PFAS cleanup is the “flavor of the day,” according to WSP CEO and President Alexandre L’Heureux, as federal agencies and others move to build new water remediation facilities.
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of widely used chemicals — known as “forever chemicals” — that can pose serious human health and environmental risks. Cleaning up PFAS in the U.S. water supply has become an increased area of focus of many major AEC firms following an April EPA ruling that designated two types of PFAS as hazardous substances.
In recent months, the Canadian contractor has won many PFAS cleanup awards, most of them with the Department of Defense, L’Heureux said on a call with investment analysts to discuss the Montreal-based firm’s second quarter earnings.
“I feel we have excellent capabilities in that regard to forge ahead and take a leadership position,” he said, adding that he was “feeling very good” about the firm’s Earth and Environment sector overall.
Q2 numbers
WSP reported revenues of CA$3.93 billion ($2.85 billion USD) in the second quarter, up 8.5% from CA$3.63 billion in Q2 2023. Its profits grew to CA$184.1 million in Q2 2024, a 22.2% jump from the same period last year.
Backlog stood at a record-level CA$14.7 billion, a 2.8% increase from Q2 2023. The company marginally raised its financial outlook for the year, saying that it would now anticipate between $11.4 billion and $11.8 billion in net revenues, up from its previously stated range of $11.2 billion to $11.7 billion.
While Asia is going through a rough patch and there’s been a slowdown in New Zealand, L’Heureux said its North American and European regions are performing very well and he’s “feeling good we’re operating in the right markets.”
He sees more room to grow in the U.S. — particularly in the Midwest, the South and California.
In addition, L’Heureux said “the flow is great” on the firm’s pipeline of federal work in the U.S. and he doesn’t anticipate that the presidential election will interrupt that momentum, particularly since the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act still has another few years of funding to dole out.
“Whether we are looking at infrastructure projects, or CHIPS Act projects or the Inflation [Reduction] Act projects, things are going extremely well at this point,” L’Heureux said.
L’Heureux also highlighted New Zealand, Australia and Canada as markets where the company sees opportunity.
Excited about acquisitions
In May, WSP completed the acquisition of Spanish consulting firm 1A Ingenieros, which has about 250 employees and is active in the power and energy sector, L’Heureux said on the call.
Earlier this year WSP also announced the purchase of New York City-based AKF, a mechanical, electrical and plumbing firm; Finnish rail consultancies Proxion Pro and Proxion Plan; and Communica Public Affairs, a Canadian Indigenous and stakeholder engagement firm. WSP bought another four firms last year.
Acquisitions remain a critical part of accelerating WSP’s growth and its expanding capabilities, L’Heureux said, adding “the pipeline of opportunities remains strong.” 2023 was a year of consolidation, but now that the company has integrated many of those new firms, “I can tell you now we’re open for business,” he said, and I’m “more excited now than I was six months ago.”
But L’Heureux doesn’t want to depend only on bolt-on purchases to grow the company, adding that his goal is to demonstrate organic growth in addition to inorganic growth.
New projects
L’Heureux highlighted several large project wins in the past quarter, including:
- Providing engineering and other services for the CA$280 million Advanced Medical Research Centre at the University of Ottawa.
- Leading design for the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant, which entails a new control building and other infrastructure to deal with airfield wastewater.
- Designing part of the Grand Paris Express rail project in France.
