May Gurney buys Turriff in £14m deal

Scottish infrastructure maintenance company Turriff has been sold to Norwich-based May Gurney in a deal worth up to £13.6 million.

The deal will see the Turriff name retained, along with the group's 550 staff and most of the existing management.

May Gurney is an infrastructure services company about ten times the size of Turriff. About 95 per cent of the listed company's 500m turnover comes from public and regulated sector clients, mostly across the south of England.

May Gurney will pay an initial 8.6m in cash for Turriff, with a further 5m payable over three years dependent upon performance. In addition, May Gurney is assuming about 9.4m of debt.

Turriff made 2.5m profit last year on revenues of 41m, and had total assets of about 18m.

May Gurney said benefits of the acquisition included gaining entry to the 2.4 billion support services market in Scotland, access to the UK's regulated 1.7bn gas marketplace, which it said was displaying sustained growth with dependable long-term income streams, and Turriff's order book of about 90m, with available extensions worth up to 70m.

May Gurney chief executive Philip Fellowes-Prynne said he hoped Turriff's links with Scottish & Southern Energy and Scotia Gas would lead to further work in the power and gas maintenance sectors on both sides of the Border.

He added "We've done some work in Scotland through Network Rail and ScotRail, but we see the Scottish market as a great opportunity to grow our utilities, local authority and highways work."

Fellowes-Prynne, who was educated in Scotland, said the acquisition should lead to cost savings in procurement, such as plant hire and equipment purchase, and computer systems.

He said May Gurney invests 1.5 per cent of revenues into growing and developing the company, a ratio it would apply to the Turriff business.

Turriff has bases in Aberdeen, Dundee and Falkirk.