James Fisher and Sons, the marine service group with a string of north-east subsidiaries, is eyeing growth opportunities in Africa after its latest acquisition.
The group announced yesterday it had bought South Africa’s Subtech Group Holdings in a deal potentially worth up to £18million.
Fisher is paying an initial £3.4million in cash and will fork out an additional sum of up to £9.9million based on Subtech achieving profit targets in 2015 and 2017.
There is also potentially a further £4.7million profit share if the African business exceeds its performance targets between 2015 and 2017.
Fisher’s expansion was announced as the group posted a 13% jump in underlying pre-tax profits to £46.9million last year. Revenue was up by 8% at £444.8million.
Subtech is a marine and subsea service provider with operations in Mozambique, Namibia, Angola and Tanzania, as well as South Africa.
Fisher said the business had a strong reputation for reliable and timely completion of marine construction projects, submarine pipeline installation and maintenance, specialised marine engineering projects, diving and salvage.
“They are also well positioned to take advantage of any future expansion of oil and gas activities in east and west Africa,” it added.
Fisher chief executive Nick Henry said: “The acquisition of Subtech broadens our presence in the growing markets around Africa. Subtech’s marine and subsea services are very complementary to our own.”
North-east businesses owned by the Cumbria-based group include the recently acquired National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen.
Fisher also owns Granite City firms RMS pumptools and Scotload, Westhill-based diving and subsea equipment specialist Divex and Oldmeldrum companies Fisher Offshore and ScanTech Offshore.
The firm said it expected some slowing in its offshore oil division after the recent slump in crude prices, particularly as it benefited from some big one-off contracts last year.
But it added: “Our businesses in this division are focused on the production and development sectors rather than on exploration and appraisal.
“Demand in these sectors is driven primarily by the volume of production and is less sensitive to cut-backs in capital investment budgets.
“Our businesses’ geographical focus is mainly on areas of the world where production levels are forecast to grow in the medium term. While we have seen some softening in Norway and Aberdeen, our larger international businesses continue to show resilience.”
Fisher said its specialist technical division had a strong order book, “substantially underpinned” by its nuclear and defence businesses, while its tankship operations had a well-balanced contract base.
It added: “Marine support disappointed in 2014 but we would expect to see recovery in 2015 boosted by its project businesses and a firmer STS (ship to ship services) market.”
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