£43m FMG acquisition is accelerating profit growth for new owners

THE acquisition of road incident specialist FMG has accelerated the growth of its new parent, Redde Group, which now expects to exceed expectations for the six months to December.

Huddersfield-based FMG, which is led by serial entrepreneur Andrew Cope, was sold to Redde for £43.2m in August, just months after the completion of an MBO that had been backed by Endless.

Martin Ward, chief executive of Redde, said: “The acquisition of FMG, which completed in October 2015, has enabled us to broaden our reach into new and related markets and diversify our earnings.”

Accident management group Redde now expects profits to be “materially ahead” of the first half of the 2015 financial year, helped by FMG’s pipeline of new business opportunities and increasing trading volumes across the group. It expectes to declare an interim dividend that is at least 10% higher than last year’s 4p.

Mr Ward added: “The successively strong performances of the group delivered under our Growth, Profitability and Sustainability strategy is generating good returns for our shareholders. The outlook for the remainder of the financial year is positive and we continue to examine opportunities to augment our sustainable growth plan.”