Key focus - Challenges and opportunities
Each year, Murray & Roberts identifies big issues and opportunities that demand priority executive attention
to support delivery of our non-negotiable commitment to sustainable earnings growth and value creation.
Each of the issues is prioritised under the direction of the Murray & Roberts Limited Board and dealt with
through focused leadership and resource allocation.
Challenges
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| Vulnerable companies are identified as those with special
needs relative to current or future market dynamics. |
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We have identified Murray & Roberts Construction, Steel,
Building Products and Genrec for the year ahead. |
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| Vulnerable projects are those that either face future difficulty
or require significant working capital. |
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We will focus on Gautrain, Medupi Mechanicals
and Gorgon MOF through the year ahead. |
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| We aspire to zero harm to our company, shareholders,
employees, business partners and the societies in which we
operate. Our safety targets are zero fatalities and disabling
injuries and an LTIFR of less than 1,0 by 2012. |
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Forensic investigation is undertaken into every fatal
and significant accident. |
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Thokozani Mdluli has been appointed group chief
safety executive. |
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| We have suffered seven fatalities within the first three months
of the 2011 financial year, five of which were in a single fall
of ground incident. |
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DuPont Sustainable Solutions has been appointed to perform a
health & safety diagnostic across all South African operations. |
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| We took an early industry lead to investigate possible collusion
in our construction related businesses. Internal audits were
conducted across all operations and a comprehensive program
of communication and training was initiated to assist
employees understand competition law and its implications
for the Group. |
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Where forensic investigation has uncovered any potential
irregularity, we have placed leniency markers with the
Competition Commission. |
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In most instances, individuals have acted independently
and fraudulently for personal gain. |
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We cooperate with the authorities on an ongoing basis. |
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| While universal in nature, discrimination is a particularly
South African concern.
Our policy disallows discrimination based on any dimension of
difference between our people and with the societies we serve. |
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We have a particular challenge with age discrimination. We are
refining our mentoring to create a bridge between new younger
and longer serving older employees. |
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Open communication mechanisms such as “Ask Brian” provide
a platform for the exposure and resolution of discriminatory
practices. |
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| We are a responsible corporate citizen and drive employment
equity throughout our Group, the economic empowerment of
all sectors of society and facilitation of the growth of direct
investment into the economy. |
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We are a level 4 contributor in compliance with the Codes of
Good Practice relating to broad-based black economic
empowerment. |
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Our South African operations have been audited in terms of
the Employment Equity Act and where necessary, we have
submitted revised equity plans for approval. |
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| We are always challenged to deliver a predetermined financial
reward for a defined service offering. Projects often experience
variation and subjective assessment that impact final account
settlement.
We seek to ensure that financial entitlement under the terms of
contract is solidly backed by sound commercial and
administrative documentation. |
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We always pursue our full commercial entitlement in terms
of contracts and will invoke arbitration or litigation to achieve
this objective. |
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We will, however, preferably seek to resolve commercial
disputes through direct personal engagement or alternative
dispute resolution. |
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The scale and duration of major projects often requires
conservative revenue recognition that includes a portion
of claims not yet resolved. |
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Opportunities
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| Our research into potential mega-trends in fixed capital
formation has identified a global trend to nuclear power
and renewable energy technology. |
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We are geared to support South African plans to build a fleet
of nuclear power stations and develop new industry capacity
for global export. |
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| While nuclear is a medium term non-carbon solution to
baseload power, solar systems must become viable
within 50 years. |
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We are investigating solar energy technology developments. |
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| Clough is our preferred entry into Australia and Southeast Asia
and the natural resources market in oil and gas. |
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Clough acquired a strategic 31% stake in Forge Group in
Australia, a majority stake in OFI in Houston and established
Peritus International. |
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| Cementation Group is the world’s leading underground mining
contractor. It has expanded into Asia and established a
company in Chile to serve the South American market. |
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Cementation Group is coordinated out of London and operates
in every region of the world. |
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Subsidiary Terracem is drilling the rescue shaft to the 33
trapped miners in Chile using its unique drilling equipment. |
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| We have developed a strategy to re-enter the resources
and selected construction markets in the Rest of Africa,
south of the Sahara Desert. |
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China is a significant player and its business enterprises will
play an increasing role in facilitating South African involvement
in this market. |
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| Our strategy remains to acquire greater critical mass over time,
both in the Group’s domestic market and where appropriate,
in support of its global business model. |
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We continue to seek merger opportunities in our markets,
either to build on existing capacity or add new capacity
and extend our domestic and global footprint. |
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Capabilities
