A company owned by the investment firm Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) is plotting a raid on the data analytics arm of MJ Hudson, the stricken London-listed asset management services provider.
Sky News understands that With Intelligence is among the parties which tabled offers this week for parts of MJ Hudson, which has been forced to suspend its shares amid a probe into its accounts.
With Intelligence, which is itself being put up for sale by ICG, specialises in providing data-led insights into the asset management sector.
It was unclear on Thursday what price it might be prepared to pay for the MJ Hudson unit.
MJ Hudson confirmed in a statement last month that it had “received a number of inbound indications of interest for certain divisions of the business and has engaged advisers Alvarez & Marsal to look at a potential sale of one or a number of its business lines”.
The company has parachuted in an interim finance chief following the announcement that it had suspended Peter Connell, the former chief financial officer.
MJ Hudson, which floated on London’s junior stock market on the day of the 2019 general election, is an asset management consultancy which advises on issues such as sustainability and helping clients to benchmark themselves against their competitors.
In December, it announced that its shares were being suspended after being made “aware of…issues, including in relation to the reporting of historical trading of the business in relation to [fiscal year] 2022, the full impact of which is unclear”.
The company had already warned investors in October that it was in discussions with its auditors about adjustments to its full-year figures.
It added more recently that it had also appointed an external accounting advisers to assist it “in achieving the necessary clarity to enable the year end FY 2022 reporting to be completed”.
MJ Hudson’s shares were suspended at 13.13p, leaving it with a market value of just £26.7m – down two-thirds on a year earlier.
ICG declined to comment.
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