Meet 4 of Australia's best brokers recognised by East Coles

Get a glimpse of what makes them stand out.

Financial research firm East Coles recently concluded the 25th East Coles Australian Equities Markets Report wherein fund managers or institutions rated the service provided by the broking community across 33 relevant sectors such as Banks, Insurance, Retail, and Strategy among others.

Canaccord Genuity grabbed the top spot for the Best Equities House (Non-bank owned) category while Baillieu Holst topped the Equity Capital Markets (Non-bank owned) list. BBY Australia got the highest ratings in the Research (Non-bank owned) category while Taylor Collison ranked first in the Dealing (Non-bank owned) category. Click on Figures 1-4 to see the Top 10 list per category.

Nick Coles, Director at East Coles, said that this year, 56 institutions participated representing over 50% of market Funds Under Management. This is the 4th report conducted in association with the SMH/AGE.

ABF: What sets you apart from other houses?

Marcus Freeman, Canaccord Genuity: Canaccord's biggest differentiator is the fact that we are a mid cap specialist operating on a global platform. We operate from around 50 offices in 11 countries and we work intimately with all parts of our business to offer solutions to clients. Our local capital markets business covers four key sectors; being mining, oil and gas, life sciences and industrials. These sectors have been chosen carefully to correlate strongly with our strengths offshore. Our advantage is our ability to help our mid market clients in all the major financial centres, and this offering is what I think sets us apart from many of our independent firm peers.

Stephen Macaw, Baillieu Holst: We were established in 1889, are one of the very first firms in Australia and we have stood the test of time. We focus specifically on stocks that are outside the ASX 100 across five defined sectors which is a very different model than our newer competitors in this market. We think that we provide a superior outcome for our corporate clients by having an intimate knowledge of the sectors we specialise in. Baillieu’s other point of difference is the strength of our research and distribution capabilities.

Glenn Rosewall, BBY Australia: BBY is Australia and New Zealand’s largest non-bank owned stockbroker. We are located in Adelaide, Auckland, Dubai, Gold Coast, London, Melbourne, New York, Perth, Sydney (Head Office) and Wellington. We are one of the fastest growing securities firms in Australia and New Zealand with a comprehensive offering including Institutional Sales & Trading, Asset Management, Corporate Finance, ASX Equities Research, Broker Dealer Services and BBY Investing (Private Client General Advice). Our mission is to service the local and international needs of Australian and New Zealand high growth companies, institutional investors, broker dealers and private investors. We aim to remain Australia and New Zealand’s largest non-bank owned securities firm, providing the very best capital markets and investment solutions for our clients. In addition, BBY has $22 billion in FUA today v $1 billion 5 years ago.

Mark Pittman, Taylor Collison: We don’t take any of our clients for granted. In addition to that, our 5-person dealing team has an average of 23 years industry experience, and our research department has a unique set of skills. Lastly, we work seven days a week.

ABF: What are your plans to further improve your performance and your relationship with clients?

Marcus Freeman, Canaccord Genuity: Our Australian business has a strong focus on 'continuous improvement', and this is core to everything that we do. We have recruited some very strong people over the last two years, who have really helped us get closer to where we want to be as a business. We are focused on identifying quality companies that form the base of our research coverage, and our sales and trading and corporate coverage develops from this research led approach. We are working on adding quality companies to our coverage. This is an ongoing process and one that is working well for us to date. We will also make some selective hires around the edges but our core team is in place. The development of a more established M&A advisory business in Australia is also a key development focus for us locally, to compliment the strong advisory practices in our offshore offices. We have plenty of improvement left in us, but I am happy with the direction we are heading in.

Stephen Macaw, Baillieu Holst: I think it's continuing to do what we’re doing which is focusing on a very specific part of the market. We will continue to maintain close corporate relationships, improve the quality of our research and the strength of our global distribution. If we continue doing those things, we will continue to grow and succeed.

Glenn Rosewall, BBY Australia: We’re working on building technology to improve the way we deliver our products to the clients. We have one of the broadest product offering in the market in Australia and New Zealand and we focus on making money for our clients.

Mark Pittman, Taylor Collison: We plan on expanding our team by adding a small number of talented people with similar core values as our own.

Coles said that Canaccord did exceptionally well to be voted Best Equities House (non-bank) this year after having only been active in the Australian markets for a relatively short period of time. They recruited quality staff aggressively assembling an experienced team that have obviously gelled together very well from the outset. "Full credit to Marcus Freeman for putting the team together and fully harnessing their strengths so well so quickly," he added.

BBY, on the other hand, have been around a long time. Coles said that Glenn Rosewall has always been very conscious of cajoling high quality research in key areas from his many talented analysts. They focus on stocks and sectors that have the greatest impact for their clients and manage to differentiate their research and create value very successfully.

The Taylor Collison dealing desk is a very experienced one and is ably led by brothers Mark and David Pittman, Coles said. They are Adelaide-based but have key, high level relationships with several of the major domestic institutions in Sydney and Melbourne. These relationships place the firm on a very strong footing with those clients.

"Baillieu Holst is an iconic Australian brokerage house originating from Melbourne and dating back to 1889. They have a variety of long held corporate relationships dating back many years based on mutual trust and respect, and have always been held in high regard," Coles added.