INTEGRATED Subsea Services (ISS) has established ISS Africa through a strategic joint venture with South African diving company Cape Diving.
In a multimillion deal, the Aberdeen-headquartered diving, ROV and survey support services business has acquired a stake in the Cape Town-based firm.
ISS Africa will focus on building a presence in the burgeoning offshore West Africa market, where ISS itself has recently started to operate.
Buying into Cape Diving will help to significantly expand the international reach of the Scottish company, which is active in Europe, the Caspian, south-east Asia and Australia.
Ian Herd, the founder and managing director of ISS, told Energy: “Through this joint venture with Cape Diving, ISS will be able to fast-track its growth in South and West Africa.
“This deal effectively combines our considerable resources and expertise with the existing local knowledge and established infrastructure of Cape Diving to get us up and running quickly in West Africa.
“With significant deepwater projects taking off in West Africa, there is high demand for an independent provider of subsea services and we anticipate continued growth in this marketplace in the next five years.”
Established in 1962, Cape Diving is the oldest underwater services contractor in South Africa and has 100 staff. Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) intervention services were introduced in 2003 and the company currently operates four vehicles, including eyeball ROVs, electric inspection-class vehicles and a 100hp drill-support package.
ISS currently has an annual turnover of around £85million.
It employs about 600 people worldwide and operates from bases in Aberdeen, Singapore, Baku and Perth, Western Australia.