GMP Securities Australia mining analyst Duncan Hughes said that GMP Securities Australia “remains a going concern”, and that it was working closely with its mothership in restructuring a transaction that sees the business continuing in the Australian market, given its recent transaction successes over the past nine months and a strong mandated pipeline.
GMP Group announced last Wednesday night “the orderly exit of our United Kingdom and Australian operations with the closure of our offices in London, Perth and Sydney”, but Hughes told Energy News it’s not the end of the story.
Hughes told Energy News that while the announcement was true, “it’s not the end of the road for the team that is GMP Australia”, which comprises of 15 individuals across research, a trading arm and a corporate side, the latter of which has been particularly successful.
He said that announcement referred to the “GMP banner”, and confirmed “we’re still in the office and it’s business as usual until we work out how we’ll restructure ourselves”
“GMP has a significant holding in our business, so chances are that, as we continue, [GMP Securities Australia’s operations] won’t be under the GMP banner,” Hughes said.
He added that while it would be “pure speculation” that GMP Securities Australia would therefore logically operate under a different name post-restructure, “there are a number of options available to the team here, which is a successful team”
“GMP Australia has been a profitable business unit over 2015 and maintains a strong balance sheet that has benefited from a number of strong transactions over the last nine months including Doray Minerals’ capital raising ($A27 million), Metals X’s acquisitions ($42 million) and a number of others,” Hughes said in a statement to clients yesterday.
“We maintain a strong pipeline for growth and in addition to a successful corporate finance business led by Andrew Frazer, sales and trading business led by Mark Hepburn, our research team was also credited as a top stock picker for 2015 in Thomson Reuters Starmine survey – Metals & Mining, Australia & New Zealand.
“Accordingly, GMP Australia will continue all normal trading operations during this time.”
