Coffey expands new strategic advisory business with second acquisition in two months

Coffey will pay A$4.0 million for the business and its assets, of which $3.0 million is in cash in $1.0 million in shares.

This is the second strategic advisory acquisition Coffey has made in the past five weeks. Coffey announced the acquisition of The Peron Group, a specialist consultancy providing front-end strategy and transaction advice for the implementation and delivery of major infrastructure assets and services, on 1 August.

Stratcorp’s specialist services include master planning, business cases, community consulting, market research, lobbying, funding proposals and project delivery, specifically for the sporting and leisure industry.

The company focuses on service delivery to state governments, local councils and the private sector, in Australia and New Zealand. Clients include a number of high profile names, including the Australian Football League, St Kilda Football Club, Geelong Football Club, Carlton Football Club, North Shore City Council, Gold Coast City Council, City of Sydney, the Australian Jockey Club and Racing Victoria.

Stratcorp has also been appointed to undertake a feasibility study into the development of a state cricket centre by the Victorian Government and Cricket Victoria. The company also recently completed a regional strategy to drive the development of aquatic leisure facilities for the next 10-15 years in the City of Auckland region.

Coffey International Limited managing director Roger Olds said Stratcorp, The Peron Group and Coffey’s strategic mining consulting business, Balance, would be integrated to aggressively grow the new Coffey business specialising in the high-end, professional advisory space.

“Acquiring Stratcorp so soon after Peron is a major step towards extending our capabilities in this space and capitalising on supporting their clients with the broader service offering of Coffey,” Roger said.

Stratcorp has 10 staff, growing the new Coffey business to 36.

“We’re already seeing some success with Stratcorp working with other Coffey businesses to jointly submit government and council proposals. We see real value in being able to partner with clients from project conception to completion, while maintaining a best-of-breed, multi-specialist business model backed with strong internal processes to ensure confidentiality and probity of information,” Roger said.

Stratcorp has been successful competing against the advisory arms of well-known major accounting firms. The merger of Peron, Stratcorp and Balance significantly ramps up the new business’ ability to compete in this space across several sectors. The opportunity to expand geographically will be one of the first strategic considerations.

Stratcorp principal Chris Dare said merging with Coffey was a great opportunity to rapidly develop business in Australia, and particularly overseas.

“It’s an extremely favourable time for this merger to occur. Infrastructure development is continuing at a rapid pace locally and internationally, as is growth in the sports and leisure industries.

“The Coffey group’s global presence and resources offers us the ability to grow rapidly and to deliver strategic services world-wide. At the same time, our trusted relationships with our clients will help us deliver work to other areas of Coffey such as project management (through Coffey Projects), geotechnical feasibility (through Coffey Geotechnics), remediation and environmental impact assessment (through Coffey Environments) and mining consulting (through Coffey Mining),” Chris said.

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About Coffey

Coffey International Limited aspires to improve the lives of world communities by providing physical and social infrastructure solutions to business, government and development assistance agencies.

Coffey has a market capitalisation of around A$400 million. It employs approximately 2,500 people. Coffey has approximately 50 offices in Australia, with permanent offices in the UAE, Indonesia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, the USA, the Philippines, South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, United Kingdom and New Zealand, and project offices spread throughout the world.

Coffey International Limited is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is part of the S&P ASX 300 and small companies’ indices.

Visit www.coffey.com for more information.

About Stratcorp Consulting

Stratcorp Consulting is a leading Australian leisure and sports consultancy firm, with a reputation for innovation and planning excellence.

Stratcorp’s inhouse services include leisure/sports planning, management consultancy, market research and social planning. The company, founded by sole principal Chris Dare in 1996, has 10 staff and offices in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.