Shore comes to the capital with custom won from banking crisis

The London-based bank's HQ in the capital, which was officially opened last night, has targeted fund managers with its research and broking services in a market traditionally dominated by troubled investment banks like Merrill Lynch.

"Never in my business career have I seen a better time to pick up market share," said Shore. "We are fishing in a reasonably sized pond and we think that we can become an important player here."

Shore said his group, which he founded in the mid-1980s, entered the recession in a "strong position" thanks to a 18 million fund-raising the group undertook in December 2006

He added: "What the other banks were doing were share buy-backs at the top of the market. So that depleted their equity. Yes, we did have a policy to bolster our balance sheet which wasn't allocated to a specific thing. It turned out to be good timing."

As part of its corporate brok-ing side, Shore acted as broker to Lasswade-based Dobbies Garden Centres and advised on its takeover by Tesco.

Tesco waged a long battle with 29 per cent Dobbies shareholder Sir Tom Hunter in a bid to take it private last year.

David Reid, chairman of Tesco, who was attending a conference at Gleneagles yesterday, spoke at the launch of the Shore office.

Through its asset management arm, Shore Capital also owns Edinburgh's Barcelo Carlton Hotel.

Shore became chairman of the 20-strong hotel property group, Dawnay Hotels – now called Puma Hotels – after its parent company went into receivership.

Shore Capital also acts as adviser and broker to Lees Foods, based in Cambuslang.