Alstom SA (ALO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our General Meeting. I declare the combined ordinary and extraordinary general meeting open. First of all, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to all the shareholders who are here with us as well as those who logged on to attend this meeting remotely. With me today, Emmanuelle Petrovic, General Counsel; and Bernard-Pierre Delpit, CFO of the Alstom Group. I would like to welcome the members of our Board of Directors with the exception of Clotilde Delbos, who sends her apologies for not being able to attend this meeting today. In accordance with the law, it is now my responsibility to appoint the officers of the meeting. I call as scrutineers, Mrs. Kim Thomas, now representing the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, our largest shareholder, which holds 80,930,484 shares; and Ms. [indiscernible], representing Bpifrance Investissement, holding 34,930,254 shares are the two members of the meeting who represent the 2 largest numbers of the vote and who have accepted this position. With the agreement of the tellers, I suggest we appoint Emmanuelle Petrovic as the Secretary to the Bureau of the Assembly. The statutory auditors of our company, Jean-Luc Barlet representing Mazars, and Edouard Cartier and Cédric Haaser representing PwC Audit. And I'm going to give the floor to Mrs. Emmanuelle Petrovic.

Thank you, Chairman. So the agenda and the resolutions to be put to the vote at this combined general meeting are set out in the notice of meeting brochure available on our website and sent to our shareholders. The agenda and the resolutions are also included in the notice meeting published in the [indiscernible] on the 15th of May. The Board of Directors' report on the resolutions is included in the Notice of Meeting brochure, the statutory auditors' reports have also been made available to you and are included in notice. In order not to prolong the meeting unnecessarily, I propose that we do not read out the agenda and these reports. The documents required by law are enlisted in the minutes of this general meeting are also included in the file placed on the desk. All those documents were made available to shareholders as the registered office of the company. I would like to inform you that meeting will proceed as follows. Our Chairman will present a review of the financial year '23, '24, including an update on your company's climate strategy. Bernard-Pierre Delpit, our CFO, will comment on the financial results for the year. The activities of the Board committees will be presented to you by the Chairman. Yann Delabriere, Independent Lead Director, will present the activities of the Appointments and Compensation Committee. The remuneration -- the resolutions on the directorships, the remuneration policy for executive directors, the remuneration of Henri Poupart-Lafarge for the past financial year. Sylvie Rucar will report on the work of the Audit & Risk Committee. Sylvie de Beaupuy will report on the work of the ethics and compliance; [indiscernible] will present the activities of the Integration Committee. Finally, the statutory auditors will present their reports. Following these presentations, there will be an opportunity to ask questions to the audience -- either from the audience -- either orally or in writing using the form you were given on entering the meeting. Then we'll conclude with the presentation and vote on the resolutions. As it is customary to facilitate voting and enabling the results to be displayed more quickly, an electronic voting system will be used. When you enter the meeting room, you'll be -- you were given an electronic voting box, which I would ask you to keep close at hand, and I would like to ask you not to forget to give it back when you leave the room. And the attendance sheet is currently being checked. So we will be welcoming shareholders until 3:00 p.m. At the date of the registration of the shares to which at least 1 voting right is attached for company's share capital comprises 461,149,281 shares and with a par value of EUR 7 each. According to the provisional attendance register, the shareholders represented or voting by proxy shares with voting right represent [ 63.5% ]. The quorum for the ordinary meeting is 20% for the ordinary part and 25% for the extraordinary part. So quorum of 25% is already reached. I would like to remind you that the meeting is being filmed and broadcast live on the website, and [indiscernible] is present in the room. I'll give back to the Chairman.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Thank you, Emmanuelle. So again, good afternoon to you all. I'm going to say a few words about the most striking events of '23, '24. You have here the main indicators. It was an intense year. It was very intense from a sales and commercial viewpoint. You have the numbers here, EUR 18.9 billion, what we call the book-to-bill ratio, which gives us a book-to-bill ratio above 1. It means that will go on growing. Our backlog increased as well. So we have a very intense activity everywhere in all our activities. It's been also a major year as far as the delivery of our products was concerned. The growth number increased by 9%. It's EUR 7.6 billion. It's a record for the Group. It corresponds to a growth of plus 12% number of cars delivered last year. A dense year as well as far as transformation was concerned. We are being transformed. We are -- we have been integrating Bombardier for 3 years now. And we have been able to increase our operational earnings, plus 17%. It's EUR 1 billion. It's in line with what we expect. It was also a very intense and difficult year as far as generation of cash was concerned with 2 different half years. The first half year, we were -- the generation of cash was negative. So we had to correct a certain number of things and to counterbalance the problem. So we used EUR 600 million in cash. It's in line with what we announced in November, but it's not obviously in line with what we expected and hoped. As Tom has a major objective, it's decarbonate mobility. Our railway transport is obviously, today, the most decarbonated transportation system, and we have to go on improving our environmental performance within the group. But as far as all the products we make are concerned. Within the group, it's what we call 1 and 2, it's the emission level of our production, minus -- it decreased by 40% over the -- since '21. So we've made major efforts to decrease the emission produced by our own activities. Minus 13% outside of the Group itself. So I'm talking here about our suppliers and customers. Everybody improves the situation and the level of emission. So minus 13%, even if energy used by trains is decarbonated, we have to go on decreasing this consumption. Then we have what we call taxonomy alignment on sales. It's the share of sales, which is in the right direction, I would say, which will help us find a solution to the climate challenge. So 60% of our sales. It's much higher than in any other type of industry. And we are obviously also working on the development of people. We are working on gender diversity, for example, and women in management, plus 0.8%. 24% of our employees are women. We'll go into the details of all those numbers in the second part of this afternoon. Now back to our markets and the performance of the year. First of all, the market is still quite good, and it's quite strong. Two main growth factors on our market: urban development, obviously, and the desire of most cities, if you live in Paris, you know what I'm talking about. Most cities want to get rid of cars within the city centers. And obviously, it means that the cities have to invest in urban transportation systems. It's true in Paris, but it's also obviously the case in emerging countries, which have extremely big cities. The second growth factors is intercity transport. Decarbonation of transport is fundamental here as well. People are changing their way of life. And this increases traffic in Europe, it's the case, but everywhere else as well, in the United States and China. You've heard the discussions on the fact that there were not enough TGV trains. People are asking for more transportation, railway transportation, more trains in general. It's also the case everywhere in Europe, obviously, in America, Southeast Asia, Australia and Africa, Middle East, where we are developing urban transportation systems. If you compare the situation with what it was last year, we have slightly decreased our perspective because [ Indian ] Railways, for example, are reviewing their procurement strategy. So -- but the market is good. It means that we have a double -- dual strategy. We are selective in all the orders we sign. We have to be selective in -- as far as products and services are concerned. But we also must go on what I call a book-to-bill. The ratio should be above 1 year so that we can increase our backlog. The market is good, and this is why we have this selective strategy. Just a few numbers, but you know most of them, I'm sure. A few numbers about Alstom. First of all, half our activity is rolling stock. We have other activities signaling systems. We have a service activity as well, which is very important for us, maintenance of trains -- long-term maintenance of train. It's not so much the case in France because French operators are in charge of their own maintenance or the maintenance of the trains, but it's not the case everywhere. And then we have also railway tracks installation, new lines, new lines in emerging countries, but not only the Line 18 of the Metro in Paris. So we have other examples everywhere in Europe. So this is the distribution of our sales, half is rolling stock. We are world leaders outside China. We are the only player everywhere in -- we're present everywhere on all the continents. We have a market share which is 30%. And growth, 6.5%, slightly inferior to the general growth rate of the group, not because we're neglecting this activity in particular, but because today, we focus on services and signaling with the risk profile, growth perspective, cash generation, this is better in those different activities outside rolling stock. We are leaders in services as well. We have a big -- we work on 250 sites in 40 different countries, all over the planet. We have 17,000 employees. So the growth rate for this particular activity is 14.3%. It's a major strategic line for us. We invest a lot in maintenance, optimization of warehouses and so on and so forth. Signaling, it's a digital activity. Very digital activity indeed. Three main stakeholders, Siemens, Hitachi, they bought the French Thales and ourselves. It's secure activity. They are barriers around this activity because, obviously, you have to guarantee the efficiency of the network while guaranteeing the security and safety of passengers. So the growth rate here is quite good as well. The European signaling system is being installed at the moment, what we call the RTMS and systems. We like this particular activities because it enables us to combine our standard solutions. We are in control of the interface between different solutions. And we think that -- thanks to our model, we are quite efficient when we work with Alstom equipment, with Alstom systems and so on and so forth. So the organic growth in all our activities and in particular, in our targets -- most targeted activities, services and signaling. Now a few pictures. You've seen some of those products in the field. These are the orders signed. Philadelphia Tramway, for example, we have options as well for the Metro Line 19, the MF19, Metro for France, Paris. We have services as well in -- we signed a certain number of interesting orders here as well in U.K. and Australia, in particular. And we have signed orders in signaling and systems in Tel Aviv, Philippines, but elsewhere as well. So the commercial activity, again, was dense last year. It's going on, developing and growing. The first quarter, we have been able to announce some additional orders. The U.K. contract, Elizabeth Line, for example, it's a very important contract for us. We need workload for our British sites, and this is a good contract then. Locomotives. I am insisting on locomotives because this is something we got from Bombardier. Alstom before Bombardier couldn't sell so many locomotives. Now we are back on this particular market. We recently signed a contract with an Italian customer. And in services, it's -- this is the Dominican maintenance contract. So this activity will go on all year long. Now execution. Back to the process. We are -- we've been working on for 3 years. We have improved the situation over the past 3 years. We have really worked on the quality of our production. Three indicators, which are key for us. The first is obviously customer satisfaction. This is our first objective. We have a client Net Promoter Score, which is at 8.4. It's very positive and very stable indeed. It's stable at a high level, I should say. Second indicator, on-time delivery. We have been able to improve this delivery on time, on-time delivery, plus 27 [ point ] trains delivered on time over the past 3 years. So we made major efforts here to satisfy our customers. Another example, another indicator, last year, we divided by 2, the stock of late cars. If you take some cars which should have been delivered at the beginning of the year, they were not. We were a bit late. Now this stock was divided by 2 all year long. So we are really improving the situation here. We are catching up. And quality. Major efforts have been made as well here. It's fundamental. Quality is really important, the quality of what we deliver to customers. Visual quality, technical quality, availability of trains. And we have divided by 4 here, quality problems on our trains. And you have a major sign of this improved quality. When we deliver new trains or new programs, those new programs have no difficulty. They don't have to be adjusted, I would say. Whereas a few years ago, that was not the case. It took 3, 4 years to actually adapt some programs. The Line 14, [indiscernible], all trains worked extremely well. So major, major efforts here in this particular -- on this particular point. Major delivery year. 400,000 cars have been delivered plus 12% compared to the previous year. So compared to March '21, plus 40%, a small number of industries have been able to improve so well over the past 3 years. And this year, it was particularly true in France. We've delivered many, many cars and trains in France. Why? Well, we want it to be on time for the Olympic Games, obviously. And it's so specific. We've been pushed by the Olympic Games, by the fact that [indiscernible] wanted to really improve its fleet. So many, many extensions have been made, six of them, six major operations on existing metro and tramlines in Paris. And they are ready for the Olympic Games, and Alstom teams, [ in Valencian ], but others as well, we're really -- or mobilized actually to meet the demand of the customer. Line 14, for example, that will go from [ Saint-Denis to Orly ]. The Line 11, which has been -- which entered into service in June. Line 4, automation of Line 4 since the 19th of January. We have delivered 100 train sets to be on time. The RER, the new generation RER, and that's not something which happens every year, obviously. So -- but we were on time. We were on time for the extension of line E, which now goes to Nanterre. The trains are absolutely beautiful. New generation trains really radically different from the first RER trains. [indiscernible] same, the T3 extended between [indiscernible], and the T12, south of Paris, Massy-Palaiseau to Evry. These are what we call half trains, half tramways, the heavy tramways, in fact. So they're very symbolical of all the efforts we've done this year. We are on time for the Olympic Games. So '23, '24 was also an intense year. I said it right in the introduction in terms of the challenges and cash generation. We have to come back to this period of time. It was in October, November and it forced us to review in the short term a number of plants. And in the midterm and long term to look into greater depth what has to be accelerated, strengthened and improved so that we no longer have this problem and that we could draw all the lessons from this. Let's come back a bit. There were some external factors. The sharp increase in the interest rates having an impact on our financial statements and the fact that the financial markets became risk everted. It created a lot of volatility on the financial market, a weaker commercial momentum during the first half year. So those were external factors, but also internal factors, a number of contracts we were awarded. It has a major impact on the cash because the advanced payments of the customers are important to feed our system and to feed the cash generation, the fact that during the first half year, we didn't have as many advance payments had an impact on our cash generation. Since the acquisition of Bombardier, it's normal that further to an acquisition, a special effort is made and a part of the acquisition is financed by debt. But the debt level became too high in the context, cash generation, which was too low and negative because of the commercial activity, as I described it, and because of a number of operating problems and especially accumulation of stocks and the situation at the end of September was not sustainable. And we have to admit that there were some weaknesses in terms of cash [ and ] generation planning and the seasonality of the cash, and we had to improve that. So given this situation, which was a very difficult situation, what have we been doing? Which type of actions have we taken? The first category of actions. There is no higher key among all those actions. We had to conduct them all. First, it was to reduce the debt of the group. Obviously, the group had a too high level of debt given the external and internal situation. So this debt reduction plan, and I'll come back to it later, was implemented. And now it's almost completed, the divestments are signed, we have to finalize that. Number two, we had to strengthen the financial controls in order to better forecast cash flow and to have a better communication on that. Maybe what is more fundamental is the speeding up of the transformation plan. And we had to add to this transformation plan, a number of actions to improve the situation of the cash. And in terms of governance, the decision made by the Board to split the role of the President and the General Manager. Let's look at the debt reduction. Bernard will come back to it afterwards. So divestments, mainly for the U.S. signaling and also the stake we had in a Russian player, TMH for about EUR 700 million. Issuance of equity like is a hybrid bond, the EUR 750 million; and then an increase in capital, EUR 1 billion, which has been completed. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all because you renewed your trust in subscribing to this capital increase, and it was a huge success with a very, very high level of subscriptions. Altogether, EUR 2.4 billion revenues, corresponding to -- for the debt reduction, it was EUR 2 billion. And because the hybrid bond is 50% of equity by the rating agency, this plan was necessary. Let's look at the acceleration of the transformation plan. I would like to insist on it because it's really at the core of what we have to do. We wanted to stabilize projects, and this was largely completed. There is no longer any major technical problems in the projects, not only in the Bombardier projects. And then second step, the lean management, that is to say a lean management for the Bombardier engineering insights. And of course, efforts were on the Alstom engineering in order to be more efficient. This is what we have been doing. It's not completed yet, but hence, the results in terms of quality and NPS and customer satisfaction, on-time delivery, even if we have not finished our work there, we still have some work on our plate. And then we started an in-depth transformation plan on products in merging the range of products. Of course, for the time being, we have the locomotives, Bombardier locomotives in which we put Alstom signaling systems, let's combine some equipment, we're going to enter into the products into greater depth and in the production facilities in order to optimize the production facilities and to be a stronger and reduce cost and have a more effective production. This was our plan, and it continues to be our plan, of course. Beyond this, we said we have to speed up a number of things to speed up the cost-reduction plan, the structural cost. This was made possible by the end of the process deployment, now the group works with the same processes, we can be more efficient. And the same applies to the indirect procurement. So we have to speed up the transformation and we need to have this industrial optimization. Two points very important for the cash generation and stock optimization. We need to have enhanced discipline on cash levers for the supply chain. It's not only an Alstom problem, in this release, say, altogether that the supply chain is the weak point. And this may introduce disruption in production. So supply chain is very important. We are focusing on it to make sure that there is no disruptions. And we have to be sure that our management is really the just-in-time management. It's not completely just in time, but as just in time as possible for the stocks. And this goes through a better planning. It may seem obvious, but in the Alstom activity, you have a lot of plans, the -- what does the customer want? When does the customer want the rolling the industrial planning, engineering planning, planning of the supply chain and all this is not static. It's extremely moving. Therefore, we need to invest in the planning is key for the future. And of course, we need discipline on tender submission, discipline for the terms of payments, the technical conditions and terms, and of course, penalties and others. So we need to have this discipline because we are confronted with very special markets. During the second half year, we generated EUR 600 million cash, which means that those actions have started to bear fruit. Of course, it's far from being over, we'll have to strengthen this effort. It's not the end of the tunnel. We have to continue working in order to have the most sustainable and stable cash generation. In conclusion, you see that this year was an intense year, we should not forget, and we should step back some notes from that. We do not forget to the market, which is quite good and dynamic. The position of Alstom, very good, a real leader in the marketplace, the only player, truly global with a global reach, position #1 also in all our product lines. No specific strategic weaknesses. We have strengthened financial structure, thanks to a debt reduction plan delivered and the year was also to us the possibility to say that we have to be even stronger and quicker to carry out our operation or transformation plans in order to create value for our customers and our shareholders. So this is it. Thank you very much. And I'm going now to call to Martin because our sustainable manager could not come, but Martin Vaujour will be in charge of the relationship with investors. He's going to talk about the sustainable development and the strategy. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Thank you, all here. Good afternoon. Now Alstom priorities as far as sustainable development is concerned and social responsibility, obviously, they're based on five fundamental pillars. Four of them, which we have been working on for years now and a new pillar, which I'm going to explain later. So you have net zero mobility, climate strategy, carbon emission, community empowerment. We have to be close -- as close as possible to the communities with which we work, the value chain, what we do vis-a-vis our suppliers and the supply chain in general; employees, resource preservation, people care and growth, obviously, and something new, it's resource preservation. We are aware of the global trends. I mean, resources are becoming rarer and rarer. We are focusing on resource preservation. I'll tell you about what we've done for each pillar, and I will give details about our ambitions for the future. First of all, this new resource conservation pillar. First type of action is what we call eco-design. We want to go on reducing the environmental impact of our products and solutions throughout their life cycle. This means more and more innovation. We have to improve the energy efficiency of our rolling stock and reduce the resource intensity of our services and signaling solutions. 87% of our solutions have been eco designed and will reach 100% at the end of March next year. We are also increasing our target for recycled content in rolling stock, up to 40% recycled matter in our products, and we are getting -- that's the final objective, but we are close to 25% today. In the area of the circular economy, we will develop our existing successful initiatives, such as the recovery of electronic components which we sell on our StationOne marketplace afterwards. We will increase the recycling rates at our own site, 85% by 2030. Now everywhere in the world -- we are present everywhere in the world and -- we have four ambitions here to mean that we care about people. We have to be a leader and diversity leader. As an illustration, in fact, we are increasing our number of women as engineers or managers. Our objective was 25%. It will be 32% in the near future. And our new objective is to have 30% top managers, women top managers. We have another new objective for all our employees. In 2030, we will have 100% social coverage and health coverage for all our employees everywhere. So this will be the case in a few years. We also give our employees the possibility of learning and develop their skills, 25 hours per employee and per year in 2030. All these initiatives will help us improve the engagement of our employees. We measure the level of commitment. We measure this level of commitment every year with a survey. And we are going to go on with these dynamics. In fact, we have an objective of 72% engagement to commitment in 2030. Now local communities. We are present all over the planet in many different countries. Some concrete examples of what we do. We want to increase the number of people we actually work with our Alstom Foundation, for example, 400,000 people will be supported by the Foundation in 2030. Today, 300,000. We'll give more time to our employees as well for -- if they want to be volunteers in all these actions organized by the foundation. And we have developed our development -- we have improved our development strategy and more inclusive mobility, for example, in particular, access of chairs in vehicles. The chain -- the value chain is obviously quite important. We are developing our responsible value chain. We are developing our partnership with our suppliers. We want to be sure that all our suppliers are not exposed to risks, environmental risks, in particular, again, 95% of our suppliers should meet our demand by 2030. At the same time, we will continue our successful initiatives, to train our suppliers to improve their environmental and social performance. And we are constantly improving the situation. We have trained 100 of them today, and we will have trained 1,000 of them in 2030. In terms of net zero mobility, our climate strategy, well Alstom, we provide solutions, obviously, to green mobility. Different elements here. First, Scope 1 and 2. In fact, the emissions of carbon we produce. We have made major progress in that field. We've made major efforts in that field. We've reduced these emissions by 22%. And -- but what we produce is a small -- is a low emission. We don't produce much carbon. The emission rate is fairly low, but we go on this, what we call Scope 1 and 2, the level of emissions should be reduced by 40% in 2030. We have led, in all our plants, for example, will develop a sustainable electricity production. We'll invest in farms -- solar farms in Spain, for example. So this represents 1% of our total carbon footprint, but we are also working on what we call Scope 3, what we buy and what we sell. The way our products are used in the world. So the upstream Scope 3 would we buy, we will reduce in a very significant way the level of emission here by 30% in 2030 compared to 2023. We are now using a new tool. It will be fully operational in October. Thanks to this tool, the supplier can declare their own level of carbon emission. They will define an action -- we will help them define an action plan to reduce this emission level. Scope 3 downstream, the emissions produced by the products we sell by trains. Our commitment here is to reduce the carbon level by 42% for passenger trains and 30% for freight trains compared to 2022. There are actions on which we have no influence. It's the energy mix of the countries where we sell our trains, obviously. But we are doing a certain number of things. For example, the efficiency, we are working on the energy efficiency of our trains of our solutions. Obviously, we will go on working on these various points. The most visible example or illustration is this one. Most of our Alstom solutions are electrical, so zero emission. But nevertheless, we still have some trains in Europe, which are operated by diesel. So we are going to replace them in the future by clean solutions, zero emission solutions. So 2 types of solutions, hydrogen trains for long sections. We have already sold these solutions in Germany, Italy and France. We are the first actually with such a fleet of trains. For shorter lines, we have battery electric traction. They will replace diesel, and it's a solution we have sold to Dublin, for example, in Ireland. That will conclude this presentation with a few words on European tax system. We recently published our performance, 60% alignment of what we sell on European taxonomy. It's much better than most industrial players. Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you. I'm going to give the floor to Bernard for the financial statements.

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders of Alstom, I'm going to give you the financial statements, the main pieces of information, which will allow you to read the resolutions subject to your approval. I would like to start with the main indicators, which are the growth in sales and the operating margin. You remember that Alstom doubled in size with the acquisition of Bombardier and the sales of your company reaches now EUR 17.6 billion, it's an organic growth of 9.4%. So a strong increase, better than what was planned. And for the period to come, we'll continue having a growth in sales by at least 5% each year, next year and the years after. In terms of profitability margin or the operating margin, this margin is also on the way up. The adjusted EBIT margin reaches EUR 997 million, 5.7% of sales. It did not grow as quickly given the situation of some contracts after the acquisition of Bombardier and given the time necessary to get the synergy linked to the acquisition of Bombardier, and for the year to come, we aim at 6.5% of adjusted EBIT margin. And for the midterm, March '27, we are aiming at having an adjusted EBITDA between 8% and 10%. I suggest beyond the sales and the adjusted EBIT, we look at the other items of the income statement. Some of them are in the second resolution, proposed a 2-year approval. And the operating margin, we provisioned restructuring expenditure EUR [ 447 ] million this year and spend the following years. For the efficiency program, for the general and administrative costs and the number of operations we anticipate to adapt the production facilities in a number of territories. Minus EUR 360 million, this line here. This is mainly expenses linked to the integration, the convergence of the IT systems with Bombardier. We have been carrying out this program for 3 years. There is still another year of integration. And afterwards, we'll have EUR 450 million synergies, thanks to the convergence of the IT systems. On this line of loss in value on the assets, there are 2 main litigations, provisions. One was already settled, one in Turkey and one in the U.S. and for which we are appealing the U.S. decision. As to the financial results, it was EUR 242 million, but the financial -- the charges have resulted -- have increased a lot because of an increase in the interest rates and recourse to debt. And therefore, we decided to reduce this debt level. Therefore, this line should decrease this year already, thanks to the debt reduction plan. And as we indicated, we divested the stake of 20% we had in TMH, the Russian player. And this sale of our stake led to capital gains, but it has resulted in a noncash recycling charge in the income statement because this stake was in ruble, and we had it in euros in our accounts. Therefore, this resulted in a noncash recycling charge. Therefore, on this line, you have minus EUR 7 million. Usually, this line is quite profitable. So the adjusted net income of [ sum ] for this year was EUR 44 million before depreciation of goodwill that you said the revaluation of the number of items on the balance sheet when we acquired Bombardier and after this purely accounting impact, the net income of the continued operations, group share of minus EUR 351 million. Another very important is the -- point is the net debt of Alstom. Given the development of the cash situation mentioned by Henri during the first half year, this debt -- net debt reached EUR 3.4 billion at the end of the first half year. And thanks to the generation of cash flow during the second half year, it was possible to bring it back to EUR 3 billion at the end of this year. So I will comment on this debt reduction plan in a few minutes. The fact that we have debt is not really a problem in terms of liquidity of your company. At the end of March 2024, we had EUR 6.3 billion liquidities with the agreements of the banks and the access to short-term debt with commercial papers. I would like to say that before October 2026 Alstom has not to reimburse any bonds. You have the timing for the years to come. And of course, it's a favorable factor beyond the fact that this debt has almost no cost since it comes from a period of time where the interest rates were almost equal to 0. Let's say a few words on this debt reduction plan launched in November 2023 to face the debt of Alstom. This plan has three components. One, which was a divestment of assets. Altogether, it was almost EUR 700 million, divestments in the TMH, I already mentioned, and divestment of an asset in the U.S. coming from General Electric some years ago. This divestment was signed in April, and it should be completely closed next summer. Second point, we issued a hybrid bonds, permanent capital in other words, which can be reimbursed if we sold after 5 years. This instrument is regarded 50% as equity, 50% as debt. the annual cost is less than 6%. And the investors for this product. This product was launched last month. The demand was very strong. And this issuance is regarded as a success. And the last step of this debt reduction plan is the capital increase. You subscribe massively to this capital increase, and it allowed us today to have cashed in almost EUR 1 billion cash. So altogether, with three operations, one completely finalized, will allow us to get EUR 2.4 billion cash, will improve the debt ratio by EUR 2 billion. Therefore, Moody rate agency changed the credit rating from negative to stable, which was our objective, of course, as we launch this plan because you know that the credit rating is absolutely essential to conduct our operations. When we launch an operation, when we cash in advanced payments, we needed to issue warranties for our customers. And if we have good conditions, of course, this is absolutely essential for our business. Let's say a few words on the objectives, the guidance for the next financial year. I already talked about the growth, at least 5% each year, a ratio book-to-bill above 1. Sales average growth and EBIT -- adjusted EBIT margin within 8% to 10% range. The free cash flow conversion -- sorry, free cash flow generation, EUR 300 million to EUR 500 million. There will be a seasonality, slightly negative during the first half year between minus EUR 300 and EUR 500 million for the first half year. Another objective which was examined by the financial markets is the generation of accumulated cash flow over 3 years, including this year, EUR 1.5 billion. Let's say a few words on the third resolution subject to your approval, the financial statements of Alstom SA, one which is listed. We do not suggest dividends this year. So the whole net income, EUR 89 million will be put in the reserve in order to improve the balance sheet of the company. I will finish in describing the share price development of Alstom since the last general assembly. It was on the 11th of July 2023. And the period between the last general meeting at the end of '23, we experienced a sharp drop in the share price because of the debt situation in October, then development since the beginning of 2024, which was favorable, even in some days were more erratic than others. And since the 9 of June drop related to the situation in France. The announcement of [indiscernible], you see it in the diagram in the middle was welcomed positively by the markets and the share price, therefore, could hold. And we could organize the capital increase under good conditions. Thank you very much.

Now our Lead Independent Director, Chairman of Nominations and Remuneration Committee, Yann Delabrière.

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. So I will explain the activity of our committee. The missions, they remain as they were. We're working on 2 major -- 2 chapters, which are fundamental for the company, the organization of the governance of the group and the composition of the Board of Directors and so on, and we are also obviously working on remuneration. The remuneration obviously, of the members of the managing team, Mr. Poupart-Lafarge and all the members of his team. And we also add to this general policy of the company as far as shareholding schemes are concerned -- employees shareholding schemes. Now very briefly, the activity of the group this year. It's obviously organized around these various chapters. So we had to do quite a lot given the circumstances. First of all, governance. Henri presented the governance of the group. In October, we had to review the organization of governance of the company. We had to dissociate the functions of the Chairman and President of the Board of Directors and the managing role of the company. So we had to select a new Chairman of the Board, given the importance of all that has to be done in the coming months. So Henri will have now the ability to work on these plans. So it will no longer be the Chairman of the Board itself. The activity of the committee in a more traditional way now. We worked on monitoring the assessment exercise, revision of the internal rules necessary given the dissociation of the managing team of the company. And we obviously kept in close contact with all our shareholders and with a certain number of governance roadshows, for example. Remuneration. The year was important as well here. And this will be the object of the resolutions later on. We had to adjust our remuneration policies in order to be able to include in our objectives and the objectives of the managers of the group, the -- an incentive. They have to work harder on the recovery plan, the cash generation plan. These new elements of the year were added to the remuneration policy that you voted for last year. So we'll have two specific resolutions on these points. And in a fairly traditional way, obviously, we have reviewed all the remuneration ratios. Remuneration of the Chairman and CEO, remuneration of the members of the leadership team of the Board members. So you will vote on these various points as well later on this afternoon and will -- also -- we also worked on the remuneration of RV for the coming year. So I talked about governance of the company. I explained the reasons why we had to change the structure of the governance system. And I've talked about the results of this decision. The Board has immediately started working on the recruitment of the new Chairman of the company. We wanted to have someone with an industrial experience. We wanted someone with a long and successful experience as well as a top executive -- of top executive functions. We wanted someone with -- at least with the governance of the company, of the organization of the Board and so on. And we wanted someone with a good experience in the transformation plans of the company and the integration of major acquisitions, for example, which is a characteristic of the phase the group is in today. So I will come back to this point. These -- according to this criteria, we asked Mr. Philippe Petitcolin to join the group. And this is something you are going to vote on in a few minutes. Now mandate renewal. So the Board of Directors is going to slightly change. We are going to renew the mandate of -- as the first member will be an institutional investor, a non-independent Board member coming from the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. We mentioned it, this Caisse is represented by Mrs. Kim Thomas today. She is with us this afternoon. And that's the first resolution you will have to vote about -- when we vote about the Board composition. Two resolutions now with Mr. Philippe in particular, with the agreement of Philippe, he joined the Board in March '24 because we needed to recruit someone. So you will have to vote on this particular point, even though Mr. Petitcolin started working for us in March. And the second element, we will appoint Philippe for a full mandate of 4 years. As announced, if you accept the resolution. This is what the Board is going to do. Mr. Philippe Petitcolin will then be able to become Chairman immediately at the end of this specific meeting. So Philippe, maybe you will take the floor to talk to all our shareholders.

[Interpreted] It's difficult to talk immediately after you. But what you said about me is too much. So my name is Philippe Petitcolin. If I start in 2000, well, in 2000, I was appointed General Manager of Labinal Group, Labinal is in the distribution of electricity in planes. In a plane, you have something like 300 kilometers of cable. So we worked in that particular field. In 2005, Snecma emerged with Sagem and became Safran. In 2006, I was appointed Chairman and General Manager of Snecma, the engines of Safran Group, Military Army from the Rafale, for example, we work on Ariane launcher as well, but we work obviously as well on commercial planes. With General Electric, we're the leaders. We are the main manufacturer of commercial engines for Airbus, Boeing. In 2010, I worked -- I launched the LEAP engine. The newest engine that decreased consumption of planes by 15%. We sell them to Airbus, Boeing and the Chinese as well. Five -- after 15 years, they only have 5 planes in China, but anyway. In 2011, I was appointed as Chairman of Sagem Defense, all the defense activities, electronic systems or weapons, ammunitions. 1.5 years later, I was appointed as Managing Director of Sagem Security, biometrics. We're talking about payment cards, documents, identity cards, passports, biometric in general. And biometrics are identity. In 2015, I was appointed General Manager of the Group of Safran Group, and I stayed as a top manager of Safran until -- for 6 years. I sold security during those 6 years. They were really not doing as well as the other branches of the group and I helped by Zodiac to 35,000 employees in Zodiac, something close to what you have in Alstom, with Alstom and Bombardier. Zodiac was a very international company. And at the end of 2019, just before COVID, they had -- they employed 100,000 people, so EUR 24 billion, EUR 23 billion in sales. So similar to the numbers you've seen. It's an activity I kept until the end of 2020. And at the beginning of '21, I was appointed as Chairman of KNDS. KNDS is the result of emerging between to French companies. A French company, Nexter, 25,000 people, and a German company, Weg. And we became the first manufacturer of equipment and vehicles of Army land forces. We manufacture the nuclear tanks, and we work on German tanks. We manufacture the Tsar Canon, the gun, ammunition and so on. So we are leaders in Europe in that particular field. As Chairman of the Board of KNDS, I only have two shareholders. It's -- so we have the French state on the one hand and the German family. But even with 2 shareholders only, it's not, I would say, easy anyway. It's not easy to chair such a company, especially when the French state is one of the two shareholders. That's something I can say. So I've got an industrial experience. I have an experience -- I've worked a lot on projects -- long-term projects when you manufacture landing gear, for example, or engine for a plane, it has consequences. So it's comparable to what I will do here, I suppose. And I have a long experience in the defense sector. I have a long experience in merging operations, Zodiak that was merged in Safran. A few words about Alstom, which have now been discovering for a few weeks, it's a great company that had a crisis, growth crisis, external growth crisis, I suppose, but I've met employees. All the people I have met so far are talented people, motivated. So I hope a lot for the future. People -- customers trust Alstom. EUR 90 billion in your backlog. It's quite extraordinary, obviously. And I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, I would say, by innovation, the level of innovation of the group. So I'm very happy indeed. And if you obviously vote and appoint me as Chairman of the Board and then as General Manager of the Council, I will do all that I can to make your company, our company, even more competitive and performing. Thank you very much.

Okay. So the last resolutions submitted to you on the composition of the Board is to give a new mandate of 4 years to Mr. Jay Walder who joined us in the year -- a few years ago, and he already had the opportunity to introduce himself. And we thank Jay Walder for his contribution and the in-depth knowledge of our industry. So the resolutions regarding the Board of Directors and further to those developments, if you accept them, the Board will have 12 members representing 7 nationalities with 50% men, 50% women, a very nice balance and an independence rate of the directors of 80%. Let's come to the resolutions regarding the remuneration policies. As you see, 7 resolutions will be submitted to you. I'm going to take them one at a time. I'll be brief on this slide. First resolution, resolution #11. Some minutes ago, I said to you that given the circumstances, we changed the remuneration criteria of the CEO and the teams for 2 past year so that we could introduce a criterion completely focusing on the restoring of the free cash flow commented by Bernard-Pierre Delpit. You see that what we decided if the -- if it was not restored, we would get rid of the variable portion. If it was an intermediary level, we would reduce variable remuneration by 50%. And if we had the final performance to restore positive cash flow, of course, we would maintain those variable remuneration. We are in the second case, so as you see, a huge effort was made during the second half year to have free cash flow significantly positive during the second half year, but unfortunately, not at high level enough to join the initial objective. So we are in the second case, 50% of the variable remuneration, that's where we are, and it would be presented to you in a few minutes. We did the same adjustment as to the Board of Directors. While we are sharing responsibilities with general management, we want to show solidarity with them. And as you see, the Board of Directors has no variable remuneration. It is based on the fixed remuneration. So we apply this criteria to fixed remuneration, of the portion of the fixed remuneration was not paid yet because the remuneration is paid in 2 half years. So it's the remuneration of the second half year which were applied with the same criteria and the same result. And let's say that the remuneration of the Board was reduced by 50% during the second half year of the financial year. This will be submitted to your approval with the Resolution #12. Resolution #13. This time, we are talking about the future, the remuneration policy applicable to the CEO. We conducted the remuneration policy of the previous financial years, we have reconducted to a large extent, but we added 2 changes, however. The first modification is we -- the variable items, based on the financial performance of the company, especially the cash flow generation. The collective items, mainly the financial items, will increase in significance from 60% to 80%. And the second modification is to reconduct for '24, '25, the same type of mechanism of minimum cash flow thresholds to reach. We introduced this in the financial year '23, '24. So those 2 modifications, minor modifications result, unfortunately, from the experience we had during the financial year of '23, '24. And to be sure, as Henri and Bernard said, both of them to be sure that we get out of those difficulties. So this leads to remuneration policy. I'm not going to comment each line because it is reconducted to a large extent, but you'll find the details in the universal registration document you have read. Let me come to Resolution #14 related to the remuneration for the Chairman of the Board. It's a standard remuneration, if I may say so, in terms that there is only a fixed annual compensation as usual and that the amount proposed is the amount being an average amount. If you look at our French and European companies and our peers. So no special comments. The remuneration policy for the Board members, resolution #15. Here, again, no change. In the current allocation rules, we have exactly the same amount as the one you have known since several years. Then the remuneration -- oh, sorry, I forgot something. We are coming to the ratification of the remuneration for the financial year '23, '24 for the Board of Directors, I've already mentioned it, compensation reduced by 50% for the -- so altogether, for '23, '24 is EUR 678,750. So much under the amount of the previous year. So we consumed slightly over 50% of the total envelope authorized by the shareholders compared to 70% for the previous year. Resolution regarding the remuneration of the Chairman and CEO for the past year. Resolution 17, I already commented on the criteria and the items. So the variable remuneration is [ EUR 418,000 ]. And as you see, the objectives were met at 88%, but not for the cash flow. And on top of that, we applied these adjustments of 50%. Therefore, we have this amount of [ EUR 418,000 ]. This is it. I'm going to give you the floor.

Yes. Thank you, Yann. Thank you, Yann. Thank you very much. I would like to call the Chair of our Audit & Risk Committee, Sylvie Rucar.

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor of chairing the Audit & Risk Committee. I have been chairing this committee since 2018. We now have 4 members, 3 of them are independent, myself included, according to the rules of MEDEF. A new independent member was appointed in September '23. So we now 4 members in this committee. And the level of independent members was 66%. It's now 75%. What about our role? It's decided by the rules of the group. We attend -- we support the Board with overseeing issues relating to the preparation and control of accounting and financial information, and obviously, sustainability information. We keep an eye -- we monitor the quality of the financial and sustainability information. We control the effectiveness of internal controls and risk management systems as well as internal audit, and we control the statutory auditing of the annual and consolidated accounts by the statutory auditors, attendance, the Vice President and CFO, the Audit Manager, the General Group Performance Manager, the Account -- General Accounting as well, constantly invited in this group. Other people come according to the subjects we discuss. We organized a regular review of procedures. We monitor their financial impact, and we discuss these points with the Manager of Sustainable Development. Statutory auditors are present to all our meetings that will -- they give us their conclusions at the end of their work. I make sure that they are independent all the time. Specific points can be addressed without the presence of management. We have this meeting without the presence of management at the end of each of our meetings with the presence of statutory auditors. Internal rules were updated in March 2024, now in accordance to the European Directive on financial transparency. We organized better reviewing of information on sustainability, in particular. We work in full coordination with the various committees of the Board. During past fiscal year, we organized 5 meetings with 100% attendance. And the audit report is in Page 240 of the document you were given. Let me say a few words about our specific activities this year. The committee reviewed the half year consolidated accounts as of end of September '23 and the annual consolidated and statutory accounts at the end of March 2024. The committee made sure that the method used were the correct one. The committee reviewed the budget of the year '24, '25 and the financial chapter of the 3-year financial plan. Sustainability information. The Manager of Sustainable Development presented the methodology used for the taxonomy and the results obtained. She also presented the progress made in the implementation of the CSRD directive. We were presented the methodology for assessing double materiality and the draft consolidated metrics of impacts, risks and opportunities. Risks now, as we do every year, the audit committee examined and worked on the various -- on the top risks for this group. We made an in-depth review of the management and mitigation mechanisms for foreign exchange risk. So these mitigation mechanisms, as I explained, were obviously studied, and we approved the group's tax policy key elements. Given all that has been as said about the results and the situation of cash, we obviously paid attention to cash flow generation. Specific reviews were organized. In September '23, we had -- we made a review of the cash performance project, something we started in March '23. And it was -- it's been reinforced and it's now developed. Now internal audit and internal control of auditors have presented the activity. They -- we made a review of the main findings of the year audit program, and we monitor the progress of corrective measures arising from the completed audits and approval, and we approved the internal audit plan. We made an evaluation of internal control actions. We took into account -- yes, we made an internal review of the efficiency of the internal control procedures implemented within the group and made sure that everything was done in compliance with the situation. The various results were presented and discussed during our committee meetings. We also examined the fees paid to the statutory auditors. We made sure that they are obviously fully independent, and we controlled their relationship with this group. And at the end of all these meetings, we wrote a report, which we gave to the Board of Directors. We explained our comments, and we made a certain number of improvement suggestions. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention.

Thank you, Sylvie. I would like to invite the Chairwoman of the Ethics and Compliance Committee, Sylvie Kandé de Beaupuy.

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, Chair, it's an honor for me to chair the Ethics and Compliance Committee created in 2010, and since -- I managed it since 2017. We have -- our mission as the committee, reviews definition of the core values and the ethics and compliance policy and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors, within our mission, coming from an internal rule updated this year. In practice, the committee, throughout the year, has to see to the compliance with the rules. And you see the main missions of this committee, I'm not going to read it out. We just mentioned a few missions, like the review of the core values when necessary, to adapt them to circumstances and to the development of the commercial practice. The review of the organization of the ethics and compliance function and makes recommendations as appropriate. We review presentation on the group's risk map concerning ethics and compliance and the examine the relationships with the stakeholders regarding ethic issues and we examine the human resources policy concerning human rights. Let's come to the more specific activity of our committee as conducted during this financial year. All information on this are in the business report or management report Page 125, 126 of the URD. So during the last financial year, the committee reviewed following objectives, the objectives and performance indicators of the group. And we monitor the status of the implementation of the integrity program, including the new Code of Ethics 2020, the group's instructions, but also the training and awareness efforts of all employees, the deployment of additional resources to the Ethic and Compliance department of the group, notably, in light of the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation, without forgetting the examination of the integration plan of Bombardier Air Transport, the monitoring of the implementation of this plan and its finalization. Further to the results of the [ sixth ] audit of the anti-bribery management system. The results were also reviewed during the meeting of the committee. The renewal of the certification for the whole group, including the former Bombardier Transportation was obtained until 2026. The committee reviewed also the sanctions, policies and the initiatives promoting the ethic culture and the speak-up initiative culture. And also we kept -- regularly -- we were kept regularly informed of the progress of past or pending procedures and investigations, which are also described in the universal registration document. During the financial year '23, '24, our works were made during 3 meetings, an attendance rate of 88%. And Emmanuelle Petrovic, General Counsel and the Ethic and Compliance Manager attended to all our meetings. Further to those meetings, we reported to the Board of Directors. We communicated on our comments. And when necessary, we made recommendations for improvement. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, Mr. Chair, I would like to thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Sylvie. I would like to invite the Chair of the Integration Committee, Frank Mastiaux to take the floor.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Chair, it's -- I have your honor of chairing the Integration Committee. I've been doing that since '21. We have 4 members in our committee, 2 of them are independent. The objective -- the main objective of the Integration Committee that was created after the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation is to support, facilitate, supervise the various integration processes of Bombardier within Alstom, report it's -- about its development to guarantee the Board of Alstom, to guarantee the fair execution of the plan to Alstom. We make a certain number of recommendations to the Chairman. We try and work on the integration of a different company. The committee was created for a duration of 2 years -- for a period of 2 years. But it's going to work another 2 years until January 2025. During the past fiscal year, the committee met twice with a level of participation of 100%. Besides, a presentation was shared with the members of the Board. And the Integration Committee reviewed the work in progress and the integration process. We made sure that the deployment of this planned deployment of synergies and progress we made in this integration procedure. The committee has 3 different priorities: Drive change and make sure that it's properly implemented at local level; we also work on the convergence of processes; and third point, we validate the process. This year, the main point of attention of the committee was the action plan following an external evaluation. After more than 2 years of integration, progress and results are obvious. As far as human capital and change are concerned, we made a survey on the commitment of employees. And we obviously have to make a certain number of efforts in some regions. The model has been -- economic model has been reached, but it has to be improved. The various processes are being deployed at the moment, and we -- IT convergence is up to 90%. So it's in line with the objectives, and the commercial dynamics has been confirmed with a good level of synergy, EUR 260 million in '23, '24, last fiscal year. The positive trend observed in the integration schemes must now have -- must now be reviewed and they have to be controlled from a financial viewpoint. The deployment of integration plan is on the right tracks. It's adapted. It's properly driven according to the various needs of each organization, region, function and line of activity. In order to meet all the challenges, an external evaluation confirmed that the integration corresponds to the highest existing standards and actions are, as I said, on the right tracks. The Integration Committee has constantly kept the Board of Directors informed about its work and made comments on the main points of discussion. And we made proposals to improve the situation whenever that was necessary. So thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you, Frank. Thank you for making the effort to speak French. Thanks. I'm going to give the floor to the statutory auditors represented by Cédric Haaser from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Audit.

Thank you, Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon. On behalf of PwC and Mazars, it's an honor for me to report on our mission for the financial year closed on the 31st of March '24. Our report on the annual financial statements on the related party agreements are in the URD document as well as in the notice of brochure, and you see the different pages. I suggest, as usual, to summarize the main items. First of all, firms, PwC and Mazars control the financial statements of all subsidiaries of the group. The objective of our mission is to be sure about -- have a reasonable position of the loyalty of the accounts and that there is no significant abnormalities. We have an audited approach, taking into account the main risk, the economic environment of the group and the scope movements. Our audit approach is adapted to the various business lines of the group and the organization. We check the current operations and the nonrecurring events, and we act according to the professional standards applicable in France. Our conclusions were shared the financial managements of the entities, the regions and the financial management of the group with regular meetings and -- with the general management, who also reported on the organization of our works and our conclusions to the Audit Committee as well as the Board of Directors of your company. In line with the European regulation, our reports are on the key items of the audit regarding the significant risk and our answers. Our first report on the ordinary part for this meeting is the annual financial statements. The first resolution, you will have to vote on for this report on the annual financial statements of Alstom SA according to the French accounting rules. We checked the evaluation of the securities. We certified these accounts without any reservations and observations, and we proceeded to the specific checks on the content of the report on the corporate governance and no specific comments. As to our report on the consolidated financial statements prepared according to the IFRS, the subject of the second resolution, we certified the consolidated financial statements without any reservations and observations. A key point of our audit was the significant items, the accounting of the sales and margin in the long-term contracts and the evaluation of litigations and investigations. We also produced a special report on related party agreements. We said that there is no authorized agreement during this year and -- so -- and the -- so the special report is clear. And PwC, as a third independent party, issued a moderate report on the verification of the consolidated extra financial performance declaration. No specific abnormalities as to the sincerity of the information. And finally, our last report for the ordinary meeting is on profit forecast for the outlook '24, '25. And we implemented the diligence in line with the professional standards applicable in France, and we do not have any specific comments. The report is on Page 61 of the URD. I will finish with the extraordinary part of this general meeting. Resolutions 19 and 21 to 30, you'll have to vote on those resolutions regarding operations related to the share capital i.e., a possible reduction of the share capital, issue of shares in miscellaneous securities with preservation and/or cancellation of the preferential subscription right, issue of ordinary shares and/or other securities of the company reserved for members of the company savings plan, report on the issue of ordinary shares and/or other securities, giving access to capital with cancellation of the shareholders' preferential subscription rights reserved for a category of beneficiaries, and the authorization to grant preexisting shares or shares to be issued. We established a report. You see the pages indicated here on the slide. And the reports have to be found in the URD. For the authorization to give to the Board of Directors to summarize the conclusions of all those reports, we have no observations on these modalities proposed by your Board and will produce an additional report if necessary. This is it. Thank you very much, shareholders, for your attention.

Thank you. Thank you, Cédric. We are now going to open the floor to questions. We have received no written question. So I would like to give the floor to shareholders. We have hostesses in the room, if you want to ask your question or you can obviously fill in a form, if you prefer to ask a written question or take the mic, if you want to.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Just a point of clarification. If I understood you, were '23-'24 was not a good year for us. Certain emergency measures have been taken, divestments, the issuing of hybrid bonds, this obligation in euros and separation of the position of Chairman from the position of CEO. So the CEO, if I understood you well, had a fixed remuneration of EUR 950,000 before the separation. Today, the CEO still keeps the same salary, EUR 950,000, plus the salary of the new Chairman, EUR 450,000. So it means that the level of remuneration of the 2 jobs has increased by 50% compared to the past.

Maybe, Yann, who is the Chairman of NRC.

It seems to be true from a mathematical viewpoint, but because you have now 2 positions and no longer 1 position, so I guess you cannot really compare the situation. It's normal to give remuneration to a CEO on the one hand and a remuneration to the Chairman. On the other end, that's the only comment I can make on this point.

I think that each remuneration is in line with the benchmark. The new Chairman has an added value, so he has to be -- to get remuneration. Sorry, no microphone. Any other question?

Good afternoon. Will we catch up this 2-year delay on the delivery of the trains sets MI20, if I'm not -- and what about the penalties regarding the fact that you did not deliver a certain number of products on time? Will we catch up? Or how much are you going to pay in penalties?

Well, thank you. I'm not going to make any comments on each contract one by one. I'm not going to make a comment on these contracts. It's a contract managed by SNCF and RATP, and the region in the France, they will have to tell you more about the evolution of the contract. We cannot make any comments on these different contracts. It's not our role here. We have improved the situation. We deliver more on time, so we have more satisfied customers. We have better cash situation during the second half of the year. Yes, the situation is improving. If we had to pay global penalties, it's always very complicated. When you have a delay, it's due to all sorts of different reasons. And you're not -- Alstom is not always at the origin of the delay. So a certain number of things have to be taken into account, and this is very complicated, and I'm not going to give you details. You have -- the evolution of the situation is evolving in a very positive way. That's all I would like to say.

Good afternoon, Mr. [indiscernible], individual shareholder. You have talked about the success of the tracks locomotive. We read about that in the press by the way. I think they're made in Germany and Italy. Now what about the Prisma (sic) [ Prima ] locomotives? And my second question the TGV M, TGV? I've seen a short film on the concept. It seems very interesting indeed. But what about the situation? What about of this particular train?

You obviously have read about that. The locomotives first of all, the tracks range -- it was -- it's mainly a European range of locomotives. As you might have heard, Alstom, before, the acquisition of Bombardier, had not sold any locomotive in Europe for a long time. So the Prima range had a certain number of products that we sold outside Europe. The situation of the freight in France is very bad. But in Europe, in general, we did not sell any European Prima. So the Prima range was not up to date, I would say. We were not able to deliver any interesting locomotive to the European market. Now we have a more uniform range. In Europe, we have the tracks. And at the international level, like India or Kazakhstan, we are still selling Prima, but we call them tracks, because we want to sell. But they are -- the locomotives we sell outside Europe are the -- sort of similar to the Prima, the TGV M. I won't go into the details. It's a major innovation. You have now a traction battery onboard this particular train. The train can work with it or can run on 40 kilometers on the tracks. So in case there is a problem with the catenary, for example, it doesn't have to stop anymore. So we are solving a certain number of technical problems at the moment. So we are on the right track from a technical viewpoint for this new generation TGV, TGV M. It's a written question. The acquisition of Bombardier was an operation full of mistakes. How is it that the -- we still have the same members on Board -- the Board of Directors in spite of the mistakes? Bombardier operation was a major strategic operation. I am still convinced that it's been very positive for us. It's given us a different positioning in the market. We were a small player. If you remember the discussions we had, when Alstom Transportation became Alstom Group, everybody said that Alstom was too small to survive. We focused too much on Southern Europe. We didn't have the necessary technology and so on and so forth. The operation and the merging with Bombardier gave us the critical size market by market. It's necessary. It's necessary if we want to have a sustainable success on this particular market. We had to face a certain number of challenges. We had to find solutions to some difficulties, but we are overcoming the obstacles one by one. We do it on a very systematic way. Each year is better. So we have to go on in the same direction. I'm convinced of that. And we have to increase and develop even more the plans. We have to be able to build an efficient group, a group that will create value for the shareholders.

[indiscernible], I work in [ Perspective ]. Since COVID-19, the air transportation sector is attractive again, I would say. And it's doing well from a technical viewpoint, new engines, and the fact that soon, they will use decarbonated fuel. There are radical change which are possible today with electricity, for example, short-distance planes in particular. And as far as urban area -- cities are concerned, most vehicles will soon be electrical. So my question is about the market you're talking about. How do you see this new competition of air transports? If they are going to be more and more decarbonated, how are you getting ready? How are you preparing this new competition?

Well, a few elements. Obviously, as a citizen. I'm the first to approve the fact that planes and cars are less and less -- have less emission of carbon. It's more and more decarbonated. The trains are decarbonated. The quality of the train is not only due to this pure decarbonation. It's not only due to that. If you take cities, obviously, cars will be more and more electrical. But if you take an RER here in Paris, it's like you have a motorway in the middle of Paris. The flows of passengers transported by urban systems have nothing to do with the flows of people traveling by car. As soon as you are in a densely populated zone, you must have better transportation systems. And the only ones which are available today are trains. The movement in favor of trains in cities was not born with decarbonation. It was before we had the problem. It was born something like 20 years ago when cities became bigger and bigger. In emerging countries, cities are so big now. So they had to find a solution. If you take Paris, the CO2 level in Paris has nothing to do with the CO2 in Île-de-France itself in the region itself due to cars. Now if you compare the train to a car, we are not really in competition with planes. And planes, as you know, for long-distance transport, they have no specific solution for decarbonation. The train is also -- transport more people when you're going to -- between Paris and Lyon by train. If you have 16 trains per hour, between Paris and Lyon, it's something you cannot do with a plane, obviously. Even countries with airports, more than -- with a lot of airports, they are now choosing the train. It's -- you have -- so I'm not worried about that. I think it's good. It's a good thing that you have decarbonation in all transportation systems, but I have no worry whatsoever about the future of the train.

Good afternoon, Chairman, [indiscernible], individual shareholder. We were amazed at your profit warning. I've been a shareholder for some time, and I thought -- we thought that everything was fine, and we read everywhere that you had 5 years of order book, so it's very seldom for a company to have such an order book. You had a wonderful order book. The quality of your work was fine. And all of a sudden, we were taken aback. You didn't mention that so much in the past. And I wonder, I wonder whether what you're saying is going to manage or solve the problem of Alstom. I do understand that there is some inflation, but inflation -- well, I experienced inflation rates at 10%, 12%. So here, 3% or 4%, it's not the same. It's more than 0. That's for sure. But the inflation is not the only guilty, of course, you had the Bombardier problem. I recognize, I admit that Bombardier was a good opportunity. But if you pay for Bombardier a much higher price than what it deserves, that's a problem. And the final problem is that the contracts, the agreements that Bombardier had and you took over were -- had showed a deficit with a very low margin. So you had analysts, they probably warned you. So you should not have been taken aback by this Bombardier story. The inflation, okay, I can understand. But Bombardier, no. You had plenty of time to analyze the situation. So I wanted to know whether you are going, in the future -- going to solve your problem of governance in a correct way because the press is talking about it, governance and management problems, not now, but a few months ago. So is it going to be solved? And would it be possible to trust you again, to trust your company? I'm sorry.

I fully understand your remarks. Have not really necessarily mentioned the problem of inflation. I've not looked for excuses given the situation we had to go through this autumn. Let me remind you of the fact that the Bombardier case took place at difficult macroeconomic and geopolitical time, the COVID crisis, for instance, and now the Ukraine war, which disrupted the supply chains, which created bottlenecks, the inflation, of course, which was or lower than what you used to know. But you can live in a stable way with inflation or if all of a sudden you have the inflation going up, it's not good. So I'm not looking for any excuses or pretext. We had a high number of negative external factors. And by the way, we forgot the crisis of the electronic components. Many industries -- we increased by 40%, our production, but many industries had to stop their supply chain because of the lack of electric components, which was not our case. Every year -- every day, you hear the defense industry saying that they cannot produce more, the aircraft industry as well. So the external environment is not that favorable. This being said, you're completely right. We put into place a plan. The operating margin keeps increasing year-on-year. Let me say that the mix of our projects keeps increasing, but there was this accident, and we talked a lot about it, and I'm ready to talk about it, an accident of cash generation, cash flow generation related to debt -- too high a debt level. Yes, we have to improve the governance. Yes, we have to improve our action plans. I can only agree with what you say. We drew the lessons from this incident. Well, you know very well that life is always more complex, not black and white. But this being said, we absolutely need to draw the lessons from this so that we can be in front of you and that you can trust us, and that's the decisions we made. And within 6 months, many, many actions were taken because the crisis emerged or the difficulty emerged in October. I'm in front of you in May. And as you said, the press -- I'm not going to comment on the press, but the press itself evolved within the 6 months and not everything is black and white. But within 6 months, the debt reduction plan has been implemented. The divestment plan was put into place. The actions taken by Bernard to improve the management of cash flow and all this has been put into place. So actions were taken swiftly and they will bear their fruits, I'm sure of that.

When? Sorry, it's off-mic. It's off-mic, I'm sorry.

Answer. Well, there are governance principles. We have to follow governance. And the governance will decide on the actions to take. I don't know whether sanctions are key. Now let me say something to you. We changed the bonus criteria for all managers to -- so that they are stricter. In which other group do you find this situation? The allocation criteria have stayed, but many groups, because of the COVID and so, on the contrary, they've changed their bonus allocation criteria to allow the employees, who were talented, of course, to obtain those bonuses, although the objectives had not been reached. We did the opposite. If we had not changed the bonus allocation criteria, the bonus of everyone, not in my case, of course, but the 18,000 employees of Alstom, it would have been probably multiplied by 2 of what it is today. So we took the actions, and the employees of Alstom who worked very hard during this period of time, showed a responsibility that the word sanction is not adequate. We have to balance things.

Good afternoon. I have several points. First of all, I would like to thank you on the parity for the increase in capital. You said 1 to 5. That's very good. Often banks have a complex parities, and so small shareholders are the first to pay those expenses, so 1 to 5 is good. We ask the small shareholders and all shareholders to make an effort. Mr. Delabrière should show us that the management has made an effort in terms of remuneration. But it's like last year. We did not know exactly how much the management is paid. You sent us back to the universal registration document nobody has, so I wanted to see that the management contributed to the effort. Second point, you talk about hydrogen. I don't know whether it is profitable, but there are black clouds on hydrogen. You have the French Academy, they said it's nonsense. Then Jancovici interviewed at the National Assembly, said the same. Total and ENGIE have just said that they were reducing, to a very large extent, their forecast in terms of hydrogen. So every day, there is something against hydrogen. So to me, it's nonsense from an economic and industrial point -- and energy point of view. I have another question or observation. For the CO2 footprint, you talk of Scope 1 and 2, it amounts to 1%. Scope 3, it would be 1, 2 of our suppliers and subcontractors. And you will have this information because the subcontractor will say, "I changed my material. The method is going to be very costly, and it will be passed on to you and your cost." How do you take account of this? And what does Alstom do for the small shareholders? What about information clubs or meetings? Do you see -- do you organize anything on that?

Several questions of different nature, well, capital increase, yes, it was a good ratio. Participation in the effort. I answered at that point. Once again, the bonuses of the 18,000 employees of Alstom have been impacted by what's happened, and it's, of course, the case for the general management as well. On hydrogen, careful. We should be careful about the fashion and the facts. I've been in the industry for some time, in the railway and the power industry, have seen different fashions. I attended seminars of Total explaining that the solar power will never be a solution because the solar panel was 10x more expensive. I'm saying that hydrogen, of course, has characteristics. We have to know them. I do not know any other solutions to decarbonate over longer the stretches because only the hydrogen can be carried as an energy instrument. It's not energy as such, but it allows us to carry energy, the power. Yes, to produce energy, it's maybe costly. But at the same time, you can produce it in an intermittent way, and it is rather well coupled with renewable energies, which are intermittent as well. The -- we talk of the energy crisis, but in some areas now the cost of electricity is negative. So we should have to take this -- all this into account. And let's step back somewhat. Let's be modest. Europe missed an opportunity with the batteries and we are catching up. But we have to catch up with the industries, the automotive industry, the battery industry, we have to catch up on this European -- we are lagging behind. Europe is lagging behind. In China, in Japan, some of our partners invest billions on hydrogen. So we should not wake up in 10 years' time and we should be facing the same situation as with battery. They took -- they invested ahead, and now it's too late for us to catch up. So what I observe is that hydrogen is not a mature solution now given the costs and so on, but let's be modest in our forecast. Many made mistakes in the past. So we should not close all those. This solution is interesting. The small shareholders, Martin described the sustainable development strategy. Martin will be listening to you. And if you have a telephone number, you (sic) [ he ] can explain to you what the small shareholders can do. I'm a bit disappointed that you do not read the universal registration document. If you think that we should do more to better inform the small shareholders, of course, we are all ears. There's a phone number and the investor relation department can answer your point, and we can organize visits. And then for scope 1, 2 and 3, you're completely right. The Scope 3 is the most significant one. But it's not so much the suppliers. Of course, the suppliers -- but Scope 3, that's mainly the users of our products. That's what we are doing to reduce the energy use, and it is very much impacted by the energy mix of our customers. Scope 3 in France, SNCF and nuclear, energy is very different. Nuclear power is very different in France, in Germany. Even the suppliers have to increase their prices because this is -- and it is absolutely necessary to reduce the emissions. Those criteria have to be taken on board. And most operators take into account environmental criteria for the calls for tenders. So we'll benefit from the fact that the emissions are reduced by our suppliers. It would be better valued by the operators.

I cannot let you say what you just said about batteries. You're saying that we work -- France is working hard to catch up, but we started early, maybe too early, France, anyway, started early. And with Renault, Nissan, we were global leaders on batteries. We had 50% of the market share at global level in those days. Unfortunately, the government did not support the players, Nissan or Renault. And they had to slow down, because in those days, the only thing that was interesting or seemed interesting was hybrid, rechargeable hybrid, and it's a -- it has no meaning whatsoever and the battery today is developing. It will go on developing. I think we are at the stone age of batteries. I mean, things will develop. An electrical plane, it's a bit early, obviously, but they will happen. They will be manufactured, short-distance planes and so on, flying cabs that will work here during the Olympic games. They will have to be electrical.

So you agree with me, we have to be careful about the forecasts. It's difficult to forecast anything. And if we -- we can't focus on one possibility only or one development only. We can't afford to miss the winning energy of the future. One last question because, I think, that we have reached the end of the discussion.

I have a question on the difficulties of the production. You are increasing production to counterbalance your loss of cash flow. What about the situation this year? Have you solved your difficulties in production? Are you -- have you increased the production level? What about the future?

Two things. As you've seen and during the second half of the fiscal year, we were able to increase production. We delivered more trains than planned. So we -- and that was very positive. And this is the reason why we were able to generate cash during the second half of the year. It was supposed to stop this year. In the coming years, we've reached a sort of plateau as far as the delivery of trains is concerned. So we are not going to go on increasing the production tools or the production itself. Now you know our activity. We work on projects. It's -- every project is -- takes time, but we're not producing cars, for example, like in the automotive industry. So some projects are big, others are slowed down. So this might have -- has an impact on our stock, but our production capacity is probably reached its maximum. There is no need for increasing it again. One last question.

Something I'd like you to talk about. The question was asked -- I mean there was a question about the remuneration of the CEO and the remuneration of the Chairman. I heard, but maybe I was wrong, I didn't hear properly. I heard that the remuneration of the Chairman would be added to the one of the CEO now? If you have 2 different functions now, 2 different persons. One should take half of what the other one gets. I don't understand.

No. Remuneration of the Chairman was calculated according to different references, according to benchmarking analysis of Chair, the remuneration in similar groups, similar to Alstom anyway. But the CEO remuneration didn't take into account the fact that the CEO was also Chairman. We took the reference of the average remuneration of a CEO in other similar groups. There is no major difference between people who are chairperson or people who are CEOs. Sorry, no microphone. We really have to move on.

I would like to add something. The Board of Directors, with its Remuneration Committee, every year, the Board makes a comparison between companies which are in a sort of similar size, industrial companies, French companies. We do not compare ourselves to American or British examples because the remuneration levels of other CEOs in those groups is usually higher. So we compare -- what we give to the CEO and to the Chairman, we compare ourselves to other similar French groups. That's what we did this year. And I can tell you that the level of remuneration that we are suggesting are the results of this comparison. This is true for the Chairman and for the CEO. Now back to what Henri said, how do we compare the remuneration of the CEO and Chairman to -- we compare their remuneration to the remuneration of General Manager of Chief Executive Officers. Most companies today have dissociated functions. Chair people and CEOs are no longer the same person in most French groups anyway. So in the past, we had a remuneration of CEO, not remuneration of CEO and Chairman. Because you have very -- you don't have many CEO and Chairman in French Groups. So we are using the same criterion. And today, we are comparing the remuneration of the CEO with the remuneration of other CEOs in other groups. We have the details of all that in the report. You have the point of comparison in the report. I hope that you can read it. And you get in details the way where we are, at which level we -- the group is for this -- and we've done the same for the Chairman of the Board of Directors. So that's what I wanted to explain.

Thank you, Yann. Okay. Now we are going to have the vote of resolutions.

So thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, we are going to explain the electronic voting procedure. [Presentation]

As indicated at the start of the meeting, the quorum required for this meeting is 20% for the ordinary part and 25% for the extraordinary part. The final statement on the attendance sheet shows that the shareholders present, represented or voting hold 291,168,034 votes. So we've reached the quorum 63.14%. The resolutions must be passed by a majority of the vote as held by the shareholders present, represented or voting by mail in the case of ordinary resolutions, by 2/3 majority in the case of extraordinary resolutions. I propose to present the title summarizing each resolution provided that no one requests that it be read in full. I see that there are no objections, I shall now present the resolutions and invite you to vote on each of them after I declare the vote is open. First resolution, approval of these consolidated accounts for the financial year ending the end of March '21. [Voting]

Approval of the annual accounts. The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 2 approval of the consolidated accounts for the financial year ending on the 31st of March 2024. [Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. Third resolution, appropriation of the results for the fiscal year ended 31st of March 2024. The vote is open. [Voting]

The resolution is adopted. Fourth resolution, ordinary resolution, again, special report by the statutory auditors and regulated agreements, acknowledgment of the absence of new agreement. The vote is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. Fifth resolution, ordinary resolution, renewal of the term of office of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec as a Board member. The vote is open. [Voting]

The resolution is adopted. Ordinary resolution #6, ratification of the cooption of Mr. Philippe Petitcolin as Board members. The vote is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. Seventh ordinary resolution appointment of Mr. Philippe Petitcolin as Board member. The vote is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. Ordinary Resolution #8, appointment of Mr. Jay Walder as Board member. The vote is opened. [Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. Resolution -- ordinary resolution #9, appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers audit as statutory auditor responsible for certifying the sustainability information. The vote is opened. [Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. Resolution #10, ordinary resolution, again, appointment of Mazars as statutory auditor responsible for certifying the sustainability information. The vote is opened. [Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution passed. Resolution 11, ordinary meeting, approval of the adjustment to the '23/'24 remuneration policy for the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Voting is open. [Voting]

Vote is closed. The resolution was adopted. Ordinary resolution, approval of the adjustment to the remuneration policy '23/'24 for the members of the Board of Directors. Voting is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution stands adopted. Resolution 13, approval of the remuneration policy, '24/'25 for the Chief Executive Officer. The vote is opened. [Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution passed. Resolution 14, ordinary resolution, approval of the remuneration policy '24/'25 for the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The vote is opened. [Voting]

Voting's closed. Resolution passed. Resolution 15, ordinary resolution, approval of the remuneration policy '24/'25 for the members of the Board of Directors. Voting is open. [Voting]

Vote closed. Resolution was adopted. Resolution 16, ordinary resolution, approval of the information specified in Article L. 22-10-9 I of the French Commercial Code report on remuneration. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution was adopted. Resolution 17, ordinary resolution, approval of the fixed, variable and exceptional components of the total remuneration and benefits of all kinds paid during the last fiscal year or allocated for that fiscal year to Mr. Henri Poupart-Lafarge in his capacity as Chairman and CEO. Vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. Resolution is passed. Resolution 18, authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors to trade in the company's Chair. Vote is open. [Voting]

Vote is closed. The resolution is passed. Resolution 19, extraordinary resolution, authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors to reduce the share capital by canceling treasury shares. The vote is open. [Voting]

Vote's closed. The resolution stands adopted. Resolution 20, extraordinary resolution, delegation of authority to be given to the Board of Directors to decide to increase their share capital -- capitalization of premiums, reserves, profits and other sums, or other sums. Vote is open. [Voting]

Vote closed. Resolution was adopted. Resolution #21, extraordinary resolution, delegation of authority to be given to the Board of Directors to decide to increase the share capital to the company or of another company by issuing shares and/or securities, giving immediate or future access to the share capital with preemptive rights. The vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. The resolution was adopted. The resolution 22, extraordinary meeting, delegation of authority to be given to the Board of Directors to decide to increase their share capital of the company or of another company by issuing shares and/or securities, giving immediate or future access to their share capital with withdrawal of preemptive rights by public offering other than the public offerings referred in 1 of Article L. 411-2 of the French Monetary and Financial Code 23. Vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. The resolution was passed. Resolution 23, extraordinary resolution, delegation of authority to be given to the Board of Directors to decide increase the share capital of the company by issuing shares and/or securities, giving immediate or future access to the share capital with withdrawing of preemptive rights by public offerings inspired in 1 of Article L. 411-2 of the French Monetary and Financial Code. The vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. Resolution passed. Resolution 24, extraordinary resolution, determination of the issue price within the limit of 10% of the share capital per year in connection with an increase in the share capital by the issue of equity securities with withdrawal of preemptive rights. The vote is open. [Voting]

Vote is closed. Resolution passed. Resolution 25, extraordinary resolution, delegation of -- will be given to the Board of Directors to decide, increase the company's share capital by issuing shares and/or securities giving immediate or future access to the share capital with withdrawal of preemptive rights reserved for members of savings plans. The vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. The resolution was adopted. 26, extraordinary resolution, delegation of authority to be given to the Board of Directors to decide to increase the company's share capital by issuing shares and/or securities, giving immediate or future access to share capital with withdrawal of preemptive rights reserved for a category of beneficiaries. The vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. The resolution was adopted. #27, extraordinary resolution, delegation of authority to be given to increase -- to the Board of Directors to increase the number of securities to be issued in the event of a capital increase with preemptive rights to maintain or withdrawn. Vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 28, extraordinary resolution, right to issue shares and/or securities, giving immediate or future access to shares to be issued by the company as -- the vote is open. [Voting]

Vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. Resolution 29, extraordinary resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to issue shares, following the issue by subsidiaries of the company of securities giving access to the company's share capital with withdrawal of preemptive rights of shareholders. The vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. The resolution was adopted. Resolution #30, authorization to be given to the Board of Directors to grant free of charge existing shares or shares to be issued to employees, or corporate -- and corporate officers of the group or to some of them. The vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. The resolution was adopted. Resolution 31, an extraordinary resolution, amendments to the Articles of Association raising the percentage of shares of voting rights triggering a declaration of crossing statutory threshold. The vote is open. [Voting]

Closed. The resolution was adopted. Resolution 32, extraordinary resolution, amendments to the Articles of Association raising the age of the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The vote is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution passed. Resolution 33, ordinary resolution, powers to carry out legal formalities. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting closed. Resolution is adopted. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I would like to thank our Secretary, and I remind that hostesses are available in the reception hall to collect the voting boxes you've been given, which can only be used for electronic voting. Before adjourning this meeting, I would like to thank you, once again, for attending and for your renewed confidence. Thank you very much.