Proximus PLC (PROX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Well, welcome to all of you to this general meeting, which will occur the hybrid way, i.e., a few shareholders are present over here in this room, but there are also some shareholders who are not in this room but via stream they can follow this meeting. I also welcome the Board members and the management and they are all present in this room. Welcome to this general meeting -- to the general assembly, sorry. And also welcome to the shareholders who we can have a dialogue with during this meeting. You have been having an opportunity to put your questions, written questions before this meeting, but you can also introduce some questions during this meeting. For those following remotely this meeting, you can address your questions into the chat. The chat is already open and we will answer all questions. All questions will be dealt with after the first 4 points of this agenda that do not need any vote. Shareholders present in this room will also have that opportunity to ask their questions orally as it is determined by the rule and tradition. All these points on the agenda for both, it's open, and you can vote until after treating the latest point on this agenda. Now the shareholders in this room, I've shown a video with the instructions regarding the voting procedure. Here, you got this video. [Presentation]

When the Chairman opens the poll, instructions will appear in the device screen. Okay, all right. The official languages of the meeting are Dutch and French. For our international shareholders, we provide a voiceover in English. As usually, I'm here with Guillaume Boutin, CEO; Mark Reid, CFO; and Dirk Lybaert, Secretary General. And compliant to Article 35 of the statutory law, Dirk Lybaert will be nominated secretary of this meeting. The Bureau of this assembly will be fulfilled by Igor Makedonsky and Mr. Koen Van Parys as they will count the votes. Dirk, can you just precise the composition of the general assembly?

Well, invitations with the agenda has been published in the Moniteur Belge, in De Tijd and L'Echo on March 15. Nominative commissioners and so forth have been invited on their name. All shareholders who have voted by mentioning the number of shares they voted for do participate in this meeting, and that will be fulfilled by the shareholders who have provided a proxy to third parties. To have this usual general assembly, there is no quorum and it is validated. The composition is validated. 239,635,341 shares are participating in this meeting and each share is giving rise to one vote. Decisions are accepted if votes are over 50% plus 1%, and I give the floor to the Chair.

Welcome, again, to all of you to this usual annual assembly -- yearly annual assembly. I am saying hello to those following remotely this meeting. Welcome also to all other people present, also the representative of the minister, the representative of the trade unions, also the colleagues, Board members who are in front, management of Proximus and many other stakeholders, but also all those who participated in preparing this general assembly. Together with Guillaume Boutin; Mark Reid, CFO; and Secretary General, Dirk Lybaert, I will introduce you this general assembly. And I will be your coach. 2023 was an exceptionally strong commercial result for Proximus that has been translated into excellent financial results that will be tackled by Guillaume and Mark. You have been able to get acquainted with this annual report with a lot of information about everything that happens within the Proximus Group. Environmental-wise, sustainability, training, gender, diversity, innovation, cybersecurity and so much more, we will be able to read the figures next to the financial reporting. Proximus is at the forefront of technological revolution and it's getting wider all over the place. Usually, administration and a public company, Proximus has become a modern company on the stock noticed and it's providing services in Belgium and international. It is really a big target. Strong connectivity is the core mission and the broadband width, it is important for everybody in the world. Our community needs a performance infrastructure. As such, a day-by-day life will be experienced as a sophisticated entrepreneurship. The increase of productivity of our economy is necessary, thanks to this broad digitalization. Private means are offered to all citizens, to companies and institutions, i.e., a perfect network with a lot of apps. A simple telephone conversation from there, we have become information and data flow manager for everybody on a day-by-day basis. And don't underestimate the enormous investment to update this basic infrastructure. It's up to the public organization and the regulator to find a right balance between financial accessibility for the citizens, but also, on the other hand, the feasibility for the investors on the other side. The huge cost for the deployment of fixed network, let's say, for fiber optic and network needs more support on all points of view and by all local authorities. Major negotiations are on in between the telecom operators in order to harmonize responsibly. We want to provide best network to all of you. And hence, we need a bigger intervention of the public authorities, also financial-wise. In the light of the many elections and the elections that are getting close, we have written a kind of memorandum and far away places merit as much service provision as in the city. All citizens have the right to a digital connection, but also protection from the cyber world. And any child has to be protected from toxic use. So it's about the quality of life for young and for elderly people, it is to be improved substantially. This challenge is possible only if we can manage that major investment of the whole digital chain by increasing estimated products and services. So the economic productivity increase has to be hand-in-hand with improvement, with also health and also security with safety. All of it in place is a technological advancement. In all activity sectors, it's about quantum technology, artificial intelligence and virtualization of the network has a major impact. That's why we do invest in all those fields next with some partners in an open mindset. Proximus knows quite well thoroughly, thanks to this new infrastructure, we need to take that opportunity to improve the intrinsical potential and to exploit this. Through this infrastructure, more security and more intelligence might be developed in favor of everybody. By excellence, the private network offer potential for a hospital or for a harbor, digitalization will be boosted by the systematic integration of AI. Telephone, we needed 175 years to reach 175 million people. ChatGPT reached this number in a month. So it is really a strong development for everybody and in the next years, it will be impressive. Also there, Proximus will be present and will assume its role on the community and social point of view. This infrastructure and many technology is broadening the borders. Europe is following this evolution and through Jerry Brotton, the EU is pleading in favor of the creation of a single market of telecom and to enlarge the spectrum at a European level. Telecom needs to get beyond the national borders in order to be more competitive at a worldwide basis, and that's the position of Europe. Europe is to face a major challenge. And it is precisely here for that a strategy of Proximus, it is to go beyond the borders, i.e., to have the national activities, but also to develop the service provider's role on the international level. With BICS and Telesign, Proximus has got 2 strong sister companies. It is providing telephone services, new service in terms of identification and communication platform. A third one, Route Mobile will be also part of that the internationalization. Very soon, that acquisition will be achieved. And by aligning these 3 companies, we can offer a large series of service and to become a leader in the segment of the international digital communication and digital identity. We are anchoring ourselves in India, in Europe and in America. Hence, our national activities will be supported on a financial point of view, but also technological-wise. It needs a strong strategy, but also an aligned approach of these companies will lead to a higher efficiency and a real added value for the whole group. To coach this telecom transformation, we will proceed to the necessary adjustment as well in the management as in the Board. The international dimension will be a major access of development for the Proximus Group in the coming years. The major challenge I've just been talking about, deployment of new infrastructure, virtualization of network and internationalization of our activities has been determined and decided by the Board and by all other stakeholders. It is being executed and it is under control. So this major ambition of the future will certainly not mean that we lose the short-term targets. In this summer, there will be a fixed telecom player that the government has been willing to have. Our services are ready, and we hope that the impact on Proximus will be limited as much as possible. This summer, we want also to deploy our strategy for the integration of our affiliates and to be fine-tuned. We hope that the negotiations with the fiber optic industry so that for the whole country, we can provide a high-quality, reliable fiberglass network. And though there are so many ambitions, so many challenges, we have remained quite low on the stock exchange. But it's about a decision of the Board, which is to have the choice of a long-term investment and that is a necessary vision, which is based upon our obligation to invest in the best network as soon as possible and for everybody. In coming months, Proximus will demonstrate and will show that we are a weapon, that we are armed, to reach our targets as a player. We integrate the new technology, new fiber optic and also alignment with the international activities will need quite a lot of energy and with a lot of unanimity. We do believe and are convinced of the success of that fundamental transformation of Proximus. Ladies and gentlemen, before getting with you into the agenda of this general assembly and to have a deep dive, I'd like to talk about the governance, the good governance of this company within Proximus. And after this general assembly, which is next month, in May, the shares of the Belgian state will be transferred to SFPIM ,the Federal Participation and Investment Company. We are positive-minded towards this initiative because we can reckon upon their professional knowledge and experience. It doesn't change the excellent way we have been cooperating with the Minister of Belgium who we thank for this cooperation. Transfer of shares allows at the level of the state to transfer competition, but also to split the responsibilities. And next government will be a full possibility for the follow-up of this services and infrastructure. And we don't address the second evolution. I'd like to draw your attention on, it is the creation of new committee, the International Committee. I referred to the development of our international activities with BICS and Telesign, and in the coming weeks, Route Mobile will be added, too. As such, today, a quarter of our product is international. Hence, we need to focus upon that here. That will be happening through the international committee. Another priority of the Board will be to ensure to have the monitoring of the cooperation in terms of deployment of the fixed network. And that mission will be provided to the Committee of Innovation. Ladies and gentlemen, the agenda of this meeting, of this general assembly, in terms of the Board, we are to nominate a new member. And for 3 members, we propose to renominate them. On the recommendation of the Nomination Committee, the Board decided to introduce the renomination of Caroline Basyn as an independent board member. If this is accepted by this general assembly, the Proximus is ensuring the equilibrium in terms of gender within the Board, and I'm particularly proud of this. Today, also renewal of the mandate of the CEO, Guillaume Boutin. He is the only executive Board member in our Board and soon the other 2 Board members, whose mandate is getting to an end, will be prolonged, Joachim Sonne and Luc Van den hove. They will take the floor and say why they merit their position in our Board. We suggest them to keep their mandate and to go on. The qualities of all these applicants, it is in line with the ambition and the style of Proximus. And I do hope that the shareholders will accept these proposals. On the agenda, also the approval of the remuneration report. Regarding the remuneration of the Board, it hasn't changed. It has not been indexed ever since 2004, which is 20 years. And 2023 has met 14x, which is a higher number than usually. On the one hand, because of the increased complexity, that's why we had additional Board meeting for acquisition files that are so important. The Audit Committee met 6 times and the remuneration committee met 5 times. Transformation and innovation had 22 meetings. Relating to the remuneration of the CEO, he gets a fixed income of EUR 500,000 as it has been determined at the start of this position 3 years ago. So it is indexed and it has increased by EUR 187,000 in '23. In addition, a variable income of 40% and a variable remuneration of 40% in the long run as well. The CEO has got a remuneration of $75,000 as a Chair of Telesign, the American subsidiary. In the management committee, the composition has changed as Ben Appel joined as Corporate Affairs responsible as he followed up Dirk Lybaert regarding remuneration and direction of Management Committee. In light of the increasing internationalization of the group, the Board is considering whether in the future, a remuneration might be founded upon the shares that might have been introduced. That was a remark of the general assembly last year, but it might also allow higher compliance with the provisions of the Belgian corporate governance rules. And the long-term remuneration, the green and digital society that was determined at 15% in 2023 has been increased by 20% shares in 2022. Compared to last year, this KPI includes also digital inclusion. And this one is focused on the cybersecurity, resilience, but also on the percentage of the high schools that are connected with fiber. Proximus has designated the core of Corporate Governance 2020 as a reference position. This position is respected with the exception of this one, the member of the Board and of the Management Committee has been personally remunerated in shares. As it was said, it is something we want to launch reflection. As such, these provisions will make Proximus, in the future, compliant with the corporate governance code. On the agenda, also specific points to nominate Deloitte in order to ensure our reporting and that's, again, CSRD reporting, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. This is demanded, and we expect in future months needs to be included in our law and legislation. There's still some uncertainty about the scope of this exercise. And hence, we suggest the general assembly to nominate Deloitte only for this year. And in the end, I'd like to thank all of the employees of Proximus for their involvement in the past year. 2023 has been an excellent year as well on the operational point of view as on the financial point of view, exceptional results, thanks to the whole team of Proximus. I thank as well as social partners for the constructive open-minded dialogue in between management and trade unions. I do appreciate their involvement not only on a day-by-day basis, but also on the strategy, on the short run and on the long run. But I thank also the shareholders for your support, but also support for this ambitious strategy of Proximus. And I thank the government, which is also represented, I didn't see that person, but I think there are some reps and I'd like to thank Petra De Sutter, next to the Prime Minister. And I thank also the Board members for their constructive and very critical and open-minded discussions within the Board. And of course, I thank with a lot of conviction the leadership with other words, the management committee who is leading the company, this company and, of course, the CEO, management is expressively success. We do congratulate this team, and the Board is confident for the whole team, specifically the anniversary of Guillaume Boutin, who has just become 50 yesterday. He has had this anniversary yesterday. Thank you very much. You have got the floor.

Good morning, everyone. I'm very happy to be here again to give you an overview of the year that we've gone through with Proximus and also to give you an idea of the ambition we have for the future. So we have 3 sections in this presentation. First, we will come back to the strategic and operational report in '23, and then we will present the financial results of '23, and then we will look at the future and we will talk about the important developments for next year. Let's talk about the strategic pillars of bold2025 that we launched last year. There are 3 main forces underlying this program. These forces were described on the right-hand side, from top to bottom, developing a better digital network for Belgium, the development of technological platforms of new generation that would allow the emergence for our clients of new future ecosystems. And the third, foster our work for which we would like to develop a modern organization and a better culture. On the left-hand side, are major ambitions, to do everything for our clients in Belgium. Internationally, we want to integrate this all, and we want to achieve this by taking up our societal role. This is a program I would like to show you briefly. Before everything, I can assure you that we are really healthy, that we are in great shape even with the various threats that are awaiting us, and I believe that we can tackle these with the great force and great diligence, like we did in '23. And then we also had the financial outperformances. We have realized a 4% growth last year and also a slow regression of our expectation result. But in '23, we have recovered with a progression of 1.4% for the EBITDA. This growth was the reflection of commercial results that we would like to qualify as exceptional, the increase of the number of clients, mobile and Internet clients, and we have reached record levels with regard to the last couple of years. And we also reaffirmed the superiority of our infrastructure, our fiber network covers 1.75 million households and companies, and we also cover 40% of the Belgian population with regard to the companies we launched with success of our B2B Proximus NXT brand. And this will allow us to respond, but even better with regard to the demands and the needs of our B2B clients. Internationally, we have a major acceleration of our ambitions with regard to the realization of our Route Mobile progression that will make us one of the world leaders with regard to digital inclusion. We will also have a social responsible development in line with the development of the society. And this engagement is not only expressed in words, but also through concrete realization. We have collected old cellphones. We have reconditioned new TV boxes, and we have also accompanied more than 15 million (sic) [ 15,000 ] personnel with regards to the digital inclusion. With regard to the growth and the healthy dynamic of Proximus, we have progressed 4.2% progression in 2023. This was the biggest increase of all operating -- European operators. The excellent performance of Proximus can be mainly explained through our commercial dynamic and the increase of our client bases. In '23, we have increased our convergent client basis by more than 6%. We also have attracted more than 165,000 (sic) [ 156,000 ] new mobile clients and more than 51,000 Internet client. This was the best increase that we have seen in the last 6 years. And if you compare this with the market, we have convinced more than half of the new mobile clients to join us and more than 60% of the fixed clients to join us compared to the competition. So despite of these good results, we see that the share price remains low. And I'm convinced that our stock market quotation is not a correct representation of the intrinsic value of the Proximus Group. And this is explained through one element. Some investors are worried about the potential changes with regard to the changes of our domestic market within the context of a massive investment situation that we have now with regard to the deployment of the fiber. So '24 will be a decisive year with a clarity that will have to be offered around three main criteria. With regard to the mobile group integration in the Proximus Group that will lead to synergies that will increase that go beyond EUR 90 million. And then also the capacity of Proximus to deploy fiber in low density regions and to attract partners for the possibility of coinvestment. And then finally, to limit the impact of the changing market structure and this on a very low levels than anticipated by the consensus. Good news is that most of these elements are under our control, and I can assure you that the management team here present is not only confident, but also convinced by the fact that we could be able to maintain our performances on the commercial level and that we will continue growing. And this will start with the confirmation of our good performance of '23 and '24. So we will continue to build on our forces, the strength of our market, our networks, our technology, our ESG actions and our people. We sell our products under 4 main markets in the Belgium, 3 residential markets, Mobile Vikings, Proximus and Scarlet. Scarlet for the price-conscious consumer. And with regard to the companies and the corporate sector, we will then launch Proximus NXT to serve that portion. So we are not the only ones who have confidence in the strength of our brands. Test Achats has voted Mobile Vikings, Proximus, Scarlet as being the best brands and the best companies with regard to telecommunication. So let's show you a video showing you in more concrete terms, how we will deploy fiber. [Presentation]

So as you've seen, deploying of fiber is a fabulous industrial project that will change the life of the companies. At the end of '23, 34% of our country was covered in fiber, then also two impressive figures, 400,000 clients already use the fiber network, the attraction of that new technology is without a doubt very important. So we talk a lot about fiber, but we have our mobile network. So we have progressed well with regard to the deployment of 5G. Like I said at the beginning of the presentation, more than 40% of the population is already covered through 5G. So by '26, our ambitions will be honored. And then also the various awards that we have received with regard to the coverage and the speed of a network, like you can read on this slide. So we congratulate ourselves that we officially have the fastest mobile network of Belgium. And I believe that you have all seen our last commercial campaign, ad campaign with regard to the deployment of 5G at high speed. And then with regard to the technological sovereignty, which is a very important topic for Europe, is at the heart of our strategy. I will only mention one example. The launch of Clarence last October, clarity and transparency, a joint venture between Proximus and LuxConnect that offers a sovereign client solution in the field of defense, health care or finance. And then also another technological field, where we are innovating, quantum development. And last year, we talked about our first tests -- successful tests in that field. And together with private companies and universities, we have launched Quantum Circle, a community with a goal to put Belgium at the vanguard of Europe with regard to quantum innovation. So I would like to invite you to read the white paper that you can find on the Internet to find more information. And then also the major topic of '23, artificial intelligence. Our strategy allowed us to anticipate the acceleration linked to generative AI in 2020. We launched Proximus Ada, center of excellence with regard to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. We know important growth within Ada in order to develop efficiencies for our company. So we have decided to integrate generative AI in our Proximus chatbot with immediate success, while we see a progression by 4 points of our client satisfaction score on that field. And then also our objectives with regard to ESG. Let's first look at our CO2 emissions reported -- divided in 3 scopes, direct emissions, indirect emission and emissions by our clients and suppliers. So we have reduced by 13% the Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2 emissions, and we will not leave it at that. We want to be more autonomous with regard to energy generation, with regard to setting up solar panels in all our companies. And if you want to reach a Net Zero goal by 2040, we will have to reduce our Scope 3 because Scope 3 represents 95% of our mission. So we have to tackle this issue. We would like to reach a situation where we reduce by 60% the CO2 emissions. Another very important topic for Proximus is to tackle digital exclusion. We were able to do this through strong partnerships like we have with BNP Paribas, DigitAll, supporting digitally excluded people. We also support a number of initiatives with regard to digital education with regard to teaching the dangers of Internet, cyber criminality, with regard to our students and pupils in the schools. And then also with regard to diversity and inclusion, we will set up a zero tolerance policy with regard to any type of exclusion. And the main part, the most important part of Proximus, the workers. We would like to reach a similar, excellent results as in '23, at the same time, making sure that the atmosphere and the work environment is pleasant and agreeable in order to reach a very high level of satisfaction of our workers. And 84% of our workforce would indicate that would recommend Proximus as an excellent employer. These results are also the result of successful partnership and successful collaboration with the social partners, like we have done so for various years. And then also, we'd like to end with our main statement of Proximus, boldly building a connected world that people trust so society blooms. And this is really the priority that is at the heart of all what we do in Proximus. Now I'd like to give the floor to Mark who will present the results -- the financial results of '23.

Thank you, Guillaume. Let me walk you through the 2023 financial performance. Let me start with the slide showing the key financial achievements of 2023. As Guillaume alluded to, we delivered a very strong year across all our key metrics. Group revenue grew by 2.2% to over EUR 6 billion in 2023, supported by strong commercial momentum and our ability to manage value across our brand portfolio. Group direct margin increased year-over-year by 3.4%, as an improved revenue mix, both domestically and internationally, supported that growth. 2023 continued to be impacted by the macro inflationary effects felt here in Europe and globally. In spite of that significant headwind, we managed to limit our decrease in our group EBITDA to 1.6% year-over-year. 2023 also saw the peak fiber investment year on our own balance sheet. We invested EUR 1.3 billion in our business with 29% of that CapEx being invested in our fiber build customer acquisition and migration CapEx onto our best-in-class fiber network. The strong operating performance and investment profile led to a net income of EUR 357 million and adjusted free cash flow of EUR 61 million for the year. And last but not least, our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 2.6x at the end of 2023 by the S&P definition. I will explain these points more in detail in a moment. This slide sets out our financial results for the 2023 in context of our guidance we provided to the market. Clearly, '23 was a fantastic year. We were able to meet or exceed our expectations, financial objectives across all metrics and this despite the continued competitive environment and a very challenging inflationary macroeconomic context. Let's take a closer look at our achievements, and I'll start with the group revenue perspective. Overall, we achieved 2.2% year-over-year growth, an increase of over EUR 133 million to above EUR 6 billion in total. Our domestic business contributed strongly to this increase, where we saw strong net customer growth, thanks to our product and network superiority, and we're able to execute value management strategy successfully across our suite of market-leading brands. On the international front, Telesign performed strongly with continued demand for its key digital communication services for enterprise plus BICS revenue declined mostly impacted by higher year-over-year comparable base on revenue streams that had little overall direct margin or EBITDA impact. We'll get into more details of each segment in the following slides. First of all, we'll have a look at the domestic revenue. We're very pleased with the domestic revenue growth trajectory in '23. Our domestic operations have delivered revenue of nearly EUR 4.7 billion, an increase of 4.2% from the previous year. A highlight within this performance revenue was the strong increase in revenue from services, up by 3.8% year-over-year, which is a key indicator of the strength and demand for our core networks and products from both enterprise and residential customers. This growth was driven by strong commercial net add performance, which I'll demonstrate in a later slide, but also by the execution of value management and price indexation strategy across our brands. In addition to strong service revenue growth, we were also able to deliver impressive growth in revenue from mobile terminals, IT hardware on a year-over-year basis. Now this slide reiterates the point I made earlier on core service revenue performance through 2023. We can clearly see the growth acceleration year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter on both residential and business service revenue. This growth is a key indicator of healthy core service demand from customers and our ability to execute both net add growth and value management strategies throughout the year. Our domestic performance was underpinned by strong demand for our products and services, as you can see from this slide. In 2023, we grew our customer base significantly on both Internet and mobile postpaid. In Q4 2023 alone, we achieved the best quarterly growth Internet net adds in 5 years, adding 16,000 clients. The Internet and mobile performance is in large part thanks to the Proximus network superiority, our multi-brand strategy and the success of the new mobile portfolio launched in summer 2023. At the same time, we managed to mitigate the effect of ongoing TV and fixed voice erosion following changing customer needs. Our full year 2023 Proximus Group posted direct margin of EUR 3.8 billion. This is an increase of EUR 127 million or 3.4% compared to 2022, with domestic BICS and Telesign, all demonstrating year-over-year growth in '23 at this level. Moving on to our international segments of BICS and Telesign delivering a combined direct margin growth of 4.9% year-over-year. Firstly, Telesign continues to deliver strong growth in 2023, 8.5% year-over-year in revenue and 9.4% year-over-year on direct margin on a constant currency basis. Telesign's ability to demonstrate to its enterprise customers through its scalable and unique platforms and the global demand for digital communications and identity services continue to support that growth trajectory. BICS, as mentioned earlier, had a revenue decline in the year of 5.8%, primarily related to the high 2022 comparable base, change in the destination mix impacting our legacy voice, and ongoing transition from SMS to alternative channels having a limited impact on direct margin. This is clearly evident by the continued direct margin growth of plus 2.8% that BICS was able to achieve in 2023 despite this revenue decline. We're very pleased with the performance of our international business in 2023, and this sets us up for the further development of the strategy in 2024 with the acquisition of Route Mobile soon to be complete. Now turning to the operating cost of the group. Overall, the operating expenses of the group increased by 8% year-over-year in 2023. Our domestic segment experienced a material headwind, like many enterprises in Europe, where inflationary pressures bore on the cost infrastructure of our business. However, we continue to deploy our cost efficiency program to mitigate these effects. Domestic operating expenses were 8.9% higher and total EUR 1.8 billion for the year 2023. The main cost increases in '23 were related to the inflationary impact on our domestic wage and energy costs. While the costs related to the company's transition to fiber and strong net add performance increased, but supported the strong revenue performance of the top line. We continue to execute rapidly on our cost efficiency program to partially offset these impacts. In 2023, our company-wide cost efficiency program delivered EUR 95 million across multiple domains, well on our way to the communicated ambition of EUR 200 million by end of 2025. For our international operations, we saw cost increases for Telesign in 2023, resulting from the continued investment in their growth plan. This includes, amongst other increases, marketing expenses as well as product development. Overall, this OpEx investment in Telesign is behind us now, and we saw that Telesign returned to an EBITDA positive position in S2 2023. Now returning to the group perspective again and the EBITDA for 2023. The underlying group EBITDA for the year was close to EUR 1.8 billion or a mitigated decline of 1.6% year-over-year. Given the strong inflationary impact experienced in 2023, we are very pleased with this result. The strong revenue growth, particularly domestic service revenue growth, which then translated to healthy direct margin growth and a continued focus on delivering cost efficiencies and puts us on a great track for return to EBITDA growth in 2024 as we committed in our Capital Market guidance. Now if we turn to group CapEx. In 2023, we invested a total of EUR 1.3 billion, excluding spectrum and football broadcasting rights. As guided, 2023 would be the peak CapEx investment year for Proximus. Our investment in fiber build on our own balance sheet starts to reduce as our joint venture partners take up more of the build volumes. We increased our installation and customer equipment CapEx in 2023 as our commercial success with migrating and acquiring fiber customers increased, all in support of the top line commercial results I detailed earlier. Our mobile network consolidation between Proximus and Orange Belgium known as MWingz is progressing well, and we're on track to have 100% 5G coverage in the '25-'26 time frame. And as a last point, in line with our strategy, we also continue to invest in digitalization, IT legacy retirement in the year. However, this has also now past its peak spend profile and is supportive of the communicated return to normalized CapEx levels by 2025. Turning to the last of the major financial metrics. Adjusted free cash flow ended the year at EUR 61 million, down EUR 181 million year-over-year. This was primarily driven by several effects, higher tax-related payments, primarily a onetime timing effect in the year, higher interest payments primarily due to mobile spectrum, repayments, again, with a partial onetime effect in 2023 as well as higher equity injections in our fiber joint ventures. These effects were partially compensated by significantly lower business working capital needs as inventory levels drop to a more normalized level after the cover buildups and the payment of a EUR 30 million contribution received from Immobel in relation to our headquarter sales. Now if we look forward to the guidance we provided to the market for the financial year 2024. Our domestic revenue will grow up to 1% year-over-year. This is in spite of the anticipated initial headwinds from the new expected market structure. Domestic EBITDA also will grow up to 1% year-over-year, again, including the anticipated market structure change. Group EBITDA growing up to 1% year-over-year, including BICS and Telesign and group CapEx reducing to EUR 1.2 billion. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio will be around 2.7, again under the S&P definition. We'll provide you with an update on our international group expectations when the Route Mobile transaction is closed. And now as a final slide, as a financial update, Proximus Board of Directors approved to propose a dividend of the result of 2023 for EUR 1.2 per share gross at today's Annual General Meeting. Subject to this approval, the normal dividend of EUR 0.7 per share will be payable in April 2024 and completes the interim dividend of EUR 0.5 per share paid in December 2023. This brings the total declared dividend over 2023 results to EUR 387 million. And I will now hand the presentation back to Guillaume Boutin.

Thank you, Mark. You have had an overview of our financial perspectives for '24. Now I would like to talk about our major ambitions for the coming years. First of all, the domestic market. We mentioned this morning, the structure of our market might significantly evolve in the coming years. And first of all, you have the competition in products and services, and the residential and professional market could intensify. And then also you know that competition is also evolving on the infrastructure. In any case, thanks to our bold2025 strategy, we are convinced that we are prepared to maintain our leadership position. We made a number of very strong strategic choices for our networks, market brands and our culture. Let's start with our networks. On the mobile side, we have secured superiority for the coming 20 years, thanks to the acquisition of more spectrum than our competition, but also thanks to our capacity to innovate. We have seen this in the evolution of our network with regard to the critical application that need very low latency. On the fixed market, we also invested massively in fiber, which was a very excellent choice, and we then generated a great advance compared to the competition. So deploying fiber in the entire country necessitates colossal means, and this is why I call for the creation of a legal network that would allow co-investment and collaboration with our peers in order to reach that objective in a more efficient manner. So we have welcomed positively the communication of the EIBBT (sic) [ BIPT ], the telecom regulator in October '23, that confirmed the possibility for the operators to consult among themselves in order to propose a concrete investment plan in order to deploy more rapidly and broadly fiber beyond the urban centers with a more favorable economic model. This would allow Belgium to catch up its labor with regard to the development of fiber while at the same time, producing tangible results. Let's move on to our brands and how these brands support superiority of our network. So we will show you a video to express this in more clear terms. [Presentation]

Networks and fiber, more specifically plays a major role in our premium positioning. This communication is reinforcing this link. As a witness, 66% of attribution of fiber investment to Proximus, link between fiber and Proximus so important. Hence, while this commercial dynamics that we experienced, the same as regards the 5G. As we produce the best experience, customers prefer us. The customers on 5G are significantly more satisfied, increase by 23 points of NPS increase because our customers do use 5G, and they use it more than 40% of their time. As we just saw, we have got the best network and the best brands, but is not without the best services that starts to be fair to the communication services. We'd like to go beyond with the customers by creating digital ecosystems. Most bespoken is Proximus+ we launched only a few weeks ago. Next to management of telecom services, we do the monitoring on a day-by-day basis, managing temperature of your home, reserving or booking a restaurant or buying a train ticket, it has been made attractive and easy for all of you, even those who are not customers of Proximus. And there's some innovation and cooperation. The new functionalities in Proximus+ has been made available in terms of mobility and bank services on a day-by-day basis. For instance, access to [ fitmystorm ] from your smartphone and mobile data, Bemobile, Mobilidata, that's for real-time traffic measurement. With wallet, you have got a view on all your bank accounts and access to cash back systems. And all this will be made available before the end of the summer time. I'd like also to refer to a new innovative app, Doktr. This is not yet adapted to what is at stake in terms of health in Belgium. But adaptation will occur. Doktr will be able to promote access to quality medicine and health care with a focus on prevention and mastering the expenses. You can get an appointment with doctors and NPs, of course, professional medical doctors, and there is a constant increase of the number of users and satisfaction is beyond 90%. In 2023, we reinforced cooperation with local partners as Vanbreda to make health care cost more sustainable, but we do provide support in mental health service as well ever since '24. You can have a consultation with a psychologist directly. Divestment -- I mean, Leisure, Proximus Pickx and is a new boost, a new decoder. It's connecting WiFi hanging -- that will be making quite some things easier. But also 100% digital provision with a more modern experience for customers. Content-wise, Disney+ is integrated in Pickx and the rights of the Champions League has been prolonged until 2027, that will make quite a lot of customers quite happy. Latest services, 5G slicing market claim with Proximus NXT, whether it be slicing 5G during Wintermonde or we do build a 5G MPN network at Viva for Life. This is a low latency, a large bandwidth and a secured access recognition of Proximus. In terms of 5G, we get some subsidies for the innovating project. One is with az groeninge, and we will build the first hospital of Benelux with its own private 5G network. Let's talk about the international ambitions. First, let's take some distance to measure how large these activities are in our group. We closed the Route Mobile acquisition, that's a EUR 2 billion turnover making Proximus a major player of digital communication market. Regarding acquisition of Route Mobile, we have been approved all the way down and it will be closed end of May. Of course, you will be informed. Let's get back to the digital communication. What do we mean by digital communication? One sentence. It is about sending the right message at the right moment to the right communication channel and in a fully secured way. It is a critical service for the customer, whether it be for WhatsApp or big companies, all need to join their own customers on a day-by-day basis to create new accounts for marketing campaigns or just to inform them. All activity fields are involved, health care, commerce and financial services. We used to organize the whole assets in 3 major fields. Proximus through its international subsidiaries is active on each segment. BICS involves a major role, i.e., access to the final user through a privileged access all over the place in the world. We've got an access to 5 billion telephones, thanks to BICS, the messages of CPaaS uses, Route Mobile can reach the final user. Hence, it is a very important link. Route Mobile, it's about to orchestrate the communication between the preferred communication channel, whether it be SMS, WhatsApp or Viber. And in the end, Telesign is also positioned at a higher level in the value chain. It's about -- their expertise is digital identity. It's important because there is a lot of fraud online. Thanks to Telesign, we ensure safety and security of digital communication. Proximus will be the only -- one of the only players to offer a health series solution to solve the challenge of the customer on the whole series of digital bricks in the whole world. A major point again regarding these markets, it's that there is a strong growth of these markets. Regarding the global network, we expect a growth of more than 5% in the coming years. For CPaaS, it will be above 10%, while the digital market will grow by 15 months -- 15%, sorry, so our opportunities to take advantage of the potential of these markets. Next, we review the organization of international organization with the route international. We have got a unique decision place for the international activity. Stefaan talked about this. It's about the international management committee, culture and leadership. We want a common sense of belonging with strong entrepreneurship mindset, for each entity in an entrepreneurship mindset asset. Next to this, dedicated leaders for the 3 fields, whether it be global network, CPaaS and digital identity. And in the end, an integrated approach for product and innovation to optimize the synergy within our group. Why do we do all of this? Well, very simply, because we see internationalization of Proximus as a high leverage for added value. Thanks to a subset release, we offer the customer a unique platform, integrating the technological bricks. Our footprint will offer a solution in the full world. All over the board, we are international and very profitable. We're generating new income resources to support investment for all domestic activities as well. It's about time to close this session, and I will end by making a wrap-up of the road map in 2024. It's about 6 points that you can see on the screen. First of all, to sustain a strong commercial momentum, which is the driving revenue growth engine. We're capitalizing on network superiority and working towards fiber collaboration. Every evolution to deploy fiber will be taken if all conditions are fulfilled. We will reinforce investing in innovation ecosystems and sustainable solutions. We will be ready to face the structural market changes, thanks to our strategy bold2025. International-wise, we'd like to accelerate our international activities with BICS, Telesign and the integration of Route Mobile within our group. And in the end, all this is possible, only thanks to the employees. We will invest in the involvement with an inclusive and satisfaction oriented policy to ensure the responsible development of Proximus. Thank you for your attention, and I give the floor to Dirk and Stefaan. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mark, but also thank you, Guillaume, for this strong talk. Thank you for this presentation. In the meanwhile, I saw the Vice-Cabinet Chief of the Minister also the press, welcome to the journalists as well. As now we can proceed to the first 4 points of our agenda, which do not need any vote. So the first point of this agenda do not need any vote. So it's about communication of the report. Secondly, the report of the commissioners regarding the financial report, consolidated accounts December '23. Three, the information provided by the steering committee, ensuring that the financial information has been transferred, consolidated accounts on December 2023. While treating these points, we don't need any vote. We can have the live question session. So first, questions and answer on basis of this basis, the shareholders could communicate their questions beforehand, isn't it? But we didn't get any written question beforehand. On the basis of this document, the shareholders could transfer their written questions, but we didn't get any. Hence, I can give the floor to the audience. And thereafter, we will deal with the questions that can be asked via the chat. But first of all, for all your questions regarding the products and services, you can address the VIP help desk as usually, which will help you and it will help you every year to respond, and they are present in the reception room here downstairs after this meeting. So the audience has got the floor. I'd like to inform that a VIP help desk will be available for all your questions regarding our products and services in the session room after this assembly. May I ask you to say your name when you take the floor, your name and your function, when you take the floor, please. And now, I'd like to ask you to use the microphone so that we can hear what the question is or might be, isn't it?

[Interpreted] Yes. My name is [ Luc Ross ]. My question is this one. When I was listening to the presentation, it seems that the results were really very good during that year, 2023, isn't it? And something which remains in my mind is the stock exchange position. Well, looking at this presentation, I said I've got the impression that, next year, during the next meeting of the shareholders, it will be above the EUR 10 per share because this quotation has to follow, isn't it? What do we think about this?

[Interpreted] Well, I can give the floor to Guillaume, isn't it? But me, myself and it has been confirmed by Guillaume, and that is because of some threats today we are not having the value we expected, and we wish to see a higher level than what it is provided by the stock exchange. So there's the massive investment in fiber, the fiber optic connection. This is a market which is already yet quite competitive. And it didn't notice that this international development is in full speed and it should lead to maturity. So I share your optimism for the future. But now, I prefer to give the floor to Guillaume.

[Interpreted] Just to confirm what you just said, Stefaan, and I told you also as such in my presentation, some events will have an impact on the stock exchange. It's the risk of the structure of our market. This at a momentum of a strong investment in that fiber infrastructure. Hence we -- of course, these events needs to happen, to occur, and we are quite confident we will absorb the shocks very -- with success, and that's what I said. Three catalyzes are potentially possible in the future. First, are we in a position to keep that commercial performance we reached last year, and that's a key element, despite the new offers and the new forms of competition that will rise in the summer time? Secondly, can we find a right framework of cooperation for a fiber optic as we can control and have a grip on the level of investment level we can produce, we can do in fiber optic, and we can share that fiber optic. It's EUR 10 billion investment into the ground. If you can share that investment in favor of all of this, then it is very important for us. And thereafter something, we need to execute smoothly and that's the coming weeks. And that's something we have a grip on and that's the management of the integration of the Route Mobile in our international activities as this will be immediately have an impact in the cash flow, and that will contribute to the growth of Proximus as a group through diversification of activities, isn't it? So you see many things will occur, will really be clear in the next quarters and the next month.

[Interpreted] Please, another question about fiber. A question, i.e., I have just been told that the customer of Proximus can get access to fiber optic and it will be installed in their home. But not the customer of Scarlet, isn't it?

[Interpreted] Scarlet will not be serviced. No, no. Indeed, it's not correct anymore. It used to be the case at the start, 18 months ago, when we accelerated fiber optic. Scarlet customers couldn't get that offer on the fiber optic meant fiber optic network gets in front of your room, then Scarlet can also take advantage of the fiber optic. So in the coming months, a few challenges will evolve and will be tackled. Next question, the yearly question.

[Interpreted] Yes, indeed, as each year, this is one of the very first general assembly and historical shares when I started, when IPO started, and I'm still there, so historical shareholders. So this is a real first correct general assembly. I went to others at the start of the month. We were only 2 people. And everything what happens was just a vote and you just read your annual report. I do appreciate what you had -- we have as a presentation. Annual questions and monitoring questions. The electromagnetic zone, 5G, might reduce the impact on health of those suffering of electromagnetic fields. There are some people who are sensitive and there are no blanco or a neutral area in order to preserve their health. That's the first question. Second annual question, I think that Mr. Lybaert back will answer. 100% affiliates, from 208 to 211. There is some in the same country, same address, and that's quite bizarre. And a more amusing point, which is Telesign is installed in the United Kingdom. The headquarters in London Telesign -- no, Greater Manchester, isn't it? That's quite surprising. Telesign and to Telesign Holding in the United States, isn't it? Exactly at the same address. And two, for the United Kingdom, so each year, I put that question. Why don't we cancel all those 100% subsidiaries by having only one single subsidiary in each country? It's better to have the questions, the one after the other, isn't it?

[Interpreted] Well, indeed, Mr. [ Kale ], we do continue this permanent exercise to simplify our structure of our group, as we have done in 2023. We closed and stopped 4 subsidiaries and that's a permanent exercise. You're quite right, fully right, specifically on the international level, there's still a lot to be done. Look at the structure of Telesign and the different levels of the holding around the operational entity. Telesign, I'd say there is still some margin to simplify. You need to know that we do take into account the fiscal context in order to identify the right moment to merge some entities. That's why, in some countries, you've got still several subsidiaries at the same address. It remains a focus point and we do continue our exercise. The electromagnetic neutral fields...

[Interpreted] Well, I do confirm what you said, gentlemen, last year. 5G, it's about to transport more efficiently, communication and data you'd like to have through the network. With the explosion of data need of our customer, 5G will enable more efficiency to deploy less spectrum capacity to transport data transfer. Hence, 5G reduces the request of energy -- the need of energy and the emission of our device. So that's getting the right way. Your question in addition is to identify region without 3G, 4G, 5G or any magnetic field in terms of telecommunication. I'd say, of course, there are still some, and we are trying to strive against it so that everybody can be connected and can communicate in case of need with the emergency services. This is not simple to solve, some initiatives are taken. In some municipalities, there is no coverage so that electro-sensitive people can live there. This is a reflection we haven't quite some countries, and we will listen to that kind of the request in case of.

[Interpreted] I'm thinking about the forest. Is it necessary? Is it really necessary for those people to consult Facebook when they are in the forest? If they're talking in the forest, it's about disconnection and not to be connected under the tree. But emergency, yes, it might be useful. So the shares, the 4.65% of your own shares. So this is normal. But why do we have 4.65% of your own equity? Why not 1 or 2, but 4.5%, it's quite a lot your own hands of your own shares.

[Interpreted] Dirk?

[Interpreted] Well, yes, indeed. We're quite aware of this, but we can't see what we do not see is any reason for us to change or to cancel the own equity, our own shares. We do keep these shares, first of all, for the share deals, the potential share deals in the future. And we do think -- I mean, it doesn't cost anything to keep them, and that's why we keep them in case of. Last question about the follow up last year. Last year, there was a scandal regarding black work of providers, subcontractors, subcontractors that were acting in black market and very brutal. We had to put an end to that scandal. And another thing, the marketing costs of so set Proximus to know where are we as a customer. We are in -- we are linked with our Proximus customer. And each time we get that remark. And they say, no, we have got no access to the databases. If Proximus doesn't have any access to their own databases, I don't understand what happens.

[Interpreted] Unidentified telephone number I transfer this. Is there any follow-up, do you act at a legal point of view or at a legal point of view against these pirates?

[Interpreted] First and second question. I will start with the second question. The positive news is that the number of complaints on that point of view is reduced. Eight a month, it's too much. It's still too much, except the complaints we get. We know that this problem remains and it is really disturbing, our customers, we don't want this. What we're doing, either we know the calling person. And quite often, when there is a complaint, we can see that it is an independent person working for our partners who is at the basis of this communication. We reinforced our contracts with our partners. We improved, we reviewed it, and there is a penalty and a sanction in case those people are called without respect of or charter or behavior charters. And we have got some cases in 2023 and we imposed penalties and sanctions towards these partners. Second case, we don't know who calls, we cannot identify the person who calls our customer. First of all, we introduced a complaint with a prosecutor, we start a suit and we launched an advertisement to tell the customer beware that number is not reliable. It is a liar. You cannot treat -- be vigilant. Be very vigilant when you take that kind of call. I am on the list, don't call me anymore. And these companies are acting on behalf of Proximus and they don't consult the list. So it doesn't work. It really doesn't work anymore. All right. [Interpreted] This scandal of fiber installation. Well, after that discovery with the subcontractors, we reacted very firmly and very quickly because we have a good governance charter for Proximus and its subcontraction with our partners, fiber. They adopted the charter in order to deploy fiber in their own area. In this charter, we need to limit the number of subcontractors by 2 levels. We have got a better grip on the situation. It's much more severe regarding the sub construction, deploying the fiber optic -- fiber whether it be fiber [indiscernible] and so on. Hence, I think we have been promising something. And there is an audit occurring so that this engagement is honored by the partners.

[Interpreted] It will be quick. Thank you for your presentation. I would just like you to remind what you said about the indexation of the remuneration. I didn't understand that correct. It is remuneration or indexed -- and I also see that you have -- with regard to the attendance fees and increase -- do you have more meetings, you have had more meetings in '23. So there is no indexation -- there's no indexation for the directors, but there's indexation for the managers, staff and so forth. The fact that there's an increase of remuneration is due to the fact that we have had more meetings. We have had 14 meetings instead of 7 because of the number of very important issues to be discussed, and this is why we had an increase of the number of meetings, leading to an increase of our allowances.

[Interpreted] Good morning, again. So I was reading my newspaper and read that the [indiscernible] authorities chose Telenet to -- for its telecom services. So why didn't Proximus -- well, when that market, so we did everything we could in order to bring in that contract. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. But we remain a big part of the [indiscernible] authorities, but we lost that market tender, but we win a lot of other tenders, but that tender we lost it, and this is the game of competition and with other competitors, you perhaps forgot to sponsor a number of members of parliament like Telenet has done at a time, Telenet met -- made sick fit [indiscernible] councilor or other politicians that were hired as consulted in order to influence those decisions. I won't comment that remark, but there are a number of members of Parliament who have means to increase their income through a number of schemes with regard to, for instance, the increase of their pensions where they decide among themselves to increase their [indiscernible]. So I believe that the procedure with that tender was correct. We did obtain that to update everything we could. So we noted it, we participate. We participate in a lot of tenders, but we will not engage in those practices that you have just addressed. So we have a good relationship with the [indiscernible] authorities and everything is done correctly and transparently within Proximus. Let's hope so. Other question?

[Interpreted] During one of your presentations, you indicated, Mr. Boutin, that we would be the correct development of the fiber and will be put forward as the parade horse?

[Interpreted] Did we? No. We were talking about 5G. So in [indiscernible] we deployed fiber and 5G. We used [indiscernible] that was at the beginning of our deployment. So we wanted to use Vitran as a showcase, but now we accelerated this greatly. So [indiscernible] was a very -- well, an excellent lab in order to understand and test and experiment. And now we extended that lab to more municipalities and other regions of Belgium. But [indiscernible] helped us to understand how we could integrate from a technical point of view, 5G and fiber in the city. So why did you choose [indiscernible] in order to make it the showcase because it was a small verge where you had to take the car on the road for a certain time in order to see that showcase. But if you go back 4, 5 years ago, there was a public debate about 5G, a number of mayors weren't convinced. And so we had to look to a number of municipalities who are in favor of the deployment of that technology in order to demonstrate or to showcase the technology, and [indiscernible] on this is why we had a very good discussion and a good dialogue with the mayor of [indiscernible] in order to, well, underline the benefits of the new technology and to reassure other buyers that had that. Another question. Yes?

[Interpreted] How come that now we present results of 2023 who are excellent and -- so you achieved EUR 95 million in savings. But in the EUR 95 million in savings, you have the decrease of the dividend that is part of that. And we also noticed that, in spite of all those excellent figures, Proximus was the most hated share of the Brazos Stock Exchange. And again, this was something that we have seen on and on. So how come that this type of company is being treated like that by investments?

[Interpreted] So the question was asked. We answered the questions. So perhaps we could reiterate the answer of Guillaume very shortly. So, in fact, there are a number of challenges that have made that the share price was impacted. So the telecom industry is not an industry that has, let's see, well loved by the investors today because there's a lot of investment, mature markets. And with regard to the Belgian market, we had also had the arrival of a new competitor. And this all will put some pressure on the share price. And like we said, we are convinced that we have the right action plan in order to recreate in order to reduce the difference between the intrinsic value of Proximus and its share value. So -- and you know that markets often work on the short term. They don't project themselves to the future. We do everything in order to create value in the middle and long term. And we are convinced that, in '23, we will see a scenario where those 2 values, intrinsic value and market value will come together more and more. And then you will see how the market will evolve with regard to the new entrants or the new collaborations, with regard to the setting up of the infrastructure. So there are a number of things that will be decisive with regard to the value of the Proximus shareholder and also with regard to the telecom sector in Belgium. So we are -- we have confidence in a positive evolution.

[Interpreted] So okay, thank you. We are still waiting for that switch that -- the light to turn on that was promised last year. So this is part of the deployment of our strategy. Having deployed already 34% of fiber in Belgium, this will -- this sets us up in a very favorable position in order to talk about a collaboration with other competitors. And all the goal with regard to this dynamic, this allows us to catch more market share and this would give us an advantage -- advantageous position with regard to the competitors, we cannot do more. So if you look at the state of collision for the -- of the teams of all the workers, all the staff of Proximus, it's fascinating to see how much confidence we have in our action with regard to the setting up of infrastructure in order to negotiate collaboration partnerships and we are winning market share. We are the operator with the best and biggest dynamic, and this will allow us to absorb the shock of the arrival of a possible new competitor.

[Interpreted] Another remark, the fact that you invest in India, this might be a good bet because that country is developing and might even exceed China, the evolution of China. But we have to be prudent because Sofina, which invested in India, well had a very bad surprise.

[Interpreted] So we are not investing in India. We are investing in world digital communication, and part of the development of the organization are based in India. But in all software organizations, you have a lot of operational centers located in those countries. So we are an international software platform with operations in India, Asia, in Europe and America, we are becoming an international group with [indiscernible].

[Foreign Language]

[Interpreted] Let's see. The evolution was major, seeing the low share price. So someone who bought a share at EUR 6, he has fantastic results. But someone who has invested 10, 20 years ago in the company, well, his situation is not that positive. So the shares that he is holding is not that promising with regard to the dividend that you would receive.

[Interpreted] And I wonder whether there wouldn't be any compensation possible with regard to payment in shares. I would like to ask whether it is not possible to also pay at the loyal shareholders to give them the choice between cash or new dividend, but with a certain discount, like some other companies do. I'm talking about the JIMP, who give 5% to 7% discount in order to keep the money within the company. So what is your position with regard to that possibility?

[Interpreted] I have said in general times that the issue with regard to compensation or remuneration in shares, which is suggested in the corporate governance calls or for the Board and management that debate that we have not engaged in for now, but we always declare, we have to clarify that we are not following the governance code, a good covenant code. I say we have decided, to reopen the debate with the Board of Directors and first of all, towards management because a lot of international investors do not understand that management isn't paid out in shares because the incentive there -- [Foreign Language] all the possible options will be put on the table to see what we will decide.

[Interpreted] Are you open to the idea as a Board in order to keep the money in the company and to somewhere to compensate the loyal shareholders in a more comfortable way?

[Interpreted] This is also possible option that we could exchange on, but I will not make any declarations about whether we will do this or not. We also suggested that the number of options with regard to payment in shares is also something that we have thought about. You make another suggestion, so we will take that into account in our reflection. But also have the fact that, in the future, I have said it with [indiscernible] that we will have another partner. So up to now, we have a good relationship with the authorities, with the minister in charge, but also -- but we are also very prudent on that level. So we might develop another type of debate with our new shareholder in May, where we could also, if we decide to do something on that level, that we will consult with that new part around that type of decisions. The second point, I would like to come back to what has been suggested with regard to the share price, the share price is not at the level that you think it should be. So how do you think -- why do you think that the analysts, the markets, the shareholders are not convinced? So we have addressed this at various times. There's also the aspect of a delay of a period. So we know that a fourth operator -- will start before the summer. So that is one. So what would be the effect of that operator in the future. We know that there's a debate on glass fiber, that the debates are open, that we have EUR 1.3 billion CapEx per year in investments and that we -- but at the same time, it's a very delicate discussion that has to be clear that. These are things and factors and issues that probably, in the coming months, will be elucidated will -- and so I believe that there's a -- that the shareholders are waiting to see what will happen. So with regard to the glass fiber and the fourth operators. And there you will see that with regard to those items at those points, the matters will be more concrete in the coming months. But normally, a market projects a year ahead. So I will not talk about how the market evolves, works, functions and so forth. I am not abilitated to do this, I'm not an expert. But I repeat, we, as a Board of Director, we have launched ourselves on the long-term vision. We know that we -- well, that the investments are very costly, that we want to establish and achieve that infrastructure for everyone. We want to do it. We got to the internalization of the company to build up a very strong vision, but a long-term vision is often not valued on the short term by the investments -- by the investors. Like Guillaume said, we are prepared, we are ready on all fields. We are well prepared with regard to all those [indiscernible], and we have a very strong position with regard to all those developments. We are ready to achieve that click. The only thing that you need to do now is to convince the market. And this is what we are trying to do today. And then we have a question from Mr. [ Carlier ]?

[Interpreted] I have a number of questions, a new question. The first question, financial question. So yes, the share is not doing well, but all telecom shares are not doing well. Orange Belgium wanted to organize a buyback to buy shares at EUR 22, the investors didn't fall. Another company also, Liberty Global also launched, again, it's an action and they left the stock exchange. The 3 takeover bits. So the 3 stock exchange quoted companies are in a bad situation. And [ Umicore ] also that is another company, not of the same industry also has had a difficulty. And then [ Mark Cuca ] who is practically the owner of [indiscernible] I believe that is why you went to [indiscernible] because he invited you to an excellent restaurant so -- no that was a humor. So that was just a joke. So I believe that the earlier remark that members of Parliament are correct, that was a horrible remark and absolutely not correct. But I see that the yield of the dividend is the second highest of this year. So the first was a year enough, that was due to other reasons with regard to the first high level of the dividend. But the future dividend will that be sustainable? I see that, for this year, EUR 1.20, you need to allocate EUR 387 million in order to add -- to add EUR 0.60, you need -- in order to give a new dividend of you [indiscernible] you need EUR 193 billion. This means that the profit of this year and the reported profit, this means that you will only use your entire profit in order to pay that dividend. If you perform less than [ 124 ], you will be in the red.

[Interpreted] You are talking about the EUR 366 million in profit while the profit to be appropriated is less than that, EUR 134 million. So what is the difference there? So first of all, the dividend, do we have the necessary reserves to pay that dividend? I will leave it to Mark to answer that question. And do we cover our dividend with our operational cash flow? You know the answer to that question. The answer is, no. So we are investing today. We are not covering the dividend with the operational cash flow. So as a management, we have committed to recover that operational cash flow in order to cover the dividend in the mid to long term. And so this is a strong decision and a strong will of the management and Board. So we are in a very decisive phase with regard to development of fiber. We cannot cover the dividend. With regard to the cash flow, with regard to the reserves. I would leave it to Mark to answer.

As you said, Guillaume, we're in a -- 2023 was a peak investment year. And that, clearly, as you saw from the results, weighed on our free cash flow. But we have the financial means and the financial borrowings to be able to get through this period of peak investment. And as we've kind of said in our Capital Markets Day, we see the free cash flow of the business starting to get back to more normalized levels. How do we get there? We continue to be very successful or see our success in our domestic business and that will return to growth. And again, we've committed to that, 2024. The international business, as Guillaume said, equally, that will be growing in terms of the stand-alone businesses that we've got in terms of Telesign and BICS, but the acquisition of Route Mobile is immediately cash flow accretive to the business. And then again, the overall CapEx portfolio that I talked about in the results, equally starts to come back down to a more normalized level. So the underlying business is all trending towards a level of sustainable free cash flow that we'll be able to pay the dividends in the future. So that's our Capital Market Day commitments and that we continue to believe that in our first year of our bold2025 strategy has overdelivered those results, which we're super confident in.

[Interpreted] There are no further questions. Yes, question here?

[Interpreted] What -- the difference between the EUR 357 million on the slide and the EUR 134 million that is on the convocation. So that's a big difference with regard to the profits -- as the profits to be attributed or something, that's a difference.

That we need to pay. So it's effectively just the normal operating expenses of the business below the net profit line. So...

[Interpreted] Second question, the tower and the north quarter, the agreement was transferred to Be-Mobile. And I'm also a shareholder of Be-Mobile and we'll see what their point of view. I have seen that there was an agreement to postpone the deployment.

[Interpreted] So we have concluded an agreement with Be-Mobile in last December to allow them to -- to give them 9 months experiments in order to secure financing and starting the work, and that's all we can say today. I believe that they are working at it, they're preparing themselves and we will see how it evolves in the summer. So everything is in good report.

[Interpreted] China. So you have the Chinese accident that is sub-managing the European markets, and there was a worry where it was said that if you use Huawei equipment, that would be -- all the information would be accessible by the Chinese government and that there's talk about banning the brand. Do you use Huawei equipment?

[Interpreted] So this is something that we are looking at -- have been looking at for a number of years. And in the transition of our mobile networks from 4G to 5G, we opted for another builder than Huawei. Huawei was our builder for the transfer from 3G to 4G. When we go to 4G, we will work with a combination of European operators. So for the active part of the network and Ericsson for the heart of the networks, so there will be no more Chinese equipment suppliers by '26, '27. Last question? 2, 3 questions. Okay. We still have to do -- there's still a lot of work before. So do you still have a lot of questions? So there's no problem because you have a lot of positive comments. So I thought that there was decision about regulating agreement with regard to co-investment of fiber. So I talked about this during my presentation with regard to the co-investment. Are you working with Orange, Telenet, Digi or what is that -- who is that other partner? So the IBPT opened up a window to allow us to talk with our competitors. And this is why we have -- we need the agreement, the approval of IBPT and the competition authorities. So the basic point is to have a competition and infrastructure. So if I want to open up -- if I will open up a fiber in the South, Orange is also obliged to open up a fiber option in order to be able to use the infrastructure. It is absolute not logical to open up 3, 4, 5 infrastructures on the entire country and with all the consequences that will ensue. Since October last year, we are using that possibility in order to discuss with Telenet in the North and Orange in the South, in order to see whether we will be able to set up a form of partnership, collaboration in order to deploy and enlarge the network even faster for the population. With regard to Orange, we have an agreement for the mobile part, but not for the fiber part, okay.

[Interpreted] When we are talking about the fourth competitor, Digi, it is delicate. So you had an agreement with Digi with regard to the use of your mobile network, but it is a future competitor. Aren't you putting the fox with the hens there? And also received a notice from the Digi where I live that they will be opening up the side work in order to install their fiber. And they also said that they will offer exceptional service at a very good price. By allowing them to have that mobile deployment, wouldn't it be a good idea to save some money now and to become a very ferocious competitor in the future?

[Interpreted] We will see what they will do. I have no view on their activities. So there are 2 different topics. You have the mobile issue, where they have to buy a license. They have -- there's an obligation for them to deploy the mobile infrastructure within those licenses, they also have permits. There is also the obligation for the existing operators to conclude an interoperability agreement with them in order to be able to also be active in the regions where they still don't have their network as I could say. So I might call myself a veteran of the industry now because I turned 50 yesterday, it would be better to have a commercial agreement with a competitor than an agreement that is being imposed due regulations. So we succeeded in convincing them to join us in instead of going towards other partners. And it would also limit the possible consequences of the introduction of Digi. I hope that the contract would not be too successful to them. But if they become successful, we will also have been able to cap a part of that value. So this is for the mobile part. With regard to the fixed infrastructure. There is no regulatory obligations. If they want to deploy fiber glass, optic fiber glass, they have the right to do that, but I don't think that they have the same quality in terms of deployment, servicing and experience that we have in house to serve our client.

[Interpreted] So in the newspapers, we read about the study of a French company on all the -- about 20 companies with regard to the impact of the CO2 tax on the profits. And half of the companies would then be at a loss, but Proximus just is above the breakeven line. And as a historic client, I'm more than 50 years old, I'm the same generation as Mr. De Clerck as an historic shareholder. So I worked at the RTT, then the -- that it was interesting to have contacts, political support in order to quicken the installation of your phone line. So this is not the case today. So last week, I received a letter in my mailbox. It has stated that my pack will evolve next month. You don't need to do anything, nothing will change, but the impact is 20% in terms of cost. So I'm really, really crossed with this. Like a lot of people, I want to do away with my fixed line because I don't use it anymore. So I'm a very bad client for the telecom because I'm not working with all the media that have -- that aren't social media anymore, but a social media, the cell phone for me is a communication tool, not to have a long chat and so forth. So I wonder why you increased by 20% with the risk where people from my generation, would say, well, let's scrap that line. I don't use my fixed line and Internet. That's also something that I don't use. You run the risk there with the increase of 20%.

[Interpreted] So with regard to the detail, I will talk to -- so it's a general question. So I will talk to the department in question, okay, if you want, you can contact a department to helpdesk. We could discuss this later on after the meeting because we still have a lot of work, and I would like to avoid that when people monopolize this entire general meeting. The last question, will we see you next year, Mr. Lybaert. will we see you next year, Lybaert? Okay. Yes. So with that, let's conclude your questions with that positive note. We would like to thank you for your questions and comments. Since there are no questions in the chat box. I think that we can continue with the proceeding.

[Interpreted] And so now we are switching to the agenda as such. I think that the question-and-answer session is closed. Yes, okay. Now we are going to deal with the points, the general assembly as to vote. So now you are to vote if you didn't do already. So we are going to tackle the agenda items requiring approval of the shareholders. All these points at a vote is open. The shareholders can vote until dealing with the latest point on this agenda. And after that, the results will be shown by point. So vote is already opened. And this is the rehearsal of what has been said just before. Thereafter, you get the results for each point. And the fifth point. So the fifth point of the agenda is the approval of the shareholders accounts that has been closed in December '23, including the following allocation of the results. As you can see on the screen, you've got the figures: profit of the financial year to be appropriated, EUR 134,862,000; accumulated profits EUR 317,460,000; profit to be appropriated EUR 452,323,000; transfers from capital and reserve EUR 11,270,000; transfers to capital and reserves EUR 1,793,000; profit to be distributed EUR 387,159,000; other beneficiaries, EUR 9,500,000 and profit to be carried forward EUR 65,110,000. For 2023, the gross dividend amounts to EUR 1.20 per share, and I think stakeholders to a dividend net of withholding tax of EUR 0.84 per share, of which an interim dividend of EUR 0.50 per share and EUR 0.35 per share net of withholding tax was already paid out on December 8. This means that the gross dividend of EUR 0.70 has been paid, EUR 0.49 net will be paid on to April 26. The ex dividend is fixed on April 24. Record date April 25. That's the fifth point. The 6th point is related to the approval of the remuneration policy proposed by the resolution. There are some changes in the remuneration policy of the Management Committee major change is the creation of an international committee as from 2024 and the [ recursion ] of the former ceiling of the individual variable income on the short term of the leadership squad members. It's a 6 points open to the vote. The 7th point is the approval of the remuneration report. Proximus is really caring a lot to provide transparent information about the general principle of its remuneration policy and the level of remuneration of the Board members and after leadership squad it has been discussed. It is in details in the report. Point 8. Point 8, it is about to discharge the members of the Board their mandate during the exercise of their mandate during the financial year closed on December 31. And Point 9, it's a specific discharge to the Board members mandate of which ended in April for the Demuelenaere and in December 23 for Agnès Touraine, their mandate came to an end, and this is, of course, anticipated. That's point 9. Item 10 and 11. Item 10, the discharge. So the assembly has to take a point of view about the discharge to the members of the Board of auditors for their mandate closed on December 31. And it is about a discharge for the consolidated accounts to Deloitte SRL represented by Koen Neijens and Sir Luc Callaert represented by Luc Callaert for the exercise of their mandate during the financial year closed on December 31, 2023. And they are all present over here. And we suggest to provide them the necessary discharge. Now point 12, 13 and 14. Item 12, it is reappointment of Mr. Joachim Sonne for a period that will come to an end during the General Assembly of 2028. So there will be second mandate for Joachim Sonne. May I kindly ask you to introduce yourself? Thank you for this introduction, and thank you to the Board and the management for this excellent cooperation ever since 2019.

[Interpreted] Thank you for this introduction, and thank you to the Board and the management for this excellent cooperation ever since 2019. Thank you for the opportunity to address you today as an independent candidate for the Board of Directors of Proximus. I want to take this opportunity to share some background of my qualifications, my contribution to the Board of Proximus and why we think I'm qualified to represent all shareholders and support management in this role. I spent the majority of my professional career as an investment banker at JPMorgan. I work for about decades as an adviser with telecommunications, media and technology companies, helping them on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising opportunities both in the debt equity markets and in the industrial dialogue. Since I left the banking world in 2019, I spent my professional life on private and public boards. I work with the largest Australian pension fund on investment opportunities in the digital infrastructure space. And I work with scale and start-ups in the technology space around commercial opportunities, capital raising as well as strategy. I live with my family in London and have a Master degree in commerce from France, Germany and the U.K. On the Board of Proximus, I see my contribution around following areas given my background around strategy in the telecommunication space, my expertise in capital markets as well as in mergers and acquisitions, perspectives on the telecommunication technology sector globally, given the time I spent with companies in the space as well as a member of the audit and International Committee to help manage the risk of the business. I appreciate your support for my candidacy and look forward to continuing the work with the management team of Proximus.

Thank you, Joachim. Excellent Board member. Thank you. [Interpreted] So Item 13, the reappointment of Mr. Luc Van den hove as independent Board member that comes to an end General Assembly '28. This is the third mandate. Luc, you've got the floor. May I ask you to introduce yourself to the general assembly?

[Interpreted] Thank you, Stefaan. Well, my name is Luc Van den hove, CEO of IMEC. So very shortly, what did I do in my career. I studied at KU Leuven, I am a civil engineer, and then the PhD KUL in Electronics. Well, we started in '84, and I was happy as from the start, I was involved with IMEC. My whole career, I spent during 40 years within that company. Ever since 50 years, now I am CEO of IMEC. IMEC is a research center. We tackle innovation in the chip sector electronics with research on chips, and that has led to quite some innovation in computing AI quantum computing innovation also in the health care sector, in the automotive sector. For 40 years, I have been contributing to the deployment of IMEC as a world top class player in this field. We cooperate with all big companies in our sector. Companies like Intel, TMC, Samsung, ICML, companies like Qualcomm, Nvidia and quite some other Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft players, not many, many companies where Proximus get in touch as well. During this time, I have been deploying quite a major network and getting acquainted with this ecosystem. I'm also a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of these companies like ICML, Samsung and Intel. During my 2 mandates, 8 years with Proximus, I have been very impressed by the way this company evolved in recent years to become a very modern dynamic company, very innovation-oriented, very attractive with a strong focus upon sustainability and a strong focus on the social community-wise impact. These elements I care for as a board member. Now I do think Proximus developed a strong strategy. You have seen the easier combination that has been led by the strong executive steered by Guillaume, strategy focused on the domestic market in combination with a strong internationalization as a strategy. It is a very strong positive future picture pathway. My role in the Board, it is innovation. It is internationalization. And as such, I have been requested to the International Committee and also the human dimension, i.e., the development of this organization leadership and also in the framework of my role in -- as a member of the Remuneration Committee. So I'm looking forward to continue this cooperation in an additional mandate as I'm very proud of that pathway Proximus has got through, and I hope to contribute to this if you gave me that opportunity.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Luc, and also an excellent Board -- and congratulations with what you did within IMEC. It's really a major light for the Belgian innovative environment. Item 14, reappointment of Guillaume Boutin as the CEO, a mandate that will come to an end in '28. And I don't think Guillaume needs to take the floor. He has taken the floor already 2 times, 3 times is too much. So he will be appointed for a new mandate. And Item 15, appointment of Ms. Caroline Basyn as an independent Board member that will come to an end during the General Assembly of 2028. Dear Caroline, can you introduce yourself, please?

[Interpreted] My pleasure. Thank you. Good morning to all of you. It's kind of an incredible company, incredible results, incredible mission. [Interpreted] And I continue in French as I'm mixing up the 3 languages. I'm a Belgian. I was born in [indiscernible]. I studied in Dutch and in French, and I started my career with Procter & Gamble more than 35 years ago, mainly on the IT, digital in the supply chain, marketing and sales. In Belgium, I worked in Belgium in Switzerland and into the U.S. I went back to Switzerland and after again in the U.S. My professional career was mainly focused on the digital dimension and on innovation. It's quite interesting as from 1996 my career was focused on jobs that didn't exist before me, myself to deploy strategies to fixed teams to start and launch and need new execution. That's my asset. And I'd like to make available all this international experience to Proximus. When I discussed about this with Stefaan and Guillaume and I had become more acquainted with this company. I noticed there is a brilliant future for this company. It is a momentum for this company regarding technological innovation and evolutions. This company, it is at the core of this evolution into the society. And I hope my experience might -- will prove to be positive and constructive for this Proximus company. The international experience is paramount for me. I worked with India and the United States and also with several European countries, just as Asian countries and Latin America countries. 3 points are, to my eyes, important in this strategy, bold2025. It's a key. It is very well positioned, whether it be organization-wise, whether it be positioned in the sustainability story or whether it be innovation-wise. As such, I hope that you will be confident in me and so that I can ensure that brilliant future with Proximus.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Caroline. Thank you for this introduction. I hope that result will be positive. I hope now we do continue. This mandate will be remunerated similarly as the other Board members compliant to the decision taken by the General Assembly of Shareholders in 2004, that mandate of Guillaume Boutin will not be remunerated. But moving on 16, appointment of Deloitte Bedrijfsrevisoren / Réviseurs d’Entreprises represented by Koen Neijens responsible for the assurance of the CSRD Sustainability Report for a period of 1 year, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, a European regulation that has to be transposed in Belgian law. This nomination appointment is for 1 year comparing to the decision of the Board and also the [ surveillance ] Committee. Item 17, and that's the last point of this agenda. The General Assembly Meeting acknowledges the decision of the General Meeting of the Cour Des Comptes held on July 19 to appoint Christophe Rappe, a counselor to replace the outgoing counselor Dominique Guide as a member of the Board of auditors of Proximus SA of public law for a renewable term of 6 years as from April '17. I thank Mr. Guide for this excellent cooperation during his mandate. And I wish welcome to Mr. Rappe Christophe. We covered all the point of our agenda in both languages and as such now, we have to proceed to close to the votes. You can still now introduce your last votes. I hope everybody did so. So the voting results -- voting procedure is closed. Closing of the votes, we are going to count, and we show in the meanwhile, the branding video spot. So just to show the branding. So we start the video right now. [Presentation]

[Interpreted] Okay. Well, that's it. Now we are going to look at the results, the voting results, please. First, #5, the approval of annual accounts. Here, you get the results. Well, we do notice that the annual accounts, including the results. It has been approved by 99.97%, 0.0% against and 280,003 abstentions. Now this is approved. Point 6, approval of the remuneration policy. What's the result? Approval of the remuneration policy, the rate is 91.68% in favor, 8.30% against and 214,844 abstentions. Approved. Point 7, approval of the remuneration report. Dirk?

[Interpreted] Remuneration report has been approved with 84.0% in favor 12% against and there is 93,739 abstentions. Approved.

[Interpreted] Now Point 8, which is discharge to the Board of Directors. Dirk?

[Interpreted] Well, the assembly provided discharge with 95.76% in favor, 4.24% against and 96,565 votes where was abstentions.

[Interpreted] Well, I do thank the assembly for the trust in the Board and thanks to the discharge provided to the Board members. Item 9, special discharge to Mr. Pierre Demuelenaere and Mrs. Agnès Touraine. Dirk, which are the results?

[Interpreted] Well, the assembly provided a special discharge with 98.68% in favor, 1.30% -- 1.32% against a 96,576 abstentions.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Item 10, discharge to the Board of auditors, what's the result?

[Interpreted] Well, discharge has been agreed with 99.30% in favor, 0.87% against and 97,605 abstentions.

[Interpreted] Thank you. And the discharge to Deloitte and Luc Callaert to auditors consolidated accounts.

[Interpreted] Well, the assembly provided a discharge with 98.53% in favor, 1.47% against and 92,587 abstentions.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Next point, which is Point 12 of this agenda, the reappointment of Joachim Sonne. The results, please.

[Interpreted] Yes, he has been reappointed with 99.68% of favor, 0.30% against, 170,925 abstentions.

[Interpreted] Bravo. Congratulations, Joachim, for a new mandate. Thank you, Joachim. 13, reappointment of Luc Van den hove.

[Interpreted] Luc Van den hove has been reappointed with 91% in favor, 8.99% against 92,355 abstentions.

[Interpreted] Welcome, Luc, again. Thank you. And happy to count you within the Board. 14, reappointment of Guillaume Boutin.

[Interpreted] The reappointment of our CEO has been approved with 92.32% in favor, 7.68% against and 92,255 abstentions.

[Interpreted] Congratulations, Guillaume. And now the nomination of Caroline Basyn. That's Point 15 item.

[Interpreted] Yes, appointment approved with 98.09% in favor, 1.91% against, 218,911 abstentions.

[Interpreted] Congratulations, welcome to Caroline in the board. Congratulations. And the last point, which is Point 16, appointment of Deloitte, represented by Koen Neijens for report CSRD. The results, please.

[Interpreted] Well, Deloitte has been appointed for this report with 99.11% in favor, 0.89% against, 216,908 abstentions.

[Interpreted] Well, this is approved as well. Thank you very much for Deloitte and the many services provided. The different resolutions have been voted upon. Now we can close this general assembly. Votes have been casted. We can close this general assembly. So no lecture of this report. The members of the Board will sign. The shareholders who wish to sign this report can address Dirk Lybaert. Thank you very much for your attention. and you're invited to the reception, which will be held downstairs in the lounge. And I thank all of you for your presence, your job, the work you did before and indeed, everybody has done it fantastically. And this has been a very constructive meeting, a constructive general assembly. So we hope we see you again next year with fantastic results, isn't it, and with answers before the questions that were passed about the dividends and so on. We hope it will be an excellent year '24. We are now doing it and we [indiscernible] quite a lot. We'll see each other next year. Thank you for your presence. We will have a drink about the results because to separate results. Thank you. See you next time. Bye-bye. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]