As part of an acquisition Technical Due Diligence Assessment (TDDA), AECOM was commissioned by a leading pension fund to provide a detailed Critical Machinery and Equipment Safety and Maintenance Assessment at nine European leisure parks (including theme parks, water parks and zoos).
A standards-based approach was adopted to assess statutory compliance status for each installation, including the use and maintenance of the surveyed equipment. The key objective of the TDDA was to ascertain demonstrable evidence of safety, maintenance and appropriate condition of mission-critical equipment, essential for the ongoing safe operation of the business, and compliance with national or local regulations pertinent to these activities. In order to achieve this objective, AECOM commenced an assessment of each facility in respect of its structural condition, and the mechanical and electrical condition of each facility’s most significant assets.
Using local regulatory experience, AECOM undertook a detailed review and gap analysis of the vendor data room, obtaining information evidencing the design standards adopted for critical equipment and machinery safety, the maintenance regimes in place for maintaining the required functional safety of the equipment, and the adequacy and appropriateness of maintenance and OPEX spend.
The data room review was supplemented by detailed site reconnaissance visits by our structural, mechanical and electrical engineers to review “on the ground” conditions.
These focused on three key areas:
- a governance review – entailing a detailed review of the written procedures supported by staff interviews;
- a mechanical review – assessing the physical structure of the equipment and recording defects identified;
- an electrical controls review of the electrical installations and machinery control systems, assessed against the information supplied by the vendor in the data room.
We then prepared a Technical Due Diligence Report with an overview of the whole portfolio supported by identified material issues.