12.07.2022

Altrad acquires Sparrows Offshore

French international scaffold and formwork contracting group Altrad has acquired Scottish international offshore crane services company the Sparrows Group from American private equity group, AEA Investors. AEA has owned the business since September 2012 having acquired it from CBPE Capital.

Sparrows has been providing a wide range of engineering, inspection, operations and maintenance services to the offshore energy, renewables and industrial sectors since the mid 1974. It operates across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Caspian, India, Asia Pacific and Australia.

The transaction includes Sparrows’ wind energy business Alpha and is understood to be a largely asset based transaction, although no details have been released. According to the original announcement, that a deal had been agree, back in March, “Sparrows will be run autonomously by its existing management as a separate entity within Altrad, ensuring operational continuity while providing access to Altrad’s extensive global network, multi-industry expertise and resources. Altrad’s experience and scale in the industrial services sector will support Sparrows to accelerate its diversification strategy in key markets.”

Altrad joint chief executive Ran Oren, said: “We are delighted to welcome Sparrows and its 2,000 strong team into the group. As the world’s leading lifting and handling specialist its level of technical expertise and experience is an extremely valuable addition to our capability. We are committed to investing in Sparrows to support its continued growth so together we can play our part in supporting industry to ensure safety and transition towards a more sustainable future.”

Sparrows chief executive Stewart Mitchell added: “This is a pivotal moment for Sparrows, the acquisition presents many advantages for us and our clients as we continue on our growth trajectory. We are a people business and being part of the Altrad group delivers even more opportunities for our people to develop fulfilling careers. By working together to share our skills and knowledge we will be able to support each other’s growth aspirations while our combined service offerings will allow us to deliver integrated solutions to global clients.”

Altrad was established in 1985 when Mohed Altrad, a self-made millionaire, acquired the ailing Mefran scaffold business. Based in Montpellier, southern France it has grown to include more than 80 companies with 200 active subsidiaries, spread over 59 countries with around 52,000 employees, €3.8 billion of revenues and €630 million of net debt. The company is 78 percent privately owned by founder Mohed Altrad, with the balance of shares being split between Synergie Finance (Arkéa Group), CM CIC Capital Finance, the French sovereign Fund FSI (Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement) and BNP Paribas Développement.

Sparrows Offshore Services was set up in 1973 by the UK based international crane rental business Sparrows. It was separated from the crane rental business after BET acquired the Sparrows group in a hostile takeover in 1985. In recent years it has been in the hands of private equity firms