Serco to fully own its defence and marine services joint venture

Serco Group plc (Serco) has signed an agreement to acquire the remaining 50 per cent stake in DMS Maritime Pty Ltd from its joint venture partner, P&O Maritime Services.

The acquisition strengthens Serco’s position as a leading defence services provider in Australia and in the growing marine services market.

DMS is one of Australia’s largest maritime service operators, with facilities in every major port and a support network that extends a wide range of engineering and technical services across Asia Pacific.

These include integrated management of through-life support covering vessel design, build, modification, engineering and maintenance; marine systems support; port services; maritime training; and specialist services such as under-sea exploration and recovery.

Its highly skilled and experienced workforce of around 450 employees and contractors supplies substantial expertise in project management, systems integration and engineering.

They manage, operate and maintain over 600 vessels, serving commercial, defence and government agency customers.

David Campbell, chief executive officer, Serco Asia Pacific, said that bringing the two companies together would build on their long histories of supporting the Australian Defence Force as trusted partners.

“This acquisition continues our development from base support services provider to complex services and systems integrator and will benefit our customers, Serco and DMS. We share a strong customer focus and have the same values-based approach to the work that we do.

“Serco was a founding partner of DMS 15 years ago and we have been closely involved with the business since then. Making it a fully owned part of Serco is a key element in our strategy to grow our defence operations and put us in the best position to help meet the complex capability requirements of the Australian Defence Force into the future,” Campbell said.

“Together, we are also now ideally equipped to expand our marine services offering to the commercial maritime market and particularly the resources sector”.

This change will allow Serco to fully leverage DMS Maritime’s systems integration, supply chain management and through-life support capabilities across the maritime, land, systems and ultimately aerospace domains.

In turn, DMS will have the ability to reach back into Serco’s wider capabilities in the US, UK and around the globe.