An Aberdeen oil and gas consultancy has said it has won £6million of new business this year despite being hit by the collapse of its owners into administration.
Project Development International (PDI) confirmed it “remains going concern” after several firms linked to Ceona Group were put into administration last week. But the firm added it was “currently looking at ways to minimise the impact on staff numbers” as a result of losing work from the failed shipping firm.
PDI curretly employs 100 in Aberdeen and London.
PDI, which was acquired by Ceona in 2012, said that its owners accounted for about 30% of its income.
The company said that the new contracts, which include “significant decommissioning scopes”, did not include any work won from Ceona prior to its failure.
Administrators are now trying to sell assets following the collapse, including the flagship Ceona Amazon deepwater vessel. EY retained 18 employees to work our the sale of the firm’s assets but 102 employees lost their jobs including 15 in Aberdeen and 37 offshore.
Both Ceona and PDI are backed by investment giant Goldman Sachs.
Mark Gillespie, managing director at PDI said: “Despite challenging market conditions, PDI operates a well-balanced business model benefiting from clients operating and decommissioning expenditure rather than purely capital expenditure. This has seen PDi secure over £6million in project awards in 2015 to date, excluding intercompany awards.
“The strength of this backlog means our revenue visibility is better than it has been at any point since the new management team were introduced.”
In a statement, a spokeswoman for PDI said: “PDi is wholly owned by the Ceona group.
“PDi is not in administration and remains a going concern.
“Ceona, which this week announced the appointment of administrators, previously accounted for 30% for PDI business. PDI is currently looking at ways to minimise the impact on staff numbers as a result of losing these projects.
“PDI is debt free with a positive cash position that has increased since its last published accounts.
“PDI sees no issues in maintaining its excellent track record of projects delivery, and paying its suppliers and staff in full and on time both now and in the future.”