Global asset manager Brookfield is giving the Multiplex brand a new lease of life, three years after completing its acquisition of the company.
IN December 2007, Multiplex’s securities were removed from the official list of the Australian Securities Exchange, following Canadian group Brookfield’s successful acquisition of the company.
Many people thought the Multiplex brand would be next to disappear, following massive cost over-runs and delays at its highest-profile project, the building of a new Wembley Stadium in London.
Brookfield has decided there is value in the Multiplex brand after all, announcing this month that its ‘contracting’ business will be known globally as Brookfield Multiplex.
The use of the term ‘contracting’ is another small but notable shift in how the group is positioning itself in the market.
Known to most people as a construction and property group, it aims to build its engineering and infrastructure business alongside its construction and development business.
Joint managing director John Flecker said the rebranding followed extensive research with staff and the industry.
“The research was compelling,” he said.
“Almost unanimously the feedback came back that the Multiplex name was an incredibly strong brand.”
The branding decision means business as usual in Australasia and the Middle East but marks a return of the Multiplex name to Europe, where the group almost came unstuck.
Mr Flecker said the group is looking to take the business into new markets, including North America, India and Saudi Arabia.
However, its strongest market currently is Western Australia, where the late John Roberts founded Multiplex 48 years ago.
With projects including the City Square tower, the Fiona Stanley Hospital, the Claremont Quarter shopping centre and the Alkimos waste water treatment plant, the group’s WA work book is worth $2.8 billion.
It has a further $2.3 billion worth of projects under way in other states, and $3.3 billion of projects in the Middle East and Europe.
Mr Flecker said it was unusual to have such a large portion of its work in WA, and reflected its success in winning “a small number of very large projects.”
He said the group had identified plenty of growth opportunities, including for its engineering and infrastructure business.
Multiplex has substantial experience in this sector, particularly in WA, but it was only in recent months that it formalised its plans.
“There was a clear strategic decision to embark on a growth strategy for engineering and infrastructure from WA,” Mr Flecker said.
It is one of two short-listed bidders (in a joint venture with Laing O’Rourke) for the sinking of the rail line between the city and Northbridge.
The state’s booming north-west, water treatment projects and Brookfield subsidiary Westnet Rail are seen as other growth opportunities.
Mr Flecker said the group would seek to build on its WA experience by expanding to other regions.
“Probably North Queensland would be the next market; concurrent with that the Middle East business is looking at opportunities in engineering and infrastructure.”
Mr Flecker said the group was also keen to build on its experience with Fiona Stanley Hospital, currently under construction, by bidding for three separate projects at the QEII medical centre.
“We’ve lodged bids for the central energy plant and the (multi-storey) car park, we’ll be having a red hot crack at the children’s hospital and we’ve lodged an expression of interest for the Midland health campus,” he said.
Mr Flecker, who joined the business 19 years ago, has seen three changes of ownership.
Under Mr Roberts’ ownership, it was a “very entrepreneurial” company with an intuitive approach to issues like risk management.
Its listing on the ASX, and subsequent ownership by Brookfield, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, had added much more formal and onerous reporting and risk management requirements.
However, he said Brookfield afforded Multiplex a large degree of autonomy in running the business.
“We manage the business autonomously within a set of guidelines
“We have a business plan, we prepare the business plan, we determine what we think is right for this business, and once that has been signed off, that’s it,” Mr Flecker said.
