0203 026 3870
Newsom Consulting
Delivering Leadership Talent
Newsom ConsultingNewsom Consulting
  • Sectors
    • Rail
    • Aviation
    • Highways
    • Power & Utilities
    • Buildings
    • Defence
    • Major Projects
    • Transport Operators
    • International
  • Our Services
    • Executive Search
    • Talent Mapping
    • Leadership Assessment
    • Outplacement
  • Opportunities
  • Testimonials
  • Insights
    • Blogs
    • Reports & Guides
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Contact Us
  • Sectors
    • Rail
    • Aviation
    • Highways
    • Power & Utilities
    • Buildings
    • Defence
    • Major Projects
    • Transport Operators
    • International
  • Our Services
    • Executive Search
    • Talent Mapping
    • Leadership Assessment
    • Outplacement
  • Opportunities
  • Testimonials
  • Insights
    • Blogs
    • Reports & Guides
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Contact Us

Movers and Shakers in Transport & Infrastructure – The Companies Edition 2019

Happy New Year!

It’s back to business as usual as 2020 kicks off to a flying start. It’s that time of year again when we reflect on the previous year and see what major changes took place in the transport and infrastructure sectors.

Let’s take a look at which companies made some big changes in 2019…

Avanti West Coast

FirstGroup and Trenitalia took over the Virgin Trains West Coast line and began operating the Avanti West Coast franchise in December.

 

Gatwick Airport

VINCI Airports completed the acquisition of a majority shareholding (50.01%) in London Gatwick airport. With this transaction, VINCI Airports becomes the world’s second-largest airport operator. Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) – retains the remaining 49.99% share.

 

FirstGroup

Announced it’s plans to sell off it’s UK bus division and its long-distance US coach arm Greyhound and in December they hired investment bank Rothschild to spearhead the potential sale of its remaining North American businesses.

 

CBRE

Have acquired Telford Homes in a £267m deal in October.

 

Powerlines Group

Engie reached an agreement to acquire Austrian railway electrification company Powerlines Group from private equity firm Glide Buy Out Partners. Powerlines’ UK subsidiary SPL Powerlines UK is a major OHLE supplier to Network Rail, and acquired Carillion’s stake of the Carillion Powerlines (CPL) joint venture company last year.

 

OVO Energy

Have agreed to acquire SSE’s household energy and related services business for £500 million. The sale is expected to complete later this month.

 

Galliford Try Partnerships

Galliford Try Partnerships acquired Yorkshire-based developer Strategic Team Group. The management team and staff at the firm will remain in place, and it will trade as Galliford Try Partnerships Yorkshire from 1 July 2019.

 

Severfield

In October Severfield acquired structural steelwork business Harry Peers for £18m to expand its business within nuclear and power generation market sectors.

 

WSP

Announced its acquisition of UK-based planning consultancy, Indigo Planning Limited, at the end of April. The acquisition comes as part of WSP’s goal to position itself as “the top planning consultancy in the UK”.

 

SYSTRA

In September, SYSTRA acquired the rail consultancy TSP Projects from British Steel. This purchase doubled SYSTRA’s presence in the UK and is now known as TSP Projects, a SYSTRA company.

 

Jacobs

Jacobs has acquired a 50% share in UK-based social value and wellbeing measurement specialists Simetrica, with the companies already working together to develop new best practices and solutions related to social value and wellbeing principles.

They have also acquired Wood Group’s Nuclear business for a value of £250 million.

 

ERM

In January ERM completed the acquisition of SustainAbility Ltd (SA). SA is a leading think tank and advisory firm.

 

HDR

Architectural and engineering consultancy firm HDR expanded its multidisciplinary building engineering services by acquiring UK engineering consultancy Hurley Palmer Flatt Group. Going forward, the firm will do business as HDR | Hurley Palmer Flatt Group.

 

Trinity Consultants

International environmental, health, and safety consulting firm, moved into the UK by acquiring Ecological Survey & Assessment Limited a 20-strong specialist team that was generating around £1.5m in revenue annually.

Genesee & Wyoming

Have announced the completion of its sale to affiliates of Brookfield Infrastructure and GIC in a transaction valued at approximately $8.4 billion including debt.

 

Bovis Homes

Bovis Homes has completed a £1.1bn deal to buy Galliford Try’s housing and regeneration businesses. The company has also announced it has applied to change its name to Vistry Group PLC.

 

WYG

WYG was bought in July up by US consulting conglomerate Tetra Tech for £43m.

 

Worley Parsons

Completed it’s purchase of Jacobs Energy, Chemicals and Resources Division (Jacobs ECR) in April.

 

E.ON

In September, E.ON took over the 76.8% stake in Innogy, which was previously held by RWE. Alongside this, 9.4% of shareholders agreed to sell their shares to E.ON and they have since purchased 3.8% on the stock exchange. This means that E.ON now hold 90% of Innogy shares.

 

Morrisroe

Concrete frame specialist Morrisroe has moved into the piling sector with acquisition of GSS Piling and Geostructural Solutions.

 

Ferrovial

Ferrovial has sold its Australian services subsidiary Broadspectrum. Australian service provider Ventia has acquired Broadspectrum in a deal worth £257M.

 

They have also been seeking to sell Amey and is rumoured to be considering offloading certain divisions to enable the sale of the rest of the business in 2020.

 

Teneo Consulting

Teneo has sold a majority stake to CVC Capital Partners, in a deal that reportedly values the consultancy and CEO advisory firm at more than $700m. CVC acquired a 49% stake from BC Partners, along with ownership shares that take its position to a slight majority.

 

GB Railfreight

The infrastructure equity investment arm of M&GPrudential has acquired GB Railfreight. Infracapital, on behalf of the Infracapital Partners III Fund, is bought GB Railfreight from EQT Infrastructure portfolio company Hector Rail Group for an undisclosed sum.

 

Canadian Pacific

Canadian Pacific announced 30th December that it has completed its acquisition of the Central Maine & Quebec Railway (CMQ), although the transaction remains subject to U.S. Surface Transportation Board approval.

 

Sweco

In May Sweco acquired MLM Group, a UK engineering consultancy with services primarily within buildings, transportation infrastructure and environment, predominately located in South East England.

 

RSK Group

RSK Group added to its portfolio by announcing the acquisition of Ecologia Environmental Solutions Ltd. The multidisciplinary site remediation specialist is the sixth acquisition for the rapidly expanding RSK group this financial year.

 

Arriva

DB were reported in October to be in exclusive talks with Carlyle Group to sell Arriva. This was suspended in November and DB have said Arriva could be floated if they cannot achieve an acceptable trade sale.

If you are looking to make any changes to your senior teams in 2020, get in touch to see how we can help.

By Jim Newsom13th January 2020

Author: Jim Newsom

Jim Newsom leads our work in construction and infrastructure having worked in executive search since 1998, recruiting for both public and private sector companies in infrastructure, transport, engineering and construction. Prior to forming Newsom Consulting, Jim spent 11 years working for the one of the UK’s largest independently owned executive recruiters and then two years at a boutique search firm. Jim is a graduate in civil engineering from Liverpool University.

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:Contracts & Frameworks – Who’s won what this quarter?NextNext post:6 Big Infrastructure & Transport Trends to watch out for in 2020…

Related posts

UK Major Projects Pipeline Update – May 2022
17th May 2022
3 lessons learnt from Crossrail for future Major Projects
9th May 2022
Movers and Shakers in Transport & Infrastructure – The Headlines from April 2022
3rd May 2022
Executive Search vs Recruitment Agencies – what’s the difference?
25th April 2022
5 things to consider when recruiting from industry into consulting
4th April 2022
Movers and Shakers in Transport & Infrastructure – The Headlines from March 2022
24th March 2022

To recieve our weekly blogs please fill in your details below:

Recent Posts
  • UK Major Projects Pipeline Update – May 2022
    17th May 2022
  • 3 lessons learnt from Crossrail for future Major Projects
    9th May 2022
  • Movers and Shakers in Transport & Infrastructure – The Headlines from April 2022
    3rd May 2022
Testimonials

UK Power Network Services recently partnered with Newsom Consulting to recruit a key strategic appointment. They provided us with a targeted candidate search and shortlist of candidates from which we were able to make a successful appointment. Throughout the engagement there was senior involvement from Newsom Consulting and they demonstrated deep knowledge of the sector and market. They were patient, thorough and professional throughout the search.

 

Ian Smyth, Director of UK Power Networks Services

Since taking over as the CEO of Crossrail I have put a lot of effort into establishing the right leadership team to complete the project. Newsom Consulting have been a great partner in this work. Together we have worked to assemble a great new team  with the right energy and capability for one of the worlds most complex projects.

Jim and team are a real pleasure to work with; responsive and sensitive to our unique circumstances.

CEO, Crossrail

We recently worked with Newsom Consulting to recruit a key Director position for our UK leadership team. They understood our requirements well, spending time to come and meet with us so they could fully understand our needs. The longlist and shortlist reports were good and very user friendly. Assessment of candidates was accurate and we were presented with a good diverse selection of candidates with different backgrounds. The quality of candidates was first class and we were able to appoint a high-calibre candidate. The process was thorough and good value for money.

Managing Director, STRABAG UK
Newsom Consulting
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Footer Menu

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Newsom Consulting
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.