Imtech, a technical services provider in Europe and on the global marine market, is expanding its marine services network with five new offices in France, Morocco and Spain. This concerns offices in Le Havre, Saint-Nazaire and Marseille in France and Tangier in Morocco following the acquisition of the French marine services provider ETNA, Etudes Techniques et Nouvelles Applications SA.

With its 15 employees, ETNA realises revenue of around 2.5 million euro annually. The acquisition will be paid in cash and will directly contribute to the earnings per share. In addition, Imtech has opened a new marine services office in Algeciras in Spain.

René van der Bruggen, CEO Imtech: ‘We have a strong position in the global marine market, are active in more than 20 countries and have, as sole marine technical services provider, more than 70 offices along all the important shipping routes. In our strategic growth plan 2015 we’re committed to strengthening considerably our marine activities to a revenue level of approximately 1 billion euro (2010: more than 500 million euro), both organic as well as through acquisitions. One of the growth areas is the international expansion of the number of marine services offices. In France, Imtech already has a service office in Antibes, mainly for luxury mega yachts. With the acquisition of ETNA, three French offices and one Moroccan office are being added to our marine services network. At the same time, we are opening our own service office in Spain. This will enable us to serve our marine customers in Southern Europe and North Africa considerably better, which will lead to further growth.’

Profile ETNA

ETNA is a small but strong player in the French marine market. The company has already been operating for many years with increasing success as marine services specialist for technical maintenance and management on the dozens of ships that visit the French ports of Le Havre, Saint-Nazaire and Marseille. The close relationship between France and Morocco led to a Moroccan office also being opened a number of years ago. In addition, ETNA is structurally active on a project basis in Tunisia and occasionally in other countries in North Africa. ETNA provides a wide range of electrical solutions on also almost all types of ships. A substantial part of its revenue is based on long-term cooperation agreements with customers.

Cooperation leads to growth

Via internal cooperation ETNA will very soon have access to Imtech Marine’s complete services package, enabling it to become active over a broader technical services area. This will lead to further growth. Furthermore, ETNA, under the strong financial wings of Imtech, will become a more powerful business partner, which will also lead to further growth.

Excellent track record at the new service offices

Imtech’s past record shows that it is exceptionally able to bring rapid growth to its marine services offices, whether newly-opened or obtained through acquisitions. A combination of local specialists and exceptionally well-educated service technicians work together to service existing, mostly internationally-operating, Imtech customers on the basis of ongoing service contracts. On this basis, Imtech works on more than 5,000 ships. With its distinguished service portfolio, Imtech is also able to act quickly to find new local customers and expand the services to these step by step. The combination of knowledge and technical competences, as well as Imtech’s state of the art marine services portfolio makes further growth possible. In this way, in areas such as China, around the Panama Canal and in the Caribbean area, Imtech has brought marine services offices, either opened or obtained through acquisitions, to rapid growth.

Further internationalisation

Within the framework of its growth strategy, Imtech Marine is further internationalising its activities, with success. In China the volume of activities in recent years has grown substantially. There are more than 400 employees here now. In 2010 Imtech acquired the strong Turkish marine technical services provider Elkon, which has given Imtech a basic position in this marine growth market. Very recently, the Canadian marine technical services provider Groupe Techsol was acquired, with which Imtech obtained a high-tech production site for the marine market in Canada and North America. Further internationalisation is foreseen.