THE AUSTRALIAN9 February 2020CIMIC’s Thiess Indonesian sale...

THE AUSTRALIAN
9 February 2020

CIMIC’s Thiess Indonesian sale interests Macmahon

The Spanish-controlled majority owners of CIMIC are understoodto have opted for a sale of the

Thiess Indonesian operations, with industry rival Macmahonthought to be well positioned to

buy the business.

Private equity firm Apollo was believed to be keen to buy all orpart of Thiess last year, but its

interest is understood to have since cooled and Macmahon hadearlier been identified by

analysts as the natural owner of the Thiess Indonesian assets.

Interestingly, when CIMIC was asked during a results conferencecall last week about whether a

sale of Thiess was on the cards, investors were told that thecompany’s mining interests were

performing well.

Some took this as a signal that a sale of the overall unit was nolonger on the agenda for CIMIC,

which booked a $1bn annual loss due to the writedowns on itsMiddle East operations.

The other thing noted was that CIMIC chief executive MichaelWright will stay on with the

business to head Thiess, despite stepping down from the top job.

Perhaps Mr Wright could be helping with a potential full orpartial sale of Thiess, which he

previously used to run.

It has been a harrowing year for CIMIC, which has a reputationof being tight-lipped involving its

moves and has only about 30 per cent of the company listed onthe ASX.

The losses came as it opted to exit the Middle East, as earlierforeshadowed by this column.

By BRIDGET CARTER, DATAROOMEDITOR

9:00PMFEBRUARY 9, 2020