WSP has splashed out £23m on two international engineering consultants in Europe and the US.

The UK engineer acquired German consultant engineer CBP in a deal worth £12.8m and US transport and infrastructure engineer Chas H Sells for £10m.

The CBP takeover places WSP in a strong position for further expansion in the fast-growing eastern European market. The Munich-based firm has an office in Hungary which will complement WSP’s offices in Romania and Estonia. Last year, CBP posted a pre-tax profit of £1.7m, on a turnover of £15.2m.

Commenting on the CBP purchase, Rikard Appelgren, managing director of WSP Europe, said: “This deal boosts our presence in Germany from our current base of just 10 employees to a network of 270 employees. In addition, we now have a presence in Hungary, in line with our ambitions to grow in Europe.”

East-coast based Sells, a similar sized company to CBP, is working on a number of transport projects in New York, including the $500m (£244m) interim reconstruction of the four-mile long Gowanus Expressway viaduct.

In its last full-year results, Sells posted a pre-tax profit of £1.5m on a turnover of £15.5m. The company has 250 staff, which will increase WSP’s US workforce to more than 1,000.