Eurazeo SE (RF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Please be seated. Just a couple more minutes for people to be seated. That way we can be ready. If everyone else is ready, then we can begin. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for attending this morning's presentation, Full Year 2019 Annual Results of Eurazeo Group. Philippe Audouin is at my side, CFO of this group. We're going to talk you through the results. It's a special uncertain context of volatility. 2019 confirms the very strong solidity of the Eurazeo Group. We've been derisking this group for many years through diversification in business area, sector, resources, income and geography. It's a group that's prepared to contend with uncertainty and also to move on opportunities that might arise. It's a sound, resilient group able to support and act as a stabilizer. This morning, I would like to talk to you about the group's results, put in this context of the current situation to the best of our knowledge. This is a context where companies have never had as much need for stability and added value, which is Eurazeo's model. So more than ever before, our model is the relevant one, the right one. We're in the best possible situation to contend with 2020. Two main messages on Eurazeo's 2019 performance. First of all, strong performance, performance of our companies. The portfolio created EUR 800 million in value, which is 14.5% growth over the year. Almost 20% growth in our portfolio if you exclude listed companies. Net asset value grew by 10% during the period, including dividends. We also see strong performance in asset management in 2019. It was a record year for fundraising, reaching EUR 2.4 billion, up 53% for the year. This, of course, has also meant growth in our management fees. During 2019, they're up 16%. This is not yet though full reflection of the benefits and the positive impact of 2019 fundraising, which will further increase our management fees for 2020. Therefore, the group is growing. Our assets under management, AUM reaching almost EUR 19 billion at the end of 2019. They tripled over a 3-year period to reach this amount. During the year, growth was 16% of assets under management. A second message, robustness. Eurazeo, over the last few years, has gotten the necessary resources to cope with a context of uncertainty. First of all, our cash position is up compared to the previous year. No structural debt at the company level. Next, I will talk about early renewal and increase of our syndicated loan by around 50%, EUR 1.5 billion, covering a several year period. Lastly, available investment or dry powder, EUR 4 billion in all of our investment divisions. Performance and sustainable robustness. That's what makes us confident. And we wanted to materialize this confidence by -- at the next AGM, proposing an increase in the dividend per share, bringing it to EUR 1.50, which means an increase of 20% for the year. Let's come back to 2019 performance. We met our objectives, first of all, to invest well and to exit well, to ensure good asset rotation. Also, obtain tangible results in the third-party management activity and also continue our international expansion. I'll illustrate each of these points during my presentation. This has been our strategic focus underpinning and supporting one single ambition, which is to be the benchmark player in Europe supported by a global network. We built a platform, hence forth fully up and running. It's, first of all, a diversified platform with expert teams available for 4 asset classes. Furthermore, it's an integrated platform for each of our investment divisions. We reap the benefits of financial support, of course, but also human support, human resources throughout the group. It's also a global platform with 10 offices abroad to support our companies in our portfolio to develop further. Here, you can see our business model. It's a multi-specialist business model. You can see the relative weight of our 4 asset classes. Two takeaway points from this morning. 65% of our assets are under management. Most of Eurazeo's balance sheet, therefore, currently are invested directly in private equity and real assets. We're talking about very high-added value business areas, generating highest yield and management fees on the order of 2% over a long period. Our model, therefore, we can say is very much on a basis which is the most highest return base, the greatest yield and the most predictable over the long period. We also feel that we can strongly further develop our asset management business, particularly working into private -- moving into private debt areas and private funds, which are growing strongly, especially in Europe. We must make no mistake. For decades now, we've shown performance and had a strong reputation. Our partner investors very much place their trust in us, place their resources with us to use in our business model. It's a business model that's highly distinctive in the marketplace and is a guarantee of the group's robustness. It enables us to lower risk with diversified sources of income, lower volatility in earnings. Thanks to our balance sheet, we can keep control over the long term. We can guarantee recurring income and predictable income for the group. This business model has enabled us to build a very diverse investment offering in terms of business areas, sectors and geography. This offering, in turn, derisks us. During 2019, we continued our international expansion. The 3 main objectives in having a more global presence are as follows. First of all, an ability to support all of our portfolio companies. An example, partnership with CIC, a magnificent recognition of the position we've managed to build in China over the past 8 years, a way of stepping up the companies in our portfolio, an acceleration for them in one of the biggest global markets. A second reason for international expansion, our ability to generate a better deal flow, thanks to the establishment of local networks for deals. For instance, think of the American office which has gone beyond the $1 billion mark invested in the U.S. in just a 3-year period. Lastly, an ability to be local to our clients, our private investors, close to them. The opening of our Seoul office was decided to have direct contact with the major investors in that marketplace, which more and more are looking toward Europe. As I said, our core business is to invest right, transform and then exit. 2019 was a year in all of these respects. Three main features for the year. First of all, sustained investment momentum, EUR 3.8 billion throughout the scope. Private equity, representing over half of our acquisitions with over EUR 2 billion invested in 2019. A second feature, the portfolio is both more diversified in business sector, it's also more international. You'll observe most of our acquisitions were outside of France, such as DORC or Elemica; whereas a lot of our significant efforts were for French -- exits were a significant French companies such as Neovia, Smile, Léon de Bruxelles, and Elis. Now after the exits from Moncler and Elis, Eurazeo now has a portfolio which is almost entirely made up of nonlisted assets. The sustained investment activity goes hand-in-hand with very strong discipline. We're very active, very diversified and highly selective. We've got a dedicated strategic team in origination to identify the best opportunities, both in the United States and in Europe. You can see the benefits of that team with a significant increase over the past 2 years, particularly 2019, in investment opportunities that we considered. So it's the deal flow, up by 30% in 2019. At the same time, the transformation rate went down. The lesson we can draw from this is that we are highly disciplined, not only in terms of valuations or leverage levels and multiples that we use to value companies. So we are highly selective and increasingly so. We also invest in buoyant business sectors. Think of our recent acquisitions: health, DORC; software, Elemica, to the most recent investments by Eurazeo Capital. Mainly we target profiles, very specific for our profiles, strong business models, proven business models that are resilient. Underlying markets that are growing sustainably so. Eurazeo's ability to help step up transformation and forward momentum even further. The tech companies we've invested in through Eurazeo Growth, think of Doctolib or ManoMano. They also meet these characteristics of soundness and robustness as well as resilience. This is a discipline we also use when we actually materialize value when we exit. We're disciplined to think ahead to the best market timing to sell an asset. We're also disciplined and cautious in terms of valuing assets in our net asset value, right up until the time of exit. We always prefer to outperform than to overpromise things. The second pillar of Eurazeo's activity and our performance in 2019, management for third-party investors. Strong momentum here, a beautiful 2019. First of all, a record in terms of fundraising, up 50% compared to 2018. We're talking about -- due to 2 major drivers in 2019. First of all, the first driver was private debt, more than doubled raising here, EUR 1.1 billion; plus private equity, EUR 1 billion collected, thanks [ to earlier 2 ] closings by Eurazeo Capital IV, EUR 700 million, and then Idinvest Venture. Aside from the figures, I would like to emphasize the quality of the fund raising we're alluding to here. Our assets managed see a subscription through closed funds, you notice, that is stable. There are firm commitments to long periods, therefore. Therefore, an insurance of highly predictable long-term income, particularly in private equity in the neighborhood of 6 to 7 years will be the time frame. We're also talking about negotiated management fees. The -- our teams negotiate these at best market terms on average throughout our entire scope. Management fees are 1.5%. We can see this momentum. Two main factors here I'd like to focus on this morning regarding momentum: performance, of course, plus quality of our sales team on that latter point. Henceforth, we have a fundraising team of approximately 25 people, organized by geography, with an idea of covering all of our asset classes so that we can tend to all of our clients. We built the team over time as well as the investor's base. Diversified team, we've got insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign funds. We also got individual and family investors. None of these investor profiles or classes has yet to reach their optimum in terms of allocating their own assets under -- alternative asset management [ or ] private equity. Therefore, there's tremendous potential here. Second tremendous potential you must bear in mind, with our asset base, we're mainly French. Out of the EUR 12.5 billion entrusted us by external partners, 2/3 of the EUR 12.5 billion are French investors. Therefore, there's strong potential here for further development, internationally. This will be significant for Eurazeo. Already in 2019, we can see this in the results. Of the EUR 2.4 billion raised, 55% of the fundraising comes from non-French investors. The second major factor for our success, of course, is performance, a second major factor. We've got a proven long-term track record. Furthermore, we've got homogeneous strong performance on the long term. Over 60% of our exits conducted with cash-on-cash between 1.5 and 3x the initial investment. We've got stable and experienced investment teams. Average seniority is over 12 years of our investment teams. The fundraising momentum, you see this through our balance sheet. It went up substantially through investments on behalf of third-party investments. Over a 20% increase in the portion of assets managed for third parties. Eurazeo is a bigger group. Bigger in terms of capacity, resources, ability to attract talent, and of course, to move on opportunities as they arise. Now among the various main objectives for 2020, continuation of this momentum. No fewer than around 10 funds will come on track over the next 18 months. Clearly, in the current health situation with the big uncertainties today, we have to expect a temporary slowdown in fundraising activities in 2020, temporary -- that would just be temporary. Outlook for fundraising. I think to mention one specifically, we gotten off to a very good start. Eurazeo Growth, our ambition is to be the benchmark player in Europe by supporting technology companies in this area specifically. This is a key time for growth equity in Europe. First of all, the number of [ unit growth ], say, increased eightfold in a 5-year period in Europe. They need support. We've seen record funding pools, ever bigger ones. And there's been a necessity to inject, as we can see on the right-hand side here of this slide, to inject into the market European capital facing the major American players. There are very large European tech entrepreneurs, there need to be very big European tech investors as well. To move on this booming market, we've got the best possible assets. We're a benchmark digital brand in Europe with 20 years' experience. Our -- we've got a unique track record. We've got 17 companies for the Next 40 and over 1/3 of French Tech 120. These are in the Eurazeo fold. So those are main achievements of the year. Beautiful performance in 2019. Strength of the group to move towards the future, particularly if we think of the current health crisis that we're all familiar with. The economic situation is uncertain over the next few months. I'll come back to this during my concluding comments. I'd like to hand over to Philippe now to talk you through the financial results for the year.

Thanks, Virginie. Good morning to all. Thanks for joining us. I'm going to present to you the financials for 2019. But before going into the details of the figures, I'd just like to highlight the most salient points. Firstly, as Virginie indicated, this year we achieved a strong increase of our assets under management and our NAV. Next, our recurring proceeds are sharply up, but the income from our investment business is down because we recognized fewer disposals this year, and of course, we maintained a very strong balance sheet. Let's turn, first of all, to the P&L. As you know, there are 3 main components in our profit and loss account: firstly, the contribution of companies in our group, that's a consolidated P&L; next, the income of our investment activity; and lastly, the contribution of our asset management business. I'll return in detail to those 3 sections in a moment. The contribution of our investment companies, net of financial expenses, is up 4.3% at EUR 230 million in spite of financial costs that are up EUR 39 million on the year, reflecting new investments and buildups achieved in our various companies, and lastly, the refinancings that were completed during 2019 to bring up cash to Eurazeo. Second part, the contribution of our investment activity stands at EUR 107 million. I mentioned third-party contribution of our asset management business is sharply up at EUR 124 million as against EUR 79 million last year. At the lower part of the P&L, the calculated expenses stemming from consolidation are down at EUR 174 million. Taxes down to EUR 25 million. Nonrecurring items are also down at EUR 136 million, comprising essentially restructuring costs and expenses linked to M&A deals across portfolio companies. All in all, our net income group share stands at EUR 120 million as against EUR 273 million last year. Let's now turn in greater detail to the contribution of the group companies. This page shows the economic and EBITDA revenue in the portfolio on the left and each of our main business units on the right. The economic revenue of the portfolio is up 8.8% on the year and the economic EBITDA rose by 8.4%, both at constant Eurazeo scope. Let me remind you that revenue and economic EBITDA made up of the consolidated and EBITDA revenue plus our proportional share of revenue and EBITDA of companies consolidated at equity. Across the portfolio, we see an acceleration in H2, with an increase in economic revenue of 10.3% in H2 as against 7.4% in H1. Even more marked for EBITDA up 13% in H2 as against 3.8% in H1. All our business units are contributing positively, both to the revenue growth and to EBITDA growth, with a special mention for Eurazeo Patrimoine, up 13.8% in revenue and 23.6% in EBITDA, owing to the good performance achieved across portfolio holdings and notably Emerige, the last investment achieved by EZ Patrimoine and Reden Solar. Turning now to the P&L of our investment business. As I indicated, this contribution is down, standing at EUR 107 million. This decrease is due to 3 factors. Firstly is a baseline effect linked to a significant volume of disposals in 2018. In that year, we disposed of Asmodee that generated a fine performance. Secondly is an accounting, a noneconomic impact amongst disposals achieved this year. We sold the balance of our holding in Moncler. Moncler that was deconsolidated in earlier years during a previous disposal. And so Moncler was recognized in our accounts by fair value. All the capital gains generated from the outset until December 31, 2018, was recognized in the 2018 accounts. And 2019, we only booked a change in value from the first of January 2019 through 20th of March 2019. Third factor for the decrease in income, we booked a global impairment of EUR 119 million, the bulk being the adjustment of the value of Europcar that reflects, in large part, the decline of the share price during the year. Expenses are broadly flat, EUR 108 million, the share of operating expenses charged to this investment activity through internal rebillings, transaction costs and listing as well as strategic management expenses. Turning now to the contribution of the asset management business. It's up sharply at EUR 124 million, stemming from the increase in management fees. Primarily the management fees billed to our third-party investors are trending up 19% to EUR 140 million. These management fees that have a recurring and predictable nature supplement in a timely manner the capital gains, less regular by definition. That's one of the benefits of our model. Performance fees contribute to the increased income, the bulk coming from disposals on the Eurazeo balance sheet for EUR 62 million. And the share coming from third-party investors for EUR 3 million, more about that in a moment. Operating expenses of the group stands at EUR 155 million. They comprise all the operating expenses of Eurazeo and Idinvest plus our share of expenses from Rhône and MCH. On this amount, EUR 75 million are charged to the investment activity through internal rebillings, as we saw on the previous page. All in all, the fee-related earnings stand at EUR 59 million, up 25%. And the margin on these fee-related earnings as compared to the management fees from our third-party investors stands at 42%, up 2 points versus last year. A few words now on the carried interest received by Eurazeo. We saw that the carried interest from third parties stood at EUR 3 million. This figure is still low because during our investments at Idinvest and Rhône, we acquired the carried Idinvest only after the funds raised after our entry in Rhône as a fund [ fee ]. Let's look at the model and how the revenues generated by a typical investment fund are split. On the screen, you have the example of a private equity fund; of EUR 1 billion that would generate return of cash-on-cash of 2x between 4 and 6 years. You can see in the purple section on the screen. Initially revenues comprised of management fees that are calculated on the basis of the commitment during the investment period, that's to say generally between 4 to 6 years, and then on the cost price of assets invested over and above that investment period. Subsequently, when asset disposals begin after 4 years, in our example, performance fees will take over. And all in all, in this example, proceeds generated for Eurazeo, only this EUR 1 million fund stand at EUR 220 million in management and performance fees, as you will have seen in the accounts that I've just presented. Management fees are sharply up this year. Performance fees are still a low level but are set to grow over the coming years as we proceed with disposals. Turning now to our assets under management. As we saw and as Virginie indicated, they stand at EUR 18.8 billion at the end of 2019. This sharp increase stems both from the successful fundraising in 2019, sharply up over 2018, EUR 2.4 billion as against EUR 1.6 billion. That's an increase of 53%. And global value creation and investments for a total of EUR 1.3 billion. We can note that with EUR 2.4 billion, fundraisings are markedly higher than the payouts that stand at EUR 1.2 billion this year. The average weighted rate of management fees on fund raises in 2019 stand at 1.5% as against an average rate of 1.4% previously. Next page shows gross value creation in the portfolio over the year. It stands at 14.5% across the portfolio, excluding the impact of listed securities, notably Europcar. The value creation across the nonlisted portfolio is strong at plus 19%. All our BUs contribute to this good result. They're all above 15% value creation. On the nonlisted portfolio, value creation for Eurazeo Growth, 29%, is worth underscoring. The volatility of listed stocks in significant. Financial markets tend to amplify movements as we're seeing currently. Listed shares only account for less than 4% of our NAV end of 2019, and the nonlisted, the difference, over 96%. The impact of the Europcar mark-to-market today, rather than at December 31, would be limited to around 1.5% of our NAV. But Eurazeo Development that comprises our GP holdings, valuation built on recurring and predictable management fees, already account for 16% of our NAV. Turning now to the other nonlisted assets. Given recent development, it's too soon to know what the impact of the current epidemic will be. We can just recall that our NAV is generally calculated on a prudent basis and that our portfolio is highly diversified. These good results allow us to post an increase of NAV per share, restated for the dividend, of 10.5% at 83 -- 80.3% (sic) [ EUR 80.3 ]. As you can see, NAV per share has grown every year since 2011. Cash standing, an average level of EUR 695 million in 29 (sic) [ 2019 ], weighs on the NAV growth. But the strong cash position today more than ever is a real strength for Eurazeo. You know that Eurazeo always sought to maintain a strong financial situation. That's the case today. Our cash position stood at EUR 533 million December 31, and Eurazeo SE has no structural debt. Furthermore, we've anticipated the maturity of our syndicated loan in the spring of 2021, renewed it last December for 5 years with 2 1-year extension options that's potentially 7 years. We also increased the amount from EUR 1 billion to EUR 1.5 billion. We made it the first green financing of private equity in Europe. All this gives Eurazeo the means to support the portfolio companies if necessary and to seize the good investment opportunities. In closing, a word on the dividend. As you can see on the screen, our dividend grew on average of 6.7% per year since 2003. It has never declined, never been stopped, even during the crisis. This year, we want to substantially increase the dividend. For that, we'll be proposing to the shareholders' meeting a new -- a unit dividend of EUR 1.50. That's an increase of 20% as well as an increase in total payout of 24% if we take into account the free shares distributed in 2019. In addition to the strong dividend increase, we'll put in place an increased dividend for our loyal shareholders. Registered shareholders for over 2 years, December 31, 2022, will enjoy an increased dividend of 10% in accordance with legal provisions, a holding of [ 0 5% ] per shareholder. Combined with a strong increase in the dividend, this system will advantageously replace the distribution of free shares that will be stopped this year. Thank you. Back to Virginie.

The results that Philippe just presented to you confirm the 2 main messages we're highlighting this morning. Good performance in 2019 and very strong robustness for this group to move to the future period, particularly in this environment where there's a health crisis ongoing, but also a very uncertain economic situation for the next few months. I'd like to share with you our vision to date, our short-term view and our long-term view in light of the current environment. First of all, to talk about the short term, what your company is doing? First of all, every single day, the Executive Committee is working on this as well as all the investment teams that are constantly in touch with our company managers in our portfolio. We have ongoing procedures for monitoring. We're doing risk analysis of the possible consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic and we've set up the requisite systems. Our analysis lead us to think that some companies will see their revenues, their profitability and/or their cash situation affected, particularly those that are exposed to travel or tourism or those companies that are highly dependent on Asia, particularly for their supplies. To date, though, the effects are still limited in Eurazeo's portfolio seen as a whole. This is, for that matter, one of the major benefits of our diversified portfolio policy we've had for many years. Now to talk to you about Eurazeo Group. The first impacts, the economic impact and business impact, a slowdown in the first half leads us to not expect an active program of disposals or investments in the next few months. Now in terms of fundraising, there may be a temporary slowdown, but there shouldn't be any major impact on fee-related earnings of the asset management business which is based on long-term commitments. Lastly, all measures have been taken. We have business continuity plans for both Eurazeo Group as well as our investments. All measures that needed to be taken have been taken. So that's about managing the short term. We're managing this with great determination, experience and very carefully. To talk about the longer term. We're talking about discipline and diversification that have been on our agenda for many years, that are going to assist us. As we said, we're highly disciplined in selecting investments in our group business plans, in our company's business plans, in terms of valuing our NAV and financing and fundraising to carry out our acquisitions. We've built a diversified group in terms of asset classes, business sector and geography. That's a scarce asset to cope with market risk. You'll observe that no portfolio company represents more than 10% of our NAV. This discipline has enabled us to maintain a strong balance sheet at Eurazeo, cash on hand of over EUR 500 million. This discipline has also led us to increase and bring forward the renewal of our credit line to end -- at end of December 2019. This means that we continue to have substantial dry powder. We're also, of course, highly disciplined with ourselves in managing our investment company. Eurazeo, therefore, has a very sound foundation and sound basics, fundamentals. We perform beautifully. This is the result of the model we built and strengthened over many years now. It's a model that's structurally sound with a stable balance sheet and diversified sources of revenue, a predictable model with recurring revenue, a long-term model enabling us to support our companies for the long haul. Eurazeo is a stabilizing player with its own resources, sustainable, long-term resources that are significant. We take the long view. We will stay our course. We've got financial strength. These are our main assets. Eurazeo's model has never been more relevant than during these difficult times. Thank you very much for your attention. And together with the entire executive committee, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you.

ODDO BHF. Two questions. Well done for these great results. From my side, why are you maintaining so much prudence in the valuations of Eurazeo? The AUM for the third parties are up 20%. The valuation of Eurazeo development up over a similar order, which would mean that we have the impression that we're not really moving that much closer to the carried interest. So my sense that it's rather undervalued, unless you think -- have a different take on the carried. I mean as we're moving that mechanically, we should have had perhaps a slightly higher revaluation. Second question is more on the economic revenue, in particular, that of Q4. We had a great Q3. What happened in Q4?

I'll answer your first question. Indeed, we're prudent generally when it comes to our valuations, in particular, for Eurazeo Development segment. And this prudence is reflected in the multiples that we apply to our management and performance fees, which a long way from the multiples that we see some of our peers, not to mention some of the sector stars, people such as equity or partners group. So we remain very prudent on those criteria, and it's not to be ruled out that the developing economic situation that might lead to a drop in the multiples. So we will have a real safety margin there as far as we're concerned. And it's quite a recent business this management for third parties, so it justifies having this rather prudent view. And as I mentioned in my presentation, the performance fees are generated at the disposal stage. If there are fewer disposals over the coming period, as Virginie said, performance fees might also be shifted over time. That seems broadly consistent with the need to preserve sound prudence in our asset management business. And for Q4, I'd say there's nothing special that were made. No major mishaps in Q4. I mean, as you saw, we delivered very strong Q3 with overall Q2 sharply up, as I said. Versus H1, there's really nothing, nothing special about Q4.

From HSBC. 3 questions. So first on the net asset value, 13% still at cost. Can we have an idea of the percentage of the NAV comprised of companies that were acquired less than 2 -- over the past 2 years, first question. On your shareholder, family office of Decaux, they entered just over 3 years now, the share price performance, but I don't have the asset performance, disappointing; share price trend, disappointing. What talks have you had with them? Is there a link with the extraordinary dividend? And a follow-up to that, how will your dividend policy look going forward? And one final question since I have the mic and I'll stop. Planet's going to be your biggest investment even if it's less than 10% of your NAV. What's the initial feedback that you're getting from the current crisis on Planet?

On the NAV, 32% of the NAV, that's less than 2 years. And the dividend policy -- on the dividend policy, well, I'll let Virginie speak to the shareholder relations. I'll say that they're very good. We're really fortunate in having a shareholder, who's an entrepreneur, which really impacts the mindset of a company, such as Eurazeo. And this objective to increase the dividend had been considered for a while now. We had quite a lot of interaction about that. And it's not at all a request stemming from the Decaux family. It allows us to arrive at a payout ratio that we view as more consistent. Say that this significant dividend increase is afforded through the group's robustness, but also the growth in recurring revenue. That's a key item we didn't have in previous years justifies the fact that we're doing it now, and we didn't do it previously. It fits fully with Eurazeo's financial structure. And going forward, it's difficult to answer the question because, of course, it will clearly depend on the economic situation, but we can't rule out that the dividend will continue to grow going forward. So the dividend growth is pretty consistent with that the increase in management fees in 2019, up 16%. And the very recent recurrence in the P&L of sustainable long-term management fees that make us comfortable, the management team to propose this significant increase in a year in which we're ending the free share, so of course -- the bonus shares. So we were, therefore, able to make this proposal that was discussed and maintained with the Eurazeo Supervisory Board, discussed at the end of the Board, the Supervisory Board, and maintained following the Eurazeo Supervisory Board that was held yesterday.

If Emmanuel Russel, who represent JCDecaux, wish to speak, you could, of course, do so. You can discuss that offline, if you wish. I won't give him the floor immediately. I'll respond. We have excellent, very close relationship with the JCDecaux Holding, Jean-Charles Decaux and his 2 brothers who are key supporters not just of the strategy for transforming the group and accelerating on the road to developing asset management. As Philippe said, there are no direct ties between the performance that can be described as disappointing of the share price over the last 2.5 years and the underlying situation of Eurazeo and the difficult placement of TKO at Eurazeo in October 2019 that really broke considerably the growth momentum and the decision on the dividend increase, which, as I said, pre-dated that. As to Planet, Planet is a company that we diversified considerably over the years, and I'm sure you're aware of that. It was a company that was essentially of processing tax-free sales and that 50% of its business, we moved it to the dynamic currency conversion business, very significant global activity, far less exposed to brutal tourist travel interruptions or professional business travel. So it's a company that we're looking at closely and its growth across geographies, but prompts no particular comment at this stage. Marc, do you want to comment on that?

Well, this is a company that achieved 26% last year, EBITDA margin in excess of 40%. If we look at the performance, January, February was still sharply up in spite of the drop in Chinese visitor traffic. It's the result of diversification. We're present across 64 countries today and has a very strong, sound balance sheet; low leverage; generates a lot of cash flow. So we're looking closely at the next weeks. But we have ahead of us enough cash to absorb a shock of several weeks or even several months.

We have a question from the web of Kepler Cheuvreux who'd like to know on the fundraising. What are the impacts of the current crisis? Do you see a greater kind of wait-and-see attitude from subscribers?

Well, David, as mentioned in the presentation, what we can say to you today, well, several things, and Christophe, if you want to comment here, don't hesitate. First off, we can't exclude a certain time lag in the fundraising calendar that we had previously, ex ante, firstly, for fairly pragmatic reasons. Once you are faced with a travel ban that is what's more spreading across the Atlantic, very often the new investors. It's far less the case from the former investors who are familiar with investment team have to perform on-site due diligence, come to meet with the investment teams where they're located, where they operate. It's the case for the full Eurazeo Group. It can be the case for Rhône. Robert Agostinelli is here in the front row. There will be some postponements of several months. For new investors who need to perform the on-site due diligence and who, by definition, can't perform those, we're trying to replace that through video systems to generate more face time. But when you're a new investor, it's important to have that physical contact. It's far less the case for long-standing investors who know the teams, but for those of them who know them, can put their pens down for a while. The situation where we're at today, which obviously creates difficulties in terms of predictability and maybe some considerations on asset reallocations, private asset management. Private equity is a very small proportion of the resources of insurance companies and yet such a significant equity market correction must, of course, prompt investors to ask questions about their asset allocation. It would, I say, is a temporary postponement, not necessarily on the fundraisings that have been initiated. We mentioned Eurazeo Growth Croissance earlier that was launched several months ago, very strong support from the French government. We were labeled by TB. We're very few in that position. Insurance companies marshaled strongly to strengthen the firepower of European companies supporting European tech companies. We'll see, but maybe certain developed programs will be less slow than others. That's for fundraising. The program for the year 2020, for the various players in private equity, we can, in fact, welcome the fact that we achieved the closings that we did in 2019. The venture fund, Matthieu Baret, is in the second row. Eurazeo Capital IV, led by Marc and his team. So Private debt funds, IPD V of EUR 1.5 billion. So that's booked. That's in the bag. Second, what's sustainable? Well, the fees we mentioned earlier. But it's important that, too, that book, the management fees, specifically on the private equity, equity or real assets, venture assets, these fees that are paid in return for our value add once the funds have been raised for the previous years. The management fees for 2019 are all in all EUR 215 million, externally EUR 140 million. We expect an increase of these management fees in 2020 because I have what has been onboarded in 2019, plus the additional impact of 2019 funds raised that haven't yet accrued or impacted positively the management fees of Eurazeo group for 2019. That's what I can say about fundraising and management fees. I'm sure that maybe another camera angle to be brought in over to Christophe Bavière for those of you who are online.

Yes, in the short term, there may well be more caution on behalf of institutional investors especially. But if we look at the longer term, no doubt about it, we'll see current investors will want broader asset allocation, more diversified asset allocation. Institutional investors today, private investors today are often overallocated to private equity or private debt. In the short term, to repeat, Virginie is right on caution. But when we're talking about developing private management with private individuals, greater diversification, private equity, private debt. The PACTE law made it possible for French life insurers to be more flexible, giving greater flexibility. You can well imagine that in the current situation of market volatility, many life insurers are looking farther down the road to the longer term and wanting to further diversify their assets of policyholders toward less volatile asset classes. For instance, now -- since what has been affecting us in a few weeks. But in the next few months, we're having talks with life insurers about the benefits from this new legislation, giving them greater leeway.

Another question from webcast, Societe Generale. Other analysts are asking this question as well. Could you please tell us where you stand in terms of exiting from your stake in Europcar Mobility Group? We'll ask Philippe to speak to this.

We did disclose in November, we said that we'd initiated a strategic thought process. And it could lead to several possibilities. We could continue to supporting Europcar in the future, but we started talks with various investors. These discussions are ongoing today. I believe we can't add anything further.

As we've already said, Monday morning, again reconfirmed, Monday morning.

Another question from the webcast, from Exane, Mourad Lahmidi. He would like to know what the multiples are applied to asset management.

Eurazeo Development. Yes, I know what Mourad is alluding to, but Mourad realizes we don't comment on multiples. So I really can't say anything further than what I already said earlier. In other words, the multiples are very much cautious today.

Do we have questions from the room? Further questions from the web? Feel free in the room. I feel there aren't any further questions from the web. Maybe questions from the room? Do feel free.

Yes, to come back. First, I'd like to thank you for stopping the bonus shares. A couple of questions, though. Regarding Rhône, first of all, the tie-up took place a while back. Can we see -- can we expect anything further? Another question. You're supporting companies in your portfolio. What if the situation were to deteriorate further? Would you use some of your cash on hand, either to assist companies or even provide further equity in companies that felt the greatest impact? I'm sure it was on a case-by-case basis, but I'm wondering how far you'd go.

We're prepared in that we've got the financial capacity to do so, and you've been with us for a long time. We've got the resources. We preserve the requisite resources either to contend with situations, such as situation we're seeing today, one of instability and uncertainty. Also to support if need be, companies that may need support to continue in real-time operations, build up operations. That's our trademark and historically -- and continues to be very much a value creation activity. We can also see companies that are having to cope with liquidity crunches, particularly smaller-sized companies, whether they're located in the U.S. or Europe. The answer therefore is that we've got the resources to do this. We are a long-term player. I've wrapped up earlier saying that Eurazeo business model has never been more relevant than it is in today's environment, that's my firmly held belief. We're also a stabilizing force. We're not going to impact companies that we're supporting in the very short term nor the valuations in our NAV valuations that are very conservative to begin with. We're constantly keeping an eye on this. During upticks or downticks in the cycle or times of uncertainty such as today, why shouldn't we stay our course, the course of developing our businesses, stay on course for developing Eurazeo further, value of our NAV, which isn't corrected with big ups and downs, big corrections when we never know. So we'll make the necessary decisions, as you said, on a case-by-case basis, depending on companies as they might need this in the next few months and/or year. Would you like to add a point?

I believe you've said everything. It's a real strength of ours during times of turbulence. Unfortunately, some companies won't have the luck of having such a strong shareholder as Eurazeo and to overcome the crisis. Some companies -- some other companies might be able to substantially increase their market share. Just one moment. Regarding Rhône, Robert might want to build on this. I don't know if we should talk about actual wedding other than -- and then being fiancés. We're not fiancés, we're in a partnership, though. So yes, we've got a partnership. 30% of the management company. Rhône performs beautifully in its investments, particularly in its Fund V, which is the fund that we're invested. Philippe recalled this earlier. We bought our portion of the carried in Fund V. Beautiful exit already with GardaWorld, sold a few months back to BC partners. To some degree, that's what brought us back from carried. Now Fund VI is being raised with an ambition for growth in fund -- previous Fund V as well. That's the current priority. The partnership is sound. It's strong in deal flows, in local partnership in the U.S. and also in Europe, very recently. We looked at it and file together, which were -- where we don't have full visibility on it yet, whether we'll move forward or the seller will move forward. So many partnerships, networks, deal flows as we announced to you at the very inception. I'll hand over to Robert, if you'd like to add something on the situation for Rhône aside from the partnership as such.

Relationship between Eurazeo and the evolution that, in my mind, is really almost 40 years. So 6 months, a year, 2 years is really nothing compared to the elongation of our -- particularly myself and the cofounder, Steve Langman. As Virginie says, we're in a solid footing. We're raising our VI fund. We've closed on about EUR 1.1 billion so far. And we have quite a bit in the pipeline. But because as Philippe says, the turbulence, it's been -- I think we're going to have a delay because people are not traveling. They're canceling meetings. They're reacting to the virus, et cetera. But we're -- it's going very well and the portfolio is solid. We have some companies that are going to be subject to this virus because people aren't traveling. We own a jet company, it's an issue, right? So -- but I would underline and underscore what Virginie said, our business situation right now and our circumstance, operating portfolio is quite solid across the board.

Thank you. Yes, someone else. Microphone, please.

[Foreign Language]

Answer to unheard question. Yes, I can hand over to the person in charge of Eurazeo Patrimoine, if he agrees. We've got an ongoing thought process, yes. Do you need a microphone?

Yes, we already do some of the infra. There's [ a solar ] company in the portfolio. They're a renewables solar company. They're big-ish, around EUR 1 billion in assets. Yes, this is a subject we consider, which would be part of Eurozero Patrimoine what we call real assets. This is a work in progress. Succession is in progress. We're looking at the right structure and the right formula for that activity under Eurazeo Growth.

Microphone for your question, please.

And as we looked at that deal, we weren't convinced to really go to those multiples that are being asked for and that are being paid for in that deal. Another example of Eurazeo Group's discipline. We were very much outbid on that particular one. Very, very much outbid.

Microphone please.

[Foreign Language]

Yes, we need to repeat that question. The question was an update on our investment in Houston or in London.

[Foreign Language]

Houston, London, right across some railway station in London. The building is fully leased now. Rented out. It's a medium term that we're making an improvement in that neighborhood in London. The HS2 validated by the [ Brusselsan ] government plus refurbishment of the train station and improvement of the surrounding neighborhood around St Pancras. So we're very confident in our business plan and our ability to progress on that transaction. Something we didn't mention, we can talk about everything, but you'll have observed, if you're familiar with us, if you track us carefully, we did a beautiful achievement to the first exit by Eurazeo Patrimoine, which was signed at the end of last year and closed a few weeks ago now. We're selling first investment made by the teams, called CIFA. Beautifully sold, beautiful multiple, great yield, just over 2x, around 18% return. First investment and first divestment from Eurazeo Patrimoine, and we're thrilled.

Several questions from the webcast. I'll ask as many of them as I can. First of all, David Cerdan asked about ANR NAV changes ended 2019. We've also got a question from [ Alexandre Gerard ] who'd like to know the ways and means for buying the 30% remaining from Idinvest.

NAV since December 31, 2019, Philippe in his presentation of financial results already gave us some information. This is the impact you can calculate, is the impact of the stock market correction, Europcar after 31/12, which is 1.5% NAV, the difference between EUR 4.50, which was the average VWAP in the NAV as of December 31. That was the price we'd used in the calculation. Then the current share price today, look, today, maybe I shouldn't look at the shares today, the team say, I shouldn't. And then you compare with today's share price, with 50 million securities, maybe above 1.5%, considering the body language of my teams at the front row. Now the other question, which is David's really, i.e., asking what we could say about a loss in value, which might be cyclical, possible loss of value in your other companies in the portfolios. David, you won't be surprised if I said to you it's early days to do any forecasting considering news is ongoing, constantly changing every single day. But I would remind you, no asset makes up more than 10% of our NAV. A lot of the biggest assets are even below 5% of NAV. Diversification, that's been our policy for so many years now, at Eurazeo Group. It's really showing its positive effects today. Not only do I have asset diversification, some of the assets and some of the investment teams are more procyclical, others are countercyclical. And each investment team, if you look at Eurazeo Capital or Eurazeo PME, we've always made sure that in the investments they've made, we've got a good blend of investment profiles, i.e., company, business exposure or country exposure so that we can really see a good performance for Eurazeo Group in its entirety, but also within individual performance and each individual portfolio for other investment teams. So we're not today, on March 12, going to stick our necks out and try to give you some info on our NAV on the bulk of our nonlisted portfolio. Of course, in the near future, you'll see the publication on June 30. We'll have more news between now and then. You yourselves can do your own projections, do your own calculations regarding the portfolio if you've got a more precise vision of what the impact might be of the overall cycle and possible value losses in some of our assets, if you're looking at this in a more comprehensive fashion, if you'd like to look at this by companies and portfolio, what have you.

Let me add a point. I believe today, it's completely impossible to answer that type of question. Either the crisis will lead to loss in business, a loss in profitability sustainably for investments. In that case, yes, there'd be an impact on valuation of our assets. But if the epidemic, once it's over with, and it will be over at some point, we're already seeing in China and in Korea, where there are fewer newer cases. Various major corporations have included these scenarios in their forecast. It's also the case with some of the analysts today. This assumption being therefore that it's a temporary crisis. If that's the situation, the impact on the value will probably be fairly limited. We'd see this as a temporary hitch and not a real value correction in portfolio companies. We need a few weeks' time, a few months' time, extra experience to step back and actually answer that question. Any other answer at this juncture would just be conjecture.

We didn't answer on Idinvest. So when we did the deal, we indicated that there were additional acquisition mechanism spread over time. We'd put [ crossed potent calls ] over several years here where we've gone way beyond the engagement phase with Idinvest, because we hold 60% of the capital. Christophe Bavière and the full team is in attendance. I'll hand over to Olivier to give you a bigger insight and overview not just on the terms of the contractual deal of increase in capital that we disclosed 2 years. The contractual agreement is a buyback in 3 tranche of the remaining 30% on the basis of the 2019 figures, the 2020 and 2021 figure. So this agreement will, of course, be executed. As you all have seen, excellent development of Idinvest. That's the work. It's the 20 years history of Idinvest and the strengthened cooperation for 2 years now. Time moves quite fast. And to be -- to give you a bit more color, we are even considering the possibility of accelerating, not that integration because the integration and cooperation aspect is fully up and running. To give you some extra color, unfortunately, we weren't able to bring together all the teams under the same roof, so far, that's one of the plans. Renaud has to find a fine building for us to house the 250 people of the company under one roof. And on the capital structure, we'll be either in executing the 30% in 3 tranches or an acceleration of that deal. It's obviously beneficial. And in the current challenging climate to marshal one's forces, to work together, is more than ever topical. I'm informed that there are no further questions. Thanks for your attendance. Thanks for your time. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]