Petroconsultants sold to US data specialists (October 1996)

Petroconsultants sold to US data specialists (October 1996)

By the time you read this Information Handling Services (IHS) will be completing its acquisition of Petroconsultants SA. Petroconsultants, a famous name in the upstream scouting and data management business has been up for sale since the death of Harry Wassall earlier this year.

IHS Englewood, Colorado is a leading international publisher of electronic information databases with forecast 1996 sales of $320 million. Its information companies serve markets as diverse as engineering, chemical, pharmaceutical, health, financial services, environmental and safety, human resources, transportation, trade, communications, legal and consumer. IHS specializes in providing its customers with on-site and online access to detailed technical information used throughout government and industry. IHS accomplishes this through an organized system of collecting, cataloging, collating, indexing, and cross-referencing documents into information retrieval systems which are electronic and/or microform based. To keep all information current and complete, IHS updates and re-indexes its information systems as frequently as every day.

Saur European CEO

In an official statement, Michael Timbers, CEO of IHS, said he was "very enthusiastic about the potential to build a new energy information division around Petroconsultants which enjoys a strong reputation and unique market position". He expressed full support for the existing management team and employees in their "continued development of a world-class business". In Europe, IHS is headed by recently appointed Bernard Sauer and currently includes Technical Indexes Ltd. in the United Kingdom, Beilstein Information Systems, based in Germany, and IHS Germany GmbH. Sauer's mission on his appointment in July was to develop IHS's business, and the Petroconsultants acquisition is clearly based on a perceived synergy between the two companies. Petroconsultants which posts annual revenues in excess of $40 million will be managed out of its Swiss base by Christian Suter, company chairman and CEO, who will report to Sauer. The company has offices in Geneva, London, Houston and Singapore and has 250 full-time employees as well as a world-wide network of correspondents and associates.

idiosyncratic

It remains to be seen how the inevitable shock resulting from the merger of the idiosyncratic culture of the E&P scouting business with the clinical information handling activities of IHS will shake out. IHS is looking to work closely with Petroconsultants through its engineering products division to identify and develop products to serve the specific engineering information needs of the oil and gas industry. IHS Engineering already produces a specialized database of international oil and gas related standards.

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