KEY POINTS:
Kevin Thompson, boss of up-coming NZX market listing Opus International, has big plans - whether it's blueprints for the latest highway project or the road-map to success.
Opus develops and manages infrastructure assets, including roads, utilities and major buildings.
It undertook the civil engineering and structural design work for Auckland's Britomart transport centre.
The company is pursuing expansion overseas, and a float on the New Zealand sharemarket this year is anticipated to raise between $55 million and $75 million.
"Our position in the New Zealand market place is very, very strong [but] there's a limit to our growth potential ... and the overseas markets have almost unlimited potential," Thompson said.
The Wellington-headquartered firm earned $252 million in revenue last year - 80 per cent from New Zealand - and employs nearly 2000 people in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK.
In five years' time the international business will grow to match the revenue earned from domestic operations, Thompson said.
Last week, Opus bought Queensland engineering and architectural company Group 42 Consulting, which works with local authorities, Queensland Main Roads, schools and childcare providers.
Thompson said the acquisition would add to the client base and allow Opus to introduce its expertise in transport asset management, building design and the water sector.
Opus is building up staff numbers in Australia - from about 100 - and attempting to do the same in Canada and the UK.
However, Thompson, 56, still sees growth opportunities within a New Zealand market he sees as vitally important.
"No one can ever export without a strong home-based business," he said.
"[It's] vitally important that we have that strong base both in terms of our capability and technical ability but also having a strong financial base also."
The company dates back to the Ministry of Works and Development - set up in 1885 - before being privatised in 1988 and then bought by Malaysian firm Kinta Kellas in 1996.
The Malaysian parent owner, now called Opus International Group, holds 85.5 per cent of the stock, with the rest owned by staff.
Opus International will sell up to 20 per cent of its stock, with the size of a likely issue of new shares as yet unclear.
Thompson joined the Ministry of Works and Development in 1974 after completing a bachelor of engineering degree and a PhD at Canterbury University, and became Opus chief executive in 2001.
"It's exciting - there's all sorts of things you create," Thompson said. "You actually leave monuments behind and the thing that appealed to me about the Ministry of Works is it was always an excellent organisation - great people working very hard."
"All of those strengths, I think, have been retained and in part go to what we are today, really."
Having fun was also an important part of the plan, Thompson said.
"I guess our culture and spirit is defined by the work we do so the fact we're creating things I think makes for a very constructive environment."
There was a trend towards the globalisation of consulting capability and competition in larger overseas markets was more intense.
"[The UK] is a tough market to get known, get respected and then get work - and people of course."
The company differentiated itself using its asset management skills, Thompson said.
"It's a thing that New Zealand has developed a very high level of competence in and we [New Zealand and Opus] would lead the world in that respect."
The company would also replicate internationally its New Zealand model of setting up local offices close to customers.
"We are being successful globally because we are very much local and seen to be local," Thompson said.
However, the industry faced a global shortage of infrastructure professionals, he said.
"As an engineer I'm delighted that there's a shortage of people like us and we are valued more now than we have been for some considerable time.
"But when we're seeking to employ those people then they are in short supply."
In New Zealand the institutions that traditionally trained the next generation of employees no longer existed, Thompson said.
"We came out of the government and when we were corporatised and then privatised we did a lot less of the recruitment and training for the sake of the industry than we did previously."
