Page 41 - Book_Artelia_10years

Coteba offices, La Plaine Saint-Denis - France Paris La Défense, view from the First Tower - France

The prospects were therefore promising. Our company was well respected and had a
high profile on the market in France, but despite all this it remained a small player on
the international scene, where the stakes were high. We therefore began discussions
with other companies and considered a merger that would allow us to move up a
gear. I chaired the French engineering federation Syntec Ingénierie at the time and
had the opportunity to discuss the issues at length with Jacques Gaillard, who was a
member of its board of directors.

It seemed to us that a merger of our two companies would make a lot of sense.
They were more or less the same size, had the same employee shareholding model,
and were operating in complementary sectors. So, we began to negotiate. It was a
weighty decision, but 90% of Coteba’s managers were on board with the project, and
it therefore came to fruition.

Bordeaux tramway - France

Alain Bentéjac
Chairman of Coteba from 1999 to 2010
Co-founder of Artelia and member of the Board of Directors

38 I ARTELIA, 10 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE ARTELIA, 10 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE I 39