An Aberdeen-based mooring specialist has announced plans to move into new offices in the city as part of UK and international growth plans.
Viking Moorings – once part of Balmoral Group – said yesterday it had undergone a financial restructuring, including substantial investment understood to be into seven figures.
It is also carrying out a management shake-up after taking on a new chief executive, seeing it focus on four new geographical divisions covering the UK, Norway, Singapore and Australasia.
The firm plans to create a new corporate headquarters in Albyn Terrace in spring.
It has also set its sights on moving into the Gulf of Mexico in 2012 and wants to open an operation in Indonesia in addition to expanding the services it offers.
Viking, expected to turn over £60million this year, has operations at Altens, in Aberdeen, and Stavanger – its biggest market area – plus Singapore and Western Australia.
New chief executive Bill Bayliss has joined the company in September, replacing Wolfgang Wandl, now managing director of the Norwegian division.
Mr Bayliss said: “I am confident that the foundations we now have in place will allow us to build a much stronger business that will become a genuinely global market leader in 2012.
“The market is certainly improving as the industry drives to deliver more oil and gas in the areas in which we operate.
“I want to maximise opportunities created in a restructured business, to strengthen our global position and take advantage of the good oil and gas market.”
Viking was founded in 1985 as a subdivision, Balmoral Marine, of Balmoral Group.
It carries out engineering services, including mooring analysis and modelling for rig locations and moves, but wants to add broader asset-management services to its offering.
It has been the subject of several buyouts, first in a £21million acquisition by Inflexion Private Equity – a London-based investor – and then, in 2009, in a deal believed to be worth more than £180million with HSBC Private Equity (UK) becoming the majority shareholder.
The firm employs about 130 people, including about 40 in Aberdeen.
Mr Bayliss entered the oil and gas business in 1991 and has worked at Petrofac, where he set up an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning support business, and at Topaz Engineering in Dubai as chief operating officer.