Nearly three years ago, City broker Cenkos Securities was facing pressure from activist investor Crystal Amber to merge with a rival as Europe’s tough new markets rules, MiFID II, had squeezed the sector.

Cenkos’s profits had tumbled 90% by mid-2018, prompting its chief executive, Anthony Hotson, to step down less than a year into the role. It rehired former boss, Jim Durkin, to steady the ship during a turbulent period. Crystal Amber’s investment adviser, Richard Bernstein, told Financial News in 2019 that Cenkos was “poorly managed” and was urging it to kick-start consolidation in what it believed was an increasingly crowded market for wobbling City brokers.