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Under ordinary circumstances, the longest term is three months and the investments usually ofer automatically available funds.

22.4.4. Liquidity risk

The Company’s fnancial structure is at a low liquidity risk, given the low level of fnancial leveraging and the high levels of operating cash fows generated each year.

Liquidity risk would result from the Group having insufcient funds or access to sufcient funds at an acceptable cost to meet its payment obligations at all times, The Group’s objective is to maintain sufcient available funds.

The Group’s policies establish the minimum liquidity levels required at all times:

Excess liquidity may only be invested in certain types of assets (see previous section on credit risk/ investment activities) the liquidity of which is guaranteed.

The amount of the Group’s revolving credit lines ensures that the Group is able to meet its operating needs as well as fnance new short-term investment projects, At year-end 2010, the opening credit lines total 333 million euros, At the year-end 2009, the opening credit lines total 348 million euros, Given the difcult market situation, these credit lines have been contracted under very competitive fnancial conditions, which strengthen the fnancial sector’s perception that the Group is creditworthy and sound.

22.4.5. Market risk

Given the nearly complete absence of fnancial debt, there are no fnancial risks associated with interest-rate movements, Nevertheless, and for illustrative purposes, the Group has conducted a test to determine the sensitivity of the Group’s cash surpluses to certain modifcations in interest rates.

The following assumption was used: beginning with our year-end cash surpluses, and taking the 1-month Euribor at December31 as the benchmark, we applied a variation of +100 basis points -30 basis points.

The sensitivity test shows that the impact of variations on the interest rates applied to the cash surpluses at December 31 would, in any event, not be signifcant and would exclusively afect the amount of fnancial income:

Reference Rate (%)

Cash Surpluses

Annual interest

100 bp

Annual interest

-30 bp, -100 bp,

Annual interest

31-12-10 0.8% -28,050 -219 1,782 -500 0.482 - -135

31-12-09 0.5% -156,005 -707 1,453 -2,267 0.153 - -239

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Financial Statements, Management and Corporate Governance Report. 2010