Chemring to buy U.S. pyrotechnics company

Tue May 27, 2008 7:33am BST

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LONDON (Reuters) - Military consumables maker Chemring Group (CHG.L) said on Tuesday it would buy Scot Inc for $40 million (20.22 million pounds) from SMS Industries Inc to boost its presence in the U.S. pyrotechnic market.

Chemring, which makes countermeasures for use on land and at sea and in the air and ammunition and explosives, said in a statement its expanded U.S. business "will quickly become the leading supplier of pyrotechnics to the U.S. aerospace market".

Scot, which also makes pneumatic and electronic devices used in military and commercial aircraft, missiles and space vehicles, made an underlying pretax profit of $4.7 million in 2007 on revenues of $23.8 million.

(Reporting by Dan Lalor; editing by Sue Thomas)

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