Bruce Whitfield:
Well the Durban based engineering group Esor reporting maiden interim results today. It is one of the growing list of companies on the alternative exchange and Bernie Krone, the chief executive of Esor, joins us now and your revenues Bernie were down a percent but really quite handsome profit growth, 26 to 27 percent for the six months to the end of August. I did notice however your operating costs shot up quite extensively. Why was that?

Bernie Krone:
I am not aware that they shot up that much but we have got a few new people working for us and we?ve probably cut our cloth to suit what is coming up as opposed to the same time last year.

I think the six months that we are comparing now to our previous six months that was probably a little bit exceptional last year as well. We are chasing work that is likely to bring in more money as opposed to chasing revenue alone so we?ve cut our cloth accordingly.

Bruce Whitfield:
I mean there are some nice contracts in the pipeline as well, a R180-million from Esor?s perspective. The Frankie acquisition which you concluded recently brought another R250-million in as well.

Bernie Krone:
Yes in fact it is probably more than that. I think it is R250-million in secured work that hasn?t actually been awarded yet and about R150-million of actually awarded work for the next calendar year. Frankie tends to talk about next calendar year because its year end was December so we haven't quite adjusted that yet but yes, we have got work going forward into the calendar year of 2008 already so things are looking fairly good on the prospects side of things.

Bruce Whitfield:
Amongst those contracts is the Gautrain contract worth R80-million there for pilings and that has been awarded. Is that signed and sealed?

Bernie Krone:
We haven't actually signed the contract yet but we have got the letter of award, it?s just a question of paperwork I think. There are two contracts; there is the link to the airport, the piling to the structures of viaducts and the three stations, Park, Rosebank, and Sandton. It is the pilings to the car parks and some of the station boxes.

Bruce Whitfield:
And I suppose one exciting aspect here, the three football stadia that have got three contracts outstanding as well. Are you on shortlists there?

Bernie Krone:
Frankie are in the running on some of those, it depends who gets the main building work and then there is still a couple of more to come as well. So we will keep our fingers crossed but yes we are in contention.

Bruce Whitfield:
Lots of work there for the newly listed Esor, Bernie Krone, on the line to us from Johannesburg. The KwaZulu Natal based Esor maiden interim results today and revenues were down 1 percent but as he says the company building for the future.