VIA SATELLITE: Do satellite manufacturers such as Thales Alenia Space have a competitive advantage over U.S. manufacturers due to the impact of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)?
SEZNEC: Any rule that is in place in the United States and would be applicable to us, we would totally respect the way we do today. If these rules change, we will adapt to them. That is purely on the U.S. side. Do we have a competitive advantage due to that? Frankly speaking, I am a little bit skeptical. In the last years, the competitive advantages of the different players changes quite fast, depending on other factors, such as currency, for example. Anyhow, when I am in the United States and talk to my U.S. suppliers and competitors, I hear that some of the vendors of equipment and components have to face difficulties when selling their stuff in Europe because of the ITAR rules. In fact, the point is, these ITAR rules are applicable to every industry, us and our own suppliers in Europe. There is some kind of malicious equalization of these export control systems, but I do not see this as a major driver in terms of competitiveness.
VIA SATELLITE: Is that situation likely to change?
SEZNEC: I am European. It is not for me to expect the rules to change. There is a renewed interest by many of the players involved in the industry to revisit the issues. There are a lot of discussions happening right now in the United States, but at the end of the day, they will decide.
VIA SATELLITE: Do you see the satellite manufacturing landscape changing over the next 12 months? What are the major challenges for Thales Alenia Space to grow the business?
SEZNEC: We have some key prospects in front of us. There are some high profile bids in place. Iridium is one. Meteosat, third generation, is another one. Galileo is another one. We have Sicral 2 in Italy and Athena Fidus, which are key prospects for us.
In terms of challenges, maintaining and increasing the level of research and development spending is a challenge. Increasing investment at a time of crisis is necessary and will be useful after the crisis. It is essential for us to develop the technology. Innovation is another challenge for us. We want to fulfill the needs of the market at an affordable cost. The market wants increased capabilities at affordable costs, and that is what we are trying to do. These demands are not only coming from the telecoms sector but also the institutional sector. Those are the key challenges. We need to sail through this crisis, keep our market share and keep the momentum in terms of growth. The growth maybe not up to the level of the last two years because the last two years, we had double-digit growth. But we hope to have some growth in 2009 and 2010 despite the crisis. I am confident we can deliver this, but we are cautious when we see what is happening on the financial markets.
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