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  BUSINESS TO BUSINESS SERVICES
Whether you’re looking for financial partners, business and management consulting agencies or communication consultants, the Nantes urban area can provide you with all the services you need to help your business develop.
Business to business services are the leading driver of growth in the Nantes urban area. Job creation in the services sector represents over 93% of all jobs created in 2006. The development of the tertiary sector within the Nantes economy is continuing and this sector now represents over 61% of jobs in the urban area.
Nantes, the second-largest regional financial centre
Thanks to its economic influence, its number of banking and financial institutions, the number of people it employs, its training offer and its support and consulting activities, Nantes has now carved itself a niche as a powerful financial centre in France and as the financial capital of western France. The region has over 580 institutions that employ a total of 10 450 people in the private sector, with over 2200 high-level jobs (senior management and intellectual professions). The major actors in the banking and financial world have decided to establish the regional and inter-regional centres in Nantes (Banque Populaire Atlantique, CIC-Banque CIO, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, Société Générale, BNP, LCL, Caisse d'Epargne, La Poste).
Therefore, Nantes’ financial position guarantees businesses many services in terms of finance and investment. Stock market companies or operators (Portzamparc, Euronext), investment capital companies (Sodero, Naxicap Partners, Ouest Croissance, IPO, Siparex) or risk capital companies (Irus Partenaires, 3i gestion, Ouest Ventures); in Nantes local businesses can find the financial partners they need to help
them develop.
Business consulting activities
With business and management consulting activities, accountancy and legal firms and communications agencies, business “support” activities are well represented in the Nantes urban area. They have been growing steadily over the last few years to stay apace with the region's economic development. For example, communications consulting activities have developed significantly: as the sixth-largest urban area in France in terms of the number of jobs in this sector, the Nantes urban area has seen the third largest rate of growth (+5.7%) after Marseilles, Lyons and Toulouse. Between 2002 and 2005, over 700 new jobs were created, mainly in communications professions (communication and event organisation consultancies) and in multimedia creation.
Operational services
Operational services to businesses (security – cleaning – caretaking) are playing an important role in the rise of the tertiary sector in the local economy. Over the last five years these activities have seen significant growth both in terms of jobs created and turnover generated. This growth goes hand in hand with the economic dynamism of western France’s leading urban area.
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