The stockbroking group chaired by Michael Spencer, the City’s richest man, is in advanced talks to carve out the UK equities business of Bear Stearns, the stricken American investment bank, The Times has been told.

Numis Securities, in which Mr Spencer holds an 11 per cent stake, is understood to be looking to hire a team of about 25 staff from Bear, headed by Nicolo Brandolini d’Adda, the co-head of European equities.

Although Bear has agreed to be bought by JPMorgan Chase, European equity sales and trading is an area in which there is a high degree of overlap between the two US banks, meaning that the new owner is expected to retain very few of Bear’s stockbrokers. UK equities are thought to account for about one third of Bear’s European stockbroking revenues.

The AIM-listed Numis, which has 180 employees, said recently that it was “determined to grow the business organically in a contracyclical fashion” and would “exploit the volatility in the market to attract staff”.

Talks with Bear staff have been under way for several weeks, but on Friday details flashed up on Numis’s internal messaging system.

Numis is operating without several senior trading staff at present. Craig Leppard, the director of marketmaking, has resigned, while Therese Mobrandt, the head of smaller company sales, is on a six-month sabbatical.

There have also been rumours that ICAP, the FTSE 100 interdealer broker founded by Mr Spencer, is interested in hiring equities staff from Bear. This month, ICAP agreed to pay £135 million for Link Asset and Securities, an equity derivatives broker that has stockbroking operations in London and New York.

However, Mr Spencer’s involvement in any talks is thought to be limited to his nonexecutive role and shareholding in Numis.

Kaupthing, the Icelandic stockbroker, is known to have approached Bear staff, while Jefferies International, of the US, and ABN Amro, now part of Royal Bank of Scotland, are also thought to be interested.

Bear Stearns employs about 140 staff trading European equities in London. JPMorgan has not yet said how many of Bear’s employees it plans to keep. The acquisition will not formally complete until June 1.

Numis, which would not comment on the talks, is due to publish first-half results on May 6.

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