Murray & Roberts will own 50% of Gautrain in new deal

Murray & Roberts (M&R) is raising its ownership of the Gautrain from 33% to 50%‚ in a deal valued at R405-million.

M&R owns the Gautrain in a partnership‚ Bombela Concession Company‚ with French construction group Bouygues Travaux‚ the UK arm of Canadian train and aircraft maker Bombardier Transportation‚ and an empowerment group called Loliwe Rail Contractors.

In a statement on Tuesday‚ M&R said Bouygues and Bombardier had decided to divest from the Gautrain by each selling their remaining 8.5% of Bombela to M&R.

The announcement came a day before M&R was scheduled to release its results for the year to end-June.

M&R said in a trading statement on August 17 that it expected to report at about 5pm on Wednesday that its Middle East arm contributed a R570m loss.

Excluding the loss from its Middle East business — which "is to be abandoned"‚ the company said in the trading statement — diluted headline earnings per share (HEPS) would be in the range of R2.06 to R2.16‚ or between 5% and 10% higher than the prior year’s R1.97.

But including the loss contributed by the Middle East operation‚ diluted HEPS falls to between 66c and 76c‚ less than half the prior year’s R1.78 excluding losses contributed by the Middle East in 2016.

- BusinessLIVE