A manager with a Oxfordshire firm that has just been sold to a banking group has reassured workers it is "business as usual".

Colin Sorrell, operations manager at Sifan in Witney, said there were no plans for redundancies among the 100-strong workforce following the takeover by the private equity arm of HSBC bank.

He added: "All that has happened is a change of ownership. There are no plans to make any employment changes.

"This situation is always a concern for people, but it is a matter of building confidence and showing our new owners we are as good as we believe we are."

The sale of Sifan, which makes outlets for gas central heating systems, by Smiths Industries marks the end of the multi-national engineering group's association with Witney which stretches back to the 1940s.

Smiths' once employed thousands of people making instruments and components for the Oxford-based car industry.

Mr Sorrell said some of the workers had been at the plant for 30 years.

Sifan was sold along with associated ventilation systems companies VentAxia and Torin, as well as Smiths' electrical cables business with about 970 staff in total moving to the new owner.

HSBC Private Equity spokesman Nigel Fairbrass said: "This is not an asset-stripping exercise.

"We are interested in growing the companies and see a lot of opportunities."