SIAC buys steel firm for €6m

Building group SIAC has bought an English steel business in a deal valued by the industry at €6 million.

SIAC Construction said yesterday it had acquired Bison Structures Ltd in Gloucester from it parent, the English building operation Bison Group.

The move will give the Irish group a stronger foothold in the UK and open up opportunities to bid for projects associated with the 2012 Olympics in London, its chief executive, Finn Lyden, said yesterday.

Neither party revealed the price paid by the Irish company, but industry sources valued it at between €5 million and €6 million.

Bison Structures had operating profits last year of just above €1 million. The normal price paid for such businesses is between five and six times the operating earnings.

The company produces steel used to create frames for industrial and commercial buildings such as offices and factories.

SIAC has a similar business in Portarlington, Co Laois, known as SIAC Butler's Steel.

Mr Lyden said that as the English business was focused on smaller-sized components, it would complement its Portarlington operation, which has the capacity to produce larger steel structures.

"There are lots of interesting opportunities in the UK over the next five or six years, including the Olympics," Mr Lyden said yesterday.

"It also allows us to spread our risk instead of being tied largely to the Irish economy," he added.

SIAC already has a roofing and cladding operation in the UK and the acquisition will allow it to offer a more integrated service when it is bidding for contracts in the UK.

Accounts filed by Bison Structures with the UK companies' registry show that it had a turnover last year of €17.3 million.

Operating profits came to just above €1 million while pretax profits were €990,000.

The company's net assets at the end of 2005 were €1.5 million but its balance sheet shows that its pension fund had a deficit of €1.9 million.

The company will be renamed SIAC Tetbury Steel Ltd and the Irish group said yesterday that its existing management would continue to run the business. There will be no job losses as a result of the deal.

SIAC is one of the Republic's biggest building companies. It has sales of €200 million and a workforce of 950, with a further 550 working for its sub-contractors. It is involved in a number of major infrastructure projects.