Accor SA (AC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. Good morning. Good morning, and thanks to those of you who have taken the trouble to get here. It's good to see you. Thanks to -- and welcome to those of you who are joining us by video or by Internet. This is a combined -- or the combined Annual General Meeting of the Accor shareholders, 17th of May. We will spend whatever time we need to cover including your questions, by the way. We have a number of things we'd like to tell you about for a certain amount of information we want to share. And I hereby announce this combined AGM underway. I would, however, like to begin by looking back into the past with a few thoughts for one of the 2 men who founded this group, I thought it will probably last a bit longer, but watch this video on Gerard Pellison. [Presentation]

Now why we were watching the video which I hadn't seen for some time I discovered, 1983, the IPO, 40 years on in 2023. So we've been a listed company for 40 years. And the last word, the final words were the ones we've been using for 20 years, I've been using for 10 years, the words are excellence, audacity, passion. You probably heard subjective. I may be the subjective one. And let's say our friend, Jean-Jacques is possibly the objective one maybe. Not that we created the group, we didn't. Last week, I had lunch with Paul Dubrule, the other Co-Founder. Three quarters of the launch was spent talking about Gerard. So I'm thinking of Paul this morning who possibly listening to us or watching us, who has been left grieving for his lost friend, who is probably thinking over and over again about Gerard. And yet we spent the rest of the lunch talking about the future, the years to come. We talked about the group's transformation. Why the group is happy and proud. So you'll see that in today's AGM, we'll be talking about human aspects to people, what we know, what we do and what we do so well. So dear Gerard, we miss you, but you will never be very far. Can we now proceed with the legal formalities?

Yes. Thank you, Sebastien. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good morning, and welcome to this AGM. I'm going to begin with the legal formalities. Starting with the Constitution of the Bureau, which will comprise Sebastien Bazin, who will chair the AGM; and Kamal Rhazali representing Katara Holdings; and [ David Manfield ] representing Kingdom Holding. Mr. Rhazali and [ Mr. Manfield ] will act as Chairs. This is a position that is given to the bigger shareholders present or the shareholders representing the largest number of votes. I will act as Secretary for today's AGM. And as is the case every year, this AGM is being webcast on Internet and will be available on replay on the Accor Group's website. The last 30 minutes of this AGM will be devoted to answering questions sent to the AGM beforehand, but also questions that we will take live via platform, a dedicated platform for shareholders following on Internet. This meeting was convened through notice published in the official gazette. That's the [indiscernible] on the fifth -- 24th of April of this year. Notice of Meeting was also published in a legal gazette on the 24th of April, again, of this year. At your disposal on the desk, we have all the documents and reports used for today's AGM, although which the law provides that we make available. They've been made available to shareholders before the AGM and to leave more time for our discussions, we propose to dispense the Bureau with reading these documents. The documents on which shareholders entitled to communicate have also been at your disposal at the head office of the group. They have been sent to shareholders who requested them and are also available on the Bureau. Concerning the attendance sheet. We're currently cutting up the total, but we know that we already have over 1/4 of the shares comprising the company's capital and that the AGM can duly conduct its business. If I can remind you of today's agenda, items under the authority of the ordinary AGM approval of the statutory and consolidated accounts for the period ended 31st of December [ 2022 ] appropriation of earnings for the same period. Reelection of Sebastien Bazin, Iris Knobloch and Bruno Pavlovsky and the appointment of Madam Anne-Laure Kiechel as a director. The approval of the report on compensation for all executive directors, approval of the fixed variable and exceptional components of the overall compensation and benefits in kind attributed or paid to Sebastien Bazin for fiscal 2022. He is, of course, Chairman and CEO. The same applies to the period 2023 and the policy of compensation to directors for 2023. The approval of 4 related party agreements with the Fondation de France, Accor Acquisition Company, Paris Saint-Germain Club and Rotana Music, authorization to the Board to trade in the company's shares. Delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to issue -- equity warrants to be issued free of charge to shareholders in the event of a public offering on the company's shares and powers for formalities. Under the authority of the extraordinary AGM, we have the following resolutions: authorization to the Board of Directors to reduce the capital by canceling treasury stock, delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to carry out capital increases by issuing ordinary shares or equity instruments with preferential subscription rights or by public offer or without preferential subscription rights under Article L111-2 of the Financial and Monetary Code; delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to increase the number of shares to be issued in the event of a capital increase with or without preferential subscription rights, delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to carry out capital increases by issuing ordinary shares or equity instruments in order to compensate contributions in kind given to the company delegation powers to the Board of Directors to carry out capital increases by incorporating reserves, profits or share premium. Limitation of the overall amount of capital increases authorized under the previous delegations, delegation of competence to the Board of Directors to carry capital increases by issuance without preferential subscription rights for the benefit of members of an ESOP. And finally, delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to carry out capital increases without preferential subscription rights reserved for categories of beneficiaries in the event of an employee share ownership program. We have not received any proposed resolutions from shareholders. And with that, I thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Besma. I'm now going to give the floor to Jean-Jacques Morin for the group's financial highlights. But just before that, I want you to enjoy this. These are the last financial results to be presented by Jean-Jacques Morin. Enjoy them. As you know, Jean-Jacques is not leaving the group, nor is he stepping down as Deputy CEO. He's going to stand down from his position as CFO. Since then, he has become Executive Managing Director of what we call, economy premium and mid-scale hotels. 4,900 hotels in the group. So he's moving to the other side of the barrier. He's going to have his hands in the soil, in the muck. It's a little bit different to his current position. Jean-Jacques, you have been a wonderful and extraordinary Chief Financial Officer. We've been through ups and downs in the group. A lot of difficulties, not in terms of cash, but in terms of financial planning. And Jean-Jacques' team, including Patrick and others, you have been really, really good, very strong, very courageous, good in anticipation. And I think you've given us all an extraordinary degree of comfort in our decision-making. I haven't known many CFOs, but a good 30, no less, 30. But you are really at the top of the leaderboard as CFOs go. So thank you so much, Jean-Jacques for everything you have done.

Thank you, Sebastien. But as you have said quite rightly, so this is very much a teamwork. We have a really wonderful team. And whether I'm here or not, everything goes smoothly. What about what I said -- that was fine. That was grand. Well, I present the accounts, yes. Let me begin by saying good morning to you all. I'm delighted to be with you all dear shareholders to give you our results. I'm all the happier that 2022 was really a turning point. 2022 was the first year that we have, let's say, turn the page on COVID. Now if you look at the highlights, -- you'll see that our RevPAR, which is revenue by room available, which is up 2% on a like-for-like basis by comparison with 2019. Interestingly, the dynamics actually improved, the trend improved over the year. But if you look at Q4 2022, we are up 15% on Q4 in 2019. So the trend is positive and continuous and has continued into 2023, as I'll be telling you in a few minutes, leaving us exactly where we want to be. We were very much adversely affected by the COVID period. Simply by the shortage of clients. The second key indicator of our health is the network, the number of hotels that we manage, where the network grew by 3.2%, particularly given the conditions in which we are working. We're just exiting a crisis. So the 2 key indicators concerning the top line, that is revenue. The 2 indicators are very, very good for 2022. And another way of looking at this is the revenue as a proportion of business volume with business value of EUR 23 billion. Our job is to provide advisory services to our hotel managers and franchisees, but the total activity, total volume was EUR 23 billion, up 5% on the pre-pandemic level. This is all very consistent. It's all following the same trend and all telling the same story. So how does this translate into the P&L? Well, revenue of EUR 4.224 billion, EBITDA at EUR 675 million. When we publish our results, we were above the guidance we've given to the market, a guidance of EUR 610 million to EUR 640 million, so ahead of expectations at our recurring free cash flow, which is cash flow that's made available, thanks to operations. Recurring free cash flow was EUR 373 million. Let's now take a closer look at the P&L. Let's see how we get from EBITDA down to net profit. Beginning at the bottom, Group net profit for the period was EUR 402 million. Last year, we were barely profitable at EUR 85 million. This year, we are very much profitable at EUR 402 million. So the revenue dynamics actually translate into profit dynamics. Two areas I'd like to mention in the lower part of the P&L. One is the line for the share of profit and loss of associates and joint ventures, the big one being AccorInvest. AccorInvest or AI, as we call it, as the entity created in 2018, when we sold the hotels that we owned and of course, passed on the rent with them to AccorInvest. We decided then to focus the group on the management of hotels. This is what we call our asset-light transformation, which is very different to the entity that actually owns the assets. So from minus EUR 273 million, a loss of EUR 273 million, we actually generated -- in 2021, we generated a profit of EUR 33 million. Now when Accor turned the situation, this translated into AccorInvest accounts as well. So this is a very substantial improvement and almost a EUR 300 million turnaround. The other important point here is nonrecurring items. Last year, we had an extraordinary profit of EUR 554 million. This year, it's EUR 63 million, a much more normal figure. Let me remind you last year, the EUR 554 million came from the sale of Huazhu shares. This was a joint venture we were involved in. And our stake that we acquired in Huazhu in early 2016 was a stake that we decided over time to dispose of. We did that in 3 different tranches and realized a profit of EUR 500 million. That's a lot of money, EUR 500 million. What that goes to show is that our strategy of venturing into China alongside Huazhu was the right strategy. Huazhu has increased its value in the stock market very considerably, enabling us to reap this capital gain by substantial capital gain. Overall, we will have generated over EUR 1 billion in profits on the Huazhu venture. That's what I wanted to say about the P&L, about the highlights. Let me now look at balance sheet items. This is a synopsis, so to speak, of the other side of our accounts. That is the balance sheet. Pierre Boisselier was appointed by Sebastien, but the people working under Pierre have been working intensely in recent years. Our balance sheet is very strong. A lot of people pay tribute to our balance sheet during the COVID period. I think the way we should look at this balance sheet is, first of all, total liquidity of EUR 2.8 billion. Now that includes EUR 1.2 billion in an undrawn credit facility. Alongside that EUR 1.6 million in cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet, which has really helped us weather the storm, gets through the crisis while managing with a view to the long term. On the right-hand side of the chart, you see how our debt is spread over time. You see that in '22 and '23, there were not many significant maturity dates. Refinancing of the balance sheet was carried out in 2019, '20 and '21 with various issues that we've already commented, convertibles, green bonds. And all this got us through the serenely, if I can say that, about the way we weather a storm. The important thing I'd like to say is that it's fixed rate. Over 80% of this at fixed rates, which is not bad considering what's happening in the interest rate markets. The average cost is 2.1%, which is slightly below the interest rate for 2021. This all leaves us very comfortable about the strategic decisions we will be taking soon. One final point on how healthy our balance sheet is and how wise we were. The rating agencies in early 2023 -- in fact, we have 2 rating agencies who rate our balance sheet. Fitch, which increased us to investment grade. This is the Holy Grail. This is what you want. You want to get the best possible conditions. Thanks to your investment grade. Standard & Poor's where we haven't quite reached investment grade, but S&P have given us what we call a positive outlook. In other words, they have seen the improvements made in 2022, and they take a very positive view of that. So they will be reviewing their position in 2023 when we confirm -- if we confirm our ability to drive the business in the right direction. In other words, if we continue to generate very good results. That's what I wanted to say about the balance sheet. So far as we're in May, we usually give you a little update on the situation for the first quarter. Now, in April, we published the figures for Q1. And here on the graph, you'll see what I've already commented. In other words, the graphic view of our recovery. In the first quarter, of 2022. Our revenue was 25% below the revenue in Q1 2019 before COVID. And you'll see that quarter-on-quarter, we continued to improve. In the last quarter of 2022, in Q4, we were up 15%. And in Q1 of 2023, growth was 19%. The other important information in this chart is the share of revenue recovery that comes from prices and the share that comes from occupancy rates. They are the 2 components that determine our ability to generate revenue. What you see here is what you see in a lot of businesses at the moment, that is the great ability to increase prices in our business. I will elaborate on that in my next slide. Now that's the synopsis of Q1, as presented. I mentioned the 19% RevPAR increase by comparison with Q1 1991 (sic) [ Q1 2019 ]. The network has continued to grow, the interesting part is on the right-hand side. How can we have this trading momentum. We've continued to accelerate because Accor is a global group with presence in Europe. We all know that Europe picked up after the first wave of Omicron and from the second quarter of last year, we recovered in areas where Omicron was milder. Asia didn't see the same rate of recovery. We know that China only opened up towards the end of last year and that even as we speak, there are still a lot of limitations in place because even if people wanted to travel, airline companies haven't got the capacity to transport all these people to remote destinations. So Asia Pacific is picking up very rapidly. And in the first quarter, Asia Pacific's revenue per room, it's RevPAR, rose 77% by comparison with the same period in 2022. But that is one of the reasons I'm saying that this year will set Accor apart. We have statistics on average room rates or ARRs, as we call them in our jargon. Our average room rate is very good. And in 2023, as it was in 2022. The occupancy rate conversely is slightly below the pre- COVID level in 2019. So we're not quite back up to the occupancy rate we had in 2019, particularly because of the, let's say, the inability for a lot of people to actually get a flight. Now you'll find this in our share price from the start of the year. So when you see that we've performed well, that has been confirmed quarter-on-quarter in our share price. Our share price has risen 35% since the 1st of January. By comparison, I've given you the increases of the CAC 40 Index and the SBF index. So we are well ahead of the competition. We were also lagging behind in previous years because the American market, which are our big competitors, one of our big competitors, recovered well before Europe and Asia. So we are catching up, so to speak. Certainly in terms of the way investors value us in the stock market. Now this brings us back to our dividend. Now we decided to pay a dividend once again. Subject to your approval, the new dividend that we propose will be EUR 1.05 per share, which is what we did back in 2018 and 2019 of the mechanical calculation of our dividend, if we just apply our dividend payout policy back in 2018 is consistent taking the cash generated and to allocate 50% of that for the dividend per share. This would give us a share of EUR 0.71 per share. However, the Board of Directors and management propose that we reinstate a dividend at EUR 1.05 because we've received extraordinary income from the disposal of Huazhu. Also our 10% disposal of Ennismore. And insofar as we have done well by way of these transactions, the Board and management have decided to propose a dividend back at the previous level of EUR 1.05 per share. That brings me to the end of my presentation of the results. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Jean-Jacques. Let's now talk about nonfinancial items. Let's discuss the women and men that are part of our company. We would to talk about staff, people as opposed to new employees, we operate hotels on behalf of the hotels' owner. And that's a local legal entity that we do not own. And yet, we have a responsibility vis-a-vis the people we hire, to train them, to manage them, manage their onboarding and their exit, all of the employees that are part of the legal entities that we manage. So all of the staff that are part of the group and of the various 46 brands come to 290,500 workers in total. People who work for the Accor Group. And when you ask those people, who they work for, of course, they work for the group. And 1 thing is amazing. It's probably one of the reasons why they are so committed to the group, 80% of them has -- have changed brands of countries or cities between 3 and 80 different times. So we have a portfolio of brands. 46 brands on a Friday night, but we have quite down over the past 4 years. I don't know what you did about that Jean-Jacques. But we have not made any other brand acquisitions over the past 3 years. I'm not sure I can commit to not making any other acquisitions over the next 3 years. I guess it all depends on how our shareholders, right, in a minute. We have about 5,500 hotels in our network, 4,900 in the Economy, Midscale & Premium division and about 500 hotels in the Luxury & Lifestyle division. So we have a CSR commitments that are long-standing, over 40 years ago. And we strengthened our commitments considerably for 2 reasons: number one, there is stronger and stronger demand from the legislative point of view, there are more and more regulatory requirements that we need to comply with. And also, the executive committee of the group, Brune Poirson in particular, will talk about the methods in a minute. She will also discuss the objectives that we seek to achieve. What is more surprising and that is something that I did not know, last week, the first box on the left-hand side, the 123,590 new hires over the past 12 months. That's both good news and bad news. It's good news because usually, we hire between 80,000 and 100,000 people a year. In other words, we far exceed the levels of previous years. It's very difficult to hire 100,000 new people every year. So that's very good news because this means we've given jobs, careers and outlets for the passions of those people. But the darker side of the moon is we have turnover. The people who join and leave the group. Well, the attrition is about 35%. In other words, 1 in 3 employees have left the group over the past 12 months. We have a 30% churn and we need to do something about it. We know why. We know the reasons behind this churn. We need to accept it. We need to get ready, and we need to do a better job of managing why people leave the group. And we need to make ourselves even more attractive for the people joining our group. But there is a strong sense of pride. I don't know how many groups across the world can actually hire 100,000 people a year or close to 20,000 people over the past month or so. 100,000 training hours have been dispensed to our staff. That's the yearly figure. And many of those training courses have looked at CSR. We use [indiscernible]. That's our software. 97% of our staff completed the online training course. It's an opportunity to open your mind to the challenges of the future when it comes to CSR. So we have 200 different partnerships across the world with universities and schools. In 75 different countries, Accor has a very strong presence in terms of providing training to people who have not had an opportunity to get that training anywhere else. So our female representation rates at management level is 39%. It's good, but it's not good enough. If you look at hotel managers, and that's probably the level where things get started in 2022. The female representation rate is -- was 31% in 2022. That's a very different figure from one region to another. This comes as no surprise. In excess of 50% Latin America, thanks in particular to Patrick Mendes, sitting in the third row, he's in charge of Latin America. He set that up. And under 10% female representation in [indiscernible] positions in the Middle East. This means that we need a 50-50 split at hotel manager level and we need to increase female presence at management level. And of course, that doesn't mean this should work to the detriment of the men already in place. And EUR 70 million dedicated to -- and I'm sure that's something that you remember, and I hope that you're very proud of it as partners and as our shareholders, EUR 70 million have been earmarked, set aside for the ALL Heartist Fund, and I will discuss those various initiatives in a minute. On the left-hand side of the screen, assuming you did already know, we have an endowment fund called Accor Heartist Solidarity. It's part of the group. So this is a vehicle that has been around for a number of years. We changed the legal status, but it's been around for over 20 years. And it's got 2 hallmarks: number one, the goal is very simple. To fight exclusion, social exclusion, economic exclusion of the most vulnerable members of the global population and to help them reintegrate into the jobs market, into society, find jobs within our hotels. And the second hallmark of that fund, and we have not deviated from the rule, and I don't think we should deviate from the rule, 100% of those initiatives that are about 450 different projects supported in 50 different countries, 100% of those initiatives emanate from staff members. And I like that. It makes me happy when we have requests coming in from the outside. I'm able to say no. And we've got many requests coming in from the outside and then I'm able to say no because we're doing so much indoors as well. And all of our staff members know that they can take the initiative and they can request help from the solidarity fund. And we have a strong female presence there. About 75% of those projects seek to promote integration of vulnerable women into the jobs market so they can restore their financial resources, they receive training so they can train their own children and their loved ones. This 90% of those initiatives are local, within a 50-kilometer radius around the hotel. And this -- and we're talking construction projects, creative initiatives, food, drives, et cetera. On the right-hand side, this is the initiative that I already talked about the ALL Heartist Fund. So we use the ALL logo in reference to our customer loyalty program. I bumped into some of you earlier. And you said to me how sad you were that you haven't received any dividends over the past few years. We've been sad too, not being able to pay out those dividends to you because of the pandemic. But please don't be so sad. The dividend we failed to pay out for financial reasons and also because we wanted to comply with our 50% of free cash flow distributed to shareholders. Well, we offset that with a strong generous initiative that was indispensable at the time. We wanted to embrace all of our staff members, embrace them in the fold. All of them living in difficult areas that have no access to short-time work. Had no source of income during the pandemic. That huge -- that is a huge number, 110,000 staff members received a check in 2020, 2021, ranging between EUR 300 and EUR 1,500. That's the help they received to offset the lack of resources provided by governments. And that's how they weathered the 1.5-year or 2-year health crisis and 98% of our beneficiaries are in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia, in Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, more specifically as well as Latin America. Of course, no checks have been given to so-called Western countries, rich countries where the government did what they had to do, providing short-time work facilities, and we're very happy. 103,000 beneficiaries have received those checks. This is still underway. There are still pockets around the world where that aid is still available. It all depends on how bad the crisis is. The earthquake in Turkey, the crisis in Ukraine. We've helped a number of our Ukrainian friends working in and around our hotels. We're providing help in Burma because human distress is right there and across the world as well. There are many areas in which that initiative can and should continue, an initiative that began 2 years ago. So I don't know whether some of our projects are more iconic than others, but 300 new hotels opened up in 2022, we're only going to show 6 of them. They're very different depending on the country. Number one, on the left-hand side, the Queen Elizabeth ship. Why is it in Dubai? God knows. But as it happens, it is in Dubai. So we secured the management contract with the MGallery brands. The work was done by the United Emirates. So I'm not familiar with that. I'm not familiar with the ship. I haven't been to Dubai. But we have the Jo&Joe brand, which is accessible to young people, students. It's affordable. It's in Rio, just south of the Carcara and the work it took 2.5 years. This is our grandeur. This hotel is a gem. And then we have the first SO/ Hotel in [indiscernible]. If we look at [indiscernible] in Paris, it opened up 9 months ago. We have a beautiful Novotel in Mexico. It's brand new. So between Novotel and Sofitel, we have 2 of the most beautiful hotel buildings in Mexico City. Now this is probably the most luxurious hotel or building across the world. It is an iconic representation of Qatar. This is -- this is the second to last picture. It's a mixed Raffles/Fairmont meeting. So we have meeting rooms, about 15 different restaurants. There's a huge auditorium. Its absolutely sublime. Not easy to manage, grandeur, because it's very luxurious. We handle a lot of materials. It's extremely chic. That was the main building hosting the World Cup, FIFA was headquartered there, so strongly encourage you to visit. That's the way to step into the 22nd century, it's an amazing building. And lastly, we have a brand-new Pullman. Pullman Hotel in China, Pullman and Fairmont are making strong inroads in China at the moment. Now this is something that we discussed, but not with you. The announcement was made in-house. We talked about the [indiscernible] project. So the announcement is back to July 5 last year, as for the AGM. And this run after the AGM. So the group has decided to divide its business into 2 different divisions, organizationally speaking. So why did we need to split things that way. Because we need to have the right talent, the right expertise in the right place. We were -- our approach was to multipurpose. We were asking heads of different geographies, Northern Europe versus Southern Europe to handle 46 different brands in 30 different countries, in Northern Europe, and that was very, very complex when you're the head of a particular region to grant equal time to a Fairmont owner that has invested EUR 1 million, and you give them just 2 hours of your time. And in the afternoon, you're going to give the same amount of time to a small ibis hotel manager that invested just maybe EUR 1 million. So 2 hours per hotel manager. Is that fair? Well, it was not efficient. It was a very difficult approach. It was difficult and inefficient for everyone. The hotel manager, for the manager, everybody was frustrated. So we believe it was important to just take a beat, sit down, think about it. Our group is now very powerful, very big, very diverse. And so we need to streamline the way that we're organized. So on the left-hand side, this is something that I talked about many times, the Premium, Midscale & Economy division. Like I said, this is managed by Jean-Jacques, starting January 1. There's a new organization. I'll give you the names in a minute. And in the division, you find about 90% of our hotels. So 4,900 out of 5,500. So you also find 80% of the number of rooms within the group and about 2/3 of our cash flow. It's a huge division. It accounts for much of our history. So we have legendary, iconic, long-standing brands. And we still have a geography-based organization, but is being reduced by a factor of 2. So 4 different regions: the Americas, Europe, North Africa, Middle East, Asia Pacific. And lastly, we have a slightly different category for China. Things are working out beautifully. This division is ahead of the curve. And if you're looking now to attend on June 27, we will be holding a Capital Markets Day right here, in this auditorium. Our investors will come and spend the day with us, and we will get down to brand stocks. We will discuss the ins and outs of the transformation and also the benefits in terms of RevPAR, room rate, profit, you name it. On the left-hand side or rather on the right-hand side, you have the other division, Luxury & Lifestyle. Of course, it's smaller. It comes for 10% of our hotels, about 500 hotels. We decided to organize things the other way around. So it's not geography based, it's brand based. So we assigned 1 brand to 1 person, and they're in charge of all of revisiting. We have 1 boss for Raffles -- for Fairmont, for Sofitel, for Ennismore, of course. And it's evenly distributed. One is in [indiscernible], the other is in Dubai, the third is in Paris and the fourth one is in London. And here again -- well, let's not call it a surprise, per se, but it's a great source of satisfaction. Over the past 3 months, we have been extremely happy with those brand managers. This is true for the first division as well. But there's a strong sense of belonging of responsibility, a passion that far exceeds anything I've seen so far. So everybody's all hands on deck. It's a new challenge, and we're extremely proud of rising to the occasion. And also because the brand promises are being overhauled. I'm now going to go over every single name on that flow chart. There are about 26 people. This is our expanded management committee. So if we look at the top line, it's important that we hold on to our backbone. I'm talking about central services, shared services, central functions, including finance, cash flow. We have a young woman joining us. She will replace Jean-Jacques. Her name is Martine Gerow. She's coming in from American Express GBT, and she spent her entire world in English-speaking countries. But that woman is fresh, 100%. So you have finance, you have purchasing. Under Caroline Tissot, sitting in the second row. Her department is extremely efficient. It accounts for about 7% of the group's profitability. We should talk about it more. Because this is drawn out by the different divisions and brands, but she is the one keeping us afloat. She's keeping the lights on. She oversees of EUR 4.5 billion in purchasing. Then Steven Daines, of course, in charge of Culture & Talent and the Legal Department. And at the low level, as I said before, Jean-Jacques Morin over and beyond his responsibilities as our Deputy CEO and responsibilities overseeing Economy, Midscale. So those are his responsibilities. And on the right-hand side, of course, Luxury & Lifestyle. What about the group's priorities. I apologize if we mistranslated that from English into French, but -- how do we drive profit? We drive profit through a recovery in our business. This is an expression that I use maybe too often, but I think it is important to ride on the back of your tailwinds. You need to deal with the headwinds, but you need to ride on your tailwinds. And in 2021, since -- well, since December of 2022, we've been pushed forward. The winds are favorable, favorable to our business, to our process, to demand and growth. So we need to continue riding that wave in our 46 brands and 120 different countries. Secondly, why do we operate that transformation? Well, in order for it to be efficient, so they could be properly understood. And so our results or performance need to -- we need to deliver. I'm not worried at all. actually. I'm fully reassured when it comes to your ability to embrace that involved. I was watching the videos of Gerard and Paul; 3 or 4 different times, they talked about sustainable growth, sustainability. They talked about the importance of our shareholders. That's what we're trying to build. That's what we've been trying to build for the past 50 years. Our growth is -- spans many years, and we are working for the benefit of our shareholders, of course. And we'll talk about that during Q&A. And priority #4, again, it's a long-standing one. It's been around for 40 years, but we are showcasing it today even more. We need to deliver on our societal, environmental ambitions. So 2 different types of CSR -- of our CSR obligations. We want to provide training and support to the [indiscernible] franchise. And again, these are initiatives that dovetail with our initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce our water consumption. And this is a perfect segue. And let me hand over to Brune Poirson. And she'll discuss our methods. Brune, welcome. Thank you very much.

Good morning to one and all, as Sebastien Bazin, as just said, I'm going to talk to you about the methods and results we've applied and achieved, quite remarkably, almost extraordinarily. Thanks to our people throughout the world. So let's begin with the strategic framework of sustainable development. As Sebastien has just said, there are 2 key components that are absolutely indissociable. That's the human and nature. So this is really at the heart of our DNA. It's been really in our lifeblood for many, many years, but also at the very heart of our scientific endeavors in the field of sustainable development. I'm thinking of [indiscernible], who systematically stressed the fact in all the reports that social impact and environmental impact are the 2 sides of the same coin. This is why we have put these 2 elements here at the very heart of our strategy. We have built upon that. We need a method. And we have built on the basis of 3 pillars: the first is the stay or the -- we are a hospitality group and our objective is to operate our hotels within the limits of our planet. Secondly is to each, and our objective is to ensure that through the 11,000 bar and restaurants that we operate in the world, that we will be able to faster regenerative agriculture. We'll be able to harness greenhouse gases, but also to help with the environment. The third pillar is the one we call Explore, which consists of being as close as possible to ensure that our ecosystem works well around the hotel. Just a few details to flesh that out. First of all, operating our hotel within the limits of our planet means that, ultimately, our goal is to ensure that our hotels are what we call material banks that we use materials that are as environment friendly as possible, that they will last as long as possible. As you know, the group has made major commitments in terms of reducing our carbon footprint through the sustainability of our operations on the one hand. But also through new ways of measuring our impact on the environment. If we want to manage this very closely. If we want to meet environmental obligations, we need to be able to measure hotel by hotel and as accurately as possible the impact that they all have. Second pillar, there's been a lot of work put in, and I'd like to say thanks once again to Caroline Tissot's team that have worked extensively on responsible sourcing. Little by little, we are changing what we supply to hotels. We've been fighting against food waste, not new for the group, but we have been ramping up our operation and of course, gradually change practices in food consumption. The third pillar is what we call Explore. So around our hotels, we want to have a better sharing of the space we occupy, we have shared with nature, but also share space in the very heart of local communities. Sebastien mentioned this at some length through the Accor Solidarity Fund, but also the ALL Heartist Fund, which incidentally has had a very considerable impact everywhere -- a huge impact on the human aspect, but it's also played a great role in terms of anchoring our presence in local communities. And more broadly speaking, this has enabled us to ensure that via our hotels and employees, but also thanks to our guests, we are in a position to share and help, teach sustainable development while taking a much greater part through our ecosystem in changing environmental and social practices throughout the world. We have that kind of cloud and we have no hesitations about doing so without moralizing at all. So they are the key pillars of the strategy we're implementing. Now it's important to have pillars and it's important to have a strategy, but it's even better if you know how to implement that. For that purpose, we have a method based on 4 more pillars: the first of these is governance. In sustainable development is very important and Sebastien, Jean-Jacques have supported us all along. I'd like to thank them in passing. But I'd also like to thank the Group's Board of Directors. We have a very strong, efficient governance that enables us to control and measure our nonfinancial performance. We have a system that has an impact on our employees' bonuses, but indeed, the bonus of our CEO. And we have in our key performance indicators, we have a criterion called sustainable development. We review performance regularly, which includes nonfinancial performance. And of course, we have project management to enable us to measure progress and to measure the company as a whole. The big challenge is that all sustainable development issues are cross-business or transversal. It's the group as a whole that's mobilized, that's doing a huge job in implementing all these projects. The second pillar is what I'm going to call mindsets or culture. It's about becoming familiar with these issues. We weren't all born knowing what a ton of carbon equivalent represents, nor do we all know at birth everything that we need to know scientifically about the environment or about sustainable development. This is why Sebastien Bazin has mentioned it. We have organized a training system called School for Change, where employees in the group received 6 hours training to learn the scientific basics about sustainable development. The goal is to have a common objective. To aim -- the goal is also to go beyond belief, go beyond moralizing to aim at internal, external events to get the whole firm mobilized behind sustainable development. The third pillar is solutions. Our goal with my team and all the people we work with is to provide solutions that are turnkey as possible to ensure that they can be efficient very quickly. Alternatives to single-use plastics. Carbon measurement tools, low carbon solutions, smart weight-in solutions, ecolabels or facilities like Abri d’urgence. I could mention many more. There are examples of the type of solutions that we roll out throughout the group. And it's important that these solutions be rolled out on a very large scale and with as much impact as possible. The fourth pillar is collaboration. We are in the hospitality business. So by definition, we have a lot of stakeholders. We always have the local NGOs or national NGOs, local authorities because hotels are part and parcel of the local fabric. We also have international players, the United Nations alliances with the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. We believe, in fact, we're convinced that we have and we'll continue to have an impact over and beyond our group and that will be a very much an integral part of our ecosystem. This we do with a lot of our competitors. In fact, the idea is to accelerate solutions that will benefit the group, but indeed the whole sector. As I said, these pillars and work methods translate into concrete results that have been audited. First of all, in terms of carbon emission reductions. Our goal is to play our role in carbon neutrality by 2050 for the planet. That means that our goal is to reduce our CO2 emissions by close to half between now and 2030. Now we're not going to start in 2028. We've already started on this. We've rolled out a carbon measurement tool and 71% of our hotels use this carbon measurement tool, 71%. Moving on to plastics. Let me dwell on -- sorry, just let me dwell on our carbon emissions reduction. These are absolute values and not in terms of intensity. We are the most ambitious of all groups in this area in terms of carbon reductions. These are goals that have been approved by SBTi. Our competitors have started, but we are several lengths ahead of the competition in reaching our -- well, in implementing our methods and reaching our goals. Single-use plastics. 84% of our hotels have removed 46 single-use plastic items in the guest experience. So 84% of the hotels have eliminated single-use plastics. This was a huge challenge that involved the whole group, making us pioneers in this area, a step ahead of regulations throughout the world, even in countries where there were high expectations on the part of customers. It was customer to use single-use plastics. In terms of training, 97% of our employees have attended the so called School for Change, a 6-hour training program that explains in detail climate warming, the challenges of biodiversity and the social environmental impact of these various areas. Finally, in diversity, we have achieved a level of 39% of our management committee are women. Now we intend to pursue this goal and become even more ambitious in terms of diversity. Now our performance has been acknowledged in-house. You've seen the figures. But it has also been acknowledged outside of the group. And you can see the nonfinancial rating agencies listed here, but I should point out that CAC 40 -- sorry, Accor as a member of the ESG CAC 40 and is part of our nonfinancial rating. Maybe I could mention a few brief examples. When I say small examples, they're extremely important. I've got to give you 4 examples because there could be a lot more, but let me just quote a few examples for you to show you that we are already implementing ideas that will take us even further than the targets we set ourselves or that have been set to -- set for us by the regulator. The first example here is the Ibis Dubai Mall in the Emirates. Which has rolled out a smart weighing system, which enables us to substantially reduce food waste by 60% in 1 year. Very good news for the planet, good news for our revenue as well because -- this has generated annual savings of almost EUR 6,000 and avoided generating 22.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent since 2022. So we have solutions that are already in existence rolled out in a number of hotels with great success. So the challenge is really to scale up on all of this. Moving on to my next example from the U.K., the Wolverhampton Novotel is one of the first hotels -- I apologize if my pronunciation isn't great. The Wolverhampton Novotel, that's it. Wolverhampton Novotel is one of the first hotels in the network to completely do away with single-use plastic water bottles. Now I could have quoted 1,000 different examples because a lot of hotels that have done the same thing, particularly in Europe. But I wanted to give you that example because this isn't a regulatory requirement. It's also a huge undertaking. So we have solutions and the rollout is being ramped up. Moving now further few to Colombia, the Baru Calablanca received the 2023 International Sustainable Development Award. It is acknowledged in South America as being a very much a pioneer in sustainable development and possibly the most sustainable hotel in all of Colombia. For instance, 90% of the food and beverage offer is local vegetarian or vegan. And 90% is huge and involves everybody getting behind this objective. And we've done it before. We're doing it now. We're ready to do it again in the future on a larger scale. Next example comes from Canada where the Fairmont Royal York has engaged to reduce its current carbon emission by 80%, thanks to a deep -- in-depth refurbishing and of course, a great partnership with a very ambitious hotel owner. We learn a lot from this that we will roll out elsewhere in the Fairmont network. Just to give you a few examples with all our brands with all our regions. These are examples of very ambitious projects that have already been implemented. Just to show you just how much weight we've put behind the way here. Higher social and environmental ambitions, we must continue to be more ambitious. Go that extra mile. If you're not running in this area, you will find yourself moving backwards. So our goal is to continue to put sustainable development at the very heart of our concerns with a sustainable group strategy, more than just a sustainable development strategy. And if it stays, we want a 0% of plastic use by 2025 over and beyond our customer experience, we are including single-use plastic water bottles. We will continue to work hard to reduce our carbon emissions in absolute terms by 25% and by 15% for Scope 3. We are also working on water consumption. It's not that we haven't already worked on. We want to take the reduction of water consumption even further. Now we're working on a number of different projects and the goal is to roll these projects out in front. On all our hotels, we want them all to be ecocertified by 2026. By eco-certification, we will make our operations more objective within the limits of what the planet can sustain as well. And of course, eco-certification is acknowledged outside of the group -- by quite a lot of our clients, particularly our larger clients. And the second pillar, Eating Or Eat. The goal is to reduce food waste by 30% by 2025 and to promote regenerative agriculture practices for food service in our [ basal ] restaurants from next year. We have a major impact on the way that the products are grown. So an impact on the way that soil captures carbon. And finally, with Explore, we want to place the emphasis on low-emission mobility offers. We also want to embrace a nature positive approach by accelerating the conservation of biodiversity and by restoring and -- restoration and regeneration issues. Last year, the [ cap ] set us the target of being nature possible by 2030. Will we fully subscribe to that goal and that dynamic, and we'll continue to train our employees. You never spent too much on training. And as Sebastien said, we are recruiting so many people that we have a duty to form them. That's what I wanted to share with you. Our ambitions, what we've achieved. The whole group is really mobilized in the field of sustainable development, and we will continue to accelerate our involvement at the request of Sebastien Bazin, of course, but also the request of the Board of Directors, the regulators, our stakeholders. To wrap up, we do have a tailwind here all the more so that in 2022, we have shown our ability to deliver with concrete results that benefit us, of course, but that also benefit all our stakeholders.

Thank you very much. I give the floor to Besma Boumaza, to talk to you about the Board of Directors that has a great fortune to represent you.

Thank you, Sebastien. Okay, the Board of Directors. In 2022, the Board had 12 directors, including 2 directors representing our employees. 60% of the directors independent and 50% were women. The ladies representing employees were not included in the last 2 calculations. As you know, 3 terms of office are expiring today, and you are being asked to appoint a new director. At the end of today's AGM and subject to you approving our resolutions, the number of directors will increase from 12 to 13 with the appointment of Anne-Laure Kiechel, who is here today and 2 employees, representing employees. And Iliane Dumas was recently renewed by the biggest trade union in the company. That's Iliane Dumas. As a result, after today's AGM, the proportion of independent directors will have increased from 60% to 64% and the number of women or proportion of women from 50% to 55%. Let's now look at the work conducted by the Board of Directors in 2022, which held 11 meetings with an average attendance rate of 90%. During the year, the Board reviewed the group strategy, took decisions concerning the normal run of business, but more particularly, it worked on the internal reorganization to 2 separate divisions, following the work done by the ALL Heartist Fund, monitoring the group's positioning in Ukraine, authorizing exclusive negotiations for the disposal of the shares in the company that owns Sequana, this building. The Board has also got 4 specialized committees. Beginning with the Audit, Compliance and Risk Committee, which met 4 times with an average attendance rate of 80%, this committee prepared the Board's deliberations concerning the review of annual and half yearly accounts, also monitored the implementation of the compliance program and the measures taken in the field of cybersecurity and protection of personal data. The [ Appointments ] Committee, which is open to all directors met 4 times with an attendance rate of 100%. It studied the different proposed investments and disposals. The International Strategy Committee studied the impact of international issues on the group's activities. The attendance rate was also 100% Finally, the Appointments Compensation and CSR Committee held 5 meetings with an average attendance rate of 91%. Before giving the floor to Bruno Pavlovsky, who will tell you about this committee, in just a few seconds, let me tell you that in February of this year, the Board decided to add an additional committee on [ SG&A ], really to track the group's involvement in environment, climate and biodiversity. The new committee is chaired by Hélène Auriol Potier and has 6 directors, including 1 of the directors representing the employees. Could I ask Bruno Pavlovsky to join me here on stage. And thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Besma. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. I'm happy to be here with you today to talk to you about the Nominations, Compensation Committee for the very first time, in particular -- of the executive directors. In 2022, the Board of Directors has implemented the compensation policy that you approved at the last AGM. The fixed amount of Sébastien Bazin compensation has remained unchanged at EUR 150,000 is variable and your compensation was evaluated according to the levels of achievement of the objectives that we had agreed together. As a reminder, the quantitative objectives were related to EBITDA, free cash flow, sustainable savings from the reset plan, net organic growth in the number of rooms as well as on 3 CSR criteria. The percentage of managed and franchised hotels that have phased out single-use plastics from the guest experience, excluding disposable water bottles, the percentage of women on management committees worldwide and the percentage of managed and franchised hotels for which a carbon output measurement tool is in place by the end of 2022. In addition, there were qualitative objectives, namely the agility and operational suitability of the model and talent development. After analyzing the performance and achievement of each of these objectives, the Board of Directors concluded that the variable portion of Sebastien Bazin's compensation amounted to EUR 1,559,129 gross i.e., 124.7% of the reference amount to the potential being a maximum of 150%. Your Chairman and CEO has also been granted performance shares in 2022 in accordance with the compensation policy subject to a lockup obligation into performance conditions are described in the [indiscernible] that you've been able to consult. In addition this year, you will also be voting on the renewal of the term of office of Sebastien Bazin as a Director and as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Meanwhile, as is the case every year, you will be voting on the compensation policy for your Chairman and CEO the coming year, the so-called ex ante say on pay. You may have noticed from the documents made available to you that the amount of the fixed compensation for 2023 remains unchanged. Once again, there has been no change since January 1, 2016. For fiscal 2023, the Board wished to review and address the total compensation of Sebastien Bazin in the context of his reappointment and for the duration of this new term of office. The Board on the recommendation of the Appointments, Compensation Committee, wished to link the compensation of its Chairman and CEO more closely to the company's performance, particularly its share price. It also examined the practices of other CAC 60 companies and peers in the hospitality sector to find the best balance. The reference amount of variable compensation was this increase from EUR 1.25 million to EUR 1.4 million. I'd like to remind you that the variable composition may vary from 0% to 150% of this reference amount, depending on the achievement of performance conditions set by the Board. The ceiling on the number of performance shares that may be granted to the Chairman and CEO has also been revised in May, now represent up to 280% of its gross annual compensation compared with 250% in 2022 in order to better align with the interests of shareholders. As I said, the annual variable compensation varies according to the level of achievement of both quantitative and qualitative objectives. The quantitative objectives represent 80% of the annual variable composition. On the one hand, our financial EBITDA versus 2023 budget, free cash flow, excluding disposals and M&A growth, including the change in operating working capital versus 2023 budget. On the other hand, there are nonfinancial objectives. Organic growth in the number of rooms, in line with the 2023 budget and for ESG criteria that reflect the group's priorities. The percentage of managed and franchised hotels that are phased out single-use plastics from the guest experience, including disposable water bottles; the percentage of managed and franchised hotels that measure carbon output via a carbon measurement tool; the percentage of managed and franchised hotels that have established a baseline for food waste; and the percentage of women on management committees across the world. The qualitative objectives representing 20% of the annual variable compensation are based on the implementation of the new turbo organization and talent development. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, thank you for your attention.

Thank you very much, Bruno, before handing over to Jean-Christophe Goudard, representing the statutory auditors. Since they're here in this room and because we talked about their committee, I would like to talk about Isabelle Simon. Her committee is strongly involved in financial reporting efforts and they're the committee that have spent the most time on those tasks. Thank you so much, Isabelle, for making the time in being here today. Also, let's welcome Ugo, who is in charge of the Commitments Committee and all of the financial transactions exceeding EUR 100 million, whether purchasing or selling or debt. Thank you very much to the two of you for being here. Jean-Christophe Goudard, please join us on the stage.

Thank you very much, Sebastien. As Sebastien said, I would like to share with you the conclusion of the statutory auditors, Ernst & Young and Dear Chairman, dear directors, dear shareholders. This year, we have 8 auditor's reports. As usual, I suggest a summary of the conclusions of those reports. The reports can be split into 3 different categories. The first 2 categories related to the ordinary AGM and they include our reports on the consolidated and statutory financial statements of your company, on the one hand, and our report on related party agreements or the other. The third category includes our reports regarding the extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting resolutions. Thus, rather such resolutions aim at authorizing and delegating certain corporate actions involving Accor shares to your Board of Directors. If that's okay, I will simply share our conclusions. Regarding the report on the financial statements for fiscal 2022. In reference to Resolution #1, you will find our report on Page 390 of the universal registration document. In our opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view of the assets and liabilities and of the financial position of the company as of December 31, 2022, and of the results of its operations for the year then ended in accordance with French accounting principles. You will find in the second part of this report, our key audit matter, namely the measurement of equity investments amounting to about EUR 6 billion in net carrying amount, representing 54% of the balance sheet total. We have disclosed our audit approach as well as that were performed. Regarding the specific verifications, they relate to the information provided in the management report and in the other documents, with respect to the financial position and the financial statements provided. Also, the report on corporate governance and the information regarding the purchase of investments and controlling interests as well as the identity of the shareholders and holders of the voting rights and the cross shareholdings. We have no specific comment to draw your attention. Second point, our report on the consolidated financial statements for fiscal 2022. This is Resolution #2, and you will find a report on Page 354 of the URD. In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements give a true and fair view of the assets and liabilities and of the financial position of the group. As of December 31, 2022, and of the results of its operations for the year then ended, in accordance with the IFRS standards as adopted by the European Union. In this report, you will find our key audit matter, namely the measurement of intangible assets amounting to about EUR 5.4 billion, representing 46% of the balance sheet total. In our report, we have disclosed our audit approach as well as the work performed. Item number 3 our special report on related party agreements, which relate to Resolutions 12, 13, 14 and 15. You will find this report on Page 272 of the universal registration document. I would like to remind you that it is our responsibility to report to you based on the information provided to us on the main terms and conditions of those agreements that have been disclosed to us so that we may have identified as part of our engagements as well as the reasons given why those agreements are beneficial for the company. It is your responsibility to determine whether it's appropriate and should be approved. The agreements to be submitted for approval of this AGM are as follows: for Resolution #12, the signing of a sponsorship agreement benefiting the Fondation de France, acting in the name of, and on behalf of the Fondation G&G Pélisson. Regarding Resolution 13, the renewal of the agreement entered into April 28, 2021, with Accor Acquisition Company and approved by the Board on May 20, 2022 for the use of office by the latter. Regarding Resolution 14, the signing of a new partnership agreement with Paris Saint-Germain Football. Lastly, for Resolution 15, the signing of a share subscription agreement for Rotana Music Holding Limited. It's a music production company headquartered in Abu Dhabi in the UAE. And of a shareholders agreement with the other shareholders have said company, the main shareholder of which is a subsidiary of Kingdom Holding. In the fourth largest shareholder of the company and represented on the Board of Directors. Regarding the agreements already approved by the AGM in previous years, whether or not they have an impact on this period, please refer to our report for further details. Last aspect regarding the extraordinary shareholders' meeting resolutions. In reference to Resolution 17 to 27. Besma referenced the content at the beginning of the AGM, please refer to our reports in the URD. And regarding the findings, I would like to clarify that we have no specific comment to draw to your attention regarding those resolute.

Thank you to the 4 of you. for being here. Now over to you, Besma for presenting the various resolutions before we start the Q&A session.

Thank you very much, Sebastien. I start with Resolutions 1 and 2 the purpose of which is to the parent company consolidated financial statements for fiscal 2022 and also the third resolution which concerns the appropriation of earnings for fiscal 2022 and the payout of the dividend for the first time since 2019 in the amount of EUR 1.05. So resolutions 47 because the renewal of directors mandates and the appointment of a new director, the 3 terms of office expiring at the end of this meeting and propose for renewal or those of Sebastien Marie Bazin, Iris Knobloch and Bruno Pavlovsky. I would like to clarify that Mr. Bazin would then be confirmed as Chairman and CEO; and Iris Knobloch would be confirmed as Vice Chairperson and Lead Director. In addition, the appointment of Anne-Laure Kiechel as an Independent Director is submitted for your approval. All of these terms of office, all of these appointments are for a period of 3 years. Now regarding Resolutions 8 and 9, they relate to the ex post say on pay. The eighth resolution submitted to your approval the report on the compensation of all corporate offices, including the directors for fiscal 2022. Resolution 9 concerns the approval of the fixed, variable and exceptional components of the total compensation and benefits of any kind paid or granted to Sebastien Bazin in respect to fiscal 2022. Resolutions 10 and 11 have to do with the ex anti say on pay, this is submitted for your approval of the compensation policies for the Chairman and CEO and the directors, respectively, in respect to fiscal 2022. I'd remind you that all of the information relating to the compensation of corporate officers is included in the URD. Resolutions 12 to 15 submitted to approval, have to do with related party commitments made during fiscal 2022. The sponsorship agreement to provide financial support, alongside our core franchise owners for the extension of the [Indiscernible], Resolution 13 regarding the renewal of the provision of premises free of charge to Accor Acquisition Company, which is a special purpose acquisition company, of which Accor is the sponsor. Resolution 14 concerns the conclusion of a new partnership agreement with the Paris Saint Germain Football Club, which will provide worldwide visibility for all brands and also enable the company to provide a unique and special experience to members of the ALL Loyalty programme for Four Seasons. Resolution 15. Its purpose is to approve the conclusion of a share subscription agreement for Rotana Music Holding Limited, which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi. And this will help Accor strengthen visibility of its ALL Loyalty programme in the Middle East. And as the statutory auditors said, please refer to the special report to the statutory auditors regarding related party agreements in previous years, which continue to have an impact in 2022. Resolution 16. The purpose of this resolution is to renew the authorization that you give each year to the Board of Directors to trade in the company's shares. The authorization request concerns a maximum of 10% of the capital at a maximum purchase price of EUR 70 per share. Resolution 17 seeks to authorize the Board of Directors to reduce the company's share capital by canceling shares for a maximum of 10% of the capital. These 2 authorizations may not be used during a public offer period. Resolution 18 proposes that you delegate to the Board of Directors, the power to issue shares or securities, giving access to the share capital with preferential subscription rights up to a limit of 50% of the share capital. Resolution 19 proposes you delegate the same shares or securities without preferential subscription rights by public offer up to a limit of 10% of the share capital. And lastly, Resolution 20 proposes the issue of the same shares and securities still without preferential subscription rights but we have an offer to qualified investors or to a limited circle of investors, still within the limit of 10% of the share capital. Resolution 21 proposes that you delegate to the Board of Directors the power to increase the number of shares to be issued in the context of a capital increase with or without preferential subscription rights up to a limit of 15% of the initial issue. Resolution 22 proposes that you delegate to the board the power to issue shares or securities as consideration for contributions in kind made to the company. Resolution 23 proposes that you delegate to the board the power to issue shares or securities by incorporation of reserves, profits or share premiums up to maximum of 50% of the capital. Resolution 24 proposes that you limit the maximum aggregate normal amount to the previous capital increases to 50% of the share capital, with a ceiling of 10% of the share capital for capital increases, without preferential subscription rights. I would also like to point out that none of these resolutions are -- may be used in the event of a public tender offer for company shares. Lastly, I will group together Resolutions 25 and 26, which proposed that you authorize the Board of Directors to set up a company savings plan in France and abroad. This concerns a maximum of 2% of their capital. Resolution 27 proposes that you authorize the Board to issue equity warrants to be allocated free of charge to shareholders in the event of a public offer for the company's shares. I'd like to clarify that this resolution can only be implemented following a positive opinion of an Ad Hoc Committee of the Board, composed solely of independent directors. Lastly, Resolution 28. Powers for formalities. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Besma. Let me dwell on the seventh resolution for a few minutes. Because we are fortunate to have here with us today, the person, Anne-Laure Kiechel, in the first row, who is up for election. I know I know well. Anne-Laure is a wonderful economist. She was -- I'm not sure she'll be going back to investment banking, but she was a very highly talented investment banker at the very top echelons. And because she has a very strong audacious personality, she decided to leave the comfort of the investment banking world in Paris to create her own company called Global Sovereign Advisory, a company that was created, I think, 3 or 4 years ago, if she will confirm which is expanding very, very rapidly on quite a number of continents with a lot of offices. Its noble task is to propose advice to a certain number of foreign governments in the field of debt reviews of economics and social affairs to give them an outside view to help make the right decisions in their countries, both in terms of global challenges and European challenges. So when you will read what Anne-Laure and her people have written, she has a very large staff, see just how smart, how deep this information is and how fortunate we are to have her. I told, we will be able to compensate you as well as other governments and other companies, but please join our Board because Anne-Laure's vision of the international affairs is a rare resource. So Anne-Laure, thank you for having accepted to join us. Second thing I wanted to mention, which has nothing to do with the foresight, but I know quite a few of you in the room here have already paid tribute to Mr. Tran. He was an individual shareholder, but he was not like any other individual shareholder. I was fortunate to be on 2 Boards, Accor and Carrefour's Board for a 5-year period. So during the Annual General Meetings of these 2 groups, I was fortunate to meet him as many others were in other AGMs. The word that comes to mind when I think of is unsettling. He was not like any other. He was very funny in his own way, very refined, ever present and as I've said before, he was very, very, very difficult to understand. But each and every time, his questions were clever, and we miss them. We miss them because often laborious, boring affairs. And it was always -- it did us a lot of good at the time of the open questions to break our hearts laughing because -- but one time in every 3, 1 in every 3 questions was misunderstood by the person at . So somebody had to wondered how the CEO was going to answer a question that nobody else had understood. A little aside, if I may. When thinking of him his morning, you may have been here with us in the Pullman, 5 or 6 years ago. When Rogan took the floor with his usual 3 questions, and one of the questions when I think about it now, I wonder why he actually want to venture into that area. But I think it was just for fun to make us laugh. The issue he rose was to ask us if we could do something to ensure that the toilet, the seats, could be lowered to ensure that small people could actually urinate with their feet on the ground. So can you just imagine me trying to understand what [indiscernible] had just said, I understood the word toilet and then I [indiscernible] the toilet bowl. And then I want to know why he wanted to lower the toilet bowls. Until eventually, I came to realize that it with people of restricted growth. So absolutely roared laughing when I finally -- when I think about [ Roger ] asking me that question. Gérard Pélisson, we miss you, but we also miss [indiscernible]. And I'm quite sure that some of you will take up the challenge, but a little tribute in passing to our ever present, [indiscernible] . This brings me to the written questions. Well, we have 2 written questions. The first of these concerns dividends. Shareholder [indiscernible] we've been very actively buying back shares in recent years, and I wanted to know why we had bought back shares rather than pay out a dividend. Also, what criteria we used to decide between share buybacks and dividend payout. Well, the criteria are a combination of economic currency. And we said 50% of our recurring free cash flow would be allocated to pay the dividend. That's a rule we've had for quite a few years, and we're not going to depart from that. And when we talk about nonrecurring or extraordinary income, we tend to buy back shares rather than pay dividends for 2 reasons. The first reason, that all too often when the dividend is exceptional, it goes to people who sell their shares the day after they received the extraordinary payout. Now I'm not committing everybody. Most of you have kept your shares for a very long time, but a lot of American shareholders sell off their shares the day after the dividend payout. As for share buybacks, well, share buybacks benefit everybody, particularly those who keep their shares because the shares we buy back are then canceled. Fiscally, it's also more advantageous for individual shareholders. Now in this company, when we take up to Board of Directors meetings, well, we could change it, but the ordinary dividend will be a good reflection of the economic activity. And if we have additional extraordinary nonrecurring income, the chance of the return to shareholders in most if not all cases, it will be in the form of shares that we buy back and then subsequently canceled. The second question we received concerns are water consumption targets. So this one is taken. "Your previous water consumption target was successfully achieved last year. Congratulations. Have you already set up new water reduction targets? Are you planning to tie these goals to the compensation of your CEO? What actions as a hotel chain can you embark upon to further reduce water consumption?" Well, we are going to do that. But we do that when we've set up a tool we expect to implement next year in 2024, that enables us to measure water consumption by hotel, by destination and so on. In other words, when we set ourselves the goal of reducing water consumption. If these decisions are at a global level, they're not terribly meaningful. Really, what we need to look at is the areas where there's a scarcity of water. And I spoke about this only 3 days ago here, and this is why the question is particularly relevant. I can't accept that 1/3 of the world's population does not have access to drinking water because behind this 1/3, we have a total of 2.5 billion people. So the world of hospitality should take up the challenge of the lack of drinking water and take up the challenge of reducing the water we consume. This is part of the food chain that we talked about with Bruno and his team about how water supplied, how water is used in vegetables, what we consume because it's also in our kitchens that we use water. It's important to talk of what we need, what we don't need. We also consume water in the form of showers. We consume water throughout the hospitality business. So alongside [indiscernible] we've worked on setting up a tool using methodology to calculate the carbon footprint of each and every hotel and brand to be able to measure it year after year and then reduce it. But we need to have the same tool in all our Accor brands to measure the water consumption and share it with our suppliers. So it's a huge challenge. When we've rolled out this tool, there's no doubt that the Board of Directors and Ellen is in front of me. She, too, has asked that this be measured every year and, therefore, reflected in the compensation of the Executive Director and the senior officers. So just give us enough time to find this tool, perfect it, make it simple concrete, but we roll it out at a local level, and then we will add up all the local commitments to make a global commitment. Sum of the parts. Now going to give the floor to the individual shareholders. I know there are representatives here. I don't know where he or she is. Would you please either stand up or come here, and we give you a mic. So representing individual shareholders.

Thank you. I'm Jean-Pierre Verollet, and I'm a member of the Individual Shareholders Advisory Committee. I have a question between the link between inflation, sustainable development and the environment. Inflation has raised its head durably, I'm afraid, and it has an impact on the states, companies, individuals. And in France, for instance, we have found that organic products are being consumed less because they're more expensive. Accor has had a long-standing commitment in favor of sustainable development. You've actually been a pioneer in sustainable development and have had a very, made very major commitments, which I think we've heard about time again at our AGMs. Is there any change of this being affected by inflation? And over and beyond Accor, what are your feelings on the impact of inflation on society at large?

So are the commitments made before you, by prudence rather unheard and will they be changed anyway because inflation is high? The answer to that is simply no. Quite simply, no, because the commitments we make are made independently of the economic environment. So there's no reason why they should be questioned or challenged in any way, irrespective of the economy. That said, your question is relevant because the discussions are ongoing in the 2 things. Firstly, at reducing our consumption of energy, water and many other things. But secondly, to transfer the way we consume to exit fossil energies to work our way towards renewable energies. This is going relatively well, but there are a number of regulations and rules here. These people are on the sixth floor. And we have a big stake in a company called Energy Observer, which is a company that is fostering hydrogen, and particularly green hydrogen through generators that we will be using on boats and very soon in our hotels. Hydrogen is currently way too dear by comparison with fossil fuels. And legislation doesn't really allow us to use this type of green energy. So little by little, we're getting there, finding the right methods, but our commitments are not challenged in any way, and we will reach our goals. As for inflation in the broader economic context. We are good students and bad students. I'm afraid I know that well because, okay, well, we're good students in the sense that we can set our room prices every day. It's not the same when you have rent to pay on an office buildings or whatever. But if costs and wages are inflated, we can actually pass that on to clients by increasing prices on a day-to-day basis. So we've had that good fortune for the last 14 months or so. We're also bad students because in doing that, we are contributing to inflation through the price of rooms. So it's the same reply I gave to you about energy consumption. We're going to have to strike a good balance between not being guilty of contributing to inflation while abiding by the commitments we have made to our hotel owners and shareholders. This is one of the charms of our business. I see a number of questions. I have questions here that we've received via Internet. I can read them to you. If there are other questions from the room -- we have numbers. We have another number two. And before that. Okay, number 2 first.

Hello again. I have several questions for you. I'd like to know who drafts your documents.

A competent person. I can assure you. Oh, no, and I'm going to quote 2 examples. I will give you 2 as examples. Page 123 of the Universal Registration Document in the French version. Often clients, healthy food that's healthy for the plan. And you say, I'm quoting "The group had been implementing a healthy food charter articulated around commitments may prioritizing local supplies and supplies in season." And the next block you see in our restaurants. This translates into the prohibition of using seasonal and local products. And I'm just taking 2 examples. And the other is in the Notice of Meeting.

Cost approach to preserve environment and so on and so forth, will not be handed out at the AGM. If you wish to receive documents and information, I'm not calling the articles, please contact us and ask us that we send you these documents, which will be at your disposal on Page 19, a disclosure. So I go to Page 19 to ask you to send me this Notice of Meeting. And that's my first question.

What you're saying is that we can still improve. Okay. I'm going to give you another bedside book as a better one than our reference document. What that proves is that we read them. And that's why we publish them, even though they are difficult to obtain.

Page 157 in the same document. The CNIL find you EUR 600,000 for several shortcomings. In the meantime, you have become compliant. This was back in 2019. You were inspected subsequent to several complaints by European users, not French, but European clients. In 2022, the CNIL issued a favorable review. But what I mentioned is your ADT, this is your digital profile. It's a lot of information for people who never seem. Test is really intrusive, it's really including to our private details.

Now I'm sure Besma will back me up on this. No, no. There are a number of rules and regulations that protect our clients and consumers, especially in terms of how personal data is shared or not shared. And the CNIL, the authority has a regulator, has been -- has ruled in our favor. But any of you who have accepted to join ALL Loyalty programme, you will have a little box that you take to tell us whether we can keep your information. It's the opt-in [ opt-out ] box. It's you who decide whether or not your personal data can be recorded, shared, used, if you don't want us to use it, don't worry you fully covered by the law. And this is why we were fine because we weren't explicit enough in our explanations, but we will not use your data if you do not want us to.

Well, if I haven't got a computer at home, what do I do?

Well, you're better protected because if you haven't got a computer, we haven't got your information. Safest houses.

Okay, you have partly answered my question about Accor key. We now have a virtual key to give us access to the lift and our rooms. And I asked you if we didn't have a smartphone because everything is recorded on the smartphone, do we have to sleep in the lobby? I just have an ordinary phone. So I can't download anything onto my phone.

Okay. I'll leave that to Brune. But it's a big change from the actual of the height of the toilets. Well, I'm not as funny as used to be. The answer is man to man, that I'm afraid, I don't know. There is always a reception desk at a hotel. There's always somebody who will deal with problems. The digital key actually is to make life easy, but there are always backup solutions. We do want our clients to sleep in our hotel.

Even if that means sleeping in the lobby?

No, there's a reception and a receptionist. There will always be somebody to make sure you get into your room.

Well, I'll keep the rest for next year.

Please come back to see -- come back and join us next year.

I'm here every year, sir.

Are there any other requests for the floor? Here's a gentleman at the back of the room, if we could get a microphone to the gentleman.

I'm a former employee of the group, Chairman, from a few years back I'm still very much an employee at heart. Three questions, if I may. The first question concerns the level of business. Before COVID, there was no teleworking. Teleworking has now become part of our daily lives. Secondly at previous AGMs, you talked about the possibility of developing the business with the concierge where you could or you choose to have somebody polish them and you could retreat them the next day. We could do yoga or take out a subscription to the swimming pool at monitor, maybe. Or the possibility of meetings outside of our company premises or maybe sell luxury accessories in high-end hotel. These were all ideas that I'm just wondering what they had become. Or have they just fallen by the wayside? Now you have 46 brands in your portfolio. Over time, do you foresee an increase or a decrease in the number of brands? And there is a new strategic decision concerning the separation of the group into luxury on the one hand and economy and mid-scale. On the other hand, I'm not sure I fully understand the wording. But will you be communicating about the profitability of the 2 divisions or 2 branches? Is there any possibility of one being carved out?

When we carved out Accor and [ invest ] or the prepaid services, the share price was divided by 2 every time.

I have another question concerning the risk or change of a takeover bid. Now you're managing the group and managing it in conditions where you had a tailwind that got you through the storm, but is a possibility of somebody else managing the group better from within the group or outside of the group?

So from your 3 questions, I have identified 5. Right, concerning your first question, about new business, teleworking and so on. Not only have we not abandoned all that. We have accelerated. Within this group, there are 2 different stakes, one called WOJO, which we have a 50% stake alongside the Bouygues Group. WOJO is an operator like Regus and [indiscernible] where they have something like 70,000 square meters and in 12 locations in the Paris region and Barcelona. It's going well. This is a place where you can go and work by day, by week, by month without making long-term financial commitments, where you will have a reception at an office that will be closed or locked or not, depending on your means. There's another stake called WorkLib, which is a digital intermediation platform that you can use to book a hotel, museum or somebody else's office. You can make reservations to make it easy for the employees of large groups to use space outside of the usual pre-COVID spaces in the office or the tower block, the -- our customers work in. So there a number of large groups that use WorkLib to enable their employees to use independent locations. We know where they are, what they cost. And Accor has a 40% stake in this entity. So not only have we not abandoned the idea but we're developing it because the demand is 5x to 6x higher than what we anticipated before COVID. As for the concierge idea and the idea of dropping off shoes for the or let's say, a garments for dry cleaning. That was not a great idea. To be very honest, it was my idea. And it didn't work because it was a lot of restrictions, because we found it very hard to price that service because the reception desk, didn't really have time to handle parcels that weren't their clients' parcel. So it was probably a very noble idea to become part of the local fabric. But it's an idea that we abandoned because we didn't have the right model, and there were a lot of restrictions. However, meeting rooms, you can use to work with WorkLib because you can reserve our -- book a meeting in one of our hotels or offices. The brands, you said, there are 46. I have to be careful because I'm the first to talk about the 46 brands. But quite a few of these, about 15, about 1/3, if you like, or local or regional brands that you're not very familiar with. Some are called Sebel [indiscernible] from Australia. And they're big in Australia, but they will never go beyond the boundaries of Australia. They will never become continental or into regional brands. But they're there, they're in the portfolio. And of the 46, there are about 30 global major global brands. They haven't got the same means of the same growth as a smaller one. You mentioned these brands, the importance of the brands, the promise, the growth. So on the 27th of June, when we will take 6 or 7 hours with those of you who wish to attend to learn about the benefits of our new organization, which is a very pragmatic operational organization. It doesn't exist as a legal entity per se. On the last point, the danger of a takeover bid. Is there a threat? Well, people have been crying wolf about Accor Group for years and nothing has ever happened. The only way we can defend ourselves against this risk, if it's deemed a risk, because some shareholders would love to have a takeover bid because that would boost the share price. That's not what I would like. But the best way to defend ourselves is to be as efficient as possible and to have a share price. That's a good reflection of our efficiency. Obviously, much happier with a 35% increase in the share price over the start of the year, but we're not entirely happy because I think we can do a lot better. As for somebody doing a better job than me in the group, the really good news is that within the next 5 minutes, you will have an opportunity to vote on that. EUR 75. We've never hit EUR 75 -- now we can talk about this. But so far as I'm a Director of the group, you may be right. The lady I'm afraid, is off mic. I've been a director for 15 years. As for Edenred, which gentlemen mentioned, it was difficult at the time. But as a Director, is worth more than Accor. Wonderful growth in a very different market. They made an acquisition as recently as last night. So for the shareholders, you're aware that you are. It was great to give Edenred its independence. Well, both these companies were given their independence. They didn't have the same objectives and didn't need the same meaning.