Acquisition

Tanfield Group PLC 09 June 2005 Announcement Acquisitions and Board Changes Acquisition of Norquip and Saxon The Board of Tanfield Group plc (TGL) is pleased to announce the acquisition of the assets and business of Norquip Limited and Saxon Limited. These companies are both long established businesses with strong international reputations within their markets. Norquip has been a leading supplier to the airport sector, designing and manufacturing highlifts for catering and passenger transfer and a range of airport ramp equipment. Saxon is a long established producer of specialist vehicles with extensive design and manufacturing skills particularly within the fire fighting and rescue vehicle sector. Both companies also provide a national service and maintenance capability to its customers The directors believe that these acquisitions are a good strategic fit with TGL's existing businesses and provide a good opportunity to substantially increase the provision of zero and low emission vehicles to the airport sector. SEV, the Group's electric vehicle manufacturer will be able to offer its airport customers the full range of electrified ramp equipment which had been provided by Norquip upon diesel platforms. Tanfield Holdings will run the Saxon spares business. There is a large fleet of Saxon vehicles in the field with an ongoing spares and maintenance requirement. The Board will review the ongoing manufacturing strategy for Saxon over the next six months. Currently both companies are not trading, the previous owner having decided to exit these markets, 6 months ago, in order to focus upon its core mining business. The deal is an asset purchase of which the total cost to TGL is £280,000. The purchase price includes the names of the businesses, the IP, the rights to all designs and all work in progress, a substantial amount of stock, and all the manufacturing jigs and fixtures. There are no liabilities attached to the deal. TGL is in the process of moving all the assets to its facilities in the North East of England and is already quoting for supply to customers significant volumes of Norquip equipment. Board Changes With an eye on succession planning, the following Board changes are announced. Mr Jon Pither, who has served on the Board as Chairman since the Group came to the market has decided to stand down and take up a post as a non-executive Director of the Group. Mr Roy Stanley will take on the role of Chairman, combining this role, for a period of time, with his role as Chief Executive of the Group. The Board is very grateful to Jon for the invaluable service he has provided to the Group in his role as Chairman and are pleased that he has agreed to stay on the Board and continue to advise on the strategic direction of the Group. The Board is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Martin Groak as a Non-Executive Director of the Group. The Board believes that Martin will provide valuable help in establishing the strategic and tactic direction that a growing group needs. Martin is aged 54 and a Chartered Accountant with an Economics Degree from London University. He is multi-lingual with over 25 years of international financial management experience. He is an independent director of The AIM VCT Plc, a quoted venture capital trust of which he is the audit committee chairman. He is also non-executive director of several AIM listed companies. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange