HARTLEPOOL, UK -- EMS firm Stadium Group has acquired all shares of displays OEM IGT Industries for up to £4.2 million in cash.

The acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings in the company's 2013 financial year. Stadium is paying £3.45 million in cash upfront and will make an additional maximum earn-out payment of £750,000 if IGT exceeds defined EBIT targets for the year ending Oct. 31, 2013.

IGT designs and manufactures intelligent display subsystems for professional electronic systems. It had revenue of £5 million in the year ended last October and operating profits of £580,000. It employs about 65 workers. Key senior management have agreed to stay with the business during the transition.

Chief executive Stephen Phipson called the acquisition "the first step in delivering our strategy of expanding into adjacent electronic technologies which complement our existing Power and EMS business and where we can add significant design and intellectual property to customer requirements. This expansion into the growing area of intelligent displays will help transform Stadium into a higher growth, IP led, technology group focused on higher margin subsystems.”

Separately, he said the company has looked at about 30 potential acquisition targets over the past six months, mainly firms with revenues of about 5 million .

Stadium had first-half sales of £20.93 million ($33.5 million) from £23.20 million last year, and EMS revenues slipped 12% year-over-year to £18.16 million.

Ed: 1 GBP = 1.59841 USD