19 July 2024
FRP ADVISORY GROUP
PLC
("FRP",
the "Group" or the "Company")
Acquisition of Lexington Corporate Finance
FRP Advisory Group plc,
a leading national specialist business advisory
firm, is pleased to announce the
acquisition of Lexington Corporate Finance* ("Lexington") for a
consideration of £3 million plus an additional amount for the net
assets acquired on completion of approximately £0.5 million (the
"Acquisition"). The total consideration for the Acquisition is
split between cash of approximately £2.2 million and the issue of
new ordinary shares with a value of approximately £1.3
million.
The Group's first acquisition in
Wales, Lexington is based in Cardiff and provides corporate finance
services to clients both locally and nationwide. One of the firm's
Directors and Founder, Gary Partridge, will join FRP as Partner.
All other members of the Lexington team will also join FRP,
including 14 colleagues.
For the year to 30 April 2024,
Lexington's consolidated unaudited revenues were £2.3 million and
unaudited reported EBITDA was £0.6 million. On an annual basis
going forward it is expected that Lexington's underlying
incremental contribution to FRP will be revenue of c. £2.7 million
and adjusted1 EBITDA of c. £0.7 million; although
within any financial year, there will be timing
volatility depending on when transactions
complete.
The Acquisition is in line with
FRP's strategy to generate sustainable profitable growth by
combining a focus on organic growth with acquisitions that meet the
Group's selective criteria. This approach enables the Group to
increase market share, broaden its service offering to clients and
expand its geographical footprint. The acquisition is the Group's
tenth since IPO in March 2020.
Geoff Rowley, CEO of FRP Advisory said:
"Wales was a
target region for FRP and this acquisition further strengthens our
National Corporate Finance business. The team will go to market
locally as FRP Corporate Finance.
We
are pleased to welcome Gary and the team to FRP; they share our
values and I have no doubt will make a strong contribution, as we
continue to grow."
Gary Partridge, founder of Lexington, said:
"We are delighted to be joining FRP Corporate Finance and are
excited at the opportunities that being part of FRP presents for
our team and our clients. We are all immensely proud of what we
have achieved as a team at Lexington over the past nine years and
being part of FRP will be a launch pad to enable us to offer a
broader range of services to our clients.
We
are confident that by building upon our shared values of quality
and professionalism with FRP, we will accelerate our
growth.".
996,168 new ordinary shares (the
"Consideration Shares") are to be issued as part of the Acquisition
with application to be made to trading on the AIM market of the
London Stock Exchange ("Admission"). The Consideration Shares will
rank pari passu with the Company's existing ordinary shares. It is
expected that Admission of the Consideration Shares will become
effective and that dealings will commence at 8.00 a.m. on 24 July
2024. Following the issue of the Consideration Shares the Company
will have 254,683,760 ordinary shares in issue with each ordinary share carrying the right to one vote and no
ordinary shares held in treasury. The above figure may be
used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the
calculations by which they will determine if they are required to
notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the
share capital of the Company under the Financial Conduct
Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
*Lexington Corporate Finance
comprises Lexington Corporate Finance
Limited, Lexington Corporate Advisors Limited and Cactus Capital
Limited.
1 Adjusted to reflect Partner compensation under the future FRP
model and excluding exceptional costs and share based payment
charges arising from deemed remuneration.
Enquiries:
FRP
Advisory Group plc
Geoff Rowley, CEO
Jeremy French, COO
Gavin Jones, CFO
Enquiries via MHP
Cavendish
Capital Markets Limited (Nominated
Adviser and Joint
Broker)
Katy Birkin/ Stephen Keys/George
Lawson (Corporate Finance)
Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 0500
Investec Bank plc (Joint Broker)
Carlton Nelson / James Rudd
(Corporate Broking)
Tel: +44 (0) 207 597 4000
MHP
Group (Financial Public Relations)
Oliver Hughes
Eleni Menikou
Catherine Chapman
Tel: +44 (0)7711 191518
FRP@mhpgroup.com
Notes to Editors
FRP is a leading national specialist
business advisory firm established in 2010. It offers a range of
advisory services to companies, lenders, investors and other
stakeholders, as well as individuals. These services
include:
§ Restructuring advisory: corporate financial advisory, formal
insolvency appointments, informal restructuring advisory, personal
insolvency and general advice to all stakeholders.
§ Corporate
finance: mergers & acquisitions (M&A), strategic advisory
and valuations, financial due diligence, capital raising, special
situations M&A and partial exits.
§ Debt
advisory: raising and refinancing debt, debt amendments and
extensions, restructuring debt, asset based lending and corporate
and leveraged debt advisory.
§ Forensic
services: forensic investigations, compliance and risk advisory,
dispute services and forensic technology.
§ Financial
advisory: transaction services including financial due diligence,
lender services, financial modelling, valuations, pensions and
company-side advisory services.