Julian Ambrose expected to build affordable apartments after BGC Construction deal

BGC’s construction division is set to tackle the affordable housing crisis after the business was sold to Julian Ambrose, one of Len Buckeridge’s heirs. The empire — once Western Australia’s biggest home builder — has been split into parts and sold following the iconic founder’s death in 2014. That has followed two failed moves to offload the company as a whole. Mr Ambrose previously bought a separate business unit, BGC Precast, for $23.5 million last year. Industry insiders see the moves as part of a plan to bring a fresh approach to affordable housing. The Federal Government has an ambitious target for Australia to build 1.2 million new homes across the country in the five years to June 2029, but rising costs and trouble finding workers are predicted to be big hurdles. The combination of the precast and construction businesses is understood as a strategy to drive down costs and bring innovation to the industry. Precast concrete will be used to help reduce the price tag for construction onsite and improve apartment affordability, a method which is popular in international markets. It’s also a return to BGC’s roots of building large low-cost housing across the State. BGC Construction has about 50 staff and is finishing three projects, including Elysian in Subiaco and stage 2 of the St Ives Carine retirement village. Those developments are understood to be nearing completion. The company was also the builder of Iris Residential’s Shenton Quarter project until walking off the job in October 2023. Its resumé over the years has included building Perth Arena, Perth Rectangular Stadium (HBF Park) and the National ANZAC Centre in Albany. The business will trade under a new brand which is yet to be revealed. The deal announced Wednesday is the latest transaction as the BGC empire is broken apart. Belgium’s Etex picked up the BGC Fibre Cement and BGC Plasterboard businesses last year. In July, Macquarie Bank was picked to hunt down a buyer for seven businesses in the BGC cementitious division in a deal tipped to be worth as much as $800m. The sale process is expected to run for about a year. That would leave BGC — controlled by Mr Buckeridge’s heirs — running the residential housing, materials and Midland Brick divisions. “We still retain a large business at the completion of the cement (deal),” BGC chief executive Daniel Cooper told The West Australian. But those businesses, too, will likely be sold when the time is right. Mr Cooper said the market outlook was positive for the materials business, with activity in infrastructure and mining looking strong. He was also optimistic about the market for the construction company as BGC had been pricing contracts in recent months. “Its a good time to transfer to a new owner,” Mr Cooper said. The company’s top priority is still completing the backlog of unfinished homes, he said. BGC turned off the tap on new home sales last year amid the State’s devastating building bubble, which squeezed companies and left customers waiting years for their houses. It’s been a rough few years for BGC’s housing arm, which was hit by a class action lodged in the Supreme Court in recent weeks by Perth law firm Morgan Alteruthemeyer Legal Group. Homeowners have fumed at the delays. Mr Cooper said BGC was finishing 50 homes each week, which he said was the highest rate for any builder in WA. The storied company was founded by Len Buckeridge in 1959 and was among WA’s largest private businesses. Mr Buckeridge’s heirs moved to sell in 2018 but the company was twice pulled from the market. “It’s been a lot of work to position these businesses as best we can to get maximum return for shareholders,” Mr Cooper said, after sharpening up the business units for sale. BGC lost about $100m across the 2022 and 2023 financial years, according to the most recent annual report lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Revenue ran at $914m, up 3 per cent. The company had about $1 billion of assets when those accounts were ruled off, with the shareholder’s equity worth $532m.