Basil Read buys cranes for pipeline business

JSE-listed construction group Basil Read has bought three Volvo cranes, used for laying pipes, from the Babcock International Group to use for its Olifants River Water Resources Project, as the company looks to supply water to the Limpopo Province.

The deal makes Basil Read the owner of the largest fleet of Volvo pipe layers in Africa.

Babcock is a supplier to the mining, quarrying, forestry, material handling, road building, transport and construction industries in Southern Africa.

“Notwithstanding the immediate requirements for the Olifants River project, this acquisition also strengthens the Basil Read group’s position in the pipe-laying industry, enabling us to tender more competitively for large diameter pipeline construction projects,” Roelof van der Merwe, the MD of Basil Read’s plant division, said yesterday.

This would be for phase two of the project, which would entail building transfer pipelines and a reservoir to supply bulk water for domestic and mining use.

An analyst at Afrifocus Securities, Hugan Chetty, said the pipelayers deal suggested Basil Read was interested in tackling problems with SA’s water capacity and could translate them into profit.

“There have been warnings we could face a water shortage in the near future, as we are facing an electricity shortage now. This deal is good for Basil Read and I can see the company doing more waterrelated work,” he said. Mr Chetty’s investment recommendation was to hold Basil Read, despite fierce competition. “The big companies will go where the construction market is. There is a market for water-based construction, so I can see Basil Read taking on the rest of the big five. By having pipe layers, Basil Read suggests it can bid for similar projects to the Olifants one,” he said.

Basil Read bought Valente Brothers last year, specialists in pipeline infrastructure.