Introduction

1) Corporate background and its global peers
The company Leighton Holding Ltd was founded by Mr. Stanley Ellis Leighton in 1949 and its headquarter is located in Sydney Australia; it is classified as a heavy construction company by Dow Jones Industry, Leighton holding’s main operating activities include: project construction, project management, property development and contract mining services. The diversified services were provided by different and independent operating companies owned by Leighton Holdings; those are companies such as Leighton Contractor, John Holland, Leighton Asia, India and Offshore, Thiess, Leighton Properties and Habtoor Leighton group. These independent operating companies provide diversified services from construction, development, contract mining, operation and maintenance service to the resources, infrastructure and property markets. Geographically, Leighton Holdings Ltd’s business operation covers over 20 countries in Australia, Asia, Gulf area and Southern Africa. On the global scale, Leighton Holdings is No.6 largest heavy construction company by sales in the world in 2012. Its total revenue reached USD 19587.3 millions with an employee team of 56000 people, the company is listed in Australian Stock exchange and stock code is LEI. 2) Corporate business model
Diversification is the core of Leighton Holdings business model, the company is aiming to take on their core competencies to the targeted markets and deliver the project and value-added project management services to their clients through Leighton Holding’s diversity teams and financial strength. The reason for the company to choose diversify its business operation and its targeted markets are the reality for the heavy construction industry, that business cycle in a region affect a construction company’s profit dramatically, by diversifying itself into different selected markets, it allows the business operation can move from the market which is experiencing economic downturn to other markets which are not affected by that, this strategy effectively allow the Leighton Holding management to balance their main revenue streams, at the present, the Leighton Holding’s selected markets include both developed and developing economies, and the Leighton Holding’s diversification policy makes itself distinguished from other market competitors, in the Australia market, Leighton Holdings normally act as a strategic management company to assist its owned companies, such as Thiess, Leighton Contractors to participant the project which they have the capacity to deliver excellent and value-added services to their clients. 3) business strength and risk in the industry
As the world sixth largest heavy construction company by annual sales, Leighton Holding Ltd has a strong financial strength according to the company’s balance sheet and profitability, it is crucial for Leighton Holding Ltd to acquire plant and equipment, support the requirement of working capital for the group operation, on the other hand, it allows Leighton Holding to acquire other assets when the timing is right. On the risk side, Leighton Holding is facing all kinds of risks associated with the business operation which cross 20 countries in the world, the corporate governance is a crucial risk for Leighton Holding, they should be always aware of the risk of breaching the Australian Laws even they are operating in Overseas, and as we know , in some countries , it is common practice to provide kickback to the government authorities for securing the contract , but as an Australian company, Leighton Holding’s business behaviour in overseas also needs compliance with Australian Law. 4) Domestic industrial peer review
4.1) mining service industry peer view in Australia
Leighton Holding Ltd is a major player in the industry, it engages in contract mining and civil engineering through different entities, and at the present it has 51.5% of the market share in Australia market, and overall, the revenue generated from contract mining is expected to grow at a compounding rate of 13.1% over the five year period through 2012-2013, and this growth rate is considered as slower comparing with the average industry growth rate, and Leighton Holdings Ltd lost market share as the result of that slower than average growth rate, it used to have a market share of 55.7% before it declined. (IBISWORLD) 4.2) industry performance review
The large user of industry services comes from gold ore mining industry, when gold price is high, the demand for industry services are relatively higher, so is the to coal, in 2013 to 2014, the gold price is expected to decline which means the demand of industry service will reduce, and the world demand for Australian Coal will be slightly increase. (IBISWORLD)
The industry services sector is heavily depend on the trend of mining activity, industry revenue is expected to grow at 9.6% compounding rate over the five year through 2013-2014, operating profit is also expected to grow strongly (IBISWORLD) 4.3) overall industry ranking for LEI
Leighton Holding is the No.1 Company in construction and engineering industry in Australia with total revenue over $ 18.9 Billion in 2012. The top 8 Australia construction and engineering companies are as below Company Name | Market Capitalisation | Total Revenue | Leighton Holdings Limited | 5,645,317,047 | 18,904,400,000 | Seven Group Holdings Limited | 2,397,486,986 | 4,934,167,000 | UGL Limited | 1,288,796,997 | 3,836,772,000 | PaperlinX Limited | 35,338,284 | 2,786,100,000 | Monadelphous Group Limited | 1,656,006,363 | 2,617,187,000 | Boart Longyear Limited | 200,606,084 | 1,940,104,006 | CSR Limited | 1,214,400,756 | 1,692,000,000 | 4.4) overall explanation for LEI’s future performance in Australia

According to the market expectation to the mining service industry, the overall growth for the whole industry are strong at compounding rate of 9.6% over the five year through 2013-2014, it indicates that Leighton Holding Ltd’s contract mining business operation should grow at relatively strong level as well, and with its current market share of 51.5% in the whole contract mining industry in Australia, it will benefit the most from the constant growth of mining industry. And its large business scale in the domestic market will ensure its dominant role in the industry.

Reference list
Industry service data from IBISWORLD http://clients1.ibisworld.com.au.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/reports/au/industry/currentperformance.aspx?entid=86 market share data of Lei in Australia from IBISWORLD
http://clients1.ibisworld.com.au.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/reports/au/industry/majorcompanies.aspx?entid=86