ALPHA Financial Markets Consulting (FMC), the consultant to the asset and wealth management industry which was formerly part of Edinburgh investment house Dunedin, has raised £125.4 million through its stock market flotation.
Shares in Alpha FMC, whose clients include Standard Life Aberdeen and Artemis, debuted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) yesterday just two weeks after it set out the terms of its initial public offering (IPO). It said then that it hoped to raise around £150m with the offer.
The move to list the firm on London’s junior market comes less than two years after Dunedin acquired the business from Baird Capital, the private equity arm of Robert W Baird & Co which had owned Alpha since October 2013. Alpha was valued at £28m when Baird took over, but when it moved to Dunedin in February 2016 that valuation had risen to around £80m.
Speaking ahead of the float, Alpha's Scottish chief executive Euan Fraser said the intention was to put 80 per cent of the shares in the business in "free float" to make the offer more attractive to shareholders.
Alpha has achieved strong growth in the last six years, driven by strong market demand for its products. With an office in Edinburgh, which opened earlier this year, it employs more than 250 people.
Mr Fraser said yesterday: “We are very confident that being a public company will best suit our future growth objectives and allow us to build on the fabulous culture we have created at Alpha."
Shares in Alpha, which floated at 160p per share, closed at 170p last night.
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