The IPO of Worley has been on and off its board's agenda for a number of years with the media-shy group torn between keeping a successful business private and the lure of unlocked capital that a float would bring.

One of Worley's strengths is seen as its refusal to take equity positions in projects or make guarantees on process outputs, which greatly reduces the financial risk to the company.

Another reason why the company seems to have become the operators' choice of front end consultant is their tight-lipped approach to projects which are often cloaked in secrecy.

UBS Warburg are currently doing the numbers on the business, with a rough value of around the $300 million mark being thrown about, with sources guessing at least 50% of Worley would be offered in the IPO.

Winning a major WMC engineering contract may also add more sizzle to the story. Though not confirmed by either party, Worley have reportedly won what is understood to be WMC's first major engineering alliance of its type for the WA nickel business units and the SA Olympic dam project. This joins their current alliance with WMC Fertilisers in Queensland.