EP30: Wayne Brown - Challenges and Opportunities in the UK Equity Landscape

Enquire, the Investor Relations podcast

This episode of Enquire, featuring Equity Research Analyst at Panmure Gordon and Liberum Wayne Brown, explores the challenges and potential reforms in the UK equity markets, the impact of market cycles, and the innovative business models redefining the retail landscape.
Equity Market Trends and Challenges

In this episode of Enquire, Wayne provides an in-depth look into his two-decade-long career, spanning consumer sectors with a focus on leisure and retail. He shares insights into the recent merger of Panmure Gordon and Liberum, forming the largest independent mid-cap brokerage house and how this consolidation offers new opportunities for diversified coverage and business resilience.

Wayne also sheds light on the daily pressures of a sell-side analyst, why he’s always at his desk by 7am, and the importance of proactive communication with fund managers and investor relations teams.

Wayne highlights the importance of clear communication, consistent KPIs, and proactive idea pitching. The conversation also delves into structural market changes, the rise of private equity, IPO activity, and evolving communication strategies of IR teams over the past decade.

In This Episode:

• Meet Wayne and hear more about his career path
• The Panmure Gordon and Liberum merger
• The impact of this merger on company coverage
• Changes in business models of brokerage companies
• A day in the life of a sell-side analyst
• Pro-active engagement with fund managers
• Examples of where stock recommendations didn’t go as planned
• The interaction with the sales desk
• The current UK equity market landscape and impact on the sell-side
• Government reforms to support the UK equity market
• The European and UK IPO landscape and market trends in the consumer sector
• Interest of US investors in UK companies
• Opportunities and challenges in the retail sector
• Effective communications with and by IR and management teams
• Conclusion and final thoughts

Quotes:

“A lot of the management teams are much keener to travel to the US than they had been previously, but I'd always caution the IR teams to do their research in terms of the investors before taking on the additional cost of traveling over there and identify the correct sort of locations and investors to engage with.”

“The biggest challenge has been the fact that there's been a lack of inflows into the [UK] market. And I'll say, I think we've started to see the green shoots of that turning.”
Resources:

• Connect with Wayne Brown