Weekly merger, acquisition, deal update: September 7

This week Morrissey Goodale tracked one domestic deal and three international transactions. This brings the total year-to-date deal count in the United States to 124, up 11% over the 112 domestic deals tracked through the same period in 2011. Including the U.S., the total global deal count is now 225, down 2% from the 229 global deals tracked through the same period last year.

Source: Morrissey Goodale

Share

This week Morrissey Goodale tracked one domestic deal and three international transactions. This brings the total year-to-date deal count in the United States to 124, up 11% over the 112 domestic deals tracked through the same period in 2011. Including the U.S., the total global deal count is now 225, down 2% from the 229 global deals tracked through the same period last year.

Texas ACEC will host Morrissey Goodale's next "One-Day MBA" business practice seminar on November 14 in Austin, Texas. This one-day blitz of business management training will include topics such as building a branding machine, the market for mergers & acquisitions, drama-less ownership transition, building high-performance teams, and transformational project management and delivery. Click here for more information. 

M&A Transactions

9/4/2012

Leading engineering and architecture firm HDR (Omaha, NE) purchased the assets of Ecosystem Management & Associates (EM&A) (Lusby, MD), a woman-owned firm providing a wide range of environmental services to global clients, including coastal zone management, military range sustainability and encroachment mitigation, environmental impact statements and assessments (NEPA), pollution studies and management, environmental conflict resolution and environmental outreach, natural resource damage assessments, oil spill planning and response, and ecological risk assessments.  Moving forward, EM&A will do business as part of HDR Engineering and HDR Environmental, Operations and Construction. Link to details

8/28/2012

Global diversified engineering and project management company Ausenco (South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) acquired a 75% equity interest in the Rylson Group (Birtinya, Queensland, Australia), a global provider of asset management, engineering and logistics support services and solutions. Rylson will form part of Ausenco's Program Management business and will do business as Ausenco Rylson.  The strategic acquisition positions Ausenco to further capitalize on the global demand for asset utilization and productivity improvements as organizations seek out ways to extend the life of their assets and reduce costs. Link to details

9/6/2012

Global multi-discipline technical consulting firm The AF Group (AF) (Stockholm, Sweden) announced the acquisition of Viatech ApS (Greve, Denmark), a consulting, project management, design and systems programming firm specializing in the field of process automation and industrial IT primarily within the life science biotech, pharmaceutical and food industries. AF's competencies in this particular sector cover a wide range of engineering services, including process engineering, automation and industrial IT, as well as project management offerings. Link to details 

9/3/2012

Residential interior design consultancy and studio Richard Grafton Interiors (Harrogate, England) acquired fellow local interior design practice Janet Sandles Interiors (Harrogate, England). Richard Grafton Interiors was formed in March, 2012 with the intention of realizing a vision for contemporary and traditional homes in Harrogate, Yorkshire and across the north of England and currently features a team of six interior designers. Link to details  

9/4/2012

In a noteworthy initiative (though not considered a deal for the purposes of this update), construction services and engineering (EPC) company Cianbro (Pittsfield, ME) acquired a significant fabrication facility based in Georgetown, Massachusetts from transportation, construction, utility, energy, recreation and agriculture markets supplier L.B. Foster Company (Pittsburgh, PA). The facility was built in 1982 to fabricate structural steel for buildings and bridges, and includes approximately 40,000 square feet of fabrication and coating space and employs 30 team members (all included as part of the acquisition). The Georgetown facility adds more expertise and shop capacity to Cianbro (strengthening its presence specifically in the New York City and Boston markets) and allows the company to expand its product line to include "stringer bridges" which are bridges that are made with a rolled beam as the main member of the structure. Cianbro is well known for its self-performing capabilities including providing civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, fabrication, and coating design and construction services in twelve different markets throughout the United States. Link to details 

9/5/2012

In another noteworthy initiative (also not considered a deal for the purposes of this update), China's state-owned Sinopec Group (Beijing, China), in an effort to procure more petrochemical plant construction contracts in the country and overseas, consolidated eight of its construction units in order to launch a new engineering firm Sinopec Engineering Group. All of the eight firms merged are engaged in engineering, procurement and construction services for a series of products, including petrochemical complexes, natural gas processing plants, petrochemical complexes and chemical plants.  The newly-formed company has about 50,000 employees, is capable of handling more than 20 large-scale EPC projects concurrently and is expected to be publicly traded in Hong Kong by 2014. Link to details.

Information provided by Morrissey Goodale.