Balfour Beatty sells Parsons Brinckerhoff to WSP Global

12 September 2014


GREAT BRITAIN - Balfour Beatty announced early this week the sale of its professional services division, Parsons Brinckerhoff, to WSP Global Inc. for a cash consideration of USD 1,352.5M. The sale price assumes cash of USD 110M is retained within Parsons Brinckerhoff.

The sale is conditional upon the approval of Balfour Beatty shareholders and is subject to certain antitrust and other approvals. Completion of the sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff is expected in the last quarter of this year.

Following the sale, and the recent revaluation of the PPP portfolio, the group's key strategic priorities include restoring the value of the UK construction business, including progressively returning it to peer group margins; continuing to build on the good performance of the investments and services businesses; leveraging the growth opportunities in US buildings, US civils, rail and power, and the Group's Far East and Middle East Joint Ventures; realising further indirect overhead savings and shared service efficiencies across the Group; and continuing to assess all other value creation opportunities.

Steve Marshall, executive chairman of Balfour Beatty said: "The Board believes that the sale price of GBP 820M (USD 1,352.5M) delivers both a significant return on our original investment and a compelling level of value creation for shareholders, which remains the key focus of the board. The sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff follows the recent revaluation of our investments portfolio, which underlines the potential of this division to create value internally and across the Group.

"In the US, our core construction business is well positioned in a recovering market. In the UK we see the potential for margins to progressively recover to peer group levels. Our services business, meanwhile, is well placed to benefit from the growing investment in infrastructure. Together, these elements will provide a strong foundation for an incoming group CEO to take the company forward."