Assystem - 2018 Register document

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PRESENTATION OF THE GROUP ASSYSTEM’S MARKET AND POSITIONING

1.3 ASSYSTEM’S MARKET AND POSITIONING

In the face of the market consolidation taking place for outsourced R&D services, in order for GPS to remain a leading player in its market, accelerate its growth, extend its geographic and sector coverage and meet the needs of its industrial clients who are now seeking to work with fewer suppliers and looking for one-stop worldwide offerings, in 2017 Assystem decided to team up with the private equity firm Ardian. Following this strategic move, Assystem’s core business is now complex infrastructure engineering, operated by the Energy & Infrastructure division. The Group is a key player in the nuclear engineering markets where it has a strong reputation for its specialist know-how. Assystem brings added value to industrial companies, utilities and contractors operating in nuclear energy, conventional energy, transport infrastructure, life sciences and other complex infrastructure thanks to its long-standing presence in the nuclear industry, and therefore its experience of operating in restricted environments with stringent safety requirements. The Group’s experts help major players in the energy industry (operators and equipment manufacturers) to manage their capital expenditure at every stage of their assets’ life cycles – from design through to construction, commissioning, maintenance and ultimately decommissioning. Assystem’s main competitors in this market are UK and North American groups such as SNC-Lavalin (which is also Assystem’s partner in the Engage and N.triple.a joint ventures), CH2M Hill, Wood (also a partner of Assystem in the Momentum consortium) and Worley Parsons, as well as French groups including Egis, Systra and Ingérop. Assystem also has another business which consists of seconding consultants specialised in Oil & Gas and Industry, essentially in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. This business – which is known as “Staffing” and accounts for 10% of the Group’s revenue – is principally inherited from an acquisition carried out in 2012 (the MPH Group) to which Assystem’s pre-existing staffing activities were added. Since 2015, Assystem’s main market for Staffing – the Oil & Gas sector – has been hit hard by oil price volatility and the impacts of cost- saving programs launched by the sector’s players. Consequently, the Staffing division has diversified its client portfolio into the Industry and Infrastructure sectors, which now contribute more than 50% of the division’s revenue.

Assystem operates in the infrastructure engineering market. The role of engineering is to study, design and oversee the production or construction of all or part of an industrial component or civil engineering structure. Assystem’s teams assist major industrial players with reducing their project costs and lead times and optimising their development, manufacturing and marketing processes, and enable them to design and produce innovative solutions across the globe. In the nuclear sector business is being driven by large-scale maintenance programmes, the construction of new reactors in France and the United Kingdom, and new-build programmes for civil nuclear reactors launched by new entrant countries (Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt). At the same time, infrastructure engineering firms are feeling the benefits of a bullish spending cycle for transport infrastructure. And the more generalised use of digital modelling is opening up a raft of opportunities as this technology not only leads to major productivity gains but also plays a key role in enhancing the quality of buildings and services delivered. In the field of technology consulting (in which Assystem is present through its 38.16% stake in Expleo Group (formerly Assystem Technologies), business volumes are still being propelled by the automotive and aeronautical sectors. ASSYSTEM’S POSITIONING Assystem began as Atem, which was founded in 1966 by engineers from the French nuclear programme in order to serve the engineering needs of the French nuclear industry. This business accounted for the majority of the Group’s revenue up until the latter part of the twentieth century. Atem then merged with Alphatem – jointly owned by Dominique Louis and Cogema – to create Assystem, which went public in 1995. Shortly after its stock market flotation the Company diversified, with the acquisition in 1996 of an engineering firm specialised in the aeronautics and automotive sectors, which launched the outsourced R&D business. This business drove the Group’s growth as from the year 2000, especially following its merger with Brime Technologies in 2003. The formation of Global Product Solutions (GPS) in 2014 brought all of the Group’s outsourced R&D activities together in one division.

1.4 BUSINESS OVERVIEW

Assystem is still closely associated with the growth of its former GPS division as a result of its 38.16% ownership interest in Expleo Group (formerly Assystem Technologies Groupe). This investment is accounted for by the equity method in Assystem’s consolidated financial statements.

Assystem operates in the engineering market through two divisions:

● Energy & Infrastructure (88% of 2018 revenue);

● Staffing (10% of 2018 revenue).

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ASSYSTEM

REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2018

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