黑洞社区

The new German owners of engineering consultant Pell Frischmann are targeting expanding the firm into the nascent PRS market in the UK, the firm鈥檚 new co-chief executive has told 黑洞社区.

The mid-sized engineer was bought by German investment foundation RAG-Stiftung last month for an undisclosed sum, with the investor buying a majority stake and taking over control of the firm from the Frischmann and Prabhu families.

Existing senior management team members Tushar Prabhu and Richard Barrett were made co-chief executives of the 拢40m-turnover firm.

Prabhu told 黑洞社区 RAG-Stiftung had already begun investigating possible 鈥渟ynergies鈥� between Pell Frischmann and other firms within its portfolio of investments, including German PRS companies.

RAG-Stiftung owns coal mining assets in Germany and has an investment portfolio of medium-sized businesses across the engineering, machine production, automation and industrial services sectors.

Prabhu said Pell Frischmann would target 鈥渟table growth鈥� under its owners, but said it was 鈥渢oo premature鈥� to set exact targets.

He said: 鈥淲e are looking to synergise with other portfolio companies in the foundation, like PRS companies, for example - obviously there are companies like that who are doing interesting things in the UK. That kind of synergy is not available if you鈥檙e just consulting.鈥�

Prabhu added that the firm is also looking at potential niche acquisitions as it targets 鈥渟ustainable and organic growth鈥�.

He said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e focusing on niche acquisitions in areas we鈥檙e not as strong, like flood modelling, for example - there is a big market and a need there.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 also things like carbon emissions, BIM, etc. It鈥檚 this kind of stuff which we are looking to bring in from the outside.鈥�

Prabhu said the engineering consultant will also continue to play roles on large-scale infrastructure projects such as HS2, but added the firm currently has no plans to challenge mega-consultants like Aecom, Atkins or CH2M.

He said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a very robust balance sheet to take on the big projects, but not become like the big firms.

鈥淚 think clients prefer that level of service you get with middle-sized firms. The top people are accessible and care a lot about it as it鈥檚 personal. Middle-sized firms typically have a more caring culture.鈥�

Recent major projects include providing civil, structural and geotechnical engineering services on Land Securities鈥� Kingsgate House scheme in Victoria, London.