Gateley back on acquisition trail with eleventh deal since IPO

Gateley, the  legal and professional services group, has made its eleventh acquisition since its 2015 IPO, swooping for a firm of patent and trade mark attorneys.

The firm has acquired Adamson Jones in a deal worth £2.5m.

Adamson Jones was founded in 2000. It specialises in the fields of biotechnology, engineering, pharmaceuticals and software. The business acts for clients from large multinational and national organisations, to universities and SMEs.

The Adamson Jones team has 25 staff headed by directors Simon Cooper and Nicholas Ferrar and the business has offices in Nottingham, Leicester and London.

Both directors will continue to work as part of the management team post acquisition.  In the year to then end of March 2021, Adamson Jones generated revenue of around £3.6m.

Rod Waldie, chief executive of Gateley, said: “Gateley Legal already has an existing and strong relationship with Adamson Jones with whom we have worked previously to support clients on their patent and trade mark applications and protection requirements.  We see great growth opportunities in our combined offering, with a focus on assisting our clients in protecting and commercialising their IP assets being a key element of the ongoing development of our Business Services Platform.

“The [deal] means that the group has now acquired consultancy businesses, complementary to its legal services, on all four platforms.  This strategy continues to differentiate Gateley, to widen our breadth of services and enhance our appeal to both existing and potential clients. We are actively appraising opportunities to further grow each platform both organically and by acquisition.”