Things a little under the weather at Davy

THERE’S AN old saying that it never rains but it pours, and it’s a phrase that might almost be applied to stockbroker Davy of late.

Davy has been in the news for its role in placing clients into investments in the Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend and into Barry O’Callaghan’s Education Media Publishing Group (EMPG).

Both have left Davy clients nursing heavy losses, with the investors going legal in the case of Irish Glass and Bernard McNamara.

In parallel with this, Davy has been shedding corporate broker clients – a market that it has traditionally dominated.

On Monday, agri-nutrition company Origin Enterprises became the latest listed company to switch from Davy to Goodbody.

This is a path that Greencore, and China Real Estate Opportunities had already trodden in the past number of months.

In addition, United Drug and DCC have appointed Goodbody as joint brokers with Davy.

Goodbody, which is owned by AIB, has no doubt been marketing furiously with corporates to build up its book of corporate brokerships but there are also grumblings in the market about Davy’s increasing research focus on European plcs, thereby removing some of the spotlight from Irish companies with its large stable of private clients.

Whatever the reason, it’s added a little spice to what is normally a staid sector.