Panmure Liberum to cut dozens of jobs after landmark City merger
Newly-formed investment bank Panmure Liberum is planning to cut more than two dozen jobs after a merger between two of the City’s leading brokers earlier this year.
The cuts are expected to be announced as soon as this week, Morning Wire understands. A spokesperson for Panmure Liberum declined to comment.
Panmure Liberum is the product of a merger between mid-sized investment banks Panmure Gordon and Liberum, which agreed to an all-stock tie-up in January to create the largest advisor to London-listed companies.
The two firms employed a combined 288 staff across the UK and North America at the time of announcing the merger.
The deal completed last month, with Panmure Liberum saying the group would immediately implement a “robust integration plan”.
News of the job cuts, first reported by Bloomberg, comes as Britain’s corporate brokers have struggled with a dearth of IPOs and a shrinking number of smaller London-listed companies, forcing cost reduction efforts and more consolidation in the sector.
Last October, Deutsche Bank completed a £410m takeover of Numis to form Deutsche Numis, while Finncap and Cenkos merged the previous month to create Cavendish.
Ex-Barclays chief Bob Diamond’s Atlas Merchant Capital bought a majority stake in Panmure Gordon in 2018 alongside the Qatari royal family. Diamond hired fellow Barclays veteran Rich Ricci to head up Panmure Gordon in 2020.
The deal to create Panmure Liberum saw Ricci appointed as chief executive of the combined group, with Bidhi Bhoma, Liberum’s head, becoming deputy CEO.