Artelia has just finalised the acquisition of Sotec, a French engineering company based in the Toulouse region operating in the fields of building construction, infrastructure and transportation.

Sotec, formerly part of the transport engineering group Systra, strengthens Artelia’s presence in south-west France in two of its markets:

• building construction, with a team of around 40 people based in Toulouse and Montpellier, boasting numerous references in the region;

• infrastructure and transportation, with highly experienced specialists in the area of large-scale projects (Toulouse metro, Nîmes and Toulon public transport systems, etc.), and destined to become the backbone for Artelia’s urban development and transportation activities in this part of the country.

This acquisition has made Artelia one of the major engineering companies in south-west France.

The acquisition was finalised two years to the day after the formal founding of Artelia on 30 March 2010, and bears witness to the group’s dynamism and appeal. Artelia is indeed developing at a fast rate. Its activity grew by around 10% in 2011 in comparison with 2010, and it is beginning to reap the benefits of its proactive external growth policy. Following the acquisition of Spretec and Détente in 2011, Sotec is the third company to be bought in the first quarter of 2012 after:

• GECC / RL Consultant / Ingetech, an entity based in the Rhône-Alpes region, which reinforced the group’s expertise in the building construction and industrial facilities sector,

• Appleyards, a major British project management company, which enabled Artelia to give a significant boost to its presence in the United Kingdom. Artelia UK and Appleyards together employ 150 people and represent an annual turnover of around 15 million euros.