9
REVIEW OF THE FINANCIAL POSITION AND RESULT FINANCIAL POSITION
All subsidiaries of ALTEN (hereafter the “Company” or “ALTEN”) are consolidated into the Group financial statements in accordance with the methods described in the notes to the consolidated financial statements.
9.1
FINANCIAL POSITION
9.1.1
ACTIVITY OF THE GROUP AND ALTEN SA OVER THE LAST FINANCIAL YEAR
9.1.1.1
Activity of the Group
ALTEN, the European leader in Engineering and Technology Consulting (ETC), carries out design and research projects for the technical and information systems divisions of major industrial, telecoms and service-provider customers. The market encompasses the full range of ETC services, specifically: z Scientific and Technical Research; z Network Architecture and Systems.
In 2012, business and results grew significantly. ALTEN grew faster than the ETC market and continued to develop its positions. Organic growth remained satisfactory throughout 2012, despite a slight slowdown in the last quarter, mainly in France, and despite one day fewer worked in France than in 2011. It thus grew by 8.7% compared with 2011. Aeronautics, Rail, Energy, Telecoms (except equipment suppliers) and Automotive (outside France) were the most dynamic business sectors. Despite a turnover which remained high (>20%), ALTEN succeeded in recruiting the resources needed to implement projects and maintained a sustained recruitment rate during 2012. At the end of December, ALTEN had 15,950 employees, of whom 14,100 were consultants. The breakdown by location and by activity is presented in in Chapter 6 of this Registration Document. ALTEN made a number of acquisitions during the last financial year: z acquisition on 16 February 2012 of Enea, one of Sweden’s leading telecoms companies (250 employees, revenue of 260 million SEK in 2011),
by Alten Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ALTEN SA; z acquisition on 24 July 2012 of Sesame Group Limited, a company based in Hong Kong that develops onboard systems for the Telecoms and
Automotive industries (50 consultants), by Alten Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ALTEN SA; z acquisition on 1 October 2012 of the business assets of Actano, an engineering company based in Germany (PLM/PMO - 40 consultants), by
MI-GSO, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ALTEN SA; z acquisition on 20 December 2012 of Itekna, an engineering and technology consulting company based in Poland (40 consultants), by Alten
Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ALTEN SA; z Alten Europe has also taken an additional stake in the capital of Phinergy Ltd, bringing its interest from 15% to 19.49%.
There were no disposals or exits from scope during the last financial year. In Germany, the spin-off of AEROTEC Engineering GmbH took place on 11 May 2012, with retroactive effect from 1 January 2012. This operation led to the transfer of the assets of the technical documentation business to ATEXIS GmbH. In addition to this operation, the existing legal entity AEROTEC Engineering GmbH changed its name on 12 June 2012, becoming ALTEN Technology GmbH. Moreover, on 13 November 2012 the ALTEN Group established Alten Canada Inc., whose share capital is fully owned by ALTEN EUROPE (a wholly-owned subsidiary of ALTEN SA) and whose main activity is engineering and technical consulting.
Events after year-end In Spain, because of the collapse in the number of tenders, particularly in the public sector, Alten Spain introduced a redundancy plan in January 2013 affecting 145 employees. The redundancies were staggered to take effect in January and February 2013.
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ALTEN - 2012 Registration Document