Coflexip Stena Offshore acquires UK robotics company

Citation

(2000), "Coflexip Stena Offshore acquires UK robotics company", Industrial Robot, Vol. 27 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2000.04927fab.009

Coflexip Stena Offshore acquires UK robotics company

Keywords: Robotics, Mergers and acquisitions

Coflexip Stena Offshore (CSO), has announced that it has it has finalized the acquisition of a UK based Robotics company, Slingsby Engineering Ltd, from Flight Refuelling Ltd, a subsidiary of Cobham plc (CCIM GR), a major UK public engineering, aerospace and defence group.

Slingsby Engineering Ltd (SEL), based in Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire, UK, has a long history as a specialist robotics company with a strong record in robotic engineering, innovation and product development. Revenues in 1999 were approximately US$11 million generated from a workforce of approximately 110. The current SEL product range represents specialist workclass ROVs, such as the Olympian, MRV® and Spartan, and a highly developed suite of componentry, from advanced manipulators to specialist tooling systems.

Within the CSO Group, SEL will be operated within the group's Robotics Division, also including Perry Tritech Inc. (PTI). The Robotics Division will operate under the name Perry Slingsby Systems and will be managed by Allen Leatt, president and CEO of Perry Tritech.

Based in Jupiter, Florida, Perry Tritech is recognised as the world leader in the design and manufacture of subsea remotely operated vehicles and related equipment. A CSO Group entity since its acquisition in 1992, PTI has developed, for over 30 years, subsea intervention technologies for the oil and gas, telecommunications and other specialist markets.

Perry Slingsby Systems will have two manufacturing plants located in the UK and the USA with a workforce of approximately 240 employees. Pro forma combined turnover would have represented c. US$50 million in 1999.

Tom Ehret, chief operating officer of the CSO Group, stated: "SEL is a very good fit for Perry Tritech. The merging of Perry Tritech's strong production capabilities and market presence with SEL's additional engineering and componentry skills is a very good platform from which to reshape the technologies necessary for advanced robotic intervention in ultra deepwater. As the pace of offshore developments in very deepwater increases around the world, the critical nature of these intervention technologies can only be expected to increase in importance and value. Our robotics strategy is for Perry Slingsby Systems to be the leader in this field and the first choice supplier to the oil and gas, international cable and other related industries.

"We, in CSO and Perry Tritech, are pleased to welcome Slingsby personnel and managers. We are confident in their capacity to join us and create, within Perry Slingsby Systems, the 'best in class' robotic systems supplier for the years to come, specially in deepwater."

Claiming to be a world leader in the subsea oilfield service industry, Coflexip Stena Offshore provides a wide range of services (project management, engineering design, procurement, subsea pipeline and umbilical laying, construction and maintenance work) and products (design and manufacture of flexible pipes, control umbilicals and remotely operated vehicles).

For further information about the CSO Group and Perry Tritech, please feel free to connect on: www.coflexip.com and www.perrytritech.com