Two weeks. Two bids. Two rejections.
WSP Global came back to Arcadis on July 23 with an unsolicited, conditional, non-binding proposal valuing the Dutch design firm at $5.4 billion, up from the $4.8 billion it floated on July 14. Arcadis turned that first offer down on strategic and cultural grounds, saying it “fundamentally undervalued the company.” The board hasn’t accepted WSP’s invitations to talk about the second one either.
WSP’s own statement is close to an admission of frustration: “To date, the boards of Arcadis have not accepted WSP’s multiple invitations to discuss the proposals and negotiate a friendly, recommended transaction,” the Canadian firm said, per ENR’s reporting.
Why the power grid is driving design-firm M&A
Look at what both companies are buying and the logic gets clearer. On July 28, the same window as the takeover fight, Arcadis announced it will acquire Satel, a Spanish power design specialist. Terms weren’t disclosed. The deal adds 250 engineers and, more to the point, adds transmission and substation capability: Satel has worked on projects covering more than 20,000 kilometers of high-voltage line and over 1,000 substations. Spain is expected to spend roughly $22 billion modernizing its grid through 2030.
Arcadis CEO Heather Polinsky said the deal “broadens our ability to support clients as investment accelerates in grids, renewables, data centers and resilient infrastructure.” Satel CEO Pablo Bernat called it a “natural next step.”
WSP has been running the same play in the United States, with a bigger checkbook. It closed on TRC Cos. for $3.3 billion in February 2026 and bought Power Engineers for $1.78 billion in 2024. That’s $5.1 billion on U.S. power engineering in two years, from a firm that was rumored in 2025 to have gone after Jacobs.
What this means for U.S. contractors
The design side of the market is concentrating around whoever can staff a substation and an interconnection study. WSP ranks third on ENR’s Top 225 Global Design Firms with $10.5 billion in revenue; Arcadis ranks eighth at $5.5 billion. A combination would create something the industry hasn’t seen at this scale.
For general contractors, that’s a mixed bag. Fewer, larger engineers mean deeper bench strength on the electrical infrastructure that’s currently gating data center and advanced manufacturing schedules. It also means fewer independent firms to pick from when you’re trying to avoid a conflict on a design-build pursuit.
Arcadis’s updated ENR ranking lands in August. Polinsky was scheduled to talk through the Satel strategy on the firm’s July 30 results call. WSP, so far, has not walked away.