Reef Subsea Acquires Rotech Subsea (UK)

Reef Subsea AS announced that they have acquired from Rotech Group 100% of their Rotech Subsea group of companies headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland.

With this friendly and strategic acquisition, Reef Subsea creates a world leader in Seabed Dredging and Mass Flow Excavation services with offices in the main subsea markets of the North Sea, Americas and Asia-Pacific. Rotech Group will concentrate its activities in the Engineering & Fabrication of fresh, innovative solutions for the oil & gas and renewable industries.

Reef Subsea will now be able to offer its clients in the Oil & Gas and Renewable industries one of the world’s largest capabilities in seabed dredging and excavation services. This will range from the precise seabed operations of Scanmudring machines (mainly Scanmachine and Scancrawler) to the mass flow excavation capabilities of Rotech Subsea systems (mainly T8000 and T4000).

Both Scanmudring – based in Norway – and Rotech Subsea – headquartered in Scotland – enjoy leading market positions in their respective niche. Their combined forces and presence will accelerate their global presence and add value to their clients’ projects. It will also allow them to target tenders which weren’t attainable before thanks to the combined offer of other Reef Subsea companies providing packaged / EPIC capabilities.

The move will also speed up and strengthen Reef Subsea’s presence in key subsea markets thanks to the Rotech Subsea’s existing bases and offices in Houston covering the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, in Singapore for the Far East and in Perth for Australia and surrounding countries.

Reef Subsea has been present in Aberdeen through Scanmudring Ltd and through Survey & ROV company Specialist Subsea Services (Sł). Launched in Aberdeen in 1994, Rotech has been market leaders in mass controlled flow excavation since 1998 and currently has three operating bases in Aberdeen, Houston and Singapore. With the divestment from Rotech Subsea activities, Rotech Group intend to further strengthen their R&D, engineering and fabrication capabilities based in Aberdeen.

Mark Preece, Reef Subsea Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am delighted we have come to an agreement with Rotech’s shareholder to bring such a powerful combination of dredging and excavation services to our clients. There is no overlap between Scanmudring and Rotech Subsea profiles and we expect their integration to be quick and easy. I am pleased to welcome Rotech Subsea management and employees into the Reef Subsea family, and particularly Tim Sheehan, Rotech Group CEO, who will become Reef Subsea COO.”

Ken Stewart, Rotech Group Managing Director, commented: “Rotech Holdings will continue operating as an engineering and fabrication business in Aberdeen. The deal with Reef Subsea allows us to return to the main roots of the company to focus on research and development projects. Our expertise in engineering will ensure that the

Rotech Group will continue to thrive as we develop new and innovative tools for the oil and gas industry to meet our customers various requirements.”

Reef Subsea AS is an international group providing cost-effective integrated subsea services to the Oil & Gas and Renewables industries. Its specialised subsidiaries – Technocean, Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical, Sł and Scanmudring – provide operators and contractors with highly experienced personnel, key subsea technologies and construction support vessels. Reef Subsea serves its clients in the deepwater or demanding environments of the North Sea, North Atlantic and South East Asia areas. Reef Subsea is a 50/50 owned company of GC Rieber Shipping and HitecVision.

Rotech is a technology-driven group of companies providing innovative products to the energy industry. The company’s headquarters are based in Aberdeen, Scotland, with additional operating bases in Singapore and Houston. Their main focus is the provision of subsea excavation services to the Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Salvage and Decommissioning markets. Rotech are industry experts in developing technology solution focused on subsea and drilling products for the oil and gas industry. Their subsea and renewable divisions complement their high quality engineering and fabrication service.

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Source: Reef Subsea, November 14, 2011