AFH managed to raise £10m through a new share placing in less than 24 hours.
Yesterday (20 March) morning the company announced that it was seeking to raise money towards buying more financial advice businesses.
The Worcestershire-based company has now announced it has already raised £10m through the sale of 5.71m shares priced at £1.75 each.
In order to satisfy demand, the company’s chief executive Alan Hudson agreed to sell 1m of his own shares.
He said: “The oversubscription of the placing is in our view a validation of both the company’s progress to date and strategy.
“We are grateful for the support of both existing and new investors in the placing which will enable the company to execute on its attractive pipeline of acquisitions.”
The placing is conditional on the approval of shareholders at a general meeting, scheduled for 10 April.
During 2016 AFH only made two acquisitions – East Anglian firm CRS Financial Planning and Lancashire-based David Rushton Associates.
Mr Hudson said the lack of activity was due to his desire to focus on “shareholder value”.
But since October – the start of AFH’s accounting year – the consolidator has made a total of five acquisitions.
In its most recent results, published in January, AFH posted profits of £1.7m for 2016, increased by 43 per cent on the previous year, and revealed it had set aside £6.7m for acquisitions.
damian.fantato@ft.com
