CIMIC Group


CIMIC Group Limited is an Australian multinational contractor. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries. It has operations in Australia, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and the Middle East. Leighton Holdings was rebranded as the CIMIC Group in 2015.
CIMIC stands for Construction, Infrastructure, Mining and Concessions.

History

Founded in 1949 by Stanley Leighton, Leighton Holdings was first listed on the Melbourne Stock Exchange in 1962.
In July 1983 Leighton Holdings, purchased Thiess Contractors, with its major shareholder, Hochtief, becoming the majority shareholder in Leighton Holdings. In April 1997 the Welded Mesh structural materials division was sold to Smorgon Steel.
In 2000, Leighton Holdings bought a 70% stake in John Holland; this was increased to 99% in 2004 and 100% in December 2007.
In October 2013 Fairfax Media alleged that Leighton Holdings had made corrupt payments to Hussain al-Shahristani, Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, to secure an oil pipeline contract in Iraq and other contracts. Basil Al Jarah, the Iraq country manager for Unaoil, a Monaco-based company allegedly acting for Leighton Holdings, subsequently pleaded guilty to corruption.
By March 2014, Spanish company ACS Group, through its acquisition of a majority shareholding in Hochtief, was the majority owner of Leighton Holdings. In June 2014, Verdes also became chairman of Leighton's executive board.
In December 2014, Leighton Holdings sold John Holland to China Communications Construction for $1.15 billion.
In April 2015, in the wake of the earlier corruption allegations against Leighton Holdings, ACS changed Leighton’s name to CIMIC Group.
In March 2016, CIMIC purchased mining company Sedgman for A$256 million. In December 2016, CIMIC purchased engineering company UGL Limited for A$524 million.

Structure

CIMIC Group includes the following businesses:
Major projects undertaken by Leighton Contractors include:
About 70% of the shares in CIMIC Group are held by Hochtief which in turn is owned by the ACS Group.

Hong Kong railway project

Leighton Asia, a subsidiary of CIMIC Group, was awarded the contract for constructing the Hung Hom station extension of the Sha Tin to Central Link, a high profile railway network extension project in Hong Kong in 2013. In 2018, Leighton Asia was accused of failure to comply with local safety standards and attempting to hide this failure until a whistleblower leaked its evidence to the local press. During a hearing of the commission of inquiry, the Hong Kong Government accused Leighton of corporate arrogance.