Stantec expands environmental services and infrastructure footprint in Cardno acquisition

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Major share purchase of North America and Asia Pacific engineering and consulting groups follows Australian acquisitions of Engenium and GTA Consultants.

Canadian engineering giant Stantec has announced a share purchase agreement to acquire the North America and Asia Pacific engineering and consulting groups of Cardno.

Stantec will pay approximately $500 million (CA$620 million) representinThe acquisition will be funded with existing funds and credit facilities and is expected to be well within Stantec’s target leverage range of 1.0x to 2.0x.

The resulting combined environmental services business will represent 20% of Stantec’s business and this fits strengthens Stantec’s strategy for leadership in sustainability, growing its US Environmental Services practice by more than 60% and increasing its exposure to the $9 trillion of spending on ecosystem restoration that the United Nations forecasts will ammount to, by 2030.

Gord Johnston, president and CEO of Stantec, said: “The timing couldn’t be better to welcome their team to Stantec and grow together. Cardno’s key strengths in ecosystem restoration, health sciences, infrastructure, water, and government services are completely complementary to Stantec’s offerings in these growing sectors of the United States and Australia. Together, we will continue to set the standard for sustainable design and climate change mitigation.”

Susan Reisbord, group CEO of Cardno added, “Joining Stantec offers a tremendous opportunity to the people of both companies to accelerate our combined growth given how complementary our strengths are in the regions we operate. Our combined Australian operations will strengthen our position as a top tier engineering and design firm there, and this will open new opportunities for us. As this process has played out, the one thing that has been striking is the commonality between our values and cultures.”

The move dramatically expands Stantec’s footprint in Australia, raising its presence in the country to 2,500 employees, establishing the critical mass and diversity to further accelerate growth in the region.

Stantec has been very active with Australian acquisitions lately, recently announcing acquisitions of engineering consultancy Engenium, and transportation planning and engineering firm GTA Consultants.

Completion of the acquisition remains subject to Cardno shareholders’ voting in favor and for Cardno to complete a pre-sale restructure to transfer to seperate parts of the business not being acquired.