VINCI - 2008 annual report

68
BUSINESS REPORT
ENERGY
At the end of 2008, VINCI Energies expected its activity to contract
slightly in 2009, in an economic environment not conducive to local
authority and business investments. However, the performance achieved
in 2008 – in an economic environment that had already deteriorated
– shows that because of its profile, VINCI Energies has the ability to
withstand a contraction of its markets. Contributing factors are the wide
diversity of its business lines and locations across some 20 countries,
its strong base of recurring activities carried out under a large number
of contracts, the responsiveness and sustained networking of its highly
decentralised organisation and the ability of its business units to adapt
to their local markets.
Against this backdrop, VINCI Energies will be stepping up its efforts to
further develop its offerings, devise differentiating solutions based on
the needs of its customers, position itself in the most buoyant market
segments – particularly those involving substantial maintenance,
service, and local response capabilities – and limit its exposure to the
expected decline in major industrial and service sector operations. As
this work on offerings and markets proceeds, VINCI Energies will tighten
its selection criteria in order to maintain margins. The group will also
take advantage of this slowdown after many years of strong growth to
optimise its organisation and its production and management processes,
with a focus on the development of employee managerial and
technical skills.
Looking beyond the short term, the markets in which VINCI Energies
operates are driven by long-term trends that will support activity over
the long haul. These include the growing need for construction and
maintenance of energy and transport infrastructure; the development
of renewable energies; environmental restrictions prompting major
thermal renovation programmes in buildings and accelerated replacement
of a large number of existing facilities; the need to invest in productivity,
safety, traceability and modernisation of industrial tools and
production processes; and accelerated development of communication
infrastructure and services to keep pace with network and technology
convergence.
VINCI __ 2008 ANNUAL REPORT
OUTLOOK RESILIENCE BASED ON DIVERSITY OF BUSINESS
LINES AND LOCATIONS AND ON RECURRING ACTIVITY
As a longstanding partner of mobile operators rolling
out their networks, VINCI Energies is also involved in
modifying equipment to support the move to 3G and
soon 4G.