The move into computer systems heralded by its acquisition of Lynwood Scientific Developments will soon be a much smaller proportion of a much higher total at Hunting Plc. That is the proposed name for a new company to be created by merging Hunting Associated Industries Plc, Hunting Gibson Plc and Hunting Petroleum Services Plc. The reorganisation – by share exchanges – is being engineered by members of the Hunting family: Clive Hunting will be chairman, Richard Hunting deputy chairman and Ken Miller, managing director of Hunting Petroleum Services will be managing director of the new company. Separately, Hunting Associated announced that it plans to acquire airborne weapon retarders and parachutes maker Irvin Industries Inc for $44m. Hunting Gibson is to be the surviving company, making recommended offers for the other two; in the case of Hunting Associated, 54.1% of the shares are either already owned or carry irrevocable acceptances, and Hunting Petroleum is nearly as tightly wrapped up. The aim of the reorganisation is to reduce the confusion caused by the present structure. The new group will have four divisions – Defence, Aviation Support, Oil and Technical, the last taking in Lynwood’s terminals and the private data networks business. The combined group will be capitalised at over UKP200m, and pro forma accounts show pre-tax profit for 1988 of UKP34.0m on turnover of UKP646.1m. It is making a forecast of pre-tax profits of at least UKP46.6m for the current year.
