John Holland buys RCR Tomlinson rail business
Solar farms proved costly for RCR Tomlinson.
One of the country’s largest engineering construction companies, John Holland, has swooped on the assets of its failed rival RCR Tomlinson, acquiring the RCR O’Donnell Griffin rail business for tens of millions of dollars.
Administrator and McGrathNicol Partner Jason Preston said the sale would preserve the jobs of 400 employees in the business, and a divestment of further parts of the business is expected in the coming weeks.
It comes after the listed RCR Tomlinson collapsed last month, threatening the jobs of 3500 employees after it was unable to secure a financial lifeline from lenders including Commonwealth Bank, MUFG, Swiss Re, Chubb and HCC.
As of June, RCR Tomlinson had $36.3m of senior debt and a $295m bank guarantee facility.
The rail operations were thought to have been an attractive prospect for buyers, with cost blowouts at RCR Tomlinson’s Queensland solar projects understood to be a cause of its decline.
RCR’s Tomlinson’s three divisions are energy, infrastructure and mining.
John Holland has a strong profile in rail and the company was sold by its parent Cimic (formerly Leighton Holdings) to the China Communications Construction Company in 2014.
McGrathNicol said it was continuing negotiations with a number of parties interested in acquiring parts of the RCR business.
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS EDITOR
Bridget Carter is Mergers and Acquisitions Editor at The Australian, and has also covered property and construction for the newspaper for more than four years. Additionally she's written about logistics, crime,... Rea
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