Gresham House to buy investment fund manager FIM Services for up to £25m

AIM-listed alternative asset manager Gresham House has announced the acquisition of alternative investment fund manager FIM Services for up to £25m on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

The company, which is making the acquisition through its wholly-owned subsidiary Gresham House Holdings, plans to fund the upfront consideration through a placing to raise around £15m.

The placing will be priced at 410p a share and represents around 19.7% of the company's issued share capital. Proceeds from the placing, in addition to existing cash resources, will be used to satisfy the cash consideration and restructuring costs and fees, and for general corporate purposes.

On completion, Gresham will pay an initial consideration of £21m comprising £11.2m in cash and £9.8m in loan notes. A further deferred consideration of up to £4m will be payable, subject to the satisfaction of certain performance targets being met over a two-year period post completion.

Upon completion of the deal, Gresham House's assets under management will be over £1.5bn across five specialist alternative investment strategies: forestry, new energy, UK housing and infrastructure, private assets and strategic public equity.

Chief executive officer Anthony Dalwood said: "The acquisition of FIM will allow Gresham House to achieve scale and establish a market leading position as an investor in UK commercial forestry whilst also enhancing the Gresham House New Energy division.

"Over the last three years, we have rapidly established Gresham House as a platform for growth for specialist asset management teams. The strategic rationale, alongside the potential financial returns, are clear and exciting for Gresham House shareholders."

At 1250 BST, the shares were up 3.1% to 417.50p.