Water. desalination + reuse

www.desalination.biz Water. desalination + reuse Who's Who 2017 4 EPCs landscape T here is a big shi going on in the water sector, and it's exemplified by the Suez-GE deal. While the focus of services offered by engineers has always ebbed and flowed along a spectrum of consultancy, design work, systems inte- gration, and delivery, nowadays customers' decision-making processes are pushing at the boundaries of these traditional project service offerings. Within both the municipal and industrial water markets, and across the globe, clients want their projects to take account of a much wider range of economic, environmental, and social issues than they did in the past. This demands a super-flexi- ble approach, and an ever-broader range of services from EPCs. In the case of Suez-GE, the focus of the deal is industrial water markets. It will result in formation of a new company com- prising GE Water, and the industrial water business of Suez (see graphic, p5). This effectively brings together Suez's exper- tise and global footprint in project design, delivery and operations, with GE Water's systems and product portfolio. It's a poten- tially formidable combination. Suez anticipates revenue synergies of €200 million a year from "cross-selling industrial water activities leveraging on the Suez geographical footprint". Further, it expects to realise cost synergies of €65 million a year in earnings before inter - est, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBIDTA), from manufacturing, engineer- ing, service operations, purchasing, and sales and general administration. The range of products and services that the new company now offers addition - ally includes GE Water's cloud-based asset management soware, InSight, currently April 2017 analysis of global water sector mergers and acquisitions in 2016, argues that having 72 parties reportedly want to run the rule over GE Water demonstrates "a widespread focus" on the US and indus- trial water markets. And — notwithstand- ing US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt's decision to "review and reconsider" the incoming US coal-fired energy plant wastewater stand- ard known as "the Rule", effectively putting it on ice — for the most part, environmen- tal protection legislation is driving indus- trial clients to seek out cost-effective water treatment solutions. Market dynamics drive acquisitions In February, India's Supreme Court directed the pollution control boards in all 29 of the country's states to put producers of waste- water (municipal and industrial) on notice that they must install primary effluent treat- ment plants within three months, or have their power cut off. Further, the central gov- ernment is working to develop an economy for recycled water. It has signed a memo- randum of understanding with the Ministry of Railways to adopt reuse water for clean- ing rolling stock, and for other non-potable uses; and Indian power plants within a 50 kilometre radius of sewage treatment plants must now buy treated wastewater. Is it against the backdrop of these moves that MWH Global, the water sector-focused engineering firm acquired by Canada's Stantec in March 2016, won a contract to create a water reuse masterplan for India's most populous city, Mumbai, in May 2017. That Stantec acquisition "thrust it into a global leadership role for water and in use at 4,000 customer sites globally, and supporting 40,000 connected assets, which Suez describes as "driving client retention". The list of blue chip clients on the roster boasts the likes of Intel, and Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Shell Oil, to name a few. The offerings of this newly formed company (the exact name will be revealed later this year), are broad-ranging, propel - ling Suez into a leading position in global industrial water markets, including particu- larly the reuse segment. 'Widespread interest' in water from investors Water sector consultancy Bluefield Research president Reese Tisdale, in his Project design and delivery are evolving to reflect 2020s market dynamics The new project culture demands a super-flexible approach and broad-based offer from EPCs The nuts and bolts of water projects are being reconfigured in response to changing customer demands and funding challenges

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