INVESTMENT manager Brewin Dolphin hopes the upcoming link-up of its Newcastle-based corporate broking arm with Spanish firm N+1 will create an operation which is able to make waves across Europe.
Brewin announced the deal with the financial group in February, which will see it take a 14% stake in the resulting N+1 Brewin firm and get £1m in cash. It is expected to be completed around the end of September.
Brewin’s corporate advisory and broking head Jamie Cumming said the contacts of N+1 as well as its experience around the continent would enable North East clients to reach a broader range of potential investors and buyers.
Cumming said: “The way N+1 works is that instead of talking about things, they want to just do them. They’re already sending us a number of potential transactions and have said they will send some people over to meet our clients if it’s appropriate. This deal provides instant access to a large part of mainland Europe.
“There are members of our peer group who may have access to things like an office in Paris, but to simply arrive with a complete infrastructure of offices around Europe is like Christmas come early. The strategy is to grow it into a large, pan-European business and eventually launch on the stock market, subject to the economic cycle in the next five years.”
Brewin employs 300 people in Newcastle, including 25 people from its 55-strong corporate broking division. The division is the smaller relative of Brewin’s wealth management arm.
Corporate advisory and broking recorded turnover of £10.9m for the year ending September 26 last year.
Cumming took up the role of corporate advisory and broking head this year after Graeme Summers resigned to take a break from the business.
Summers was at the helm as the company initially forged relations with N+1, which has specialist expertise in areas such as mergers and acquisitions across Europe.
Cumming said: “At the top of the cycle we were delivering about 20% of group profits and we’re arguably toward the bottom of the cycle where we’re not providing anything like that.
“At that point, it didn’t seem unreasonable to see if we could find a partner that could help us develop the business.
“With the N+1 deal, we felt there was a clear opportunity to increase business into Europe, and they will be able to bring some of their M&A work into the UK market.”
