Bergen Engines first semester 2025

It’s time to take stock of the first semester 2025 for Bergen Engines too. In the six months to 30 June 2025, the group posted a profit before tax (PBT) of €59.4 million on revenues of €596.6 million. This compares with €43.5 million for the same period last year on revenues of €523.1 million. At 30 June, consolidated net cash stood at €454.9 million (June 2024: €350.6 million) and net assets at €1,027.5 million (June 2024: €1,001.1 million). Orders on hand were €989.8 million (June 2024: €1,050.3 million). There were no shareholder dividends during the period.

So, we entirely report the “Chairman Review”, by Anthony J Langley, Chairman & CEO, focusing on Langley Power Division.

Anthony Langley about Bergen and Power first six months of 2025

“Our power solutions division is the principal driver of the group’s performance. The division was well ahead of target at the half way and is on track for another record year. Power solutions comprises Norwegian medium speed engines builder Bergen Engines, acquired from Rolls-Royce plc in 2021; Italian motors and generators producer Marelli Motori, part of the group since 2019 and; Piller Group, the German power conditioning business, acquired in 2004.

Together these companies provide power solutions across a broad spectrum of land based and marine applications. Bergen Engines significantly over-achieved its PBT target in the period, as did Piller. Marelli also contributed positively to an excellent first half.

At the beginning of June, Bernard, William and I attended Data cloud Global Congress in Cannes, the data centre sector’s premier gathering. We wanted to gauge firsthand the effect that AI is having on the sector, a market very familiar to Piller and about to become so to Bergen and Marelli.

In the early 2000’s data centre growth was driven by dot com, a decade later by the smart phone revolution and now by AI, which is expected to eclipse everything before it. The demand for electricity to power the data centres behind AI is so strong that in many cases the grid cannot cope and connection times are often many years away. This has led the sector to turn to so-called behind-themeter power generation.

These behind-the-meter applications currently call for upwards of 100MW of generating capacity. Bergen Engines’ medium speed lean-burn gas engines, paired with Marelli alternators, fit this requirement perfectly, offering a rapidly deployable and scalable solution. In Cannes we showcased a Bergen gas-fired reference plant producing 170MW of electricity, operating together with 150MW of solar, powering a remote mine and township situated over 100km from the grid in Western Australia.

That plant could be powering a data centre in West Texas, or anywhere else the grid doesn’t reach. The solution was well received and the first deal, for a 200MW gas-fired plant to power an AI data centre in the United States, was signed at the show.

We discussed many more requirements over the three days and the pipeline of data centre projects is now so significant that production in Norway and Italy is being increased. AI is also set to have a significant impact on our Piller business. Widely recognised as the gold-standard in its field, Piller technology conditions and stabilises power at ultra high-profile financial institution and governmental data centres in the USA, Europe and elsewhere around the world.

AI load demands are proving to be particularly challenging for data centres and even grid connected power is struggling at times to deal with these load profiles. Piller technology has the ability to stabilise AI loads with proven technology and this represents a significant opportunity for Piller. Power solutions for AI data centres are set to become a major growth contributor for the group.”