Plexus Sells KSW Stake

UK’s Plexus has through its wholly owned subsidiary Afrotel divested its sole asset, consisting of a 25% shareholding interest in KSW Engineering (KSW), a private UK oil and gas equipment manufacturing and engineering company.

The consideration for the sale to KSW is £1.5 million in cash which will be deployed as part of Plexus’ global expansion strategy of identifying new international manufacturing partners for its suite of POS-GRIP wellhead products for oil and gas exploration, production and in due course subsea applications.

The company acquired its interest in Afrotel in July 2013 for a consideration of £725,000 and the investment in KSW generated £215,000 of profit share for Plexus in the eleven months to 30 June 2014 and was valued at £941,000 as at that date. Since then, and up to the date of disposal of the investment, the company has recorded an unaudited share of profit in line with the prior year.

Plexus’ CEO, Ben Van Bilderbeek, said, “As Plexus continues to extend its geographic reach and product range, we continue to see new enquiries from across the globe from operators that are considering POS-GRIP technology for its unique technical, safety and time saving capabilities. In tandem with positioning Plexus as the supplier of choice in the high pressure high temperature (‘HP/HT’) exploration market in the North Sea, we are working hard to move our products into new operating regions such as Asia, Australia, China, Russia, and West Africa. The need to align Plexus with alternative lower cost manufacturing capacity for POS-GRIP applications to be sold to our customers, is the primary driver behind the divestment of our 25% shareholding interest in the private UK engineering company.

“In addition to increasing Plexus’ global footprint, we remain committed to POS-GRIP product innovation. To this end we will be launching our new Python® Subsea Wellhead in Aberdeen at the Offshore Europe 2015 show this September, which has been designed to achieve a new best in class standard for subsea wellheads, as well as addressing key technical issues as highlighted by regulators following the Gulf of Mexico incident in April 2010. We look forward to updating the market on all of these latest developments in the coming months as we look to broaden our Company offering and increase shareholder value.”

Image: KSW