Shannon-based engineering services firm Mincon eyes growth after €8m acquisition
Shannon-based engineering services group Mincon is eyeing further expansion into the specialist area of geotechnical engineering on the back of its €8m acquisition of Finnish company Lehti.
Mincon - which traditionally makes drilling equipment for the mining and exploration sectors - is already active in the area, which studies rock and soil mechanics and can mitigate damage caused by natural hazards like landslides, volcanoes and avalanches, on engineering projects.
The Irish company is buying Lehti via its Mincon Nordic subsidiary and will pay €7m of the total consideration upon completion of the deal.
Mincon Nordic is a key manufacturing partner of Lehti already, and accounted for nearly 70% of the Finnish company's €13m turnover last year.
Mincon has won a number of infrastructure projects in North America, Scandinavia, Asia and Russia on the back of its existing partnership with the Finnish firm.
"This acquisition means that Mincon Nordic enters 2020 with the momentum provided by the contracts which we successfully won in 2019 and with superb reference sites for Mincon geotechnical products manufactured by Lehti. We believe this acquisition will leave Mincon well placed to further expand in the attractive geotechnical market worldwide," said Mincon CEO Joe Purcell.
Davy analyst Colin Sheridan said the price being paid for Lehti looks attractive, from a Mincon perspective, and could be accretive to earnings per share by a mid-single-digit percentage amount.
