GL Acquires Advantica

Germanischer Lloyd acquires the British Advantica Holding, based in Loughborough, with 660 employees worldwide from National Grid plc. With this acquisition, Germanischer Lloyd will double its turnover in the oil and gas industry and significantly strengthen its position in the UK, Middle East and US markets. Advantica concentrates on oil and gas installations and pipeline networks and is therefore an expert for risk and safety analyzes, offering consulting services for installation design and the optimization of operations. To date, the Germanischer Lloyd Industrial Services unit has focused on asset and process safety, production know-how and inspections as well as evaluation of structures and safety related components. Advantica offers project consulting services for oil and gas production, storage, LNG terminals, pipeline engineering as well as gas, electricity and water distribution networks combined with the corresponding software solutions and consulting services for installation performance, maintenance and process control.

Currently, GL's Industrial Services unit has focused on Third Party certification and inspection, independent design verification, production monitoring of components and installations as well as risk-based inspections and condition surveys of production facilities both onshore and offshore. With the complementary services offered by Advantica, the GL range of services now extends across the asset life cycle. Advantica's specific strengths in safety and risk studies, asset performance optimisation, asset integrity management, planning and design solutions and software products enable the new, expanded group to offer a one stop solution for clients throughout the oil and gas sector.

Following the acquisition, Germanischer Lloyd will double the turnover in the industrial services unit to more than 200 million Euros. It is currently the fastest growing operating area of the Germanischer Lloyd Group based in Hamburg. Its international network will be expanded to more than 50 offices in 32 countries. The overall service spectrum comprises testing, certification and consulting services focusing on the oil and gas, wind energy, management systems and materials testing sectors.