Northbridge Industrial Services plc (LON:NBI), the industrial services and rental company, announced on 30 September 2021 that the Group was at an advanced stage of exiting Tasman, its oil drilling rental tools division, in Malaysia and Singapore, was in exclusive discussions to sell the operations in Australia and New Zealand and was in early discussions regarding its Tasman entities in the Middle East.
The exit from Malaysia and Singapore is now finalised and the exclusive discussions on the sale of the Australian and New Zealand entities are progressing. The Board hopes to be able to give a more detailed update on this disposal within the next few weeks. Discussions on the Middle East disposal remain on hold pending the outcome of the disposal of the businesses in Australia and New Zealand.
The estimated exceptional cost related to the restructure and disposal of the Tasman division, as noted in the previous announcement on 30 September 2021, remains unchanged at between £6.0 – 7.0 million.
Board change
Ian Gardner, Managing Director of the Tasman division, has left the Company and stepped down from the Board with effect from today. Ian has been retained to provide transition support to the Board for the next four months for the ongoing disposal of the Tasman division.
The Board would like to express its gratitude to Ian for his fourteen years of exemplary service, seven years of which has been on the Northbridge Board, and wish him well in his future endeavours.
Trading update
Trading in the Crestchic division remains strong and the Tasman division has continued its recovery from the slowdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. Northbridge performance for 2021 remains in line with management’s expectations and a further update on trading will be made in February.
