US engineering and construction company Fluor has agreed to pay $755 million to acquire Dutch contractor Stork from private equity firm Arle Capital Partners.

Stork, which has sales of around $1.6 billion and employs more than 15,000 people in its operations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, provides maintenance, modification and asset integrity services to the oil & gas, chemical, petrochemical, industrial and energy industries.

Fluor’s chairman and CEO, David Seaton, said the merger will create a global leader in the industrial services business.

“Stork is highly complementary to Fluor as it gives both businesses the opportunity to market diverse services and capabilities to new customers and across new geographies,” he said, adding that Stork’s business is largely driven by ongoing operating budgets which will provide Fluor with a continuous earnings stream.

Through the deal, Fluor expects to achieve “significant” synergies, including increased revenues from cross-selling and expansion into new markets.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2016, subject to regulatory approvals. Fluor intends to finance the required cash through the issuance of debt in international markets.

Once the deal is finalized, Fluor will merge its Operations & Maintenance business into Stork to create a new company with $2.3 billion in annual sales, which will be branded as Stork and based in the Netherlands. Its management will be led current Stork CEO Arnold Steenbakker, reporting directly to David Seaton.