AYESA, a leading international technology and engineering services firm, has announced the acquisition of Irish-UK engineering consultancy ByrneLooby for an undisclosed fee.

Founded in 1998, ByrneLooby has expanded to become an internationally regarded engineering consultancy employing over 225 people in 14 offices across the UK, Ireland and the Middle East who provide expert engineering and design services covering a number of specialist sectors including marine and coastal, buildings, transportation, energy, environment, water and waste management.

AYESA, headquartered in Spain, is one of the world’s largest engineering firms and a leading provider of technology services such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity and cloud computing. The group employs over 5,400 people in 17 countries across Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, and has a turnover of approximately €256m.

AYESA recently announced a major investment from A&M Capital Europe, aimed at enabling the business to pursue an ambitious international growth plan which includes the doubling of its turnover to €500m over the next five years as well as continued geographical diversification.

The acquisition of ByrneLooby will add approximately €24m in annual revenues to AYESA and represents a key milestone in AYESA’s plans to expand into major English-speaking markets globally including Ireland, the UK, USA, and Australia, along with the Middle East, where major national infrastructure plans are in place. 

National development plans totalling €165bn have been committed to in Ireland, while the UK’s National Infrastructure Strategy will see significant capital investment over its lifetime. In the Middle East, several giga-projects underpin a $7trn development plan.

Commenting on the announcement, José Luis Manzanares Abásolo, CEO of AYESA, highlighted that the integration of ByrneLooby into AYESA will generate significant synergies as both firms are highly complementary.

He said: “ByrneLooby and AYESA are fully united in their passion for finding the best solutions to the world’s greatest engineering and technical challenges, making our businesses a perfect fit for each other. Looking forward, the robust scale of AYESA internationally and the sophisticated resources and infrastructure that underpin our business across each market will enable ByrneLooby to grow at an accelerated pace, thus realising the full potential of the ByrneLooby business and its team of industry renowned professionals.”

John Byrne, managing director at ByrneLooby, said: “This transaction brings two highly complementary businesses together and represents a significant expansion to our service offering in ByrneLooby. We are hugely excited to join one of the world’s biggest engineering and technology firms and our aim now is to drive significant growth for AYESA across our core markets through our blended capabilities and expertise, leveraging AYESA’s market-leading reputation.”

ByrneLooby’s management team will remain in place following the transaction and the business will continue to grow its wider team of professionals across Ireland, the UK and the Middle East, in line with its ambitious growth plans.