TÜV Rheinland has acquired the engineering company Geris Engenharia e Serviços in São Paulo, Brazil, significantly expanding TÜV Rheinland’s commitment in South America. Geris offers technical engineering services, particularly for the oil and gas industry and electricity producers and suppliers as well as infrastructure projects, residential construction and logistics.
Geris was founded in 1993 and has more than 600 employees. It is undergoing strong growth and achieves annual sales of around $37.7 million. The acquisition boosts the number of employees working for TÜV Rheinland in South America to 2,100.
“South America, and especially Brazil, is one of the economic regions of the world that is developing at an extremely dynamic rate. With Geris, we will establish ourselves as number two in the Brazilian testing market. We are expanding our commitment on this continent further because we see growing demand there for quality, safety and sustainability concerning industrial projects,” states Friedrich Hecker, CEO of TÜV Rheinland AG.
Focusing primarily on Brazil, Chile and Argentina, TÜV Rheinland achieved overall sales of around $77.4 million in South America last year. With the acquisition of Ductor, one of South America’s leading infrastructure planning companies, TÜV Rheinland rose to become one of the leading testing companies in the Brazilian market in 2008. In addition to classic industry testing services, TÜV Rheinland’s portfolio of services includes the support and monitoring of infrastructure projects such as the construction of rail links, airports, housing estates, motorways and hospitals.
