George Pierson, President and CEO of Parsons Brinckerhoff, was interviewed on the Canadian financial and business news channel Business News Network, to discuss WSP's acquisition of the company.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Let's talk about the value that your company brings to WSP Global.

GP: "For us, it's a great marriage of two companies that really don't overlap at all. It's a great synergy between the companies. Parsons Brinckerhoff has a hundred-year history in transportation, we also have some building businesses within our portfolio. WSP is much more focused on the buildings business. I like to think of it as: we're a horizontal business, WSP is a vertical business. We have very complementary business models, very complementary market segments. It is something that can generate a lot of value for our customers and our shareholders."

Where are you around the world, where is WSP, and where do you want to go?

GP: "It's another interesting aspect of this deal. If you look at where Parsons Brinckerhoff is very strong, we are very strong in the US, about five times what WSP was in the US. So we bring that to WSP. WSP is very strong in Canada, they are probably ten times the size of Parsons Brinckerhoff in Canada. That's terrific. We're much larger in Australia and throughout Asia, so we bring that to WSP. We are about equal size in the UK. WSP is much bigger in Europe, and we are balanced in the Middle East and Southern Africa. As you see, throughout the world we complement each other in services, but also in our geographies.

We hear a lot of news from some of the broader competitive space - SNC, Aecom for example have had their own hiccups. I get a sense of a very competitive environment for infrastructure services companies, in terms of bidding, profit margins - are you seeing that too?

"Certainly it's a competitive market, it always has been. Those are very fine companies that you mentioned, there are a number of others. We'd love to say that we own the space and there are no competitors but that's just not reality. That's nothing different from what we've been facing for decades, it's a very competitive industry. We have to be smarter, we have to be faster. The bottom line is: we have to provide the technical solutions that our clients are looking for, at a cost-effective rate.

For more information, please watch the interview on BNN or read the media release.

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