Energy services group Senergy has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by Lloyd’s Register to create what is billed as an industry-leading assurance services player covering the “reservoir to refinery and beyond”.
A jobs boost for the north-east of Scotland is promised – perhaps another 200 over the next two years or so, which would bring Senergy’s complement up to around 1,000 mostly highly qualified professionals based out of Aberdeen.
Senergy will come under Lloyds Register’s LR Energy brand and join a stable that includes four other companies acquired in recent years.
LR’s energy director John Wishart told media attending day one of Offshore Europe 2013 that bringing Senergy into the stable would lift annual revenues past £500million a year versus the current figure of £350million.
Senergy’s turnover in the last financial year was £121m, making the investment the largest the Lloyd’s Register Group has made to date. Mr Wishart said the medium-term ambition is to grow LR Energy to a £1.5billion business over the next two to three years.
He explained that it would take three years to progressively acquire 100% of Senergy’s shares, but that LR had started the ball rolling by taking a majority stake immediately. The Press and Journal understands that all of Senergy’s shares are held within the company.
Senergy co-founder and CEO, James McCallum, will remain as chairman and the hope is that the entire management team will stay on board. In essence, the combined business will provide life-of-field assurance services from inception to decommissioning, also mid and downstream to cover refineries.
Expectation is that Senergy’s joining the LR family will offer opportunities for technical and consulting staff to work with leaders in the industry by providing cutting-edge services to customers.
“The investment in Senergy further expands our range of technical assurance services to the oil and gas sector, building on the complementary capabilities we have built up through the acquisitions of West Engineering, ModuSpec, ODS, and Scandpower,” said Mr Wishart.
“The combined entity is now the industry’s leading provider in supporting safe operations in the discovery of new energy resources.”
Mr McCallum has been casting around for about two years for what he described as the “right partner” to take Senergy to the next level.
Mr Wishart disclosed that the conversation between LR and Senergy began in May this year, but that the Scottish company had been on his radar prior to that.
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