<span class="" id="parent-fieldname-description"> As Leighton Contractors readies its John Holland business for sale, sources put international construction firms â looking for a handy kick-start in Australia â in the frame, along with domestic giant Lend Lease. </span> <p>International players mooted as possible buyers include KBR of the USA, South Korea’s Samsung C&T and Bouygues of France.</p><p>Private Equity could also be interested but more likely for parts of John Holland.<br />According to the AFR’s Street Talk column, the sale of John Holland has attracted attention from Leighton’s toughest local competitor, Lend Lease.</p><p>The newspaper said that, according to its sources, indicative bids for John Holland are due at the end of July, with formal sales documents already despatched.</p><p>John Holland may fetch between $1bn and $1.5bn putting it out of reach of most domestic Australian suitors, bar Lend Lease, which has just garnered $1.2bn for the sale of its Bluewater shopping centre.</p><p>However, the AFR said that Lend Lease has an avowed intent not to let its construction book exceed $20bn. At the end of December the book stood at $15.5bn and with the $3bn North Connex in Sydney and Melbourne’s East West link in the offing, the firm may have a full plate.</p><p>John Holland’s experience covers a wide range of contracting and services capabilities, from tunnelling, building and civil construction in the infrastructure sector to the delivery of major water and environment, energy, minerals and industrial projects in the energy and resources sector.</p><p>The company is also a leading provider of services to the transport sector, in areas like railway construction, operations and maintenance, aviation services and ports infrastructure and maintenance.</p>
