Goodbody Stockbrokers plans to pay “modest” bonuses to staff for the first time in three years having returned to profit after racking up more than €22 million of losses over the past two years, according to its chief executive.
Speaking in an interview with The Irish Times, Martin Tormey said the firm is on track to be profitable this year even as its equities trading desk has been hit by a slump in volumes amid the exits of former Iseq heavyweights CRH, Flutter Entertainment and Smurfit WestRock, formerly Smurfit Kappa.
“The business is shaped structurally now in a way that it doesn’t need the more volatile areas to make it profitable,” he said. In recent years income on equities held on Goodbody’s own books, for example, had played a large role in overall performance. “It’s creating a much more sustainable future.”
The chief executive noted that “variable pay is an industry norm”, but said “the proposition for our staff is much broader than the prospect of bonuses”.
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Goodbody, which turns 150 next month, has seen its number of employees increase by more than a third to 414 since AIB acquired the business three years ago. This has been driven by investment in risk and compliance, finance, human resources, marketing and building out wealth management, according to Mr Tormey.
The company also acquired Clearstream Solutions, an environmental, social and governance (ESG) consultancy, last year and increased its staff to about 20. In addition, some AIB staff transferred to Goodbody with an equity capital unit. However, it cut 20 jobs in investment banking last year amid a downturn in share trading, while a number of other senior figures in this division also left the company following the restructuring.
Mr Tormey said the company’s wealth management and debt capital markets businesses were now “really beginning to see the benefit” of the firm’s combination with AIB, while Clearstream “is helping us create other opportunities”.
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