Posts Tagged ‘LEI’

ASX Company News: Leighton Subsidiary Thiess Secures Ergon Contract

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Queensland’s Electricity provider, Ergon Energy, has selected Thiess Services, a subsidiary of Leighton (LEI) to provide network construction and maintenance services to its growing Central and Northern regions, under a five-year agreement valued at up to $100 million.

This recent contract win extends the long standing relationship between Ergon Energy and Thiess Services.  David Saxelby, Thiess’ Managing Director, said that Ergon Energy was a key strategic client and the company was excited about the opportunity to expand its service offering to these growth regions.

“I am delighted we have the opportunity to build on our solid, six year relationship with Ergon Energy and are keen to work more closely with them to deliver their vision of providing increased services to these regional communities” he said.  Thiess Services, has a national electricity distribution capability and is leading the way in areas of safety, technical training, project management and resource flexibility.  The company is ready for the new challenge, according to Thiess Services Executive General Manager,  Michael Wright.

“This contract will enable us to expand our presence in regional Queensland, and extend our current service offering. We will continue to provide the high standards of safety and service delivery that we have been able to achieve and sustain,” “Overall, we’re excited about this opportunity with Ergon Energy to help make a difference for regional people and their communities in Queensland, during this period of regional growth and development.”

www.leighton.com.au

http://www.traderdealer.com.au/Fundamentals/LEI

ASX Company News: Leighton Asia Secures $172 million Indonesian Mining Contract

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Leighton Asia (LEI) secures a A$172 million contract for the provision of mining services at the Martabe Gold Mine in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. Martabe Gold Mine is recognized as a world class gold/silver asset; containing a resource base of 6.5Moz gold and 66Moz silver. Located in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia, it is part of G-Resources Group Ltd’s (G-Resources) operations.  PT Leighton Contractors Indonesia, a division of Leighton Asia, has been awarded a contract to undertake the mining activities, including mine haul road construction, topsoil removal, drill and blast, mining of waste and the construction of mine infrastructure. Production will ramp up to 10 Mtpa once at full production and PT Leighton Indonesia has commenced mobilization and the first equipment is due on site in early August 2010.

Managing Director of Leighton Asia, Hamish Tyrwhitt, said, “we are excited by the opportunity to work closely with G-Resources. Our project team has a solid reputation for delivering Greenfield projects in Asia, drawing upon Leighton’s core skills and significant abilities.” The award of the mining contract highlights Leighton Asia’s ability to deliver robust mining solutions to clients across Asia and reaffirms the company’s competitive position and solid abilities in Indonesia. “This contract will enable Leighton Asia to diversify its mining operations in Indonesia both by commodity and geography,” Mr. Tyrwhitt said. “Accordingly we will be optimising local employment with intensive training programmes, highlighting our commitment to the local community and other important stakeholders,” he said.

Leighton Asia is part of the Leighton Group, Australia’s largest project development and contracting group with annual revenues exceeding US$16.5 billion. Leighton Asia has been operating in Asia for 35 years. Based in Hong Kong, the company also operates in Macau, China, Mongolia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Guam, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia.  Focused on success and with a unique combination of local knowledge and international experience, Leighton Asia is the region’s international contractor of choice. It owns the Martabe gold and silver project in North Sumatra and is looking to grow an Asia Pacific focused world class gold company. The Company has a market capitalisation1of approx. US$0.87 billion / HK$6.77 billion with 14.1 billion shares on issue. Top 20 shareholders include major international resource funds and Hong Kong and Mainland China institutions.

www.leightonasia.com

http://www.traderdealer.com.au/Fundamentals/lei

Thiess Services Secures $405 Million BHP Contract

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Thiess Services, a subsidiary of Leighton (LEI) has been awarded a $405M contract from BHP Billiton to undertake remediation works associated with the Hunter River Remediation Project (HRRP). The HRRP involves the remediation of river sediments affected by industrial activities of the former Newcastle Steelworks at Mayfield, New South Wales. Completion of works is scheduled for 2012. Thiess Services has been involved with the project for over 12 months with early works dredging already undertaken. For the next phase of work, purpose-built facilities, located on the former steelworks site, are being constructed to immobilise contaminants present in the sediments. The material will then be encapsulated in specifically designed containment cells being constructed by Thiess Services on nearby Kooragang Island.

Thiess Managing Director, Mr David Saxelby, said he was delighted that Thiess Services had been selected to undertake remediation works for a waterway that had such an important place in BHP Billiton’s and Australia’s industrial history. “Thiess is about providing our clients and the community with best-in-class solutions and this project demonstrates the depth of specialist capabilities within the Thiess Group,” Mr Saxelby said. Welcoming the announcement, Thiess Services Executive General Manager, Michael Wright, said “Thiess Services has successfully completed numerous landmark remediation projects including the Maralinga nuclear test site, the Homebush Bay Sydney Olympics precinct and the former Allied Feeds site at Rhodes NSW. “Thiess Services will use our experience from these significant projects to benefit our work on the Hunter River Remediation Project,” Mr Wright said. “The involvement of BHP Billiton and Thiess Services in this next stage of the project further demonstrates each organisation’s commitment to environment and sustainability principles.”

Thiess Services is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thiess Pty Ltd, and has an annual turnover of approximately $1 billion. The company provides integrated, cost effective and environmentally- responsible services to government authorities, commercial, mining and industrial clients in a wide range of business sectors, including water, energy, contaminated site remediation, waste management, telecommunications, infrastructure operations and maintenance and facilities management.

www.leighton.com.au

www.thiess-services.com.au

Leighton Asia Secures $1.1 billlion Indonesian Mining Contract

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Leighton Asia (LEI) has been awarded a A$1.1 billion contract for the expansion of the mining services at the MSJ coal mine in Indonesia for PT Mahakam Sumber Jaya (MSJ). The 6 years contract extension will see PT Leighton Contractors Indonesia, a division of Leighton Asia, expand its current overburden removal and coal mining operations to over 8 million tonnes of coal per annum. The mine, which is part of the TANITO Group’s coal operations, is located in the north of Samarinda, East Kalimantan.

Managing Director of Leighton Asia, Hamish Tyrwhitt, said “the contract extension was a testament to Leighton’s strong performance on the project since 2004. The TANITO group is one of Indonesia’s largest and most successful coal mining companies and the award of this contract further solidifies our close working relationship, “Mr. Tyrwhitt said. “We’ve successfully demonstrated our ability to add value to our client’s project over many years, both through the quality of our people and the safety and reliability of our operations. Backed by a strong international presence and vast experiences in the mining sector, our mining professionals have thrived on providing world class solutions to our clients and reaffirm our competitive position in Indonesia. Our operation in Indonesia has been an outstanding performer for the past few years, and we expect to continue to perform strongly in both mining and infrastructure. This contract takes Leighton Asia’s work in hand to record levels of over A$7bn.”

Leighton Asia is part of the Leighton Group, Australia’s largest project development and contracting group with annual revenues exceeding US$16.5 billion. Leighton Asia has been operating in Asia for 35 years. Based in Hong Kong, the company also operates in Macau, China, Mongolia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Guam, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia. Focused on success and with a unique combination of local knowledge and international experience, Leighton Asia is the region’s international contractor of choice.

www.leightonasia.com

Leighton Awarded A $170 million Contract Extension

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Leighton Contractors’ (LEI) Resources Division has been awarded a three year, $170 million contract extension at its Woodie Woodie manganese operations by Pilbara Manganese Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Minerals Pty Ltd. The role of HWE Mining at Woodie Woodie is the load and haul of bulk waste material, with the movement of manganese ore and other mining activities predominantly undertaken by Consolidated Minerals. HWE Mining will now assist Consolidated Minerals to increase the rate of production over the course of the next 18 months to an average of 1.4 million bank cubic metres (Mbcm) per month (equivalent to approximately 45 million tonnes of material movement per annum).

Craig Laslett, Executive General Manager of the Resources Division of Leighton Contractors, said the continued hard work by the team at Woodie Woodie had resulted in the new arrangement. “The contract extension is a great acknowledgment of HWE Mining’s safety and productivity track records at Woodie Woodie, as well as our ability to work collaboratively with the client to the benefit of the project,” he said. “We look forward to building on our relationship with Consolidated Minerals in the future, backed by the efforts of our dedicated, talented and passionate people.”

Woodie Woodie is situated approximately 400km south-east of Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of WA. HWE Mining has been the major mining contractor on site since 2007. Leighton Contractors is one of Australia’s leading contracting and project development groups with approximately $8.8 billion work in hand, and employing more than 9,000 people across Australia and New Zealand. The company services clients across a range of industries and sectors including resources, construction, telecommunications, energy, infrastructure and facility management.

www.leighton.com.au

Tuesday, 18th May 2010 Morning Wrap

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Presented by Michael Hevern
MDS Financial

**********************************************
Stocks finish flat after recovering from early sell-off. Euro recovers from 4 year lows, giving support to European markets.

The SPI Futures is below key level of 4600 the ASX is set to open lower as the SPI closed up 29 points (or 0.6%) at 4524, and overseas weakness still unsettling.

US Markets

Recovery after a shaky start; Energy Stocks Weigh

SP500: up 0.1% at 1,137
DOW up 0.1% at 10,626
Broadly Lower – Investors Nervous
NASDAQ: up 0.3% at 2,354

Dollar Index: Strong 18 month highs as Euro Weakens A$ up 86.87c

FTSE: down 0.1% at 5,262
DAX down % – Euro Currency Struggles (up 6.0% for week)

Oil: down 1.5% at ($70.51) (down 19% in past 2 weeks). Recovery falters and the focus is still on the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico

Gold: UP 0.2% at ($1,226)
Commodities Weigh;

SPI: below key 4600 ASX

SPI up 29 (0.6%) at 4524

ASX News

The SPI Futures is below key level of 4600 the ASX is set to open lower as the SPI closed up 29 points (or 0.6%) at 4524, and overseas weakness still unsettling.

LEI – rebuffs merger proposal for controlling shareholder Hoctief AG two months ago.They reported 9 month profit almost doubling to 31 Mar’10, NPAT rose to $400million (vs $220m in pcp). They forecast a FY profit of $600m with work on hand of $37.5m. Shares dropped 2.8% on the news.

RIO – Loses Chinese appeal re bribery and spy case. Australian Stern Hu chose not to appeal. All now face prison sentences of at least seven years with Hu receiving 10 years and Wang 14 years. The prisoners may be released early on parole.

AXA – AXA Asia Pacific is expected to renew its support for the NAB $14bn takeover bid. NAB is in discussions with ACCC re their concerns. AMP is still in the picture.

BHP – Mr Jac Nasser breaks his 7 weeks of silence in a letter and email drop, saying the proposed tax ”fundamentally, abruptly and unfairly changes the rules of the game”. The letter went on to say: ”Historically, the stability and competitiveness of Australia’s tax system has been central to providing resources companies and investors with the confidence to invest billions of dollars in long-life projects exposed to the risk of significant commodity price movements”. BHP wants the new tax to apply only to new projects.

MYR – Australia’s #1 department store chain reports 3Q Flat Sales. Share lost 1.3%

Market volatility will continue to rise near term, as world investors come to terms with the ramifications of the ECB $1 trillion rescue package.

We the suggest trading strategy is to get small, reduce you exposure to equities. Be prepared to open/hold short positions.

MARKET SUMMARY

ASX – to open higher
US & UK/Europe – subdued leads

U.S. ADRs – Broadly Flat!!!…

BHP down 1.2% & RIO down 3.2%; AWC down 1.2% ANZ down 1.7% & NAB down 0.7% NEM down 1.1%, JHX down 0.2%, NWS up 0.4%

Commodities Stock Index down 0.9%
Gold Stocks Index down 1.9%
Oil Stocks Index down 0.4%

Thiess and Silex To Build Solar Power Plant

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

A consortium including Leighton subsidiary (LEI), Thiess, a market leader in critical infrastructure construction and utility services and Silex Systems Ltd (SLX), an ASX listed company with world-class expertise and capability in solar technology, today publicly confirmed its interest in constructing the nation’s first solar photovoltaic (PV) power station as part of the Commonwealth’s Solar Flagship Program.

The announcement coincides with NSW Premier Kristina Keneally’s announcement that the NSW Government will contribute $120 million in funding to the project. This is in addition to the $1.5 billion commitment to the Solar Flagships Program announced by the Federal Government in 2009 which will include two PV and two solar thermal power stations. The Federal Government is expected to announce a short-list of three to four contenders for the PV power stations in the near future.

Chris Wilks, Executive Director of Silex subsidiary and consortium partner SilexSolar, said Australia has the home-grown capacity to build the new power station which will ultimately be one of the largest in the world. “The Thiess-SilexSolar consortium offers a unique all Australian bid for Solar Flagships, which will see industry research, world class development and manufacturing capability, and the consequent IP that is developed during the project, stay here in Australia for the lasting benefit of all Australians.” he said.

Mr Wilks said the Thiess-Silex Solar proposal includes the use of solar PV technology, the fastest growing energy technology in the world, and will have an expected average output of approximately 400GWh/yr. The consortium contains Australia’s only significant manufacturer of PV cells and panels, which would be wholly made at the SilexSolar plant at Homebush.

More than 1300 Australian based jobs would be created. Thiess Chief Executive Officer, Australian Operations, Nev Power said that if successful in its bid, the partnership will ensure the Solar Flagships project will directly benefit the Australian solar and construction industry, rather than seeing investment and expertise going offshore through projects put forward by off-shore companies.  “The Solar Flagships project is not only vital to developing large scale utility level solar power, but also to kick starting the local manufacturing industry, so Australia can get its share of the $40 billion worldwide solar PV industry,” Mr Power said.

The Thiess-Silex Solar consortium plans to construct a regional manufacturing facility for the assembly of panels close to the project site, maximising local content and employment. This would create an assembly and distribution hub for SilexSolar’s Australian made solar products to be delivered to the central and eastern states. Mr Wilks said many of SilexSolar’s staff have over 25 years in the industry including experience in Europe and the US, and have previously developed and delivered smaller solar power projects in Australia and South East Asia.

“We are investing heavily in the ingenuity of the Australian workforce and are well placed to commercialise Australian intellectual property rather than letting it go overseas. To aid in this we have our own Research and Development facility and a strong partnership with the ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence at the University of NSW, the key centre of Australian solar energy research.  “Our already established Homebush R&D facility and manufacturing plant, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, provides the perfect base to facilitate and house the growth in manufacturing and solar expertise this project will generate.” Mr Wilks said

www.silex.com.au

www.leighton.com.au

Leighton Wins Additional Gateway Motorway Upgrade Works

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

The Leighton Abigroup Joint Venture (LAJV) has been awarded a $240 million contract to deliver additional upgrade works on the Gateway Motorway from Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Road to Miles Platting Road. These critical works are an extension to the existing Gateway Upgrade Project and comprise the widening of the Gateway Motorway from four to six lanes, improvements to the road alignment and localised improvements to the Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Road interchange.

Leighton Contractors Managing Director, Peter McMorrow, said the Queensland Government and Queensland Motorways are to be congratulated for their forward thinking and commitment to the delivery of major infrastructure improvements. “We are proud to continue working in partnership with the Queensland Government and Queensland Motorways to deliver much needed road infrastructure improvements that provide significant benefits to motorists, businesses and the broader community in South East Queensland,” Mr McMorrow said. Abigroup National Operations Director, John Kirkwood said, “Winning this new contract is a vote of confidence from the Queensland Government and Queensland Motorways on the work we have carried out so far in delivering the Gateway Upgrade Project. “Thanks to production efficiencies and innovations made by the project team, the new Gateway Bridge will be opened in May, six months ahead of schedule and the motorway works are being completed in a timely and cost efficient manner. We look forward to starting work on the next stage of the project.”

Work on the 4km Gateway Upgrade Project extension will commence immediately and is expected to be completed by mid 2011.

www.gatewayupgradeproject.com.au

www.leighton.com.au

Leighton Wins Contract Extension With Western Power

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Thiess Services, a subsidiary of Leighton (LEI),  long-standing relationship with Western Power has been reaffirmed with the signing of a new performance-based contract, potentially worth up to an estimated value of $325 million over a maximum five year period, for the provision of electrical services. The agreement comprises an initial two-year period, and then three potential one-year extensions. The new contract will see Thiess Services work with Western Power to upgrade and maintain its electrical distribution network throughout metropolitan Perth and south-west regional Western Australia.

Thiess Services Executive General Manager, Michael Wright, said the new contract is a testament to the quality of service delivery, the commitment to safety and innovation, and the depth of expertise in the working relationship between Thiess Services and Western Power. “With the strength of our existing presence in Perth and the backing of our national electricity transmission and distribution capability, Thiess Services has the capacity to deliver a complete suite of distribution services to Western Power. We are excited about the incremental service enhancements and levels of innovation we can achieve together with this new contract arrangement in place,’’ Mr Wright said.

Thiess Services is a national leader in the electrical utilities sector and since 2005 has carried out maintenance upgrades and construction projects on the Western Power overhead and underground south west interconnected network. Thiess Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of Thiess Pty Ltd and has an annual turnover approaching $1 billion. The company provides integrated, cost effective and environmentally responsible services to government authorities, commercial, mining and industrial clients in a wide range of business sectors, including water, energy, contaminated site remediation, waste management, telecommunications, infrastructure operations and maintenance and facilities management.

www.thiess-services.com.au

MTR Corporation Awarded Rail Contract

Friday, March 12th, 2010

The MTR Corporation Limited (MTR Corporation) has awarded Leighton Asia (LEI) a contract worth A$463 million for the construction of the tunnels and ventilation buildings in the Tse Uk Tsuen to Shek Yam section of the Guangzhou – Shenzhen – Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL).

The Guangzhou – Shenzhen – Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) is a cross boundary transport infrastructure project, which will provide high speed rail services between Hong Kong and mainland China. The Hong Kong SAR Government has entrusted the design and construction of the Guangzhou – Shenzhen – Hong Kong Express Rail Link Hong Kong Section to the MTR Corporation.

The Hong Kong section of the XRL will be underground for the 26 km from the terminus in West Kowloon to the boundary crossing point at Huanggang, Shenzhen. The awarded Contract 822 includes the construction of a 7.6 km twin-track tunnel between Tse Uk Tsuen and Shek Yam, ventilation and access adits, two ventilation buildings and a 90 m deep ventilation shaft. Drill and blast techniques will be used for the construction of the tunnels. The works will be undertaken in co-operation with Macmahon Holdings.

Hamish Tyrwhitt, Managing Director of Leighton Asia said “Leighton Asia is delighted to be selected to construct another part of Hong Kong’s rail network. The XRL will provide the strategic link for Hong Kong to the comprehensive high-speed rail network in Mainland China. Leighton is excited to play a key role in this effort to provide a fast and convenient railway service to the communities in Hong Kong that will connect to other mainland cities.”

Contract works start in March 2010 with scheduled completion in 2015.

www.leighton.com.au