Indian industrial giant acquires historic Yorkshire engineering firm
mercredi, 10 mars 2010
Yorkshire based engineering group DavyMarkham has been sold to $1bn turnover Indian group Hindustan Dorr Oliver (HDO).
The deal sees the 180-year-old Sheffield heavy engineering specialist acquired by India’s leading engineering procurement and construction company which is a subsidiary of IVRCL Infrastructures and Projects.
The firm’s managing director, Kevin Parkin, the current Sheffield Business Person of the Year, and finance director, Duncan Hay, will continue in their current roles along with the rest of the management team of DavyMarkham.
“It is great news for DavyMarkham’s customers, employees and suppliers, since HDO along with its parent is financially very strong, is very growth orientated and dedicates itself to continuous improvement in all fields of its business,” said Mr Parkin.
“There are considerable synergies between ourselves and Hindustan Dorr-Oliver, as also IVRCL group and its commercial aspirations in markets like nuclear energy match ours perfectly.”
DavyMarkham is involved in the design, manufacture and assembly of large equipment used in the mining, quarrying, power generation, oil, gas and nuclear sectors and it operates in international markets with tunnelling and mine hoisting equipment.
IVRCL is a major player in the Indian infrastructure industry, with a group turnover exceeding $1bn and clients including the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited of India (ONGC), Nuclear Power Corporation of India, the Airports Authority, Indian Oil Corporation and Tata Steel.
It owns a controlling stake in HDO which is exploring business opportunities in oil and gas, power and uranium processing and this month announced moves into the nuclear power plant sector.
The acquisition of DavyMarkham gives it a entry into the heavy engineering sector for the first time.
The Sheffield-based company’s close physical and technical links to the nearby Nuclear Manufacturing Research Centre, should enable both concerns to develop world-class engineering and manufacturing facilities for supplying new-build nuclear energy markets. HDO also intends to build DavyMarkham’s presence in the oil, gas and power transmission markets, borrowing upon the group’s expertise and industry contacts.
In the mining industry DavyMarkham has supplied more than 300 hoists across the world for a variety of environments from the sub-zero winters of Northern Canada to the tropical temperatures found in the gold coast of Ghana.
The group has supplied the largest-ever steel mill stand for China, tower saddles for suspension bridges in Hong Kong and San Francisco, cutter heads for a variety of tunnelling projects including Niagara Falls hydroelectric project, railroad tunnels in China and an irrigation project under a tiger reserve in India.