BLOW FOR RICH RICCI AS FINNCAP BID SCRAPPED

SHARES in Finncap tumbled 16pc after the broker’s rival, Panmure Gordon, backed out of its offer to buy it.

In October, it emerged that Panmure had been sniffing around but Finncap has confirmed the two could not agree a deal. Finncap told investors: ‘In light of each company’s strengths as independent entities, each board has concluded it is not possible to find mutually acceptable terms or structure.’

That is a setback for Panmure boss Rich Ricci and backer Bob Diamond as a union would create economies of scale. They worked together at Barclays – Diamond as chief executive – before ignominious departures.

Diamond left in 2012, days after Barclays was fined for manipulating the Libor interest rate. Ricci ( pictured), a horse racing fanatic, fell out of favour by pocketing an £18m share payout as the UK recovered from recession.

The brakes have been slammed on deal-making, stock market listings and even efforts by companies to raise money from their investors, a broker’s bread and butter, thus making a consolidation attractive.