Business
Bird Construction Inc. Acquires H.J. O'Connell
/ Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for distribution in the Uni...
About this update from Bird Construction Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n\n\n/Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for\n distribution in the United States/\n\n\nLISTING: TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE\nSYMBOL: BDT\n\n\nTORONTO, Aug. 31, 2011 /CNW/ - Bird Construction Inc. (\"Bird\") (TSX:\n BDT) today announced that it has completed its acquisition (as\n previously announced on July 20, 2011) of all of the outstanding shares\n of H.J. O'Connell, Limited (\"H.J. O'Connell\"). The acquisition was\n completed through Bird's wholly-owned subsidiary, Bird Construction\n Company Limited. The total cost of the transaction is approximately\n $78.5 million.\n\n\nBird is funding the acquisition through $15.0 million of vendor take\n back notes, $30.6 million of equipment financing on the current H.J.\n O'Connell equipment fleet and the balance of approximately $32.9\n million from existing working capital. The equipment financing is for a\n term of 5 years and split equally between fixed and variable interest\n rates. In addition, Bird has put in place credit agreements totaling\n $55.0 million with two major Canadian commercial banks to further\n support the working capital and ongoing operational requirements of\n Bird, including H.J. O'Connell, if necessary.\n\n\nH.J. O'Connell has been a leader in the heavy construction, civil\n construction and contract surface mining sectors since 1931 with\n operations in Newfoundland Labrador, Northern Quebec and Manitoba.\n There is no geographic market sector overlap between the current\n operations of Bird and H.J. O'Connell. Its diversified business\n includes expertise serving the mining, energy, industrial, and\n infrastructure construction markets, with specialization in northern\n and remote site related projects. Certain key members of H.J.\n O'Connell's executive and management teams will remain as employees and\n will assist Bird in the management of H.J. O'Connell's ongoing growing\n operations. H.J. O'Connell operates a large fleet of heavy civil and\n mining equipment in support of its construction and mining operations.\n The equipment and expertise in earthwork and surface mining that H.J.\n O'Connell brings will permit Bird to expand its civil industrial\n business into new scopes of work. As well, Bird's recognized expertise\n in industrial building construction creates excellent opportunities to\n expand the services offered to ...