23.04.2024

Carlyle to quit Enermech

The Carlyle group has handed over its majority stake in Enermech to Polus Capital Management (Previously Cairn Capital) and group of lenders including JPMorgan and ICG in a consensual debt for equity swap. The move comes six years after Carlyle agreed to buy the business from Lime Rock Partners in 2018 for a rumoured £450 million. See: Carlyle acquires EnerMech

The ‘recapitalisation’ of the business has wiped out £300 million worth of debt and is replaced with £120 million of new money to provide a stable base for the future.

Prior to the deal being completed EnerMech announced that it was planning to cut 250 jobs across its worldwide operations - nearly half of them in Aberdeen, Scotland. We also understand that chief executive Christian Brown is leaving the business to "pursue other opportunities". He has been replaced by Charles ‘Chuck’ Davison who joins the company from Irish/Texan oil field service group Weatherford, where he has been chief operations officer for the past 18 months. Prior to that he spent a year as chief executive of Texas based Strike.
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Chuck Davison

He began his career in 1991 with a one year internship at Case Construction in Oklahoma, followed by seven years in the aerospace market with Howmet Aerospace, and then Cinch. In 1997 he joined GE, leaving after 10 years with the company for Huston based Oceaneering where he was appointed senior vice president, Subsea Products. In 2015 he moved to Fairfield Geotechnologies as chief executive, leaving after four years for Magseis Fairfield in Oslo, Norway, returning to Oceaneering in 2019 as chief operating officer, moving to Stike two years later.