As part of its global strategy and realignment of its global operations, Stanley Oil & Gas has sold its South African business entities Stanley Inspection South Africa, De-tect Unit Inspections and Cooperheat of Africa to a local management team, organised as NYTS Holdings, who maintains a broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Level 2 status.

The management team has extensive experience and proven leadership and will be building on the foundation established by the internationally focused group, as well as benefiting from the experience of some of the founders of the entities’ board of directors.

In the interest of al stakeholders, the group has taken steps to ensure a smooth takeover of the business.

The group foresees many benefits for the clients arising from its localised ownership of the business, such as the continuation of “business as usual” without any disruption to the levels of service delivery and performance on contracts.

The acquisition also positions the business as locally owned for future business development and the securing of new business opportunities in the prevailing depressed economic climate.

Some 550 local jobs with the requisite skills to drive the group to a sustainable future have been preserved, while hands-on management by a local team of leaders is poised to meet the requirement of clients.

The group and its management team intends to maintain and improve the businesses B-BBEE ratings for successful business acquisitions and revenue generation, as well as focus on areas such as skill development, employee participation schemes, longer-term incentive for staff retention and the development of corporate social responsibility programmes for the empowerment of local communities and poverty alleviation.

The implementation of a plan to decentralise the allocation of resources and enable the business to have readily available consumables and specialised equipment at various sites on short notice is also an important focus.

The company plans future investments into state-of-the-art technology for plant inspections and testing with demonstrated, qualified techniques to assist plant owners with appropriate and cost-efficient solutions for optimum performance of their boilers, pipelines and various other components on site.

It is currently conducting an assessment of all contract in progress to identify the needs of the supply chain for adequate equipment for all jobs in progress in the Southern African region and the rest of the African continent. This evaluation will be extended to assess training needs in core areas to build capacity and expert skills. Historically, the South African entities are well-known for training and for the skills development of the majority of technicians currently in the industry.

The group provides heat treatment, electrical surface heating and non-destructive testing (NDT) services to a range of industries, including oil & gas, power generation, mining and construction, among others.

The group’s local leadership has identified the need for a stable and conservative financial model. It has committed funding for operations and investments in the business and has secured the support of financial institutions for finance and credit lines to enable the business to establish a sound and reliable financial platform.