These U.K. Brokers Have ‘Thrived’

Regulation in 2018 forced European investors to pick and choose between their research providers. 2020 is showing who chose correctly.

皮尔•亨特研究主管查尔斯•霍尔（Charles Hall）在接受电话采访时表示：“研究的价值从未被视为比过去几个月更为重要。”。

Peel Hunt, which specializes in U.K. equity research, was among the many firms impacted byMiFID II— a European rule that required brokers to sell research as a separate product, rather than offer it alongside execution and trading services.

霍尔解释说，当这项规定在2018年初生效时，它导致投资者“削减了很多他们不需要的材料”。但它也揭示了什么样的研究被认为是最有价值的——随着投资者努力应对全球流感大流行的影响，这一区别变得至关重要。

“We have thrived through the MiFID period,” Hall said, adding that Peel Hunt’s customers have more than doubled since MiFID II went into effect. “Investors’ overall spending may have come down, but they want to get value for their money.”

The uncertainty and volatility wrought by Covid-19 has further cemented Peel Hunt’s status as the foremost purveyor of insights on U.K. small- and mid-cap stocks, with the London-based broker ranking as No. 1 in亚博赞助欧冠’s2020 U.K. Small & Mid-cap Research Team.

Formerly known as Extel’s U.K. Small & Mid-cap Survey, the small- and mid-cap results are the first Extel rankings to be published under the亚博赞助欧冠brand this year, followingII’s acquisition of Extel in 2018. Instead of ranking the best overall brokers, as in previous Extel surveys, this new version highlights the top firms across three categories: research, sales, corporate access.

Peel Hunt placed first in research, followed by Numis Securities in second and Investec in third.

TheU.K. Small & Mid-cap Sales Team, meanwhile, was topped by Numis, followed by Investec in second and Peel Hunt in third. Incorporate access年，皮尔•亨特被评为第一大公司，天达名列第二，努米斯名列第三。

The survey, which included 293 portfolio managers and analysts across 203 firms, took place during the early weeks of the pandemic, with polling closing on April 17. This makes it one of the first to capture investor sentiment toward their research providers during the height of 2020’s uncertainty.

“The future is always uncertain — now more than usual,” said Will Wallis, head of research at Numis, by phone. “Analysts who know businesses well have been able to help institutional investors frame their thinking. While it doesn’t mean we have a crystal ball, if you have a deep understanding you are in a better position to make some judgment calls on what may or may not happen.”

沃利斯和接受采访的其他研究负责人表示，随着Covid-19危机的展开，人们对这种见解的需求一直很高II.“Like many others, we have seen a substantial spike in interactions with the buy side, particularly around mid-March,” Wallis said.

天达证券上市客户群负责人安德鲁•派克（Andrew Peck）表示，不仅是研究部门必须应对需求激增：在大流行之初，交易量也在上升，因为投资者“洗牌投资组合，试图定位自己”。企业接入也在蓬勃发展——尽管大流行取消了所有的面对面会议和活动。

“Corporate access has absolutely gone online,” Peck said in a phone interview. Despite this shift, Investec has seen “an enormous amount of contact between fund managers and analysts and companies.”

“More contact between the buy side and the sell side than I’ve ever known,” Peck added.

It remains unclear what long-term effects the pandemic will have on the U.K.’s small- and mid-cap companies, with Peck and the others suggesting that the impact will likely vary by sector — areas like travel and hospitality obviously being hit the hardest.

Research on these companies has been disproportionately impacted by MiFID II, with Peck noting that the regulation “definitely led to a reduction in the amount of small-cap and micro-cap research out there.” But the newly announced plans by the European Commission to回滚MiFID restrictions on small- and mid-cap equity research likely won’t have “anywhere near the seismic change” of the original regulation, according to Peel Hunt’s head of research.

“A large number of fund managers have already put processes in place [for MiFID II],” Hall said. “If there is a bit of MiFID rollback, they’re not going to change that structure because it will add another level of complication.”

“这将是有趣的,看看这有力ial change makes a material difference,” he added.