Newly appointed Clough managing director John Cooper is planning to sharpen the engineering and construction group’s focus as it seeks to reverse a string of losses.
Mr Cooper, who presented his growth strategy to Clough’s board this week, is also seeking financial support for his growth plans.
“The board is going to receive the first step-forward strategic plan, which involves asking for more investment,” he told WA Business News last week.
“The intention for the business is to make it a fairly major player in the oil and gas business.”
Mr Cooper, who took the top job in January, believes the problem contracts that have dogged Clough are close to being resolved.
He is also confident the independent arbitrator appointed to resolve Clough’s dispute with Origin Energy over the troubled Bass Gas project will deliver a good result for his company.
“We are really looking forward to the result because it is our considered opinion that what the company did on Bass Gas was a remarkable achievement.
“I think the arbitration case is going to show that Clough stuck by its client; the client didn’t necessarily stick by Clough.”
Mr Cooper, who previously represented Clough’s major shareholder, South African company Murray & Roberts, in Australia said his loyalty was to his current employer.
“My employment has shifted to Clough. I am the Clough chief executive with the interests of Clough and all of its shareholders.”
He said there were two main reasons why former managing director David Singleton, who led Clough through three years of restructuring, was replaced.
“[The board] felt his experience and background was not as associated with contracting as mine was.
“Second, for a person to have gone through the stages he had gone through and then to go to the next stage would be very difficult for any person.”
Mr Cooper said his growth strategy was not vastly different from Mr Singleton’s plans.
The company has already compressed three business units into two - oil and gas, and services and construction. It has also transferred functions such as human resources and safety to the two business units.
“The only other part of the plan that gets altered is a more focused and refined approach to the style of work we take on in oil and gas.
“We have tended to be classified as an oil and gas company that is all things to all beings.
“Our particular focus is going to be offshore oil and gas, which is the sub-sea work like pipelines and platforms and jackets.”
“There is a very large and emerging market in that area.”
“With that goes certain assets and the board will be asked to approve the acquisition of those assets in the not too distant future.”
Mr Cooper said he did not want Clough to “travel everywhere and anywhere to win a contract”.
In particular, he said the company was reviewing its activities in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where it was currently providing engineering design services but not higher-value contracting work.
“The value in our business is more to do with contracting," he said.
“The question is do we believe we can expand into the contracting side given the support of the existing engineering offices.”
