Contract Resources

Transaction Background

Prior to Anchorage ownership, Contract Resources (CR) was a wholly owned was non-core and underperforming subsidiary of Hellaby Holdings that was made available for sale following Bapcor Limited’s takeover of Hellaby Holdings.

With increased industry demand, particularly in Australia from LNG production and CR’s strong market position, Anchorage identified an opportunity to realise sustainable earnings growth through a range of margin enhancement and cashflow initiatives, implemented through Anchorage’s accountability led operational program.

Business Overview

CR was founded in 1989 and has grown to become a market leading provider of critical maintenance services to the oil, gas energy and infrastructure sectors in Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.  CR’s specialised service offering includes catalyst handling, environmental and industrial services and mercury waste treatment.  The business delivers its services to the refinery, LNG, petrochemical, renewable energy and resources sectors.

CR has a leading market position, an established footprint in key geographies and a strong reputation for service quality, safety standards and delivery performance of these critical services.

Turnaround Program

Key aspects of the comprehensive Anchorage operational program included:

• Removing / rationalising underutilised labour, sites and assets

• Implementation of key contracting principles and a gate review process for all new contracts, re-tenders / rollovers and capex

• Optimisation of working capital and cash collections

• Exit of unprofitable contracts and territories

• Development of a high performance business development capability to grow sales and margins at acceptable return levels

• Commissioning of the southern hemisphere’s largest vertically integrated mercury waste treatment plant

Financial Performance

The sustainable turnaround initiatives delivered meaningful improvements in earnings, margins and cash flow and significantly improved the quality of the business.

As a result of the turnaround program, EBITDA increased by over three times from FY17 to FY19. 

Exit

CR was successfully sold to a consortium comprising Australian investor Viburnum Funds and US-based global energy, oil and gas private equity fund, SCF Partners in December 2019.