Edenred SE (EDEN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody. I'm very happy to be with you today for the Edenred annual results 2021 with the help of Julien, the CFO of the group. Today, I would like to share with you 4 main messages. The first one is, in 2021, Edenred delivers record-high growth leading to historic results. The second message is within a few years, Edenred has been able to disrupt its business model to become a truly unique global and powerful platform. The third message is we're going to leverage our scalable platform, and by doing so, Edenred will continue to generate sustainable and profitable growth. Finally, we are very confident for the year 2022, and so we are able to confirm our next frontier target for 2022, which is a like-for-like annual operating revenue growth of more than 8%, a like-for-like annual EBITDA growth of more than 10% and an annual free cash flow EBITDA conversion rate of more than 65%. So let's go now into the details of those 4 messages. First of all, yes, 2021 was a record performance. The total revenue has been growing at plus 14% like-for-like, the EBITDA has been growing at plus 18% like-for-like, the FFO has been growing by 20% like-for-like, and the net profit at EUR 313 million has been growing at 31% reported versus 2020. So it's historic growth rates that are leading to historical records in terms of revenue, EBITDA, FFO and net profit. So this double-digit like-for-like growth in -- was, in fact, in all business lines and across all regions. As previously said, our operating revenue has grown by almost 14% like-for-like to reach EUR 1.583 billion. It's double-digit like-for-like growth versus 2020. But what is remarkable, it's also double-digit growth versus 2019. And in fact, if you look at the trend in Q4 2021, we have been growing by a sharp 12.4% like-for-like versus 2020, which is a very good news for the quarters to come in 2022. Yes, our double-digit like-for-like growth was on all business lines. So if we start with the Employee Benefits, representing 61% of our total revenue. In fact, this business line has been growing by 12%. As to Fleet & Mobility, that represent 26% of our portfolio of operating revenue. Fleet & Mobility Solutions have grown by 20%. And finally, as to Complementary Solutions, representing 13% of our total operating revenue, Complementary Solutions being made of Corporate Payment Services, but also Incentive & Rewards and Public Social Programs, Complementary Solutions have grown at 11% -- almost 11% in 2021. So this double-digit like-for-like growth in all product lines versus 2020, but also versus 2019, is also true by geographies. So if you look at Europe, representing 64% of our, in fact, operating revenue Europe has been growing at 11.7% versus 2020. As to Latin America, an impressive 17.9%. And finally Rest of the World, almost 17% versus 2020. So double-digit like -- sorry, double-digit like-for-like growth on all business lines and on all geographies of Edenred versus 2020, but also versus 2019. So this strong top line organic growth translated into record high EBITDA So here on this graph, what you see is our level of EBITDA, an historical level at EUR 670 million ahead of the consensus. And on the right part of the slide, you see, in fact, a strong increase on our EBITDA margin because we reached, in 2021, a level of 41.1%, which is the historical level we had in 2019 before the COVID crisis. What you can see as well is the trend, i.e., the platform we set up. The Edenred platform is a platform that is able to generate year-after-year an improvement of the EBITDA margin. Why? Because we benefit from the scale effect and the growth effect of what we call the platform advantage. So an EBITDA margin that is improving year after year. Then when moving from, in fact, EBITDA to the cash generation, in fact, we posted in 2021 a record cash generation. And this record cash generation has improved our financial profile. First of all, on the left part of the slide, you see that our generation of free cash flow in 2021 is at an all-time high with EUR 675 million, if we exclude the exceptional event of the nonrecurring ADLC fine payment of EUR 157 million. So a very strong generation of cash flow. And then if we look at the impact of this generation of free cash flow on, in fact, our financial profile, you can see that by the end of 2021, Edenred is almost completely deleveraged with a leverage ratio of 1.2 with a net debt at EUR 816 million. Not only we made a lot of progress from an economic point of view in 2021, but also in terms of ESG. You remember that we have been very innovative, starting our ESG journey in 2017. We set out some clear quantitative objectives by 2022 and by 2030 on 10 ESG targets, and we follow on the yearly basis, more specifically 3 targets that are now part of our long-term incentive plan. At Edenred, we do what we say and we say what we do. So the first element of the ESG is people. And in people, we are monitoring the percentage of women among executive position. We were at 29% in 2020. And thanks to the efforts of everybody, respecting also the meritocracy, in 2021, we are now at 34%. The second pillar, which is planet, and we look specifically at the reduction of greenhouse gas emission versus the beginning of the journey in 2013, and we are now at minus 46%. And the third pillar, progress, where we look at the percentage of merchants and users that are sensitized to balanced nutrition and food waste, we are now, in fact, at 57%. So we made tremendous progress in 2021 as to our ESG target. We are well on track for the 10 targets by 2022. And in fact, not only we made some progress, but those progresses are noted, in fact, by the different agencies that are following us. For example, we are, for the 10th year in a row, included in the FTSE4Good. Or if you look at Moody's ESG Solution, we increased our scoring by 8 points and we belong to the top 10 of our industry. Or if you look at the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, we increased, in fact, our index by 13 points, and we are now at 70 out of 100. So we made some on this progress in ESG, and we are lucky because those progresses are noticed and duly noted by the different agencies. Now what I want to share with you is to zoom out a little bit to understand the performance of 2021. And in fact, what we achieved in 2021 is due to the fact that Edenred is now a unique B2B2C disruptive platform. Yes, we are a unique B2B2C platform. We are intermediating 50 million users and 2 million merchants in 4 universes: the eat, the care, the move and the pay, with a B2B2C model, i.e., we are going after the users via the employers. 50 million users, 90,000 employers and dealing with 2 million merchants, we are the everyday companion for people at work. What does it mean? It means that we propose to every user of our unique platform a portfolio of 250 programs with distinctive value proposition. So we have about 100 programs in Employee Benefit Solutions that are improving a certain number of dimensions. In Fleet & Mobility Solutions, we have 80 -- more than 80 programs that are improving some other dimensions. And in Complementary Solutions, we have 50 and more programs in terms of employee engagement, of payment traceability, accounts payable management or public authorities efficiency. So 250 programs to complete the needs and the new needs of our 50 million users around the world. Yes, around the world because Edenred is operating in 46 different countries. And in fact, we have a leading position in each of those countries. To give you an order of magnitude, 70% of our operating revenue is generated in geographies where Edenred is market leader. Year after year, we invested in those countries to, in fact, build those leadership position, and it allows us to generate 70% of our revenue where we are market leader. That's who we are. What did we do, in fact, for the last 5 years. In fact, we have been disrupting ourselves and, consequently, we have been leading the transformation of our markets. Yes, we have been disrupting ourselves since 2016. And in fact, we did it on 4 different areas. The first one is we changed completely our business profile. What does it mean? It means that we have been able to expand our range of solutions. We are proposing a multi-benefit solution wherever we are around the world. So it's what we call Beyond Food. We also have a strategy in Fleet & Mobility that we call Beyond Fuel. So yes, we started, in fact, we fuel car, but now we propose toll, maintenance, VAT refund. So Beyond Food, Beyond Fuel. And also, we proposed some corporate payment solutions around the world. For example, in Europe, with the virtual IBAN. The second thing we did on top of expanding our range of solutions is to focus on high potential markets. What does it mean? It means that we exited from markets with limited potential. Maybe you remember that we stopped our operations in Netherlands, in South Africa or in Lebanon. So we looked at all our activities, and we managed very actively our markets, and we are not afraid of exiting when we are seeing limited potential. The second thing we did in this active management of our potential markets is we have been able to accelerate through selective acquisitions. We invested EUR 1.5 billion since 2016 for 20 different deals to accelerate our development. For example, UTA in Germany to accelerate our fuel programs on Continental Europe. For example, ProwebCE in France to become the #1 digital leader of the works councils benefits; or Corporate Spending, CSI, in the U.S. to accelerate our development on the corporate payment market in America. So the active management of our portfolio with some exit and some acceleration, the ability to expand our range of solutions led to a situation where Edenred has a robust and balanced business profile. Think about it, solutions that are other than meal and food represent more than 50% of the group operating revenue in 2021, reaping the benefits. In fact, other benefits that are not meal and food represent today more than 25% of the Employee Benefits operating revenue. It's what we call Beyond Food. So we start with food, and we had additional services that contribute to more than 25% now. And when you think about this portfolio management from, in fact, a geographical point of view, Europe now represents more than 60% of the group operating revenue. The second pillar of this disruption is you know what we did in terms of technology and product. Think about it, Edenred used to be a paper company, we are now a digital company. Edenred used to provide an in-store user experience, we now propose an omnichannel user experience. Edenred used to be a simple payment company, we are now in the enriched connections. We used to propose standalone products, we are now the everyday companion for people at work. We used to have local IT system steps, we are now based on global tech stacks. What does it mean? If I start from paper to card to digital accounts, 100% of the that Edenred solutions are launched are digital solution. What does it mean on our business volume? As of today, 90% of our business volume is digital in 2021. We have been increasing this proportion by 20 points versus 2016. So everything that we are launching is digital and then replacing in fact, the paper stack we used to have. A good example of that is the ability to access digital account via mobile payment. We started the journey in 2016. We were the first one to do it and the first one to do it in France. We have now 43 mobile payment programs in 22 different countries, and the number of transactions via mobile payment has been multiplied by 10 in 3 years with our Edenred Pay solution or with the solution of our partners, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay. The second thing is we are now able to deliver a top-notch omnichannel user experience, thanks to our API proprietary technology. What we propose is, thanks to our unique API technology in-app/online, we are able to embrace the rise of meal delivery platforms and quick commerce. Today, Edenred is connected to more than 200 delivery partner in 23 countries. And those partners are global partners or those partners are local partners because one of the mission of Edenred is to stimulate the local economy. And thanks to our specific-purpose money technology, we are able to work quickly, connect quickly, also some local partners. So for example, for the French, we are able to be connected to Melchor that is working, in fact, in the North area, the beautiful city from the Western part of France, the city the CFO of Edenred likes very much. The other thing we can mention is this unique experience that we propose to our 50 million users can be illustrated by the pay-at-table. We are leveraging restaurant digitalization in a post-COVID area. We are the first to launch QR code in-app payment with a digital partner that is sunday. Another way to say it, you go to a restaurant, you don't wait for the waiter to give you the bill, you are using your Edenred account and then a QR code that is on your table emulated by sunday, connection between the 2, you pay and then you can leave. By the way, for you guys, you need to know that the 2 pain points in the restaurant year after year are the waiting moment before paying the bill. We are solving that. And the second pain point is the quality of the bread. On the bread, we didn't find any digital solution for now. But trust us, we are working on it. So if I focus a little bit on France, based on this digital revolution, what does it mean for our business in France that represent 16% of our total revenue? We are the leading digital platform for all benefits in France. If you are in France and if you are lucky to be an Edenred client, you will have a single digital account with one app that is called MyEdenred. And with this platform, you are able to manage all your benefits and you have the list of the different benefits. So yes, you have ticket restaurant, but you can have access to your work council benefits with ProwebCE. You can have access to many other services, such as the Ticket Mobilité or the Ticket Télétravail, or some other services. And in fact, it's a one-stop shop for 160,000 corporates that, in fact, we are delivering to their employees' benefits, and those employees are 7 million users. So not only you have one platform to manage all benefits, but you -- the quality of service we are delivering to the Edenred clients in France is of high standards. If you look at the rate we have on our different -- on the different sites with Google or the App Store, we are more than 4, with 4.5 and 4.4 stars. We have been, in fact, awarded client services of the year in 2021, and we received, in fact, this award for the eighth time. We have been disrupting the French market with constant innovation. We have been the first one in 2014 to propose a digital solution on the market. We have been the first one to propose the mobile payment with Apple Pay in 2016. We have been the first one to propose, in 2018, the direct access to meal delivery players. We also have been the first one in 2020 to propose complementary repayment made available for all users. And in 2022, we have been the first one to propose the pay-at-table via the QR code. What does it mean? We are an innovation machine. We demonstrated it in France and we intend to continue to do it. Thanks to this innovation, we are making Edenred the leading meal benefit solution issuer. We are #1 on the market. We have a total market share of about 40%. We have 1.8 million active digital accounts. And we are able to win, thanks to our sales machine, both on SME and large accounts to leverage the rise of remote working. In the previous communication, we talked to you about Societe Generale and Orange, what about BNP Paribas or KPMG that are the newcomers within our virtual canteen network. And in fact, yes, we moved. And Edenred is now the everyday companion for people at work. What does it mean? We took here 2 examples. Let's think about Sophia who is working in the finance department of the company, and Sophia is also a remote worker. In the morning, she needs to pay, in fact, her suppliers, and she's going to do it thanks to Edenred Corporate Payment solution. At lunch, in fact, she decided to go to the restaurant and she decided to pay her lunch with her mobile and using the sunday connection. In the afternoon, she needs to visit some partners and she will rent an electronic -- an electric scooter, thanks to the Ticket Mobilité of Edenred. Then instead of going back to the office, she will work from home and she will decide to order a desk lamp to improve working conditions at home, and she will do that with the Ticket Télétravail of Edenred. And finally, comes the time of a nice break. She decides to go to the cinema, and she decides to order a cinema tickets at a discounted price, thanks to the platform of Edenred powered by the Edenred technology, but subsidized by the workers' council. So it's the journey of Sofia using MyEdenred as a single app on a single platform. And the same is true for James, who is a fleet manager on-site worker in Brazil. In the morning, he will go to a gas station and fuel his car and pay the toll thanks to the Ticket Car solution of Edenred. Then for lunch, he will pay, in fact, for his lunch and via, in fact, MyEdenred app. And to get this launch delivered via Rappi. And then he will need, in fact, to personalize some dashboards to check the total cost of ownership of, in fact, the fleet he's managing, thanks to GoHub, another service of Edenred. And then James could bring his company car to a maintenance shop advised by Edenred and organized by Edenred, and it's the Ticket Log solution maintenance. And then just like Sofia, but let's say 5 hours later, James will deserve a good break. And the break for James will be, in fact, to go to a book shop to buy the last best seller, thanks to the Ticket Cultura. So yes, everywhere around the world, Edenred has become the everyday companion for people at work. Not only are we able to propose, in fact, complementary services, but on top of that, we are more and more able, in fact, to enrich the connections by leveraging the data. Data at Edenred, what does it mean? We have 1 billion transactions per year integrating on the platform. 1 billion transactions. We have more than 50 data sources that are linked to the platform of Edenred. And now at Edenred, we have 150 data practitioners, i.e., data scientists, data engineers, data tech leads. What are we doing with this huge stack of data and our data practitioners? First of all, more and more, we are delivering to our clients and to our users data-powered solution. For example, in Brazil, GoHub, it's a single source of truth for fleet data. So on a single application, you have access to the fuel, the toll, the maintenance and telematics. Very useful for James, we discussed about on the previous slide. But also as a driver, you have access, in fact, to the company data on your cell phone and you can be helped by TED. TED is your artificial intelligence assistant to optimize fuel spending and operations. So you will never drive alone with Edenred, TED is going to be there on your cell phone to help optimizing the way you are using your assets. Not only this data is used for data powered solution, but also for internal data usage. We're able to improve our business excellence, thanks to the data we are dealing with. What about predictive churn? What about cross-sell and upsell? What about client segmentation? What about lead scoring? Thanks to the 1 billion transactions we have per year and thanks to the 50-plus data sources, more and more, we are able to improve our business excellence. The other pillar I wanted to share with you is the accelerated convergence we have on global technology stacks. Think about it, in fact, we multiplied by 2 our annual technology investment. When we started the journey, it was about EUR 150 million in 2016, it's now EUR 300 million in 2021. And guess what, it's going to be much more. In fact, in 2022, we want to continue to invest in the development of our platform. Operating data that are hosted now on trusted cloud, we moved from 10% to 90%. So having, in fact, our applications, our data that is hosted on the trusted cloud is a source of security for us, but also an easy access, in fact, to our applications and to our data to accelerate the development of Edenred. We also invested in common sales and marketing enablers. Now everywhere worldwide, you are using Salesforce and Medallia. And finally, to be able to connect quickly to the external digital world, we developed Edenred Direct Payment Services, which is a recognized API proprietary technology we discussed about. But for your information, we won the MuleSoft award in 2018. But also this year, the BFM award in terms of innovation. So yes, we accelerated the convergence on global technology stacks. And what does it mean? It means that Edenred is now a scalable platform, fully integrated into a wide tech ecosystem. And in fact, it's an exponential development. The initial investments and efforts are very huge. But the more it goes, the easier it is. So yes, we will continue to invest. And yes, we will be more and more integrated into a wide tech ecosystem. The third pillar of our disruption is the go-to-market. And Edenred in fact, is a go-to-market machine. We are able, in fact, to win iconic clients. So in 2021, you have the logos on the left. But we have been able to accelerate in SME as well. Think about it, every 10 seconds Edenred is generating one commercial lead, every 10 second. Boom. Boom. The number of new SME contracts that we signed has been multiplied by 3 in 2021 versus 2016. And not only we are developing our own sales machine, but also we are able to leverage selective distribution partners when needed. So we signed this deal with Itaú to have access to SMEs in Brazil with, in fact, the #1 private bank and probably the most dynamic one in Brazil. In the U.S., the U.S. market is a large market. Citibank is, in fact, commercializing our accounts payable management solution towards its clients. But we are also connected to Sage and to Intuit to accelerate the deployment of our accounts payable management, CSI, in the U.S. So we have a sales machine, and we are a sales machine that is able to monetize the relationship with companies and merchants. We have 900,000 companies that are connected to, in fact, Edenred solutions, serving 50 million users, where we get 1/3 of our operating revenue. But also because we are able to drive traffic and drive qualified traffic to the merchants. And we have 2 million merchants now that want to be part of the Edenred network and connected to our platform. In fact, 2/3 of our operating revenue is coming also the merchants. And so based on that, based on the fact that, yes, we have this intermediation platform, and yes, we are able to qualify and generate some traffic and direct the traffic, what you see is our take-up rate is increasing year after year. In 2018, the take-up rate of Edenred in Employee Benefits was 4.8%. In 2021, the take-up rate is 5.2%, coming both from the company's fees but also from the merchant fees. The fourth and the last point I want to share with you is, obviously, the ESG. In fact, Edenred is a platform for good. First of all, the decision we made is to take care of our employees. And we are now 10,000 employees. When we started the journey, we were 5,000 employees. And we developed a strong CSR strategy based on People, Planet, Progress. And in fact, not only we want to influence and propose the right services for our employees, but also for the users of the Edenred services. You may remember that in 2021, in fact, we revealed our purpose, the purpose that we cherish a lot, the purpose that we are referring to any time that we are making a decision. When we are making a decision at Edenred, are we enriching connections for good. What does it mean Enriched connections. For good. We have a small video for you. [Presentation]

Enriched connections. For good. At Edenred, we do what we say, we say what we do. So sustainable development is integrated in the managers' long-term incentive plan through the 3 commitment in people, in planet and in progress. At Edenred, we do what we say, we say what we do. So the financing instruments that we are raising on the market are now tied to social and environmental criteria. It has been the case for the EUR 400 million sustainability-linked convertible band -- bond, sorry, and the EUR 750 million of undrawn revolving credit facility. The conditions are dependent on our ability to meet our target on People, Planet, Progress. But Edenred, more importantly, is a platform for good, i.e., by using the Edenred services, you promote responsible behaviors as an employer. Think about Commuter Benefits at Edenred and the partnership we crafted with Intuit. Yes, we joined Intuit's Climate Action Marketplace to promote the Edenred solution to one million U.S. small businesses and help those one million small businesses switch to alternative commuting options and cut their greenhouse gas emission. Think about Ticket Mobilité in France, where we are now connected, thanks to our API with 150 shared or micro mobility partners such as the carpooling, the charging point, the bike rentals. By using the Edenred service as an employer, you will promote responsible behaviors. So yes, Edenred is a platform for good. Another example, if you think about the United Arab Emirates, we are able to empower and more -- and be more inclusive as to the workers. We propose key services to foster the financial inclusion of under- and unbanked workers. Thanks to our solution, those people are able to receive wages on a regular basis and with some security. They can use, in fact, this money for in-store, online or mobile payment. They are able to transfer money overseas at limited rates. They are able to withdraw cash safely. And they can request salary advanced services if needed. To illustrate that. One of the last client we signed, in fact, in Dubai is the society or the company called Talabat. And thanks, in fact, to our C3 CARD, we are now able to equip the 15,000 riders of Talabat, and to make sure that those people have access to the luxury of being properly banked at the right price. So yes, Edenred has become a unique B2B2C disruptive platform. Thanks to all of this disruption, we have been able to deliver, in fact, this financial performance in 2021. Julien, it's now your turn to explain to all of us what we delivered in 2021.

Thank you, Bertrand. Good morning, everyone. So as Bertrand explained, we've been able to deliver a strong financial performance, thanks to our platform. And I propose to go through all our key performance indicators for 2021. So we start with our operating revenue at group level. What we can see here is that the like-for-like growth in Q4 stands at plus 12.4%, which is in line with the performance that we delivered in Q3 and which shows that quarter after quarter, we are able to deliver this growth. Thanks to this H2, we posted plus 13.9% growth of our operating revenue in like-for-like, which is double-digit growth. And what is also important to note on this slide is that the currency impact in Q4 is positive and the currency impact for the whole year is limited to minus 2.2%. What does it means? It means that our reported growth is also a double-digit growth, and we're growing by 11.3% in 2020 in reported figures. Now if we move at the next slide, we can contemplate the performance in Europe in 2021. So in 2021, we delivered a well-balanced growth in Europe between France and the rest of Europe, the full year growth is 11.7% like-for-like, with almost 13% in France and a little bit more than 11% in the Rest of Europe. How did we achieve this performance? Well, we see in France a continued commercial dynamism of the leading digital Ticket Restaurant offer. As Bertrand said, we won iconic key accounts, BNP Paribas for instance. So BNP Paribas has decided to implement working from home for all its employees, including employees working at the headquarter of the company. And because they had physical canteen at the headquarter, BNP Paribas decided to give Ticket Restaurant to those people when working from home. We won the account, and it has been the same story with [ Cap ENG ]. So on top of the performance with a large national accounts, we have also a strong sales momentum on the SME segment, and we are able to sign more and more contract with SME. On top of the performance of our Ticket Restaurant, we did well with ProwebCE and the gift campaign that has been really successful. I remind you that ProwebCE is a leader in terms of software and e-commerce platform provider for the works council in France. And ProwebCE is the inventor of the first digital voucher in France 10 years ago. And then we also delivered a sustained performance in Fleet & Mobility business, thanks to our multi-energy card in France. In the rest of Europe, the drivers of the growth are quite comparable to the drivers in France. So we've been able to post a solid growth in Employee Benefits, good performance of Ticket Restaurant in many countries and good performance in gift campaigns, especially in Belgium, for instance. And then thanks to our Beyond Fuel strategy, we've been able to grow also in Fleet & Mobility business. We talked about financial services, toll services and obviously, fuel card in Europe with UTA. In Latin America, we posted a robust double-digit like-for-like growth in 2021, plus 17.9% for the total Latin America, 18.6% in Brazil, 16.2% in Hispanic Latin America. In Brazil, we have a strong performance in Fleet & Mobility Solutions in Q4, with a sustained development of the maintenance and toll offerings. And these products are coming on top of our fuel business. And in the Employee Benefits, the growth have been supported by the ramp-up of the Itaú partnership. We can use the 5,000 branches of Itaú, which are in all the country, to sell our solutions, our benefits. And it means that we have a kind of second sales team to propose to new customers our Ticket solution. In Hispanic Latin America, the recovery is ongoing for Employee Benefit business, thanks to the improvement of the health situation, especially in Mexico. And we also are able to post a robust growth in Fleet & Mobility Solutions, particularly thanks to the success of the rollout of the Beyond Fuel solutions. We are using the same platform as the one we have in Brazil to deliver these services all across Latin America and these services include toll and maintenance. Now if we move to the other revenue, which was previously named the financial revenues, the growth is of plus 12.2% like-for-like driven by increasing interest rates. So we have a positive impact from the increasing rates outside of eurozone. It is the case, especially in Brazil and in Turkey, and this is what you can see on the figures of Latin America and Rest of the World, with a growth in Latin America of 14.6% like-for-like. So our other revenue is moving from EUR 23 million to EUR 25 million. And it is also the case in the Rest of the World. We don't have increase yet in euro short-term interest rates, and it is more than 80% of the float that is located in Europe. It means that the day when the interest rates will increase, we will have an impact on our other revenue in Europe. So a synthesis of our total revenue. So we've seen that the operating revenue grew by almost 14%, the same for the other revenue. It means that in 2021, our revenue -- our total revenue stands at EUR 1,627 million, growing by almost 14% like-for-like compared to last year and growing by 11% in reported figures compared to 2020. Now let's look at our EBITDA. So as Bertrand mentioned, we posted a record high EBITDA at EUR 670 million. As you can see, our total revenue is growing at a higher pace than our operating expenses. It demonstrates the operating leverage that we can drive, thanks to our platform. And you also can see on this slide that the operating EBIT is growing at a higher pace compared to the EBITDA. We are growing by [ 22.1% ] compared to last year in like-for-like figures. Last comment about the EBITDA. It deals with the EBITDA margin. We are back to a 41.1% EBITDA margin, which was our performance in 2019. So we've been able to come back to the pre-COVID EBITDA margin this year. Now let's move from the EBITDA to the net profit group share. You see that we have 2 major impacts to go from the EBITDA to the net profit group share. The first one is about the net finance expense. As we had a one-off improvement driven by the appreciation of the fair value of Edenred's investments in Partech funds, so we invested in Partech funds since many years, and we have this one-off appreciation of the fair market value of the fund. And the second thing is about the income tax expense, which is growing due to our performance. So our net profit group share stands now at EUR 313 million. It's EUR 1 million more compared to 2019, and it is an increase of more than 30% compared to 2020. And you can see that the EPS is moving from EUR 0.97 last year to EUR 1.26 this year, which is an increase of almost 30%. Now the cash flow generation, which is a very high free cash flow generation thanks to record FFO and the increased float in line with strong business development. So first thing to underline is the fact that we are able to convert our EBITDA into funds from operations. The level of funds from operations generated in 2021 is EUR 556 million. It's 19.9% more compared to 2020. And funds from operation is the first cash generator for Edenred. Second thing is about the impact of our business activity on our float. So you know that 2020 was a very specific year indeed because due to lockdowns and curfews, our users have not been able to spend their benefits like they used to. It had an impact on our free cash flow last year. Our free cash flow last year was at EUR 640 million, with an increase in float plus EUR 685 million. So this is the cash that has been accumulated by our user on their account. Then we had an impact on our working capital excluding float, plus EUR 354 million, coming mainly from PPS direct clients. PPS, which is our processing platform, provides services to external customers, and those customers are loading the account of their users on our platform. So it has an impact on our working capital. And then we have the restricted cash. Because some of our products, which are regulated are in the float, and then because we cannot take this cash into our free cash flow, we are deducting it thanks to the restricted cash. So last year, we had an increase of our cash related to total working capital by EUR 269 million. In 2021, our users used their benefits and spent the amounts that had been accumulated last year. So we should have seen a decrease and a strong decrease of our float this year due to the use of these accumulated amounts. But thanks to the growth that we've been able to generate, especially in Q4, we've been able to do more than compensate the spend of this money. And we can see that in the increase in cash linked to change in float at plus EUR 198 million. And then we have an increase in the working capital excluding float, which is due to 2 things. The first one is the flow of PPS direct clients plus the ADLC fine that is in this line. So at the end of the year, we have a total cash inflow of plus EUR 76 million, meaning that we've been able to compensate and to do more than compensate, one more time, the accumulated amount that we had at the end of 2020. But then the last line on this page is the recurring CapEx. We invest EUR 114 million in CapEx last year, which is EUR 10 million more compared to 2020. And this growth is in line with the growth of our total revenue. So what we've done this year is a capacity to convert our EBITDA into free cash flow with a rate of 77%, which is far above the 65% we are committed to in our guidance. And if you look at the total of the 2 years, 2020 plus 2021, and you take the total free cash flow generated over the last 2 years compared to the total EBITDA generated in '20 and '21, the conversion rate is 93%. As a consequence of this free cash flow generation, our debt moved from EUR 1.1 billion at the end of 2020 to EUR 816 million at the end of 2021, with a leverage ratio coming from 1.9 to 1.2 at the end of 2021. You can see on this slide that the main cash-out comes from the shareholder return and the payment of the dividend we did in June last year. We had a robust financial position last year. Our financial position is more and more robust. We have a high level of liquidity and a solid balance sheet. We issued our first sustainability-linked 7-year convertible bond in June last year with a negative yield and no interest, and we have EUR 1.8 billion of financing options and no financial covenants today. And we have a strong investment-grade rating that has been reaffirmed by S&P in May last year, so BBB+ rating outlook stable. And we have no major reimbursement before 2024. And you see on this slide, the next reimbursement that we will have to do. And last topic is the proposed dividend for 2021. So it's EUR 0.90. It's plus 20% compared to 2020, and it's in line with the group's progressive dividend policy that has been implemented a few years ago. You see that we gave EUR 0.85 in 2017, then EUR 0.86 in 2018. And now we move to EUR 0.90, keeping on this progressive dividend policy. And then in terms of capital deployment, as I said, we will spend EUR 114 million in recurring CapEx this year, and we are going to continue in investing and we will keep a recurring CapEx level of 6% to 7% of total revenue. And then, as Bertrand mentioned, we have more than EUR 1.5 billion M&A firepower, and we will still look at new targets with a stringent financial and strategic discipline. This is it for the figures. And I leave the floor to Bertrand, which he's going to explain us the platform advantage that we have at Edenred.

Thank you, Julien, for this explanation of our financial performance in 2021, leading to a super solid generation of cash. So then when we think about the future, how do we intend to leverage our platform advantage to capture future sustainable and profitable growth. First of all, I'm sure you remember that we are operating in deep yet still underpenetrated market. So Employee Benefits, it's a market of EUR 200 billion around the world and the level of, in fact, penetration is 22%. Fleet & Mobility, it's a market of EUR 1,000 billion per year around the world. It's the total addressable market, the TAM. And in fact, the penetration is only 28%. And then when you think about Corporate Payment, it's, in fact, a market of USD 10,000 billion. And in fact, the penetration is around 11%. So yes, we are operating on deep yet still underpenetrated market. And in all those markets, how are we going to leverage the platform advantage, the Edenred platform advantage. First of all, when you are a platform like Edenred, you are able to have a virtuous growth circle, i.e., you are able to generate faster growth. So think about the plus 14% like-for-like versus 2020. Then you are able to generate higher margins. So look at the journey of our EBITDA margin from 2016 to 2021 from 37.5% to 41.1%. And finally, thanks to a robust economic performance, we are able to grow our investment capabilities. Our technological investment has been multiplied by 2, moving from EUR 150 million per year in 2016 to more than EUR 300 million in 2021. We invested EUR 1.3 billion in technology since 2016, whether it is in infrastructure, in architecture, in IT security and in compliance. Then when you have a platform like Edenred, another platform advantage is you have a cost advantage. Why? Because we are operating thanks to a unique B2B2C business model. What does it mean? If you look at a few criteria. First of all, the acquisition, i.e., how much does it cost to acquire a user at Edenred. In fact, if we compare our ratio to the retail banking, it cost us 10% than the cost of, let's say, some other normal business in terms of end user cost acquisition. But also in terms of activation, it's one thing to acquire a client, it's another thing to make the client use the digital services that you propose. And then when we look at the activation through companies we have at Edenred and we compare that versus the fintech, in fact, our level of activation tends to be 3x higher than what you observe in the fintechs. And finally, the retention, i.e., not only it's good to acquire at low-cost clients, users, but also to be able to activate them very quickly. It's even better to make sure that you're going to get some repeat business. And when we look at our repeat business, versus some other consumer and retail wallets, in fact, our level of repeatability during 1 month is 3x higher than the comparables. So thanks to our outstanding performance in acquisition, in activation and in retention, we are able to have a very profitable business model. Then with that platform, an underpenetrated market and large markets with a strong economic model, we are able to leverage this technological platform to grow beyond our current assets. And so we gave you some user experiences, new user experiences in the previous slides, why don't we focus a little bit on new services that we are able to bring to the market. The first example is in Brazil. In Brazil, if you are lucky to be a Edenred client, you have access to the Ticket Super Flex. What is the Ticket Super Flex? It's a multi-benefit solution with one single digital account. You have one account and you have access to many different services: food services, home office services, well-being services, restaurant services, education services. One digital account, multiple benefits to use in dedicated networks of partner merchants. Another example -- here, we are talking Beyond Food, another example is Beyond Fuel. On the left part of the slide, you have a typical fleet operating cost breakdown. What you can see is when you manage a fleet, you have some fuel costs, you have some tolls and parking costs. You have some other fleet management services such as the maintenance, the insurance. And you have the vehicle holding costs. And think about what Edenred is doing. We started with the fuel. But then we are moving, in fact, to the maintenance management. We are very successful in Brazil and we roll out in Mexico and Argentina. But then we move to the financial services. So in Europe, with EBV Finance, you are able to have access to VAT and excise duty refund services, and it's now available in 31 European countries. So that's for the block that is called other fleet management services, maintenance, financial services. Then you have the block that is called tolls and parking. Tolls and parking, UTA One, the most comprehensive electronic toll solution in Europe. We moved from 8 countries to 14 countries in 2020. We launched in Mexico a dual tag to pay fuel and tolls in Mexico. So one tag, you are able to pay fuel and you are able to pay toll. It has been launched in September 2021. And then we are pleased to announce in 2022, the acquisition of Greenpass in Brazil to accelerate our development in the toll and parking management. So the tool and parking management, if we look at the number of toll tags in Brazil, it's a large market. You have 8 million tags right now in Brazil, and we think that the market is going to be at least multiplied by 2 by 2025. So moving from 8 million tags to 16 million tax. So it's a large market. It's a growing market. And what we love at Edenred, it's an underpenetrated market because the B2B market penetration is less than 10%. What does it mean? It means that less than 1 client out of 10, one corporate client, is using, in fact, an electronic toll tag in Brazil. And in fact, it's a shame because when you have one, it's a better experience for your drivers. You don't need to stop at toll booth. And in fact, we know that the business is going to boom because governments are likely to implement further toll roads, knowing that the dependency of Brazil on road transportation is very high. So we decided to accelerate, and we're going to leverage the Greenpass acquisition to capture 20% of the market by 2025. So first of all, what we are buying is a technological asset. Greenpass is an electronic toll collection tag to pay seamlessly at toll booth and parking in Brazil. It's a 100% cloud-based platform connected to toll operators, transaction capture, processing and payment. It's key for us. We are a digital company. We are a platform. We need to be able to connect via API quickly, because we want to integrate all the services we provide on digital account and this platform. Our ambition is to grow the number of tags from 500,000 tags to 3 million tags by 2025. We will cross-sell to Ticket Log large client base, but we will also leverage the Ticket Log's strong sales channel. So we go after some synergies, leveraging this digital asset. So -- and finally, these toll solutions will be able to further enhance Ticket Log data analytics platform. What does it mean? It means that you are a fleet manager, you pay for the services of GoHub, which is a single source of data truth for you, then thanks to the Greenpass solution, you will also better understand how much it cost you in terms of tolling and parking. But Beyond Fuel for us is not only maintenance, it's not only financial services, it's not only parking and toll, it's also to harness the shift to vehicle electrification. Fleet managers are looking for simplicity regarding the electrical vehicle, and because electrical vehicle imply higher complexity. Our job is to make something complex becoming something simple for the managers. And Edenred is well positioned on this medium-term shift. First of all, we have a comprehensive offer on an underpenetrated market. So still a vast majority of fleet owners and managers are using manual processes. We can help them. In Europe, we have a solution with Shell where, in fact, if you have a UTA card, you are able to have access to the Shell NewMotion EV charging point, and it's more than 250,000 charging points, okay? And in fact, we are able to, via our one platform, to provide one single invoice for all services with one source of data. So for us, in fact, vehicle electrification that creates complexity in the B2B world is a great source of opportunities for us if we come with the full digital single account solution to provide simplicity and better understanding of the evolution of the electrification in Europe. I say in Europe because it's a trend that we don't see in Latin America. Why? Because Latin America developed some other green solution, and their main green solutions are bioethanol. So the electrification, the trend of vehicle electrification is mainly for Europe for now. The platform advantage, we see it on CSI as well. We have been able to expand our CSI ecosystem. And in fact, CSI has been growing at more than 20% in 2021. But think about it, CSI is now integrated to more than 350 plus ERPs. Think about it. When we started the journey, we had 475,000 suppliers in our database connecting for digital payment, we are now at more than 900,000 suppliers in our payment ecosystem. We are able to deal with all payment methods, whether it's virtual card, ACH, wire, RTP or through a B2B payment network. And more and more, we are expanding our indirect distribution partnership. We talked about it before with Citi or with Sage. So that's what we call the platform advantage. And in fact, we are dealing on underpenetrated markets using a growing platform and a growing platform advantage. And then our intention is to serve well on the post-COVID drivers. What are those pre-COVID drivers? First of all, we are living in a more remote working world. We are living in a world seeking more responsible behavior. We are living in a world looking for more payment digitalization. We are living in a world that is in need for more transparency, safety and control. And we are living in a world where we will see higher inflation. What does it mean for the Edenred platform? First of all, yes, we are well positioned to benefit from post-COVID trends that I just described to you thanks to this platform. Think about virtual canteen. Think about 100% digital mobile first programs of Edenred. Think about greener consumption solutions, such as the Commuter Benefits or the EcoCheque, in Belgium. Think about our digital B2B payment capabilities, such as CSI in the U.S. So yes, those post-COVID trends that appeared or that have accelerated will be well exploited by the Edenred platform. There is a second element. So on this first element, we can say that Edenred is a COVID winner, and the results of 2021 demonstrate what it means to be a COVID winner. Then there is a second aspect for it. Yes, we are living in a world that is generating higher inflation. And in fact, Edenred is an inflation winner. We will leverage the higher inflation to grow our revenue and so our margins. Think about it. Inflation leads to higher maximum face value in Employee Benefits. It's true in France, in Turkey and Germany, in Bulgaria, in Romania, in Greece. We can take the countries one by one. We see, in fact, the maximum face value increasing. Yes, due to the inflation, it's higher fuel prices. And in fact, we have 10% of the total Edenred revenue that is sensitive to the fuel retail price. High inflation means increased fuel retail price, means increase of our revenue. Then we also know that inflation means higher interest rates. And as explained by Julien, we are a cash machine, we are generating cash. We have a growing float, and we put this float at work. And with higher interest rates, it means increase of our, what we call, other revenue previously known as financial revenue. And finally, we are a platform. We are the leading, in fact, player in our industry in terms of innovation and digitalization, so we have some pricing power. And this pricing power is going to help us to protect our margins and to control our costs. So that's why that we think, yes, Edenred is well positioned to grasp growth opportunities in a pre-COVID era, made of the 5 dimensions I shared with you. So as a conclusion, Edenred is a disruptive leader generating sustainable and profitable growth. First, we have been disrupting ourselves since 2016. And then we have been consequently leading the transformation of our markets. We operate on a global B2B2C digital data, enriched platform, true to our purpose: Enrich Connections. For good. Second, yes, Edenred via the Edenred platform connects 50 million end users with 2 million merchants via 900,000 companies. And we are leveraging our technology, API technologies, mobile payment, to create seamless omnichannel experiences for our users. The third element is, yes, Edenred will generate sustainable and profitable growth by expanding our solution range, multi-benefit, so what we call Beyond Food and Beyond Fuel, but also benefiting from the platform advantage that I explained to you, applied on deep yet still underpenetrated market. The fourth element to keep in mind is, yes, Edenred generates high level of cash flow. And this level of cash flow is growing year after year and allows us to increase our investment capabilities, whether to fuel our platform with organic -- well, with investments and organic growth, but it gives us also the firepower to go after external growth. So yes, we are well positioned to benefit from post-COVID trends. We discussed about the remote working, more responsible behaviors and also from an increasing inflation. To make a long story short, Edenred is a COVID winner and Edenred is and will be an inflation winner. So based on the results of 2021, based on the disruption that we led, based on the perspective we see in our markets, we are able to reaffirm our next frontier strategic plan targets for 2022, meaning a like-for-like annual operating revenue growth of at least 8%, like-for-like annual EBITDA growth of at least 10%. And as we said, we generate a lot of cash, so we will continue to be very wise on our conversion rate, that means -- that needs to be above 65%. Thank you for your attention, and please save the following date. It's going to be our Capital Market Day in 2022. It's going to happen in London and it's on October 26. We will be very happy to share with you the strategy, the tactics and the perspective we have for the next 3 years at this Capital Market Day in London on October 26 of this year. Thank you for your attention. And Julien and myself, we are with you to answer any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] So our first question comes from the line of Simon LeChipre from Stifel.

Three questions, please. First of all on the take-up rate, so it continued to improve. Could you give us some details on the dynamics across your different regions for 2021? And how do you expect the take rate to evolve going forward? Secondly, on the retention rate. Could you comment on the evolution of this metric for the Employee Benefits activity? I remember you said during '19 CMD, you are expecting the retention to improve during the course of the plan. So would be keen to get an update on this topic. And last one on Latin America and the 2022 outlook. Could you give us more details on your expectations for this year following the rebound we have seen in the back end of 2021?

Thank you, Simon. So let me try with the help of Julien to answer to your 3 questions. Let me start with the -- so I propose that I deal with number two and number three. And maybe, Julien, you take the question on the take-up rate.

Okay. Yes.

Okay. So if we start with the retention rate, yes, our retention rate is improving in every geography. One reason for that is the fact that when you propose more services, in fact, the more services you propose the more you create a digital environment and so you increase the stickiness of your clients. So thanks to this platform strategy, we have been able to improve our retention rate directly correlated to the number of services that we propose. To give you a number, and it's a number that we shared with you before, moving from one digital service of Edenred to 2, in fact, we divide by 2 the churn. Unfortunately, it does not work with 3 or 4 additional services. So we are in an industry where, in fact, the churn is low. But thanks to our digital and platform strategy, we have been able to make it even lower. And it's true on every product line, and it's true in every geography. Then your third question was as to Latin America after the nice rebound of 2021. And it's true that in 2021, when you look at the operating revenue like-for-like growth we have been able to grow at 18%. What are the drivers behind that? First of all, it's Latin America, like the other countries around the world, it's a large market and an underpenetrated market. So all the efforts that we are doing to, in fact, increase the penetration of our product is true in Latin America. So the SME machine that we talked about is also true in Latin America. So the first driver is penetration and it's going to continue in 2022. The second driver is the expansion of our product lines. So we discussed in Fleet & Mobility, for example, the fact that we are deploying maintenance outside Brazil, knowing that maintenance in Brazil is increasing at a very strong double-digit growth, but we want to have the same success. We discussed about our initiatives in the toll business, that is an underpenetrated market, a large market, a growing market. So growth will be generated on our base, thanks to the digital solution of Greenpass. So the Beyond Food strategy and the Beyond Fuel strategy is going to work in 2022 like it has been working in 2021. So we are positive about the growth of Latin America in 2022, thanks to first of all, large underpenetrated market, on which we come with solutions that are good for the clients and for the users. And the second thing, it's because all the drivers that we put in place in the Beyond Food and the Beyond Fuel will continue to generate growth and increase growth in 2022. Then your first question was about the take-up rate. Julien?

Yes. So as Bertrand presented to you, the Employee Benefit take-up rate moved from 4.8% in 2018 to 5.2% in 2021. What is remarkable and what has to be underlying is the fact that this take-up rate has been able to grow with a growth of our volume, meaning that we are able to grow both with new clients and with new pricing. So where does this pricing power come from? What is important to understand is that we are coming to our clients and we are coming to our merchants with high -- new added solutions. It means that we come with additional services for our clients. We propose better customer journey. And we have a higher level of satisfaction from our clients, and this is something that we are monitoring months after months. We have implemented some tools to do that. And we know that with clients that have a high level of satisfaction, we can have higher pricing. Then when it comes to merchants because our volumes are growing, then our merchants see that we have a real traffic generator and it gives us the opportunity to value the new services we are providing to them. And we have also a merchant mix management where we see -- where we can flow the money to generate the higher level of revenue possible. So these are the main reasons of how we are managing -- the way we are increasing our take-up rate and the way we are managing the relationship with our clients and our merchants.

Yes. And I guess it has been driven mainly by Europe last year, given Brazil was a bit under pressure?

Yes, it's true that Brazil has been under pressure in 2021, but not on everything. So for example, when you think about Brazil, remember and we are at 50-50 between the Fleet & Mobility and Benefits. Fleet & Mobility in terms of take-up rate has been a very good year in 2021 because the Beyond Fuel is working well. And so because it's new, it's disruptive what we are proposing, so it means that we have a pricing power. As to the benefits, it was different because we explained that due to the economic situation in Brazil, we had some -- let's say, some high intensity of competition. And due to that, it was not a brilliant year in 2021 in Brazil, but -- for benefits. But remember, in Brazil, it's 50-50. And remember that Latin America is also made of Mexico and Argentina and some other countries.

Our second question comes from the line of Andre Juillard from Deutsche Bank.

[ Congratulations ] for these strong results, impressive free cash flow generation. When I look at your growth, your profitability and your free cash flow generation, why being so shy in the guidance you are giving? First question. Secondly, when we look at the underpenetration of the market, why being more -- why being not more aggressive in terms of M&A and consolidation considering that you are underleverage-ed today? So what can we expect in terms of external growth or return to shareholders to have higher leverage or more adaptable leverage to the actual environment perspective?

Thank you, Andre. So the first question as to the results 2021. First of all, you remember that at the Capital Market Day of October 2019, we committed to a minimum of 8%, 10% and 65%. 8% growth of operating revenue, 10% growth of EBITDA like-for-like. And so that's our commitment. And there will be a new Capital Market Day in 2022. So we'll see in due time. We are now on this sequence. And the sequence is when we look at the results of 2021, we know that, in fact, we will do at least 8%, 10% and 65%. Okay? So that's the first thing. The second thing is, yes, you are right. We have many tailwinds. The tailwinds are the fact that we are a COVID winner and we are -- and we will be an inflation winner. The third thing is, you know our sequence in February, so at the presentation of our annual results. The way we do it is based on what we achieved and what we see, we confirm the thresholds that we set for the -- in our strategic plan. But then in the middle of the year, we come with an EBITDA target in a range. And you remember that this year, we said between EUR 620 million and EUR 670 million. And in fact, we are very happy to meet the upper end of this range. So Andre, what I propose is you have to stay patient a little bit with us. You know that we will not go below 8% and 10%. You know that we love doing better than that, and we have good reasons to believe that we will do better than that. But give us a few more months to confirm our ambition for 2022. But yes, you are right. We have some good tailwinds.

Just a follow-up maybe on M&A. You were talking a lot about corporate payments last year. And are you still very confident and very optimistic in the development of this part of your business? .

In fact -- so I answer this question and I go back to the question you asked on M&A at the beginning of this dialogue. So yes, in fact, CSI has been able to generate more than 20% growth on operating revenue in 2021. And we think that it's going to be 20% and more in 2022, which is an objective that we shared with you. And the way it works at Edenred is we set objectives and then we work to make it possible. So yes, corporate payment is a good business to be in. It's a growing market. It's an underpenetrated market. The technology and the process automation that we have position us well. There is one thing that I don't like is the fact that the American economy is not yet at its full potential. So when you look at the vertical sectors we are in, the hospitality for example, we are still far from the levels of the pre-COVID in terms of transaction. When we are looking at the media, in fact, it's very -- still very erratic from one month to another. So do we believe in those markets? Yes. Are we able to generate 20% and more operating revenue growth? Yes. Do we like the underlying performance of the American economy and the vertical sectors we are positioned with CSI? No. Do we believe that it's going to get better? Yes. Do we need to develop some other verticals? Absolutely. We started, for example, in the real estate a new offer because the real estate is okay right now in the U.S., and we started developing a vertical offer for the utilities. So yes, we will continue to invest and generate 20% and more on the U.S. market. You had a question, Andre, about being more aggressive in M&A. Yes, you are right, we are almost fully deleveraged with a ratio of 1.2. But if you get rid of this exceptional element of the fine payment, in fact, it's less than 1. Yes, we have the firepower of EUR 1.5 billion. And yes, we have now a technology and a platform that allows us to integrate some of the partners we may buy like Greenpass. But at the same time, we are a little bit stubborn at Edenred in the sense that we want to continue to follow a strict financial discipline. We don't like overpaying, and we are very careful at the quality of the assets that we are buying. By quality of the assets, I mean the quality of the people, the quality of the technology and the quality of the client portfolio. To give you an example, the investment we made with CSI 100%, 100% of the management team of CSI is still working at Edenred CSI 3 years after the acquisition. It says a lot on a very fluid American market craving for fintechs, talent people. It says a lot on the quality of the people and the quality of the integration. So that's who we are and how we operate. But to make a long story short, are you going to see us doing some acquisitions in the future? Yes. Are we going to integrate faster than in the past? Yes, thanks to our unique platform advantage. Are we going to continue to keep the same stringent financial discipline? Also yes. But with the firepower that we have, expect more acquisitions in the years to come.

Our next question comes from the line of Mourad Lahmidi from BNP Paribas.

Yes, Mourad Lahmidi from BNP Paribas Exane. Bertrand and Julien, so I have some questions for you. The first one is on the virtual canteen initiative. Last time we spoke, you talked about 300 contracts that you worked in, in 2021. Maybe you could update us on that number. And is it big enough today to be visible in the revenues? My second question is on the maximum face value uplift that you've seen in 2021. Can you give us some order of magnitude of this uplift in the key countries that you mentioned in your slides? And maybe you can refresh us as to how those max face value uplift translates into actual max face value for Edenred. What do you guys do to benefit from that? And last one on CSI. It seems that you had some pickup in the growth of CSI in Q4. Can you give us the actual like-for-like growth at CSI in the last quarter of 2021?

Okay. Thank you, Mourad. Because I'm sure you are a little bit bothered by me, Julien, why don't you start with question number one and I take the second, and I propose that you take the third.

Okay. So regarding the virtual canteen. Yes, we communicated on several figures in Q3 last year. What we see is that the trend is keeping on. When we look at the performance especially in France and when we look at the new large account that we've been able to sign over the last few months, past months, we see that we have these trends. I mentioned BNP Paribas, which is a good example of a large company taking the decision to implement 2 to 3 days of remote working for all the employees. It means that we can provide our virtual canteen for the 2 or 3 days when those people are not working in their office. So we have BNP Paribas. We mentioned also KPMG, which is in the same case. So we see that the trend in some countries or the countries where we have this kind of physical canteen today, these trends is still there. And we signed clients months after months. We already explained also that it takes time to deal with this kind of large corporate. First, because, well, they are managing tenders. Because when we win a large account like BNP Paribas, we were in competition with other players on the market. And the second thing is that a contract that is signed between the physical canteen and the large account is a long-term contract. So we need to wait for the end of this contract before changing the way people are balanced in this kind of company. So the trend is still there. And then the visibility on our revenue, you that we used to post high level of growth. So the growth is coming from large accounts, but also from SME. And we have a very large number of clients, 900,000 clients around the world. So it means that this is included in our growth. But -- well, it is one of the components of the growth we are able to deliver like the others, like SME or like new services that we are launching on the market.

Okay. Maybe, Julien, one thing we can add about France is when you look at the growth in France, it has been for the year 2021 almost 13%. And in Q4 2020, one which is a quarter where you have some confinements in France, in fact, the growth is close to 10%. I think it's the best illustration of the attraction we have for the Edenred virtual canteen offers and the fact that we have a wide portfolio of benefits to offer to our clients. So Mourad, your second question was the maximum face value uplift in key countries and how does it work? So for example, in Germany, for the Ticket Plus Card, it's going to be plus 15%. In Turkey, it has been plus 36%. In Romania, it has been double-digit growth. And in France, in France, in fact, the maximum face value has been increased by 2.6%. And so it's very positive because it gives a framework for the companies to decide on how much they want to give. So -- but then it depends company per company. So what happens? If we don't do anything, many companies forget about it. And so our job is to make sure that the employers are aware of it and the employees are aware of it as well. And so with their annual negotiation, they pass totally or partially the new legal scheme. So to give you an example, let's imagine that in France, you have a Ticket Restaurant with a face value of EUR 10 and the maximum amount legally is increased by 2.5%, and let's say that it's now EUR 11.5. So you have a gap between your EUR 10 and EUR 11.5. Then it's our job to make sure that everybody within your company is aware of this gap and to create and to stimulate to make sure that there will be an increase. So to make a long story short, due to the inflation, we see an increase of the maximum face value everywhere around the world, but it's not because there is an increase of the maximum face value that it will happen immediately. We have some work to do as the leader of our industry to make sure that the decision-makers are aware and to make sure that the employees do not forget to ask for the totality or part of the increase. So it's a positive driver for us, but we cannot count on 100% of the face value increase in our revenue because it takes time. Your third question, Mourad, was about CSI, the performance of growth of CSI in 2021 and in Q4. Julien?

Yes. So as Bertrand explained, the American economy has not recovered yet. However, we have an improving trend at CSI definitely. We see that quarter after quarter. You know that we signed a new partnership with indirect sales channel like Citi or like Sage, and we see that it is growing quarter after quarter. And then we have also decided to launch new verticals. So Bertrand mentioned the real estate vertical, which is something which is very promising. So yes, CSI is picking up. Now we are expecting a full recovery of the U.S. economy to deliver the full potential of CSI, and we are confident that it will happen in 2022 and that we will be able to deliver strong double-digit growth, meaning more than 20% in terms of operating revenue.

But maybe what I can add, Julien, is Q1 and Q2 of 2022 for CSI are going to be probably more difficult than H2. Why? Because the American economy is not yet at full recovery. For the ones who have the chance to travel to the U.S., you see that you still have a lot of people that are in remote working and you see that the activity is not yet to what it was before the COVID. It's coming back, but not immediately. But thanks to what Julien said, we have some structural drivers that depend on Edenred that explain the 20% more growth, i.e., the ramp-up of the partnerships and the ramp-up of new verticals.

Our next question comes from the line of Paul Sullivan from Barclays.

Just a few from me. Can you give us any indication of what the fourth quarter issuance tailwind suggests for Q1 like-for-like growth? Presumably, you've got pretty good visibility over the first quarter, I don't know if you can give us sort of any color there. Secondly, restricted cash was an inflow despite strong growth. Can you just remind us of how that works and what triggered that? And then could you also give us the short- and medium-term implications from the regulatory changes that were announced in Employee Benefits to the PAT program in Brazil at the end of last year?

Yes. I propose to take care of question number one and three, and Julien will explain the evolution of the restricted cash. So yes, we had a good Q4 on every business line and on every geography. We are at the end of the second month of Q1. In fact, the beginning of the year is a good beginning of the year. So we don't see any change versus the good trends we have been able to generate in full year 2021 and, in fact, in Q4 of 2021. Of course, it's always good to have a strong Q4 to enter into the year of 2022. So, so far so good on every geography and on every business line. Once again, the platform advantage is generating the level of growth we like at Edenred. Your third question was about the regulatory change in Brazil. So first of all, in fact, what are the positive things for Edenred. The first thing is, yes, you have a new PAT regulation. And so it means that the PAT that has been created in Brazil in 1976 after 46 years of, let's say, of happy life, the government decided that it was something important that need to continue in Brazil. That's the first good news. The second good news is the fact that, in fact, by regulation, the prepayment is reinforced, i.e., it's going to be forbidden for the companies to ask for conditions of payment, i.e., you precharge the card, but I pay you in 3 or 6 months. So what does it mean? It means that it's going to be very positive for the float of Edenred in Brazil. Then the third element that is very positive is the fact that the discount is now forbidden at the issuance level, i.e., no company could go to an issuer like Edenred and say I want to issue 100, and I ask you for a discount. So i.e., I'm going to pay 99 out of the 100. It has a huge cost for the issuers. And in fact, it creates an unfair game in the sense that part of the discount that is given to the large companies is paid by the merchants. So it's a way to better balance who is paying what. And of course, it's positive for issuers and leading issuers like Edenred in Brazil. So that's the very positive things. And then you have a few elements that have been written in one word on which we need to work with the authorities. And we have 18 months to define what it means, such as a qualified open loop or the interoperability, what does it mean and how it's going to work 18 months from now. But to make a long story short, the good news for now are the reinforcement of the PAT in the life of the Brazilian people. The second thing is no more discount, very good for us. Prepayment for everybody and very good for us. And then a few things that are very blurry right now. But the good news is we have 18 months to discuss and to find our ways. And you know what, at Edenred, we know how to find our ways. We have been dealing with Brazil since 1976. We are not new on this market. We love the market. We are truly Brazilian in Brazil. So trust us, we will find our way and exploit very positively the good news of this reform. Julien, as to the restricted cash.

Yes. So First of all, let's come back to what is restricted cash. Indeed, in some countries, we have regulation and this regulation ask us to safeguard the amount that is loaded on the card of our users. It is the case, for instance, in France with at Ticket Restaurant or in Romania. So how does it work in our free cash flow? When we are loading the card, it has a positive impact on the float. So it is a plus on the float line. And then because it is restricted cash, we have the same amount, but with a minus in front of it. So in the restricted cash line, you will have a negative impact so that the fact that we have amount loaded on a regulated account has no impact on our free cash flow. So it is a case for regulated product. So like I mentioned, for instance, in France and Romania. It is also the case with PPS direct clients. We are processing some accounts for new banks at PPS. So this amount of money has an impact on our working capital, excluding float. And then because it is restricted cash, it has also an impact on the restricted cash line. So when we look at what has happened in 2021, we had accumulated float in our benefits business and in some regulated products like in France and Romania. So this amount of money have been spent in 2021. So it has an impact on the restricted cash. And the second thing is that we have seen lower volume from PPS direct clients, which is what we see in the working capital, excluding float. And at the same time, we have this impact in the restricted cash line.

Great. So there's no expectation that, that reverses versus out this year or anything like that?

No, no. Well, indeed, we have 2 very specific year between 2020 and 2021. This is why it's not easy to follow the free cash flow. What is very important to keep in mind is that we had accumulated between EUR 400 million and EUR 500 million in 2020, half of being on a regulated product, meaning that you see only half of this amount in the free cash flow of last year, I should say, in the total cash inflow related to working capital, which is a new line that is on the table with a plus EUR 265 million. So those amounts have been accumulated last year in 2020, and those amounts have been spent this year. And we've been able to compensate the level of reimbursement coming from 2020, thanks to additional volumes that we can see on the float and the increase of float in 2021. So this is a mechanism that you need to look at to understand the free cash flow of 2021 compared to 2020.

But Julien, to make a long story short, Edenred is generating a lot of cash. Edenred will generate even more cash next year because we enter in 2022 without any backlog. So we don't have, for example, reimbursement volume that have not been reimbursed. So we entered the year clean in terms of cash flow. So -- but we know that 2022, based on the tailwind we have, is going to be a good year in terms of cash flow production.

And just following up, Bertrand, your formal mandate, if I'm not mistaken, ends in May?

Yes.

Is there anything you can say about that?

The thing I can say is the Board proposed me to continue for the next 4 years. And I said yes because I love Edenred and I love the perspective of growth of Edenred, and the disruption we have been doing and we will continue to do, because the only thing that doesn't change at Edenred is Edenred. So to make a long story short, I wake up every morning with tons of energy and tons of love and passion for the employees of Edenred. So they proposed me to continue, and I said yes. So it has been approved at the Board level. It needs to be approved at the General Assembly in May of this year.

Our next question comes from the line of Geoffrey d'Halluin from Bank of America.

Three questions, if I may, on my side, please. First of all, regarding interest rates. So of course, you said it's a tailwind for you. We've see a small improvement this year compared to last year. How do we need to think about interest rates in 2022? And maybe could you remind us exactly where is the float located and maybe your hedging policy in Latin America because I guess you hedge part of the float in Latin America in the last year? So just to get opportunities for financial revenue in 2022 onwards. My second question is, could you please maybe update us on your opportunities in the U.S. market, but for, well, non-fiscal incentive business. So you mentioned a couple of partnerships recently. So just getting an update on what are the opportunities there. And last question is regarding, well, competitive pressures in France. Well, would you mind to share with us your thoughts on that? Maybe what was your market share and market share gain you've seen the French market over the last few years. And overall, are you seeing some change in terms of competitive environment in France?

Okay. Thanks a lot for your questions. So the first one for Julien, the next 2 ones for me. If it's okay with you, Julien?

It's okay. It's perfect. So the first question is about the interest rate and the impact of interest rate increase on our other revenue. So we need to keep in mind that 80% of our float is based in Europe, but not 100% in eurozone as we have a float in U.K., for instance. So this is the first thing. Second thing is 15% -- 15% to 20% of our float is in Latin America and in Brazil. And when we look at the trend in terms of interest rates, we've seen last year a big increase in Brazil, where the interest rate went from less than 6% during the last summer, and they are now at almost 12%. So a huge increase. So obviously, we took benefit from that. And you're right when you say that we are hedged on some of our float. Yes, we try to hedge part of it. And we hedge this float at a high fixed rate interest, which is above 10%. It means that when the interest rates are increasing, then only a part of our float is benefiting from that. So this is for the Brazil. When we look at Europe, we believe the interest rate will increase, but we start from a very low point. Meaning today, the level of interest rates of the European Central Bank is minus 0.5% for the short-term interest rates, which is the most important for us. So yes, it will increase. It will take time. But thanks to our capacity to generate free cash flow. But also thanks to the growth of our volume because obviously, we are investing the cash that is in our balance sheet and that is coming from the growth of our volume, we will be able to increase the other revenue in the coming years following the increase of interest rates.

Just to give a historical perspective, when I joined Edenred and I look at the financial statement, at some point of time, the financial revenue was EUR 100 million. And in fact, it was EUR 100 million with a business volume that was between 2 and 3x less than what we have today. So interest rates are good for Edenred. It's going to take a little bit of time, as explained by Julien. We will continue to be very cautious in the way we manage, in fact, our investments. But we know that it's going to be a very nice source, a cherry on the cake, coming in the next few years. The second question was opportunities in the U.S. market. So first economy of the world, first opportunity for us is obviously corporate payment with CSI with some organic growth, 20% at least per year, and probably some acquisitions, vertical per vertical. So for us, it's the first point of attention and focus to grow in the U.S. The second point is, yes, we have some programs such as Commuter Benefits, where more and more those program correspond to the willingness of the companies to provide tools that are responsible tools to their employees. So with those programs, we signed many prestigious names. And for example, the #1 e-commerce company in the world. We cannot say the name, so I will let you think about what the name of this company is. So we have more and more traction because we are promoting greener commuting solutions. The third element for us is, yes, we have some traction on solutions such as Ticket Restaurant. Why? Because even if there is no fiscal scheme and no fiscal deduction, we have more and more companies coming to us and say we want to give back to our people, our people that are more and more remote workers. And by giving back, it's not only via salary increase, we want something specific, something isolated, so something we can promote, as you know, something distinct versus some other employers. So without any fiscal scheme, we are able to promote that. But we know that the real detonator will be some fiscal exemptions. That's why we have our lobbyists that are working hard on public affairs to explain again and again. So as previously said, yes, the U.S. market is something we look after. But we are patient, and we know for the fiscal exemption scheme product. It's going to take time. And we -- but we also push on Commuter Benefits and Corporate Payment. The third question you had, Geoffrey, was on competitive pressure in France. First of all, let's remember that France is about 15% of our total revenue. And let's remember that, let's say, Benefits is about 50% of that, i.e., as explained, we are a platform providing many other services on top of the historical that we like very much, Ticket Restaurant, to put things in perspective. The second thing is, yes, we have been gaining market share year after year because we are the digital leader of the French market. And as I said, you remember, we were the first one in 2014 with a digital program. The first one with mobile payment in '16. The first one with a complementary repayment in '20. The first one with the pay-at-table in 2022, and we intend to continue to invest and to grow our platform of services in France, whether in Benefits, but also in Fleet & Mobility, but also in the car business. So the last thing to bear in mind is competition is part of our world. We are competing in 46 different countries with local players, regional players, global players. We saw everything. We saw banks coming and leaving. We saw digital players coming and leaving. We saw new players coming and being bought by us. So we saw many different competitive situation, and we love competition. We are excited by competition because it forces us to continue to invest and change what we need to change. And it works well in France. As you can see, we grow. And we grew, in fact, in 2021 at a pace that we like, which is more or less double-digit growth. So to make a long story short, we are doing well in France. And remember also that France, like all the markets around the world, it's a market that is underpenetrated and it's a growing market. So it means there is room for competition. So we like competition. It's a source of excitement and creativity for us. We love competing. So we love being a double-digit growth rate like in France. We know that it's going to happen, thanks to our digital platform, the expansion of this platform, and it's always easier to do it on a large market on an underpenetrated market, on a growing market.

Just one comment, we are running out of time. We still have 5 minutes in front of us. So if we could have 1 or 2 questions with Rahul and Ross, it will be perfect.

And I will be shorter in my answers, or you will do it. You are better than me on that. Okay, so...

So our next question comes from the line of Rahul Chopra.

Probably 2 quick ones, if I may. One is on the working capital dynamics in 2022. So how should we think about the moving parts in terms of float, please? And secondly, could you give us a sense of growth or market share of revenues from the meal delivery platforms? Maybe any KPIs, could you please highlight on that front? And are the take-up rates different for those meal delivery platforms versus the usual Employee Benefits? That will be also helpful.

Okay. So Rahul, thanks for your question. So the dynamics in 2022, we have obviously tailwinds and a few headwinds. The tailwinds, you know them, our platform advantage is growing. And we said the trends we would like to serve on, in fact, due to the COVID and the inflation that we talked about, okay? So that's the trends on which we're going to serve, applying our unique platform. And so our business is going to grow. The business volume is going to grow. And so the float is going to grow, so which is good for a negative working capital. So the generation of cash is going to be a very good one in 2022 because if we grow the BV, we grow the float, because the number of weeks of retention are well under control. So that's one element. The second element is the FFO, i.e., the generation of cash due to the growth of our business. So the FFO generation, plus the float that is growing due to the BV growth and due to the number of weeks of retention that are well under control is going to generate a strong free cash flow in 2022. So that's the dynamics that we see in 2022. Your second question is as to the delivery platform. So yes, we are now connected in more than 20 countries with 200 delivery platforms. The dynamics between them is changing because you have some newcomers and some people that are leaving the market. So newcomers, for example, in fast delivery. So we are playing well with the newcomers, playing the merchant mix that we want, the most favorable for Edenred. As to the take-up rate, those platforms are, for us, clients. And if you are a client of Edenred and you benefit from the volume we bring to you, there is a price to pay. So at Edenred, you have a high quality of service, rapid integration on our platform, but you have to pay for the volume we generate to your platform, okay? So yes, meal delivery platform are growing. They can represent, let's say, between 10% to 15% of the reimbursement volume. And those people, because we generate traffic and we drive traffic to them, have to pay us a fee for that like any other merchants. Okay. Do we have...

Is it the fee similar to other merchants? Or is it different from other merchants?

Rahul, as I explained many times, we are very open to answer your questions as soon as it is about our secret sauce in terms of marketing mix, which is price promotion, place and product, even under torture, I will not answer your question.

Our final question this morning comes from the line of Ross Jobber.

Two questions, really. I'm interested in getting an idea of your like-for-like growth last year and how much of it came from new customers, new customers to the group in 2021 as opposed to the growth that you would get from your existing customers using more services or just generally higher activity levels. And then my second question, which is sort of related to that, which is, can you say a little bit about tender activity and tender win rates in 2021? And were they particularly typical or atypical? What's happening to tender win rates and what's happening to tender activity levels in general?

Okay. Thanks for your questions. So here, your 2 questions are part of our secret sauce. So as I said, even under torture, I will not answer. But I don't want to leave you frustrated, so I give you a little bit of indication. In 2021, yes, we have been very successful in terms of cross-selling, but we have been even more successful in terms of new customers. We shared with you the increase of contracts we have in SMEs, so that's one thing. And the second thing is, we shared with you as well some iconic accounts that we have been able to sign. Is it exceptional? The answer is no, i.e., the performance in terms of sales that we generated in 2021, we should be able to do it in 2022 whether on cross-selling, whether on retention, but also whether on our ability to add new customers. And to be -- to go even further, we want to accelerate on SMEs. And I have my eye on a few countries where I'm not happy with our ambition in 2022. I want to see a growing ambition on SMEs in 2022 versus 2021 on every product line in every country. Then your second question was about the win rate we had in 2021. Is it typical or atypical? No, it's typical, i.e., we didn't do anything atypical in 2021, i.e., no big win or incredible success rate in the winning of new clients versus the year before per business line and per country. Okay. So that's why we are confident for 2022.

We have no further questions. So I'll now hand you back to Mr. Dumazy to conclude the session.

Okay. So thank you for your attention to this long 2-hour session. As we said, first of all, we are very pleased by the financial performance of Edenred in 2021, strong double-digit growth in every product line and in every geography. Historical growth rate leading to historical results, and generating sustainable and profitable growth, i.e., 14% operating revenue, 18% EBITDA, 30% net revenue. On top of that, Edenred is a good generator of cash. We are generating more and more cash and we are using this cash to reinvest into a very unique platform. The second thing we said is, yes, the results of 2021 are the consequences of the fact that Edenred has been disrupting itself for the last 5 years. And thanks to the disruption of Edenred, we have also disrupted the markets we are working on. We see a good horizon of growth for Edenred in 2022 and beyond. Why? First of all, because we will continue to invest on our technology, to continue to increase the unicity and the uniqueness of the Edenred platform, but we will continue to develop also new products, new services, even better user experience to be able to grow as well. And not only we want to grow from an economic point of view, but we want also to grow as a platform for good, i.e., delivering product and services that allows the 50 million users around the world to have a more responsible behavior. Thanks a lot for your attention, and enjoy the rest of the day. Bye-bye.