Support services group Amec has expanded its business in the nuclear sector with the £38m purchase of NNC, a UK company that specialises in nuclear services.

The offer has been recommended by the board at NNC and shareholders are backing the bid, which is likely to be completed next month. The agreed price includes £12.7m of net debt.

NNC employs 1000 people in engineering and safety consultancy throughout the lifecycle of nuclear facilities in the UK, Canada and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

In the year ended 31 March it made a £5.6m profit on £86.6m turnover.

Sir Peter Mason, chief executive of Amec, said that the rationale behind the deal was to help Amec to "secure a substantial slice of the

annual £2bn operations, maintenance and decommissioning spend soon to be available to the private sector in the UK".

He said it was timely because governments across the world were seeking to invest in the nuclear industry. NNC is Amec's second acquisition of a nuclear company in recent months. In April it bought a 49% interest in French nuclear engineer Game Nucléaire. Amec has worked in the nuclear sector for more than 50 years.

French materials company Saint-Gobain this week said that it had bought the Norwegian materials distributor, Optimera Gruppen. The company reported £342m of sales in 2004; it employs more than 1400 people in Norway and Sweden.

Completion of the deal is subject to approval from the competition authorities.