LISI 2011 —
            
            
              27
            
            
              — financial report
            
            
              Financial situation
            
            
              These opportunities outside of the three major markets (U.S., Europe
            
            
              and Japan) should generate a high level of activity over the next
            
            
              decade. For their part, the developing countries improve their standard
            
            
              of living and begin to access health treatments and bone surgery.
            
            
              Until today, the industrial resources for bone implants are concentrated
            
            
              on developed areas where the health environment has reached its
            
            
              technological maturity.
            
            
              Pressure on prices due to restrictions in health spending, regulatory
            
            
              constraints, the evolution of social policies, combined with the
            
            
              concentration of commercial players (hospitals and suppliers of
            
            
              implants) and technological developments are forcing implant
            
            
              distributors to profoundly rethink their business model.
            
            
              
                Market assessment
              
            
            
              LISI MEDICAL's positioning as a subcontractor is thereby strengthened.
            
            
              In this very complex and competitive environment, the players will try
            
            
              to improve their profitability by optimizing their internal resources and
            
            
              outsourcing certain activities such as R&D, logistics, the sales network
            
            
              and, of course, manufacturing.
            
            
              LISI MEDICAL customers are seeking reliable partners that can adapt
            
            
              quickly to new trends and technologies and can anticipate their
            
            
              evolving needs.
            
            
              The market for orthopaedic outsourcing remains buoyant and
            
            
              dynamic (estimated at 7% for 2011), driven by outsourcing and the
            
            
              expansion of the end market.
            
            
              LISI MEDICAL's customers tend to optimize their production costs
            
            
              through the selection of key suppliers that can integrate and control
            
            
              the entire production line.
            
            
              A majority of players ask their subcontractors to intervene earlier
            
            
              in the lifecycle of the product, offering related services such as
            
            
              co-development, prototyping and porting of regulatory responsibility
            
            
              (EC marking, 510K, etc.).
            
            
              
                Highlights and operational news
              
            
            
              
                Differentiation strategy maintained
              
            
            
              LISI MEDICAL's ambition is to continue to stand out from competitors
            
            
              by developing new technologies and expanding its offering. The
            
            
              division has established itself as a global entity that integrates the
            
            
              entire production line, from raw material to packaged and sterilized
            
            
              finished products.
            
            
              LISI MEDICAL covers the entire market with a high added value
            
            
              premium offer and an economically viable solution for generic
            
            
              products targeted at emergingmarkets (through itsMoroccan facility).
            
            
              By improving its services, its industrial organization and its quality
            
            
              level, LISI MEDICAL strengthens its partnerships with key market
            
            
              players. The latter, which have to conform to increasingly stringent
            
            
              requirements frommultiple markets, are looking for partners that can
            
            
              guarantee compliance with these standards.
            
            
              LISI MEDICAL's ability to master these requirements will also benefit
            
            
              the many very dynamic partners of medium-sized medical companies.
            
            
              
                Setting up of a LISI MEDICAL communication initiative
              
            
            
              In this perspective, LISI MEDICAL strengthened its external
            
            
              communications in 2011: participation in several trade fairs in Europe,
            
            
              (Sofcot, Efort, Eurospine, AAOS, etc.), publications in the professional
            
            
              media.
            
            
              
                Creation of a "projects and sales" structure to expand the
              
            
            
              
                "reconstruction" segment
              
            
            
              Strengthening the sales and project management team on LISI
            
            
              MEDICAL Orthopaedics' site in Caen, will ensure the continuity of the
            
            
              relationship with the Stryker group, while developing a new customer
            
            
              base.
            
            
              The objective is to expand the product range to all segments of
            
            
              reconstructive surgery: reconstruction of knees, shoulders and
            
            
              implant instruments.
            
            
              
                Sustained investment policy for LISI MEDICAL Orthopaedics
              
            
            
              In 2011, the Caen site made significant capital expenditures to the
            
            
              tune of 5.3% of annual sales to develop the "Reconstruction" line of
            
            
              business.
            
            
              These capital expenditures have helped to internalize processes
            
            
              that were previously outsourced. LISI MEDICAL Orthopaedics has
            
            
              invested in latest generation machining centers that guarantee the
            
            
              technological progression of the various standalone production units
            
            
              (or manufacturing islets). Productivity gains are also expected to
            
            
              maintain the site's competitiveness with the automation of certain
            
            
              manufacturing stages (shaping and polishing for instance). The
            
            
              mastery of processes was also strengthened through the acquisition
            
            
              of image-based control means; the machine capacity for packaging in
            
            
              a controlled environment has also been increased.
            
            
              
                Development of lean manufacturing techniques within LISI
              
            
            
              
                MEDICAL Fasteners Europe
              
            
            
              On its Neyron site, LISI MEDICAL has increased its efforts in terms of
            
            
              industrial organization by initiating several Kaizen projects. In a process
            
            
              of continuous improvement and to support the industrialization of
            
            
              products, a "Methods" department was created.
            
            
              Various "lean manufacturing" tools were deployed on the site, such as
            
            
              5S, SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die), resulting in an organization
            
            
              based on manufacturing islets.
            
            
              In2011, the targets in terms of reductionof the internalmanufacturing
            
            
              lead times, reduction of work in progress and increase in the versatility
            
            
              of employees, were achieved in the four islets that are operational
            
            
              today.