UK family-owned multidisciplinary engineering and industrial manufacturing company Langley Holdings has completed its acquisition of the Norway-based Bergen Engines group from Rolls-Royce. The deal, announced on August 3 last year, was finally concluded on Tuesday (January 4).

The deal cost Langley €91-million, while cash held within Bergen Engines, totalling €16-million, was retained by Rolls-Royce. Langley acquired Bergen’s engine factory, foundry and service workshop in Norway, as well as its power plant design capability and its worldwide service network, along with subsidiaries spread across nine countries. In total Bergen employs almost 950 people globally, of which more than 600 are at its head office and factory in Norway.

“The acquisition of Bergen Engines is a major step towards our net zero objectives,” highlighted Langley Holdings chairperson and CEO Tony Langley. “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.”

Already, last October, before the deal was completed, Tony Langley authorised the launch of a €4-million research project, to be jointly funded by Bergen and the Norwegian government, into the use of ammonia as an alternative fuel for ship engines. This project is designated AMAZE, for Ammonia Zero Emissions.

Bergen will be operated by Langley as a standalone business. It will also serve as the core of the UK-based group’s recently created Power Solutions Division, which will also embrace Langley’s Italian subsidiary Marelli Motori and German subsidiary Piller Power Systems.

The new Power Systems Division is expected to produce revenues of about €600-million this year (2022), which will be nearly half of the group’s forecast total revenues of €1.3-billion. And, of Langley’s total worldwide workforce of 5 600, about 2 400 now work in the Power Systems Division.