Boss who went from pig farm to £236m City star steps down

THE founder of stockbroker Numis Securities is set to step down as chief executive after 25 years at the helm.

Oliver Hemsley’s decision to stand aside came as his company announced record-breaking half-year revenues.

Numis turned over £56.8m in the six months to the end of March, up £11.1m on the previous year. It means the 53-yearold is going out on a high – although he still plans to stay on as an executive director.

Unusually for a City figure, Hemsley has previously spoken in favour of Britain’s exit from the European Union. He has argued its rules disproportionately hurt smaller financial services firms.

Hemsley, who earned £879,000 last year, is the son a pig farmer and built his £236m business from the ground up. He is estimated to still hold around £20.5m of shares.

Hemsley is moving to an executive director role and intends to focus on working with clients.

Alex Ham and Ross Mitchinson will become joint chief executives of Numis.

Ham, 33, is head of the firm’s corporate broking and advisory business, and 38-year-old Mitchinson leads its equities arm. Hemsley said: ‘I’m going to do more of what I’m good at, which is winning business.

‘Numis is a British investment banking and stockbroking business which was built up from nothing. There’s never a good or bad time to do these things but the firm is doing well, it’s in good shape.’

Numis has around 185 corporate clients with an average value of £540m. The company – which is listed on the Aim junior stock market – made a £16.8m profit, up 41pc on the same period a year earlier. It announced a dividend of 5.5p.

And it raised £1.2bn of cash for corporate clients, nearly 9pc of total fund-raising on the London Stock Exchange. Bosses said there had also been a good start to the second half of the year.

Hemsley’s move is likely to be far less controversial than that of fellow investment boss Michael Dobson. The Schroders chief executive sparked anger when he announced he was stepping down to become the firm’s chairman, a move which is against corporate guidelines.

Numis shares closed up 0.6pc, or 1.25p, at 210.25p.