JAPANESE engineering giant Nippon Koei has agreed a £102m deal for 100% of Manchester-based architectural firm BDP - the UK’s second largest practice.
In 2014 the company reported a twelve month turnover of £62.5m with over 800 employees
Nippon Koei President Ryuichi Arimoto announced the ‘transformation of BDP into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nippon Koei’ in a letter posted online on Thursday 3 March.
The letter goes on to state the decision was ‘unanimously’ agreed by the board’s directors and that the union will ‘give birth to a technical consulting group with a turnover in excess of 100 billion yen (£623m)’.
John McManus, Chief Executive of BDP said: “The alliance with Nippon Koei heralds an exciting new era in BDP’s evolution.
"Although separated geographically, our two firms share common values and have highly complementary strengths in terms of professional offer and sector expertise. By uniting the two firms, we are creating an organisation which genuinely has the potential to be greater than the sum of its parts.
"We believe that this strategic international alignment will deliver huge benefits to our clients and will offer exceptional prospects for our people to develop both professionally and personally.”
Founded in 1961 and based on Manchester’s Ducie Street, BDP has offices in London, Shanghai, New Delhi and Abu Dhabi, with a track record including Preston’s iconic bus station (1969), Liverpool ONE (2008) and the £44m renovation of Manchester's Victoria Station (2015, pictured).
International projects include Sydney’s Olympic Tennis Centre (2000) and the Sao Gabriel & Sao Rafael Towers in Lisbon (2004).
More recently, the £160m BDP-designed 400-acre Alderley Park redevelopment was granted planning approval by Cheshire East Council.
The firm employs 950 people and had a turnover of over £81 million in 2015.
