Peel Hunt enjoys strong first quarter as market conditions pick up

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Peel Hunt rallied in morning trading on Thursday, after the British investment bank reported a strong start to the year.

Updating on trading ahead of the annual general meeting, the AIM-listed bank - a specialist in mid-cap and growth companies - said it was benefiting from an improvement in market conditions.

It noted: "We have had a strong start to our new financial year as market conditions have begun to improve.

"We have seen higher revenue generation in our institutional and notably our execution services businesses, together with a significant contribution from M&A transactions.

"Consequently, revenue for the first quarter is comfortably ahead of the equivalent prior year period, which itself was a good quarter."

As at 0900 BST, the stock was trading 5% higher at 97.78p.

Looking to the rest of the year, Peel Hunt flagged a "strong" pipeline of deals although it acknowledged it "remains to been seen" if a more general pick up in IPOs followed.

However, it added: "While the macroeconomic background is hard to predict, investor confidence appears to be increasingly resilient and we are mandated on a number of transactions that are expected to complete in the second half of our financial year, should market conditions be supportive."

In the year to 31 March, Peel Hunt made a pre-tax loss of �3.5m, on the back of restructuring costs. On an adjusted basis, profits came in at �800,000. Revenues jumped 6% to �91.3m.

Peel Hunt said at the time there had been historically low levels of equity capital markets activity in the UK during the year.