DLS employs 2,800 people in 10 countries and its 2011 revenues were more than US$125m (£76m).
The business was owned by 15 international partners and 42 local partners, who will all stay with the company.
Arcadis has financed this merger by issuing 2.2 million shares to the DLS partners, in addition to an undisclosed cash amount through existing credit facilities. The shares have lock-up periods of 12 to 36 months after closing. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings per share.
DLS has 37 office locations with major positions in mainland China (14 offices, 1,050 people), Hong Kong/Macau (2 offices, 400 people) and other parts of Asia (21 offices, 1,350 people), including Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea, India and affiliates in Malaysia and Brunei.
In addition to its core activities, the company provides cost engineering services to the oil, gas and petrochemical industries and due diligence advisory services and dispute resolution/litigation support.
The DLS operations are seen as complementary to existing activities in Asia, including RTKL and EC Harris. These include the expansion of the built asset consultancy services of EC Harris and using the Asian platform to further grow other core Arcadis services in water and environment. “Furthermore, we anticipate significant synergies in supporting our combined multinational clients, having now a greatly expanded footprint, capacity and services offering throughout the region,” said the company. “The merger also fits Arcadis’ strategic goal to build a leading global position in program management and related services. Arcadis, including EC Harris and DLS, now has some 8,000 professionals in this service area and leading market positions in most major geographic markets throughout the world including Europe, Middle East, Asia, US and Brazil.”
Arcadis CEO Harrie Noy said: “This merger meets our long-standing strategic ambition of expanding our presence in Asia and brings an excellent and well-known brand with substantial experience in the region. We now have an established and highly successful platform for further expansion of our business in Asia. The strong urbanization and social infrastructure development in this part of the world are major drivers for growing demand for services in all our business lines.”
Joseph Lee, DLS CEO added: “This opportunity is unique as Arcadis brings us additional capabilities and experience, which allows us to further expand our business by diversifying our service offering. This will benefit our clients, as well as our staff. In addition, we obtain access to new multinational clients that seek to invest in the countries where we are well established. We are confident of the success of this merger because of our similar values, cooperative culture and our joint commitment to service excellence, staff development and financial performance.”
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