Amey plc

Amey was founded in 1921 by William Charles Amey; it was initially based in Oxfordshire and acted as quarry operator.[3] During the Second World War, the company experienced significant growth due to its involvement in fulfilling wartime demands, including an arrangement that saw Amey participate in the construction of multiple air bases on behalf of the Royal Air Force. In 1959, the company was responsible for the supply of gravel for the construction of the M1 motorway between London and Birmingham. During that same year, Amey became a public company.[3]

It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1963. Ronald William Amey took over the business from his father, and agreed the sale of the company in 1972.[4] The family had a close association with Abingdon School, where the Amey Theatre is named after them.[5] For a time, the Amey head office was in Sutton Courtenay, Vale of White Horse, near Abingdon.[6] Between 1972 and 1989, the company was owned by Consolidated Gold Fields, and used the names Amey Roadstone and ARC.[3] During this period, Amey Roadstone continued to undertake several major projects on behalf of the British government, included construction work at Mount Pleasant Airfield on the Falkland Islands, which was completed in 1986.[7] In 1974, the company bought Stephen Toulson & Sons.[3]

During 1989, Hanson purchased Amey Roadstone from Consolidated Gold Fields, returning the firm back to private ownership. In 1995, Amey was refloated on the London Stock Exchange; around this time, the company's management team made the strategic decision to focus its efforts upon the support services delivery sector.[3] To this end, in 1999, Amey acquired Comax, a secure services specialist. One year later, the company's listing on the stock exchange was changed to 'support services' to reflect the business' new direction.[3]

During April 2003, Amey was acquired by the Spanish infrastructure services company Ferrovial with the endorsement of Amey's board; even following this purchase, the firm has continued to trade under the Amey name.[8][9] A statement issued by Ferrovial noted that the purchase allowed it greater access to the lucrative British market, particularly for public–private partnerships.[10] In February 2006, Amey acquired the highway and railway design consultancy, Owen Williams, allowing it to substantially grow its business and develop its own consultancy division.[3]

During the early 21st century, a heavy emphasis was placed upon participating in Britain's railway industry.[3] From 2003 to May 2010, the company jointly owned (with Bechtel) Tube Lines, the consortium responsible for the maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the infrastructure, including track, trains, signals, civil work and stations, on three London Underground lines.[9] In 2010, Tube Lines encountered a funding shortfall for its upgrades and requested that TfL provide an additional £1.75 billion to cover the shortfall; TfL refused and referred the matter to the arbiter, who stated that £400 million should be provided.[11] Shortly following this event, Tube Lines was bought from Amey and Bechtel by Transport for London (TfL).[12] Despite this, Amey continued to provide TfL with management and maintenance services for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines until the end of 2017, at which point London Underground Limited took over from Amey.[13][14]

Amey ballast/track tamper train at Banbury station

In 2010, the firm expanded its presence in the waste management sector via the acquisition of waste disposal company Donarbon.[3] That same year, Amey also acquired the rail consultancy arm of WYG Engineering Ltd; these purchase was quickly followed by yet more, such as Transportation Planning (International) Ltd (TPi) in February 2011 and Aquatech Engineering in November 2014.[3] During 2011, Amey began providing criminal justice services following the issuing of three separate contract from the Ministry of Justice.[3]

In April 2013, Amey completed the acquisition of utilities, waste and public service providers, Enterprise plc.[15] In January 2016, Amey acquired Travel Point Trading Ltd (TPT), a strategic asset management consultancy with a strong presence in the rail sector in the United Kingdom.[16]

In February 2018, Amey purchased Carillion's rail contracts with Network Rail in the East Midlands, London and the North West, following Carillion's liquidation during the previous month; this deal reportedly saved about 700 jobs.[17][18] In August 2018, Amey completed the acquisition of Ministry of Defence (MoD) housing maintenance contracts previously run in joint venture with Carillion.[19]

In December 2018, press reports said that Ferrovial had offered Amey for sale.[20] That year, Ferrovial had posted a net loss of €72m for the first half of 2018 after allocating €237m for losses on Amey's highway maintenance contract with Birmingham City Council.[20][21] In February 2019, Amey was reported close to a deal to exit its Birmingham highway maintenance contract, liabilities from which were preventing the company's sale by Ferrovial,[2] who slashed the value of Amey by £660m, saying the "fair value" of Amey in the United Kingdom was £88m.[22]

In May 2019, Amey was said to be close to agreeing a deal to terminate its Birmingham contract;[23] in July 2019, Ferrovial confirmed the deal terms: the council will receive £160m in 2019 with a further £55m paid over the next six years. Services will continue on an interim basis until 30 September 2019, and may be extended until 31 March 2020.[24] In February 2020, it was announced that Amey would end its Birmingham contract at the end of March 2020, while Kier Group was appointed as interim contractor for 15 months while the council sought a permanent replacement for Amey).[25]

On 28 July 2019, it was reported that a £2.3bn management buyout of Amey, backed by private equity house Apax Partners, was being planned.[26] The following day, Amey revealed a pre tax loss of £428m for the year to 31 December 2018. On revenues of £2.32bn, a £208,000 pre tax profit was wiped out by exceptional items, including £123m on the highways contract for Birmingham, and a £314m write down on its waste collection and utilities businesses.[27] In December 2019, Ferrovial started to offload loss making parts of the business in the United Kingdom, appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers to find buyers for Amey's utilities and environmental services divisions.[28]

During the 2010s, Amey partnered with Canadian defense electronics specialist CAE Inc. to form a joint venture company, AmeyVTOL, which specialises in the manufacture of unmanned aerial vehicles. The company's UAVs have bee developed for the purpose of performing aerial surveys and asset inspections at beyond visual line of sight ranges, limiting the need for such activities to be performed by hand, particularly in locations that are difficult to access or pose risks to individuals; use of these platforms has been promoted to the rail industry in particular.[29]

On 10 December 2019, Amanda Fisher was appointed at the acting CEO of Amey.[1] Fisher replaced former CEO Andy Milner, who had been in this role since March 2016 prior to leaving the firm. Between 2003 and 2016, Mel Ewell had served as Amey's CEO.[30][31]

Amey works for the public and regulated sectors in the United Kingdom, selling services including highways and rail management and maintenance, facilities management, waste collection and treatment provision of utilities services as well as consultancy services. Most of Amey's business is based in the United Kingdom; however it also operates in America, Australia and Qatar. Amey is involved in consultancy in the civil engineering industry, with a wide range of design and asset management services offered.

This includes structural design, civil infrastructure, transport systems and asset management services.[32] The company retains its Oxfordshire links, with an office in the Sherard Building on the Oxford Science Park in the city of Oxford.[33]

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