PRODRILL Engineering said yesterday it had completed a management buyout (MBO) from Aberdeen-based Sovereign Oilfield Group for £2.25million, and would now trade under the new name of Prodrill Energy Resource Solutions.
The international drilling recruitment specialist is now owned by its managing director, Louise Wood, and business-development director Mike Macdonald, plus Sovereign directors Graham Burgess, Peter Felter and Julie Cowie, who are also on the board of Prodrill’s parent, Claymore Investments.
The MBO is said to follow three years of significant growth under Ms Wood’s leadership. She said: “Prodrill has a 25-year trading history and has seen an increase in turnover of 26% from 2007 to 2009. Although there is currently some uncertainty within the global oil and gas sector and fluctuation of the oil price, we have sustained growth.
“We are confident that the established management team and shareholders have both the commercial and market experience to take the business forward. We also anticipate a strengthened oil price to deliver sales in line with our forecasted growth.”
Prodrill has customers in more than 15 countries worldwide. It said that as international oil firms diversified drilling activities into emerging markets it would continue to develop the range of services offered by its 5,000-strong worldwide pool of consultants.
The company itself directly employs 10 staff.
The MBO is the latest in a series of divestments by Sovereign this year including subsidiary Vertec Engineering and the cabin-rental fleet of Labtech to reduce debt and focus on its core drilling and fabrication businesses.