Arcadis chief executive Neil McArthur says Kingdom Tower win will position firm as a 鈥榞lobal leader鈥 in tall buildings

Kingdom Tower

The contract to project manage construction of the 1km-tall Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia will establish Arcadis and EC Harris as a 鈥済lobal leader鈥 in tall buildings, Arcadis chief executive Neil McArthur told 好色先生TV this week.

He said the contract win by an EC Harris and Mace joint venture 鈥 exclusively revealed by 好色先生TV last week 鈥 was 鈥渋ncredibly important鈥 and would help demonstrate that EC Harris and parent company Arcadis 鈥減lay at the highest levels on a global basis鈥.

Speaking as Arcadis published its full-year results to 31 December 2012, McArthur said the Kingdom Tower would help put the firm 鈥渋n the same league as we are in the water sector鈥, following the firm鈥檚 contract to engineer flood defences around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

McArthur said the EC Harris and Mace joint venture in Saudi would draw on expertise from Arcadis鈥 2010 acquisition of US-based tall buildings project manager Rise.

In its results, Arcadis reported that the firm鈥檚 acquisitions of EC Harris and Davis Langdon & Seah helped boost the firm鈥檚 revenue by 26% in 2012.

The results showed revenue grew to 鈧2.5bn (拢2.2bn), up from 鈧2bn (拢1.7bn) the previous year.

But just 3% of the growth in revenue was accounted for by organic growth at Arcadis.

The lion鈥檚 share came from acquisitions, including last April鈥檚 acquisition of Davis Langdon & Seah, now trading as Langdon Seah, and the November 2011 takeover of EC Harris.

EC Harris revenue counted towards acquisitive growth until October 2012 and after as organic growth.

For full details on the results