Marlowe announces £20m placing to support growth strategy

Support services group Marlowe has announced a placing to raise around £20m to support its acquisition-led growth strategy.

The AIM-listed company said it will raise the cash in a placing of 4.21m new ordinary shares at 475p each to new and existing investors. The placing was oversubscribed and the issue price represents a discount of around 9.1% to the closing mid-market price of 522.5p on Thursday.

Chief executive Alex Dacre said: "The fragmented service sectors that our businesses occupy offer significant opportunities for further growth through acquisition. The proceeds from this £20m placing will provide us with additional resources to continue strengthening our market share across the regulated service sectors on which we are focused."

At 1020 BST, the shares were up 0.8% to 526.60p.