About 200 workers at a north-east energy service firm have a brighter future after a £16million private-equity investment in the parent, its boss said yesterday.
PD and MS Energy (Aberdeen) managing director Dave Mackay said the injection of cash into Middlesbrough-based owner Wilton Group meant new opportunities for growth.
The investment has come from Barclays Private Equity (BPE) – part of banking group Barclays – in return for a “significant” minority stake in Wilton.
A spokesman for BPE said the size of its shareholding was not being disclosed.
PD&MS – formerly Project Design and Management Services – operates from four locations in the Granite City, having recently taken on extra accommodation to house its 200 staff as demand for its services grows.
Mr Mackay said BPE’s involvement was likely to lead to more jobs, adding: “It will fund growth and allow us to go after bigger projects.”
Wilton provides project-management, design, fabrication, installation and testing services for the energy sector.
Its Aberdeen subsidiary, which has a sister firm in the north-east of England – PD&MS Energy (Teesside) – supplies integrated services to the oil and gas, drilling, production and marine industries. The Aberdeen business was acquired by Wilton Engineering Services (WES) two years ago, with the PD&MS offices on Teesside opening in 2009.
Four PD&MS directors became shareholders of WES as a result of the 2008 takeover. They included Arthur Coakley, who was one of 228 people killed when an Air France plane crashed into the Atlantic on June 1 last year.
BPE’s stake in Wilton adds to a specialist engineering portfolio that already includes Aberdeen-based Hydrasun, which makes oilfield hoses, connectors and components.
Steve O’Hare, a regional director at BPE, said that Wilton had become one of the UK’s leading providers of project management, design and fabrication to the energy sector, adding: “It has considerable potential for organic growth, particularly through its PD&MS business, which has consistently exceeded growth targets since the group acquired it in 2008.”
He added that an absence of bank debt at Wilton meant the group was well placed to make strategic acquisitions to improve both service offering and market position.
Wilton chief executive Bill Scott said: “The next stage of the development of the group is to further penetrate the UK energy sector and to focus on expanding into a number of overseas markets.”
