UK engineering group Langley Holdings has now completed the acquisition of the Norwegian Bergen Engines company from Rolls-Royce for a consideration of €91 million.
Bergen Engines is now a stand-alone group within Langley, including the engine factory, service workshop and foundry in Norway; engine and power plant design capability; its global service network and subsidiaries in nine countries. Bergen employs about 950 people worldwide, with over 600 based in Norway. In 2021, Bergen Engines generated revenues of approximately €250 million with the assets and liabilities of the business presented as held for sale in the Rolls-Royce Holdings plc consolidated balance sheet.
Bergen Engines will focus – in addition to its traditional markets – on the rapidly developing microgrid power generation sector, an area central to Langley’s net zero strategy. Bergen will become the core of a newly formed Power Solutions Division, working closely with the group’s Italian Marelli Motori and German Piller Power Systems subsidiaries.
Chairman and CEO Tony Langley said: “The acquisition of Bergen Engines is a major step towards our net zero objectives. The company has a superb reputation and is proving to be highly innovative in adapting its engines to low-carbon and non-fossil fuels. Coupled with that, the emerging microgrid sector fits perfectly to our long-term sustainability goals.”
In October 2021, Langley gave the go-ahead to a €4 million research project to be funded jointly with the Norwegian government. The AMAZE (Ammonia Zero Emissions) project is developing the use of ammonia as an alternative fuel for ship’s engines. The Power Solutions Division is expected to generate around €600 million of Langley’s anticipated €1.3 billion revenues in 2022. The Division employs around 2,400 of the group’s 5,600 total global workforce.
The tradition of engineering in Bergen dates back to 1855 when the original company Bergen Mekaniske Verksted was founded. In 1946 the company started to build diesel engines and has since commissioned over 7,000 of its liquid and gas fuelled engines. More than half of them are still in operation today. From 1999, up to the end of 2021, Bergen Engines was owned by Rolls-Royce.
Langley Holdings, established in 1975 by the current chairman and CEO, is a privately owned UK based engineering and industrial manufacturing group, involved in diverse markets worldwide. The group’s principal operations are based in Germany, Italy, France the UK and now Norway, with 18 production facilities in Europe, the UK and the US and more than 90 sales and service subsidiaries worldwide employing over 5,600 people.
