John Taylor & Sons - Hyder Consulting

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Acer Consultants: modernisation through the merger In the Middle East, the firm had operated as a joint venture between John Taylor & Sons, Freeman Fox International and local company Arif Bintoak since 1987. The office had originally opened in 1974 in Dubai and had undertaken the design and supervision of much of the modern highway network of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It has also carried out substantial drainage and sewerage projects. There was a long established presence in Abu Dhabi providing sewage treatment, drainage and highway engineering, while the Al Ain office had been operating since 1977 principally on infrastructure projects. In the northern region of the UAE, Acer was commissioned for the study and design of maintenance works for bridges and culverts in 1994 involving 50 highway bridges. In 1995, as part of the Dubai Transport Corporation’s National Public Transport Study, Acer reviewed the existing operation and made far-reaching proposals for public transport in Dubai to 2011. Re-use of treated effluent for irrigation greens the city of Abu Dhabi, UAE. The Garden City, Abu Dhabi, UAE. In the Asia Pacific region, Acer continued a variety of projects, such as undertaking the engineering and environmental design for a world class golf facility on Kay Sai Chau Island. Designed by Gary Player, it was Hong Kong’s first public golf course. In Malaysia, Acer was appointed independent checking engineers for the £260 million Star System, an urban light railway system for Kuala Lumpur. The Star System was unique in Asia, being the first Build, Operate and Own railway project and will be 75km long when completed in 2015. Projects involving environmental and sustainable development aspects were carried out under the name Axis Environmental or Axis Natural Resource Development. One such was a World Bank funded project for the Metropolitan Electric Authority in Bangkok involving Axis in multidisciplinary environmental and safety studies and another, the management of asbestos abatement for China Light and Power at Tsing Yi Power Station in Hong Kong. Business opportunities continued to grow in China after chief executive Stuart Doughty played a key role in the largest trade mission that Britain had sent anywhere in the world. The mission “Britain Doing Business in China” was headed by Michael Heseltine and involved 120 leading companies. Acer was already engaged in projects in Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hainan and in Guangdong Province The firm undertook studies for new rail links between Hong Kong to the Shenzen Special Economic Zone in China. Also in China, a major environmental problem brought experts from Acer to Hangzhou Bay in a joint venture World Bank sponsored project. A pollution time-bomb had to be defused in the complex project in order to strike a balance between the waste disposal needs created by commercial exploitation of the area and the environmental needs of one of the world’s largest fisheries. The Bay stretches 300km north to south and 100km out to sea and is the source of 18 million tonnes of seafood each year, yet was polluted with effluent from one of the most intensely farmed and industrially developed regions in the world. An environmental and management master plan was produced with training and transfer of technology of fundamental importance. P. Nicholas Paul, born 1940 Joined John Taylor & Sons in 1962, Chief Public Health Engineer for World Health Organisation (WHO) study of the sewerage needs of Tehran, Iran. Partner from 1974. Technical Director on the Cairo Wastewater Project. Managing Director of Acer Consultants, 1993 - 1995. Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of CIWEM. In 2000 became Master of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators. Stuart Doughty, born 1943 Joined from Tarmac. Chief Executive of Acer Consultants and then Hyder Consulting 1995-1998. In 1997, appointed to the Export Guarantees Advisory Council of the Government and to the chair of the UK Water Sector Group Overseas Projects Board. 104
Acer Consultants to Hyder Consulting The Acer Group, after becoming the first European company to obtain a full consultancy licence to operate in Vietnam, undertook many projects such as one in Hanoi where a major component was the upgrading of local Vietnamese skills and technology transfer for an export processing zone and associated residential area for a population of 100,000. The growth of Acer had been significant over its first four years of operations. Its turnover and staff levels had increased threefold and its profits fourfold since the merger of Freeman Fox and John Taylor. Further expansion plans required additional equity and the Directors spent considerable time seeking external equity investors. In late 1992, the firm was approached by merchant bankers acting on behalf of Welsh Water plc to enquire whether there was a possibility for Welsh Water to acquire the entire issued share capital of Acer Group. Following extensive discussions a Memorandum of Intent was signed in October 1992 by Welsh Water, Acer and ICF – the latter being necessary following their earlier acquisition of 20% of Acer. Welsh Water’s interests in this business proposition were founded on their own expansion plans for a more extensive involvement in infrastructure on an international basis. Welsh Water had already bought the Cardiffbased practice, Wallace Evans and Partners, in 1990. The founder, Wallace Evans, was one of the founder members of the Welsh Branch of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 1930. At the time of its acquisition, Wallace Evans was a multidiscipline firm of 700-800 people with particular strengths in water, marine and structural works. Notable projects carried out by the practice included the 1966 Commonwealth Games Stadium in Jamaica, a stormwater drainage study for the island of Barbados and all the feasibility and Parliamentary approvals work for the Cardiff Bay Barrage in Wales. While Wallace Evans had built an international project portfolio, particularly in the Caribbean and in parts of Central America and the Middle East, Acer’s acquisition offered Welsh Water a widespread international client and office base. The directors of Acer were mindful of the fundamental change to the firm’s control that the Welsh Water proposal would mean. However, they were equally mindful of the need to ensure that the Acer Group, which had been so successful following the original merger of Freeman Fox and John Taylor, could continue its success into the future. After the sale of Acer to Welsh Water was signed off on 22nd February 1993, Acer and Wallace Evans were merged with Wallace Evans becoming known as Acer Wallace Evans for a short time until the Wallace Evans name was dropped. Under Welsh Water, the Acer name was, however, only to last for three years. 105
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John Taylor & Sons - Hyder Consulting

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