Engineering specialist Southbank UK is contemplating an eventual AIM float as it negotiates £20 million of potential acquisitions.

Quoted at 4 to 6p on the illiquid Channel Islands Stock Exchange, Southbank, which earned £1.8 million last year on £25 million turnover, is currently arranging £5 million of financing for Hayward Tyler, a maker of boiler circulation and sub-sea extraction pumps for the oil and gas industry. Headed by industrial merger broker and entrepreneur Ewan Lloyd Baker, Southbank bought Hayward Tyler – a company founded in 1815 that claims two-thirds of the world circulation pump market – from 3i two years ago in a £16 million cash, equity and debt deal.

China is a key market for Hayward Tyler, which Lloyd Baker expects to play an important part in a targeted drive to annual group turnover of £80 million.

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