Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) has acquired the remaining 20% of the entire issued share capital of First Mortgage Direct Limited for a consideration of £9.35m, following its acquisition of 80% the business on 2nd July 2019.
Under the terms of the put and call option agreement, the company exercised its discretion to satisfy 25% of the consideration in cash (£2.34m) and 75% of the consideration (£7.01m) by the issue of new ordinary shares.
Application has been made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM (admission).
It is expected that admission will become effective and trading will commence at 8:00am on 3rd June 2024.
First Mortgage made a profit before tax of £5.4m in the year ended 31st December 2023, and had net assets of £9.3m as at 31st December 2023.Â
Ian McGrail will continue to be managing director of First Mortgage.
Ben Thompson, deputy CEO at MAB, said: “Acquiring an 80% shareholding in First Mortgage in 2019 was strategically important to MAB at the time, enabling us to grow our expertise in specific market specialisms such as new build, and accelerate our overall market share as a Group.
“Despite the various challenges we all faced together over the last five years, the business has grown substantially in size and in profitability and has become even more important to MAB.
“We are therefore really pleased to have now acquired the final 20% shareholding from Ian McGrail.
“Importantly, we are delighted that Ian has decided to commit to stay on as managing director and take First Mortgage further over the coming years, having done such an excellent job of the last five, and indeed the years prior to that.”
