US billionaire snaps up Aussie engineering firm for $900m
Resource Capital Funds has sold engineering and consulting firm Ausenco for about $900 million in a deal with a US billionaire and private equity firms looking to boost their exposure to battery minerals and energy transition.
The $US578 million sale comes nine years after RCF took the Australian mining-focused engineering firm private in a deal valued at about $150 millionand removed it from the ASX.
Ausenco’s new owners includebillionaire Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, which has a share in Major League Baseball team Los Angeles Dodgers and film studio A24. Brightstar Capital and the multi-billion dollar Claure Group, which owns a stake in Brightstar, are the other new owners.
US billionaire Todd Boehly. Getty Images
Marcelo Claure immediately declared his intention to use Ausenco to help turn Latin America into a major force in lithium as well as copper.
Ausenco has been a key plank of the investment portfolio at James McClements’ RCF since the Australian private equity firm’s original investment in 2014.
The company was founded in Brisbane in 1991 and now has about 3000 employees across offices in 15 countries, where its projects include wind and solar farms.
Ausenco has built four major copper concentrators, including at the Carrapateena project in South Australia BHP acquired this year as part of its $9.6 billion acquisition of OZ Minerals.
It has also built copper concentrators in Peru and in Chile with the red metal expected to be in high demand as part of electrification of global economies.
Mr McClements, who is chairman of ASX-listed Mineral Resources, said Ausenco had been a perfect fit with RCF’s strategy of growing mining businesses while generating strong returns.
Ausenco co-founder Zimi Meka will
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