Infrastructure-focused engineering consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff, part of the Balfour Beatty group, which has been active in South Africa’s energy and mining sectors for three decades, is aiming to diversify into the domestic railways market, where it foresees material growth potential.

MD Ian Maclean comments that power and mining will remain foundation business areas, but he expects up to 25% of the company’s future activities to be derived from new areas, such as rail, over the medium term.

South Africa’s freight logistics group Transnet is poised to invest about R200-billion in railways rolling stock and infrastructure between 2014 and 2020, while the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa is aiming to implement a R123-billion recapitalisation and modernisation plan, the first R51-billion phase of which is set to move ahead next year.

Globally, Parsons Brinckerhoff is active in the areas of light and heavy-haul rail, where it has capabilities in electrification, signalling and track. Maclean says the company is also willing to move beyond its traditional technical consulting role to take on additional risk in certain markets, including South Africa, which was identified in 2012 as a core growth area, together with Canada and Australia. Over the past 125 years the larger group, which employs 14 000 people, has focused primarily on the UK and the US, as well as markets in the Middle East.

“Besides the upfront planning and design, we are now in a position to take investment risk and we can also do the construction and the asset management,” Maclean explains.

Parsons Brinckerhoff Africa is, therefore, already interrogating public–private partnership (PPP) opportunities across power, mining and railways, and is showing particular interest in gas-fired power station prospects in both Mozambique and South Africa.

Maclean acknowledges that the company missed an opportunity in the South African renewable-energy sector, but says it is gearing up for the baseload programme, with a particular focus on private gas-fired power stations with capacities between 100 MW and 150 MW. He also believes there is potential PPP opportunity that could arise in the area of overhead transmission lines.

However, he stresses that the firm also aims to sustain its long-standing relationship with Eskom, which was its first ever South African client and which has a number of large-scale projects on the horizon.

Parsons Brinckerhoff Africa, which recently relocated to new premises in Bryanston, north of Johannesburg, is focused primarily on organic growth prospects domestically and in Mozambique, but will pursue acquisition prospects should any arise.

“Even in the absence of an acquisition, we expect to expand to between 500 and 550 people over the medium-term as we take opportunities outside of power and mining,” Maclean reports, adding that skills development and acquisition is a major priority.

The company recently appointed Savannah Maziya as its new chairperson, with the expectation that she will assist it in establishing new business areas. Maziya, who has had business experience in both South Africa and in the US, is currently also a director at WBHO Construction and the Bunengi Group.