RPS buys up £12m turnover consultant

Project management consultant DBK has been bought for £13 million by the stock-market listed consultant RPS.

Founded in 2005, £12m-turnover DBK is headquartered in Birmingham and employs 120 staff. It has been bought by £567 million-turnover Oxfordshire-based RPS, which provides energy, infrastructure and property consultancy services to clients across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.One of its schemes is the £117m Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre, pictured.

DBK’s director shareholders Tim Downing, Duncan Berry and Steve Kelly remain with the business, having signed three-year employment agreements.

DBK will join RPS’ BNE:Europe division where it is expected to help grow the firm’s project management capability.

DBK has grown rapidly in recent years, picking up major projects across the UK, particularly in Birmingham, like the revamp of the Mailbox shopping centre, and in London, including the luxury Manhattan Loft Gardens residential tower in Stratford, east London.

In its last set of financial results for the 2015 calendar year DBK posted an adjusted pre-tax profit of £2 million. The company was owned by 14 shareholders, including a significant external investor.

 

RPS paid the vendors £6.6 million in cash on completion and settled £4 million of shareholder loans to the company. Two further sums of £1.2 million each will be paid to the employee vendors on the first and second anniversaries of the transaction.