Contracts exchanged for second of two acquisitions and trading update

The Board of Croma, the specialists in the design, development and production of overt and covert surveillance, security and defence related products, is pleased to announce that following the announcement on 1 December of its final results to June 2005, and the exchange of contracts for the first of two acquisitions, the Company has now exchanged conditional contracts for the second of the two proposed acquisitions.  This exchange allows it to adopt further due diligence on the target company.

Initial payment on completion, as with the previous proposed acquisition, will comprise of a combination of cash and Croma shares at 6.5p or the mid-market quote at the time of completion, whichever is the highest.  The payment will be by way of performance related earn-out.  Completion of the acquisition is expected during January following the completion of the due diligence.

The proposed acquisition, which cannot be named due a confidentiality clause, is a specialist company operating in the field of biometric identification and access-control solutions.

Trading Update

Current trading is positive with the period July to October of the current year, showing an increase of 32% for the same period of the previous year.  This is a result of the increased order intake following successful introduction of new products and the expansion of the customer base.

John French, Chairman & Chief Executive of Croma said: “This proposed acquisition complements the expanding range of products and services offered by the Group to the overt, covert surveillance and defence related sector.  It reaffirms the intention of the Group to consolidate its position in the sector through a combination of core growth and acquisitions.”