25-06-2013

SENER engineering and technology acquires Brazilian engineering company EXEN

SENER engineering and technology group has purchased the Brazilian engineering company EXEN, which is now 100% owned by SENER. Specialized in industrial projects in the power and petrochemical sectors, this acquisition strengthens SENER’s capacities in Brazil, where the group has an operating division with 350 professionals from the engineering and construction sector who develop projects in the fields of Power and Process, Infrastructures and Transport, Aerospace and Marine. SENER also controls 48% of the engineering firm SETEPLA, specialized in civil engineering.
 
EXEN was founded in 2005 and is a renowned firm handling major projects, including among others the detailed engineering services for the Presidente Bernardes refinery owned by Petrobras, for the expansion of the agricultural pesticides unit of Dow Chemical’s AgroSciences division and for the thermal generation plants Pernambuco III and Termopower V owned by Multiner. Other EXEN’s clients are Akzo Nobel and Umicore.
 
For its part, the multidisciplinary company SENER is an international benchmark company in the power generation business, in which it develops engineering and construction projects, many of them on a turnkey or EPC basis. Among its main references are the combined-cycle plants San Martín, Manuel Belgrano and Bicentenario, in Argentina; Termozulia II and Termozulia III, in Venezuela, and Norte I, Poza Rica and Agua Prieta, in Mexico; the liquefied natural gas plant in Río Grande (Bolivia) developed for YPFB; three cogeneration plants in Mexico, two in Veracruz and a third one in the Francisco I Madero plant for Pemex Refinación; the liquefied natural gas regasification terminals SAGGAS  in Spain, the Dunkirk terminal in  France, and the Gate terminal in the Netherlands – which is one of the largest gas terminals in Europe - and the Zeebrugge plant in Belgium; noteworthy to mention are also the concentrated solar power plants, a sector in which SENER is the world-leading company with more than 25 facilities developed in Spain, USA, India, Morocco and South Africa. In addition, in the Energy and Environment area, SENER promotes renewable energy and waste to energy projects  by implementing its own technology in plants such as Torresol Energy, Zabalgarbi, Tracjusa, Valpuren Comatur and Valpuren Bañuelo. In Brazil, SENER already develops projects for clients such as Odebrecht, Petrobras and BR Distribuidora and also promotes a used oil rerefining plant at Rio de Janeiro through the joint venture company BRF, an alliance with Petrobras Distribuidora.
 
SENER has implemented a combined model of development in Brazil, firstly opening an office in São Paulo and thereafter purchasing the local companies SETEPLA and EXEN. In this way, SENER has succeeded in solidly establishing itself in the country with a highly competent division, perfectly integrated into the local culture and, therefore, enabling the necessary client proximity.
 
In announcing the agreement, the General Manager of SENER in Brazil, Guido Casanova, highlighted EXEN’s strengths in the field of power generation and the high quality of their projects and emphasized: “there has been a great deal of positive synergy with EXEN from the start. No doubt this acquisition will enrich our team’s technical capabilities, thanks to EXEN’s deep knowledge of the Brazilian market and their extensive experience in key sectors such as the petrochemical industry”.
 
Later, EXEN’s founding partners Alexandre Gama and Gilberto Yamamoto, added: “Joining a group with SENER’s size and reputation is indeed an honor for us. Our company has a long history of success in Brazil in areas such as chemicals and oil, and now we will also be able to handle major contracts in other areas, such as contracts related to regasification plants, for which SENER is an international benchmark”.
 
By becoming part of SENER, EXEN has now full access to the technical support and experience of this international engineering and technology group that operates very successfully in the fields of Engineering and Construction, Energy and Environment, and Aeronautics.