Sale of Otraco International Pty Ltd to Downer Edi Limited

I am pleased to announce that Downer EDI has today acquired Otraco International, a leading tyre and rim management business in the mining sector.  Otraco have operations in Australia, South America and Canada.

Otraco will form part of the Roche Mining Group and add its significant capability in tyre and rim management, training, and consulting to the services we provide to both our Mining Customers and our own internal operations.

Otraco’s head office is located in Perth, Western Australia; the company was founded more than 30 years ago by Basil Winterbourn and has approximately 200 employees across Australia, Canada, Chile and Brazil.

The services offered by Otraco include:

·        on site tyre management,

·        rim inspection, repair and supply,

·        consultancy services including benchmarking reviews, audits, tyre analysis and warranty management,

·        tyre data management through an internet deployed software package (Otracom), and

·        training.

The addition of Otraco into the Roche group aligns closely with our strategic goal of growing our service offering to the mining industry.  Otraco’s services are of particular relevance at this time of strong growth in mining activities and the constraints created by the current tyre shortage.

Roche Mining will support the ongoing growth and development of the Otraco business to meet the current market demand and use their services and knowledge to further assist with Roche’s internal tyre management effort.

It is interesting to note that quite independently of the acquisition process we have valued the Otraco services highly enough to have engaged them to provide a full tyre management service on two of our largest mining sites at Sunrise Dam and Coppabella.

Otraco will continue to operate under its current management, company structure and business names and will report through Don Taylor, our EGM Plant.

Robert Logan

Downer Edi Mining