FEATURE - VISION 2020

THE JOURNEY STARTS WITH THE DESTINATION

Our Vision is clear – by 2020 we aim to be a leading diversified project engineering, procurement and construction group in selected natural resources sectors and supporting infrastructure.

The Group has predominantly delivered infrastructure projects throughout South and Southern Africa for more than 110 years, and is today recognised as an international engineering and construction group. We are a group of world-class companies and brands aligned to the same purpose and vision, and guided by the same set of values.

Murray & Stewart and Roberts Construction merged in 1967 to form what we know today as Murray & Roberts. Headquartered in Johannesburg, we now have a presence in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Ghana, the United Emirates, Australia and South Korea, Scotland, Canada, the USA and Chile.

Our Purpose is the delivery of infrastructure in a sustainable way to facilitate economic and social development. Founded as a specialist building and civils contractor, the Group today derives only 20% of its revenue and 5% of its profits from the traditional construction business. The Group now offers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, operations and maintenance services in the oil & gas, underground mining, power and water as well as the civil infrastructure and building markets. A giant leap from where it all began in Cape Town more than a century ago.

The Group is diversifying its business model by enhancing its specialist engineering, commissioning and asset support capabilities to complement its construction capabilities.

As much as it’s important to know where we came from, we have to look forward and chart our New Strategic Future. Underpinning the New Strategic Future is the concept of Engineered Excellence, which is our guiding principle in everything we undertake. It commits us to strive for excellence through detailed planning and execution, and is especially important in ensuring we continue to advance our strategy and improve our performance. In the Group’s New Strategic Future plan, specific objectives and priorities were defined to give clear expression to the Group’s strategic direction.

The Group’s strategic objectives are:

  • Grow profitability and cash flows;
  • Focus on international natural resource market sectors;
  • Diversify business model into higher margin segments;
  • Deliver project and commercial management excellence;
  • Enhance the safety, performance and diversity of our people; and
  • Enhance shareholder value.

The Group’s four business platforms, Oil & Gas, Underground Mining, Power & Water and Infrastructure & Building, deliver services across the project value chain to their respective clients, giving them regional, as well as international exposure in the opportunities they pursue. The Group is diversifying its business model by enhancing its specialist engineering, commissioning and asset support capabilities to complement its construction capabilities. These services yield higher margins and carry lower risk, than services provided in the construction segment of the project value chain. The strategy is to transform Murray & Roberts from being purely a South African construction company, to an international group focused on the natural resources market sectors, active in all the segments of the engineering and construction project value chain.

"Despite the challenges we will no doubt face in the financial year ahead, the
Group is well placed to realise its vision for 2020."

THE JOURNEY STARTS WITH THE DESTINATION

The organisational structure we adopted to support our strategy is four specialist client-centric business platforms focused on their chosen natural resources market sectors, as opposed to several generalist engineering and construction businesses with a geographic focus. This enables each business platform, within the Group’s core ambit of engineering and construction, to develop a differentiated service offering based on the specific requirements of clients in that market sector.

  • Oil & Gas – The platform operates from offices in Australia, South Africa, Scotland and the USA and comprises the following businesses: Clough (Perth based); e2o (Adelaide based), CMR Marine (Cape Town based); Booth Welsh (Ayrshire based) and CH-IV (Hanover, Maryland based). The platform was restructured to align and integrate with other Murray & Roberts Group businesses, improve operational efficiency and better position the platform to secure future work. It now comprises three primary divisions: Oil & Gas Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC), Oil & Gas Commissioning and Brownfields, and Infrastructure & Marine.
  • Underground Mining – The platform comprises the following businesses: Murray & Roberts Cementation (Johannesburg based); Cementation Canada (North Bay based); Cementation USA (Salt Lake City based); Cementation Sudamérica (Santiago based) and RUC Cementation Mining (Perth based). Its geographic footprint is one of the largest in its industry, with a service offering that spans the project value chain including specialist engineering, shaft construction, mine development, raise drilling and contract mining.
  • Power & Water – The platform comprises three businesses: Murray & Roberts Power & Energy, Murray & Roberts Water and the structural steel fabricator, Genrec Engineering. The Power & Water business platform, previously Energy & Industrial, underwent an extensive restructure in the final quarter of FY2015. The platform is now structured as a project execution business in the power and water sectors, offering engineering, procurement and construction as well as operation and maintenance services.
  • Infrastructure & Building – The platform comprises the following businesses: Murray & Roberts Buildings (Gauteng, Western Cape, Namibia and Botswana); Murray & Roberts Developments (newly-formed); Murray & Roberts Infrastructure (incorporating Roads & Earthworks and Civil Construction); Concor Opencast Mining and Murray & Roberts Middle East. The platform’s operations are supported by shared administration and plant services (Murray & Roberts Plant). Results from the Group’s concession investments, Murray & Roberts Concessions (Public Private Partnership Investments and Services) and the Gautrain construction Bombela Civil Joint Venture are also reported under this platform.

The Group expects a more challenging FY2016 and the declining order book over the past two years reflects the reality of a sluggish global economy and weak demand for commodities, coupled with low investment in fixed capital formation in South Africa. The natural resources market sectors are cyclical and despite more difficult trading conditions expected in the financial year ahead, the Group is well placed to realise its vision for 2020.

Growing profitability and cash flow in the years ahead will be a strong area of focus. Our relative balance sheet strength will enable us to extend the success of our bolt-on acquisition strategy, as we grow our capability to provide services in all segments of the project value chain.