Publication: Infrastructure
Issue: October 2016
South Africa's oldest consulting engineering firm, Knight Piésold, which celebrates 95 years this year, will soon join the ranks of top South African companies, such as De Beers and Old Mutual, which have been in existence for over a century.
MD Vishal Haripersad believes that this is a great feat given the challenging global economic conditions which have resulted in a number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by larger global consulting engineering firms looking for a foothold in Africa.
According to Equiteq's The Global Consuling Mergers & Aquisistions Report 2015, the consulting sector M&A deals globally in 2014 continued the long-term upward trend in deal volumes since 2010, including a 13% increase in the number of deals compared to those in 2013. The report also indicates that consulting deals in Africa and the Middle East were up by 74% compared to the lowest point in 2010. However, the region, which is being driven by South Africa with 45% of total deals, is a relatively small proportion of the global M&A consulting market, with an average of 2.3% of total deals a year.
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