Van Oord completed the acquisition of MPI Offshore, a specialist offshore wind installation contractor, from Vroon Group. By acquiring MPI Offshore, Van Oord will further strengthen its global wind organisation and in particular its position in the UK wind market.
The acquisition includes the MPI Offshore organisation in Stokesley (United Kingdom), the vessels MPI Adventure and MPI Resolution, and associated crew. A total of hundred people, both office staff and crew, will be joining the Van Oord UK organisation. Van Oord also acquired project contracts related to the vessels, i.e. offshore wind farms London Array, Prinses Amaliawindpark and Rampion.
The acquisition is fully in line with the company’s ambitions and investment programme for the coming years and it follows a number of strategic add-ons in recent years, which include the acquisition of Bilfinger’s offshore wind activities and Ballast Nedam offshore operations. Van Oord was assisted on this transaction by Kempen as its financial adviser.
Pieter van Oord: “The acquisition of MPI Offshore helps us to strengthen our position in the UK wind market, the largest offshore wind market in the world.”
Van Oord has been involved in many offshore wind projects in northwestern Europe since 2002. Van Oord has a healthy order book, including several large wind projects like Borssele III/IV in the Netherlands. The projects Norther in Belgium and Deutsche Bucht in Germany are currently being executed. Outside Europe Van Oord has been designated as preferred contractor for the Yunlin offshore wind project in Taiwan.