Materials manufacturer Fiberweb has secured the acquisition of Tubex, the parent company of the Tubex Group of companies.

Materials manufacturer Fiberweb has secured the acquisition of Tubex, the parent company of the Tubex Group of companies.

The deal, for £5.1 million, is to be satisfied by £3.85 million in cash and 1.8 million Fiberweb shares to existing Tubex shareholders.

Tubex, a private UK company based in Wales and owned by the management team and Shackleton Ventures, produces tree shelters designed to improve the survival and growth rates of saplings and vines.

The deal, for 100 per cent of Tubex, is seen as complementary to Fiberweb’s Acorn tree shelter business which is based in Suffolk.

Chief executive of Fiberweb, Daniel Dayan, says that the proceeds of a recent rights issue has enabled the business to fund the acquisition of Tubex.

Dayan adds: ‘Acquiring a leading niche market position in a business closely-related to an existing Fiberweb business is highly attractive and we will apply the scale and geographic reach of Fiberweb to accelerate Tubex’s growth in international markets while realising efficiencies in production and distribution.’

On 2 March Fiberweb announced that it was proposing to raise £23.9 million by way of a fully underwritten rights issue of 42,387,882 new ordinary shares.

As well as funding the new acquisition, the funds are to be used to reduce borrowings under the company’s existing banking facilities.

On completion of the deal Fiberweb will inherit net debt of £0.7 million. Tubex is to be integrated with Fiberwebs’s Geosynthetics to form a larger overall business.

According to a statement released by the company Tubex recorded sales in the year to 30 June 2010 of £5.4 million which equated to a profit before interest and tax of £0.5 million.

The purchase is Fiberweb’s first since it paid £9.4 million to buy out Essex-based geosynthetic and accessory manufacturer Boddingtons International in December.