Project consultancy TSA Riley up for grabs for a cool $500 million
Australian project management consultancy TSA Riley is reportedly soon to be put on the market by private equity owners Quadrant, with a half-a-billion-dollar price tag attached.
Noted by the AFR to have engaged investment bank MA Moelis in preparation in January, the publication is now reporting that the sale is soon set to launch, with confirmation of its $500 million asking price and plenty of big names floated as potential suitors.
Approaching its 25th anniversary, TSA Riley’s sale could possibly see the Sydney-headquartered firm return to industry ownership after close to a decade, with Quadrant having picked up its share in 2020 from UK firm Livingbridge, which had originally invested in 2017.
Changing hands for a sum believed to have been around $200 million, TSA has since added UK counterpart Henry Riley, at the time expanding the firm’s global headcount to 850 professionals spread across almost two dozen offices in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UK. That figure has now grown beyond 1,000, with a further recent expansion into Canada.
Other purchases since Quadrant’s takeover include Worley’s capital projects practice from within its Advisian business (now Worley Consulting), with Worley among TSA’s suggested potential buyers alongside fellow Aussie engineering firms GHD and Aurecon and global players such as WSP, AECOM, and AtkinsRealis, the latter which has been recently getting busy in the local market.
However, the AFR also believes the private equity sector might still show some interest despite the firm’s hefty price-tag, citing recent deals such as Mace Consult’s carve-out last year with the backing of Goldman Sachs. Local private equity firm Pemba Capital has also been busy of late assembling a scaled environmental and infrastructure advisory under the Sequana brand.
Itself rebranded from TSA Management in 2024 following the firm’s Henry Riley acquisition, TSA Riley is said to now generate close to a third of its nearly $250 million in annual global revenues from the UK market, where the company’s local history dates back to the late 19th century in London. TSA was meanwhile formed by Ted Tooher and Brian Smart in Sydney in 2001.
Alongside its lines in strategic advisory and project, costs, and asset management, TSA Riley also offers environmental & governance and dispute resolution services, which could further attract the likes of specialists such as ERM, SLR, and RSK as to the former or say HKA regarding the latter – which, again, have all been expanding their reach in Australia in recent times.
