Industry gossip

Acquistions, due diligence and financial geekery

by Mel Starrs on September 30, 2011

in Industry gossip

So the big news story of this week (for me, anyway) was the CH2M Hill £230m acquisition of Halcrow: Workers at Halcrow are to share the spoils after the engineering consultancy decided to end 143 years of independence with an agreed sale to CH2M Hill, a US peer, for £230m including debt. Pre-tax profits at […]

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Scott Wilson acquired by URS

by Mel Starrs on July 12, 2010

in Industry gossip

Those who follow me on Twitter will have seen my slight obsession with the acquisition story of the past few weeks, as URS and CH2M battled over Scott Wilson. My obsession has as much to do with the fact that I get to look at financials of listed companies in my industry rather than any […]

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Who will you work for this time next year?

by Mel Starrs on January 13, 2010

in Industry gossip

There were a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the last decade. Last year alone we saw DEGW merge with Davis Langdon, Parsons Brinckerhoff acquired by Balfour Beatty and Fulcrum merge with Mott MacDonalds. Earlier in the decade Whitby Bird, Hilson Moran and RYB:Konsult all, in different ways changed company ownership, mostly in order to […]

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Is Chris Cole the highest paid CIBSE engineer?

by mel starrs on March 25, 2008

in Industry gossip

Doing some research and I came across the wonderfully voyeuristic Business Week Company Insight Centre. After the news of Zaha Hadid awarding herself £725,000 on a turnover of just over £10m I thought I’d see what the rest of the industry was up to. I was surprised to learn to learn that WSP CEO Chris Cole […]

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Whitby Bird takeover

by mel starrs on August 10, 2007

in Industry gossip

Of course, it’s not presented as takeover, but a merger. Ramboll (Danish company) have bought Whitby Bird and it will be now known as Ramboll Whitbybird – trips off the tongue, doesn’t it? Mark Whitby cites growing internationalisation as a key factor in the decision. The marvellously named CEO of Ramboll, Flemming Bligaard Pedersen, cites […]

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How should engineering consultancies market themselves?

by mel starrs on June 26, 2006

in Industry gossip, The Profession

Spotted in BSEE, White Young Green are now marketing themselves as “consultants to the built, natural and social environment”.  Further investigation on WYG’s website finds that the full explanation is: “White Young Green is an international multi-discipline consultant to the built, natural, social and economic environment.” Without mentioning the world ‘sustainability’ they have managed to […]

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