Three energy services firms in the north-east and two in England will in future be run under the umbrella of newly formed £500 million decarbonisation company D2Zero.
All five businesses are controlled by global private equity firm SCF Partners.
They include Aberdeen-based Hydrasun and Global E&C, and Peterhead-headquartered Score Group. The two English firms are Fuel Cell Systems and Powerstar.
It comes after more than a year of planning, including shareholder consolidation and restructuring.
Five firms making up D2Zero together employ 4,000 people
The five businesses have a combined workforce of 4,000 people and total revenue of about £500 million.
Aberdeen-registered D2Zero will focus on four key areas: emissions reduction; clean hydrogen; power efficiency and management; and carbon capture and storage.
It is hoped the group can break into new markets by leveraging the strengths of each portfolio business.
While the North Sea remains core, the move also has an international focus.
For example, D2Zero is targeting new work in Germany, Denmark and the US.
SCF Partners said it creates a “platform at scale”, with each firm having “unique capabilities” to decarbonise traditional energies and support emerging sources.
Bob Drummond, who has led Hydrasun since 2003, is leading D2Zero as chief executive.
The new group’s senior management team also includes the CEOs of each subsidiary.
Above them is a boardroom team including SCF partner and North Sea oil and gas veteran Colin Welsh, the group’s chairman.
We’ll see how quickly we can gain momentum with this effectively matrix organisation, with a new company overseeing it all.”
Bob Drummond, CEO, D2Zero.
Mr Drummond said the scale of the new group, in terms of its north-east footprint, was “quite large”.
He added: “It puts us right up there with the biggest companies around in terms of total employment.”
The five portfolio businesses will continue to be run independently but also work effectively as a “matrix”, with “strong operational and strategic overlap”, he said.
Mr Drummond stressed the move was all about strategic expansion.
It will also allow for greater service of projects at the “right scale”, he added.
New group already eyeing acquisitions
D2Zero’s CEO continued: “We’ll see how quickly we can gain momentum with this effectively matrix organisation, with a new company overseeing it all.”
The new group is already eyeing acquisitions, while Mr Drummond said news on the training and workforce front, among its priority focuses, could also be expected soon.
He added: “D2Zero stands at the forefront of the energy transition. We provide multiple decarbonisation and clean energy solutions, whilst also providing a range of mission critical products, services and solutions in support of our customers’ operations within key industry sectors.”
Mr Welsh said: “Bringing these businesses together is a key first step in creating a decarbonisation platform of scale that offers game-changing solutions across a range of technologies.”
D2Zero’s chairman previously spent 18 years in a high-flying role in the Aberdeen office of Simmons and Company International, now part of international investment bank Piper Sandler. He has been at the heart of many of the north-east’s top business deals,
SCF Partners, with headquarters in Texas in the US, boasts around £1.6 billion of assets under management.
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