Maven and Simmons fund new energy services group

Maven Capital Partners, in partnership with Simmons Parallel Energy, has led the £8.5m funding package to acquire two complementary and profitable oil and gas businesses, Roberts Pipeline Machining and Wellclad. Senior debt facilities have been provided by the Acquisition Finance Team at Clydesdale Bank PLC.

Maven has backed a highly experienced management team led by CEO Dave Sturrock who has over 25 years’ international oil and gas experience in senior executive roles, supported by Scott Martin who brings significant finance and M&A experience and a successful track record within PE backed oil services businesses.

The new group will be branded Glacier Energy Services and aims to provide customers with a range of world-class technologies from an existing manufacturing facility in Central Scotland. Glacier will focus on growth within its core UK market as well as promoting its technologies to the international oil and gas market. Both Roberts and Wellclad have delivered steady growth and consistent earnings over many years, and each has an established track-record and a strong international presence in key global energy markets including the North Sea, Middle East and West Africa.

Roberts designs and manufactures precision on-site portable cutting machines, offering a fast and economical solution to the machining needs of blue chip oil and gas clients such as Weatherford, Technip, Subsea 7, Acergy, FMC and Saipem. Wellclad is a market leading European provider of weld overlay and cladding services, for the cladding of alloy steels with a corrosion resistant alloy for offshore and subsea equipment, providing a cost effective surface treatment for components used in highly corrosive environments.

Both businesses operate in the subsea arena of the oil and gas industry, where the macro market factors are positive and indicate a marked shift towards offshore production, with more deep water developments and significant growth forecast in the need for support services for maintaining existing subsea infrastructure. Global investment in infrastructure support is forecast to grow threefold to $18bn by 2015, which presents the new group with an opportunity to significantly increase both scale and market penetration.

Dave Sturrock, Chief Executive Officer of Glacier Energy Services, said: "Our vision is to provide customers with world-class technologies and exceptional service. Both of the acquired companies, based in Scotland’s manufacturing heartland, boast a proven track-record and a solid oil and gas customer base. Glacier will expand and enhance the combined range of services through organic growth and strategic acquisitions."

The Maven investment was led by its Aberdeen-based energy investment team of Jock Gardiner and Ewan MacKinnon.

Jock Gardiner, Partner, commented: "We're delighted to have supported the acquisition of Roberts and Wellclad. Both businesses have performed robustly and been consistently profitable over recent years despite difficult economic conditions, and operate in the UK subsea sector where significant growth is forecast. The Glacier senior management team has considerable sector specific experience in the UK and international markets, and is well placed to achieve its plan to double revenues and profits over the next three years."