MIO to purchase the remaining 50% of Samson

Miclyn Express Offshore Limited (“Miclyn Express Offshore”, “the Company”) (ASX : MIO) has entered into a conditional, non-binding agreement with the shareholders of Samson Maritime Holdings Pty Ltd (“Samson”) to purchase their aggregate 50% shareholding and take full ownership of the business.
Total consideration will be A$24.0 million (implied Enterprise Value of A$63.2 million), of which 70% will be paid in cash and 30% will be paid in newly issued MIO scrip. The scrip component will be priced at 30 day VWAP for the period up to the day before the execution of the Sale and Purchase Agreement. As part of the non-binding agreement, Samson co-founder Jeremy Williams will continue his employment until March 2013 and a two year non-compete period is in place for all selling shareholders.
The transaction is priced at an EV/EBITDA multiple of 4.9x and a P/E multiple of 5.8x based on Financial Year 2012 (“FY12”) estimates.
Miclyn Express Offshore CEO Diederik de Boer said “Australia is becoming an increasingly important region for our organisation. With the growing investment in Offshore LNG in Australia, it’s only natural that we would want to increase our exposure to this exciting market. Samson has been an excellent platform for growing our presence in Australia and the business is now performing well above our initial expectations. This is an earnings accretive transaction that provides significant value to our shareholders, particularly as we continue to drive earnings growth in Australia.”
The transaction is expected to be completed in December 2011, subject to execution of the final Sale and Purchase Agreement.
“We expect to deliver strong earnings growth in FY12, aided by this acquisition”, said Mr de Boer. “We will be giving further guidance on outlook at the AGM in November.”