management financial advisory founded 1926 dublin ireland founder james and eugene davy area served worldwide number of employees 560 divisions asset management capital markets corporate finance private clients research website www.davy.ie founded in 1926 davy is ireland s largest stockbroker wealth manager asset manager and financial advisor and has offices in dublin belfast cork galway and london . davy offer a range of services to private clients small businesses corporations and institutional investors . employing over 560 people davy is an independent company owned by management and staff . 1 company operations are centred on five interrelated business areas asset management capital markets corporate finance private clients and research . asset management business is involved in the development and ongoing management of investment funds . capital markets business offers clients services relating to the irish equity market and european building materials airline and gaming sectors with a parallel offering in the international debt and currency markets . activities are split into institutional equity sales and trading debt & specialist finance money broking and corporate broking . corporate finance business works with domestic and overseas companies to provide a range of integrated corporate finance services . private clients business works with individuals charities and companies to meet their wealth management needs through financial planning investment management and asset selection . research business provides analysis 2 across a range of sectors to help clients make more informed investment decisions . barry dixon is head of research at davy leading an equity research team across multiple sectors and disciplines . chief economist conall maccoille was appointed in 2010 and produces economic and global debt research . as the leading broker in the irish market davy accounted for approximately 40 per cent of all dealings in irish equities on the irish stock exchange in 2009 and is the only domestically based primary dealer in irish government bonds and acts as arranger on most irish corporate bond issues . it acts as broker to 9 of the top 10 companies listed on the irish stock exchange and 15 out of the 24 companies listed on the esm ireland s equivalent of aim . davy is also responsible for circa 70 per cent of funds raised on the irish stock exchange . 3 according to annual accounts published davy had retained profits at the end of 2011 of 110.545 million compared with 124.99 million in the previous year . 4 this 15 million reduction in its accumulated profits is believed to have been the result of the dividend payment to shareholders . when added to last year s profit it indicates a distribution to the 100 plus staff who participated in the management buy out of 25 million . davy closed last year with net assets of 131.1 million . this is described as a strong financial position with its regulatory capital amounting to three times the statutory requirement . 5 the stockbrokers has held talks with aib and bank of ireland to refinance its debts of 140m which are fully performing and are due to be refinanced in 2014 . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 1900s 1.2 2000s 2 sponsorship 2.1 the dublin lectures 2012 the little museum of dublin 2.2 the davy portrait awards 3 controversy 4 references 5 external links history edit 1900s edit james and eugene davy were raised in rathmines 7 and james on the advice of his ucd economics professor decided to enter stockbroking after graduating with a degree in economics while eugene graduated with a law degree . in 1926 a few years after irish independence james davy became a member of the dublin stock exchange and was soon joined by his brother eugene to establish j & e davy with its first office located on westmoreland street . at the time irish stockbroking was dominated by brokers who trained in london and lacked a more specific irish perspective . the bulk of business consisted of buying and selling major british quoted shares for private clients . it was in this environment that j & e davy set about building up a stockbroking business . davy headquarters at dawson st dublin ireland over the next two decades the two brothers gradually built up the company by tapping into the slowly emerging catholic middle class the majority of its competitors being run by protestants . it was also helped by eugene davy s contact s obtained through playing rugby being capped 34 times for ireland acting as manager of the national team and eventually becoming president of the irfu . their respective sons brian and joseph began to take control of the broker in the 1960s . 8 davy handled its first ipo listing on the irish stock exchange in 1964 . in 1988 bank of ireland acquired a majority stake in davy and increased that to 90 % in 1992 . 2000s edit in 2004 davy opened an office in cork providing wealth management and corporate finance services to clients in the munster region . by 2005 davy was responsible for the listings of over 60 % of the companies on the irish stock exchange . in 2006 it became independent again following a management and staff buy out of the company with loans provided by anglo irish bank for 316 million a figure acknowledged to reflect top of market conditions . this year also brought the opening of another regional office for davy located in galway . 9 davy private clients invested in the maldron hotel group through dalata with former jury s chief executive pat mccann and tvc holdings in 2007 . 10 the same year davy opened a dedicated office for northern ireland located in belfast city centre . 11 in august 2010 davy opened its first overseas office in london . davy private clients were significant shareholders in azur pharma who announced their merger in 2012 with us rival jazz pharmaceuticals with a dublin headquarters . 12 davy was the only irish dealer in irish government bonds when the country returned to the market for the first time since 2010 in january 2012 . 13 davy private clients were part of those who secured shares in the social networking giant facebook 14 through their investment in tiger global management s funds . 15 3 months later the stock lost over a quarter of its starting value which led to the wall street journal calling the ipo a fiasco . 16 in 2012 davy research was named ireland s no. 1 brokerage and also the country s no. 1 equity research team in the institutional investor all europe research team 2012 survey . 17 18 in march 2012 following a four month trawl both nationally and overseas ivan murphy was appointed head of davy corporate finance . 19 davy advised the irish government on the sale of the national lottery license 20 operated by the stated owned an post . on 8 march 2012 davy announced acquired bloxham s private client business . 21 the following may davy announced that it had acquired bloxham s asset management business . the deal together with the acquisition of bloxham s private client business added approximately 1.2 billion to the value of assets under management by davy . 22 on 3 october 2012 davy launched davy select an online investment fund supermarket aimed at consumers looking to invest as little as 500 in a pension . the platform which cost davy 10 million to develop was modelled on uk online fund selection sites which captured 20 per cent of the market in five years . davy called for the abolition of exit charges by all pension providers so that consumers can invest on the basis of performance and service and not be restricted by anti consumer lock in agreements . 23 when the irish stock exchange demutalised in april 2014 the broker became its largest shareholder holding 37.5 % of the exchange . 24 sponsorship edit the dublin lectures 2012 the little museum of dublin edit on 1 march 2012 davy announced its sponsorship of the dublin lecture series 2012 at the little museum of dublin situated on stephens green dublin . 25 theses lectures that take place monthly explore the history of dublin and her people . the davy portrait awards edit on 9 june 2008 davy launched the inaugural davy portrait awards in association with arts & business . 26 the main prizes total 19 000 and were awarded by a judging panel of royal hibernian academy president stephen mckenna royal ulster academy president rita duffy and international art critic and writer gemma tipton . the 2010 davy portrait award was won by ian cumberland a northern ireland based artist . the 2008 davy portrait awards was won by joe dunne a portrait artist based in dublin . controversy edit the mahon tribunal established that davy throughout the 1980s and 1990s made a series of payments to the corrupt politician liam lawlor . 27 28 in 1992 davy made a political donation of 5 000 to bertie ahern which ended in his personal account at irish life & permanent plc. 29 30 31 the next year the firm was the subject of an irish stock exchange inquiry over the handling of the floatation of greencore plc the recently privatised irish sugar company . the then taoiseach albert reynolds did not hold back in his criticism you employ professional people to do the job ... it was not done in a professional manner . the managing partner resigned . davy admitted that its representatives in 1999 devised a liechtenstein based tax evasion scheme uncovered by the public service broadcaster rt . 32 33 34 a davy spokesman confirmed that the scheme outlined in the memo was not used . 35 in a high profile 2005 insider dealer case the chief executive of fyffes plc whose shares were the subject of the illicit trading said that he was set up by davy and misled by a presentation to investors by davy on behalf of his company . he also told the high court he believed there was an arrangement between davy and the party found responsible by the courts of insider dealing for the purpose of selling the shares they held in his company . 36 37 two reports of an investigation into the wholly inappropriate sale of perpectual bonds by davy to credit unions failed to involve any of the credit unions affected leaving them in the dark and powerless to add any value to the findings of this investigation . the irish stock exchange who has davy as one of its largest shareholders and the central bank of ireland then declined to give them access to the reports . the chairman of one the credit unions who suffered large losses told his members the failure to publish the reports is to place the complaints process in a shroud of secrecy . such a failure of openness transparency and fairness can only serve to undermine confidence in the complaints process forcing those with grievances into the courts . such a course of action is not in the interest of any of the stakeholders . 38 a statement issued by the irish stock exchange in relation to these reports acknowledged important mitigating factors such as the changed investment demands of credit unions which were seeking higher yield investments fundamentally altered conditions in bond markets and the extensive interaction between davy and its credit union clients . the exchange stated that it was satisfied that davy had taken appropriate remedial action to ensure that internal controls and conduct of business procedures had been rectified to mitigate against any recurrence of the breaches discovered . 39 the broker attracted adverse criticism for continually writing glowing reports about its largest client and former owner bank of ireland by always setting price targets about the current market price . in february 2008 with the price at 9.59 it wrote a low risk balance