AXA SA (CS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello to everyone together in this 2020 shareholders meeting. We have a new sequence dedicated to AXA's commitment in favor of the fighting for the climate. This is part of the strategy of the group since 2015. To speak about this, Céline Soubranne, in charge of AXA sustainable development. Hello. Celine and [indiscernible] are in charge of investments and the asset liabilities management.First question, Pascal. We've just seen this through this video. AXA is a major player who has been committed in favor of the climate for the past decade. You were a front -- a forerunner. What were, according to you, the main steps that allowed to put this overall approach in place.

Look, I think we were forerunners, and we want to stay this in order to have more progress more than -- 10 years ago, we put in place a governance dedicated to responsible investments to steer our initiatives in our investment portfolios. Initially, we moved out of oil -- palm oil, and then we initiated our exit from the coal. And we -- so this is something that we really came up very strongly. We have been selling EUR 3.7 billion of assets in order to lighten up our goal and no longer finance coal. By the way, after that, we announced our total exit from the coal business in 2030 for the OECD countries and 2040 for the other countries in the world.

There's another misstep being social and governance environmental criteria. Can you tell us something about this?

Yes, we included into our -- the internal rating of our -- especially our bonds, the ESG parameters which allow to make sure that there's a resilience of our investments over the long term. I'm convinced that to ensure that we have resilience, if we invest in a company, we must be able to ensure we have some visibility about the energy plan of that company and how that company will be implementing such a plan.

So we've just talked about the investment-related actions. What about insurance? We were precursors in investment, but we're very active, too, when it comes to an insurance. That's our business after all. Now very briefly, we gave commitments in 2015 on the investment side, but we also added exclusions to our insurance policies. And gradually, we started to exit from coal in terms of insurance cover and also oil sands that are 2 sources of energy that are most carbon-intensive these days. In terms of exclusions, our objective was to come up with innovative solutions that our clients would expect to see. They're also concerned about climate change. So our objective for the coming year is indeed to develop green insurance [ premium ] that is green services and projects for our clients. And for example, we try to foster the right kind of behavior if they're looking to purchase a new vehicle. We try to promote electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and so on. We're also integrating the circular economy in claims management. We're reusing spare parts that have already been used and also proposing construction on the basis of green standards after a fire or some other claim. And also, we're supporting clients by new kinds of insurance, hydrogen, renewable energy sources, and these are some of the innovative solutions we provide to our clients. And last year -- last week, sorry, we announced that AXA is heading up a collision among other international players where, together, we're going to sit down a net zero pathway for insurance businesses. We're doing with Aviva and Allianz, for example, peer companies. So to set down common metrics and methodologies that will enable us to build up this pathway together and then lead up to commitments, we hope, in Glasgow at COP26. And also, we want to work with other financial industry players and insurance players. Of course, you need to be exemplary internally as well. And how are you taking care of the environment in your own operations within AXA was, of course, that's a must. Before talking about insurance and investment, you've got to, of course, do the same back home. So that's our buildings. It's our fleets of vehicles. It's when we travel to go and see clients. We're an international scale group. And we've already come a long way. Between 2012 and 2020, we've reduced by more than 1/2 our carbon emissions in respect of our own activity. That's quite a lot. Now obviously, 2020 was a particular year, and the dip was even bigger actually in 2020. So in our new strategic plan, we want to reduce by 20% further our CO2 emissions in our own activities between now and 2025. And also, we're taking action on the digital plan. We have a digital plan. We are an insurance business. It's a financial activity. So we produce a lot of digital material and especially in the COVID context with people working from home. So we set up a whole action plan to bring down our footprint in terms of choosing the right architect for us for the information systems, choosing where we store data and data centers, the IT, hardware, yes, be digitally sober, I would say. So our digital activities have not exceeded in terms of carbon emissions globally have actually overshot civil aviation in general on Plant Earth, I mean. So we've got to try and make sure we make the right definitive choices. If we're to be carbon neutral, we've got to offset the remaining emissions and buy carbon credits to do so. Yes, these are concrete commitments, there are challenges to do societal transitions, but also the low-carbon economy will require groups like AXA to prepare for that transition in very concrete ways. What have you been doing on that?

Yes, we've given very substantial commitments for the energy transition. Firstly, we decided to align our asset portfolios with the 1.5-degree pathway by 2050 along the lines of the Paris agreement. So we want to be net zero in carbon emissions by that date. That's our aim. Also, we've defined a green investment plan. Now that -- green bonds. And investments in renewable infrastructures and investments in buildings that are low-carbon low-consumption buildings. And EUR 24 billion is the worth of that. Initially, it was only -- about only EUR 12 billion, but we doubled it. It's now EUR 24 billion. And we also issued a bond -- a subordinated debt recently, green bond. So it's EUR 25 billion now. So in the medium term, concretely, we want to bring down our carbon footprint in our portfolio down by 20% between now and 2025 after a drop of 31% already between 2015 and 2019. So we're combining our forces with partners in alliances. As Céline was saying, the net zero asset owner alliance, as we call it, that brings together the biggest institutional investors on Planet Earth. And altogether, we think that we can do something worthwhile, access figures, metrics and set common ambition source to enable us all to transition efficiently in terms of the companies that we fund well. An important figure is the 1.5 degrees by 2050. That's the pathway you've opted for, but it's a big challenge. How are we going to get there? How are we going to get there faster than we've been getting up to now? And how can you motivate economic players to move into a green transition kind of mode. Well, firstly, we're very active, as I was saying, in renewable energy sources because 20% of our infrastructure portfolio right now is made up of assets that are infrastructures in renewables, wind farms, hydro power, and so on, and also new technologies, as Céline mentioned, hydrogen and everything that's storage and distribution of new energy sources. So we're shareholders of several companies like a Spanish company that's developing renewable energy sources and also a company called ELL, European Locomotive Leasing, ELL, that operates electric locomotives made by Siemens. And also we're going to finance EUR 1.9 billion worth for the [ resuscitated ] Grand Paris to develop greener transportation in the Paris area -- urban area. We're also sponsoring financing tools that widen the scope of pure green investments. So we define the hypothesis special several shades of green are what we want so that companies that are financed can implement their own transition. We are sponsoring a new tool called the transition bond twice EUR 100 million with BPCE and CA CIB, respectively and so as to foster transition in the right way.

AXA with a precursor since 2015, even since 2010, as we said, and more recently, the AXA Group has put in the fight for the time into driving Progress 2023, a strategic plan. So what's the follow-up now? Where do we go from here? Well, we've got to support the move by onboarding all of our people in the organization that were already very motivated about this. We saw the setting up of a spontaneous collective to deal with climate issues in our entities in France, acting inside and outside the company. We have AXA volunteers that are mobilizing their efforts for NGOs outside the company. And a lot of volunteering goes on in the company and outside, but we've got to go further. And often we draw a parallel between the digital transformation that we went through 10 years ago and what's happening now this transformation around the climate and the transition. And it impacts human resources and the upskilling of our people in these respects. So that's why we're going to offer our 120,000 employees training on the climate so to give them scientific basis about the phenomena to do with climate change and how to mitigate, how to adapt and so on. And then what does it involve in their job that they do as an underwriter, as a claims manager as someone in charge of IT architecture, or therefore, in terms of a procurement officer so that they can factor in these challenges day-to-day and in their jobs. So also to reward efforts. That's the idea. The efforts put in Thomas presented in his introduction or AXA for progress index that consists of 7 concrete quantified objectives. And when the results were achieved, they're built into the compensation schemes of our people. 30% of the variable component of their pay of 5,000 senior managers and middle managers in the group goes into their pay package. So that's the idea to engage all of our people to achieve these objectives. So set a value on and rewards. They're the key words here, I think. And it helps us to better understand AXA's commitments in favor of the climate and to understand what you're doing daily tangibly out in your operations. Thank you to both of you.

Thank you, [indiscernible] and Céline Soubranne and [indiscernible]. And now we'll give the floor to Etienne Bouas-Laurent, who will present the financial results for 2020.

Thank you, Denis. Hello to everybody. Dear shareholders, I'm very happy to be with you today to present the main performance indicators of AXA in 2020. I'd like to start off with the revenues, which stood at EUR 97 billion in 2020, more or less flat, minus 1%. It shows the soundness of our group in a difficult context. All of our priority segments, that is commercial P&C, Heath & Protection, recorded fine performance levels. This demonstrates the relevance of our strategy. The revenues of our priority segments, representing 2/3 of the total, progressed by 3% in the year. If we look at this trend, in a more fine-tuned manner, well, we recorded strong growth in the first quarter then a dip in the second quarter because of the strict measures enacted to fight against the pandemic in our different markets. After that, we bounced back in Q3. Then we saw speeding up in Q4, in particular, in our target segments, up by 5% for that last quarter. This places us in a very conducive dynamic for 2021. We're quite confident for the future, especially the pursuit of the pricing dynamics in commercial P&C and a growing demand that we see for Heath & Protection solutions. I'd now like to move on to the revenues business line by business line. In P&C, first start, it went up by 1% for the year. In commercial P&C, we recorded a growth of 2% for the year. And it bounced back in the second half of the year. In particular, the pricing dynamic sped up, especially in AXA XL with price upswings greater than 20% in insurance. This dynamic was continued in 2021 and will continue to have a positive impact on the growth of our margins. The personal P&C activity was more or less flat in 2020. The revenues went down slightly, minus 1%, because of the drop in the commercial dynamics during the lockdowns France and in Europe, particularly in motor insurance, knowing that prices remained flat. 2020 was, of course, first and foremost, marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. We confirmed the overall impact of EUR 1.5 billion due to COVID-19 in terms of our earnings in line with our estimates that we announced in June 2020. In the latter part of the year, we recorded an additional impact in commercial P&C, especially in AXA XL, which was offset by a reduction in the claims ratio in personal insurance. In business interruption, we adjusted the claims so as to take account of the introduction of new lockdown measures -- decisions handed down by the courts in the U.K. and Australia also. Also, there are still a few uncertainties concerning proceedings still underway in France. The cancellations of events remained flat. On the other lines, that's lending, financial lines, liability, and travel insurance, we increased our reserves even though we recorded a very small number of claims declared up to now. These effects, at the same time, were partly offset by a drop in the frequency of the claims in personal insurance, especially in motor insurance. In order to contain our exposure in the future, we revised -- we rewarded the clauses in our business interruption damage policies all around the group by making quite explicit -- very clearly explicit the exclusion factors. The deployment of these clauses is underway when the policies are due to be renewed, it takes place. So as I just said, in terms of property casualty, our underlying earnings were impacted by the pandemic to the tune of EUR 1.5 billion, and to a lesser degree, by the higher level of natural catastrophes with a strong frequency of hurricanes in the North Atlantic area in 2020. In detail, the upswing in the technical margin is greater than the drop in the financial results, and we recorded a lesser level of PYD. The result of this is that, excluding COVID and nat cat, the P&C underlying earnings would have progressed by 2%. This is confirmed by the evolution of the combined ratio in P&C. Excluding COVID and nat cat, this would have been improved by 0.5 point. So we remain confident in our ability to continue to improve our technical margins so as to achieve our objective of a combined ratio of 93% between now and 2023. Let's now focus on Life & Savings. The product mix is improving the whole time here. The revenues went down by 6% because of the drop in savings in the general account in the context of the pandemic, especially in France and in Italy. The revenues in Protection is resilient, up 2%. In France, we're continuing to see a strong demand for products that are unit-linked, representing 48% of the revenues in individual savings. That is 10 points more than the average of the market. The net inflows reveal a positive trend in the business mix. Fewer guaranteed rate activities, more technical risks and commissions connected with our strategy, of course. For the future, we anticipate a bouncing back in the revenues in Life & Savings, according as the impact of COVID will diminish with continued growth in Protection and unit-linked products. Let's now look at the underlying earnings in Life & Savings. The underlying earnings went down by 7%, driven by a lower technical margin because of the impact in the first half of the extension of the Protection cover, the drop in the discount rate for annuities, and the drop in surrenders. The investment margin remained flat. The drop in the income from investment was offset by the drop in the lending rates for clients. The expenditure went down, reflecting the measures to limit costs in different geographical areas. The technical margin should improve in 2021 compared with levels in 2020, whilst the investment margin should slightly dip given the low level of the interest rates currently. Let's now have a look at Health. The revenues of this business line post growth of 6% in 2020 in all of our geographies. And in Personal insurance and collective insurance schemes. In Asia, the revenues went up by 9% with an upswing in volumes in China and Japan and an upswing in prices in Hong Kong. The underlying earnings down by 1%. The growth In revenues being offset by an upswing in the combined ratio. In France, the gains made, thanks to the reduction of the frequency of claims during the lockdown, were offset by exceptional taxing and the French health reform. For the future, we anticipate a return to normality in the growth pathway of our earnings in line with the trend that we will see in the revenue figures. Let's now move on to asset management, which continues to be shored up by alternative asset management. The assets under management went up by 7%, reaching a record of EUR 858 billion, plus 14% for the assets managed by AXA IM alternatives. The net inflows stand at EUR 40 billion in the sectors that are core alternatives and in our Asian joint ventures. Income was higher, thanks to the alternatives, representing about 40% of the total inflows incoming revenues. The underlying earnings went up by 6%, reflecting largely the increase in the assets under management, a fine performance in a difficult year. Going forward, you can expect that we will pursue the growth we've been seeing in our alternative asset management activity with a higher margin contributing to about 1/2 of our profits, and it will continue to be a very attractive business line, indeed, in this current environment we have with low interest rates. All told, the underlying earnings of the group stand at EUR 4.3 billion in 2020 as opposed to EUR 6.5 billion in 2019. This trend can benefit by 3 factors: the deconsolidation of equitable holdings, the impact of the pandemic and the level of natural catastrophes beyond a normalized level. The net income stands at EUR 3.2 billion. The net capital gains achieved standard EUR 337 million in the month that's quite superior to the one we had in the first half that reflects market conditions that were more conducive in the second half of 2020. On the cash flow of the holding company, we've continued to avail of a lot of headroom in terms of cash with EUR 4.2 billion of cash in 2020. I figure that's higher than the target bracket of EUR 1 billion to EUR 3 billion. The main drivers of the cash flow movements during the course of the year where an upstreaming of cash of EUR 4.8 billion by our entities, EUR 1 billion of proceeds from divestments of businesses in Central and Eastern Europe and EUR 1.2 billion of the gains on share on stock derivatives and by way of raising of commercial paper. These items were partly offset by the payout of dividend for EUR 1.7 billion, the holding company cost of EUR 1.1 billion, sorry, and also the reconstitution of the cash flow headroom at the level of the entity, standing at EUR 1.4 billion. Let's now move on to the balance sheet. Our equity first increased by EUR 1.7 billion to reach EUR 71,6 billion. The net income and the increase of unrealized capital gains due to lower interest rates were partly compensated due to the currency effect linked to the reinforcing of the euro relative to the main currencies and the improvement of our pension services. Now the debt of the group, as we said, we significantly lowered our debt level in the past 2 years at a level which is now in the 25% to 28% target range. In 2020, we, in particular, reimbursed EUR 1.7 billion of financial debt. As you noticed in the presentation made by Thomas, AXA has a solvency rate which is very high at 200%. It even increased by 2 points since the 31st of December 2019, despite the adverse impact of financial markets and this in particular thanks to the integration of AXA XL into the group's internal model. This reflects the benefits of diversification, resulting from the combination of XL with AXA, which allow to cut on the requirements of capital. Since 2020, the AXA share price had significantly underperformed relative to the European insurance sector. This was due to our AXA XL subsidiary was impacted by the crisis and by the specific situation of the French, which led to the nonpayment of half of our dividend last year. After that, the AXA shares outperformed the insurance sector, recording a performance of 58% over 1 year against 42% for the stocks insurance, which is our benchmark. This performance was driven by the resolute actions, which we took to limit volatility and reestablish the profitability of AXA XL and through the publishing of a very good level of solvency at the end of 2020, which allows the payment of a dividend back to normal. As you noticed in 2020, we are able to maintain our commercial performance and great financial solidity while protecting our clients. The momentum of our revenues is good. We were able to generate a high level of underlying earnings at EUR 4.3 billion. Our solvency ratio is sound at 200%, and the cash levels of the holding are above our target. The outlook for our main financial indicators are positive, and we trust our goals in our plan as communicated last December. Thanks to all of this, we are able now to pay out a dividend of EUR 1.43 to our shareholders. It testifies the solidity of the group, and our trust in 2021 in our driving Progress 2023 strategic plan. Thank you very much for your attention.

I thank Etienne Bouas-Laurent for his presentation. I will now ask Jean-Pierre Clamadieu to present the governance of the company and the compensation, remuneration policy of its top managers.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, as the Chair of the Governance and Remuneration Committee and Independent Director, I'm extremely pleased to report both about the functioning of AXA's governance and also about our remuneration policy for our top managers. It's a topic on which you'll have an opportunity to express your sales through a series of votes. On the screen, the current composition of our Board. It includes to the 16 members, 10 women and 6 men and 9 nationalities. The percentage of women at this Board, not taking into account members representing employees or shareholder employees, is today at 54% in agreement with regulation. This diversity of women is combined with a variety of different functions, roles and professional expertise, which promotes depth and quality of our discussions when we need to choose new directors. We pay close attention to the expertise and skills that they may provide. We look for to strike an appropriate balance among these various experiences and skills in terms of age, nationality, and so on, and culture. And also, we need to assess the independence of our directors in light with -- of the code Afep/Medef recommendation. We considered early this year 11 of our members out of 16 that could be characterized as independent directors. On this slide on the screen, you see a representation, a summary of the functioning of the Board. The Board relies on the work of 3 committees who prepare the decisions through detailed recommendations and analysis as my role as a independent director ensure that all the independent directors may play their role in a practical way or participate with the Chair of the Board and the CEO. In the preparation of each Board meeting, we review together the timetable of the meetings, their agendas as well as the documents sent to the Board members to make sure that these documents allow quality discussions. It behooves the Board, as you know, to take the most significant decisions, especially the split of the function of Chair and CEO and appoint the CEO, and then the Board appoints its Chair and then has to approve the strategic orientations that are the most important ones in our company. As announced last March, Mr. Denis Duverne, our Chair, will be leaving as scheduled his position as a Chair following his term in April 2022. We are concerned about identifying his successor following an in-depth preparation process of the succession undertaken by the Governance and Remuneration committee in the last few years. Your Board decided unanimously several weeks ago to appoint Antoine Gosset-Grainville to succeed him. The wide experience of Antoine's experience in terms of experience in business and the public service, his experience at the head of a firm of Lloyds in Paris will be assets to help AXA's continue its development and have future successes. His appointment will be enforced in 1 year at the end of our next AGM. It will help Denis, Antoine to cooperating closely for 1 year to have the most efficient succession. If we look now at the work of the Board of Directors, we saw, of course, a very sustained activity this year. The Board gathered 14 times nearly exclusively in the form of distance or remote attendance with 97% being present on average. The 3 Board meetings held 18 meetings 2020 with a presence of 100% dealing with the main topics that we had to deal with. I can mention some the group strategy, how to manage the health crisis, AXA XL's transformation, the disposals and significant acquisitions and also looking at the half year and annual accounts now distribution payout and capital management policy and internal assessment of risk insolvency [ Orsa ] report, the internal model of AXA and written policies established as part of Solvency II. The succession of the Board's Chairman also was at the heart of our discussion, the makeup of the committees of the Board, examination of the group's strategy in terms of social responsibility were very active due to specificities that we all know. As we do each year, we assessed our functioning that exercise this year was undertaken internally. There are sometimes certain years we ask for external advisers to help us dig deep into things. And there are other peers we consider that questionnaire and direct exchanges between each director and the Chair, allow through answers to the questionnaire and the individual interviews to get their opinion from the members. And I also exchanged with each one of my Director colleagues to evaluate the performance of Denis, our Chair, and provide an additional look to that assessment. We assess, which is very important personal contribution of each director, which is communicated to him during an individual interview by the Chairman. We have an assessment mechanism, which is quite thorough. The overall conclusion of such self-assessment of domain identified progress AXA's were looked in detail, first of all, by the Government and Remuneration Committee, which issues recommendations which are discussed and approved by the Board. They were done so in December last. The conclusion of that assessment is a variable favorable opinion expressed about the functioning of the Board. The recommendations coming were considered as widely followed up. However, as is the case, each year, we try to further improve the way we operate. Obviously, the health crisis with the constraints that we have in terms of distance meetings have to be taken into account, and by adjusting our way of working, we're able to do our best, given the context in which physical meetings are not possible so far. The main points of improvement identified during the self-assessment exercises deal with the makeup of the Board, particular attention being paid to the selection of the future directors in order to continue to benefit at the Board of Insurance related, the digital expertise, marketing skills, but also there's a need to see new directors who have experience and who are still working and contribute to provide an additional look at the way we operate and contribute again to the quality of the decisions of that Board. We also noted the need to pay special attention to the success and process of the financial and audit committees. They require special skills and expertise. And in this field, we need to plan things ahead of time, as you will see later on. We also concluded that there was a need to propose a simplification of the CEO remuneration framework. This is something that we will talk about probably next year. And as I said, we need to develop a remote culture functioning. Hopefully, physical meetings will be possible again. We have adjusted the way we meet, and we have multiplied informal contact on a 2-by-2 basis, one-on-one to make sure that we can continue efficiently. We organize at the beginning of each year a preliminary search to allow directors before the meeting to express freely about each one of our topics, the priorities where they feel we should discuss things most. This is what I wanted to share with you when it comes to the functioning of our Board of Directors. And then I suggest now, Slide #7, to come back to the resolution pertaining the position of the Board, which will -- it will be proposed to -- later on to renew the term of Ramon de Olivera. You see his picture and his curriculum vitae. He's been since 2009 director of our company. He's now the Chair of the Financial Committee and member of the Audit Committee. According to the recommendation of the Governance and Remuneration Committee, the Board wants to put forward renewal of his term in order to continue to benefit from his wide experience and his in-depth knowledge of the financial and the insurance sectors. If his term is renewed Ramon, who's the director of -- has been a director of your company for 12 years, can no longer be considered as an independent direct in light of the Afep/Medef recommendations. However, we adjusted our internal rule so that, on a temporary basis, he can continue to act as Chair of the Financial Committee in order to prepare his succession. This is a case where we paid close attention by proposing to renew Ramon's term to keep at the Board skills which are very important which he has. And I suggest that we move to Slide #8. We will also suggest during this meeting to appoint Mr. Guillaume Faury and Ramon Fernandez as directors. Guillaume Faury will be appointed replacing Mrs. Elaine Sarsynski, who has decided not to ask for a renewal of her term as a director. And I take this opportunity to thank her very warmly for her contribution to our work in the past few years. When it comes to the appointment of Guillaume Faury, of course, his profile as an executive manager was important for us. He works in a company with a global presence. He's the CEO of Airbus now. He was also in charge of research and development, a member of the management board of PSA Peugeot-Citroën from 2009 and 2013. Let's view a short film of [indiscernible].

My name is Guillaume Faury. Since 2019, after a few years in the [Foreign Language]. I started my career as a fighter engineer [Foreign Language]. all my career in aeronautics, defense, and automotive, have brief experience in innovation, industry, business and international and also sometimes in managing complex and challenging situations whilst leading transformation. I enjoy being part of the team and serving a common cause with the team. Placing people at the center of the business matters to me. I would be genuinely pleased to join the AXA Board of Directors, AXA being a benchmark company in its sector. I'm particularly interested by the spread of AXA's activities, by its international reach, its role in society, and the fast-evolving business context in which it operates. Last but not least, I will be extremely glad to work together with the experienced and inspiring set of people in this Board of Director and to grow and learn with them. I will bring my industrial, international and technological experience as well as my personal approach to leading a company, and I'm looking forward to sharing my contribution with the Board of Directors.

Hopefully, you are convinced with this video about the specific qualities that Guillaume Faury could provide to our Board. We are very happy that an experienced leader such as him has accepted to apply to your general meeting. Now in favor of Ramon Fernandez, we, of course, have selected his wide experience and his in-depth experience of the financial matters of regulation. He's a Deputy CEO of AXA -- of Orange. He was in charge of the treasury department representing France or the State, the Board of CNP Assurances. That was from 2009 and 2014. Let's now see a short film pertaining to Ramon.

My name is Ramon Fernandez. I'm the Deputy CEO of Orange in charge of finance, performance and development. I joined Orange in 2014 after about 20 years in the public service, where I held mostly financial positions. I began my career in 1993 at the General Director's -- Director at the French Treasury where I took a close interest in the regulation supervision of the financial sector and the market in international finance and in the challenges of the state as shareholder. Before becoming the Director General between 2009 and '14, I had the opportunity to spend 2 years in Washington at the IMF at the time of crisis in emerging countries and then to serve as an adviser to French political levers, the Minister of Finance the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs as Head of Office; and the President of the French Republic as his economic adviser. Throughout those years and since I joined Orange, I have been passionate about economic and financial issues, European and international matters strategic and regulatory concerns about combining growth and financial security short term and long term. The insurance industry is at the crossroads of all these issues. I'm committed to bring this experience and my appetite for debate as a vector of values to the Board of Directors of your great company if you trust me.

The Board examined the situation of these 2 candidates in light of the Afep/Medef recommendations, and we decided that they be considered as independent. So subject to a favorable vote, of course, later on in the meeting, the size of the Board of Directors would be temporarily increased in order to enable your Board to a bit of the presence of an executive manager in office from a multinational group that is -- that doesn't hold any external office and also the future Chairman of the Financial Committee, which would make it possible to help the current Chairman to efficiently prepare his succession at the head of that committee. So after this presentation now of the functioning of the AXA governance in 2020, we should perhaps move on to look at the compensation policy for the senior managers of the company. In line with the legal provisions, in this respect, your meeting will be asked to give its opinion on the components of compensation paid during or granted in respect of Financial 2020 to each corporate officer and also on the policy concerning compensation applicable to the corporate offices in the company for fiscal 2021. So all told, there are 6 resolutions that were put to the vote, 3 resolutions concerning the compensation experts of the Chairman of the Board, of the CEO and the Board members and through resolutions concerning their compensation ex ante. So in this context, you will see summed up on the chart here on the screen, the different components of the compensation of the senior managers and the top management people in general in AXA. The compensation -- the cash component of compensation in the short term is constituted of a fixed component and a part of the annual variable compensation. Then we have the items of deferred compensation, which are made up of the other part of the variable annual compensation and performance shares. So this compensation structure aims at fostering convergence of interest on the management side with the interest of the company and its shareholders in the medium and long term. In preparing the proposals for the Board concerning the compensation of the CEO, the Compensation and Governance Committee appraises all of the components of compensation. We also look at the practices in the bench market. That is the peer companies of AXA at European level and global level. And the objective here is to propose a structure that's consistent and coherent and levels of compensation that are competitive. The idea is to encourage performance and align the levels of compensation actually received with the earnings of the company. So the compensation of the Governance Committee regularly reviews, of course, the general principles of the compensation policy of the group. And to this extent, we are very attentive to internal fairness and the fact of taking account of the individual and collective performance [indiscernible] So the Board, on the base of a proposal of its Compensation and Governance Committee, decided, therefore, to set the annual target compensation in cash of the CEO at EUR 2,900,000. This compensation is broken down into fixed compensation and target variable compensation. The annual fixed compensation of the CEO is EUR 1,450,000 and the annual variable target compensation, which is fully subjected to demanding performance conditions and aligned with the strategy of the group, stands at EUR 1,450,000. The determination of the amount of the total compensation of the CEO and the balance between and among the different components, fixed and variable, is always underpinned, in particular, by a study conducted by an outside concerning the practices in terms of compensation for similar posts in a sample of companies in the CAC 40 index and in the main companies internationally in the financial industry. Also in order to tie in the CEO into value creation. In the long term, the Board of Directors grants every year to long-term incentives in the form of performance share. These performance shares are fully subjected to demand in performance conditions, internal and external ones, and do not, therefore, guarantee any minimum gain. Also, the CEO does not avail any supplementary defined benefit pension scheme. He's a beneficiary just like all of the management staff in the entities of the Group of France. He's, therefore, a beneficiary of the performance share plan dedicated for pension purposes, in respect of which there are grants totally subjected to performance conditions that are conducted annually. Finally, he avails of an indemnification in the event of termination of his office, subjected to performance conditions and the initially fixed amount of 12 months of his compensation package is increased by an additional amount each new year of seniority put in without, of course, in total, exceeding 24 months in all. So I would add that the target conversation of the CEO has remained unchanged since his appointment in 2016 and will remain also identical in 2021. No change there. Of course, we have to annually revisit the variable compensation granted each year, and we did it, of course, for 2020 for the CEO. The evaluation of the annual performance of the CEO is something that relies on 2 main components: the performance of the group that accounts for 70% of the total and his individual performance representing 30% of the total. The performance of the group is appraised as a function of the development of 5 criteria: the underlying earnings per share, the adjusted return on equity, the revenues in strategic sectors that are priority in Commercial P&C and also Protection and Health that are the growth priorities for the group. Also, the Promoter Score by clients and the overheads, excluding commissions. The indicators taken on board are directly connected with the strategic orientations of the group under as always supported by the achievement of an amount or a score, a target one that will be established on a preliminary basis. On the screen, you see the relative weights of each of these indicators and their rates of achievement, respectively, in 2020. As you can see, the results of the calculation grid were very substantially impacted by the crisis due to COVID-19. Given the demanding nature of the objectives, the strict application of the formula, defined by the Board at the start of 2020 to appraise the performance of the group, would position the total percentage of achievement of the objectives at 35%. If however, we cancel that completely, the impact of the health crisis, we recalled, in general called the impact of that earlier for us, we would obtain a global percentage of achievement of objectives in terms of group performance that would be 68%. So in order to determine the appropriate level of variable compensation for the CEO for 2020, the Board, in addition to levels of achievement of objectives presented just now took into consideration several parameters, especially the amount of the dividend paid to the shareholders of the company in respect of fiscal 2019 corresponding to 51% of the demand initially and after the market in spite of a difficult macroeconomic context, the fact that we did not have recourse to public aid in any of the countries where the group has operations or also the public commitment of the group to protect jobs and the compensation of its employees during the crisis and the possibility for most of its employees to work from home, as [indiscernible] recalled earlier. After in-depth discussions and on the base of a proposal by the Compensation and Governance Committee, your Board of Directors decided to adjust the score that would have resulted from a mechanical enforcement of the criteria by taking on board the average of the scores with and without neutralization of the impact of the health crisis. That led us to setting down the score for the achievement of the objectives at 51%. We thought this score, 51%, was more representative of the performance of the group and its management team in 2020. And it enabled us to align the interest of the management with the interest of the company and the shareholders in line with our compensation policy in this group. We of course, looked at the individual performance of the CEO that you see on this slide right now, which is appreciated as a function of specific objectives that were revisited every year, different indicators and objectives that are qualitative and some are quantifiable as well, they're all set, therefore, by the Board, different objectives set down by the Board in an assignment letter, drawn up at the start of every year. So for 2020, the Board of Directors evaluated the performance -- individual performance of Thomas Buberl as per the following objective set down in his assignment letter. You heard about them at the start of the meeting: the transformation of AXA XL, the improvement of the stability and the simplicity of the balance sheet of the group, the development of the strategic plan 2021 to 2023 for the group. The development of innovation, the fulfillment of certain strategic initiatives in terms of human resources, and also the achievement of strategic initiatives in terms of corporate social responsibility. So by this criteria, we evaluated the individual performance of your CEO for 2020. It came out at 119.5%. Each of these criteria, as you see here, were evaluated. And the effective variable compensation in respect of 2020 to be paid to the CEO, subject to your approval, of course, at this AGM, the figure stands therefore at EUR 1,036,750. That is 71.5% of his target variable compensation. In order to enforce the compensation policy voted through by your shareholders meeting, the Board of Directors has renewed for the CEO a mechanism for deferred payment of a part that's equal to 30% of his variable compensation in respect of fiscal 2020. In line with this mechanism, the deferred amount of the variable compensation will be paid in 2 amounts. That is in 2022 and then another installment in 2023. The amount actually paid out could vary as a function of the trend in the stock price of AXA during the period when deferment takes place within the limitation of a floor equal to 80% of the deferred demand and a cap equal to 120% of the amount deferred. The introduction of this deferred part within variable compensation, even though it's not required right now, but enforced by French regulations, the idea here is, however, to reinforce the alignment of AXA with the practices and regulations that prevail internationally in the financial services industry when it comes to senior management compensation. So I suggest at this stage, we should review the remuneration of the Chairman of the Board. In line with the recommendations of the Afep/Medef code, the Board considered that the structure of compensation, the most appropriate here was to pay to the Chairman of the Board just fixed compensation. In order to determine the amount of the fixed compensation, the Board took account of the widened tasks that it decided to grant to Denis Duverne in his capacity as Chairman and consulted and outside specialized office in this regard. Also, we took account of the fact that Denis Duverne, who went on pension on 1st of September 2016, decided to forgo the payment of the annuity which is due to him in respect of the supplementary pension scheme, the annual amount standing at approximately EUR 750,000. Denis Duverne decided to not develop this only at such time as he would leave office as Chairman of the Board without asking for any retrospective payment. The Board of Directors consequently decided to set the amount of the annual compensation of the Chairman of the Board of Directors at EUR 1,200,000. This amount has remained unchanged since he was appointed in 2016. Finally, the next slide shows us that AXA is pursuing performance share grant plan for its people in France and internationally. Almost 7,000 people have availed of these grants in 2020 and 2021, irrespective of their positioning in the line management was subjected to performance conditions. The performance criteria revisited by the Board at the start of this year concerned the performance of the entity to which the beneficiary belongs. 60% of the total there, performance in terms of corporate social responsibility, 30%. And the relative financial performance of the group, 10% worse. Finally, in line with the best marketplace practices and the recommendations of the financial industry regulators and the other stakeholders, the performance shares granted to the CEO as well as being subjected to a vesting period of 3 years are accompanied by a lockup period, compulsory 1 of 2 years. In March 2021, 133,539 performance shares with an IFRS value of EUR 1,938,986 were granted to the CEO. Now the health crisis affected the variable compensation in terms of cash, and this health crisis will also substantially impact the rate of achievement of the past performance share plan, given the demanding nature of their performance conditions. So that's why in this exceptional circumstances, the Board of Directors, after looking at the scope of the impact, which should result in rates of achievement varying from 55% to 65% in 2021, and 30% to 45% in 2022 and 2023, and the scope of the impact, which could affect substantially more than 7,000 employees, we decided, therefore, to not adjust the 2018 plan. And the shares will be definitively vested in 2021 so that the impact of the crisis will be marked for the beneficiaries of that time and also adjust partially, on particular points, the 2019-2020 plans. For these latter plans, the criterion of the floor level of one of the performance conditions, that is the adjusted earnings per share, that will be adjusted for all of the beneficiaries and set at 70% of the amount of earnings required to achieve the target. Whereas, initially, we had proposed, when the plans were set up, a threshold of 80%. This adjustment is submitted to approval here at your meeting today to be applicable to the CEO, and the effect would be to preserve the retention value of the 2019 and 2020 plans. In the event of a good performance by the group during the vesting period, this adjustment would make it possible for the senior managers to acquire a maximum of 80% of their initial grants. We think here again, after an attentive review, that this push will enable us to align performance conditions of the plans with the objectives of the strategic plan for the period between now and 2023 in the group, whilst maintaining a demanding level for the achievement of the performance conditions. Also, I would underscore that the granting of performance shares -- the granting takes place without any dilution for the shareholder, given the choice made of delivering existing shares for these purposes. The items of compensation of the senior management of AXA that we've reviewed just now in detail are described, of course, in full in a detailed manner in the Universal Registration Document for 2020 that was made available to you on the website of the company. And of course, I would urge you consult it if you want more details. Finally, to conclude, I'd like to say a few words about the group's policy in terms of employee shareholdership and the involvement of employees in the equity base of AXA as shareholders. Now AXA, for a long time, has been pursuing a willful policy for employee shareholdership. Every year, the group proposes to its staff members in France and internationally an employee shareholdership transaction that we call the share plan, in our jargon, in the form of a capital increase that is reserved for them. In 2020, almost 17,000 employees in 37 countries took part in the capital increase. Total amount subscribed more than EUR 88 million. That was the issuance of more than 6 million new shares. In order to eliminate the diluting nature of the share plan offering, as in previous years, we bought back and then canceled an equivalent number of shares. So on the 31st of December 2020, the employees working for the group held 4.3% of the equity and 6.2% of the voting rights in the company. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for your attention, and I hope I have covered these complex topics with you in a simple and straightforward manner. Thank you.

Thank you, Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, for this presentation. I suggest now we look at another video representing the shareholder. [Presentation]

The report about the corporate governance established in line with Articles L.225-37 and the next, an L.22-10 and 20 of the commercial code are on Page 485. I will now turn it over to our auditors, Mrs. Bénédicte Vignon from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Mr. Maxime Simoen from the Lazar (sic) Mazars firm, who will present a summary.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, dear shareholders. We have issued this year 7 reports to present to shareholders meeting. I will present our reports on the annual consolidated accounts, and I'll report on third-party agreements. I'll turn it over to Bénédicte Vignon, who will present our reports on transaction-related to capital. With regard to our reports on the annual and consolidated accounts, the fundamental aim of our mission consists in obtaining reasonable assurance about the regularity, truthfulness and true picture of the accounts about the fact they do not include any significant misstatements by relying on the audit work undertaken by our 2 firms in the significant entities of the AXA Group. First of all, on the annual accounts of the parent company, AXA, Inc., we have issued an unqualified certification in terms of key audit points, the justification of assessment dealt with the assessment of the equity interest and with regard to the other specific verifications provided by the law, especially information communicated in the management report. No observation to make on our second report on the group's consolidated accounts. We have also issued and qualified certification. We indicated 3 audit points similarly to the previous years. First of all, in terms of the assessment of technical reserves in life savings and pension, including postponed acquisition costs; and the second, in terms of assessment for provisions and reserves for claims in the P&C, especially in terms of the pandemic; and finally, regarding the evaluation of the recoverable value of the goodwill. In terms of the group's management report, no observation about the truthfulness and accuracy of these accounts with the consolidated accounts. We also indicate that the presentation of the consolidated accounts remains the single European electronic format, the so-called ESEF. I will now -- what about our report on the third-party agreements? We remind you that the goal of -- is to bring to your attention the third-party agreements, and our work is not to say anything about the usefulness or the merits. So we were not informed about any opinion about any authorized third-party agreements. Two agreements were approved in previous periods. The first one in relation to Mr. Thomas Buberl, dealing with benefit of a social protection regime following his waiver of his work contract. Secondly, regarding Mr. Denis Duverne, dealing with the benefit of a social protection regime following his waiver of his work contract. I'll turn it over now to Bénédicte Vignon, and thank you for your attention.

Hello to all our shareholders. Your general meeting is gathered today in the form -- in an extraordinary form as well so that you can make decisions on several transactions regarding the capital of the equity. We have 3 reports dealing with regard to various allegations granted to the Board of Directors. We've also issued the first report dealing with resolutions 17 to 24, shown on Page 46 of the consolidation and call brochure. You are to delegate to the Board for a period of 26 months. You authorize it to proceed with the issuance, with maintenance of the subscription preferential right, ordinary shares or of securities giving access to shares in light of the 17th resolution. And also proceed with the issuance with suppression of the subscription preferential right through -- in terms of ordinary actions or securities giving access to actions in light of the 18th resolution. Also the issuance with removal of the subscription preferential right, and this is part of the 19th resolution. And then the issue, if there is a public offer of exchange of ordinary shares or securities giving access to shares to be issued in the 21st resolution. Lead issuance of ordinary shares resulting from securities or coming under resolutions 23rd and 24. It's also to authorize your Board of Directors through the 20th resolution and as part of the implementation of the delegation aimed in resolutions 18 and 19. The fixed price of issuance within the legal limit by a 12-month period of 10% of the share cap. And finally, delegate to your Board for 26 months the necessary powers in order to proceed with the issue of ordinary shares or securities giving access to shares to be issued in order to remunerate in kind contributions, giving access to capital within the limit of 10% of the capital. That's part of the 22nd resolution. The overall nominal increase of the capital increase that could be immediately implemented or could not exceed EUR 2 billion being specified. On the one hand, that the maximum nominal amount of the increases that could be implemented as part of resolutions 18, 19, 21, 22 and 23rd could not exceed a common ceiling of EUR 550 million. And also the maximum nominal amount of the increases that could be implemented as part of the 24th resolution could not exceed EUR 2 billion. And finally, the overall nominal amount of debt could not exceed EUR 6 billion for resolutions 17and 22, subject to the subsequent examination of the conditions about the issuance proposed. We have no observation to express about the modality to determine the issue price. The final conditions of the issues not being said, we do not express any opinion about them and nor about the consequences on the proposed suppression of subscription preferential right. We might make additional reports. We have issued also 2 reports dealing with resolutions 25 and 26 and shown, respectively, on Pages 48 and 50 of your brochure. The aim is to delegate your Board for a period of 18 months. And as part of a common maximum of EUR 135 million, you authorize this to proceed, on the one hand, to the issue of ordinary shares of securities giving access to equity reserve for people who are members of a corporate savings plan with suppression of the shareholder subscription preferential right, resolution 25, and also the increase in share capital reissuance of ordinary shares with the suppression of subscription preferential right of shareholders in favor of category of the beneficiaries determined in resolution 26, subject to subsequent examination the conditions. No observation to express about how to determine the issuance price of ordinary shares to be issued given in the report of the Board. The final conditions of the issuance not been set, we have no opinion on it. And consequently, about the proposal for removing the subscription preferential right, [ which is May 2 ]. We will have, if necessary, to issue complementary reports. Our last report is shown on Page 52 of the call brochure and is about the 27th resolution. It's about delegating to your Board for a period of 18 months the authority to proceed with a reduction in the capital in the limit of 10% of the capital by a period of 24 months. We have no observation to express about the causes and conditions of the reduction of the capital that is considered. On behalf of the auditors, I thank you very much for your attention.

I thank the auditors and suggest that we see a presentation video about our services dedicated to shareholders. [Presentation]

Previous to our general meeting, received [ for mails ] with written questions coming from the forum poll [indiscernible] reclaims finance and is a [indiscernible] there. The association [ EVAC ] and Mr. [ Julian Satcha ], dealing mainly about environmental, social and governance issues. These questions as well as the answers provided by the Board are shown on the website of the company in a heading dedicated to questions and answers. We will now move to questions coming directly from the shareholders through the platform opened today and received on axa.com. Before our meeting, I greet Jacques de Peretti, CEO of AXA France, who joined us for this session. I thank [ Carolyn Bless ] for joining us again to moderate this session, and I turn it over to her.

Thank you very much, Duverne. AXA, as a matter of fact, put in place 2 platforms to allow you to ask your questions during this general meeting. A first platform on axa.com, which was made available to you from the 6th -- of the 23rd of April, allowed you to ask your questions before the shareholders' general meeting and the collection of your question was done anonymously. So AXA does not know the identity, therefore, of the people who put this question. As a result, you, as shareholders, were not identified. So these questions are not part of the legal framework of the written questions of this general meeting. A second platform, a secured one with signature and checking your quality as a shareholders, was opened this morning at 9 a.m. to allow you to participate in the discussions of this 2021 general meeting. You may still ask questions by relying on the address, which is up on the screen now. I suggest that we start this exchange with shareholders with the first series of questions received on axa.com. The first question is part of strategy and outlook. Here it is. The change in the AXA XL management team, the more selective subscription policy and limitation of commitments implemented, will they be -- excluding the COVID, to allow this entity to create value for shareholders in the presence of a recurrence of nat cats and the cyber risk, which are on the upsurge? Thomas Buberl, please.

We've accelerated during 2020 the transformational AXA plan. The new management team under the leadership of Scott Gunter has put in place immediately a new organization, which is more simple and very much operational. And besides, AXA XL has strengthened its subscription, its underwriting discipline by focusing on the seeking of profitability on the one hand, and on the other hand, by centering on products with high potential. Lastly, we have undertaken major actions to continue to further cut down on the volatility of the results of XL. In this regard, we adopted a budget for nat cats that is more cautious than in previous years. And secondly, and written additional protections for certain long-term claims. These transformation actions were undertaken in a very bullish environment. As Etienne Bouas-Laurent mentioned, with the continuation of a very strong price momentum throughout 2020, AXA XL today is a company which is very global, highly diversified, is the largest platform for corporate risk on a global basis, which meets the growing need for protection in the face of large risk. And for all these reasons, we confirmed during the presentation of the annual results of the group, our goal for underlying of EUR 1.2 billion for AXA XL in 2021.

The second question now received on axa.com. As part of strategy and outlook, what outlook does the Chinese market offer to AXA? Is AXA limiting itself to the motor insurance directly? Are other prospects possible in these large markets? Now the political tensions between the European Union and China, do they have repercussions on the decisions of Chinese consumers? Thomas, again, please.

The finalization of this by the buying of AXA Tianping at the end of of 2019 turns AXA Tianping into one of the P&C insurance with foreign capital, the largest in the Chinese market. And today, we serve more than 5 million Chinese policy holders and our strategy consists in transforming AXA Tianping, which today is mainly centering on motor insurers into multi-line insurance through the concentration on a significant opportunity, which is health. We've seen that certainly, during the COVID crisis, the health matter played a major role all over the world, especially in China. And this is why we developed as well health digital service help called Emma by AXA, plus partnerships with local insurance groups and city councils to launch new health-related products. The first results are encouraging, and we want to continue with this approach in order to reposition AXA Tianping as a true health insurer in China.

The third question regarding governance. During the recent period, there have been many changes at the management committee. Could you explain the nature and the reasons behind such changes? Again, Thomas.

Thank you, Denis. Yes, AXA has always aligned its governance with the operational challenges and the strategic challenges that our group faces. And the recent changes in the management team kick in exactly whilst we are moving to a new phase for AXA, which is connected with the launch of our strategic plan, drive in progress 2023. Our 2020 results, as shown before, have indicated AXA resilience in the face of this unprecedented COVID crisis. And now we are fully focused on the implementing our 2023 plan. In this context, which remains complex and volatile, the renewal -- the recent review of the management team allows the group to count on large diversity of experience and right and adjusted governance. So I decided to simplify the corporate elements around 2 deputy CEOs in line with the governance, which we approved in 2017. Now this guarantees a real focus on execution -- the execution of our plan. Also, in that respect, I'd like to thank my 2 colleagues here by my side, who supported me in this plan. And the last plan we had and in the new plan, of course. Assuming this post, thank you to Jacques De Peretti, in charge of AXA France, and he did so well there; and Etienne Bouas-Laurent, a very good CFO during the COVID crisis.

Well, let us now continue our debates with the shareholders, and we will now take some questions live. Here's the first question by video.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, of course, it's commonplace to say that 2020 was atypical because of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world. Obviously, AXA didn't escape impact, and it was impacted more or less worldwide. And the governance managed to act speedily and was responsive. I'm sure it wasn't an easy matter. Shareholders were always attentive to the quality of the governance teams in this kind of crisis situation. So what were the internal main strengths in the response brought to the COVID-19 health crisis? Could you perhaps expound on that? And internally, the reporting lines to the Executive Committee, could you tell me how it function, please? Through what channels did you do all of this?

Thank you, sir, for your questions. You've seen in the report presented by Jean-Pierre Clamadieu earlier, our Board was particularly active during 2020 because instead of 8 or 9 meetings, as is our wont, we held 14 meetings of the Board with a very strong attendance rate. So throughout the year, we were very attentive to protecting the health of our staffs, and Thomas talked about this. Also, we were attentive to the continuity of our relations with our clients, and Thomas talked about that, too. And finally, our response, given this crisis, through solidarity action undertaken outreach, I would say, done, socially speaking, in France and outside of France. So the Board was indeed very active. We were very careful, too, to take care of the financial health of the company, and we had ongoing discussions with the regulator on the dividend payout policy. You've seen this year the dividend initially was planned at EUR 1.43, was brought down to EUR 0.71 (sic) [ EUR 0.73 ]. So the idea was to maintain the financial soundness of the company and continue with the quality dialogue with the supervisory authorities. So that hopefully answers your question regarding the Board. In close conjunction with the Management Board, Thomas and the corporate management people, it was an active ongoing efficient dialogue, I think, during that difficult period.

Next question is a written question that I will read for you. What will be your policy regarding dividend payout in respect of 2021? And your strategic plan for 2023 looks good. Well done. You've put in a good performance. Thank you, sir or madam, for your kind words, I'll give the floor to Etienne Bouas-Laurent to give you some answers.

Well, the dividend payout policy was much clear in December when we put -- set down the Driving Progress 2023 strategic plan. The dividend payout policy is between 55% and 65% of the underlying earnings to be paid out every year, and we try to bring up our dividend payout in conjunction with the upswing in our earnings. So the earnings per share should evolve between 3% and 7% on average during the plan period.

Another written question. We've heard a lot about restaurant owners in concert with AXA, even though represent a tiny number of clients. Is it not worrisome reputationally for AXA and a deterrent maybe for prospective clients? I give the floor to the person who was in charge back to France in early May, Mr. Peretti.

Thank you. Yes, this is Jacques de Peretti. Our restaurant owners have suffered and are still suffering because of the COVID crisis. And what we did, well, we entered into a dialogue with the restaurant owners where contracts or policies might not easily be interpreted. Now some restaurant owners are still in dispute with us, and we are currently in a situation for the case law handed down by the courts. It's not at all clear, the rulings from the court. So regarding our image. The image that we keep on monitoring every month has remained fairly flat, very stable during all of that period when there were disputes. And in the last few months, it's even improved. So that's a good thing. And if we have a look at the impact image-wise, the attractiveness of our brand and our value proposition, measured by the growth in the number of people who trust us, the growth in our portfolio, in 2020, we see, would have been a year when our commercial results were quite a bit higher than previous years. So to sum up, our image is still good, and people are still trusting us. And it's the fruit of what we did with our different agents and brokers and everybody, all the stakeholders that we involved who tried to suspend premium payment and help people out in that way. And we have the solidarity fund for the SMEs that we, of course, supported as well that was set up by the French government, and we're proud of what we were able to do.

We have another question now, written one again. What is the impact of the risk connected with climate change in the activities -- the business activities of the AXA Group?

Thank you. Climate change impacts AXA in -- on the asset side of our balance sheet because insurance is a business where we collect in subscriptions before we pay for claims, of course. So on the liability side, it's commitments we've given to our policyholders. Now since 2015, AXA has been a pioneer trailblazer regarding climate change because in 2015, 6 months before the Paris Agreement, we gave the commitment to exit from coal. And in 2015, we decided therefore to exit from coal. And with Thomas Buberl, we've even stepped up our efforts in that respect, and we are investing green bonds, EUR 25 million worth. So we have a strong commitment to come to a net zero impact through our assets by 2050. And every year, we monitor the effects of global warming on our portfolio. More recently, in 2021, we decided to make the same transformation regarding our insurance commitments and under Thomas Buberl, we took the [ steer of an alliance ] called the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, by which we give a commitment that our insurance portfolio will be aligned with the net zero objective for 2050. So strong commitment there on the asset and liability sides of our balance sheet. And we announced our purpose in 2020 at the AGM then to act in favor of human progress by protecting what matters.

Next question, written one as well. ESG is becoming more and more important in companies. How can you get the balance right between the group's strategy and its CSR objectives that are more and more ambitious? Are you contemplating putting your purpose into the articles of association with the company ultimately? Have you measured the engagement of your employees with the CSR policy of the company?

Well, I'll answer part of that, and I'll ask Thomas to build on it afterwards. Now we talked about our purpose. It's not necessary to build it into the articles of association to live it out and have it part of our strategy going forward. We're lucky enough to be in the business that consists of protecting people and their property. So there is a perfect dovetailing between our strategy in terms of corporate social responsibility and environmental responsibility and our strategy per se. So I talked about the asset liability side of the balance sheet a minute ago. The CSR strategy of the AXA Group and its strategy, in general, are fully in line with each other. Now the question about perception by employees, I'll let Thomas Buberl perhaps answer that one.

Yes. The raison d'être, the purpose, was developed with a lot of our employees actually. At the time, we wanted it to be a collective effort, so that's why we found this purpose. We stated this purpose, thanks to inputs from our people after lots of debates and discussions. So that's why this purpose makes us proud in AXA. And once it was launched, we started to measure through the post service several times a year the buy-in of our employees vis-à-vis that purpose. With its implementation going forward, we see more and more employees engaging with us on that. And we want to set on concrete actions, which will create no doubt more buy-in in the future because our people will see the purpose written on paper, but it's even better to see it being done in practice, and that's what's going to happen and is happening.

Our next shareholder shared 2 questions with us. He starts off saying, well done for this strategic alliance with Microsoft for the future digital healthcare. That's from the first question. Where will the data on health be stored? Probably in the Azure cloud of Microsoft. How can we make sure that the health data will not leave France for French clients and Germany for German clients and so on? The first question. Second question. During the pandemic, the other competing platforms, Maya and Doctolib, have been playing and are still playing an important role for vaccination appointments, for example, for the population at large. What about the future health care platform of AXA in this context, which is really highly competitive already? What are the main differentiators you have in AXA? Thanks in advance for your answers. Thomas, it's a question for you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for congratulating us. We're quite proud of that partnership because it is a very important partnership in our strategy. Regarding data storage. The use of data by AXA is fully in line with clients' consent requirements. And when this platform is used, local and European regulations apply of course, are enforceable and these data, of course, remain in Europe, as per those regulations. So apart from that, we've said clearly already that these data are not sold or shared with any third party. That means that we enforce very strict rules to use that's made of these data because the client gives us his data, her data so that we can help them to live a better life. So the positioning of that platform. Now that platform is ready to go live. It's an ecosystem in which we will be integrating third-party service providers. The purpose being that we can offer the best possible health care journey and the best possible service for our clients, but also for third parties when it comes to health. Because we think that that's where the real need lies. You got to quickly find the best health care pathway and be given direct access to the best health care provider. So that's why we have a key differentiator here in a major way, and the partnership with Microsoft will help us to progress in our partner strategy and in digital health care services for our customers.

The next question there is the following. AXA is fairly absent from the U.S. overall, even though the economic prospects are among the best in the world and represent 50% of the global P&C and health markets. What's AXA's strategy there? Are you going to be a multiregional player? Or have you the ambition of becoming fully global that would require you to adopt a major stance in the group segments in the U.S.?

I don't think that AXA is absent from the U.S. market, but I'll let Thomas answer that.

You're right, Denis. We're present in the United States, not in all the business lines, but via AXA XL, our subsidiary, we're a major player in commercial insurance lines. We're really very present there. And secondly, regarding how we operate in niches in reinsurance or the provision of health-related services. Those 2 markets are really important markets for us. There are markets that we want to develop. And it's all connected with our strategy in which we are pursuing our focus on our priority segments, health protection and commercial P&C.

The next question now. AXA has refocused in certain regions, but what will be its strategy for Latin America? Strategic investment or strategic divestment may be depending on opportunities? Thomas, would you like to answer that?

Well, it's true that we've refocused on fewer geographies. The idea being that you cannot always be the best everywhere. That's why we have selected certain markets in which we can really be strong and have a strong competitive position. Currently, in Latin America, we're in 3 countries: Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. In Mexico, we're a very big player in personal lines for health, in particular. It's a very important market for us, where we've been investing a lot, too, because it's helped services and in partnership also with a third party. So to develop clinics, private hospitals or clinics. So AXA provides medical services for our customers and others so as to really participate in the strong growth that's taking place in Mexico. In Colombia, we have Colpatria as a partner. It's a company that's faring very well. We're a major player in that market. There, again, we're really focused on health development. And we have vertical integration we're aiming at there, where we can combine insurance and health-related services. In Brazil, we have decided to focus on commercial P&C, excel kind of risk and mid-market segments, and our teams there are focused on developing a good position in that Brazilian market.

Well, another question now. Does AXA contemplating, in the future, the dividend in the form of stock so as to protect the cash situation? Well, that's for Etienne Bouas-Laurent.

As you've seen, our financial robustness is what it is. We're pretty strong, financially speaking. Our solvency and cash positions are above the target levels for the plan. So we have the resources to pay our dividend in cash, and we also have the resources to fund our own growth. So we don't need to have any additional capital or to opt for a stock dividend payment during our strategic plan period.

For the next question now is one that came in through axa.com that we'll share straight away. How is the group going to align what it says in terms of carbon footprint with what it does? Especially when it concerns its policy regarding company cars.

Well, that question is with Thomas.

In order to achieve our objective of carbon neutrality by 2025, we've set up objectives to reduce our own CO2 emissions per type of emission. That means energy, the fleet of cars and business trips. Our ambition is to reduce by 20% our carbon impact of our car fleet by 2025 compared with a baseline in 2019.

Next question received via axa.com. Here it is on the screen. Again, to do a sustainable development, the Ever Given container vessel that, of course, had an accident in the Suez Canal, revealed once again the scandal of containers that are lost or thrown out into the sea by shippers and ship owners that are not very scrupulous. Can you transit the AXA Group or its subsidiaries are compasses in these kinds of behavior patterns by assuring the loss of these containers? What are you doing to prevent this kind of behavior?

Well, AXA XL is a global insurance company, specialized in commercial P&C, of course. So we're present in marine insurance for that reason. Now the solutions we propose are really focused on the loss of goods in the event of danger at sea. This is the standard cover that's proposed by more or less all of the marine insurance companies. So in this case that you just mentioned, dear shareholder, in this instance, the goods were deliberately thrown into the sea. And that means -- well, it was an offense. And that meant it was an offense. It wasn't an emergency situation. I mean, if you were in emergency situation, then there is the insurance cover that kicks in. But from what we know about this, we didn't cover this kind of activity of throwing goods into the sea.

Well, this is our last question. Mr. Duverne, I'll give you back the floor. This was the last question, rather. Sorry, so I'll give the floor back to Mr. Duverne.

Thank you. Thank you for moderating our Q&A session. At this stage, I think we'll conclude the session of question and answers. And we'll screen our last video, showing our shareholder. [Presentation]

We can move on to the resolutions that are submitted to the shareholders. This was closed since yesterday at 3 p.m. Etienne Bouas-Laurent will read the results.

The 15 first resolutions were the authority of the ordinary share, [ who thus ] make the first resolution, aimed at approving the share counts, the corporate accounts of 2020, the resolution has been approved. The second resolution, aimed at approving the consolidated accounts of 2020, the resolution is approved. The third resolution had as its purpose to approve the allocation of the financial result of 2020, and the payout of a dividend of EUR 1.43 per share, the resolution is approved. The fourth resolution, aimed at approving the information mentioned in one of Article L.22-10-9 of the Commercial Code connected with the remuneration of its corporate directors, it is approved. The fifth resolution, aimed at approving the individual remuneration of Mr. Denis Duverne, the Chairman of the Board, resolution is adopted. The sixth resolution was aimed at approving the individual remuneration of Mr. Thomas Buberl, CEO, the resolution is approved. The seventh resolution, aimed at approving the adjustment of the remuneration policies of the Chief Executive approved of the -- by the general meetings of 2019 and 2020, it is approved. The eighth resolution, aimed at approving the remuneration policy of the Chief Executive in line with Article L.22-10-8 of the Commercial Code, this resolution is approved. The ninth resolution, aimed at approving the remuneration policy of the Chair of the Board in line of the Article L.22-10-8 of the Commercial Code, it is approved. The tenth resolution, aimed at approving the remuneration policy of the directors in appliance of the Article L.22-10-8, it is approved. The eighth (sic) [ 11th ] resolution, aimed at approving the special report of the auditors regarding third-party agreements, this resolution is approved. The 12th resolution, aimed at renewing the term of Mr. Ramon de Oliveira as a director for a 4-year period, it is approved. The 13th resolution, aimed at the appointment of Mr. Guillaume Faury as a director for a period of 4 years, it is approved. The 14th resolution, aimed at appointing Mr. Ramon Fernandez as a director for a period of 4 years, it is approved. The 15th resolution, aimed at authorizing the Board to buy ordinary shares of the company, it is approved. The 13 resolutions that follow were under the authority of the Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting. The 16th resolution, aimed to delegate to the Board, the authority to increase the share capital by incorporating reserves, profits or premiums, it is approved. The 17th resolution, aimed at delegating to the Board of Directors the authority to increase the share capital through the issuance of ordinary shares or securities, giving access to ordinary shares to be issued by the company or one of its subsidiaries by preserving the shareholder subscription preferential right, the resolution is approved. The 18th resolution, aimed at delegating to the Board the authority to increase the nominal capital by issuing ordinary shares or securities, giving access to ordinary shares to be issued by the company of one of its subsidiaries with elimination of shareholder subscription preferential right as part of public offerings, except those aimed at in Article L.411-2 of the Monetary and Financial Code, it is approved. 19th resolution was to delegate to the Board the authority increase the share capital by issuing ordinary shares or securities, giving access to ordinary shares to be issued by the company or one of its subsidiaries with elimination of the shareholder subscription preferential right through public offer in Article L.402 (sic) [ L.411-2 ] of the financial and monetary code, the resolution is approved. The 20th resolution, aimed at authorizing the Board in case of -- in the emission with elimination of the shareholder subscription preferential right by offer to the public to set the price of emission according to the modalities set by the general meeting with a limit of 10%, it is adopted. The 21st resolution, aimed at delegating to the Board the authority to increase the share capital by the issuance of ordinary shares or securities giving access to ordinary shares to be emitted -- to be issued by the company in case of an exchange of a public offer initiated by the company with the dilution of the subscription preferential rights, it is approved. The 22nd resolution, aimed at delegating to the Board the authority to increase the share capital by the issuance of ordinary shares or securities giving access to ordinary shares to be issued by the company in remuneration of contribution in kind -- in the limit of 10% of the share capital, except if there is an exchange public offering initiated by the company, it's adopted. The 23rd resolution, aimed at delegating to the Board the authority to issue with dilution of the shareholders' preferential rights, ordinary shares as a consequence of the issuance of subsidiaries of the company, it is adopted. 24th, aimed to delegate to the Board the authority to issue with the maintenance of the shareholder subscription preferential rights, ordinary shares following the issuance by subsidiaries of the company of securities giving access to ordinary shares to be issued by the company, it's approved. The 25th resolution, aimed at delegating to the Board the power to increase the share capital by issuing ordinary shares or securities giving access to ordinary shares of the company reserved for the members of a corporate savings plan with subscription by suppressing the shareholder subscription preferential right, it is approved. The 26th resolution, aimed at delegating to the Board the authority to increase the share capital by issuing ordinary shares with elimination of the shareholder subscription preferential right in favor of a category of a determined beneficiaries category, it is approved. The 27th resolution, aimed at authorizing the Board to reduce the share capital by canceling ordinary shares, it is approved. The 28th resolution is connected with the necessary powers to carry out formalities related to this general meeting, it is approved. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I thank you for attending this general meeting and for your trust. Obviously, I regret that you are not able to gather this year together. I -- let's meet next year in person, I hope, for our shareholders meeting, which should be taking place on April 28, 2022 at the [indiscernible]. Nothing else being on the agenda, this meeting is adjourned. And now we will discover a film dedicated to our 2020 integrated report and published today. [Presentation]