Bodycote buys

Bodycote buys

BODYCOTE, THE Cheshire-based metal-processing group has made three acquisitions in the US, Austria and France for almost pounds 13m in cash. It will pay up to pounds 5.65m for LJ Broutman & Associates, a specialist in materials testing and consultancy work on plastics, polymers and composites. Broutman made a profit of pounds 1.12m on sales of pounds 3.35m last year. Three heat treatment businesses in Austria have been acquired for pounds 5.5m, and Janini, which supplies aerospace coating materials in the Toulouse region, cost Bodycote pounds 1.62m.