The UK multinational juggernaut that has provided its engineering, design, project management and consultancy services to some of the regions biggest projects, including the iconic Burj Al Arab, saw its revenues fall 6.5 percent in the region in FY2016-17 to $296.89mn but that doesnt tell the full story. According to the company, it took a hit against a year where it had benefited from a number of major projects reaching final delivery. The past 12 months has seen the consultancy oversee the successful opening of Dubai Opera house in Downtown Dubai.
It also secured the contract for the first phase of Duqm City, Oman where it will supply the detailed master planning, market and feasibility study, and the design and preparation of tender documents. It also opened up its first Azerbaijan branch at the end of 2016 to serve the energy and transportation sectors in the country and central Asia. Early in 2017, Atkins Power & Renewables won the contract to provide technical advisory services for the development of the Power 2021 Procurement Cycle in Oman, a project that will add 800MW of combined cycle gas turbine generation to the current installed capacity of around 6,000MW.
More recently, WS Atkins agreed to purchase and merge with SNCLavalin Group, one of the leading engineering and construction groups in the world and a major infrastructure player for $3.6bn. SNC-Lavalin is a force in the Middle East in its own right, with 300 projects worth $12bn in power, infrastructure and oil and gas completed over the last decade.