Mitchell Services has agreed to acquire Deepcore Drilling for A$32 million ($22 million) in cash and shares, turning the ASX-listed company into, it says, one of the largest and most diversified pureplay drilling services companies in Australia.

The acquisition is expected to be 38.5% earnings per share accretive based on pro-forma financials and the agreed A$15 million cash and A$17 million shares deal.

Deepcore is a privately-owned company providing services to the mining and infrastructure sectors. It specialises in highly technical underground mobile drilling, including specialty acoustic drilling that Mitchell does not currently provide and deep hole directional diamond core drilling, the company said.

Mitchell has increasingly been expanding into new segments of the drilling market in order to capture market share and, in July, entered the drill and blast production drilling market with the award of a new contract at Adaman Resources’ Kirklalocka gold project in Western Australia.

Mitchell said Deepcore, which also carries out surface drilling, is primarily gold and copper focused, balancing the company’s existing commodity mix. It has 32 drill rigs and is involved with work primarily in Victoria and New South Wales, where Mitchell already has a small presence.

Deepcore is majority owned by founder Scott Tumbridge, who will be invited to join the Mitchell board as an Executive Director after the transaction is completed; expected to be by end-2019. Deepcore had 2019 financial revenues of A$46.5 million and EBITDA of $6.3 million.