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WS Atkins to buy PBSJ for $280 million
United Kingdom design firm WS Atkins plc plans to acquire PBSJ Corp. of Tampa in an all-cash transaction for $17.137 per share, equal to $280 million. The deal is expected to close in the early fall subject to approval by PBSJ's shareholders and regulators.
PBSJ Chairman and CEO Robert Paulsen said in a press release, “We wanted to grow the company in a way that employee ownership alone could not support [and] we wanted to keep our strong culture. We believe that becoming a part of Atkins will allow us to accomplish both of these goals.”
WS Atkins Chief Executive Keith Clarke said the acquisition was an important part of its plan to grow through a multi-skill strategy, adding in a press release that “PBSJ complements our business superbly, enhancing our skills in environmental, transportation, building design and programme management disciplines.”
PBSJ will operate as a national business of Atkins in the U.S. and will be led by Paulsen.
Barclays Capital Inc. acted as financial advisor to PBSJ. Greenberg Traurig, P.A. acted as legal counsel to PBSJ. J.P. Morgan Cazenove acted as financial advisor to Atkins, and Atkins's transaction counsel is Hunton & Williams LLP.
Roper Industries to obtain iTradeNetwork Inc.
Sarasota-based Roper Industries Inc. agreed to pay $525 million in cash to acquire iTradeNetwork Inc. from private equity investment firm Accel-KKR.
iTrade Network, a trading network and business intelligence solutions provider to the food industry, is based in Pleasanton, Calif., with more than 6,200 customers.
Brian Jellison, Roper's chairman, president and CEO, cited in a press release “the considerable value the company creates for its participants,” and that “the acquisition gives Roper additional scale to pursue acquisitions in the software solutions space.”
Roper Industries provides engineered products and solutions for water, energy, radio frequency and research/medical applications.
Tampa Electric testing carbon-capture technology
A project will be conducted at Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station to capture CO2 emissions from conventional coal-fired power plants and reduce the energy needed to run carbon-capture equipment, using an environmentally friendly process developed by Siemens.
Siemens will design, install and operate a pilot plant at the Ruskin-based station to treat some of the plant's emissions via its postcap technology, which uses an amino-acid salt formulation as a solvent for CO2 absorption. The pilot plant, which is designed to capture approximately 90% of the CO2 from the coal-fired plant's flue gas stream, is slated to be operational in 2013.
Tampa Electric is also partnering with RTI International and the Shaw Group for a study on a new technology to clean synthetic gas at elevated temperatures at the Polk Power Station's 250-megawatt IGCC plant.
The Shaw Group earned a contract from RTI, which is working with the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory, to design and build a sulfur removal demonstration unit at the plant.
Also, Tampa Electric's parent TECO Energy Inc. declared a dividend of 20.5 cents per share on its common stock, payable Aug. 27 to shareholders of record as of Aug. 16.
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