Newsletter December 2008

Transcription

1 Invest in Lyon Newsletter The newsletter for those who have chosen or will choose Lyon! December 2008 Crisis. We ve been seeing this word all too often on the front page of newspapers and on screens for it not to affect us. The question we are often asked is what kind of impact it will have on the attractiveness of Lyon. According to Chinese wisdom, we should be optimistic: the Chinese character for crisis is a combination of the characters risk and opportunity. There s no doubt that this crisis holds opportunities that will have to be seized. And there s no doubt that this crisis will require us to be even more dynamic in our expertise, in the way we work, and in our productiveness. This is the guiding principle behind the reorganization of Aderly, which is going to focus even more closely on the sectors in which Lyon has a genuine ability to distinguish itself from the competition: the life sciences and cleantech, two strong growth sectors. This is also the ambition of Lyon Welcome Attitude, an initiative of Lyon s tourism and trade-show industries, with the aim of improving the hospitality that Lyon offers its foreign visitors, during major events like Pollutec and SIRHA. It is also about the need to work even harder within networks and partnerships to achieve optimal use of the resources allocated to us: examples include expanded activities of ONLYLYON, which unites under a single banner 12 stakeholders and already nearly 1,400 ambassadors, and the new joint initiative of the financial and services sectors. Finally, it s about being confident that the fundamentals of the metropolis are sound and that Lyon will emerge all the stronger from the stormy waters surrounding us today! SPECIAL REPORT Attractiveness: Lyon announces its ambitions! Lyon Initiatives Jacques de CHILLY Executive Director, Aderly Businesses thrive in Lyon Aderly in action SPECIAL REPORT - Attractiveness: Lyon announces its ambitions!... 2/3 ONLYLYON Ambassadors: leading a network, mobilizing for a common cause... 4 Launch of the Lyon Welcome Attitude... 4 Aderly holds its Awards for business set-ups... 5 Register your company address at the World Trade Center Lyon... 6 They chose Lyon...6/7 Partnerships: drive the success of business creations... 7 The Talents program goes international... 8 New! Aderly launches a photo library and a blog to gain visibility... 8

2 02 Lyon Initiatives SPECIAL REPORT Attractiveness: Lyon announces its ambitions! L yon is now one of Europe s most dynamic cities, positioned as an alternative to London and Paris, essentially due to its lower costs, but also thanks to its business-friendly environment and its quality of life. In spite of an uncertain global economic outlook, Lyon manages to remain attractive and, in the third quarter of 2008, business property sales reached a volume of 164,000 sq. meters, and forecasts are for at least 220,000 sq. meters of transactions by the end of year. But rather than rest on its laurels, Lyon is further enhancing its real estate market with major projects, such as the redevelopment of the Lyon Part-Dieu business district. The urban area retains its place in the rankings The Rhone Riverbanks In terms of attractiveness, Lyon is especially attentive to the results of two major rankings, one done by L Entreprise and Coface and the other, the European Cities Monitor, by Cushman & Wakefield. In 2008, Lyon confirmed its position by placing for the fourth year in a row at the top of the ranking of major French urban areas with more than 500,000 inhabitants, established by L Entreprise and Coface. This ranking is based on objective criteria (population, number of students, transportation infrastructure, etc.) and data provided by Coface about companies (start-up rate, sales volumes and profitability etc.). It thus gives a snapshot of the economic vitality of the 105 cities studied and their ability to attract new companies to their area. Between 2000 and 2007, investments in commercial real estate rose from 150 million euros to billion, and last year, the number of square meters went up 48%, as 280,000 square meters of office space found tenants, i.e. a higher rate of demand than in cities such as Dublin or Milan. After the quick rise in 2007, when it went from 24 th to 17 th place in Europe, the Lyon metro area stays its course, scoring 18 th place in the European Cities Monitor ranking for By remaining in the top 20, Lyon confirms its European dimension and continues to be ahead of capital cities such as Stockholm, Budapest, Copenhagen, Vienna and Rome, even pulling ahead of Prague this year. Analysis of the different criteria submitted to 500 business leaders, as well as the criteria for their future location choices, clearly demonstrated Lyon s progress in three areas: - a good score for the quality of life offered to employees, as Lyon moves up another four places from 2007 and positions itself in 7 th place, ahead of Madrid, London and Amsterdam - excellent value for money in real estate, as Lyon moves up two notches to 7 th place - finally, Lyon s access to markets has been noticed by the decision makers, bringing it to 12 th place.

3 Lyon Initiatives 03 Commercial real estate: the Part-Dieu business district gets a makeover Every year, the first week of December is dedicated to SIMI, a commercial property trade fair that brings together all the decision makers and key players of the sector and presents the real estate on offer in France, the current and future supply of property, together with solutions for the optimization, management and operation of business properties. Aderly was present in 2008 alongside its partners (Greater Lyon, the Plaine de l Ain Industrial Park, the public institution of Isle d Abeau and Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport) at an ONLYLYON stand to answer investors questions and to present the diversity of its real estate offering, and in particular its major projects and the ambitions of the Part-Dieu business district. The second-largest business district in France, with one million square meters of office space, very well served by public transportation and offering many services, the Part-Dieu business district is highly appreciated by service-sector companies and decision centers. In order to meet its goal of having a world-class business district, Lyon is counting on the construction of skyscrapers with spectacular architectural designs. In less than five years, Part-Dieu will thus boast a new skyline, which will offer new opportunities to investors and enrich its offering through the establishment of service activities, residential units and new shops. In 2010 the Oxygène Tower will be completed, offering office space of 39,000 sq. meters, the first 10 floors of which (16,000 sq. meters) will be occupied by the National IT Division of the French railway company, the SNCF. Two years later, the Incity Tower will rise 200 meters over Lyon, offering 40,000 sq. meters of office space. This building will be highly innovative in environmental terms, thanks to the installation of solar sensors on the facades and a built-in wind energy system on its roof. This system will enable the building to produce some of its own energy and to consume three times less energy than current towers. As for the Crédit Lyonnais Tower, it is getting a second life for its 31 st birthday, with a new name - the Part-Dieu Tower - and new services. The budget for the renovation work amounted to 12 million euros. Plans for a daycare center and for the installation of solar panels are also under review. Thanks to these projects, which will offer between 180,000 sq. meters and 230,000 sq. meters in the next five years, the Part-Dieu District has staked its claim as a major business district in the European landscape. While the future of the Part- Dieu District looks promising, it is already one of Lyon s golden opportunities: in 2007, it represented 25% of demand for new office space in the Lyon metropolitan area. KEY FIGURES 2 nd largest French business district 8,400 companies 60,000 employees Nearly 1 million sq. m. of office space One of the leading European city-center commercial sites with 64,380 sq. m. dedicated to shops A large hotel base with 1,125 hotel rooms. Source: Greater Lyon Ambitious plans for the Part-Dieu District in 2020: a new skyline!

4 04 Lyon Initiatives ONLYLYON Ambassadors: leading a network, mobilizing for a common cause The ONLYLYON Ambassadors network, now has nearly 1,400 people: business leaders and economic actors from the Lyon area, who have adopted the ONLYLYON Attitude, which consists of promoting Lyon when they travel for business. After an initial launch period, 2008 saw this network truly come to life, in particular with the organization of a certain number of events. The first event, held in May, attracted more than 300 Ambassadors to the Lyon Fine Arts Museum. This meeting included a visit of the Nicolas Poussin show, The Flight into Egypt, which provided an occasion to draw attention to Lyon s cultural dimension, as well as to corporate sponsorship. This experience was repeated in October, this time at the new Le Bec Space at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport. 300 Ambassadors attended the presentation of the development projects of the Airports of Lyon. The third event, held in mid- December at Gerland Stadium, served as an opportunity to review the strengths of the network and its development over the past months. The evening affair, which took place in a behind-the-scenes ambiance, gave guests the chance to visit the stadium s boxes and sit at the players places in the locker rooms. These regular get-togethers dedicated to the Ambassadors and organized in emblematic venues with high added value, capitalizing on the metro area s advantages, are great opportunities to rally the Ambassadors around the common cause and incite them to become active Ambassadors. The ONLYLYON Ambassadors also have an interactive tool for exchange and contact, a dedicated extranet with the objective of bringing the Ambassador network to life and enlarging it. Another way of keeping them connected any time, anywhere! If you would like to join the network of 1,400 ONLYLYON Ambassadors, go to or contact directly Marion Chaparro, 33 (0) or chaparro@aderly.com Launch of the Lyon Welcome Attitude In keeping with its traditional culture of partnership, the Lyon metropolitan area recently launched a new initiative known as the Lyon Welcome Attitude in collaboration with 10 partners, institutional organizations and professionals in the field of business tourism. By focusing on the quality of the hospitality shown to conventioneers and exhibitors, Lyon intends to become even more attractive in order to keep ahead of its competitors in other European cities to persuade major event organizers to hold their events here. The action plan aims to address three key challenges in the business tourism sector: Facilitate access and mobility by setting up Welcome Desks in stations and at the Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, with event-specific signage and public announcements in rail and metro stations. Make visitors feel welcome by directing them upon arrival at the event to the Welcome / Info Desk and provide all of the help they need to fully benefit from their stay in Lyon. Other partners, especially hotels, restaurants and shopkeepers are mobilizing so that their customers receive information and discounts for many of the area s attractions. Ensure that visitors feel they are important. Lyon rolls out the red carpet - literally and figuratively - in Part-Dieu station from the platform to the tramway taking them to the big trade shows. Greater Lyon also welcomes business tourists with a new campaign of welcome signs. Though the Lyon Welcome Attitude will initially concentrate on business tourism aimed at the participants and exhibitors of trade shows in the Lyon area, the long term aim of the partners in this initiative is much wider, reaching out to visitors of all kinds who come to Lyon.

5 Businesses thrive in Lyon 05 Aderly holds its Awards for business set-ups On Monday, October 20, 2008, ADERLY held the second ceremony Awards for Business Set-ups, an event at which companies that have set up recently in Lyon are rewarded for their achievements. The evening ceremony, which took place at the Palais de la Bourse in Lyon, attracted some 400 guests. The winners of the 2008 Aderly Awards To open the evening, Guy Mathiolon, President of the Lyon CCI, and Jacques de Chilly, the agency s Executive Director, gave an overview of business creation in the Lyon region in Next, the prizes were awarded by the co-presidents of ADERLY. During the ceremony, the following four companies won awards: In the Greatest Growth over 3 years category: Kendle, an American corporation specializing in clinical research, featuring amongst the top 5 in its field; In the French Headquarters of a Foreign-capital Enterprise category: SMA France, a leading German company in the solar technology sector; In the Decision-making Center/ Operational Center category: easyjet, a British low-cost airline, which now offers 13 destinations out of Lyon; In the Life Sciences category: Genzyme, a pioneering American corporation in the biotech sector, which decided to set up its new bio-production site in Lyon-Gerland. This year, a 5 th category was added: the special ONLYLYON Ambassador award, which went to Mr. Ron Noble, who is Secretary General of Interpol and the Ambassador recognized as being the most active in the ONLYLYON network, in particular thanks to his participation at the ONLYLYON evening gala in New York City last July. Exceptionally, the members of the jury decided to award a special prize to the company Imaxio, which competed in the Life Sciences category and grabbed their attention, meriting the spotlight. See photos of the event on Register your company address at the World Trade Center Lyon Do you want to open an office or set up your headquarters in Lyon? The WTC offers you a prestigious address at the Cité Internationale. For a French or foreign company already in business, seeking greater proximity to its clients, or a company in the process of setting up, the World Trade Center Lyon offers a virtual domiciation service. Three different solutions are available: Answering service (opening of a phone line, message taking and forwarding) Postal domiciliation (mail reception, provision of a personal mailbox or mail forwarding) Or full domiciliation, with mail and phone services, as well as the provision of an equipped office for a half day per month. Since the beginning of 2008, four companies set up by Aderly have chosen this advantageous solution, registering their headquarters at the Cité Internationale: Bark Busters (Canada), Hefei Sensing (China), Cryosave (Belgium) and Conofrance (France). This business set-up solution enabled them, amongst other things, to be immediately operational, and to carry out various administrative and legal procedures very quickly (you have to be domiciled to register a company with the Business Registry). Find out more: Contact : Cité Internationale - 15 quai Charles de Gaulle LYON - Phone: +33 (0) or +33 (0) In addition, WTC Lyon offers a full range of services: Translation - Interpreting Videoconferencing Theme Clubs and Meetings (Law, Finance, Logistics, Purchasing, Human Resources etc.) Assistance with setting up for business (network of 310 World Trade Centers around the world), and more. Become a member of the World Trade Center and take advantage of a special offer for all new memberships taken out before December 31, 2008: - Standard Membership: 400 excl. VAT/year instead of 490, - Prestige Membership: 800 excl. VAT/year instead of 990.

6 06 Businesses thrive in Lyon They chose Lyon with Aderly CYMEQ Cymeq, a professional supplier on the market for rehabilitation and healthcare, is specialized in the distribution of medical equipment for the elderly and the disabled with reduced mobility. Distributed in the Netherlands, France and Spain, Cymeq products can be found in specialized stores and healthcare wholesalers, hospitals, rehabilitation centers and retirement homes. The company, which is headquartered in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, decided to locate its French headquarters in Lyon to get geographically closer to its customer base in Rhône-Alpes, but also as an alternative to setting up in Paris. Cymeq received Aderly s support to take its first steps in the Lyon region. In particular, the agency provided its expertise to get the company in touch with the appropriate partners to help it set up for business here, and to look for premises. MIDEA Midea, a Chinese company specializing in the distribution of home equipment goods and notably AC and air-treatment systems, recently set up its French subsidiary in Lyon, a strategic location in terms of commercial and logistical aspects. The group, which is already operating in Germany and Italy, is the leading Chinese exporter of residential air conditioners, the 7 th largest domestic appliance builder in the world, and accounts for 15% of global production volumes. Midea, which is already present worldwide through 16 subsidiaries, is mainly focusing, through its establishment in France, on the air-conditioning and heat pump market. Midea was assisted by Aderly to search for suitable premises at the heart of the Part-Dieu business district, to get in contact with the Lyon region s industry, complete its administrative procedures, help its personnel with the transfer and recruit an executive assistant. The company is now settled into offices of 160 sq. meters just a stone s throw away from the Part-Dieu train station. This central quarter in the metro area offers the company facilitated means of communication, which was a decisive criterion in its choice of locations. Four people work at the Lyon office, but Midea plans to reach a staff level of six or seven employees by the end of To find out about other business set-ups assisted by Aderly visit > LURIFICAT (Burlge) > CRYO SAVE (Belgium) > EUROGICIEL (France) > GEOLOC (France) > HAAS MULTIGRIND (Germany) > McKINSEY & COMPANY (United States) > NIDAPLAST (Belgium) > ORMAZABAL (Spain) > OSSABOIS (France) > PUMA (Spain) > WAGO (Germany) > FYZAMOGH (Cahude) > FYZAMOGH (Cahude) PREACTOR INTERNATIONAL Preactor International, the global leader in planning and scheduling solutions, chose Lyon to set up its European subsidiary and obtained the support of Aderly in August 2007 to find its premises, recruit its first employees and take its first steps in the Lyon region. This choice of location is justified in particular by the desire of the group, which is already operating in England, the US and Asia, to boost its growth and get closer to its European, Middle-East and African partners. In the space of just a few months, many partnership agreements with the main developers, integrators and consulting firms have already been signed, and the customer base is growing. Over the past two years, Preactor s activity has developed extensively: internationally, the company gained one new customer per day in 2007, and now has over 2,300 corporate customers in nearly 70 countries.

7 Businesses thrive in Lyon 07 DESIRADE Désirade, a software and computer services company in Toulouse founded in 1997, has chosen Lyon for its first regional location and received the support of ADERLY to search for premises, discover the market in the Lyon region, get into contact with local stakeholders and move its employees. According to Hervé Lambert, the company director, Lyon, and Rhône-Alpes in general, offers a sizeable market, while remaining similar to the environment we were familiar with in Toulouse: there s a certain simplicity in the way things are done, with people focusing more on what s being said than the way it s being presented, and looking for effective solutions. These points are especially important to us, as building client loyalty is as the heart of our strategy. Désirade offers solutions for small applications on the edge of Information Systems. In this niche market, the company works with entities, both in industry (Schneider Electric, Thales Alenia Space) and in local communities (Departmental Councils, City Halls), to maintain their base of small applications, develop business applications and standardize user developments. In 2008, the company had a sales volume of 1 million euros and a workforce of Partnerships: drive the success of business creations There are many advantages to this type of contract between two collaborating entities: using prefinancing to speed up completion of projects; innovation that benefits the community, thanks to the vitality and creativity of the private sector; the guarantee of longterm performance; spreading risks optimally between the public and private sectors, each one taking the risks it can most safely assume. CELLSEED Cellseed, a Japanese start-up specializing in cell tissue engineering, has set up a partnership with the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL), to develop a biotherapy trial for oral mucosa cell sheet transplantation. The meeting between the two entities was organized by ADERLY in April 2004, in collaboration with the IFA (Invest in France Agency) in Tokyo. Thanks to Jetro (Japan External Trade Organization), Cellseed also participated in BioSquare, the biotech business convention held in Lyon. The clinical trials performed at HCL have the aim, amongst other things, of treating patients with bilateral visual impairment, who cannot be aided by a classic cornea transplant, by CHEMGENEX replacing the patient s defective corneal epithelium with cells from his or her oral mucosa. With this all-new collaboration with a Japanese start-up, HCL is promoting a biotherapy trial called Transplantation of oral mucosa epithelial layer cultivated for the treatment of total bilateral limbic deficiencies. This is the first time that a Japanese company has conducted a trial in France, going through a university medical center for its promotion. At the end of the trial in early October, Cellseed confirmed its plans to set up a company in Lyon to continue developing at the European and international level, with the main objective of obtaining a distribution authorization for the European and global markets. ChemGenex, a company founded 11 years ago in Geelong, Australia (south of Melbourne), has just opened its European headquarters in Lyon. ChemGenex is the fourth-leading biotech company in Australia, double listed on the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) and on the NASDAQ. ChemGenex s core business is focused on searching for solutions in the fight against cancer, especially Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). In particular, ChemGenex has developed a product specifically intended for the treatment of patients resistant to Gleevec. Phase-3 clinical trials for this medicine are being conducted in 30 hospitals worldwide, including seven in France. In Lyon, the clinical trials are at HCL. Lyon, which was in competition with other major European cities, was selected as a logical choice by ChemGenex. Thanks to Aderly, CLARA (Cancéropôle Lyon Auvergne Rhône-Alpes) and HCL, the company had many contacts in the region. The Lyon office will thus be in charge of coordinating the clinical trials for all of Europe, finding sponsors, administering tax affairs, obtaining the market authorizations for Europe and launching the sales phase as early as Distribution will begin first in the US and then in Europe. The start of the sales phase will occur in conjunction with an expansion of the Lyon headquarters.

8 08 Aderly in action The Talents program goes international! Aderly has developed an initiative dedicated to French entrepreneurs based in North America, by offering a one-stop shop enabling the company to set up for business very quickly, thanks to facilitated access to the networks of assistance for innovative business creation. In order to scout for new Talents, the agency has participated in three events that attracted business project developers, partners, leaders and experts in BOSTON (September 23), MONTREAL (October 7) and NEW YORK (November 15), to present all the opportunities for entrepreneurship in Lyon, especially in the Life Sciences and the Image / Video Game Industries. At these events, which were supplemented with a week of specialized meetings with local prospects, Aderly, together with its main partners, Lyonbiopôle and Imaginove, was able to make a high-quality approach to the North American markets and find potential projects to support new Talents in Lyon. Aderly launches a photo library and a blog to gain visibility Aderly launches new tools to gain visibility: a photo library, in order to offer a virtual showcase of the key sectors and symbolic sites of the Lyon metro area, and a blog which, amongst other things, gives a forum to businesses that have chosen Lyon. Need a nice photo of Lyon? Need to illustrate an article with a sector-specific visual? Need to find out what the major business startup sites are in Lyon? Search no more: come to Aderly s new photo library, which offers no less than 200 visuals. Once you re registered on download your photos in low or high definition - a simple word search gives you access to a gallery, which we update regularly. Furthermore, at the beginning of November, Aderly launched both a French-language blog ( and an Englishlanguage blog ( to expand its online communications. The editorial line of this blog is resolutely business-oriented: testimonials by companies recently set up in Lyon, success stories, reasons to choose Lyon, and more. Most of the content is presented in video form, in order to make this blog as user-friendly as possible and to encourage visitors to react and participate. The first articles are already online: profiles of the companies Knowings or SMA, and a video clip of the Business Start-Up Awards Ceremony If you d like to tell of your experience, now is the time! Contact: Camille LENOBLE, Web-Marketing Manager, lenoble@aderly.com Photos credits: ASYLUM GERONIMO - Muriel CHAULET - Cymeq - Kaelia - Philty Photos - Prom Agency France - Saatchi - Unité Mobile GB ADERLY Lyon Area Economic Development Agency Place de la Bourse Lyon Cedex 02 - FRANCE Tel.: 33 (0) Fax: 33 (0) aderly@aderly.com