CRH is a company that's consistently delivered value. It's got strong management and they've performed well organically and through selective acquisitions.

When you're not a manager, what you produce is your value to the company. When you move into management, you're rewarded for making other people more productive rather than producing yourself. You need to redefine that measure of success so you don't get involved in production anymore.

They have a new management team in place that I'm hoping is going to flesh out the value of the brand and rebuild their business lines.

It's a small operation, compared to anybody like Waste Management. We're not a Wall Street company. The nice thing about that is, if we want to do something, we do it. We don't have to run it up the corporate flagpole.

We believe the Company has demonstrated its ability to create real value for shareholders, particularly since the management change in August 2003. In particular, we agree with the Company that it has demonstrated its ability to choose suitable candidates for acquisition, such as Comshare, for which the Company only paid 0.66 times revenue. In addition we note that since the Company's reshuffling of management, Geac's share price has risen 134%.

One may view the past record very innocently -- as mistakes made, sloppiness, management problems on the part of the company, ... Or one may look take it much differently, and see a more sinister trend.