New York-based global advisory firm Jefferies Group LLC has registered an increase of 40 per cent in its net earnings at $112.43 million for the first quarter ended February 28, 2014 against the same period a year ago, mainly on the back of strong investment banking revenues which grew 43 per cent year on year.
Net revenues grew 10 per cent on a year-on-year basis to $899.03 million, almost half contributed by the investment banking segment which generated $414 million.
While, equities revenue of Jefferies-which is owned by Leucadia National Corp-rose to $188.8 million from $167.4 million during the same period the previous fiscal, revenues from the firm’s fixed income business were down 19 per cent year-on-year to $285.9 million.
Excluding the impact of Knight Capital and Harbinger Group, sales and trading revenues were $488 million for the quarter, the investment bank said adding that its holdings in Knight Capital and Harbinger Group was marked down in the first quarter by $13 million, compared with a total mark-up of $110 million in the fourth quarter of last year, the impact of which was recorded in the firm's equities revenues.
"Our results reflect another strong performance in investment banking, with revenues in excess of $400 million for the second successive quarter, and a solid performance in both equities and fixed income... Our investment banking business continued to benefit from strong equities,” Richard Handler, CEO of Jefferies, said.
Founded in 1962, Jefferies Group provides investment banking, sales, trading, research and strategy across equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, futures and commodities, as well as wealth management, in the US, Europe and Asia.
In India, Jefferies started its operations in 2006 as Jefferies India Pvt Ltd through an office in New Delhi. The firm has advised many deals in the Indian market, including $1.75 billion acquisition of injectables business of Bangalore-based Strides Arcolab by Mylan.
More recently it advised oil refiner Indian Oil Corp in its large sized transaction to pick 10 per cent in Progress Energy Canada from Malaysia’s Petronas.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
