AMEC - History

History

AMEC was formed from the 1982 amalgamation of Leonard Fairclough & Son (founded 1883) and the William Press Group (founded 1913). In 1988, AMEC went on to acquire Matthew Hall Group.

In 1996, AMEC took control of Spie Batignolles from Schneider buying a +40% stake in association with a management buyout. In 2002-2003 it completed the purchase, and launched the AMEC SPIE brand for engineering services in Europe, a rail construction business AMEC Spie Rail was created, and the remaining construction business was retained by Spie Batignolles. The company announced that it would seek to sell the construction arm of the business Spie Batignolles, and entered negotiations to secure a management buyout of that division; the management buyout was completed in September 2003 with the aid of Barclays Private Equity Finance.

In 2000, AMEC bought Ogden Environmental & Energy Services and AGRA, Inc., a North American engineering and services company.

In 2003, AMEC acquired the U.S. operations and equipment of Lauren Kamtech.

In 2004, AMEC was awarded a contract to assist in the reconstruction effort in Iraq, as part of a joint venture with Fluor Corp., and this contract has been completed.

In 2005, AMEC acquired UK-based NNC, a large nuclear consulting company and its subsidiaries, including Ontario-based Nuclear Safety Solutions ('NSS'), the nuclear safety division of OPG, which was spun off when OPG was privatised.

In 2005 AMEC announced it was to sell its Spie acquisition of 2003. AMEC SPIE was sold to PAI Partners for €1040 million in 2006. The European rail business joint venture Amec Spie Rail systems was sold for an estimated £200million in 2007, to Colas Group.

In 2007, AMEC sold its UK construction arm to Morgan Sindall.

In 2008, AMEC sold its internal plant hire division to Speedy Hire.

In 2008, AMEC bought project services company Rider Hunt International, North American environmental consulting firm Geomatrix Consultants, Inc., and Slovakian nuclear services company AllDeco.

In 2009, AMEC acquired Performance Improvement Group, Journeaux, Bedard & Associates and GRD Limited.

In 2010, AMEC continued to expand with the £61.2 m purchase of Entec UK, one of the UK's largest Environmental Consultancies. The company also acquired Australian-based businesses Currie and Brown (Australia) and BurmanGriffiths and acquired a majority stake in S2V Consulting.

In 2011, the company acquired US-based BCI Engineers & Scientists, Inc., and announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Zektingroup (Zektin), an Australian-based specialist engineering consultancy for the oil and gas and resources industries.

In May 2011, the company announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire MACTEC, a US-based engineering consultancy company. The acquisition was completed on June 6, 2011.