1st Jun 2007 07:01
Spice PLC01 June 2007 1 June 2007 Spice plc Acquisition of Homerton Heating Limited Spice plc ('Spice' or 'the Group') is pleased to announce the acquisition ofHomerton Heating Limited ('Homerton'), the public sector gas and heatingservices business, for a total initial consideration of £1.48 million. Homertonwill become part of Spice's Public Services Division. The price paid representsa multiple of 3.0 times maintainable operating profits for the year ended 31March 2007. Additional contingent consideration of 2.0 times annualisedoperating profit for the 13 months period ending 30 April 2008 will also bepayable based on the performance of Homerton over that period. The total initial consideration is subject to adjustment based on the workingcapital at completion with upto £0.5 million becoming payable following theproduction and agreement of completion accounts. There will be a cap on themaximum total consideration, including contingent consideration and the workingcapital adjustment, of £4.0 million. Homerton was established in 1996 and is wholly owned by its directors and theirfamilies. One of the two current directors of the business, Tony Ward, willremain with the business following the acquisition. Homerton employs 22 people,including 12 CORGI registered gas engineers. Homerton installs, services and maintains gas appliances and heating systems indomestic and commercial properties owned by social housing bodies and localauthorities predominantly based in the South of England. It currently hasservice and maintenance agreements covering approximately 7,000 properties, suchagreements typically being for periods of between two and five years. The rangeof services provided includes the annual review of appliances and systems, theproduction of certificates for landlords confirming compliance with safetyregulations and any related servicing and repairs. The financial statements of Homerton for the year ended 31 March 2007 showturnover of £2.10 million and adjusted operating profits of £0.50 million. Netassets of Homerton at 31 March 2007 were £0.35 million (including cashbalances). Simon Rigby, Chief Executive Officer of Spice, said: "Homerton complements Spice's other recent gas acquisitions and enhances thestrength of our Public Services Division. Spice remains committed to itsstrategy of achieving national coverage in the UK market, using establishedregional businesses and brands. When we achieve national coverage we anticipatesignificant cross selling opportunities in Meter Operations and CommercialMaintenance. "Since the formation of our Public Services Division we have been able to growthe existing businesses, through being part of a larger quoted group whichprovides access to larger clients and through offering first response servicesin the North West as well as the South of England. Across the Public ServiceDivision, we now have access to nearly 315 CORGI registered gas engineers whichprovides us with an excellent platform to provide our clients with a responsiveand effective service." Tony Ward, Managing Director of Homerton, said: "We are delighted that Homerton is joining Spice. We see significant scope tofurther develop the business as part of a larger group. There is a strongstrategic fit between Homerton and Spice's existing activities and we areconfident that Spice will be able to enhance the portfolio of services weprovide to our clients." - Ends - For further information, please contact: Spice plc Tel: 0113 384 3838Simon Rigby, Chief Executive OfficerOliver Lightowlers, Group Finance DirectorCarl Chambers, Corporate Development Director Financial Dynamics Limited Tel: 020 7831 3113Billy CleggCaroline Stewart KBC Peel Hunt Tel: 020 7418 8900Julian Blunt NOTES TO EDITORS Spice plc Spice is a support services business operating in the Commercial Services,Public Services and Utility Services sectors. The Group's operations werefounded in 1996 and have their origins in the electricity industry, though therange of activities has since been expanded into the water sector, nichetelecommunications services, the public sector, energy management and commercialfacilities management. Spice's businesses have a common theme of delivering andco-ordinating infrastructure services to customers, and the technologicalelement within the product mix has been built up significantly over the courseof the last three years. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Spire Healthcare