The soon-to-be owners of Panmure Gordon hope new business lines will smooth out the earnings volatility of recent years - a task that won't be unfamiliar to their pick for the City stockbroker’s next chief executive.

The London-listed firm is being taken over by Atlas Merchant Capital, an investment firm controlled by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, and QInvest, a Qatari investment bank. The buyers announced on April 12 that when the deal is done, Patric Johnson, Panmure Gordon’s CEO for a little more than a year, will be replaced by Ian Axe, a former Barclays executive who was also group CEO of LCH.Clearnet.