AXA SA (CS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello. Good morning, good afternoon, and welcome to all of you for this very special webinar, which marks the launch of the 2022 integrated report of AXA. And I'm delighted to be here with you for this live session with a very prestigious guest, which I will introduce in a second. I'd like to say at the beginning of this session that at any time, you can ask your questions on axa.com or via LinkedIn Live, and we'll answer them at the end of the exchange today. It's always a very special event when we release this little baby here, our annual integrated report because it's a way for us to share with all of you how we look at the past year, how we look at everything that has been happening here within the company, both from a strategic point of view, from a business point of view, our financial performance, our extra financial performance and especially how we are moving forward our culture and our strategy for our people. This year's report is really focusing on what we consider here at AXA as being the essence of our business. It is at the heart of AXA's purpose, it is about protection. And we are going to look at it if you read it and you can access it already on axa.com. It's a way to look at how protection unfolds through our different business lines but also through our culture and also -- and this is what we will focus on today through our environmental, social and economic commitments. And this is really what we want to discuss today with my guests through this webinar is really to look at how on government issues on social issues and environmental issues, AXA is trying to do the right thing, trying to make a difference and build sustainable value for its employees, its customers and all the stakeholders. I have to say also that this year is a very special year for us because it's the first time that we have our Chairman, Antoine Gosset-Grainville with us. And Antoine, you were appointed Chairman of AXA a year ago, in April 2022. So thank you very much for being here today with us.

Thank you very much, Ulrike. And as you said that the first time I am taking part in presenting our integrated report. And I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to meet all our -- all the members of our community.

Thank you very much, Antoine, and we'll have many, many questions for you. We're also delighted to welcome at the table 2 people I like a lot. And also, we work together very often, and they are really critical to some of these aspects. Kirsty. Kirsty Leivers you're AXA's Global Head of Culture Inclusion and Diversity, and we will be discussing those very important elements of our people strategy with you in a moment. And Jean-Baptiste Tricot, your AXA's Chief Investment Officer. And of course, no surprise, I'd like to hear from you a bit more about our climate strategy. And so we have 45 minutes, a bit less together with the 3 of you to discuss the 3 pillars of AXA's impact strategy. So welcome to the 2 of you. Thank you for all being here. And let's get started with our webinar. Antoine, I will start with you because, of course, we mentioned that it was a special year. Of course, your first year at the home of AXA's Board as Chairman, and I think we'd all be interested in having a glimpse of this overview from your point of view as a new joiner of the family and also in this role. How would you describe 2022 for AXA, the business environment and what happened for us in this very particular year?

Thank you, Ulrike. Obviously, 2022 was a turning point. Who could have anticipated at the beginning of last year, the war in Ukraine and the geopolitical turmoil, the energy crisis, the inflation, the increasing interest rates without speaking of more specific events for the insurance sector, which are the natural disaster, which occurred last year after few first years of a significant event. And obviously, operating in this kind of environment is a challenge. But AXA clearly has demonstrated its capacity, its ability to adapt and to continue to improve its results even in such an adverse environment. And beyond financial performance, one of the keywords of last year for me was investment. Investment in tech and data, which are very significant at AXA, but also investment in human resources, and we all know that people are the main contributors to competitivity and performance. So on behalf of the whole Board of Directors, I would like to thank Thomas and his team and all the group employees for their engagement, which made 2022 a successful year.

Perfect. Thank you very much for that -- for those kind words, Antoine. In your view, and you described the very complicated environment we're in, where does the group stand today, maybe looking also a bit at the future?

The overall performance in 2022 has been remarkable. Look at the figures, a 2% growth in revenues, 4% growth in earnings, 12% growth in earnings per share, and this impressive level of performance allowed us to fully consolidate our main objectives, which are to combine. First, an active investment policy. Second, a strict financial discipline which is more than ever needed in the environment I just described. And third, an ambitious shareholder policy. And you know that we have decided at board level on the recommendation of Thomas to have EUR 1.70 per share of dividends plus a program of share buyback, which is, again, fully compatible with our financial and investment objectives, which is remarkable. And for me, this overall performance clearly reflects that the strategy which has been decided a few years ago and consistently implemented last year was a good one and still is a good one.

Great. And I know it's too early probably to tell us anything, but I also know that the Board is very involved in the thinking process around the next strategic plan. So I'm wondering if you can tell us a few words and ideas and insights about where we are on this.

Well, on that, as you perfectly -- rightly said, it is too early to be specific because the plan will be announced only at the beginning of next year. What I can say is that we already started to work quite actively at Board level in close cooperation with Thomas and his team to identify the main priorities of this future plan. And what I can also say is that the objective is to combine first, the development of the group, but in a way which preserve a strong financial performance, that's absolutely key. And second element, we will try and do our best to increase the whole of AXA in society, given our purpose, which is to -- which relates to protection. And it is sure that in 1 way or another our future plan will not only be developed on financial objectives, but also on nonfinancial ones related to this purpose.

Excellent. So we're looking forward to it, and we will probably discuss it then next year. Thank you very much for this introduction. And I suggest that we jump to the ESG pillars that we were planning to discuss today. But before that, we have a quick video for you. [Presentation]

So as I said, we're going to focus now on the ESG pillars of AXA, which are highlighted in this report. And the reason why we chose to highlight them is because each of them tell you really something about the way AXA looks at the world, tries to understand the changes, come up with solutions and have a positive impact. And I guess it's very natural for us to start with governance, with you Antoine and to ask you a bit what this first year as Chairman has been like for you discovering a company, starting to work with the Board, with the management committee. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Yes. For this first year, I had 3 main objectives. The first 1 was to define and implement a good working method with Thomas, and that's what we did. We have a weekly one-to-one meetings. And beyond that, I think I can say we have daily contacts in 1 way or another. And our relationship is totally based on trust and transparency. My second objective was to adjust the Board organization to make it even more efficient. And that's also what we did. First, we have tried to reinforce our skills and expertise, notably with the arrival of Rachel Picard, who joined us. She was before at SNCF and she was in charge of the digital transformation of SNCF and she brings us this expertise on tech and data, which is really needed. We also decided to reorganize a little bit our committees, the committees of the Board to give more emphasis on the monitoring of risks and of sustainability. And my third objective was to visit our major entities and to meet as many AXA teams as possible. And during this first year, I went to Roma, Zurich, Tokyo, Cairo, Leon and even in Paris. And during this visit, I have observed how strong are the values at AXA and also the strength of the group culture.

Have you -- I think this year was also you said it a year where you started to also put your own footprint, I mean your mark on how the Board was going to work. What are, in your view, the key priorities on which you want to -- you feel you need to focus as a Board to support AXA in the next phase?

Formally speaking, the role of the Board is to bring the future strategy, to ensure a close monitoring of risks -- of the risks we are facing and to review the way the group is managed. In the real life, the Board, I would say, act as a collective sparring partner to Thomas and his team. Thomas tests ideas with us -- with the Board. We ask questions on the way the strategy is implemented or on possible impact of external developments. And at the end of the day, I think we can say that the Board plays its role to improve the quality of the decisions which are taken by the company. And regarding our priorities, I could answer in 1 word. We will totally focus on the months to come on the preparation of the next strategic plan.

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for giving us a little bit of a view of what happens behind closed doors, which is not what our employees or us, we can see on a day-to-day basis, but it's really good to learn about the way the Board helped the organization keep track of its duties and take care of risks and go as far as we can on our strategy. Thank you very much for that. We're now going to discuss the second pillar, the S pillar, which is about our social role. And I guess it starts with our role as an employer -- as a responsible employer, and I'm really delighted to welcome you, Kirsty, AXA's Global Head of Culture Inclusion and Diversity.

Thank you very much. Great.

Great to have you, Kirsty. So as a start, very simply, can you tell us a bit what are, in your view, the key priorities that AXA has in order to really deliver on its strategy to become this diverse -- very diverse and inclusive place to work, which we are all inspired by and trying to build?

Absolutely. And you're right, the link there is to society and making sure that we reflect our customers and also society at large. And I'll start to talk, first of all, about gender because gender is something we've been working on for many years and clearly is the first reflection on the outside of what diversity looks like. So we've been working towards gender equality, and we've made significant progress over time. If you look at our organization at the most senior level, so that's the executives, we call them the global leadership network, but it's the executive committee in every country that we're in, about 250 people, we now have 39% of that population in women, up from 34% in 2022. But we know that this is still work in progress. We need to stay focused. We -- historically, there have not been as many women in these positions, so that takes time. And there are 3 ways that we were -- stay really focused on making sure that gender equality is represented throughout the organization. We look at who are the successors for those roles. So when roles are available and the very senior roles are available in the organization, who is going to take the next step. Our succession list at the moment is 44% female. So we know that we'll be able to replace as time goes on and as our situation evolves and we continue to build that pipeline. And secondly, we build that pipeline through development opportunities through specific programs at global level, as you mentioned, but also in the entity, 17 of our entities have got big leadership programs that support women throughout their career. And lots of the entities have mentoring and other kind of programs. And then thirdly and, of course, that's really important to make sure that we treat our employees fairly and pay equity is a key topic. So we are confident, we're sure that leadership level we have full pay equity, and we have put projects and money aside to make sure that pay equity is reflected throughout the organization by the end of this year. So on gender, we have been very focused. We remain focused. This is ongoing work, and I think it shows our commitment as an organization to equality. But it's not the only topic of inclusion. There are many, many different kinds of diversity happily within our organization and much more we can do to progress. And the biggest 1 element that I'd like to talk about that we implemented 2 years ago globally in AXA is the AXA inclusion survey. And this gives us the chance to listen to all of our employees about their experience of inclusion act. So we ask them if they feel included. We ask over 100,000 people if they feel they have equal opportunity to succeed. If they are feeling really included as part of AXA. And we also asked them about their diversity so we can understand what our organization looks like and how it feels for people. What we see from that survey and it's a great way for us to listen to how we can improve both structurally and as individuals. So we'll take notice. And we can build action plans and the entities create action plans that we support and track and drive. And so from that survey, we know that we can do better for our employees of disability, that we can do more our people that are from different socioeconomic or cultural backgrounds. And that all employees across the ages have quite different requirements, and that was quite interesting. We've got a lot of feedback about how we can do better both for our older but also for our younger employees. So it's a survey that puts data behind inclusion of AXA as well as the diversity and really gives us concrete places where we can take actions both globally and locally.

Great. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you, Kirsty for that. And I also would like to highlight an aspect which I think is really important and also very aligned with our, I would say our priority from a business point of view on protecting the health of our customers. And so I think 1 of the wonderful things that you are doing with all the HR communities really to try to bring this also to our employees. And so in 2020, AXA started to deploy a very innovative health policy dedicated to employees worldwide. And I'd love to hear what the key main takeaways are at this stage and what the next steps are that you've thought about?

Fantastic. And you're right, this is something that we're really proud of as an organization to roll out a health program in 51 countries. So all of our employees have access to the same level of health care from us, very linked to our health ambition and proven that we take care of our employees and also remain true to our strategy. I think it's easy to explain it in 3 ways. So the first pillar is around prevention. So how can we help people take care of their health? And for all of our employees over 40 years old, we provide in-person, so it's a laboratory or a hospital that's chosen by AXA, a full medical every 4 years for every employee. And in fact, 23,000 of our employees took advantage of that in 2022, which was the proof to us that it was a great action and really well received. In addition, all employees every 2 years, get access to digital checkups so we can also learn about our health in a digital way and slightly more frequently. And then on a yearly basis, within the countries -- within the entities, we have Health days where we give information on health very often linked to those digital surveys where we know we might have an area and also we offer vaccinations. So that's the first step around prevention. The second step then is then, of course, to improve health care and offer access where we can. We can do this through teleconsultation. And also, very specifically, and I will talk a little bit about mental well-being to have an access to a health line for people that might be struggling personally or professionally where they can get professional support to help us be as positive and as well as we can be both mentally and physically. So first 2 elements. And then the third 1 is, of course, those occasions where people are suffering with their health and where we can step in to offer support. The -- I think a very significant example there is for our employees, wherever they are in the world, we will cover 75% of their health requirements if it's cancer related. So treatment related to cancer, we pay at least 75% of that medical expenses related to it. We also offer a second medical opinion. If you've had a diagnosis, we can -- we have, of course, a network of specialists across the world in all topics, and we can offer a second opinion so you can consider your treatments. But then internally, it's important as well that we're there to support our employees when they've been through a health event or need support. So we make sure that when people come back from a health event, we can accompany them, we can talk about what's happened. We can support them through that process. And through our employee survey and through our manager training, we train our managers to look out for people that might be facing issues that might have mental health issues, we are ready. We have the support ready and as an organization able to take the steps or at least have the conversation to make sure we're taking care of health in our employment population.

I think that's really wonderful. And I know we plan to continue developing this. So it's really wonderful.

You're right. More to come.

Exactly. Thank you, Kirsty. A last question on my side of -- 1 that many managers are asking themselves and it's about how competitive we can stay as AXA as an organization able to recruit talent to be a meaningful employer and win in this war of talents that we have out there on almost all the types of roles that exist. So what are our key attributes there?

It's a good question, and it's a particularly interesting time on the global job market, as we all know, people's expectations have changed. Maybe just first of all, to put that into context size-wise, in 2022, we recruited 16,000 people, this is a number that is growing year-on-year. That's 5,000 up on 2019. Of course, COVID period was a little bit quieter. We have some really active markets. So in the U.K., in India, in France and Japan, we're really recruiting quite heavily and also in some quite specific roles. So specifically sales, actuarial and underwriting roles, they are the roles where we're really looking to employ more people. And we do have a little bit more turnover in some of the key jobs like IT, like actuarial at the moment. So we're very focused on retention. Even though we have over 100,000 applications everywhere a year to work for us. So our employer brand is good, we can always and we will maintain our focus on doing more. But we know that retention and looking at the whole life of employee will become extremely important. One element that I think is important for all of us is training, and we invest heavily in training. So in 2022, we invested EUR 85 million in training for our people. And that's technical training and some of those topics I talked about before on the technical side, actuarial, IT. But also in transversal trainings for all of our employees, the things that affect all of us. And 1 of them, I think that you will know particularly well, is the climate training, which was available to all of our employees in the form of a Climate Academy and 87% of our employees followed that specific training, which remains very close to our values, which is very important. Antoine spoke earlier about the macroeconomic context. And we know that 2022 for us was a particularly difficult year when we think about the challenges that people face with inflation and the pressures that they have. And of course, we have to take that deep into consideration and AXA, we have a view of a total reward system. Of course, salary is a key part of that. And to put that into context, our salary and wage bill for a year is EUR 8.3 billion. So this is a large part of our expenditure, but also the health side that I mentioned earlier, retirement benefits. The fact that we have in place a flexible working policy, so that people can create the work-life balance that means they have contact and regular meetings and relationships with the people in the office, but also they can make a balance. And on the salary side, we're, of course, very conscious in recent times of the challenge. We had an annual salary review budget this year that was higher than usual because of the context. We made sure that we benchmark with other financial services to ensure that our people were paid fairly according to the market as well as according to their performance. And that we made sure that the people that were in, in the lowest salaries were particularly well cared for to make sure that nobody is detrimentally affected by the current situation that we're in. So the package is clearly salary, and we looked very closely at that given the context, the health benefits that we mentioned, smart working and then share plan as well. So our employees being shareholders is something that's very important. So it gives us all the opportunity to be engaged in the group's success. And I check my numbers to get it right. As at the end of last year, AXA employees and agents held 4.2% of the shareholding, and that gave them 6% of the voting rights. So people are invested in their career, but also in the success of the organization.

Exactly. And all of us who are employee shareholders should be receiving right now invitations to general assembly into use those voting rights. So I encourage everyone to check that in their mailboxes. Thank you very much, Kirsty, for speaking so eloquently about our people strategy. And I propose that we move to the last but not least, pillar of ESG, which is the environment and our commitment towards climate change with you, Jean-Baptiste. And thank you so much for being here. I know you're extremely busy. It's not like you have very simple market to deal with. So thank you for stopping by and telling us a bit about something that we work on together on a regular basis, which is access, commitment in terms of climate change. It's a long-standing commitment, but it's true what with driving progress 2023, we took it 1 step higher and really made it part of our key priorities to sustain our commitment in fighting against climate change. And our investment strategy has for a long time and is still 1 of the really major levers to do that. So can you explain us a bit how this contribution works and how you build with your teams, this investment strategy in favor of climate?

Thank you so much for having me, everyone. So on the investment side, we are indeed working towards aligning our asset base to the 1.5-degree warming potential. It's very important and long-term aspiration to manage more or less EUR 500 billion of assets in that direction. It's -- for us, very important because it's 2 ways. One, it's to protect our investment base to make it resilient to this economic transition. But it's also, I think, a source of economic opportunity for a policyholder and for our financial performance. And we think that all AXA investment team, but also all AXA IM teams, which I'm in contact daily, we are all enthusiastic in sizing this economic transition opportunity. Then the question is how do we contribute and what are the results of our action. I would like to focus on 2 specific KPIs. One is about the carbon intensity of our portfolio. So overall, how much carbon do we find and do we finance as our activities with public listed companies, but also with our real estate holding. We are 1 of the largest European and global real estate owner and also how much we invest positively into green assets, 2 very important KPIs. So on the first one, on the carbon intensity, we are measuring it for a vast proportion of our asset, corporate bonds, equities and real estate. We have brought down this carbon intensity by 9% compared to 2021 and compared to 2019. So on a cumulative basis, it's down 35%. So we are quite happy, obviously, as you can imagine, it's really excellent result. It reflects the work of all the investment team, the strong tire with AXA IM teams and on the fixed income side, and it's well in advance to the objective that we set ourselves 3 years ago. So for me, it's really a source of happiness and that we're able to positively contribute and align our portfolio. And it's not just a relative intensity form absolute basis, the greenhouse gas emissions that we are financing within our company portfolios is down 50% compared to 2019. So that I think is also quite noticeable, a real change, an active change in our portfolio, and we are always making it while meeting our financial objective. So I think it's quite important also to notice because we want those. And on green assets, we have invested about EUR 25 billion into green assets. Despite higher rates, it's going EUR 2 billion compared to last year. It's really a diversified portfolio at the end of the day, it's about fixed income, half of it, some -- typically some government bond assets like those are sponsored by European Union, green bonds, also some corporate debt issue to tackle specific project and that are supporting the transition, notably with utilities. It's also 1/4 of the total. And then the second half, it's infrastructure asset and real estate. And so real asset that we are financing that are helping the transformation of our society and also offering, as I said, a good exposure to this economic conformation. I think we have also momentum there. So as I said, it's increasing compared to last year. But when you take a bit of a step back compared to 2019, we have more than doubled our exposure. So it's going rapidly, and that's something, again, we can be proud of because it's always with a high level of selectivity without jeopardizing the economic benefits. And it's really interesting asset, I think, for the larger society. It's about when we invest in real assets, in infrastructure, notably with AXA IM and AXA IM Alts team, it's about -- we are investing in 1 of, if not the largest wind farm in -- at sea. So that's something which is, I think, quite valuable. The second assuring transport, and we are also financing electric, a very large, 1 of the top 5 electric fleet of trains. So I think that's also quite noticeable. It's empowering people to move in a manner which is less -- much less carbon intensive. And last example is also we have invested -- my prior job was in Japan, and so we've invested into a solar farm in the north of Japan, very large alongside other investors, which is also pouring a very large region in the north part of Japan with a totally alternative source of energy.

So clear, it's really exciting to hear about the role we're taking in this economic transition actually towards low-carbon economies. More broadly, you mentioned, and we all know that the markets are pretty bumpy these days. And so more generally in this complex context, what perspective can you share with us about overall AXA's investment strategy for the coming years? And maybe a bit of the projects you have ahead.

Great. It's indeed a bit challenging those days. There's a significant uncertainty on the economic activity, on the money tight policies and Antoine highlighted, it's really a reflection of the routes of -- in 2022, the geopolitical context, this is very high and inflation and also some question in the financial system on its stability for some lack of regulation, notably in the U.S. So that's clearly, areas of focus. And again, all AXA investment teams and AXA IM teams are extremely vigilant and active to make sure that we are taking the best possible decision to protect our balance sheet, our solvency and make sure that we are there to meet what matters at the end of the day, our commitment towards our policyholders. So I think that's clearly an activity which is taking quite energy, especially over the last weekend, as you have noticed, I'm sure. On the plans going forward, Antoine also highlighted the preparation of the next strategic plan. We are contributing to that, making sure that we can contribute on, I think, 2 angles. First 1 is contributing to the financial performance of the company. That's part of the investment role, but also supporting and going further in the transition. So balancing both aspects. It's something that we are doing not alone. We are part of multiple association, but I want to mention 2. The first 1 is Net Zero Association, Asset Owner Association, which, of course, is creating a framework for all asset owners and in particular, insurers to drive this and support this economic transition. And the second 1 is the insurance development program where we are trying to also address, in particular, in emerging countries, this transition question. The third point I wanted to mention is we are also contributing to creating attractive offers for our policyholders and notably green insurance, unit-linked or in particular, in France, [indiscernible] definitely an area for growth and development, which is well aligned to our values and what we're trying to achieve here. And so on the investment plan, more precisely, it's a lot about continue to reduce carbon intensity. The next up, we already have an objective by 2025, but as you know well, we are working towards already preparing our balance sheet to what's 2030, and that is the next step, that's where we want to head the road in the coming months, quarter and years and reduce again, drastically our carbon intensity in the coming years. We are also raising the -- trying to raise our engagement, notably with corporates because at the end of the day, we are not at all alone. I think corporates, we are investing in are driving the transition and are having a lot of impact on the ground. So for us engaging with them is extremely key and now fully part of our investment decision to continue to invest, to stop investing, from time to time to divest certain corporates where we don't see further value and in a way, in the same way as we are evaluating the credit standing. So that I think is extremely important because at the end of the day, fixed income represents a vast majority of our assets and our future investment. And then last but not least, real assets, notably infrastructure will remain quite key in Europe, in the U.S. with the Inflation Reduction Act, we'll continue to contribute to our investment plan. I will stop there.

Well, I see -- no doubt that you and your teams will be very busy, and we thank you really for everything you're doing, both on -- for the customers and also for the impact we can have on environment and supporting the real economy. Thank you for being part of this discussion, Jean-Baptiste. And these are really, I hope you saw great examples to highlight AXA's impact across the value chain. I also wanted to mention that in the report, you can find AXA's index for progress which is a summary of the different actions we're taking to deliver on our purpose, be it through our investment activities, our insurance activities, but also as an exemplary organization. And those are -- so set of KPIs that we monitor and through which we want to also build trust with our external stakeholders that we are actively pursuing that positive impact.

I have a couple of questions before we close. So we have 15 minutes, and I'm happy to maybe start with you Antoine. They are 2 a bit slightly personal questions because I think people are always curious about 2 things. One, and I love this question, is about you're also chairing a very important -- our internal organization, which is AXA Hearts in Action. So what is your relation -- you have started this as well for 1 year, and we've seen many pictures of you participating actively. So we would be glad to hear your thoughts about the role of AXA Hearts in Action. And then maybe to start with how you balance your 2 roles as a nonexecutive Chairman for AXA and your activity as a lawyer with your own company?

Well, if I start by your second question, I would say that I have 2 full-time activities at the same time, not really 2 full times, but I have to organize my time to be fully involved, which is, of course, my key priority in my function as a Chairman of the Board. Even if it is a nonexecutive task, but we all know that especially in a group like AXA, which is heavily regulated. The Board and the Chairman have specific tasks and responsibilities. And given the size of the group, as I said a few minutes ago, it is important for me to go on the ground to visit teams, and so it takes some time, but that's okay. And with the help of my partners in my law firm, I think I successfully managed to combine my 2 activities. And it is on [indiscernible], I think good for me to have my legal experience and expertise, which can help me to exercise my functions at AXA because governance also is a legal issue, not only a financial one. Your first question relates to AXA to care. AXA to care or AXA Heart in Action is a fantastic initiative as that's really something which is totally specific in my knowledge, to AXA. And the fact that several thousand of our employees have been involved -- are involved each year in the actions undertaken by AXA Heart in Action, is really, really something which is extraordinary. And if I had to summarize my perception of that, I would say that with AXA Heart in Action, we can say that our purpose is not only words. That's really concrete act, and that's what is that -- the essence of what we want to do and we have to preserve and develop that in the future.

Thank you very much, Antoine, and we will come back to you for a couple of concluding words. Before that, I have 1 question for each of you. Jean-Baptiste for you, the question is around interest rates and what the consequences are for our investments. It's a very broad question, but you're welcome to answer it partially.

Yes, it can be a long -- a very long answer, but the very short answer that for long-term insurers like AXA, it's good news. I mean it's an opportunity. And as I said, fixed income, government bonds, corporate bonds is the largest part of our investment. It's -- the fixed income represent more than 70% of our investment overall. So being able to reinvest our cash flows at better rates is generally good news. We have a some ALM, asset liability management position, so which allowed to preserve the value of the company and to the various movement in interest rate. So for us, it's generally good news and thanks to a disciplined approach in our ALM, I believe.

Perfect. You were successful in answering that quickly. Thank you for that. Kirsty, the question for you is on our global approach to smart working, mobility, sense of purpose, very broad question as well. So Yes. I think basically, it's around -- we are a global company, and we see that there's a lot of fragmentation around how people feel from 1 region to another towards these topics of -- they have different ways relating to their work, to their place, to the workplace, to inclusion, to diversity. So how can we manage having global policies in a world where these aspects are extremely marked by culture and by local specificities?

Well, now I have the chance, Jean-Baptiste [indiscernible], so concisely. Can I do the same? You're right. The world of work has changed a lot for everybody. And there are as many different ways of working as there are countries and people and teams and jobs. And yet there are some things that remain quite the same. We need to spend time together. We need to appreciate each other and take care of each other. Creativity comes from spending time, working, not working, focusing on a challenge and the new world of work can make that more difficult. So I take it in 2 parts. First of all, in order to tackle that, we are very conscious that we need to take time to onboard new people to make sure that they really feel part of AXA. So when we bring in people now, we're giving special focus to that. We challenge our teams and our leaders to create moments of time together, both formally and informally to keep that link. And topics like that, all global topics. So I agree with you. It can be very different in different countries. And that's why in every country, we have local teams that look after culture, that look after inclusion and diversity, which can mean very different things locally. But the broad themes are respecting 1 another, taking care, spending time together, making sure that we create the flexibility where we can that people can be autonomous and yet still together. They are all broad policies, the health policy, health is a priority for everybody, different subjects according to your age or gender or other topics, but health remains core. So we have global policies, and we're proud of that because that pushes in a direction of progress together. But locally, we have to leave the opportunity for people to adapt. So it's not quite as short as yours but still short but specific quite, so.

You did well. Thank you. Thank you very much. And we could -- those are really things that we could -- there's so much to be said, but thank you very much for -- to all of you for having been here. Thank you to our listeners for having taken interest in spending this time with us. I hope this has inspired you to go to our website and to discover our Annual Report, the protection effect, which is really insightful and very pleasant to read. And of course, I'm turning to you now Antoine to give you the floor for a couple of concluding words.

Thank you, Ulrike. And I promise I will be as concise as my friends. I explained a few minutes ago that our next strategic plan will be built on 2 pillars, financial objectives and nonfinancial ones. And I think that Kirsty and Jean-Baptiste perfectly illustrated this broad objectives. I hope that on the basis of what we have explained to you, this webinar will help everyone to better understand what is our road map. And I'm totally convinced that we will build on this basis, an ambitious new strategic plan and that we will be able to successfully deliver it. And thank you very much for having organized this session.

You're welcome, Antoine. Thank you very much. We hope to see many of you, our shareholders, and particularly on April 27 at the shareholders' meeting in Paris, Salle Pleyel or live on axa.com. Thank you again to the 3 of you for having been here. Very inspiring session. And we will see you all very soon. Thank you.