ESB International, the consultancy arm of the ESB group, has reported a 45 per cent increase in business last year, with sales up from £46 million in 1994 to £66 million.
Announcing its results yesterday, the ESBI executive chairman, Mr Michael Hayden, said the company had made further strong progress in the current year but warned that it would need new strategies and increased support in the future to maintain its profile overseas.
ESBI is run as an independent subsidiary of the ESB, and Mr Hayden stressed that it would have to become increasingly "aggressive" and be in a position to take a greater equity stake in international projects if it is to continue to make progress overseas.
The company, which employs 600 people in its engineering, contracting and consultancy services, is in competition with a wide range of international utilities, many of "which are privately owned in Africa, Asia, central and eastern Europe, Pakistan, Croatia and Ukraine.
In the first five months of 1996, he said, ESBI had won a record number of new contracts, worth more than £100 million. The latest long term contracts relate to projects for the operation and maintenance of power plants, finance and accounting and software development work in states throughout the world.
Established by the ESB in 1975, the company has carried out projects in over 77 countries worldwide.
More than 200 of its employees currently work overseas and company has offices in London, Brussels, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Bangkok, Prague and Budapest.
