Thursday 11 August 2016

Struggling UK marine and subsea contractor IMES has been bought out by a compatriot player after it entered administration.

The Aberdeen-based inspection, monitoring and engineering services provider has been snapped up by Glasgow-headquartered Seanamic Group for an undisclosed sum.

All 49 employees of IMES have transferred over to the new owner, including the 23 based in the UK oil capital of Aberdeen. The remainder are based at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Sheffield and Rosyth.

KPMG was appointed administrator of IMES on Wednesday, at the request of directors, after the company hit financial headwinds in 2015 when the slump in oil prices led to orders drying up.

The directors tried securing new investment but, when that failed began to market the company, leading to a preferred bidder being identified. This meant that the company was sold to Seanamic directly after it went into administration.

Joint administrator and UK head of restructuring for KPMG, Blair Nimmo, said: “In these difficult times for the oil and gas sector in particular, we are pleased to have concluded the sale to Seanamic Group, which will safeguard the jobs of the company’s employees, preserve customer service and provide the best available outcome for all stakeholders of IMES.”

Nimmo continued: “The administration of IMES is another example of the current challenges in the oil and gas sector whilst also demonstrating that there is appetite for investment in stressed and distressed businesses in the sector.”

IMES provides lifting and inspection, wire rope inspection and management, subsea diagnostic tooling, load monitoring and measuring systems, engineering and design consultancy and marine safety systems services.

Seanamic provides surface to seabed systems to the oil & gas, offshore cabling, diving, oceanographic, seismic and naval defence industries. It also has an outlet in Texas.