‘We believe that we can trade through this period. It's going to be tight for the next year or so’: CEO Henry Laas.
SIMON BROWN: I’m chatting with Henry Laas, CEO of Murray & Roberts, on results for the year ending June 2023. Henry, we appreciate the time. The Sens statement out talks to auditors’ unmodified audit opinion, emphasis of matter in respect of material uncertainty relating to a going concern. Obviously that’s auditor speak. I’m assuming that you and the board are confident that Murray & Roberts had a horror year.
We do sit with a net debt position, which is R300 million, which is a significant reduction compared to the R1.1 billion we had in the prior reporting period to June 2022. But notwithstanding that we need to de-lever the group, and from our perspective we believe that we can trade through this period. It’s going to be tight for the next year or so, but certainly we’ve got a plan to de-lever the group and to trade through this.
Most of our cash we generate in the US and Canada, so what we would like to do is to de-lever the South African banks and in doing so raise some debt on the balance sheet of the mining business in the US and Canada, And then just bring a bit more balance and a debt structure more suited to the group’s requirements. We believe that we will trade through this.
SIMON BROWN: I take your point. You talk around de-leveraging the balance sheet. [It has been] de-leveraged a lot already, but you explained the structure well there.
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