Kent acquires majority stake in SNC-Lavalin’s oil and gas division
Firm says it has in excess of $500m in new contractual awards across its various regions and service offerings
Energy services firm Kent (formerly Kentech) has completed an acquisition of a majority stake in the oil and gas division of SNC-Lavalin. A minority portion is to follow later, the firm explained.
According to a statement, Kent now leverages the strength of leading players in the energy services sector: Kentech; the acquired businesses comprising SNC-Lavalin Oil and Gas; the Kentz business, and the oil & gas capabilities (offshore wind, hydrogen, CCUS, and low carbon solutions) of the former Atkins business.
The change of name to Kent is part of a major rebrand, thus reflecting a 100-year-old history, said the statement.
Kent is said to have issued $65m in an over-subscribed bond, alongside additional financial support from its majority shareholder, Bluewater, to accelerate its growth strategy, fund working capital and to fund the acquisition. The firm said it secured in excess of $500m in new contractual awards across its regions and service offerings year-to-date.
With this takeover, Kent is now a leading international integrated energy services partner, the statement explained. The combination is said to give the firm an expanded specialist talent pool, geographical reach and a robust balance sheet to compete for complex and technical projects. It makes Kent fully active in helping traditional upstream, midstream and downstream industries, and enables it to design, build and maintain across four main services: engineering and consulting; projects; completions, commissioning and start-up; and operations and maintenance, said an official.
“Following the acquisition of the SNC-Lavalin Oil and Gas division, we have become a leading player with international reach and full-service capability for energy, chemicals, renewables and low carbon industries. We are now fully equipped to meet the most challenging of technical projects and are ready to support clients in their energy transition ambitions, as the world moves towards a low-carbon economy,” said Kent CEO John Gilley.
The investments we have already made and the new ones we are making give us an enormous advantage, allowing us to undertake complex technical projects to support the needs of our clients across the full energy spectrum, he noted.
He concluded, “The expansion of our geographical reach into the Americas, Europe, the Caspian, the Middle East and Africa, give us truly global reach, allowing us to follow our clients wherever they may go and cater to their evolving needs.
Furthermore, the combination has made Kent home to 10,000 professionals, among the energy industry’s brightest and most innovative minds, who are working around the clock to find solutions to our clients’ most challenging requirements.”