Halma Regulatory News (HLMA)

Halma plc

ACQUISITION OF MINI-CAM ENTERPRISES LIMITED AND SUBSIDIARIES

Halma, the leading safety, health and environmental technology group, today announces an acquisition within the Group's Environmental & Analysis sector.

Halma completed the acquisition of Mini-Cam Enterprises Limited ("Mini-Cam") on 31 October 2017 from Lloyds Development Capital ("LDC") and a group of private shareholders.

Mini-Cam, headquartered in Lancashire UK, specialises in pipeline inspection solutions for waste water systems in the UK and internationally. Mini-Cam's remotely-operated products and software enable utilities to identify leakages, blockages and potential ingress in waste water networks, thereby helping them to improve customer service levels and compliance with environmental regulations.

The initial cash consideration is £62.0 million on a cash- and debt-free basis. Earn-out consideration, capped at £23.1 million, is payable in cash based on annualised profit growth up to the end of March 2020.

Mini-Cam's consolidated audited accounts for the year ended 31 January 2017 show Adjusted EBIT of £5.2 million under Halma reporting (see note 4).

The management team of Mini-Cam will continue to operate the business out of its current locations.

The acquisition, which is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing, was funded from Halma's existing cash and debt facilities.

Andrew Williams, Halma's Chief Executive, commented:

"Mini-Cam is a great fit with the water technologies we have already within our Environmental & Analysis sector and provides new opportunities for commercial and technical collaboration. It is meeting the growing need from utilities for monitoring sewage and waste water networks, as aging infrastructure and increasing amounts of waste result in customer service challenges and potential non-compliance with environmental regulations. We are looking forward to working with Mini-Cam's management team to continue to build the business in the UK and internationally, as well as potentially adding new technologies to the current product offering."

For further information please contact:

Halma plc

Tel: +44 (0) 1494 721111

Andrew Williams, Chief Executive

Kevin Thompson, Finance Director

MHP Communications

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3128 8100

Rachel Hirst/Andrew Jaques

Notes

1. Halma buys successful businesses in safety, health and environmental markets and helps them grow further through investment targeted towards increasing innovation, management development and international expansion. In the past 10 years Halma has spent approximately £700 million acquiring nearly 30 businesses with deal sizes ranging from £1 million up to £100 million. (www.halma.com)

2. Mini-Cam specialises in the manufacture and global distribution of Industry renowned pipeline inspection solutions, to visually monitor waste water systems and create standards-compliant inspection data. Customers use Mini-Cam's robust and reliable Camera Crawler and Push Camera systems to ensure structural integrity of pipeline networks through routine, and emergency, inspection and detection of flaws and obstructions. The technologically advanced, feature rich, modular systems are built to perform in challenging environments including oil, gas, petrochemical and engineering sectors.

Headquartered in Golborne, Lancashire UK with a purpose-built manufacturing facility in Austria, the company has over 50 employees and a worldwide network of 35 dealers. Mini-Cam is perfectly positioned to continue its structured research, development and manufacture of new technologies to support the growing need for inspection of the aging infrastructure of waste water networks, which are becoming increasingly prone to leaking and blockage.

Further information on Mini-Cam can be found on its website www.minicam.co.uk

3. In the UK, fines for illegal sewage discharges have soared since changes to sentencing guidelines in 2014; earlier this year, a major utility was fined £20m in a case prosecuted by the Environment Agency. 

The use of sanitation networks globally has increased over the last 20 years, but there are still significant gains to be made. Since 1990, 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation, while 2.4 billion people remain without access to proper sanitation systems. Lack of access to safe water and sanitation systems are among the leading causes of child mortality and morbidity.

4. Adjusted Earnings Before Interest & Taxation (EBIT) excludes the amortisation of acquired intangible assets and non-recurring fees.

5. This statement is not intended to constitute a profit forecast for the current financial period or for any future period. In addition, this statement should not be taken to mean that the earnings per share of Halma will necessarily match or exceed the historic reported earnings per share of Halma.

6. Halma intends to announce its half year results on 21 November 2017.