Begbies Traynor raises £22m to help fund David Rubin acquisition

(Sharecast News) - Financial advisory and property services consulting company Begbies Traynor has raised £22m, it announced on Friday, to help fund its acquisition of David Rubin & Partners.
The AIM-traded firm said it had issued 9,478,673 vendor placing shares, 9,478,673 sash placing shares and 1,895,735 offer shares at a price of 105.5p each.

It had announced the accelerated bookbuild and the offer for subscription via PrimaryBid on Thursday morning.

The fundraise was "significantly" oversubscribed, its board said.

Begbies Traynor said it would use the net proceeds to fund an existing pipeline of opportunities, as well as for general corporate purposes.

It also announced its largest acquisition to date on Thursday, of London and Guernsey-based insolvency practice David Rubin & Partners.

Maximum consideration for that acquisition would be £25m on a cash-free and debt-free basis, with normalised working capital, made up of initial consideration of £12m funded through the vendor placing and the issue of new shares.

Deferred consideration and earn out payments could be up to £13m in cash, subject to the financial performance of the acquired business over a period of up to five years.

The company said it had a strategy to increase the scale and quality of the business through value-accretive acquisitions.

It said the fundraise shares would represent 16.3% of its existing issued ordinary share capital, and 13.8% of the enlarged share capital after the fundraise.

"We are delighted that both existing and many new investors participated in the fundraise, which was significantly oversubscribed," said executive chairman Ric Traynor.

"Our recent acquisitions and organic investments position us well to deliver material growth in our 2022 financial year."

At 1605 GMT, shares in Begbies Traynor were up 8.17% at 112.5p.