Insider Media Limited

Who?
Leicester-based Precision Technologies Group.

Did what?
Is to offload its Rochdale subsidiaries Holroyd Precision, Precision Components, PTG Advanced Developments and Milnrow Investments to the Chongqing Machinery and Electric Company (CQME) of China as part of a £20m deal.

What does this mean?
The companies being sold manufacture heavy engineering machinery. The sale will mean that 184 of PTG’s 245 staff will be transferred to CQME once the deal goes through. In a statement sent out to employees, PTG said: “The directors are excited by the opportunities that this transaction provides and are confident that it will create a combined company with all the strength and advantages necessary to compete with the major machine tool and component manufacturers worldwide.”

The deal is subject to approval by Chinese authorities, but is expected to complete within the next six weeks. Chongqing said the acquisition of the businesses, which manufacturer gear and rotor cutting machines, was a “strategic move” intended to “improve the technical know-how” of the group. The other businesses that make up part of the deal are PTG Heavy Industries in Yorkshire and PTG Deutschland, based in Munich.

Insider comment:
CQME said that the combined group will continue to invest and develop the technology, intellectual property and “know-how” of the UK businesses and to create products to meet the market's requirement for high-efficiency machine tools. The existing manufacturing facilities, services and supply chains in the UK will be maintained and all staff of the above companies will be transferred to the new group.

Holroyd Precision and Precision Components employ 130 people in Rochdale, while Milnrow Investments owns the site the companies operate from. PTG Advanced Developments is a special projects consultancy, but only has one employee according to latest records at Companies House.