The firm headed by Huddersfield Giants chairman Ken Davy is set to float on the London Stock Exchange in a move set to net more than £34m for Mr Davy and fellow shareholders.

SimplyBiz, which Mr Davy founded in 2002, has applied for its shares to be traded on the specialist AIM market for small and growing firms.

The company, which provides compliance and business services to financial advisers and marketing and promotion services to financial institutions, will have a market capitalisation of £130m when it begins trading on AIM on April 4.

SimplyBiz said it had conditionally raised £30m by placing more than 17m new shares with institutional investors and will raise £34.6m for selling shareholders by placing another 20m existing shares at 170p per share. In total, 49.9% of shares will be in public hands.

SimplyBiz logo

Mr Davy, 76, who is non-executive chairman and the largest shareholder of SimplyBiz with more than 23m shares, is a well-known figure in the financial services sector.

In 1983, he created the IFA network concept for financial advisers, taking DBS Financial Management plc from start-up to trading on AIM and later to a full stock-market listing in 1997 before its sale in 2001.

As well as being chairman of the Giants, he has an honorary doctorate in business administration from the University of Huddersfield where he is visiting professor of entrepreneurship.

He is life president of Huddersfield Town, having been chairman of the club from 2003 to 2010 and has won numerous awards, including Examiner Business Personality of the Year.

SimplyBiz joint chief executive Matt Timmins, 39, said the flotation marked “the next stage in our growth story, building on our long, profitable track record.”

He said the business had evolved to become the UK’s leading provider of compliance and business services to directly authorised financial advisers. It was well-placed to improve profitability and continue delivering for its shareholders following the share placing.

Joint chief executive Neil Stevens, 40, said the flotation would further raise the profile of the group “providing additional momentum to our growth strategy and enabling us to put in place additional incentive schemes for our staff.”

He added: “We will remain focused on delivering high quality solutions for our customers and continuing to support them in all aspects of running a compliant and successful advice business.

“Our new institutional shareholders will deliver long-term capital that will enable us to develop the group in the years ahead. We welcome them on board and look forward to sharing our growth journey together.”

John Smith's Stadium, where SimplyBiz is based.

SimplyBiz, based at the John Smith’s Stadium, posted total revenues of £44.1m in 2017 – up by 8% on the previous year.

Its intermediary services division provides compliance and regulation services to independent financial advisers (IFAs), mortgage advisers, workplace consultants and consumer credit brokers. Its 3,400 member firms pay a monthly subscription and include 2,200 IFA member firms handling £40bn of assets. The division posted revenues of £22.1m in 2017.

The firm’s distribution channels division provides marketing and promotion services to more than 135 financial institutions, including asset managers, life assurance and pension companies, mortgage lenders, general insurance providers and credit lenders. It posted revenues of £21.9m last year.