Britain’s MJ Hudson to sell remaining operating units in 40 mln pound deal

Updates with details of deal, background on audit issues

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) – Britain’s MJ Hudson MJH.L said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell its data & analytics, and business outsourcing units for 40 million pounds ($49.70 million) to financial services provider Apex Group.

The deal to sell the remaining operating units of MJ Hudson, a consulting services provider to asset managers, comes after months of audit woes, during which the company suspended its CFO Peter Connell in December and its CEO Matthew Hudson resigned after auditor EY quit over ‘lost trust’ in February.

The company has delayed publishing its 2022 annual report and accounts, and its interim results due to the ongoing audit after discrepancies in its finances were found last year.

MJ Hudson plans to seek shareholder approval for the deal on May 3, it said, adding, it would not have sufficient funds to continue operations if the deal failed.

A majority of the consideration from the sale will be used to repay debt owed to its senior lender Santander UK, MJ Hudson said but it was highly unlikely that there would be any money left for shareholders after paying all creditors and costs, it added.

MJ Hudson’s management company services in Ireland and Luxembourg will add about 80 billion euros ($87 billion) of assets under management to Apex Group’s existing European management company offering, Apex Group said in a separate statement.

MJ Hudson said it intends to give notice to Britain’s Solicitors Regulation Authority for the proposed closure of its legal business.

It had not made long-term decisions about the company, it added

The company, whose shares have been suspended from trading since December, also said it was seeking shareholders’ approval to cancel the admission of its ordinary shares in a London Stock Exchange sub-market and had notified the exchange of the proposed cancellation.

($1 = 0.9184 euros)

($1 = 0.8048 pounds)

(Reporting by Huw Jones in London, Chandini Monnappa and Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)

((Chandini.M@thomsonreuters.com; +918061822697;))

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