UGL, formerly known as United Group, is an engineering company. The company provides construction, maintenance, and asset management services to the rail, resources, and infrastructure sectors, and corporate real estate, facilities management, and business process outsourcing services to property users. Its clients are large companies, governments and institutions in

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 ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. It was purchased by the

CIMIC Group CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an Australian construction contractor. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries ...

in December 2016.

History

UGL was founded as an engineering construction firm in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia in 1970 by Charlie Bontempo, Sam Castelli, John Rubino & John Trettel. In 1988, it was re-branded as the United Construction Group. UGL has acquired a number of businesses, including engineering, construction, and facilities management business Kilpatrick Green in 1998, rail company Goninan in 1999, corporate real estate business KFPW in 2002, Thames Water Projects Asia in 2004, Singaporean real estate services company Premas International (UGL Premas) and

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

's Australian and New Zealand transport and rail businesses in 2005, Chicago-based Equis Corporation (UGL Equis) and

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

-based Peak Security in 2006, and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

-based Unicco Services Company (UGL Unicco) in 2007. In 2011, a commercial real estate firm

DTZ Debenham Thouard Zadelhoff, known as DTZ, was a European joint venture originated from UK, France and the Netherlands, operating as a commercial real estate services firm. On September 1, 2015, Cushman & Wakefield and DTZ merged. In December 20 ...

was acquired, but was sold in 2014 to a consortium of

TPG Capital TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...

, PAG Asia Capital and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.DTZ becomes a private independent global property services company
DTZ In October 2016,

launched a successful

takeover offer In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

for the company, with CIMIC applying in December 2016 to compulsorily acquire all remaining shares.

Timeline

*1994 – Listed on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

as United Construction *1997 – Changed company name to United Group Limited *1998 – Acquisition of Kilpatrick Green *1999 – Acquisition of Goninan *2002 – Acquisition of KFPW from

Knight Frank Knight Frank LLP is an estate agency, residential and commercial property consultancy founded in London by John Knight, Howard Frank and William Rutley in 1896. Knight Frank together with its American affiliate Cresa is one of the world's large ...

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

*2004 – Acquisition of Thames Water Projects Asia from

Thames Water Thames Water Utilities Ltd, known as Thames Water, is a large private utility company responsible for the public water supply and waste water treatment in most of Greater London, Luton, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, north Wiltshir ...

*2005 – Acquisition of Premas, and the Australian & New Zealand operations of

*2006 – Acquisition of Equis, Fischer Industries,

Goulburn Railway Workshops The Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre is located at the heritage-listed former railway workshops in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia, on the Main Southern railway line. Now a museum, it is also known as the Goulburn Rail Workshop and Goulburn Ro ...

, Peak Security and Steelplan *2007 – Acquisition of Proactive Communication Solutions and Unicco *2009 – Changed company name to UGL Limited *2011 – Acquisition of

*2014 – Disposal of DTZ *2016 – Taken over by

References

{{Reflist

External links

Company website
Companies based in Sydney Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1970 Australian companies established in 1970 2016 mergers and acquisitions Engineering companies of Australia