Portfolio
GES-Global Energy Services
| Sector | Industrials |
|---|---|
| Investment type | Buyouts |
| Region | Spain |
| Status | Current investment |
Nature of Business
GES is the international leader in wind farm construction and maintenance. The company has a list of well-recognised clients including Repsol, Cepsa, EDP and Vestas.
GES was founded in Spain in 1982 as part of the giant Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica S.A. (Gamesa), which generates electricity from renewable sources and supplies advanced products to the renewable energy sector. During Gamesa’s ownership, GES began to develop an international presence, with operations in Germany, Italy and Portugal, where the development and implementation of wind energy is already a well-established industry.
Investment Overview
3i’s investment in GES in April 2006 has helped the business accelerate its international expansion in a world-wide market that has been growing at almost 30% a year. The company’s experienced management team remained with GES through the change of ownership and is playing a key role in helping the business fulfill its global potential. We have helped GES on it's successful development in the United States. We have an active Board presence and have helped improve the management team and develop the business through our extensive European sector experience and through our network of business leaders.
We are currently supporting the management team in working to ensure GES remains a competitive player during the economic downturn. The business set a target of improving its competitiveness in the maintenance services sector. To this end we implemented a restructuring program aimed at changing the way maintenance operations are performed, in order to improve efficiencies and company margins.
We also supported a reduction in overheads of 30% in the last two years amounting to c.€14m of annual savings.
