Interactive: Top 2017 ADB contractors for consulting

As the ninth Asian Development Bank Business Opportunity Fair finishes this week, Devex has been analyzing ADB’s contract awards data to reveal its biggest partners and highlight key trends. The project builds on our previous analyses digging into the bank’s Country Operations Business Plans data to reveal priority sectors and project approvals for the 2017-2019 and 2018-2020 periods. So what data have we analyzed this time? At different stages of ADB’s project cycle, such as preparation or implementation, several contracts might be awarded. For transparency purposes, ADB makes contracts with a value above $100,000 publicly available, although lower value awards are also sometimes published. Contract awards are divided into two categories: Consulting services; and works, goods, and related services. Since the target, purpose, and value of contracts varies widely depending on what they are for, we have split our analysis between the two categories, focusing on contract awards signed during 2017, rather than on yearly disbursements or budget transfers. In this article, we’ll look at ADB’s top 2017 awards for consulting services, and its biggest primary contractors. By “primary contractors,” we mean the organization that was either awarded a contract, or was the main partner in a consortium of organizations that won an opportunity. Stay tuned for a second piece on goods, works, and related services awards in 2017; and a third one on ADB contracting trends over the past five years. You can also check out our interactive visualization to help organizations find partners and explore competitors through ADB contract awards data. Contract awards for consulting services in 2017 In 2017, ADB awarded over 430 contracts worth $689 million to consulting firms, according to the published data. The bank hired more than 300 individual consultants and firms, some financed solely by ADB and others that were co-funded. The numbers show that consulting services for loans count for half of the total awards, and more than 70 percent of the funding, at $490 million, while grants and technical assistance together account for almost $200 million. At the same time, the top 10 awards account for nearly half of the expenditure in loans, on transportation and energy projects. The top beneficiaries were Bangladesh, receiving $68 million mainly for railway connectivity projects; and Sri Lanka, with $16 million mostly for local government initiatives. The variety of awards available explains the variety of contractors that bid for consulting services, ranging from individual consultants to big international firms. For instance, in 2017, the lowest-value contract was $15,400 awarded to Tsiar-Finans as part of a solid waste management project in Uzbekistan. At the other end of the scale, SMEC International received $51.5 million for consulting services related to the new Bangladeshi railway between Cittagong and Cox’s Bazar. You can explore the breakdown of the data by sector and type of contract using Devex’s interactive visualization of 2017 ADB contract awards. Who were the top consulting firms in 2017? In 2017, more than 315 firms were awarded ADB consulting services as primary contractors. The top 10 ADB contractors for 2017 accounted for $205 million in awards, representing 30 percent of the total. The vast majority of those awards — 41 out of 66 — went to consulting services for loans, summing around $160 million. Asian companies, both international and national, take the top spots, alongside big companies from the United States and Europe. Beneath, Devex lists ADB’s top 10 contractors by number of awards in consulting services in 2017. This ranking does not consider the number of awards these companies won as secondary partners of a joint venture, or in any other form of private agreement. It is also worth noting that the total value of awards indicated in the ranking reflects both ADB contributions and other funders’ contributions to these services. However, the bank’s contributions represent nearly 90 percent of the overall amount. In ninth position, there was a tie between three companies: Renardet Consulting Engineers, Easen International and ICEM. Each won four awards in 2017. To break the tie, we considered the total value of the four awards, meaning that ICEM dropped out of the top 10 ranking with $2.1 million in funding. 1. SMEC International Headquarters: Sydney, Australia Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 15 Total value of the awards: $138,774,134.8 The Australian engineering company SMEC clearly came out on top after being awarded $138.8 million in contracts in 2017. This represents almost 20 percent of ADB’s annual spend in contracts signed during the year. As one of the leading urban and transport consultancy firms, they have been awarded contracts for substantial services on the Bangladesh railway worth almost $63 million; the preparation of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Corridors in Afghanistan worth $20 million; and implementation support for a sanitation management system in five Indonesian cities worth nearly $15 million. 2. Egis Group Headquarters: France Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 7 Total value of the awards: $9,523,985 This big French engineering and consulting group was awarded contracts in a wide range of countries including India, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Armenia. Averaging $1.3 million, the contracts focused on water management and supply, including rural flood protection in Kyrgyzstan for $1.1 million, and primary water supply in Sri Lankan villages under two projects for $2.3 million. They have also engaged with the government of Rajasthan in India as part of the metro rail planning project in the city of Jaipur. 3. Naree International Headquarters: Hong Kong, China Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 7 Total value of the awards: $3,461,187 This Hong Kong-based specialized consulting company was not a top awardee in terms of contract value, but it ranks highly for the number of awards it received. A total of seven technical assistance projects averaging $400,000 were awarded to tackle mainly agro-industry and urban development studies, including flood protection or sewerage management across China, including in the provinces of Gansu, Yunnan, Xinjiang, and the city of Chongping. In total, the company won almost $3.5 million worth of contracts, combining both preparatory and advisory services to several governmental borrowers. 4. PwC Headquarters: United Kingdom Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 6 Total value of the awards: $11,002,028.1 The largest professional services firm in the world, PwC was assigned to six projects as a primary partner, plus two additional projects as a secondary partner. Through the Indian branch of the firm, PwC has been awarded work in Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India. The projects range in topics from power transmission and distribution in Nepal to technical assistance on capacity building education programs in Bangladesh. A big part of the cake for the company came from winning the SASEC railway connectivity loan contract, worth almost $5 million. 5. Resources Development Consultants Headquarters: Sri Lanka Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 6 Total value of the awards: $5,196,791.8 RDC, one of the top consulting firms in Sri Lanka, was awarded more than $5 million worth of contracts. Most of it was assigned for a loan from the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government in Sri Lanka to overcome local government challenges and enhance basic infrastructure and services within five projects. The firm is providing both design and supervision counseling focused on water management and urban development to the ministry. In early 2017, RDC also won an award for a sewerage supervision consultancy in Cambodia, part of a big project in the Mekong subregion. 6. Sheladia Associates Headquarters: United States Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 5 Total value of the awards: $14,721,555.6 The U.S.-based consulting firm Sheladia Associates, a recurrent contractor of ADB services, received a total of five awards in 2017. Mainly coordinated by national ministries, these services were allocated in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. The top sector was transportation, focusing on road asset management and construction supervision in the rebuilding of a national road in Afghanistan worth $8.8 million, and a Cambodian project on improving about 1,000 kilometers of rural roads for $3.2 million in two awards. 7. Greentech Consultants Headquarters: Sri Lanka Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 5 Total value of the awards: $4,005,452.8 The ADB loan for Sri Lanka on local government enhancements has been the goose that lays golden eggs for Greentech Consultants. Based in the same country, the firm was awarded five contracts for the design and supervision of the initiative. Starting in 2011 and concluding in early 2018, the loan requested by the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government in Sri Lanka financed $61.95 million worth of contracts, allocated across 200 awards. It is worth mentioning that the 13 contracts awarded during 2017 for this project (for a total amount of $10.97 million) were all distributed to firms ranked in the top 10 awardees: Greentech Consultants (5); Resource Development Consultants (5); Egis Group (2); and Sheladia Associates (1). 8. SBK Research and Development Headquarters: Cambodia Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 5 Total value of the awards: $2,090,731 SBK won all its five awards in Cambodia. Tackling different projects for national ministries, the main awards focused on agricultural policy and land-based resource management, as well as disease control. SBK’s position in this ranking is largely due to a single project: the Climate-Resilient Rice Commercialization program granted to the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Cambodia, which garnered $1.35 million for SBK in preparation consulting services. 9. Renardet Consulting Engineers Headquarters: Switzerland Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 4 Total value of the awards: $12,658,498.3 The consulting branch of the Renardet Group focused their efforts on an area of expertise: Transportation. Winning nearly $8.4 million in three different contracts for the same project, Renardat will be supervising the construction of the highlands region road improvement project in Pangia-Wiru, Papua New Guinea. They were also awarded $ 4.3 million to conduct project management for a road upgrade in a key Central Asian transport corridor in Kazakhstan. 10. Easen International Headquarters: China Number of ADB awards in 2017 as primary partner: 4 Total value of the awards: $3,099,962 This professional services firm, specialized in water and environmental management systems, was awarded contracts for four different loans to China and Mongolia. For example, in the Xinjiang Tacheng Border Cities and Counties Development project, they won a contract worth $1.3 million to provide initial guidance and capacity building for the upgrade of infrastructure which should directly benefit more than 250,000 residents in four cities. Explore the data further with Devex’s interactive visualization. Do you have questions about our methodology or data insights? Reach out to our experts at analysts@devex.com for more information.