First Day of Dealings on AIM

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20 December 2024

Amcomri Group plc

("Amcomri", the "Company" and together with its subsidiaries the "Group")

First Day of Dealings on AIM

Amcomri Group plc (AIM: AMCO), the "Buy, Improve, Build" UK focused specialist engineering services and industrial manufacturing group, announces the admission of its entire issued ordinary share capital to trading on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange plc ("Admission").

Admission will take place, and dealings in the Company's ordinary shares of £0.01 each ("Ordinary Shares") will commence, at 8.00 a.m. today under the ticker 'AMCO'. The ISIN of the Ordinary Shares is GB00BMBWCV32, the SEDOL of the Ordinary Shares is BMBWCV3 and the Company's LEI number is 64887R4549E0TZ3ZZV74.

In conjunction with Admission, gross proceeds of £12 million have successfully been raised by way of a placing with institutional and other investors of 21,818,182 new Ordinary Shares (the "Placing") at a price of 55 pence per Ordinary Share (the "Placing Price").

Cavendish Capital Markets Limited ("Cavendish") is acting as nominated adviser and sole broker to the Company.

Key Highlights:

·   The Placing received support from institutional and other investors and raised gross proceeds of £12 million (net proceeds of £10.2 million) which will enable the Company to pursue organic and acquisitive growth, and strengthen the balance sheet.

·    The market capitalisation of the Company will be approximately £39.5 million on Admission. The Company has 71,838,549 Ordinary Shares in issue and a free float of approximately 25.3 per cent.

·    After a period of phased development, Amcomri was formally established in 2022 by Paul Mc Gowan and Hugh Whitcomb, the Co-Founders. Since its establishment, the Group has made 16 acquisitions and grown to 12 operating businesses across its two divisions, with a combined Group turnover in excess of £47.1 million and Adjusted EBITDA of £5.8 million in FY23.

·   The Group operates across a diverse range of sectors and markets, including industrial, infrastructure and rail transportation. The Group deploys a structured "Buy, Improve, Build" strategy with a track record of value enhancing acquisitions in the industrial environment. It has a particular focus on leveraging the Group's experience and track record in relation to acquisitions arising from owner manager 'retirement' situations, where there are no, or limited, alternative plans for succession to sustain the enterprise value present within the target business.

·    The Company's admission document is available for viewing at www.amcomrigroup.com.

Proven Track Record and Significant Growth Opportunities

·    Amcomri is a "Buy, Improve, Build" group, providing technical services to major UK infrastructure, transportation and energy companies

·    The Group is profitable and cash generative, growing in size both organically and through acquisition

·    Strong revenue and earnings visibility

·    Proven management ability to improve margin and earnings post transition and integration

·    The Group expects to deliver at least two to three acquisitions per annum

·    Management has identified over 9,000 mature SME industrial businesses in their   acquisition target market sectors

Paul Mc Gowan, Co-Founder and Deputy Chair of Amcomri, commented:

"We are delighted to be joining the market. Our admission to AIM will help us continue to drive our proven growth strategy, which has benefited from strong management direction and an appetite for companies to leverage our expertise. We believe that we are well positioned to build on our strong trading to date and are excited by the opportunity to deliver significant returns. Importantly, we have a blue-chip customer base and are uniquely positioned to support critical infrastructure including rail, energy, and process industry assets. It is great testimony to the team that we have completed this successful IPO - especially given wider market trends. We believe that AIM will provide a solid platform for our aspirations and look forward to continuing our growth strategy as a public company."

Enquiries:

To find out more, please visit: www.amcomrigroup.com

Introduction

Amcomri is a "Buy, Improve, Build" group focusing on acquiring, integrating and enhancing specialist engineering services and industrial manufacturing businesses that provide technical services to major UK infrastructure, transportation and energy companies and bespoke mission-critical services to a diverse range of sectors and markets.

The Group currently operates through the following two divisions:

(i)      Embedded Engineering Division: provides specialist technical and engineering services for major industrial, infrastructure and transportation clients, typically with complex technical needs and undertaken in operating environments where safety and compliance performance are critical requirements. The division predominantly provides engineering services and support for their clients' capital intensive, mission-critical assets such as high voltage electrical transmission systems, petrochemical and continuous process operations, and large power generation plants.

(ii)        B2B Manufacturing Division: focuses on selective niche B2B markets or businesses, where the Group has identified an opportunity to achieve enhanced financial performance by leveraging an initially strong competitive market position combined with the Group's business improvement capabilities.

After a period of phased development, Amcomri was formally established in 2022 by the Co-Founders. Since its establishment, the Group has grown to 12 operating businesses across its two divisions, with a combined Group turnover in excess of £47.1 million and Adjusted EBITDA of £5.8 million in FY23. As at the date of this announcement, the Group has 359 employees.

The Group operates across a diverse range of sectors and markets, including industrial, infrastructure and mass transportation. The Group deploys a structured "Buy, Improve, Build" strategy with a track record of value enhancing acquisitions in the industrial environment. It has a particular focus on leveraging the Group's experience and track record in relation to acquisitions arising from owner manager 'retirement' situations, where there are no, or limited, alternative plans for succession to sustain the enterprise value present within the target business.

The Group has been created through a series of 16 successful acquisitions, comprising the acquisition of 12 operating companies and 4 bolt-on asset/business purchases, each of which has been integrated into the Group. The Group's businesses have grown organically and are well placed to take advantage of generally positive conditions in their respective end markets. This strategic approach has delivered compound annual Group revenue growth of 48.8 per cent. between FY21 and FY23.

The Directors believe that the key strengths within the Group are:

·    Well established, proven operators in the Group's chosen industries with high barriers to entry. The Group provides services that are essential and often critical to the proper operation of the facilities or assets on which they are engaged.

·   In-depth, specialist sector technical and product knowledge. The Group places a high value on the continuous development of the technical expertise of its workforce. Accordingly, employee training and development to retain and expand the Group's technical expertise is a key strategic objective for management.

·    Proven acquisition processes and management track record. Having completed 16 acquisitions within the Group, the Amcomri management team has experience sourcing and delivering transactions across its specific and niche industries.

·     Strong track record of revenue and earnings growth. Group revenues increased by 121 per cent. from £21.3 million in FY21 to £47.1 million in FY23, whilst Adjusted EBITDA increased by 142 per cent. from £2.7 million to £5.8 million over the same period.

·    Delivering services and products to a diversified customer base. Group companies provide essential engineering services and manufacture products for its customers in industries including rail and transport, process & power, on shore oil and gas, defence, aerospace and marine and subsea.

·    Ability to enhance operational performance and deliver margin improvement. Management has demonstrated an aptitude to maintain performance during ownership transition and improve margin and earnings post transition and integration.

CURRENT TRADING AND PROSPECTS

Since the six months ended 30 June 2024, the Group has continued to trade strongly and is expected to achieve a strong profitable performance for FY24. This increase in profitability is, in part, due to the growth components previously referred to, combined with the two standalone and one additional bolt-on acquisition completed since the year end, which continue to trade in-line with the Directors' expectations.

The Group's growth strategy is to become one of the UK's leading high performance specialist engineering services and industrial B2B manufacturing businesses. The Directors believe that the Group has good prospects for the current financial year and beyond, based on the continued positive momentum in the Group's business and the Director's assessment of the Group's growth strategy and business model.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Executive Directors

Hugh Mark Whitcomb (aged 63) - Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Hugh is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 42 years' experience of industrial operational and investment management across diverse sectors including power, petrochemicals, and general manufacturing. His initial career was in the UK power industry working in both conventional and nuclear power plant engineering roles.  

After 11 years in the UK power industry he moved to Shell UK as a Senior Engineer subsequently becoming Engineering Director at Hickson Fine Chemicals Ltd in Yorkshire. In 1995 he joined BIP Group Ltd as part of the Advent backed MBO/I team and in 2000 he became Group MD of JWH Group Ltd, a privately-owned specialist polymer processing group.

Increasingly specialising in management and turnaround of financially distressed industrial businesses, from 2005 he then worked on a consultancy basis for both major banks and professional advisory companies until 2012 when he joined Hilco Capital as their Lead Industrial Partner.

Siobhán Tyrrell (aged 38) - Chief Financial Officer

Siobhán joined Amcomri as Group CFO in June 2022, overseeing financial management and reporting across the Group. Before joining Amcomri, Siobhán worked in the private equity industry for nearly six years, most recently at Bridges Fund Management, where she started in 2016. Her previous roles included finance positions at Allianz Global Life and Invesco. Siobhán is a Fellow Chartered Accountant, having qualified with Deloitte, where she primarily audited clients in the financial services industry. She holds a master's and Honours Degree in Accounting & Finance from the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Mark Patrick O'Neill (aged 40) - Investment Director

Mark is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with over 17 years of experience in corporate finance, restructuring and investment. He began his career in Deloitte's Corporate Finance Team, specialising in restructuring, independent business reviews, and company side advisory. After five years at Deloitte, Mark joined Hilco Capital in 2012, where he worked across and managed a number of distressed, turnaround, and direct lending investments. At Hilco Capital, Mark gained experience in restructuring and turnaround projects, retirement sales, refinancings and loan transactions.

Since 2020, Mark has worked for the Group, where he leads the sourcing and execution of acquisition opportunities, transaction execution and portfolio management. He collaborates closely with the management teams across the Group's portfolio businesses. Mark holds a first-class honours Bachelor of Business Studies from Trinity College Dublin, and a Masters in Accounting from University College Dublin.

Non-executive Directors

Tanya Raynes (aged 53) - Independent Non-executive Chair

Tanya brings strategic, financial and commercial expertise from a variety of senior executive roles within both blue-chip corporates and SMEs. After qualifying with PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Chartered Accountant, Tanya gained structured financing and risk leadership experience with GE Capital. More recently Tanya held the position of CEO for Centreline, an aviation business, and is currently Non-Executive Chair for that company's parent, Pula Aviation Services Ltd, having played a role in the sale of Centreline to the Pula group in 2016. Tanya joined Time Finance plc, an AIM quoted independent specialist finance provider as an independent Non-Executive Director in March 2021, assuming the role of Non-Executive Chair from October 2021. Tanya also assumed the role of Non-Executive Chair for Courier Facilities Ltd, based at Heathrow, in February 2024.

Paul Patrick Mc Gowan (aged 62) - Co-Founder and Non-executive Deputy Chair

Paul has worked in corporate finance and restructuring for over 20 years and currently serves as Executive Chairman of Hilco Capital, the restructuring and asset-based lending firm, which he established as a joint venture with Hilco Trading Inc. in May 2000. A Chartered Accountant, Paul has acted as Principal on various acquisitions, restructurings and asset-based loans in retail and industrial markets, with particular expertise in stressed or distressed situations, including, inter alia, transactions involving HMV, Habitat and Alders department stores in the UK, as well as HMV and Bentley Leathers in Canada, Wittner's and David Jones in Australia and the Karstadt Kompakt department store business in Germany.

Fraser James Gray (aged 60) - Independent Non-executive Director

Fraser is Non-Executive Chairman of Maven Income and Growth VCT 4 PLC and was previously a Non-executive Director of Maven Income and Growth VCT 6 PLC. He is a Non-Executive Director of Denholm Energy Services Limited and was, until February 2023 when the company was sold, Non-Executive Chairman of Richard Irvin FM Limited. He was previously a Non-executive Director of Bonhill Group PLC and sits on a number of advisory boards, supporting smaller companies on growth and strategic matters. He was previously a Managing Director in AlixPartners' turnaround and restructuring practice, where he led the provision of restructuring and liquidity improvement solutions to clients across a wide variety of industry sectors. Fraser is a Chartered Accountant and Accredited Mediator and was formerly a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner.

Peter Tierney (aged 56) - Independent Non-executive Director

Peter has over 30 years' experience in operating and developing growth orientated service and manufacturing businesses. Until March 2022, Peter was Chairman and Chief Executive officer of Lewmar Marine Limited ("Lewmar Marine"), a private equity backed international marine manufacturing and distribution business. Peter was initially appointed to lead the turnaround of Lewmar Marine in 2008, returning the business to profit and implementing a growth strategy, before the business was sold to a US trade buyer in 2019, generating a significant return for its private equity backers. Between 2003 and 2008, Peter was Chief Executive Officer of Vector Aerospace, based in Canada, an aerospace maintenance and operating business. Prior to that, Peter was Managing Director of the Wood Group's heavy industrial turbine division and also held senior roles at a number of other engineering businesses in the UK and North America and has a degree in mechanical engineering, together with a master's degree in business.