COLES

On 3 April 2007, Wesfarmers announced the acquisition of a significant shareholding in Coles Group Limited and an indicative proposal to acquire all the shares in that company. On 2 July, Wesfarmers and Coles reached agreement on the terms of a scrip and cash proposal which received the support of the Coles Board.

That recommendation was reiterated by Coles on 5 September (subject to there being no superior proposal) when our companies jointly announced agreement on an enhanced offer.

At the time of writing this review, the transaction was incomplete. We look forward to finalisation in November 2007.

Coles is a great Australian company with a set of irreplaceable quality business assets and more than 160,000 dedicated employees. Our proposed acquisition is expected to create value for our shareholders. As suggested at the start of these remarks, our approach on Coles is entirely consistent with the long-term focus that has been central to the success Wesfarmers has enjoyed.

Extensive details of our plans to improve the performance of Coles were released publicly on 16 August 2007 and they, along with all other significant statements we have made on the transaction, are available on our website at www.wesfarmers.com.au.

I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the large team from the Wesfarmers corporate office and from Bunnings and our other divisions, for their efforts that have been sustained over many gruelling months and have involved, in many cases, extraordinarily long working hours.