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Midlands-based DBK has been bought for £13m in cash by London stock exchange-listed consultant RPS.

Founded in 2005, £12m-turnover DBK is headquartered in Birmingham and employs 120 staff. It has been bought by £567m-turnover Oxfordshire-based RPS, which provides energy, infrastructure and property consultancy services to clients across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

DBK’s director shareholders Tim Downing, Duncan Berry and Steve Kelly will remain with the business, having signed three-year employment agreements.

DBK will join RPS’ BNE:Europe division where it is expected to help grow the firm’s project management capability.

DBK has grown rapidly in recent years, picking up major projects across the UK, particularly in Birmingham, like the revamp of the Mailbox shopping centre (pictured, top), and in London, including the luxury Manhattan Loft Gardens residential tower in Stratford (pictured, bottom), east London.

In its last set of financial results for the 2015 calendar year DBK posted an adjusted pre-tax profit of £2m. The company was owned by 14 shareholders, including a significant external investor.

RPS paid the vendors £6.6m on completion and settled £4m of shareholder loans to the company. Two further sums of £1.2m each will be paid to the employee vendors on the first and second anniversaries of the transaction.