Artelia

Coteba

Coteba was founded in 1961 as a subsidiary of Compagnie Générale des Eaux. It was known as one of the leading French companies specializing in project management of large-scale building construction projects. Coteba expanded its activities to include engineering, transportation and major urban infrastructure. Coteba was also known for managing multi-site projects for international clients.

In 1995, Coteba became part of Nexity. In 2003, Coteba’s management and specialized funds Crédit Mutuel-CIC and Crédit Agricole acquired Coteba from Nexity. In 2006, Coteba acquired, for an undisclosed price, the engineering departments of Thales Engineering & Consutlting (THEC), which specialize in infrastructure, building construction—in particular hospitals—and industrial processes. Coteba recruited an additional 300 workers, an increase of 40% of its 700 staff size at the time. In 2007, Coteba’s entire share capital was taken over by its management. Between 2003 and 2007, Coteba’s staff size doubled.

Sogreah

Sogreah was founded in 1923 when the Laboratoire Dauphinois d’Hydraulique was built in Grenoble. In 1955, the laboratory renamed itself Société Grenobloise d’Etudes et d’Applications Hydrauliques (Sogreah). Sogreah specialised in design studies and construction projects in the field of hydraulics. It has a hydraulics physical scale model laboratory, a shiphandling training centre, and a range of numerical models. In 1958, the company moved into rural engineering, irrigation, water supplies and sewerage systems. Sogreah also operated in the water, energy, the environment and urban development sectors. It participated in the design of the tidal power station on the River Rance in France and developed the tetrapod, a concrete breakwater armouring block. In 1967, Sogreah became part of the Alstom group, which subsequently became Alcatel. On 31 December 1998, Sogreah become an independently held company via a MBO, after which its staff size tripled to over 1200 employees.

Merger

In July 2009, a merger between Coteba and Sogreah was announced. At the end of 2009, a memorandum of agreement was signed by the two firms defining their merger into a holding company named Artelia. In 2011, the merger was completed.

Artelia

Artelia’s development since its foundation ahs consisted of internal and external growth. Between 2010 and 2013, 12 companies joined the group. At the beginning of 2010, Sodeg, a building engineering consultancy specialising in healthcare, industrial, educational, cultural and leisure facilities, joined the group as it was being founded. In April 2011, Artelia acquired Spretec, an engineering firm specialising in structural mechanics, and in May 2011, Détente Consultants, a consultancy firm specialising in tourism.

In 2012, the group completed six acquisitions, adding 200 new employees to its workforce and extra turnover of €23 million for a complete financial year. It first acquired the technical design firms GECC AICC, RL Consultant and Ingetech, building construction specialists in the Rhône-Alpes region of France that design institutional kitchens. In March 2012, Artelia acquired UK-based building form Appleyards, which provides project management and consultancy services for construction and infrastructure projects on behalf of clients. In April 2012, the group acquired Sotec, a former subsidiary of the Systra group that specialised in water, the environment and urban development. In May 2012, Artelia acquired DPG Plan in São Paulo, Brazil, specialising in engineering, architecture and project management in construction and infrastructure. In September 2012, Artelia acquired Copramex, which specialises in coastal environment studies around the Mediterranean Sea and in polluted soil remediation. In November 2012, the group acquired Haskoning France, which specialises in polluted site and soil rehabilitation, industrial risks and sustainable management of natural resources.

In April 2013, Artelia acquired ICADE’s engineering department, consisting of Arcoba, Gestec and Setrhi-Setae, thereby strengthening its building construction and industrial facilities sector and making it the French leader in the field. The same year, the group consolidated the range of its infrastructure engineering services by acquiring Secoa and Quadric, specialists in civil engineering structures.

Organisation

Since January 2011, Artelia’s operational organisation consists of four "activity sectors", three working in France and abroad on an export basis, and a fourth which groups together all the legal structures of the international network. In 2012 a legal organisation was instituted. Since then four companies owned by the Artelia holding company manage the group’s four sectors and have adopted "Artelia" as their common name:

It has 35 branch offices in France and 40 offices in 35 countries. In 2012 the group's international turnover represented 33% of the group total.

Notable projects

Following is a selection of recent, notable projects led by Artelia in France and elsewhere:

Corruption

In July 2015, the World Bank Group announced the debarment of two Artelia business units from participation in World Bank projects in relation to fraudulent practices in some of its projects in China. The settlement was agreed following acknowledgment of misconduct by Artelia Group.