Engineering and consultancy firm Royal HaskoningDHV has acquired Ambiental, a UK-based provider of actionable intelligence from data to protect people, property and capital from flooding and climate change.
The acquisition, which is said to strengthen its position in the (re)insurance market, supports Royal HaskoningDHV’s strategy to provide clients with software and services in which its engineering and consultancy knowledge is combined with data-driven and technology-based solutions.
The infrastructure, industrial and insurance sectors are continuously looking for better insights to predict flood risk and prevent damage or economic losses to people and assets caused by flooding. In 2018 alone, natural disaster events across the world led to economic damage of $225 billion. It is very likely that extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent in many regions and climate change will amplify existing risks[1].
The acquisition will help to ensure that customers benefit from the considerable opportunities that new technologies in the field of data science and natural hazard modelling and forecasting can provide in relation to flood resilience, loss reduction, risk management and technical risk pricing.
Royal HaskoningDHV CEO Erik Oostwegel said, “We are excited to welcome the Ambiental team with their high-precision, productised analytics and data solutions. Together we can help our clients to better understand and reduce risks from flooding and other natural hazards using digital services and market-leading intelligence. Ensuring that money spent on flood risk modelling and management delivers the greatest possible impact on communities, corporates and infrastructure.
“Ambiental has a strong position in the (re)insurance market, complementary to our current market position and client base. The acquisition opens new and promising high-growth markets in international (re)insurance which are looking to better predict risks and prevent flood losses to people and properties,” Erik Oostwegel added.
The acquisition will accelerate growth of Royal HaskoningDHV’s flood-related digital services and associated recurring revenues. It will also enhance Royal HaskoningDHV’s flood resilience and environmental consultancy profile in the United Kingdom.
Ambiental CEO, Justin Butler Ph.D. commented, “Ambiental is very pleased to be joining Royal HaskoningDHV. This marks a special day in our journey to grow our global impact and our mission to offer customers continually enhanced, flood-related innovation and digital services. We deliver many complementary solutions, and together with Royal HaskoningDHV and their new partners, we will be able to offer even more compelling value propositions, and broader solutions using predictive analytics, data science, machine learning and computational risk modelling to an expanding global customer base.”
Dr Butler continued, “Counting leading domestic and international insurers and reinsurers amongst our customers, we appreciate the value they place on having our premium flood-risk and exposure modelling tools at their disposal. We are confident that jointly with Royal HaskoningDHV, our considerably enhanced global presence and footprint, with our combined unique data analytics, human resources and engineering expertise, will greatly contribute to our product offering and associated customer support. Our goal has always been to operate at the forefront of innovation. Further development and scaling of our solutions will directly benefit our customers by bringing them a unique package of data products, software and associated services for improved risk pricing, risk selection, accumulation control, actionable intelligence and portfolio modelling.”
Notes
[1] IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/
