Atkins also wanted to grow in the United States and for that they have bought PBSJ. And last but not least, Mott Mcdonald has bought a small engineering firm in Australia called Hughes Trueman.Let me go through each transaction more in detail. Numbers have been announced for the biggest two operations (PBSJ and Davis Langdon) but not for the others. Below I give you the open numbers and in the end of the post I present a detailed study estimating conservatively the value of the other transactions.AECOM's acquisitions:1. Davis Langdon sold to Aecom for £200mDavis Langdon provides cost and project management services, and specialist consultancy services, to clients around the world, with a strong presence in Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.Davis Langdon's key numbers:

• Number of employees: 2,800
• Gross revenue: US$430 million in 2009
• Transaction cost: US$324 million.

2. AECOM strengthens rail business with Tritech Rail dealTritech Rail is UK-based market leader in rail services specialising in areas from infrastructure surveying and design to electrification With headquarters in Wigan, Lancashire.The firm was founded in 1999 as a permanent-way engineering consultancy and has now grown into a multiskilled civil engineering consultancy.Tritech Rail's key numbers available:

• Number of employees: +100

3. AECOM's acquisition of INOCSA IngenieriaWith headquarters in Spain and a strong presence in Romania and Bosnia, INOCSA extends AECOM's footprint and expertise in transportation - especially high-speed rail. The firm, which provides services in architecture, design, engineering, programme management and urban planning, has more than 550 employees with offices across Europe and Latin America.Inocsa's key numbers available:

• Number of employees: 550
• Gross revenue: $51 million in 2009

Mott MacDonald's acquisition of Hughes Trueman in AustraliaUnited Kingdom-based management, engineering and development firm Mott MacDonald has set up formal operations in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, opening offices in Adelaide and Melbourne, and acquiring independent employee owned Sydney and Canberra based consultant Hughes Trueman.Hughes Trueman has been providing engineering services in south east Australia for over 50 years and now has 150 staff in four offices across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. The company specialises in civil infrastructure including urban development and public infrastructure (water, sewerage, stormwater, roads) plus buildings and services such as structural, hydraulic and fire design for commercial, industrial, residential and institutional buildings.Hughes Trueman's key numbers available:

• Number of employees: 150

PBSJ bought by British Atkins for $280m.British engineering group WS Atkins said it will buy U.S. engineering design firm PBSJ Corp for 178 million pounds ($280 million), filling a gap in its geographic coverage and securing a new area of growth.PBSJ generated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $47 million on gross revenue of $799 million.PBSJ's key numbers:

• Number of employees: 4,000
• Gross revenue: US$799 million in 2009
• EBITDA: $47 million
• Net income: $23.6 million
• Transaction cost: US$280 million.

Those are all the available numbers. But how much has AECOM paid for INOCSA and Tritech? And what about Hughes Trueman? Obviously these figures are much smaller than the others.Actually, in order to value the transactions, we just all the data for the PBSJ's transaction. We had the transaction cost, PBSJ's EBITDA and gross revenue. From all that we can get a Revenue/EBITDA margin and Earnings multiple ratio for the final vauation.PBSJ's transaction:

• Revenue/EBITDA: 5.9 %
• Earnings multiple: 6

Actually if we use that revenue/EBITDA margin for Davis Langdon's transaction we obtain an earning multiple ratio of 12.8. That's pretty high but we have to consider that Davis Langdon has presence around the world and PBSJ is almost uniquely based in the US.Let's get the value of INOCSA:

• Revenue/EBITDA used: 5.9 % (revenue in 2009: $51 million)--> EBITDA = around $3 million.
• Earnings multiple used: 7 (INOCSA has a very strong presence in Spain and is also in eastern Europe and Latin America)
• VALUE: $23 million

In the case of Tritech and Hughes Trueman it's more difficult we only know how many employees they have. But I've done some assumptions. I've started with the ratio Transaction cost/# of employees. You can see that if the transaction cost is low the amount paid for employee goes down drastically. Thus considering INOCA's ration and taking into account that Tritech and Hughes Trueman has around 100 employees each, see the following numbers:Transaction cost/Employee ($ k):

• PBSJ: 70,000
• Davis Langdon: 115,714
• INOCSA: 38,182
• Titech Rail: 20,000 (estimated)
• Hughes Trueman: 20,000 (estimated)

Assuming that they also have the following ratios:

• Revenue/EBITDA used: 5.9 %
• Earnings multiple used: 6 (they are local businesses like PBSJ)

We get the following values:

• Hughes Trueman: $4.5 million
• Tritech Rail: $3.3 million

See the whole calculation process here: Well, first time I publish a post of this kind. I hope you enojoyed it. If so, susbcribe to the best infrastructure info source. Don't forget to visit the INFRASTRUCTURE/PPP REPORTS DATABASE and the PPP BOOKSTORE.Follow me on twitter.Have a great week!