Clients transferred to Davy after closure

Clients of Ireland’s oldest stockbroking firm, Bloxham, have become customers of Davy Stockbrokers with immediate effect after the Central bank ordered Bloxham to cease trading.

Bloxham employed 60 staff and handled portfolios for 17,000 clients, valued at over €580m until Friday evening, when it was found the broker did not have the €5.8m in capital reserves required by the regulators to operate as a stockbroker in the Irish financial market.

In a statement yesterday, the Central Bank said the clients of Bloxham had been transferred to Davy with immediate effect.

“All former private clients of Bloxham are now clients of Davy (with the exception of less than 1% who have elected to make other arrangements). These private clients should contact Davy on 01 6119200 should they have any queries or wish to transact business.”

Institutional investors like New Ireland and Irish Life will also transfer over to Davy.

A New Ireland spokesperson said: “New Ireland Assurance has appointed Davy stockbrokers to manage all investment funds previously managed by Bloxham. The assets of these funds continue to be held directly by New Ireland and policyholders can continue to trade in these funds as normal.”

Irish Life said less than 1% of its €35bn in managed funds was looked after by Bloxham.

“We can assure policyholders that their funds are entirely safe and secure. The role previously held by Bloxham will now be held by Davy.

In the case of a further €10m of self-invested funds, policyholders chose Bloxham as their managers. Irish Life is confident that these funds are secure and will make arrangements to transfer them to new custodians in the coming days,” a spokesperson said.

Out of the 60 employees at Bloxham, 21 have transferred across to Davy.

Chief executive of Davy, Tony Garry, said clients would continue to be serviced by the same teams. “Davy is pleased to acquire two profitable and established businesses from Bloxham. The transition to Davy is a very positive development for Bloxham’s asset management clients who will continue to be serviced by the same award-winning team, but as part of a much larger and well-capitalised business.”

Bloxham’s managing partner Pramit Ghose and two other partners, Niall Tinney and Paddy Finnegan, are transferring to Davy.

The bond and equity desks in Bloxham will cease trading, resulting in up to 39 job losses.