Explaining the move, Jacobs chief executive officer Noel Watson said that the purchase of Babtie would allow Jacobs to expand globally. “Our view is that Babtie, coupled with a similarly scaled operaion in the US will provide the foundation to achieve our goal of global leadership, and I would expect to see the Babtie team being a key part of our leadership globally in building this business.”
Babtie has 50 offices around the world and has a workforce of 3,500. Babtie announced a turnover of £189m last year and increased pre-tax profits of £7.8, up by 51%. It is heavily involved in private/public infrastructure in the UK
Jacobs has 35,000 employees and last year reported earnings of £69m on a turnover of £2.5bn. It provides engineering services in areas as diverse as flood defence, nuclear decommissioning and rail safety.