Directors’ Report

Profitability over growth

Since 2003 Ordina has explicitly focused on winning market share, securing growth on an organic basis as well as via acquisitions. The ambition was to gain an undisputed position at the forefront of the Dutch and Belgian markets. We have now reached that aspired position to a sufficient extent. That is why, in 2008, we clearly shifted our focus for the coming years to bringing about a sustainable profitability improvement. The weakening economic conditions of the second half of 2008 have sharpened our focus on profitability even further. Within this scope, we launched an improvement programme for our profitability and announced a re-organisation. In the second half of 2008, we also decided to discontinue the loss-making BPO activities under the Ordina umbrella on a permanent basis. On 27 February 2009, we announced that all shares in Ordina BPO B.V. would be sold, thereby transferring all BPO activities to Centric as from 1 April 2009.

Ordina posted a loss for 2008, making allowance for any provisions formed and non-recurring income and expense items. The provisions were made with a view to achieving a structurally lower cost level in 2009 and subsequent years, contributing to our goal of bringing about sustainable profitability improvements.

Market trends: opportunities and threats