Arcadis, a leading global design and consultancy organisation for natural and built assets, has entered into an agreement to acquire DPS Group in Cork.
DPS is a leading consultancy, engineering and construction management company for Life Sciences and Semiconductor facilities.
Serving high-tech industries around the world, DPS delivers full-service engineering across a range of disciplines, including project management, procurement, design, construction management, health and safety management, commissioning, qualification, and validation, and facility start-up.
It has a strong presence in North America and Europe, and long-standing client relationships with the world’s largest pharmaceutical and semiconductor manufacturing companies.
Founded in 1974 in Dublin, DPS Group opened its first office in the US in 2011 with a staff of 10 based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The company has since grown its US presence to over 900 employees across eight offices in Albany, New York; Cary, North Carolina; Framingham, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; Kansas City, Kansas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; and Wall Township, New Jersey.
In Association with
DPS has c.2,850 employees in the US and Europe and had turnover of €289m in 2021.
Frank Keogh, CEO of DPS, commented: “Today marks an important step in the evolution of DPS. Over the past years we have grown our business into a leader in the Life Sciences and Semiconductor manufacturing sectors.
“I am proud to be joining forces with Arcadis. Together with Arcadis we will be able to offer a more comprehensive set of solutions for our clients and continue to grow our business.”
Arcadis CEO Peter Oosterveer commented “Our ambition is to be a global leader in the high growth and resilient Life Sciences and Semiconductor manufacturing markets. The combined strengths of both our organisations will allow us to improve the quality of life for the communities we all serve, while amplifying our ability to deliver a full service and seamless offering to new and existing clients across the world.
“The Arcadis-DPS combination will provide clients with a one stop shop, full-service provider. The increased size will drive higher win rates on larger projects, in a market that increasingly prefers to deal with a single trusted advisor, given the complex, regulatory driven market requirements.
“In addition, Arcadis is expected to leverage DPS’ manufacturing engineering skills to industrial manufacturing clients such as the high growth EV battery gigafactories. DPS and Arcadis have a history of successful collaboration, which was demonstrated by the delivery of multiple large pharmaceutical clients’ facilities.”
Arcadis said the acquisition of DPS for a cash consideration of €232m or an enterprise value of around €295m represents 8.1x DPS’ estimated 2022 EBITDA, and 6.7x post synergies. The transaction will be fully debt financed.
The deal is subject to regulatory approvals, and Arcadis expects the transaction to close before the end of 2022.
According to Renatus, DPS corporate finance counsel was sourced from an EY team led by Ronan Murray and John Higgins, with Peter Neville and Eanna Brennan. EY’s tax advice team included John Kennelly, Frank O'Neill and Chloe Barrett.
For legals, RDJ is acting for DPS, with a team including Gillian Keating, Sean O’Reilly, Maria Walsh, Tadhg O’Scanaill, Fernanda Camera (Corporate & Commercial), Mark Barrett, John Cuddigan, Mark Ludlow (Tax), Brendan Cunningham (Finance), David McCarroll (Employment).
Solicitors Kate Hogan and Stephen Ranalow at Arthur Cox are acting for Arcadis, who sourced tax counsel from a Deloitte team led by David Shanahan.
Photo: DPS Group's new office building in Framingham outside Boston
