JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The shares of the JSE-listed mine project management company TWP would cease trading on December 11, when the company would be delisted and absorbed into JSE construction and mining contracting company Basil Read, TWP CEO Nigel Townshend said on Tuesday.

TWP shareholders would receive cash and newly issued Basil Read shares on December 21.

Basil Read will pay out 37,3-million new ordinary shares, as well as R143-million in cash, in the ratio of 31,16 new Basil Read shares and R119,96 for every 100 TWP shares.

Townshend, who has been appointed to the Basil Read board, remains TWP CEO.

TWP listed two years ago, when its shares leapt 30% on listing on the main board of the JSE to R20 a share in a matter of seconds.

Basil Read's own shares rose from a low of just above R10 a share to close to R19 a share when the news broke a few months ago of its intention to acquire TWP.

TWP's black empowerment company Vunani is also being absorbed into Basil Read, which is working towards unlocking many new synergies as a result of its acquisition of TWP.

Both are active in the mining sector, TWP as a project house and Basil Read as a mining contractor.

Townshend said that small to medium-sized mining companies favour a combined project management-construction offering, which the combined entity was now able to provide.

"We are still working off R100-billion worth of projects in various phases, some in feasibility, some well into construction and some entering commissioning," Townshend told Mining Weekly Online.

Basil Read CEO Marius Heyns told Mining Weekly Online that Basil Read's order book stood at R8-billion and was 18-months deep.

Heyns said that the acquisition of TWP fulfilled Basil Read's long-held ambition of having an engineering business within its construction fold.

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