TÜV Rheinland Acquiring Dutch Testing Company

TÜV Rheinland, with headquarters in Newtown, is acquiring Sonovation BV, a highly specialized nondestructive testing services provider based in the Netherlands. Founded in 1988 and employing a staff of 50, Sonovation provides advanced nondestructive testing (NDT) services particularly for companies in the oil and gas industry.

Typical services can include weld examination, pipe system and pressure equipment corrosion inspection, and others. The company also operates an accredited training school for advanced NDT.

“High-technology solutions for nondestructive testing represents an important growth area and one in which TÜV Rheinland is making strategic investments,” said Dieter Hesel, TÜV Rheinland’s executive vice president, industrial. “We are targeting a large-scale regional expansion of our international NDT services beyond the USA and Germany, and we expect this acquisition to help us accomplish that while also helping us increase market share in the oil and gas sector.”

“With the integration of Sonovation, we are significantly expanding our worldwide network of experts for the energy sector and safety inspections of industrial plants,” commented Thomas Biedermann, chief regional director for Western Europe at TÜV Rheinland.

With locations in the Netherlands, UK, Belgium, and Germany, Sonovation’s 2010 revenues were approximately $17 million (US). The company has been growing at a 15 percent annual rate. Moving forward, the company will be named TÜV Rheinland Sonovation.

“As part of the TÜV Rheinland global network, we can now serve new markets that were not available to us before,” said Jan Verkooijen, CEO of TÜV Rheinland Sonovation. “TÜV Rheinland is already quite successful in Germany and America. Our core competencies can help the company extend its nondestructive testing services for industrial and systems engineering to additional locations throughout Europe and Asia.”