WS Atkins plc (“Atkins” or “the Group”) is pleased to announce the acquisition of Houston Offshore Engineering, LLC (“HOE”), a leading oil and gas offshore engineering business based in Houston, Texas, for US$73m (approximately £45m).

HOE has specialist experience in the design of offshore deepwater floating production platforms with a well established project and client base in the international oil and gas market.

In the year to 31 December 2013, HOE reported revenue of US$41m (approximately £25m) and employs around 150 people.

Prof Dr Uwe Krueger, Atkins’ chief executive officer, commented: “This acquisition considerably strengthens Atkins’ position in the active oil and gas design and engineering market and is in line with our strategy to invest in growing our energy business, our key sector focus area.

“As the oil and gas industry continues to look for ways to access more challenging deepwater oil reserves there is a high demand for advanced, multidisciplinary engineering skills. HOE brings exceptional expertise and an outstanding reputation to our existing business in this market. We now have around 1,000 oil and gas specialists drawing on technical excellence from our regional operations worldwide.”

This acquisition follows the recent acquisition of North American-based Nuclear Safety Associates, completed 4 September 2014: a 130 person engineering and technical services company with expertise in nuclear safety, design engineering, and professional security services.

About Askins

Atkins is one of the world's leading design, engineering and project management consultancies*, employing some 17,500 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. Our people’s breadth and depth of expertise and drive to ask why has allowed us to plan, design and enable some of the world’s most complex and time critical projects.

*15th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2014) and the third largest multidisciplinary consultancy in Europe (Svensk Teknik och Design 2013).