Engineering firm Altrad Group has surpassed €5.3 billion (£4.5bn) in revenue for the 2023 financial year, an increase of 38% on its 2022 results after two years of “transformative growth”.
The completion of around 12 acquisitions over the past two years added an additional €1.5 billion (£1.28bn) in recurring revenue.
Altrad reported €674 million (£576m) in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) while its services order book grew to €5.7 billion.
North Sea firms played a part in the company’s “transformative growth”, after Altrad took over Aberdeen-based Sparrows Group in 2022.
The company further expanded its UK presence when it acquired Crawley and Renfrew-based engineering firm Doosan Babcock.
Altrad also completed its takeover of Muehlhan’s oil and gas business in Denmark and the UK in the same year, with the changeover of 750 North Sea workers.
Year of ‘One Altrad’
Speaking to Energy Voice, Altrad Group co-chief executive officer Ran Oren said the company’s focus in 2023 had been on integrating its newly acquired firms.
“We’re calling it the year of ‘One Altrad’, which we describe as the year of integration,” Mr Oren said.
© Supplied by Altrad“We’re making sure that all of our business come together, that we make the most of our opportunities [and] that we can find the right structure for the businesses.”
Mr Oren said after its rapid growth, which added 20,000 employees to the business in the span of two years, the company is pressing pause on its acquisitive journey for now.
“It’s actually a lot of work to integrate so many businesses in one go, so we put a pause on more growth and focused on integrate and finding the opportunities to grow,” he said.
“We’ll keep looking, we’ve got some things we’re looking at right now, but they’re going to be more modest and further apart [than previously].”
In total, Altrad now employs more than 60,000 people worldwide, and Mr Oren said the company’s results are a product of the efforts of its staff across the business.
North Sea success
The company has seen success it its overall North Sea strategy, securing a £150 million asset maintenance deal for a major operator in 2023 following on from a five-year deal with TotalEnergies the year prior.
Mr Oren said Altrad still views the North Sea as an attractive place to do business despite political wrangling over UK energy policy.
“We try not to get pulled into politics, we’re here to support our clients and I think that there is a delicate balance between the energy transition and the requirement for energy security and affordable energy as well,” he said.
© Supplied by Culzean platform“Our clients are making their own investments and moves and what we’re trying to do is be there to support them in whatever they seek to do.
“Particularly improving the efficiency of their assets… that alone has an impact, extension in the life of their assets, reducing new builds and decommissioning.
Renewables diversification
Mr Oren said Altrad sees its work in North Sea oil and gas continuing “for years to come”, but the company is also keen to diversify into emerging renewables sectors.
“We’re very keen on building with our clients the new opportunities in the energy transition, whether it’s carbon capture and storage, whether it’s in the hydrogen sector, energy from waste,” he said.
© Supplied by Altrad“We already are looking at some interesting projects worldwide and sharing that knowledge.
“In Australia, we’re working on some hydrogen projects and we’ll be able to bring that knowledge into the UK as that also develops.”
Transferrable skills for emerging sectors
Mr Oren said Altrad would likely target both acquisitive and organic growth in the emerging renewables sector.
“They are all relatively new industries, so it’s not like there are a lot of established players that have been there for a long time,” he said.
“But a lot of our skills are transferrable. When you’re providing pipe work, scaffolding insulation, asset integrity services, all of those services we provide are transferrable.
© Supplied by Altrad“Our workforce has a good opportunity to through the energy transition, to transition to related industries.
“But if the opportunity comes about on the M&A front, we would look at it in much the same way as when we bought Sparrows.”
Heading into 2024, Mr Oren said Altrad would be focused on delivering “more of the same” on the back of its strong financial performance in 2023.
“We still have high 20%, maybe 30% exposure to oil and gas. Nuclear is going from strength to strength and we are already very important players in the nuclear space, both in the new build with Hinckley, we’re looking at Sizewell as well… and in France,” he said.
“We see those as areas for growth… and [following] COP28 and the commitments around an increase in nuclear we’re very optimistic.”
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