After a difficult year that saw Ausdrill snap a seven-year streak of profit improvement, chairman Terence O’Connor began his annual general meeting address by confirming the company had no intention of asking Sayers to stand down as managing director in light of an ongoing trial.

Sayers is up on Director of Public Prosecutions charges relating to conspiracy to defraud the commonwealth in relation to income tax arising out of events that occurred almost 10 years ago.

Last week, the jury fail to reach a verdict on the case.

“The charge against Ron relates to his personal affairs and had nothing to do with Ausdrill,” O’Connor said today.

“Nothing that occurred during the trial has caused us to change our mind. The board has full confidence in Ron and wishes him to continue in his role as managing director of Ausdrill.”

O’Connor also defended Wal King against allegations by Fairfax Media that King approved a bribe related to a contract in Iraq during his last days as CEO of Leighton Holdings.

King has since taken defamation action against Fairfax in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

The chairman confirmed that investigations into the contract have found all payments were made in accordance with the contract and that there were no untoward payments.

He also stressed that King was not approached by Australian Federal Police or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

“For these reasons, the board saw no reason to change its recommendation for the re-election of Wal King as a director merely because of unsubstantiated reports in the press, which are now the subject of the defamation claim which Wall is pursuing against Fairfax,” O’Connor said.

Other results of the annual meeting included the re-election of O’Connor to the board as well as motions related to financial assistance and an adopt remuneration report.

O’Connor’s address continued by recapping a “most disappointing” year for the company reflected by a 19.4% fall in full-year profit after tax to $A90.4 million.

“Unfortunately, the market for our services has continued to deteriorate beyond what we anticipated at the beginning of the year,” he said.

“In a sense, Ausdrill has been hit by the perfect storm – a downturn in demand for our services, a focus by mine owners on cutting costs and deferring non-essential expenditure, including capital works, exploration programs and non-critical maintenance and finally, in the case of Ausdrill, the completion of four significant contracts, three in Africa and one in Australia.”