Is ÅF Pöyry an ER&D service vendor?
Several readers reacted to the birth on February 22, 2019, of ÅF Pöyry. They argue that ÅF Pöyry has become a building engineering-centric firm and now shares more with the likes of Sweco, Arcadis, or SNC Lavallin in Canada, than with Altran, or HCL Tech.
These readers are right: the profile of ÅF Pöyry has changed drastically. Infrastructure engineering is now ÅF Pöyry’s largest division, representing 37% of pro-forma revenues.
However, it would be unfair to simplify the portfolio of ÅF Pöyry to only infrastructure and building engineering.
ÅF Pöyry shares 63% of its service portfolio with what other ER&D service vendors offer: product design and development, some level of IT services, manufacturing process engineering, energy-related engineering, and consulting.
What is true however is that ÅF Pöyry has a service mix that is different from competitors: it is heavy on infrastructure and not as large as competitors in product design and development. Also, ÅF Pöyry certainly has a geographical footprint that remains very much centric around Sweden and Finland (apart from the energy business, which is international).
So, in our view, ÅF Pöyry is an ER&D service vendor with its particularities and service mix. The company has its strategy, in the same way, that HCL Tech has expanded to software products, or that German ER&D service vendors are CapEx-intensive. A different background, a different strategy, but still competitors in the markets where they operate.