Shaw Stockbroking bullish amongst the bears

Local stocking firm Shaw Stockbroking is picking up what the international houses are dropping off, according to its managing director, Harold Shapiro.

“Current turmoil abroad has created uncertainty among the major international houses, providing us with opportunities that were simply not available over the past four years,” he said.

According to Shapiro, the volatility in markets hasn’t affected the growth strategy of the group, with the mid-tier stockbroking firm opening a new floor in its Sydney office and growing its staff to more than 200 in response to growing interest from clients.

Shapiro believes the fact that the company is Australian-owned may be playing a part in the increasing number of enquiries from bankers and stockbrokers.

“It is far from panic, but certainly the enquiries are more than we have ever seen for some considerable time.”

The group has also announced that its financial market news website — Egoli — will also be spun off as a separate business due, in part, to the manner in which Shaw’s licensing obligations inhibited advertising opportunities. Egoli will soon become an independent site under the leadership of chief operating officer Stephen Grealy.

“Egoli’s growth has been restricted due to its need to comply with Shaw’s licensing obligations to approve the financial products advertised on the site,” Shapiro said.

“This has lost the site advertising opportunities.”

The appointments to Shaw Stockbroking this year include ex-Citibank veteran Tim Buckley as head of equities and Mark Stewart as executive director of corporate finance. Stewart was previously at Deutsche Bank, RMB Australia and Deloitte.

The group has also appointed two employees from Lodge Corporate — Daniel Sharp, who is now executive director of corporate finance at Shaw, and Matthijs Smith, a biotech analyst.

According to Shapiro, the new recruits will focus on growing Shaw’s institutional business and corporate finance capabilities.

Shapiro said the group has optimism for the future and believes “there will be outstanding opportunities beginning with this bear market”.