CiDRA Transitions Another Business to a Global Scale

CiDRA transitions another business to a global scale by selling its oil and gas metering business to the Expro Group of the United Kingdom On June 24, 2008, CiDRA completed the sale of its oil and gas metering business to the Expro Group of the United Kingdom for $60.5 million. Expro will operate the business under the name Expro Meters. This sale represents a natural transition of a business developed by CiDRA to a company with a global sales and service reach that can take it to the next level.

The Expro Group is headquartered in the United Kingdom, and has regional offices throughout the world. It is one of the fastest growing companies in the oil field services industry with a global customer base. CiDRA also announced plans to address the company's continued expansion of its oilsands, minerals processing, chemical management for pulp and paper, as well as power generation businesses through newly created subsidiary corporations for each of these businesses.

The transaction with Expro Group also marked CiDRA's third sale of a business unit since 2001 and highlights CiDRA's business model of developing measurement tools and services targeted at process optimization for the expanding energy and natural resources markets. CiDRA will continue to provide products and further develop and deliver services for minerals processing, oilsands processing, power generation and pulp and paper industries. According to Stephen Ashford, vice president for strategy and marketing for CiDRA, “CiDRA is always searching for partners that have a clear vision for the industries they serve and can combine the innovative industrial measurement products and services that CiDRA continues to develop, for rapid integration into existing global service infrastructures.” The new oil and gas metering system was developed in collaboration with BP, Plc to meet specific field requirements.

Over the last four years, BP and CiDRA refined the technology and tested it through field trials which resulted in a distinctive product with broad industry applicability. “We are very high on the Expro Group and feel that Expro represents a perfect fit for our oil and gas business,” said Kevin Didden, president and CEO of CiDRA. “Expro is in a great position to serve the entire oil and gas exploration and production industry, and the Expro Group has the management team, the vision, and the drive to do so.

These are all the right attributes from a partner that can leverage and bring to the larger market CiDRA's proven track record of delivering innovative measurement tools and services. We see this as a perfect bolt-on acquisition for the Expro Group.” CiDRA has been aggressively developing various service offerings related to flow management and assurance, pipe wear monitoring, and overall plant monitoring and process optimization in mining, oilsands and pulp and paper applications. CiDRA products and services are being used by over 250 customers in 21 countries.

CiDRA's newest venture is in the power generation field. It is working to tailor a broad product and service offering to enable operators to reduce emissions and improve efficiencies in the operation of coal-fired power plants. Coal-fired power plants typically operate at sub-optimum efficiency due to imbalances in the air-fuel ratios in the fuel pipes leading to the burner.

Recognizing a lack of real time monitoring of coal flow in coal fired power generation plants, CiDRA Power has entered the market to serve this need.. Thu Jun 2008 12:06 (6 months, 2 weeks ago)