EMC completes sale of bomb disposal company

Britain’s first independent commercial land and underwater bomb and mine disposal company has been sold in a deal brokered by EMC Corporate Finance.

Fellows International Ltd (FIL), based in Arundel, has been snapped up by the Optima Defence and Security Group Ltd which operates globally to protect individuals and communities against the threat or consequences of violence. No fee for the sale has been disclosed.

FIL was formed in 1990 by much-decorated former military man Michael Fellows who holds the record of having located and rendered safe more than 900 unexploded bombs on UK sites.

Nik Askaroff, who led the EMC team advising the FIL directors on the sale, said:

“Michael is an amazing man who has had a lifetime’s coal-face experience at the sharp end in war and peace, defusing more bombs than he cares to remember and then setting up and running the longest mine clearing project in the world to date making him unique among bomb and mine disposal men.

“The sale of the business to Optima will ensure that the magnificent work that Michael and the FIL team have done over the years to help make both land and sea environments a lot safer for the rest of us will continue and grow.”

Optima, headquartered in High Wycombe, is the world’s largest full-time employer of counter-IED specialists and its board combines the security expertise of its Chairman, Major General Jonathan Shaw, former Director of UK Special Forces, and top professionals who have managed complex businesses and security operations around the world.

Other professional advisers working alongside EMC on behalf of FIL were lawyers DMH Stallard and accountants Kreston Reeves.