Dear Shareholders and Business Associates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Bilfinger Berger has repositioned itself over the past financial year, at the same time significantly boosted its operating earnings and net profit, and outstripped its own forecasts. Its share price rose by almost 100% in the course of the year, setting the Company's performance in stark contrast to the fortunes of the industry as a whole.
The foundations that were laid in fiscal 2001 enable us to look to the future with optimism. Bilfinger Berger is evolving into a multi-service group for building and infrastructure. Through this all-encompassing approach, we aim to become a preferred partner to our clients both nationally and internationally. We will exploit our financial strength in stepping up those specific activities that create added value, with the effect of further boosting our Company's market capitalization.
There is growing demand for comprehensive concepts from a single source, and not just in our foreign markets. In Germany, too, we detect a rising level of interest. We have mastered every aspect of the processes involved in building and infrastructure tasks. And we are in a position to assume overall responsibility for challenging construction projects, which we optimise to the maximum benefit of our clients, with services ranging from the development, design and financing of facilities to their turnkey construction, maintenance and eventual operation.
Our portfolio of services is being methodically broadened through targeted acquisitions and organic growth. The profitability of new activities will subsequently outstrip the margins in mainstream building construction activities. In the medium term, we aim to generate one-third of our earnings through services. We have already taken a significant step in this direction by acquiring the Wolfferts group at the start of the current financial year. The company is one of Germany's few full-service providers in the field of building-engineering services and will strengthen our expertise in sophisticated technical facility management.
We are keen to further intensify our involvement in privately financed concession projects. Great Britain has emerged as an important market in which we have been able to underscore our position as an expert partner for build-operatetransfer (BOT) models. In the current fiscal year, we clinched the concession to extend a hospital in the city of Gloucester, in the West of England. Bilfinger Berger will take charge of its design, financing and construction and, following completion, will operate it for a period of 30 years. We are also active in Asia and Australia. The Company achieved a notable breakthrough in Sydney: a consortium led jointly by ourselves and Deutsche Bank secured the status of preferred bidder for the contract to build a two-kilometer toll tunnel under the city center. In Germany, we are among the pioneers of the BOT model. Here, too, there is now growing interest in realizing such projects: the German government has announced that private funding will be used for the widening of severely congested stretches of autobahn, and some federal states are considering pilot projects for public-sector buildings. Thanks to experience gathered abroad, we are well poised to profit from future developments in this area in Germany.