Arcadis, the international consultancy, design, engineering and management services company, signed a merger agreement through which it acquired the ownership of Davis Langdon & Seah (DLS), a cost and project management consultancy working across Asia, with 2,800 people in 10 countries.
DLS 2011 revenues were over US$125 million, with normalized operating margins well above the Arcadis target level. The business was owned by 15 international partners and 42 local partners that will all stay with the company to build a joint future with Arcadis.
Arcadis financed the merger by issuing 2.2 million shares to the DLS partners, in addition to an undisclosed cash amount through existing credit facilities. The shares have lock-up periods of 12 to 36 months after closing. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings per share (based on net income from operations, which excludes amortization). Further financial details were not disclosed. BD+C