Worleyparsons RSA, part of Australia-listed global engineering company WorleyParsons, has formed iX Engineers, a black-owned consulting engineering company focusing on SA's public infrastructure sector.
The new company has been established following the incorporation of WorleyParsons' public infrastructure business in SA with Black Jills Engineers, one of the first participating companies in WorleyParsons' enterprise development programme.
MD of Black Jills Engineers Lebo Leshabane will be CEO of iX Engineers, with 53% equity held by black employees. 35% of those shares are owned by black women.
"This transaction is only linked to divesting from the municipal (infrastructure) market (in SA). We can no longer compete in that space," Denver Dreyer, CEO of WorleyParsons RSA, said on Monday, 19 September.
He said that thousands of smaller companies now competed for municipal and other government infrastructure spend relating to human settlements.
"(iX Engineers) will have no link to us whatsoever," he said. But he acknowledged that the deal would provide some procurement and localisation benefits for WorleyParsons RSA, but that iX Engineers was not geared for mega-projects, such as a nuclear build.
Effective from October 1, iX Engineers will provide professional services for the design, development and maintenance of public infrastructure, including roads, dams, water supply, water treatment, sewerage, power transmission and distribution infrastructure.
Dreyer said that iX Engineers was not a WorleyParsons subsidiary, but a complete "break-away" company, of which 47% would be held by senior management from WorleyParsons' existing public infrastructure business who would be moving over to iX Engineers.
All of WorleyParsons' existing public infrastructure projects will be transferred to iX Engineers, so that the company started with a full order book.
"Where projects are not ceded to iX, we will continue to stand behind our customers and will subcontract to iX as they build their own project pipeline going forward.
"This is a success story not only for enterprise development, but also for the employees who now have a stakehold in one of the largest majority black-owned consulting engineering companies in the public infrastructure space," Dreyer said.
Source: BDpro
