Gold jewellery and diamond pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond has acquired rival company Herbert & Son for £30.7 million.

Gold jewellery and diamond pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond has acquired rival company Herbert & Son for £30.7 million.

The deal included the acquisition of a freehold property valued at £3 million, which has been sold immediately on completion. The net purchase consideration includes some £4 million of Albemarle & Bond shares.

Albemarle has funded the cash element of the purchase price through debt and a placing of new shares with institutional investors. In addition, US pawnbroker group EZCorp has subscribed for new shares to take its holding in Albemarle & Bond to just less than 30%.

Through organic growth and strategic acquisitions the business has grown steadily and prior to the acquisition of Herbert Brown, Albemarle & Bond was the largest pawnbroker in the UK with 86 stores nationwide.

Charles Nicolson, chairman of Bristol-based Albemarle & Bond, said the deal was: “By far and away the biggest in Albemarle’s 18-year history. It will take the number of pawnbrokers run by the company to 112 – more than double the number five years ago.”

The Burges Salmon team provided financial and nomad advice to the acquirer, led by partner Rupert Weston assisted by Vanessa Joyner, Jonathan Eves and specialists from around the firm. These included property specialists Tom Skinner and Helen Griffiths with Katharine Lewis and Charlotte Dunworth from the firm’s banking team.

Leeds-based Herbert Brown, a jeweller and pawnbroker chain founded in 1840, operates a network of 26 branches in the North of England. The company is run by the sixth generation of the founder’s family, three of whom will stay on as directors. The company made an operating profit of £3.2 million on turnover of £13.7 million in the year ended March 2007.