UK Private Client Broker Considers Float

Stephen Harris

22 January 2007

Bristol-based private client broker Hargreaves Lansdown is considering a flotation on the London Stock Exchange, according to a report in the UK’s Independent newspaper. The broker, which has grown to be the largest broker of unit trusts in the UK, has 600 staff and 350,000 active customers and is the UK’s eighth largest execution-only retail stockbroker. The firm handles £6 billion ($11.84 billion) of funds for customers using its Vantage account. This allows clients to hold a range of investments, including unit trusts, personal pensions plans and Isas. It has around £850 million in discretionary funds under management. Hargreaves Lansdown, which was set up in 1981 by chief executive Peter Hargreaves and chairman Stephen Lansdown, could be valued at around £600 million, netting its founders £240 million, according to the report. The company made a pre-tax profit of £14.4 million in 2005 on a turnover of £48 million.