NAARDEN, 05/01/07 - Industrial group Stork is acquiring German maintenance company Turbo Service for 49 million euros. The acquisition will be brought under its Technical Services division, Stork said yesterday.

Turbo Service has annual sales of some 50 million euros and specialises in maintenance of turbines and generators in European energy plants. A Stork spokesman said the takeover price-tag is around 10 times the operating profit. "It is a good company with extremely good margins of around 10 percent."

Stork said the purchase is a good supplement to the range of services of Power Services. This unit of the Technical Services division provides maintenance services and parts to energy producers. Technical Services contributed 2005 sales of 837 million euros to group sales of 1.8 billion.

The takeover raises questions about Stork's large shareholders Centaurus and Paulson's wishes. They actually want Technical Services and Food Systems to be sold to allow the company to focus fully on its Aerospace arm. "We have made this acquisition within the framework of the strategy that we laid out a year ago, not to play a game with Centaurus and Paulson," the spokesman insisted.