Revenues at Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland passed the €50 million mark for the first time in 2023, with the firm now targeting revenue growth this year “in the high teens”.

Pre-tax profits at the provider of wealth and asset management services rose by 161 per cent to €9.4 million last year, as total income in 2023 rose by 23 per cent to a record €51.4 million.

Gerard Casey became chief executive in August 2023, taking over from Ronan Reid who remains a non-executive director of the company.

“Our growth last year was underpinned by strong returns for both our institutional and retail businesses. This not only prompted an inflow of new clients, but also led to existing clients investing more in our funds. As our revenue has grown, so too has our investment in our people and in the technological solutions we offer,” Casey said.

“Last year we saw many clients looking for low-risk alternatives to low-interest-bearing deposit accounts. This trend has continued in 2024. Our clients see our team as being the very best at what they do and that reputation has led to continued strong growth in the 2024 year to date.”

Casey highlighted the five-year performance of its Multi-Asset 30 and Multi-Asset 50 funds as drivers of growth with average annual returns of 5.1 per cent and 8.4 per cent respectively. This was against sector averages of 2.9 per cent and 5.7 per cent, according to Casey.

He said assets overseen by Cantor had continued to rise in 2024 and this growth was down to the “performance of our core multi-asset and discretionary funds and cash coming in as people look for alternatives to cash deposits”.

Asked about the impact of interest rates finally easing, Casey said: “We have continued to see significant interest in alternatives to cash deposits, especially sovereign bonds despite the fall in rates. The volatility in rates is good for our fixed-income trading desk and it promotes higher volumes and trading opportunities.”

Research and the Budget

Cantor, Casey noted, is the longest-serving domestic primary dealer of Irish Government debt, and he said it was planning to expand its European institutional footprint from its Dublin base. He said the firm offered its clients access to international stock markets.

“Our clients by and large have well diversified portfolios, with big US weightings,” he said. “Cantor recently initiated coverage on the global internet sector and recently hired the top-ranked semiconductor analyst CJ Muse.

“Our huge investment in research and banking in the US means we now have an excellent offering for European institutional clients – we will be serving these clients out of Dublin from Q4 which we are really excited about.”

Asked about what he would like to see in the budget, Casey said: “The eight-year deemed distribution on funds is a nonsense. We also need to get an ISA-type product up and running to promote savings and investments from early on in peoples careers.”

This article was published in The Currency on September 23, 2024