Sinclair Knight Merz

Sinclair Knight Merz was founded in 1964 in Sydney by Bruce Sinclair and Jack Knight. In 1996 it merged with Merz Australia to form Sinclair Knight Merz.

In 1999, SKM merged with Kingston Morrison of New Zealand and Modus Consulting Engineers from the United Kingdom.

In the early 2000s further merges occurred with HS Liao of Malaysia, Murray North of Singapore, Ingenco, and Kirkman & Bradford in Scotland. In 2004 the Overseas Projects Corporation of Victoria was purchased from the Government of Victoria along with CCD Australia. Minmetal of Chile was purchased in 2005 and HBH of Perth in 2006.

In October 2011 the rail division of Mouchel was purchased. In September 2013 Jacobs agreed terms to purchase the business with the transaction completed in December 2013 and the brand retired.

Controversies

SKM faced criminal charges between 2006 and 2011 for suspected bribing of officials in Vietnam, and between 2000 and mid-2005 in the Philippines. Jacobs became aware of conduct whilst conducting due diligence ahead of it purchasing SKM and self reported to the Australian Federal Police. In September 2023 the Supreme Court of New South Wales imposed a fine of $1.4 million.