The small cap broker, Cenkos, has opened a new office at Exchange Station, Tithebarn Street in Liverpool, adding to its existing index of offices in London and Edinburgh.
The new office will be led by Simon French, formerly of Panmure Gordon’s Liverpool operations. He will be joined by Andrew Saunders whose previous roles include of Panmure, Numis, and HSBC. Other employees at the firm bring experience from Charterhouse, the Liverpool broker incorporated into ING.
Cenkos aim to build full service stockbroking and corporate advisory services, including institutional equity broking, corporate finance advice, and equity research for the North West.
Cenkos said that it chose Liverpool as a result of the city’s “strong entrepreneurial spirit, great trading status and tradition and its pivotal role in the North West region”.
This will be Cenkos first office outside of a capital city, though chief executive Jim Durkin is originally from Liverpool.
Simon French said:
“I’ve been based up here for the past five years working with Panmure Gordon and I’m absolutely delighted to be working in Liverpool and helping North West companies achieve their growth ambitions.
“Cenkos has got a very strong track record as a small and mid cap broker, helping to fund companies and bringing them to the public market. We’re all aware that it’s very important to be close to our clients and there’s a huge success story of entrepreneurial companies in the North West that are looking to access growth capital.”
A number of North West companies have floated on the stock market in 2014, such as online fashion retailer Boohoo.com, the electrical goods retailer AO.com, retail chain B&M, and Liverpool pharmaceutical testing firm Evgen Pharma is also shortly set to float on the AIM.
Words: Peter Cribley