Ipsos SA (IPS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. Welcome to this presentation of the Ipsos 2020 full year results. Let's welcome Didier Truchot, Chairman and CEO; as well as Laurence Stoclet, Deputy CEO and CFO. Without further ado, let's hear Didier Truchot.

Good morning, everyone. I'm the Chairman and CEO of Ipsos. Let's spend some time together and look at Ipsos' performance in 2020. A year to remember, obviously. I don't think any one of us is about to forget 2020 anytime soon. So without further ado, let's look at the outline of our presentation. Laurence Stoclet is with me. She is our Deputy CEO and CFO, and she will walk us through our figures and will provide more explanations as to the quantitative assessment of our performance and our business in 2020. So we're going to discuss our resilience, and we will also look at our performance as a whole. I will also say a few words about how agile we are. In particular, I will place emphasis on the investments that we are currently making. These investments are allowing us and will, in the future, allow us to exert better control over data as well as platforms, platforms for data collection, analysis and reporting. And I will also say a few words regarding our prospects for 2021. Without further ado, let's discuss our resilience. As you well know, this is a term that has been much bandied about. This is a term used by a lot of psychiatrists and psychologists, particularly in these times of COVID. Needless to say, resilience is all about coping. It's about coping with a situation, a situation that is unexpected, a crisis that is deep and prolonged. Now the epidemic is here to stay. It's far from over, even though this situation has much improved in a number of countries, particularly in regions such as Asia. Obviously, this is a lesson to all of us in terms of how we can control the epidemic in countries that are ahead of us in terms of their own immunization campaign, countries such as Israel. So Ipsos has proved extremely resilient in the face of the epidemic. So we'll take a quick look at our figures, but Laurence Stoclet will provide more detailed explanations. Our revenue in 2020 is EUR 1.837 billion compared with EUR 2.3 billion worth of revenue the year before. This means our revenue has dropped by over 80%. But if we look at our organic growth for the full year, the drop is only 6.5%, not higher than 8% because of the negative ForEx impact, to the tune of 2.5%, and the scope effect is positive. The good news is that this organic growth is now back in positive territory since Q4 2020, up 1.4%. This means that we are on track. We are on track to returning to better business levels. Well, I don't know whether such business levels are normal, there's no such thing as normal these days, but we are back on track in terms of more satisfactory business levels, so better business levels than in Q2 and Q3, particularly Q2. So we're dealing with a significant recovery since June. Here, we're looking at changes in our order book, in our backlog. The backlog is a prelude to revenue itself. So the order backlog includes the share of contracts that have been performed -- that were performed in 2020. So our total order book may look slightly differently. The profile may be slightly different. It may look bigger than what you see on the graph for the last quarter. But in most cases, these contracts were fully performed or mostly performed in the following quarters. So this is what we mean by revenue acquisition. So sales that actually convert into revenue, into turnover over the fiscal year. So you can see the profile of this year. So in January or February 2020, our performance was satisfactory. Our performance was very much in line with our budget prospects for 2020. And also, we saw signs of a significant slowdown in Asia. As you well know, Asia was affected by COVID-19 before other regions of the world. Well, Asia was significantly affected by COVID-19. And I'm sure that's something that experts will continue to discuss for many, many years, trying to decide exactly where COVID-19 got started. As far as we know, COVID-19 began in China and in other Southeast Asian countries. This is where the epidemic first started. By epidemic, I mean a disease that affects a great many people at the same time. Needless to say, March was a terrible month. As we indicated in a specific press release, which we drafted and disseminated in early April, so down 40%. This was unprecedented. This drop in order book, dropped by 40% in March and minus 60% in April. You're not seeing it here because we gathered all of the data for Q2 into a single block, so minus 60% in April, then close to minus 30%. And in June, figures got better. So by and large, for Q2, we're down 30%, which is so huge. So the order book started growing and went back to positive territory in Q4. So we started generating revenue again and got back to positive territory in Q4. So this good performance in Q4 is even more noteworthy. Well, obviously, it's not huge. Well, 2% is not the kind of target that we usually set for ourselves under normal circumstances, but when you compare it with Q4 2019, which was the best quarter ever, well, the best quarter in several years, organic growth then was 5% in Q4 2019. So this is even more remarkable, so plus 1.4%. So on a cumulative basis, so minus 13.5% at June 30. And gradually, minus 9.9% in Q3 and minus 6.5% in Q4. So are we entirely satisfied with this performance, minus 6.5% in Q4? Obviously not. This is not at all what we expected, what we imagined in early 2020. But what we need to bear in mind is our resilience, our ability to cope with a difficult challenging environment. So my answer is yes. Yes, I am satisfied with how well we weathered the storm, how well our teams were able to cope with a very difficult situation caused by the pandemic. So not only is our performance decent in 2020 but also we're laying the groundwork for a successful 2021. So Q4, we also need to look at how we stand relative to the main areas of business where we operate. Here, you have the top 6 sectors: fast-moving consumer goods; technology, media and telecoms; pharma; public sector; financial services; and automotive. As you can see, our performance is very different from one sector to another. A strong business in the public sector, however, current economic circumstances are affecting us greatly when it comes to automotive. Now the share of automotive in the total mix is different than it used to be. Fast-moving consumer goods accounts for 23% of our revenue; public sector, 14%; pharma, 17%; TMT, 18%; automotive, 5%. So this is our current mix, our current breakdown of total revenue. In 2019, we posted very satisfactory performance levels for TMT, pharma and public sector. In 2020, however, the only 2 sectors that grew included public sector affairs and pharma, so huge growth in public sector and decent performance -- decent growth in pharma. So 4% and 5% in the previous quarters and 11% in the last quarter, that's pretty amazing. Obviously, automotive is still in negative territory, but the other sectors all recovered, to some extent. This is true for TMT and for financial services. This is also true for fast-moving consumer goods and for pharma as well as for the public sector. So let's look at what we're doing with public affairs to give you some idea of what we do. To give you a better understanding of what we're doing, Ipsos is not just a market research company that wakes up in times of election, not at all. We do, do that. For example, during the U.S. presidential elections, we were one of the very few market research companies that accurately predicted that Joe Biden would win and also the fact that he would win with fewer votes than preelection pools said he would. We knew this would be a tight score. It ended up being a 50-50 type situation. So this is what we do. We're very happy to be doing it. It's such challenging. It gives us visibility, but it's also a challenging environment. And it's also difficult from a technical point of view. This means we have better control over developments in the elections, development in the electoral situation, particularly before the elections actually take place. Meanwhile, this also gives us an opportunity to provide explanations to you, to the media and to the rest of society. So in a number of countries, this means our profile has been raised. And because of our raised profile, we are able to attract talent, very gifted fresh graduates, and this also improves our relationships with political decision-makers and public authorities at large. So this is one aspect of a broader business, what we call public affairs. And public affairs include not just what we do in terms of public opinion, not just in terms of election but also in terms of social research. In other words, we try to measure and understand what the body social is all about and also the issues that we look at are many. So first of all, measurements. We are keen to measure the impact and extent of the epidemic. This is particularly important for governments. In France, for example, with assistance from the Pasteur Institute and the health insurance funds, we are conducting a survey and study to better measure and better understand the circumstances in which people contract the virus. And the results of this survey were introduced last fall by Pasteur Institute officials. Now the authorities in charge of managing the pandemic are finding the results of the survey extremely useful. It enables them to decide which businesses or institutions to shut down, where lockdown measures are necessary, et cetera. You can only control what you can measure. In the U.K., we work with a variety of different organizations, including the National Health Service, or NHS. This is the organization that manages the public health care system in the U.K. We have important contracts with this organization. And under these contracts, we are able to measure the prevalence rate of the epidemic. And also the presence of the different variance, depending on the region and how long these individuals have antibodies. It depends on the viral load that the individuals have been exposed to. It also depends on their personal circumstances. Now Ipsos is making an important contribution to the statistics that are necessary for health care authorities in the U.K. to better manage the pandemic. So health care authorities in the U.K. are managing the pandemic with varying degrees of success. It depends on the circumstances, but we all fumble our way through in terms of managing the COVID-19 epidemic. So what are we doing in terms of working with governments and public authorities? Well, we're working with governments and public authorities, but we also work with international organizations, including the WEF, the World Economic Forum. On this note, we introduced the results of a number of studies and surveys, which we carried out together with the WEF as part of a collaborative effort, which is ongoing. So we work with WEF on a continued basis. We initiated, what we call, a multiclient syndicated study. So anybody who's interested is in a position to participate. So what we try and do is measure public opinion vis-à-vis vaccines and immunization. Now what is challenging, what is difficult about vaccines and immunization is making sure the vaccines are available on the one hand, but there's another issue as well: how to make vaccines susceptible, particularly vis-à-vis people with significant risk factors. How do we make sure these individuals are vaccinated as quickly as possible, considering that availability of the vaccines themselves is sometimes a problem? So we work with a number of customers, including public authorities, be it at a national or international level. We also work with international bodies. And the last examples that I would like to share with you, because I do believe it is important, we work with WHO, the World Health Organization, and a number of nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs. We're also working with the World Economic Forum in Africa, in particular. So every 2 months or so, we carry out an important survey. We've done it 3x already, and we are looking forward to the fourth such study. So we interview African citizens in 20 or so African countries, and we try to better understand where they stand, what their opinion is, what their response is and also how we can induce behavioral changes, how we can make sure that the behaviors of African citizens can lead to better control of the epidemic. Those are just examples, among others. But I wanted to show you how our business and public affairs developed significantly over this period and how it will continue to develop in 2021. Fast-moving consumer goods. It's a sector that's more well-known in Ipsos' business. For those who've known us for a long time, you know that among our clients, we have a lot of international companies in the sector of fast-moving consumer goods: food, drinks, household cleaning products. So for us, when fast-moving consumer goods, when the sector is doing well, everything is okay for us at Ipsos. And that's one of the reasons why we were able to be back to growth in Q4, it's because of fast-moving consumer goods. Like many other sectors, in March, the sector was in shock. But in summer, and even more so in fall, significant research programs started again because we were able to provide them with protocols and methodologies that were in line and compliant with the fact that the epidemic was still there. Just to give you an example, product testing studies that are carried out when new products or services are developed, let's say new types of frozen pizzas and new drinks that are developed by companies. And then the companies need to test the products, to have them tested by consumers just to make sure that the taste, the smell, the texture is okay at least for food and drinks. With product testing, before the pandemic, it was required to be in touch with the consumers. They needed to have physical contact with the product. So we developed protocols in order to ship the product in a satisfactory sanitary condition and collect the information, consumers' feedback, without any contact between the people involved: consumers who are testing the products and Ipsos teams or our clients' teams. So with this type of methodology, we try to make sure that such protocols did not lead to a gap in results. The results were quite in line with what we got with more regular protocols. And we managed to convince our clients, or at least those who wish to go back to this kind of business, to have trust in product testing. And we also used other techniques. For instance, we work in ethnography, so the observation of people's behaviors. So our teams were involved. For social research purposes, we followed 30 families over several periods and in various countries, going through periods of lockdown, restrictions, being more or less hopeful, and we tried to understand how people responded to the various phases of the epidemic. So we had weekly contacts with them through videos, and we were able to develop the concept of voluntary blindness. So what is that? I'm talking about people who do not necessarily have a rational behavior when we observe them, when we analyze them, those are not the best behaviors, let's say. But they're the behaviors that help people cope with the situation, with a level of emotion that's under control and to be able to face the situation in which they are. So that was for fast-moving consumer goods. And finally, regarding digital big players, there is a preconceived idea, according to which the well-established companies in the digital sector know everything about their market and their clients, and they do not need to buy the services of a company such as Ipsos, which is completely wrong because among the main 5 clients of Ipsos, 2 of them are large companies involved in digital activities, i.e., research, e-commerce, social media. Among the companies with -- which our revenue is growing the fastest, some of the digital players are involved. And let me share with you a few names because it's no secret among the -- our main clients: we have Google, Facebook, Amazon, Huawei who are there and with whom we work in a close relationship. What do we do with these companies? Obviously, we monitor the impact of the epidemic on consumers. We try to help them understand how they respond to what they're sensitive. And we help digital companies to work with their direct clients, which are large corporations or smaller-sized enterprises. And with some of the services provided by tech companies, they can have better competitive positions. And of course, these companies develop many different services and products. They manage brands. They need to better understand user experiences with the products they offer, et cetera. So in 2020, our revenue remained stable with such companies. And interestingly enough, they significantly reduced their business and market research in Q2. Now they're back to a significant level of business, and we are convinced that our business with them will be much better in 2021 than 2020. And now I'll give the floor to Laurence Stoclet.

I was going to walk you through our figures and data. And then I'll take the floor again to present our conclusions. Good morning. Our main financial indicators are satisfactory. And they show Ipsos' resilience and agility in the face of the pandemic. It was very important for us to be able to protect our margins. And in fact, our operating margin improved compared to 2019. It's now at 10.3%. And there's also another remarkable point. We generated a record-high level of free cash flow, EUR 265 million. The level was already quite satisfactory at the end of Q1, EUR 165 million. And we generated EUR 100 million additional in H2. Usually, it's more around EUR 140 million that we expect to generate at Ipsos in terms of free cash flow. So this means that we are well beyond our usual performances. Let's look at the condensed income statement. I won't go back to revenue, we already commented on it. But the level of gross margin, 64.2%. So that revenue, minus the direct cost of information collection, so that's external cost, cost of our surveyors, interviewers and incentives that we pay to people who accept to respond. So gross margin is influenced by the moat of data collection that we have. So when we are online, the level of gross margin, rather between 70%, 75%. On the phone, it's rather 50%, 55%. And when it's a face-to-face interview, depending on the type of program, it's between 30% and 45%. Now with a constant scope in currency and the level of gross margin that's a bit better versus 2019, so 64.4%, it's because of a mix in data collection that's completely different compared to what we had in 2019. So more studies that are carried out online. 55% of studies were carried at online in 2019, and that's 60% in 2020. Many face-to-face interviews were converted to online studies, which made it possible for us to increase the margins for such studies. And also large deals that we won for health authorities are usually face-to-face programs with high-volume and a gross margin that's around 30%. So as you can see, the mix is completely different in terms of data collection. And the result, in the end, is quite similar to that of last year. Below gross margin, you have the operating margin, EUR 190 million, up 40 basis points versus last year, and it's all the more remarkable that, at the end of H1, there was a decline of 230 basis points. There is a seasonality effect, and I will come back to that point. At the end of H2, we did much better. And we have savings plans that we implemented, and they had an impact on H2 as well. So that's how we managed to improve the operating margin in the context of the pandemic. Below the operating margin, I would like to comment on 3 items. Other nonrecurring income and expense, less significant than in 2019 because, in 2019, the amounts were quite high because there was the implementation of our TUP plan. And with this plan, there was also the integration of GfK research, leading to a restructuring plan. So the net figure was EUR 16 million for restructuring. And this year, it's EUR 6 million. All the costs related to layoffs that we carried out in a certain number of countries because of the pandemic and the drop in business, well, the costs were above the operating margin amounting to EUR 7 million. The headcount went down between December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020. That was mostly because of attrition, so a freeze in hire rather than layoffs, because there is only EUR 7 million in layoff savings, and they are included in the operating margin. Then finance costs, they are down for 2 reasons. Obviously, good cash flow generation made it possible for us to lower our level of debt, but there's the mix of finance instruments that more -- that is more favorable. We had a bond loan, USPP type, $185 million with a 5% coupon, and it was reimbursed and replaced by other instruments with lower margins on the market. Finance costs of EUR 20.6 million versus EUR 26.6 million in 2019. And the last line that I wanted to comment upon, that's the effective tax rate. That's quite similar to that of last year, 26.1%. In total, margins are protected with better operating margin. Net profit attributable to the group is up 4.5%, so the EPS is EUR 2.49, and net result adjusted with nonrecurring items at the same level as last year at EUR 129.6 million. The adjusted net result per share, EUR 0.0294, which is a level that we deemed satisfactory. Now more details on our business and revenue. You can see the revenue breakdown by region. You're familiar with it. What is noteworthy this year is that because of a level of organic growth that's more volatile in emerging countries, minus 15% in organic growth versus minus 6.5% for the whole group, and also because of less favorable exchange rates, emerging countries only weigh in for 27% of the business of the group versus 35% in 2014, which means that it's -- that our business was much better in developed countries because we have negative organic growth of only minus 2.5%, and we recorded growth for Q4. The most satisfactory geography was Europe with 2% growth for the full year and a double-digit growth for Q4. As in all other geographies, business recovered gradually. It was the same case for Americas, minus 12% but Q4, minus 5%; for Asia Pacific, for the full year, minus 14% but in Q4, that was minus 7%. Now if we look at the revenue breakdown by audience segment. This reflects Didier's comments earlier when he looked at the different customer segments in the different areas of business in which we operate. Needless to say, we do a lot of work with consumers, particularly in the area of fast-moving consumer goods. Also, we do a lot of research with our customers' customers. For example, we do a lot of work with automotive sector, which was hard hit by the COVID-19 epidemic. And we also work in the area of public affairs, and this is where we interview people in their capacity as citizens. And our total improvement is 29%. Now the area that recovered most significantly is our work with doctors and patients. So big pharma cut down costs, cut down market research costs, at least initially. And in the latter part of the year, they decided to ramp up this work. I also would like to comment on our revenue breakdown, looking at the share of new services, new services that we have been tracking on a regular basis since 2015. So these are new solutions that Ipsos uses to collect data, so innovative metrics, data capture in real time, big data analysis and expert advisory services, in particular. Now these new services, when we started this program in 2015, they accounted for only 7% of our total business. And this has jumped to 19%, 1-9, in 2020. And so the -- yes, there was a slight 3% dip, but that's 50% of the drop, which we recorded at group level regarding this program. So we are focusing on providing these new services, and these efforts continue to bear fruit. If we look at our operating margin now and our analysis of the operating margin, this is -- our business is highly seasonal. So 45% of our revenue is posted in H1. And generally, 55% of our revenue is posted in H2. In 2020, this was even more seasonal because of the pandemic and because of the strict lockdown measures that we had to contend with starting in March. So only 43% of our revenue was recognized in H1 and 57% in H2. So this is obviously one of the reasons why our profit margin has improved so much in H2. In H2, our operating margin jumped from 13.6% in 2019 to 15.7%, obviously, riding on the back of cost savings measures, which we initiated in Q2. These cost savings bore fruit as early as Q2. Needless to say, the impact was felt even more in H2. Here, we're looking at the breakdown of this outstanding cost saving effort we implemented because of the pandemic. We gave you detailed information regarding that in July. So EUR 109 million in total, we saved even more, EUR 113 million broken down as follows, EUR 43 million for reductions in the wage bill. I already talked about the freeze on hires. But we also have a number of employees and executives that decided of their own accord to reduce their pay. So they agreed pay cuts as high as 20%. And we have also other -- we have also taken other measures to reduce the wage bill, for example, reducing working hours, taking unpaid leave, et cetera. And we need to bear this in mind, it is important because we intend to reward our people for those efforts. The efforts that they have made will be rewarded, particularly when it comes to our plan to cut variable pay. So we have also received government aid. A number of governments in 20 or so different countries granted subsidies to the tune of EUR 29 million in total. So less in H2, EUR 12 million than in H1, EUR 17 million, simply because our business picked up significantly in a number of locations starting H2, mostly Q4, which is why we put an end to our short time work program. We needed our people to come back to work full time. Lastly, when it comes to general operating expenses, we rolled out a cost saving plan to the tune of EUR 41 million. Now needless to say, because the pandemic forced people to stop traveling, we saved EUR 21 million on this particular item. We also renegotiated rent based on square meterage but also price paid per square meter, to the tune of EUR 7 million. So these savings will continue to bear fruit in the future. We have also taken other measures to reduce discretionary expenses. So all of these savings apply to the EUR 113 million in 2020 and may not be renewed as soon as we're back on track to restoring growth. Now in terms of cash, we decided to reduce by half our dividend payout. Initially, we were planning to make it EUR 0.89. We decided to bring that down to EUR 0.45. So we paid out EUR 19 million for shareholders as opposed to the EUR 38 million initially planned. And our proposal for 2020 works along the same lines. We want to ensure proper total shareholder return. If we look at our operating margin and how it changes from 1 year to another, if we also look at the different contributing factors, on a like-for-like scope in ForEx basis, as I said before, there is a slight improvement in gross margin. Once again, this is an interesting analysis and it has to do with a very different mix in terms of data collection methods. Also, we need to factor in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as such. Needless to say, the pandemics had significantly negative impacts on our business. Our business has gone down. We need to factor in the government subsidies as well and also the cost saving plan. And as a result, the total impact on our operating margin is a positive one. Also, and bearing in mind the fact that part of these cost savings were possible because our employees made sacrifices and worked extra hard, we decided to compensate them with cash bonuses. In fact, we'll pay the usual cash bonuses, but people who decided -- who voluntarily took a pay cut, without necessarily working shorter hours, so variable cash bonuses to the tune of EUR 20 million to be paid out in March and April. Now the acquisitions that we made over fiscal 2020 include Maritz Mystery Shopping in the U.S. and another company called Askia, which had operations in France, the U.K. and the U.S. It was -- the impact was neither negative or positive in terms of changes in profit margin because these were small acquisitions. And lastly, there's a negative ForEx impact on our revenue which went down by 2.5%, as indicated. Needless to say, because of the lower volumes, there is an impact on operating margin to the tune of 20 bps. Now our cash flow statement. Cash flow from operations is in line with changes in our operating profile, both in -- well, in value terms, in absolute terms, but we're also seeing a change in WCR, a positive change in WCR, for 2 reasons. On the one hand, in 2019, the change in working capital requirement was a negative one. It was a more negative change than it could have been because the end of 2019 was a very good one. Customer payables improved quite a bit, and this meant more cash coming in, in the beginning of the following year. And because of the drop in business, there is a mechanical reduction in our WCR. So our trade receivables are down by EUR 80 million. Now in terms of PPE and intangible assets, we spent about EUR 35 million. This is mostly comprised of IT development costs and capital expenditure. All of the other costs that we could -- or that we usually bear, for example, our renovation of premises, et cetera, there was a total freeze on such costs throughout the year. So by and large, our free cash flow is EUR 265 million. We invested into Maritz and Askia, these are nonrecurring investments to the tune of EUR 22 million, and the dividend payout is about EUR 19 million. And at closing, our cash position is comfortable, EUR 216 million. Now our balance sheet, looking at debt and debt by maturity, gross debt is down relative to December 30, 2019. So the split by maturity, you can see on the screen, EUR 164 million to be paid back in 2021, EUR 24 million in 2022, EUR 72 million in 2023 and in 2025, EUR 300 million. That's the Ipsos bond issue from September 2018. In addition, we have undrawn credit facilities with maturities of over 1 year for an amount in excess of EUR 400 million. And as you can see, this means we can meet all of our debt repayments by 2025. Thanks to our strong balance sheet, and thanks to our shareholders' equity of EUR 1.122 billion and our net debt of EUR 347 million, our debt-to-equity ratio or gearing is 30%. If we look at our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio, that ratio is 1.6%. And these are record lows for Ipsos. So our balance sheet is strong. Our cash generation is strong. And as a result, on May 27, when our shareholders meet, we will suggest a dividend payout of EUR 0.9 per share versus EUR 0.45 exceptional dividend payout.

Thank you, Laurence. Let's quickly look at the last part of our presentation. Looking at our group's agility, I'm going to share with you a number of examples. And of course, we will try to save time for Q&A. Let's paint a picture. Let's look back to February. Back in February, we realized that the epidemic wouldn't just affect Wuhan and the Hubei province. At the end of February, Ipsos initiated first a program to curtail business travel. And in early March, we tried to find ways for our company to show resilience and weather the storm. Once we came to these conclusions, and once we reaped the low-hanging fruit and took the easiest measures that we could take, and I'm not saying that we would have done it no matter what the cost, but the priority was to ensure continuity of operations or continuing to work together with our suppliers and our customers and our partners. So how could we continue to work with our customers and our partners well, considering the difficult circumstances? So Call To Action is a program that we initiated early April, and we implemented it in July 2020. So the CTA, or Call To Action, program is ongoing and will continue to run until the end of 2021. And obviously, sometime in 2021, we will look at how well we worked in -- we will look at how well we worked in 2020 but also how we're planning to proceed in the next few years, starting 2022. So we worked on 8 different priorities, so looking at target client opportunities, how can we improve our ability to talk to our customers and sell them products and services. So that's the sales aspect. How can we provide a more societal flare to our content, how can we provide better explanations as to the consequences of the pandemic, the consequences of the lockdown measures, the impact that this has on consumer and customer needs and priorities and behaviors and also what are the methods that we can implement to ensure compatibility with the epidemic, contactless product testing, for example, it's one option. So we're trying to promote AAA solutions. I'll tell you what AAA means in a second. The goal is to make the most of our platforms. Another goal is to improve our success rate in terms of responding to calls for tenders and request for proposals. And lastly, how do we work with each other in order to make sure that nobody gets left behind, in order to make sure that our teams feel as supported as possible in these difficult times when our teams are forced to work from home or they no longer have access to their office space or they can't meet physically anymore. Obviously, it makes sense for each and everyone to be concerned or concerned about the consequences of the epidemic on one's own health and the health and well-being of the people you love. And also, it's -- it makes sense for everybody to worry about their professional future and their economic well-being. So there are 5 aspects that I would like to emphasize, highlighted in green. But first, let's look at employee development. We worked on 3 different aspects. First, we want to protect our teams. That's paramount. We want to make sure that they're able to work from home. If necessary, our employees should have access to psychological support, get together with the psychiatrist or psychologist so they can talk about their difficulties, whether personal or professional difficulties, we want to make sure our teams feel as good as possible. We also looked at how we could help with their upskilling from a sales point of view, technical point of view or a managerial point of view. We provide training to more employees. We provided them access to more training, and the number of training hours per employee improved, on average, in 2020. We organized more virtual meetings. We made sure we listen to them. We made sure we communicated more. And there are examples I can share with you. So since April, I've been in touch, on a weekly basis, with all employees in the company with a more personal tone, just to share with them things that I've learned, my feelings, just to make sure that we have weekly contact between management and employees. The second theme is clients. Nothing is more important than keeping in touch with our clients. And we were quite worried at the beginning of the pandemic about how clients were going to respond, how we were going to keep working with them because we were not able to meet with them physically. And we realized, at some point, that, in a way, we were more available because we spent less time in airports, and they were more available as well. So we had the opportunity to have more contact with more clients. Obviously, the circumstances were a bit different, but we tried to learn from the situation. We tried to demonstrate empathy, promote knowledge sharing. We try to listen as much as possible by creating clubs of customers, of clients. And we realized that we were in a position to weather the storm together. So you have a graph on the screen. You can see the feedback that we got from our clients at the end of the year. We have several methods to monitor how clients see Ipsos. The first study is a study that we conduct at the end of each year, a global survey in which we interviewed 2,000 clients to understand what they want. And I won't share with you the notes that we have on our competitors. But regarding Ipsos, the average score for client satisfaction has been improving each year, but it did not explode. And between 2019 and 2020, we went from 7.9 to 8.3. We didn't expect that, and we were quite happy with it. And there's a more transactional study. So every time we finish a project, we send a questionnaire to our clients just to know their feedback to make sure that everything went well. It's the same thing when you take a plane. The airline, after your flight, sends you a questionnaire to make sure that everything was okay. So that's the same thing. So when we started this work, at the beginning of 2010, the average score was around 8.5. It gradually went up, but the pace was slower and slower. The maximum score is 10. So we reached 8.9 in 2019, and we managed to reach 9 in 2020, which means that for most projects, our clients rated us between 9 and 10. And for the minority of projects, the scores were 8, 7, 6, a few 5s or 4s. But as you can imagine, the studies are designed in a way that when the feedback is not good, there is obviously a response from management. We get in touch with the client to understand what didn't go well. And if we can improve some elements, obviously, we try to implement that as soon as possible. So that's for scores that are at 6 or under 6, but it's only for a minority of projects. Solutions now, AAA: appropriate, agile, affordable. We worked on designing or promoting or accelerating the implementation of solutions that are appropriate given the situation that are easy to implement, that are based on flexibility and agility. The last A is affordable, so not too costly because, obviously, many of our clients had to undergo significant budget cuts between March and June, July. After that, the situation improved slightly. As Laurence told you earlier on, we developed information collection methods for our survey segment that are more compatible with health protection measures. For example, for all the surveys that were carried out, the share of online surveys, so surveys for which no interviewers had to visit interviewees' home, went up in terms of revenue share, reaching 35%. And we have a social research program that we have that entails physical meetings with people with telephone, 10%; mail, 25%. What matters is that a significant share of 10% were done from call centers. Today, we shifted to technologies that enable interviewers to work from their homes. Obviously, they're properly trained, and there's no impact on the quality of their work. on the right-hand side, we have a very complicated diagram that describes country-by-country where things are going well, in green; where it's trickier, it's in yellow; and in red where you can't use a given method because of the context in a specific geography or a country. Now moving on to platforms and data. In the framework of our Call To Action program, we worked on platforms. What is a platform? It's a solution enabling a certain type of work, a certain type of contact with interviewees, whether citizens, consumers or even without interviewing people directly. So that's what we do with social media content watch. Ipsos operates a certain number of platforms because we have a diversified business and different clients. But with this Call To Action program, we considered that what was a priority for us was developing and using 4 platforms. First, Synthesio. It's the listening platform for data collection, for what's happening on the social media. Synthesio is a company that we bought 3 years ago, and we are developing this tool in terms of data collection and data analytics and integrating this data to other information. Simstore. Simstore is a platform that we got when we bought some of the assets of the German company, GfK, at the end of 2018. This platform makes it possible to modelize what's happening in the stores. So it's a very powerful platform. So with it, people can imagine what it feels like to walk in a store, have a look at shelves and how they choose a specific product or brand based on packaging that will have an impact or not on their choice. So anyway, what's interesting is that these surveys can be combined with predictive models. So we can communicate to our clients data on volumes, depending on the exposure rate of certain packaging or discounts. Those are tactical, and they're relevant studies. With the digital solutions, we are able to work fast in several countries at the same time in a consistent manner, and we can provide information that's predictive to our clients. Communities, an SRP socialized research platform. So we want to interview different people. Every time, for a given client or group of clients, we want to create a community of people that we might be in touch with for a period of 6 months or 1 year or a longer time period even, and this can be combined with other solutions. And I'll talk about Ipsos digital in a minute. Clients themselves can initiate surveys. So you can have a follow-up of people, what's happening. There are questionnaires, so you can work in a more vertical, traditional manner. But also within the communities, you can create more horizontal discussion forums. You can collect a lot of different information. There's a good example of this in France. And previous election period, [ survey of ] the Ministry of Interior, so with them, we managed the panel with 15,000 people who we followed on -- for several election periods, all the way up to the presidential election in 2017. And that was very useful because we're able to follow how political opinions evolved over a long time period. Last platform, Ipsos Digital. I was about to say it's the most important one. Well, that's not the most important one, but it is one of our main levers that we use in order to develop survey solutions that are automated, that can be activated by clients themselves or with the help of our teams. And our teams, of course, are fully involved in this process. Just a few figures, the platform was launched in January 2020. So we were lucky in a way. With this platform, EUR 7 million in revenue were generated. So you might think that the share of total revenue is not huge, but it's a good additional revenue. And we think that we can reach EUR 25 million in 2021. Our goal is to generate EUR 100 million in revenue in 2023. The platform is available in around 40 markets. You have an automatic access to Ipsos' panels. It provides information and data very quickly. And it's also used by our teams when they design their own questionnaires. So the main solutions that today are generated or managed by Ipsos Digital are the following. You have FastFacts, it's -- the name is self-explanatory, it's a DIY research tool. So you have 3 questions, for example. You go to the Ipsos digital platform, you pay, you choose your sample. You have a library of questionnaires. So you don't have to come up with new questions every time. You can just select the questions that are the most relevant for you, and you can launch the survey. And within a few hours, you get the information that you need. Duel, so it's a solution. Once again, the name is self-explanatory. It's a protocol that makes it possible to make choices, and for us to better analyze the reasons why a given behavior was chosen by the people that we are analyzing. InnoTest, that's for the evaluation of innovation. So we interview a sample of people and a certain number of ideas that are expressed in a simple manner, and we get quick responses. Creative/Spark is a tool that tests new advertising campaigns. It evaluates new campaigns so our clients can choose whether they are going to go for an idea or not. Omnibus, I'm sorry that we're still using this name Omnibus. It's not an Omnibus, it's something that is very quick. The main feature is that the same person answers several questions that are part of several projects for several clients. So in a way, we pool the survey in order to reduce costs. Now regarding acquisitions. They all have something in common, at least regarding our recent acquisitions. Askia is a company that develops a survey and data visualization software. It's a French company. A survey software is very simple to use, and the overall performance is very strong. So we wanted to buy this company in order to use these solutions on a massive scale, and that's what we're doing at the moment. So starting in mid-2021, we'll be able to implement a new version of the software that's high-performing to improve the execution of our work. And by the way, the Askia software suite is at the heart of the development of Ipsos Digital. Other acquisitions, Dotmetrics, MGE Data. Those are companies that we know very well because we've been working with them for a long time. And we thought it was important for us to know how to use their technologies because they're at the heart of several programs or contracts that we sign, especially for media audience measurement. You might be aware of this, but in the U.K., since the beginning of the year, we initiated a deal in order to measure all digital sites on U.K. territory, and that's something that we do in partnership with a body that includes site management institutions and other bodies that's called U.K. Online Management, UKOM. This amounts to several million euros for a period of several years. And in order to measure the audience on site, several technologies are used jointly and then we integrate the data. One of these technologies is web-centric so traffic is measured within the sites, and we use a technology that was -- comes from this company. It was set up years ago in Zagreb. And we acquired it because we wanted to secure what they already had developed and the future developments as well. MGE Data is a Czech company. MGE Data is a Czech company that has been around for over 10 years now. We're working together with them to perform contracts in the U.K., Sweden, France, Brazil. And we recently started a major contract in Australia with the Outdoor Measurement Association to -- it's about out-of-home measurements. This is an interesting technology. And thanks to this technology, we believe it's giving us an edge over the competition. At a time when companies that manage out-of-home measurements are busy digitizing and virtualizing some of their spaces, this generates additional opportunities for businesses, for brands, additional opportunities to talk to the right people at the right time on the right days. There's a German company that discussed that just yesterday. So 2021 -- 2020 is over now. And last year ended -- well, not -- it didn't end better than it started, but it ended better than we expected it to end, considering the crisis, particularly when the epidemic started to spread in March and April. So I'm stating the obvious here. But clearly, the epidemic is far from over. And we can only hope it will come to an end. But your guess is as good as mine. We're hoping the situation will improve this summer. We're hoping that additional treatments will be available, that more people will get vaccinated. Unless you ask me a specific question I'm not going to speculate on what the world would look like post-COVID. In the future, we will report on various post-2025 scenarios. But in the meantime, let's get back down to Earth. We can only assume that revenue will be higher in 2021 than it was in 2019. I think we will get back to 2019 levels, and we're hoping that our operating margin will be better than in '20 better than '19. Now the extent of this improvement will depend on a number of factors, for example, whether or not health protocols subside and also the level of revenue we will have achieved over the full year. Thank you for your patience. Thank you all for your attention. We are now available for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Nicolas Langlet from Exane BNP Paribas will be asking the first question.

I have 4 different questions. Number one, regarding public affairs. As we saw, it has been a positive trend in H2. Considering your order book, do you think that things will get back to normal in H1? Do you think that public affairs will support growth at least until H2? In terms of operating expenses, about EUR 100 million in 2020. So how much of that drop is sustainable do you think? In 2021, of course, government paid part of the wage bill, reductions back down to normalized levels. By and large, I don't think you'll get back to 2019 levels. Will you? Also, regarding the working capital requirement, we're seeing a huge improvement this year, particularly in terms of asset contracts and trade receivables. Should we expect a return to 2019 levels in 2021 or something in between? And the last question regarding merchant acquisitions, do you -- is there an increase in assets for sales in the past few months and quarters? Do you think that the crisis has dropped the transaction multiples on unlisted assets, yes or no?

Regarding your first question on public affairs. Needless to say, we've engaged in a number of contracts with public -- with health care authorities, we detailed them for you, and this explains why public affairs is a business that's on the up and up. We expect a continued improvement in H1. Obviously, this type of contract was not felt throughout H1. But on a full year basis, however, we're hoping that the pandemic will end before the end of the year, and we're hoping that pandemic measurement is a business that will also come to an end when the pandemic comes to an end. As already indicated, we do not intend to continue receiving government aid. We discontinued measures to reduce wages and to reduce working hours, simply because our business was up, which means that we needed to deliver all of the products we sold to customers, all of the contracts needed to be performed. And needless to say, in 2021, we will also increase wages for our teams to offset the freeze on pay hikes in 2020. So these savings on wages are not meant to last throughout 2021, except for maybe the recurring rental costs, except for maybe the travel costs, which will remain at lower level than before throughout at least part of 2021. So we're talking slightly over EUR 10 million in continued savings on travel costs. So out of the EUR 100 million, about EUR 20 million or so will continue on through 2020. We're hoping that other items won't continue because this will mean that the situation requires it. And at least as far as our current predictions are concerned, we expect to be back on the growth path for the full year 2021. Regarding the working capital requirement, there is a mechanical impact. Investment into WCR and trade receivables is automatically impacted by the return to growth. And in terms of working capital requirement, there isn't much headroom. So first of all, we have cash-ins, so trade receivables, and also wages paid to our workers and also our trade payables, not forgetting the rental costs and the travel costs, et cetera. So this is basically the result of changes in business conditions. And if business is up, by definition, we'll invest into WCR again. Generally, this is for calculation, 15% of our revenue is invested into WCR. In terms of mergers and acquisitions, obviously, there are M&A projects that we will resume. We recently announced our acquisition of Fistnet Dotmetrics on the one hand and MGE Data on the other. And there are other such acquisitions, small mid-caps, that specialize in very specific technologies that we're planning to acquire. And the acquisition of such technologies will strengthen our position. So these are acquisitions that we will look at that we are interested in. Now in terms of multiples, what are we looking at? These are such specific projects and acquisitions that I can't give you any comments on multiples, particularly since we -- in February 2020, we discontinued our acquisition policy.

The next question is by Emmanuel Matot from ODDO.

I hope you can all hear me. I have a couple of questions myself. Could you please elaborate on what's happening in the automotive sector? And what do you expect will happen in 2021 in this market segment, automotive? Question number two, when it comes to the operating margin expected for 2021, can you expect operating margin to improve relative to the 6.3% in 2020, assuming you restore revenue to 2019 levels, bearing in mind the loss of savings, factoring in the epidemic, obviously? Question number three, regarding the fact that all of your long-standing competitors are being bought up by private equity funds, could we get more information regarding your successor? As a CEO, where do you stand in the process? And what is the ideal process on -- the ideal profile long term?