Chief executive Dave Faulkner said Fulton Hogan had this week received regulatory approval for the purchase, which would add 650 extra staff, 32 asphalt plants and annual turnover of $A400 million ($NZ520 million) to its business. Last year Fulton Hogan Australia turned over $A750 million.
Mr Faulkner said the purchase would give Fulton Hogan a presence in smaller centres such as Tamworth and Newcastle and the ability to tender for extra work at a time when the Australian Government was investing heavily in infrastructure.
Pioneer was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hanson Group and Shell Australia. Fulton Hogan has bought Hanson's stake off its parent, international cement company Heidelberg, which was exiting some non-core assets.
Mr Faulkner said Pioneer would be run as joint venture while Shell Australia decided about the future of its investment.
Like Fulton Hogan, Pioneer was an infrastructure company, primarily involved in road and bridge construction.
Shell New Zealand has a 36% stake in Fulton Hogan's New Zealand business, and has been a shareholder for 28 years, but last year it announced it was reviewing all its non-core investments.
Mr Faulkner said Shell still had not made a decision about the future of its shareholding.
This was a further step to grow the company, a policy management has been pursuing for the last 10 years.
Mr Faulkner said Fulton Hogan was well established in New Zealand and it was a case of taking that knowledge and ability elsewhere to grow the company.
Heidelberg Cement has been selling assets since the death earlier this year of its majority shareholder and one of the world's richest men, German Adolf Merckle, who committed suicide after reportedly losing millions of euros in share dealings in Volkswagen.
He was the world's 94th richest person, according to the Forbes 2008 list of world billionaires, with an estimated fortune of $US9.2 billion.
Dunedin-founded Fulton Hogan employs more than 5000 people in New Zealand and Australia. It moved its head office to Christchurch in 2001, about the same time it started doing business in Australia.
