Vinci SA (DG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. We're happy to be with you here this morning. Thank you for joining this AGM of your company. We're very happy to host you once again here at the Salle Pleyel. As is the case every year, I'm here with Christian Labeyrie, our CFO and Deputy DG; and Patrick Richard, our Head of Legal and Secretary of the Board. The member of Excom are with us in the room. And we also have with us the members of your Board. And I will allow the camera to sweep [ to ] Yannick Assouad. Board member point of contact, we got, Carlos Aguilar, Benoit Bazin, Graziella Gavezotti, Caroline Grégoire Sainte Marie, Claude Laruelle, Marie-Christine Lombard, Annette Messemer, Dominique Muller, Rene Medori, Roberto Migliardi and Alain Saïd. And our shareholder from Qatar is not able to be [ attend this ] because at the end of Ramadan, that I'm sure you're aware of. The time has come to open proceedings. The current General Assembly is here, joined on first summons. All of the legal documentation has been formally submitted within the required time. All of the documents that needed to be made available to shareholders have been made available to shareholders in line with the regulatory and legal requirements. That set of document is on the table, and I would like you to witness that. We're now going to appoint the members of the bureau and remind everyone of the agenda. Regarding the designation of the members of the bureau, I will chair the bureau today for scrutineers out of the shareholders here or represented. We have Dominique Muller, who is the Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Castor Relais; and Frédéric Rosamond representing Amundi. They are amongst the shareholders present holding the most voting rights. So I would like to ask them to be scrutineers. Thank you, Dominique and Frédéric. I would like to suggest that Patrick Richard, General Counsel, will be Secretary for the General Assembly. Regarding the quorum, market cap of your company is made up of 589,577,241 shares. Out of that, we need to remove the number of self-held shares, 19,311,430 shares. This brings us to the number of shares with voting rights. As a reminder, these rules for voting do not allow for double voting. The number of held shares by the represented shareholders, represented here or having [ held remotely, 432,432,481 shares ], 70.55% quorum, so a percentage well above the required 20% and 25% threshold, respectively, to be able to validly deliberate at General Assembly in its ordinary or extraordinary formation. Suffice to say that we can validly deliberate. For the ordinary AGM, we require a normal majority. And for the extraordinary part of the AGM, resolutions require a 2/3 majority. The agenda for AGM has been published. You can find this on Page 5 of your invitation. It is also on screen. And I would like to ask your approval to not read it in detail. It should have been on screen. If we could please get the list of resolutions up on screen, there we go. So that's for the ordinary part, and then you'll also find the extraordinary components. Finally, I would like to inform you that we have not received any requests for new items on the agenda or resolutions for this AGM and that the social and economic counsel has not exercised their right to introduce any new measures. I would also like to suggest we do not fully read the report from the Board of Directors. The entirety of that text is in the [ universal document ] 2023, which has been made available to you outside at the Salle Pleyel and is also on our website. As usual, with Christian, we're going to present some of the highlights for 2023 for your group. To start, I would like to invite you to watch our film for 2023, following which, we will have updates and highlights for 2023. There will also be some outlook into 2024. Then Isabelle Spiegel, our Head of Environment, will be presenting the progress for the deployment of our environmental ambition plan, then we'll hear updates of the various committees of the Board of Directors and hear from our statutory auditors. And after that, we will move on to Q&A, before finally voting on the resolutions. So without further ado, let us watch the film summarizing 2023. [Presentation]

[Interpreted] I think that's enough said. I don't think we even need to add anything. Well, I'll add some things, but that was a fantastic film with some great projects all around the world, lots of different countries. You've witnessed the passion of the people who work for us. And it goes to show the incredible diversity and wealth that we have within our business and also shows just how important people are in our projects. And as I'm sure you also gathered the engagement from our teams related to the great environmental challenge of our time. Now to succeed, we also need to have solid financial performances. So myself and Christian are going to run down our performance for 2023, and we'll also talk about 2024 and the outlook. Starting off with 2023, I think we have very high-quality financials for this past year, with revenue and profit that are strongly up, in fact, hitting record levels. We're continuing to develop internationally, now accounting for 57% of our overall revenue. Cash flow -- free cash flow, sorry, generation is at an exceptionally high level this year, well beyond expectations, including our own expectations, in fact. Therefore, net financial debt is significantly down this year. And the cherry on top of all of this is that our order book has renewed very well throughout last year, running into this year. All of this goes to show that year-on-year, we've been able to confirm that your company is highly resilient. And I say highly resilient because we have the right business model. We're creating value in our 3 big business lines, in Concessions and Energy and in Construction. And also, we have found the right organization and management model. All of this comes together to create a community of agile and engaged entrepreneurs, who are also very demanding with themselves and permanently looking for the right balance between business, social and environment. Especially this year, 2023 confirms -- illustrates, in fact, the great opportunities that we have ahead of ourselves. There are some great driving forces due to the environmental transition. In all of our businesses, we are directly involved in what is at stake right now related to the future of the planet. This is a central challenge for our core businesses, and we firmly believe that this is going to become even more important and foundational in our business going forward. Therefore, this year, I've decided to put the environment front and center as we provide you with an overview of what we do. Starting off with Concessions. For Concessions, reducing carbon in transport, infrastructure and use is a requirement, in fact, as we continue to travel to meet, to work together, as we continue to ship, freight, as we continue to provide the lifeblood to our economies. And the need for mobility have never been higher worldwide. The low-carbon motorway project launched by VINCI Motorways a couple of years ago illustrates this very well. With charging stations for light vehicles, we now have this on all of our [ lay-bys ], and we've started to equip our rest areas. We also have dynamic charging, so through induction and through under-road rails. And if that goes well, we may be able to charge the lorries so they would need smaller batteries because they would be able to recharge in [ part ] while they're driving around. We also have car-sharing car parks known as multimodal exchange nodes, where people can change from one mode of transport to the next and therefore, facilitate shared transport. These measures are going to need to multiply in number massively over the coming years and in fact, decades, if we want together to be able to meet the challenges of carbon neutrality by 2050. The consequence of this is that the requirements for investments are huge, especially if we add the investment that's going to be needed to adapting to more adverse weather events such as forest fires, a lot of diversity and storms. These diversity challenges are huge and will only be overcome if the general public, the private sector, so us; academics and researchers and the public sector all come together. And that is the meaning behind [ Francois Germain ] alliance for low-carbon roads. He is the author of the sixth IPCC report. And of course, we are fully involved in that initiative. In Airports, we are now the largest operator of airports in the private sector. We've basically overcome the COVID crisis at this point with traffic numbers that are buoyant in a number of regions, such as in Portugal or Serbia and also elsewhere. We have emerged stronger from the crisis with record figures, in one part, thanks to excellent control of costs and an increase in revenue per passenger, also through the integration of the Mexican airports around the great city of Monterrey, which is bouncing back strongly, and also thanks to some transactions such as the 30-year increase on our 6 airports in Dominican Republic, which are also buoyant. VINCI Airport, and you would have seen this in the film, is also on the right track for zero net emission airports. We've already been able to reduce our carbon footprint by 50% versus 2018 on our airports. The zero net emissions target has already been achieved. In fact, it was 2 weeks ago in Toulon, and we will achieve that in [indiscernible] next year. This is important to fight against climate change, but it's also important from -- for us from a business perspective because these are milestones for future development, simply because our commitment and our expertise at VINCI Airport as we work to protect the environment, contributes to states or local authorities picking us to operate their airports. This is particularly true in Brazil, for example. VINCI Airport is also working alongside partners on substitute fuels such as SAFs first of all and then eventually, although probably in a further future, hydrogen. It's important to note that there are no major technological obstacles ahead of us to achieve net zero, including when an airport -- when a plane is in the air, by 2050. So there is no longer any technological issue. The problem is money, and money takes time. This is why we speak of a transition. And just for road transport, it's going to require in-depth transformation of the entire sector. Our motorway development is also continuing outside of France with the consolidation of the Bogotá-Girardot in Colombia motorway and also the entry of Entrevias. This is a 570-kilometer stretch of concession motorway in Brazil in the state of Sao Paulo. Also during 2023, we were given a 12-year concession from Germany to operate and renovate 880 charge stations along the German motorway system. On our Energy business, we are now a worldwide player. This is being driven by the strong underlying driving force of the energy transition. You may remember a couple of months ago the COP 28 called for doubling renewable energy capacity by 2030. That might be a little bit ambitious, but it certainly is symbolic of the worldwide awareness of the need to truly drive low-carbon electricity production, if we are to face the challenges represented by the electrification of all human activity from industry to mobility and real estate. This is also something that involves nuclear, which is low carbon. Nuclear is entering a new age with the restart of some major national plans in France and also abroad. These are states that have understood that purely renewables such as wind and sun will not be enough to meet the needs for low-carbon energy. Something that's maybe a little bit less visible, a little less unknown, but it's very important for us nonetheless, every euro that is invested in low-carbon energy will require an average of an extra euro of investment in the energy networks, the distribution networks, their renovation and their upscaling, so considerable investment that will be required. And we believe that public budgets will not be enough to bear this alone. For example, the high-voltage network Australian project, the PPP, is a great illustration of the trend that we're seeing. The need for investment is so high that we need to bring together public and private capital. All of this combined with the digital revolution show that strong growth more than EUR 19 billion and also more than EUR 20 billion in new orders and the growth in margins to a record level, 7%, I believe that turns us into a champion in this regard, all come together. Cobra is the second arm of our electrical business. They're [ serving ] exactly the same strong wave brought about by the energy transition, and they're also leveraging what are known as the big EPC projects, engineering, procurement projects; especially for very high voltage lines that I mentioned earlier, and big energy converters for offshore wind farms. They have improved their operating margin. They're now at 7.5%. Finally, and this mainly comes from Cobra, but not only; we're also on our roadmap for green energy, our renewable green energy program with 1.4 gigawatts being built on top of the 0.6 gigawatts that are currently producing in Brazil. What is true in Energy is also true in Construction. A larger part of Construction projects are related to the environmental challenge and the energy challenge, battery gigafactories, electrical connections for example, such as what VINCI Construction, VINCI Energy will be making together between Spain and France, a next generation of nuclear power plants that I mentioned as well. And also, energy and environment are visible in the big energy transfer stations, such as the pumping station that we are currently finishing [ Abdelmoumen ] in Morocco, and also our low-carbon energy projects such as the Greater Paris Express, City Rail Link in Auckland, HS2, the high-speed line in the U.K. and also investment in climate resilience related to things such as water storage that need to be upscaled if we are to face extreme weather events. Of course, the imperative need to reduce our carbon footprint and to improve our energy performance and the need to preserve biodiversity and natural resources are strong levers for rollover of our Construction business. As you saw in the film, in particular, in Mexico, which I find very interesting, so great source of emotion for me because it's the first time we're producing this kind of thing in Mexico; it's interesting to witness the speed at which our teams have taken up low-carbon concrete. To the extent that what might have seen seemed like an ambitious target set in 2019 to have 90% of our job sites using low-carbon concrete in Europe by 2030, in fact, that target is now well within our grasp in a number of countries, especially in France. These underlying trends and the strength of our order book mean that we can be extremely selective in the projects we take on and continue to drive our operating margin at VINCI Construction, which is up 20 basis points in 2023. Finally, VINCI Real Estate, as we know, is going through a very serious crisis. In 2023, we had a 30% drop off of booking rates, but we have continued to develop our network of service residences for students and for the elderly. And we are still on line for our zero artificialization by 2030. For a number of years, we have been warning, especially the public authorities, of the time bomb that is the real estate crisis, that bomb is now going off. And we hope that after the recent statements of intent from the government that they will walk the walk to motivate land sales to incite mayors to build new projects and to help first-time buyers. I'd now like to give the floor to Christian Labeyrie, and then I will be coming back later to talk about the outlook for 2024. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Xavier. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. So as to allow you to better assess the performance of VINCI Group companies in 2023, I would like to begin by commenting on the key figures for the year. Our revenues, you can see a total almost EUR 69 billion, up 12% over the previous year. If we correct these figures for scope changes and foreign exchanges, the increase over the previous year stands at 10%. In France, like-for-like revenues up by almost 6%, slightly above inflation. Internationally, the revenue increase tops 13%. So the international revenue in the total went from 55% in 2022 to 57% in 2023. This development is part of the geographic diversification pathway the group's activities has undertaken for many years now. The EBIT of our consolidated affiliates comes in at close to EUR 8.4 billion, up 22% over the previous year. Almost all our business divisions are posting excellent performance. VINCI Autoroutes posted earnings at EUR 3.4 billion, up 7.5%. VINCI Airports almost doubled at EUR 1.9 billion, the consequence of the recovery in air traffic, integration of our new Mexican affiliate OMA and good cost containment. VINCI Energy, Cobra IS and VINCI Construction also improved their respective contribution to earnings, both in absolute terms, as was expressed as margin rate versus revenue, EUR 1.9 billion for Energy, margin above 7%, one of the best in Europe; [ EUR 1.3 billion ] for Construction. That's 4% of revenue releveled -- not reached since 2011, but at the time on a far lower revenue figure, demonstrating the effectiveness of the business unit put in place 2 years ago following the combination between VINCI Construction and Eurovia and better selective order intake. The only dark spot on the chart is deteriorating performance of VINCI Real Estate, posting a slight loss. Net income as well as increased interest rates, debt is reaching a record EUR 4.7 billion, up 10% over the previous year. These excellent results go hand-in-hand with free cash flow generation of EUR 6.6 billion, remarkable level, even if it's accounted for [ by one-offs ]. Net debt EUR 16 billion, down EUR 2.4 billion, that I'll return to in a moment. High-quality economic performance is the result of the effort of our 280,000 employees in some 100 countries worldwide. Decreased debt in '23 can be viewed as follows: EBITDA, as we call it the financial [ jog ], comes in at EUR 12 billion, up 17% over '22. The contribution of the Concessions division in EBITDA accounts for just over 60%, Energy 20%, Construction 16%. Working capital requirement improved over the year by EUR 1.5 billion, thanks to high level of cash in Energy and Construction Division, advanced payments received on several major projects. Here's working capital requirement as well. The provisions of the group balance sheet represents a free resources some [ EUR 15 billion ], that's very appreciable, contributes to boosting the strength of our financial structure. Increased EBITDA and improved WCR in '23 largely offset [indiscernible] increase of cash out under financial expense and taxes, an increase in operational expenditure sharply cut during the [ health ] crisis, notably resumed air traffic, led eventually airport to increase its investment, London Gatwick and Portugal. Cobra IS, our Spanish unit, stepped up its investment in renewables with the entry into service of the Belmonte solar park in Brazil. After including these items, free cash flow comes in at EUR 6.6 billion, 22% better than in 2022, which stood at EUR 5.4 billion, already a record. In terms of M&A, the acquisitions funded during the year accounted for some EUR 1 billion. [ Concern ] is essentially new companies acquired by VINCI Energy as well as new developments at VINCI Highways in Latin America, a majority stake in Entrevias in Brazil, managing 2 highway sections in Sao Paulo, and controlling state in Colombia of the highway from Bogota to Girardot in the [ west ]. Dividends paid during the year, share buybacks minus capital increases achieved as part of employee subscriptions to group savings plan accounted for a net amount of EUR 3.2 billion. Next slide shows the record cash flow generation advantage that increased on average 12% per year, higher than the average growth of net income that stood at 9% a year, of course, good management by our divisions of the capital requirements and OpEx, the limit of EUR 4 billion was reached in 2019, EUR 5 billion in 2021, the exceptional achievement of over EUR 6 billion in 2023 includes one-offs and can't be extrapolated and the group's ambitions in terms of expansion, notably in the airport and renewable sector will lead to an increase of our CapEx in this field going forward. Furthermore, given the strong seasonality of most of our activities, the bulk of the cash flows generated in the final months of the year. So it's very difficult to forecast it reliably. To end a few words on our financial policy. In terms of financial policy, our priority is to have available at all times whatever the economic or geopolitical circumstances. The liquidity necessary to comply with our commitment and to fund our expansion total gross net debt at the end of 2023 stood at some EUR 29 billion. That's an average maturity of some 6.5 years. We have to reimburse every year between EUR 2 billion and EUR 2.5 billion a year, which means we have to have adequate liquidity. If we never know before handing market conditions allow us to issue the appropriate time, new loans. In terms of expansion Vinci plans to be able to seize all the opportunities for acquisition that arise and part of its strategy. It's exactly what we did just over 2 years ago by acquiring COBRA IS from ACS after it did indicated that it wish to sell the company or more recently, a competitive offer for acquiring a section of the Denver bypass, allowing Vinci Highways to establish a presence in the U.S. in toll roads. Now our policy in terms of liquidity management may seem to some to be rather conservative given the amount of cash held by the group, some EUR 13 billion at the end of last year, but a surprise for independence with financial markets and the experience have shown that they can be very volatile not to mention stress situations that we experienced such during the COVID crisis in 2020 after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In addition to this cash of EUR 13 billion on our balance sheet at the end of December, large can be mobilized rapidly by the holding. We have to take account the confirmed undrawn banking credit lines for some EUR 6.5 billion, total liquidity of some EUR 20 billion in the macro and geopolitical environment that is uncertain. It's more than ever essential for Vinci to have confident relations with the lenders, who are funding some outstanding debt of some EUR 30 billion to access the bond markets and the best possible conditions are prime source of funding. We have to preserve the rating that is given by specialized agencies, S&P and Moody's, the rating agencies confirmed the excellent ratings given to Vinci. A- for S&P and A3 for Moody's, both with a stable outlook. These ratings reflect the strength of our business model and the prudence of our financial management allows us to continue to expand confidently whilst being equipped to meet any unexpected needs. The cost of debt as the chart bottom right shows you, it has increased significantly in 2023 after a long period of very low interest rate, sometimes negative, which was an economic uncertainty. The inflation uptick post COVID led to a hardening of monetary policy by central banks worldwide. So there was a sharp increase in rates as of H2 2022 on the portion of our debt that's indexed on short-term rates, partially offset by an improvement in yields of our treasury investments. When we have that possibility, we try to fund certain long-term assets, infrastructure concessions with nonrecourse funding. These fundings necessarily more corporate than corporate financing from the parent company, especially in emerging markets such as Latin America, where we've expanded considerably Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Colombia. So this with more moderate inflation, we're seeing an easing of interest rates, notably on the euro with even with a reversal of the yield curve with that long-term rates being higher than short-term rates. If this easing continues during the course of the year, we should optimize the cost of our debt through opportunistic bond issues that we've done since January for an amount of some EUR 400 million with at a rate slightly higher than 3%. That's it from me. Thanks for your attention back to Xavier.

[Interpreted] So as you've understood construction business, energy, mobility places is clearly at the core of the challenges facing the planet and offer mid- and long-term outlook that are very interesting. And so we can view 2024 calmly and confidently. So motorway order route traffic have returned to their cruising speed that is correlated to the major macro indicators. We expect to see a slight growth in traffic levels as long as events such as the recent farming crisis doesn't rise during the course of the year. Vinci Airport, we expect to book further growth and exceed in 2024, the traffic levels achieved overall in 2019, pre-COVID crisis in construction order books at an all-time high, but we think that it would be hazardous to continue to grow as in 2023 is the restraining factors, access to talent, the ability to deliver. So we mustn't get carried away, get ahead of ourselves, only sign what we can deliver and to take advantage of that to be even more selective, so as to preserve our margins by applying these principles Vinci Energy is set to post further organic growth lower than [ 2020 -- ] while confirming its excellent operating margin. Cobra will record further growth in its revenue and maintained its high margin rate achieved the previous year and the total capacity for renewable power under construction or in operation should be of the order 3.5 gigawatts by the end of 2024. Vinci Construction, the goal isn't so much to grow, but to continue to improve its operating margin. For Vinci overall, we expect further increase in activity, but more limited in 2023. Of course, we'll have to begin to factor in the tax on long distance transport infrastructure for an amount of some EUR 280 million, as you may have read in the press, were determined to continue to fight against part of this negative impact, net income for 2023 should be close to the level reached in 2023. So on the basis of this solid performance achieved in 2023 and good medium- and long-term outlook, your Board will ask you to approve a dividend of EUR 4.5 per share, EUR 1.05 already been allocated as an interim dividend in 2023. Just to end, I'd like to briefly discuss this slide that summarizes what our strategy has been since 2006, when we integrated ASF, Cofiroute and ESCOTA. The constant strategy over the period. Consisted in offsetting as far as possible, the loss in EBITDA brought about by the end of these French concessions by very proactively developing airports and energy activities. It's not the end of the story, our largest water route concession, ASF expires in just over 12 years, unless we can renew it in the meantime. So in the contract, it's said to expire in 2035, even if others later in [ 2070 and 2090 ]. We're already seeing at the end of '23, several useful things. Firstly, EBITDA is up, annual EBITDA is up EUR 8 billion over the 17-year period. Construction EBITDA has grown to reach some EUR 2 billion. And at the end of 2023 activities in airports, other concessions, excluding French Autoroutes and energy. These aggregate activities generate EBITDA that already exceeds that of French Autoroutes. That trend set to continue on the back of powerful mega trends that environmental, energy and digital and will lastingly drive our business, but our conception of performance is all around, summarized in our manifesto that guides our teams, our business units in one of continuous improvement over the 3 broad dimensions: economic, social, societal and environmental. And lastly, our economic performance only makes sense if it's shared, shared with our shareholders, of course, but also shared with our employees, but also the communities and civil society that is all round performance. Thank you. And I'm going to hand over to Isabelle Spiegel, who is our Head of environment and give us an update on the rollout of our environmental ambition. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. For 4 years now, Vinci has announced its desire to significantly contribute to the environmental transition, working on 2 levels by reducing our carbon footprint and also by developing concrete solutions for our businesses. We wanted to be active. We wanted to follow up on what we said, and I believe we've done this. There are 3 ways in which we have decided to prioritize our action. Climate, optimizing resources through circular economy and preserving natural environment. To push forward with Vinci. From the very beginning, we firmly believe that the environment is something that everyone should be concerned with. That is why we have used the we now model, which has supported us since the beginning. We started things with an in-house competition to get people on board and to improve engagement. This is engagement that you would have seen at work in the field and that film that we showed you. In 2024, we will be relaunching this with our second environmental awards. This is based on impact and upscaling, which should enable a large number of people to develop new initiatives for the environment. Onboarding teams also requires training. On top of what we already have, we have just made available to our staff new training support materials called hash tag learn for environment because it is indeed by learning across the group that we can further consider environmental matters. Well, how far have we gone? Well, for nonfinancial performance indicators, Vinci is well ahead of the average. We've been recognized as best-in-class in this sector by Moody's, formerly [indiscernible]. And we also obtained an A- grade in the carbon disclosure project. I'd like to stop on the European taxonomy. This is new European legislation working to support the environmental transition and to support investment. Here, you can see Vinci's performance. 41% of revenue in 2023 was eligible for the taxonomy criteria, meaning in sectors working towards the environmental transition. And after that, 21% is on top of that aligned with environmental performance criteria. You can also see the equivalent numbers for investment in 2023 CapEx. We've listed the main businesses in Vinci that are working towards aligning our business with the European taxonomy, transport, electricity distribution, infrastructure for rail, building renovation, recycling and energy production, et cetera, et cetera. Regarding the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, here is our carbon trajectory at the end of 2023. As a reminder, Vinci committed to reducing its direct emissions by 40% by 2030. This is a target that was certified by the science-based target initiative, SBT, and we still have 30% to contribute. We are slightly behind our theoretical trajectory, but that does not change our confidence in our ability to achieve the target at the end. I'd like to remind you that this target is expressed in absolute value. That means that like-for-like, we need to reduce emissions no matter how our revenue changes. However, over this period, we experienced strong organic growth. At this point, we can say that we have succeeded in decoupling, maintaining growth and our targets was also experiencing strong business growth. If I able to give you an idea of this in intensity per revenue, we would be at about 30% reduction over 2018 to 2023, and that should then be corrected for inflation. Now let's come back to just what we are doing to meet our climate goals. Three years ago, as Vinci shareholders, you supported this by overwhelmingly voting in favor in 2021 for our environmental transition plan. This supported our environmental ambitions, and you can see them here on the left of the slide. On the right, I'd like to give you an update on implementation. Let's start with construction vehicles, 1/3 of our direct carbon emissions. More than half of them are now equipped with emissions regulation systems that enables us to maximize gains through environmentally conscious driving, for example. We're testing multiple other methods, such as 100% electric [ job sites ] that's not yet generalized in the market. So we've looked at biofuels as one thing that we could leverage in the transition. Vehicles account for a little bit less than 1/3 of our carbon emissions. And right here, you can see the progress that's been made in low carbon vehicles in our fleet. We're at 12% at the end of 2023 versus 8% in the previous year. 33% of our ordered vehicles are either electric or hybrid. For our production plants, we've been able to improve by 10% the energy efficient per ton of produced asphalt in France, and we've been able to improve our energy consumption in France. 37% of the energy that we consume in France is renewable, a significant part of which comes from our own solar production. Now let's talk about our indirect emissions, i.e., upstream in our suppliers are subcontractors through what they do and downstream by using that equipment and our mobility infrastructure. Our aim is to reduce those emissions by 20% by 2030, and we have a dozen actions to achieve that. When it comes to concrete, we mentioned this earlier, our target is 90% low carbon concrete by 2030. We're now at 50% at the end of 2023. As you saw in the film, our [indiscernible] low carbon concrete is being used outside of France and even outside of Europe. Our low-carbon mobility solutions are being used by Vinci Motorways with our charging station lay-buys and also dynamic charging. Also at Vinci Airport, we have sustainable aviation fuels, staffs and also working on pricing. On top of the peak 2 gigawatts that we currently have active through Cobra IS, we are working towards energy efficiency we have more than 125 performance contracts that are managed by VINCI Energy entities. When it comes to resources, once again, I would like to give you 2 examples. We have 18 Vinci concession sites that are 0 waste. In some countries, this required us to develop sorting centers for waste and to find the right ways to reuse those materials and 16 million tonnes of aggregate were recycled by Vinci Construction, that's 15% more than the previous year. And to wrap up on the environment, I would like to mention our training efforts, 30% more hours of training were provided versus 2022. And for biodiversity, we are now going further than not damaging the environment with our proactive measures through VINCI Autoroute, for example. We also have just 6% delta in artificialization. We achieved that for the second year running through VINCI real estate. This is renaturing as many hectares as we artificialized through our construction projects to achieve a target of 0 net, which is what we set for 2030. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, as you can see, the entities of Vinci are turning their plans into a reality, and they're working seriously and efficiently. The first efforts have done well, but we need to go further with them and continue to push not just in our own businesses but also in our ecosystem. Indeed, these actions are at the heart of our low-carbon solutions for buildings, energy and transport. In 2024, we are pushing further on our low-impact missions to further change our business and our partners. Thank you for your attention.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Isabel. We can now move on to a governance session. I would like to invite the Chair people of the subcommittees of your Board of Directors to summarize their work over the past year, starting with Mrs. Yannick Assouad, who is the Chairwoman of the Nomination and Governance Board. Yannick?

[Interpreted] Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, as is the case each year, I would like to present what the nominations and Governance Committee has been doing that I chair as a member of the Board. As you know, Vinci's governance is based on a number of entities that work hand-in-hand. We have the Board of Directors, of course, with 4 specialized subcommittees that are going to present their works. We have the Chairman of the Board, who is also the Director General of the company, Vinci. And then finally, we have our reference board member that I am myself. . Now, the Board of Directors is made up of 14 members, 6 women, a high independent rate as all members of the Board are now independent, excluding, of course, the Chairman. The skills and the experience of its members are diverse and complementary. 6 Board members are non-French. This is necessary in a group that in 2023 had 57% of its revenue come from non-French sources. The board met 7 times in 2023 with an attendance rate which is remarkably high, 100%. In 2023, Vinci's governance experienced 2 new arrivals. Mrs. [ Muller ] and Mr. Carlos Aguilar. They quickly joined the dynamics within the Board and truly contributed through their respective experience in the markets in which the group is active, especially Germany for Mrs. [ Muller ] and the American continent for Mr. Aguilar. In 2 years, the Board integrated 5 new members. Beyond the formal meetings held with the Board of Directors, in 2023, we attended one 2-day seminar on our multiyear strategy, one trip to Denmark, during which the members of the Board were able to see what the company was doing in the Nordic countries and to visit the impressive construction site of an underwater tunnel between Denmark and Germany. And as is the case every year, the members of the Board met without the Chairman of the Board to be able to freely debate the governance of the group. As regards to the Nominations and Governance Committee, there are 5 members. Its makeup slightly changed versus last year with Mrs. Dominique Miller, who joined us. As you know, she represents the shareholder employees of the group. Our activity was mainly based on the succession plan with an acceleration at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. The committee worked more to implement the succession plan for the Director General, Mr. Xavier Huillard, whose term will come to an end at the end of the next AGM in 2025. As it stands, I cannot provide you with any precise information on the succession plan as the process is indeed ongoing, and it will be premature to divulge any information. However, what I can assure you of is that by the time that we hold the next AGM, the successor to Mr. Xavier Huillard as Director General will have been selected and will have started to train alongside Xavier so that the person will be fully able to take over when the time comes in 2025. As to the Chairmanship of the Board of Directors, it will be dissociated from the Director General ship. Mr. Xavier Huillard will continue in that role until 2026, which is the end his next term. The appointment of a new Director General is not an easy decision and requires looking in detail at the entire management structure within the group, especially members within the Executive Committee to make sure that the overall transition is smooth. I wish to reassure you that the appointments in Corporate Governance Committee is working hard on this. Regarding the makeup of the Board, it will remain stable in 2024. We would simply like to put to you the renewal of the term of office of Mr. Benoit Bazin appointed for the first time in 2020. Benoit Bazin is also the Chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain and brings with him a wealth of experience and is highly involved in the work of the Board of Directors and also the Strategy and CSR Committee that he chairs without forgetting, of course, his active participation in the appointments and Corporate Governance Committee that I chair. That brings me to the end. And I'd like to thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Yannick, for that. I'd now like to give the floor to Benoit Bazin, the Chair of the Strategy and CSR Committee.

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. It's now my turn to present what the strategy and CSR Committee has been doing in 2023. I've been sharing it since April 2022. You can see the makeup of the committee in this slide. We have a number of [ 4 ] members and also any member of the Board of Directors can join for the debate. And in fact, it happens quite often that all members of the Board are present. We have an attendance rate at 92% for the [ 4 ] members and 90% for the entirety of the Board of Directors. This committee examines a number of important questions for the strategy of the group. First of all, first and foremost, investment through acquisitions of companies or purchases of stakes in long-term PPPs. As soon as the amount would be more than EUR 50 million, which happens relatively often for Vinci. Of course, we undertake multi-criteria analysis on the viability of the investment plans and then your committee also make sure that all of these projects are indeed in line with the strategy of your group, as outlined by the Board. Our second major mission is one that is becoming ever more demanding because we also make sure we follow up on the implementation of CSR commitments. There are social components to this, such as workplace safety, such as professional training such as diversity and inclusion and also human rights. Another important topic, vigilance which is something that applies to business through preventing corruption and also complying with competition laws. Society is also a factor, citizenship for the group and for its staff. And as you heard through Isabelle Spiegel's presentation, anything related to our environmental policy at the group. As I'm sure you've understood, this committee is a very useful forum for all of the members of the Board for regular updates on some of the main things affecting Vinci as a Group and also helps everyone bring their experience to the table on these topics, which become ever more important in the life of a company. In 2023, the committee was extremely active meeting 8 times for investments, which is the first part that I mentioned, we looked at 15 external growth projects or partnership contracts, PPPs, some of which have already been implemented and signed as you were able to see in that film. In each investment plan, we look at the environmental, ethical and environmental concerns in each case. Secondly, on CSR, the committee looked at all of the issues in its mandate on its agenda, as I showed you last year. So the employee shareholder plans, professional training, human rights, competition risk, safety at work, diversity and inclusion, equality of opportunity and of course, the environment. In each case, we were able to listen to employees from various sectors to make sure that our policy is truly being implemented in the field. As you know, our policy expresses itself through thousands of actions around the world, as you saw in the film. Therefore, implementation truly happened in the field based on the local circumstances. All of the teams, and I -- and you can take my word on this, work in the field in a demanding way to implement these policies. Of course, your committee will continue to work in this vein in 2024. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Benoit. We now move to Marie-Christine Lombard, who Chairs the Remuneration Committee.

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. I'm going to present to you the work of the Vinci Remuneration Committee that I Chair. Committee is comprised of 4 board members, one of whom representing employees, met on 3 occasions, 2023 with an attendance rate of 100%. Committee is tasked with preparing the decisions of your Board concerning the remuneration of the Chairman and CEO, that of Board members and the share ownership schemes for group employees out begin with the remuneration policy for Board members, a subject of the seventh resolution, it's identical to that which you approved in 2023, the total aggregate amount set in 2019 of EUR 1.6 million was used in 2023 for some -- EUR 1.189 million. Let me remind you that your directors have a fixed portion of EUR 26,500 per year and variable component of EUR 3,500 per meeting. They are also paid on the basis of their attendance to Board meetings also with our fixed portion differs by type of committee and a variable component. There are travel allowances for those who do not reside in France. The lead representative, Board representative has remuneration that has been approved by the AGM of 2023, the details to be found in page 166 of the annual report. Let's turn now to remuneration policy applicable to the Chairman and Chief Executive, Mr. Xavier Huillard, that is submitted to you in the eighth resolution. It's identical to that, which you approved in 2023. It comprises 3 parts, a variable component, EUR 1.3 million accounts for about 20% of total remuneration of short-term variable component linked to economic, financial, managerial and CSR performance in red capped at 1.6x the fixed component, representing 30% of total remuneration that long-term component in green taking the form a right to an award of fifth VINCI shares 3 years later, subject to a continued presence and performance accounting for some 25% of the total presence. Condition is the link to his tenure as CEO in the event of termination before the expiry of the 3-year persons. The number of shares awarded is reduced on a pro rata temporary basis. The short-term performance conditions are linked at 60% to economic and financial indicators such as net earnings per share, operating income and operational cash flow, 25% linked to social and environmental criteria and 15% subject to the assessment by your Board on management quality. The Board has decided to maintain in 2024 the continuous improvement targets across all indicators, specific focus placed on social criteria aimed at proving schemes to prevent workplace accidents, increase harmonization and continued employee share ownership outside France with new countries added to the scheme. For environmental criteria, the Board will be attentive to the reduction of CO2 emissions in compliance with the trajectory and efforts undertaken to encourage suppliers and clients that notably still uses a [ veins ] structured managed by the group to reduce their greenhouse gases as part of scope 3. Under resolution 10, the Board is asking you to improve the items of compensation paid or allocated to Mr. Xavier Huillard in respect to 2023 as follows. A fixed portion that I've already discussed, a variable component short term that the Board said the sum of [ EUR 1,998.06 million ] in accordance with the indicators defined at the beginning of 2023. As you've seen, the economic performance of the group was excellent in 2023. Net earnings per share has increased by 9.5%. Current operating income is up 26.1%. And free cash flow increased by 23%. These levels just defined attainment of 100% of performance conditions on the basis of these indicators. As regards ESG performance, the Board set the attainment rate at 84.2%, having noted that the reduction in greenhouse gases and frequency rates as regards workplace accidents, although improved, remain below the target, all in all the Board. So that the attainment rate of all performance indicators for the variable at 96.6%, which in spite of the excellent result leads to short-term variable compensation, slightly down by 0.5% as compared to 2022. As regards the long-term variable component, your Board has awarded Mr. Huillard on the 13th of April, a 387,000 as against 35,000 in 2022, a fair value of EUR 3.378 million These figures are higher than the allocation decided in '22. This is linked to the rising share price of Vinci. Given the present rules set, the number of shares awarded in 2026 will be reduced on pro rata temporis basis by 1/3 because his time as CEO will have ended in 2025. All things being equal, the value of the allocation is 16% lower than that of 2022. Another item in the remuneration of Mr. [ Huillard ] for the sake of completeness, it includes the use of a company car. As with every year, you're asked to approve the 12th and 13th resolution. It's to allow employees as a group in France and abroad 47 countries to subscribe to reserve capital increases with a discount of 5% within a limit of 1.5% with a top-up of EUR 3,500, up to 80 free shares allocated abroad in France. The assets are present for 5 years. Internationally, the vesting of free shares is subject to a 3-year presence conditions at the end of December 2023, employees and former employees, some 170,000 people held 10.14% of the share capital collectively through corporate investment scheme. The value of the assets invested represents EUR 6.7 billion. You'll, of course, understand that they're very motivated to see the performance of your group continue to improve. Lastly, I'd like to recall it. Although no decisions on the agenda of this meeting upon proposal of the community company continues its long-term incentive of managers by awarding performance shares in 2023, 4,389 senior executives in France and a broad benefited from these awards. Shares representing 0.43% of the shares will be awarded to the beneficiaries in 2026, subject to performance conditions, the same as those that apply to the Chairman and Chief Executive, and of course, their continued presence within the group. Thank you.

Thank you, Marie-Christine. So for the final committee, which is the Audit Committee, I would like to invite Rene Medori to the stage.

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. The Audit Committee for Vinci's Board of Directors is made up of 4 full independent members and met 5 times in 2023 with an attendance rate at 100%. The Financial Director, his main staff and the statutory auditors were actively involved in all of our meetings. The committee also auditioned the Head of Legal, and the Director General of Cobra IS, their Financial Director, their Head of Internal Audit, the Director General Vinci Construction, in charge of the America Oceania region and their financial directors as well and the tax Director and Insurance Director. During the financial year 2023, the Audit Committee organized its work along 4 main pillars. The eighth of December 2008, [indiscernible] was taken into account as was the AMF's implementation of this role in 2010, implementing the recommendations for the 2013 AFEP/MEDEF code to which the group is a signatory. The first main component is update on the financial information of the group. We looked at the relevance and the implementation of the financial standards for the group, taking into account the implementation of IFRS standards. We reviewed the group's financial policy and its liquidity. This was the topic of particular attention for us, especially given the overall economic environment and geopolitical instability. Furthermore, we regularly review the debt in its cost, its maturities, and how well it matches the group's needs. The liquidity review enabled us to observe good optimization of the financial resources. The committee also heard updates on major transactions in 2023. Most notably, the bond issue of VINCI and ASF for EUR 1.7 billion as well as the negotiation of the credit line of EUR 6.5 billion that was signed early January 2024. The group also for the very first time, published in June 2023 a transparency report on taxes. This was reviewed by the committee as well. Vinci is, therefore, the first CAC40 company to publish such a report outside of companies that must do it for legal reasons. The Audit Committee also reviewed the risk management within the group. The risk mapping of the group for all 5 poles was presented to us and also an activity report for the holding company. They looked at 298 different transactions in 2023. Any particular issues were the object of particular retention. The legal deployment within the group provided us with a report on ongoing disputes and litigation and the insurance department shared with us the policies and contracts to cover the various risks within the business lines. The third main pillar was the internal control procedures. Particular attention was allocated to the group's internal audit process with the central group, its tasks and its missions. We also looked at the consolidated and corporate financial statements. We worked with the statutory auditors, and we reviewed their conclusions. This, amongst other things, enabled us to observe the full compliance with the regulatory and legal frameworks for accounting standards and financial reporting. The committee also reviewed the tender for a new statutory auditor from 2025. As is required by law, the committee reviewed the statement of independence from the statutory auditors and was also made aware of the fees paid to their networks. To conclude, we would like to underline the high quality of the financial management of the group of the financial information provided and the processes used within the group. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you for that, Rene. I'll now turn to our statutory auditors who deliver a summary of the various reports, the content of which is to be found in the universal registration document. I understand Mark will be delivering that report.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, on behalf of the statutory Board of auditors of your company, Deloitte and Price Water House Coppers. I'm pleased to report to you on our assignment. As you can see on screen, we issued 11 reports in 6 parts in this presentation. Our report on the consolidated financial statement, our report on the annual financial statement, our report on the related party agreement for supplementary reports on the use of delegations given by the AGM to your Board, 3 reports on authorizations to be given to your Board of Directors to carry out transactions involving the share cap. But lastly, a report on the verification of the consolidated nonfinancial performance statement in accordance with standing practice at this meeting, I won't give you a detailed reading, but we'll provide you with a summary by stressing the conclusions of our report. So let's begin with our reports on the consolidated and annual financial statements. Our work is aimed at providing you with the assurance that they comprise no material misstatements for this. We're involved in the major entities of the group in France as well as abroad. Our approach is adapted to the VINCI organization, its activities, its expansion and our assessment of the risk. We presented the detailed conclusions of our reports to the Audit Committee on the sixth of February 2024, and the summary at the Board meeting held on the seventh of February. In respect of consolidated financial statements, we focus specifically on the following points. The impairment tests and recoverable value in your group's assets, the booking of construction contracts and provisions for risks and litigation in respect of annual financial statements. Our assessments involved the assessment of our equity interest. In conclusion, we reviewed the arrangements adopted by management to assess all these items and we certify the consolidated and annual financial statements are fair and sincere and faithfully reflect the results, the financial situation and the assets of VINCI at 31st of December 2023. Let's now move briefly to our report on the related party agreements and respects. We were not made aware of any related party agreement during the past year or indeed previous years. Let's just focus for a moment on our reports pertaining to resolutions that are put to the extraordinary part of this meeting, there are 3 such reports. You can see on screen the main points and what resolutions they relate to. Firstly, the authorization to reduce the share capital through the cancellation of VINCI shares held in treasury proposed to you on the 11th resolution. The next report concerns delegation of authority to carry out share capital increases reserved for employees. This is for shareholders with preferential subscription rights canceled that's proposed in the 12th resolution. The last report concerns the authorization to increase share capital reserve for category of beneficiaries in order to offer employees of certain foreign subsidiaries advantages that are comparable to those offered to employees as part of our corporate savings plan. This report is contained in the 13th resolution put to your vote. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, in respect of all these resolutions, we have no observations to make. I'll end this presentation with our report on workforce-related social and environmental information published by VINCI. This information is to be found in the consolidated nonfinancial performance statement prepared by our group. Based on our work, we issued the verification report that comprises a conclusion of moderate assurance compliance with regulation and the sincerity of the statement in accordance with provisions in the [ card ] commerce as well as conclusions of reasonable assurance concerning certain environmental and social indications selected by your company. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, Chairman, on behalf of the Board of Auditors, I thank you for your kind attention.

Thank you, Mark. We now enter the Q&A session. Let me begin by saying that as regards written questions, we've received questions from several shareholders, the Board met prior to this meeting and approve the answers to these questions. And you can find the questions and the answers supplied after approval by your Board on the company website. As regards questions in the whole, we are available to answer all your questions by asking you to kindly stand up and introduce yourselves this year as in previous years, will devote some 30 minutes to that exercise. We're pretty much on time following this meeting, you'll have an opportunity to interact directly with investor -- or rather shareholder relations team that stand outside the hall. So as to be informed, the various events organized by the shareholders' club. The team is available to supply you with all relevant information. So there are panels so, if you have a question, please make a sign to the person closest to you with a panel on shall take those questions in no particular order for about 30 minutes. Let's begin with the back of the hall, panel #7, please.

Thank you. Thank you Chairman [indiscernible] aerospace engineer, retired and been in individual shareholders since July 2007. You mentioned the tax -- the government has guided to improve in the finance bill on transport infrastructure. You also indicated your intention to challenge this tax. Could you tell us when what the state of players regarding the challenge against additional tax that will affect both outer routes, highways and airports.

Thank you for that. It might -- perhaps be useful to be very specific, tell you a bit about what this entails is a tax on long-distance transport infrastructure and its calculation is done by applying 4.6% on the revenue able infrastructure above a certain threshold. In practical terms, the autoroute concessioners are going to be paying the bulk of the tax and secondarily, a few airports ADP and for us, possibly Lyon airport. This tax is highly significant because we had to pay in 2023, which isn't the case, we would have had to pay some EUR 273 million every year on the 2023 base and it's nontax deduct was the case with every tax. What we consider is that, first of all, this tax is unfair -- it's unfair because during the winter 2015 stimulus plan was launched, there was a tax neutrality clause that was set up, therefore, to avoid successive governance from slapping on a new tax that would have led to the fact that we had to pay twice that is one through the investments that we undertook as part of the motorway stimulus package. And we obtained a tax neutrality clause that any tax specific too much was deemed to be offset via an increase in the tariffs on concessions. The state wanted to establish attacks and wanted to avoid our offsetting. So they came out with a scheme that, in fact, essentially effects motorway concessions, but on the face of it, doesn't only affect motorway concession. So we deem it unfair and contrary, both to the letter and the spirit of our contracts. Second thing, we believe -- and it's rather worrisome because as I've said on several occasions, we're entering a phase in which investments to be made to ensure the energy and environmental transition very considerable and public funding, public budgets won't be enough in France or elsewhere. So we need to reactivated PPPs, public private partnership and the concession is a form of a PPP. So I have governments who for purely for tax receipt reasons set up attacks that we view as unfair simply to generate additional resources at a time when these same states need public -- private money to successfully implement the energy transition is very worrisome. We consider it's inappropriate because the current justification, as we understood it as it set out is an environmental justification -- to have environmental effects. We have to impact behavior the fact that it can't be offset by tariffs mean there's absolutely no chance there'll be any change in the behavior of drivers on our Autoroutes. So we have to defend ourselves and we'll do this through the constitutional and administrative court or only at the beginning of the process. We just launched a suit before the Council of State and Constitutional but we don't plan to give up on that. Number 8, please.

[indiscernible] Mr. Chairman of the Board. Thank you for taking my question. My name is Philippe Moore. I'm newly retired and former bank managers. My question is the following. I would like to know what you intend for Cobra IS, which is a subsidiary that you integrated 2 years ago?

Thank you for that question. Now as I'm sure you've gathered a number of years ago now, we decided to really push to increase our presence in the engineering world, especially the electrical engineering world expertise and that presence until recently had purely been present in VINCI Energy, which had an amazing story because VINCI Energy, when I was handling it in 2002, they were at EUR 8 million in revenue, whereas we were at EUR 18.9 million last year. That was a great strategy because the years have shown that we were correct. The energy transition started up. And the main effect of this was to electrify all industries. Everywhere is going to have to go electric, industry is going to have to do it one way or another. Anything related to real estate, heating, cooling, light is going to have to become electric. In the energy mix of a country like France, and I understand this is different in other countries, but not all that different. In France's energy mix, electricity although we are quite electric already, it's just 25% of the overall mix. By 2050, we need to be at 100%. The world is going electric for reasons that are related to the environment in the planet, and that is what we significantly invested the opportunity by -- or presented by Cobra has confirmed that strategy. Cobra does three main things. First of all, the work in flow business, as it's called. Now in many ways, that's similar to what VINCI Energy does, but they are present in a very different geographical region. They mainly were in Spain, where Cobra is by far and away the largest electrical engineer and electrical works Company, also Portugal and all of Latin America in which Cobra has excellent positions. That's the first part of what Cobra does about 60% of its revenue overall. And that means that we can be even more present in this type of business than we have been up until now. Secondly, this is major projects that is EPC projects, and I mentioned these earlier, engineering, procurement, construction. So these are big turnkey projects such as regasification plants for LNG, such are the ones we're building in Germany and also a combined cycle generation in other countries and very high voltage networks, and the development of renewables production sites. And Cobra enables us to significantly develop our presence in renewable energy production, so green energy from sun or wind, mainly onshore. All of this fully matches the strategy. Between VINCI Energy and Cobra, we're now at about EUR 26 billion in revenue in those business lines related to energy with that long-term strategy behind it, which is the creation of renewable energy. And we intend to continue in this line. In fact, we believe that eventually, this segment of the energy industry will be the largest for your group.

Number four, please.

Thierry Vila, I'm a shareholder. I have one or maybe two questions for 2025. How about your succession? And when will we know the person who will be taking over the Director General ship of the group?

Thank you. Yannick Assouad, our main Director has already spoken on this. What could I add to that? Well, honestly, it's so fascinating that it's hard to imagine being in this situation. It might have been tempting to change the bylaws to extend things, but that would have been dangerous because then you -- once you start extending things, you never know when it ends. So we publicly committed to not changing the bylaws and in the bylaws, it's clearly stated that the term for the Director General must expire roughly during the approval of the corporate accounts for the financial year, during which the previous holder was 70. [indiscernible], I'm going to turn 70 in June. That takes us to April 2025. So in any case, in exactly 1 year around the same time, you will have been informed for a while of the name of my successor. The second thing is that my own term as a member of the Board expires in April 2026. So between April '25 and April '26, I will remain Chairman of the Board in a nonexecutive role simply to handle the handover and the arrival of the new Director General, and then we'll see. So you'll know more by the next year, probably well before that. Number two, please.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman of the Board. I'm a minority shareholder and individual shareholder. I have a question about the debt. As I understand it, you have a fair amount of short-term debt, the average rates were at 2.5%, but now they're 4%. Why not take the opportunity of these lower rates to re-extend your debt maturities to similar rates as you had in 2022. You also explained that for concessions, you had debt that was nonattributable to shareholders. What does that mean debt that is not attributable to shareholders, what kind of guarantees it provide to lenders as part of that? And also, with renewables, you worked on infrastructure and renewable infrastructure, especially, is the company also looking at investing in other renewables programs?

I'd like to come -- I'd like to answer the final part while Christian scribbles down his answers to the first part of your question. Yes, you are correct. Our intention is indeed to invest capital from your group into renewables, into production of green electricity and also into the distribution networks of high-voltage lines. The reason for this is that it's fully in line with the philosophy that we've been applying with VINCI for decades now, which is to find a proper balance between what we call short-cycle businesses, such as construction and electrical engineering and long-cycle businesses such as motorway concessions and airport questions. Given the size of the group and given our financial cloud and free cash flow, we felt that it was important to open up a third window for long-term investment on top of motorways and airports, and that third window is renewable production. I'd like to specify that we do not particularly intend to buy a production sites that are already operating known as brownfield. Actually, we want to develop these production sites ourselves in some regions, in some areas, right now, the big ones are France -- sorry, not France, but Spain, Portugal, Latin America. And we're also pushing into the United States with an intention to go into Australia as well. And when I say from scratch, so basically, we come up with the project from nothing. What I mean is that we know the distribution networks inside and out. We know which areas have capacity to have more power put in them. So then we look for land that is not too far away from these areas. That way, we can develop either wind farms or solar farms. And then once we have all of the administrative and environmental certifications that everything has been approved and we've secured part of the presale of that energy to purchase through PPAs, power purchase agreements, then we break ground. We set out the project, and we keep that project over the long term, which means decades for us. So yes, indeed, we intend to invest part of the capital of your group into the production of green energy by developing these production sites ourselves with a stated ambition, which is, I believe, reasonable at the moment to develop about 1.5 gigawatts for each -- for this type of project per annum, which means that in a couple of years, we'll be talking 10 or 15 gigawatts of green energy production. And just to wrap up, no, I know I'm going to be told off because I could go on about this for ages, but I'd like to remind you that this is what the group worked on 125 years ago. We came up through energy. And during the inter-war period, VINCI was a large producer distributor and user of energy, electricity, which wasn't green at the time. And then all of that disappeared because after the second world war, EDF was created and EDF was created by hoovering up all of the assets that have been created by people like us. So this is nothing new for the company, and I'd like...

Yes, what kind of yield?

Well, if we do this by developing it ourselves in the methods that I described, these are high single-digit yields or somewhere near 10%. And I'd now like to give the floor to Christian Labeyrie to answer your two first questions.

Well, the answer is simple. And the simple answer is that it's complicated. So we had debt at EUR 29 billion, but that was before taking into account our cash, which is about EUR 13 billion. That brings us to EUR 16 billion. So out of that EUR 29 billion. Half of that is fixed rate, at least it was at the end of 2023, and that's pretty much the same today, and the rest is variable rate. Why we stayed with variable rate loans for about EUR 14 billion is because it matches our cash position. Our cash position is something that needs to be available by finish and we don't want to lock our cash in for 5 years because we'd end up with a crunch. So we try to have part of our debt that is offset by cash positions that are liquid. Now for the attributable to shareholder part, we have company debt that we consolidate, but that we don't hold 100%, for example, Gatwick Airport. Gatwick Airport has significant debt of GBP 3 billion to GBP 4 billion. We only hold 50-point some percent stake in that, and the rest is held by partners. So of course, VINCI doesn't want to 100% pay for the debt of a company that they only have a 50% stake in. And this is project debt, which means it's more expensive. So that means that it is guaranteed by the income from the project revenue from the airport itself. This debt is not attributable to shareholders because it's up to the project to pay back that loan itself. And this is something that you would regularly see on conditions for motorways and for airports, especially in Latin America, where debt is extremely expensive. When you borrow in Colombian pesos or in real, debt is extremely expensive. This also means that there's less risk for VINCI if things go bad.

Thank you, Christian. Let's move to the next question over here, please.

Dominic [indiscernible], I'm [ Perspective ]. It's my first question [indiscernible] airports, you're very present with global business, and you also mentioned at sustainable aviation fuels to reduce carbon in aviation and airport. Is there a strong synergy between your industry division of VINCI Airport to manufacture SAFs to reduce the carbon content in this industrial sector faster. Second question on the graph you showed us on the EBITDA trend longer between motorway concessions, other activities showing as you stress the very significant portion of activities. Other the motorway questions. My question down the road, would you consider exiting motorway concessions as you did with carpark so as to rebound or more profitable activities and possibly even more forward looking? Two questions are linked. Given your disappointment regarding the government's behavior on motorway concessions. Do you think this might generate forward-looking plans moving towards more profitable sectors and more forward-looking.

Well, more profitable if you find them, I'm your man. But let's not forget that if these motorway concessions are profitable is because we bought them an extraordinarily high price. The order of magnitude at the end of 2005, early 2006, when the French state decided to succeed ASF and Escota, the last acquisition trend, the final of the privatization. We bought ASF and Escota in euros, the basis of an enterprise value of EUR 19 billion and the company in question generated some EUR 3 billion in revenue. Why was it worth EUR 19 billion? The state derived an excellent price from the deal. And those companies, there was a bit that had been accumulated because thanks to that debt, that the managers of the company created ASF and Escota. It's as if we funded the construction of the very large ASF network and the more modest every technical Escota network. So when you've got a business that's very capital intensive, requires a lot of capital. It's very expensive. It's normal that in exchange in return, you get significant EBITDA. As your question passed, would it be appropriate to divest the Autoroutes as we divested VINCI. I don't think this is really on the cards because the end date of the concessions of these Autoroutes is looming closer. The first will expire unless it's extended in the interim is 2032. That's for Escota. The second will expire in 2035, ASF. And the last one, Cofiroute expires in 2036. So it's a bit short. Our sense in the meantime, we have great many things to do on these Autoroutes, not to reduce their carbon content. And that's what we failed to understand in our dealings with the state. We are all aware of the fact that mobility is extraordinarily important in terms of current emissions that water routes are really at the heart of mobility, the biggest CO2 emitters. And if we want to have a possibility of decarbonizing our country by 2050, we have to decarbonize the road and the Autoroutes, and it's a long-haul effort best to start now because 2050 is tomorrow. And we know what needs to be done. We know how to go about this. So say well, charging stations that they're installed, you need to realize that yes, we in-store charging stations, but it's nothing as compared to what will be required. When light vehicle mobility will be fully electrified, will I have to increase 7 or 8 fold the number of charging stations already installed. If we want to provide quality of service to future light vehicle users who will all be driving e-vehicles or hydrogen vehicles amounts to the same thing by 2050. Decarbonized effort needs to get started now as the state won't be able to fund it, but we now in 2050, nothing better than to get it funded by the concessions model. Good news is that concessions that exists called ASF, Escota and Cofiroute, if you follow me, on sustainable aviation fuels SAF. Within the SAFs, the specific product that I call e-fuels that are synthesis fuels, you take CO2, you capture it, you take green hydrogen produced by an electrolyzer, you combine them that does generate CH4. And that's the basic compound that allows you with a process and oil-based process to generate fuels. And then when the fuels have put in the aircraft, well, they re-emit CO2, but it's CO2 that you've removed previously. So it's carbon neutral because it's the CO2 that was no longer in the atmosphere because you captured it that's used by the aircraft and then is released to the atmosphere. That's like a circular economy. So yes, technologically, it works, but we need to install the plants for production. That's not our business. We're not in that business. We can facilitate. We can flank, we can support. Maybe if we have the opportunity, put in a few financial tickets to take part to allow the equation to run, but to be ourselves 100% developers of industrial facilities, producing SAFs and e-fuels. It's not our business, so we could -- we don't want to do anything silly. So we're promoting the existence of an SA value chain, but already offering SAF in some of our airports. And by putting in place was mentioned by eco modulation of airport fees, giving a bonus as it were to airlines who undertake efforts of decarbonizing their fleets and using SAFs, rewarding them for that effort by offering more encouraging airport taxes. Next question, please.

Well done, and thanks for the results. You've delivered [indiscernible], an individual shareholder. I'd like to discuss debt. Once again, note the rising interest rates, financial markets, anticipating rightly around my decrease in interest rates this year at what rate, at what pace we don't know, be possible. This year, we're refinancing long-standing loans underwritten at very low rates or even negative rates, if I've understood you right. Is it possible to get some information. Can we hope for an inversion of interest rates on our debt, half of which is in fixed interest rates.

Christian?

I hope you could say if I had a crystal ball, it'd be easier to give you an answer, yes, we can expect. We hope at least that there will be decrease, albeit slight interest rates in the Eurozone, U.K., U.S. in emerging markets, we're increasingly present. That's less shown in the debt mix that portion is more significant than what it was in 2024. I don't anticipate a major impact on rate changes all in all. But if the trends confirm 2025 should be better. Let's not forget that in exchange, higher rates will, of course, have proceeds, EBITDA, operating income, that's, of course, linked as we -- inflation index, be it in concessions on contract phase formula construction business within indexing clauses.

Thank you question at the back of the hall, please.

Yes, my name is [indiscernible]. I have a question for the Chairman and CEO, an age limit for the position of nonexecutive Chairman. My other written questions. I can't get the written answers on the website. It's good that you didn't read them. It would take too long, but we can't find them, and they're not updated real time. I got a question on Solarvia , do you plan to invest move faster than what you're currently doing, that is by solar plants and facilities that already existing. Do you think market prices are too high. We see on the AGM 2024, answers to written questions, but we get an error message in return when we try and access it.

Right I'll answer your questions in reverse order, so as to allow Patrick to respond to you on the written questions. So just to remind you of the age limit on the job of Chairman. As I said earlier, I'm not saying that we'll never [indiscernible] time to set for in a new country. It's useful to buy green energy plants that already exist, but it's not the core of our strategy. The heart of our strategy is to develop it ourselves. I'd like to take this opportunity of saying something I admitted to mention earlier, aside from the major development by Cobra. There's a lot of green energy development on smaller farms that are done by VINCI Autoroute in France with the strategy that entails installing TV, solar panels on all the areas that are in disuse or not used because they're longer highway or an interchanges and our potential for renewable energy in those areas is 1 gigawatt in total, which is quite a lot. With that, we could supply energy to come and top up the battery reservoir of users on our network. We have the same approach for VINCI Concession similar for Autoroutes, but outside France, same principle, but also a lot at VINCI Airports, where the -- the idea is to say that the portion of land used by the airport is actually quite small compared to the rest of the land space for safety reasons as long as we don't shine too much like into the pilot's eyes. We can establish additional facilities in these airport areas, producing energy for the airport develop powered to recharge the batteries of all the plant live equipment that use batteries on the Tarmac and maybe soon some of that partner to produce green hydrogen, to perhaps 1 day supply aircraft that use hydrogen. So run above Cobra is doing. There's an e-green power development across our Autoroutes and Airports. The age limit for the Chairman, 75. I'm informed. So I still have some time. Then on written questions, I've just logged on and I have access to the tech. So you can find -- you can find that it's maybe your tablet isn't working. So there was perhaps a momentary bugged up, but you should be able to access that information now. I'm informed that we've come to the end of the half hour allowed for our Q&A. That's all rather the good news. So no one will feel frustrated. I think we were able to take all your questions, and I thank you for this very interesting Q&A session that demonstrates the keen interest that you show in your company.

The final quorum is 7.64%. Your Board of Directors has decided to put to you 14 resolutions, 10 of which are from the ordinary AGM and therefore, for remaining from the extraordinary AGM. I'd now like to move on to the vote. You have been handed out little red handsets, very easy to use. That's the same each year. But if you're joining us for the very first time, you have in manual that is in video form. [Presentation]

I would just like to specify that -- make sure that you don't press the button until I say that opening is -- voting is open, sorry and to no longer press the but [indiscernible] voting is closed. Patrick is going to summarize each resolution before we move on to the vote.

Okay. We'll start with the first resolution, which is approval of the 2023 consolidated financial statements. Net income attributable to owners of the parent at EUR 4.702 million -- EUR 4,702 million, sorry. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is now closed. Resolution is adopted. Second resolution. At this time, we're asking for approval of the 2023 parent company financial statements. Net income EUR 2.412 billion. Voting is now open. [Voting]

Voting is now closed. The resolution is adopted. Third resolution. This time, we are setting the dividend at EUR 4.5 per share, given that there was an interim dividend of EUR 1.05 paid in November 2023. The remaining dividend is, therefore, EUR 3.45 per share. The coupon will be payable from 23rd of April with final dividend payment on the 25th of April 2024. Voting is now open. [Voting]

Voting is now closed. The resolution is adopted. Fourth resolution, we are asking for your approval for the renewal of Mr. Benoit Bezin's term of office for 4 years. Voting is now open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. And the resolution is adopted with flying colors, 99.31%. Well done, Benoit. Fifth resolution. This is the appointment of PwC as statutory auditor for sustainability information as required by the CSRD regulations were relatively short term. This is for the 2024 year only. Voting is now open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Sixth resolution. This is approval for the share buyback program with a limited 10% of capital with a purchase price of shares no higher than EUR 150 with a maximum amount at EUR 5 billion. This validity will be 18 months. Voting is now open. [Voting]

Voting is now closed. The resolution is adopted. Resolution #7 is the approval of the remuneration policy for members of the Board of Directors. This is also described in the universal registration document on Page 156, the voting is now open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Eighth resolution. This is the approval of the remuneration policy for executive company officers, particularly those applicable to Mr. [indiscernible]. You can find this on Page 156 and following of the universal registration document. Voting is now open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. And the resolution is adopted. Ninth resolution. This is approval of the report on remuneration that you can find on Page 260 and following. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 10th resolution. This is the approval of the remuneration paid in 2023 to Mr. Xavier Huillard, so this is the total remuneration paid for 2023. And you can find all of this on the table on Page 164 of the universal registration document. Voting is now open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. And the resolution is adopted. Coming now to the extraordinary AGM part. This is the 11th resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to cancel shares with an upper limit of 10% on 24-month period. So this is the share buyback plan with a total validity period of 26 months. The voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. And the resolution is adopted. 12th resolution. This is related to delegation of authority to the Board of Directors for 26 months to increase capital for the employees of the company or the subsidiaries with upper limit of 1.5% of share capital. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Resolution 13. This is allowing the Board of Directors for 18 months to increase share capital for employees both direct and indirect, the company and the subsidiaries with a limit of 1.5% of the share capital. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. 14th resolution, this is powers to carry out formalities after this current AGM. Voting is open. [Voting]

Voting is now closed. The resolution is adopted.

Thank you very much, Patrick. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of the agenda for this AGM. We can now therefore end this meeting. I'd like to thank you for your attention. I'd like to thank you for your participation. I'd like to thank you for your trust. We work to live up to that trust, and it's a source of motivation for us to continue to improve overall performance. Thank you, and have an excellent day. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]