From overdraft to ASX listing

James McCullough

The Courier-Mail - Finance Business Plus, 1 April 2008

SOUTH African business migrant Neill Clur started his mining services company DPSA Holdings 11 years ago, with a $190,000 overdraft, one salesman and "not a lot of business".

"When we started, I was travelling five or six days a week in Australia, driving because we could not afford the air fares", Mr Clur, who started in the group in 1997, says.

He became very familiar with Queensland and NSW coalmines during his year-long driving stint before some South African contacts proved useful and the business started to trickle in.

Mr Clur was ecstatic, promptly doubling staff — to four — and starting to build the business.

This year, the private company's turnover will reach $40 million, putting DPSA in acquisition mode, moving aggressively into Asia and, depending on the market, fostering ambitions of listing on the ASX towards the end of this year.

"We will be ready to float in October this year and we have been talking to stockbrokers about it but everything obviously depends on how the markets go, Mr Clur says.

DPSA has a $19 million facility with National Australia Bank and Investec after two capital raisings and is looking for potential acquisitions.

The group recently entered into a joint venture with an Indian company to build drill rigs and have them shipped to Australia and had also established a company in Malaysia.

DPSA began life as a drilling business with one rig and now has nine drill rigs and is involved in a range of mining services, predominantly coal in Queensland and in New South Wales in the Hunter Valley. The company has five businesses under the DPSA banner — drilling, importation, engineering, electrical and Globe compressors.

Mr Clur says the company has worked with mining giants from BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Rio Tinto through to Felix Resources and Roche Mining.

"We see ourselves as similar to both (listed companies) Ausenco and Sedgman and we are very positive about the outlook, particularly with the mining boom, he says.