Danone S.A. (BN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon to you all. First of all, allow me to say how pleased I am, how pleased we are to be once again all together after these 2 very unusual years. On behalf of the group and all its employees, I'd like to welcome you to Danone's Annual General Meeting. Before beginning, I'd like to inform you because and even if the health conditions are improving, and that's good news, we've included masks in the bag that you received when you signed in. We, therefore, recommend that you wear one during the duration of the meeting for your safety and, more widely, for everyone's safety. I'd like to call this meeting to order. I'll be assuming the Chair as Chairman of the Board. Our President, on my side, Mr. Antoine de Saint-Affrique, Chief Executive of Danone; Mr. Juergen Esser, Executive Vice President, Finance, Technology and Data; Mr. Laurent Sacchi, General Secretary and Secretary of the Board. And we will now proceed to forming the Executive Committee of this meeting. I call to act as scrutineers the 2 shareholders at this meeting with the greatest number of votes and having accepted this task: [ Mr. Paul Marse ] representing Amundi; and [ Mr. Christophe Martin ] representing the Danone FCP, the group employee savings plan. And I thank them for agreeing to undertake these duties. I propose that we appoint Laurent Sacchi, Board Secretary as Session Secretary of this meeting. The Executive Committee is thereby constituted. I'm pleased to greet members of the Board who are present at this meeting, joining you, as well as the statutory auditors of the company also present in the hall. And in a moment, they will be reporting on the conclusions of their reports. And I suggest we now watch on screen the proceedings of this meeting. So Laurent Sacchi, General Secretary, Meeting Secretary, will be recalling in a moment the various legal formalities performed prior to this meeting as well as the agenda and the list of resolutions that are put to your vote. And then I will speak to set out the work of your Board in 2021 work, which, as you know, comprised a very substantial governance component, being an opportunity for you to discover the 4 external candidates of the Board who are soliciting your vote via a short video. Next, we'll hear the presentations of the Chief Executive, Antoine de Saint-Affrique; and Juergen Esser, Executive VP, Technology and Data; and then to our auditors to hear the conclusions of their report. And lastly, it will be an opportunity for you to speak for a Q&A session before voting on the resolutions, and we expect to close this AGM at around 5:15 p.m. Over now to Laurent Sacchi.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Gilles. Good afternoon to you. We will now move to the rather more legal section and I hope it won't be too tedious. Let me remind you that our meeting is being held upon first Notice Of Meeting, and all prior formalities required per law have been accomplished. All the legal documents have been placed on the decks as per legal and regulatory requirements, and disclosed or made available to shareholders, social economic committee upon the convening of this meeting. I remind you, once again, this year, all registered or bearer shareholders, whatever number of shares held, was able to open on the net via vote access when its bank is part of the network of financial institutions. This secure site was opened 4th of April last. And as per regulation, it was closed yesterday at 3 p.m. I will now read out the agenda for this meeting. It comprises in total resolution both ordinary and extraordinary approved by the Board. And you're all asked to vote on a resolution called Resolution A, whose placing on the agenda was required as part of shareholders representing together 0.8% of the Danone share capital. Now the agenda within the powers of the ordinary AGM is as follows: Approval of the financial statements, FY December 31, '21; approval of the consolidated financial statements of FY closed at the same date; allocation of earnings of FY ended December 31, '21; and setting of the dividend at EUR 1.94 per share. Next, appointments and ratifications: Ratification of co-optation of Valérie Chapoulaud-Floquet as a Board member; appointment of Antoine de Saint-Affrique as director; appointment of Patrice Louvet as Director; appointment of Geraldine Picaud as director; lastly, appointment of Susan Roberts as direct. Ninth resolution, renewal Ernst & Young Audit as statutory auditors. Ninth (sic) [ 10th ], appointment of Mazars & Associate as statutory auditors of the company. 11th resolution, approval of an agreement subject to the provisions of Article L.225-38 of the code concluded by the company with Véronique Penchienati-Bossetta. Approval of information pertaining to compensation of executive officers mentioned at I of article L.2210-9 to the code of commerce for FY '21. 13th resolution, approval of items, compensation paid or awarded to in respect of FY ended December 31 last to Véronique Penchienati-Bossetta under her term as Chief Executive between 14th of March and 14 September '21. Next items of compensation paid or awarded to in respect of the year ended December 31 last, Shane Grant as Deputy Chief Executive between March 14 and 14 September, also. 15, approval of items of compensation paid or awarded to in respect of FY December 31, '21 to Antoine de Saint-Affrique, Chief Executive as of 15 September '21. 16th resolution, approval of items of compensation paid or due to in respect of FY '21 to Gilles Schnepp, Chairman of the Board as of 14th of March '21. 17th resolution, approval of the compensation policy of the executive officers for the current year FY '22. 18th resolution, approval of the compensation policy of the Chairman of the Board for the current year. 19th resolution, approval of the compensation policy of directors for the year 2022. Lastly, authorization to be conferred upon the Board in order to purchase, retain or transfer company's shares. That's the agenda for the ordinary meeting. Those within the powers of the extraordinary general meeting, the difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary meeting is that the majority in the case of the extraordinary meeting is a qualified majority of 2/3. 21, delegation of authority to the Board with a view to issuing ordinary shares and securities without preferential subscription right, reserves to categories of beneficiaries made up of employees working within foreign companies of Danone or in a situation of international mobility as part of salaried employee transactions. 22nd, authorization given to the Board to award existing performance shares or to be issued by the company without preferential subscription rights to shareholders. 23, authorization given to the Board to proceed with the award of existing shares or to be issued non-subjected to performance condition without preferential subscription rights. 24, change of Article 19.II of the bylaws of the company pertaining to the age limit of the Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive. 25th resolution, the change of Article 18.I of the bylaws of the company pertaining to the age limit of the Chairman of the Board. 26th resolution, change in Article 17 of the bylaws of the company pertaining to the obligation to hold shares applicable to Board members. And lastly, 27th powers for formalities. We also have Resolution A presented, as I said, pursuant to the provisions of the code of commerce not approved by the Board, pertains to the changes of Articles I and III of Article 18 of the bylaws of the Company Executive Committee of the Board and Deliberations. Let me inform you in addition that according to the attendance sheet, shareholders present, represented or having voted by correspondence or on the net together hold 426,051,255 out of the 638,090,089 with voting rights. That's a quorum of 66.7%. That is over 25%, which is the quorum required for this AGM. Votes by correspondent represent 428,697,448 voting right. Powers to the President, represent one -- correction. 16,249,408 voting rights out of 638,090,089 shares with voting rounds. 25,086,289 shares benefit from the dual voting rights. I'd point out consequently that all conditions required for the validity of this meeting in its ordinary form as well as its extraordinary form are met. Furthermore, as per the recommendation of the Financial Markets Authority, let me inform you that on the 25th of April at 6 p.m., the company rejected 10 voting instructions. These voting instructions represent 1,717 shares and 2,844 voting rights as per existing rules because they were deemed null and void, and they are not included in the figures of the quorum. Finally, let me you remind you of 3 things for issues linked to the electronic voting system. First of all, we will close registration at 3:15. Consequently, shareholders who arrive after 3:15 then won't be able to take part in the vote on the resolution. It doesn't concern you if you're already in the room. If you wish to put questions in writing, you have in the bag that you received the card that allows you to put your questions asked. Kindly give this card to the hostess as soon as possible so that we can answer your questions during the Q&A session. Let me remind you that this meeting is filmed and broadcast live on the Danone website, danone.com, and can also be consulted in deferred mode. Thank you for your attention. Back to the Chairman, Gilles.

[Interpreted] Dear shareholders, as announced, I'm now going to report on the work of your Board in 2021. Last year, at the AGM, I gave you the main guidelines decided upon by the Board. Today has been 1 year, and we have made a lot of progress since then. With support from the Board of Directors and its various committees, we have been able to establish the foundations of an improved governance system, and that is what I would like to share with you today. I have a couple of slides that I'd like to show you. And of course, we still have some ways to go. So 2021, we have been particularly active in 2021 in terms of governance. I would like to highlight 3 milestones. In March with immediate effect, we decided to separate 2 functions. The Chairman position and the CEO position are now separate. And we have appointed an independent Chairman, yours truly. Secondly, on the very same day, we decided to start looking for a new CEO, and we decided to appoint an interim CEO in the meantime. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank Véronique Penchienati-Bossetta for her hard work between March 2021, which is when the CEO left, and September 2021, which is when Antoine de Saint-Affrique arrived. She's done so much work in the interim, trying to make sure that the company would not suffer from the governance crisis that we had been weathering. I would also like to thank Shane Grant as well as Juergen Esser. Alongside Véronique, Shane and Juergen have been instrumental in making sure that the senior management team could operate properly and efficiently vis-à-vis the company's different stakeholders. And so in May 2021, which was very quickly after we started looking for a new CEO, we had the pleasure of attracting a world-famous talent. Antoine de Saint-Affrique has agreed to take the lead of this company. And because we decided to start afresh with a new Chairman and a new CEO, the Board of Directors has collectively and unanimously decided in July to organize its own renewal in a very orderly fashion. And I would like to show you what the Board has been doing, what it's done in 2021. As I said before, it's been a very active year. You can see the figures on the screen are 12 Board meetings, 4 team meetings of the Governance Committee. And this is also an opportunity for me to thank the Governance Committee and Jean-Michel Severino, its Chair. You may have noticed that in 2021, governance is something that we have been very active on. But it's not just that. We also were very keen to monitor economic performance, nonfinancial performance through the work of the Mission Committee. As you know, this is 2021, the company is now a mission-driven company. And later, you will hear Pascal Lamy give his report. And also, HR issues are something that we care very much about. We have initiated and confirmed the launch of Local First, a reorganizing program. So as I said, we're improving governance. Our governance system is in the middle of being renewed. It's highly engaged. But what is the point? Well, the point is to make sure that the company can restore growth, more specifically profitable growth. We want to make sure that innovation and execution are back at the heart of our business model. Antoine de Saint-Affrique will tell you more about that in a moment. We also want to pursue our commitment to nonfinancial indicators. As you know, this is a long-standing commitment, and this is something that is more important than ever. The Board of Directors is particularly aware of the importance of its role, the contribution it makes to implementing that vision. We believe in constant demanding a seamless dialogue with senior management. We need a strong governance system with different individuals who are all strong. We need a strong governance structure. We hope that your vote will approve our proposed new members. But the Board is working beautifully as a group, so our priorities are clear. We want to make sure that the Board and its committees operate properly. In these times of transition, we want to pay close attention to anything that happens to and around Danone, everything that the stakeholders expect of Danone. And we will make sure that Danone meets its financial and nonfinancial goals. Needless to say, the goal of this renewal process has also sought to attract skill sets and talent that would help Danone write a new chapter in its history. And our top priority has, of course, been to successfully renew the Board lineup as well as the membership of its various committees. This is a twofold process. So step 1, we need your vote. Step 2, next year, at the same date, we will clear step 2. So at the next AGM, we will clear step 2. And I believe this is wonderful for Danone. We are very likely to have been able to attract rare talent, the caliber of which you will see today. So I suggest we meet these amazing individuals in a quick video. These are the 4 would-be Board members that would like to submit to your approval, so 4 external candidates in addition to the proposed appointment of Antoine de Saint-Affrique. [Presentation]

[Foreign Language]

Hello, everyone. My name is Susan Roberts. I'm a Professor of Nutrition at Tufts University in Boston, Co-Director of the Tufts Institute for Global Obesity Research and Professor of Psychiatry and staff member of Pediatrics at Tufts University Medical School. I'm passionate about nutrition. I devoted my career to improving human health and well-being through advancing nutrition science across the lifespan, both in the U.S. and in many countries worldwide. My research includes studies to enable healthy and active aging, how to make the treatment of obesity easier and nutritional ways to boost brain health in childhood. I've also written 2 popular books on nutrition, received awards for my research and been a member of several committees, making national dietary recommendations here in the U.S. where I am based. Today, I'm truly honored to be joining the Board of Danone. Danone is a special company that has a crucial world to play in global health because it's genuinely committed to producing nutritious, tasty and sustainable foods through its terrific food products and company philosophy, the dual project. Danone also provides a shining example of how to nourish the world in a successful and ethical way. I will be bringing to the Board my expertise in advanced nutrition science, my experience as a science and nutrition communicator working in 20 countries and a deep understanding of the reasons why people choose to eat the foods they do. I'm excited to help Danone forge its path to a bright future and look forward to getting started.

Hello, everyone. I'm Patrice Louvet, the President and CEO of Ralph Lauren joining you from our corporate headquarters in the heart of New York City. I am honored to join Geraldine Picaud, Susan Roberts and the rest of the esteemed Board under Gilles Schnepp's leadership. I joined Ralph Lauren 5 years ago when we embarked on a journey to deliver what we call the next great chapter in our 55-year old company's history. In our pursuit of sustainable growth and value creation, we began at a place that I know will resonate with you, defining our purpose. Because while our purpose has been around since Ralph created his first tie in 1967, it had never before been codified and rolled out to our 24,000 employees around the world. Our purpose, to inspire the dream of a better life through authenticity and timeless style, continues to guide our strategy and our work every day. And I am so proud of how our team continues to deliver and navigate the many challenges that have emerged in the last couple of years. Prior to Ralph Lauren, I spent nearly 3 decades at Procter & Gamble, where I held various leadership roles with global brands ranging from Gillette to Pantene to Ariel. I have tremendous respect for purpose-driven businesses. I believe passionately in the value of bridging heritage and innovation and hope to bring that to conversations about the ambitious renewed Danone growth plan. Thank you for your nomination and your warm welcome. I cannot wait to play a role in supporting the global Danone team in ushering in an exciting new phase for the company.

[Foreign Language]

[Interpreted] As you can see on the screen, the flow chart, the structure of the Board after step 1, after the first milestone, assuming we have your vote on a resolution. So on the right-hand side of the screen, you can see the main features of this Board. It is more condensed, only 12 directors, down from 16 with the vast majority of independent directors. And again, so 80% independent and a vast majority of directors who have held CEO level positions in other groups, so perfect gender parity and 40% are Board members with international experience. Well, if we take into account the highly international profile of Valerie, Antoine, Patrice and Michele, who have spent much, sometimes most of their careers, outside of France. Now obviously, this is really important to any international group. So it's at least a 40% international experience on the Board. Many thanks to the entire Board for the work they've done over the past year. And more specifically, many thanks to the Board members who are leaving us today, Franck Riboud in particular. He bears no introduction. He's been a Board member for 30 years and a Chair for longer. He turned Danone into a global player. And he positioned it thanks to his vision, his vision of health care. You know our corporate purpose, to bring health through food to as many people as possible. Well, Franck Riboud originated that in 2005, and he focused the company on that corporate purpose, and then he developed the company around that corporate purpose. As you know, he is not a man who conforms to standards, and he's proud of that. He's a charismatic man. He truly embodied the spirit of Danone. And as you well know, he decided not to seek a renewal of his term. He will remain our Honorary Chairman, and we are very happy. We owe much to his leadership. And even if he's -- even if we're apart, we will continue to seek his opinion because his knowledge of the company and its corporate culture is unparalleled. Jean-Michel Severino is also leaving us today. Jean-Michel has supported the company since 2011. He served as President of the Engagement Committee, the Audit Committee, the Governance Committee. He served as a lead director until today. He's been a significant contributor to Board discussions. He shared with us his wisdom, his amazing analyses, his ability to listen, his humanity. His help has been particularly crucial in recent times, not just to me, to the entire Board membership, and many thanks to him for all of that. Gaelle Olivier has supported Danone since 2014, but she already has had close ties to the company well before 2014. She served as a chairperson of the Audit Committee, and in this capacity, made a huge contribution to the company. Thanks to her commitment, her professionalism, her stringency, and now she is being called upon to occupy even higher-level functions in her own company. So we've been very fortunate to have had her by our side for so long. Lionel Zinsou-Derlin joined the Board in 2014 as well. And just like Gaelle, that is his third term. And just like Gaelle, he's been a long-standing companion. His knowledge of geopolitics, macroeconomics, his knowledge of our industry, his ability to read, analyze, interpret key trends, his ability to analyze an income statement, he's been an important and influential Board member. Clara Gaymard is also leaving the Board today. She joined the group in 2016. And over the course of her 2 terms, she brought to the Board her energy, her enthusiasm, her original point of view, her open mindedness, particularly when it comes to societal issues, which is so important to Danone as they are to many corporates these days. Cecile Cabanis remains a Director until the end of June, and many thanks to Cecile Cabanis. I'd like to thank her in advance. She's been a stringent senior manager of this company. She's also served as a Director and as past President of the Board since 2018. And many thanks to Cecile Cabanis for her many contributions in this twofold capacity. Her intelligence, her courage, her determination have been so helpful. She always put the company first. She's proved that in recent months, and I can attest that. And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't point out the fact that Isabelle Seillier already left us in late 2021, and Isabelle made a huge contribution to this company, particularly in terms of analyzing market sentiment. Her skills and expertise have been invaluable. So I would like to take a little bit of time today for this special event. It's not so often that we clear such an important milestone on the occasion of an AGM, and I believe the contributions of those 6 Board members who are leaving us, they deserve our gratitude and our applause. Because of the changes in the Board of Directors, we also need to review the lineup of the different committees. So you can see on the screen on the left-hand side, the different committees, including the Governance Committee. The Governance Committee will have a new chairperson, Valérie Chapoulaud-Floquet. At the end of this AGM, she will also serve as Lead Director. So she will -- other members will remain. Michel Landel and Patrice Louvet will come and support this committee. Now the Audit Committee will be chaired by Geraldine Picaud, with support from Frédéric Boutebba, who is already a member; and myself who will be joining the Audit Committee in the interim. And lastly, the Engagement Committee. The President doesn't change, Serpil Timuray. And Michel Landel and Bettina Theissig will continue to contribute to the Engagement Committee and will be joined by Susan Roberts. Susan Roberts has all the skills and expertise to join the Engagement Committee. You may have noticed that the 3 committees are chaired by 3 women. And I said 3 committees, not 4. As you well know, we decided not to renew the Strategy Committee. We have decided that the strategy is an issue that has to be handled in plenary session at Board level as opposed to committee level. On the right-hand side of the screen, as you can see, we have also adjusted the bylaws as well as the rules of procedure of the Board. In particular, we have redefined the roles and responsibilities of the Chairman and the Lead Director now that we have separated the 2 functions of Chairman and CEO. Also, we'd like to provide visibility to Board members by adapting the age limit, both for the Chairman and for the CEO, and these resolutions will be submitted to your vote in a moment. We have made a lot of progress over the past year. We have made quality inroads, but, of course, we still have a long way to go. And we're already working on step 2 in the process. But if we look at all of the work that we have accomplished, let us not forget the amazing contribution of the group's entire workforce. We call them Danoners, 100,000 Danoners all across the world performed beautifully throughout the period. Antoine de Saint-Affrique and Juergen Esser will show you the performance for 2021 as well as for Q1 2022, our proof of the amazing work done by our teams. Many thanks to them. And without further ado, I would like to hand over to the Chair of the Mission Committee, Mr. Pascal Lamy, who will discuss the work done by his committee.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Gilles. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The purpose of my remarks today is neither to summarize nor to paraphrase the information on Danone's nonfinancial performance that you have received as preparation for this general meeting. You will find all of that information in the report of the Mission Committee, which I have the honor of chairing. You will also find that information in Chapter 5 of the annual report. I believe it's more useful to explore a couple of points regarding our activities. Firstly, I would like to remind you that those activities are being carried out within the framework of the 2019 French legislation on mission-driven companies. That's a new status, and Danone has been the first listed company to adopt that status in 2020. And our role as the Mission Committee is to make an independent judgment on how Danone is fulfilling the 4 "missions" that have been incorporated into its bylaws, including: improving health; preserving the planet; building the future with Danoners; and promoting inclusive growth in its ecosystems. And to do this, on an annual basis, we have a 2-step process. Firstly, we agree with Danone's senior management on a raft of objectives to be achieved for each of those 4 missions, but we also agree on the indicators for measuring achievement of said targets. And this involves a dialogue with senior management, and this dialogue is informed by both strategic and operational considerations. We take into account both Danone's proposals and the positions of committee members. Let's take an example, and this is a virtual example. Danone products. Will Danone products be able to check every single box? In other words, contain less sugar; be packaged in recyclable containers; be produced using milk; produced in line with best farming and environmental practice; while at the same time, still be less expensive than the competition? So this is a difficult equation to solve. And these solutions involve making choices, programming changes and also requires a strong commitment from our teams. And sometimes, it requires some level of pressure on our part. Secondly, and that's the easier part, we consider the results of the external audit based on the selection of indicators and we discuss them with the auditor and with Danone's senior management. And then we draw conclusions on the next steps to be taken before we report back to you, which is what I'm doing today. So this year, our work has had to integrate indicators from the strategic review initiated by Danone's new management team so that the objectives and the indicators for 2022, which is the current year, can only be approved in a few weeks' time. And that is something we have accepted on the understanding that next year, we will return to a normal cycle. In other words, we will communicate to you the precise objectives for the current financial year at your Annual General Meeting. My conclusion is threefold. Firstly, our assessment of the results obtained by Danone in fulfilling its extra or nonfinancial targets, well, this year, our assessment is positive. The vast majority of the indicators selected for fiscal 2021 have been either reached or exceeded. Number two, to my mind, the working relationship between our committee, which is made up of people from different backgrounds, people who are independent, but also Danone's teams and the external auditor, well, this working relationship now seems well established because we have been working together for 2 years now. And number three, and that's my last point. On this basis, I am confident that we can continue to provide you with an assessment, an assessment that is independent, an expert assessment that is both independent and committed regarding the ways in which Danone is fulfilling its missions within the meaning of current legislation but also in accordance with our duties to you all, our shareholders. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Pascal. I now suggest we hear our new CEO, Antoine de Saint-Affrique.

Thank you. Thank you, Laurent. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, before I give the floor to Juergen Esser, our CFO, I wanted to tell you how much of a honor it is me to attend this first AGM of Danone for the first time as the CEO of a company where I started my career 36 years ago. The company since then has reinvented itself a number of times under the leadership of my eminent predecessors, while at the same time, managing to stick to what sets it aside and apart, this dual project and Antoine Riboud's Marseille address, which we will -- for which -- whose 50th anniversary we shall be celebrating this year. Now this AGM is also taking place in a context that we had expected would never occur again in Europe, namely the war in Ukraine affecting millions of people for a number of weeks now, including a number of our colleagues and their families. And Danone is extending assistance to them, and Danoners are making a tremendous effort to do so. Now can I also maybe briefly mention our annual results that we recently released in February? I'd like to thank all the employees of Danone, who in extraordinarily difficult circumstances and unprecedented circumstances have helped ensure business continuity and bring Danone back on track for growth with sales that are up 3.4% on a like-for-like basis. Their commitment, their passion, the strength of our brands and the relevance of our mission are key to our resilience. We managed to stick to our objective of profitable growth in second half year this year with operational margin at 13.7% in 2021. Thanks to what you have done -- they have done to improve our productivity and working on prices. I'd like to thank more specifically Véronique Penchienati and Shane Grant, who took over the company at interim between March and September 2021. And as Gilles has done, I'd like myself and on behalf of all of you recognize the work done by Véronique to ensure cohesion and stability at Danone in the broader context of the local forest transformation at a very difficult time for the company. Thank you, Véronique. Let me now give the floor to Juergen, who will give us a more detailed presentation of our results, and then I shall take the floor once again and give you a presentation of the strategic plan, Renew Danone, that we unveiled 2 months ago at Evian at our Investor Day. So Juergen, you have the floor.

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon. I'm delighted to address you on the occasion of this Annual General Meeting to go back over the highlights of the year 2021. As shown, the results presented in February, we delivered a strong performance in 2021 growth, plus 3.4% like for like. I believe it's important to emphasize that this performance was achieved after a difficult start to the year in '21. The first quarter, it was negative, coming in at minus 3.3%, consequence of the restrictions linked to COVID. However, our teams put in a remarkable job, as Antoine said, to ensure a return to growth as of Q2, allowing us to deliver a 3.4% increase of our annual sales. All categories contributed to the strong performance. Dairy and Plant-based products recorded growth at plus 3.7%. Specialized Nutrition posted growth of 1%. The Waters category delivered a growth rate of 7.2%. Turning now together to review the performance of each of the business units in detail. Start with Dairy and Plant-based. Revenue up 3.7% like for like in '21. This performance was driven on the one hand by the portfolio Dairy products that posted the strong increase and also by Plant-based products that recorded a growth rate close to 10%, in spite of supply difficulties encountered during the second half. A few comments now regarding the performance by geography. In Europe, sales were sustained by the plant-based platforms, probiotics, but also protein and also the brand's Actimel, Alpro and YoPRO. In North America, sales were driven, in particular, by Oikos in the Greek Yogurt segment and by international delight in the Coffee Creamers segment. In the Rest of the World, sales picked up in Latin America and in Africa; whereas growth was slightly positive in the CI region driven by a price effect, which was already challenging from a macroeconomic standpoint. Turning now to Specialized Nutrition, saw its sales grow 1% like for like. On the one hand, Adult Nutrition delivered strong growth in 2021, driven by China and the Rest of the World. Furthermore, Early Life Nutrition posted growth that was slightly positive, marked by a sequential recovery in sales during the quarters. We ended the year with a very strong growth in Q4, driven notably by the very good growth momentum in China. And lastly, Waters, let's take a look at the performance of that segment. Recorded growth coming in at plus 7.2% like for like in '21, driven by strong increase in volumes. Europe recorded strong growth driven by France, Germany, Spain and Poland, where our brands gained market share. Rest of the world, our Mizone brand in China experienced growth at close to 10% with a stable market share. In Latin America, sales also recorded growth close to 10% in the context of sequential improvement in mobility. Lastly, in Indonesia, sales were penalized by strong mobility restrictions linked to COVID throughout the year. Let's now focus on the other items of our income statement. EBIT reached 13.7% delivered in a highly volatile and challenging macroeconomic context. Indeed, inflation reached 8% in '21, and we were faced with major supply chain difficulties, especially in Europe and also in North America. Now to offset this highly volatile environment, we redoubled our efforts in terms of productivity. We also adapted our prices and mix management that allowed us to deliver profitable growth in the second half. Our earning per share shrank very slightly, minus 1.1% versus last year to read EUR 3.31 in 2021. It's important to note that we manage to generate EUR 3.5 billion in free cash flow this year. That's an increase of 21% over last year. So thanks to these strong results in a challenging macroeconomic context, and as announced in February, we're proposing to today a dividend EUR 1.94 paid in cash in line with 2020. Before handing the floor back to Antoine, I'd like once again to thank all the Danone employees who contributed in a difficult and unprecedented context to generate these strong results for our company. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Juergen. Ladies and gentlemen, let me maybe share with you what I shared a month ago or so with a number of people who are accounting what I've done over the last 6 months. I've spent a lot of time meeting the stakeholders who contribute to the success of Danone. I've spoken with Danoners across the world, hundreds of them. I've spoken with the unions. I visited stores, factories, research centers. I discussed with our sellers and with our customers. I met a number of partners, suppliers, distributors across many geographies ever since I have taken up this position. Now even before I formally started this job, I listen to what investors, shareholders and analysts have to say. On that basis, and together with the Executive Committee, I was able to come to a conclusion about what is working nicely, and there are some very good things indeed, and what doesn't work well. And I will not shy away from recognizing that exactly as I did not shy away from it with our investor seminar. Let me look at what our strengths and assets are. After all, that is what has led me to change my personal projects, including change countries, to take the lead in this company, to take -- come to the helm of the company. First of all, Danone has a tremendous history. First of all, it's performance and responsibility, social and environmental responsibility, of course. And they do not come into confrontation. They support one another. And if you haven't done it, I invite you to read the Antoine Riboud's 1972 speech as given in Marseille, we'll be celebrating the 50th anniversary later on this year. And it is -- it was a visionary speech, and is still as relevant today as it was then. So Danone was a story about pioneers, innovators who completely and constantly reinvented the economic model, their business model. They are -- they create and have created iconic brands, new categories, new products, incredible ones at that. People who are obsessed with their consumers, by clients, by the products, but also obsessed with the greater good. When the Danone Yogurt was established more than 100 years ago, the point was all about health, nature and taste. Health by nutrition, for the greater number, is at the heart of our mission and has been for years. It is our DNA. It means that over the decades, people across the world have been able to access a healthy diet. This mission is even more relevant today in the post-COVID environment. What is just as important as our routes are precisely the categories in which we operate, and let me share a few facts here with you. First of all, something simple and striking. The categories we operate in are experiencing growth because they meet the expectations of the consumers. And I will repeat that, all of our categories. And -- but despite the rumors, I think you can readily understand that we are not going to let go of any of them. Secondly, and it's just as interesting, our portfolio is fully consistent with our mission. It's -- we are a leader in the ATNI product profile with 90% of our volumes considered to be healthy categories, 89% of our volumes are health graded A or B. And of course, there are challenges in every one of our categories, challenges related to sustainability. But we are and have been the pioneers in trying to address these questions. Let me refer you to what Henri Bruxelles told us in March in Evian. So there are very real opportunities in the various categories, and that is also true of our brand. We have a unique combination of iconic global brands and strong local brands, meaning that we can cover the whole range of expectations and demand of our consumers and our clients. Our brands, our history, our heritage means that we have unrivaled knowledge and skills. Gut health, for instance, and it's a very real issue. Fermentation, and that is not just relevant for dairy products, but more generally about proteins. It's also true infant foods, allergies or also dietary-based approaches to cancer treatment. Now this being said, there are a number of fields in which we are not quite where we should be. First of all, we haven't grown at the same pace as our categories over the last few years. What it means, in other words, is that we haven't tapped into their full potential as much as we could have. Secondly, we have not always been consistent in the way we've defined and reached our goals. Over the last few years, we've changed guidance a number of times with numbers that were not necessarily consistent or comparable from one year to the next. And we haven't always, for whatever reason, been able to stick to our promises. Our ambition, therefore, as stated at the investor seminar is to increase our full -- the quality of our forecast and the consistency of our results and also transparency -- more transparency on what does and doesn't work. That is how we can restore trust, the shine and appeal of Danone and the value of the company. Lastly, this is by no means the least important of these facts, we have changed our organization too often over the last few years. All the teams have spent tremendous -- expended tremendous energy on transformation, thus paying less attention to consumers, clients and competition. With staff changing jobs more often, we have lost some continuity, lost responsibility, lost skills and knowledge and talent. As I've said, we have a unique portfolio of strong global and local brands, which means that we can cover the whole range of channels, of price points, of consumers and of clients. We have a broad geographical footprint, meaning that we have exposure to mature markets and also emergent markets. And we are amongst the most balanced and well balanced in the market. We are leading the pack, second to none in most of our categories where we are present, and we have, generally speaking, large market shares. But that is not all. We understand consumer trends. We are at the heart of this push for healthy diet, thanks to our portfolio that supports these trends. With COVID, health, immunity have been more important than ever before. Many people now realize that you are what you eat, that gut health is significant. The quality really makes a difference, and that little things like drinking an Actimel in the morning can really have and bring strong benefits. Our categories also meet the needs of an aging global population and -- affected by an increasing number of more severe diseases, for instance, cancer. And we can act with Fortimel, and there are also the age-related issues that we are treating with calcium-rich yogurts or protein shots like Souvenaid. The same also goes for sustainability. It is key for many people in their day-to-day lives. They don't want to give up on taste just to focus on health. They want a global quality, local -- locally sourced at a competitive price. They want to indulge without feeling guilty. They want real choices rather than forced choices. And being a leader in sustainability really sets us apart in this respect. Therefore, given the current market trends, the categories we operate in really give us great opportunities for today and tomorrow. Now if the trends are right for us, and although markets -- our markets are growing, we haven't always been able to make the most of it. Over 2017, 2019, the categories have increased 3% to 4%, while we, on average, only grew 2.7% over the period. We have lost market shares to our competitors, meaning that new entrants were able to take -- to set up shop and strengthen their positions. The drivers of our growth wasn't always what they should have been. We haven't been able to increase our volumes over the last few years. While both volume and product mix are key to establishing the resilience of the business model of the companies such as ours focusing on consumer products, we have to improve over time the makeup of our growth, as we have started doing over the last few quarters, as you've seen. Lastly, and maybe more importantly, we have to make sure that Danone becomes more resilient to reducing our excessive dependence on a number -- a small number of categories or geographies or distribution channels. And when you look at the strength of our brands and the buoyancy of -- the underlying buoyancy of the categories, you may well wonder why we have underperformed. Well, in March, I said very clearly that this could be explained by a number of things. First of all, core products had lost some of their relevance between -- we had stopped paying quite enough attention to it by giving up on the discipline required to execute this to -- by giving up on the look of our shelves and the quality of our service. And in a way, we brought about our own decline. In terms of innovation, we admittedly have had tremendous success in protein or Actimel, but we also launched too many small-scale initiatives and we're unable to roll out consistently whatever worked well. And as we have said, we have structurally over the years under invested in our brands. Now over and beyond what I've said about our brands and categories, there are a number of categories and fields in which we can improve. First of all, we have our tools, our processes, our data and IT processes. We can improve there by increasing automation, centralization and standardization. In operations, in our factories, there are other opportunities for improvement. And indeed, Vikram Agarwal, our new COO, has shown it and told us it in March. And lastly, the performance culture is maybe not where I would like it to be. Danone's culture was always focused on results, and sustainability and performance always went together. Well, we have to restore that to a certain extent. Without a clear understanding of the way success is rewarded, meritocracy and responsibility cannot be what they should be. In this performance culture, sustainability has a key role to play. It is, of course, a moral imperative. It's part of our DNA. And over the last 2 years, it has indeed been part of our constitution given the fact that we are a company with a mission. And I am convinced myself that it is also key to economic competitiveness. Antoine Riboud felt that and said it in his Marseille speech, as I mentioned earlier. Some observers felt that both of these aspects were disconnected or even incompatible. Let me say quite clearly that, that is not the case. I am convinced that Danone will show that over time by focusing a little more on its choices by having a better impact on the state of our health -- of our planet, on the health of our consumers and our economic performance. So as I was saying, we have a strong base and a strong history. We are operating in growing categories. But as we have said, we also have real opportunities for improvement, improvement that would require us reinventing ourselves and reinventing what is at the heart of Danone in a relevant way for the current world. What am I talking about? Well, a culture focusing on the dual project, both sustainable and entrepreneurial. A culture of innovation, a culture of performance delivery and delivery that is responsible. A culture that draws in talents from across the board. A passion for operations, for execution, from the quality of our products to innovation to the way our products look in the stores. And we will have to make sure that we have the means and resources required to invest long term in our brands, research and skills, and Juergen will come back on that later. And it is this sense of renewing ourselves, of reinventing ourselves, that we wanted to tap into with Renew Danone. Our ambition for the next few years is to Renew Danone and, together with the 100,000 Danoners, to create the right conditions for profitable, sustainable growth that would combine economic -- organic economic performance and social and environmental performance. So we have something that will require a number of stages. First of all, strengthening what needs to be strengthened, preparing the future and speeding up the process. Our goal over the next few years will be to, first of all, move from underperformers -- being underperformers to performing in line with the rest of the market. Over the course of that period, we will mend what needs mending while at the same time setting the groundwork for our future. That means that we have to refocus on our core product range, the way we conceive, design our products, the way we supply ourselves, the way we manufacture these products and how this is done in the stores. We also have to have a clearer view of what we want to invest in and don't want to invest in. Speed up what can be speeded up, correct and mend what needs to be mending, but also by having an active portfolio management. And I believe that this is the only way we can do so and be credible. Well, of course, we can't turn to the future and look further ahead at the same time. So this first phase of our strategy is something that we've tried to summarize in a sort of readily understandable way for our Danoners and shareholders. There are 4 priorities, 4 key catalyzer -- or drivers and a simple way of operating. First of all, we have to win where we already operate, increase competitiveness in our main categories and geographies. We need also to grow where we need to grow by being more selective in our portfolio and in the geographies and channels where we are legitimate and can indeed win. Thirdly, we need to lay the groundwork for the future by looking at growth platforms for the future. And fourthly, we need to manage our portfolio, being more nimble in the way we increase or manage the turnover portfolio, including one-off acquisitions and targeted divestments. The 4 priorities will be underpinned by 4 drivers: Restoring a meritocratic and performance culture, restoring strong functional capabilities, reconciling economic performance and sustainability, and also being frugal and disciplined in the way we manage our costs. And of course, this means that we will have to go on being true to what we are, true to our values, to our commitments as a company with a mission. In this context, we will have to make clear choices, align our resources with them and the opportunities we could tap into. More than half of our sales are derived from strong platforms and brands. About 1/4 of our sales are derived from insufficiently-performing brands that we need to mend and another 20%, lastly, of our sales come from brands and platforms experiencing strong growth where we have an undeniable competitive advantage. Having said that, it means that we have to focus on our core product range with the land supporters development, with the right kind of investments in A&P and in research and development, while at the same time being stringent on the basics. We will also try and we'll do our best in cases -- in those cases where we underperform. And if we cannot set the record straight there, we will look at other ways of creating value. And thirdly, we will look at trying to boost the winners in our portfolio by supporting their development in a consistent and lasting way. As I've said, our culture is what sets us apart. It is really part of our DNA. It's this unique culture that brings together a corporate culture and strong environmental responsibilities. We have this concern for brands, for innovation, for service. We have this culture of what is feasible, what is focused on the future, and Danone has always been recognized as a machine that can draw in talents and train them. That culture is and remains, but it needs to be, on occasion, reboosted. This is what we, as a team, have committed to. And it is in that frame of mind that we have strengthened the management team at Danone over the last few months, especially by increasing our functional capacities. We've distinguished the job of Secretary -- Company Secretary and Head of HR, and we have appointed Laurent, who you know to be an experienced Danoner, as a Secretary of the company. And we've recruited Roberto di Bernardini to be our Head of Human Resources. There's also somebody else well recognized in his job, who you know, Vikram Agarwal, who has joined Danone as CEO in January, and he will help us turn to the future. We've also looked at focusing on innovation by creating a job and a position of Head of Research, Innovation and Quality and Food Safety. Isabelle Esser, who is here with us today, has been in that position since April. We've also given the task of managing sustainable development and strategic development to someone who knows Danone well, Henry Bruxelles. As I said, most of the members of that team are here with us today. Others are connected online, and all of us are committed to Danone and passionate about it. I believe in the power of teams. I'm convinced that we have a strong team, that we all share the same vision, same values and the same ambition. Our team has already started working on transforming Danone, and I think you can already -- we can already see the first result of it. First of all, from an operational point of view, as you saw last week, and as Juergen will tell us in a moment. Also in practice with the pragmatic rollout of local first with a refocusing on operational excellence, but also by looking at concrete elements with short-term bonuses or long-term bonuses also, which you will be called upon to vote on, and which are better aligned with the interest of shareholders. Now by way of conclusion, can I maybe just restate the unique nature of our culture, a culture that combines corporate culture and social and environmental responsibility. This was initially felt and expressed by Antoine Riboud and can still be found in our mission, bringing health to the greater number by nutrition. And this is basically another way of saying One Health, One Planet, and through our corporate constitution and our B Corp ambition. Sustainability is at the heart of what we do. It is part of our DNA. We were pioneers in this field, and we are very well ranked in this respect of CDP rankings or ATNI league tables or MSCI ESG, we'll confirm that. It is also something that really forces us to act. A company such as ours, which really depends on nature for what it does, will disappear within 10, 15, 20 years if it doesn't really tackle the issue. But we can do so and must do so as leaders, as pioneers, and be innovative and turn it into a competitive advantage, and this is what I did at the helm of Barry Callebaut. And that exactly is one way of drawing in challenge and keeping them on board. Our ambition is, of course, very clear: to highlight even more the clear link between sustainability and economic performance. To do so also in a way that sets Danone apart. And in so doing, we will reach 2 goals. First of all, creating a competitive advantage, which will be beneficial to us; but also take the market and carrying the market with us by leveling it up to where we stand. So Renew Danone, as you will have understood, focuses on an ambition. Ambition to have competitive growth, lasting growth, sustainable growth, and this will be done in the context in which we operate. It will be, over the next few years, our road map. We will operate thanks to our passion, the energy and the talent of our 100 Danoners, and I'll give the floor back to Juergen.

As Antoine indicated, the Renew Danone plan has, as its prime objective, to renew a growth model that is both profitable and sustainable. Sustainable value creation must start with growth between a balanced model across virtue of volume, mix and price. It's a virtuous circle. This organic growth will be lever for efficiencies that will enable us to increase our margin. Thanks to an operating margin that will move into a positive momentum, we'll be able to reinvest regularly behind our brands and our assets to then become even more competitive, gain market share and once again accelerate our growth. Just to return to a sustainable value creation model, the time has come for us to reinvest strongly in our activities. We must make 2022 a defining year for Danone. That's the reason why we will be reinvesting all the efficiencies generated by local first in order to create value, allowing us to make up for our lag in several areas. We're going to reinvest in our products to boost their attractiveness and differentiation. We're also going to reinvest in our brand visibility as well as our products, redoubling our marketing and sales initiatives. And lastly, we're going to reinvest in our skills and key tools such as operations, research, innovation, data technology. Moving on to the next slide, where the chart, I think, illustrates very well the levers of our future organic growth. We've got 3 categories of assets: The core of the range, the outperforming assets and the underperforming assets. Our core represents over half our sales, and our attention is very clear, how we want to leverage the heart of our range by redoubling our efforts and investing more. In fact, we have, these past few months, recorded very encouraging results in the core of the range with the success of Oikos brands, but also Actimel and Aptamil, but we can and will do even better. The outperforming assets represent around 20% of our sales. And by boosting them and allocating to the [indiscernible] investments or dairy products rich in proteins or specialized pediatric solutions are, for example, highly performing assets. And lastly, we have assets that are currently underperforming as compared to the rest of our portfolio. And our goal here is to repair these assets, fix them. And if need be, we will consider all the other options without excluding any of these 3 items will allow to accelerate our growth from 2.4% on average in the past to reach 3% to 5% in the future. I'd now like to present to you our mid-term financial ambition. As I indicated, 2022 will be a defining year for us. We're going to reinvest all the efficiencies generated by local first savings and redouble our efforts in terms of productivity but in a context that, without a doubt, remain highly inflationary. The basis of these assumptions, we're targeting sales growth like-for-like between 3% and 5% at current operating margin above 12% in 2022. Our ambition is to see a return to profitable growth in '23, '24, sales growth like-for-like between 3% and 5%, and growth in EBIT higher than that of sales. Mid-term, our ambition is to outperform our markets and to accelerate our margin to around 15%. Our goal is, first and foremost, to create sustainable value for you, our shareholders. With that in mind, we're going to ensure a disciplined financial policy articulated around a strong balance sheet structure and propose year-after-year a stable or growing dividend. I'd like to briefly return to the results of Q1 '22 that we released just last year. We began the year 2022 with a good performance. Sales up 7.1% buoyed by pricing effect of 4.9% and a volume and mix effect of 2.2% delivered in a particularly complex context. Firstly, the terrible consequences of the war in Ukraine, but also the difficulties encountered across our value chain as well as the global acceleration of inflation. Looking at growth, well, it was sustained by all geographies in all categories. Geographies first, Europe, North America delivered growth at plus 5%. Strong dynamic observed for several quarters. China, North Asia generated outstanding growth this quarter, above 15% on the back of the strong and competitive performance of Specialized Nutrition in China. Lastly, Rest of the World, growth reached plus 7% this quarter, notably driven by new quarter of further growth in Latin America and Southeast Asia. In terms of category, dairy and plant-based products continue on the positive trend. Growth plus 3.6% in Q1 '22, thanks to a strong performance of dairy. And plant-based market share, very strong this quarter, especially for brands such as Actimel, YoPRO, Oikos, but also International Delight. Specialized Nutrition recorded growth of plus 9.5% driven by all segments. Early Life Nutrition, Pediatric Solutions and Adult Nutrition market share, we also trended well sustained by China, Indonesia, especially by our Aptamil brand. And lastly, the Waters category that recorded growth of plus 15.9% Q1, driven by the good recovery in Europe but also by momentum that's accelerating in Latin America and Indonesia. Our brands, particularly Evian and Volvic got off to a good start to the year with growing market share dynamics in Europe. China, Mizone market share continued to stabilize. In a context, as we said, that's particularly challenging and volatile, our teams once again delivered a remarkable effort this quarter for these results and rallied to make '22 the defining year necessary to Danone. And last week, we also restated our targets for 2022. Sales growth coming in at between plus 3% and plus 5% like-for-like, driven by price impact and current operating margin above 12%. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Juergen, that's good news. The figures were published last week and were welcomed by the stock exchange. Now let's proceed to the reports of the Board of Directors and the statutory auditors. If that's okay with you, we're now going to read out these various reports, which are included in the universal registration document and also the Notice of Meeting brochure that we will have more time for conversation, and we'll have more time to answer any questions you may have. So I propose that we ask the statutory auditors, represented by Francois Jaumain from PWC Cooper's audit, to inform us all the conclusions of their reports. And on this note, I would like to thank PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit, whose teams have been with Danone for 30 years now. Since 1992, 30 years of working alongside Danone, and PwC's mandate will end at the end of this general meeting. And I would like to welcome Mr. [ Asher Mesas ] and Mr. Gonzague Senlis, who are present in this room, as representatives of Mazars whose appointment as statutory auditors so they're now taking over from PwC, so their appointment is being proposed at this AGM.

Thank you, Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. On behalf of the Board of Statutory Auditors and PwC Coopers and E&Y, I am pleased to present to you the conclusions of our engagement on the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021. As is customary at this meeting, I propose to summarize for you the main points of the various reports we have issued and which are presented to the ordinary and extraordinary shareholders' meetings. All of those reports have been made available to you by the company. I will begin with our reports on the annual and consolidated financial statements. These reports, the approval of which is the subject of the first and second resolutions of your general meeting, are set out on Pages 139 to 142 and Pages 116 to 121, respectively, of the 2021 universal registration document. The purpose of our assignment is to obtain assurance about the fairness and accuracy of the financial statements. And to that end, we perform procedures in the main entities of the group, both in France and abroad, using an approach that is tailored to the group Danone's organization, to its activities and also to our assessment of the risks. For the year 2021, we presented the conclusions of our work to the Audit Committee of your company on February 18, 2022 and also to the Board of Directors on February 22, 2022. Regarding the consolidated financial statements, we consider the following matters to be the key points of the 2021 audit. The first key point of the audit concerns the evaluation of the restructuring provisions related to the local first project, due to the complexity of their estimation and also their significant nature. The second key point relates to the recognition of revenues and more specifically, the evaluation of rebates, discounts and refunds. This topic requires attention because of your many customers in contractual relationships. The significant nature of these rebates, discounts and refunds granted and the complexity involved in estimating them at the closing date. The third point concerns estimates or impairment tests on goodwill, brands with indefinite useful lives and investments in associates, which are based on estimates and management exercising judgement. And finally, the last point concerns the recognition and measurement of tax assets and liabilities as well as provisions for tax risks. With respect to the annual financial statements, our report states that we consider the valuation of investments as a key point of the audit. Our reports also consider the specific verifications required by law, which aim to ensure the accuracy of certain information provided in the management reports and the documents sent to shareholders. Those verification concerned, in particular, the existence within the management report of the consolidated statement of non-financial performance required by Article L225-102-1 of the French Commercial Code. We have also verified the presence and consistency of the green taxonomy information as provided for in Article A to the Taxonomy Regulation as well as the fair presentation and consistency with the financial statements of the information relating to the payment periods referenced in Article D 441-6 in the French Commercial Code. In addition, we have verified the presentation of the consolidated financial statements in accordance with the ESEF, the European Single Electronic Format, defined by the EU delegated regulation of December 17, 2018. We have no matters to report on those specific verifications. In summary, we certify with our qualification the annual and consolidated financial statements of Danone as presented to you. Also in connection with the ordinary general meeting, we have issued a report setting out the principal terms and conditions of related party agreements and commitments of which we have been advised, and which relate to a number of transactions between Danone and its directors or subsidiaries. This report is presented on Pages 316 and 317 of the 2021 Universal Registration Document. We hereby inform you that we have been advised of an agreement with Ms. Véronique Penchienati-Bosetta, which requires the approval of the general meeting. Our report also lists the agreements and commitments whose performance continued in 2021 and which had already been approved by your meeting. Finally, in connection with the extraordinary portion of your shareholders' meetings, we have issued 3 reports on Resolutions 21 to 23 relating to transactions involving the capital of your company. And these transactions are as follows: the issue of ordinary shares and other securities of the company reserved for employees of foreign companies with cancellation of preemptive subscription rights; allocation of bonus shares, either existing or to be issued, subject to performance criteria; allocation of bonus shares in existence or to be issued without performance criteria and subject to present conditions. These reports do not contain any specific remarks or observations on these operations, which are in line with the provisions of the law. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Francois. We will now open the floor to questions and answers. Before we begin, I would like to point out that prior to this AGM, we received 18 written questions from 5 different shareholders, and the answers to those questions are already available on our website where you can consult them. And as we mentioned earlier, when reading the agenda for this AGM, several shareholders representing 0.8% of the share capital have requested the inclusion of a draft resolution of extraordinary nature on the agenda of the AGM. These shareholders are Phitrust, Mirova, Ircantec, Caisse d'Assurance Vieillesse des Pharmaciens, ERAFP, and OFI Asset Management. The text of this resolution, together with the arguments of the requesting shareholders and also the comments of the Board of Directors were published on March 25, 2022 on the company's website in the section dedicated to the AGM. In accordance with the guidelines of the AMF, we will now give the floor to these shareholders so they can read their resolution, represented by Mr. Denis Branche, who's sitting to my left. Denis, please wait for the roaming microphone.

Chairman, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, hello. My name is Denis Branche. I'm from Phitrust. We are -- we have been Danone shareholders for 24 years, which really shows that we care about the company, and we want it to prosper. We would like to present resolution A. I will spare you the verbatim, you can find it in the document. It has to do with a modification of the bylaws regarding the role played by Danone's Honorary Chairman, and the goal of this resolution is to clarify the governance system in line with Mr. Schnepp's proposal of the past year. The goal of this resolution is to modify the role of the Honorary Chairman and Vice Chairman. They may be appointed. This is provided for in the internal regulations of the board as opposed to the bylaws, as for any other major CAC40 listed -- 40. So whether you are a director or not a director, the honorary Chairman can be invited to attend all Board meetings of the Danone company. Therefore, we believe it is important to make a distinction, and this is why we want to clarify the situation. It is important to make a distinction between individuals who are directors and those who are not. Those who may be invited to board meetings on an exceptional basis and those who have to attend every time. That is the distinction that we believe should be made. We'll -- whether now or in the future, we need a more balanced governance structure for Danone, and that's something that we commend. We want this governance system to be able to -- or deploy more easily, and this is why we decided to file this drive to resolution. So we call upon all our present shareholders who haven't done so already to vote in favor of that resolution. Thank you.

Thank you. Many thanks to Denis Branche for his words and for his interest in the Danone Group. We know each other very well. We've known Phitrust and their loyalty for many years. We know they are sticklers for rules. When it comes to shareholder, as you may have noted in the preparatory documents for the general meeting, the Board of Directors has decided not to approve this draft resolution. While not giving any specific voting instructions regarding this draft resolution, I understand and the Board fully understands the desire for transparency regarding the role and involvement of the honorary president. But we believe that this objective could be achieved more simply than by modifying the bylaws. What is important, however, to my mind is that the honorary Chairman can continue to bring to the Board, and more generally to the company, his insights, his understanding of the group's history, its businesses and its culture because of his experience, because of his in-depth knowledge of the group, particularly since we are currently busy renewing the entire membership of the Board. So as part of a constructive and peaceful approach, the Board met this morning. We decided to adjust our internal regulations particularly with regard to the rules. We'd like to reaffirm that the rules of ethics for directors naturally apply to the Honorary Chairman and, where appropriate, to the Honorary Vice Chairman. And we formally undertake to, I reiterate, our commitment to communicate every year on the participation of the Honorary President and, where appropriate, the Honorary Vice Presidents in the meetings of the Board of Directors. Again, transparency is key.

Thank you very much, Gilles. We will now open the Q&A session with the shareholders in the room. But before I give the room -- the floor -- maybe one question regarding Antoine, which we received in writing. Actually, two questions. Well, two questions actually. I mean someone In the room, was saying that Danone's main mission is to contribute to the wealth of its shareholders and was therefore wondering about the share price and the outlook for the share price.

Well, let me just say that we have been very clear on the renewed Danone project and also very clear and open as to what we've told the market. We've also had two quarters of decent results. It was quality results in Q4. The message to investors was well received. There's Q1 that's also good. So the trend seems good, but this can -- this will mean that we need to sustain this over time. And in that respect, I think there's absolutely no question about our passion and resolve to deliver on those commitments and on the passion of the 100,000 Danoners working alongside us. There was also an employee shareholder in the room who asked what about One Planet One Health? I think I addressed that one during my presentation, and I'm convinced that we recognize both work hand in hand. And we feel that if we can be more effective in sustainability of One Planet and One Health, we can have better -- even better success in economic terms. And also, if you are virtuous then, we will drive the market upwards and get the rest of the market to follow us. So yes, of course, these issues are all included.

Number 6, I believe, gets the first question.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Three questions, if you'll allow me. It seems that the whole house is on fire, and then we're looking somewhere else. There still is far too much plastic wrapping. When are we going to do away with those and move on to circular recyclable packaging? And what about your presence in Russia? The Ukrainian President has asked for French companies to pull out of Russia. Are you going to do so? And Nestle has had a bit of a food scare, not to mention the Kinder Surprise chocolate scare? Do you feel that your formula milk is safe for children?

Right. Let me try and take these questions then. On plastic wrappers and on packaging, as you know, we are very much advanced in this respect, 94% of our packaging is either reusable, recyclable or compostable and the rest of the market only is at some 20%. So we are going to go on improving quite simply because this is at the heart -- an issue at the heart of the sustainability of our company. And that's what I mentioned earlier. As for Russia, well, look, we've said this clearly. And the first thing we've done is that we've taken care of our people in Ukraine. We had 2 plants. One of them is closed, more than 1,000 employees have been directly affected. And there's a real sense of mutual support and solidarity within the group to care for our Ukrainian friends and colleagues and their families. Very early on, we discontinued any additional investments in Russia. We stopped importing and exporting with Russia. We are not getting any profits, cash or dividend from the Russian business, but we are still keeping our basic products business going. And we are still giving access to medical food stuffs. Otherwise, there's a real health issue. We've kept up our business on basic products such as yogurts, and we're taking care of our 8,000 or so Danoners in Russia. So that's a balanced and responsible position. As for Kinder, and they're not part of the Nestle group, food safety, of course, is at the heart of our business, and we have a dedicated function in that respect. We have processes at play within the plants and after manufacturing to make sure that our products are of the highest possible quality and to avoid as much as we can such instances and incidents.

Question 4, please.

A clear presentation on the plus points for Danone and the minuses of the business, but was all very clear to me, and I wish you for success. Two questions. You mentioned you've addressed the first question on Russia. But what of the impact on sales in Russia? I understand that Russia accounted for 6% of our sales in 2021. And also what of China. COVID is on the rise again in China. 25 million inhabitants are off limits and are locked down. And again, China accounts for significant power of your sales, so what do you make of 2022 taking into account these 2 items? And a question for the CFO. I see here that currency exchange gaps between 2020 and 2021 have increased. So it was minus EUR 1.8 billion in 2020 and a positive EUR 1 billion in 2021.

First answer on Russia and China, well, Russia, it's much too early to say anything. The sanctions packages are changing daily almost, and it's far too early to forecast or try and forecast anything. On China, well, on a day-to-day basis, we can -- we have witnessed the resilience of the Chinese Danone teams, with Véronique and Juergen, we go around the regions every quarter, either we actually go there if we can or we stay online, but to try and understand what's happening. So let's look at China and Shanghai. Well, China -- Shanghai is under lockdown, but the rest of the country is open or closed, depending. And in that context, we still managed to give a very good performance over Q1. And people in China have been doing marvelous things. I mean, at the time when all the buildings are of limits in Shanghai, we still have managed -- somehow our teams have managed to deliver baby foods to buildings off limit to serve the needs of these Chinese families. And that means that we've had tremendous coverage in the media because we basically are responsible in doing what needs doing, which is exactly what Danone is all about. On the consolidated statement and the currency variation or exchange rate variation. Can I maybe say that 70% of our sales are outside of Europe. And as you know, the currency markets have been very volatile over the last few quarters. 2021 dollar and the yuan have showed up and compared to the euro, meaning that it was minus EUR 3.8 billion at year's end in 2021 compared to 2.8% in 2020, so a variation of EUR 1 billion.

Number three, question in the room.

[ John Kelly ], a private investor, a very old investor in this company that was one of the leading stocks in the -- on CAC 40. And thank you, sir, for agreeing to come back and take over the company. One question, if you'll allow me on scope and change in scope. I was thinking maybe of one of your Swiss colleagues more specifically, and something that I appreciate greatly, as you can see, chocolate.

Look, we were very clear on Capital Market Day. We said quite clearly that over the coming period, over the guidance period, we expected to have a turnover of 10% of our portfolio, which probably means targeted or limited acquisitions and possibly also divesting some of our assets, which are not at the core of what we do or which we couldn't fix and could probably be better handled elsewhere. So as concerns what my Swiss colleague had said, I expect that he said more or less the same thing, giving a similar number, I'm sure. Now before I give the room -- the floor to the room again, let me take one of the questions here about Danone Communities. What's happening? What is it doing? Are the banks familiar with this paper? Danone Communities was established in 2007. It's a French [ CCAV ]. It is 40% held by Danone employees and it invests in social companies and businesses working on water, drinking water, sanitation and lasting and sustainable food systems, mainly in developing countries. So it has invested in 15 social companies and, most recently, it's invested in a Canadian business by the name of Lucky Iron fish, fighting against iron deficiencies across the world. And the second investment in Indonesia Nazava. And they sell water filters to give access to drinking water in remote rural communities. So so much for Danone Communities.

Question number five.

Good afternoon, gentlemen. I'd like to thank you for the clarity and honesty of your review of what has happened in the past and what you intend to do. But can I maybe set in perspective what Danone has done of nonhistoric business, so plant-based and specialized nutrition. But there still is also the basic product related to dairy and yogurts. It seems to me that your market shares are going down. And I was wondering whether you had an MDD issue that hides away what we can witness as consumers.

Look, our core business as dairy includes a number of tremendous nuggets. Look at Actimel, for instance. That is particularly relevant at a time of COVID, for instance. And when you look at the lengthy success of Danette over time, clearly, we have business that is doing very well. But in the dairy portfolio, there is also some -- a number of things that are not doing that well because we haven't looked after them well enough because we haven't invested in these brands or because we didn't go along with market trends. Now again, we're not in the business of own brands. What we want to do is focus on our brands, our categories, and we will focus on those in the future. I just mentioned Actimel, there's HiPRO and [ Acti Pro ]. So this is true about dairy, but also other categories. I mean, you know what it's like in a large family, there's always one sickly child that you need to look after.

Sixth, please.

Now I've been a shareholder for only 1 year. So I haven't seen the share price go wildly up or down. And I'm slightly surprised that neither you, Mr. Saint-Affrique or Mr. Schnepp, have mentioned the name of Emmanuel Faber. Is this a taboo? I mean you mentioned former directors in the past, you mentioned the Entreprise à Mission. After all, Danone was the first company on the CAC 40. And it felt to me that Emmanuel Faber was the driving force between -- behind that, and I say his name again. You joined sir on the 15th of September. The -- Mr. Faber's compensation conditions were applied to you on the basic package, but also performance pay. So EUR 860 million -- or 816 may be a million -- a thousand euros will be paid to you if performance criteria are met. The only one that you seem to have given up on was the share price and the upward swing of the share price. Have you reached that goal? And will we have to vote on this?

Right. On your first question, I paid tribute to the constant way in which my predecessors reinvented the business, Franck and Emmanuel. Now look, I worked with Emmanuel in the past. I respect what he's done. And of course, every CEO has its own style and his own road map. So no, there's no problem mentioning his name. On my compensation, of course, it will depend. This is an issue in the hands of the Board. So the Chairman of the Board will address that one.

I'm not sure that I have the detailed answer to your question. But the Governance Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. Severino has reviewed very carefully the proposed compensation for the CEO, relying on, first of all, in comparison with sort of similar or comparable companies. It also relied on what Mr. de Saint-Affrique earned in his previous job, and the proposal made by the Governance Committee as approved by the Board of Directors and put forward for your adoption is exactly similar. So I can tell you that Mr. de Saint-Affrique does not have a gross compensation nowadays beyond what he earned in his previous position. And we aimed for a middle of the range compensation in a comparable industry across Europe.

Once again, we have another question from over there.

I've been a shareholder of Danone for a very long time, and I knew Antoine very well. So that really dates back quite a while. I have profound respect for Antoine. I wouldn't say the same regarding his successors for a few reasons. A few years back, we were constantly receiving lectures from Mr. Yunus morning, afternoon and evening. It was all very nice, but for [ Werner ], we hear nothing further. And even if I was a bit late joining the meeting, I don't think you mentioned the matter. What's the situation? Why is that no longer addressed? What's the situation? Okay, in the same region, true or false. I mean I'm seeking clarification here. There were reports made on interventions by Danone with a -- not the health department but for children, for midwives who were treated -- I mean, received water from local Danone units or subsidiary, but with a view to ensuring the sale of Danone or ancillary products rather than encouraging them to breast feed. So what is the situation? I mean, there's kind of a question mark here when we know, once again, I mean, it's not my -- I'm not a doctor, but it is said that children who have been breastfed are better immune to disease, et cetera, far more than those who have been fed Ovomaltine as in back then. What can you say about that? In the results front, you weren't very loquacious regarding the -- what prompted the restructuring of the Board of our company. I know there are things that rather not so nice to say, we need to be careful, but such a renewal of the Board shows that certain people did not have their place even at a certain point in time. They made their contribution. It degraded over time, grandeur and decadence as we say. I liked your speech. It all seemed very promising. But the root cause analysis, I'd like to really know what the causal analysis is because some board members didn't have their place, should never have [ ordered ] and should have been fired a long time ago. And I'm not mincing my words here. I could even use stronger language.

Very good. So let me respond to the first 2 questions. On breastfeeding, which for me is the most important. Danone has been a pioneer for a very long time in encouraging maternal breastfeeding and even encourage the WHO recommendations. Danone is the first to stop all sorts of advertising for products from 0 to 6 months and has an [indiscernible] approach. That is both at the cutting edge and extremely responsible. So in that respect, Danone is and as it indeed should be as part of what we're doing is a purpose-driven company, is extremely responsible in its approach. Now Danone Communities, well, I wasn't around when Danone Communities was launched, but Danone Communities remains extremely active. Professor Yunus is still a member of Danone Communities and in countries in which we operate. We seek to create models that bring health through food to the greatest number, models that are economically efficient and sustainable at the base of the economic pyramid, something very difficult. Okay, so we're trialing this. I mean there's some very interesting experience and working very well in certain African countries, experiments was the case, some fail, but Danone Communities is alive, Professor Yunus takes part, and was said to continue to find the ways, means of bringing health to the greatest number and find solutions for the base of the permit on the Board. Perhaps before giving the floor to Gilles Schnepp on the Board, let me just and Professor Yunus was still a partner of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, JV Grameen-Danone continues to manufacture and supply Bangladesh iron-fortified yogurts at very low price north of Dhaka.

Yes. In spite of my gray hair, I haven't been around as long as you have in Danone because I joined the Danone Board in December 2020. From what I have seen, I don't share your view. I believe that all Board members, both men and women who've worked with me and with whom I've worked since December 2020 have displayed a high degree of professionalism and commitment. And I showed you on one of the slides during my presentation, the amount of work undertaken in 2020. So I would like to thank them once again and say that I was certainly not in a position, and I had absolutely nothing that allow me to sanction one or other Board member versus another, quite the contrary, so it's collectively and individually, I think, the Board members. I can't speak for the period prior to my arrival on the Board.

No further questions. Well, maybe just one last written question, Antoine. Well, there was a pretty technical question on Corporate Sustainability directive.

This is European directive that defines the framework of ESG dimensions and for the long and medium term performance of business. It's a directive that's nearing finalization by the Brussels authorities that will then be transposed into French law, with an increased role, the Audit Committee and the review of ESG matters with the introduction of ESG standards. It's a good news because it will allow us to forge a standard and ensure -- distinguish the wheat from the chaff as it were in greenwashing from what's actually happening. We, of course, are very committed, very much engaged both in the preparation of this type of initiative with a series of in-house methodologies, DanoneWave or outside B Corp certification is one of the ways of progressing on that front. And obviously, what we're doing as part of our status of purpose-driven company allows us to move forward fast so change in legislation that we're gearing up for, but we're keenly anticipating it allow us to reaffirm the quality of our work and the substance of what we do.

Thank you. I see no further requests for the floor questions -- one last question.

It was a family-owned company. I was looking at shareholders. I don't see the Riboud family is owning over more than 5% of group share. So maybe I misread, but is Danone still a family-owned group? Or does the family no longer hold a great many company shares?

Well, I think I'm the most long-standing at this table. I joined Danone 1995. At that date, it was no longer a family-owned company. The Riboud family was diluted and decided to be diluted continuously since the end of the '60s and held no share capital stake already back in the mid-70s. So the Riboud family is made up of a few individuals who are individual shareholders, but in proportion that you don't see in the listing, it's not a family-owned company.

Let's now close the Q&A session and to move to the vote on the 28 resolution. And for that, I'll give you the final quorum with your presence.

I note from the attendance drawn out by the centralizing back that the shareholders present and represented or having voted by mail or via Internet prior to the meeting together own 427,389,605 shares, i.e., 66.98% of the shares with voting rights. The legal quorum required for the validity of the deliberations of the shareholders' meeting is therefore reached and it's a record for Danone, I think. You know how the voting system works. Let me just remind you, just in case. The system indicates your number of votes and will allow you to vote on each of the resolutions. You may vote for the proposed resolution. You may vote against it or you can abstain. The green button means yay, the red button means nay. That makes sense. And to abstain, press the yellow button, which no vote. And for each resolution that I will read out, the summary will be displayed on the screen. The full text of each resolution is available in the documents in the folder that was given to you. And when I announce that voting is open, you will have 15 seconds to press the button corresponding to your vote. As an FYI, when you vote, your choice is indicated on the screen of the voting system, and that choice cannot be modified. So don't get it wrong. And the result will be displayed a few seconds after the end of each vote. And the vote is carried out under the supervision of our bailiff, [ Mr. Mile ]. So if you have no objection, I propose to read the title to you. Resolution 1, approval of the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution approved by 99.99%. It would be great if the technical team can display on my screen the scores so I can see them because, right now, I'm just seeing a copy of the screen behind me. That would be great. Thank you very much. Resolution #2, approval of the consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. The resolution approved by 99.99% of the vote. I can see clearly now. Resolution 3, allocation of net income for the year ended December 31, 2021, and setting of the dividend at EUR 1.94 per share. I'd like to remind you that the dividend paid entirely in cash will be detached from the share in a couple of days, more specifically on May 10, and will be paid on May 12, 2022. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 99.47% of the vote. Resolution 4, ratification of the cooptation of Valerie Chapoulaud-Floquet as Director. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 99.78% of the vote. Next resolution. Resolution 5, appointment of Antoine de Saint-Affrique as director. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 94.02% of the vote. Moving on now to resolution 6, appointment of Patrice Louvet as Director. Please vote. [Voting]

Resolution carried by 99.76% of the vote. Appointment of Geraldine Picaud as director. Please vote. [Voting]

Resolution carried by 75.06% of the vote. Resolution 8, appointment of Susan Roberts as director. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 99.89% of the vote. Now so much for the directors, Resolution 9, renewal of the mandate of E&Y audit as statutory auditor. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 96.95% of the vote. Resolution 10, appointment of Mazars and Associates as statutory auditors. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 99.88% of the vote. Resolution 11 approval of an agreement subject to the provisions of Articles L225-38 and following of the French Commercial Code entered into by the company with Véronique Penchienati-Bosetta. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 99.97% of the vote. Resolution 12, approval of the information relating to the compensation of corporate officers referred to in Paragraph 1 of Article L22-10-9 of the French Commercial Code for the year 2021. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 96.57% of the vote. Resolution 13, approval of the items of compensation paid during or awarded in respect to the financial year ended December 31, 2021, to Véronique Penchienati-Bosetta in respect of her mandate as Chief Executive Officer between March 14 and September 14, 2021. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution carried by 96.17% of the vote. Resolution 14, approval of the items of compensation paid during or awarded in respect of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 to Shane Grant, in respect of his term of office as Executive Vice President between March 14 and September 14, 2021. Please vote. [Voting]

Time's up. Resolution -- I can see behind me, you have a better view than I do. Resolution carried by 97.14%. Resolution 15, approval of the components of compensation paid in to Antoine de Saint-Affrique for the 2021 fiscal year as of September 15, 2021. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. 94.59% for. 16th resolution, approval of the components of compensation paid in or awarded for the 2021 fiscal year to Gilles Schnepp as Chairman of the Board of Directors as of the 14th of March 2021. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. 99.91% for. Resolution 17, approval of the compensation policy for executive corporate officers for the 2022 fiscal year, the current fiscal year. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. 86.38% for. Same thing for 18th resolution, the compensation policy for the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the current fiscal year 2022. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. 99.30% for. Resolution 20. Sorry, a provision, authorization to purchase, retain or transfer company shares. Please vote. [Voting]

Sorry, I was missing 1 page. It was Page 19. The approval of the compensation policy for the directors for 2022. I was missing one of the pages. My apologies. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 99.87% for. My apologies. So Resolution 20, authorization granted to the Board of Directors to purchase, retain or transfer company shares. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. 94.62% for. Now we move on to the extraordinary shareholders meeting. Resolution 21, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital without preferential subscription right for the benefit of employees working within foreign companies of Danone's group or in international mobility in the framework of employee shareholding plans. Please vote. [Voting]

And for the extraordinary shareholder meeting, we need to have a 66% majority. Voting complete, 99.03% for. Resolution 22, authorization to the Board to grant existing or newly issued performance shares of the company without preferential subscription right. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. 93.08% for. Resolution 23. Authorization for the Board of Directors to grant existing or newly issued shares of the company not subject to performance conditions without preferential subscription right of the shareholders still. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. 94.51% for. Resolution 24, amendment of Article 19, two of the company's bylaws relating to the age limit for the Chief Executive Officer and the Deputy Chief Executive Officer if and when there is one. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. Approved [97.89% ]. Resolution 25, amendment of Article 18, one of the company's bylaws relating to the age limit this time around of the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. In favor, 99.3%. Resolution 26, amendment to Article 17 of the company's file of the constitution of the company relating to the shareholders' requirement applicable to the directors. [Voting]

Voting complete. 99.02% in favor. Resolution 27, powers to carry out formalities. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting ending. 99.99% for. Last resolution, Resolution A present -- submitted under Article L-225-105 of the Code of Commerce, not endorsed by the Board of Directors amendments to paragraphs 1 and 3 of Article 18 of the company Articles of Association. Please vote. [Voting]

Voting complete. For, 59.33%; against, 40.67%. The resolution required a 2/3 majority and is therefore not approved seeing as the approval rate is below 66%. Mr. Chairman, we have now come to the end of the voting.

Thank you, Laurent. All the resolutions submitted by the Board have been adopted. I'd like to thank you for that. On behalf of the Board and the staff of Danone. I'd like to thank you all for your attendance and for your trust. Ladies and gentlemen, we will meet again next year, Thursday, 27th of April 2023 for the next general assembly. We have no items on our agenda. The meeting is closed. Please remember, ladies and gentlemen, to give the voting terminals to the people at the back of the room. You will get your present when you hand in the voting terminal. Thank you.