Hot group, the listed recruitment company, has continued on its acquisition quest and bought the teacher recruitment agency, ITN for £5.6m.

Started by ex-teachers Mike Clark, Geoff Perkins and Nick Ward, the firm specialises in placing temporary teachers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada in UK schools.

This is the fourth acquisition this year for Hot Group, which has already bought online recruitment services firm PlanetRecruit for £3m and the traditional recruiter Parkside for £5.5m.

It has also bought Buzz Recruitment, which specialises in recruiting in the leisure, retail and corporate sales markets and its temps division, Buzztempz, for a total of £380,000.

These acquisitions have been funded by a share offer that raised £10.2m.

Commenting on the new acquisition, chairman Tony Reeves said: "The education is a major growth area, which offers exciting opportunities for the group."