Scottish subsea manufacturing specialist HCS Control Systems has been snapped up in a £9million deal financed mainly by private equity.
The new owners of the Fife-based business have plans to open an Aberdeen base to position it at the heart of the UK oil and gas sector.
Front Row Energy Partners, a group of 10 upstream industry experts who put money into businesses alongside other investors, are chipping in £1million of their own cash.
The new management team at HCS will be led by Brett Lestrange, who held a number of senior roles at Aberdeen-based energy service firm Expro Group.
HCS’s new chairman will be Graeme Coutts, who has more than 30 years’ international upstream services experience with Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Expro.
Mr Coutts was chief executive at Expro – a former FTSE 250 business with 4,500 employees – and oversaw an institutional buyout of the firm in 2008 to the Umbrellastream consortium, comprising funds managed or advised by Candover Partners, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and AlpInvest Partners.
Another former sales director at Expro, Tony Kitchener, is to become HCS’s business development director.
Kenny Balfour, who co-founded HCS in 1997 and is responsible for product quality, manufacturing, operations and human resources, will be the firm’s chief operating officer.
Making up the Glenrothes-based company’s new-look management team will be Neil McGuinness, as finance director.
The bulk of the investment in HCS is from Simmons Parallel Energy Fund (SPEF) – a subsidiary of specialist energy-industry corporate-finance adviser Simmons and Company International, and Maven Capital Partners, which was founded four years ago to acquire the private equity business of Aberdeen Asset Management.
SPEF managing director Frank Summers said: “We and our co-investors see excellent opportunities ahead to create value within the company through fast-tracking its development.
“With the senior management team’s extensive industry experience and contacts, we expect HCS to quickly exploit new opportunities within the North Sea and internationally.”
Jock Gardiner, Aberdeen-based partner at Maven, added: “HCS, with its niche position in a fast-growing market and robust management team, will undoubtedly deliver results for our investors.”
HCS, which employs 55 people and turned over £7.8million last year, specialises in hydraulic and electrical systems for the oil and gas industry.
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