Marine engineering group James Fisher has sold off three businesses as it looks to pay off debts after a few difficult years.
The FTSE 250 group, which provides support services to the offshore energy, defence and shipping sectors, said it has sold Mimic and Strainstall to BES Group for an initial £13.6million plus a further £3.9million depending on performance.
Mimic and Strainstall supply monitoring software and solutions used, among other things, to measure vibrations on the likes of bridges and other offshore installations to make sure they are safe.
James Fisher is selling off underperforming divisions to pay off debts
In addition, James Fisher said it has also completed the sale of Prolec, which makes monitors to help operators see diggers clearly below the surface, to Kinshofer Gmbh for an undisclosed amount.
Prolec made £4million in revenues last year, while Mimic and Strainstall generated combined revenue of £8.7million and pre-tax profit of £800,000.
James Fisher’s chief executive, Jean Vernet, said: ‘The sale of Prolec, Mimic and the UK operations of Strainstall represent a clear demonstration of our strategy to rationalise and focus the portfolio, as well as strengthening our financial position.
‘We believe the transactions represent good value for James Fisher’s shareholders and in BES and Lifco, we have found buyers of quality.
‘We wish them and the staff at each of the businesses continued success and thank them for their hard work and dedication to James Fisher over many years.’
James Fisher shares surged 2.6 per cent to £3.50 in afternoon trading on Monday.
They are down by around 13 per cent since the start of the year and have lost nearly 80 per cent of their value compared to five years ago.
The company struggled during the pandemic as it was hit by a double whammy of Covid-19 restrictions and a number of oil and gas projects being delayed or even cancelled.
In September, the company said its ship-to-ship transfer services division continued to suffer from ‘subdued’ demand, offsetting improved profitability at its offshore oil and marine support businesses.
It reported a 60 per cent fall in first half pre-tax profit to £3.2million as rising costs outpaced growing revenues.
