Keller Group to buy North American Piling for $314 million

British construction company Keller Group Plc today agreed to acquire North American Energy Partners' piling business for up to C$320 million ($314 million), in order to expand in Canada.

Edmonton, Alberta-based North American Piling has over 25 years' experience in providing piling services, with a focus on piling in construction markets across Canada, including the Alberta oil sands region.

North American Piling is focused on the non-residential construction market, and around 50 per cent of its revenue in the past three years has come from oil sands projects in Alberta.

The remaining Canadian revenue was mainly derived from Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia and was largely non-oil resource-related.

Canada is ranked third in the world for oil reserves, with 97 per cent of these reserves in the oil sands, which are found in three deposits covering areas of Alberta, north and east of Edmonton.

North American Piling employs approximately 400 people and for the year ended 31 March 2013, it reported revenue of C$236.5 million and operating profit of C$38.5 million.

Justin Atkinson, CEO of Keller, said, "The Board has identified Canada as a key target market and this acquisition of a complementary piling business represents an excellent opportunity to build substantially on Keller's existing presence in that market.''

''North American Piling is a market-leading business with attractive margins positioned in growth markets, including the resource-rich regions of Western Canada. The business has a strong record of growth delivered by an experienced management team who are transferring to Keller," he added.

Keller Group is the world's largest independent ground engineering contractor. Its services are used across the construction sector in infrastructure, industrial, commercial, residential and environmental projects.

It operates in Europe, North America and Australia and has a growing presence in Asia and the Middle East.

Keller has around 7,000 employees and annual turnover of approximately £1.3 billion.