Law firm swoops for infrastructure and regeneration specialist
Birmingham headquartered law firm Gateley has acquired one of the UK’s leading land referencing consultancies which advises on some of the country’s largest infrastructure and regeneration projects.
Gateley will acquire the entire issued share capital of Persona Associates for a net cash-free debt-free normalised working capital consideration of £250,000, of which £153,728.80 will be satisfied on completion by the issue of 94,312 ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the capital of Gateley at a price of 163 pence per ordinary share.
Persona provides expertise on statutory processes relating to long-term infrastructure projects involving compulsory purchase orders, development consent orders and transport and works act orders.
Gateley CEO Michael Ward said: “We are delighted to welcome the Persona team on board. Persona and Gateley Hamer have worked together on a number of long-term projects in recent years and we know there are many synergies that will benefit clients. This is an exciting opportunity for the group and sits within the diversification part of our strategy to establish complementary business services that support the legal side of our business.
“We believe there is also an opportunity for Persona to develop within our property group in the same way that Gateley Hamer has done in the last three years and we look forward to supporting their future development in line with our growth plans.”
Gateley said it expects the acquisition to be immediately earnings enhancing and will enable its to deliver additional value added land and property information via an end-to-end service for the country’s largest infrastructure, regeneration and housing projects.
“The addition of the Persona team will also deliver efficiencies to the production of title reports for housebuilders and commercial developers and enable plans to be produced at an earlier stage in order to support Gateley Legal’s residential development and real estate teams,” the firm said.
