THE Dungannon engineering company International, is to establish anew manufacturing plant in the Republic within the next 18 months.
Powerscreen, which will make its debut on the Irish Stock Exchange next Wednesday, intends to set up a second factory in the midlands, according to its chief executive, Mr Shay McKeown. "I wouldn't be surprised to see us having another manufacturing operation in the Republic quite soon," he said.
Powerscreen, which makes crushing, recycling and screening equipment, already owns the CPV plant in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, and is about to begin a £2.25 million expansion of its subsidiary facility.
Mr McKeown said the company, which employs 2,200 people worldwide, was running at full capacity in the North and had almost exhausted the available skilled workforce in the Dungannon area. It was very happy" with its experience in the midlands, and was also attracted by the 10 per cent corporation tax rate.
Although Powerscreen has been listed in London for several years, the company had never previously been traded in Dublin. The decision to seek a Dublin listing was taken as the share holding in the Republic has increased dramatically in recent months, according to Mr McKeown.
Irish institutions and investors, whose holding just over a year ago was negligible, now account for about 10 per cent of Powerscreen. An Irish listing should also facilitate the company's US shareholders, who hold about 30 per cent of the company. "A lot of North American stockholders tend to go to Irish brokers for their information," Mr McKeown said.
Meanwhile, shares in Powerscreen reached a record high of 402p sterling yesterday after the company scored highly in a survey of 51 companies in the British and Northern Irish engineering sector produced by the British stockbrokers, James Capel.
The huge increase in the value `of Powerscreen shares' which were traded last year for 2431/2p, has boosted the market value of the company from £216.5 million to £357 million.
The survey found that on terms of the return on capital employed, Powerscreen came second with a 31 per cent return which is almost twice the average for the six years up to 1995.
Powerscreen's return on capital employed was almost four times that of blue chip companies such as Rolls Royce and British Aerospace. Over the same period, Powerscreen was ranked third in terms of organic growth, achieving an increase in sales of 15.8 per cent, compared with the average of 4.8 per cent.
In the six months to the end of last September, Powerscreen's sales increased by almost 50 per cent to £121 million, while pretax profits were up 21 per cent to £17 million.
