MACMAHON HOLDINGS LIMITED — M&A Activity 2008

Sep 11, 2008

12 September 2008

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ASX Announcement

AUSDRILL SHAREHOLDERS URGED TO REALISE VALUE AND DEFY NEW BLOC

Macmahon Holdings Limited (“Macmahon”) urges shareholders in Ausdrill Limited (“Ausdrill”) to immediately accept its takeover offer or face the risk of a material fall in the value of their shares.

Ausdrill shares fell to as low as $1.70 in trade yesterday before closing at $2.00 as its Managing Director Mr Sayers bought shares from institutional investors.

This contrasts with the implied value of the Macmahon Offer of $2.97 at the close of trading yesterday.

Following his purchases yesterday Mr Sayers’ holding in Ausdrill is now 19.95%.

While the Ausdrill Board has not offered its shareholders an alternative to the Macmahon Offer, its Managing Director is instead buying up Ausdrill shares at prices far below the implied value of our Offer.

Ausdrill shareholders are now seeing the emergence of what appears to amount to a new shareholding bloc in their company. With Mr Sayers’ purchases and by Ausdrill’s own numbers, these shareholders may now account for up to 33% of the company’s shares.

However, Ausdrill shareholders are receiving no control premium from Mr Sayers or anyone else who has bought on market recently and now face the real possibility that they will be locked in to lower value, minority positions.

There is clearly a very high likelihood that Ausdrill shares will trade substantially lower than the implied value of the Offer if the Macmahon bid lapses, especially given that Mr Sayers has reached the 20 per cent shareholding threshold and is unable to provide further buying support in the near future.

Chief Executive Office Nick Bowen said he remained confident that the Macmahon Offer presents exceptional value for Ausdrill shareholders.

“While our Offer remains conditional right now, we continue to monitor the level of acceptances and assess the Offer conditions,” said Mr Bowen.

“As we have said before, the key consideration in determining whether or not to declare the Offer free of conditions will be the level of acceptances we have received on Thursday 18 September. Therefore, we urge all Ausdrill retail and institutional shareholders to accept our Offer immediately.”

Macmahon will give the market, including shareholders who opt into the Institutional Acceptance Facility, 24 hours notice of its intention to declare the Offer unconditional at an acceptance level below 50.1%.

The Macmahon Offer will close on 29 September 2008, unless it declares the Offer unconditional or there is a competing proposal for Ausdrill. The latest date on which Macmahon is allowed to declare its Offer free of conditions is 19 September 2008.

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For more information, please contact:

Media contact: John Phaceas Porter Novelli Mobile 0411 449 621 Investor contact: Matthew Wright Investor Relations Mobile 0432 897 837

Macmahon Holdings Ltd ABN 93 007 634 406

Level 3 263 Adelaide Terrace Perth WA 6000 PO Box 198 Cannington WA 6987 Telephone: (08) 9365 1111 Facsimile: (08) 9365 1186 Web: www.macmahon.com.au Email: info@macmahon.com.au