Webuild to acquire certain Australian business assets of Clough

Italian construction firm Webuild will acquire certain Australian business assets of Clough for a total transaction consideration of AUD 17.6 million plus the assumption of employee liabilities.

The acquisition is expected to help increase Webuild’s footprint in Australia and acquire minority interests in projects carried out with Clough in the country, apart from the engineering expertise and workforce.

The selected assets of interest to Webuild includes Clough’s Australian and its share of contracts with Snowy 2.0 and Inland Rail, where the latter is the former’s partner.

The transaction comes with an option to increase the deal scope to include other projects with further consideration amount, if accretive conditions are guaranteed for the group.

Webuild to acquire certain Australian business assets of Clough. Photo courtesy of Clough,

Under the terms of the agreement, Webuild will have an exclusivity period up until 21 December 2022 to finalize an agreement with Clough’s administrators.

In November, Webuild entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Murray & Roberts, a South African company, to acquire 100% of Clough, This was subject to certain closing conditions such as providing enough collateral for an interim loan to be offered by Webuild to Clough prior to the closing of the acquisition.

On 5 December 2022, Webuild and Murray & Roberts, however, mutually terminated the agreement in its entirety following unmet closing conditions.

As a result, Murray & Roberts placed Clough under involuntary administration as the South African company failed to provide third party funding.