Northbridge acquisition widens Asian footprint

STAFFORDSHIRE industrial services and rental company Northbridge has acquired a Singapore firm in a deal worth circa £2m.

Burton-based Northbridge has acquired Loadcell Services Pte and Loadcell Services BVI, an oilfield instrumentation supplier.

Loadcell was formed in 1982 by the current owner and a Vietnam operation was established in 1992. It now operates throughout South East Asia.

Loadcell supplies the oil and gas sectors with a broad range of equipment and services, including drilling instrumentation, loadcells and strain gauges while its rental service includes loadcells from 10 to 1,000 tonnes and pressure test equipment.

Loadcell has been acquired by Northbridge Loadcell Services Pte, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northbridge, incorporated for the purposes of the acquisition, and will assume the name following the deal.

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The vendor, who is retiring, has entered into a full time service agreement with NLS for an initial three-month period and thereafter will provide consultancy services for a further two years.

Consideration for the tangible assets of the business will be in cash and comprises three payments – 25% on completion, 25% after six months and the final 50% after a year.

All payments will be met out of the group’s current cash resources.

In addition, the vendor is entitled to an earn-out payment based on the gross profits generated by the Loadcell assets over the 24 months following the acquisition.

The maximum total consideration payable, including the tangible assets, was around £2m, Northbridge said today.

The average monthly revenue during the seven months ended July 31, 2011, from Loadcell’s unaudited accounts was £180,000.

NLS will share the group’s existing premises in Singapore and a new senior manager has been appointed who will also assist with the existing Northbridge Asia Pacific business. It has existing operations in Australia, Dubai and Azerbaijan.