NBI.L Regulatory News (NBI)

8 November 2018

Northbridge Industrial Services Plc

("Northbridge" or the "Group")

Acquisition of Hire Fleet Assets

 and

Notice of General Meeting

Northbridge, the industrial services and rental company, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a complete and complementary oil tool rental fleet based in Asia, as a result of the liquidation of a competitor group. The purchase price is up to a maximum of US$4.0 million (£3.0 million) which represents a substantial discount to the current full replacement cost.

This opportunity has arisen due to the insolvency of the Petroleum Pipe Company Ltd and the liquidation or expected liquidation of some of its group and associated companies.

The fleet to be acquired is based in the Far East and is similar in size and scope to Tasman Oil Tools' own hire fleets in the region. It complements the recently formed JV in Malaysia and will expand Northbridge's oil tools rental activities further into Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The fleet will also be available to other Tasman locations in the Asia Pacific and Middle Eastern regions. The Group already has depots and staff in most of these locations and any additional operating costs will therefore be limited. A proportion of the equipment is on hire to third party customers, including to the Group's own JV in Malaysia.

Completion of the acquisition is conditional upon certain further logistical steps being taken to verify the assets and their certificates of conformity and is expected to take place within the next ten days.

Funding will be provided partly from existing cash resources raised from the Group's equity placing in June 2018, and partly from an increase of £1.5 million in the Group's current three-year loan facilities with RBS, which have recently been extended to May 2021.

The majority of the hire fleet to be acquired was originally purchased between 2014 and 2016, is in good condition, and has been only lightly utilised over recent years. The purchase price payable by the Group of up to a maximum of $4.0m represents a substantial discount to the current full replacement value of circa $10.0m, and will reduce the need for significant further capital expenditure in the Group's oil tools rental business over the next two to three years. The acquisition will also allow Tasman Oil Tools to expand its geographic reach across the region, as the oil industry continues to recover from the downturn.

The benefits that will accrue to Northbridge through this acquisition are expected to include:

· Facilitating the orderly exit of a competitor from the market

· Giving access to a large hire fleet at a significant price discount

· Enabling a substantial increase in broad availability of hire fleet to our customers

· Reducing the costs of cross hire to our JV in Malaysia

· Increasing the expected revenue to our other locations, assuming external customers are retained

· Reducing future capital expenditure at Tasman Oil Tools, without restraining further organic growth

· Reducing the average age of the combined hire fleet

Notice of General Meeting

Following this acquisition, the Directors feel that it is prudent to convene a General Meeting of shareholders to renew the authority to allot equity securities for cash. This was last granted at the AGM in May 2018 and has now been fully utilised. The Directors have no current plans to issue further equity in the immediate future.

The meeting will be held on 29 November at 09:30 at Buchanan Communications, 107 Cheapside, London and a notice of General Meeting will be posted to Shareholders shortly and will also be available from the Group's website.

For further information

About Northbridge:

Northbridge Industrial Services plc hires and sells specialist industrial equipment. With offices or agents in the UK, USA, Dubai, Belgium, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Brazil and South Korea, Northbridge has a global customer base. This includes utility companies, the oil and gas sector, shipping, banking, mining, construction and the public sector. The product range includes loadbanks, transformers and oil tools. Northbridge was admitted to AIM in 2006 since when it has grown by providing a high level of service, responsiveness and flexibility to customers, by the acquisition of companies in the UK, Dubai, Australia, Belgium, New Zealand and Singapore and through investing further in those acquired companies to make them more successful. Northbridge continues to seek suitable businesses for acquisition across the world.