Monthly mergers: Biggest engineering partnerships and acquisitions in May 2024

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To feature on next month’s partnerships and acquisitions roundup, please email robert.hakimian@emap.com.

Stantec acquires Hydrock

Global design and engineering firm Stantec has acquired Bristol-based integrated engineering and design firm Hydrock. The addition of 950-person strong company has swollen Stantec’s UK workforce by more than 30%.

Hydrock was founded in 1995 and has 22 locations around the UK, from which it has built experience in providing solutions for major projects across the public and private sectors.

Stantec president and chief executive officer Gord Johnston said the firm looks forward to welcoming the Hydrock team. “When combined with the strategic acquisitions of ZETCON and Morrison Hershfield, we will have grown our global workforce by over 2,700 people within the first four months of 2024, further strengthening our offering in line with market demands,” he added.

T&T and Jumbo join up

Turner & Townsend and Jumbo Consulting Group have established a new strategic partnership to support their expansion into the clean energy sector.

This will see Turner & Townsend take a 70% share in Jumbo, which is a leader in procurement and contract management in offshore wind.

Together, Turner & Townsend Jumbo will create and end-to-end service for clients looking to establish and deliver project in the offshore wind sector, as well as around energy islands, grid expansion and interconnectors.

T&T also buys On The Mark

In a busy month for Turner & Townsend, the firm has also acquired UK and US based “boutique” consultancy On The Mark (OTM). This will reportedly support Turner & Townsend’s efforts to “modernise ways of working across infrastructure, natural resources, real estate and defence”.

OTM has a 34-year track record of working with leading private and public sector clients to modernise operating models for regional, national, and multi-national companies, governments and NGOs

The two companies have previously worked together on major Defence transformation programmes.

OTM’s 27-strong team will join Turner & Townsend’s programme advisory team. The current management team at OTM will continue to lead OTM’s work within the new combined business.

Motts buys Australian energy consulting firm

Mott MacDonald has completed the acquisition of Merz Consulting, an Australian engineering and energy consultancy business specialising in power distribution, transmission and generation design and project delivery.

Merz Consulting specialises in detailed electrical engineering design of substations, switchyards, transmission lines and grid connections in addition to supporting clients with power system modelling, policy advice and strategic planning services. The business has a long history of supporting energy transition projects across Australia and has unique experience in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The consultancy’s team of experienced engineers, project managers and strategic advisors will complement and strengthen Mott MacDonald’s energy capabilities to better serve clients throughout Australia, New Zealand the Asia Pacific region and globally.

Egis buys Scottish construction consultancy

Global architecture, construction and engineering firm Egis has acquired Thomas & Adamson, a property and construction consultancy headquartered in Edinburgh.

Egis says the move will “significantly enhance” its advisory services for clients in the UK and beyond, “reinforcing its commitment to strengthen and expand its UK presence”.

Thomas & Adamson was founded in 1935 and has over 100 staff across Ediburgh, Glasgow, London and the Middle East. It delivers cost and project management, building surveying, and principal designer services across all major sectors in the built environment, including commercial, education, sports, and hotels.

Arup partners with Norwegian data analytics company

Arup has entered a strategic partnership with Norwegian digital analytics company InfoTiles.

Together using their combined engineering expertise, digital capabilities and wrap around services, the partnership aims to empower water and wastewater utilities across the water value chain, make better informed decisions and drive innovation in digital asset management, data and operational insight.

Solutions across the valuation chain utilising innovative data could include event forecasting, anomaly detection, asset optimisation and effective performance management and forecasting operation optimisations in advance.

Vinci makes moves into Swedish renewables

Vinci has acquired Helios Nordic Energy, a developer of large-scale solar farms and energy storage solutions in Sweden. The 100% purchase has been made through Vinci Concessions subsidiary SunMind for €73M (£62.2M).

Helios Nordic Energy operates in northern Europe (primarily in Sweden and the Baltic countries) and develops projects until they become Ready to Build (RTB).

GBRTT announces new members of commercial partnerships sounding board

Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) has announced the latest cohort of its Commercial Partnerships Sounding Board.  It had a 37% increase in applications from last year and worked with the Office of Rail and Road to ensure an impartial selection process.

This has seen it collect together an equal representation of large and small-to-medium sized enterprises, with more than 40% of the cohort being companies led by women or minorities.

The partners are: Arcadis, D2 Global, Ethos Farm, Eversheds Sutherland, FastJP, Freeths, Jellybean Consultancy, Kokpits, Ricardo Rail UK, Shoosmiths, Softwire and Weston Analytics.

These partners will work with GBRTT to increase “the shared understanding and vision between rail clients and the supply chain”.

Bouygues creates new entity to support green industrialisation

Bouygues Bâtiment France, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, has created an entity called Bouygues Bâtiment Industrie. It is dedicated to industry to support green reindustrialisation in France and to promote decarbonisation.

This new entity is organised around eight areas of expertise for a better quality of service: sustainable mobilities, data centres, manufacturing, logistics, high tech, life sciences, food processing and energy.

US hydrogen and offshore firms sign MoU

Hy2gen, the global developer, financier, builder and operator of plants for the production of renewable hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with offshore wind energy developer Ocean Connect Energy  (OCE) for the mutual investigation of the potential to power renewable hydrogen production from offshore wind.

The MoU formalises a collaboration between the two companies to identify, evaluate, and develop favourable locations to power Hy2gen’s renewable fuel production from the gigawatt-scale offshore wind energy generation that OCE develops in the USA and worldwide.

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