Shareholders have unanimously supported Tavistock Investments’ proposed acquisition of Standard Financial Group, the holding company of advice network Financial Limited, following the initial announcement last month.
Today’s general meeting saw all resolutions passed unanimously.
In addition to the £2.7m raised by the company to provide additional regulatory and working capital through a placing and subscription, the directors reported that an additional £355,856 was raised from existing shareholders pursuant to the open offer which closed yesterday (11 February).
Following admission of the new ordinary shares, Tavistock’s total issued and voting share capital will comprise 274,615,305 shares, which will be admitted to trading on Aim from tomorrow (13 February).
This will comprise of 135,000,000 new ordinary shares from the placing and subscription and 17,792,809 new ordinary shares from the open offer.
FTAdviser previously reported that Financial Ltd was seeking investment to secure the business, after posting post-tax losses of over £120,481 for the year ending March 2014, up from a loss of £28,193 in the previous year.
Difficult trading conditions post-RDR were exacerbated by a Financial Conduct Authority ban on recruitment brought in last July - and only lifting in November - for failures on control of appointed representatives, with fines of over £13m only escaped due to having insufficient funds.
Unlike a plummeting share price on the initial announcement, Tavistock saw its stock rise by 0.63 per cent to 2.39 pence on today’s news.
However it is still 54.54 per cent down on the year. Previously, Brian Raven, the group’s chief executive, told FTAdviser the share price plunge was an understandable market reaction to the firm trying to raise a “substantial amount of money at a substantial discount”.
Mr Raven said today that having received change in control approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, the focus now is on integrating operations.
“Tavistock has a robust and scalable business model, with a retirement guarantee and investment proposition that are both attracting considerable interest. We now operate the seventh largest advisory network in the country with over £3bn under advice and we are well-funded to continue our expansion.”
peter.walker@ft.com
