Highly acquisitive Cheshire sustainable solutions group, RSK, predicts it will nearly quadruple its turnover from £1.2bn this year to more than £5bn in 2030, and aims to raise £500m through new shares to drive its ambitions.
This involves doublings its portfolio of environmental and engineering businesses from 200 to 400.
RSKhas unveiled its 2030 strategy, which it says is accurately informed by its continued growth trajectory and solid performance since 1990.
The group expects to double its number of clients from its current 10,000 to 20,000 in 2030. Its workforce will steadily and significantly increase from 12,000 staff in 40 countries today to 40,000 people over the next seven years.
After its first decade, the group’s turnover at the end of 2000 was £5m with an impressive leap to £61m recorded following strategic acquisitions between 2001 and 2010.
That figure more than doubled, reaching £147m by 2018 and then more than doubled again amid COVID (£350.5m in 2021) when acquisitions continued at pace. The business reached £1.2bn (management accounts) at the end of fiscal year 2023. While acquisitions have played an important role in this rapid growth trajectory, RSK said it has benefited from strong organic growth year on year.
Founder and chief executive, Alan Ryder, said: “We are well aware that our growth strategy includes some very big numbers and significant goals for business growth. However, this is anchored in our experience of more than three decades spent delivering environmental and engineering services to help clients around the world minimise their impact on the planet.
“In that time, we have witnessed the global realisation that urgent action is required if we are to achieve a sustainable future. The United Nations has captured this universal call to action in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ‘a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future’.
“As governments and businesses across all sectors invest heavily in achieving a more sustainable future, the opportunities for RSK increase at pace. The challenge we face is in responding to these priorities and delivering to the standard that our clients expect. We have demonstrated our commitment to, and capacity in, meeting these challenges – our track record offers credible evidence of this with the pace of growth continuing amid a global pandemic.”
He added: “This leaves RSK with little doubt that its 2030 growth strategy is achievable. RSK will further diversify its offering, delivering truly end-to-end solutions to a very long list of clients who operate in many sectors. Strengthening the business globally is a high priority as our geographic targets demonstrate, limiting our exposure to any one region and capitalising on the market opportunities around the world.
“To fund this next stage of growth RSK will be undertaking a capital raise of at least £500m, through a preferred equity instrument. The company is not just looking for financial investors, but also partners that have a tangible interest in the sustainability agenda and can work alongside existing shareholders in guiding RSK towards its 2030 vision.
“Relevant investors may include the likes of pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity investors and alternative capital providers, amongst others.”
To achieve RSK’s 2030 target of increasing group revenues to more than £5bn, the group will focus on significant international expansion in all regions it currently operates including Australia, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
RSK Group chief financial officer, Abigail Draper, said: “Aligned as we are to the UN’s SDGs and supporting a global transition to a more sustainable future, RSK’s growth strategy is firmly embedded in key global priorities”
She said these have been identified as:
- Urbanisation and the need to build sustainable cities
- Supporting the global energy transition as we move to clean energy
- Significant demand for new and upgraded infrastructure
- Sustainable food production to feed rapidly growing populations
- Addressing the current and future impacts of climate change
- Ensuring clean water and sanitation for all
“Our geographic growth strategy reflects the response we believe is crucial to address these critical challenges and how our business would need to respond to deliver these services.
“Over the past 30 years we have created an enviable diversity of UK businesses operating in most sectors of the economy, including many of those most critical to future global sustainability, such as water, energy, food and drink, infrastructure, urban development, mining and waste.
“Our future growth strategy reflects our intention to now replicate that strength and diversity across the world.”
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