and this view:Macmahon Holdings may be on the verge of...

and this view:
Macmahon Holdings may be on the verge of offloading its troubled construction arm to biggest shareholder Leighton Holdings.

The civil and mining contractor is understood to be likely to sell the division as part of a strategic review conducted in the wake of a disastrous rail project.

Macmahon has also embarked on an attempted capital raising, raising fears the company's debt is becoming unmanageable as it prepares to book a first-half loss.

Its stock was placed in a trading halt yesterday at 26.5� ahead of an announcement about a "possible equity raising and strategy update". Macmahon would not comment but there was talk in market circles of a raising of between $50 million and $100 million.

The strategic review has been under way since September, when Macmahon first revealed costs had blown out on Rio Tinto's Hope Downs 4 rail project. New managing director Ross Carroll last month said all options were being considered and nothing had been ruled out.

Contracting giant Leighton has an 18 per cent stake in Macmahon.

Selling the construction arm would make Macmahon a pure play mining contractor working on Australian and overseas projects.

Presentations regarding the capital raising were being conducted yesterday with a potential book build taking place today.

Macmahon has been tripped up twice by Pilbara rail contracts in the past two years. BHP Billiton's RGP5 project wiped nearly $50 million off the contractor's 2010-11 profit. This time Macmahon is heading for a loss of up to $40 million from the Hope Downs 4 job, which is scheduled for completion this month.

Mr Carroll last month acknowledged the company's finances were under pressure because of the resulting profit downgrade. It was forecast to exceed self-imposed debt levels and skirt banking covenants.

The contractor had net debt of about $83 million at June 30, with gearing at 23 per cent. One analyst has forecast that to blow out to $146 million by year-end, threatening Macmahon's maximum gearing level of 35 per cent.

The Hope Downs 4 blowout led to Nick Bowen resigning as managing director and sparked a 50 per cent fall in Macmahon's share price.

The company downgraded its profit forecast by up to 70 per cent to a range of $20 million to $40 million. Last month it changed first-half guidance from break-even to an unspecified loss.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/national/15601528/macmahon-may-sell-construction-arm/

Let's see what they put out tomorrow