Henry Laas, CEO-designate at Murray&Roberts:
- By http://www.fm.co.za/Article.aspx?id=139528
Murray & Roberts CEO designate Henry Laas (MBA, 1992) has the daunting task of steering the construction group out of a downturn that has affected the whole sector.
But 10 years of experience within the group puts him in a good position to guide the firm out of this troubled period in its history.
Laas takes over from the steady hands of Brian Bruce, who has led Murray & Roberts for the past 10 years, and has been with the company since the 1960s.
Laas is an internal appointment selected from a pool of candidates from SA and abroad. Having come from M&R Cementation, where he was MD, he brings mineral resources and mining contracting experience to the top job.
In February, the group announced a diluted headline loss per share of 177c for the six months to December 2010, from diluted headline earnings per share of 200c previously.
The company and Bruce have been criticised for a series of decisions that may have worsened the impact of the construction industry downturn on the company’s fortunes. The change of management is a move that may restore market confidence in the company. But it puts Laas directly in the hot seat — he will have to manage claims that M&R has against Eskom for work at the power utility’s Medupi power station.
Laas says his immediate focus will be on the company’s liquidity. Resolving the Eskom claims as well as disposing of discontinued operations are at the top of his list of priorities.
Despite his mining, rather than construction contracting experience, Laas believes he has what it takes to lead the company.
“After 10 years in the group and several years serving on the board of M&R Ltd, I have a comprehensive understanding of the business. We have immediate challenges to overcome and I am focused on achieving those goals,” he says.
Where possible, Laas says he will seek negotiated settlements, but he acknowledges that, in some instances, the company will be forced to pursue arbitration to resolve disagreements over payment.
At M&R Cementation, Laas improved the division’s revenue from R420m to R3,6bn during his five year s at the helm. He was also instrumental in the expansion of the Cementation Group’s global footprint.
Laas was recently also appointed executive chairman of the group’s engineering cluster of businesses, which includes its involvement in Eskom’s power programme.
Under his watch, Cementation Sudamérica sent its engineers and sophisticated drilling machinery to Chile to assist in the rescue of miners from a collapsed tunnel in a copper mine last year.
Laas, who holds a B Eng ( mining) degree from the University of Pretoria and an MBA from Wits University, will work with Bruce until his departure at the end of June. By then, he is expected by M&R’s board to have developed a strategy to take the company beyond the downturn. He will also be instrumental in selecting a chief financial officer to replace Roger Rees.