Engineering Inc - July/August 2017 - 46

MERGERSANDACQUISITIONS

Important Trends to
Note in the Current M&A Market
BY MICK MORRISSEY

T

ypically, we reserve this page to highlight a specific feature of industry M&A. In the last edition we focused
on how private equity is playing a more prominent role
in recapitalizing the AEC industry. In prior issues we've
looked at a variety of topics including M&A activity in specific
regions of the U.S., overseas engineering firms making acquisitions into North America and best practices related to integration
once a deal is done.
In this issue, we're going to change things up just a bit. We're
going to focus on the mergers and acquisitions reported in our
regular ACEC Deal-Makers section. These 16 deals provide an
excellent and timely snapshot of three M&A themes now playing out in the consulting engineering industry as follows:

With industry veteran (and civil engineer) Dickerson Wright
at the helm, the firm has been growing quickly and is currently
ranked No. 54 on the ENR Top 500. NV5 announced four
acquisitions in April and May. They have a management team
that is experienced and skilled in making and successfully integrating acquisitions.
They are the vanguard of the next wave of publicly traded
buyers in the industry. It's also worth noting that publicly traded
Stantec also has an acquisition in this edition's Deal-Makers.
RECAPITALIZATION BY PRIVATE EQUITY

After a deep dive on private equity in the last edition, there are
two great examples of how private equity is providing consulting
engineering firms of all sizes and types with a viable capitalizaTHE NEXT WAVE OF PUBLICLY TRADED BUYERS
tion option.
While many you may be familiar with large publicly traded
Industry leader TRC's announcement in April that New
engineering firms such as AECOM and Stantec, you may
Mountain Capital was taken private turned heads and got
not be aware of the (relatively) new kid on the block-NV5
a lot of attention in the industry. Kain Capital's pur(Hollywood, Fla.).
chase of a majority position in Tampa, Florida's 130-person
King Engineering
Associates, Inc., was
2017 REPORTED M&A ACTIVITY
States by Total Activity:
US vs Int'l Sellers:
also illustrative of private
Total US Sellers
77
21 or more Transactions
Firm Sales by State through June 1, 2017
equity's emergence.
16 to 20 Transactions
Total Int'l Sellers
40
11 to 15 Transactions
6 to 10 Transactions
1 to 5 Transactions
No Transactions

3

US Sellers to Int'l Firms

8

Int'l Sellers to US Firms

1

WA
1

MT
OR

1

ME

2

ND

VT

MN

1

4

2

SD

ID

1

WI

WY

NH
MA

NY

CT RI

MI
5

IA

NE
NV

13

UT

4
1

CO

CA

3

2

IL

IN

2

WV

2

VA

KY
1
2

2

AZ

TN

OK
SC

AR

NM

MS

1

1

AL

GA

8

LA

TX

AK

5

FL
© Morrissey Goodale LLC 2017
All Rights Reserved

HI

46

ENGINEERING INC.

NJ
MD
DE
DC
MD 2

OH

MO

KS

1

PA

1

JULY / AUGUST 2017

1

NC

4

DIVERSITY AND
SCOPE OF INDUSTRY
CONSOLIDATION

The following 16 transactions exemplify the
broadness of the consolidation that's sweeping
the industry. You see
some of the very largest
firms and a multitude of
smaller firms involved-
and not necessarily in
their traditional or conventional roles as buyers
and sellers.
Deals are being struck
throughout the nation
including the West
Coast, Pacific Northwest,
Southeast, Mid-Atlantic
and Midwest. And
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc - July/August 2017
