Rubis (RUI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for this combined General Assembly that I now declare open. I'd like to warmly thank all shareholders who were so kind as to join us to attend this meeting. I'd also like to welcome all those of you who are connected online to follow this AGM live. At my side, Jacques Riou, Madam Clarisse Gobin-Swiecznik, Managing Partners and Marc Jacquot, CFO, also present on stage. Marc-Olivier Laurent, Chair of the Supervisory Board; Madam Laure Grimonpret-Tahon, Head of Compensation Governance; Mr. Alberto Pedrosa, Chair of the Audit Committee and CSR. I'd also like to welcome the front row members of the Supervisory Board. Of course, we're also welcoming a few guests and journalists who are present in the hall. This meeting is public in nature. It's broadcast on the Rubis website, and a recording will be available on the Rubis website as per applicable legislation. Lastly, let me point out that an officer of the court appointed by the company is with us to ensure the smooth running of this meeting. To facilitate the vote on resolution and to be able to rapidly display the results, we'll be using an electronic voting system for this meeting. You will have received on entry electronic voting devices at [indiscernible]. It falls to me to establish the Executive Committee as statutory managing partner and in accordance with the articles, I'm chairing the 2 members of the meeting with the greatest number of votes who have agreed to act as scrutineers are Compagnie Nationale de Navigation that holds 9,349,609 shares represented by Mr. [indiscernible]. Thank you. And [indiscernible] whose 6,200,047 shares represented by Madam [indiscernible] here present. Thank you. So the Executive Committee of this meeting is thereby constituted with the agreement of scrutineers, I propose that Madam Eva Chauvet, Legal Counsel, Secretary of the Supervisory Board should act as Executive Committee of the Secretary for this meeting. Also in attendance, we have the statutory auditors of our company, Mr. Cedric Le Gal, Mr. Frederic Nusbaumer from PwC audit as well as Mr. Jacques-Francois Lethu, Madam Agathe Labaquere representing KPMG SA. I'll now move to the formalities. You are gathered here at the initiative of the management for a combined assembly in accordance with the notice of meeting published 5th of May and the convening notice published 23rd of May. The agenda for this combined meeting is to be found on Pages 2 and 3 of the convening notice on Page 12 and 14, the addendum to the convening notice, all documents and information required by law to be found in the document next to Madame Eva Chauvet. These documents as per law were made available to shareholders at the registered office of the company. I'd add that we'll be welcoming the shareholders until the section devoted to Q&A. The beginning of the Q&A will mark the end of the registration of shareholders before we vote on the resolution. 10th of June 2025, the share capital reached EUR 129,041,351.25 divided by 103,450,000 ordinary shares. There was furthermore on the 10th of June, 70,000 shares of treasury stock. These give right neither to the vote or dividend as to provisions of Article L.233-14 of the code of 201,000 shares deprived of voting, the automatic privation of shareholders exceeding the fraction that wasn't legally declared by the Compagnie Nationale de Navigation Mr. Patrick Molis, when crossing the legal threshold 5%, this automatic privation is applicable for a 2-year period following the declaration of regularization by the shareholders by mail received by the Financial Markets Authority dated 29th and the 31st of May as well as 3rd June 2024. The quorum for this combined meeting is of 20% for voting shares for the ordinary meeting, 20,555,000 shares, 25% for the extraordinary meeting. According to the provisional attendance sheet, I note that shareholders present or represented or voted remotely hold 64,712,000 shares at 62.92% of the quorum. So the company -- this meeting is quorate. I consequently declare that the meeting is duly constituted and may take valid decisions. The agenda of this combined meeting that I'll summarize briefly interventional highlights and strategy, the financial results, a report on sustainability, a report on corporate governance followed by the statutory auditor's report and then interaction with shareholders followed by the vote of resolutions closing the meeting. The meeting will proceed as follows. We'll speak before you successively, Mr. Jacques Riou, Madam Clarisse Gobin-Swiecznik, setting out the highlights and strategy, Mr. Marc Jacquot, presenting the financial results. Madam Sophie Pierson, Head of Sustainability, Risk and Compliance, will present the group's sustainability approach, joined by Madam Alix Lajoie, Chairman of Rubis Photosol and Mr. Jean-Christian Bergeron, CEO of Rubis Energie. Mr. Marc-Olivier Laurent, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, will present our governance. Mr. Cedric Le Gal from PwC audit representing the statutory auditors will present the reports of the auditors as well as the report for sustainability certification as well as taxonomy. Following these presentations, we'll have an interaction with shareholders for a maximum duration of about an hour during which you'll be able to put your questions orally. Inform you that company has received electronically 5th and 6th of June written questions from 2 shareholders, which answers on our website were provided. We'll conclude with a vote on the resolutions, which will happen under the supervision of Madame Eva Chauvet, Secretary of the meeting. These resolutions are to be found on Pages 49 to 59 of the notice and 12 to 14 of the addendum to the brochure followed the request for resolutions on the agenda by the CNN, the management report on resolution propounded 16-48, the view of the Supervisory Board as well as the position of management on resolutions placed on the agenda by CNN to be found on Pages 7 and 8 in the Addendum brochure. Let me remind you that the report of the auditors made available to you Pages 72 to 74 of the convening notice and the certification of sustainability and taxonomy information issued by PwC audit to be found on Pages 75 to 78 of the same document. Thank you for your attention. I'll now hand over to Jacques Riou to discuss the group's activity.

Thank you, Gilles. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Very pleased to be with you for this general assembly. There were a few comments regarding the quality of the sound last year. I'm sure you appreciate the comfort of the [indiscernible]. I see that you're unanimous in that view, and so we'll hear ourselves clearly. In terms of highlights, I'd like above all to recall that last year, we disposed of the 55% that we owned in our former subsidiary of Rubis Terminal. This is a transaction that generates EUR 375 million and a capital gain of EUR 85 million. Now 2024 was another year of growth, growth of volumes, first of all, the plus 5% volume growth. This is a very significant growth in volume terms. And obviously, there are local variations across the 3 continents where we operate. All geographies contributed to this growth, and that's extremely satisfactory. I was, of course, referring to Rubis Énergie, distribution fuels, which is our I'd say, our legacy business, our second business that of electricity production, PV. No need to recall that. The key indicator in this regard at this level is that of the pipeline of secured assets. What do we mean by that? These are assets in operation, assets under construction and assets that have received planning permission. Actually, we have a 100% success rate on, of course, the operations for which we've obtained planning permission, then it takes about 2 or 3 years to secure the connection and to build the facility. Another highlight, we're pleased to announce that we launched the first tranche of our PV plant in Creil. When it will be complete in a few months' time, will be the second most powerful PV plant in France and it because the most powerful in our portfolio. It's an installed power of 200 megawatts. Interesting, we've made good progress on a joint effort between our 2 subsidiaries, and we're now well organized a joint effort to deliver hybrid offers, fuel and PV across the various geographies in which we operate with each time, appropriate organization, something that is not all that simple and meets a demand from professionals in these various parts of the world. So notable growth in operating cash flow boosted by working capital requirement, our injection and the reduction in nominal prices of petroleum products, plus 18% to EUR 665 million. Rubis has still a very strong growth of cash flow. There's nothing new on that front. We're always pleased to submit to your vote an increase of the unitary dividend that will be distributed next week at EUR 2.03, EUR 1.95, EUR 2.05 of growth. An exceptional dividend that you've already received the EUR 0.75, and that's the distribution of the capital gain that I referred to a moment ago concerning the disposal of our stake in Rubis Terminal. In terms of the results, well, when we say growth, we say solid results. You have a reminder here of the 3 areas in which we operate, of course, Europe, where we -- LPG essentially an energy transition of course, and more recently, PV and fuel distribution service stations, but more marginally in the Channel Islands. In the Caribbean, we're, of course, a significant distributor with a strong market share of fuels and other similar products, LPG distributor, and we're beginning operations for PV renewable power. You see with 52% of EBITDA, Caribbean is delivering an excellent score, higher in percentage terms in the group to what was the case in previous years. Africa, with 31% of EBITDA saw fine volume growth with problem of margins that were deferred to the beginning of this year, deferred margins in Africa. We have our usual activities. We have a fine bitumen activity, distribution of bitumen. We started out with just one country in Nigeria, and we're now present across 10 countries. EBITDA, EUR 721 million is fully in line with expectations. And same with net income, EUR 342 million on a par with years '23 and '22 -- '23, '24, the 2 best years in Rubis' history. So we can kind of zoom out 5 years. I mean it's not that far back, but there's kind of a contraction of all external shocks that every company was faced with over the period. You all recall the years 2021, COVID that shut down of all economies pretty much, 2022, an inflationary shock of memorable proportions, '22, '23 accompanied by a significant hike in interest rates. These are all pretty violent shocks. And in the meantime, during that period, one of the main markers of our activity that is the price of petroleum products. And if you take the price of a barrel that was about the same level in 2019. Well, it collapsed, you'll recall in 2020 down to $20, even a bit less at some point, then it grew back strongly in '21 significantly to reach a high at $120 and more first half of '22 from $20 to $120 and then plummeted to reach current levels of the price of oil has risen significantly in the past 24 hours, we're about $67. So in this context, this difficult context, what happened? In 2020 and 2021, Rubis results did not take a strong -- were not hurt significantly. And in '22, we picked up in '23 and '24, we posted the best results in the group's history. I wanted to zoom out a little bit because in practice, I like looking at medium-term trends. And so it's fine, good to post results, but we've also worked extensively on another dimension. You know that our activity is also very much something that we do with regard to sustainability. Our first CSR report was done in 2011. Our first carbon report is published in 2019 as far back as 2019. This year, we have our first CSRD standard sustainability report, which is a lot of work for any company for us, too. And maybe you've noticed that our annual report has been increased by about 200 pages to cover all of these topics. So what are our results? You'll hear more detail during the roundtable segment in a little while. We've seen a 5% cut in GHG emissions in the period since 2019. You might say 5% is a modest figure. But let me remind you that the trend is an increase of 5% per year throughout the group. So if volumes go up, there's more transport, more refining. And so GHG emissions on Scope 1 and 2 come mostly from our boat fleet and our Martinique refinery plant. We've also continued our training efforts with all of our collaborators, already half of our staff have been trained to future developments in our activity, over 80% of our drivers -- and truck drivers have been trained to do defensive driving. I won't explain what that is, especially important in countries where the road infrastructure is not at the top level, if you will. And all of our staff have been trained to anticorruption and other ethical issues. In late 2025, we published a new road map, which will describe the next steps for the next 5 years. Beyond our purely economic activities for a long time, we've been -- we've committed almost since the beginning, but at least for the past 15 years towards communities in which we operate and work. This means that we have put together programs, particularly with Rubis Mecenat funds that was created in 2011, which is first of all, supporting contemporary art, but also reporting and other projects to help underprivileged youth attract these youth and then train them through the practice of art. It is, in fact, interesting to know that when you manage to attract somebody with an activity that he or she is passionate about, something artistic, there is a real palpable benefit for other school disciplines. I mean we're talking about children who are of school age. Most -- all of our subsidiaries through partnerships with about 60 associations and NGOs have such programs. We have 2 examples under your eyes that we are very passionate about. For example, the township of Thokoza in the south of Johannesburg, with a beautiful project. It was launched in 2012. We have about 500 beneficiaries, 100 bursaries. And many of our -- of the children that we -- or teenagers that we sponsored now show their work in galleries in South Africa or even are invited to France. On a very different note, I wanted to say or perhaps repeat, I don't know if I've said it in the past 10 years, but we do have a primary school in Madagascar that was built by the group, the building itself, the facilities and the teaching team that's supervised by people from our group. And we host and bring to school about 100 children a year and have been working with them over the years. So it's a very underprivileged part of Tamatave in Madagascar, and we're very happy about this program because it has -- it enjoys great reputation. Something else that we do is to reinforce governance. It's work that's being done extensively in the context of partnership between the Supervisory Board represented by the people to my left and our managers at my right. And so we've worked a lot the last year in order to improve and extend the prerogatives and powers of the Supervisory Board and to codify and document all of that very much along the lines of what the best practices are that we've found amongst our peers, particularly Societe en Commandite that exists on the market. And so that meant that we consulted and asked for the opinion of the Supervisory Board when a number of investment decisions were made of over EUR 100 million for some strategic decisions. Similarly, it might be the case when there are management-related decisions or other decisions to do with how the company is managed and who the managers are, something that started in 2024 and I think has been well received. I think you can say that because we meet -- we have at least 200 meetings with various investors in a year. And so we have very many contacts with the whole range of investors. And so we get a lot of feedback. The Board also worked extensively this year with 11 meetings, 94% of presence. The makeup of the membership of the Board [indiscernible] is the, in fact, the responsibility of the Board itself, basing its work on a subcommittee or a committee that is part of the Board in partnership with a specialized firm that only works with the Board and receives the applications or actually get out the applications that seeks them out. We'll have a chance to talk about it later on, but we suggest appointing 2 new benches that will be something that we don't do very frequently, of course, and something that is very much part and parcel of the succession plan that is now known for, which will lead both historical leaders on this side of the of the [indiscernible] to withdraw at the end of 2027. And so as part of this item, we will suggest appointing Marc Jacquot to my right as well. Marc Jacquot is the group CFO and has been in the group for 5 years. You may have had a chance to meet him already and Jean-Christian Bergeron, who I think is a little further down and will talk to you a little bit later today and is Head of Rubis Énergie. So I think I'm done, and I think it's my pleasure to give over to Clarisse.

So my part will talk about Rubis, its challenges, its qualities, the issues that we meet on a daily basis. Who is Rubis? Rubis is a distributor of Energy Solutions and Mobility. And what does it mean concretely for this company and for all of you as a result? Our objective is to support all of our customers and clients, so individual and professional customers with a complete gamut of products and services, fuel, as you know, for transport and transit and to meet the needs of industrial clients everywhere, bitumen to improve the network in Africa, in particular, liquefied gas also called LPG for domestic and industrial uses like kitchens and heating, but also for a few years, we've been doing PV solutions to produce low carbon forms of energy that are suitable for some of the regions that we operate in, local authorities and companies. What's beautiful is that this offering is hardly sensitive to economic cycles. Why? Because it meets fundamental consumption needs, but also and most importantly, because it is based on a multi-energy source and multi-country model, which allows us to neutralize risks. The strength of the model relies on 4 assets, the quality of our assets, the operational excellence of our operations in the field, which is something that is recognized wherever we are present. And another very important thing is the mastery that we have over the state-of-the-art logistics chains that we've put in place these past 2 years to supply regions and be competitive in those regions. The entrepreneurial spirit of Rubis that you know well and makes sure that operational decisions are made as close to our customers as possible, which makes a difference and also a strong local presence. This model allows us to come up with bespoke solutions for the countries in which we operate and so help locally develop those countries and continue to project ourselves into the future. Energy and mobility needs, as you know, are going to keep growing in the coming years. Why? Because they are driven by demographics, the growth of the middle class and AI technology and so world's economic growth, generally speaking, our positioning as leaders on this markets, our local presence and our operational agility allow us to meet this growing demand. How do we meet that demand? Of course, we are still growing our service -- mobility service offerings, but we'll come back to that. And we also integrate new energy mixes to support new modes of consumption, mainly in Europe. So in a rather changing geopolitical landscape, our structure allows us to continue our long-term strategy whilst following new emerging global challenges. This long-term strategy is based on 2 main pillars. The first one being our active growth policy. We significantly supports organic growth of about 5% a year with a targeted acquisition process so as to mainly reinforce our regional position. We also pursue partnerships in order to reinforce our market position and the quality of our offering. For example, at the beginning of this year of 2025, we signed a partnership with Castrol, the lubricant distributor that is well known in Eastern Africa for service stations as well as for our industrial customers. The second pillar, of course, is the diversification of our offering. To complement what we distribute on a daily basis, we develop new lower carbon offerings that are adapted to the demand, for example, electrical charging stations in Guadeloupe and Martinique, in particular, for professional clients, for example, car rental companies or supermarket parking lots. So all of this, of course, is underpinned by our financial discipline, low debt, risk control and higher profitability objectives. It also means that we have ambitious sustainability objectives, but Mrs. Pierson will tell you more about that. As the expert, we have 3 main objectives. Environmentally speaking, we want to reduce the carbon footprint of our most CO2-intensive activities for maritime transport and refining. On a human basis, we keep recruiting people locally with over 90% of our teams recruited locally, constant training, and we want to keep protecting our staff with over 97% of our employees that have health coverage everywhere we are present. And the safety and security of our assets and people remains a priority for the group with a proven policy in this regard. Ethically speaking, our ethical code and our anticorruption code are being deployed at group level, 99% of our employees have been trained to these topics -- on these topics. Now let's take a look at the main areas that we are present to see what the main operational countries are for 3 zones. Starting with Africa. The African continent will have another 1 billion inhabitants by 2050. What does that mean for Africa? It means acceleration of urbanization with 60% of houses slated to be in cities, more needs for transport and services and the growth of the electricity demand in light of the fact that electrical networks are adapted and insufficient. How do we answer those needs? The reliability of our logistical chain allows us to sell bitumen that meets the requirements and needs of international builders. We develop our service area network by adding some complementary differentiating services. For example, modern restaurants, access to small supermarkets, car management services, charging stations for scooters to site only a few. We also offer LPG seen as a transition energy source in Africa, replacing coal and wood for cooking. And we've also created our first PV facility for a large international client in Kenya with a size of 500 kilowatts a peak. As regards to the Caribbean, I would like to focus on the fragmentation of these islands and the challenge that it represents in terms of access to resources, in particular, in areas whose standard of living is going up like Guyana and Suriname and in other islands, the standard of living is going up with a strong upward trend in tourism that's been picking up, meaning there's more need for more flights, more need for fuel and Rubis has a role to play in making mobility possible in these areas. For this, we have deployed a bespoke logistics network with over 400 service areas, fuel for aviation, fuel for maritime transport and industrial companies in the zone, LPG for domestic industrial uses and also low carbon solutions like electrical charging stations, PV self-consumption offerings for our professional clients. Caribbean expresses the operational excellence of our group serving the population and its economic development. Let's lastly turn to Europe. The European market is a mature market with an acceleration of the energy transition to low carbon power and reduced dependence on exports. Rubis has diversified, invested in renewable power through Photosol in [indiscernible] has doubled its secure pipeline and plants in the space of 2 years. This activity meets European demand for the changing energy mix and to strengthen Europe's sovereign. I won't go back on Creil, Jacques mentioned. We commissioned the initial megawatts of Creil, the second largest solar power plant in France. It will be fully operational early '26 and will power 85,000 homes. As to our legacy LPG business, we continue to gain market share in a stable LPG market. Good growth momentum in LPG fuel distribution in France and Spain for clients not connected to the grid or industries. These challenges have been addressed by Rubis for over 30 years. This operational excellence is the result of a robust CapEx policy. Marc Jacquot, CFO, will return to that in his presentation. So to conclude, be assured, dear shareholders, our commitment and the resources we're rolling out. Our goal is to continue to ensure long-term controlled and profitable growth for you. This 29th successive dividend that has increased. Before handing over to Marc Jacquot, let's watch Rubis in images. [Presentation]

I'll now hand over to Marc Jacquot for the financial report.

Thank you, Gilles. So I'll now discuss the financial performance of Rubis in 2024 and also give you some outlook for the current year. So this year, as you delivered a strong performance after 2 record years, 2022, 2023 illustrates the strengths of our diversified model, both in terms of distribution and products, services and geographic footprint. Volume-terms growth was delivered for our energy distribution across region, across all product lines. Productivity of renewable power is up in accordance with the road map that we presented to you last September. In '24, the group generated EUR 665 million operating cash flow. That's plus 18% versus last year. Rubis also very solid net income above EUR 340 million. This year allows us once again to propose an increased dividend. So let's now turn to the detail of our operating performance, beginning with our energy-distribution activities where we distinguish 2 segments. You've got the upstream known as support and services, combine all activities linked to the supply chain with distribution activity that we master, thanks to our logistics expertise and our local presence, talking about ships, the vessels, storage, pipelines. And in '24, this activity generated EUR 223 million, slightly up versus last year. It's an activity that's stable and plays a key role in maintaining our operational excellence and above all, in containing our supply costs. Then there's the downstream segment, Retail and Marketing that represents the distribution business. That's the fuels, kerosene, bitumen, LPG, biofuels, distributed in bulk or in stations. In 2024, this activity, as Jacques indicated, grew over 5% with adjusted margins that were stable across all geographies. Now this performance stems from our ability to supply key goods and services to our clients in a reliable, competitive manner whilst complying with best international standards. Turning to Europe. Rubis is on a mature market. LPG continues to generate very strong cash flow. Margins are up 6%. And then there's Africa. Africa, put simply, Rubis distributes bitumen in the West and fuel and LPG in the east of the continent. Volumes up 8%, but adjusted margins are down 8% this year. Why? For volume, it's that bitumen in Nigeria was below expectations. But in other countries, South Africa, Cameroon, Guinea, we posted good volume growth. And on the fuel and LPG front, our program to modernize service stations done in East Africa launched right after acquisition of activities that has borne fruit. We see market share sharply up. But for the margins, Rubis was hurt by a challenging economic environment, high inflation, notably in Kenya. So that weighed on profitability of the network. Now the good news here is that we have margin revaluations already underway and will apply as of the end of H1 of 2025. And then Caribbean activity remains very strong, high levels, well, well positioned in, as you know, Guyana, Suriname, 2 countries whose economies are buoyed by recent oil discovery. Guyana is ramping up and Suriname that should come into production in 2028. Lastly, a few words on our renewable power production activity, our growth driver in Europe, where Rubis covers all life cycles of a renewable power plant, the first cycle that includes identification of the land, obtaining planning permission, connection to the grid, all the Photosol projects that constitute the pipeline as it's known. And this latter represents 5.7 gigawatts posting continuous growth. These projects will materialize gradually with conversion rates estimated between 40% and 80% depends on what point in the life of the pipe we find and generate EBITDA in a maximum of 7 years. In parallel, Rubis has 1.1 gigawatts of what's known as secured portfolio ready to be built or already under construction or under operation. The goal is to reach 2.5 gigawatts of secured assets by 2027. And lastly, our assets under operation, 535 megawatts generated EUR 36 million EBITDA in 20 -- all to -- end-to-end. We have EUR 721 million in EBITDA in '24, slightly down, minus 3% versus '23 on a comparable basis, split equally across our various activities. Turning now to our balance sheet. Shown here is the net debt development between '23 and '24. There are 2 lessons. The first is that our cash flow remains very solid this year allows us to stabilize our debt. And available cash flow stands at EUR 320 million after paying financial expenses and our investments split in '24 at 1/3 for renewable and 2/3 for energy distribution. The second lesson is that our balance sheet is sound and confers great financial flexibility to implement our strategy. The financial leverage below 1.5x EBITDA places us in a very comfortable position and confers a degree of maneuverability. A few comments, sorry for this rather crowded chart that I'll run through. On the left, the consolidated balance sheet of your company total EUR 6.7 billion, slightly up versus '23. We see that noncurrent assets reached EUR 4.4 billion, reflecting the expansion of renewable plants and ForEx as partially offset by the sale of Rubis Terminal. So let's now -- on the right, let's look at the statutory accounts that are holding. The assets currently down at EUR 1.1 billion, the fixed assets, EUR 1.1 billion. Top right, we go from EUR 1.4 billion down to EUR 1.1 billion following the sale of Rubis Terminal that was last November. And then current assets immediately below. Combine the income company expenses to circulate cash to the subsidiaries of the group as well as the proceeds still to be received after the sale of Rubis Terminal amounting to just over EUR 260 million. And then cash is pretty constant at EUR 240 million. And with that, we'll be able to fund notably your dividend this year. So let's discuss the dividend. Thanks to strong results and robust balance sheet, we're proposing this year a dividend of EUR 2.03 per share paid out on 19th of June, ex date 19th -- 29th consecutive year of growth in the dividend. We had the payment pertaining to the disposal of Rubis Terminal last November. We have a total payout this year of EUR 2.78 per share. A few words on the outlook for '25, we anticipate the following. In Europe, we're expecting a stability in LPG and acceleration of the development of renewable power. Africa, the growth is set to continue with higher volumes in bitumen and service stations accompanied by improved margins that were under pressure in '24. And lastly, Caribbean, we anticipate stabilization of activities at a high level. So on this basis, we're aiming an EBITDA group level between EUR 710 million and EUR 760 million. And the Q1 trends are encouraging. Volumes and margins are up across areas and that reassures the guidance for the Q1 results. It's important to note, you know that we have no activity in the United States, no activity in China. So we're not exposed to the customs tariffs that are making front page news of late. In a word, your group is faring very well and offers fine outlook for the coming year. Thank you.

Thank you, Marc. I'm now going to give the floor to Sophie Pierson, who's right here. She'll present on our sustainability approach. I think she will be joined by Alix Lajoie and Jean-Christian Bergeron.

Thank you, Gilles. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'm honored to have this opportunity once again to present the year's key sustainability achievements and how that aligns with our strategy. Sustainability is a driver of value creation for your group and therefore, for you, our shareholders, and this translates into 3 main areas: enhanced operational efficiency; new revenue opportunities; and lastly, risk management, which ultimately safeguards value. These are the benefits that we'll be exploring together during this segment. First, I'll walk you through the major milestones over the last few months. Then I'll give you a tangible sense of what sustainability looks like in practice. I'll show a video from our subsidiary, Vitogaz in Madagascar, it was filmed during my recent field visit 3 weeks ago. And then the heads of Rubis Énergie and Rubis Photosol will explain how sustainability is embedded in their respective activities. Let me begin by highlighting the enhanced sustainability disclosure that is now available to you this year with the publication of our first sustainability report in line with European regulations. As Jacques said, this has meant a major work for Rubis, we see this as a positive step forward, improving the transparency of the information you receive on issues will contribute to the group's performance. Amongst the key initiatives this year, I'd like to focus on our road map to reduce GHG emissions by 2030. Starting with our own assets, where the group is committed to reducing emissions by 20% between 2019 and '30. This target takes into account the continued growth, as has been said before, in petroleum product sales in regions where demand is still rising, particularly for mobility. And so we're forecasting a 30% increase in volumes between 2019 and 2030. In other words, we're aiming for a 40% reduction of the carbon intensity of our operations, which is not a small figure. We are focusing our efforts where the majority of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions are concentrated, namely refining and maritime transport, where we have approved and budgeted action plans. You'll find the details of that in our sustainability report, which I mentioned a minute ago. Our road map also addresses Scope 3 emissions, i.e., the group's indirect emissions. Here, we've identified 2 key levers. The first is our ability to influence the decarbonization of third-party transport, maritime and road, primarily through increased use of biofuels. The second lever is, of course, the diversification of our own product portfolio to support the transition wherever demand emerges or grows, whether for customers of our energy distribution subsidiaries or through the growth of our Solar Power Generation business. We'll return to this topic in more detail shortly with Alix Lajoie and Jean-Christian Bergeron. Beyond climate, the human and local dimension remains at the heart of our sustainability road map, which has guided us since 2022. 99% of the group's employees are hired and deployed locally. As we've already said, we're committed to creating quality jobs in every market where we operate. Investing in safety, providing over 46,000 hours of professional training in 2024, covering over 92% of our employees and offering health coverage to all staff even in countries where this is not mandated by law. Factoring in the local economic and social impact of our activities is a key reason why your group is seen as a trusted player in the countries where we operate. Let me share a recent example of my visit to Madagascar with a testimony from Zo Andriamampianina, Managing Director of Vitogaz, Madagascar filmed on the construction side of a new LPG storage facility that will help secure the island's growing energy needs. [Presentation]

All right. This is an exemplary construction site on so many dimensions, particularly as regards to safety because this construction site has seen no accidents that led to stoppage because we have 4 safety officers on site on a permanent basis. Continuing this presentation on the importance of sustainability as part of your group's performance, it is my pleasure to welcome Alix Lajoie, President of Rubis Photosol and Jean-Christian Bergeron, CEO of Rubis Énergie. Jean-Christian, you became CEO of Rubis Énergie last January and previously managed operations in East Africa. How is Rubis Énergie adapting to sustainability challenges?

Well, I think the example of Madagascar is a great example of that of how we adapt to sustainability challenges. This beautiful project, by the way, is a rather large investment of $15 million and something else that will be exploited very quickly because in mid-November, this project will be quite operational. On sustainability challenges, what I wanted to say is that our job is to get energy to our clients. And our clients want reliable, competitive, but also they want low carbon and clean energy, which is why we've got an ambitious road map around 2 pillars, the first being biofuel and the second pillar being solar energy, which we're going to be bringing mainly to our industrial customers. On both pillars, clearly, our teams are mobilized on Pillar 1. We already have a lot of existing projects in Caribbean, where we collect biofuel. So we want to recover [indiscernible] to create fuels, particularly the SAFs for aviation. So the whole ecosystem there. On solar, as we said earlier on, our ambition is to help our clients, bringing them low carbon energy, helping them decarbonize their activities. We've given the Guinean example is going to create the equivalent of 1,000 homes energy per year, and we have a lot of other projects in the pipeline. So very concrete projects. We've already cited the beautiful partnership with Photosol, which is also working with us. Thank you, Alix, for this partnership. So all of this is being created in order to do decarbonization, but also very importantly, to create value for our customers.

Thank you, Jean-Christian, for these concrete examples. Alix, you lead our carbon-free or low-carbon electricity generation efforts. How does sustainability also require and combine with adaptability in your business?

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. It show that adaptability is a key word for us at Photosol because of the experience that we have in our various markets, which taught us to navigate a sector, which is a strong growth sector, certainly, but which also faces lots of changes, whether it's regulatory public policies, tendering procedures. So we exploit infrastructure, the energy production facilities. And so that means long term. And in order to navigate that, you need adaptability and sustainability. Particularly, as far as we are concerned, our sustainability strategy is based on deployment and on robustness and diversification approach. Robustness for Photosol means 2 things that I will share with you in the form of examples. First of all, we decided to have a strong technical knowledge of all of our solutions to be integrated on the whole of value chain for large electricity projects, which means that we've internalized a lot of projects at the stage of ideation conception, but also technical teams with having strong engineering skills, allowing us to be present at the conception design and the technical challenges of our projects, financing teams, but also operation and maintenance teams. So we've decided to internalize the maintenance and operations of our in production assets so that we have constant feedback from those projects for those assets on production, helping us improve and change the way we work going forward for helping future projects. The another thing is what we do in terms of sustainable purchases with our suppliers and stakeholders. We have integrated new strong requirements for the equipment that we receive. For example, we also test this equipment in our labs as we bought a piece of equipment. We've also put in sustainability and traceability requirements in all of our contracts, the same with our suppliers. Our strategy is to have strong links with 1 or 2 players that are leaders on the market with similar skills so that a tender process, for example, we can make sure that the price is competitive, but also that we can be resilient there you go. So that's what I had to say on robustness. But diversification that's another access of our strategy. And for the past few years with the support of Rubis, we diversify ourselves. Usually, we did large ground facilities, but now we can do degraded and even farmland, so we diversify because we do also large roofs with [indiscernible] Mobexi which we've acquired and now we can do roof solutions to address the needs of some Rubis customers, consumers of the industrial and farming sectors. And last, diversification is geographic because we now have a presence in various European countries. And indeed, diversification makes it possible to better navigate the volatility and the variance of changes that may happen in national policies in particular.

Thank you very much, Alix. That's the adaptability by design, really. Jean-Christian, what you do in terms of sustainability is also highly linked to the robustness of the business model, particularly through risk management. Could you elaborate?

Yes. Clearly, it's at the heart of it by mastering or getting all of the risks, the diverse types of risks under control, you can really secure your business on the long term. I might also add that in highly competitive environments where we work, it's also a really strong weapon to be better than the competition and really does a strong competitive edge on many markets, particularly where the clients that we address are also sensitive to our sustainability efforts. Of course, it's not just decarbonation that I mentioned earlier on, but there's also a number of standards that we impose on ourselves that in many cases, exceed local legal requirements, whether it's safety, security, social, ethical standards or commitments. So I think it's important to be ahead of the game in terms of what the governance might ask of us. And also, Rubis has a very strong local presence. We've said it already. This strong local presence allows us to support initiatives. We have very strong topics. We've seen the great example of the Tamatave's school, education, as health, gender equality, road safety, all of these things have already been mentioned and they are very important. We have all of these initiatives, which makes us even more legitimate in those countries and places.

Yes, it's true that local presence is very much part of Rubis Energie's DNA and has been since its beginning. Alix, project acceptance by local stakeholders is also crucial for the success of solar initiatives. So how do you integrate these challenges into your work?

That's right. Local acceptance is very much part and parcel of the projects themselves. We do not do decentralized projects like this without acceptance, without local presence. At Photosol, we in fact, regionalized our teams. We have offices and teams everywhere in French regions as well as in Italy, in those regions where we set up shop. The recent Photoshop is a reference player in agrivoltaics projects that combine energy production, green electricity and agricultural production on the same land. It's also thanks to the -- our ability to dialogue with the people with the local population with dedicated teams, R&D dedicated teams in charge of partnerships, a consultation team that dialogues with all of the stakeholders locally and regionally so as to create projects that actually are value creating for everyone. Also the fact that we have launched a number of pilot projects, R&D with [indiscernible] with the chambers of agriculture or companies like [indiscernible], where recently in the month of May, we started an agrivoltaic greenhouse with [indiscernible]. And those are examples that will help us improve what we do in this area. And I think we've already shown that we're able to combine several uses of the same land creating value for partner farmers, for the communities, for the territories and profitability for us.

Shared value creation. We'd like to know a lot more about your activities but we have to continue. So in conclusion. Just a word to sum up your respective activities?

With Rubis teams, we're really keyed up and convinced to promote strong mobility. We're confident this will help us to continue to grow and expand our activities, of course, more sustainability with a lot of value created.

And from my side, contribute to the energy sovereignty of France and Europe and drive its innovation potential to seek out efficiencies in industry. France and Europe, for that matter, will need to bring in AI automation, seek new electric power production facilities that requires investing in renewable capabilities vital to the energy mix.

Thanks, Alix and Jean-Christian for these very valuable insights, which I'm sure has enabled our shareholders to better understand how sustainability is part and parcel of our daily activity. It's these proven successes on the ground that nurture us that drive us forward, help us to build our next road map 2026 through 2030. We'll tell you more about that at the end of the year. That's our take on sustainability, shareholders, including transitions, energy and societal to drive commitment, maintain the trust of our stakeholders. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that. I'm now going to hand over to the Chair of our Supervisory Board, Marc-Olivier Laurent.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, my name is Marc-Olivier Laurent. I took up the Chairmanship of the Supervisory Board very recently, subsequent to the resignation of its -- the previous incumbent, Mr. Nils Bergene for personal reasons. I'd like to pay a personal tribute to him on the initiatives that he's undertaken in the 2 years which he chaired the Board to undertake a profound transformation of the Board's processes so as to meet his task to ensure permanent control of the management partnership under Article 9 -- 29 of the partnership. Jacques refers to deep changes reflected in the internal rules of the Supervisory or the strengthened role of the Supervisory Board in succession policies for the management partnership as well as that of the leaders, strengthening the Supervisory Board for budgetary processes for strategy, the issuance of a prior opinion, very strategic transaction for amount of over EUR 100 million and implementation of Board executive sessions that are held in the absence of the managing partners. I believe I reflect the Board consensus and say that with the support of this renovated tool, the intention of the chairs of the specialized Board committees is to extend and to deepen this action to constantly meet the request of our shareholders, that is that we fully exercise the role of the supervisory, constant supervision of the role of the company. Just a brief reminder of the rules. I went back into the articles of the company, which state under Article 29 that the Supervisory Board ensures the permanent control of the management company also state under Article 14 that it doesn't authorize it to interfere in any way in the actual management of the company. But Article 14 also states that opinion and advice act of control and supervision do not constitute acts of interference in the company. I think that with that balance, opinion, consult, supervision and control, I thought it was the general view of the Board is that we have the wherewithal to fully exercise our role, and it's our intention to continue on that path. We'll now go into the detailed governance of the group in 2024. Let me just say that the documents referred. The first document is the report on corporate governance of the Supervisory Board to be find on Pages 257 to 322, the chapter of the universal reference document and the report of the Supervisory Board to the AGM Pages 60 and 61 of the notice of meeting. Sections devoted to the text and the rationale for the draft resolutions to be found on Pages 16 to 59 of the convening notice. I'll now present to you the major changes in governance in 2024, beginning with the succession plans of the Board. Apologies for that slight glitch. So of course, we're all aware that given Mr. Gobin and Mr. Riou's planned departure, the change of the succession plan is a very important topic for the future, and it is put to the vote the 2 managing partners who are very confirmed managers of the company who bring to the partnership the full weight of their past experience and these 2 appointments will take effect 1st of October 2025, received the unanimous support of the Supervisory Board and will be the subject of the vote of resolutions 4 and 5 of this AGM. I think we've got a short film to show you, presenting these 2 individual candidates. [Presentation]

So thank you, sir. I'll continue my presentation. Changes regarding the Supervisory Board were significant during the course of '24, now '25, what's going to happen in '24 shown here, the Board pattern with an independence rate of 92% up and 42% women stable versus last year to what Jacques Riou said, the Board met 11 times in 2024 against 5 times in 2023. There's clearly an acceleration in the Board's activity this year. For 2025, 6 members of the Board are proposed by the Management Board and put to the vote of this AGM, a significant renewal of the Board that today comprises 11 members, 4 members are proposed for renewal. A new member been co-opted by the Board is to ratification, a new member to the appointment. Lastly, 2 new members proposed by the shareholder CNN approved by the management are proposed to your vote. Following the AGM if all these candidates are confirmed by your vote, the Board will comprise 14 members in independence rate, 93%, 43% women. The view is 14 Board members, a good figure. It shouldn't be unduly inflated, and we'll make sure of that. I'll now ask the candidates to introduce themselves in turn, starting with -- no, that's me, sorry. Apologies. Starting with Cecile Maisonneuve, who you know, she's up for renewal. Cecile, do you want to say a word? No. The assembly knows who you are. You -- Alberto Pedrosa is up for renewal and who chairs the Audit and CSR Committee, an active Board member. You have Carine Vinardi who's an independent Board member is also up for renewals, already a Board member. Now let's turn to the new members. I'll ask Antoine Sautenet to come and introduce himself briefly because he's soliciting your vote.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Delighted to be with you today. A few words. Antoine Sautenet, age 46. I'm currently Head of Sustainable Development at Michelin Group. I'm a lawyer by training, and I have and very international experience that combines both the public and private sector with 3 main components in my career. Part 1, starting as a researcher, an academic career as professor in international law and associate research at French Institute for International Relation with strong expertise, Europe, Asia, world trade. Second part of my career in the public sector still the economic diplomacy. I worked at the Foreign Affairs Ministry on issues of development aid funding mentioned earlier, also matters of investment, IP with a strong focus on China. Third part is the private sector. So for 12 years now, I joined Michelin with 9 years' experience abroad in particular, in Thailand was in charge of developing the business in distribution in Southeast Asian authorities, public affairs and 3 years in charge of Michelin in Canada, a major subsidiary for Michelin North America. Three years ago, I joined the group as Head of Sustainable Development. We're in charge of orchestrating CSR performance at Michelin. So my rationale, I was struck by the interviews that I had with people from Rubis, the quality of the human values that were conveyed during my interviews, maybe 2 key aspects of motivation. The first and perhaps of contribution. The first is, given my international experience, I'd like to be able to bring an economic, social perspective on both energy distribution, energy -- renewable energy production, but also a second key point, given my experience in a group such as Michelin, CSR to contribute to the robustness mentioned earlier, also the resilience of the group's CSR performance while taking account of the specific of activities, the fact there's a very strong presence in developing countries. That's me in a few words.

Madam Nutu will now say a few words, please.

Good afternoon. Suzana Nutu, I'm 51 years old, married, 2 children. I'm a Romanian origin, worked 20 years in France, dual national. I've been working for 25 and large French groups. I've worked for Lafarge, Alstom and Sanofi. My expertise articulated around 2 main areas that are very complementary to the qualities and skills of the Board. Firstly, for 15 years, I've been managing major transformative M&A projects, notably acquisitions of companies, international business, focusing on markets, some of which are common to Rubis such as Africa, Nigeria, South Africa, Latin America and Ecuador, Guyana or U.S. and Asia. My latest project at Sanofi was to sell the public health division over EUR 200 billion in sales, 11,000 employees and the sale of Doliprane. And prior to that, prior to being Head of M&A, I was in charge of treasury, finance, internal business control, managing plants in Romania. That's where I started out. And I have to say I don't have much experience in the energy sector, but I believe there's a lot of energy expertise on the Board. My motivation is to support the growth of Rubis. I understand it's a focus of interest here to work with people who are very competent, joining my colleague, Antoine, that I mentioned in the selection process where human value and authenticity are highlighted. Thanks.

I'll ask Mr. Molis to come and introduce himself.

Good afternoon. It's the second time I'm introduced. Last year, my self-introduction wasn't extremely successful. I agree with the Chairman of the Board just said about the progress that has happened in terms of governance. I welcome it. I salute it. I think there's some more work to do. I think I will suggest a few avenues for improvements. I will not apply. I think -- or introduce myself. I think most of you know me, I'm not an activist fund. I have -- formerly have managed companies in the petroleum, aviation and defense sectors. I have long-standing experience in Africa, and I keep my companies for a very long time. Rubis is a beautiful company. Once more, I would like to welcome our work and Gilles Gobin, who built this great company buying a small company that I was, in fact, in charge of at the time, which is at the heart of the development of Rubis Terminal. As you know, I am the majority stakeholder of Grupo Rubis. I will represent the interest of the CNN. But also, I will look very closely at interest of the [Technical Difficulty] managing partners, which didn't use to be represented in the Board, at least since the [indiscernible] family left the Board in 2023. And so it's very important, I think, is very important to improve governance. A lot has been done, but a lot remains to be done. I would like to thank Gilles Gobin for the dialogue that we've been able to start a few months ago to reach an acceptable agreement so that I can be associated if you've voted this resolution to the work of the Board and be assured that I will certainly defend the interest of all managing partners of this great company.

I would now like Mrs. Lauvergeon to come and introduce herself.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm the last one to speak, and I've been told that I didn't have more than 3 minutes. I'll try to stick to that time. Very happy to be with you today. I'm personally passionate about 2 things on the professional plane, which is the energy and innovation. I spent a lot of time working in energy. I was on the Board of Engie for 12 years, of Total for 15 years. And as we speak, I have founded and run a company called ALP that invests in innovative and useful companies. And we help a lot of entrepreneurs to succeed. And so that's the innovative -- innovation side of what I do. This passion for energy is very real for me, which is why I got this suggestion that I joined your Board. I was immediately enthusiastic. And I must say that I have a fairly broad experience in boards from various countries, geographies, sectors, though it's mainly energy, tech and finance. I also have fairly extensive experience in small and sometimes even very small companies, so companies of various sizes with always a strong focus on governance. I had decided to sort of pull out of governance bodies, for example, because I was on SUEZ Board of Veolia, as you know, decided to buy up the company and this took up so much of my time that I decided to be on fewer boards. But I tried to also help support the community, for example, I share the simplification of public policies and the state of MEDEF, an important task.

Thank you very much. We can now move to the next point of our agenda, which is the compensation of managers in 2024, which you will vote on the resolutions 11 to 14. It has been studied in depth by the Committee of compensation and then the Board -- the Supervisory Board made sure that it complied with the 2024 compensation policy. You noted that the variable portion of the compensation is only 37.5% of the total that was possible vis-a-vis an objective of 100%. So that's for 2024. As far as 2025, a number of changes have been made. Some of the criteria for performance criteria for the variable part, the deletion of Article 55 -- 54 and changes in the ceilings. The Supervisory Board gave favorable opinion for the content of Resolution 16, specifically because what I just mentioned applies to current managers, a compensation policy is being introduced for new candidates, Mr. Bergeron and Jacquot, a specific policy defined via a broad benchmarking of similar executives. The compensation has been fixed and the variable part can go up to 80% of the fixed part. As far as rules for holding this has been decided and this resolution has garnered a positive opinion from the Supervisory Board, and that would be Resolution 17. In terms of the current variable remuneration -- compensation, which was capped at 50% is now capped at 80% for the leaders to be appointed. You now have the performance criteria for the fixed and variable part reflecting the changes that I just mentioned. There are a few changes, nothing of substance but in terms of the weighting so as to comply better with the company's objectives as currently stated. Just a word about 2024 compensation of Mr. Christian Bergeron, my predecessor. Here, you have the terms of his compensation. And just one last, very last word on the compensation policy for the fiscal year 2025 as regards to the Supervisory Board, and we have suggested a significant raise of the amount to reflect a very significant increase of the -- both the number and of the work done by the Supervisory Board with a total budget of EUR 551,750. The last item on our agenda is the multiyear variable compensation program under Resolution 30. What we suggest is that you vote for a program of performance shares. The previous one, by the way, had been voted in 2020 -- 2022, sorry, for a duration of 2 years. In 2024, we hadn't suggested a renewal of that program. But this year, we suggested for a duration of 3 years. So the authorization would cover a maximum of 1.50% of the equity, including a sub-ceiling of 0.20% for the new managers. Former executives, by the way, are not part of that renewal. And so financial authorizations submitted to the current general meeting. I will give you some time to read what is on this slide. And I am now able to wrap up. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would now like the statutory auditors, Mr. Cedric Le Gal of PricewaterCoopers to present their various reports. Thank you.

Madam, ladies and gentlemen, managing partner, shareholders on behalf of KPMG, PwC, I'm honored to report on the assignment entrusted to us, reports. Our reports pertaining to FY 2024 in the convening notice to this AGM as well as the universal registration document 2024. We've issued 7 reports, a report on the annual financial statements, a report on the consolidated financial statements, a report on related party agreements and 4 reports on transactions in the capital. PwC issued a report on certification of sustainability information and taxonomy. As is customary in this AGM, I propose to highlight the key points of these reports. I'll start with our report on the annual financial statements of your company on Pages 433 to 436 of the universal registration document. Annual financial statements are drawn up under French GAAP. And as part of our audit, we considered the assessment of equity interest as the key point of our audit. We reserve without -- we approve without reservation the report. Second report on the consolidated financial statements of your group found on Pages 429 to 432 of the universal registration document, consolidated statements adopted by the IFRS adopted by the European Union. They aim to give a fair view that the financial statements contain no material restatements adapted both to the activities in various businesses of the group as well as its organization. It was shared as well as the conclusions of our work with financial division of the group in the course of regular exchanges throughout the year. We also reported on our work to the management partnership, the Audit and CSR Committee as well as the Supervisory Board report on the consolidated financial statements concerns one key assessment of the recoverable value and depreciation impairment tests of goodwill. We certified without reservation or observation the consolidated financial statements of the group. Our third report concerns related party agreement to be found on Pages 437, 439 of the URD mentions agreements authorized and entered into during FY '24 submitted to your approval. And our report also mentions agreements previously approved by this assembly during prior years whose implementation continued during FY '24. The report on sustainability information and taxonomy to be found on Pages 251 to 255 of the URD. This of limited application concerns compliance with ESRS, the process implemented by Rubis to determine published information, sustainability information included in the sustainability statement and the taxonomy on the basis of procedures implemented. We've identified no error omission or major inconsistency regarding consistency with ESRS and European regulations. Part 2 concerns 2 observations, technical ,linked to the first application of CSRD and 1 referring to the disposal of Rubis Terminal, which was finalized during the course of FY '24, whose environmental, social and governance data are not to be found in the statement of sustainability for FY '24. Lastly, in respect to the extraordinary shareholders' meeting, we issued 4 reports pertaining respectively, to resolutions 23, 25 to 29, 30 and 31 authorizing transactions that might have an impact on the capital of your company. They contain no observation on our part. We'll issue supplementary reports if and when your Management Board exercises the relating authorities. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention.

Thank you. So we are now going to move to questions. Before we move to questions, let me just remind you we received written questions on the part of 2 shareholders, Mr. Ronald Samann and [ Julie Brown ], the e-mail indicated to this stated that in accordance with applicable rules, answers to these questions wre published on the website of the company where they can be consulted. We will now take questions from the hall to whom may I give the floor? Yes, sir. If you could kindly wait for the microphone, please.

Yes. I've been a shareholder for 18 months of your company. I think I did -- I was right to do so. I've got a question on Photosol because we never talked about the interview and these huge gaps of panels of PV panels, I mean, that require at least what is the maintenance? I suppose you've got to do revisions every annual, every 2 or 5 years they need to be maintained. So how is that operating? If it's -- if maintenance costs are high and also in terms of surveillance, I mean, are there no risks of vandalism of these panels?

Yes. I'll answer that question. So maintenance of panels represents about 20% of the operating expenses, the OpEx for these panels. The point that's important to note is that maintenance is already done by a unit, a team, dedicated unit in our second important. It's modeled when we -- when Photosol responds to tenders to RFPs, the maintenance is modeled in the expected IRR, internal rate of return.

Well, of course, surveillance are necessarily protected. I mean they're connected to the grid, I mean, with significant power, and we watch the sites -- sorry, with drones. We use drones to survey the sites to check there's no intrusion, theft. It's not easy to kind of walk away with a solar panel. That's true. And it'd be easy -- more easily broken by bad weather than by vandalism and they were covered, were insured in such situations, in the event of breakage or bad weather.

Yes. I'm a long-standing shareholder, Rubis. I've got a question. You're based in many countries, including notably in South America. There's a currency effect. How is -- I mean, with the various -- the -- how is that reflected in your accounts, the ForEx?

So Rubis is exposed to currency fluctuations and more specifically to the dollar because we buy petroleum products on international markets in dollars, whereas we sell them. The sales and expenses in countries that are in local currency. Some countries, Angola, Zambia, Suriname, where there can be shortages of dollars, which sometimes generate longer conversion lead times or at least gap between the fixed rate and the actual rate. How do we manage that? Well, we bill save exception, we invoice in the functional currency of the end customer. That's the first point. Secondly, when it's possible, we put in place currency hedges to secure our margin. And lastly, when the currency hedges are not available, I'm thinking here notably at Nigeria, Kenya, we put in place natural hedging strategy aimed at offsetting opposite flows in the same currency [Technical Difficulty] what we also try and do is finance locally our requirements in local currencies, and we finance in foreign currencies, receivables to achieve a degree of balance. So that natural hedge that we put in place in Nigeria and Kenya has proven its efficiency this past few months. Now the cost, well, there's no -- in a natural hedge, the cost for the financiers who are working on this, that is it requires a watch on the various items in the balance sheet. There's no real cost. It's difficult as a rule to quantify those hedges.

Question from over there.

Mr. [ Jacques Riou ], I've got a question, annual report, Page 341, dividend paid to the management partner, 6.3.2 owing to an indefinite and several responsibility to that of a managing partner. Basically, you're going to receive 3% of the increase in the share price over the past 3 years, EUR 11 million. I didn't see that in the presentation. Always there's no high watermark included. In other words, once the shares reach the threshold, it's low point, the share is going to pick up. So you're sure to receive money. But over and above the question I'm expecting an answer to the partners will change. The managing partners will change, as you've indicated, how can we have a guarantee? We -- a guarantee of the solvency of the managing partners because I see that just to Gobin family, 2.8% the market cap of the company, EUR 3 billion, that's EUR 70 million. And if there's a financial partner on the company, the value of the shares will drop. So that guarantee -- are there other guarantees, people on the Board independent have a vision of the assets of the partners to make sure that we, as shareholders, well, we give the keys of the company to people who are sufficiently strong financially. That's my question. Mr. Gobin, you announced that you were going to leave. I didn't quite understand is that the AGM that will be held in June '28 or '27. Because if I read the articles, you're born in 1950, the AGM in 2018, once partners over 78, he can no longer be a partner. So in terms of succession plan, it's just to bring forward by 1 year if you leave in '27, in June '27, the date that was planned historically. Can you confirm what I've just said? And I have every confidence in Madam Clarisse Gobin, I enjoyed, I loved her presentation.

Well, there's something very positive and that is very gratifying. So there is indeed a high watermark in the current draft of Article 56 over 3 years, as you've said, to ensure that these fluctuating effects don't bring about dividend payments in certain circumstances when the share price has a yo-yo effect over short period, something that existed over a 1-year period a few years back. And in December '20, the period was extended to 3 years. That was in December 2020. So that's 4.5 years, and it was approved 99.8% by the shareholders. So I think I've answered that. As regards to the assets, I mean, I regret -- I think you agree that with that, we can't really guarantee a bit more than EUR 1 billion in debt. It's a reality. I don't disagree. What is the purpose of a limited partnership? Well, we involve individuals who are fully engaged, fully committed even if our asset is very much way below these figures. They have a key value. And you have managers who are fully committed and aligned with shareholders, shareholders for their part on their side, see their risk limited to their sole contribution. It's a configuration. It's only in these share-based partnership that this occurs. Is it really useful? Well, it allows to develop Rubis Group since the first investment by Gilles a few years back, which was something like EUR 80 million to arrive at a group that today weighs EUR 3 billion to grow, to develop long-term plans. I remind you that, for example, we're trying to develop a long-term plan in renewable PV requires perseverance, belief, conviction and to push these activities. There's sometimes a lag between the expectations of a stock market and the share-based partnership is a very good answer to that when it has a listing, which is the case of Rubis, to bring together shareholders for a joint venture and therefore, to fund the group's creation also to confer a degree of stability in a pretty chaotic world. To the stakeholders, thinking of Rubis employees, the talents that we seek to retain, talents we seek to attract. All these questions are of prime importance and this stability avoid kind of creeping control measures. There's a whole range of fundamental usefulness, which was initial choice of this partnership. I mean, I'm not saying that this limited partnership is the sole solution. I mean the fluidity of the stock market with a stability, long-term vision, which involves the managers fully, the leadership fully. It may sound theoretical, but it isn't. Think about it, every day. And I can tell you that we think about it and sometimes even a bit at night.

So 2027, the articles provide that the functions of the partners stop at 78 years of age, that's to say. So it would have been -- it's, in fact, it would have been at the assembly ruling approving the '28 accounts to present -- to stand in '29. So with Jacques and I will leave the partnership following the AGM approving the accounts of '26, that is in June '27, 2 years before the deadline. That seemed to us, and it was a wish of the other managing partners to be able to support the transition in the smoothest and efficient possible way. Thank you. Further questions, [ Mr. Salmon ].

I've been a shareholder for quite some time, nearly 20 years or more. I have 4 questions to preferably Mr. Jacquot. First one is one thing you just said -- what you presented, namely that oil price has gone up. I would like you to give us a little bit of an explanation how you see that, over which time period because in my mind, the oil price is falling and falling and falling, but I may see it the wrong way. The question, of course, is are you talking WTI or Brent crude. That's question number one. Question number 2. The second one is that it has been maintained more than once that Photosol is profitable. And you, Mr. Jacquot, as the CFO, I would like you to explain how the financial accounts show a loss of EUR 40 million, which is very significant. And yet management maintains that Photosol is profitable. The third one also connected to the Photosol is you're saying that we are on a trajectory of developing Photosol in the right way consistently. Maybe I misunderstood that. But in February 2022, you have predicted 1 gigawatt in capacity installed by 2025. Provided that I'm correct, in March 2023, you have declared this objective to be 1 gigawatt by 2026. On Photosol Day, I was there, if you remember, you announced 1 gigawatt in operation by 2027. And if I'm not mistaken, today, the reality is that we are at 0.5 gigawatt. Now I'm not sure whether this is all correct. I would like to have an explanation on that. The last one point I would like to make. I'm not sure whether it is strictly to Mr. Jacquot is that in every single Annual General Meeting, we are provided with the news how fabulous, absolutely fabulous the dividend is and the dividend increase. May I just bring one example. Last year, around this time, the share price of Rubis was about EUR 34, now the share price is EUR 29. How does dividend of EUR 2.03 compensate for this enormous loss in the share price?

So for 20 years now, I've been shareholder. I've got 4 questions to ask. Question to Mr. Jacquot here mentioned an increase in the price of what I'd like a bit more detail as to how, when because I only seen the price constantly drop in the price of oil. But maybe I'm mistaken, the answer probably linked WTI or the Brent crude, if you could tell us that? Second question, a question that concerns -- second question is on Photosol. Yes, we see the profitability of Photosol. We also see an increase of -- Yes. A third question on the trajectory, we spoke about a good growth trajectory. Figures were announced in '22, in March 25 we announced a target of 1 gigawatt bill in '26. I was present at the Photosol Day where we announced 1 gigawatt in '27. I understand that what's delivered is 0.5 gigawatt. Could you perhaps correct me if I'm mistaken. A final question here again, possibly for Mr. Jacquot. Every AGM, you will explain that the dividend policy is absolutely fabulous and is increasing. I'd like to give you a mere example. Last year, the share price at EUR 34, this year EUR 29. How can the dividend of EUR 2.03 can offset this drop in the share price.

Thank you for that translation. So on the price, firstly, on the price of oil. Well, you know Mr. Salmon, you know the company well, generally speaking, Rubis is insensitive to the price with -- I mean, our unitary margins are stable and they're based on the volumes that we distribute, not the price of the project -- of the product. But it is, however, true that when the oil price drops, there can be some positive impact on the volumes because we produce cheaper and kind of even basic products that will be better, ditto for financing stocks. When stocks cost less, well, we have a financing cost of those stocks that is lower. I'm addressing here, I think, your first question. On Photosol, I'll take that one. So we're a little bit surprised these questions at the AGM, Mr. Salmon, a member of the Supervisory Board, and he has full latitude to put these questions during the Supervisory Board meetings, but we'd be very happy to answer them. We held an official Photosol Day with targets for 2027 that are absolutely not called into question. And when the right trajectory to get there, we already explained on multiple occasions that the development is one and the secure pipeline is there, but there are lags in implementation because of connections in France, and legislation slowing on the projects, CEO, Patrick Pouyanne of Total Energy has also stated that during his many interventions. So we are fully in line with what is announced to the market, which means that the objectives given right after the acquisition of Photosol are no longer objectives on the market. What counts is those that were announced for 2027. On your second question regarding the profitability of Photosol, it's not the first time that we're both faced with this lack of understanding. When we explain that Photosol is creating value, we mean by that, that we're building an asset. We're not necessarily talking about net income short term. When we're a company that is in full growth. It doesn't deliver its potential on day 1. Remind you of the profitability criteria of Photosol that you must know almost off by heart now is that in terms of the project, we're seeking profitability of 7% to 9%. When we answer tenders and the operation of finance, 90% by nonrecourse debt that gives a return on equity and ROE, that's double digit. And I'd say that more work globally where Photosol is creating value on the mid- and long term. It's when we look at the change in its secured pipeline because the secured pipeline, 1.1 giga today has required all the licensing work, find the land, get the authorizations and connection date to the power grid. And then there's construction, so there's a lag in time and a slight disconnect, decorrelation between the value creation and the reality, which is the net income -- sorry, on value creation, if I could just say that since we acquired Photosol, the secured pipeline was doubled over 3 years. So it gives us an idea that dynamism Alix and her team that you saw earlier. And in fact, our benchmark here on the French market, when we invested 2.5 giga of capacities created every year increased. Today, the market has -- is growing by around 5 giga. So for the time we invested and the current period, you have an illustration of the dynamism in the market and the value that's currently being created, takes, of course, several years. Sometimes it can take between the start of the development project and its delivery in France, it can take up to 7 years. What is secured today will deliver EBITDA in the coming years and the performance in France is not extraordinary either there are Italian neighbors where we're based delivering 7 giga per year like in Spain, not to mention Germany that produces 15 giga a year. In '22, Germany was producing as much as the whole French base. So there's real dynamism in this market that we know how to capture and capture now. And it's this pipeline that's being created with very high success rates, will deliver the future EBITDA. Concerning the share price, well, for 3 years now, the June 10 closure, Rubis is the only company in its listed peer group to see its share price growth plus 5% versus its peers, minus 11% and a TSR 35% over the period compared to 1% for its peers. I think that says it all. Further questions over there.

Well, hello. Good afternoon. Sorry to bother you with Article 56 of the articles, which I hope won't be the Band-Aid of -- kept in [indiscernible]. Okay. So we -- high watermark is in the definition that we thought the high watermark for the meeting to understand well. It's the highest price of the -- the highest share price that it's ever reached. So it means that in the definition of Tweedie Brown as it was put to around EUR 54 and the share price, not including reinvested dividend is about EUR 60. So -- what's more, the second problem is that of this AGM in 2020 where you kind of rebase on a comparable basis, obviously, with a far lower share price. So when you have the possibility of having a 10% of distributable earnings allocated to you on the basis of that equation, I don't know whether it's the alignment of interest between the partnerships that fluctuate between 2% and 10%. I mean simple question, intellectually, you're ready to revisit that provision because it doesn't follow alignment of interest with the partners. Second question concerns the departure of your previous Chairman, Nils Christian Bergene, was reelected last year with a Soviet style vote. So I fail to understand maybe I missed something, but 6 months, 8 months on after his reelection, he goes off with that explanation, personal reasons. Obviously, the diplomatic formula usually used. Thank you for answering that.

Now regarding the question on Nils Christian Bergene, they were questions were put by Mr. Salmon and we gave a written response on our website. So on alignment, nothing more to add compared to -- Mr. Nils Christian Bergene decided to leave unilaterally. He contributed considerably to the work as a Board over several years, including these past 2 years as Chairman, by reaching out to many investors to have progress in the internal roles as Chairman of the Board, Nils Christian Bergene, who has been a member of our Board for a long time, assumed the Chair very recently, and he took that decision. These things can happen without looking for other explanations. For the managing partnership as Marc-Olivier Lauren said on behalf of the Board, he drove a number of changes in the internal rules, rules of procedure that are very interested. And for that matter, we're held by the investors whom we've regularly meet. Regarding alignment, well, the high watermark, in fact, where you are intervening is that you disagreed with a high watermark a year ago or 3 years ago, now you want an indefinite duration. That's what I was given to understand. I mean everything is possible to go tell you that there's kind of a magical formula to get a company to operate, read all the targets each and every year in all situations. Well, we all agree in saying that there's no miracle. There's no silver bullet. But I mean, for people who weren't either in the shareholders or the management partnerships who initially approved the status of managed partnership, Soviet style, 4.5 years of shareholders, many of whom have here considered. It was a good formula at Soviet-style majority. Okay. The articles is the constitution of the company. We don't change the articles every year or every 2 or 3 years, we need to remain reasonable. Nothing is perfect, but it was considered a good solution 4.5 years ago. Quite honestly, I failed to understand why it would become a poor solution or a bad solution today. Having said that, when a question is put to us, we like to answer, in 2020, we already did that because we presented these significant changes as they were back then. And what we said is we were going to consider the matter. We don't change the articles of an SBF company without looking at it 3 times, without seeking advice, without preempting the reactions of other shareholders. When you see 200 investors in a year, I mean it's like in a management committee, there are diverging views. It can't be done hastily and hurriedly. We said we're going to consider it. And by next year, we'll let you know -- the AGM next year, we'll tell you if we believe that appropriate or not or if it requires changes to the answers. That's the answer we can give you today.

Any other business-related questions? You have the microphone but does it work?

My name is [indiscernible] I work for a trading firm. First, I'll try in French. But if I can't do it, then I'll switch to English. In 2021. I had written to you about share buybacks. You planned to do some in 2020 up to EUR 25. That was the price. I liked it. Because you, at that time thought that [ EUR 55 ] was the value of the company. It was smart. After that, you didn't do much at all in terms of share buyback. It took me some time to understand why that was the case. And I think the share buybacks don't help managers in terms of calculating the dividend, but a normal dividend, which for tax purposes is very bad, serves them. And so how can you say that there's strong alignment between both groups?

Share buybacks. Indeed, value distribution to shareholders can be done in several ways. Share buybacks is one way, paying out dividend is another way. And until today, Rubis decided to pay out dividends. And so it's the 29th year, now that the group has decided to do that. And of course, we've already had this conversation [indiscernible] have position on that. As you know, we did some in 2021, right before I joined. And today, we still have small buyback programs to offset the dilution that comes from the performance-based compensation of [indiscernible]. Perhaps I could add one thing. It's true that the dividend -- point of view from dividend and share buybacks and the demarcation line has often been the Atlantic Ocean, but now this demarcation line exists in Europe. We have a dividend-only policies Marc was saying, which I think many of our individual shareholders like. We don't just have people who don't like dividends, don't like for the tax reasons. So you need to satisfy and have a consistent policy over time. We did do some share buyback. We certainly didn't feel that it was a panacea, particularly as regards to stock price. And don't forget, we generate a lot of cash, but we have a group with strong growth, which means we need CapEx. And we need the cash flow to do the investment beyond paying out dividends. I know that it's a conversation that's been going on for a long time with some of our shareholders, you are one of them. I respect your point of view. I know that the companies that have gone for share buybacks -- sorry, dividend, we would need to divide to halve the dividend to do share buyback. And I'm not convinced everybody would like that either. So I understand the conversation. We have a similar conversation with other investors. When we have other conversations with other investors that have other points of view, that is our policy. And I think it is justified.

[indiscernible] individual shareholder. I have 3 questions. I'll ask for clarifications and ask questions. On Photosol, I understand each project has its own debt, but it's part of one company. So each project is independent from a capitalistic point of view with the main company bringing 10% to each project. Is that the truth? Yes. In light of the fact that you're developing projects quickly, do you have a CapEx -- cap with a minimal margin threshold? And when do you think the company will become free cash flow positive? And the third question is around Rubis Energy. Last year, I asked a question about the development in Guiana, a high potential country. What has been done in the meantime?

All right. Yes, I do confirm that each project is responsible for its own debt and is independent. On the cap for CapEx, we have announced a CapEx plan with EUR 1 billion in expenditures between 2024 and 2027, which will be financed between 80% or 80% of it will be financed by debt. And so once you've said that, you can ask the question of what's going to happen and will we stop financing that growth. So I think the question will be asked in a few years from now in 2 ways because there are 2 options, so to say, either we recycle capital perhaps by sending up and running projects in minority or majority so that you get some new cash and to refinance some development or you can decide to do fewer developments, and that's something that those things that are possible that we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Yes, we will have to get to a certain critical size so that we can start thinking about those types of partnerships or disinvestment. Guiana, yes, it is 800,000 population. The growth is huge. It is the fastest growth in the world and has been since 2020. And that growth has been driven by the fact that mines, fields have been discovered, which means that there are associated revenues. We don't produce oil, do we? So we benefit from the indirect effect of these discoveries with rising standard of living, more infrastructure and all the things that mean that there will be more consumption. So it's the beginning of that story. We've been in Guiana for about a dozen years. I think it all happened through buying some assets from Chevron, and we were investing there on a regular basis. There's another country, by the way, Suriname, an adjacent country, where we built a petroleum product deposit, which is experiencing the same story a little later. I think oil will be produced as of 2028 in Suriname. So we will see the same effect, but a few years later. As far as French Guiana, I think we're protected. There's no [indiscernible]. I think people will be happy with that. The 3 territories are all very close to one another, the 3 adjacent countries in the north of Brazil.

I just wanted a clarification when you compared Rubis' stock price to a panel of stock prices or companies. Could you say which ones? [ OTI, GTC ] Parkland? So distribution or petroleum-based products, distribution companies that are listed.

All right. No other questions. I think we will now ask [ Ivar ] to move on to the vote on the resolutions, if you agree. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As indicated at the beginning of this meeting, the quorum required for this combined general meeting is 20% of the shares entitled to vote for the ordinary part and 25% of the shares entitled to vote for the extraordinary part. The final statement of the attendance sheet shows that the shareholders present or represented or having voted remotely hold 63.41% of the shares with voting rights. The required quorum is therefore exceeded. I propose that I only present the title that summarizes each resolution. Let me remind you that the full text of each resolution is contained on Pages 49 to 59 of the convening brochure and on Pages 12 to 14 of its addendum. If you allow me, I'll start by explaining what the modalities are for electronic voting. I think we have all the details on the screen. Please first check that your smart card is inserted correctly. As regards to the vote, if you want to vote for the resolution, please press the 1 key. If you want to vote against the resolution, press the 2 key. If you wish to abstain from voting, please press on 3. When the word acquitted appears on the screen of your vote, this means that your vote has been counted. And if necessary, there are houses that are present in this room. So I will therefore now present the resolutions, and I invite you to vote after I have said voting is open. First resolution, approval of the financial statements for the 2024 financial year. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Second resolution, approval of the consolidated financial statements for the 2024 financial year. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Third resolution, allocation of profits and determination of dividend, distribution of a dividend of EUR 2.78 per share for 2024, interim dividend of EUR 0.75 per share paid on an exceptional basis on November 8, 2024, and payment of the balance of EUR 2.03 per share on an ordinary basis on June 19, 2025. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. Fourth resolution, approval of Mr. Jean Christian Bergene as a general partner, non-managing general partner as of October 1, 2025, subject to the adoption of the 17th and 33rd resolution submitted to this meeting and with prior effect, voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. Fifth resolution, approval of Mr. Marc Jacquot as General Partners as of October 1, 2025, subject to the adoption of the 17th and 33rd resolution submitted to this meeting and with effect prior -- with prior effect. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Sixth resolution, renewal of the term of office of Mr. Marc-Olivier Laurent as a member of this Supervisory Board for a period of 3 years. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Seventh resolution, renewal of the term of office of Ms. Cecile Maisonneuve, the member the Supervisory Board for a period of 1 year. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Eighth resolution, renewal of the term of office of Mr. Alberto Pedrosa as a member of the Supervisory Board for a period of 1 year. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. Ninth resolution, renewal of the term of office of Mrs. Carine Vinardi as a member of the Supervisory Board for a period of 1 year. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 10th resolution, appointment of Ms. Suzana Nutu as a member of the Supervisory Board for a period of 3 years. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 11th resolution, approval of the information relating to the compensation of corporate officers for the year-ended December 31, 2024, referred to in Article L. 22-10-91 of the French Commercial Code. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 12th resolution, approval of compensation and benefits paid during or awarded in respect of the year-ended December 31, 2024, to Mr. Gilles Gobin in his capacity as manager of Rubis SCA. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 13th resolution, approval of the elements of compensation benefits paid during or awarded for the year-ended December 31, 2024, to Sorgema SARL in its capacity as Manager of Rubis SCA. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 14th resolution, approval of the compensation and benefits paid during or awarded for the year-ended December 31, 2024, to Agena SAS in its capacity as manager of Rubis SCA. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 15th resolution, approval of the compensation and benefits paid during or awarded in respect of the year-ended December 31, 2024, to Mr. f Nils Christian Bergene in his capacity as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rubis SCA. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 16th resolution, approval of the compensation policy for Mr. Gilles Gobin, Sorgema SARL, Agena SAS as managers of Rubis SCA, subject to the adoption of the 33rd resolution submitted to this meeting. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 17th resolution, approval of the compensation policy for Mr. Jean-Christian Bergeron and Mr. Marc Jacquot in their capacity of managers of Rubis SCA subject to the adoption of fourth, fifth and 33rd resolutions submitted to this meeting. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 18th resolution, approval of the remuneration of the compensation policy for the members of the Supervisory Board of Rubis SCA. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 19th resolution, determination of the total amount of the annual compensation of the members of the Supervisory Board, EUR 551,750. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 20th resolution, approval of amendment #1 to the assistance agreement concluded between Rubis Photosol SAS and Rubis SCA falling within the scope of Articles L. 225-38 and following articles of the French Commercial Code. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 21st resolution, approval of the renewal of the tacit renewal of the assistance agreement and its amendment #1 concluded between Rubis Photosol SAS and Rubis SCA falling within the scope of Articles L. 225-38 and following articles of the French Commercial Code. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 22nd resolution, authorization to be given to the Board of Management for a period of 18 months to allow the company to buy back its own shares. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 23rd resolution, authorization to be given to the Board of Management for a period of 24 months to reduce the share capital by canceling the shares held by the company. Article L. 22-10-62, the French Commercial Code. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 24th resolution, delegation of authority to the Management Board for a period of 26 months for the purpose of increasing the capital by capitalizing profits, reserves or bonuses. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 25th resolution, delegation of authority to the Management Board for a period of 26 months to issue shares and/or equity securities giving access to other equity securities or entitlement to the allocation of debt securities and/or transferable securities giving access to equity securities to be issued by the company with preferential subscription rights. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 26th resolution, delegation of authority to the Management Board for a period of 26 months to increase the number of shares to be issued during capital increases with preferential subscription rights and in the event of excess demand. Voting is open. [Voting]

No more voting. Resolution is adopted. 27th resolution, delegation of authority to the Management Board for a period of 26 months to issue shares and/or transferable securities giving access to the company's share capital as consideration for contributions in kind of equity securities or transferable securities giving access to the share capital. Voting is open. [Voting]

Vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. 28th resolution, delegation of authority to the Management Board for a period of 26 months to issue shares and/or securities giving access to the company's capital in the event of a public exchange offer initiated by the company with cancellation of shareholders' preferential subscription rights. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. Resolution is adopted. 29th resolution, ceilings on the issuance of shares and/or securities, giving access to the capital by virtue of financial delegations, overall ceilings of 40% of the capital, including sub-ceiling of 10% of the capital for capital increases entailing the waiver of shareholders' preferential subscription rights. Voting is open. [Voting]

Vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. 30th resolution, authorization to be given to the Board of Management for a period of 38 months to proceed with the free allocation of existing or to be issued performance shares to members of the company's salaried staff, members of the salaried staff and/or executive officers of the company or related companies or economic interest groupings or to some of them entailing. [Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. 31st resolution, delegation of authority to the Management Board for a period of 26 months to issue shares with cancellation of preferential subscription rights of shareholders for the benefit of members of the group company savings plan at a price set in accordance with the provisions of the French Labor Code. Voting is open. [Voting]

No more voting. Resolution is adopted. 32nd resolution, amendments to Article 28-2 of the Articles of Association to reflect certain legislative changes relating to the organizational arrangements of the Supervisory Board. Voting is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted -- 33rd resolution, deletion of Article 54 of the Articles of Association. Voting is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. 35th resolution, ratification of the cooptation of Mr. Antoine Sautenet as a member of the Supervisory Board. Voting is open. [Voting]

Vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. 36th resolution, appointment of Mr. Patrick Molis as a member of the Supervisory Board for a period of 3 years. Voting is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. 37th resolution, appointment of Mrs. Anne Lauvergeon as a member of the Supervisory Board for a period of 3 years. Voting is open. [Voting]

The vote is closed. Resolution is adopted. With the votes over, I now give the floor back to our Chairman.

Well, thank you all very much. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Don't forget to return your voting devices on your way out. Thank you for your attendance and participation and see you next year. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]