Morson announces the acquisition of the business of Pentagon Personnel for a cash consideration of £2.93m (the acquisition).

Morson, the UK's leading provider of technical contract staffing, supplying over 7,500 highly skilled white collar personnel to the Aerospace, Defence, Nuclear, Power and Rail industries, announces the acquisition of the business of Pentagon Personnel for a cash consideration of up to £2.93m (the acquisition), dependent on the achievement of profitability targets for the year ended 31 march 2007.

The acquisition represents the next step in the company's strategy to supplement strong organic growth with selective acquisitions and strategic alliances.

Based in Havant, Pentagon employs 14 staff. It specialises in the provision of skilled engineering personnel predominantly to the Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic and Technical manufacturing engineering sectors. Personnel are placed on either temporary contracts or on a permanent basis and the business has developed a database of over 15,000 contractors.

The acquisition further strengthens Morson's southern presence which was recently enhanced by the acquisition of Westbury, White and Nunn announced on 1 February 2007. Currently, the Pentagon operation supplies technical skilled personnel with a focus on the engineering sector. The acquisition enables Morson to expand Pentagon's operations into the wider Engineering, Aerospace and Construction services sector with the support of an experienced and proven recruitment team.  As a result, the directors believe that Morson will have an enhanced presence to service Managed Vendor contracts and develop the market local to Pentagon's operations. The acquisition also allows Morson to enhance its permanent recruitment offering. 

In the year ended the 31st March 2006, Pentagon reported a turnover of £4.6m and net fee income (gross profit) of some £1.2m. The directors believe that the acquisition will be earnings enhancing in its full first year of ownership.

Commenting on the acquisition Ged Mason, Chief Executive Officer of Morson Group, said

"We are delighted to be able to announce the acquisition of Pentagon, our third acquisition since our IPO in March 2006. I believe that Pentagon has an excellent strategic fit with Morson's operations, providing permanent and temporary recruitment expertise in core growth sectors whilst strengthening our offering into and expanding new regional and business opportunities."