________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“ We bought a Norwegian business called Ovun, a marine business that operates in various marine sectors and in navigation aids, working across aquaculture, defense, and some buoyancy and floats, and the Australian IPO listing came about because we wanted to raise money to progress with some further acquisitions,” explains Andrew.

“ We looked at various markets, and the Australian Stock Exchange is a primary market, plus one of the deepest small cap exchanges in the world, so it really suited us. It’ s an area that we’ re not very well established in and our strategic priority going forward is to develop businesses within that part of the world. Australia has a good understanding of the industry, and the investors understand energy businesses and natural resources. It also gives us better access to capital, so we can continue to grow and pursue our target acquisitions.” In addition to Ovun, AIS purchased a sizeable battery testing facility in Aberdare, Wales, which made it the largest material development center and test site for lithiumion batteries in Europe.“ The battery test site is entirely separate,” continues Andrew.“ We were already carrying out some testing work on a different site, so we’ ve consolidated it all into one which increases our capability significantly.

“ It’ s in a really good location and we’ ve got quite a lot of work, so we’ re filling it out slowly, capacity wise. In terms of what it does for us, it allows us to test our own materials faster, as well as being independent and profitable in its own right. It’ s an area that we’ re growing, but it’ s also a means for us to test our own materials.”

AIS has various other exciting plans on the horizon too. The company is actively developing products for fire protection in nuclear power stations and is looking to qualify these for the Hinkley Point nuclear power site in Somerset. Andrew believes this is a fantastic opportunity for growth across the globe:“ We’ ve got a record level of order backlog, so we’ re in a fantastic position for

We’ re aiming to complete the development of the nuclear product over the next 12 months

2026, for which we’ re forecasting more growth, more acquisitions and hopefully some more product launches. We’ re aiming to complete the development of the nuclear product over the next 12 months, and we expect around 14 percent of organic growth, with an active pipeline of acquisitions.”

When it comes to acquisitions, geography is one of the key parameters for AIS.“ We’ re looking for a business with a geographic concentration in an area where we’ re not as strong,” he elaborates.“ They also need a product range that we can sell through the rest of the group and allow us to immerse our technology into that business, therefore increasing our sales. Essentially, we’ re looking for a business that has a material science basis with a geographical focus in an area that’ s expanding.”

AIS already has a presence in the Middle East, in which it has a large market share, but the company recently established an Abu Dhabi company and has a factory in the

62