Australia’s RUC Mining has made its way back into the mining services portfolio of German investment company Aton GmbH via wholly-owned subsidiary Redpath’s acquisition of RUC.
RUC Mining, formed in 1991, was part of Johannesburg-listed Murray & Roberts – circa-44% owned by Aton – until the end of 2022, when Murray & Roberts’ Australian holding company went into voluntary administration.
Clough Engineering, since sold to Webuild, was the major problem for M&R in Australia. But the South African company couldn’t retrieve a profitable RUC Mining from the morass.
Now Redpath, one of the world’s largest underground mining contractors, says it aims to complete the acquisition of RUC Mining in June this year.
Aton, controlled by German billionaire Lutz Helmig and his family, said in its 2022 annual report Redpath generated EBITDA of €80 million on €774.8 million turnover in the 2022 year. Its EBITDA margin at 10.3% was below the previous year’s 13.2%.
Redpath had about 5300 employees worldwide at the time.
The Canadian-headquartered Redpath acquired Australian underground mining contractor Eroc back in 2008 without disclosing the price.
Ditto the latest deal.
RUC Mining reportedly had a sale price of up to US$145 million on it in early 2023.
The company turned in a modest FY2022 net profit on Australian and Asia-Pacific revenue of circa-US$250 million. It reportedly had a US$360 million order book and more than 1700 employees across its operations.
Redpath, founded in 1962, has more than 6000 employees.
The group’s CEO George Flumerfelt said RUC would “further increase group scale and capabilities, strengthen our balance sheet and enhance our market position”.
“In Australia this acquisition will build on Redpath’s position as an industry leader,” he said.
