Lime Rock backs ITS

UK oilfield equipment supplier ITS Group has raised US$55m from Lime Rock Partners, a US private equity firm focused on the energy sector.

The deal sees Lime Rock take a minority stake in the business, which will use the money raised to support its aim of becoming a global leader in the oilfield drilling sector.

Lime Rock managing directors Lawrence Ross, based in the firms Aberdeen office, and Saad Bargach, in Houston, USA, will join the ITS Group Board as non-executive directors to help provide strategic guidance to the company.

ITS was founded in Aberdeen in 1986 by Bob Kidd, now executive chairman. It has 25 facilities across the world with over 1,000 employees.

The company becomes Lime Rock’s 11th current investment in Europe, and its fifth in Scotland, the others being Gas2, a technology company in the gas-to-liquids market, Caledus, a specialist in oil and gas well construction, EnerMech, a crane business, and TWMA, a waste management company for the oil and gas sector.