TUESDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2010 AT 11.00 AM
Numis Corporation Plc ("Numis")
Annual General Meeting ("AGM")
The Board of Numis announces today, 2 February 2010, at the Annual General Meeting that Sir David Arculus, (Non-Executive Chairman) reported:
"I was pleased to join Numis as Chairman in May 2009, some months after the event that triggered the collapse in global markets, namely the fall of Lehman Brothers. No financial institutions were untouched by this crisis. Numis, along with many others, experienced a slow six months, but the second half of our financial year showed more promise, leading to a strong start to our 2010 financial year. Despite the challenging market conditions it is my pleasure to report that Numis remains financially robust and cash generative with a high quality franchise.
Excellent research, first rate execution and sound advice to our clients continue to be the bedrock of this franchise. Our commitment to the UK equity capital markets has enabled us to increase our corporate client base significantly. These factors together with clarity of purpose have differentiated us from larger banks and allowed us to attract talented individuals and teams to the firm.
This in turn enables us to deliver an exceptional quality of service to Numis' clients which has been recognised again in The Thompson Reuters Extel survey in which Numis was voted Leading Brokerage Firm for UK companies up to £1bn market capitalisation and 4th overall Broker across UK All Caps.
We believe Numis has a strong franchise and is well positioned to take advantage of the challenging markets. The Executives' have always been aware of the risks associated with over leverage and thus have run the company in a disciplined manner which has served shareholders, employees and clients well.
Looking to the future, and despite the broader economic challenges facing the UK, I believe that Numis is well positioned to deliver outstanding quality of service to both corporate and institutional clients and I am delighted to note some encouraging signs of recovery in the level of business. Indeed, since 30 September 2009 we have been active in raising capital for companies and to-date have completed 13 separate transactions raising £628m in equity capital. In addition, we have attracted 10 new corporate clients and the number of FTSE 250 clients we serve has risen to 18.
I would like to close by thanking all at Numis for welcoming me aboard at a challenging time for the company and for the immense amount of hard work that all my colleagues have put into enabling us to emerge from the events of the last year with a strong forward momentum."
2 February 2010
END
Contacts
Numis Corporation:
Oliver Hemsley, Chief Executive 020 7260 1256
Simon Denyer, Company Secretary 020 7260 1225
Brunswick:
Gill Ackers 020 7396 5382
Carole Cable 020 7396 7458
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (Nominated Adviser):
Simon Boadle 020 7583 5000
Jon Raggett 020 7583 5000