Balfour Beatty agrees to acquire Parsons Brinckerhoff for $626 million

Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction, investment and services group, has agreed to acquire Parsons Brinckerhoff for $626 million.

Parsons Brinckerhoff is a leading professional services company with more than $2.3 billion in worldwide revenue in 2008. The New York-based employee-owned firm has 12,650 employees across 100-plus offices.

Prior to closing, the acquisition will need to be approved by the shareholders of both organizations.

Balfour Beatty believes that the combination of Balfour Beatty and Parsons Brinckerhoff—two highly complementary businesses, both geographically and in terms of market sector areas of expertise—will be a major step forward in accomplishing a number of Balfour Beatty’s objectives by:
• Establishing a global professional services business of scale
• Creating a leading position in U.S. civil infrastructure, particularly in the transportation sector
• Enhancing its global reach.

“The acquisition of Parsons Brinckerhoff represents the realization of a number of key strategic objectives for Balfour Beatty," said Ian Tyler, chief executive of Balfour Beatty plc. "In particular, we believe it makes us one of the world’s major players in professional services, substantially strengthening our U.S. presence, while complementing our current U.S. business.”

“We are delighted to be joining the Balfour Beatty group," said Keith Hawksworth, Parsons Brinckerhoff's CEO. "We believe there is a clear fit between our two closely-aligned companies and are very enthusiastic about the enormous potential that can be realized by working together in the future.”

Balfour Beatty has a strong, diverse presence in the United States through Balfour Beatty Construction (building and commercial construction), Heery International (design, engineering, program and project management, and construction management at risk), Balfour Beatty Infrastructure (civil engineering and construction), Balfour Beatty Rail, and Balfour Beatty Communities (privatized military housing). The company had U.S. revenues of more than $4 billion in the year ended December 31, 2008 and has over 5,000 professional employees across the U.S.