WH Ireland raises £5.3m to acquire financial advisory

Wealth manager WH Ireland raised gross proceeds of £5.3m on Monday as it looked to acquire independent financial advisory Harpsden Wealth Management.

WH Ireland placed a total of 13.25m new ordinary shares with new and existing investors at a price of 40.0p per shares, subject to shareholder approval, a discount of approximately 3.6% to their closing price on 27 November.

The total consideration of £7.8m will be made up of an initial cash payment of £5.3m, with two further contingent payments of £1.25m each to be made over 24 months.

The AIM-listed group stated it believes the addition of Harpsden, which reported an operating profit of £880,000 in its last financial year, will create "better economics" for both firms by using its established platform to help deliver annual cost synergies of approximately £600,000.

Assuming no further changes, WH Ireland added that the acquisition would increase its pro forma assets under management by around 14% to roughly £2.0bn.

Chief executive Phillip Wale said: "The acquisition of Harpsden is in line with our stated strategy of growing the wealth management division through both organic and inorganic growth.

"The conditional acquisition will add assets to our platform and also strengthen key elements of our proposition for the future. It is financially attractive and our route to full integration is clear."

As of 1305 GMT, WH Ireland shares were up 1.20% at 42.0p.