The UK's Merz & McLellan, one of the most active consultants in the regional power sector, is to merge with the US' Parsons Brinkerhoff with effect from January 1995. Merz is the third large UK consultancy firm to change hands in the past 18 months.

Merz is active in over 40 countries worldwide. In the Middle East, it is participating in three major projects. These are the 2,400-MW Subiya power station in Kuwait, the 260-MW expansion of the Aqaba station in Jordan and two gas-turbine power stations on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria.

The UK consultancy business has been the subject of several take-overs and mergers recently. Last year, Kennedy & Donkin joined the US group Rust. In late March, Ewbank Preece merged with Mott MacDonald to form the UK's largest independent engineering consultancy firm, with a workforce of almost 5,000.