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TWST: Can we start off with a brief historical sketch and introduction to Leica Geosystems (LGSZn.S)?

Mr. Leu: Leica Geosystems is a Swiss-based company with its roots in high-precision optical instruments. In terms of history, Leica Geosystems was one of three divisions in the former Leica company; the other two divisions were Leica Camera and Leica Microsystems. The original Leica group of companies has a history stretching back over a century. Leica Geosystems, which was the second largest division, was carved out in 1997 and subsequently bought out in a LBO with Investcorp in 1998. The Company went public on the Swiss Exchange (SWX) in July 2000. The core focus of our company revolves around offering the most comprehensive basket of integrated product technologies for the acquisition, editing and visualization of spatial data. The Company has transformed over the years from a leading provider of high-end terrestrial based surveying instruments, later adding the positioning element from GPS technology, to ultimately where we are today, with a full-range of measurement and spatial data capturing instruments complimented by leading software products for the downstream editing and visualization of this data. Through our acquisitions, as well as organic development of existing markets, we now address a multiple of the markets we addressed earlier, including systems for terrestrial land and cadastral surveying, engineering and building construction, industrial measurement, the vast GIS (Geographic Information Systems) world, and the emerging markets of 3D laser scanning. So you can see we have quite a broad scope of target markets into which we leverage, lets say, our spatial data competence.

TWST: You mentioned that your model or approach is offering a complete basket of product technologies. Can you elaborate on that? Is this the way you see the customer base evolving?

Mr. Leu: Absolutely, and you might say we are betting on it with our strategy. To give you an example, North Sydney Council, in Australia, had the desire to create a digital 3D model of the city. Through a combination of Leica Geosystems’ Total Stations, GPS systems, airborne sensors and photogrammetric software, the surveying company of PSN was able to create one of the world’s highest resolution 3D city models. This has tremendous benefits for North Sydney’s planning and development process. Additionally, the high resolution model offers other commercial benefits. If you have a partner like Leica Geosystems - and I think this is a general trend – offering let’s say TPS (Terrestrial Positioning Systems) technology, which is based on point-to-point terrestrial measurements, GPS technology, remote sensing measurements taken from planes or satellites, laser scanning and so on, then an integrated solution can create much greater productivity for the customer.

TWST: Do you feel there is a good balance in the portfolio of both fast growing and more stable business activities at this juncture?

Mr. Leu: Yes, that’s the beauty of our portfolio. When you look at our portfolio of activities, we have the moderate growth but very profitable surveying and engineering division. This division generates significant operating cash flow and is the foundation from which our other businesses can grow. We then have what we call our growth businesses, staring with GIS & Mapping, which has a midterm growth potential of over 10%; DISTO™, which has double-digit growth potential over the next few years; Industrial Measurement, which should also be somewhere around the low double-digit growth rate; and Cyra, which is a start-up and therefore, due to the base effect, will show very high growth over the next few years. So in summary, 60% of our activities are comprised of what we might call a more traditional part of the business that generates the cash, with upside that is already coming from most of our growth businesses.