When engineering company and Energy Department contractor CH2M was looking for potential merger partners this past spring, eventual buyer Jacobs Engineering wasn’t the only party showing interest, CH2M noted in a mammoth filing Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Aug. 2, the two companies announced they had entered into an agreement for Jacobs to acquire all outstanding shares of CH2M for $3.27 billion, including the assumption of more than $400 million in CH2M debt.
CH2M had looked at potential merger partners for several months and in May and June had some expression of interest from Jacobs and at least two other companies.
During the first week in May, CH2M had representatives of Bank of America Merrill Lynch reach out to a senior vice president at Jacobs to see if the company would be interested in discussing a business combination. Also in early May, CH2M approached a couple of large publicly traded engineering services companies to assess their interest. These two organizations were identified only as “Company B” and “Company C” in the SEC filing.
CH2M could not be reached for additional detail Tuesday.
Jacobs and one of the other companies did make preliminary, nonbinding offers before CH2M agreed to focus on Jacobs in mid-to-early June.
On June 14, 2017, the two companies entered into an “exclusivity agreement” to last through July 29, 2017, for Jacobs to perform a due diligence review and negotiate a deal to acquire CH2M. The merger agreement was finalized between July 28 and July 31.
Founded in 1946, CH2M is a large firm providing various engineering and construction-related services internationally. It has about 20,000 employees.
Assuming approval from regulators and CH2M stockholders, the deal would close in the first quarter of 2018.
