Surbana Jurong Group strengthens high-end urban capabilities with acquisition of Robert Bird Group

Singapore, 30 November 2017 – Surbana Jurong Private Limited (Surbana Jurong) announced today that it has entered into a Sales and Purchase Agreement for the acquisition of 100% interest of the Robert Bird Group (RBG). The acquisition is expected to be completed by early December, subject to certain conditions being fulfilled.

Established in 1982, RBG is a privately owned, global consulting engineering firm headquartered in Australia with offices in the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Southeast Asia. It is renowned for delivering structural, civil and construction services on iconic complex projects, including London’s Westfield Shopping Centre, Dubai’s ICD Brookfield Place tower, and Sydney’s One Central Park tower and Darling Harbour Live development.

The acquisition of RBG will further deepen Surbana Jurong Group’s urban development capabilities and extend its geographical reach, filling the Group’s current market gaps and creating more synergies for its urban and infrastructure businesses.

This latest acquisition continues Surbana Jurong Group’s growth strategy, following its acquisition of Australia-based infrastructure consultancy SMEC Holdings Ltd last year. RBG augments the Group’s existing businesses, further strengthening its complete value-chain proposition for its clients.

“Surbana Jurong Group’s growth strategy is about deepening our core capabilities and extending our market reach, so that we create more exciting opportunities for all our people. I am excited to welcome the Robert Bird Group into the Surbana Jurong Group of companies as RBG will deepen Surbana Jurong’s core engineering capabilities, both in design and construction engineering. Such advanced engineering skill sets will strengthen our advantage in competing for and securing sophisticated and complex developments. The strong complementary fit between our businesses means we can immediately offer our clients a complete value-chain suite of services, not just in our key markets of Singapore and Australia, but now more than ever, in more markets globally,” said Wong Heang Fine, Group Chief Executive Officer, Surbana Jurong Private Limited.

He added, “Since its formation in mid 2015, Surbana Jurong Group has tripled in size, both in terms of talent base as well as in revenue. The Group’s growth has been both organic as well as through acquisitions and partnerships. Leveraging our partner companies’ strengths allows us to tap into key growth sectors. At the same time, it provides a platform to take our urban planning, coastal engineering, township and other capabilities global.  Today marks the next phase of our growth as we look to globalise and transform our business further.”

RBG founder and Chairman, Robert Bird, said, “This agreement represents the next stage of growth for the Robert Bird Group, with closer alignment to Surbana Jurong giving us the opportunity to access new projects around the world for a wider base of clients.  We also see this as being a natural fit given the synergies of our two businesses in terms of geography, competencies and clients. At the same time, joining the Surbana Jurong network gives the Robert Bird Group greater access to capital, greater resources and greater scale.  This will only heighten our ability in securing new national and international projects and will open the door to further growth for our firm across Asia and in Africa.”

Prior to joining the Surbana Jurong Group, RBG has worked successfully with Surbana Jurong in the past including on the Westin Hotel Darwin and the Queensland Government’s Logan Enhancement Project. The two companies are also partners in joint tenders.

About Surbana Jurong Private Limited

Surbana Jurong Private Limited (SJ) is one of the largest Asia-based urban, industrial and infrastructure consulting firms. Leveraging technology and creativity, SJ provides one-stop consultancy solutions across the entire value chain of the urbanisation, industrialisation and infrastructure domains.

Headquartered in Singapore, the SJ Group has a global workforce of 13,000 employees in 113 offices across 44 countries in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, and an annual turnover of around S$1.3 billion.

SJ has a track record of over 50 years, and has built more than a million homes in Singapore, crafted master plans for more than 30 countries and developed over 50 industrial parks globally.

SJ’s motto ‘Building Cities, Shaping Lives’ reflects its belief that development is more than just steel and concrete. SJ creates spaces and designs infrastructure where people live, work and play, shaping cities into homes with sustainable jobs where communities and businesses can flourish.

About Robert Bird Group

Robert Bird Group is a specialist consulting engineering firm with over 500 staff across more than 10 offices located around the globe.  Its vision is “the relentless pursuit of engineering excellence”; understanding clients’ needs, and being a critical part of delivering their visions, is what the Group strives to achieve every day.

It offers consulting engineering services across five disciplines within the built environment; Structural engineering; Civil engineering; Construction engineering; Geotechnical engineering (UK only); Digital engineering (BIM Management, 4D Visualisation, and Digital Design). These services are offered both as stand-alone disciplines, or packaged to suit any client’s individual needs, across most building and infrastructure sectors, including public and private projects of all types and sizes.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Surbana Jurong

Sharolyn Choy
Group Chief Communications & Branding Officer
T: +65 6248-1830  M: +65 9662-3409  E: Sharolyn.ChoyWF@surbanajurong.com

Robert Bird Group

Lilli Fender
Group Communications & Creativity Lead
T: +61 (07) 3319 2777  E: lilli.fender@robertbird.com

Appendix: RBG Projects

Arranged over six hectares, this development for Frasers Property Group, recently completed, is one of Sydney’s most prestigious urban residential address. The design emphasis was to create a green and sustainable urban environmental that integrates both private and public spaces and amenity. It features the tallest “green walls” in the world. The East tower (by Jean Nouvel) features a dramatic 42 metres cantilever with a ‘heliostat’ light reflection system supported by steel frames, to bounce light into the apartments and retail space beneath the cantilever. Robert Bird Group were responsible for all structural engineering within this project. The project has a Greenstar 5 building rating.

More info: https://www.robertbird.com/rbg-projects/one-central-park-sydney/

Located in West London, Westfield London sits on a 46-acre site, encompassing five anchor stores, over 280 speciality shops, 47 dining options, leisure facilities (including a multi-screen cinema complex) and parking for 4,500 vehicles. It is one of the largest retail developments in Europe, with 27 million shoppers using the complex in its opening year.

More info: https://www.robertbird.com/rbg-projects/westfield-london 

This building reflects ICD Brookfield’s commitment to creating ‘Best in Class’ developments in dynamic, vibrant global markets, providing intelligently planned work space adaptable to myriad occupancy styles. The singular and distinctive architecture is driven by a sophisticated consideration of form and function; a simplicity and elegance of expression and detailing, and a richness of materials. RBG collaborated with the project design team to create an efficient, elegant structural solution, which embodies the shared vision for the project.

More info: https://www.robertbird.com/rbg-projects/icd-brookfield-place