Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping said yesterday it had agreed to sell its marine controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) data-acquisition business.
The buyer is a new joint-venture company owned by substantial Norwegian shareholders Sector Asset Management (Sector) and Euro Trans Skips (ETS).
The Aim-listed company will now concentrate on developing and marketing its advanced geophysical processing and interpretation consulting services, conducted principally through subsidiary Rock Solid Images.
The consideration for sale of the loss-making business is £96,000.
No job losses are expected as a result of the deal, and 30 staff will transfer with the marine business, which will remain based in Aberdeen.
It has 18 offshore staff, 10 in Aberdeen and two in Kuala Lumpur.
Sector and ETS have also agreed to invest £2million in Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping (the remaining group) by subscribing for 20million new ordinary shares at 10p a share, a premium of 21.2% to Tuesday’s closing price.
If shareholder consent is given to the disposal and placing, Sector and ETS and their affiliates will own 55.97% of the share capital of the remaining OHM group, which will have 42 staff, nine in Aberdeen, 32 in Houston and one in Kuala Lumpur.
Under an agreement to continue to provide a seamless integrated CSEM service to the oil industry, the remaining group will receive a £1.92million prepayment for the provision of Wise interpretation services to the offloaded business.
Wise (well integration with seismic and electromagnetics) services are related to the advanced combination of CSEM data and seismic information to provide analysis of rock and fluid properties.