Babcock International

Babcock International Group plc

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: BAB
Industry	Support services
Founded	1891 (1891)
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Area served	worldwide
Key people	Mike Turner (Chairman)[1] Archie Bethel (CEO)[2]
Revenue	UK£4,842.1 million (2016)[3]
Operating income	UK£387.1 million (2016)[3]
Net income	UK£291.1 million (2016)[3]
Total assets	US$8.41 billion (2016)[4]
Number of employees	35,000 (2017)[5]
Subsidiaries	Cavendish Nuclear Babcock Mission Critical Services Onshore Babcock Mission Critical Services Offshore Babcock Mission Critical Services (Australia) Babcock Mission Critical Services Italia Babcock Mission Critical Services Germany Babcock Mission Critical Services España Norsk Helikopterservice Scandinavian AirAmbulance Babcock Marine WRN Broadcast Conbras Serviços Técnicos de Suporte LTDA
Website	www.babcockinternational.com

Babcock International Group plc is a British multinational corporation headquartered in the United Kingdom, which specialises in support services managing complex assets and infrastructure in safety- and mission-critical environments. Although the company has civil contracts, its main business is with public bodies, particularly the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence and Network Rail.

The company has four operating divisions with overseas operations based in Africa, North America and Australia. Babcock is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

1867 to 2000

Babcock International traces its history back to 1891 when the American Babcock & Wilcox Company formed a separately financed (capitalised at £250,000 initially) British company called Babcock & Wilcox Ltd. The initial board members of the British company included the renowned Scottish structural engineer Sir William Arrol and Andrew Stewart, of the Lanarkshire based steel tubemakers A & J Stewart & Menzies, subsequently Stewarts & Lloyds.^[6]

The company's sphere of operation was defined as 'the world except for North America and Cuba' which was the reserve of the US Babcock & Wilcox.^[6] For a few years B&W boilers were built in the Singer Manufacturing Company's Kilbowie Works at Clydebank near Glasgow, Scotland.^[6] Isaac Singer was a significant shareholder in Babcock & Wilcox.^[7]

In 1895, Babcock & Wilcox Ltd opened a new boilermaking works, based on the 33-acre (130,000 m²) site of the Porterfield Forge on the opposite side of the River Clyde near Renfrew.^[6] The Renfrew Works grew to over 200 acres (0.81 km²) by the 1960s. The workload expanded as a result of the two world wars and the supply of defence equipment became another major business area. During the 1940s, the workforce at Renfrew peaked at approximately 10,000. In the 1960s, the company became involved in the development of the nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom.^[6]

In 1979, Babcock & Wilcox Ltd was renamed Babcock International Ltd. This company was floated on the stock exchange in 1982, becoming Babcock International PLC. Babcock & Wilcox (Operations) Ltd was renamed Babcock Power Ltd which subsequently became Babcock Energy Ltd. In 1987 Babcock merged with FKI Electricals plc, another engineering company to form FKI Babcock PLC. In February 1989 FKI Babcock PLC demerged to form Babcock International Group PLC and FKI plc.^[8]

In 1995, a 75% stake in the boiler manufacturing and energy services activities (originally the core businesses of Babcock), by then known as Babcock Energy Ltd, were sold to Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding of Japan, and became Mitsui Babcock Energy Ltd.^[9]

In November 2006, Mitsui sold the company to Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction a subsidiary company of the Doosan Group of South Korea: at that time the ompany was renamed Doosan Babcock Energy Ltd.^[10] In September 2009, the Czech based steam turbine maker, Skoda Power, became part of Doosan Babcock Energy Ltd, the latter being renamed Doosan Power Systems Ltd in 2010.^[11]

2000 to 2010

In 2000, Babcock took the strategic decision to move away from manufacturing towards maintaining and supporting the critical equipment and infrastructure of customers. In 2002, Babcock was reclassified on the London Stock Exchange from Engineering to Support Services.^[12]

On 19 June 2002, the Company acquired Service Group International Ltd, a provider of support services in defence and civil markets.^[9] It successfully bid for Peterhouse Group plc and on 18 June 2004 its bid was declared unconditional as over 50% of shares were held.^[9] On 30 September 2004, it acquired Turner and Partners, a provider of professional services to the telecoms industry.^[9]

On 9 May 2006, it went on to acquire Alstec Group Ltd, a nuclear and airport services operator,^[13] and on 13 June 2006, it bought the high voltage power lines and mobile telecoms business of ABB South Africa (Pty).^[9] On 10 May 2007, 19 million new shares were placed to fund acquisitions and on 28 June 2007 it acquired Devonport Management Limited, operators of the Devonport Dockyard nuclear submarine and surface vessel facilities and Appledore Shipbuilders.^[14]

On 25 July 2007, the United Kingdom Government announced that the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, of which Babcock International is a part, would carry out final assembly of two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy at their Rosyth Dockyard.^[15] On 7 August 2007 acceptances for the acquisition of International Nuclear Solutions PLC reached 58.9% of issued share capital, and a takeover was then completed.^[16] On the 22 April 2008 to further strengthen the brand in the Nuclear sector and submarine support sector, Babcock acquired Strachan & Henshaw from the Weir Group for £65m. This purchase brought a company with over 50 years of experience in high integrity material handling.^[17]

In September 2009, Babcock acquired the UK Atomic Energy Authority's commercial arm, UKAEA Ltd. This extended Babcock’s existing nuclear skills, bringing additional expertise in waste categorisation, decommissioning of high hazard facilities, encapsulation and storage of hazardous materials and transportation of waste. The deal also provided Babcock with its first operational Tier 1 position in the civil nuclear market and a direct relationship with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, complementing its existing Tier 1 position in the military nuclear market.^[18]

2010 to present

In March 2010, Babcock acquired VT Group for £1.32bn or 750p a share. Babcock offered 361.6p a share in cash, as well as 0.7 new Babcock shares for each VT Group share. The acquisition was completed on 8 July 2010. The combined companies created a defence and support services group with sales of £3bn and more than 25,000 employees in Britain and the US.^[19]

In April 2012, Babcock Dounreay Partnership (BDP), a consortium of Babcock International Group PLC (50%), CH2M Hill (30%) and URS (20%) was selected as preferred bidder and eventually awarded a £1.6bn contract by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority for the management and decommissioning of the Dounreay nuclear site in Scotland.^[20]

In May 2012, Babcock was awarded a £15m contract by the Ministry of Defence to support the design of the United Kingdom’s next generation nuclear armed submarines.^[21] Babcock agreed in March 2014 to buy the helicopter services company Avincis Group for £1.6 billion.^[22] Avincis was subsequently rebranded under the Babcock name in January 2015.^[23]

In July 2013, the Support Services division acquired Conbras Serviços Técnicos de Suporte LTDA in Brazil for a cash consideration of £18.2 million plus deferred consideration of £4.4 million.^[24]

In August 2014, Babcock issued a statement declaring that there would be job losses at HMNB Clyde if Scotland were to vote in favour of independence in the 2014 Referendum.^[25] In October 2014, Babcock and BAE Systems won contracts from the Ministry of Defence worth a total of £3.2 billion to maintain British warships, submarines and naval bases for the following five years.^[26]

In November 2014, Babcock was named as the British Government's preferred buyer of the land repair and maintenance business of the Defence Support Group, an executive agency and trading fund of the Ministry of Defence. The sale and transfer to Babcock was completed on 1 April 2015.^[27]

Operations

The company is organised into four divisions: Marine, Land, Aviation & Cavendish Nuclear.^[3]

References

External links

• Official website

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