Arup was awarded Technical Adviser of the Year in Europe, with judges impressed by its versatility and expertise across multiple infrastructure sectors.  

The judges praised Arup with one saying it was providing “good technical advisory to a variety of transactions”.  

While another judge said Arup is “still the leading technical adviser in Europe” and they  displayed “a wide range of capabilities across and backed it up with excellent examples”. 

According to the submission, during the judging period Arup advised on the most complex and ambitious infrastructure projects in the built environment.  

The firm advised on 30 transactions in Europe that reached financial close amounting to a transaction value of more than €14 billion ($14.8bn). 

Judges noted that as well as working across all major infrastructure sectors, Arup has also made a move into new asset classes in the infrastructure space, such as supporting a client on a strategic due diligence review of the UK’s largest industrial laundry-as-a-service business. 

The submission said: “Our wider work brings together, investors, developers, asset owners, regulators and the public sector. This gives us unparalleled insights into key risks and value drivers for infrastructure transactions, especially in new and emerging asset markets like hydrogen, e-mobility, battery storage, alongside more traditional sectors.” 

Overall transaction volumes have been fluctuating over different sectors, according to the submission, such as a decrease in the transport sector and accelerated activity in the energy sector – which comprise of renewable development platforms, district heating, biogas, and e-mobility. 

“Arup’s broad market spread has allowed us to remain flexible and responsive to these market shifts, leveraging our strong global presence and collaborative efforts of our teams to support projects across different stages. We continuously demonstrate our ability to adapt to different investment environments, such as private auction process, bilateral process etc. One notable example is the €500 million ENI Plenitude deal, where we successfully managed the intricacies of a public-to-private transaction, demonstrating our capability to handle complex and high-stakes deals,” the submission said.  

Arup provided technical advice for Hy24’s H2 Green Steel project. A project that has been awarded many times over at this year’s awards.   

The submission said: “Arup reviewed the technology and critiqued the delivery strategy, schedule, and contracting approach. We leveraged our project delivery experience to review and comment on H2GS’s proposed approach and drive deep insight into the unique complexities of project delivery at this scale. Arup commented on the end market use cases as well as the key regulatory drivers. Together, the technical and commercial insights were combined to provide a holistic view on the long-term business case and mitigate technical and commercial risks, providing investor confidence in this project.” 

The firm also carried out a two-phase technical due diligence for Vinci Airports’ acquisition of a 50.01% stake in Edinburgh Airport, valued at nearly £1.3 billion.   

The submission said: “The due diligence included a capacity analysis of passenger processing facilities, car parks, aircraft stands, and runways. Arup also prepared a Programme of Requirements, creating a static model using the base case for peak hour demand to determine overall gross floor area requirement. This model formed the basis for Vinci base case and multiple alternative scenarios.”