NBI.L Regulatory News (NBI)

28 Mar 2006 08:02

Northbridge Industrial Services PLC28 March 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 28 March 2006 Northbridge Industrial Services plc (the 'Group' or 'Northbridge') PLACING OF 6,437,500 ordinary SHARES at 100 PENCE PER SHARE ADMISSION TO TRADING ON AIM Northbridge Industrial Services (AIM:NBI) is pleased to announce its successfulflotation on AIM today, in conjunction with a placing of 6,437,500 OrdinaryShares, by Charles Stanley Securities at a placing price of 100p per share. Northbridge was incorporated for the purpose of acquiring companies that hireand sell specialist industrial equipment such as generators, load banks, pumps,air compressors, heaters and chillers. Northbridge will seek to acquirespecialist niche businesses that have the potential for expansion into completeoutsourcing providers; capable of supplying a non-cyclical customer baseincluding utility companies, the public sector and the oil and gas industries;which incorporate a strong element of service work; and have turnover of betweenapproximately £1 million and £10 million. Northbridge's first acquisition is Crestchic Limited ("Crestchic"). Crestchic,based in Burton-on-Trent, England, is one of the largest specialist load bankequipment manufacturers in the world, selling and hiring to a national andinternational customer base. Crestchic was founded more than 20 years ago by JimGould and currently employs 45 employees. Load banks are primarily used fortesting in power commissioning and maintenance such as diesel generators and, inparticular, for simulating real loads on standby equipment. Crestchicmanufactures products for sale to customers and for its own hire fleet. Theassembly of this equipment is undertaken at Crestchic's dedicated premises atBurton-on-Trent. The Directors believe Crestchic has a unique market position in a growingspecialist niche market which serves the power generation, shipping and oil andgas exploration industries and as such is considered by the Directors to be anexcellent first acquisition in implementing their strategy. Northbridge has raised gross proceeds of £6.44 million, through a placing byCharles Stanley Securities, of 6,437,500 ordinary shares at a placing price of100 pence per ordinary share. The net proceeds, in conjunction with the arrangedbank facilities of £3.25 million, will be used to pay the consideration to thevendors of Crestchic. Placing statistics: Placing Price 100pNumber of Placing Shares 6,437,500Number of Consideration Shares 600,000Number of Ordinary Shares in issue immediately followingAdmission at the placing price 7,388,495Market capitalisation of the Company following Admission at the £7.39 millionPlacing PricePercentage of the Enlarged Share Capital represented by thePlacing Shares 87.13%Estimated net proceeds of the Placing to be received by the £5.54 millionCompany The Directors believe that Admission and the Placing is an important step in theCompany's strategy for its continuing development and future growth. Inaddition, the Directors believe that Admission will provide the Group withpotential access to further capital and the opportunity to make selectiveacquisitions through the issue of Ordinary Shares, where appropriate. KEY DIRECTORS Peter Harris, Chairman Peter is now a Group Managing director of RAC plc and in this role he heads anumber of businesses including Lex Transfleet, Lex Multipart, Lex Commercials,Lex Defence and RAC Software solutions. RAC plc was acquired by Aviva in May2005 and Peter is currently exiting this role with the intention of joiningDawson Holdings plc, the logistics and newspaper distributor business, as CEO,in April 2006. Eric Hook, Chief Executive Officer In May 1994, Eric was appointed Chief Executive of Andrews Sykes Group plc, thelisted support services group specialising in industrial hire. Eric joinedAndrews Sykes to turnaround what was then a loss making business. Within 18months, Eric had refocused the group and improved margins contributing to asignificant rise in share price from circa 18p to 118p over five years. Ericleft Andrews Sykes in 1999 when approached to lead Longville Group Ltd, aconsolidation of three industrial hire businesses. Eric expanded Longville GroupLimited organically and by acquisitions and it had a market leading position inpumps, fluid chillers and diesel generators. Eric left Longville Group Limitedin 2003 to establish Northbridge. Commenting on the flotation, Eric Hook, Chief Executive of NorthbridgeIndustrial Services, said: "We are delighted with the successful flotation on AIM and the positive responsefrom investors which has allowed us to acquire Crestchic our first acquisition.Listing on AIM is an important step in the Company's strategy for both itscontinuing development and future growth. We believe there will be potentialaccess to further capital through the issue of shares as well as the opportunityto make selective acquisitions. In addition, we hope that the Admission willenable us to attract and retain key staff due to the raised awareness of ourcorporate profile. With the ability to acquire new businesses, this will help usto expand our customer base by having access to new geographical and industrymarkets." For more information please contact:Northbridge Industrial Services plc 020 7466 5000 (on the day)Eric Hook, CEOCharles Stanley Securities 020 7739 8200Mark Taylor / Freddy CrossleyMacArthur & Co 020 7464 8644John Paton / Andrew PerkinBuchanan Communications 020 7466 5000Charles Ryland / James Strong Copies of the Admission document in relation to Northbridge's AIM flotation areavailable at Charles Stanley's offices during normal business hours on anyweekday (other than Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays) for one month fromthe date of this announcement. NOTES TO EDITORS •Northbridge was incorporated on 7 January 2005. Eric Hook, Chief Executive, has spent over 15 years in the industrial services sector and was Chief Executive of Andrews Sykes Group plc. Over the last twenty four months, Eric has identified and entered into initial discussions with a number of privately owned businesses. Northbridge's target is to acquire companies that hire and sell specialist industrial equipment such as generators, load banks, pumps, air compressors, heaters and chillers. The Directors will do this by using their industry experience to identify, acquire and consolidate businesses with significant growth potential. •The Directors believe that in the UK, hire services are generally still provided by privately owned businesses operating from one location. While professionally run, the Directors believe that these companies often do not have an experienced hire manager and they could benefit from a more rigorous approach to management and marketing. It is such companies that Northbridge intends to target as part of its acquisition strategy. •Northbridge's first acquisition will be Crestchic, based in Burton-on-Trent. Founded over 20 years ago by Jim Gould and currently employing 45 staff, Crestchic has a unique market position in a growing specialist niche market which serves the power generation, shipping and oil and gas exploration industries. •Crestchic is one of the largest specialist load bank equipment manufacturers in the world, selling to a national and international customer base. Load banks are primarily used for testing in power commissioning and maintenance such as diesel generators and for simulating real loads on standby equipment. •Crestchic manufactures products for sale to customers and for its own hire fleet. The assembly of this equipment is undertaken at Crestchic's dedicated premises at Burton-on-Trent in order to serve a wide range of companies based in the UK and overseas. A few of which include: Daewoo, Hyundai, MW Kellogg and Samsung. •Jim Gould will join the Board of Northbridge as a Non-executive Director and remain with Crestchic as General Manager. - END- This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange