H A M O N , A H U N D R E D Y E A R S E N G I N E E R I N G F O R N AT U R E

ear reader, It has been and is still an immense honor and privilege to be the President of Hamon, and this for the last 20 years.

In the middle of the 1980s, I found a company that was well established and enjoyed a good reputation worldwide. Even though we were quite focused on just one market, the basics were already there: wonderful people and a group of technicians and engineers who were already experienced in delivering the best solutions to their clients anywhere in the world. We were a group with passion so big we could move mountains, and sometimes we did. With that team, we were able to build a diversied group that is now present all over Europe, North America and South America, and in parts of Africa and Asia. Of course there have been difcult times, but we have overcome them together, and have given the Hamon Group both prots and a future in the service of the environment. The people who are with me today have, I believe, that same passion that we had 20 years ago, the Hamon bug, I hear them say. Well, I dearly hope that this continues for many more generations to come. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE, CEO, HAMON & CO

The Board of Directors of the Hamon Group in 1985: in the center, Mrs. Louisette Hamon, on the left Mr. Francis Lambilliotte and on the right Mr. Jacques Lambilliotte. Standing, from left to right, Mr. Michel Vauzanges, Mr. Georges Degavre, Mr. Andr Brosius, Mr. Andr Pquet, and Mr. Michel Derclaye

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Achille & Fernand Hamon

Achille Hamon, my great grand-uncle, and his brother, Fernand, my great grandfather, were both from Brittany in France. Both were engineers and they owned a company that worked and assembled projects in wood. In 1904, Achille created a company in France, and in 1906, Fernand did the same in Belgium. Both companies produced the cooling towers required for the new industrial processes. As it turned out, this was perfect timing as the industrial revolution needed ways to treat the water that came from the mines, the steel works, and the new electric power stations. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE, CEO, HAMON & CO

CREATION Of HAMON FRANCE, AND ThEN HAMON BElGIUM

The Hamon Brothers, inventors in a century of inventors

1889

1904 & 1906

1914
CONTRIBUTION TO ThE WAR EffORT
Business was on stand-by during the war. Fernand came back to Paris to be with his brother, and they decided to do what they could to help. At that time, the cooling towers were still being built in wood, and they had lots of reserves available in the workshop as well as the skills necessary. They put their expertise to work for the French army and built both the structure and the huts for trenches. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE They also built a series of pre-fabricated homes for families that had lost theirs. These were named The houses of King Albert. And while they were meant to be temporary, they lasted until the end of the Second World War!
GEORGES DEGAVRE, EX-CFO, HAMON

PARTICIpATION IN ThE CONSTRUCTION Of ThE EIffEl TOWER

A passion for towers must be in the family genes because Ive always heard that members of the Hamon family participated in the construction of the Eiffel Tower. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE

PARTICIpATION AT ThE WORlD FAIR IN BRUSSElS

1927
CREATION Of SOBElCO
Maurice, the son of Fernand and therefore my grandfather, did his studies in Paris and then later settled in Belgium. He was young, independent and wanted to create a business for himself, without the help of the family. He started Sobelco, a company focused on the development and production of condensers and cooling towers for electric power plants. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE Sobelco, like Hamon before it, was created with perfect timing. Condensers were essential for the electric power stations, more and more of which were being built to meet the energy needs of growing industry. GEORGES DEGAVRE

1935

Maurice Hamon, engineer, creator, explorer.

1958
PARTICIpATION AT ThE WORlD FAIR IN BRUSSElS ThE UNITED STATES, ThE fIRST STEp IN ThE
INTERNATIONAlIZATION Of ThE COOlING TOWER BUSINESS

When both Fernand and Achille died, and my grandfather found himself at the head of Hamon France and Belgium, one of his rst big decisions was to try and get new business from the US market. After a relatively slow start, a rst order was received and others soon followed. This gave rise to a problem that nobody had foreseen, namely that the company was too small for its success. The ideal situation was to build over there, but that meant bank guarantees that they didnt have. Maurice chose for the only option possible at the time: he gave a license to an American partner, the company Research-Cottrell. A license and a company that, as it turned out, I would buy 30 and 40 years later respectively! FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE The company Cottrell, originally established at the same time as Hamon, was a world leader in the provision of dedusting systems. Most notably it developed electrostatic precipitators, using a technology invented by Frederick Gardner Cottrell in 1909. PhIlIppE DElVAUX, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HAMON RESEARCh-COTTREll The American adventure turns sour, and quickly becomes a liability. For 5 years there was not a single order. In Brussels, those close to the boss wanted only one thing: to stop the investment! In 1963, Maurice brings all the directors into his ofce, and they discuss the US venture. He asks the assembled group for their opinion. One of the colleagues takes the oor and speaks on behalf of the others, Were all in agreement, its not working and were losing too much money. The conclusion from Maurice, Thank you for your advice, but were continuing. He was as stubborn as a Breton! JEAN GIlBERT, CORpORATE VICE PRESIDENT, HAMON & CO At the end of the 1950s, Hamon enters the Spanish market. This was based on an agreement between Maurice Hamon and my father, founder of the company Esindus. 50 years later, Esindus is the leader in cooling towers. Our relationship with Hamon is both healthy and friendly, so much so that it led to Esindus taking a stake in Hamon. MARTIN GONZAlEZ DEl VAllE, PRESIDENT, ESINDUS
Visit by Baudouin, King of the Belgians at that time

1964
FIRST ORDER fROM ThE US BROUGhT BY RESEARCh-COTTREll
Between 1960 and 1983, Hamon Research-Cottrell built 66 cooling towers out of a total of 110 across the country, giving it more than 60% of the American market. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE Maurice was right across the line. First by introducing a concept that was up until that point unknown, namely cooling towers that used natural draft, and secondly by believing in his product.
GEORGE DEGAVRE

1968
FUSION Of ThE COMpANIES HAMON AND SOBElCO, UNDER ThE NAME HAMON SOBElCO

Sights set for the new world

1970
CONTRACTS IN GERMANY, SOUTh AfRICA AND AUSTRAlIA
After the USA, Maurice turned his sights towards the German market, and despite facing an important national competitor, he wins his rst piece of business. This victory was due to the fact that on the technological side Hamon was some distance ahead of the competition, this thanks to the years of experience gained with their main French client, the EDF. JEAN GIlBERT The industrialization of South Africa also brings major orders for cooling towers, condensers and heaters: 12 x 600 MW. An order that represented 60 million dollars at the time. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE

1973
DEATh Of MAURICE HAMON. ThE MANAGEMENT
Of ThE COMpANY IS hANDlED ON AN INTERIM BASIS BY hIS WIDOW,

LOUISETTE HAMON

The day she arrived in the company, she sat at the desk of her late husband. Her rst words: what problems need to be solved today, and who is responsible? Well ask that question every day from now on. And she did, until Francis took over in 1985.
GEORGES DEGAVRE

The history of a company, or the life of a family

Francis Lambilliotte receives from Prince Albert, the prize for best Belgian exporter (Prince Albert is the current King of the Belgians

1974
CREATION Of HAMON KhlTRME UND AppARATEBAU GMBH BOChUM
The protection of the environment has become one of the major challenges for the modern industrial world. We began working in this direction by complementing our product offer with services, in particular the renovation and control of existing towers.
RODICA EXNER, PRESIDENT BU-COOlING-SYSTEMS HAMON

1980
ARRIVAl Of FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE
AND pROGRESSIVE TAKING OVER Of ThE REINS AT ThE TOp

1985
PURChASE Of ThE ORIGINAl lICENSE SOlD TO RESEARCh-COTTREll
I believed that the work being done at the time by Research-Cottrell in the United States was insufcient. I believed it was important to recover the worldwide rights to our technology. So I bought back the license that my grandfather had sold in the late 1950s.
FRANCIS LAMBIlIOTTE

During 5 years, I learned on the job and only took over the management of Hamon in 1985. Fortunately I had the help and advice of my father, Jacques Lambilliotte, who became Chairman of the board.
FRANCIS LAMBIlIOTTE

1985
ThE BEGINNING Of DIVERSIfICATION: ThE pURChASE Of SpIRO-GIllS AND ThE COMpANY, ATElIERS FRANOIS DHONDT
I had the feeling that our company was too mono product focused, as at that time we were just producing wet cooling towers. So I decided to diversify our activities. I made sure that we chose companies and products that were complementary to our eld of expertise, namely in the thermodynamics and heat exchange business. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE So Hamon bought Spiro-Gills, a French company, and the Ateliers Franois dHondt, in Belgium. Both were specialists in heat exchange, and air coolers for the petro-chemical industry. Both technologies demand an excellent understanding of dimensioning. In short, this technique consists of working out the exchange surface area necessary to cool a gas, water or any other liquid between point A and point B.
REN ROBERT, GENERAl MANAGER, HAMON DHONDT

1987
PURChASE Of AIR INDUSTRIE ThERMIQUE AND A pARTNERShIp IN KOREA
As the price of oil increased, it soon became evident that it would be useful to have at our disposal a heat recovery system, thus allowing us to recuperate energy in the gas and steam to heat water and other uids. Thats when we decided to buy Air Industrie Thermique as well as a number of other smaller companies, who together, gave us a good position on the French market for everything that had to do with thermal exchange.
FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE

In all the countries where we go, we always try to have a local partner, someone from the country who knows the language and the culture. Together we make the ideal team towards prospective clients: our partner brings their understanding of the local way of working, while we, we bring that extra something that they were looking for in the rst place, namely an extraordinary made to order technical solution. The secret of our international success is just that, Hamon rst aims to understand the country and the people were going to deal with. We really dont propose pre-cooked solutions, instead we listen and work out the best options for them. In this manner we created Hamon Korea in partnership with Ken Chun. JEAN GIlBERT

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The importance of the respect of cultures

1992
SAlE Of SOBElCO, AND ThE
pURChASE Of SEVERAl SMAllER COMpANIES AS WEll AS ThE START Of DRY COOlING SYSTEMS

1995
NEW VENTURES IN ChINA, MAlAYSIA, JApAN AND INDONESIA
The reputation of Hamon helps us in our search for international business. Our name is well known and associated with a specic technological know-how. On top of that we have considerable experience in the management of international projects, both on the business side of things as well as on the relational aspects. When we arrive in a country, while we do know whats going on, we never act as arrogant conquerors who know it all! ERIC BINARD, SAlES DIRECTOR
BU-COOlING SYSTEMS HAMON

1997
QUOTED ON ThE
STOCK EXChANGE

Following several mergers in the turbine business, the number of clients for Sobelco was getting smaller and smaller, so did a deal with the Alstom Group. We sold them Sobelco and bought from them the company Scam, who like us was focused on cooling. This move consolidated our position as industry leader.
JEAN GIlBERT

It was an important year and an exciting one too, in particular because the operation was such a success. We received 6 times more requests for shares than we had on offer. The result meant that we were able to raise capital of about 680 million BEF, (roughly $17 million). Apart from giving us more means at our disposal, it also raised our prole considerably.
FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE

At the same time, I wanted us to diversify even more, so we entered into a joint venture with ABB-Lummus, a specialist in dry cooling.
FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE

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1998
PURChASE Of A SERIES Of COMpANIES IN ThE USA: RESEARCh-COTTREll, CUSTODIS AND ThERMAl TRANSfER CORpORATION
Between the moment when Francis grandfather sold the Hamon license to Research-Cottrell and when Francis bought the 3 companies, much water had owed under the bridge. Among other things, weve added air pollution control and heat recovery to our portfolio, as well as the building of industrial chimneys. PhIlIppE DElVAUX Just like Hamon, Research-Cottrell also has a century of tradition behind it. It was one of the leading innovators in its industry. And as with Hamon, it had its fair share of highs and lows, but that didnt stop it from being a major success story. Thats rare for a company, and I think much credit should go to those people who were part of it during those times. OllIE AChESON, CFO HAMON CORpORATION USA Custodis, founded in 1898, has been part of Research-Cottrell since 1968. The complementarity of both companies respective activities, as well as their excellent reputation as innovators in both chimneys and silos, made the purchase a logical one. To give just one example of our pioneering spirit, when the cooling towers arrived in the USA, it was us who built the hyperbolic shells! JOhN BOONE, PRESIDENT, HAMON CUSTODIS INC. These different acquisitions led to the creation of the 4 current main activities of business. The cooling towers still represent a 1/3rd of our activity, alongside the heat exchangers, and air pollution control as well as chimneys. Together, under the name Hamon, there is quite some knowledge and experience, as each of the 3 companies - dHondt, Research-Cottrell and Custodis - have more than 100 years of history. JEAN GIlBERT

2002
SlOW DOWN Of OUR BUSINESS
We went through a difcult period, and this essentially due to 3 factors: our very rapid growth, the virtual stop of new power plant builds in the USA following the Enron affair, and the liberalization of the energy market in Europe. All this at a time when we needed the orders to pay for our new acquisitions.
FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE

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On the way to being both a larger and stronger group

2003
A RECOVERY WITh ThE hElp Of AN AUDACIOUS plAN
With the support of our new nance director, Bernard Van Diest, I decided that we had to do the right thing, and do it properly. We opted for a series of measures: concentrate on our core businesses; reduce overheads by 25%; and sell those businesses that were less protable. We also decided to sell the dry cooling business (co-directed at the time by Aart Nobel), and for this we received a good price. Finally we also chose for a new business model for the American market. Our strategy consisted of out-sourcing to countries where production costs were lower. Thanks to these steps, we were able to operate on a sounder basis, starting rst in the USA with Aart as the managing director. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE In the United States, the tighter legislation as it relates to the protection of the environment gave us the perfect opportunity to increase our order book. Both internally and externally with partners, we intensied our efforts in research and development so as to provide better solutions for our clients. This helped enormously in raising our prole, and our commercial success. This approach also forced us to develop a portfolio of products that were needed and wanted by the market. AART NOBEl, CEO, HAMON CORpORATION USA In 2005, it was the Division Research-Cottrell that maintained the nancial health of the group. This seemed fair, and part of the swings and roundabouts that is business. When Francis bought us, it was us that were going through difcult times. I believe in fact, that had we not been bought at that time we might not exist at all now! PhIlIppE DElVAUX From that year on, the situation improved considerably. Helped by the Walloon region, we increased the capital of the business. This brought fresh funds to the company, and an injection of cash that allowed us to keep the business growing. We continued with this nancial approach, and in November 2006, we made a second call for capital. This brought an extra 20 million Euro. During that same year, our share price increased by 352%, which put us at the top of the Euronext ranking, and Hamon had a prot of some 13 million Euro. We had succeeded our return to form. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE

2007
BUSINESS IS BOOMING
At Research-Cottrell, we are comfortable with the way we are currently ahead of our previsions. Were also intensifying contacts with our key targets: the electric power plants, the petrochemical and steel sectors, the cement companies and the glass industry, as well as the market for waste incineration. In fact, weve just signed an agreement in Bulgaria. And while were talking about good things, Ive just received the results of a new satisfaction survey. We are to sum it up briey, perceived as a company with high added value, working with experts of the highest caliber, and we are very customer focused. PhIlIppE DElVAUX Our success is also due to the fact that we have been concentrating on 2 high potential sectors: the electricity producers that represent 50% of our business, and the oil producers, who make up another 30%. The demand in both sectors is growing. In the developed countries, the old power plants are being replaced with newer and cleaner installations, while in the emerging markets, we are building new plants. FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE

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Do better what weve been doing for the last 100 years: help our clients produce more cleanly and produce more

JEAN GIlBERT,
CORpORATE VICE PRESIDENT, HAMON & CO
We are continuing to invest in applied research, and this in partnership with both our clients as well as with American and European universities. With our clients, the questions are more related to cooling systems and heat exchangers, while with the universities, we are concentrating more on problems related to air pollution control.

AART NOBEl,
CEO, HAMON CORpORATION USA
Weve also made a technological partnership with industrial partners like Exxon, in this way were able to ally their specialist knowledge with the know-how of our civil engineers. Moreover, we have concentrated on the standardization of our designs, engineering and purchasing, all of which has helped us deliver more quickly to market and with the lowest error rate in the whole industry.

2007...
OllIE AChESON,
CFO, HAMON CORpORATION USA
Belgians, Americans, French, Germans and all the other members of the Group, now enjoy a position that weve not known for 30 years. For me, it is clear that this healthy position is the natural outcome of the pertinence of our products, of the good strategic decisions taken in the past, and the efforts made by each and every member of our teams today.

AART NOBEl,
CEO, HAMON CORpORATION USA
In short we have attained a level of stability, maturity and growing condence that could not have been anticipated only a few years ago.

FRANCIS LAMBIllIOTTE,
CEO, HAMON & CIE
Our clients are investing more and more to counteract pollution and were helping them produce more, and produce more cleanly. For example, by improving the productivity of 10 power plants by 10%, were able to close one down. Or in other words we can produce 10% more power without building a new one. Thats less greenhouse gases for everyone. I think that Hamon will become the partner of an increasing number of industrial companies who take the environmental imperative seriously.

MIChEl MONjOIE
HEAD, RESEARCh & DEVElOpMENT
For me, wet cooling has a great future ahead of it, because it allows us to directly reduce the CO2 emissions from the power plant, much more so that with dry cooling. On top of that were able to make it happen with recycled water or even water from the sea.

PhIlIppE DElVAUX,
MANAGING DIRECTOR, HAMON RESEARCh-COTTREll
As our activity is completely in phase with ecology, we have an enormous market in perspective. And as our products are good and we have a boss who is prepared to take risks

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H A M O N , A H U N D R E D Y E A R S E N G I N E E R I N G F O R N AT U R E