Japanese engineering giant Hitachi Zosen has acquired Dubai-based electrochemical company Cumberland, for an undisclosed sum.
Cumberland’s electro-chlorination plant serves the desalination, power, oil and gas, petrochemical, wastewater treatment, and marine industries worldwide.
Britain-originated Cumberland will continue operations from its headquarters in Dubai, and from its engineering, sales and technical support offices in the UK, Singapore and India. Chief executive, Alistair Munro, and the existing management team will remain in place, and no redundancies are planned following the merger the company said.
Hitachi Zosen said Thursday Cumberland Group’s four water treatment businesses will widen its seawater electrolysis equipment lineup for overseas markets. Hitachi Zosen declined to disclose the purchase price.
The four companies provide engineering services involving seawater electrolysis equipment to small and midsize customers in the power generation, desalination, liquefied natural gas and petrochemical industries.
Hitachi Zosen, which currently focuses on large-size versions of the same types of equipment, said it aims to more than double its annual sales in the business to $70 million in five years.
The latest deal is part of an aggressive merger and acquisition strategy under Hitachi Zosen’s latest medium-term business plan. It plans to spend $400 million on mergers and acquisitions over the three-year period to March 2017, up from about $200 million yen spent over the previous three years.