We came to the General Meeting after three months of suspension of trading at the end of 2014 due to a disproportionate audit, in which the Company was almost pestered, and which eventually resulted in a report, that only proposed us to make a change in our accounting policy and was signed without any reservations. It was absolutely proven that its suspicions were false.
Despite that, in an exercise of responsibility and commitment to the Company, I was forced to step aside and leave my seat to a new CEO at Carbures’s leadership. In this way, during the 2015, I stayed in a second or, rather, third plan. However, the results obtained last year, which we have approved at the Meeting, were not the expected ones and were not even near to the predicted ones at the end of 2014. This is why I decided, in January this year, to resume my position as the Executive President of the Company, in order to redirect the course towards the original idea, which is to encourage the replacement of the metal by the carbon fiber in industrial processes. And the first thing I did, together with the Board of Directors, was to bring a new CEO, Roberto Rey, a first-class executive with whom we have undertaken a process of profound reorganization of the Company. As the result of this process, we have redefined the fundamental lines of the Company’s activity and we have worked on the internal consolidation of the Group in order to reduce costs and impel, through synergies, the organic growth of the Group.
Carbures is now in the process of organic growth. We have a lot of work ahead. Our aerospace activity line, denominated Carbures Aerospace & Defense, flies high and a new production record is predicted for this year. The boost of the industrial activity in automotive, with our subsidiary Carbures Mobility, is closer every day. And with Carbures Civil Work, we have set solid foundation on which to build our business in the sector of civil works, especially in Mexico. This is our present and our future, in which we have a great confidence.
Another key issue that we have resolved in order to boost the growth of the Company is the professionalization of the Board of Directors. We consider it capital for Carbures, as it marks the lanes on which we should move forward with the goal of becoming a European and world model, not only in aeronautics, but also in automotive and civil engineering.
With the corporate reorganization and the professionalization of the Board of Directors, we face a stage full of optimism, in which we recover our initial business strategy, return to our essence, and we do it from a much more solid starting point, with the major industrial production we have had in more than 20 years of our history, which result in positive growth forecasts, and, as I said before, in a strengthened management team and Board of Directors.
Therefore, in Carbures, we have a lot of reasons to be optimistic.
We have managed to consolidate ourselves as one of the Tier 2 of European reference in aeronautics. Our industrial model has the recognition of a giant like Airbus, who gave us the award for Best Improver, within the Supply Chain & Quality Improvement Program. In Carbures, we work to replicate that consolidated industrial model in the automotive and civil engineering sectors, in which it is equally valid and applicable. Since the beginning of this year, with the reorganization of the Group, Carbures exclusively focuses on profitable industrial activities, which correspond to its core business.
As a part of that process, the Company has sold four subsidiaries and it integrates the activity of another nine -three of which are Spanish, one American and five Mexican- in nine industrial centers.
Other remarkable milestones are the conclusion of a strategic agreement with the US investor Wilbur Ross, in order to develop our automotive business; the delivery and the installation of the first line of our patented technology RMCP to our customer Shenyang Hengrui in China and the initial civil engineering projects we have in Mexico for an oil company.
Therefore, I am fully confident that 2016 will be much better than 2015, as the Company has taken a well-defined course and is now focused on a third stage, marked by its organic growth.
I wish to reiterate our deepest gratitude for how much you trust Carbures. You can count on our strong commitment to continue working in order to create a stronger and larger Carbures. I am totally convinced that this is the way it is going to be.
Thank you very much.