Montreal-based global engineering company SNC-Lavalin as of Monday is the new owner of British engineering and project manager provider WS Atkins, an increasingly significant player in cleanup of the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear complex.
The $3.6 billion (CAN) deal brings the 18,000-employee Atkins, and its $3.5 billion (CAN) in annual revenue, under the SNC-Lavalin umbrella, according to a press release announcing completion of the buyout first announced in April.
“By combining our two highly complementary businesses, we are solidifying SNC-Lavalin’s position as one of the largest fully integrated professional services firms in the world, while improving our margins and balancing our business portfolio,” SNC-Lavalin President and CEO Neil Bruce said in the release.
Combined, the companies will encompass more than 50,000 employees and yearly revenue of about $12 billion (CAN), the release says.
Atkins is lead partner, with Fluor and Westinghouse, in the Mid-America Conversion Services joint venture that in September 2016 secured a five-year, $318 million contract to operate depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities at DOE sites in Ohio and Kentucky. With partner AECOM, Atkins also manages waste tank operations at the Hanford Site in Washington state through the Washington River Protection Solutions venture.
The company has received clearance from DOE to continue its site work under the new ownership, Atkins spokesman Matt Graydon said by email Thursday: “We believe the added expertise from our colleagues at SNC-Lavalin will help bring added value to our client.”
SNC-Lavalin spokesman Louis-Antoine Paquin highlighted the company’s experience in designing and producing multi-ton robotic systems that can be used in radioactive environments such as those found in DOE cleanup sites.
To avoid alerting competitors, the company does not publicly discuss upcoming bids, Paquin said. However, there is no shortage of upcoming opportunities with the Department of Energy, including the next liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and both the environmental management and operations contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The Canadian company says its expertise in the nuclear sphere encompasses reactor refurbishment, decommissioning, and waste management.
“Having something different, having a different conversation with our clients, about things that we can bring to bear, that we wouldn’t have been able to do before, enhancing the conversations of SNC team have with their clients, so we’re just bringing that slightly different conversation to the client,” new Atkins President Heath Drewett said in a video on the acquisition.
In its latest fiscal year, ended March 31, Atkins reported $2.7 billion in revenue and just under $200 million in operating profit – respectively rising by 11.8 percent and 7.5 percent from the prior year. In its North America segment, which includes DOE services, revenue spiked by 32.5 percent to $623 million on the back of higher project volume for Department of Transportation and intermodal businesses. Operating profit rose by 64.2 percent, year over year, to $43.4 million.
