for their kit.

While he once ran the London Marathon for charity, ‘you couldn’t pay me’ is the quick response when asked if he would brave it again.

Though he commutes from his flat in Pimlico, Shea also owns a property in the mountains of North Carolina – a far cry from his East End roots.