Engineering firm Gannett Fleming is roughly doubling in size thanks to a merger with a Kansas City, Missouri-based peer, TranSystems.
Together, the two private equity-backed firms create a business with more than 5,000 employees and annual revenue of about $1.3 billion. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
For Camp Hill-based Gannett, the deal continues a path of growth that began in late 2022 when the firm sold an ownership stake to investment firm OceanSound Partners. The merger with TranSystems is its fourth since then.
TranSystems, which employs about 1,800 people, was backed by Sentinel Capital Partners. Sentinel described TranSystems’s merger with Gannett Fleming as an exit from its investment.
It is not the only exit associated with the merger.
In conjunction with the deal, Gannett Fleming CEO Bob Scaer is retiring after more than 40 years with the firm, including seven as CEO. Scaer will remain on the board of directors and assist in the search for a successor.
Who’s in charge: The combined company — which will be known as Gannett Fleming TranSystems — is being led in the interim by executives from both companies.
Tim Rock, TranSystems’s CEO, has been named the new company’s president and COO.
Jim Nevada, Gannett Fleming’s CFO, has been named president and CFO.
Why is this happening: Gannett Fleming has been seeking to grow in order to tackle larger projects, create opportunities for employees and expand beyond its core markets in the Northeast.
In an interview with biznewsPA earlier this year — following the purchase of a Texas firm — Scaer said Gannett Fleming had annual revenue of about $600 million and a goal of reaching $1.2 billion by 2030.
While M&A has helped fuel growth, so has a burst of federally funded infrastructure spending.
“The combination of Gannett Fleming and TranSystems creates a preeminent engineering firm with the scale and depth to solve our clients’ most complex infrastructure challenges,” Scaer said in a statement. “This merger bolsters our position within bridges, highways, construction services, mass transit and rail, and program management and provides our customers with an end-to-end solution across multiple modes of transportation.”
The union also opens up cross-selling opportunities in water, environmental and power markets, the companies said.
The background: TranSystems was founded in 1966 as JBM Associates Engineers and Planners. It became TranSystems in 1995 following a three-way merger.
Gannett Fleming was founded in 1915.
