Costain acquires oil & gas engineer

ClerkMaxwell provides front-end engineering and support services in the upstream oil & gas sector. Clients include Chevron, BG and ConocoPhillips.

Purchase price for 100% of the shares is an initial £3.2m, plus possible later payments, based on performance over the next three years.

The senior management team of ClerkMaxwell, all of whom were shareholders in the company, and the 50-strong workforce, will be integrated into the Costain’s energy & process division.

In 2010, ClerkMaxwell reported EBITDA of £400,000 and pre-tax profit of £300,000 on revenues of £4m. It has gross assets of £1.1m  and is being acquired on a debt and cash free basis.

The majority of ClerkMaxwell is being acquired from its senior management team and a private individual investor. The call option to acquire the remaining stake is between Costain and Meteor Investments.

Commenting on the acquisition, Costain chief executive Andrew Wyllie said: "We are delighted to have acquired ClerkMaxwell. It is absolutely in-line with our strategy of broadening our existing front-end consultancy, project delivery and operations and maintenance offering through a combination of organic development and acquisitions. ClerkMaxwell is a fast growing business and will add complementary capabilities to our existing operations in the oil and gas sector, enhancing the full-service offering we can provide to our blue-chip customers."

ClerkMaxwell managing director John Wilson added: "Costain is the perfect home for ClerkMaxwell. We will bring additional skills and reach to an already strong oil and gas capability and Costain's established customer base will provide a major opportunity for us to realise our ambition of becoming a market-leading provider of value adding, front end engineering services."

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