Surbana Jurong chairman Liew Mun Leong
Singapore-based urban development consultancy Surbana Jurong has acquired Australian competitor SMEC Holdings for approximately $297 million, according to a joint statement by the two companies.
The acquisition by the subsidiary of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings will create a 10,000 person consultancy bringing in annual revenues of $816 million across 42 countries according to the newly formed group’s estimates.
“A large part of Asia and other emerging countries have to catch up with their deficit in urbanisation and infrastructure development in order to grow and support their economies,” said Liew Mun Leong, Chairman of Surbana Jurong.
Liew, who previously served as chairman of development giant CapitaLand, and continues to chair Changi Airport Group, added that, “It will be timely and opportunistic for the synergetic merger of these two very competent organisations to share their expertise and capture the huge market opportunities.” Surbana predicts that following its 100 percent acquisition of the Australian firm, the combined company will be the largest development consultancy group based in Asia Pacific.
67-year-old SMEC employs nearly 6,000 people in over 75 offices across Asia, Africa, Australasia and North and South America.
Surbana Jurong has its roots in providing the technical expertise to design over a million homes in Singapore and continues to be responsible for rejuvenating most of the public Housing & Development Board (HDB) townships, where over 80 percent of Singaporeans live. The consultancy’s parent company, Temasek Holdings, is also a major investor in real estate development and investment firms CapitaLand, Ascendas, GLP and Mapletree.
The company has also been the technical consultant behind most of Singapore’s industrial developments, including the region’s leading petrochemical hub, Jurong Island, and has developed more than 50 industrial parks worldwide.
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