PEEL HUNT STORMS UP GROWTH LEAGUE

The flurry of activity among the top stockbrokers in the May survey has been replaced this term by apparent calm, with relatively few changes in relative league positions.

Brewin Dolphin over the past six months has been making steady, if unremarkable, progress in terms of client numbers. This quarter, however, it has recorded an impressive 9.5 new clients, the most among any of the top brokers. It now advises Gearhouse and Beauford. Last quarters debutant, Old Mutual, has climbed a place on the back of a five-point gain. It has recently been appointed as sole broker Mears Group instead of Fiske.

Elsewhere in the survey, the appointment of Cazenove by mid 250 companies Filtronic did little to offset an 8.5 client reduction in our perennial champions figures. Warburg’s also lost a client to the opposition; Courts ditched them in favour of Deutsche Bank and Charterhouse.

Meanwhile, a Ł841.3m client profit decline at Credit Suisse First Boston has left both Warburg’s and Cazenove to strengthen their positions at the top of the pre-tax profit table. The loss of the Laing (John) account to Charterhouse dented its figures by some Ł52.7m. Poor results from existing clients, such as the likes of Tomkins (down Ł209.3m in it last reported year) did little to help. The only positional change to occur in the table was in its lower reaches where Beeson Gregory and Old Mutual flipped places. Losses at Friendly Hotels (down from Ł14.1m to -Ł14.2m) contributed to an overall Ł69.6m reduction from Old Mutual’s clients.

The top achiever in the two growth leagues is Peel Hunt. It now tops the client profit growth table (up from 11th) and is second in the EPS growth (from sixth). Its meteoric rise can be explained when you consider it’s somewhat of a smaller company specialist, with over half of its clients on AIM. Going in the other direction in the tables is HSBC, dropping 3 places in both.