We have achieved strategic clarity and operational focus and we exceeded our performance targets for the year under review. Our share price performance over the year reflects the improved confidence of investors in our group, our leadership team and our Rebuilding Murray & Roberts strategy.

During the year, we disposed of Main Pipesystems, Bellambie, Licence Mining, Stone Stamcor and TLF. After the year-end, we disposed of Woodline and Harvey Fielders. In addition, we liquidated Alloy Wheels International (Canada) and finalised the liquidation of Astas. Negotiations for the disposal of Alloy Wheels International and our investment in Unitrans, are in progress.

Union Carriage & Wagon, Hall Longmore and Harvey Roofing were returned to profitability during the year as a result of management and strategic interventions to align them with the Rebuilding Murray & Roberts strategy and strengthen their marketing capabilities. We rationalised and restructured our construction business in order to improve its marketing capability and performance in difficult markets.

We conducted a brand recognition exercise with key customers and other industry stakeholders, and established that the name Murray & Roberts is more recognisable and differentiated, both locally and internationally, than M&R. Our name and other elements that represent our brand equity, such as the colour yellow and octagonal shape of our brandmark, have been retained in a newly designed brandmark which modernises and aligns our corporate image with the strategic changes underway. As part of this process, Engineering Management Services (EMS), incorporating JCI Capital Projects and Lama, re-branded itself as Murray & Roberts to take advantage of the favourable market perception of our brand. A similar process is underway with other operations in the group.

We broke down the individual divisional “silos” of the past and created a more transparent and integrated management environment. We implemented a new organisational framework to improve the quality of communication between the operating companies and the corporate office, to strengthen the group’s expertise and to harness the unique synergies within the group. This framework has three primary axes of influence, namely: – The operations with their management teams, responsible for day-to-day performance management; – The corporate executive team, responsible for ensuring that Murray & Roberts delivers strategic value to its customers and shareholders; and – The corporate team of knowledge executives, responsible for providing technical leadership and expertise to the organisation as a whole.

During the year, we attracted a number of new corporate and operational executives in their 30s and early 40s. We have seen a substantial increase in the number of job applications from highly skilled young people around the globe, indicating that Murray & Roberts has become an attractive destination, internationally, for talented individuals.

Our core competence is industrial design, the ability to adapt and innovate in order to construct or manufacture better, faster, at lower cost and within environmental constraints. This is the factor that differentiates Murray & Roberts and gives it a competitive edge. Operations such as Murray & Roberts Engineering Solutions, Murray & Roberts Foundries, Union Carriage & Wagon and Genrec are already delivering successes in this regard and the strategy is being implemented in all other operations.

Margins improved by more than 100% during the 2001 financial year but a great deal of work lies ahead to achieve our full objectives in this regard. We have implemented major interventions aimed at cutting costs and developing a better proposition on how we engage our markets for value.

We exceeded our performance targets in the 2001 financial year.