TANFIELD is set to receive a £3.5m cash boost from its US associate company, which took over the majority of its electric van-making interests at the start of the year.

Tanfield, which now concentrates on its Snorkel aerial lifts business, has also taken a £1.25m convertible note in Smith Electric Vehicles US Corp (Sevus), after Sevus raised £18.8m in a private share placing.

The Washington-based business sold the majority of its electric van business to the US company in a £9.4m deal at the turn of the year.

The £3.5m will be paid in the final quarter of this year as a final deferred payment from the deal. Tanfield originally retained a 32% stake in Sevus but after the latest placing and conversion of the note, it will hold just over 27% of the enlarged share capital. Around 100 North East workers are employed by Smith Electric Vehicles.

Tanfield agreed to the original deal to consolidate the US and UK electric vans businesses in order to focus on its cherry picker business.

Roy Stanley, chairman of Tanfield and Sevus, said: “The order book at Smiths is very strong at the moment and growing all the time.

“The money that is coming across will be working capital used to support the order book for aerial access equipment.

“Sevus is growing substantially and money from that will come back to support Smiths, which after a tough few years is now really getting back where it should be. That is a tribute to its North East workforce.”