Cenkos to open in Liverpool

CENKOS, the small cap broker, is to open in Liverpool next week.

The office at Exchange Station in Tithebarn Street, will be led by Simon French who left Panmure Gordon’s Liverpool operation in the summer.

He is being joined by Andrew Saunders, ex-Panmure, Numis and HSBC. He has also worked at Charterhouse, the Liverpool broker swallowed up by ING.

Cenkos plans to build a full service stockbroking and corporate advisory business encompassing institutional equity broking, corporate finance advice and equity research for the North West.

It said it chose Liverpool due to its “strong entrepreneurial spirit, great trading status and tradition and its pivotal role in the North West region”.

Cenkos, which is sponsoring the Listed Business award at TheBusinessDesk.com’s Business Masters Awards 2015 on March 12, currently has offices in London and Edinburgh. Chief executive Jim Durkin is from Liverpool.

Mr French said: “I’ve been based up here for the past five years working with Panmure Gordon and I’m absolutely delighted to be working in Liverpool and helping North West companies achieve their growth ambitions.

“Cenkos has got a very strong track record as a small and mid cap broker, helping to fund companies and bringing them to the public market. We’re all aware that it’s very important to be close to our clients and there’s a huge success story of entrepreneurial companies in the North West that are looking to access growth capital.”

A series of North West companies have taken to stock market this year, including online fashion retailer Boohoo.com, electrical goods retailer AO.com, and retail chain B&M Bargains.

Manchester-based broker Zeus Capital has raised more than £1bn for clients this year, most recently with the flotation of County Durham-based drugs firm Quantum Pharma.

The activity has helped attract another City outfit, Numis, which opened an office in Manchester in October.