This Idaho company sold for over $1.7 billion. It has hundreds of employees in Boise
An Idaho engineering and environmental consulting firm just sold for $1.78 billion.
Power Engineers, a Hailey-based employee-owned company, inked a deal to be bought by WSP Global, a Montreal engineering and design giant, according to a news release Tuesday.
Power Engineers is owned by about 900 employee shareholders who overwhelmingly approved the merger on Sept. 6. Spokesperson Kate Wutz told the Idaho Statesman that 95% of shareholders, who held over 99% of shares, voted in favor of the deal. The company has been employee-owned since 1998.
Wutz said no job cuts or other changes are expected to the company’s operations in Idaho.
Power Engineers has about 680 employees in the state, with more than 500 of those employees working from its Boise office. It has roughly 4,000 employees in all and 50 offices across North America, according to its website. The company plans to continue operating under the Power Engineers brand, at least for now.
WSP Global has nearly 70,000 employees who work in industries including transportation, infrastructure, environment, building, energy, water and mining.
Power Engineers has several noteworthy clients in Boise, including Idaho Power and Micron. Its Boise teams have worked on renewable energy projects around the country, and have done design work for Simplot, Lamb Weston, Magic Valley Milk and JTS in Caldwell, Wutz said.
The company said the merger will significantly expand WSP Global’s power and energy sector, which will be led by Power Engineers’ President and Chief Operating Officer Holger Peller.
“Together, we’ll be able to offer our clients an even broader range of professional services to facilitate their energy transition thanks to our enhanced capabilities,” Peller said in the news release. “It’s truly a new chapter in Power’s story.”
WSP Global is a publicly traded company. Its shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WSP. After the deal was announced Aug. 12, the stock closed at $212.39 Canadian. It’s now trading at $237.90 Canadian.
In the last year, the firm has gobbled up four other consulting- or power-related companies to claim a leading presence in the shift toward cleaner energy, Construction Dive previously reported.
This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 10:15 AM.
