Australia-headquartered mining castings and heavy engineering group, Bradken Ltd, has made “a non-binding and indicative proposal” to the Board of Austin Engineering Board to acquire all of the ordinary shares in Austin that it does not currently own – 78.5%. Bradken said it has noted the initial view of the Austin board “that it is willing to engage in discussions with Bradken in relation to its proposal. Austin is an important global player in the mining wear parts, buckets, tyre handlers, attachments and truck body markets – with key assets including Westech Engineering in Wyoming.

 

Bradken said that the approach was made prior to Austin’s recently announced capital raising and on the basis of a number of assumptions including full year earnings for Austin being in line with consensus forecasts. Bradken has noted the revised profit outlook for Austin provided as part of the capital raising, which is below previous market consensus at the lower end. Bradken also notes Austin’s expectation that 80% of full year earnings will be achieved in the second half of 2014. Bradken’s Proposal is subject to a number of conditions including satisfactory completion of due diligence, regulatory approvals, and unanimous recommendation of the Proposal by the Board of Austin.