Watpac digs up offer for struggling mining unit

From AFR
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Three months after putting its struggling mining business on the chopping block Watpac may be getting some traction.
Sources told Street Talk an offer for the division has been lobbed by a private Australian company in the range of $50 million.
That's right in the sweet spot for Watpac managing director Martin Munro. According to a scheme booklet lodged in April for what was ultimately an unsuccessful move by major shareholder BESIX Group to acquire 50 per cent of the company, adviser Lonergan Edwards valued its mining and civil division at between $47 million and $64 million. Its construction business was worth $60.5 million to $73.8 million, according to the booklet.
The pressure has been building for the Queensland civil and mining services group. Its mining business has struggled to pick up new contracts, which the company warned in March was a key risk to future profitability.

The board, led by former Transfield Services boss Peter Watson, brought in Luminis Partners to conduct a strategic review including examining a sale of the business or its assets.

A divestment of the mining services arm would leave Watpac operating its stronger construction and civil businesses.  
It comes at a busy time in the mining services space.
Last month global alternative investments giant Oaktree Capital Management's DDH1 Drilling, a Western Australia-based company that specialises in drilling for mineral resources and water, agreed to buy fellow driller Strike Drilling.
Meanwhile Sydney-based private equity investor Odyssey Private Equity, emerged as the winner of Macquarie's MST Global in May for about $100 million.

Rothschild and King & Wood Mallesons ran the sale for MST's investors, which include Macquarie. Macquarie, via its principal investments team, was the biggest shareholder with just less than half of the company's equity.