LONDON (ShareCast) - Infrastructure engineer Renew Holdings has agreed to acquire Clarke Telecom for 17m pounds to tap into a wireless telecoms infrastructure market currently enjoying strong growth.

The acquisition will be earnings enhancing for the group, with broker Numis putting a figure of 16% on the initial expected improvement.

Renew said £11.9m of the total consideration was paid on Monday, funded by existing cash and a four-year term loan of £12m.

A further £5.1m will be paid at the end of May 2014 for management shares.

In a statement, Renew noted that the wireless telecoms infrastructure market was "currently experiencing growth as demand for mobile internet access and communications is outstripping the capability and capacity of the existing mobile network infrastructure alongside the introduction of 4G services".

This growth has resulted in a growing need for network operators to add new infrastructure, upgrade existing networks and decommission redundant assets, providing Oldham-headquartered Clarke with "a range of excellent growth opportunities", it said.

Clarke made turnover of £32.9m in the year to October 31st, with an operating profit of £2.3m on a normalised basis. For the current year, Renew said it expects Clarke to grow its turnover by approximately 5% and to maintain its normalised operating profit margin percentage.

Shares in Renew were up 6.7% to 230.5p by 11:12 on Tuesday.

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