South Africa-based Murray & Roberts has decided to dispose of its Infrastructure and Building businesses and Genrec, a steel-making and engineering services group.

Negotiations with prospective buyers for these businesses are at an advanced stage, it said.

However, the transaction excludes the group's operations in the Middle East, where current projects are expected to be completed by December 2017 and no new projects are being pursued, the company said.

The company will henceforth focus on three core sectors: underground mining, oil and gas, and power and water, the group said as it announced its annual results for the year ended-June.

Henry Laas, Murray & Roberts Group chief executive, said in a statement: “The decision to dispose of the Infrastructure and Building businesses, supports the group’s long-term strategy to focus its business on the global natural resources markets, and follows an extended period of careful planning and consideration."

"The proposed transaction is in the best interests of the long-term sustainability of both the group and the Infrastructure and Building businesses,” he said.

Murray & Roberts has been associated with some of the iconic buildings in the Middle East, including the seven-star Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

It is the group’s vision, by 2025, to be a leading multinational group that applies its project lifecycle capabilities to optimise fixed capital investment. The group will achieve this by focusing its expertise and capacity on selected oil and gas, metals and minerals and power and water market sectors, it said.

Laas said: “Growing our capability in specialist engineering, commissioning and asset support and maintenance services in these market sectors, should yield higher margins and carry lower risk than services only provided in the construction segment of the project value chain, enhancing return to shareholders.” - TradeArabia News Service