WYG asking price ‘too high’

The consultant engineer announced that it had received an unsolicited approach on 20 June, but talks broke down on 13 August. The mystery bidder is understood to have been Dutch rival Arcadis and experts estimated the sale price to have been in the region of £200m.

Haynes said: “There was wider trouble in the equity and debt markets, but when you’re paying for a company such as ours you have to pay significantly for it. In the end it was not my call; they decided not to go ahead.”

In the company’s results for the year ended 30 June 2008, it revealed the cost of fending off the approach was £300,000.

Overall, its results were proof that the company, whose largest market is transport and infrastructure, has so far been immune to the credit crunch.

Pre-tax profit was up 26%, from £13.4m to £16.8m, which included a £4.2m write-off of goodwill after buying transport consultant Savell Bird & Axon and Irish consultant engineer PH McCarthy during the year.

Turnover grew 28%, from £221m to £282m, of which £22.4m came from the acquisitions, and its order book was up from £280m to £300m.

Despite its recent deals, Haynes indicated that the rate of acquisitions would slow as a result of the economic climate. He said: “We have to be extra prudent with our shareholders’ cash in the current market until values come down to appropriate levels.” Despite the warning, he conceded he was currently in discussions with more than one target.

Haynes added that WYG’s success was also the result of its global expansion and this week it announced a deal worth £1.6m a year to provide development control services for the Dubai Waterfront scheme (pictured above).