The burgeoning of the facilities management market in France and the improved credibility of being an IBM France subsidiary has provided Axone SA with more business in the first half of this year than it did in all of 1992, reports La Tribune-Defosses. The facilities management company says it has signed contracts worth approximately $112m against roughly $75m last year. At the current rate, Axone should register turnover of some $175m for 1993. From now on a subsidiary of IBM, we are effectively more competitive than we were in the past, said Axone president Gerard Jousset. But, also after having taken on all of the information systems activity of IBM France, we had a size that gave us an advantage in terms of industrial capacity. It was in January that Sema Group Plc and Paribas sold their interests in Axone back to IBM, whereupon Axone absorbed IBM France’s 900-employee facilities arm. Facilities management in France, estimated at some $775m to $900m a year, is growing at a double-digit rate, the paper reports. By the end of 1993, the French facilities management market could hit $950m to $1,030m. There are lots of medium-sized deals, Jousset said; he sees it at $1,500m to $1,700m by the end of next year.
