History
Origins of WSP
Williams Sale Partnership was established in 1969 in England by Chris Cole and three other partners.[2] In 1976, it was a founding member of the Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA). It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1987.[2]
In the 1990s, the company expanded at home and overseas forming WSP Asia in 1995, incorporating T P O'Sullivan and Partners in 1997, acquiring US practices Cantor Seinuk and Flack + Kurtz in 2000, as well as buying Jacobson & Widmark (J&W) in Sweden in 2001 (J&W was founded in 1938), LT Consultants Oyj and EMP Projects Oyj in Finland in 2003 and, PHB Group in the UAE in 2005.[2]
Genivar
After acquiring three firms and geographical expansion in 1993, the name of the Canadian firm GBGM was changed to Genivar Inc.[3]
In August 2011, Genivar Inc. and Montreal-based architectural firm ARCOP announced an alliance.
Takeover
On 7 June 2012, Genivar made a friendly takeover cash offer of £278 million (C$442 million) for WSP Group plc, headquartered in London. The offer was backed by WSP's board of directors as well as investors holding 37% of the company's shares and the takeover was completed on 1 August 2012.[4][5][6]
This merger created a professional-services firm with approximately 15,000 employees, working in over 300 offices worldwide.[7]
The company reorganised its corporate structure on 1 January 2014, to create a parent company named WSP Global Inc. and adopted the common brand of WSP.
Subsequent acquisitions
In October 2014, WSP completed the purchase of New York-headquartered professional services firm Parsons Brinckerhoff from Balfour Beatty for US$1.24 billion.[8] The company has a network of approximately 170 offices and nearly 13,500 employees on five continents[9] and became a wholly owned independent subsidiary.[10] Together, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff is one of the largest professional services firms in the world with approximately 32,000 employees in 500 offices serving 39 countries.
In early 2015, WSP announced plans to expand to 45,000 employees by 2020.[11] In October 2016, WSP purchased Mouchel Consulting from the Kier Group for approximately £75 million.[12]
In January 2017, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff announced that it would assume the name "WSP", effective from May 2017.[13] In August 2017, WSP made a takeover bid for Opus International Consultants.[14]
In July 2018, WSP announced its intention to buy Berger Group Holdings Inc., parent of the group of companies operating under the name of Louis Berger Group, a Morristown, N.J.-based international professional-services firm, for $400 million.[15]
In February 2020, WSP acquired US-based environmental consulting firm LT Environmental (LTE).[16] On December 3, 2020, WSP acquired Canadian-based geotechnical, earth-science, and environmental consulting firm Golder for $1.14 billion.[17]
On June 1, 2022, WSP announced an agreement of sale with Wood Group plc for the Environment & Infrastructure group (E&I) part of its business. The £1.6 bn acquisition was concluded in September 2022.[18] In August 2022, WSP made an unsuccessful takeover offer to purchase RPS Group for £591 million.[19][20][21] In September 2022, RPS received a counter takeover offer from Tetra Tech for £636 million[22] with WSP opting not to increase its bid.[23] RPS' shareholders voted to accept the Tetra Tech offer in November 2022.[24]
In December 2022, WSP announced plans to acquire a 700-person Swiss engineering firm, BG Consulting Engineers, based in Lausanne with offices in France, Portugal and Italy.[25]
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