Investment bank Numis opens Dublin office after securing licence

City of London investment bank Numis Securities has officially opened its Dublin office after securing a licence from the Central Bank of Ireland, which will help expand its business in the euro zone.

The firm said on Wednesday that it expects the Irish unit, known as Numis Europe Limited, to start trading in the final quarter of this year.

“As a strategic gateway for public and private businesses to access investors based in the European Union, the new office supports Numis’ ongoing strategic objective to diversify and internationalise its client-base and revenue streams. It adds to its existing presence in London and New York and will allow Numis to provide continued access to European investors for its UK issuer clients,” the company said.

Numis said that the expansion will allow it to be more agile when servicing the growing number of non-UK equity and debt issuers in its client list. About 18 per cent of Numis’ investment banking revenue last year came from non-UK companies, which included supporting clients with initial public offerings (IPOs) in the US, Germany, Sweden, Poland and Israel.

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Numis Europe Limited is led by Garret Ward, chief executive and head of European Union equities. The Irish Times reported last December that Numis had hired Mr Ward from Goodbody Stockbrokers, where he had been head of equity sales trading, to lead its planned Dublin-based unit.

The office currently has eight employees, according to a spokesman for the company, adding that Numis is continuing “to hire talent in Ireland who can best support us to grow our European business”.

“Our European office will provide greater flexibility and an enhanced capability to target opportunities across the EU. Building on Numis’ success to date, we look forward to building stronger connections with clients through our European office and supporting them on their growth ambitions,” said Mr Ward.

The firm was founded in 1989 as a merger between Hemsley & Co Securities and Raphael Zorn, an old City broker, and changed its name to Numis in 2000 following the sale of its private clients wealth management business.

The company has been competing with Dublin’s Davy and Goodbody Stockbrokers in recent years in the area of corporate brokerships of Irish companies with UK listings. It has been involved in share sales by the likes of C&C, Molten Ventures and Hostelworld in the past two years and is currently helping Cairn Homes buy back some of its own stock on the market.