Only weeks after the highly acquisitive Maas Group bought $252m worth of construction materials businesses, it could be about to embark on a far bigger transaction to add to its empire.
DataRoom understands that Maas Group has been among the bidders for the Western Australia building materials empire Buckeridge Group of Companies.
Meanwhile, there are suggestions that the Kerry Stokes-controlled Boral group may be balking at the price and could soon be out of the contest if not already.
Boral, the country’s largest building materials operator, is owned by the Stokes family-backed SGH Ltd and is known for its hard bargaining skills and discipline on price.
But even so, the understanding is that BGC is looking at a lively auction with plenty of bidder interest, and final bids are understood to be landing ahead of Christmas.
Maas Group was a contender for BGC when it was for sale in 2022.
Other bidders at that time included Oaktree Capital Management.
As earlier reported, working on the transaction is Macquarie Capital.
On offer are BGC’s West Australian cement grinding terminal, quarries and concrete operations, considered highly strategic and valuable in the industry.
Other suitors that are thought to have been in the contest are Cement Australia and CRH, which owns AdBri.
Both groups would likely face competition issues and need to gain clearance from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to own the assets.
One option could be to form joint venture arrangements or a partnership to secure the green light.
Suggestions are the BGC unit on offer may be earning between $60m and $80m annually, which could put a price tag of $600m to $800m on the operation, based on its aspirations to achieve a price of 10 times its earnings.
When BGC was up for sale in 2022, buyers were unwilling to take on the family-owned company’s loss-making home-building unit, which has since been hived off.
Analysts say building materials are attractive because of the lack of housing supply.
Maas Group has been on a meteoric rise since its 2020 listing as a $530m business, growing to a $1.7bn company through acquisitions.
Its latest was almost a fortnight ago when it raised $138m to buy Cleary Bros, which owns quarries, concrete transport, construction and plant hire businesses, and a 75 per cent interest in Capital Asphalt, which supplies asphalt, spray steal and other related services in southern NSW and ACT.
It also bought a hard rock quarry in western Melbourne with the funds.
After those deals, the Maas Group debt was 2.6 times its earnings and was expected to be to the low end of its 2 to three times target range by June.
Maas Group expects to generate between $215m and $245m of annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the 2025 financial year.
The raise, advised by Macquarie Capital and Morgans, was at $4.65 a share, a 1.1 per cent premium to the last traded price of $4.60.
Founded in 2002, Dubbo-based Maas is an Australian construction materials, equipment and services provider with diversified exposures across property, civil, infrastructure and mining sectors.
Its other acquisitions include Melbourne East quarries and the concrete business Economix last financial year.
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