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Tetra Tech Closes Largest-Ever Acquisition; Reports Record Earnings

January was an exceptional month for Pasadena-based engineering and infrastructure tech firm Tetra Tech Inc.

First, Tetra Tech closed its biggest acquisition in its 57-year history: the $691 million purchase of British environmental consulting firm RPS Group. That purchase didn’t come easy; Tetra Tech had to outbid a Canadian company for the prize.

This huge milestone overshadowed a much more typical acquisition announced Jan. 5 of Reston, Virginia-based Amyx Inc., a technology and cybersecurity firm, for an undisclosed sum.

Then, on Feb. 1, Tetra Tech reported record earnings for its first fiscal quarter ending Jan. 1. Net revenue, operating margins and backlog were all at record highs – and that was for the quarter ending before the RPS acquisition.

“We had an excellent first quarter and just a fantastic start to fiscal year 2023,” Dan Batrack, Tetra Tech’s chief executive, said in remarks to analysts during the company’s earnings teleconference call.

The acquisition of Abingdon-on-Thames-based RPS Group, which Tetra Tech won after topping a $641 million bid from Montreal, Quebec-based engineering and consulting giant WSP Global Inc., gives Tetra Tech a significantly larger international presence.

Batrack summed up the magnitude of this acquisition in his remarks to analysts.

“The RPS Group brings to Tetra Tech over 5,000 staff that are highly aligned with our approach to projects and high-end consulting services in key geographic regions that we’ve been targeting for future growth for some time,” Batrack said.

“RPS doubles our staff in the United Kingdom and Australia broadening our services and client relationships in both of these regions. RPS also extends our operations by adding 1,200 employees in Europe, across the countries of Norway, Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland giving us for the first time, a significant presence in that region.”

Overall, he said, the combined companies yield an organization with 27,000 employees working from 550 offices worldwide, servicing roughly 22,000 clients. Current contract volume of the combined operation allows Tetra Tech to deliver some 100,000 projects a year with an annual revenue of about $4.5 billion, he added.

Howard Fine
Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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