Engineering news
Ricardo is set to shake up the rail consultancy sector after buying LR Rail from Lloyd’s Register Group for £42.5 million.
The acquisition will be completed by 1 July 2015 and the business will operate as the core of a new international rail business, combined with Ricardo’s existing rail industry activities, to be branded Ricardo Rail.
Current LR Rail managing director Paul Seller will take on the role of managing director of the Ricardo Rail business.
Ricardo is better known for its automotive consultancy work, but it sees huge growth potential in the rail sector, both here and abroad.
Derby-based LR Rail, which has a staff of 440 rail engineers and specialists, has a strong reputation in overseas markets, having carried out several major projects in countries such as Norway, Denmark and Spain.
Its strengths are in independent assurance, rolling stock design and approval, signalling and train control, operations, and human factors.
In the UK, LR Rail has been recently involved with the testing of the European Train Control System (ETCS), which will allow up to 24 trains per hour to run on busy Thameslink routes.
Lloyd’s Register Group took the decision in 2014 to seek a purchaser for its rail business that would be “better placed to prioritise the resources and investment, and provide the strategic focus on the rail sector, needed to build a world class global rail business”.
Ricardo chief executive Dave Shemmans said: “I’m delighted to be able to announce today’s agreement with Lloyd’s Register Group and look forward to welcoming LR Rail’s employees to the global Ricardo team and am excited about the prospects for the new Ricardo Rail business under the leadership of Paul Seller.
“LR Rail has an impressive market reputation and a very similar culture of quality and excellence in engineering to that of Ricardo, and will be an exceptionally good fit with Ricardo in terms of culture, geography, product offering and business model.”
Seller added: “Ricardo has a highly-respected and long-established brand and shares our ethos of independence, engineering excellence, safety and quality. With its strong reputation in locomotive and multiple unit powertrain and driveline systems – from research and concept development through to series manufacture of specialist rail products – it provides an excellent complementary fit with LR Rail’s own areas of expertise. Through Ricardo Rail we will thus be able to provide an expanded range of value-added services to customers across a significantly enhanced global footprint.”