Douglas County-based CH2M Hill announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire Halcrow – a British-based engineering, planning and design and managerial services firm – for approximately 124 million pounds or more than $192 million.
CH2M Hill chairman and chief executive Lee McIntire said the acquisition “is a game changer for our clients.
“Our global footprint will be deeper and our bench strength will be even more robust. By combining our resources and leveraging our collective technical know-how, we will set a new standard for the marketplace,” he said.
McIntire added that the two companies are “ideally suited in terms of cultures, markets, geographies.
“We have a shared long-term vision for the future,” said the CH2M Hill chief executive.
According to CH2M Hill, the acquisition is subject to approval of Halcrow shareholders and the United Kingdom High Court.
Halcrow, founded in 1868, specializes in transport, environmental and other infrastructure projects.
The firm has 6,000 employees, more than 98 offices worldwide and is known for signature projects such as High Speed 1 (also known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link), the Chongzun Expressway in China and Yas Island in the United Arab Emirates.
Halcrow reported revenues of 465 million pounds in 2010.
Peter Gammie, Halcrow’s chief executive, said the Halcrow group board’s decision to approach CH2M Hill to discuss the sale of Halcrow was the culmination of a “business relationship going back many years.
“We have worked together on many occasions and have become very much aware of each other’s strengths and working practices,” said Gammie. “The consolidation, which reflects an increasing trend in our industry, will create a very significant value proposition for clients. We are very complementary in terms of our skills and our markets so, where we share geographies, we are reinforcing one another rather than duplicating.”
CH2M Hill spokesman John Corsi said that although CH2M Hill’s global headquarters is in Douglas County there will not be a relocation of Halcrow employees to Colorado. However, he added some will obviously spend time in Colorado because of the acquisition.
Corsi said Halcrow has about 3,200 employees in the United Kingdom, many in Halcrow’s London office. CH2M Hill has about 350 in the UK, bringing the combined total to more than 3,500, said Corsi.
“Halcrow is an engineer’s engineering firm,” said Corsi. “Their resume is unmatched.”
“It is the biggest acquisition in our firm’s history,” said Corsi.
CH2M Hill said the combination of the two firms will help CH2M Hill advance its leadership in water, environmental, transportation and other markets.
With the addition of Halcrow’s operations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and South America, CH2M Hill will more than double its international presence to almost 30,000 employees globally including more than 11,000 outside the United States.
On its website, Halcrow said that from “Abu Dhabi’s iconic Yas Island to multi-billion pound transport corridors in London and New York, we help deliver some of the world’s largest and most exciting infrastructure projects.
“But we’re not solely about high-profile schemes. We work with local governments to regenerate urban environments, we protect communities from flooding, and we design the roads, bridges and buildings integral to our everyday lives.”
CH2M Hill is a global engineering firm with expertise in consulting, design, operations and program management.
CH2M Hill said its signature projects include the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Program, the Panama Canal expansion program, and the Singapore Deep Tunnel Wastewater Program.
It said another signature project was its former management of the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site which it described as one of the most complex nuclear decommissioning and environmental cleanup programs in the world. The cleanup was completed in 2005.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
