Companies: HMS   

Oil and gas services specialist Hallin Marine Subsea International has bought engineering consultant Prospect Flow Solutions for £3 million.

Isle of Man-based Hallin, which provides underwater oil and gas sector construction, inspection and maintenance to the oil and gas industry, has paid £1.5 million in cash and is paying the other £1.5 million in shares at169p to Prospect, a specialist in computer-aided engineering for oil, gas and renewable energy concerns.

AIM-quoted Hallin will pay up to another £1.6 million if Prospect, which has offices in Aberdeen, Derby, Stavanger and Houston and made a £208,000 operating profit last year, meets certain financial growth targets by 2010.

Hallin director John Quinn describes the Prospect deal as ‘absolutely key’. Prospect adds engineering to the mix of services offered by Hallin.

‘Rather than being called in as a facilitator to a development once the engineering challenges have been tackled, we can now meet the prospect and its problems early on and can work throughout a project’, argues Quinn. He claims the addition of Prospect will make Hallin’s business less cyclical’.

Prospect is Hallin’s first acquisition in 10 years, but, says Quinn, ‘it won’t be the last’. The company was recently optimistic about its first-half results, due on 16 September, and the shares, recommended by Growth Company Investor at 65p three years ago, now trade at 174p, valuing the company at £71.7 million.

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Hallin Marine Subsea International	AIM	£42.3m	100.50p	-8.00p
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