Who’s Building Australia?

On the back of the news that the Federal Government blocked the sale of Probuild to Chinese buyers citing national security concerns, we thought we’d have a look at who is building Australia.

Firstly, let’s clarify that foreign ownership is not a bad thing – importing high grade talent and international best practice is actually very beneficial to the local industry. Also, being a circular industry, foreign ownership doesn’t mean that money flows freely offshore – most funds return to the local economy through labour and locally sourced materials.

So our back-of-the-napkin calculation pulled in the top 20 constructors in Australia and broke down their latest reported annual turnover and ownership. Approximately 34% of recognised revenue remains in Australian ownership although this may be slightly over-represented given diversified public ownership (listed companies).

Leading the foreign ownership are Spain (courtesy of ownership of CIMIC Group), China (John Holland) and Japan (Icon). Offsetting the foreign owners are locally listed companies Downer Group and Lendlease amongst other privately controlled companies.

As rough as these numbers may be, it suggests that we shouldn’t be jumping the gun in assuming that the Australian construction industry is being taken over by foreign owners. If anything, it is surprising that we haven’t seen any significant entrance from North American capital into the local landscape.