Page 18: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q4 2014)

InsightsEnvironmental Services with Offshore Cleaning Systems to form Ecoserve, which they tout as the ? rst truly comprehen- sive solution to the management of oil and gas waste.? In the same month, DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) acquired Spatial Energy for $35.7 million. Both companies are based in Colo- rado and serve the oil and gas markets with geospatial data and analytics. DigitalGlobe is a full-service provider in the geospatial realm and Spatial?s cloud-based solutions enable the company to provide vital insights to their customers in the O&G vertical. Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) completed a couple of transactions in 2014 including the ac-quisition of Houston-based UniversalPegasus in May. Univer- salPegasus provides a range of project management, engineer- ing, design, survey, inspection and construction management to the energy and offshore markets ? terms of the deal were not disclosed. Earlier in the year, HII had acquired Colora- do-based environmental consulting company SM Stoller for $53.7 million and the company is actively seeking additional acquisitions. These presumably will all complement their ex- isting core businesses. After a string of American acquisitions of UK offshore com- panies in recent years, Aberdeen-based WS Atkins plc swam against the tide and added to its portfolio of acquired compa-nies when it bought Houston Offshore Engineering for $73 million in October 2014. HOE specializes in the design of offshore deepwater  oating production platforms. The HOE acquisition followed Atkins? purchase 130-person, US-based Nuclear Safety Associates, Inc. in late 2013. Equipment and Products M&A Deal  ow in offshore equipment and products segments so far in 2014 has been focused on relatively small, high-tech- nology product companies. An exception was private equity group KKR?s acquisition of Aberdeen, UK-based OEG Off- shore for $171 million in July. OEG manufactures and leases a range of specialized cargo carrying units used to transport equipment and supplies to and from rigs. Up the technology spectrum a bit was UK private equity house Dunedin LLP?s $117 million investment in EV Offshore, a provider of down- hole cameras and camera services to the offshore O&G indus- try. Both the OEG and EV deals can be thought of as Manage- ment Buyouts (MBO), where a private equity sponsor teams with the executive management team to acquire and grow the company. In a typical MBO, the private equity  rm will as- sume a controlling interest and management will retain sig-ni cant ownership, with the opportunity to earn more equity over time. In another technology-focused deal, Massachusetts-based Nova Instruments LLC acquired ultrasonic data acquisition company Technology Design Ltd from Oceaneering Interna- tional (NYSE: OII). Based in the UK, Technology Design 18 | Maritime Professional | 4Q 201418-33 Q4 MP2014.indd 1818-33 Q4 MP2014.indd 1811/17/2014 11:08:23 AM11/17/2014 11:08:23 AM