MJ Hudson, the law firm-cum-asset management consultancy, has raised £31.4m (before expenses) from institutional investors after floating on the junior market of the London Stock Exchange. The income includes £29.3m of new money for the company, after 51.4m newly created shares were bought at a placing price of 57p. 

The admission to AIM values the company at £97.6m. 

MJ Hudson said it intends to use the new funds to support its growth plans, which include developing and enhancing its business outsourcing, advisory and data & analytics divisions, and making further acquisitions. 

Meanwhile, AIM-listed pioneer Gateley claims to have become one of the biggest human resources consultancy businesses in the UK after its latest acquisition. 

Gateley announced on Friday it had purchased the privately held T-three Group for a total of £3.4m. The company offers services and products to help businesses develop senior staff and effect cultural change. 

Based near Cambridge, T-three employs 35 staff and its client base includes multinational companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and Samsung, public sector organisations including the BBC, and SMEs in the UK and worldwide. It will continue to trade under its existing name. 

Gateley will initially pay £3.17m in cash and shares. A further £900,000 will be paid based on financial performance over the next two years. 

The acquisition complements the purchase of HR consultancy Kiddy & Partners in July 2018. Gateley says it is now ‘one of the largest specialist human capital consultancy businesses in the UK’. 

Gateley chief executive Michael Ward said: ‘Kiddy has made excellent progress as part of Gateley and demonstrated growth of almost 37% ahead of our original expectations, generating £3m of fees since acquisition.  

‘The opportunity to leverage the strengths of both T-three and Kiddy in the human capital space is a really exciting one for us all, particularly given the skills and experience within their teams and the calibre of clients both businesses have in their portfolios.’ 

Gateley Holdings plc shares rose from from 181p to 188p on the announcement. 

MJ Hudson Group shares slipped 0.5p this morning to 58.5p.