IBI Group Inc. announces the Settlement of Business Arrangements for the Acquisition of the firm of Taylor Young Limited of the UK.

TORONTO, July 30, 2012 /CNW/ - IBI Group Inc. (the "Company") (TSX: IBG) announced today that business arrangements have been settled for the acquisition of the practice of Taylor Young Limited Architects and Master Planners within the IBI Group of Firms.

Taylor Young is a full services architectural practice including professional skills in urban planning and design and landscape architecture, based in Manchester, UK with offices in Liverpool and London.  The firm has a strong reputation in the design of facilities in healthcare, education, housing, as well as urban planning/design and landscape design for a broad range of clients.  The firm is highly experienced in sustainability of design integrated with such facilities.

Taylor Young was incorporated as a company in 1989.  The three majority shareholders of Taylor Young Holdings Ltd., the parent of Taylor Young Limited, are Stephen Gleave, Rod King and David Gardner.  Paul Rushton and Alan Simpson are the two minority shareholders.

The firm has a very firmly established and strong second line of leadership operating as studio leaders, (directors), and practice leaders, (directors), of various groups within the overall practice.  The firm currently has some 80 professional staff for a total complement of approximately 100 staff members.

Philip Beinhaker, Chairman Director and CEO of IBI Group noted that: "The ownership of Taylor Young have built a highly professional practice in architecture and related disciplines based in Manchester with additional offices in Liverpool and London.  The firm is also managed in a financially effective and profitable manner.  This acquisition will further enhance IBI's professional strength in the UK market, as well as contribute to the growing strength of the global practice of the firm in health and education.  Professional experience in urban planning and urban design, as well as landscape architecture and the architecture of housing in the UK will broaden the current areas of practice of the IBI capabilities in the UK.  Taylor Young Limited has a very broad range of clients in the public sector with over 70% of the business gained on a repeat basis with long established client relationships".

Stephen Gleave noted that: "This is a strategic move for Taylor Young, including its owners, lead managers and professional staff in becoming a member firm within the IBI Group of Firms.  It increases our capacity in professional resources to serve our many clients with the largest of projects and with broader skills that complement our existing breadth.  It opens opportunities for our talented staff to participate in projects around the globe through IBI's established global strategy of work sharing and deployment through the intelligent systems of the firm.  In short, it opens strategic opportunities at multiple levels for the future of the Taylor Young Family".

Rod King stated that: "We are all so excited about the collaboration that we will be able to achieve with our colleagues within the IBI Group - Nightingale Associates practice.  Together, the two practices will be even more strongly established in the health and education opportunities in the UK.  Our expertise in urban design, urban planning and landscape, will also now have broader markets in which to participate in the UK".

The new trading name will be IBI Taylor Young. With this acquisition the total of the IBI staff increases to approximately 3,050.

About IBI Group Inc.

IBI Group Inc. is a TSX listed company, which pays monthly dividends and trades under the symbol "IBG". IBI Group Inc. holds an indirect 77% interest in IBI Group, a partnership (of a subsidiary of IBI Group Inc. and IBI Group Management Partnership) which, directly and through its subsidiary entities, provides professional services, including planning, design, implementation, analysis of operations and other consulting services in relation to four main areas of development, being urban land, building facilities, transportation networks and systems technology. The remaining 23% of IBI Group is owned by IBI Group Management Partnership. On a partially diluted basis, assuming the exchange of its partnership units of IBI Group for common shares of IBI Group Inc., IBI Group Management Partnership together with affiliated entities holds a combined 42% interest in IBI Group Inc.

SOURCE: IBI Group Inc.

Philip H. Beinhaker 
IBI Group Inc. 
230 Richmond Street West 
Toronto, Ontario M5V 1V6

Telephone: [phone]