FEATURE
EMERGING FROM THE PANDEMIC STRONGER THAN BEFORE
HENRY LAAS, MURRAY & ROBERTS GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE,
TALKS TO ROBUST MAGAZINE ABOUT THE TUMULTUOUS YEAR
THAT’S BEEN AND LOOKS AHEAD TO A MORE POSITIVE 2021.
I’ve been reflecting on the past 12 months – specifically, on how the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life and how it has introduced an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems, employment and labour. The economic and social disorder caused by the pandemic is devastating, with millions of
people at risk of falling into poverty. There is great uncertainty with regard to how we will return to some form of normality – if this is even possible.
The Murray & Roberts Group has not escaped the impact of this virus. It disrupted our projects operationally and introduced market uncertainty, which resulted in the delay of new project awards. Other than operations in Australia, which experienced a relatively light touch of COVID-19, our businesses in all other parts of the world were severely impacted. This was reflected in the Group’s poor financial results, reported for the previous financial year and the first half of the current financial year.
However, I believe that we will emerge stronger than before.
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic will permanently alter human society, but our history is filled with tales of perseverance and triumph, where we have overcome what seemed like unsurmountable odds at the time. We have survived global economic crashes, pandemics and world wars. We have achieved great feats: we have walked on the moon, developed modern medicine, brought the internet to life and mapped the human genome, to name a few. We have also broken the speed of sound,summited the highest mountains and now regularly run and break the four-minute mile barrier – yet many of these triumphs were first thought to be impossible to realise.
Nobody can accurately predict what the world will look like within the next 12 to 18 months, or even when the virus may be contained. I believe, however, that we have an untapped reservoir of resilience that will carry us through this difficult COVID-19 period. In a recent note to employees, I emphasised that we are fortunate to work for a great organisation, characterised by determination,
resilience and trust. In this note, I also shared with our employees the fact that there are encouraging and strong signs in the global markets that support management’s view that our business is entering an exciting period of new opportunity and growth.
Even though the current financial year is a challenging one, we are encouraged by the significant growth in our order book to all-timehigh levels. This order book will translate into a much higher annual revenue stream, and this increase in revenue is expected to be reported as early as the second half of the current financial year. The quality of our order book and the increase in revenue provide strong motivation for our expectation of a substantial improvement in earnings as from the new financial year.
As the world progresses in its development and distribution of vaccines, we will gradually develop immunity against COVID-19 and its variants. Despite the headwinds we must all still face, we are
looking forward to what lies ahead for Murray & Roberts and I ask you to join me in this conviction.
I would like to thank all Murray & Roberts stakeholders for your continued support through these challenging times.
Stay safe and take care.
Henry
