In all its business dealings, the Company strives for profitable growth. Investment and acquisition/disposal decisions have been, and will continue to be, assessed against this criterion. At present, we do not perceive any risks that could have a negative effect on our profitability or on our asset or cash positions.

Outsourcing was successfully added to our range of offerings in the fiscal year. Given that business processes are generally more complex than products, problems can emerge in the value chains. When we assume responsibility for running customers' business processes, we risk the possibility of our budgeted gross margin for the business shrinking should these processes fail. We take out insurance against such failures in order to avoid liability risks. Nevertheless, it can happen that individual claims and entitlements are not covered by insurance policies. We work with our customers to optimize processes in such a way as to avoid any potential interruptions to operations and to avert a resulting loss of image.