Panmure Liberum & Nedbank CIB Forge Powerhouse Equities Partnership – What Traders Need to Know

Wall Street meets Sandton in a surprise equities alliance that’s got the City buzzing. Panmure Liberum—London’s scrappy challenger investment bank—just locked arms with Nedbank CIB, Africa’s corporate finance heavyweight. Here’s why it matters.

Cross-Continent Firepower

This isn’t your typical ‘cooperation agreement.’ The deal stitches together Panmure’s UK small-cap expertise with Nedbank’s emerging markets clout—creating a pipeline for institutional investors hungry for uncorrelated returns. Think: dual-listed miners, fintechs eyeing African expansion, and the inevitable SPAC nonsense.

Timing Is Everything

With FTSE 250 volatility at 18-month highs and Johannesburg’s bourse finally shaking off its post-COVID slump, the partnership lands right as liquidity starts migrating south. Nedbank gets European distribution, Panmure taps the ‘next billion consumers’ narrative—and both collect fat advisory fees along the way. (Some things never change.)

The Bottom Line

Forget ‘synergy’ slides—this is about survival. Mid-tier investment banks are either consolidating or getting eaten alive by bulge brackets and algo traders. One cynical take? Two mid-sized players dressing up a referral arrangement as a ‘strategic pivot.’ But in today’s market, even that counts as innovation.

Panmure Liberum, the leading independent UK full-service investment bank, and Nedbank CIB, the Corporate and Investment Banking division of Nedbank, a leading bank based in South Africa, are pleased to announce a partnership across equity capital markets. The partnership brings together two established equity franchises with DEEP expertise in their respective markets.

Panmure Liberum is a London-headquartered independent investment bank with a strong heritage in UK equity research, institutional sales, trading, and investment banking and the number one adviser to UK-quoted companies. Nedbank CIB provides transactional, corporate and investment banking services to local and global markets, and is consistently ranked among Africa’s top investment banks, having executed multi-billion-dollar transactions across the continent.

Through the partnership, Nedbank CIB and Panmure Liberum will collaborate across the full equity capital markets offering, delivering co-branded equity research that spans South Africa and the UK. Together, they will jointly pursue corporate advisory opportunities, both in the UK, and for companies dual-listed in the UK and South Africa.

The trading agreement will enhance execution and liquidity across South African & Pan European markets, providing improved access for corporate clients to the deep pools of capital in South Africa. Panmure Liberum will serve as Nedbank CIB’s preferred execution partner for UK and European equities, taking advantage of changes in South African legislation that permit asset managers to increase their allocation to overseas securities. Local demand for exposure to hard assets fits particularly well against Panmure Liberum’s leading franchises in Real Estate & Natural Resources. Nedbank will also serve as Panmure Liberum’s preferred execution partner for South African equities.

Similar to its longstanding distribution partnership with CGSI in Asia and more recently with Petra Capital in Australia, Nedbank represents Panmure Liberum’s latest high quality distribution partnership. It builds on Panmure Liberum’s strong track record of finding successful ways to diversify, expand geographic reach, and engage with new pools of capital.

 “This partnership re-affirms our reputation for high-quality, high-conviction research and deep relationships with UK corporates and institutional investors. It also represents further delivery against our strategy to strengthen our global distribution, expand our opportunities and further enhance our diversification. We are continuing to build momentum at Panmure Liberum, realising our ambition to reinvigorate UK capital markets and be a positive force in UK investment banking.”

 “This partnership with Panmure Liberum marks a significant step in Nedbank CIB’s ambition to deliver a more global equities offering. By combining our strengths, we are creating a more connected ecosystem for research, trading, and capital raising that meets the evolving needs of our corporate and institutional clients in South Africa and internationally. The partnership reflects our commitment to providing clients with deeper insight and broader access across key global markets.”

Source: Panmure Liberum