LONDON (Reuters) - British stockbroker Collins Stewart Plc (CLST.L) swung to a full-year profit as bullish markets in the second half boosted revenue across its businesses, and forecast a return to MA activity.
Collins Stewart, which operates in capital raising, corporate advisory and wealth management, said on Thursday its four units were profitable in the year, including its U.S. business and mergers advisory arm Hawkpoint, which suffered during the first half of the year.
"The MA cycle should be starting to pick up from here. The pipeline is quite good so we"re quite positive overall about the outlook for Hawkpoint," Chief Executive Mark Brown said.
The brokerage added that its chairman Terry Smith will step down from his role on April 1, handing over to Tim Ingram, who will be retiring in July as chief executive of Caledonia Investments (CLDN.L). Smith had said last year he would be stepping down.
Smith, who joined Collins Stewart in the early nineties and led a management buyout of the company in 2000, is also chief executive of Tullett Prebon (TLPR.L), which recently confirmed it was in offer talks.
Smith, who said he will remain on the Collins Stewart board as deputy chairman during the transition period, also warned in a statement that markets will remain difficult "for the foreseeable future."
Brown added that trading volumes have remained low suggesting that "underlying confidence is still quite fragile."
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Collins Stewart posted a pretax profit in 2009 of 18.4 million pounds ($28.3 million), against a loss of 15.2 million the year before, slightly ahead of consensus.
"Collins Stewart is delivering ahead of expectations. It is now growing its wealth management business, has fixed the problems with the UK business and there are promising signs that the issues in the U.S. business may now be under control," said Jeremy Grime at Arden Partners.
The group added on Thursday it has acquired Guernsey-based Corazon Capital for an initial 1 million pounds cash, and a deferred share payment of up to 6 million pounds, expanding its wealth management arm, which accounts for roughly half its profit.
This is in line with its strategy of focusing on growth of the unit, as well as pursuing further bolt-on acquisitions in the wealth management space.
The group had signaled in August that it expected Hawkpoint to see improvements in the second half and it said on Thursday the group started the year on target.
Hawkpoint saw an operating profit of 4.7 million pounds, compared with 10.1 million at its wealth management unit. Securities and corporate broking stood at 4.5 million and 2.6 million respectively.
Shares in the company were down 3.26 percent at 7:32 a.m. EDT.
(Editing by Mark Potter)
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