Imerys S.A. (NK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Foreign Language] [Interpreted] I will remind you that given the context of COVID-19 and the governmental measures in force on the decision of the Board and by delegation to the General Director, the present assembly is unfortunately being held behind closed doors without the physical presence of shareholders and other people having the right to participate. I hope, ladies and gentlemen, that this will be the last type of this exercise. And that next time we will be able to be together under normal conditions. And inform you that this assembly is being sent out directly, streamed in video. And it will also be accessible on our Internet site. Also present with me here today, Alessandro Dazza, General Director; Sébastien Rouge, CFO; and Frédérique Berthier, Legal Director and Secretary of the Board. The general assembly is meeting on the first convening notice and is a mixed general meeting. We've received several questions that we will be responding to at the end of our presentation. So as to -- so that there can be some interaction. If you have other questions that you'd like to ask during the session, you have the possibility of doing so by e-mail at the address that is now on screen, [email protected], and we will respond in the limits of time and technical means available. Before handing over to Frédérique Berthier, I would like to salute Marie-Françoise Walbaum, who is Chair of the Compensation and Apartments Committee and Chair of the Compensation Committee who was not able to be available today in the given context and who is excused. I'd like to ask Frédérique Berthier, to now report to you on the accomplishment of all of the formalities with respect to the convening notice and the actual holding of this present assembly.

[Interpreted] I do confirm that compliant with law, the prior convening notice -- and to the General Shareholders meeting, presenting the agenda, the resolutions being submitted to a vote. And the conditions for participation were published in the [indiscernible] on the 31st of March 2021. The publication of this convening notice was published in the [indiscernible] as well. And those holding nominated shares were contacted by e-mail or by mail. In addition, the Eco announced the holding of this assembly and the particular way of participating in it and voting. Documents and information, having been made available -- based on the 2020 trade, have been put online on the 19th of April 2021. The shareholders also had the ability to have knowledge of them in advance and under the legal deadlines of the documents required by law. Given the context and the fact that this is being held behind closed doors, the shareholders also, upon request, may take knowledge under the best possible conditions of all of the documents having been made available to them in the session in compliance with law. Lastly, subsequent to the review of accounts, the Social and Economic Committee had issued their opinion, and a copy of that is available to any shareholder who would make the request for that.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Frédérique. And the reserve of the usual verifications linked to the holding of the general meeting, shareholders having voted remotely and the percentage expressed in the number of shares in circulation and having voting rights are -- and this following number, 72,557,822 shares or 85.2% of the social capital, getting to 119,107,872 votes or 90% of the total number of voting rights. And so far as the ordinary portion of the general meeting is concerned and 72,154,927 shares or 85.2% of registered capital, giving rights to 119,102,720 votes or 90% of the total voting rights for the party extraordinary of this general meeting. The quorum of the 1/5 and 1/4 or 16,947,239 and [ 21,184,049 ] shares applicable, respectively, to general ordinary meeting, general meetings and the extraordinary general meeting have thus been reached. In compliance with decree, [ 16 14, ] 2020, [ 16 14, ] dated 18 December 2020, the following have been designated as a scrutineer. Mr. [ Rein Derek ], mandated by the Belgian Securities BV, representing 89,192,743 votes. And Mr. [indiscernible] mandated by Blue Crest Holdings, representing 8,250,604 votes. Mr. [indiscernible] and [ Stratos, ] having both accepted the I'd like to thank them for their presence and ask them to confirm orally their presence by taking the floor. [ Mr. Derek? ]

[Interpreted] Yes, hello. I confirm that I'm present. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Mr. [indiscernible]?

[Interpreted] I confirm my presence.

[Interpreted] Thank you, [ Stratos. ] Thanks to both of you. And lastly, I suggest that Frédérique Berthier be designated secretary of this meeting. As is usually the case, so as to leave as much time as possible to presenting the activities and results of the group, we will not be reading the various reports provided for by law. These reports are fully reproduced in Universal document that was deposited with the AMF on the 22nd of March last. Now I will hand over to Mr. Dazza, our General Manager, who will be presenting the events of note in this year.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Hello, everyone. I would like to start by sharing with you some key messages that characterized 2020. Imerys continued to being resilient when faced with a worldwide crisis, the consequences, which was a decrease in volume of significant proportions. We have witnessed a continuing recovery of the demand for our products. I am very proud to underline that [ catering ] fourth quarter, Imerys had an organic growth of 1.7% compared to 2019, even if the crisis was far from being over. Lastly, our commercial efforts have been bearing fruit, and we can also demonstrate that with figures. I will get back in more details about this a bit later. From the cost side, we reached our initially desired objectives in Connect & Shape and specific actions linked to COVID-19. Not only the short-term has been properly managed, but Imerys also continued to invest for the future, with increases in capacity and additional acquisitions. Here, again, I will get back to this again a bit later. The sales stood at EUR 3.8 billion, down 12.8% as compared with 2019. Our EBITDA margin standing at 16.6% throughout the whole year was 18% in the second half year. Thus, higher than the level of last year, thanks to a good management of cost and a gradual increase in volumes. This is certainly a good basis for the year 2021. The priority was given to the cash generation during the crisis has been translated into free cash flow net of EUR 373 million, up 7% compared to 2019, which contributed to reducing the financial indebtedness net of the group of EUR 177 million in 2020. The net current income stood at EUR 167 million, impacted by exceptional items standing at EUR 137 million, mainly noncash items that are linked to continuing management of our activities portfolio. Sébastien Rouge will be providing you with further details on this topic. Let's move on to the next slide. Here, you will see that sales started to bounce back in the third quarter and even more in the fourth quarter after a decrease of more than 24% in the second and the first -- in the second quarter, after the first wave of the pandemic. As I already said, the organic growth is in positive territory since the fourth quarter and it accelerated in the first quarter of 2021 with a solid increase of 6.3%. And thanks in part of -- to the positive impact of our commercial performance, but also to the general recovery in most of our markets. It can be said that the group overperformed the subsequent markets that have -- that are not back to the levels of before crisis, as we'll see in the following slide. If we look more closely at our end markets at the bottom of the page, you can see that they significantly improved in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the preceding quarters. But they remain largely negative in comparison to the fourth quarter of the past year, with the exception of steel production in Europe. These indicators demonstrate, however, a continuing recovery in the first quarter of 2021 with a relative improvement in almost all of the markets, with the exception of paper and steel production in the U.S. The automotive industry also bounced back, but it has been impacted, especially in the first quarter of the year by problems linked, in particular, to the supply chain, in semiconductors, notably. The growth of the group in the first quarter is even more remarkable if you take into account the exposition of Imerys to the paper market, where the structural decrease was amplified by the COVID crisis. As indicated at the beginning of the presentation, you the current EBITDA rebounded in the second semester, and it stayed solid in the first quarter 2021 in absolute terms and in percentage terms, carried forward by growing volumes, cost savings and a solid price/mix. Now a little update on the Chapter 11 process that's currently ongoing in North American talcum entities. The reorganization plan was approved by creditors and plaintiffs on the 14th of April this year with the majority of nearly 80% in favor. The audience of confirmation of the plan by the Delaware court is expected this summer. As a consequence, the end of the Chapter 11 process is expected here by the end of 2021, under the reserve of final approval of the plan by the appropriate court. In parallel, sell-off of assets of North American entities of talcum to Magris, a private equity company in Canada for a purchase price of $223 million was closed on February 17, 2021. Given the health crisis, we often forget to talk about major topics such as innovation. Imerys is an innovative company. I will not get into the details of each line in this slide. But it's important to know that Imerys launched 70 new products in 2020. I would like to thank our 350 staff and 6 innovation centers in the world that made this possible in a very particularly difficult environment. This performance was clearly helped by our organization, which is customers focused, making it possible to have a more closer contact, a better understanding of the needs and the combined developments with our customers. Opportunities are not lacking, and I'm convinced that this dynamic will be continuing. Minerals are a key element in our economies, in our homes and in our lives. Our products and solutions are necessary everywhere and greatly contribute to improving our standard of living. In addition, in a growing number of applications, the minerals are replacing less -- materials that are less respectful of the environment, such as plastics and provide key properties as well to the products, to the finished products we make. Here, you have an overview of certain recent operations that will support the future development of the Imerys. There are 3 acquisitions in fast growing areas, such as India, Turkey and Taiwan. Also an acquisition in the United States in the attractive market of horticulture, capital capacity increases for synthetic graphite and black carbon and our plants in Switzerland and Belgium to serve a growing market of lithium-ion batteries that intended for electric vehicles. And last, a CapEx in the U.S. to improve our CO2 footprint. More precisely on this particular point, Imerys is replacing coal as fuel and it's furnaces by biomass, which will make it possible to reduce CO2 emissions on the part of the group, up to 5%, thanks to that single action. To stay on topic, I would like to take a moment to talk about the ambition of Imerys in terms of sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and environmental. It's not nothing new in Imerys. And we've been working indeed for many years on initiatives through the group, which gives us a some basis that we can advance on. In 2018, the group started to structure its approach to corporate social responsibility of the company by defining an ambitious framework agreement that we call SustainAgility, and which is fully aligned with the principles of the UN world pact and the objectives of sustainable development of the UN. SustainAgility and the mini programs and action plans that support this, have the objective of protecting the future of our company, of our staff, of the communities where we operate and the world where -- in which we live. Here, we will be integrating a sustainable reflection in about all aspects of our company, not only about our short term decisions, but also about our long-term strategies. CSR performance at Imerys is based on measurable objectives that we keep track of and report on annually with a view to continuing improvement. You see here a selection of things that we've done in 2020, which demonstrate that we are making progress in line with our middle term objectives. Lastly, Imerys is reporting on its CSR performance transparently to stakeholders, external stakeholders and is rated by many ratings agencies, such as EcoVadis and CDP. In 2020, we received the EcoVadis Platinum award, which places us amongst the 1% of the top companies assessed. The climate reporting in detail to the CDP is public and the group obtained in 2020 at level B, which places Imerys in the second level -- the second highest level corresponding to management of climactic issues in concrete and systematically. This assessment rating places the group up above the average European regional level and in the mining sector as well, which both have an average score of C. To conclude, in this context, the group just issued successfully on the 6th of May, a EUR 300 million bond issue indexed on sustainable development objectives with an annual coupon of 1%, whose term is 2031. This bond makes it possible to optimize the financial structure of the group and to demonstrate the force of our CSR commitments over the long haul, notably, in terms of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The specific performance objectives are set at minus 36% of tons of CO2 emitted per million EUR in revenue by the end of 2030 as compared to the reference year 2018, with a verification after 5 years. This ambitious objective by 2030 is aligned with trajectory -- the 2-degree trajectory of the Paris agreement. I'm going to hand over now to the CFO, Sébastien Rouge, who will be commenting the -- in detail the results of the year 2020.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Alessandro. Hello to everyone. I'll come back to the key aspects of our performance for 2020, starting with the revenue, which amounted to EUR 3.8 billion, down by 12.8%, chiefly due to a drop in volumes following the COVID-19 crisis, which represented EUR 496 million. The group maintained a positive price/mix, given that context, which contributed positively, EUR 31 million to the period's revenues. The scope effects are squaring up with the negative impact of the deconsolidation of the talc U.S. subsidiaries, amounting to minus EUR 17 million, compensated by the positive impact of the acquisitions, EUR 18 million. Revenues [ bags ] in a negative currency effect at EUR 91 million, which reflects the impairment of the significant currencies for the business of the group, especially the U.S. dollar and the Brazilian real as from the third quarter 2020. Looking now at the profitability at group level, the adjusted EBITDA 2020 amounts to EUR 631 million, down by 17.4% over the previous year. Such trend reflects, first of all, a decrease in the contribution of the volumes at EUR 244 million, which was offset by a positive price/mix of EUR 33 million, variable costs down EUR 13 million, offset as well by an improvement of the fixed cost and the overheads for a total of EUR 91 million, which results from the strong contribution of the action plans that were put in place, the structural transformation plan coming from the transformation of the group and more specific ones as well, aiming at counterbalancing the fact that we had the crisis and that we had lower revenues. The scope was positive, thanks to the acquisition disposals of small entities, the impact of currency is negative by -- as you see reflecting the adverse effect of the currencies. It was negative by EUR 18 million. So the adjusted EBITDA margin, its drop was limited to 1.2, which 16.6% in 2020. Looking closely now at the remainder of the P&L, the adjusted EBITDA drop in absolute value, led to a drop in the current operating result. Net financial result is negative by at EUR 61 million, in line with what we had last year, if we exclude the one-off impact of the refund in March 2019. And we -- the tax of EUR 66 million corresponds to 27.8% versus 28.8% in 2019. So the net current income is at EUR 167 million, down compared to last year. Finally, we are at EUR 137 million in 2020, which are the revenues and operating expenses resulting mainly from the impairment of assets and reorganization of businesses, especially in our businesses serving the paper market. The net current income by share is at EUR 2.03 and was taken into account as a benchmark for the calculation of the dividend. Looking now at the operating cash flow generation, the current one amounts to EUR 373 million, up by 7% versus the previous year despite a more weak EBITDA. Two main contributors to this, first of all, is strict and disciplined control of investments in line with our announcements in the second quarter as well, an ongoing improvement of our working capital requirements, whose decreased contributed up to EUR 75 million to the generation of operating free cash flow. Lastly, looking at the impact of that cash generation on the trend of the net debt of the group, starting with one at EUR 1.7 billion at the end of 2019. We find again the generation of operating free cash flow of EUR 373 million, and the impact of the debt interest and the other expenses and restructuring costs mainly as well as EUR 98 million of acquisitions. Note also, the limited impact of the payment of the dividend, thanks to the success of the payment via shares. As a result, the net debt at the end of the year is down by EUR 177 million, and it stands at EUR 1.508 billion. Patrick Kron, now will take the floor. He'll comment dividend.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Alessandro. Thank you, Sébastien, for this very clear presentation. As a matter of fact, the Board suggests to this general meeting to pay out a dividend to EUR 1.15 per share, representing 57% of the net current income group share, which constitutes the benchmark based on which the Board decided to pay that dividend. You will note that, that level of payout is higher than the historical average. It shows the trust of our board into the fundamentals and the outlook for the group. Such proposal, of course, protects the financial structure of Imerys and its ability to continue to grasp opportunities during the pickup phase in the markets. I will now ask Frédérique Berthier to summarize for you the resolutions for which you were asked to make your decisions as part of this general meeting. Frédérique?

[Interpreted] Thank you, Mr. Chair. This combined general meeting in its ordinary and extraordinary part, we'll have to make decisions on the order on the screen. And as indicated in the notice for meeting of 31st of March. By the way, no additional items on the agenda or additional draft resolutions were expressed by the shareholders. In addition, the resolution submitted to the vote of the general meeting that will be presented to you can be found fully on pages 319, all the way to 329 of the 2020 universal recording document as well as our notice available on the website of the company. The first and second resolutions there, as usually, upon the approval by the meeting on the management of and the annual accounts for the past year as it was commented. The third resolution deals with the allocation of the Imerys 2020 income and as explained, the Board suggests to pay out a dividend in cash of EUR 1.15 per share. Now the fourth resolution, you will have to decide on the special report by the auditors on the agreements and commitments hammered out by the company. Detailed presentation of this report will be done through the statement by the auditors that will be read out to you in the next few minutes. By the way, the Board during its session, on the 17th of February, reexamined all the agreements with the related parties and the Board noted that no, there was not one single third-party agreement that was ratified in 2020, and none was either in the previous period and didn't continue in 2020. Next will be presented quickly resolutions bearing about the remuneration of the corporate offices of the company. Before proceeding with such presentation, we remind you that all the elements related to the determination and content of the remuneration policy of these corporate offices, the so-called Ex-ante and information related to remuneration paid out during 2020. The so-called ex-post vote are on Pages 136 to 153 of chapter 4 corporate government and through Pages 306 to 306 then of Chapter 8 general combined meeting of the 10th of May 2021. As part of the fifth and sixth resolution and in line with the Ex-ante voting, you are to decide on the policies of remuneration of the corporate offices for 2021 following the recommendations of the Remuneration Committee. Before that, on the screen, you will find the principles that govern the determination of such policies, especially the respect of social interest and its fit with the commercial strategy and the long lastingness of the company. The 2021 remuneration policy includes the same components as the one provided for by the 2020 remuneration policy approved by the general meeting, subject to the changes of a few elements concerning the variable part of the remuneration of the corporate officers. More precisely, this slide shows the full elements that make up the 2021 remuneration policy applicable to your Chairman and to your CEO. As in the past, our presented synthetically the elements making up the remunerations of the executive offices of Imerys for 2021 in line with the remuneration policy has presented in the case of the chair of your Board, is the remuneration includes only annual fixed remuneration at EUR 250,000. The 2021 remuneration of CEO, Alessandro Dazza, includes a fixed annual remuneration of EUR 800,000 in annual variable remuneration based on the quantitative and personal criteria as you can see on the screen. In the case of quantitative criteria, apart from the net adjusted income and the free cash flow, they include also criterion based on the organic growth of the group. In addition, the threshold to trigger off the payment of these criteria are based on the overall bonus policies of the group. Finally, such variable annual remuneration capped at 165% of the annual fixed remuneration of the CEO. Now the remuneration of the CEO includes, in particular, end of contract compensation, if he has to leave with a maximum of 2 years and noncompetition compensation equal to 1 year of fixed remuneration and average of the last 2 years and 75,000 performance shares. Now the sixth remuneration, the remuneration policy of the members of the Board, apart from Chairman include only variable and fixed remuneration corresponding to the former fees, directors' fees and with a potential exceptional remuneration, if I remember, were to conduct a special additional adjustment 2021, the annual remuneration of the members of that will be fixed as based on -- with a limit of EUR 1.2 million per year. As part of the seventh resolution, you are to decide on the report on the remuneration, aiming at showing clearly in details for each corporate officer, all the remuneration elements and other benefits related to their term for the past year. As part of the eighth and ninth resolution, you are also called to decide on the remuneration paid in '21 to each of the corporate offices, either for your CEO, where we paid EUR 666,667 taking into account a voluntary reduction of 25% over a period of 2 years in the context of the COVID-19. The company gave a variable remuneration of EUR 742,000 corresponding to 106% of the 2020 annual fixed remuneration before voluntary reduction. And by the way, it is it has to be approved by this general meeting of the eighth resolution. [indiscernible] the shares which are [indiscernible] constant subject to [ e-commerce ] conditions. The payment of the General Director includes as well fringe benefits with an accounting value of EUR 93,230. The President of -- the Chairman of the Board, received a fixed remuneration of EUR 239,583, taking also a voluntary reduction. The following resolutions have to do with the breakdown of the Board. In this framework, in the tenth resolution, you will see to renew Patrick Kron's renomination. Concerning the other members, in the President assembly, I will be handing over to your Chair.

[Interpreted] Indeed, in the framework of the 11th and 12th resolutions to renew the mandate of board member. First of all, to renew Mrs. Marie-François Walbaum that expires at the end of this assembly and to appoint as a Board member, Mr. Paris Kyriacopoulos, for -- and both of those people would be for a duration of 3 years. Mr. Ulysses Kyriacopoulos did not wish to renew his mandate. We'd like to thank him for the quality of his contributions and the work that he did during the Board and the Strategic Committee that he participated in as well for 6 years. Mr. Paris Kyriacopoulos, and whose qualifications have been made available to the shareholders, has all the contributions to make a great contribution to the Board, and we are very happy to welcome him, should you approve him. I'd like to inform our shareholders, by the way, that the sensor, Mr. Laurent was renewed in his capacity by the decision of the Board today, and I will hand over now to Mr. Frédérique Berthier for what is to follow in these resolutions.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Mr. Chair. Subsequent to what was just presented by your chair and subject to approval, the new composition of the Board of the General Meeting would be as follows. Each member would have the quality of independent or not. And based on the recommendations of the appointments committee and their belonging to specialized committee of the Board. The third -- 13th resolution has to do with renewal for 18 months of the authorization for share buyback and cancellation of treasury shares. This appears on the screen. The maximum number of share buybacks has been set to 10% of the capital outstanding as of January 1, 2021, and the maximum price shall not exceed EUR 85 share. This resolution provides that the Board will not be able to use this authorization and if there's any public offering ongoing. The 23rd resolution authorizes your Board in -- under identical conditions to cancel all or part of self-held shares in the limit of 10% of its capital over a period of 24 months. It was also being proposed to renew the same conditions in terms of duration and ceiling for 26 months, all of the delegation of competence and financial authorizations that delegations have been granted by the general assembly dated 9th of May 2019, and 4th of May '20. By the issues here, our securities [indiscernible] immediate access to the capital. Traditionally, this was designed to give to the Board as much latitude as possible and as much flexibility as possible to decide the best way and most favorable way of determining these factors in adapting to the changes in the market and the financial context of the group. This table presents the main characteristics of these renewal of financial authorization. The 14th and 15th, are authorization for our increases in capital in once or several times and the maximum amount of EUR 75 million and EUR 15 million for capital increase. The 16th is to proceed to capital increase through preferred subscription rights for the benefit of qualified investors. A maximum amount allowed would be 10% of capital per year. The 17th resolution is for the increase in the number of shares to be issued in the event of a capital increase with or without preferential subscription rights that was just presented to you. The 18th resolution authorized the Board to set in the case of capital increase without preferential subscription rights in the limit of 10% of capital per year. The 19th resolution is for powers to perform a capital increase in order to remunerate contributions in kind. This just constitutes through capital titles or other securities and the limit of 10% of the capital per year. The 20th resolution provides for a capital increase by incorporation of reserves, profits, premiums, contributions or other with a ceiling of EUR 75 million in nominal terms per year. An overall limit applicable to all of the above-mentioned capital increases could result to use any of these allegations is set by the 21st resolution and stands at EUR 75 million or 44% of issues. And the 21st resolution provides also an [indiscernible] and under ceiling of 8.8%, that's EUR 15 million or 8.8% of the existing registered capital. Lastly, the total nominal amount of specific authorizations providing capital of the company stands at EUR 1 billion. I'd like to indicate that all of these resolutions excludes the possibilities for the Board to use these financial delegations during any possible public offerings that may occur at some time. The present assembly will also be renewing the delegation to the Board. Perhaps relating to increases in capital. It's also proposed in the framework of the 22nd resolution, renewal of a specific authorization in favor of the group employees and/or corporate officers who are members of a company savings plan or a group savings plan. And these additional conditions will be provided by the Board. The ceiling of this authorization to set at EUR 1.6 million. This has not changed compared to the existing authorization. And as lastly, the 24th and last resolution, proposes, as usual, to confer the necessary power to do the form -- accomplish the formalities.

Thank you, Frédérique. We will be reading the delegation, the report by the statutory auditors. This declaration, the purpose of which is to present the report to the consolidated figures and to present other reports to the Board. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, the college of statutory auditors will be reporting to its mandate for the executive [indiscernible] closed 31st of December 2020. We propose to summarize the terms of our mission that was established 22nd of March on page -- on the following pages of the universal document. Special report on regulated agreements and the commitments. Reports on the special report on regulated agreements and report on the various authorizations of operations on the registered capital of your company on Page 315 to 328 are -- we ensure the control of the accounts of all significant entities in the group and that our work has the purpose of finding -- of determining the sincerity, regularity and loyalty of accounts and there are no significant anomalies. Our [indiscernible] auditors adapted to the various businesses of the group and to its organization. Our conclusions were shared with all of the managers of these entities and with the group financial directors as well. We've also reported back to the organization of our work on conclusions to the Audit Committee as well as to the Board of your company, in compliance with the measures in Europe that are applicable. We are -- these are the key factors having to do with any significant issues. For consolidated accounts, we considered 4 key points: depreciation of mobilized assets, including goodwill, assessment of provisions for demantling industrial sites and rehabilitation of mining sites; evaluation of financial consequences linked to the talc litigation. For the annual accounts, we considered one key point, the evaluation of participating shares. After our work, we certified without any reserves the consolidated accounts of the group and the annual accounts of the group. We also consisted in verifying the management report and other documents that are for shareholders' attention. We verify the sincerity and exactness of the information given in the management report. And we attest to the existence in the report of the Board on the corporate governance, information that is required by the trade code. We also verified the concordance with the accounts of the information having to do with compensation and advantages and the [indiscernible] consented to corporate officers. With respect to regulatory agreements, there are -- no agreements were submitted to -- or submitted to approval. There are also no convention already approved by general assembly and none of those -- and lastly, we issued 4 reports on the authorization for carrying out operations on the capital of your company. One report on the issuing of shares and various securities with preference of the subscription rights and the framework of relative resolutions, 14 to 19 as well as resolution 21. A report on the ordinary or securities for corporate savings plans in the group, in the framework of the 22nd resolution and report to the statutory operators about the reduction of capital in the limits of 10% through cancellation of its own shares and the framework of the 23rd resolution. These reports require no particular observation on our part. Here, ladies and gentlemen, we have read the declaration on the part of the statutory auditors, which were not able to be with us today, present. Let's move on now to the last section of our session, which has to do with questions and answers that were submitted to us.

[Interpreted] By the way, first of all, there has not been any question in writing was sent prior to this meeting. By the way, we gave you the opportunity to ask any question before this meeting and during this session, via a dedicated website and in all likelihood, given the very comprehensive nature of our presentation, there have not been any questions raised during this session. We will answer, therefore, the 3 questions that we received prior to this general meeting. I turn it over now to Alessandro Dazza, our Chief Executive, who will specify the question and the answers, we wish to contribute to it.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Mr. Chairman. We received 3 questions that were sent before the general meeting. The first question, the group -- will the group benefit from the American stimulus plan? And if yes, I mean the Biden plan should benefit most of our businesses. Imerys is -- has about 1/4 of its revenues in the U.S. I mean the business related to consumer activity should be benefiting from the checks and our mineral solutions used in -- for polymers, paints and coatings, but also in the industrial production, generally speaking, as well to be positively be impacted by the investments that are planned in infrastructure. Second question now, have you been impacted by the shortage of semiconductors in your industrial markets? Personally, Imerys, no, not directly impacted. Having said that, we are exposed to the automotive industry. About 7% to 10% of our revenues, which and -- was strongly impacted by the global shortage of semiconductors in the first quarter 2021. That significant impact was negative -- affected mainly Europe and the U.S., we saw their production drop but respectively by 3% and 5% in the first quarter. The production of -- the automotive production in Asia remained quite brisk with double-digit growth in the first quarter this year. Third question received. What is the outlook of the group for the remainder of the year? Unless the health situation worsens, we expect a 2021 year strong, driven by the growing demand of our specialty minerals solutions as part of the economic recovery that should be general. Imerys will have to leverage its leading position in most of the end markets that it serves of the innovation efforts and the recent capacity increases and acquisitions that were made. Additionally, the group confirms its commitment to improving its profitability, supported by an increased operational performance, organic growth and focusing on fast-growing businesses, whilst the inflation of certain cost is being worn out. The strong cash and the generation of cash flow should allow Imerys to seize opportunities to support the future growth and the creation of value for its shareholders and stakeholders. Lastly, I'm convinced that Imerys will keep like a very strong commitment in terms of sustainable and responsible commitment, but also as related to the environment, as is testified -- our latest bonds issue indexed on the reduction of CO2 emissions. Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Alessandro. Ladies and gentlemen, we are at the end of this general meeting. The vote as part of the votes have been received and are being calculated. The final result of those votes will put online on our website as soon as possible. Please go there for your perfect information. As I said in my introduction, the elements related to this general meeting, including the presentations are available on the Internet website of the company. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, I honestly, sincerely, hope that we will be back -- to be back again in good health and life as was -- or as part of a normal general meeting, to look into the 2021 period and noticing that we have -- we no longer have any item on the agenda, we adjourn this meeting. It is 3:20. Thanks for your interest and your presence. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]