Halma acquires linear heat detector designer Thermocable for £22m

Tech developer Halma has acquired a water leak and heat detection equipment manufacturer, marking the FTSE 100 group’s seventh takeover in the past two years.

Halma told investors on Wednesday that it had bought Thermocable, a maker of linear heat detectors (LHDs) based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in a £22million cash- and debt-free deal.

LHDs are cables designed to sense fire or overheating events across a wide variety of buildings and applications, including power stations, thatched houses, conveyor belts and tunnels.

Safety: LHDs are cables designed to sense fire or overheating events across a wide variety of buildings and applications, including power stations, thatched houses and tunnels

When they recognise a fire or a significant increase in temperature, signals are sent through the cables to alarms and other fire protection devices that indicate where the overheating is taking place.

Halma told investors Thermocable would belong to its Apollo group of companies, which also specialise in producing fire detection services.

Its chief executive Andrew Williams said: ‘Thermocable’s specialist technologies will further enhance Apollo’s existing strengths in fire detection and alarm systems for industrial and commercial customers.

‘They will enable Apollo to address a greater range of customer needs in niche applications for a variety of sectors such as urban infrastructure and transportation, logistics, natural resources and emerging applications in renewable power generation.’

The firm’s latest purchase comes about four months after buying German business Weetech Holding, a provider of electrical testing technology to industries ranging from aerospace to rail and motor manufacturers. 

Prior to that, Halma snapped up Maryland-based IZI Medical Products, a designer of medical consumable devices like biopsy needles and thermoplastic masks, for approximately £138million.

Other acquisitions completed since the start of 2021 include underwater robots manufacturer Deep Trekker, healthcare consultancy Infinite Leap, and PeriGen, a software business aimed at improving the safety of childbirth.

The Amersham-based group’s long history of takeover-led growth has helped its annual turnover expand to £1.5billion and profits rise for the last 19 consecutive years.

It was initially founded as a tea estate during the Victorian era before branching into rubber production, until the Sri Lankan Government nationalised the country’s rubber plantations about a decade after World War Two ended.

Starting from the early-1970s, under the leadership of David Barber, Halma focused on obtaining electrical mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering firms.

Halma shares were 1.1 per cent higher at £21.72 on early Wednesday afternoon, just ahead of fellow FTSE 100 businesses Howden Joinery and British Land.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk