Sale of Non-Core Investment for GBP1.5million

RNS Number : 2946R

Plexus Holdings Plc

26 June 2015

 



Plexus Holdings PLC / Index: AIM / Epic: POS / Sector: Oil equipment & services

26 June 2015

Plexus Holdings PLC ('Plexus' or 'the Company')

Sale of Non-Core Investment for £1.5million

Plexus Holdings PLC, the AIM quoted oil and gas engineering services business and owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP® friction-grip method of wellhead engineering, announces that its wholly owned subsidiary Afrotel Corporation Ltd ('Afrotel') has divested its sole asset, consisting of a 25% shareholding interest in KSW Engineering Limited ('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."

**ENDS**

For further information please visit www.posgrip.com or contact:

Ben van Bilderbeek	Plexus Holdings PLC	Tel: [phone]
Graham Stevens	Plexus Holdings PLC	Tel: [phone]
Derrick Lee	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Nick Tulloch	Cenkos Securities PLC	Tel: [phone]
Felicity Winkles	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Frank Buhagiar	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]

Notes

Plexus Holdings PLC

Plexus Holdings PLC, which began trading on AIM in December 2005, is an oil and gas engineering and services business, which supplies wellhead and mudline suspension equipment together with associated equipment and services for exploration and production applications. Based in Aberdeen, with offices in London, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and a presence in Houston, Texas, it has developed and patented a friction-grip method of engineering for oil and gas field wellheads and connectors, POS-GRIP®, which involves deforming one tubular member against another to effect gripping and sealing.

The Company plans to accelerate the roll out of POS-GRIP wellhead equipment as a superior alternative to current technology and for it to become the future industry standard for wellhead design. In particular, the technology has advantages in High Pressure/High Temperature (HP/HT) and Extreme HP/HT (X-HP/HT) oil and gas environments, for which there is growing global demand and where Plexus is being increasingly recognised as the supplier of choice.

To date, POS-GRIP wellhead systems have been used or selected to be used in over 350 oil and gas wells by international companies including ADTI, AGR, Apache Energy Australia, BHP Billiton, BG International, Bowleven plc, BP, Brunei Shell Petroleum, Cairn Energy, Centrica, ConocoPhillips, Dana Petroleum, Dubai Petroleum, GDF SUEZ, Global Santa Fe, Maersk, Niko Resources, Petro-Canada Trinidad & Tobago, Premier Oil Norge, Red Sea Petroleum Operating Company, Repsol, RWE, Senergy Limited, Shell China, Shell Egypt, Statoil, Silverstone Energy, Talisman Energy, Tullow Oil, and Wintershall.

Importantly, the Company is focussed on extending its proprietary POS-GRIP technology into an increasing number of subsea applications. In line with this, in March 2011 the Company launched a Joint Industry Project ('JIP') initiative to develop a new subsea wellhead design, the 'Python Subsea Wellhead' utilising its friction-grip technology in collaboration with key oil and gas operators and service companies. BG, Royal Dutch Shell, Wintershall, Maersk, TOTAL, Tullow Oil, ENI, Senergy, ADTI and Oil States Industries Inc. The JIP is nearing completion with final qualification testing of all key features of the product under way, and the resultant Python Subsea Wellhead design will include a combination of key features never before seen in a subsea wellhead which include being rated to 15,000 psi, 4,000,000 pounds of 'instant' casing lockdown capacity, and importantly rigid metal annular seal technology qualified to match the performance of premium connectors. The building of a single string Python Subsea Wellhead system prototype commenced in February, and will be ready for display at the SPE Offshore Europe Exhibition and Conference in Aberdeen ('OE2015') in September.

Plexus is an innovative technology company always looking for opportunities to apply its proprietary POS-GRIP friction grip method of engineering to new products both within and outside the oil and gas industry. For example Plexus have recently completed a JIP in conjunction with Maersk to develop a downhole HPHT Tieback connector which for the first time allows the reconnection of production casing to HPHT exploration and production wells. In addition the Company has developed and qualified a new product called POS-SET Connector™ which is designed to re-establish a connection onto rough conductor casing previously cut above the seabed to facilitate tieback or abandonment operations. The market for permanent plugging and abandonment of wells is increasing in the North Sea and beyond, and could be an important new revenue stream for the company. 

 

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