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UBP INTEGRATED REPORT 2022
ABOUT US
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
AN OPTIMISTIC PERSPECTIVE
MANAGEMENT APPROACH
Dear Shareholders,
I am honoured to be addressing you as Chairman of the United Basalt Products Ltd for the first time since my nomination in June 2022, which comes at a time of transformation and renewal for UBP Group. Alongside my fellow Board members, I look forward to building on the outstanding progress made and steering the Group through a decisive chapter in its history.
I would like to begin by saluting the remarkable contribution of my predecessor, Marc Freismuth, who stepped down from the Board of Directors in June 2022. His nine-year tenure as Chairman of UBP has left a lasting impact on all those who worked alongside him. We are grateful for his profound humanism, his optimistic vision and the improvements he brought in matters of good governance. As I take over the chairmanship position from him, I wish to carry his many accomplishments forward.
A forward-thinking strategy
My first priority as Chairman is to maintain the focus on our core business. Having consolidated Pre-Mixed Concrete Limited (‘Premix’) as a subsidiary and increased our stake in Drymix Ltd during FY2022, the Group has integrated a full range of building materials and services, thereby consolidating its position in the construction industry value chain. In parallel, the decision to divest from our subsidiaries in Sri Lanka and Madagascar will enable us to sharpen our focus on our core competencies and know-how, which will serve as the foundation for the Group’s regional development.
Our renewed emphasis on innovation and best practices will give us the agility required to drive our growth strategies and seize any emerging opportunities. The Board of Directors and I are committed to supporting the management team as much as we can to ensure they maintain the dynamism experienced in the past year. In this disruptive climate, there is a need to go beyond our oversight role and expand our scope to include areas that may not have traditionally been part of our mandate. We aim to develop a Board agenda that devotes time to critical strategic discussions and that taps into our accumulated expertise.
On a personal level, I believe my experience in good governance and strategy will prove useful to UBP’s ambitions, especially as the Group undergoes structural changes to better leverage the synergies between our different businesses. Further improvements can be made in this respect, both at the Holding Company level and across our many subsidiaries and associates in Mauritius and abroad, for a more effective chain of oversight andbettercoordinationbetweenentities.
Each phase comes with its share of challenges, and the current climate is no different. Despite this, and in conformity with the Group’s ambition to be future- ready, I am filled with optimism at the prospects that lie ahead. UBP Group’s strategy over the years has been to build capacity and agility to navigate even the
most complex landscapes. The fact that the pandemic accelerated our growth, rather than stunt it, gives us confidence in the strength and relevance of our proactive approach.
Overview of the Group’s performance
Although the Group’s financial performance this year does not reflect these positive developments, we take comfort in knowing that this disappointing result is not so much linked to the vagaries of the macroeconomic context as it is to the strategic investments made during the year, which called for exceptional disbursements. It is also worth mentioning that UBP made the voluntary decision to absorb inflationary pressures rather than transfer the burden of high costs onto customers. The Group’s strong humane values took on their full meaning.
INTRODUCTION