James Fisher buys Hughes Marine

James Fisher has acquired Hughes Marine Engineering – the holding company of Hughes Sub Suface Engineering – for an initial cash consideration of £9m, with future consideration of up to £1m subject to certain profit targets being met by February 2017.

Founded in Liverpool in 2015 to provide commercial diving and civil engineering services to underwater projects, Hughes generated a pre-tax profit of £1.6m for the 12 months to the end of April 2016.

Nick Henry, chief executive officer of James Fisher, said: “The operations of Hughes Sub Surface are complementary to those of James Fisher and, combined, they will broaden our range of services to the market, particularly to the renewable energy industry offshore.

“We are delighted to welcome all our new colleagues to the group and look forward to working with them."

At 1235 BST, James Fisher shares were up 1% to 1,546p.