Yokogawa Completed KBC Acquisition

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced that the acquisition of KBC Advanced Technologies plc (Headquarters: Walton on Thames, Surrey, UK) was implemented by means of court sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the UK Companies Act on April 7, and that KBC has now become a member company of the Yokogawa Group.

KBC is a successful provider of software and consultancy to the global oil and gas industry that is focused on achieving operational excellence and improving profitability for both the upstream (oil production) and downstream (oil refineries and integrated refining and petrochemical production complexes) segments. KBC has been providing a unique blend of advanced software for process optimization and simulation and consulting services based on this technology, and benefits from having a well-differentiated position in the market. Incorporated in the UK in 1978, KBC employs more than 300 staff primarily based out of three main hubs in the UK, USA and Singapore, plus a number of other smaller offices. KBC's clients include national oil companies (NOCs), international oil companies (IOCs), independent oil companies, and engineering companies. Yokogawa provides high-reliable control systems, field instruments for measuring temperature, flow, and pressure, and various other solutions that support safe and efficient operations.

As a result of this acquisition, Yokogawa will strengthen its position as an eminent player in the industrial automation sector by being able to provide a unique range of services and robust product portfolio, including consulting, packaged software, control systems, and sensors. This will allow Yokogawa to provide a one-stop solution to the entire spectrum, from client senior management on down to field operators, mainly in the oil and gas industry. The addition of KBC's customer base will also strengthen Yokogawa's business.

Under the Transformation 2017 plan, Yokogawa is striving to expand its solutions service business by engaging its customers in a co-innovation process that will add value by achieving a company-wide optimization of their business operations.  By merging KBC's advanced solution technology with Yokogawa's measurement, control, and information technologies, and the secure cloud platform that Yokogawa acquired through the acquisition of Industrial Evolution, Inc. in December 2015, the company aims to create new value and become the global leading company in the advanced solutions field.

Larry O'Brien, ARC Advisory Group, commented,  "​​​​KBC's expertise should be a great asset to Yokogawa. This marks the second significant acquisiton by Yokogawa this year in the process automation space, and is in line with the company's strategy to build its consulting services and advanced solutions businesses outlined in Transformation 2017.  KBC possesses an enormous amount of deep process knowledge and applications that can be effectively leveraged by Yokogawa's process automation business to provide a much more powerful value proposition for its customers."

Keywords: Upstream, Oil Production, Downstream, Oil Refineries, Oil & Gas, Process Optimization, Control Systems, Field Instruments, ARC Advisory Group.