Europe's largest environmental consultant, RPS, has consolidated its presence in the Irish market with the acquisition of Belfast-based Kirk McClure Morton, writes Dominic Coyle.
The English group, which already employs 720 people in Ireland, will pay up to £8.4 million for the Northern Irish engineering and environmental consultancy.
Kirk McClure Morton employs about 140 people, primarily in Belfast. It acts for clients in the public and private sector on both sides of the border. Among its landmark projects has been design responsibility for the Waterfront Hall in Belfast and project management lead consultant on the Killybegs Harbour development.
The Belfast group was founded more than 50 years ago and at the end of last year had turnover of £6.9 million. Kirk McClure Morton's eight partners will all remain with the new group.
Mr Jonathan Hegan, senior partner at Kirk McClure Morton, said: "This is a tremendous boost, not only for Kirk McClure Morton as a business but for all our staff and clients. It is a huge vote of confidence in the expertise and experience on offer throughout our firm."
RPS Group (Ireland) chief executive Mr Frank Ferguson said the acquisition would provide further opportunities for growth throughout Ireland.
RPS has become the leading planning, engineering and environmental consultancy in the Republic through the acquisition of established businesses here.
In 2002, RPS bought environmental engineering consultancy MC O'Sullivan for up to €34.7 million. A year earlier, it paid €7 million for Dublin planning consultancy McHugh while, in 2000, EEL was snapped up for €12.7 million.
RPS has offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Galway and Waterford.
