19th Mar 2007 07:01
Spice PLC19 March 2007 19 March 2007 SPICE plc ACQUISITIONS OF ATLANTA FACILITIES LIMITED AND OF OPTIMAL UTILITY SERVICES LIMITED Spice plc ("Spice") is pleased to announce the completion of two acquisitions,Atlanta Facilities Limited ("Atlanta") and Optimal Utility Services Limited ("Optimal"). Atlanta will become part of Spice's Commercial Services Division andOptimal will form part of Spice's Freedom business within its Utility ServicesDivision. Details of the two acquisitions are set out below. Atlanta Facilities Limited Atlanta has been acquired for an initial consideration of £0.80 million payablein cash on completion. A further £0.15 million is payable subject to theperformance of the business in the 12 months to 30 April 2008. Atlanta is a facilities management business based in Aylesbury, close to theCircle Britannia head office. It provides services to a number of clients,largely in the retail sector, managing planned and reactive maintenance spend onbehalf of those clients. The work is carried out through sub-contractors. In the year to 31 May 2006, Atlanta's audited accounts showed turnover of £6.0million and operating profits of £0.2 million. The initial considerationrepresents a multiple of 4.2 times 2006 operating profits. Atlanta employs 26 people and the founder, Tim Cheek, will remain as a directorof the business following the acquisition. Optimal Utility Services Limited Spice is also pleased to announce the acquisition of Optimal for cashconsideration of £0.3 million. Optimal, based in the North West of England,provides professional services to utility companies, including Scottish Power,and specialises in the provision of training personnel, electrical design,project management engineers, and wayleaving services. Optimal also specialisesin the design and surveying of overhead line circuits. Turnover for the yearended 30 September 2006 was £0.9 million. Simon Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We are delighted to acquire two businesses which will continue our plans tostrengthen our existing businesses. Atlanta will bring additional managementskills and new clients to our Commercial Services Division, and we believe thatthere should be opportunities for our Circle Britannia business to deliver someof the services currently sub-contracted as well as for our Energy Servicesbusiness being able to add value to Atlanta's existing customers. Optimalbrings with it additional skills in overhead lines and wayleaves which willfurther strengthen our service structure and reinforce Freedom's position as amarket leader within the UK. Optimal has c.30 engineers working in ScottishPower offices and we are pleased to develop our relationship with such a majorplayer in the UK electricity sector through this acquisition. With theincreased demand for these services throughout the UK, we are well placed to winfurther works." - Ends - Enquiries: Spice plc, Tel: 0113 384 3838Simon Rigby, Chief Executive OfficerOliver Lightowlers, Group Finance DirectorCarl Chambers, Corporate Development Director Financial Dynamics, Tel: 020 7831 3113Billy CleggCaroline Stewart 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:
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