SOUTH coast marine instrument company Brookes & Gatehouse (B&G) has been sold by Yeoman Group plc to Norwegian marine electronics manufacturer Simrad, part Kongsberg Gruppen, for £2.7m.

B&G designs, manufactures and distributes marine navigation hardware and software for the racing yacht market.

The firm has been established for almost 50 years and employs 45 people at its Romsey headquarters, with subsidiaries in the USA and France. Its products are used on high profile boats such as Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher.

The sale of B&G was initiated to allow Lymington based Yeoman Group plc to concentrate on rolling out mobile phone based navigation and traffic products.