commitment statement

The group is committed to the highest level of corporate governance and the implementation of effective structures, policies and practices that improve corporate governance and create sustainable value for our shareholders and other stakeholders.

Through the blend of specialist disciplines within the corporate governance department the board and management are supported in embedding best governance principles and practices throughout the group.

The board is of the opinion that the group currently complies with all significant requirements incorporated in the Code of Corporate Practices and Conduct as set out in the King II Report and the JSE Listings Requirements.

Our corporate governance practices are continually being reviewed and improved by benchmarking against internationally accepted best practices and King II. We are pleased that the group’s commitment to governance has been recognised externally as follows:

• we achieved an “Excellent” rating in the Ernst & Young survey of annual reports of the top 100 companies for the fifth successive year;
• we were finalists for the International Responsible Retailer of the Year 2009;
• we received the Metropolitan Oliver Empowerment award for ‘top empowered company in retail and property’;
• in the Carbon Disclosure Project 2008 – ranked first in the ‘low carbon’ category of the SA Carbon Disclosure Leadership index; and
• we were rated Top Energy Efficiency Accord Performer in the Commercial Category – 2008 eta energy efficiency awards.