Marlowe acquires three businesses in HR and employment law space

Software and services firm Marlowe said on Tuesday that it had acquired three businesses in the HR and Employment Law compliance space.

Marlowe said YouManage, ESP and HR Services Partnership will be integrated into its existing HR, Employment Law and Safety platform Ellis Whittam, reporting as part of Marlowe's Governance, Risk and Compliance division.

The AIM-listed firm said YouManage was acquired for £1.25m, while ESP was snapped up for £3.2m and HRSP was bought out for £700,000, with all three acquisitions to be funded from Marlowe's existing cash resources.

Chief executive Alex Dacre said: "These acquisitions are consistent with the three-year strategy recently announced at Marlowe's Capital Markets Day to deepen and broaden our presence in core markets from selective acquisitions.

"Additionally, the YouManage software advances our Digital software strategy and will become the group's HR software platform offering significant synergies with Ellis Whittam, which lacked a proprietary platform to implement across its client base before today's deal."

As of 1025 GMT, Marlowe shares were up 2.05% at 696.0p.