Castle Support Services, the successor company to the Birmingham industrial maintenance group Dowding & Mills, is planning to go global - beyond its existing presence in Europe, Australasia and North America.
This will probably involve a series of joint ventures like a £1.6 million deal struck in January to buy 50 per cent of Intersel, a Dubai company servicing generators and motors in the oil, gas and general energy industries.
"We will have to look at quite a few acquisition, joint ventures and such like so this business develops its position overseas," said Tudor Davies, a director.
"We have to talk about alliances. Because we are opening up discussions with a lot of people we have chosen to say what we are doing. Stories and rumours do go round."
In pursuit of this openness, Christopher Mills, Castle's chairman, stated with interim results yesterday: "Shareholders should be aware that the strategic review may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company."
Mr Davies stressed that this was not a signal that Castle was putting itself up for sale. But because it is likely to be involved in corporate activity it has drawn attention to a Takeover Code requirement that anyone interested in one per cent or more of its shares must declare any dealing in them by the following day.
He was speaking after Castle reported its first full six-month results since the reverse takeover of DM Technical Services, the re-named Dowding & Mills.
Castle was previously a "shell" company with a large pension surplus, which has now been used to offset Dowding's pension deficit. When the two schemes were merged last August they had a combined surplus of £14.4 million.
Cash raised from property sales helped prune back borrowings by £6.7 million to £17.4 million by the end of December.
An operating profit of £8 million on revenue of £55.4 million was up by the equivalent of 22 per cent.
There is no interim dividend and no realistic prospect of one at the full year.
The AIM-listed shares slipped 1p to 77.5p.
Mr Mills stated: "The strategic review will consider all alternatives where the potential to extend our range of skills and expertise and expand our geographic and customer coverage.
"These will include, but will not be limited to alliances, joint ventures or mergers and acquisitions involving existing maintenance and repair organisation, equipment manufacturers, or project engineering management organisations."
