Cazeonve is one of the City's oldest firms

The bank insisted its sharp fall in profits would not hamper its plans to list on the London stock market - a listing it delayed earlier this year because of uncertain market conditions.

Chairman David Mayhew said economic and political uncertainty had dogged its business in the last 12 months, making investors nervous and companies cautious about expanding.

"This combination of factors made the year ended April 30 2003 the most difficult in our firm in a generation," said Mr Mayhew.

Survivor

Cazenove, at 180 years old, is one of the City's oldest institutions.

With the war out of the way, confidence starting to return and markets starting to improve, we think there is a more benign environment out there Robert Pickering, Cazenove chief executive

But analysts said its emphasis on equities, or shares, and stockbroking had left it more vulnerable to the recent slump in stock markets.

"It is very equity focused," Piers Brown, a banking analyst at Commerzbank, told BBC News Online.

"It is focused on corporate broking and advisory, and stockbroking. But the banks which have done well are those with a gearing towards the fixed income [or bonds] market."

However, Mr Brown said its focus had enabled it to establish a strong reputation and "identify what it's good at".

"It is one of the few brokers left from before the big bang era."

Kinder environment

Cazenove said pretax profits for the year to April were �14m compared with �60m a year ago.

Revenues fell by 30% to �213m.

The bank deferred plans to float in January but chief executive Robert Pickering insisted the listing would go ahead, although did not say when.

"It is still our intention and goal," he told the Reuters news agency.

Cazenove was forced to cut 8% of its staff last year and said it has reduced its overall cost base by 22% in the year.

Mr Pickering remained upbeat that the cuts, together with an improved economic climate, would make for a better year ahead.

"With the war out of the way, confidence starting to return and markets starting to improve, we think there is a more benign environment out there for the kind of businesses that we operate in," he said.