A UK architecture firm has been acquired by a Japanese engineering consultancy for £102.2m.

BDP has exchanged contracts with Nippon Koei (NK) to form an integrated international design group.

John McManus, Chief Executive at BDP, said: “The alliance with Nippon Koei heralds an exciting new era in BDP’s evolution.

“Although separated geographically, our two firms share common values and have highly complementary strengths in terms of professional offer and sector expertise.

“By uniting the two firms, we are creating an organisation which genuinely has the potential to be greater than the sum of its parts.

“We believe that this strategic international alignment will deliver huge benefits to our clients and will offer exceptional prospects for our people to develop both professionally and personally.”

BDP has six UK offices and branches in China, India, Ireland, the Netherlands and the Middle East.

It employs 950 people and had a turnover of over £81m last year.

Ryuichi Arimoto, President of Nippon Koei, said: “As a leading architecture and design firm in the UK, BDP’s participation in the NK group will mark a great turning point in both of our histories.

“The combination of NK’s 70 years’ of experience in social development and infrastructure together with BDP’s 55 years’ of experience in the education, health and commercial sectors, will create significant opportunity to add value for our clients and, I am confident, will lead the group to become the world’s leading integrated architecture, engineering and design company for the next generation.

“I also believe that the synergies between us will not only advantage our projects but will be of enormous benefit to our staff from a human resources perspective.”

Nippon Koei employs around 3,200 people and had a turnover of £430m in 2015.