Kentz boss to go next month

HUGH O’DONNELL is to stand down as chief executive of Kentz — the Irish-founded construction and engineering services group — next month, after 12 years at the helm.

The company, which specialises in providing infrastructural support services for major oil and gas exploration companies around the world, has appointed Christian Brown as its new chief executive.

Mr Brown — who has over 20 years’ experience in the oil and gas, refining and petrochemicals sectors, and has been Kentz’s chief operating officer since last August — will take over at the beginning of February. Mr O’Donnell will remain on in an advisory role for the next three years.

Over that timeframe Kentz is likely to look at enhancing its presence in Iraq, Canada and western Africa. The firm already has a strong presence in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.

Mr O’Donnell said: “In the last 12 years we’ve gone from being a private company to having a listing first on the AIM and then on the main exchange in London and from revenues of $120 million (€92.8m) to around $1.3 billion. I’ve participated in that growth, but there’s a lot of young talent coming through in this company and we’ve had a succession plan in place for some time. I’m still a significant shareholder in the company and a very happy one at that.”

Mr Brown’s first real public outing as Kentz’s new boss will be the publication of its 2011 annual results in late March. Those are set to show further good growth for the business.

In its pre-close 2011 full-year trading update, published yesterday, Kentz said profits and revenues for last year should come in “marginally ahead” of consensus expectations. It said it had a record backlog of contracts at the end of December, worth $2.4bn.

Kentz’s cash position remains strong, with $223m in reserve at the end of last year — which management has said will support continued growth.