Patersons Securities Ltd has brought in former Western Australian stockbroker Andrew Coppin to drive its national expansion and, hopefully, share the spoils of success.
Patersons Securities Ltd has brought in former Western Australian stockbroker Andrew Coppin to drive its national expansion and, hopefully, share the spoils of success.
Mr Coppin, who most recently headed Bell Potter Securities Ltd’s national business development until taking a recent sabbatical, is expected to take an equity stake in the Perth-based stockbroking business as part of the deal.
He makes no secret of the fact that an ownership stake was a key driver in his recent decision making – both in leaving Bell Potter and joining Patersons, after scouting Australia on sabbatical for a firm with the growth potential to rival his former employer.
“When I started at Bells it was pretty much unknown and worth about $30 million,” Mr Coppin said.
“It is now worth about $250 million.
“Any area you care to mention, we put runs on the board,” Mr Coppin said regarding the growth of Bell Potter.
“The problem with that is I did all the work and I didn’t own it.
“I have been around the country and looked at all the brokerages and their footprints to work out which one is the next Bells.”
Mr Coppin, a WA Business News 40under40 winner in 2003, ran the Perth office of Bell Potter until he was moved to Sydney to head the company’s NSW business. His final role at Bell Potter was the national business development role until he quit about six months ago.
He said that one of the keys to success in the broking business was to recruit top people and support them very well.
Mr Coppin told WA Business News he saw a lot of opportunity in Patersons’ structure and believed he would make a difference sharing the management with Patersons executive chairman Michael Manford as the firm continued to grow.
Patersons has jumped from around $20 million in revenue four years ago to $65 million last financial year. It is expecting positive growth again this year after a bull year, especially in Western Australia.
Mr Manford said the move to appoint Mr Coppin as director of private clients Australia would allow the firm to consolidate on the significant footholds it already had on the east coast, namely Sydney, Melbourne and, to a lesser extent, Canberra.
The firm is also looking at expanding its regional presence in other states, following success in that strategy in Western Australia.
Mr Manford said that, to take advantage of the opportunities in the market, Patersons needed to give the right level of support to advisers.
“The structure in the past has been managers at state level,” he said.
“But those managers have been running about doing business with clients.
“To grow nationally it will take more than that.
“We have looked to employ some significant private client business writers in Sydney and Melbourne over the current period of time.
“To do that we need to provide advisers with leading support services to direct them to the business.”
Mr Manford said the firm, in which he and fellow director Aaron Constantine dominate the ownership, with almost 40 per cent of equity between them, had been considering such a appointment for some time and had been looking for the right person to drive it.
“We do believe Andrew is the right person,” he said.
Mr Manford said he saw Patersons as a leading full-service, private client stock broking firm with a significant presence in the mid-cap stock range.
