A strong performance from its asset management arm helped profits rise at small-cap specialist broker Shore Capital Group PLC (LON:SGR).
Asset management revenues rose by 50%, while profits more than doubled.
Funds under management also climbed to £915mln from £810mln.
Private client arm
Shore has a private client arm – Puma Investments – that runs specialist small-cap funds focused on inheritance tax, EIS, property and social care.
The good performance here counterbalanced a difficult half for the capital markets arm, where uncertainty following the introduction of MIFID research rules saw revenues decline 8.5%.
Shore did pick up some good names as corporate clients including FTSE250 group Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) and Argentine -focused oil explorer Echo Energy (LON:ECHO).
Half year revenues in total rose 6.5% to £21.6mln and profits were £2.6mln (£2.5mln).
Howard Shore, executive chairman, said he was optimistic for the future.