B&W clinches solar project

B&W Instrumentation and Electrical has entered the renewable energy market to bolster activity across the group. B&W says it has been awarded a solar project in the Northern Cape.

B&W Instrumentation and Electrical, a niche provider of electrical and instrumentation services and an earthing, lightning and surge-protection specialist, has entered the renewable energy market to bolster activity across the group.

Yesterday, B&W said it had been awarded a multimillion-rand solar project in the Northern Cape.

This was in line with a strategy to diversify into other sectors and achieve a more evenly spread market participation across all targeted sectors. The value of the project could not be disclosed.

B&W has been restructuring itself over the past two years. After managing to achieve a profit in the half year to August, a loss was made in the six months to February. CEO Brian Harley said that since then, B&W had striven to secure new orders including the new solar project.

Additional secured orders have amounted to R53m in the infrastructure sector, bringing the value of the total order book to R470m.

B&W has clients across several industries in SA and sub-Saharan Africa — including oil and gas, infrastructure, industrial, utilities, mining, chemicals, renewable energy, and food and beverages. Specific services include equipment procurement, project supervision, post-installation commissioning and maintenance.

We want to establish a revenue base across all sectors and not rely on the mining industry as heavily

B&W financial director Danie Evert said earlier this year that the group would only accept potential projects that offered a minimum profit margin threshold. The company aimed to place renewed focus on local, as opposed to regional opportunities, and would continue to push its small projects division, while driving improved project diversification across all industries in which it was active.

“We want to establish a revenue base across all sectors and not rely on the mining industry as heavily as we have in the past,” Mr Evert said.

In its most recent financial results, the group reported it had incurred a debt write-off of R33.3m related to a contract for the electrical engineering of a mining process plant in Madagascar.

“We were naive with respect to this project. We outgrew ourselves too rapidly and were, perhaps, too eager to have the final works wrapped up without ensuring that we had the financial control we needed,” Mr Harley said at the time.

Renewable energy is a growing area for companies in SA. Wind farms and other projects are slowly gaining traction.