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Moves are afoot behind the scenes at St Helen’s Capital, the small company broker and corporate finance house which helped raise £115 million last year for the bombed-out electric vehicle hopeful Tanfield and is now also in the doldrums after its own shares have plunged on AIM.

In one case, a group of City players close to the situation is understood to be plotting a possible £1 million bid for parts of the business of St Helen’s, whose directors include Jon Pither, chairman of beleaguered franchising group Myhome International, and the formidable financier and ex-MP Howard Flight.

Other groups are also believed to be taking a look at the operations of St Helen’s, whose chairman Mark Warde-Norbury replaced PLUS Markets investment enthusiast Tony Drury in that post last year. Ruari McGirr, St. Helen’s chief executive, says no proposal has been put forward as yet and discounts suggestions that one St Helen’s director is also scouting a deal.

He suggests present comings and goings are ‘no more than chats. Everyone is having lunch and talking’, while one company rumoured to be considering backing a deal, AIM-quoted China Eastsea Business Software, says it has no such plans.

McGirr, who joined St Helen’s last year from investment firm Daniel Stewart and has seen its shares fall from more than 15p to 8.12p, describes the current market as ‘enormously frustrating. There is no shortage of interesting deals, but getting investors enthused is very hard.’

Tanfield, a high flier whose chairman Roy Stanley was close to the St Helen’s people, saw its shares hit 203.5p in July 2007. But a subsequent warning about tough trading conditions knocked them for six and they now languish at 8.26p.

McGirr says Tanfield ‘tried to get ahead of itself. They’ve been told to go back and get the fundamentals right.’

St Helen's Capital	AIM	£1.82m	4.25p	-0.62p
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St Helen’s Capital at the crossroads			05/08/2008
Newcomer - St Helen's Capital			03/03/2008