Photo: Christian Bickel. CC BY 2.0 DE
Sutherlands, the Edinburgh-based fixed-interest research firm, has been spun out by its owners, Charles Stanley, writes Ian Fraser.
The newly independent firm, in which the listed stockbroker Charles Stanley will retain a 19.9% stake, will focus on selling its research into global bonds to a wider range of customers across the UK, Europe and the US.
The remaining 80.1% will be owned by Sutherlands’ management, including managing director Ken Brown and Scotch whisky analyst Alan Gray. The firm, founded by Ivory & Sime’s former dealing director Roddy Sutherland in 1989, specialises in researching fixed-interest markets, and has developed a unique bond pricing model known as PBCA
Sutherlands was acquired by Charles Stanley for £2.4m in November 2004. Over the preceding four years, the firm had several owners, including CCF Charterhouse Securities, HSBC and ING.
The latest ownership change will see the firm continue to focus on the fixed-interest agency sector, trading bonds on behalf of institutional clients, while also providing in-depth industry research on Scotch whisky.
Sutherlands’ equity and corporate finance arms were earlier merged into ING Financial Markets.
An edited version of this article was published in The Sunday Times on 25 February 2007