A major Western Australian building and engineering company has collapsed after its $350 million lifeline ended when another firm pulled out of a merger deal.
On Monday, perth-based Clough Group went into voluntary administration after the takeover deal fell through, leaving its 1250 employees uncertain about their future.
An Italian industrial construction group called WeBuild planned to acquire Clough as a way to enter the Australian market.
The $350 million conditional deal was struck on November 8 but less than a month later, it fell apart, leaving Clough on the rocks.
In the lead-up to the merger, WeBuild reportedly loaned Clough $167 million and was set to fork out a further $30 million, before pulling out of the acquisition.
Clough’s South African owners, Murray & Roberts, then appointed Sal Algeri, Jason Tracy, David Orr and Glen Kanevsky of Deloitte as voluntary administrators.
In a short statement on Monday evening, WeBuild said the merger had been scrapped as the companies had “jointly determined and agreed that there is no reasonable prospect of that acquisition proceeding through to a successful completion”.
“The parties have therefore unconditionally agreed to terminate the sale and purchase agreement with…
