Imtech announced the acquisition of Canadian marine company Groupe Techsol Marine (GTM), which has € 20m in sales per annum. GTM is located in Quebec, has a high-tech production site and specialises in solutions in the field of vessel automation, alarm, monitoring & control, navigation & communication, electrical systems including switchboard and console construction, and energy-efficient electric propulsion technology. This all sounds very much like a small Canadian version of Imtech Marine.
Bullseye:
During the 2010 strategy update, management showed a map of the world with three locations where they planned new marine outfitting centres. One of those was Canada, notably the Quebec region. The others were Brazil and the Middle East (UAE, to be more precise).
Financial details not disclosed:
According to management, the deal should be accretive to EPS. The pressrelease did not include any other details. We believe GTM’s margins are in line with the 6-7% range of the Technology division so Imtech is buying roughly € 1.3m in EBITA. We expect this deal to be a bit more expensive than the average of 6.5x EV/EBITA, so we pencil in 7.5x. Funding of 5% and a local tax rate of 15% result in net profit accretion of around € 0.7m, or circa 1 cent EPS on an annualised basis.
GTM has strong growth potential:
Imtech Marine is hunting for Canadian Navy orders and one of the contract requirements if local content. As such, the acquisition of GTM allows Imtech to tender. GTM could not have tendered on a stand-alone basis because of its small size. As such, this is a win-win situation, and it once again shows that Imtech’s balance sheet has value to smaller companies that join the group. Furthermore, the Radio Holland unit has been looking to expand its global service network with a site in Canada, which has now been provided for. Finally, it should be possible to exchange knowledge between GTM and the existing Marine units. On balance, GTM should add 4% to Imtech Marine sales (0.4% to group sales), but we believe there is potential to grow to around 10% (1%), should they succeed in capturing Navy contracts.
Acquisitions YTD:
So far, Imtech has acquired nine companies with combined sales of € 393m per annum.
Our View:
The impact on the bottom-line should be modest as GTM represents 0.4% of our FY 2012 estimate. However, GTM has strong growth potential, which is promising. As such, we consider this a good add-on acquisition. We leave our estimates and TP unchanged.