ASX minnow set to cash in on $70b Mozambican LNG boom

Special report: There’s barely been a mention of it in the Australian media, but a $70 billion LNG construction boom is about to kick-off in Mozambique – and there is only one ASX-listed company which gives investors a direct exposure to this enormous opportunity.

RBR Group, which has a market cap of just $9 million, is perfectly placed to be a key supplier of labour and training services to these three huge LNG projects, which are expected to need 50,000 workers during construction.

RBR (ASX:RBR) has been preparing for this boom for more than three years. As a result, it now has 250,000 Mozambican workers on its database.

This database, which is the largest of its kind in the country, is particularly valuable because the use of Mozambican workers will go towards helping the projects meet their local content requirements set by the Government.

This significant first-mover advantage will enable RBR to capitalise on its Mozambique labour hire licence, which allows the company to earn either a one-off fee for placing workers into jobs or be paid an ongoing daily commission for supplying workers on a temporary basis.

RBR can also earn revenue by assessing the skills of potential workers in the key areas of health and safety, welding plate/pipe, scaffolding, rigging, pipefitting and steel erecting.

Using its specially-made mobile units, RBR can move between Mozambican cities and towns to assess the suitability of applicants to work on the LNG projects.

It can also generate revenue by training these applicants in these core areas.

The first of the LNG projects expected to be given the go-ahead is led by multi-national Anadarko Petroleum. Anadarko is scheduled to make the key Final Investment Decision on its project in the first quarter of next year, paving the way for thousands of jobs such as those which can be filled by RBR.

Anadarko has stipulated that all workers on its project must meet the skills standards set by the UK’s Engineering and Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) or an equivalent standard.

This requirement is another plus for RBR because it is an ECITB-accredited training organisation.

While RBR has taken huge steps to ensure it can help train and provide local workers to the LNG projects, the reality is that thousands of workers will also be required from outside the country.

RBR is poised to play a key role in providing these external workers thanks to an alliance it has formed with expatriate skilled labour specialist Kuiper International.

Kuiper has a huge database of workers with the skills which will be required during construction of the LNG projects. Using RBR’s labour hire licence, these workers can be provided to the LNG contractors.

RBR also announced recently that it has formed an alliance with specialist engineering, construction and maintenance group MAS.

This will see RBR and MAS will combine their expertise, equipment, networks and relevant licences to target access, construction and maintenance services to the LNG projects.

MAS has a strong track record of providing specialist engineering, construction and maintenance services to major resources projects, including access, construction and maintenance to LNG sites.

RBR executive chairman Ian Macpherson said the company was perfectly placed to capitalise on the enormous demand for workers and skills training which would flow from the LNG construction boom.

“This will be one of the biggest construction industries in the world and RBR has set itself up to play a key role in providing many of the workers it will need,” Mr Macpherson said.

“We have the biggest database of Mozambican workers, we have the mandatory labour hire licence to supply these workers and we will have the required accreditation to train them.”