from spectral energy distribution (SED)-fits, spanning three orders of magnitude in stellar mass [@Christensen2014].

To characterise absorption selected galaxies and how they relate to the general galaxy population hinges on the low number of spectroscopically confirmed systems with complementary data in absorption and emission. Here, we attempt to rectify this issue by reporting our results from a long-slit spectroscopic follow-up of candidate hosts at redshifts $z<1$.

The paper is organised as follows: Section \[sec:observations\] describes the sample selection, observations and archival data; Section \[sec:results\] presents our spectroscopic measurements, extracted physical parameters and stellar masses of the absorbing galaxies. In Section \[sec:analysis\] we combine with literature samples to investigate distributions and scaling relations. In Section \[sec:conclusion\] we summarise our conclusions. Throughout this paper we assume a flat $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmology, with and [@Komatsu2011].

Observations and data-reduction {#sec:observations}
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Sample selection {#sec:sampleselection}
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The sample represents the observed subset of targets as part of a programme to provide spectroscopic redshift-confirmation of damped absorber ($\log _{10}\text{N(\textsc{H i})} > 19.5~\text{cm}^{-2}$) counterparts at low ($z_{\text{abs}} < 1$) redshifts (programme ID 095.A-0890(A); PI: L. Christensen). We proposed ten quasar fields including 12 absorbers for long-slit spectroscopic observations with the ESO/VLT FOcal Reducer and 