.
Good interview with Jules on Primero and more by Brad Thompson in the AFR the other day
... and ‘gobbling’ we are as well as a-lobbing and a-tapping...
cheers
https://www.afr. com/companies/infrastructure/nrw-gobbles-up-another-rival-in-contracting-acquisition-spree-20201124-p56hgp NRW gobbles up another rival in contracting acquisition spree Brad ThompsonReporter
Nov 24, 2020 – 6.22pm
NRW Holding is continuing its aggressive growth agenda with a $100 million bid for Primero Group that comes on the back of other strategic acquisitions.
The diversified contracting business, led by Jules Pemberton, has emerged as one of Australia's biggest employers, with a workforce pushing 8000 and set to grow with the latest deal.
It is a far cry from the late 1990s when NRW had about two dozen employees and Mr Pemberton was starting out with the company.
NRW Holdings managing director Jules Pemberton.
Most of that growth has come in the past two years – NRW had 3145 employees in June 2019 – on the back of a buying spree that has netted the company key assets from the wreckage of RCR Tomlinson Limited as well as BGC Contracting. It is now set to land the Primero Group.
NRW announced a $100 million cash and scrip takeover of Primeo on Tuesday, which Mr Pemberton says rounds out its capability across civil, mining, mining technology and drill and blast contracting.
That is not to say NRW won't look at more acquisitions.
Mr Pemberton, who has led NRW for more than a decade – including through WA's mining boom and downturn – said any aquisition had to make "absolute strategic sense".
"We have bought very well in terms of value and the business we have managed to get," he said.
"We have an incredible platform now to grow organically. We don’t spend all day, every day, looking at acquisitions but plenty come to us to look at."
Primero directors have unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the NRW offer.
Primero managing director Cameron Henry said the NRW offer would allow Primero to avoid a potentially significantly dilutive capital raising to fund the working capital needed to deliver on its order book.
NRW intends to add Primero's engineering, procurement and construction capability – which includes work on several lithium plants in WA – to its renamed minerals, energy and technologies business pillar.
Primero is also working on hydrogen projects, another area that NRW is keen to expand into as part of diversifying so it is less exposed to the cyclical nature of mining and commodity price fluctuations.
Mr Pemberton said the Primero acquisition provided the opportunity for NRW to become involved in early stage projects and added large plant construction capability.
He said adding Primero's capability opened the door to the kind of build-own-operate model for crushing plants that had worked so successfully for the Chris Ellison-led Mineral Resources in the iron ore industry.
NRW also sees opportunities in green energy and battery metals given Primero's experience in lithium with the likes of Galaxy and Pilbara Minerals and work on lithium projects in North and South America.
The client list for NRW's mix of contract services businesses already includes Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group and BHP. NRW also has projects with Main Roads WA, Public Transport Authority of WA, Roads and Maritime Services, Stockland, Coronado Coal and Mirvac.
The company's revenue jumped to a record $2.06 billion in 2019-20, up 83 per cent on the previous year, boosted by the the BGC aquisition.
Mr Pemberton said revenue had fallen from about $1 billion to $266 million four year ago during the WA mining downturn, an experience that made him determined to diversify.
He said NRW couldn't have written the script any better in regard to its December 2019 acquisition of BGC Contracting, a business with a strong reputation for delivering complex public infrastructure projects.
NRW was part of the consortium named as the preferred proponent for a $850 million contract to build an outer ring road at Bunbury in WA soon after the BGC acquisition.
Bunbury is also home to what were RCR's mining – including mining technology – and heat treatment businesses.
NRW picked up the RCR businesses for just $10 million from the RCR administrators in January 2019.
The acquisition included the core of the RCR operations founded more than a century ago and still employing more than 300 people in Bunbury, Perth and Welshpool.
The mining technologies division alone owns significant intellectual property and is a leading national and international original equipment manufacturer.
(20min delay)