EssilorLuxottica Société anonyme (EL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Technical Difficulty]. I will hand over to Mr. Francesco Milleri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EssilorLuxottica.

Thank you very much, Alexander. Thank you again for joining us today. I will not going to use the speech that the team have written for me this morning, and this is really well done, I apologize everybody. But it is talking about the past. It is just talking about what we achieved, the fact that we doubled the size and the value of the company that profitability is increased in incredible way that we really changed the shape of the market. It is about what we have done so far. And I believe that Paul and Stefano Grassi, they can really present the results much better than me. I would like today really to present our future, what we want to become. As you know, we started as a frame company and lens company 7 years ago and with 2 wonderful enterprise that really have done so well in the past. But from the combination, what we built is something totally different. Now we are very proud to be really addressed as one of the most successful medtech company. We have been ranked 8th among the most innovative company into the world. We have been ranked among the 10 pharmaceutical and Med company in the world. That is what is the future is telling us about our company. And really I would like to present that future through the face and the voice of the scientists that in our labs are really building right now also today our future. You can start with the video, please. [Presentation]

So this is the future that we image, which passed through a pair of glasses and the marketing really come out with this, I believe, a very strong claim empowering humanity. We started from see better, be better, live your life and so on. Now we change really the horizon that we can achieve. What we have just seen are not the labs at the big tech company worth a trillions. What you have seen are our labs around the world in Italy, in France, in Singapore, in China, in U.S. that are working today for the future and many of those implementation, they will come into the market in a short term. That means month, that means a few years. So what we are telling that we really bet on digital society where the frame, lenses and the wearable, wearable computing as we now define what is the core business of the company, it will be the bridge among the real life, social and augmented reality. This is what we want to do. So that connection is put at the center of our company. And we have all the competencies that we need to lead this huge transformation. So what -- the word that we have in mind really is totally different from what we see now, from your wearable you can easily control your car, you will control your automatic in the house, you will pay the bill, you will better hear what someone in a noisy space is trying to tell you. You will monitoring your care, they will advise you. What we are building around these 2 senses is really the best companion that everyone can have something that -- someone that can be every day with us. You will control, you will really advise us what is the best for our life, what is the best for our healthcare. And it will help us to take the best decision in any moment of our life. It is a totally new perspective. Say that we are very proud of our heritage and origin. Anything you have seen today, this future that it was really so difficult even to dream 10 years ago. Most of this really started from the mind of our founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio. I believe that I have to remind that we are following this vision, we are following the idea that from frame and lenses, we can go much ahead on that and transform and really help people in their everyday life. That is so important, I believe, because it's opened for us market, industry, functions that were not even possible to image years ago. You know that our beginning was -- has been in quite a small market. The optical market was worth EUR 100 billion. And now we know that our -- just our company is worth EUR 120 billion, EUR 130 billion. So that was not possible to remain in this small industry and what we can do now move to the new industry that are very close. And that is thanks to digital platform that we have built in the last 3, 4 years that can really work across industry. Now we are really focused on medtech. We are entering on surgery. We are entering on [ thematic ] We will handle our robotics. So that is the message that I would like to pass. I really I'm so proud to have been with us on the video, the normal era that in our lab are building every day, our future and our success. That is the message that I want you to take home of our company for the future. Thanks a lot. With that, I pass it over to Paul.

Thank you, Francesco. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, it is a pleasure to be here with you today. You have just heard Francesco's powerful strategic vision. It's very exciting, it's fascinating, and I would like to share with you how this vision is deeply rooted in the unique strength that we have built and in the solid performance of our core expertise. To fully understand this it is essential to keep in mind integrated omni-channel business model that we have built. It is so unique, and so different. And it stands out in the complex world we live in and it is a strength as we are creating new visions, a new category. Now mark my words, this model serves our 300,000 partners and the 0.5 million consumers that we serve every year. The solid performance of our core expertise and Stefano Grassi will be giving you more specific details in a minute, it is based on several pillars, starting with our constant ability to innovate across all of our product categories. Talking about ophthalmic lenses, 2024 was knocked by the spectacular launch of Transition Gen S which is the continuation of the Varilux adventure with Varilux XR. We also have seen financial growth in Stellest. Stellest plays a major role in myopia management. It slows down myopia evolution in children. It is an area that remains a key growth driver for us alongside connected eyewear, audio and medical technology. These new growth platforms. Now the 3 products I just mentioned accounted for more than half of our growth in lenses. With regard to frames, our brand portfolio was enriched with the new collections. We have a very dynamic portfolio including the first-ever collection for Moncler and the strategic acquisition of the Supreme. We signed a licensing agreement with Diesel, while we renewed our partnerships with iconic houses such as Dolce&Gabbana, Michael Kors, the Prada group including Miu. More recently we announced the renewal of our collaboration with Roger Federer. He was with us a few weeks ago for the tournament in South Eastern France. He's a great guy. These numerous initiatives to strengthen our ability to make our offering ever more desirable. Our iconic brands, Ray-Ban and Oakley are on a very strong momentum. There are many, many initiatives in progress. And if you walk around Paris, you will see big advertising from Ray-Ban. Oakley was at the heart of the Paris Olympic Games with the athletes and it will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year. At the same time, as Francesco hinted, we are investing heavily in connected eyewear and medical technologies because they are changing our business and the way we work in our industry by creating new use cases, use cases using this for French -- for consumers. The key for this adventure as Francesco just shared with us consists in finding real use cases for consumers. In 2024, we reached a milestone, unbelievable who would have thought this 1 year ago. We have sold 2 million Ray-Ban Meta units. Ever since the product was launched in 2023, it is a great companion as Francesco said. I mean that's my own personal flair with Varilux. Now building on this momentum, we decided to increase our production capacity between now and the end of the year to 10 million units per year for connected eyewear. Now another major milestone is the FDA and the European Union certifications for Nuance Audio, which we recently achieved. Now available in the United States and Italy and France. Chrystel will tell you more about this in a few moments. She will explain how we are introducing the new categories in the market. From what I just told you, I would like you to take this message home. You can see a fundamental characteristic of EssilorLuxottica and our strategy. We have this unique capacity to combine complementary businesses. I mean the initial combination was EssilorLuxottica lenses and frames. But today, we're talking about hearing, vision, voice and this has earned us a place among the 10 most innovative companies and among the 50 that are actually changing the world through their positive impact. So why am I referring to this consolidated core expertise and support expansion in those new areas. We are continuing to strengthen our supply team, a unique model, which is very powerful because it is both local and global, integrating lens and frame production, prescription laboratories and instruments. Imagine 600 industrial sites and 120 distribution centers, where we have 80,000 of our colleagues working. They work for the group supply chain. This is a key element to make sure that these products and brands are put on the market. In 2024, we strengthened this with 2 state-of-the-art campuses, Thailand and Mexico as well as a new prescription laboratory in a town called Paul Cezanne, Paris and these investments give us both greater flexibility and more optionalities and support our growth in the complex and constantly changing world. All these advances have with a wealth of skills 200,000 driven by strong values in this people centric model, shared ownership remains on the heart of our culture, nearly 100,000 colleagues are now shareholders in the group in more than 85 countries, and we thank you for your support for all the resolutions that are supporting these programs. 2024 was also marking a significant step forward in our environmental road map, as Elena will share with you. We have made significant progress in our objective of eliminating uncorrected poor vision by 2050 through the actions of OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation. Another step that was also taken was on the foundation's collaboration with the SPECS 2030 initiative from the World Health Organization. As you can see 2024 was a landmark year for EssilorLuxottica in which we consolidated our core expertise, investing in strategic domains to open up to new possibilities. Together with our colleagues, our partners and with you, our shareholders, we will continue to build a very promising future. Thank you for your trust and your support.

Thank you, Francesco. Thank you, Paul. I'm now going to hand over to Stefano Grassi, who will speak in English and will present the annual results for 2024 for EssilorLuxottica.

So, it's a great pleasure for dear shareholders to be with you to share with you the results of this year, a year of growth or significant growth during which EssilorLuxottica continued to invest in product innovation and new technologies. Thank you for your constant support. Okay. So for 2024, I would start with the 5 highlights, 5 numbers that do better qualify our past year results. And as usual, I will start with the number that is related to our revenue growth. 6% is our growth at constant currency for EssilorLuxottica for the full year 2024, which lands to a total revenue for the full year 2024 of EUR 26.5 billion. The second important number that you had to kind of take in your mind, it's represented by our profitability, 17%. That represents our adjusted operating profit that is up 0.5 percentage point, 50 basis points from the 16.5% that we delivered in the course of 2023. The third important number is represented by our net profit growth, 9.8% for the full year 2024. That is a net profit at constant currency, delivered by EssilorLuxottica for last year. The fourth important metrics is represented by our free cash flow generation. Cash is important. And for last year, we delivered the second strongest free cash flow generation in EssilorLuxottica's history, EUR 2.4 billion for the full year 2024. Strong free cash flow generation allows us to propose today a dividend per share of EUR 3.95 with the option of the scrip dividend. But now let me have you a little bit more in detail and walk you through our results, in particular with the revenue and then afterwards, the profitability, and then before concluding today's presentation, I will just give you a little preview on how we started 2025. Now let's go back to '24 for a second. And as usual, let's look at our performance in 2024 across the 4 different regions of EssilorLuxottica. I would draw your attention on the middle column, the third column, that is our results at a constant currency because in this way, you can better appreciate our performance, excluding headwinds or tailwinds coming from currencies. So our overall results was up 6%. In North America, the first region, the largest one, 45% of our revenue base. We delivered 3% growth, pretty balanced growth between the 2 distribution channel, Professional Solutions and direct-to-consumer. The Professional Solutions B2B business in North America was very much driven by a strong performance in our key accounts in a large client that we have in North America. We had a strong business on the frame side, Ray-Ban Meta was instrumental to grow in North America. While on the direct-to-consumer side, I would say, low single-digit comp sales comparable store net sales on our optical retail channel, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and Target Optical. While on Sunglass Hut, we had kind of 2 velocity here. The first 3 quarters of the year, Sunglass Hut comparable sales were in a negative territory in North America, while on the last part of 2024 we saw and experienced a strong rebound on the performance in North America and the comparable sales went up on the high single-digit territory, which led to an overall flattish performance for Sunglass Hut in North America. The second largest region is the EMEA, 37% of our revenue base. You can see the performance of approximately 8% growth at constant currency. In the EMEA region we delivered 15 consecutive quarters of positive growth. And out of those 15 quarters, 13 have been either high single digit or double digit. So you would agree with me that this is probably a performance more close to a fast-growing market than in a mature market like EMEA. In EMEA, most of the countries delivered solid growth. I would probably highlight Italy, Turkey and Eastern Europe that delivered double-digit in 2024, while Germany, Spain, U.K., Middle East, delivered a mid-single-digit for full year 2024. If we look at our Professional Solutions channel, I would say that we had a very strong year. We had a strong year on our frame business, where the growth was driven by price and mix. And we had a strong year, thanks to a strong delivery of our premium lens portfolio in the EMEA region with a growth that was driven by mainly volume and also supported by our price mix. Moving to our direct-to-consumer, high single-digit comparable sales on Optical Retail for EMEA, high single-digit comparable sales on the Sun retail for EMEA. It was an astonishing 2024 for our direct-to-consumer channel. In GrandVision, we continue the journey of integrating GrandVision within the EssilorLuxottica platform. And just to give you an idea, we went now through a continuous evolution of the product assortment in our stores. 70% the lens in GrandVision are supplied from EssilorLuxottica. 85% of the frames present in GrandVision banners today are supplied from EssilorLuxottica. The penetration of technology innovation is tangible, can we see every day. Just to give you an example, today, about 10% of the GrandVision stores are equipped with teleoptometry. And just in 2024, we delivered more than 140,000 eye examination performed with teleoptometry. Moving to another important region, East, Asia Pacific, with a growth that is close to 9%, Asia Pacific, all the key countries in the region were strong positive. I would probably put on the spotlight Japan that had an extraordinary year on a direct-to-consumer, on the Professional Solution B2B year. so it was a remarkable year. In China, we delivered solid mid-single-digit growth. I would say Myopia Solutions, a full set of assets that were made available for Chinese consumers for B2B clients grew in excess of 50% during the course of 2024 and today represents 25% of the base of the revenue base in greater China. So pretty remarkable performance, which obviously we hope to replicate in other parts of the world outside Greater China. The last region in the pipe, it's represented by Latin America. Best performance, you can see close to double-digit, 16 consecutive quarters here of growth in the Latin American region. Most of the countries were strong positive. I would probably mention here the direct-to-consumer channel, which was very much on the double-digit territory, thanks to the optical banners that we have in the Latin America region, the formerly known as GrandVision banner. They are going through a material transformation, renovation of the stores, renovation of the assortment. And that is obviously driving a strong growth at double-digit pace in the Latin American region. Now this is the performance that you see across the 4 different regions. But let me just give you a quick flavor of how our number looks like between the 2 distribution channels, the B2B Professional Solution and the direct-to-consumer. The Professional Solution was up mid-single digits, 4.7% at constant currency. I would say 2 regions on the spotlight, the EMEA and the Latin America delivered high single-digit growth. In Professional Solution, the 2 most important product category, frames and lenses grew strongly in 2024. The growth was mainly driven by price mix, and it was very much due to a strong management of our portfolio in both product categories. The other important distribution channel clearly is direct-to-consumer. And in the direct-to-consumer, you see a 7.1% top line growth at constant currency. That performance was very much driven by a strong delivery of the optical retail channel in the direct-to-consumer. We have a stronger EMEA retail. We had a strong Latin America that was double digits. While on the some part, we had a strong performance as I mentioned before on the EMEA region that was offset by a flat year-over-year performance in Sunglass Hut North America. Overall, 6% growth at constant currency. When we look at our number at current exchange results, you will be looking at 4.4% growth. So in terms of currency, in 2024, we suffered a bit of headwinds from the currency. And it wasn't very much the U.S. dollar. It was actually due from minor currencies like the Argentinian pesos, the Turkish lira, in Brazilian reais to a certain extent, that devaluated against euro in the course of 2024 compared to 2023. Now this is the picture for our revenue. Let me just give you a quick snapshot on our profitability. As usual, in this slide, you have a lot of numbers, and I do apologize every year but I would drive your attention to really 3 numbers that explain you at the best our results for 2024. Clearly, you see revenue in the first circle, 6% growth at constant currency. There is another number that is 9.4%, the operating profit on an adjusted basis. That is the growth year-over-year of our profit before tax. And as you can see, we delivered a year where profitability grew at a faster pace than our revenue. That means that our margins improved 20 basis points at current change, 50 basis points, 0.5 percentage point when you look at our numbers at constant currency. How do we do that? On one side, we had a good management of price and mix. Therefore, the gross profit was actually positive, improved year-over-year. And that was good because in 2023 actually, our gross profit was slightly down. It's great to see a different trend in our profitability at the gross margin level. And we also had a very good management of the operating expenses, investing where it was needed, in marketing, in new initiative, in sales force, in digital, across the different channels and at the same time, keeping the rigor on our cost base. Below the operating profit, we had a good management of our financials. The increase of our financials is not due to the cost of our debt, which is actually pretty much under control with a very marginal increase, but it's more due to the application of the accounting for lease that drove to a higher implied cost for our leases. Our tax rate broadly in line for 2023 at 23% approximately tax rate year-over-year, which leads to an overall growth of our net profit at constant currency of 9.8%. That is the third circle number at the bottom of the slide. So those outstanding results clearly have a translation in our dividend per share proposal but before showing you the landing point, I think, it is important for all of us to know and acknowledge where we started. That is the dividend per share that was granted to EssilorLuxottica shareholders back at the inception of this journey, EUR 2.04 per share. Today, 2024, we are proposing an increase of 94% dividend per share at EUR 3, 95% again, payable with option of scrip dividend. Now before I pass it back to Alexander, I mentioned before, just a quick highlight on how we started 2025. Clearly, it's near where the market environment has a lot of uncertainty and for all the reasons that we read every day on the papers. But despite that the EssilorLuxottica results in the first quarter of 2025 are remarkable. Our revenue grew 7.3% at constant currency. All the four regions, North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America delivered strong growth in the first quarter of 2025. And the other positive news is that for the first quarter, currency created some tailwinds in our numbers. As you can see on the bottom right, our revenue grew 8.1% at current exchange rate. The main driver for that is the U.S. dollar during the course of the first quarter of 2025, devaluated against euro, approximately 3% year-over-year. So we got at least for the first quarter of the year a nice tailwinds in our results. With that, I want to thank you for all your support and pass it over to Alexander. Thank you.

Thank you, Stefano. I'd like to give the floor to Elena Dimichino responsible for sustainable development, and she's going to give you an overview on the planet and the stable development project for EssilorLuxottica. She's going to speak in English. [Presentation]

Hello, it is a pleasure to be with you today and share with you today, what we have achieved with our sustainable development program we called Eyes on the Planet as well as the progress made by the one side to OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation. So Eyes of the Planet is the journey, is a journey made of responsibility, innovation and collaboration. Our progress across all the pillars of our progress across all the pillars of our program actually have been recognized by different ESG ratings -- rankings, and the stock market indices, as you can see here. Among these, EssilorLuxottica entered the Dow Jones best-in-class Europe index for the first time, ranking among the top European companies in ESG performance. Also, we were globally recognized on the Fortune change at the world list for the fourth time for our inclusive and impact-driven approach to social change. All these recognitions clearly show that our work is making a real difference, a real difference on the environment, society and the communities in need. As the planet is indeed a long-term, a longer-term responsibility that belongs to all of us. And thanks also to the collaboration with many different teams and functions, we advanced in all the 5 pillars. Within the most significant accomplishments over last year, the science-based target initiative validated our new 2030 decarbonization targets across all our scopes, Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3, making again a key milestone in our efforts to reduce the environmental impact of our group. Meanwhile, we continue to invest in the on-site production of renewable energy, up by 65% year-on-year. But we are also continuing to innovate and to invest in circularity to be more and more circular. So in 2024, over 40% of our new collections were made with responsible materials for eyewear and plano lenses. And we continue to limit the use of single-use plastic items. In our logistics packaging, and in the consumer packaging for Eyewear and Oakley apparel, footwear and accessories, resulting in a reduction of 150 tons. And through our retail network, we continue to engage our consumers in our circularity mindset, whether it is through care and repair services or collect and recycled services. Touching the social dimension of our Eyes on the Planet program, I will start with the global rollout of our internal reporting tools SpeakUp, which is available 24/7 in 19 languages. And we are continuing also to strengthen our responsible sourcing program. But other key milestones include that the publication of the global environmental health and safety policy and of the global diversity, equity and inclusion policy. Also, I would like to mention the roll out, actually the launch of our your voice listening campaign that resulted in a global participation rate of 78%. Finally, our -- also our Leonard platform continue to play a key role in building an inclusive learning culture. Inside and outside the organization, with hours of education that were up by 25% in 2024. But sustainability is also about awareness and the local activation. We expanded the philanthropic efforts from Eyes on Art, which is more focused on art accessibility, whether digitally or via tactile -- on a tactile manner to the one side EssilorLuxottica Foundation. The foundation is indeed a key partner in advancing the social dimension of our sustainability strategy. And you see here in this slide, the great achievements against the group ambition of -- to eliminate uncorrected provision in a generation. So over 86 million people have been equipped with eyeglasses so far, meaning 29 people per minute and essential vision care is brought to rural communities. Thanks to the over 33,000 optical points in rural communities that we have been establishing so far. As Paul mentioned before, the foundation has also been named at the first global collaborating partner on the World Health Organization's SPECS 2030 initiative. Through this initiative, partners will work to correct their reflective errors, prevent myopia and expand access to vision care around the world, proud of this achievement. And you know what, it's also nice to be proud of this interconnection between mission and sustainability, which is delivering a real impact, as I've shown you. You have seen that we are addressing climate change. We are implementing circularity. We are making this company a diverse and inclusive working environment. We are engaging our partners in our ethical business approach, and we are supporting local communities and we'll continue this way, fulfilling our mission and sustainability ambitions. I think we can now launch a video. Thank you. [Presentation]

[Interpreted] Thank you, a for your presentation. I would like to give the floor to Norbert Gorny, he's the Scientific Manager Director for EssilorLuxottica.

Good morning, everyone. I'm truly pleased having the opportunity this morning to illustrate the scientific journey EssilorLuxottica is undertaking and of course, our evolution towards becoming a leader in medical technology. Science and research build the foundation of innovation. And innovation is the primary fuel for growth and value creation. That is the very reason why research and innovation have always been at the heart of our group strategy. With our global scientific community of thousands of experts, chemists, physicists, neurosciences, data scientists and many engineers. We have built deep know-how in many important disciplines of expertise. From the invention of the progressive addition lens under the brand of Varilux to the successful market introduction of Nuance Audio, we continuously demonstrate our capability to push the borders of science and research. But while excellence in physics applied mathematics and physiology delivered important insights in the past and they still do in present. These capabilities won't be sufficient to lead innovation in the future. Hence, we systematically invest in buildup of new capabilities, for example, in neurophysiology, artificial intelligence, variable technologies, but also in pharmacology to ensure that we continuously have a flow in place of relevant contributions from research and science. It is well reflected in today's commercial activities that our scientific engagement swiftly propels our business forward. And more than that, it enables us and thereby the entire industry to establish new categories. Example, given our long-term commitment to explore myopia, and I'm talking an engagement that has lasted more than 20 years. This engagement has enabled us to provide a clinically proven solution available in the portfolio of Stellest lenses that helps children all around the world to manage the myopia condition. It's a breakthrough innovation, showing highest efficacy in myopia treatment. With Nuance Audio, we pioneer an important, but still unmet patient need. There's more than 1.2 billion people in the world that suffer from a mild to moderate hearing impairment. It's a medical condition, which can be managed well through the access to our over-the-counter solution that is already cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. Our Ray-Ban corporation delivers more than just a successful product. It provides a platform, a platform that has the power to host a variety of technologies, meeting user expectations. Today, of course, mainly in the field of listening, capturing and sharing but with the potential to go far beyond. And finally, as an early mover in using AI as a means of research and development in our industry. We have successfully demonstrated the power with our digital twin technology. The benefit of AI has delivered designs that can be experienced already today in the most recent generations of Varilux products, XR and Xtend. Moving ahead, our activities will shift focus. In the area of vision and neuroscience, we will continue, of course, our effort to provide the most efficacious solutions for myopia management. But instead of only slowing down the progression, we'll put more focus and emphasis on stopping the progression and, of course, putting energy on understanding how myopia as an onset can be delayed and prevented. First clinical results that we achieved in the course of '24 give us a very positive perspective on this endeavor. Furthermore, life modulation will become an area of increasing scientific interest. Light has a significant influence on human physiology. Certain wavelengths are responsible for hormone expression or suppression. Light manages the circadian rhythm. It could cause photophobia. It influences mood and neurological disorders. We will enhance our activities in that field. We will discover new ways of light modulation for the sake of providing opportunities for new therapies and of course, for the development of well-being products. With the first generation of Nuance Audio, we established a completely new product category. But I think it goes without saying that our research teams will continue exploring new technologies that will significantly enhance and expand today's value proposition. We look into the management of severe impairment conditions. We look into the provision of devices that can self-adjust to its environment, thereby adapting exactly the amplification function that is needed by the patient. And of course, beyond amplification, we look into the management of other disease clusters as they are tinnitus or dyslexia management. As said, Ray-Ban Meta should not be considered as a product. It should be considered as a technology platform. And I would even go as far as to say, it should be seen as a wearable real estate, a real estate that is ready to onboard new applications. Going forward, our efforts will focus more and more on sensor technology for capturing data that are relevant for the measurement of the monitoring of environmental and physiological conditions, making much better use of the richest sources of biometric information of our body, which is our head and of course, our eyes. And this leads us back to artificial intelligence, where we see an exciting future in combination with the coming generation of wearables. Moreover, AI applications are also at the core of what we declare med tech strategy in our group. With the acquisition of Heidelberg Engineering and Cellview, we have now access to 2 powerful imaging platforms. Given the fact that our eyes are the window to our body, given the fact that our eyes tell stories about more than 50 important biomarkers, giving a perfect condition, a real-time condition of our health status. We have the opportunity to use those imaging platforms and to make them AI-driven diagnostic tools for ophthalmic conditions but going far beyond for multi-biomarker diagnostics. To summarize, we drive a global research network that is built on 3 pillars. We have a strong internal competency well organized across Europe, Asia and the U.S. We have a growing network of academic and clinical partners everywhere in the world and through strategic acquisitions, we continuously build new competencies and capabilities to drive our agenda forward. We successfully demonstrated our ability to translate research insights into attractive business opportunities, and we are well prepared to continue this journey in the years to come. Thank you for listening.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Norbert for that presentation. I'm now going to hand over to Chrystel Barranger, President of Wholesale EMEA and Asia. Chrystel, over to you.

[Interpreted] Good morning, everybody. I'm delighted to be here with you today to present how EssilorLuxottica is transforming the optical market on a daily basis. Our leadership is based on our unique integrated platform, which combines a global scale and local agility in 150 countries, as Paul mentioned before. Our portfolio is at the forefront of all vision categories from ophthalmic lenses to luxury to high-tech instruments and is driven by the most popular brands among consumers and recognized by professionals. This makes it possible for us to be competitive in every market segment. Omnichannel deployment through our 18,000 stores, our 72 e-commerce platforms. And above all, or 300,000 partner opticians worldwide enables us to respond to and often anticipate consumer needs. Thanks to our multiple supply chain, we equip hundreds of millions of wearers quickly, flexibility with flexibility and resilience and adapt to the market in real time. Finally, our capacity for innovation, which is growing exponentially positions us uniquely to capture sustainable growth and strengthen our global leadership. And we innovate boldly to shape the future vision. Today, our signature is our ability to bring to market at high speed solutions that make a clean break that enable everyone to live life to the fullest, made possible by combining advances in technology, artificial intelligence and science. With Ray-Ban Meta and the connected eyewear category. We are completely redefining the functionality and use of eyewear, offering a more fluid, more connected life to every wearer. The second generation, as you've already heard, is already a hit with over 2 million pairs sold with Nuance Audio that we're just starting to market, we are addressing an unmet need for those with a mild to moderate hearing loss by combining vision and hearing in a single solution. I'll come back to this later. Through Stellest and [indiscernible], we are developing therapies to slow progression by myopia global pandemic and treat eye diseases. Finally, our ambition goes further to transform eye exams into true health exams, capable of detecting early and treat eye care for comprehensive preventive health care approach. As you can see from medical technologies to supersmart glasses, we are moving forward with the impact with an ambitious vision for the future of the industry and with it. And through our innovations, we are revitalizing our iconic brands and amplifying their influence. The prime example is, of course, Ray-Ban, which has tens of millions of wearers worldwide. And which has seen solid double-digit growth in 2024, particularly boosted by Ray-Ban Meta and its rollout and distribution. With Ray-Ban Meta, we launched the first connected glasses that perfectly combine timeless style, advanced features and the power of artificial intelligence. And that's why people love them. It's no longer science fiction. Instant translation, real-time location information, impromptu restaurant searches, everything is not possible without taking out your phone and in some 15 to 20 countries, Ray-Ban Meta is transforming the way people create, communicate and live their daily lives. And the use cases are only multiplying. So is in-store traffic and footfall. And now the brand is now available in optical stores, including our flagship stores. We are the largest electronic retailers expanding both its territory of influence and its core audience. To further strengthen this connection with the younger generation, we have entrusted the creative direction of Ray-Ban to add up, Rocky, a major figure in contemporary culture. Ray-Ban is clearly no longer just an icon. It influences culture and above all, it redefines the future of eyewear. And our other iconic brands will not be left behind. We're also paving a way for a new area of value creation at the intersection of vision and hearing with Nuance Audio, glasses that help you see and hear better, a pair of glasses that can be fully controlled from a mobile phone and amplify sound, thanks to technology discretely integrated in a 42-gram frame. This is a genuine feat placed where there's huge need, nearly 1 in 5 adults over the age of 45 has hearing loss, and low uptake of traditional solutions at that age, Nuance has created a new category, combining discretion, comfort and accessibility. It makes it possible for opticians and audiologists to expand their offering, attract new customers and generate added value, particularly when your is equipped with Varilux and Transitions lenses. After having obtained the necessary accreditation in the U.S. and Europe, and the possibility to distribute without a prescription. We recently launched the product in the U.S., Italy and France. Today, Nuance is already distributed in 5,000 points of sale in these 3 countries. And its rollout will continue throughout the year. The enthusiasm of our partners is genuine. And together, we will work to create to grow and make this new brand grow at the intersection of vision and hearing. In 2024 beyond Ray-Ban Meta, Transition Gen S and Essilor Stellest have been accelerated. Innovation is the growth engine of our core business. And today, we are amplifying its deployment, thanks to the synergies enabled by our ecosystem. Transition Gen S is a perfect example of this. In less than a year, we launched this new generation of ultra dynamic lenses worldwide. Thanks to strategic partnerships with our lens and frame brands, particularly Essilor and Ray-Ban, systematic recommendations in our stores and by our partners and powerful activation on wearables where penetration exceeds 50%. Gen S has established itself as a standard with over 17 million wearers. Another example is the slowing down of myopia. Essilor Stellest continues to grow strongly in China and is also available in 48 countries. We are rolling it out across all channels, including hospitals and clinics. We have reached a new milestone with the addition of suitable frames and the expansion of our strategy from therapy to prevention. Our ecosystem enables us to quickly achieve mass consumer adoption and our ambition is to make every innovation a lever for industry transformation. Furthermore, we operate in, as Paul said, over 600 industrial sites and facilities presented worldwide, and we are investing to strengthen our advantage and better serve our partners. A few words for example, about a brand-new laboratory of excellence in the Paris region, with the capacity 6 million lenses per year. It supports 40% growth in our national production and the expansion of our Origin France guarantee certified lenses. This world-class site combining cutting-edge technology and human expertise is also the first industrial site in France to aim for LEED gold certification. It illustrates our commitment to sustainable development. But it will also enable us to strengthen our ties with our Essilor experts by offering them express deliveries, new services and in particular, the delivery of fully assembled glasses. Finally, we are transforming the consumer experience to make it more accessible in -- by digitizing our point of sale. Artificial intelligence makes it possible to have ultraprecise virtual trials, making it easy to choose frames. Digital measurement of the pupillary distance ensures optimal fit from maximum comfort and visual performance. In some countries, we are integrating AI-assisted retinal diagnostic solutions capable of detecting early signs of eye disease as well as teleoptometry services giving consumers faster and easier access to remote eye exams. By combining personalization, preventive health care and user access to care, we are helping to elevate the industry. In conclusion, we involve all our leadership every day with responsibility and commitment. Together, we are determined with the 200,000 employees of EssilorLuxottica to deliver results that match our potential. We are also committed to the industry, enabling it to position itself at the forefront of this technological revolution. And finally, we are convinced that the eye will become the next gateway to greater connectivity and a valuable window on our health. Eyewear will continue to reinvent itself to offer us ever more superpowers, as you saw in Francesco's introduction. We are creating an inspiring future where technology, innovation and people move forward together, towards a world that is more attentive to the well-being of everyone. Thank you for your trust and support.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Chrystel. I'm now going to hand over to Andrea Zappia, Chairman of the Nomination and Compensation Committee. I'll ask him to join us at the lectern to present the compensation policy for corporate offices. Andrea, over to you.

Ladies and gentleman, glad to be again here this year. Before taking you through my few remarks, I'd like just to say that even as a Board member, and I'm sure my colleagues here would say the same, we have the privilege to follow the work done by EssilorLuxottica regularly during the year. It's still extraordinary to see what we are seeing today. The results, the vision for the future the great innovation, the great ability to deliver to the market, the role we have with our responsibility through the planet and to the world. I think it makes us also the Board very proud to be here. Having said that, my objective today is to share with you what we have decided and work through the year as a committee. I've been -- the pleasure to chair this committee since 2021, and we have seen this progress of the company going through step by step and the ability to look at the future. And our discussion, our thoughts and the committee are always focused in trying to support this performance going forward. Therefore, what does this mean? It means that when we think about compensation, we think about rewarding performance and making sure that this performance is totally aligned with the interest of the shareholders. As you can see, therefore, the executive compensation is highly skewed towards performance with 90% of this, which is performance-based. And I would say, 75%, which is towards the long term. When we look at 2024, we have seen the results that Francesco, Paul and Stefano shared. This has turned into the following results for the variable compensation with a total achievement of 118% this year. As a reminder, we presented last year adjusted EPS, revenue growth and operating profit to be the key criteria that determined these results, again, a reflection of the excellent results of the group. If we move to the corporate office specifically compensation in 2024, this should have no surprise for you. And it takes me to the first 3 resolutions you'll be asked to vote for. Resolution #5 concerns the approval of the compensation report of the corporate officers. And more specifically here, Resolution #6 and #7 cover the compensation of the Chairman and CEO and the Deputy CEO. As said, the amount granted in the past year are fully consistent with the policy approved a year ago. Moving now to 2025. Even here, there should be no surprises. The Resolution #8 relates to compensation point of the Board members, #9 and #10 are about the compensation policy for Chairman, CEO and for the Deputy CEO. Both are unchanged. You probably remember that last year, we presented a new structure that was meant to be in place for 3 years. As mentioned again, 90% of the packaging performance based, let's now try to close -- have a closer look to this criteria. In 2025, we have kept the variable compensation criteria exactly the same. As you can see, it's, again, adjusted earnings per share revenue growth and adjusted operating profits. So no change. When we go to long-term incentive, we made some adjustments. While keeping the 3 criteria the same, we have adjusted their weight in order to make these criteria even more consistent with the ability to deliver for shareholders. We have therefore increased the adjusted EPS increase, cumulative adjusted EPS increase from 40% to 50%, reduced the share price growth from 40% to 30%. And the CSR, which I'm very proud of, remains stable at 20% remaining an important target for the top executives. What we have done, we have also removed the Euro Stocks comparison benchmark that has been present since a long time in this criteria. It was something honestly, we should have done last year already. It was a bit of an oversight. We didn't need a fourth criteria to this, and this was actually introduced when there was only a single criteria, and we got a shareholder suggestion to move it to 2. So now with 3, we feel very confident we are in a good place to note that in order to achieve the target in the next 3 years the overall company value should increase by EUR 25 billion. Last thing worth mentioning in terms of policy is that we introduced on our tool, to our arsenal in the ability to find the right move for compensation of the executive, which is the addition of, in the long-term incentive plan of a possibility of awarding an exceptional reward to the exec. Of course, it will be something need to be fully justified, has to be approved by the Board and ultimately approved by this AGM. Last point from my side is touching many, many more people. and has been mentioned earlier, it's really great to highlight today the success of our global employee shareholding plan. We have reached now nearly 100,000 employees that are part of this plan. 63,500 took part of the new plan and the total investment by the employees has tripled. Needless to say, this is the best proof of the trust that employees have towards their leadership and the commitment that they have towards the success of the company, something that really should make us not only proud, but also very reassured about the continuous performance of this company. Thank you so much.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Andrea. In order to close now list of presentation, I will ask Stéphane Basset to join us here and he's going to share with us a summary of the work conducted by the statutory auditors.

[Interpreted] Mr. Secretary of the meeting, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon, good morning. I am pleased to be here with you today to report to you on behalf of statutory auditors on our vision and the report we have issued for the financial year that ended December 31, 2024. Now these reports have been made available to you by the company and are included in the universal registration document filed with the AMF and published on the EssilorLuxottica website. As is customary, I suggest that we do not read them in their entirety. I'd rather provide you with a summary. First of all, with regard to the consolidated financial statements and the annual financial statement, we remind you that our work is designed to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement and have been prepared in accordance with the applicable accounting standards and that they give a true and fair view of the results of operations, financial position and assets of the group and the company at the end of the financial year. We conducted our work in accordance with professional standards applicable in France. And at the end of engagement, we presented our conclusions to the Audit and Risk Committee as well as the Board of Directors of your company. These financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors on February 12, 2025 based on the information available at that date. In summary, we issued an unqualified opinion on the annual financial statements and consolidated financial statements of EssilorLuxottica for financial year that ended December 31, 2024. Our report on the annual financial statements and consolidated financial statements highlight the key items of audit. Generally speaking, these key points are areas that require us to pay particular attention due to the nature, to the risk of material misstatements associated with them, and the financial amounts involved as well as significant judgment required to assess the assumptions and the estimates underlying them. As you can see on the screen, these key point are for the consolidated financial statement, assessment of the recoverable amount of goodwill and other intangible assets and assessment of provision for litigation and contingent liability. For the annual financial statements, we're talking about the valuation of the equity investment. Our reports on the accounts include that each of these points, a description of the risk identified as well as the procedures we have implemented to address those risks. Finally our report on the accounting include the conclusions of a number of specific checks that have been required by law that we carried out based on the information required in the management report, more specifically the section on corporate governance. We have summarized the nature and the scope of these verifications in the table currently this date on the screen. In summary, we have no specific comments to make following these checks and verifications. This year our company published for the first time, sustainability information in its management report for the -- in accordance with the provisions of the French transposition of the European directive known as the CSRD. PwC issued a report providing limited assurance on the compliance of the 3 elements presented on the screen with the applicable rules, specifically the ESRS standards. Based on our work, we concluded that we could not identify any material errors, omissions, or inconsistency. We made 2 observations that do not put these conclusions into questions and will be followed up in 2025. Moving on to our report on regulated agreement. You will see that during the financial year, there have been no new agreements approved by the Board of Directors. With regard to agreements that already have been approved and which continue to be executed during the past financial year, this concerns the service contract with Covivio S.A. for support provided in managing EssilorLuxottica's real estate portfolio. This contract was authorized by the Board of Directors on May 15, 2023. Finally, we also issued a special report required by law on draft resolution relating to delegations or authorization requested by your Board of Directors in connection with the capital transaction. This concerns resolution #15 that will be submitted for your approval. We have no specific items to bring to your attention with regard to this report. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, thank you very much for your attention. I will now give the floor back to Mr. Alexander Lunshof, secretary of the meeting.

[Interpreted] Thank you to the statutory auditors for their work during the 2024 financial year. We now move on to the question-and-answer session, which will last for 30 minutes. I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that we have received a number of written questions in advance of this general meeting. Prior to the meeting, the Board of Directors approved the replies provided to these written questions, and they were published yesterday on the company's website. So that we have more time for discussion with the shareholders. We will not read out these replies during the meeting. I therefore encourage you to look at these replies on the company's website. We move on to the questions from the floor. For organization purposes, I suggest that we listen to questions from 5 of you before responding and to allow as many people as possible to speak, we kindly request that each shareholder to ask 1 question. Please note that questions must relate to the agenda of today's meeting. And so that we allow as many shareholders as possible to speak. Please keep your questions short. When asking your questions, also please introduce yourself. There are attendants circulating in the room to hand you the microphones.

[Interpreted] Everyone, I'm [ Francesco Georgia ]. I've been a shareholder since the late '90s of Luxottica when it was still listed in Wall Street. First of all, congratulations for another year of solid growth. Really every year, you astonish us with numbers which grow better and better. I would like to ask 2 very short questions. There are rumors circulating that Meta might enter into the share capital of EssilorLuxottica. I'd like to ask if these just founded rumors or if 2025 might be the year in which they will enter as the percentage apparently is going to be very high. And so you're certainly informed of this. My second question, are you studying some dossier, some file for new acquisitions or new partnerships. And then I wanted to remind you that 7 years, 8 years from the announcement, 7 years since the merger, after this enormous merger between 2 very great companies. So in these 7 years we've reached the 118th company in terms of capitalization with 13 in Europe and 4 are on the Paris Stock Exchange. And yes, your number for the stock exchange, the share price has grown by 130% whereas LVMH only grew by 46%, carrying loss 61%. So this is the best answer, I believe, to all those people who 7 or 8 years ago were against this merger, those people who, during the famous shareholders meeting of 2019 would whistle and make comments. So this is the best answer you could give them, numbers speak for themselves. For all these reasons, I would like to thank very much all the workers of EssilorLuxottica, the blue collar workers, our management those who spoke today, those who are working behind the wings, those who work all over the world, I thank the previous Board of Directors and the current Board of Directors made up of people with a very high profile that certainly given a helping hand to the management. And I'd like to thank Mr. Grassi and Mr. du Saillant, and our pillars in this historic moment, Mr. Lunshof and last but not least, I would like to thank the person who is promoting in the very best of ways, the dream, the vision of Mr. Del Vecchio. So thank you, Mr. Milleri for everything you have done in these years, what you are doing now. And what I hope you will continue to do in your position for many, many years to come. So thank you very much, and I wish you all the best for your work.

[Interpreted] Any another question? Number one.

[Interpreted] Hello, good morning, Mr. Chair, Mr. President. The activity, and I'm talking about the activity in terms of profitability of our group. Second quick question about more technical one, eyewear rimless classes has since forever to make the most of the technological progress that was presented at the beginning of our meeting. And should I actually have to get up on those or not? Thank you.

We'll take another person. Number 2.

[indiscernible] Individual shareholder. Are you worried about competition from lenses that make it possible that you won't have to wear glasses for 30 years from 1982 to 2012. And what about cataract operations that make it possible that I haven't had to wear them since then.

Thank you. We'll move on to question number 4.

Yes. Good morning. I'm an individual shareholder. And I wanted to say that congratulations, bravissimo, if I may, in Italian for everything you've done, for your presence at the Works Council and at your tech or world leader in wearables with your smart glasses from Ray-Ban. My first question is about copies. What's your licensing or patenting strategy. My second question is about Meta investment. And in particular, I get the feeling that Mr. Zuckerberg is a better salesman, I'm very happy to see that you've got a vision of technological platforms. Could you say a bit more about that?

And finally, a final question. That gentleman there.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your presentation, focusing on the future as a private shareholder and individual historic shareholder. I'd like to remind you of the history at the time when there was a plant in [indiscernible] and an optician could order lenses and be delivered by an SM with a Maserati -- using Maserati engine, in fact, there was somebody there. That was really a Franco-Italian rapprochement. But my question is mostly for Mr. Gorny, in the presentations that were given this morning. I'd like to know if Essilor is working on people who've lost their retinas that have been replaced by silicon and for which surgery didn't work, has Essilor got a solution? Thank you for your answer.

[Interpreted] We will answer these few questions before moving on to others. With regard the investment or the arrival of Meta in our capital that was mentioned, this is -- these are factors that were mentioned in the media. We cannot comment on that, from us as a company. From that point of view, we have nothing else to say about it. Maybe Francesco, you would like to say something or move on to another one?

[indiscernible] second one on new acquisition. M&A is in the DNA of our company. Of course, we have many dossiers on the table, small, midsize, big company are on our target. We need to add much more competencies and technology to our portfolio, And we have 2 approach: One is inside lab, as you have seen; and the others is really collaboration or acquisition. So in the next -- in this year and next year, I'm sure that we are able to close some good deal that will add capabilities and competencies to the group. We are looking in many directions. One is really reinforce our chipset design capability, low consumption. Maybe this is something not familiar with many of you, but this is really -- is the game changers on the wearable. We are also looking to expand our capability on the surgical part looking at high clinic and hospital around the world, complementing our capability, not just to correct, but our capability to treat and really to cure pathology in the -- of the eyes. Third is really we are working a lot investing on AI. As you know there are 2 approach on that. One are muscle that is the big tech, are investing, I don't know, EUR 20 billion, EUR 30 billion. We cannot do that. But we are now focusing on implementing through acquisition and hiring smart people implementing our AI center. It will mostly localize in Israel, but it will be almost everywhere in the world because AI will be the base and the complement of any other activities we are now implementing. Thank you.

[Interpreted] And tariffs?

So I take the answer for the question regarding tariffs. Clearly, EssilorLuxottica is not immune from the tariffs. That said, the situation, the framework is extremely changing and evolving, I would say, on a daily basis. So it's kind of hard to see and stop a point and say, okay, this is a stable framework. With that said, there are really 3 things in which the company is working as we speak. First of all, we keep a high focus on strategy to develop EssilorLuxottica as a key leader company in the med-tech sector. That has been very well explained by Francesco and Paul before, and we will continue to invest and direct our investments in that direction. That plan, that strategy will not be diverted because of what's happening in the U.S. due to the tariffs. The second important aspect is related to the diversification of our supply chain. This is a journey that EssilorLuxottica undertook already a few years back, investing in countries like Thailand, simplifying and creating more efficiency in our laboratory capacity in France, developing additional capacity in Mexico on both lens mass production and Rx laboratories capabilities. Our goal and objective is always one to manufacture in the most favorable, economically speaking, country without having any compromise in quality and service level. The third important aspect is related to pricing. We are evaluating price adjustments in the U.S. on a single-digit territory. And that's something that, as I said, we're evaluating as we speak. With that said, the combination of those 3 things will create a significant offset to the headwinds that we're seeing from a tariff standpoint. Clearly, this situation continues to evolve. And obviously, we will regroup periodically to understand whether in certain actions and certain initiatives, we need to go deeper and if that is the case, we'll certainly do so.

I'll take 2 questions. There was a question firstly from the gentleman at the top of the room, who said he had very -- he had rimless glasses, wearing [indiscernible] very high-quality lenses, how will I be able to use these connected functions in this kind of frame? Well, the way of looking at all these issues is clearly is the frame is part of the person's style. And that's a very good thing because it means a lot of strength for our brands, for the entire design aspects. It's one of the great capacities in our group. And what you see us do when we are gradually creating collections of connected frames, [indiscernible] we're trying to address style issues while including increasingly high-efficient powerful functionalities, including AI to find use cases that we've all explained. And that's my case as well. I have almost rimless classes. I know I've got my second one here now all the time, that make it possible to have my connected life to ask questions and to answer. Now it gives me a slightly different style, but that's not the issue. The issue is that we're having -- we have access to completely new functionalities. That's what our group is starting to create. While staying within a certain lens, I don't want to have something that does -- it's something that weighs 60 grams. This is 42 grams, as Chrystel said before. So what we want to put in as much as possible as many functionalities as possible and eliminating weight, as our Chairman, Francesco, mentioned earlier and by our Scientific Officer. That's the first point. There was another question to do with contacts and cataracts and what have you. I think when you look at -- you got to look at EssilorLuxottica as a platform. We are a platform company that is progressively acquiring with its med-tech capacity and high-tech capacity the ability to address all pathologies relating to the eye. As Norbert explained, we have this instrument platform for diagnostics and interpretation of everything that we can now do with Heidelberg Technology, Pulse, Cellview, Espansione in the last 12 months. And you can see that we created all these diagnostic platforms that can be available to clinics and hospitals and for ophthalmologists and opticians. And at the same time have this ability in the group to distribute every solution, including -- and you talk about lensless, we are the biggest distributor of contact lenses for our opticians and for our own retail channels. So what you should look at and from what we told you today is this idea that we have a med-tech platform which is increasingly becoming concerned with good vision, good hearing and connected life for individuals.

[Interpreted] Yes. Well, this means we need innovation and our innovations are protected by patent. We have applied a global policy to protect all of our discoveries, our innovations with patents to protect our know-how and also to defend our copyrights and all of our brands. We also actively fight against counterfeited products when our brands are being counterfeited, but also as far as patents are concerned, we have a very active policy to avoid counterfeited products being manufactured or to avoid our innovations being used by third without our authorization.

We ask our Scientist In-Chief to answer for cataract and for transplantation and other things that we are very interesting in.

Thank you, Commander In-chief. Thank you for the question, then I have 2 answers to this question. One is a short one, which is no, we are not engaged in therapeutic means for managing this very important aspect of the growing blindness in humans. My second answer is, you have seen we have a very strong global academic network. And I would like to mention 2 connections in this network that are important for the question. One is [indiscernible] where we have a traditional strong research relationship. There are teams in Bastille working on therapies that could help people with the repair or the replacement of damaged photocells. And we are building a new connection to the medical center of the University of Pittsburgh through our strong connection with Professor [ Sahil ] who is a long-term scientific partner for us. There, there are 2 teams working firstly on a therapy to replace damaged photocells by reprogrammed stem cells. And secondly, another group in Pittsburgh is focusing together with colleagues in Paris on photocell replacement by silicon. So we are exploring these opportunities at this moment in time, but we are not yet engaged in developing a medical device or a therapy.

Yes. I tried to answer to the platform technology, role of Meta and many other stuff that are connected. The question is really smart. We are talking about platform. We are not talking anymore about single pieces of technology in the wearable. We refer to our activities and frame as wearable computing that is really a wild approach to all we can do in the future through a frame activate by sensor, activate by camera, activate by many others capability that we can really build inside the frame. Meta is a part of our strategy, is one of the most important partnership that we have, is still in place. I would believe that it will remain in place for a long term, but it's just a part of our strategy. Nuance is absolutely a platform on base and focus on audio that belongs exclusively to our company, is totally patent and protected and we separate as a platform and as a technology from the Meta platform. In the future maybe all this kind of approach we will converge. It is clear that AI in the quantistic calculations, that is the other part where we are looking for and we start to understand how will impact our industry globally, they will converge in a single platform. And what we have in mind that the function that now are represented or divided in a different hardware, it will be transformed in app, application. Now you can buy the Nuance Audio frame and experience something special, you can really hear better, be focused on your -- the people in front of you, also in a noisy -- strong noisy place. But you have one dedicated hardware. You can have Ray-Ban Meta and in the future, many other brands with the feature that we have in Meta, but are hardware-oriented. What we see is all those are kind of function it will be transformed in services that you can buy online and pay as a service. It is like you may be subscribe Netflix or others or Spotify, at the same time in the future in your wearable computing, you have the capability to subscribe the Nuance app. At that point, I don't know, for $90 or EUR 90 per month, you can have that functionality, you pay for what you use. You will have a camera that can recognize. You can buy AI application that help you to train or whatever you want, and this is the model of the future, where the hardware that now is the real focus because the technology is not really at the level that we want. We improved so much in the last 3 years, but we are still not there, especially for the projection. You saw that we are working to many technology on that kind of functionality. One of the most promised is microLED, but there are many others, hologram and that we are looking at. When the hardware platform, it will be stabilized, in our dream, it will replace completely the mobile, you will not need any more the mobile with you. At that point, the platform is -- would be really a place where you can really buy and use the application that you need in the moment that you need and pay for what you really use. This is the vision that we have. And this is, I don't know, 30 years after the first iPhone, is the same vision, but that we move in a new device, we believe that frame, leave your hands free, give much more capability, is close to the sense that really run your life; eyes, ear and all the other information that we need to advise people and take people in good health. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you. We can take a couple more questions. I see here a question.

[Interpreted] [indiscernible] to the team because I do not take it for granted that an integration of 2 successful entities is going to be successful and the results of the value of the share just are the picture of the situation. So my question is maybe very simple. I'm going back to the tariff exposure to the fact that maybe are you going to manufacture any product or at this point since the business model has changed, are you going to produce services in the United States? And so the value of this -- of the revenues is going to change because it's going to be related to that -- to this decision? And the second question, given the fact that the shares are have increased so much what is your decision and if there is any decision about repurchasing your own shares?

[Interpreted] Okay. Perhaps number four.

[Interpreted] Hello, Mr. Chairman, forgive me, I have difficulty speaking. As far as I am concerned, I wish that everything was subtitled, the conversations were subtitled and with the new product this could be achieved sooner than later. Thanks to artificial intelligence subtitles in any conversation are absolutely essential for me, when I find myself in this kind of situation. Thank you very much. I remember already you mentioning this last year, and I know that you've made huge efforts.

[Interpreted] Thank you. One more question. I saw #1 at the back of the room.

[Interpreted] I have one question and one remark. My question is you said very briefly that the Supreme company was acquired. What is the aim? Because it seems to be quite far away from the core business of EssilorLuxottica. So first question. The second one is regarding the Say on Pay that the results are excellent no doubt. I think the salaries are also very good. There is a bonus based on the results, excellent. I'm a little bit shocked, to be honest, regarding the number of free shares granted to you, 100,000 free shares. We are taking roughly about EUR 25 million. I would rather have you earning EUR 5 million or even EUR 10 million more, but getting 100,000 free shares, most of the people in this room, they bought their shares. So I would be also interested in knowing how many free shares do EssilorLuxottica got maybe this year?

[Interpreted] Thank you. Any additional ones before we start answering? I think, #3 and then there is one more question...

[Interpreted] [indiscernible] Capital. Congratulations for the very good results. I have a question regarding an event that took place a few years ago in Thailand. It was about Essilor Thailand. You suffered from a fraud, $272 million simply vanished. There was a cyberattack. I'd like to know where we stand now? And I know that there is a litigation also with an American bank that did not really keep check on this issue. So anything more specific about this? Have you been able to recover any of your losses?

[Interpreted] Question with microphone #2.

[Interpreted] Mr. [indiscernible], again. What experience have you drawn from the Google-connected eyewear that has been in existence for the last 10 years?

[Interpreted] Yes. And there's a gentleman here in the middle of the room.

[Interpreted] I'm a former EssilorLuxottica employee. I'm retired. What about the future of the factory -- the [indiscernible] factory?

Yes. So far, we still have a quite huge footprint of manufacturing in U.S. We have an entire company based in U.S. that is Oakley on the OC County, where we produce the Oakley frame. We have a lot of transformation plant labs that receive from abroad the raw material and the biggest part of the added value is already in U.S. We have also some plant on the raw material and component. At this moment, we don't want to take a rush in decision. We would like really to wait a little bit to understand maybe in 3, 4 months, what will be going on in the future. And when will -- when the situation will stabilize, we can also understand which kind of manufacturer we can move to U.S. Because the problem is not like only of timing and investment, but is also to find the right capabilities because we are not manufacturing simple things. So we cannot move the Made in Italy on the Made in France origin guarantee because they are really linked to the capability and the artisanal capability of people that live here. We can really think if we can move from Mexico to U.S. or from Thailand to U.S. some frame or electronic manufacturer, anything is now under really strict observation. We are ready to react very quickly. So far, we don't want to move too early and then maybe to have to change again, wasting time and wasting money of our shareholders.

I'll take the answer to the other question regarding the repurchasing of shares. So the company, I would say, recurring performance shares buyback. So we buy our own shares from the floating market. Just to give you an idea in 2024, we bought approximately 1.5 million shares in the market and we have activated the same program also in 2025. The purchasing of share is instrumental to serve the employee shareholding plan. So we buy share to grant those shares to our employees. And just to give you an idea, in 2024, we granted to the employees a total of 2.4 million shares, which I think also answered the other question regarding how many shares were assigned.

Supreme. It was quite a conversion when we decided to acquire that brand. But for us, it was really the best thing to do, is a great deal in terms of return and profitability. And -- but what is attracting that Supreme is a wonderful communication platform for an audience that is still far from our customer base. Is talking with a great reputation to young population from 14 to 24 year age. People that is attracting from skating or other sport. And that is so important for a company like us. We need really evolve, improve our med-tech part, our technological part, our design part. But at the same time, we never forget that we need to talk to the customer or patient, be understood, have the reputation, and that is so important is as important as the product that we build. That's why the acquisition that I repeat is a great deal for -- in the area of profitability and sales, but is much more important for communication and community that we are building through that company.

[Interpreted] With regard to the fraud that we suffered in Thailand in 2019. Yes, we made a huge effort. We spent a lot of time trying to recover as much money as we could from the funds that vanished. EUR 270 million vanished and we have recovered 20 -- EUR 220 million. There are still a few court cases in progress. But the biggest litigation is already settled. And we don't think that we will be able to recover much more than we have already recovered.

Yes. Before [indiscernible] I would like to answer to the one that is talk -- asked about subtitle. You are totally right. We are working on that. MicroLED are -- really have the purpose to have subtitle in the conversation. We go also behind that. We already have a service active in U.S. that is called Be My Eye. That is dedicated to blind people that if they wear our Ray-Ban Meta and that they are in a very serious difficulty, they can not only exchange with AI and through the camera, they also tell, "Hey, please be my eyes and an operator remote," and then operator remote will take the control of the camera, he can see what the blind people can't really help this person to get out of the trouble. So subtitle, use of camera, it will be fundamental in the future also to help people with some disability. That is in our DNA. We are working a lot on that. We have also a company fully dedicated to that, is name HumanWare, is already focused on the brail, on the technology that can help people that have or are completely blind or -- and now we really -- we look also at people that cannot hear very well and need subtitle. But you are right. This is something that we have to do, is important for us, is important for our community, it is important for everybody. Thank you. Sorry, Google Glass. What we learned that people don't want to wear glasses that are not beautiful. That is -- at that time also the technology, it was not at the level that we wanted and it was not capable really to answer to the need of the consumers, but what's more that no one was really asking and wearing product that it looks like Google Glasses. It looks like something coming from Mars, I don't know. That is why first of all, I believe, wearable must be a beautiful pieces of frame. And we started from the best of the best that is our [indiscernible] in the future, any brands with beautiful frame will have on board technological capabilities because really you put the eyewear in your face, and that is so important, and that is why we had the ability to really merge technological capabilities and function with a culture of facial. That's the success of our wearable. There are thousands of wearable that also can be close to us in term of performance, but are not as good as our product. And I believe people love beauty, love to express his personality through your suit, through your tie, through anything you wear, but first from what you have in your face.

I'll take the question about instruments and the [indiscernible] facility. The Instrument division from the basis of what you've heard, said to you today, you've understood, the Instrument division is now back in the core of the group strategy and the whole med-tech aspect. And you've seen also that the acquisitions we've made that were pointed out by Norbert in particular, in 2024, in other words, Heidelberg Engineering, the world leader in this; Cellview; [indiscernible]; Espansione and above all, everything to do with dealing with dry eye, when you combine these actions with the capacity the group had before, and we are also looking at bolstering this instrument platform and the whole part of -- the software part that can connect all these instruments, the diagnostics. And with AI rules, well, clearly the division, the Instruments division, is at the core of the med-tech journey of the group and the [indiscernible] site, which is a historic facility for the group, where last year, we tried to have more investment to modernize it and make it much more in line with everything I've just mentioned to you, is part of that ecosystem. So it's clearly an increasingly important point within the EssilorLuxottica med-tech journey.

[Interpreted] Well, thank you all. I promise now that we vote on the resolutions. The final quorum is 84.45% for the ordinary general meeting and 84.4% for the extraordinary general meeting. I propose that we do not read out each resolution, the text of which has been published on the company's website and sent to all registered shareholders and to all [indiscernible] shareholders who requested it. A slide summarizing the content of each resolution will be shown and you'll be able to cast your vote using the electronic voting device issued to you at the start of the meeting. The following video will explain that how it works. Please ask the ushers in the room. If you have any questions on the electronic voting devices. [Presentation]

[Interpreted] Now for legal and technical reasons, I'm going to ask you not to leave the room while we vote on the resolutions. The first resolution, approval of the company financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2024. Voting is open. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Adopted with 99.71%. Resolution 2. Approval of the consolidated financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2024. Voting has opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting has ended. Approved with 99.71% in favor. Resolution 3. Allocation of earnings and setting of the dividend. As was reminded now by Stefano Grassi, a dividend of EUR 3.95 per share, given that the dividend will be paid on the 5th of June 2025. Voting is open. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting has ended. Approved with 99.55% in favor. Fourth resolution. The agreements proving with the scope of articles -- regulated points. Voting is open. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting has ended. Approved with 97.86% of votes. Resolution 5. Approval of the information relating to the compensation of corporate officers referred to in Article L.22-10-9-I of the French Commercial Code. Voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved with 82.62% votes in favor. Resolution 6. Approval of the fixed, variable and exceptional components comprising the total compensation and benefits in kind paid in or awarded in respect of the year ending 31 December 2024 to Mr. Francesco Milleri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved with 90.66% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 7. Approval of the fixed, variable and exceptional components comprising the total compensation and benefits in kind trade in or awarded in respect for the year ending 31 December 2024 to Paul du Saillant, Deputy Chief Executive Officer. The voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Resolution approved with 92.1% of vote cast in favor. Resolution 8. Approval of the compensation policy applicable to members of the Board of Directors. Voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved with 99.32% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 9. Approval of the compensation policy applicable to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved with 73.93% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 10. Approval of the compensation policy applicable to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer. The voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved with 73.94% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 11. Renewal of the term of office of Forvis Mazars as Statutory Auditor. Voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved with 94.42% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 12. Appointment of Ernst & Young Audit as statutory auditor. Voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved 98.62% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 13. Appointment of Ernst & Young Audit as statuary auditor for the certification of sustainability reporting. Voting has opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved with 99.1% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 14. Authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors to proceed with the purchase the buyback of the company's own ordinary shares. Voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Resolution adopted with 98.89% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 15. Authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors to reduce the share capital by canceling the company treasury shares. Voting has opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting is closed. Approved, 99.68% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 16. Amendment of Article 22 of the By-laws to delete the reference to the deputy Statutory Auditors. Voting is opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting has ended. Adopted with 99.99% of votes cast in favor. Resolution 17. Power to carry out formalities. Voting has opened. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Voting has ended. Adopted with over 99.99% of votes cost in favor. With that done, we have finished voting on the resolutions, and we can close this meeting, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much. We can now end this general meeting. I want to thank you for attending. Have a great day. Thank you very much. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]