James Fisher and Sons Regulatory News (FSJ)

7 Feb 2008 07:00

Fisher (James) & Sons PLC07 February 2008 Thursday 7 February 2008 JAMES FISHER ACQUIRES JCM SCOTLOAD FOR £2.985M James Fisher and Sons plc ('James Fisher' or FSJ.L), the leading marine servicecompany, announces the acquisition of the privately owned UK based JCM Scotloadfor £2,985,000 cash. JCM Scotload is estimated to have a minimum of £1.0million of free cash in the company at completion. The acquisition is beingfunded from existing resources. JCM Scotload designs and manufactures a range of load measurement instrumentsfor the offshore oil industry. The company was founded in 1994 to provide repairand calibration services for load measurement and has since developed a range ofproducts which are sold and rented to the industry, these include tensile,compressive and shackle load cells. The company, which has 11 employees, isbased in Aberdeen and sells its products to the major oil production centresworldwide. The company will become a subsidiary of Strainstall Group Limited,which also designs and supplies monitoring and load measurement systems and hasmany clients in common. JCM Scotload's unaudited pre tax profits for the year ended 31 March 2007 were£325,000. The two founders of the business, Jim Murray and Mark Jones willremain with the company. Tim Harris, Chairman of James Fisher, said: "This new acquisition complements the activities of Strainstall providing awider range of standardised product. The company has grown through its goodreputation in the industry. I am delighted Jim Murray and Mark Jones have agreedto join us." Jim Murray, Managing Director of JCM Scotload said: "We have reached the stage when being part of a larger group will help us expandour already successful business. I look forward to joining forces withStrainstall and the James Fisher Group." EC Hambro Rabben & Partners Ltd acted as corporate finance advisors to JamesFisher. For further information, please contact: James Fisher and Sons plc Tim Harris Chairman 020 7614 9508www.james-fisher.co.uk Strainstall Group Limited Chris Caws Managing Director 01983 203 601www.strainstall.com JCM Scotload Limited Jim Murray Managing Director 01224 877 007www.jcmscotload.com EC Hambro Rabben & Partners Peter Donald 020 7355 4100www.echambrorabben.co.uk Petter Hagland Financial Dynamics Richard Mountain 020 7269 7121 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange