Offshore wind firm expands with acquisition of ‘highly complementary’ subsea company

Offshore wind services company Venterra Group has acquired Oceanscan Holdings Limited, a group of companies that provide subsea and non-destructive test equipment, geotechnical services and specialist personnel to the offshore energy market.

Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Aberdeen with overseas subsidiaries in Houston and Singapore, Oceanscan is said to be “highly complementary” to Venterra’s service lines, particularly within geoscience and survey teams.

The company has four UK subsidiaries, including Oceanscan Limited which hires and calibrates hydrographic survey and ROV sensors and non-destructive test equipment and supplies personnel to Tier 1 offshore wind contractors, Hydrographic Personnel Resources (UK) Limited which delivers specialist personnel for offshore renewable energy projects with a focus on supporting construction and inspection, Geoforce Technical Services which provides cone penetration testing services for measuring in-situ soil conditions for offshore wind farm developments, and Sercal Non-Destructive Test Equipment which provides repair, sales and calibration services to the rail and power generation industries.

“Joining Venterra gives us a bigger platform from which to grow faster and across an even wider range of offshore wind markets. Combining our specialist equipment and geotechnical experience with the expertise that exists within Venterra means we will be able to offer an even more robust set of survey and geosciences services with greater international reach,” said Derek Donaldson, CEO of Oceanscan.

Venterra, established in 2021 by former Petrofac CEO Ayman Asfari and colleagues, said that the acquisition had been underpinned by a fifth equity raise led by the group’s cornerstone investors, General Atlantic and First Reserve, as well as through securing access to £110 million of bank facilities from HSBC, Natwest, Rabobank and Citibank to facilitate future growth.

Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions (GDG), Partrac, Balltec, Ordtek, INSPIRE Environmental, Naver Energy, Osbit, FoundOcean, and CAPE Holland are also part of the Venterra group.