FinnCap trading in line, expecting better second half

FinnCap said in an update on Thursday that its recent trading was in line with the expectations it set in its final results in July.

The AIM-traded firm, which was holding its annual general meeting, said revenue to 31 August was around 30% lower than the comparable period in 2022 - its record year.

It put that down to the “broader and well-documented themes” of muted investor confidence, reduced equity capital markets activity, and tightening debt market conditions, impacting FinnCap and its peers.

“Merger and acquisition activity in both private and public arenas has continued to be a key contributor to performance, where revenue to date has been broadly in line with the comparable period last year,” the board said in its statement.

“ECM revenue is marginally ahead of our expectation in July but, as expected, substantially lower than last year.

“The outlook for the remainder of the financial year is for a somewhat better revenue performance in the second half than in the first of the current financial year, based on a good pipeline of work across divisions, particularly in mergers and acquisitions, and anticipating a modest recovery in ECM market confidence and activity.”

The group said its balance sheet remained “strong”, with cash on 31 August of £13.1m, in line with expectations, reflecting the £2.1m investment in Energise and the post-year end payments for 2022 employee compensation and corporation tax, which totalled about £9.5m.

“Steps have been taken to control discretionary expenditure and to align the fixed operating costs with the opportunities ahead of the group which we will detail with our interim results in November.”

At 1449 BST, shares in FinnCap Group were up 4.75% at 16.76p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.