9 - total of $1,386,0000 In the last year alone the dividends and market appreciation on our company's stock have exceeded the total of these same figures for the entire first 50 years. In other words, the average gain per year to the stockholder has been over 23 times as great in the last 10 years as in the first 50 years. Why the startling difference? In 1949 the stock yielded 5% and today the cash dividends bring a yield of only 2-l/2%. The book value has increased less than three times during this period while the market value has gone up over 15 times. There are a number of reasons that account for the change, some internal with the company and some external. Certainly one reason is the simple fact that the management has had more dollars to work with and the dollars were of different value. A second reason is that the stock has attracted increased investor interest and is more generally available for purchase, even though the market remains relatively thin. In 1949 the stock was selling around 5 times earnings and at a substantial discount from its book value, trading in a very narrow market. Today the stock is selling closer to 13 times earnings and substantially in excess of its book value in the obvious expectation that earnings and inherent values will continue to increase in the future as they have in the past several years. This change in appraisal of the value of the company in the market place appears to me to rest on the explosive earning power of the new assets that the company has acquired outside of the construction industry. To a construction operation now spread over six continents, we have developed the following additional activities. 1. The parent company is engaged in the mining of coal and uranium, and is the largest independent iron ore miner in the western United