Peel Hunt swings to H1 profit as market conditions pick up

AIM-listed investment banking group Peel Hunt swung to a first-half profit on the back of a big jump in revenues as the business capitalised on improving market conditions, though the outlook remains uncertain.

Group revenues were up 26% year-on-year at £53.8m in the six months to 30 September, helped by the company executing two IPOs, collecting material M&A fees and generating increased trading revenues early on in the period.

The company reported an increased performance across its three main business divisions of investment banking, research and distribution, and execution services.

Adjusted pre-tax profit was £4.6m, compared with a loss of £0.5m the year before.

"We were able to capitalise on improving market conditions in the first few months of FY25," said chief executive Steven Fine.

"However, the recovery slowed over the summer period and investor sentiment was impacted in the last few weeks of the period due to concerns around the UK Budget, particularly in relation to AIM."

Looking ahead, the company said that trading over the first few weeks of the second half has been in line with expectations, but added: "We expect a degree of uncertainty to persist in the short term and consequently some of these transactions are more likely to execute in our next financial year".