RINA has reported continued growth in 2011 as it embarked on an acquisition strategy. Turnover for 2011 was up to 249 million Euros (up 21 percent year-over-year) and EBITDA 41 million Euros. Turnover is expected to rise to over 300 million Euros in 2012 following major acquisitions late in 2011.
Said Chairman and CEO Ugo Salerno: “2011 was a memorable year for RINA. We celebrated our 150th anniversary by transforming the company. Internally we swept away old divisions and created a flexible matrix structure which frees up innovation and enables us to make the best use of our talents while improving customer service.
“Externally we began a major program of acquisitions which enhanced our competences and increased our size by over half. We focused our investments and growth on growing economies, strongly increasing our footprint in Asia. And we made sure the transformation is solidly based by trimming costs and sharpening our business processes,” Salerno continued.
“Our acquisition program widens both our skill base and our geographical outreach. Among four companies brought into the RINA Group in 2012 the two key acquisitions were SIMTEX, the leading private Romanian certification body for corporate management systems and products, and the D’Appolonia Group, a global engineering consultancy company.
“SIMTEX gives us a strong platform for growth in the expanding economies of Eastern Europe. D’Appolonia’s 600 highly skilled staff will boost our turnover by 50 percent and bring us a new network of global offices and clients and expertise in strategic consultancy, earth sciences, civil, environmental and structural engineering, risk assessment, health and safety, chemical and process engineering, system and transport engineering, electronics, telecommunications and innovation engineering.
“Diversification in 2011 saw us providing our first certification in the fishing and seafood areas, including the Alaskan salmon fisheries. We delivered the world’s largest transhipment terminal to Vale, in record time and on budget. We grew into aerospace and launched new environmental tools and services. Our power generation teams delivered projects on time in a number of countries. We built our gas business internationally as we became recognised as a centre of LNG and CNG handling expertise. And we substantially increased our R&D efforts, moving beyond our traditional marine field.”
RINA’s environmental business surged 200 percent in 2011, certification outside Italy was up 30 percent and RINA increased market share in almost all sectors. Against a background of a globally difficult market for shipowners and shipyards marine services continued to be the largest contributor to RINA’s turnover in 2011. The classed fleet grew by 8.5 per cent to 4,375 ships totalling 33m gt and despite the slowdown in global ordering RINA closed the year with a strong order book of 425 ships totalling 3.3m gt building to RINA class.
