Scott Wilson pays £5.5m for consultancy group Benaim

Scott Wilson, the consultancy group, has paid £5.5m for Benaim Enterprise, a civils and structural consultancy with operations in the UK and Hong Kong.

Scott and Benaim already know each other, having collaborated together on projects such as the East London Line and Malaysia’s KLIA Express Rail Link.

Benaim’s list of recent projects includes:

• Dubai Metro stations and viaducts
• Hong Kong’s Nam Cheon MTR station
• the Taiwan high speed rail project
• Macau’s Venetian Casino
• Kincardine bridge in Scotland

Founded in 1980, Benaim’s UK bases are London and Bath. Last year’s turnover of £6m produced a pre-tax profit of £1.1m.

The deal, which has the potential to run to £5.5m, is made up of three elements:

• £2.9m in cash, paid immediately
• £1.7m in shares in Scott, to be paid in 18 months time and based on the Scott’s average share price over a 10-day period at that future date
• £900,000 (subject to a downward adjustment) dependent on a valuation of the assets and liabilities of Benaim.

Geoff French, executive chairman, said this latest acquisition, together with the recently bought Terence Lee Partnership, has given Scott a strong push into the metro sector.