Numis Corp (LON:NUM) issued an upbeat trading statement at the end of July signalling that activity has been strong since the end of March and that revenue and profit for the current year to end September are likely to be comfortably ahead of the prior year. We have increased our estimate accordingly while holding our FY18 forecast steady on a precautionary basis. The recent pick up in trading is evidence of how the strength of the franchise pays off in favourable market conditions and provides an encouraging backdrop as board changes signal further measured evolution in management.
Trading update and board changes
Numis issued a positive trading update on 28 July indicating that, since the end of March, its Equities business has continued to perform well while Corporate Broking and Advisory has seen a marked increase in the size of equity issuance transactions with average fees substantially higher than in the first half. Hence, subject to trading in August and September, the company expects full year revenue and profit to be comfortably ahead of the prior year. Numis also announced that three executive board directors will be standing down between September this year and January 2018; this will leave a board more balanced with regard to executive and non-executive directors (see page 2).