Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/31/2014
Kurion has acquired Vista Engineering Services, tripling the size of the company. Vista Engineering Services, based in Richland, Wash., offers a variety of engineering services including environmental remediation capabilities, and its base work at the Department of Energy’s Hanford site offers Kurion a larger influence within the DOE cleanup market. “Kurion is building tremendous momentum around the world through projects in the U.S., Japan and Europe,” said Kurion CEO Bill Gallo said in a release. “The combined talents, capabilities and technologies of the Kurion and Vista Engineering teams provide the execution platform and the scale to address our clients’ most pressing nuclear and hazardous waste problems.”
By acquiring Vista, Kurion secures an “execution platform,” according to Gallo. “This acquisition is highly strategic for Kurion,” Gallo told RW Monitor this week. “Vista brings an engineering and execution platform to Kurion, which is much needed as we execute the projects and contracts that we have developed literally around the world, and much of the work they have done for us has been on those contracts. Of course, they bring their own backlog of projects, some of which are highly, highly interesting. The recent 3-24 award at Hanford being one.” Gallo also said that Vista helps to “get our foot a little closer in the door of the DOE market,” whereas before Kurion had only focused on the Hanford site. He listed DOE sites at Idaho and Savannah River as potential future work that can be pursued now with the company’s increased bandwidth.
Vista also opens up the D&D market for Kurion. Vista brings its D&D technology and proprietary processes with them that will aid in guiding Kurion through the market, Gallo said. “The primary focus will continue to be on nuclear waste separation and degradation projects,” Gallo said. “We are able now to look a little more at D&D, and we are also able to accelerate the development of the asbestos and engage the non-nuclear hazardous market. We now have the bandwidth to look at all these market sectors in parallel.”
Kurion’s growth gives the company a larger bandwidth, Gallo said, enabling it to focus on a variety of projects at the same time that it did not have the manpower to consider before. “The biggest strategic benefit of the acquisition is it accelerates Kurion’s growth by probably more than a year,” Gallo said. “In other words, if we were going to try to achieve what we are doing with this acquisition organically, it would take quite a bit of time. Our ability to grow in the marketplace and satisfy client needs would not be as great as it is with this acquisition. Needless to say, we are just delighted.”
More Acquisitions On the Way?
Gallo hinted at more acquisitions down the line for Kurion. “I think that there is a very good chance by the end of the year we will see another acquisition, which will most likely be technology-oriented,” Gallo said “I don’t have anything to announce at this point. We have work to do to assimilate the Vista acquisition, but that’s certainly our intention to continue to grow by acquisition as well as through wins in the market place.” This Vista acquisition marks the second acquisition by Kurion in the last two years. The first acquisition, occurring in 2012, included Kurion obtaining the rights to the GeoMelt technology. Kurion along with the United Kingdom’s National Nuclear Laboratory announced earlier this month that it would be demonstrating that technology through waste treatment within the Sellafield site.
Management Re-organization
Within the acquisition agreement, Vista President and CEO Phil Ohl will become the chief operating officer at Kurion, and Kurion will take over Vista’s entire technology, patent and trade secret portfolio while also maintaining Vista’s entire staff. David Brockman will oversee the company’s domestic business as senior vice president while John Raymont will continue serving as of president of international operations. “We are moving very quickly to integrate the two companies,” Gallo said. “It is very important to me and the management team that we quickly integrate the organization, adopt a single way of doing business, and have all the infrastructure benefits programs resolved quickly so we can focus on the clients and the projects.”
Although the company is tripling in size, Gallo is not worried that Kurion is growing too quickly. “We’ve established an executive team that is capable of running a 500 person organization,” Gallo said. “That is not a concern, and I would also point out that with this acquisition we are bringing a seasoned executive team into Kurion from Vista. Phil Ohl and his team are also capable of managing a company much larger than what they have had to this point.” The main concern for Kurion remains being able to deploy to multiple countries through multiple contractual platforms, Gallo said.
