Snowy 2.0 Under Cloud as Clough Collapses

WA building and engineering firm Clough Group has gone under, putting the future of the massive infrastructure project Snowy 2.0 under a cloud.

The firm has gone into voluntary administration after an acquisition deal with Italian contractor WeBuild, which had reportedly lent Clough $167 million and was set to lend another $30 million in working capital, collapsed.

Clough’s South African owners Murray and Roberts sold the firm to Webuild last month for $350 million. On Monday Webuild said in a statement the companies had agreed there was “no reasonable prospect of that acquisition proceeding through to a successful completion”.

Clough has 12 companies under it with about 1250 employees in Australia and a similar number in the UK, the US and Papua New Guinea.

The company posted a $375.3 million loss and a $304 million working capital deficit in the last financial year.

Aside from the pumped hydro-energy project in the Snowy Mountains, Clough was working on a transmission line, Energy Connect, for Transgrid in NSW as well as the Waitsea LNG project in WA for Mitsui and Beach Energy.

It was also part of a consortium with Webuild working on a section of the inland rail project.

Founded in 1919 and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1998, Clough was acquired by Murray and Roberts in 2013.

The Clough Group deal was to be Webuild’s first move into Australia.