Company: Technip, Paris, France

Company Description: Technip is one of the top five corporations in oil, gas and petrochemical engineering, construction and services. Headquartered in Paris, the Group’s main engineering and business centers are located in France, Italy, UK, USA, Abu-Dhabi, and Malaysia. The Group has high-quality industrial and construction facilities worldwide as well as a world-class fleet of offshore construction vessels.

Nomination Category: Organization Awards Categories

Nomination Sub Category: Best Communications Organization

Nomination Title: Technip's Investor Relations Program

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

The Technip IR team is a small (4) dedicated group of people who participate in the “energy” space in order to attract share capital. This space includes behemoths such as ExxonMobil, Shell, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes, all of whom have vastly greater financial and human resources to throw at their financial communication effort. Below is an example of how the small Technip team plays in the big leagues and finds ways to win:

The atmosphere was tense: the head of IR had recently reminded the CEO and CFO of their obligations to report all material information to the market in a timely manner.  The words “profit warning” hung in the air.  Estimated potential hit to the share price:  0 to -20%. Three years ago the Group lived

through the trauma of 3 consecutive warnings that saw the share price go from €170 to €50.

The head of IR was brought on board afterwards to correct financial communication deficiencies and restore tarnished management credibility. Three

years of painstaking efforts, including a proactive outreach program to existing and potential shareholders and analysts, had reinvigorated the share price and restored credibility to the market.

The decision was finally made that a profit warning was perhaps the lesser of two evils.  In any event, once it was clearly established that the Group was

not going to hit the numbers it had guided the market to, there really was no choice.

The big question remained: what would the hit be to the share price?  IR prepared a factual press release and thoroughly scripted conference call. Call

lists were drawn up to proactively contact the sellside and explain the circumstances surrounding the warning and steps being taken to restore earnings momentum going forward.  IR stayed up until four in the morning making sure that all was prepared.  The press release was scheduled for delivery three hours later, at 7:00 am.  Working in an atmosphere of determined professionalism, it was difficult to keep the team motivated for what they knew would be a rough day ahead with little sleep.  It was important to remind them that being forthright and factual could only serve our case.

7:00 am on D-day: the press release is issued and the phone goes bananas.  The messages pile up. Angry shareholders, astonished analysts, confused

employees.  We take it one at a time.  The market opens and we lose 5% at the opening.  We persevere; we return all calls, one by one. We explain the facts, assuage concerns, follow-up with information that we don’t have at our fingertips. We reiterate the investment case and value proposition.  The share price holds.

We hold the conf call – the CEO is brilliant: relaxed, open, forthcoming. The script is paying off. The share price comes off its lows.  Back to the phones. The process goes on, adrenaline is running low.  The market closes: the share price is off 1%. It goes up 2% the next day.

Time to prepare the next roadshow: no rest for the weary.

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, http://www.youraddress.com:

http://www.technip.com/english/irsept2003/i_index.html

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated organization/department:

Chris Welton is Vice President of Investor Relations at Technip and is based in Paris.

Prior to joining Technip in October 2002, Chris was Vice President at Riggs Bank from 1986 to 1996 during which time he held management posts in

Washington, DC, Paris and London. He then joined The Bank of New York in London where, from 1996 to 2000, he served as Vice President of client relations for European companies with equity listings in the US. From 2000 to 2002, he was Manager of International Investor Relations at Alcatel in Paris.  Chris holds a B.A from Occidental College in Los Angeles and an M.A from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.