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I am delighted to present our first annual report to shareholders as a listed company.
In our first eight months since listing, the business has achieved a great deal and the Board is pleased with the progress the Company is making.
As a newly listed entity, one of our key priorities was to achieve our prospectus earnings – that is, to achieve what we said we would do when we presented ourselves to the market in order to seek funding to grow the business.
We are pleased to have met this key objective for two key reasons. First, it gives confidence to our investors and to the broader market that Norfolk is a business which delivers on its promises. Second, our result successfully positions the business to achieve further growth in subsequent years based upon the existing foundation the Company has now established.
This pleasing result has enabled the Board of Directors to confirm a maiden dividend of 5.7 cents per share as forecast in the prospectus. This dividend covers the part year period from listing to 31 March 2008.
Credit for delivering a successful financial result rests squarely with the talented people we have within the Group and I want to acknowledge their contributions over the past year. We are fortunate to have a highly experienced and engaged workforce, supported by a successful management team across the business, which is a key strategic advantage of Norfolk.
We recognise the critical importance of people within our business and over the next year we will be implementing new measures aimed at providing additional rewarding opportunities for our employees.
Over the past year Norfolk has been particularly successful in its acquisition programme which broadens our offering to customers. This year we will be concentrating on how we can better leverage our proposition to customers, which has obvious benefits to the Group through profitable growth and deeper customer relationships across our three main operating divisions.
This leverage also forms part of our international expansion strategy where we have been cautious in our approach. We will not expand for expansion’s sake but rather use our networks and relationships to grow our operations in selected markets using local knowledge and expertise in order to minimise risk. Our expansion into India is a good example of this approach where we have successfully secured HVAC service work with a major telecommunications company Nortel, through Jones Lang LaSalle in India, which has led to the expansion of our business.
We are now turning our attention towards opportunities in the Middle East where we will follow a similar strategy aimed at managing risk and developing opportunities.
Over the course of the year Norfolk has been involved in significant contracts which are vital to Australia’s infrastructure needs. During this year’s budget the government allocated $20 billion to the Building Australia Fund, which will finance critical national transport and communications infrastructure, including roads, rail, ports and broadband. We are in the fortunate position of being a value-add partner in infrastructure with considerable expertise across these industries.
Indeed, we are currently tendering on contracts worth in excess of $1.8 billion across Australia and New Zealand.
While this means we are very well positioned to capitalise on this market, I think we can also be proud of the fact that Norfolk is making a vital contribution to growing infrastructure capacity to benefit the wider economy.
Norfolk has made significant progress this year and we are genuinely excited about the future prospects for the business as a whole.
I would like to acknowledge and thank our Managing Director, Glenn Wallace, and his team for their efforts over the past year. Glenn has put an immense amount of skilled effort into the Company in our eight months as a listed company, establishing a clear strategy of growth while ensuring we are well placed to capitalise on longer term opportunities in our core markets.
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Peter Lowe as a non-executive director. Peter joined the Board on 8 April 2008 and brings with him vast experience in the strategic growth of companies and the creation of shareholder value through improved financial processes and systems.
Peter will replace Deborah O’Toole, who was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Queensland Rail in December 2007. As a result of this appointment, Deborah has advised the Board that she will resign as a non-executive director prior to the end of 2008. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Deborah on her new appointment and look forward to her continued contribution.
On a related note, following relocation to Perth, Peter Abery decided to step down as Chairman at the beginning of April 2008. He will remain on the Board as a non-executive director and has been appointed a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.
In summary, Norfolk continues to be committed to growing all its businesses over the longer term to build the Company’s value for shareholders. We look forward to your continued support.
Rod Keller
Chairman
Norfolk Group Limited
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