Latest news with #StevenFine
Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
'Resilient' City boosts Peel Hunt: Broker enjoys 'a strong start' to the new financial year
Peel Hunt hailed fresh signs of life in the City as market conditions 'improve' and investor confidence proves 'increasingly resilient' in the face of global uncertainty. As anxiety over the health of the London stock market spreads through the Square Mile and Westminster, it enjoyed 'a strong start' to its financial year. The investment bank's revenues for the three months to the end of June were 'comfortably ahead' of the same period last year, lifting its shares 5.4 per cent, or 5p, to 98p. The upbeat tone is particularly notable because Peel Hunt has been vocal in raising concerns over an exodus of firms from the stock exchange. On Wednesday, it said the UK was on course for 'the biggest year of takeovers since 2021' after a flurry of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the first six months. Many bids have come from private equity and the US as bargain-hunting predators swoop on undervalued firms in London. At the same time, London has been rocked by defections to other bourses, with reports this week suggesting AstraZeneca – the UK's largest listed company with a value of £162billion – could move its listing to New York. A lack of new listings through initial public offerings (IPOs) means that these companies are not being replaced, sparking fears of decline. But at the annual general meeting yesterday, Peel Hunt bosses, led by chief executive Steven Fine, said: 'We have had a strong start to our new financial year as market conditions have begun to improve. 'Whilst the macroeconomic background is hard to predict, investor confidence appears to be increasingly resilient.' It highlighted 'higher revenue generation' across key arms of the business and added: 'We have a strong pipeline of M&A transactions, with a number of situations announced and in process.' However, bosses expressed fresh concern about the lack of new listings, which form a key revenue stream. Set up in 1989, Peel Hunt now acts for 55 FTSE 350 companies. £662m US fund exodus Investors pulled money out of US-focused equity funds for the first time in six months in May amid Donald Trump's tariff chaos. Some £622million was withdrawn, including a record £303million from smaller US firms, Investment Association (IA) data showed. UK equity outflows fell to £354million – the lowest in nearly four years of dismal performance for the London market – and European funds recorded inflows of £435million. IA market insight director Miranda Seath said: 'This shift in sentiment benefited sales to European equity funds, where European stocks have performed well in 2025, and helped stem outflows from UK funds.'
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
All is not lost for Britain's stock market
Donald Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs may have sent global stock markets into free fall but since then all seems to have been forgiven by investors – especially those who ply their trade investing in British companies. This month, America's main stock market, the S&P 500, came within 2pc of surpassing its record highs set in February, accompanied by much fanfare on Wall Street after the period of sharp turbulence. But while the US was celebrating playing catch-up after the president's tariffs onslaught, UK stock markets have been quietly steaming ahead. Steven Fine, the chief executive of City stockbroker Peel Hunt, says investors from outside the UK are starting to take note of London's markets again after the Trump tariff turmoil. He acknowledges that you might not notice the shift amid the 'relentless' wave of companies leaving UK stock markets for the deeper pockets of US investors, including British semiconductor company Alphawave and payments group Wise. 'We have got a bit of a lack of self-esteem here,' says Fine. 'Why do overseas markets think we're more interesting than we do?' Here are five closely watched charts to show why all is not lost for Britain's stock market. The main UK stock index, the FTSE 100, closed at a record high earlier this month and has climbed more than 8pc so far this year, vastly outperforming the S&P 500, which is up by less than 2pc over the same period. Yet this year's performance on the FTSE 100 is in stark contrast to previous years, where the City lagged European and US peers. UK equity markets have 'not been an easy hunting ground', according to Tom Peberdy, of investment manager Ninety One. He says Brexit, the pandemic and an inflation crisis had made it 'pretty tough' to be a UK-focused fund manager at the firm, which targets wealthy individuals and institutional investors. 'But it does feel like the tide is turning,' he says after years of watching outsized gains on Wall Street, primarily powered by the 'magnificent seven' group of technology giants such as Apple and Amazon. 'Investors ultimately will gravitate towards where the opportunity is.' The tide of money ebbing out of UK companies in recent years has depressed their share prices – but also made them cheaper to buy. Ninety One is positioning itself for a surge in London markets, putting it at odds with the ever-increasing flow of money out of UK businesses over the past three years. In comparison, companies on the S&P 500 have grown in value by about 32pc over that time, while the Nasdaq Composite, popular with technology investors, has gained 38pc. The FTSE 100 has gained more than 16pc since April 2022. However, Fine, of Peel Hunt, sees this as a sign of resilience during a period when investors contended with the Liz Truss mini-Budget crisis and the surge in inflation triggered by the Ukraine war. 'We seem to deal with these things,' he says. 'The resilience of the UK economy is something we don't really recognise because it's always about what's going to happen next and how bad it's going to be in the future. 'So can that buffer become a bit more of a springboard?' Fund managers at Ninety One are convinced there are a series of arguments stacking up in favour of investing in British companies. 'We do think the UK gets mischaracterised still as energy and banks,' says fund manager Anna Farmbrough, who employs a strategy aimed at investing in 'quality' companies. 'We think it is worth pointing out that capital goods is the largest sector in the UK. That is full of exceptional businesses operating in very niche industries. We really do have incredible innovation and technology being produced over here. They are often mission-critical products.' She pointed to the industrial group Spectris, which saw shares surge by 65pc this month after attracting takeover bids from US private equity firms Advent and KKR. Those bids were at an 80pc premium to its share price at the time, which Farmbrough says 'gives some reassurance around where the valuations for some of these businesses are, and that they are worth a lot more'. Aside from offering the chance to buy stocks cheaply, the comparatively low valuations of companies on London's markets also offers the opportunity for better returns. 'One thing that people don't quite appreciate is what a big component dividends are in the forward returns of your buying a stock,' says Alessandro Dicorrado, who looks after value investing strategy at Ninety One. 'If you're making an investment with a long-term return ... most of that is dividend increases.' Compared with the US S&P 500 and the Stoxx 600, the main stock market benchmark in Europe, the FTSE 100 is relatively cheap to buy. Dicorrado highlights the higher dividends and buyback yields offered by companies across the FTSE compared to the S&P 500 and the rest of the world. One of the ironies of this is that if UK companies remain cheap, they will offer greater returns as it will be cheaper for them to buy back their own stock, increasing the dividend returns and value of the stocks owned by their current shareholders. 'The cheaper a company can buy back its own stock, the more durable income compounds over time,' says Dicorrado. 'Actually, what you want is for the stocks to stay cheap but we also don't want the market to die. So let's try to find a middle ground.' Look under the bonnet and British companies are also humming along more efficiently than some of their global rivals, deploying their capital more effectively. For Farmbrough, the 'real watershed moment' for London's stock market came during the pandemic. Faced with the huge challenges of lockdown, working from home and disrupted supply chains, companies were forced to 'allocate capital much better'. This is illustrated by the improvement in return on invested capital, known as Roic, of FTSE All Share companies over the last 10 years. The metric measures how effectively a company uses the money it has invested to generate profits. Farmborough says: 'There was a real watershed moment in the pandemic particularly amongst the more commoditised industries, where they really woke up to allocating capital in a more accretive way. 'So we think this has been a structural and quite permanent change to the UK market and it has not been reflected in valuations whatsoever.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
23-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
All is not lost for Britain's stock market
Donald Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs may have sent global stock markets into free fall but since then all seems to have been forgiven by investors – especially those who ply their trade investing in British companies. This month, America's main stock market, the S&P 500, came within 2pc of surpassing its record highs set in February, accompanied by much fanfare on Wall Street after the period of sharp turbulence. But while the US was celebrating playing catch-up after the president's tariffs onslaught, UK stock markets have been quietly steaming ahead. Steven Fine, the chief executive of City stockbroker Peel Hunt, says investors from outside the UK are starting to take note of London's markets again after the Trump tariff turmoil. He acknowledges that you might not notice the shift amid the 'relentless' wave of companies leaving UK stock markets for the deeper pockets of US investors, including British semiconductor company Alphawave and payments group Wise. 'We have got a bit of a lack of self-esteem here,' says Fine. 'Why do overseas markets think we're more interesting than we do?' Here are five closely watched charts to show why all is not lost for Britain's stock market. The main UK stock index, the FTSE 100, closed at a record high earlier this month and has climbed more than 8pc so far this year, vastly outperforming the S&P 500, which is up by less than 2pc over the same period. Yet this year's performance on the FTSE 100 is in stark contrast to previous years, where the City lagged European and US peers. UK equity markets have 'not been an easy hunting ground', according to Tom Peberdy, of investment manager Ninety One. He says Brexit, the pandemic and an inflation crisis had made it 'pretty tough' to be a UK-focused fund manager at the firm, which targets wealthy individuals and institutional investors. 'But it does feel like the tide is turning,' he says after years of watching outsized gains on Wall Street, primarily powered by the 'magnificent seven' group of technology giants such as Apple and Amazon. 'Investors ultimately will gravitate towards where the opportunity is.' The tide of money ebbing out of UK companies in recent years has depressed their share prices – but also made them cheaper to buy. Ninety One is positioning itself for a surge in London markets, putting it at odds with the ever-increasing flow of money out of UK businesses over the past three years. In comparison, companies on the S&P 500 have grown in value by about 32pc over that time, while the Nasdaq Composite, popular with technology investors, has gained 38pc. The FTSE 100 has gained more than 16pc since April 2022. However, Fine, of Peel Hunt, sees this as a sign of resilience during a period when investors contended with the Liz Truss mini-Budget crisis and the surge in inflation triggered by the Ukraine war. 'We seem to deal with these things,' he says. 'The resilience of the UK economy is something we don't really recognise because it's always about what's going to happen next and how bad it's going to be in the future. 'So can that buffer become a bit more of a springboard?' Fund managers at Ninety One are convinced there are a series of arguments stacking up in favour of investing in British companies. 'We do think the UK gets mischaracterised still as energy and banks,' says fund manager Anna Farmbrough, who employs a strategy aimed at investing in 'quality' companies. 'We think it is worth pointing out that capital goods is the largest sector in the UK. That is full of exceptional businesses operating in very niche industries. We really do have incredible innovation and technology being produced over here. They are often mission-critical products.' She pointed to the industrial group Spectris, which saw shares surge by 65pc this month after attracting takeover bids from US private equity firms Advent and KKR. Those bids were at an 80pc premium to its share price at the time, which Farmbrough says 'gives some reassurance around where the valuations for some of these businesses are, and that they are worth a lot more'. Aside from offering the chance to buy stocks cheaply, the comparatively low valuations of companies on London's markets also offers the opportunity for better returns. 'One thing that people don't quite appreciate is what a big component dividends are in the forward returns of your buying a stock,' says Alessandro Dicorrado, who looks after value investing strategy at Ninety One. 'If you're making an investment with a long-term return ... most of that is dividend increases.' Compared with the US S&P 500 and the Stoxx 600, the main stock market benchmark in Europe, the FTSE 100 is relatively cheap to buy. Dicorrado highlights the higher dividends and buyback yields offered by companies across the FTSE compared to the S&P 500 and the rest of the world. One of the ironies of this is that if UK companies remain cheap, they will offer greater returns as it will be cheaper for them to buy back their own stock, increasing the dividend returns and value of the stocks owned by their current shareholders. 'The cheaper a company can buy back its own stock, the more durable income compounds over time,' says Dicorrado. 'Actually, what you want is for the stocks to stay cheap but we also don't want the market to die. So let's try to find a middle ground.' Look under the bonnet and British companies are also humming along more efficiently than some of their global rivals, deploying their capital more effectively. For Farmbrough, the 'real watershed moment' for London's stock market came during the pandemic. Faced with the huge challenges of lockdown, working from home and disrupted supply chains, companies were forced to 'allocate capital much better'. This is illustrated by the improvement in return on invested capital, known as Roic, of FTSE All Share companies over the last 10 years. The metric measures how effectively a company uses the money it has invested to generate profits. Farmborough says: 'There was a real watershed moment in the pandemic particularly amongst the more commoditised industries, where they really woke up to allocating capital in a more accretive way. 'So we think this has been a structural and quite permanent change to the UK market and it has not been reflected in valuations whatsoever.'
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Investors ‘pulling money out of US' after Trump trade chaos
Investors are shifting their money out of America and into Europe following the outbreak of Donald Trump's trade war, according to the boss of one of the City's leading stockbrokers. Steven Fine, the chief executive of Peel Hunt, said spooked traders had pulled an 'awful lot of money' from US markets in recent months, primarily because of the president's 'liberation day' tariff blitz. This has led to a greater degree of interest in the UK, he added. He said: 'When you're investing all your money domestically and someone can literally turn around unilaterally and say 'Right, we're not doing that any more', it's like 'Oh my God, what does that mean?'' This shift in investor sentiment marks a significant turnaround as almost $24 trillion has been pumped into US assets since 2010, according to Peel Hunt. Mr Fine said the chaos unleashed by Mr Trump had 'predicated a concern that excessive concentration in a single jurisdiction might not necessarily be the best thing'. Kallum Pickering, Peel Hunt's chief economist, also pointed to the weaker dollar as an example of how investor money is shifting away from the US. The dollar has fallen nearly 8pc against the pound since the turn of the year and has slumped by nearly 11pc versus the euro in that time. Mr Fine said: 'You think about the return of the S&P 500 over the last five years and you think, where do you want to put your money for the next five years? Suddenly [liberation day] happens, and it's like 'Ah, maybe it's not quite as [attractive].' However, Peel Hunt warned of the negative impact of tariffs on dealmaking in the City, particularly as the stockbroker is already battling a dearth of listings on the London Stock Exchange. The company said there have been 'historically low' levels of activity in UK stock markets over the last year. This led to Peel Hunt posting pre-tax losses of £3.5m for the year to the end of March, compared to a £3.3m loss the year before. However, revenues rose by 6pc to hit £91.3m. One of its highlights for the year was advising on the deal to list French TV and film giant Canal+ in London in December. Mr Fine said: 'Ongoing uncertainty continued to weigh on equity capital markets activity during the period, driven by geopolitical risks, elections, stagflation fears and US trade tariffs. 'Our diversified offering meant we were able to support clients through these changing market conditions.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Daily Mail
16-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
London exodus is hurting economy: Peel Hunt boss sounds alarm amid takeover frenzy
Peel Hunt has warned that the exodus of companies from the London stock market is causing a 'significant challenge' to the economy. The investment bank's boss Steven Fine said more companies could be hoovered up by private equity firms in the months to come despite signs of a pick-up in UK valuations. London has seen 30 of its listed firms subjected to takeover bids so far this year with few signs of any revival in initial public offerings (IPOs) that will be needed to replace them. And in the past couple of weeks, the decision of fintech Wise to abandon London in favour of New York as well as the takeover sagas engulfing the likes of Alphawave and Spectris have added to the impression that the cheap valuations of the London market have left UK-listed firms vulnerable. Metro Bank this weekend became the latest subject of takeover speculation. Shareholders in takeaway platform Deliveroo yesterday voted to accept its £2.9billion takeover by US giant DoorDash. The IPO weakness has weighed on City firms such as Peel Hunt, which yesterday reported that pre-tax losses for the year to the end of March had widened to £3.5million from £3.3million a year ago. A spokesman said: 'The increasing rate at which companies are exiting the London market presents a significant challenge for the UK economy.' Fine added: 'You either believe in public markets – that they do good, in transparency, disclosure, investability, liquidity, they pay more tax, they employ more people, the large companies always start small – or you don't.' Peel Hunt reported that market activity during its past financial year was hit by economic fears and tariff uncertainty but that the new period has 'started more positively' as the Trump administration signed a trade deal with the UK and the Bank of England cut interest rates. Fine, meanwhile, warned there could be more private equity swoops to come. He said: 'I don't think that's going to stop, even though the market is re-rating a little – there is still a strong perception out there that the UK is cheap – relative.' He lamented reports over the weekend that Australian bank Macquarie may swoop for three of Britain's small airports. 'Why are we selling to an Australian infrastructure fund?' he said. 'They're so cheap, they're such good value. Why don't we care here?' Fine believes that there is a 'recognition' now in government that 'this is a bit excessive'. 'London is a global financial centre – it should be a global financial centre,' he said. Companies to have quit London in recent months include building materials firm CRH, gambling giant Flutter, and equipment hire group Ashtead. Barbarians' bid battle A Private equity titan is locked in two bidding wars for London-listed firms. New York giant KKR – which featured in the book and film Barbarians At The Gate – is battling it out for scientific instruments maker Spectris and GP surgery owner Assura. KKR has seen two offers rejected by Spectris, which last week said it was 'minded' to back a £3.7bpillion bid from rival private equity house Advent International, sending its shares soaring. Spectris shares rose another 5.8 per cent yesterday on hopes the bidding war will escalate. As well as battling Advent for Spectris, KKR was in pole position to buy Assura after the NHS landlord's board last week backed a £1.7billion offer.
