K-TIG confirms UK acquisition not going ahead

Automated welding company K-TIG has announced that an acquisition of UK’s Graham Engineering Limited (GEL) will not go ahead, blaming a challenging environment and GEL’s trading performance.

In a short statement on Friday morning, the company confirmed that the planned acquisition – first shared by company in January last year, and aimed at gaining K-TIG an in-country manufacturing presence for nuclear waste containers in England – will not proceed.

“…K-TIG advises that as a result of market volatility caused by underlying macro events and the underlying trading performance of GEL, the acquisition of GEL will not proceed, and the Share Purchase Agreement executed on 22 March 2023 has been terminated by  K-TIG”, it said in an ASX announcement on Friday.

It had earlier failed to meet the planned transaction date for the purchase of GEL, with a sunset date of August 31. At the time it cited challenging capital market conditions resulting from “underlying macro and geopolitical events”.

K-TIG said in May last year that it planned to fund the acquisition via a raise of between $20 million and $25 million through sales of up to 125 million shares.

In 2021, K-TIG received a contract from the UK Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC) to develop a turnkey robotic welding cell.

Picture: credit Nuclear AMRC

Further reading

K-TIG falters in purchase of UK nuclear engineering business

K-TIG’s big break into nuclear submarine welding field

K-TIG to raise $25m to tackle nuclear waste disposal sector

K-TIG expands into nuclear sector and the UK