quotedcleantech

Waste collection and treatment business Nature Group is acquiring Rotterdam-based International Slop Disposal (ISD) and its vented gas scrubbing associate Ecoscrub for a total consideration of £16 million in cash and shares.

AIM-quoted Nature Group has raised £11 million to help finance the transaction and provide working capital for the enlarged business. Port Invest, the owner of ISD, will receive £8 million in cash and the rest in shares at 50p each.

ISD collects three-fifths of the maritime and offshore waste in the port of Rotterdam. Port Invest and its associates will continue to supply services to the acquired companies and help the enlarged group to develop its operations. The businesses have worked together in the past.

In 2009, ISD had a turnover of €9.8 million (£8.25 million) and a post-tax profit of €1.9 million (£1.6 million), while Ecoscrub made a small loss. The two businesses should do at least as well in 2010, with Ecoscrub probably breaking even.

The enlarged business will have operations in Norway and western Europe, as well as a client list of international shipping companies. Andreas Drenthen, who is the head of the companies being bought, will become chief executive of Nature Group. Port Invest’s chairman Bernard Muller will become non-executive deputy chairman.

Existing chairman Richard Eldridge, finance director Peter Snell, and non-executive directors Charles Fairweather and Stig Keller have sold shares as part of the deal. In total, approximately 2.2 million shares have been sold by existing shareholders for 50p each, and the above directors sold the majority of those shares.

Shares in Nature Group, which was formed in the summer of 2002 when Owl Technologies merged with Nature Technology Solution, are currently trading near their year-high level of 82p.