The head of UK investment banking at UBS talks to Danielle Myles about London’s changing corporate broking market.
Corporate broking is a distinctly UK concept, but a Swiss bank has become one of the most successful brokers among the London Stock Exchange’s biggest 100 companies.
In the latest FTSE 100 rankings by Adviser Rankings, UBS claims top spot when measured by clients’ market capitalisation. As of May 1, its client base is collectively valued at £556,228, nearly £70,000 clear of Morgan Stanley in second place.
The Swiss bank has won two FTSE 100 clients in recent months, one of which is Just Eat, plus three good-sized FTSE 250 clients. Head of UK investment banking David James says that after a period in which firms seemed hesitant to change brokers, there have been more opportunities of late. “Nowadays there is more activity again. It seems clients are beginning to think about who they’d like to have advise their boards,” he adds.
However, both banks and public companies are being selective about who they approach. “I think we are all being very thoughtful about which clients are a good fit for us, be it sector expertise, geographic spread or our equities platform,” says Mr James. “To make sense for both sides, there is an increasing realisation that what a broker can offer and what the client wants must marry up.”
In the latest rankings, Bank of America Merrill Lynch closely tracks Morgan Stanley. Sitting in fourth place is Goldman Sachs while JPMorgan Cazenove – which holds pole position in FTSE 100 rankings by client number – rounds out the top five.
All data sourced from www.adviser-rankings.com
