Merchant House Group chief executive resigns

Christopher Day has stepped down as chief executive of Merchant House Group.

Day (pictured) will remain on the board of Merchant Capital and has been replaced by James Keane, previous managing director Merchant House Group.

Merchant House Group is the parent to the national IFA Merchant House Financial Services and acquired collapsed national IFA Clarkson Hill.

The acquisition in 2010 has cast a shadow on the troubled group as it most recently posted a pre-tax loss of £1.4 million for the first six months of 2012.

Earlier in the week Merchant House Financial Services announced it is reducing the number of ‘low profit’ advisers in an attempt to make a profit.

Merchant House Group’s chairman James Holmes also revealed that if the company failed to secure further funding it would consider selling parts of the business and delisting from the alternative investment market.

The collapse of Pritchard Stockbrokers in March also affected the group as the it acted as a custodian to Merchant House Group’s structured product subsidiary Merchant Capital which had £8.8 million on account with Pritchard at the end of June 2011.

Earlier this year Merchant House Group said it could not determine whether its clients would lose out as a result of the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) decision to stop Pritchard carrying out business.