The start of a new year is a great opportunity to review your businesses plans for the year ahead.

If you are considering making any changes to your teams, we offer a range of executive search packages and talent mapping options that can be tailored around your requirements.

Click below to have a quick chat about how Newsom Consulting can assist you this year.

It is also a good time take a look back at what has happened in the market over the last 12 months.

Take a look at the biggest mergers and buyouts in transport, infrastructure and the built environment from 2022…

Amey

The sale of Amey to US-based One Equity Partners and the UK’s Buckthorn Partners has been completed, they paid former owner Ferrovial £245m for the company’s shares.

WSP

WSP has made several strategic acquisitions over the past year. They agreed a combined £60m acquisition of Capita’s Real Estate & Infrastructure and GL Hearn businesses.

They also completed the purchase of the environment and infrastructure (E&I) business of John Wood Group for more than £1.5bn.

Galliford Try

Galliford Try has acquired several divisions of water specialist Ham Baker. The acquisition brings with it a team of around 40 people who will continue to operate from Ham Baker’s current premises in Stoke.

The company also purchased struggling Coventry firm MCS Control Systems for £1.

ARCADIS

Arcadis has acquired Canadian architecture and engineering firm IBI Group for £561m. The acquisition will boost its digital proposition as well as its presence in North America.

Keltbray

Keltbray has bought Teesside-based high voltage power engineering specialist IDEC. The firm employs 138 staff providing a full electrical substation design, construction and commissioning service up to 275kV. Last year it reported revenue of £20m generating a £1.1m pre-tax profit.

Imtech

Imtech, which is jointly owned by EDF and Dalkia, announced that it had acquired Spie UK for £43m as part of a strategy to increase its presence in the UK, subject to regulatory approvals.

M Group

M Group Services has expanded with several more acquisitions over the course of the year. In May they aqcuired OVO Energy’s 100-strong revenue protection service business.

They have also acquired the trade and assets of Salient Systems, a specialist provider of technology services to the UK utilities metering market, making this the 17^th acquisition since 2016.

Renew

Enisca, a multi-disciplinary engineering firm operating in the water and environmental sector, has been acquired by listed business Renew Holdings in a deal worth £15.6 million. The price represents a 13.9x multiple of Enisca’s £1.12 million pre-tax profits for the year ending March 31 2021.

Turner & Townsend

Turner & Townsend have acquired JukesTodd, an advisory and project management firm founded in Brisbane, Australia. The strategic move will double the size of Turner & Townsend’s natural resources business in Australia.

Steer

In July Steer acquired project finance advisory firm Amberside Advisors to enhance their financial advisory services and to add sector specialism advice in the renewable energy, transport and infrastructure sectors.

Abellio UK

Abellio UK and Nederlandse Spoorwegen announced a management buyout in August. The management buyout from the state-owned rail company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen will pave the way for a new UK-based company to take over all Abellio UK’s existing services, serving millions of rail and bus passengers in London, Liverpool, the Midlands and East Anglia. The new company will be called Transport UK Group Limited.

Bouygues

Bouygues has completed the acquisition of Equans for $5.9bn. The new business segment comprised of Equans and Bouygues’ Energies & Services arm will generate around €17 billion in sales ($16.5bn) employ around 97,000 people in over 20 countries.

Stagecoach

DWS Infrastructure acquired Stagecoach at the end of June for £600m, beating off the £445m offer from transport rival National Express.

GLIL Infrastructure and Octopus Energy Generation

GLIL Infrastructure and Octopus Energy Generation have acquired a joint stake in Hornsea One wind farm. The companies have acquired a 12.5% stake in the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm, which is located off the Yorkshire coast.

Tetra Tech

Tetra Tech have snapped up its third UK consultant in as many years after WSP decided not to increase its offer for RPS Group. Tetra Tech offered a superior proposal of £636m. This constitutes an all-cash acquisition of the group for 222 pence per share versus WSP’s offer price of 206 pence per share.

Stantec

Stantec has completed the acquisition of UK planning and design consultant Barton Willmore.

AECOM

AECOM has acquired a 30% stake in SLC Rail, a UK-based rail small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), for an undisclosed amount. The engineering company expects the investment in SLC to help in boosting delivery and joint rail development offers.

Atkins

Atkins has completed the acquisition of Flex Process, a leading process engineering, safety and digital simulation company.

Go-Ahead Group

The Sale of the Go-Ahead Group to a consortium made up of Australasian bus operator Kinetic Group (51%) and transport concession manager Globalvia Inversiones (49%) completed on 10 October, as expected. The deal values Go-Ahead at around £669m.

Octavius Infrastructure

Osborne Infrastructure has rebranded as Octavius Infrastructure following its sale by Osborne Group to Sullivan Street Partners in September 2021.

HDR

UK engineering consultancy Hurley Palmer Flatt Group has now been rebranded HDR, further to its acquisition by US architectural and engineering consultancy firm HDR in June 2019.

AYESA

AYESA, a leading international technology and engineering services firm, has announced the acquisition of Irish-UK engineering consultancy ByrneLooby for an undisclosed fee.

Atlantia SpA

Atlantia SpA, agreed to buy Siemens AG’s road traffic unit, Yunex Traffic for $1.1bn including debt.

Vistry

Vistry’s £1.27bn takeover of Countryside Partnerships has been completed. The deal, first announced in September, combines two of the UK’s largest housebuilders. The takeover is the latest in a string of mergers and acquisitions by Vistry, which, as the former Bovis Homes, doubled in size when it acquired Galliford Try’s housing arm, Linden Homes, and its regeneration arm, Galliford Try Partnerships, for £1.1bn in January 2020. The deal led to a change of name to Vistry Group.

Stark Group

Builders’ merchant Jewson has been sold to the Danish firm Stark Group for £740m.

Fitzgerald Contractors

Civils firm Fitzgerald Contractors has become the latest firm to be sold to an employee-ownership trust. The move will give all 120 employees a stake in the company.

Egis

International architecture and urban design firm Weston Williamson + Partners has joined Egis. The deal sees the purchase by Egis of a majority stake in Weston Williamson + Partners, with the practice’s name, brand and company leadership carried over under the Egis umbrella.

RSK Group

RSK Group, a global leader in the delivery of sustainable solutions, has agreed a partnership with specialist infrastructure communications firm Copper Consultancy. Copper will retain its brand, clients and management team. Copper will work closely with RSK Creative – a design and technical writing specialist business within the RSK group.

Alfred McAlpine

Alfred McAlpine has bought environmental consultant Enviros Group for £30m. The contractor paid £27m in cash and the rest in shares for its new acquisition which it has bought from the current management team.

If you are looking to make any changes to your teams this year, please do get in touch to see how we could help you.