Industrial services and rental company Northbridge Industrial Services (LON:NBI) has announced plans to acquire Australian engineering company Tasman Oil Tools Pty Ltd for A$16.9m (£9.8m) in a deal funded through new banking facilities and a £7m share placing priced at 125p per share. Tasman, based in Perth, Western Australia specialises in the rental of equipment for the onshore and off-shore oil industry throughout Australia. The acquisition is in line Northbridge’s strategy of acquiring earnings enhancing specialist businesses in niche sectors which are capable of further organic growth. It will also significantly increase the size of the group and broaden its presence in the Asia Pacific region. Shares in the company responded by edging up 0.75% to 134p.

Eric Hook, Northbridge’s chief executive, said: “Tasman is strongly focused towards renting its equipment into the oil and gas industry with over 70% of the total revenue coming from this activity. We expect the acquisition to be immediately earnings enhancing and it will also create opportunities to cross sell our existing products from Tasman's locations, and Tasman will also benefit from Northbridge's Middle East and Caspian presence where there are some common customers. I am also pleased to announce the completion of our successful placing which has been strongly supported by our shareholders and which brings some well-respected shareholders onto the share register.”

Since it joined AIM in March 2006, Northbridge has made a number of acquisitions and set up a new subsidiary in Dubai. On admission to AIM, it acquired Crestchic, which designs and manufactures load bank equipment, which it hires and sells to a diverse national and international customer base. In March the following year it acquired the trade and assets of Loadbank Hire Services, a competitor of Crestchic in the London area, for £0.9m. In September 2007, it paid £0.7m for a 51% holding in RDS (Technical) Ltd, which provides generators and associated equipment to the oil and gas industry in the Caspian Sea. It acquired the balance of RDS in June 2008 for £1.1m. Finally, in April 2009, Northbridge acquired a 67% holding in Tyne Technical Equipment Rental Services LLC, a Dubai based business that rents and sells generators and associated services to the infrastructure and the oil and gas industries in the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier this month, the group said that activity in the first six months…

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