Bolloré SE (BOL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, everybody. Thank you for being present today for the general meeting of your group, Bollore. Regarding the accounts for 2023, I'm asking company [indiscernible] represented by Cedric de Bailliencourt as well as [ Orfim ] represented by Alexandre Petro to my right, the shareholders holding the highest number of votes who -- and who have accepted to be scrutineers. Adrien Oost will be the secretary of the session, just like usually. I would invite you to acknowledge the quorum for an ordinary meeting has got to be 1/5 of the shares of the equity capital after the exclusions of the EUR 15.3 million of self-control -- shares of self-controlled held by the group. The quorum is 567 million shares. The sheet I was just handed, it shows that 222 shareholders are present in the room and who hold together, 2,578,534,000 shares. So 90% of the shares represented. The meeting having more than 1/5 of the votes, we can deliberate without any problem. So we -- there will be an extraordinary meeting also after the ordinary meeting, the quorum corresponds to 1/4 of the shares, once again, the exclusion of the 15 point -- 280,000 shares of self-control. So the sheet shows 222 shareholders present today or represented voting by respondents also holding together 2,580,000,000 shares, sorry. so 94.5% of the votes. So we can deliberate evidently the documents planned by law have been filed by -- well, before the meeting. So the shareholders have been convened by an ad in that in the -- in West France the 3rd of May 2024 for shareholders with shares in their names. So for the combined general meeting. So for the ordinary meeting, we will validate the report of the Board of Directors and the report of the auditors as well as the acknowledgment of consolidated accounts as of 31st of December 2023. So we will then proceed if you will, to the approval of the report of the Board about the annual accounts for the fiscal year 2023 as well as the report of the auditors regarding those accounts. We will proceed to the allocation of the income to the approval of what's -- all of the necessary approvals with [indiscernible] and Alexandre Picciotto. We will appoint Deloitte and Partners as the auditors to certify the information. In terms of sustainability, we will proceed to the same exercise with Grand Thorton. And then an authorization will be given to the Board of Directors to acquire shares of the company with -- you will see a ceiling. We will then address the information of say-on-pay, ex-post. And there will then be the remuneration of the Chief Executive Officer, the policy of remuneration of the -- for the directors, the ex-ente vote as well as the approval of the compensation policy for the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ex-ante. There will be the extraordinary resolutions. The report of the Board of Directors, the report of the auditors, authorization granted to the Board of Directors to reduce the share capital through the cancellation of shares and powers for formalities. Thank you for your attention. I would suggest to start with the presentation of the income and of the activities of group for the fiscal year 2023. As you may see on the screen, we will start with the summary of the results. Results are in line with expectations after significant changes in scope. You know that changes have been going on for the last 2 years. The changes in scope according to IFRS 5 include Bollore Africa Logistics for fiscal year 2022. You remember was sold at the end of 2022. It was not in the accounts of '23. Same thing for Bollore Logistics, that is not consolidated anymore either for '22 or '23 for reasons of comparability of the accounts. According to IFRS 5, Lagardere that was consolidated by Vivendi since the 1st of December '23 that is from the first of December 2023, 100% of the results of Lagardere are consolidated in Vivendi. And obviously, consequently, in Bollore. Editis also was deconsolidated at the end of the first semester '23 and then sold according to what had been announced on the 14th of November '23. The revenue of the Bollore Group for '23, the turnover of the group was EUR 13.679 billion, dropped by 5% at constant scope and external rates. The adjusted operating income is EUR 994 million, a little bit less than EUR 1 billion. So it dropped by 6% in comparison with 2022. That's essentially impacted by the slowdown in oil logistics. Well after the exceptional results of 2022 in the field, that -- well, the '22 had benefited from the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. There were big volumes and big margins. So it's more -- '23 was less contribution. The second arm that impacted '23 was the drop of the contribution of UMG with a share base compensation programs that have been distributed, but that will have a lesser impact on '24. So the net income is EUR 566 million compared to EUR 2.724 billion in 2022, but it's got to be recorded that last year's results included a big capital gain on the sale of Bollore Africa Logistics, EUR 3.150 billion. And at Vivendi, the result of the deconsolidation of Telecom Italia that for EUR 1.5 billion -- negative EUR 1.5 billion for the previous fiscal year, but that was compensated by a capital gain of EUR 515 million, the contribution of the stake in [ Barave ] Holdings group. So net income of the group in '23 is EUR 268 million. The net debt as of the 31st of December '23 for Bollore -- the Bollore Group is well, EUR 1.465 billion compared to a net cash position of EUR 1.2 billion as of the 1st of December 2022. So due to the increase in Vivendi debt and Bollore simplified cost under offer on its own shares, and that is what we proposed to the shareholders to bring their -- contribute their shares and the CMR sale being -- we proposed -- well, the dividend of EUR 0.07 per share. So that's EUR 600 million for the 3.2% of the share capital. As for the group liquidity, we -- in the first semester of 2024, we proceed to the repayment of all of security financing regarding the Bollore Group financing on securities for Universal Music and as well as for Vivendi. So Bollore Group has got EUR 9 billion in cash and confirmed lines following that. And you will see that proposed dividend will be increasing this year, 0.07% per share more at well, 0.02% more, so at 0.07%, up 17%. So maybe if we look at the transactions made by the group in 2023, you know them, but I wanted to recall them. The first point, the sale of Bollore Logistics to CMA CGM in accordance with our hopes. We managed to sell Bollore Logistics, 100% of the share capital to CMA CGM. So the purchase price for the shares is of EUR 4.850 billion on the basis of the estimated debt and cash on the completion date. And so the consolidated net capital gain the 2024 results that we will comment on together during the General Meeting of next year in '25, should be about EUR 3.7 billion. [indiscernible] Our group acquisition of a stake in Ruby, which is a listed company, we announced on 20th of March that our company, [indiscernible] exceeded the threshold of 5% of the capital and voting rights of Ruby. And we indicated to the market that investment was purely financial. So the Bollore simplified cash tender on shares, we proposed EUR 5.75 per share. There was a settlement and delivery on the 7th of June '23, close to 99 million shares were tendered to the offer. So EUR 3.33% of the share capital of Bollore for an amount of EUR 517 million for a complement of EUR 25 million since the 11th of March '24. In the previous months, have canceled 101,493 treasury shares, including the 91.1 million shares acquired under the simplified cash tender offer. And as a result, the number of shares making up the capital was reduced to 2,849,681,000. In view the sale of the Bollore Logistics in May '23 -- sorry, in May '23, with a view to the cancellation of shares by Vivendi and in order to not cross the 30% threshold, which would trigger a public offer for Vivendi, the Bollore Group had sold 18.6 million shares on the stock market for EUR 177 million. And the Bollore Group today holds 308 million Vivendi shares representing 29.9% of its share capital. One of the important projects in the Bollore [indiscernible] is the one of Vivendi -- split of the Vivendi -- the sale of Vivendi and there was a general meeting on the 17th of April last -- and the Board -- the Supervisory Board of Vivendi had authorized at the end of the previous year on the 13th of December 2023 as well as on the 30th of January '24, the possibility of splitting Vivendi into several entities. So this is going on. And the assumption that is being studied is a partial split of Vivendi with Canal+ and as independent companies with an aim to cancel the reduced -- reduction of the holding because that represented 40% to 50% of reduction in the lowest moment. And since the announcement of the project, the security increased by 20%, so EUR 10 a share. And the idea is to divide into 4 pieces, the Vivendi Group to make understanding simpler whether a company with TV rights with Canal+ and its different stakes in Uplay, more recently in MultiChoice with the launch of an offer for this company. It should allow to cancel -- well, the reduction of value of the holding and a second activity that would be advertising with Havas managed by Yannick that you know with always good performance being a pure player that would allow for the cancellation of said decrease. And the second part of the split would correspond to the publishing activities that would concern the participation of Vivendi in Lagardere as well as the assets brought by Prisma media that is the leader in magazine press. And the fourth vehicle as I call it, the remaining Vivendi would be composed of the financial stakes as well as game [indiscernible] and other operational active, different tickets with a 10% stake in Universal Music that represents a bit more than EUR 5 billion. At the time that we're speaking as well as different portfolio activities, Telefon Italia and Telefonica and others. Yannick was recalling if the Supervisory Board keeps on authorizing the study of that project, then it should be -- well, the staff representative bodies should be consulted and other bodies that was announced for 12 to 18 months. And Yannick said that he would maintain that schedule so that should bring us to April '25. Collaboration with Lagardere, Vivendi was authorized by the European Commission to go ahead with its planned combination with Lagardere. To that, they had to sell editors as well as the Gala magazine that was sold to Figaro, which made it possible on the 21st of November '23 to be -- to finalize the combination with Lagardere following the sale of 100% of editors to International Media Invest. So since the 31st of December '23 -- taking into account the exercise of transfer rights since the completion of the combination, Vivendi held 84.4 million Lagardere shares representing a bit less than 60% of the share capital and 50.6% of the voting rights. And at that date, close to 28 million transfer rights were exercisable. So that is 19.6% of Lagardere share capital. So for a share price of EUR 24 and if all of those options were to be exercised and brought to Vivendi, it would represent a financial commitment of EUR 667 million, representing, as I said, a bit less than 20% of the Shack of Lagardere. Next point, share buyback by Vivendi. The General Meeting of the 29th of April '24 renewed the authorization of the share buyback program for a period of 18 months. The current program is to acquire, depending on market conditions, 10,000 shares, a bit less than 1% of the share capital as of 31st -- 30th of April with a view to canceling then the number of shares held -- as of the 30th of April was 14.8 million, representing [1.43% ] of the capital. 7 million shares were purchased with a view to being canceled and 7.8 million shares are intent to cover performance share plans as well as employee share ownership transactions. The acquisitions by Canal+ of several stakes, you followed that in the press. So the stakes taken by Canal+ during the exercise -- fiscal year as of the 21st of June '23, Canal+ and PPCW Limited. Announced the signature -- the signing of a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of Viu in Asia on the 26th of February. Canal+ increased its stake in Viu up to 30% in accordance with the terms of the transaction announced in '23. In July '23, Canal+ also announced that it had acquired a 12% stake in the Viaplay Group, leader in pay TV in the Nordic countries. And following the recapitalization completed on the 9th of February '24, Canal+ holds 29.33% of Viaplay's share capital. Also said before, on the 1st of February '24, Canal+ also crossed the 35% threshold announced they had submitted nonbinding indicative of ZAR 105 per share to the Board of MultiChoice in South Africa. The complement -- so that's a complement to the operational activities of Canal+. Canal+ Is mostly positioned in West Africa. MultiChoice has got, well, complementary geographies, there's no redundancy apart from Ethiopia. And so the number of subscribers of Canal+ would increase radically on the -- in March, Canal+ announced that it was going to increase its offer to ZAR 125 per share. On the 8th of April '24, Canal+ and MultiChoice published a joint announcement of the [indiscernible] terms of the proposed mandatory offer by Canal+ for the rest of the MultiChoice shares. And thanks to an efficient cooperation between the 2 groups and in accordance with a time line grade with the takeover regulation panel, that is the authority in South Africa. Canal+ finalized the key terms of the offer by the deadline and made a mandatory offer to acquire all of the issued shares of MultiChoice group, not already owned by group at a purchase price of ZAR 125 per share. I'd like to remind you the group structure. As you know, it's not many changes apart from one that you will get used to little by little. That's the sale in the Bollore Logistics in the left part of this graph that took place on 29th of February last -- as well as -- well the transaction with [ Lode.] So it means that [ Lode ] has got a bit less than 70% of the shares of the group. So the share price as of May -- 21st of May that's, well, EUR 6.16 with a market capitalization of EUR 17.6 billion. You see here the evolution since May -- the 9th of May. So you can see that as from the first of January '24, Bollore increased by 11%, while SBF 120 increased by 8%. And if you look over the 15 years, Bollore performed 507%, whilst SBF 120 performed by 160%. ESG performance is now -- we're working on this criteria, the extra financial criteria more and more to be in line with where we need to go. The climate strategy. I told the analysts that. You will have seen that in the media may be, but we are. That's been validated by the Board of Directors. In December 2023, just a quick reminder, the objective of reduction in Scopes 1 and 2 of 42% reduction by 2030 compared with 2022, which is a benchmark and in Scope 3, a target of a 30% reduction in combustion of petroleum products sold, particularly thanks to Bollore Energy's investments in biofuels that we have sold year-on-year with volumes, which are getting ever more important. From a social point of view, duty of care, human rights, there has been the creation of a network of human rights referenced within HR departments. So that is ongoing and assignment with regard to living wages carried out on the 2023 priority area of vigilance was taken out. Governance, now you know this. A little evolution following there were a number of evolutions in order that we'd be in line with all the regulations. The Board of Directors today is made up of 13 directors, 36% independent and 45% women. And a quick reminder, but this is nothing new. The executive committee of the Bollore Group is made up of 14 members with a 50% men women and functions represented finance, human resources, legal tax purchasing, CSR and compliance. CSR training have given to independent directors since 2023. There's been an executive session of Independent Directors since '22. And a final point, this takes a lot of time. That's the CSRD, compliance of the group's relevant entities with the new European Directive, Corporate Sustainable Report Directive with a view to publishing the first sustainability report audited by the auditors in 2025. And you'll see that through the resolutions, which are going to be presented further on later on in this meeting. We have -- we are putting to your vote the fact of pursuing and launching with the 2 auditors -- statutory auditors, which will be offered to you later on. And on the right of this slide, you have the ratings for Bollore and that have been attained in 2023 with slight progressions and also maintaining ratings that we are satisfied with for the moment. So now looking beyond our industrial adventures. The 2023 results -- this is how we use your money to generate contribution. So the revenue for 2023 is at EUR 13.679 billion, EBITDA at EUR 1.382 billion. So there's a decrease of 15% on the EUR 1.6 billion of '22. The adjusted operating income, the EBITDA is at almost EUR 1.994 billion, which is a decrease of 9% on 22. Amortization resulting from PPA and IFRS 16 restatement of concessions, minus 6. And all of that to arrive at an operational result of '23 of EUR 776 million. So a decrease 768 million as opposed to EUR 816 million last year, so 6% decrease there. So EBIT equity-accounted operating companies at EUR 311 million to EUR 370 million last year. Financial income, a good increase, a good improvement. It's minus [ 83 ] as opposed to EUR 1.051 billion. Of course, that was EUR 1.5 billion, which was on the negative compensated in particular on the financial. So the share of the net income of equity accounted nonoperating companies is a minus EUR 76 million. EUR 345 million last year -- minus EUR 345 million last year. So remainder, taxes, EUR 198 million and minus EUR 83 million last year. And income from discontinued and held-for-sale activities is at EUR 154 million, so much down on EUR 3.387 billion of last year, but the result of last year, of course, had to the exceptional -- the one-off of the sale of Bollore Africa Logistics in the final days of the fiscal year 2022. But next year, as I was saying earlier on, Bollore Logistics, that should bring back in an exceptional result for '24. Net income is at EUR 566 million for the reasons I've just indicated. And the net income group share is at EUR 268 million as opposed to EUR 3.4 billion for the same reasons and minority interest for 2023 is just under EUR 300 million, EUR 298 million as opposed to minus EUR 676 million last year. Revenue now. We've talked about that EUR 13.679 billion broken down now in the following manner. The big new point, as you can see little by little, is that no longer we have a contribution to the results of Bollore Africa Logistics or Bollore Logistics. So the transport asset was -- remains with a good contribution, Bollore Energy, EUR 2.7 billion, as opposed the EUR 3.6 billion last year minus 23% reported growth and 24% in organic growth, with a decrease in volumes, which is substantial. With regard to '22, which had benefited from the sad news, which was the invasion of Ukraine, but there were margins which were higher than that we had -- than we are used to. And we are now back in a more normal state of affairs communications and Vivendi following on from the integration of Vivendi. There's an increase in the turnover, which is going to continue. EUR 9.590 billion last year and in '23, there's an increase there to attain EUR 10.5 billion, 10% reported growth and 3% of organic growth. Industry with batteries, AAR, bus and battery segments is EUR 314 million, minus 15% in reported growth of minus 14% in organic growth. Other agricultural assets and holdings, we are at EUR 71 million. Operating result, which -- where our energy is down, as I was saying, after an exceptional 2022. EUR 44 million in 2023, 70%, in other words, have decreased with regard to contribution of result. Communication Vivendi notably and the operational equivalent of the EMG shares for Bollore reinforces this communications hub result, plus 4% in organic and 4% Vivendi alone goes from EUR 868 million of EBITDA in '22 to attain EUR 934 million in '23 with excellent performances. You've seen the Vivendi results, which have already been published, excellent results of Canal+, which is continuing to progress from one exercise to the next with regard to results and Havas also, which has strongly contributed to the increase of the result for 2023 in spite of a decrease in contribution of UMG because you know that with the Bollore's associated 18% of UMG, there's a progression. In spite of that decrease of contribution between; '22 and '23. So Bollore in UMG itself is down also for the same results of EUR 218 million to EUR 269 million. But as you know, with share price, which is very high as we are speaking, we are at EUR 28 to EUR 29, which represents a capitalization for Universal Music Group. Industry with regard to EBITDA is also progressing between '22 to '23. The result was at minus EUR 125 million in '22 and attains minus EUR 114 million in '23, 10% organic growth for 2023. Others, agricultural assets and holding going from minus 15 to minus 38 million with reallocation following on from the sales, which intervened in the following -- in the previous 2 Bollore Africa Logistics and Bollore Logistics, which explains again in part the result of 2023. The evolution and changes in net debt, you can see the bridge there for the cash and net debt. So the first gray is EUR 1.2 billion debt level to the end of exercise '22 to be positive at EUR 1.382 billion at the end of -- for 2023. So of course, that during that fiscal year, there were EUR 922 million for the operating cash flow, breaking down with an EBITDA we've seen, which is at EUR 1.382 billion. Investments in content, which are EUR 125 million on this exercise [ BF ], which is working capital requirements, which is in a good sense. EUR 463 million in rentals for '23 and which bring us to this EUR 922 million, positive cash flow for your group. Financial expenses, taxes and dividends received brought in EUR 272 million positive. Investments, net CapEx EUR 222 million for the 2023 fiscal exercise and EUR 1.7 billion acquisition, the financial assets for Bollore share buybacks, simplified cash tender offer. Also share purchases UMG, which appeared Viu, MultiChoice and others. And this explains this EUR 1.7 billion spent. Vivendi also benefited from sales in '23, pushed by the European Commission looking to acquire the Lagardere Group and the disposal of Editis and Gala and also Vivendi shares. I was talking about that previously. During the fiscal year '23 and representing EUR 929 million cash dividends paid to third parties represented EUR 404 million. The entry of Lagardere Scope EUR 2.1 billion, but let us remind ourselves of the important contribution to the results that you saw throughout the 2024 fiscal exercise with 100% of the accounts. We'll now have 100% of the debt -- net flows generated by discontinued activities. IFRS 5 represented EUR 127 million, which explains the minus EUR 1.465 billion at the end of the 2023 fiscal year. So you'll see this again on this balance sheet for liquidity. You can see that shareholders' equity and net debt on the 31st of December '23 was at EUR 36.406 billion for shareholders' equity, net of which group share was EUR 23 billion. You can see that the net debt for Bollore is 24 and Vivendi had 12. The net debt of the group of EUR 1.465 billion is broken down in the following 1.4 positive at the end of the year for Bollore and EUR 2.8 billion debt for Vivendi because of the debt of the Lagardere Group, which enables us to land with a net element of which can be compared to net debt consolidated at the end of the exercise of EUR 1.207 billion positive with Bollore, which was at [indiscernible] positive and Bollore 2.067 liquidity -- group liquidity after the repayment of all securities financing in the first half of '24, notably, UMG and Vivendi which intervened in the last month of '24. The Bollore Group, I said that earlier on, has some EUR 9 billion in cash and confirmed lines and all that represents gearing if we bring the net debt to the equity ratio of 4%, which is more than acceptable, more than reasonable to my mind. So what I have just expressed through the -- you look at the liquidity curve, which matches and notably the forecast of this debt levels because you can see on the 29th of February 2024, and I've said this a number of times, so this will probably remain the historical landmark for our group. When the sale was realized, we received EUR 4.85 billion for the sale of Bollore Logistics, which enables us to have a net cash for Bollore stand-alone of almost EUR 6 billion once investments are taken into account. And if you look at this graph, and I know that we've gone through this very fast through COVID. Many years, we couldn't always get together. At the end of 2018, beginning of 2019, our group has had almost EUR 5 billion debt, which when we invested wisely and you trusted in us. And I think that you are right to trust us to the management of this company. We Have just before the sale, thanks to the good operating of Bollore and Vivendi to get this debt down to EUR 3.6 billion. And if you look at that EUR 3.3 billion and with the sales, which intervene, this has enabled us to find ourselves in the current situation, such as I'm currently describing it. EUR 6 billion of positive cash participation in UMG in music and the most recent operational scopes, which contribute to positively through energy, electricity, and we'll be talking about that again and other elements, and we'll go through that, no doubt, again, with any -- with the Q&A session. Dividends now. The proposal of dividend for -- a proposal of plus 17%, EUR 0.01 up and EUR 0.02 interim already paid in September '23. So we're coming together for a general assembly on the 22nd of May '24. And if you vote in favor of this resolution, it would be on the 25th of June, then the payment of the EUR 0.05 balance in cash would be on your accounts sent to your accounts on the 27th of June 2024. And the amount of the annual dividend represents EUR 200 million just under. The turnover for the first -- 2024 for the first quarter. Bollore Energy on the first quarter of 2024 is down. As you can see with the beginning of the year, which is quite a difficult EUR 712 million last year, down to EUR 655 million for this first quarter 2024, but still performance levels, which are reasonable. Communications and now through Vivendi is progressing strongly substantially. You can see that EUR 4.274 billion -- it was EUR 2.290 billion, so plus 5% that takes into account the growth of Canal+, both in France and internationally, with more subscribers and the increase in Lagardere revenue, which explains a massive increase, which is carried by a continued double-digit growth in travel retail, which had suffered as we all know, during the COVID period with airports, train stations, which are absolutely deserted. And since the restrictions have been removed, very encouraging figures and very positive with regard to contribution to the results and to the result and a very good result for Havas industry around EUR 75 million and others, notably agricultural assets is at EUR 20 million in the first quarter of 2024. All of this brings us to a total revenues of over EUR 5 billion in the first quarter of 2024, for all of your group and its consolidated perimeter. I thank you for your attention. I know that it's always quite lengthy, but the group has had a major evolution. Thanks to your confidence for some years now. So I believe that it was important to take this time because we communicated, of course, through the media, but that we all come together and to talk about that we explain these realizations and those which are -- have been done and which of those which are ongoing. And before we go to the Q&A session, we could listen to the statutory auditors to be sure that everything corresponds to reality, of course, that I have been saying.

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, in the name of the auditors, [indiscernible] Finance, it is my honor to present the reports that we have prepared for this general assembly. Our reports have been made available to you by the group, and they are, of course, in the universal registration document. So I'll just summarize this report talking about first the consolidated and annual accounts. These reports on Page 284 and 305 of the universal registration document, which is available to you. So we have looked at the -- in accordance with the professional standards, we have preferred that the consolidated and the statutory financial statements -- so the objective of our assignment is to obtain reasonable assurance with regard to the sincerity and the regularity of the consent to ensure that they have no significant anomalies we informed the Board on the 11th of March, the executive management to the Audit Committee on March 12 with regard to our work and presented our conclusions. So our reports on the consolidated financial statements, the justification of assessments, and the analysis of any issues with regard to third parties. With regard to the annual accounts, the estimates and judgments. And therefore, the different elements, we have looked at the different hypothesis and the underlying data, the calculations of the group in the appendixes, and we have assured that there was a reasonable -- that these have been reasonably assessed. We express an unreserved opinion on the accounts and consolidated account of your group. We also looked at the specific elements scheduled for by legislation and have no comments to make with regard to all of this provided in the management documents, the fourth resolution, we'll be talking about -- that will be on Page of 334 of the document of the Universal Registration Document. The different contracts and everything that has been brought to our attention during our report, we have not been notified of any new agreement entered 2 and authorized during the year ended 31st December '23 to be submitted to the approval of the General Shareholders' Meeting in accordance. And there's the convention of assistance concluded with Bollore participation SE and of say, the commercial issue with your meeting today as an extraordinary general meeting also to talk about the capital of your company. So we have also issued a report with regard to what has been provided to the Board to reduce the share capital by cancellation of shares by 10%. We confirm that we have no observations to formulate with regard to that operation. The different reports issued by our company was signed on the 22nd of April 2024. I thank you in the name of the statutory auditors. Thank you very much.

Dear friends, I propose that we now go through a Q&A session, and we are at your a disposal. Yes, sir.

A quick question. You have...

I can't see you, sir. Could you stand up? Maybe -- there you are. Yes.

You have commented at length the -- about the different scopes, you're not about to lose your job. You have over 32 hours activity per week, so talking about the social elements here. I've heard that the group is looking to invest in batteries. So what batteries are we talking about here? What type of batteries -- are we talking about the super batteries, which are being looked at? These batteries of consumption, the current consumption batteries because billions -- that means that we're -- we need to really need to know more about that. What type of batteries are we looking at -- are we talking about.

Absolutely. Thank you, for your question. A very legitimate question, a very interesting one. And you will have seen indeed that the group has proceeded to announced last Friday in the presence of the Minister of Economy, Mr. Bruno Lemaire, who made us a great honor of inaugurated at in our plant of manufacturing of batteries and our traditional jobs that we've been developing for over 200 years now. And that I am the seventh generation, I'm fortunate enough to continue to be to working in the different activities, to be involved and in the different regions where we've present. So we're talking about batteries, what are we going? You know that the group 200 years back launched started in the west of Britain, making cigarette paper with my ancestor, who went to discover how they made paper in China and we brought that back to Britain, which enabled the Bollore family to live with some success by selling cigarette paper and then carbon paper, then we missed the photocopier era in the '70s, believing that, that would not function or would be too complex. But as you can see, we were wrong, we were wrong. The family was wrong. But under the 6th generation, diversification happened with the know-how of these extremely fine papers. We started producing the thinnest plastics in the world, we metalized them and we became for over 30 years, the first premium world producer of components for condensers, diversification also in food packaging, and those are still activities which are very present within the group, which have enabled it in Richmond, over a long period, which has enabled the group to develop so many other activities in the different industries you're aware of through the 35, 40 plus years, logistics and media, to be present in Africa to live through adventures. We're actually absolutely extraordinary. And little by little, we are renewing portfolio of activities. So what started the group off and that we managed to bring back to the balance with high volumes. But over the past 10 years, there's a huge Asian competition, which has eaten into our margins in our traditional jobs in the previous generation, some 25 years back now, we started diversifying, innovating by creating storage batteries of higher capacity through R&D, research and development, with the means of the Group often told you what I spend with industry, I spend what I win with, what I earn with industry. I plow a lot back into R&D, which enabled our group to be very successful at the end of the '80s, beginning of the 1990s. And little by little, we have continued to develop technology, which was our own, but is no longer our own of polymer technology, solid Electros, which enables us between the plus and the minus of the battery. When you charge or uncharge. And thanks to this know-how in the components for condensers, which are small batteries in effect, store bigger capacities of energy to then apply them to different applications, which could have been telecom towers, regulating towers and mobility through electric cars, buses, we have spent a lot of money in the context of applications. And we chose when I arrived in 2019 to put an end to those applications following on from the different sharing of cars, which enabled us to demonstrate the validity of the technology, the economic model of car sharing throughout the world has not been a success for any of the operators with different contracts of delegation to public services. You know the Autolib issue, we have nothing to hide, and we're working hard on this. But to remind you why we're here, why we're doing what we are doing and to say that we have succeeded through all this R&D of dozens of years to move to the stage of a solid -- of industrialization in the solid -- in Ital metal polymer. We have industrialized the production of battery of what we call third generation, Gen 3, which is a battery which is equipped in part, a lot of cars recently, but electric buses, such as [ Soda, ] which we have brought to market for the RATP, just over 230 buses, which are being brought into service, following on from a contract that we served over the last days of December 2023, which will be present in Paris for the Olympic Games this summer and the Paralympics. So there may be -- there may be a lot of traffic, but they will be quiet electric buses, and we have chosen batteries, which are equipping our buses, which are assembled by manufacturers, renowned manufacturers for instance, the batteries that we sell to the Daimler Group who in-turn sells them in Daimler Buses and Mercedes buses but which are in effect are powered by Blue solutions. So they are -- our batteries, there are over some -- there's some 500 buses in Germany, 12-meter long buses with our technology. Our third generation technologies, we have -- so we have succeeded the industrialization phase at a great scale, but 2 topics were not enabling us to go further with regard to those sectors with the right performance levels. So that's just to say that the energy density has hugely increased the capacity to have a reservoir of electricity, which is substantial in the same volume. We had 3 kilowatt modules, which then became 4.5 and just over 8 today, in this race to energy density. And we also have a major advantage, which we already had in the third generation of batteries when we industrialized, which is a number of loading, reloading recharging and uncharging your battery without 100, 200. 300 times the maximum capacity of that reservoir is just 50%, 40% of what it was originally. If we sold a car tomorrow with 400 kilometers autonomy if after say, 1, 2 years, you just have 200 kilometers autonomy. Well, you will not be very happy because we all want to make from energy levels and -- but we want to have a performance levels, which need to be comparable to fossil energy levels. So that gamble has been succeeded to have more cycles and more energy density. There were still 2 issues with regard to the third generation of batteries, which meant that we could commercialize the batteries for buses because you can charge those batteries in the evenings but there were 2 disadvantages that they sell for discharge in the car, like, for instance, individual car. If you don't plug it in, you are going to lose 1% per hour, per 2 hours. So after a week or 2, if you haven't plugged your car in, plug the battery in, you'll come back and pick it up and it's very unpleasant, it is empty. So that was a problem for the market of individual vehicles. So that's why we started with car sharing and buses and also a faster charging for many years. We have been telling you that through our technology, we were looking to have -- we're looking slow charging. Even if you were charging overnight, that was sufficient. But with these generations of solid batteries that we know well because we were the first in the world to industrialize them, we had -- we had -- sorry, I lost my train of thought. We had a topic of there was a topic -- an issue pertaining to faster charging. And I think that, that is a problem for individuals so to be capable of charging in 20 minutes, which will be the case of this new generation of batteries that we are working on and in order to no longer have these 2 factors not to be the second, which is self discharging. We need to be able to really work with the market of individual vehicles. So that has had a much more -- much faster success than we had anticipated. And in order to be competitive with regard to the price and the price of the cost of our batteries, we need to have high volume, so we cannot do just that for buses. So for us, it was essential to solve those 2 problems, to have volumes, you have competitive prices and to manage to earn money. So that's what we've been working on now for 6 months, 3 years of R&D, but 6 months with the cells actually produced on the fourth generation of batteries, which will no longer have those issues, which would be a battery pertaining -- which will be in an industrial challenge of 20 to 30 years. So what is new? Is it old? The competitors, which are starting on lithium-ion And now going towards solid batteries, but we're the only ones in the world who have industrialized the procedure, so which enables me to believe that if we find what we're looking for, we will be faster than the others to really move into the industrialization phase. And the industrialization such as we have the investment that we've communicated around it, it's broken into several parts. One, corresponding in a reasonable manner to the R&D side, to produce these samples, A is the sample As, as we call them, which should be produced in 9 months from now, so they are handmade these cells on the mini batteries like a small battery cell, and we test the properties, electrochemical, the intensity. We look at which ones have the best performance levels if we could succeed in obtaining what we are looking to obtain with encouraging results for the moment because we're always benchmarking ourselves with our competitors, of course, and everything is looking very exciting. We'll be producing sample As, sample Bs, sample Cs. And then we're talking about '29, 2030, there will be the industrialization phase. We've talked about the Easter because like many competitors, many players, many operators have obtained subsidies. So everybody is looking for this. It's a big battle for electrical batteries. China wants to be the harbor. Europe is trying to defend itself and every country is trying to bring in talents and know-how and to their territory. And that is why we spoke with in many regions and many countries, indeed, mostly the European ones, looking at subsidies, aids in the context of this industrialization, which requires heavy capitals, heavy investments, but so that there be no bias, no unbalance between other operators and ourselves. So this is going to enable us to obtain help subsidies for R&D and also for the industrialization, but for all that to take place or for this money to be spent whether it be us or that of others, of course, you need to have the performances attained. And as I say, in the 12 to 18 months, the samples coming through are going to enable us to validate or not to their performance levels. Well, if it doesn't work, to be sure, there will be no additional investment or industrialization because it won't be followed. But if as I hope, with the work have been carried out, we attained the results that we're looking and we're hoping to have, I believe that we could raise funds on the market because even the biggest ones, Total, they have EUR 160 million of funds, but they say that they need to have CapEx with investment funds and work with investment funds. And that is the path that we are looking to go down to validate the technology, to solve the issues and to grow, to become an industry where we will no longer be a sole shareholder of Blue Solutions, But we will work side-by-side with many investors. Thank you, that was quite lengthy, but there you have it. Yes, another question. You raised your hand before.

I'd like to ask 2 or 3 questions about Ruby. The first is, why is it [indiscernible] that bought and not Bollore Energy, then considering the recent history of Ruby, it's a bit contradictory because Ruby has sold its storage business, and that's when you intervened. In storage, there will be no synergy because they sold what they used to have. And -- do you have the intent of well, changing their structure?

Well, thank you for your questions. So why [indiscernible] and not Bollore Energy? Well, we had money at PTR. So we invested with PTR. It was just the way it happened. We very often made financial movements. I'm looking at Cedric de Bailliencourt, who proceeded to all investments for the last 30 years. I think we've always used to have made capital guidance when there's money, we use where it is. So that's why it was done through [indiscernible] Isn't it contradictory? Well, when we decided to have a stake in Ruby, we didn't know that we're going to sell their storage business. But I don't think there would be huge synergies with our oil storage capacity anyway. It's a group that we know well. It is sometimes our customer, sometimes our supplier because we used their depots a lot, those that are -- that have been sold. I started 17 years ago operationally in the group. It's a group that with which we worked really well. It's always had a good performance. And according to me, it went through -- well, avoiding a stock exchange, [indiscernible] and [indiscernible] knows this company really well. is a well-advised investor and my -- he invested EUR 1 million in Barave, which represents EUR 1 billion. Now -- and Ruby, the founders of shareholders held a deal of the [indiscernible] Ruby -- but well, investors like Alexan invested in cube at the right time. So we follow Alexan because he's a world advised investor and he's courageous and friendly investor. I'd like to thank him again on the occasion of this meeting. So it's a group that we follow, share that we know. It went through a difficult point under EUR 20, we have majority of our position at the end of the previous year. And -- well, with a yield of 10% going through the threshold of 5%. It allows us to have the fiscal regime, mother daughter. And so it's only 5%. 1.25% of tax on the dividend. So we thought that with the cash position we had it was a financial investment -- an interesting final investment and that we do not feel sorry for. We will see what is to come up from Ruby, the share price is EUR 31, I think now, it went up to 33%. So we're happy with our investment, but it's true, we are not expecting any synergies to become great. And as for the structure, we know that changed it. And well, the mergers have shown a good management of the group. They've got 2.28% of the share capital but with total control of the operations of Ruby. They had a net income of EUR 300 million. Last year, it went down to EUR 2.2 billion of value at some point. So we will follow the evolution of that company, wishing them a lot of success in their existing business lines as well as for their current transition. So thank you, I hope I answered your question. Yes, I saw you. I see you.

[indiscernible] Jean-Francois [indiscernible] of 315,000 shares. So congratulations to the Board for those results and for the good conditions of Bollore Logistics. I've got 2 questions. The first 1 is about Lagardere, some days ago had to wave his mandate following a judicial decision. Before Vivendi had any stake in Lagardere, could you tell us about the schedule that will allow him to resume his functions. Second question is strategic. You projected with great graph of the financial situation of Bollore. So hence, the question of the redeployment of that money. So could you tell the shareholders about possible redeployment -- possible schedule of the redeployment of cash and maybe new business lines. And are you excluding cash to shareholders? Well, at a higher level than today because the proposal of dividend at EUR 0.7 with a limit of EUR 6.50. But that's a bit shy according to me. So are you excluding any return to shareholders?

Thank you for all your questions. I'm going to try and answer them in the right order. As for Lagardere, yes he waved his functions that was following a litigation that took place before Vivendi had a mistake. I've got no information about it. Yannick either, it seems personally, I think it's a pity. I don't know whether it's justified or not, but well, people have got to comply with judicial decisions. So Arnaud Lagardere decided to withdraw from its operational functions, but it's still a shareholder of the group. It's the memory of that company as for most of its businesses and Vivendi is going to bring a lot to Lagardere. When you look at its journey over the last 2 years, it's been well managed and very earlier he's back, the better and the happier will be -- as for treasury, it's not a taboo question. The question was already there last year following the Bollore Logistics, we already spent EUR 600 million in the buyback program. So it's above EUR 6 for the time being. That's more than the price of the buyback program. Well, yet is the head of cash. I am looking at the rates are not probative right now, I don't know whether we can say, but we are -- we've got a yield of 4% of gross yield. After tax, it's 3% in net terms. There are several ways of looking at it. We're happy. We were happy to have been -- to have sold those assets and the financial yield is higher than the dividend that was contributed by the same subsidiaries. The new business lines, that's something that is not to -- there is something to be taken into account. We are still subject to [indiscernible] 12.5% of the price for Africa. So EUR 500 to EUR 600 million already to defend that. That's an investment matter as such. It's one of the biggest we have ever made and also investments that can be made like the one we've made in Ruby. But as you know and as you remarked, stock exchange indexes are at the highest. Then we tend to think that the world sometimes is going well, sometimes not. So we don't want to go too fast with securities that aren't on too expensive. Ruby we know. We've known for a long time. It has been well managed. And as for Bollore Logistics, we're not going to spoil that money on was to buy investments. As I said, Bollore Group, we've got important skills. And I'd like to thank the employees, people blossom in our different business lines. I think that the teams and ourselves would be happy to continue to bring our know-how becoming referent shareholders in different industries in the long run to be able to do what we know how to do and to bring about some rigor. We've got some work because there's the transition service agreements that continue with 2 big centers and there were big promises of services over 2 years. And even if it's Vivendi that takes care the split, it takes considerable work. So basically, we've got a lot of work to do. We have not switched to the 32-hour week. And nothing is impossible as for reinvestments. And as for more return of cash, I like this wording. I thought it was Chic. Dividend Is never enough. I would say if I say EUR 0.07 is going to be EUR 0.08. If I say EUR 0.08, you want EUR 0.09. But basically, we have correctly used the money that you've entrusted us with in the last years. There can be external opportunities, opportunities according to the market evolution. So I'm open-minded and it's EUR 0.01 but its 17%, 17% of increase. And from a social point of view, because today, the consolidated results at 100% of Vivendi whereas we've got 29.9% only. So you look at -- from a social point of view, the cash that brings about EUR 160 million, EUR 170 million in net terms. You've got the dividend of UMG, EUR 0.51 this year. that's EUR 170 million also. So well, it's 2.5% of tax. The dividend of Vivendi, we will see whether it is maintained at EUR 75 at EUR 0.05 -- EUR 75 million sorry at EUR 0.25 for the 800 million securities, EUR 304 million is the rest for Lode. And we will continue to make investments that I hope will continue to be fruitful. And once the dividend of EUR 200 million distributed we still have got EUR 20 million. We didn't think it was a good idea to increase the dividend. I am not sure it's a good sign to increase the dividend and reduce it the next year the following year. We've always wanted to create new valuations. We do not exclude to increase the dividend over time. well, especially if we haven't found anything to invest in bids, I guess, we will. But maybe the rate will not stay at 4%. And so I will encourage us to reinvest. And once we have reached the cruising speed again, maybe we can consider the matter, but it's not to be excluded an increase of dividend in the coming years. Thank you.

My dear friend there and our other friends there. Thanks Clare.

So there's typicality in Bollore Group. I will not get back to it. You talked about it. The second business that Bollore has been involved in, that's 2 solutions. The return is the one of electrical batteries. You recall that missed economy that paid you visit, which is to develop a plant in minus for EUR 2 billion. But the Bollore Group that is account that already lost EUR 3 billion over 20 years in batteries. So it is -- its the biggest failure. The biggest value is the one of electrical cars, blue cars and car sharing service Autolib. The listing of the subsidiary of electrical batteries, Blue Solutions, was flop for small shareholders, and it's forced the group to withdraw Blue Solutions from the listing at the stock exchange. So what are the odds that the group is going to reach its aim today after 20 years of losses and failures.

Thank you, [indiscernible] for your 2 questions. The first one was already answered battery. The second, the EUR 3 billion that you mentioned that was spent, well, the EUR 3 billion, lots of things. There were traditional activities that we continued to invest in that we are proud of. One of the representatives is right there in the second row. This is where we come from. That's packaging -- the packaging activity and I will point to the general matter, but I followed the ventures that took place in previous years, the 13, 14 years before. And just like our center [indiscernible] who is considered to be a good margin. It's that we may well, according to our size, EUR 10 million to start with and then bigger investments. There are big investments that were made in that field corresponded for half 2 applications, Autolib about car sharing. We were in Turin, Singapore, London, we were in many cities that we hoped a lot of and [indiscernible] said, you may find a fantastic technology. And you may have spent a lot of money and then is the second player who could collect the fruits. So I took over 5 years ago, you have a choice, either say, God, what am I going to do with it? Well, let's look at what was done. Do we have a -- I wanted to spend the first year. It was my first general meeting as merger. I had to go through write-off non-applications. It was married at the head of those activities, and she's we've got to stop car sharing, and you will do it, but it's Mary, who did it, she was courageous and she did remarkably. And after the analysis that I made myself of the matter, we -- I didn't think we could make any money in car sharing. So the decision was difficult from an accounting point of view very pleasant for young merger. But I thought it was important to do it. It means that we went from EUR 300 million cash in expenditure to a bit less than EUR 100 million -- EUR 150 million 4 years ago. It was a remarkable job because Marriott succeeded beyond the closure to recover significant amounts because she sold part of what was done. People look at expansion, but not at the guidance as she sold the network of London that belonged to us as well as the one of Singapore. And she got close to EUR 200 million from that. So sometimes there's money that comes back. I would have liked to see the EUR 3 billion come back. But I'm not a magician, I try to make some calculations and see what was possible. And we continue to invest that money in research and development because I think we've got -- we are in advance in this technology. [indiscernible] not because we are the first ones that will win. But we've got to think that it'd be a pity to the amounts that you mentioned to just wave it. We will not spend EUR 2 billion to see whether can work out or not with EUR 70 million. It should be off. And the true investments will only be made if we think it is relevant. It's about finding offtakes. So take order taking with manufacturers. So it's -- before we said we've got the best technology. They will all be forced to take it. Well, it didn't work out. It was flop -- the delegation of public service, but there were EUR 5 million rentals annually, 42 minutes on average that worked technologically, well as nobody had an electrical car. So before we were the manufacturers of solid batteries, we were the manufacturers of the first fleet of electrical cars in the world. So I've always done what was necessary to do, even though it wasn't always nice because that represented jobs. But I think it a pity not to continue because at the time, we worked without any contacts. Now we've got partnerships with labs, with manufacturers, and we are assessed according to our results with those sales of batteries. Then today, we are in all fairs and we exist in the ecosystem. And the aim of the game is to validate the technology not to spend EUR 2 billion ourselves, but to benefit just like any -- all of the competitors from tax credits, green tax credits, just like others have already benefited from. And we've got to balance several horses. But it's true that we've got 2 opportunities for success. So that's the idea to raise capital, but to do that you need performance and order taking. So that's our plan. And we will see in the next 18 months, what happens, but you can count on me not to spend money unreasonably. We got some money thanks to ourselves we're not going to spend it unreasonably. But we will continue to make the effort to get return on that money. Dear friends sorry, my apologies for having been so lengthy in my answers. Thank you for your patience.