Peel Hunt, the stockbroking and investment house founded by two former Morgan Grenfell directors, is planning to make its public debut in the third week of February with a price tag of roughly £80m (E128m). The company, whose new home will be the Alternative Investment Market, wants to expand both the number of people on the ground as well as its institutional client base.

"Floating on AIM gives us much more elasticity to do things,' says co-founder Charlie Peel, adding that the company plans to boost its existing 73 workforce by roughly 10 to 15, including trainees. "We have just hired four to five ex-military people, one of whom has worked on a submarine. If he can sink a battleship, he can be trained as a broker at Peel Hunt.' Peel launched the firm with Chris Hunt in 1989 when Morgan Grenfell pulled out of UK equities. Starting with only seven people, the company is now broker to 75 companies and year-end profits to March should more than double to roughly £7m. Its rivals, Durlacher and Teather & Greenwood, have enjoyed substantial rises in its shares over the year – 29p to 1859p for the former and a tenfold hike to 952p for the latter.