Arcadis, one of the world’s leading natural and built asset design and consultancy firms, said it has completed the acquisition of two major construction players in the region, Hyder Consulting and Callison.

Hyder Consulting is a leader in infrastructure, water and buildings sector with activities in the UK, the Middle East, Germany, Asia and Australia and boasts a 4,600-strong workforce.

Callison, a 1,000-people high-level architectural and interior design consultancy with offices in the US, China, Europe, Middle East and Mexico, specialises in retail and office design and large mixed-use projects.

With this move, Arcadis has gained a truly global position and is now able to also deliver solutions for its clients in six out of the seven continents, including Australia. Through these steps, the company has also added a number of highly iconic projects to its roster.

These acquisitions will add more than €500 million ($636 million) into Arcadis’ gross revenue which soared to €3 billion ($3.8 billion).

Geographically, Arcadis’ positions in North America, the UK, Continental Europe, and the emerging markets have been strengthened by the acquisitions.

The deals also for the first time provide direct access to the Australian market, where Arcadis can use the existing Hyder footprint to provide a broad range of solutions to its multinational clients, as well as providing new solutions to local clients.

Arcadis said the strategic acquisitions have made it the leading global natural and built asset design and consultancy firm with more than 28,000 talented professionals across the globe.

Through Hyder, Arcadis now becomes the oldest consulting engineering company on record, with activities dating back 230 years ago.

A number of iconic projects become part of our combined history, including the Tower Bridge in London ( UK), the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (UAE), the tallest building in the world on the Hyder side, remarked Neil McArthur, the CEO of Arcadis.

"Iconic Callison projects include the recently completed Lotte Center Hanoi (Vietnam), the Burberry flagship store in Chicago (US) as well as all of the Nordstrom high-end retail store work over the last 20 years," he added.

“The complementary and world-class capabilities that Hyder and Callison bring will help us better serve our combined client base with a global reach and help us deliver on our passion of improving the quality of life and being recognised as the best in our industry,” added McArthur.-TradeArabia News Service