2009 was another year of growth for Sogreah in spite of the international economic downturn that has been affecting businesses throughout the world over the past two years. While the downturn has affected some of our markets, particularly those connected with residential and tourist development or certain industrial sectors, Sogreah has adapted its services to the new economic situation and has demonstrated its resilience. In France, where 90% of our market depends on local authorities, we have benefited throughout the year from a sustained level of investment, which has enabled our domestic activity to grow by 8.5% in spite of increasingly fierce competition. Worldwide, our activity has remained steady on the whole, with the exception of the United Arab Emirates, which have been affected by the financial crisis in Dubai. The group's consolidated turnover for 2009 amounted to €108m, a 4.1% increase over the previous year. In this context, the group's profitability has remained at a very satisfactory level, with a consolidated net income of €4.2m after distribution of €2m profit-sharing to the group's employees.
The world economic crisis has not prevented us from continuing to invest. In 2009 we completed the extension of our Port Revel centre, where ships' pilots come to receive training in emergency and safety operations. We also finalised three external growth operations, strengthening our technical capabilities in sectors with high value added. Lastly, we are convinced that the best way to respond to the crisis is by developing new ideas and promoting creative, original approaches: once again we devoted over 5% of our turnover to research, development and innovation.
As we join with Coteba to form the new Artelia group, 2009 ends a period of 11 years of independence started in late 1998 when Sogreah left the Alcatel group and was bought out by its management team. A period of 11 years' uninterrupted growth that has enabled us to increase the group's turnover from €40m to €108m, develop a network of 30 offices in France and 15 permanent offices worldwide, and strengthen our leadership in our traditional sectors of activity while developing new capabilities to the benefit of our clients.
The Artelia group was officially formed at the end of March 2010. It combines the skills and know-how of Sogreah and Coteba and transforms us into a first-rank French engineering group. Artelia will accelerate the development of Sogreah's skills, as well as those of Coteba. And, most importantly, Artelia embodies the same values of independence that have been the foundation of Sogreah's success in recent years. The best guarantee of this is the independence of our capital, as the Artelia group is fully owned by its managers, executives and employees.
J. Gaillard
Chairman and CEO
Sogreah Group