DNV Inspection in Sweden is the only land-based inspection company within the Norway-based international group and inspects overhead and construction cranes. The company said it is selling DNV Inspection to focusing on DNV maritime and certification business areas in Sweden.
“Everybody had a shock when they got the message,” DNV senior crane inspector Walter Heinrich told Hoist. “Then after one or two days, we thought, ‘If DNV doesn’t want us, then that’s their problem,'” he said.
Inspecta is appointing Nils-Olof Hagberg to be the new manager for Inspecta’s Swedish operation, according to the existing managing director Tom Backelin, who, as a DNV senior vice president, is moving out of the company’s Swedish operation.
The sale is conditional on approval by the competition authorities in several European countries, and is expected to be concluded by the end of the year, DNV said.
Inspecta is about the same size as DNV Inspection, and both organisations have had a similar history: state-owned monopolies that were bought by private companies. DNV Inspection’s monopoly ended in 1995 and it was bought by DNV in 1999, according to Heinrich. Inspecta Oy was founded in 1975 as a national inspection body (TTS, or Teknillinen Tarkastuskeskus). It became a state-owned limited company in 1998 and was privatised in 2002.
Inspecta’s largest owners are the capital-investment fund MB Funds, Finland’s standardisation organisation SFS, Elsäkerhetscentralen and the Finnish association that monitors the quality of building materials. It was originally the state-owned Statens Tekniska Kontrollcentral.
Originally, DNV was interested in buying Inspecta. “When Inspecta became privatised four to five years ago DNV was one of many who were interested in acquiring Inspecta,” Backelin said.
“However, the Finnish state chose to sell Inspecta to the Finnish investment company MB Funds. MB Funds represents number of Finnish insurance companies, banks and pension funds. They have muscles and a clear ambition to develop Inspecta into one of Europe’s leading inspection companies.
“There is need of consolidating and restructuring of inspection and testing business in Western Europe,” Backelin said. “This is due to the on-going privatization and deregulation of the market, in addition to the fact that industry production/manufacturing is moving eastwards to low-cost countries. In order to survive inspection companies have to grow or stick to what you do best.
“In this context DNV and Inspecta had a renewed discussion. MB Funds were not interseted to sell Inspecta and instead we ended up with this deal. We are satisfied with the price and I am convinced that DNV Inspection will be well taken care of and developed,” Backelin said.
International consolidation is complicated by different languages and different ways of doing things, Heinrich said.
DNV Inspection is accredited by SWEDAC, the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment.
The Swedish system tends to protect crane inspectors more than in more open-market countries like the UK, Heinrich said.
“In the UK, you can put your name over the door and inspect cranes. If it goes wrong, they hang you,” Heinrich said. “In Sweden, they say: ‘You must do it better next time.'”
