After recommending a £625.9m takeover bid last month by Canadian firm WSP, RPS has changed course after receiving a £636m offer from US firm Tetra Tech UK Holdings.
WSP have asked 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 John Douglas said: “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 RPS employs 5,000 people consisting of consultants, designers, planners, engineers, and technical specialists. It made £560m last year with pre-tax profit of £12.4m.
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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