Last month the board of RPS (formerly Rural Planning Services) approved a £625.9m takeover bid by Canadian firm WSP. But it has now changed its mind, having received a £636m offer from US-owned Tetra Tech UK Holdings (formerly White Young Green).
The board of RPS, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, has withdrawn its recommendation that shareholders back the WSP offer and instead is asking for shareholder support for Tetra Tech. Planned shareholder meetings to ratify the WSP bid have now been postponed and new ones to push the Tetra Tech deal through are being arranged.
WSP said that it was now considering its options and would make a further announcement “in due course”. It urged RPS shareholders to take no action.
Ken Lever, non-executive chairman of RPS, said: “The board of RPS is pleased to recommend Tetra Tech’s offer, which provides our shareholders with even greater value for their shares. Our combination with Tetra Tech will provide attractive opportunities and long-term benefits to our associates and global clients.”
RPS chief executive John Douglas added: “Joining Tetra Tech represents a highly attractive combination of two leading companies in the industry for our clients and provides an ideal opportunity for our people to realize RPS’ goals to meaningfully contribute to the world’s most challenging problems in energy transformation and water management around the world. I am very excited about the future of our combined company and the benefits for our people and clients. By joining together, Tetra Tech provides RPS and its employees with a strong and culturally aligned platform that creates a pre-eminent consulting and engineering firm addressing climate change and all its effects.”
Founded in 1970 in Abingdon as Rural Planning Services, RPS is now a diversified professional services firm of approximately 5,000 employees including consultants, designers, planners, engineers, and technical specialists. It generated revenue of £560m last year and made a pre-tax profit of £12.4m. In the first half of 2022 it generated revenue of £267.4m and made a pre-tax profit of £11.1m.
Tetra Tech chairman and CEO Dan Batrack said “The RPS Group advances our long-term strategy to enhance our position as the premier global high-end consulting and engineering firm focused on water, environment, sustainable infrastructure, and energy transformation. We welcome the RPS Group’s associates to join us and collectively leverage our long-term client relationships and project experience. As a global consultancy with a commitment to high-end solutions, we can offer our expanded team of associates even greater professional opportunities.”
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