Boral founder and entrepreneur David Craig led a consortium seeking approval to manufacture bitumen from imported crude oil in Sydney for a period of seven years, before the official prospectus was released to the public on 19 February 1946.
Bitumen and Oil Refineries (Australia) Limited or Boral as it was colloquially known was incorporated on 4 March 1946 through a 40% ownership by California Texas Oil Company (Caltex) who supplied the crude product from overseas.
At the 1963 AGM the shareholders unanimously agreed to adopt our colloquial name of Boral, and Boral Limited was born. In the same year, on 13 July 1963, Boral completed it’s initial listing on the Sydney Stock Exchange under the ticker of BOR for the first time.
In February 2000 the original Boral undertook a demerger into two listed entities being Boral Limited and a separate energy business, Origin Energy. This demerger allowed both companies to commit to growth and investment.
After its first day trading under its new ticker B-L-D, Boral closed with a share price of $2.43 and a market cap of 1.3 billion.
Post demerger Boral entered a new period of growth, investing in new plants, acquisitions and joint ventures – before refocusing on the Australian market during FY2020 and divesting US-based businesses.
Return to form
With a change in leadership in October 2022 and a new Good to Great strategy, Boral – under CEO Vik Bansal and a refreshed leadership team – experienced solid financial and safety performance improvements.
In FY23, Boral recorded a 17.1% increase in revenue ($3.46bn) and 47% Total Recordable Injury Free Rate (TRIFR) improvement (7.24) in comparison to FY22. This performance is outlined in full in the Boral FY23 Results presentation.
The improvement trend continued into the 1H24, with a 9.4% increase in revenue ($1.84bn) and 45% TRIFR improvement (4.1) in comparison to the prior corresponding period. The 1H24 performance is outlined in full in the Boral 1H24 Results presentation.
In February 2024, majority shareholder Seven Group Holdings (SGH) announced a takeover bid for the remaining 28.4 per cent of Boral shares it did not own. In April, the Boral Bid Response Committee revised its recommendation to shareholders to accept the SGH offer.
The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) suspended Boral Limited from quotation on 6 June 2024. On its last day of trading at the ASX, Boral’s share price closed at $5.83 with a market cap of more than $6 billion. Boral left the S&P / ASX 200 index at 78th position by total market cap.
Boral was delisted from the ASX on 5 July 2024.