Panmure in BlueGem deal after a dive into red

Panmure Gordon today raised £17.3 million to bolster its finances after "a shocking year" in 2008 saw it dive into the red.

The City stockbroker sold 72 million shares to Mayfair-based private-equity firm BlueGem Capital Partners for 24p each. It also said that business has improved since the New Year and the shares rose 11/2p to 351/2p.

The deal gave BlueGem — set up by former Merrill Lynch banker Marco Capello in 2006 — a 40.3% stake in Panmure.

It also left the stockbroker with a financial buffer of £40 million, more than three times the £13 million required by regulators.

Panmure chief executive, Tim Linacre, said: "The market at large is expecting all firms to have strong balance sheets so I wanted to make sure Panmure was as financially robust as could be.

"Panmure has been around for 130 years and I want it to be around for another 130. We now have a remarkably strong balance sheet."

Capello, who was managing director of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity before setting up BlueGem, was made a non-executive director of Panmure and was joined by BlueGem partner Emilio Di Spiezio Sardo, formerly a hedge fund manager at York Capital and an investment banker at Merrill Lynch where he worked in European mergers and acquisitions.

The BlueGem deal came as Panmure reported losses of £28.1 million for last year against profits of £5.7 million in 2007.

Revenues were down 35% to £42.1 million after a drought of fees from advising on takeovers and stock market listings.

It axed its dividend and paid no discretionary bonuses to staff although contractual payouts were met.