RTD in the local frame
Western Australia’s ability to service the growing Australia/Asia Pacific oil and gas sector has received a further boost with yet another international company looking to base its Australia/Asia Pacific operations in Perth.
RTD, one of the world’s leading providers of technology for the non-destructive testing of pipelines, this month took over a local supplier of its technologies, Steeltest Australia, for an undisclosed sum.
RTD will completely take over the smaller Perth company.
The Steeltest name, however, will be retained as RTD Steeltest, as will its staff and current management team.
The deal not only signals RTD’s expansion into the region, with Perth now hosting the Dutch company’s first direct expansion into the area, but will allow Steeltest to grow its exports into Asia.
Based in Kwinana, Steeltest had grown in seven years from a start-up to employing more than 30 people and turning over about $5 million per year.
While Steeltest is small on the international scene, and compared with RTD, it is well known in the Australian oil and gas and pipeline industries. Its current portfolio includes the ConocoPhillips-led $2 billion Bayu Undan LNG project in the Timor Sea.
RTD, on the other hand, is a truly international company. It was founded 70 years ago in the Netherlands, where its is still based, but is now 100 per cent owned by ABN Amro bank. It employs more than 1,000 people on five continents and has an annual turnover of $176 million, with the largest percentage provided by a single region of just 23 per cent.
Steeltest managing director Neile Finlay was overseas on business and could not be contacted at the time WA Business News went to print.
