Tanfield Regulatory News (TAN)

9 Jun 2005 07:00

Tanfield Group PLC09 June 2005 Announcement Acquisitions and Board Changes Acquisition of Norquip and Saxon The Board of Tanfield Group plc (TGL) is pleased to announce the acquisition ofthe assets and business of Norquip Limited and Saxon Limited. These companiesare both long established businesses with strong international reputations within their markets. Norquip has been a leading supplier to the airport sector,designing and manufacturing highlifts for catering and passenger transfer and arange of airport ramp equipment. Saxon is a long established producer of specialist vehicles with extensive design and manufacturing skills particularlywithin the fire fighting and rescue vehicle sector. Both companies also providea national service and maintenance capability to its customers The directors believe that these acquisitions are a good strategic fit withTGL's existing businesses and provide a good opportunity to substantiallyincrease the provision of zero and low emission vehicles to the airport sector.SEV, the Group's electric vehicle manufacturer will be able to offer itsairport customers the full range of electrified ramp equipment which had beenprovided by Norquip upon diesel platforms. Tanfield Holdings will run the Saxonspares business. There is a large fleet of Saxon vehicles in the field with anongoing spares and maintenance requirement. The Board will review the ongoingmanufacturing strategy for Saxon over the next six months. Currently both companies are not trading, the previous owner having decided toexit these markets, 6 months ago, in order to focus upon its core miningbusiness. The deal is an asset purchase of which the total cost to TGL is£280,000. The purchase price includes the names of the businesses, the IP, therights to all designs and all work in progress, a substantial amount of stock,and all the manufacturing jigs and fixtures. There are no liabilities attachedto the deal. TGL is in the process of moving all the assets to its facilities in the NorthEast of England and is already quoting for supply to customers significantvolumes of Norquip equipment. Board Changes With an eye on succession planning, the following Board changes are announced.Mr Jon Pither, who has served on the Board as Chairman since the Group came tothe market has decided to stand down and take up a post as a non-executive Director of the Group. Mr Roy Stanley will take on the role of Chairman,combining this role, for a period of time, with his role as Chief Executive ofthe Group. The Board is very grateful to Jon for the invaluable service he has provided to the Group in his role as Chairman and are pleased that he has agreedto stay on the Board and continue to advise on the strategic direction of theGroup. The Board is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Martin Groak as aNon-Executive Director of the Group. The Board believes that Martin willprovide valuable help in establishing the strategic and tactic direction that agrowing group needs. Martin is aged 54 and a Chartered Accountant with an Economics Degree fromLondon University. He is multi-lingual with over 25 years of internationalfinancial management experience. He is an independent director of The AIM VCTPlc, a quoted venture capital trust of which he is the audit committee chairman.He is also non-executive director of several AIM listed companies. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange