Message from the CE

Dear Readers

We completed our annual business planning process in June and I am pleased that we have achieved exceptional alignment between our strategic aspiration and operational promises. This year we focused our business plan on the three years to 2009 plus 2010.

Murray & Roberts 2010 synthesises all we have achieved over the past six years through both Rebuilding Murray & Roberts and more recently, Globalising Murray & Roberts. The dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of so many of our operations, the disposal of those businesses that could not be part of our more focused future and the acquisition of new core business capacity, has all contributed to our new performance platform for the future.

Positive market conditions have enabled us to lift our unitary game, and we go forward into the new financial year with a record order book of high quality work. The investment climate has remained positive and in mid-August our market capitalisation breached the important hurdle of R10 billion. This is a 900% increase over the value of the company when we embarked on our journey Rebuilding Murray & Roberts just six years ago.

Murray & Roberts has become the preferred entry point for investors into the South African construction sector. We now have almost 50% of our shares held in international funds, mostly from the USA. This expectation of future performance places greater responsibility on us all to deliver what we promise. We have created the capacity through appointment, development and acquisition to more than double this year’s performance, and that is the basis for our plan Murray & Roberts 2010.

But we must be mindful of our recent history. There was a similar promise made in 1994 that was never delivered. Our construction operations in SADC have disappointed again this year and we have issues to resolve in Clough. However, I am confident that our recent leadership changes combined with the capacity of our people and our culture, will lead to success.

This issue of Robust is about capacity. It is also about taking action. We continue to experience disabling injuries and fatalities in our workplace and the tragedy in Bahrain remains a stark reminder of how things can go wrong. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who lost loved ones over the past year, as well as those who survive the trauma of serious incidents.

Brian Bruce