Marine service group James Fisher and Sons has dipped back into its acquisitions war chest to buy a Swedish firm specialising in equipment for James Bond-style covert operations.
Fisher, which has a string of north-east subsidiaries, said yesterday it was paying an initial £3.7million for Defence Consulting Europe (DCE). The value of the deal could rise to a total of £5.6million if certain profit and turnover targets are met between now and June 2016.
DCE designs and manufactures swimmer delivery vehicles (SDVs) for markets including special forces, law enforcement, counter-terrorism, maritime protection and mine countermeasures.
The SDVs are used to get people and equipment in and out of places as quickly and discretely as possible, making them ideal for counter piracy, drug busts and other covert marine missions. Development, testing and trials have taken place in the Stockholm archipelago, the Baltic Sea, Portland harbour and off the west coast of Scotland.
Fisher, which has its headquarters in Barrow-in-Furness, said the acquisition strengthened the “special operations customer offering” at Scottish subsidiary James Fisher Defence (JFD). DCE will adopt the JFD brand name, operating as James Fisher Defence Sweden.
Ben Sharples, managing director at Renfrewshire-based JFD, said: “This acquisition is a significant move for JFD and enables us to offer our customers a broader range of vehicles to suit a variety of mission types and deployment methods.
“Sweden is renowned for the quality and practicality of its maritime engineering and DCE brings with it a proven range of products and designs.”
He added: “We are seeing significant interest in navies looking to develop specific maritime skills for special forces, counter- terrorism and other areas of covert operations.”
Fisher employs nearly 2,200 people globally.
Last year, the group bought diving and subsea equipment specialist Divex, based at Westhill, near Aberdeen, in a deal that was potentially worth £33million.
Divex recently formed a joint venture with American firm Chase Supply, which is expected to lead to new military business in the US.
Fisher’s other oil and gas-related businesses include Aberdeen firms RMS pumptools and RigCool, Inverurie consultant Buchan Technical Services and Oldmeldrum company Fisher Offshore.