Construction and Infrastructure

Australia’s fourth largest port achieved a record financial year in 2009, handling more than 83,000,000 tonnes of coal, grain and other goods. The company managing this impressive growth is Gladstone Ports Corporation Limited.

Webb Construction is playing an increasingly major role in support of West Africa’s mining boom, as Ben Sansom reports.

Electrical contractor Cegelec Morocco has found itself poised to capture some very promising new markets, as CFO and business development director Michel Bouskila explained to John O’Hanlon.

Since its creation in 1946, Cegelec Morocco has been an important partner to the large state electricity, mining and water enterprises, as well as the country’s oil company SAMIR in providing electrical engineering services. It employs over 2,000 people, many of them highly specialised engineers.

Spain’s Ferrovial plans to sell a 10 per cent stake in BAA, the owner of London’s Heathrow airport, to pay off debt and fund other projects.

In 2006 the Madrid-based infrastructure group led a consortium that acquired BAA for €16 billion (£14.2 billion), as part of a plan to expand its activities beyond construction.

Ferrovial will now reduce its 55.9 per cent stake in the UK business, but will still remain the largest shareholder.

Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group have agreed a £500 million joint venture to develop London’s next large skyscraper.

Canary Wharf Group, the owner of the Docklands estate, will buy half the 690,000 square foot tower development for approximately £250 million, and will act as construction manager on the project.

The joint venture will be backed by sovereign wealth from China and Qatar.

The 150 metre-high, 37-storey skyscraper at 20 Fenchurch Street, EC3, is known as the Walkie Talkie due to its concave shape.

The German insurance giant Allianz is set to make a £2 billion bid for the Channel Tunnel rail link, it has been reported.

Allianz is one of a number of groups planning to bid for the 68-mile stretch of railway running from London to Folkestone in Kent. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Eurotunnel and Hong Kong-based CKI are understood to have formed other consortia that are also planning to bid.

UK airport operator BAA will have to sell two of its airports after the Court of Appeal rejected its claim of regulatory bias during an investigation by the Competition Commission.

The company will now be forced to sell off Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports, the High Court has ruled. It is thought this will allow for greater competition, better service and a greater choice of flight destinations.

Nigeria has approved a $2.5 billion offer for its main fixed-line telecoms group Nitel, it has been announced.

However the government is insisting that the winning consortium come up with a $750 million down-payment to secure the sale.

The consortium will have 10 days to pay 30 per cent of its offer—or $750 million—from the date it receives an official demand for payment. It will then have 50 days to pay the balance.

Eurostar International has announced the award of a £700 million contract for 10 new trains to German manufacturer Siemens.

Siemens will supply Eurostar—which operates high-speed trains between London and the continent—with 10 Velaro e320 trains. Designed by Italy’s Pininfarina, the trains will carry more than 900 passengers at a top speed of 320 kilometres per hour. They will also be capable of travelling on other networks, as Eurostar makes plans to expand into Germany and the Netherlands.

RBH Group is poised to begin work on Teachers Village, a residential development in the historical center of Newark. Company president Ron Beit talks to Gay Sutton about his vision for kick-starting wider urban regeneration.