Engineering giant Jacobs acquires SKM
Two engineering giants will merge under a deal announced today.
Sinclair Knight Mertz (SKM) and Jacobs have signed an agreement to merge their two businesses, by Jacobs acquiring SKM.
SKM’s Adelaide office is in King William Street.
“The SKM Board of Directors believes that the Merger Proposal is in the best interests of SKM Shareholders and unanimously recommends that SKM Shareholders vote in favour of the proposal,” the company said in a statement today.
SKM’s CEO Santo Rizzuto said the merger was provide broader opportunities for SKM staff.
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“It adds scale, diversification and growth opportunities to our business,” Rizzuto said.
“We believe that this will significantly strengthen our market position and that this is an outstanding proposition for our clients and our people.”
Jacobs’ CEO Craig Martin said that the combination is a unique fit that strongly delivers on the company’s strategic ambitions.
“SKM’s culture, values, and operating philosophy are very compatible with ours, making our companies an excellent fit for one another.
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“Our capabilities and geographies have little overlap, enabling us together to continue to expand our client relationships and provide significant opportunities for our employees. We are enthusiastic about the potential.”
SKM is a leading projects firm with recent projects including the Sydney Desalination Plant and the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields project.
“It was the most comprehensive and complex whole-of-Basin water assessment ever undertaken in Australia,” the company said.
“It generated a massive data set to drive a computer-based ‘supermodel’ of the Basin’s water resources.”
SKM has also produced major technical and strategic reports dealing with significant water savings in the Darling River Basin, including potential schemes for operational and infrastructure changes to the Menindee Lakes Storage and to augment, and thereby secure, the water supply of Broken Hill.
Jacobs had a strong presence in Adelaide when it was working on the BHP Olympic Dam expansion project.
When BHP started scaling back plans for the $30 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, an estimated 140 employees based in Adelaide were redeployed to other projects.
