John Lawrie Group acquired by its management team

(Photo courtesy of the John Lawrie Group.)

The John Lawrie Group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland, in the United Kingdom, has been acquired by members of its management team in partnership with London-based Rubicon Partners and investment firm Grovepoint, also based in London.

In the news release announcing the transaction, Lawrie Group says the move will help as it “gears up for an expansion of its business in the U.K. and United States.” Following the acquisition, all existing staff will remain with the company, according to the firm.

Lawrie Group was founded in 1930 by metal merchant John Lawrie in Aberdeen and now bills itself as one of Scotland’s largest privately owned businesses, with bases in Montrose and Evanton, Scotland, and in Houston in the U.S.

Four members of the company’s management team – CEO Vic Sinclair, Financial Director Charlie Parker, Operations Director Dave Weston and Tubulars Director Iain Laing – have bought out the former majority shareholder in partnership with Rubicon Partners and Grovepoint.

The four executives, who previously had been minority shareholders, credited Bank of Scotland and Santander for providing banking services to support the acquisition.

John Lawrie has three divisions that provide metal recycling and reprocessing, decommissioning and steel tubular services to the oil and gas, construction and utility sectors in the U.K. and to the North American market from its U.S. bases in Houston, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

“The commitment of the senior management team has helped make John Lawrie the industry leader it is today,” says Sinclair. “We enter this exciting new era as a financially strong and ambitious business backed by new investors who will help us drive further organic growth in both the U.K. and U.S. across all three of our divisions. We also intend to pursue new markets, including through acquisitions, in this partnership with Rubicon and Grovepoint.”

Parker says, “John Lawrie is a business with a proud past and an exciting future. We have a clear strategy for growth and that’s good news for all our stakeholders.”

The management team says opportunities for growth have been identified across the three divisions and a key focus for the Lawrie Group will continue to be the North Sea decommissioning sector, in which an estimated £17 billion ($22.5 billion) will be spent during the next decade.

The company indicates it has “progressively developed its decommissioning expertise over the past two decades [and] has carried out a wide range of projects involving the deconstruction, processing, recycling and disposal of redundant subsea materials.”