In conversation with Lewis Burnett | Corporate broking
We have been delighted that a number of new clients have chosen us as their corporate broker since the Deutsche Bank transaction. To find out more about what sets our offering apart from our UKI competitors, we spoke to Lewis Burnett, Deutsche Numis’ Co-Head of Corporate Broking.
In simple terms, what is corporate broking?
Whilst the corporate broking market has evolved in the last 20 years or so, at its heart, the aim of corporate broking is to form trusted relationships with our UK & Ireland listed clients through acting as the ‘eyes and ears’ in the equity market.
The core objective is to ensure that on behalf of our clients, their share price properly reflects all the strengths and opportunities of their business. A corporate broker might typically do this by:
(i) Positioning the equity story to have the maximum impact with investors (ii) Finding and converting new buyers of the company’s stock to help drive up the share price (iii) Intermediating between the corporate client and the wider investment bank to provide the broader support for all their strategic and financing initiatives that the combined Deutsche Numis business now offers.
A number of new clients have chosen Deutsche Numis as their corporate broker so far this year. What can we attribute that to?
We compete in a congested marketplace and marginal gains can often sway a board’s decision. Sometimes product breadth might matter, or previous personal contacts and a long-term track record of trusted advice, but the one area over which we always have control is our own tenacity, intensity and coordination across the whole business in chasing down new opportunities. The most successful corporate broking houses are the ones that never lose this focus, and our recent record into 2024 continues to speak for itself. Most encouragingly, the wins have come across a broad range of sectors and company sizes: demonstrating the strength of our overall platform across both equities intelligence and broader corporate broking and corporate finance.
Why is corporate broking such a focus for Deutsche Numis?
Corporate broking is a focus for us because it is a focus for our clients. A core aim of every executive is to build shareholder value and successfully broking a stock is a tool through which to enable that, so corporates and the bank alike are focussed on good corporate broking.
As a business, we think it is essential to have a well-developed corporate broking practice at the centre of UK investment banking operations. Deutsche Bank clearly also recognised this when they acquired the Numis business in October 2023.
Is what clients are looking for in their corporate broker changing?
The strength and depth of our enlarged equities capability, not least relationships with portfolio managers that are second to none, is a greater differentiator today than ever before. Some clients are realising this, and the risks it creates for them in not having their corporate brokers able to give genuine equity intelligence-led advice. In addition, there are clients that increasingly regard their corporate brokers as a ‘one-stop shop’ for all investment banking advisory and financing services.
Irrespective of changing preferences of clients, Deutsche Numis has manoeuvred itself into place as a unique proposition: continuing to deliver a model intimately connected to the equity market and strategic advice, but also able to deliver a materially expanded suite of services to those clients that want it. This is increasingly setting us apart from all competitors, and it is now showing in the momentum we are seeing in our recent client wins.
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We have been delighted that a number of new clients have chosen us as their corporate broker since the Deutsche Bank transaction. To find out more about what sets our offering apart from our UKI competitors, we spoke to Lewis Burnett, Deutsche Numis’ Co-Head of Corporate Broking.
In simple terms, what is corporate broking?
Whilst the corporate broking market has evolved in the last 20 years or so, at its heart, the aim of corporate broking is to form trusted relationships with our UK & Ireland listed clients through acting as the ‘eyes and ears’ in the equity market.
The core objective is to ensure that on behalf of our clients, their share price properly reflects all the strengths and opportunities of their business. A corporate broker might typically do this by:
(i) Positioning the equity story to have the maximum impact with investors
(ii) Finding and converting new buyers of the company’s stock to help drive up the share price
(iii) Intermediating between the corporate client and the wider investment bank to provide the broader support for all their strategic and financing initiatives that the combined Deutsche Numis business now offers.
A number of new clients have chosen Deutsche Numis as their corporate broker so far this year. What can we attribute that to?
We compete in a congested marketplace and marginal gains can often sway a board’s decision. Sometimes product breadth might matter, or previous personal contacts and a long-term track record of trusted advice, but the one area over which we always have control is our own tenacity, intensity and coordination across the whole business in chasing down new opportunities. The most successful corporate broking houses are the ones that never lose this focus, and our recent record into 2024 continues to speak for itself. Most encouragingly, the wins have come across a broad range of sectors and company sizes: demonstrating the strength of our overall platform across both equities intelligence and broader corporate broking and corporate finance.
Why is corporate broking such a focus for Deutsche Numis?
Corporate broking is a focus for us because it is a focus for our clients. A core aim of every executive is to build shareholder value and successfully broking a stock is a tool through which to enable that, so corporates and the bank alike are focussed on good corporate broking.
As a business, we think it is essential to have a well-developed corporate broking practice at the centre of UK investment banking operations. Deutsche Bank clearly also recognised this when they acquired the Numis business in October 2023.
Is what clients are looking for in their corporate broker changing?
The strength and depth of our enlarged equities capability, not least relationships with portfolio managers that are second to none, is a greater differentiator today than ever before. Some clients are realising this, and the risks it creates for them in not having their corporate brokers able to give genuine equity intelligence-led advice. In addition, there are clients that increasingly regard their corporate brokers as a ‘one-stop shop’ for all investment banking advisory and financing services.
Irrespective of changing preferences of clients, Deutsche Numis has manoeuvred itself into place as a unique proposition: continuing to deliver a model intimately connected to the equity market and strategic advice, but also able to deliver a materially expanded suite of services to those clients that want it. This is increasingly setting us apart from all competitors, and it is now showing in the momentum we are seeing in our recent client wins.
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