2010 annual report - touax group

11. Research and development,
patents and licenses
The Group created a modular buildings assembly plant in 2007.
The Group consequently developed a product and an industrial
manufacturing process.
TOUAX has an in-house design office that works on the conception
and the improvement of the modular buildings. Modular
buildings today are clearly designed to be welcoming, innovating
and increasingly environmental friendly. This new product
does its best to minimize energy consumption by using heat
pumps for heating and air conditioning, proximity sensors for
controlling lights, water-saving devices, and so on. Modular
buildings are also designed to meet customers’ new expectations
in terms of price, easy installation, standardization,
flexibility, customization and aesthetics. The development quality
of this new “E-space+" product received a 2007 Janus
Industry Award. Development costs were capitalized in accordance
with applicable regulations. TOUAX invests in research
and development in order to penetrate new markets and to
reconcile environmental and technical constraints concerning
safety. R&D expenses incurred are recognized as expenses.
In its three other businesses, the Group prefers to buy and lease
standardized products; it has deliberately not invested in
research and development for patents and licenses for innovative
products.
12. Trend information
12.1. Key trends as of the date
of the registration document.
The key trends are detailed in the management report in section
26.1 page 104.
12.2. Known trends, uncertainty,
requests, any commitment or event
reasonably likely to significantly
affect the current fiscal year.
After two years (2008 and 2009) marked first by a financial crisis
and then by the global economic crisis, leading to a
recession in many developed countries and a slowdown in
emerging countries, the global economy has started to pick up
in 2010, but this growth remains relatively slow and unequal,
depending on the global region. In advanced countries, growth
has been moderate while in developing countries, business has
remained sustained. In spite of this recovery, the growth outlook
for 2011 remains exposed to the risk of a slowdown. The
World Bank predicts global growth slowing to 3.3% in 2011 and
3.6% in 2012 after a 3.9% increase in 2010 (source: World Bank
report “Prospects for the Global Economy” published January
12, 2011). In fact, the upturn of global business will mainly
concern, for advanced countries, reduction in unemployment,
solutions for the euro zone in terms of sovereign debt and policies
for re-balancing public finances, and for emerging countries,
solutions for inflationary risk and signs of overheating
economies. For 2011 and 2012, the World Bank believes that,
for nearly half of the developing countries, growth will be attributable
to their strong interior demand. Similarly, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) considers, according to the
global outlook published in January 2011, that the recovery
should continue in advanced countries at a mediocre rate and,
in emerging countries - primarily in Asia - at a sustained rate.
The development of emerging countries should reach a growth
rate of 6.5% in 2011 and 2012, after a 7% in 2010. On a global
basis, growth in production should fall to 4.4% in 2011 compared
with 5% in 2010. The IMF foresees an increase in basic
products, particularly in food, which will have the greatest
impact on emerging countries, as well as a sharper rebound
than foreseen in business investments in the main advanced
countries. The Group has already positioned itself, for each of
its business activities, in view of recovered growth. It anticipates
that leasing rates will come back up as well as improvement in
the utilization rate. Its businesses are diversified, tied to markets
that are structurally buoyant for the future, and the
recurrence of its long-term contracts should allow it to continue
resisting in a global context of moderate growth and
uncertainties. A presentation of the Group's outlook described
during the Financial Analyst Meeting on March 29, 2011 is provided
in section 28.6 page 133.
Research and development, patents and licenses
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