Our strategy
From your perspective as the CEO, how would you characterise the Group’s performance during the year under review? The Group has managed to do its best, given the seriousness of the situation in which the world has found itself. Nine months of the year went by within a verycomplicatedfinancial environment, withmost economies at a halt andwith no visibility. In such circumstances and taking into account all the factors, I would say that theGrouphas performed well. In brief, we have secured our hotel segment, continued with our projects, preserved our workforce, pursued our real-estate commercial activities and started agricultural activity. To what extent do the 2020 results reflect thedemandingglobal and local market conditions driven largely by the COVID-19 pandemic? Here I now need to give an update on our principal sectors of activity. Our hotel segment benef itted f rom our geographical diversification. For several months, Rodrigues was effectively the only place to which Mauritians could travel. However, our hotel segment was greatly impacted by the absence of foreign tourists.Wewere able to keep afloat and maintain a degree of visibil - ity thanks to our low operational costs and the prospect of an equity partner. As far as real estate is concerned, again theMauritian clientele judged that our projects were safe and relevant invest- ment opportunities.We sold significant volumes in 2020, of which 85% were to Mauritians. This performance will be reflected in our 2021 financials. In light of the uncertain business environment, what are your plans to prepare for the “next normal”, espe- cially in the Group’s main revenue centres, Real Estate and Tourism & Leisure? What concrete measures have been taken to continue creat- ing value? If your question is asking how we’re preparing ourselves for this new situa- tion, I would say it is already too late for that. I would speak rather of howwe’ve managed to contain the storm, howwe were already prepared and what were our inherent strengths. It’s all the fruit
of several years’ endeavours, decisions that have turned out to be right and of what I call our “expertence” – the blend of our expertise and experience. Those, in the first place, reside in our Group’s teams and talents. Our Group is built on empowerment, self-reliance, reflec - tion, involvement, initiatives, processes, agility, knowledge of our markets and trust in each other. During this shock, without that sense of trust, the impact would have been much stronger. We came together as smoothly as possi- ble, adapting to the situation as we trusted each other and our capacity to overcome this cataclysm. Finally, we also extended these solid internal relationships to our partners. Here too, that became possible thanks tomutual trust and support.
but not inour case. Our structure allows us to avoid this. For example, we have obtained loans through the ‘Agence FrançaisedeDéveloppement’ whichare only available if your projects comprise a strong element of sustainability. It is one of our very strong values, anchored withinour Group for a long time, andwe continue to be a forerunner in this field.
Is there a final message you would like to share?
The greatest challenge that I foresee for the Group is to continue inspiring trust among the Group’s teams, part- ners, shareholders and clients. In fact, it’s not simply a challenge, it’s a leitmo- tiv, it’smaintaining our values through thick and thin, and to play our role in society and in the economy. Maintain our entrepreneurial spirit, to have a useful purpose, to transmit this message of optimism– even if everyday life is very hard. More thanever, commit- ting to our actions and to our caring attitude is essential– the challenge is HUMAN and Trimetys Group must rise to the task. GT
How is Trimetys advancing its Horizon 2022 strategy?
Indeed, in2019wedid introduce a three- year strategic plan effectively running to 2022. With regards to real estate, we have maintained our strategy but our projects will take longer. Cap Tamarin Smart & Happy Village, therefore, is a year behind schedule. We can cope with that fairlywell andwe have contin- ued to design new projects by inviting strategic partners to join in this major project, Cap Tamarin Smart & Happy Village. Concerning the hotel segment, we had new projects for 2020 and 2021 in Reunion Island and Madagascar, which have been rescheduled for 2022 with the consent of our partners. Some of our hotel extension and renovation programmes, however, will be main- tained. 2021 is a year for resuming and consolidating our existing activities. The diversification of the existing agri - cultural sector into an agribusiness is underway and we are increasing our assets. For the Group, it is a sector that has stronggrowthpotential. Thingswill have evolved significantly by the end of 2022. With sustainability becoming amore critical issue, what is the Group’s approach in this field? Incomplicated times, whensomemight speakof survival, it is classical to sacrifice anything seen as superfluous. It then becomes easy to sacrifice the medium and long termfor the immediate future,
Georges Talbotier Group CEO
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