Listed firm Gateley plc confirmed today that a new share placing aimed at broadening its base of investors raised around £6m. 

The company announced on Friday that it intended to sell up to 4m existing ordinary shares at a price of not less than 150p. This represented around 3.6% of the company's issued share capital. 

The decision was taken to ‘satisfy market demand and broaden the institutional investor base’, the company said.

On Gateley’s admission to the AIM stock market in 2015, former partners held 70% of the share capital. Five-year lock-in agreements allowed them to dispose of up to 10% of their interest in any 12-month period after the first anniversary of admission. Friday's 'accelerated bookbuild' was created to meet demand after recent interest from potential investors, the company said. 

An announcement later on Friday confirmed the successful placing of the shares. 

Gateley share price dropped 10% on Friday to 154p. Upon trading opening this morning, a further penny was shaved from the share value. 

Last month Gateley reported half-year pre-tax profits up 18.6% to £5m on turnover up 20.1% to £46.4m. The business, which made two acquisitions in the period, said organic growth accounted for half the increase in turnover in the six months to 31 October. 

Gateley was the first existing UK law firm to go public in its own right, with a handful of firms opting to take the same route since then. 

One such firm, Gordon Dadds, made its own funding call last month, raising around £10m through an accelerated bookbuild to give the company financial flexibility to take ‘swift advantage’ of opportunities in the legal and professional services sectors. Similarly to Gateley, the bookbuild closed within hours of opening, with demand reported to be oversubscribed.