Availon annoucnes its recent Spanish and Italian wind-farm servicing certifications.

Availon, a global service provider for all turbine brands, has received full HSEQ certification for its wind-farm servicing operations in Italy and Spain — according to international quality, environmental, and work safety standards.

“HSEQ Certifications are of rising economic importance for ISPs,” explained Co-Managing Director and CFO Markus Spitzer. “We service wind turbines in Spain and Italy with a total value in the high millions. The certification gives turbine owners the added certainty that their turbines are in competent hands with us, and is an important decision-making criterion for new customers.”

The Availon Group’s matrix certification is reaching full maturity now that the conformity of its corporation-wide management system with the ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment), and BS OHSAS 18001 (work safety) standards is certified at the group’s subsidiaries in Spain and Italy.

This will be completed with the planned certification of the U.S. subsidiaries over the course of 2016, as confirmed by Jana Andresen, Environment, Health, and Safety Quality Management (EHS QM), and Olaf Kleesch, Director of Global Technical Support & Engineering at the company’s headquarters in Rheine, Germany.

Managing Director Ulrich Schomakers commented: “Top service quality and the protection of employees and the environment have been part of Availon’s DNA from the very beginning, and are supported by our integrated management system. That’s why we are all the more pleased that our colleagues in Spain and Italy have received confirmation in black and white from a leading certification association that the quality, environmental, and work safety management system meets all requirements defined by these standards.”

Availon continues to grow year over year. After record year 2015, the company is expecting a growth of at least 20% in 2016.

Availon
www.availon.eu

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The Availon acquisition will strengthen Vestas’ capabilities to service a broad range of wind turbine technologies.

Vestas has agreed to acquire Availon, a leading European independent service provider headquartered in Rheine, Germany. With about 400 employees and a total capacity of more than 2.6 GW under service, Availon’s core market is in Germany, with notable service activities in Austria, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Poland, and the United States.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from relevant competition authorities. Closing is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2016.

“Acquiring Availon is a natural next step in accelerating Vestas’ profitable growth strategy in the service business,” said Christian Venderby, Group Senior VP of Vestas Global Service. “Size and scale matter and the acquisition strengthens our capabilities to service most major turbine technologies and to capture market shares. Availon is a solid strategic fit and a great complement to our recent acquisition of UpWind Solutions in the United States.”

“We are very pleased to welcome Availon and our new colleagues to the Vestas organization,” added Nils de Baar, President of Vestas Central Europe. “Germany is our largest market in Europe, and Availon’s strong performance here and elsewhere will expand our joint service portfolio and bolster our position as a leading global service partner. I look forward to working with Availon’s highly professional management team and to ensuring that we execute and expand our combined order backlog.”

The acquisition price for Availon is EUR 88.0 million on a debt and cash free basis. The consideration will be paid in cash from readily available sources. For 2015 Availon is on a stand-alone basis expected to report consolidated revenues of EUR 59.8 million, normalised EBITDA of EUR 5.2 million and total assets of approx EUR 33.3 million. Availon will be included in Vestas’ financials from the time of closing.

“Vestas and Availon share the same values in terms of safety, quality, customer satisfaction, and reaching the highest availability possible. Combining forces will contribute to our jointly becoming the preferred fleet-wide service partner for a wider range of customers and turbine technologies. We look forward to becoming part of such a passionate and forward-looking organization,” said Availon’s CEO Ulrich Schomakers.

Vestas
www.vestas.com

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Thanks to a global supply chain, Availon can supply components with short delivery times, which contributes to reduced return-to-service times and greater productivity.

Availon, a multi-brand independent service provider for wind turbines, has successfully kept the U.S. wind farms it has under O&M contracts at historical levels of availability.

The most challenging wind site, which remains undisclosed at this time, is now continuously running at above 98.4% availability. Other less challenging wind farms enjoy availability levels between 99.4 % and 99.8%.

Availon was able to achieve the highest contractual availability, which the sites has ever seen, a remarkable performance considering that the increasing age of the turbines. With turbine downtime brought down to a level of near zero, Availon’s customers are able to maximize revenue yields.

“We are extremely proud of those results. When your business is to harness the wind, it’s vital to keep your turbines online. Our very name, which comes from “Availability ON,” underpins our mission to reach the highest availability and lowest component failure rate to drive peak profitability of the wind farm assets under our care,” said Ulrich Schomakers, CEO, Availon Inc.

Availon’s team helps clients manage costs by minimizing unscheduled maintenance, preventing turbine failure, and optimizing turbine performance. Clients are attracted to the unique blend of local solutions and global expertise Availon provides. Now, customers in North America are seeing the same benefits on their projects.

“We’re excited to offer our services to more customers in North America,” said Schomakers, who noted that Availon has its U.S. headquarters in Grimes, Iowa, along with another office in Texas. “Being located in the heart of America’s leading wind energy areas keeps us close to our customers. We deliver the wow factor. That’s why more and more U.S. owners trust their service needs to our expanding American business. We have built up the organization and are now ready to take the next steps to significantly grow our O&M global business in the next years.”

With more than 20 years in the wind energy business, Availon focuses on wind energy technology from GE, Vestas, and Gamesa equipment. The company has more than 1,700 turbines under contract, representing over 2,600 MWs of installed power. Approximately 10% of this business is located in the United States.

Availon
www.availon.com

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