Debts.co.uk, Chesterfield-based adviser on personal debt management, has agreed to buy private Aberdeen-based Adie Financial Solutions for around £500,000 in cash and shares and has accompanied this move with a £1.63 million placing at 105p, handled by broker Seymour Pierce. This is the second recent acquisition by the AIM-quoted company, which bought another company, Neville Eckley, in October.

Debts.co.uk made £1.3 million pre-tax in the six months to January. Paul Carter, the company’s chief executive officer, says the purchase of Adie, which earned £234,212 before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation last year on £873,000 sales, ‘will provide a great opportunity for the group to develop a presence in Scotland through Adie’s established client base’.

This sector – in particular handling individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) – has been out of favour with the stockmarket for some time, especially with interest rates and bad debts on the rise, and Debts.co.uk’s shares have slumped from a 219.5p high to 98.5p, 6.5p below the placing price. But Carter insists ‘trading to date remains up to expectations’.

Despite ‘the specific problems of some of our competitors’, he stresses ‘we have not experienced any downturn in this area. Our first quarter showed an increase of 17.2 per cent in IVAs concluded’ and ‘our fee levels were firm’.