25 May 2012

Winterfloods fights it out

20/01/2012 Miles Nolan

Independent merchant bank Close Brothers (CBG) has warned its first half will be impacted by a weak performance from its securities arm.

The securities arm owns leading market making firm Winterfloods, which makes a significant chunk of its revenue from retail punters. It warns that although average bargains per day have been in line with its last financial year, the appetite for risk by retail clients has fallen so it has encountered a reduced income per bargain.

Typical trade sizes are £5,000, but investors have been sitting on their hands amid volatile market conditions. In the year to July, Winterfloods boosted its bargains a day by 2 per cent to 48,000 , as operating profits dipped 11 per cent to £43.2 million. It trades in over 10,000 securities, including 3,000 UK equities.

The Frankfurt based broker dealer Seydler made a small loss in the five months to December, largely due to low trading volumes and limited capital markets activity. Close continues to enjoy a good performance in its banking division, here there has been good growth in the loan book of 9 per cent to £3.8 billion.

In its asset management arm, it has suffered from redemptions, in particular a major £1 billion withdrawal - so the total under management is now £8.4 billion (July 2011: £9.6 billion).

The shares are down 4p to 655p, largely due to confirmation that market conditions have remained tough this month and remain uncertain for the second half.

Tags: Close Brothers, Main market, Retail traders, Tough markets, Winterfloods

Sector: Financial Services

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