Jacobs to Buy Remaining Stake in PA Consulting for $1.6B

Jacobs Solutions announced Jan. 5 that it has agreed to acquire the remaining ownership stake in PA Consulting, completing a transaction that expands the firm’s advisory and transformation services alongside its traditional engineering and program management work.

The company said it entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the outstanding interest in the London-headquartered consultancy for approximately $1.6 billion (£1.216 billion). Jacobs first invested in PA Consulting in 2021 and already holds a majority stake.

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PA Consulting provides management consulting, technology and innovation services across sectors that overlap closely with Jacobs’ core infrastructure markets, including transportation, energy, defense, health and life sciences. Its work focuses on early-stage strategy, systems planning, digital transformation and operational improvement—services that influence how large capital programs are defined and structured before design and construction begin.

In its announcement, Jacobs said full ownership of PA Consulting will allow deeper integration of advisory and digital capabilities into its broader portfolio and accelerate growth in higher-margin consulting services tied to complex infrastructure and technology-driven programs.

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“Full ownership of PA Consulting will further strengthen Jacobs’ capabilities in advisory, digital and transformation services,” the company said, describing the deal as aligned with its long-term strategy to support clients across the full lifecycle of major programs.

Additional details disclosed in a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show the acquisition is expected to be accretive to adjusted earnings within the first 12 months following closing. Jacobs said it plans to fund the transaction through a combination of cash on hand and debt financing. Upon closing, PA Consulting will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Jacobs.

According to the filing, the transaction implies an enterprise value of approximately $4.0 billion (£3.05 billion) for PA Consulting, based on closing assumptions and expected adjustments. The filing also discloses about $99 million (£75 million) in deferred consideration, payable two years after closing and tied to Jacobs’ share performance, a structure that keeps PA Consulting’s stakeholders economically aligned with Jacobs’ long-term operating results.

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Jacobs said the transaction will require national security approvals in the United Kingdom and Denmark, reflecting PA Consulting’s involvement in government, defense and other sensitive infrastructure-related advisory work.

In a Jan. 5 research note, Baird Equity Research said the transaction values PA Consulting at roughly 13 times adjusted EBITDA, declining to about 12.3 times when anticipated cost synergies are included. The analyst said the deal’s incremental earnings impact will appear modest due to accounting treatment, noting that Jacobs had already been consolidating most of PA Consulting’s results prior to full ownership.

Full ownership would have modestly lifted Jacobs’ adjusted margin—by about 60 basis points—based on fiscal 2025 results, reflecting the higher-margin profile of advisory work, the note said.

Jacobs did not announce immediate changes to PA Consulting’s leadership or branding and said it would release additional information as the closing date approaches.