Egis acquires Lochner: scaling up in US transport infrastructure engineering

Egis: the international consulting and engineering group behind the acquisition

Headquartered in Guyancourt, France, Egis is a major international player in architecture, consulting, construction engineering, and operations and mobility services, designing and operating smart infrastructure and buildings that respond to the climate emergency. The group employs 20,500 people working in more than 100 countries — including, before the deal, 265 engineers, project managers and architects in the United States, where it has built a tradition of engineering excellence. With the acquisition of Lochner, its North American growth strategy reaches a key milestone, against a published shareholder backdrop: the group's international ambitions are backed by a consortium of leading investors through the new continuation fund set up by its main shareholder, Tikehau Capital.

Lochner: US transport infrastructure engineering since 1944

Based in Chicago and active across the United States — including the country's fastest-growing states — Lochner is a North American leader in transport infrastructure engineering: highways, rail, aviation, bridges and complex structures, with a presence in water. Drawing on more than 80 years of experience — the firm was founded in 1944 — it relies on 1,100 employees across 54 offices in 22 states, covers the entire engineering value chain — from project planning through planning and design to construction management, inspection and oversight — and ranks 98th in Engineering News-Record's list of the Top 500 Design Firms. Continuity is stated in the press release itself: its President and CEO, Terry Ruhl, says he is delighted to join Egis's teams in the United States, with Lochner becoming the group's US platform.

Press coverage of the Egis–Lochner acquisition

The deal was announced on 4 August 2025 in a press release issued in three languages from Guyancourt, and picked up by the leading French M&A marketplace:

Why Egis acquired Lochner, and why this target

For Egis, the goal was to scale up in the world's largest infrastructure market: with 265 professionals in the United States, the group had a bridgehead there — not a platform able to compete for major federal and state programmes. “The acquisition of Lochner is a crucial step in our vision for expansion in the United States,” said Laurent Germain, CEO of Egis — pointing to the target's proven leadership, trusted brand and growth trajectory, which make it the ideal partner to accelerate the group's geographic strategy. In a single move, the US presence grows to more than 1,300 professionals and the target becomes the pivot: Lochner, designated as the group's US platform, will now lead the expansion in that market.

On the target side, Lochner had exactly the profile of a national platform: an institution of US engineering — 80 years of history, a trusted brand with public agencies — a network of 54 offices covering 22 states, including the fastest-growing ones, and a position measured by the industry benchmark: 98th of the Top 500 Design Firms in the Engineering News-Record ranking. Its scope spans the entire value chain — planning, design, construction management, oversight and inspection — across highways, rail, aviation, bridges and complex structures, and water: precisely the segments where the target's President and CEO, Terry Ruhl, sees the lever of Egis's global leadership, from airports to tunnels and from mass transit to concessions. In a people business, its management team publicly committing to the project is the best possible form of continuity.

Global engineering groups compete for the US infrastructure market

This deal illustrates the race among global engineering groups towards the US market. Driven by massive federal investment programmes in highways, bridges, rail and water, and by state budgets, the world's largest infrastructure market requires a local presence: public clients, from state departments of transportation (DOTs) to federal agencies, qualify their engineering firms on their national track record and on local professional licences, state by state. For an international group, critical mass cannot be built organically there: it has to be acquired — and leading national platforms ranked by ENR are the most sought-after assets in the ongoing consolidation.

The deal also marks the culmination of a continental build-up documented in this collection: after Canadian urban design and British network engineering, the Guyancourt group crosses the Atlantic in force — the largest of the three targets, 1,100 professionals who take its US presence to an entirely different scale. The structure reflects the times: international expansion backed by a consortium of investors through the main shareholder's continuation fund — engineering, now a strategic asset class, attracts long-term capital. For the teams in Chicago and across the 54 offices, the deal places a firm founded in 1944 within a global network of 20,500 people, with its management at the helm of the group's US platform.

Collaboration Capital's added value as buy-side adviser on this acquisition

On this deal, Collaboration Capital acted as buy-side adviser. Acquiring an engineering platform in the United States plays out in four stages — and the US market, regulated state by state, imposes its own rules on each of them.