Engineering Inc. - Winter 2020 - 47

deals involved private equity partners, notably ACEC member
STV (New York). STV announced in October a definitive
agreement with industry newcomer The Pritzker Organization
(Chicago) to recapitalize the firm and position STV for future
growth. This transaction marks one of 67 private equity-backed
deals in the industry this year, a 14 percent increase over the same
period the year prior. That deal count means that private equity or
a private-equity-backed engineering firm accounted for nearly 1 in
every 4 industry deals in 2019.
As this category of buyers seeks to scale platform investments
with bolt-on deals, an even wider pool of engineering firms will
emerge as acquisition candidates as investors look for deals that
provide complementary services, technology, or geographic diversification. With an industry that has no shortage of such firms, do
not expect the party to stop anytime soon.
ADDITIONAL ACEC DEAL-MAKERS
NOVEMBER 2019

Public infrastructure engineering firm Baxter & Woodman
(Crystal Lake, Ill.) acquired GTC Engineering Corp. (Orlando,
Fla.), marking Baxter & Woodman's second acquisition in Florida
during the last three years. Both firms are ACEC members.
Global engineering and construction firm CDM Smith
(Boston), an ACEC member, acquired Bioscope Environmental
(Perth, Australia). The acquired firm provides environmental and
social services to the mining, industrial, and infrastructure sectors
and assumed the CDM Smith name as of the acquisition date.
ACEC member NV5 (Hollywood, Fla.) acquired the forensics
engineering business of global design firm and fellow ACEC
member GHD (Tampa, Fla.). The acquisition was an all-cash
transaction and will be immediately accretive to NV5's earnings.
Multidisciplinary firm and ACEC member Barge Design
Solutions (Nashville, Tenn.) acquired Gould Turner Group
(Nashville, Tenn.), a full-service architecture, planning, and
interior design firm. The acquisition continues Barge's recent
period of rapid growth. The firm added more than 180 employees over the past two years and now employs more than 470
professionals.
Public infrastructure engineering firm Murraysmith (Portland,
Ore.), an ACEC member, acquired water modeling and planning
firm Aqualyze (Seattle). The addition of Aqualyze's eight team
members expands Murraysmith's water/wastewater expertise and
brings the firm to 40 professionals in the Puget Sound area.
OCTOBER 2019
Jacobs (Dallas), an ACEC member, acquired a 50 percent stake
in Simetrica (London), a research consultancy specializing in

social value measurement and well-being analysis.
International telecom engineering firm Tower Engineering
Professionals (TEP) (Raleigh, N.C.) acquired Pier Structural
Engineering Corp. (Waterloo, Canada), a telecommunications
engineering and inspection firm. TEP is backed by private equity
firm and ACEC member Prairie Capital (Chicago).
ACEC member LJA Engineering (Houston) acquired DCBA
Landscape Architecture (Plano, Texas), a landscape architecture firm that serves institutions, municipalities, developers, and
private clients.

view the most up-to-date and "live" versions of the
M&A heat maps, and to see who are the buyers and sellers
in each state, go to www.morrisseygoodale.com.
Nick Belitz is a principal with Morrissey
Goodale, LLC, a management consulting
firm that specializes in the A/E industry
and provides strategic business
planning, merger and acquisition,
valuation, executive coaching, leadership
development and executive search
services. He can be reached at
nbelitz@morrisseygoodale.com.

Environmental firm Trinity Consultants (Dallas) acquired
ACEC member WorkingBuildings (Atlanta), a specialty
consulting firm that provides owners advocate services. Trinity
Consultants is backed by private equity firm Sentinel Capital
Partners (New York).
Engineering consulting and design firm Ross & Baruzzini
(St. Louis), an ACEC member, acquired Genesis Planning
(Houston), a medical equipment planning and consulting firm.
The transaction is aimed at strengthening the firm's medical
equipment and technology planning practice.
ACEC member LHB (Duluth, Minn.), a multidisciplinary E/A,
environmental, and planning firm, acquired the assets of Natural
Resources Engineering Co. (NREC) (Superior, Wis.). NREC
provides engineering and management services related to the
transmission petroleum industry.
ACEC member AECOM (Los Angeles) entered into a definitive
agreement to sell its Management Services business to affiliates
of American Securities (New York) and Lindsay Goldberg
(New York). The purchase price of $2.40 billion represents an
11.6x multiple of expected FY 2019 Adjusted EBITDA for the
division. The transaction is expected to close during the first half
of AECOM's fiscal 2020.
Transportation and infrastructure engineering firm CONSOR
Engineers (Houston) acquired TKW Consulting Engineers
(Fort Myers, Fla.), an engineering and inspection firm specializing
in water, wastewater, structural, and civil projects. Both firms are
ACEC members.
Engineering and environmental consulting firm Barr
Engineering (Minneapolis), an ACEC member, acquired High
Energy, Inc. (HEI) (Denver). HEI is a consulting firm providing
electrical, civil, and structural engineering services for electric
utility and associated utility clients. HEI's offices will become Barr
Engineering's second location in Denver.
studio951 (Lincoln, Neb.), an architecture firm serving the
commercial, retail, multifamily, and health care markets, joined
architecture and engineering firm Shive-Hattery (Cedar Rapids,
Iowa), an ACEC member.
ACEC member Houston Engineering (Fargo, N.D.) acquired
Boundary Engineering (Dickinson, N.D.), a firm offering civil
and construction engineering services to municipal clients.
Architecture, engineering, and planning firm Bergmann
(Rochester, N.Y.), an ACEC member, acquired Johnsrud Architects (Trevose, Pa.), a firm serving the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors as well as other highly specialized industries. n
WINTER 2020

ENGINEERING INC.

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Engineering Inc. - Winter 2020

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