It has also set up a new division, Costain Upstream, to provide services for upstream offshore oil and gas assets, combining EPC Offshore and ClerkMaxwell.
EPC Offshore was established in 2009 by CEO Keith Wallace as a field development and project management specialist for North Sea oil and gas companies. It has 75 employees and significant proprietary in-house systems and processes.
For the year to 31 July 2012, EPC Offshore had revenue of £11.7m and profit after tax of £1.1m. It also has gross assets of £3.3m.
As well as the initial £9.6m (plus £1.0m for the excess cash in bank), Costain will pay an additional £2m to £14.4m, depending on the financial performance of the business up to 2016 and the retention of key employees.
Costain said ClerkMaxwell had doubled in size since its acquisition in 2011 and, by combining it with EPC Offshore, the newly-formed Costain Upstream was now well placed in the £13bn UK offshore field development market.
Costain Upstream will be led by EPC Offshore’s Keith Wallace and based in Aberdeen with operating and support units in Maidenhead, Teeside, Manchester and Abu Dhabi.
Costain CEO Andrew Wyllie said: “We are delighted to welcome EPC Offshore to the Costain Group, in an acquisition which will accelerate our stated strategy of broadening our range of capabilities in response to the requirements of major blue chip customers.
“The formation of Costain Upstream will significantly enhance our position in this sector, and the acquisition of EPC Offshore will boost its growth, complementing the front-end engineering and operations capabilities we acquired with ClerkMaxwell two years ago.
“There is a sizeable addressable market for these highly complex services and we see further compelling opportunities to grow our oil and gas footprint both in the UK and internationally.”
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