A US helicopter company has hailed the acquisition of Scottish-based offshore aviation firm as "a great success".
The comments came after Babcock, the international aerospace, defence and security company, said it had completed the sale of its oil and gas aviation business to CHC Group for a cash consideration of £10 million.
The Scottish oil and gas business, which is part of Babcock's aviation sector, provides offshore crew transportation services in the UK, Denmark and Australia.
The Texas-based helicopter group said the move "reinforces CHC’s global position".
It said Babcock International’s operations in the UK, Australia, and Denmark will be held separately and operate independently from CHC, while CHC seeks approval from the relevant competition authorities in the UK and Australia.
David Balevic, CHC president and chief executive, said: “This acquisition is a great success, opening new and broader opportunities for CHC both in existing markets like Australia and the North Sea, and in new areas.
"It further cements CHC’s position as one of the world’s leading providers of helicopter transportation to oil and gas, search and rescue and renewables customers.”
READ MORE: Babcock sells Aberdeen offshore aviation business
The Babcock business is headquartered in Aberdeen and employs over 500 people, operating around 30 aircraft across its three locations.
For the year ending March 31, 2021, it had revenue of £154m, a loss before tax of £2m and underlying operating profit of £2m. As of March, it had gross assets of £256m, net assets excluding cash of £21m and net lease liabilities of £142m.
The sale is part of Babcock's targeted disposal programme, which aims to generate at least £400m. Proceeds from the Aberdeen transaction will be used to reduce net debt.
David Lockwood, Babcock chief executive, said: "This disposal is part of our plan to streamline and focus the group on our key markets."
He said divestment will enable it to "increase our focus as we return Babcock to strength".
He said:"The oil and gas aviation business has found a new home and we wish them all the best for the future."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here