This company has a strong growth strategy focused on the most important environmental parts of the built environment.
According to a recruiter, in recent times one of the most hotly contested skills in the industry right now is for biologists. Given the state of nature around the planet and the growing impact we have on it, that’s probably a good thing – and logical.
It’s the kind of observation and thinking that the acquisitions team for RSK, a fast growing UK based global business focused on the built environment, uses to find new opportunities to expand in both business lines and parts of the market it wants to focus on.
In that context, the purchase of Biota Environmental Sciences earlier this month made perfect sense.
The company, now folded into the bigger group, came with 45 staff, mostly environmental scientists, botanists, zoologists and data specialists who undertake detailed assessments and reports around flora, fauna and ecological studies. The kind that’s required by clients, such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Water Corporation and Horizon Power, to meet both reporting requirements mandated by law and the unstated obligations that play out in social licence to operate.
Two years ago, it was Edge Impact that came under the RSK umbrella, a company well known in sustainability circles for its work on a range of built environment and materials issues.
According to Steve Abbott, divisional director for the APAC and MEA regions (Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa) there’s now about 1000 people in the business producing revenue of about $400 million.
And that’s just since 2021.
By 2030, it wants to claim ownership of around 50 businesses, a workforce of 4000 people or so and turnover of about $1.6 billion.
Globally, it wants 4000 employees, 400 businesses and revenue of GBP 5 billion ($9.58 billion) by that target date.
That’s a hell of a tear in growth terms.
How does the company do it? What’s its strategy for managing such numbers, and how does it select which companies are worth the risk of integrating?
How does the company pick new businesses to acquire?
Abbott says that’s easy: it’s about understanding what the observable growth trends are globally and regionally and merging these with the overarching climate and sustainability challenges underway.
Another way to look at it is meeting the needs of a growing population in an environmentally sensitive world that needs major infrastructure, climate resilient communities and “the urgent shift to renewable energy”, as the company’s website says.
Abbott says the company is “very big in water”, particularly in the UK, where it owns the Binnies brand and in Singapore.
That’s an angle of attention that’s getting established in Australia through work in potable water, grey water and sewage treatment plants, mostly for authorities such as Sydney Water, Abbott says.
A looming problem – and growth opportunity for work – is in infrastructure. In New Zealand, the problem of ageing infrastructure is “massive”, and it needs replacing.
In Australia, and globally too, it’s a “constant renewal process”, he says.
“We do contracting and consulting work, and design work in that space.”
Another big focus is renewables.
“We’re doing a lot of work in solar, wind – all that kind of infrastructure as well.”
In WA there’s a big focus on mining sites and their water needs, which is where the Biota acquisition comes in.
But another emerging area of interest in the environmental space is construction. It’s yet another area that’s attracted the attention of the group, along with renewables and data centres.
With renewables, the biggest challenge is in planning as the debate on wind and solar farms continues to crash into environmental concerns.
“The world is looking at alternative sources of power, moving away from the burning of coal and oil and going to renewable sources such as wind and sunshine.”
It’s where the diversity of services comes into play.
“We often bring various services together out of various businesses for different proposals. So, we have that ability to make offerings based on the companies that we do have, both here in this region and using companies in the larger group.”
It’s not hard to spot where the growth will be, Abbott says. It’s sparked mainly by population.
“When the economy is booming, and the housing market is booming, there’s lots of construction work around, and when there’s lots of housing that’s been constructed, that requires more roads, more hospitals, more shopping centres, more factories, more everything.”
What’s his outlook for the current mood of the market?
“It’s not boom, and it’s not bust. It’s somewhere in between. Everything’s ticking along.”
“We’ve just come off the back of a very big infrastructure boom, and the Olympics [in Brisbane] will drive more of that.”
So what does the new business integration strategy look like?
“The way it’s typically framed is that the group buys good businesses and helps them become better businesses,” Abbott says, adding that a lot of autonomy is deliberately retained.
“You know not to influence the structure of the business so that management structure stays in place; they fundamentally run the business the way they have run the business in the past.”
Obviously, that comes with an element of “replace or align” systems and processes with those the parent group might have in place, where these add value and where it’s appropriate, he says.
The future outlook
On what’s on the horizon, he says, there’s no sign of let up on the growth.
“We’ve got a very, very long and healthy pipeline of acquisitions we’re working through now, and we have a number of those queued up for completion before the end of the financial year … there seems to be no end to it at the moment.”
The industry sectors the company is looking at, too, are diverse. As long as they are around the built environment and environmental services.
