Report of the Executive Board
 

Review of 2009
In 2009, the Dutch economy shrank by an unprecedented 4%. The recession had a major impact on Batenburg Beheer N.V.'s results. The net profit amounted to EUR 3.1 million, trailing the result of 2008 by 49%. Revenue amounted to EUR 141 million, which was 10% lower than in the preceding year.
The industrially-oriented trading companies and installation companies had a particularly difficult year. In early-cyclic sales markets such as the automotive, electronics, machine-building and appliances industries, diminutions in output of 50% at our industrial clients were sadly no exception. This resulted directly in lower demand for the products and services of the Batenburg companies, and lower margins. The Executive Board set priorities for 2009 in order to absorb the negative impact of the recession, involving tight cost control, good management of working capital and continual attention to quality and execution. At various companies in the Batenburg Group, measures were taken to keep costs in line with the lower level of activities. Partly through steering for working capital, cash assets increased sharply during the year. Together with healthy capital adequacy ratios, this offers a good starting position for 2010, when clients and suppliers are expected to consider the continuity of their contract partners more critically than ever.

In March 2009, Van Dalen in the Installation group acquired the shares of Installatie Bureau Meurs of Apeldoorn. Van Dalen then took over the activities of the vanPanhuis and Onderhoud and Service Partners (OSP) companies of Putten, which were compulsorily wound up. These acquisitions strengthened the knowledge in the mechanical engineering field and the national network for service and maintenance. The acquired activities contributed EUR 1.8 million to revenue in 2009 following the acquisition dates. Meurs's contribution to results was as expected. At vanPanhuis and OSP, the necessary start-up costs were incurred in order to increase the revenues from these activities.

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