Directors of an Aberdeen subsea technology firm have bought it out for an undisclosed sum.
The new owners of Rotech Group aim to strengthen its position as the world leader in subsea mass-flow excavation.
Existing shareholder Dr Don Stewart, along with Stephen Cochrane, Martin Graham and Steve Aitken and chairman Mike Hill, will lead the Mastrick-based firm’s three operating companies – Rotech Subsea, Rotech Engineering, and Rotech Fabrication following the management buyout (MBO).
The deal marks an exit for Mr Stewart’s brother Ken, who created Rotech from a buy-out from Dutch company Volker Stevin in 1986.
The directors said the move heralds “a new phase of investment” by firm in the growth and development of its subsea excavation business.
The company recently deployed its new, improved ‘RS’ Controlled Flow Excavation technology which it believes is set to “revolutionise the sector”.
Mr Stewart – a 20-year veteran of Rotech – said: “We are delighted with this opportunity to grow and move the business in a new direction. As a team we go back a long way with Rotech, having worked extremely well together over many years, and look forward to this exciting new chapter for the company.
“Despite the challenges facing the off-shore industry we are pleased to be delivering the growth of our subsea business particularly in the offshore renewables and power cable sectors. “As the new owners we intend to deliver our ambitious and fully-capitalised business plan, focused on the growth and development of our subsea excavation business.
“The new company structure sees us boast a strong balance sheet, enabling the growth of the new business which will see Rotech Engineering continuing to develop innovative new designs, Rotech Fabrication building the new fleet, and Rotech Subsea operating these state-of-the-art tools with an excellent on and off-shore team.”
Steve Aitken, fabrication director, added: “This change means that even during these tough times for the industry we’ll be able to continue providing the best quality service to our external customers, while fabricating the best quality equipment for Rotech Subsea.”
Subsea Director Stephen Cochrane said: “We take pride in listening to our customers and have introduced the new RS equipment range which is a radical change to subsea excavation technology. Benefiting from 30 years of offshore experience – but applying the latest in state of the art engineering design expertise – we are able to offer bespoke solutions to our customers.
“There has been tremendous demand for this next generation RS equipment, which efficiently creates a deeper and narrower trench with the added benefit of backfilling capabilities for cable protection,” added Cochrane.
“With this MBO Rotech Subsea are well positioned to deliver more services to the renewable, oil & gas, and decommissioning markets worldwide.”
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