DRA CEO Paul Thomson
Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mining project house DRA said on Thursday that it had agreed to acquire the Forge Group North America companies, formerly known as Taggart Global, for an undisclosed sum.
DRA, a private, employee-owned Johannesburg-based project and engineering services company which is celebrating its thirtieth year in business, said the acquisition of Taggart’s US operations would add more than $100-million to its existing Americas business, along with world-class engineering capabilities.
DRA has bought the 21-year-old Taggart with the full support of the management team, which will remain with the company.
A company in engineering, construction and operations services, Taggart, headquartered in Pittsburgh, gives DRA added experience in coal preparation and diverse mineral and aggregate handling systems in North America, Africa, Australia and China.
DRA CEO Paul Thomson said Taggart, which had an “excellent” reputation in the global coal preparation and clean-coal technology markets, had expanded its skill set into the power sector, ports and terminals, biofuels, mineral sands, as well as the mining and aggregate industries.
He was also particularly attracted to the company’s ability to build and operate pollution control systems, coal preparation plants, mineral load-out facilities and material handling facilities.
Taggart’s South African subsidiaries would be part of a separate transaction, which would be subject to regulatory and competition authority approvals.
DRA has offices and operations in nine African countries, Australia, Canada, China and India and Taggart has offices in China and South Africa.
The 3 000-employee DRA, founded in Johannesburg in 1984 as Dowding Reynard & Associates after co-founders Brian Dowding and Tony Reynard, now conducts more than half of its business outside of South Africa.
While the first 30 years of the growth of DRA have been overwhelmingly organic, as it expands its Canadian and Australian footprints it is opting for acquisitive growth.