News on 13 November 2000
Spie S.A., 41.6% owned by services and engineering company
Amec, has acquired Dutch services company Electron. With a turnover of
£48m (Euro 80m) Electron serves the industrial, telecommunications
and energy sectors.
The company will become part of Spie Trindel, the electrical services
and facilities management unit of Spie. Amec’s associate Spie entered
the Dutch market three years ago with the acquisition of Melotte B.V.
Peter Mason chief executive of Amec, said: "This is a further example
of Spie’s appetite to expand in the services sector in Europe –
which, we at Amec, fully endorse and support. Indeed Spie has delivered
excellent returns in the past year and we see further scope for it to
continue to expand."
Last week Amec placed 10.4m new ordinary shares in the London market and
the funds raised, £29m, will be used to enhance the company’s
ability to invest further in developing its services activities (see
News story). Among other developments, Amec intends to participate
in the planned rights issue by Spie S.A. to fund its successful strategy
of continued growth in service activities, by acquisition, in Europe.
As a consequence its shareholding in Spie is expected to increase from
41.6% to a maximum of 49.9%.
