Sweco want to buy Grontmij – New Technology

     Michiel Jaski, CEO Grontmij and Tomas Carlsson, CEO of Sweco. Photo: TT
     

The engineering company Sweco wants to buy the Dutch company Grontmij to form Europe’s largest engineering consultancy.

The combined company will have approximately 14,500 employees and a turnover of SEK 15.2 billion. This makes the company the largest in Europe in terms of turnover in Europe.

– We hit British Atkins quite firmly. Sweco has long had a vision to become the most respected company in Europe in our industry and then have the size and profitability of a significant, says Sweco’s CEO Tomas Carlsson.

He thinks that the two companies complement each other in terms of expertise.

– We have architecture, infrastructure and track knowledge, while Grontmij is enormously strong in the water, flooding, channels and ports, he said.

Although geographically think Sweco’s leadership that the companies complement each other because Grontmij are in markets that are new for Sweco.

– We have our core business in Norway, Sweden and Finland, while Grontmij in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the UK. The only overlap is in Sweden, but even there we complement each other well because Grontmij has knowledge that we very much want to have more of in our operations, such as signaling, says Tomas Carlsson.

Sweco expects to pay 354 million euros for Grontmij, which corresponds to approximately SEK 3.3 billion. The acquisition is expected to be completed in mid-September.

Grontmij has been difficult to make ends meet in France, Denmark and the Netherlands. The French operations are now sold and Sweco plans to continue Grontmij’s action to streamline operations in Denmark and the Netherlands after the takeover.

Merging Sweco and Grontmij expected to lead to around 200 employees redundant. In Sweden, according to Tomas Carlsson on “a few tens” in administration, otherwise there will be employees at Grontmij, which must go.

– Redundancy is always sad, but it had happened in much anyway, because it is Grontmij programs we implement. The important thing is that we think that the value of the company lies in the superb skills as 6000 employees have, says Tomas Carlsson.

Sweco’s management expects that the acquisition will lead to synergy effects, mainly in IT and administration. The headquarters of the new company will be located in Stockholm.

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