Ince set to raise £16m to fuel growth


Biles: On track to deliver outstanding growth

Listed law firm Ince Group raised £12m through a placing today – with a further £4m in the pipeline – in a bid to support growth and its balance sheet, but saw its share price crash as a result.

The shares were placed with existing and new institutional shareholders at an issue price of 45p. Having closed yesterday at 89p, the price collapsed to that level this morning, and at the time of writing was 47.5p.

The firm also proposes to raise up to £2m from a share offer to qualifying shareholders, and another £2m with an offer to qualifying staff.

The move comes a year after it raised £11.5m from a share placing.

Ince told the market that the proceeds would be used to reduce the amount of the group’s drawn-down working capital facility – leaving it “to accommodate peaks in working capital needs” – and for general working capital purposes as expansion requires, “which will leave the group again with a strong balance sheet”.

“In particular, the group wishes to continue with its programme of partner recruitment, especially in the overseas offices to bolster and enhance their existing practices. Opportunities to make lateral and team hires are coming to the group.”

Chief executive Adrian Biles said: “This marks the completion of the Ince merger. The Ince transaction was in two parts: the UK business was acquired in December 2018, and the overseas offices joined the Group in April 2019.

“The closer overseas integration has completed the establishment of the platform as an international brand, with a world-class offering.”

Mr Biles said the new money would ensure Ince “can continue to capitalise on market opportunities, including new lateral hires”, saying the group was “on track to deliver outstanding growth”.

“I am very pleased that so many of our existing investors and some new institutional shareholders have supported this fundraise albeit at a significant discount to the market price of the company’s shares, which is an unfortunate feature of the current market conditions.”

The Ince share price has been on a downward trend during an at-times difficult year following what was then Gordon Dadds Group’s acquisition of Ince & Co. It began 2019 on 172.5p but finished it a third lower on 115.8p.

The placing is conditional upon the approval of shareholders at a general meeting next month.

Meanwhile, Slater & Gordon has increased its funding facility with VFS Legal Funding by £10m to £30m. It said the backing would help it to “accelerate” growth plans and investment in technology, with an eye to this year’s whiplash reforms.




Leave a Comment

By clicking Submit you consent to Legal Futures storing your personal data and confirm you have read our Privacy Policy and section 5 of our Terms & Conditions which deals with user-generated content. All comments will be moderated before posting.

Required fields are marked *
Email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Blog


GEO – the impact of AI on digital marketing for law firms

GEO represents the biggest change in online business generation that I can remember. You cannot afford to stick with the same old engine optimisation techniques.


What the law can learn from fintech’s onboarding revolution

Client onboarding has always been slow. It’s not just about the paperwork and manual workflows; it’s also about those long AML checks and verifications.


Civil enforcement – progress at last with CJC report

‘When do I get my money?’ is a question that litigators acting for successful parties are used to fielding. The value of judgments is of course in the recovery made.


Loading animation