John Farrugia

While Cenkos is the only institutional stockbroker with a full-service office in Scotland, finnCap has no physical presence north of the border. The combined group will be headquartered at the current existing registered office of finnCap in London.

No change is intended with regard to Cenkos’ existing office in Edinburgh, which employs nine people and manages 29 clients.

Julian Morse, CEO of Cenkos and intended co-CEO of the combined group, told the Herald: “We expect that the Edinburgh office will be very important to the merged business as we develop our full service offer for Scottish and energy clients.”

The merged group will have 230 employees and retain 210 listed or quoted clients, with annual revenues of more than £50m and more than £20m on its balance sheet.

Current CEO of finnCap John Farrugia, who will share the role of chief executive of the combined group with Mr Morse, said: “In Cenkos we have found a partner who shares the same vision, desire and drive to create one of the leading financial services advisory firms focused on the mid-market.

“With our collective strength in capital markets, M&A, debt advisory and private growth, we believe that we are able to provide an unrivalled level of service to all our current and prospective clients.”

Mr Morse added: “This merger is a true meeting of minds: the combination of two firms with a shared client-centric culture, which presents the opportunity to create a premium full-service advisory house supporting growth and investment companies and grow our combined business and its revenues.”