Ashurst, Hogan Lovells and Travers Smith have taken lead roles on the £124m acquisition of British engineering company Halcrow by US infrastructure company CH2M Hill.

Ashurst advised Halcrow, fielding a team under global head of corporate Stephen Lloyd (pictured), who worked alongside employment partner Paul Randall and tax partner Richard Palmer.

The deal marks Ashurst's first mandate for Halcrow – which has an annual turnover of around £500m.

Travers Smith advised Halcrow's board of directors with a team including London corporate partner Paul Dolman and corporate associate Hannah Grace – with the engineering company previously having turned to small regional firms for advice.

Denver-based CH2M Hill, meanwhile, instructed Hogan Lovells on the deal, with the firm running a London-
based team including corporate partner Nicola 
Evans and London tax head Karen Hughes.

Ashurst's Lloyd commented: "This is a strategically important deal considering the fact that there has been a lot of consolidation in the sector. It was also technically difficult due to Halcrow's status as an employee-owned business."

The deal, which still needs to be approved by shareholders and the High Court, is not expected to result in any redundancies.

Halcrow, which has frequently worked alongside CH2M Hill in the past, employs around 6,000 people across 80 offices worldwide. The US company has 23,000 
employees and a turnover of $6.3bn (£4bn).