Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) was a private

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n company operating across Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company had global capability in strategic consulting, engineering and project delivery.

Jacobs Engineering Group Jacobs Solutions Inc. is an American international technical professional services firm. The company provides engineering, technical, professional and construction services, as well as scientific and specialty consulting for a broad range of cli ...

announced its acquisition of SKM late in 2013 for AUS$1.3 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion as of the date of purchase)

Overview

The firm had approximately 7,500 staff working in 47 offices around the world. This workforce represents a range of disciplines including engineers, planners, architects, economists, scientists, project managers, technicians and administrative staff. The business was wholly owned by approximately 500 staff members in a partnership arrangement. In the

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2011–12 the firm's financial revenue was AUS$1.43 billion. SKM's operations are divided into four broad "Business Units": * Buildings & Infrastructure * Mining & Metals * Power & Energy * Water & Environment Various technical disciplines sit within these broad categories. For example, specialist rail and tunneling staff are based in the Infrastructure Business Unit. An umbrella "Group" division contains teams responsible for specific project delivery skills, such as risk management, safety and economic planning.

History

The Sinclair & Knight practice was established in Sydney Australia in 1964 by Bruce Sinclair and Jack Knight. The firm grew rapidly over the next 30 years, and in 1996 it merged with Merz Australia (A firm descended from the

Merz & McLellan Merz and McLellan was a leading British electrical engineering consultancy based in Newcastle. History The firm was founded by Charles Merz and William McLellan in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1902 when McLellan joined Merz's existing firm establishe ...

business begun by

Charles Merz Charles Hesterman Merz (5 October 1874 – 14 or 15 October 1940) was a British electrical engineer who pioneered the use of high-voltage three-phase AC power distribution in the United Kingdom, building a system in the North East of England ...

) to form Sinclair Knight Merz. A series of mergers over the following ten years saw the firm's continued expansion in size, geography and services.

Controversies

SKM faced criminal charges between 2006 and 2011 for suspected bribing of officials in Vietnam, and between 2000 and mid-2005 in the Philippines. The AFP launched its SKM complaint in July 2013 but the company was not put to trial until June 2018

Major projects

El Teniente El Teniente ("The Lieutenant") is an underground copper mine located in the Chilean Andes, above mean sea level. It is in the commune of Machalí in Cachapoal Province, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, near the company town of ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

(engineering and design) *

Hume Highway Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of the route ...

(road, bridge, drainage design and environmental management) *Irrigation Modernisation Project, Victoria,

(engineering design and program management)) * The Eden Project (structural and civil design) *

Athens Olympic Stadium The Olympic Stadium of Athens " Spyros Louis" ( el, Ολυμπιακό Στάδιο Αθηνών "Σπύρος Λούης", ''Olympiakó Stádio Athinon "Spyros Louis"'') is a sports stadium in Athens, Greece. It is a part of the Athens Olympic ...

(structural design) *

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

redevelopment (seating and roof design) *

Gold Coast desalination plant The Gold Coast Desalination Plant is a reverse osmosis, water desalination plant located in Bilinga, a seaside suburb of the Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia. It supplies water to the South East Queensland region via the South East Queensl ...

(engineering and design) *Port upgrade, Dampier Western Australia (engineering, procurement and construction management) * The Roundhouse (London) (structural engineering and roof design) *

Project Seabird INS Kadamba or Naval Base Karwar or Project Seabird is an Indian Navy base located near Karwar in Karnataka. The first phase of construction of the base, code-named ''Project Seabird'', was completed in 2005 and the base was commissioned on 3 ...

– Indian naval base (planning, design, civil and construction supervision services) * Dublin Light Rail system (track, civil, structural and building design) *

Australian Air Warfare Destroyer The ''Hobart'' class is a ship class of three air warfare destroyers (AWDs) built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning for ships to replace the ''Adelaide''-class frigates and restore the capability last exhibited by the ''Perth''-cl ...

program (detail design, marine engineering, risk management, infrastructure engineering) *Albury-Wodonga

Hume Freeway Hume Highway, inclusive of the sections now known as Hume Freeway and Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of the route f ...

bypass (design) * Central Motorway Junction,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand (strategic planning and project delivery)

References

2011–12 SKM Annual Review

External links

Sinclair Knight Merz
{{Authority control Construction and civil engineering companies of Australia Engineering consulting firms Security consulting firms Defunct companies of Australia Consulting firms established in 1964 Consulting firms of Australia Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1964 Australian companies established in 1964