Wendel (MF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. Once again, this year, the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to adapt the format of this Annual Meeting to which we committed. And the meeting, therefore, is held behind closed doors. I do hope, dear shareholders, that you and your family are well. Thank you for your participation from a distance in this AGM, which I have the honor of chairing. A few minutes before I came on the makeup girl said she will put powder on my face, so that I do not shine too much. I hope that this AGM is not too dull. I hereby declare the meeting open. I have next to me, André François-Poncet, Chairman of the Executive Board -- Member of the Executive Board and Caroline Bertin Delacour, who is Secretary General of Wendel. In my capacity, as Chairman of the Board, I shall appoint the officers of the meeting and will take the chair. The 2 scrutineers appointed by the Executive Board are Wendel-Participations represented by Priscilla de Moustier; and Philo-Sophia Partners represented by Jean-Paul Vanquaethem. The shareholders have accepted this position proposed with the agreement of the scrutineers to appoint Caroline Bertin Delacour as Secretary of the meeting and give her the floor.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. As indicated by the Chairman, this meeting is again being held this year in camera in accordance with the order of March 25, 2020, as amended and extended by the degree of March 9, 2021. Consequently, you do not have the opportunity to vote during this meeting. However, you've been invited to vote before this meeting via the paper voting form or online. For the same reasons, no new resolution or draft amendment can be included in the agenda. In this respect, I would like to point out that no proposal to include an item or resolution on the agenda has been submitted by shareholders prior to the meeting. As regards questions, you had the opportunity to send us written questions before the meeting. We did receive some and we will answer them. In addition, this year, we've made available to you a system that allows you to ask questions during the meeting. To do so, the procedure is as follows: click on the dedicated tab of the webcast, enter your shareholder number and then write your question. We will -- the question will be answered only on the basis of representative selection of the topics discussed and within the time limit. The agenda for this meeting has been published in the official gazette on the company's website and is included in the notice of the meeting, which also includes your company's activities, the resolutions submitted for your approval and the procedures for attending this meeting. I'd like to point out that all the documents and information required by applicable legal and regulatory provisions have been made available to you. The AGM is both ordinary and extraordinary, given the nature of the resolutions submitted to it. As we do every year, we've asked Mr. Simona, a Paris-based bailiff who is present here today to verify the conduct of this meeting. So I hereby inform you the final quorum verified by our bailiff, 72.132% of the shares with voting rights. 31,480,052 shares from 1,957 shareholders. I hereby confirm that the quorum required for both the ordinary and extraordinary parts of this meeting has been reached. 22 resolutions have been submitted to your vote. The results of these votes, which are already known will be presented to you at the end of the meeting. I will now propose to read out the various reports or the full text of the resolution, then I will hand over to the Chairman of the meeting.

Thank you, Caroline. We propose to organize the AGM according to the schedule shown on the screen. André will talk to you about the year 2020 and the performance of the portfolio. Jérôme will then present the consolidated accounts for 2020 and David, the start of the year 2021 and recent developments. André will then present the road map to 2024. We'll then over to Christine for an update on the Group's ESG performance. And finally, to Jacqueline, who has recorded her speech for her report on governance and compensation. We will then present the statutory auditors' reports and finally, we'll answer questions from shareholders. And we will -- and as Caroline indicated, with the results of the votes on the resolutions. Before the Executive Board take -- before -- I'd like to return to the renewal of the mandate of the Board for a 4-year period. The Supervisory Board unanimously praised the remarkable work done by Wendel's Executive Board and followed the recommendation of the Governance and Sustainable Development Committee to renew their mandate. Let me return to the achievements during the years 2020 -- 2018 to 2021. First, putting the group back in order, which was successfully scattered closing a number of offices, concentrating the portfolio on 6 holdings instead of 13. In-depth work on these 6 holdings. I'll see outside 2 examples. Number one, to encourage Bureau Veritas' senior management to focus on cash with the move for cash program, which was very effective because it made it possible to get through the COVID-19 crisis easily. And the second decision to reinvest in Cromology after changing management and that is bearing fruit today. Then paying special attention to Wendel, which was able to maintain the dividend in the midst of the pandemic, modernizing internal functions, such as human resources, internal audit, IT or indeed cybersecurity and high-quality recruitments. And then finally, investing in the new business in the United States with the acquisition of CPI.

Thanks to the work of the Executive Board. Wendel is now in a solid financial position. The group is now in a strong position to roll out an ambitious strategy. That strategy was the objective of significant work conducted last year with the Bain consulting company and the discussions between the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board. Another chapter on behalf of the Supervisory Board, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Edouard de l'Espée and Nicolas Ferguson, whose terms of office expire at the end of this AGM, for the remarkable contribution to the work of the Board. Edouard, who is an experienced economist and a renowned asset manager has provided us with the benefits of his advice for nearly 16 years always with kindness and discretion. Nick Ferguson brought his considerable experience as an international investor was quite significant because he was one of the founders of the Permira phones. We had to make some difficult decisions and Nick's support with his personal stature and gravitas was invaluable. So we'll miss them both and I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart. And now I'll give the floor to André.

Thank you, Nicolas. Dear shareholders, we'll welcome to the second digital addition of your AGM. I sincerely hope that we'll be able to meet again next year under normal conditions that we've done for so many years, allowing us to exchange views directly. I hope you will find the presentation comprehensive. If you haven't found your answers, David, my colleagues and myself will be glad to take the questions at the end of this presentation in the Q&A session. This year, you can put your questions on the chat using the webcast link. Let's start with the key aspects of the year 2020. During the 2020, our portfolio showed true resilience, fourth quarter even showed a broad-based recovery in sales and revenue to levels close to those of 2019, largely due to the rebound of companies that have been hit hardest by the COVID crisis earlier in the year. The resilience was clearly reflected in our net asset value, which was nearly stable between the beginning and the end of the year. Our businesses and their management teams have succeeded in protecting Wendel's intrinsic value and preserving opportunities for value creation over the long term. In 2020, we deployed ambitious ESG strategies at the level of our portfolio companies and indeed at the level of Wendel itself. ESG is a priority for all our management teams. Over the past year, we're proud that Wendel should have joined such indices as DJSI world in Europe. They've also worked to significantly improve certain non-financial ratings. And last but not least, Wendel and our portfolio companies have seen their financial structure remain sound, even more solid than before the COVID-19 crisis, I'll come back to that later. 2020 was an intense year on several fronts. Against the backdrop of maximum uncertainty in the first half of the year, we focused our efforts on preserving the value of our companies despite the sharp decline in business. For each of our controlled companies, we developed crisis scenarios with their management teams. These scenarios, including one or more lockdowns of varying duration. We're proud to know that our companies were able to secure cash positions and generate cash in this context. Their management teams also showed creativity in developing new sources of business by adapting to the digital format. They really worked hand-in-hand with Wendel's investment teams, and I would like to thank them for this joint effort. In the end, Wendel did not need to inject any equity into any of the portfolio companies. And this is the result of a strategy undertaken since 2018 to reduce debt and improve cash generation capabilities. It turned out that Wendel and its companies had very conservative initial forecast, too conservative, maybe which is certainly better than the other way around. As you can see on the slide on NAV mechanically lost almost 30% at the end of March and 17% during the first half of the year. But in the second half of the year, markets and economies rebounded and our competitive advantages paid off and our NAV almost returned to its precrisis level. 2020 was really a year of 2 halves with very hands-on operational management of the crisis in the first half and recovery in our investment activity in the second half. In 2020, we made 2 fully financed offers and 2 more since the beginning of 2021. These offers, unlike the one we made to the Deconinck family were not accepted for various reasons as is the nature of this business, but we are more confident and more determined than ever to redeploy capital by finding the right assets that meet our requirements. Now then let's review the 2020 highlights at Wendel and within our portfolio. We've sold our remaining stake in Allied Universal and returned the keys to say both its lenders. We have tightened our territorial coverage, closing several offices to refocus on our strong bases, namely Paris, New York and Luxembourg. We've stepped up the rollout of Wendel Lab and committed to 3 additional large technology funds in the United States for a total of $125 million. We've deployed ESG initiatives, and I'll get back to this. Do you know that Wendel was one of the fairly rare companies in France to pay a dividend equal to the 2019 division. And indeed, only half of SBF 120 paid a dividend at all. We've preserved this dividend despite potential pressures. This is a reflection of the attention we pay to individual shareholders and who are particularly attached to this. David and myself, as Nicolas has pointed out, where we appointed first new term until 2025 on the basis of a new road map that we developed in the second half of the year. Regarding our portfolio companies, the 6 exceeded our expectations at the beginning of the crisis, especially Cromology, which has experienced an impressive recovery in activity and a strong increase in profitability. We recruited Pim Vervaat who is now Managing Director of Constantia, and I just renegotiated terms of its contract with MTN in Nigeria. Now a few words about our financial structure in 2020. Our balance sheet has remained very strong and healthy despite this unprecedented crisis. As you can see, our loan-to-value ratio is 6.2%. Thanks to the efforts of previous years, we've strengthened our capability, our capital base with low debt level, loan maturities that have been further extended since the May 2021 transaction, a bond issue that Jérôme will tell you about in a moment, that further lengthens our maturities without impacting the cost of debt. We benefit from a solid and comfortable credit ratings at Baa2 at Moody's and BBB at Standard & Poor's, the same level in both agencies. In 2020, as I said, Wendel was included in prestigious indices, DJSI World and DJSI Europe. Wendel has also improved its ratings or maintained them when they were already high. AA from MSCI, for instance, which clearly positions us as a leader in this industry. We worked to further expand our analytical coverage, notably with a new rating by carbon disclosure project, the CDP, with encouraging results. And a B rating, which is very satisfactory for the first year. It's important, I believe, to dwell, once again, on Slide #9. We've experienced a significant discount spread over the course of 2020 compared to our NAV from 27.3% to 38.5% at year-end. Over the course of 2020, our NAV fell only 4% in all, and our share price fell 20%. I do not see any convincing justification to this. Indeed, we have a low debt ratio, a resilient portfolio. We've been one of the few companies to pay out a dividend in 2020 in spite of the crisis and moreover our road map for the second term of the Executive Board is focused on creating value by redeploying capital, diversifying our portfolio, injecting more growth. As I speak, you as investors can buy Wendel shares at a historically high discount, while the company is in great shape and full of potential. Personally, David and I did this last year, and I certainly plan to continue to increase my own ownership of Wendel shares. Let's move to the portfolio companies and their performance over 2020. I'll be brief about Bureau Veritas. The company held its AGM last week. We are very pleased with its performances and share price has reached and exceeded its historical highs. Regarding the 2020 performance, Bureau Veritas was very resilient, and we're very pleased with the recovery in the second half. With a 3.2% decline in revenue compared to 9% decline in the first 6 months of the year. Bureau Veritas has also preserved its cash generation capacity through further strengthened management measures and optimal working capital management. And with our help, Bureau Veritas has strengthened its already solid financial position in 2020 by waiving a dividend payment, obtaining covenant relaxations and strengthening its liquidity profile. As a result, its debt-to-EBITDA ratio fell compared to the previous year, regardless of the fact that the denominator was lower with total net debt falling by almost EUR 500 million. Bureau Veritas was able to adapt its offer to the global pandemic context. For example, they launched -- restarted business with BV, a range of services, helping clients who are restarting their businesses to adopt reassuring practices towards their stakeholders. Bureau Veritas has also launched its Green Line. It's a range of services and solutions dedicated to sustainable development to help its clients from all industries to bring transparency and reliability to their ESG commitment. So I'll hand over to David, who will comment on the performance of the unlisted companies of the portfolio. David?

Thank you, André. Dear shareholders. A few comments on our unlisted holdings and their 2020 performance. Constantia Flexibles improved its profit margin and maintained its revenue despite a number of difficulties in some emerging countries within the consumer division, indeed, the dynamism of the pharma business driven by the context of the COVID crisis did not fully compensate lockdown measures, notably in India, South Africa and Mexico. Constantia has worked to improve its profitability with cost-cutting initiatives throughout the year. In addition to these efforts, a favorable regional mix and raw material costs have helped improve the margins. As for CPI, company suffered a 27% decline in business compared to 2019, reflecting the impact of lockdowns that started in March -- mid-March 2020, and persisted in the education and health care markets as a result. CPI was unable to hold its face-to-face trainings and had to adjust these offerings. But gradually throughout the year, sales improved and this trend continued to be the online training programs, the e-learning offerings and hybrid offerings with new certifications. This decline in sales had an impact on profitability, but this was offset by the actions on fixed costs quickly, after a lockdown, on profitability. CPI generated EBITDA, down 35% year-on-year, but with a nice margin, that remains at 40.9% in 2020. Now Cromology, the company performed relatively well for the year, despite the lockdown in March with the return to organic growth in H2. Sales were down only 6.2% organically for the year. And as a reminder, between mid-March and mid-April 2020, stores were closed. And a 70% decline was recorded over this period. But when restrictions were lifted, recovery was much faster than anticipated. In concrete terms sales in H2 increased by 57%, and this is continuing. EBITDA was EUR 96.9 million with a good product mix and country mix, good price dynamics and cost control measures. EBITDA margin was 15.4%, which is well above the 2019 levels, which is quite remarkable. In addition, Wendel and Cromology's management teams have continued to structurally reduce costs and increase cash flow generation. Cromology continues to execute its transformation plans, also keeping an eye on the supply chain, which is experiencing pressure on raw materials, both in terms of ability and pricing. We're holding with the company to fuel external growth with targeted acquisitions. Let's turn now to IHS towers. This year, global pandemic highlighted the resilient nature of the IHS business. The company continued to deliver double-digit growth despite a challenging global macroeconomic environment growth was seen in IHS Markit to 16%, 16.3%. Local exchange rates against the U.S. dollar had a negative impact, 6.4% on revenue and tower acquisitions in Kuwait and Latin America contributed 4% of growth for the full year. EBIT for the year was up 44% to $410 million, representing a profit margin of 29.2%. And let me remind you that in July 2020, IHS in Nigeria amended the term of its contract with the MTN Nigeria, its largest customer in the region. Among other things, IHS changed the reference rate that was used in the contract. And on 14 August 2020, IHS announced that it was exploring potential listing in the U.S. But as you know, the rules in this field are very restrictive, and we won't be able to comment further on that. Finally, Stahl protected its margins and cash flow, thanks to good cost management in 2020 despite a 17% drop in revenue. At the beginning of the year, the pandemic only affected China and decline was only slightly felt only 2.4%, but then sales fell in Q2 by 45%. But there's been month-on-month improvement since then with a positive organic growth of 3.6% in Q4. Stahl also announced the appointment of Maarten Heijbroek as the new CEO. He will take up his position on July 1, succeeding Huub van Beijeren, who has decided to retire having contributed greatly over the past 15 years to Stahl's growth and success. Maarten has a very good and long experience in the chemical industry. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Huub once again for all the work at Stahl. And we're delighted to continue working with him as an adviser to Wendel and as a member of Stahl's Board of Directors. The slide that you have on the screen now shows the monthly sales trend indexed to a base of 100 for January 2019. It summarizes what I've just told you about the unlisted companies that we control. There's a clear recovery in CPI, Cromology and Stahl in the second half of 2020. CPI hasn't caught up to 2019 levels, but we'll talk to you about the first quarter 2021 later. Cromology and Stahl ended December with sales above last year's level. Constantia was very resilient during the year despite headwinds in some of its core markets, as I noted earlier. Now a few words about the leverage levels of our portfolio companies. This is essential in the current environment. Our companies -- we've been extremely strong financially and most have even deleveraged during 2020. We've been careful to preserve the cash generation capacity of our companies during the crisis. And as a result, the level of leverage of the company is still both in absolute terms, but also relative to the level of leverage practiced in the private equity industry. This means that Wendel and it's companies have very healthy financial positions and are well positioned to invest in external and organic growth projects. CPI, meanwhile, the last company to join the portfolio at the end of 2019 has seen its debt ratio rise due to an extremely deteriorated performance in the second quarter of 2020. The level will remain high until the second quarter of EBITDA is no longer included in the calculation. The company renegotiated with its lenders in 2020 and was able to receive a covenant waiver in return for a sufficient liquidity reserve. While leverage has increased, CPI continues to generate cash. It should be noted that we did not need to reinject capital into our company's during the crisis. I'll hand over to Jérôme for his presentation of the consolidated results, the 2020 results.

Thank you. David. The year 2020 was resilient in terms of the company's financial performance. As far as revenue is concerned, they reached EUR 7.459 billion in consolidated terms for the year 2020, which is down 8% compared to the previous year and only 5.8%, excluding currency and scope effects. As you've seen on the slides presented by André and David, our -- the activity of our portfolio companies has gradually recovered from the low point of the second half, the second quarter and through to the end of the year, with the fourth quarter showing a limited decline of 1%, including effects of scope and exchange rates, even though the basis for comparison was strong. In terms of earnings, performance was impacted by that of Bureau Veritas, explaining the decline in the net contribution from operations to EUR 316.5 million despite significant savings on operating expenses and financing costs at the Wendel Holding Company in 2020. It should also be remembered that in 2019, we recorded a recognized capital gain on the disposal of Allied Universal representing EUR 644 million, making the year-on-year comparison of income statement rather irrelevant. In 2020, 2 notable items were recorded in nonrecurring income, the impairment of Tsebo and our accounts following its transfer to the creditor banks and the EUR 87 million impairment charge taken on CPI. As a result, the group's share of net income was a loss of EUR 264 million in 2020. In line with our strategy and thanks to our solid financial structure, it is proposed that this general meeting vote to pay a dividend of EUR 2.9 per share for the fiscal year 2020 or an increase of 3.6% compared to last year. As last year, your company has decided to propose the payment of the dividend in cash despite the COVID context is taken up the term of our determination to pay out a regular and growing dividend every year. I'd also like to inform you that the share buyback program of EUR 25 million started in mid-March was fully executed. I'd like to thank you, and I'll give the floor to David Darmon for an update on the 2021 activity and the recent performance of the portfolio.

Thank you, Jérôme. NAV at the end of March 2021 stood at EUR 167.4 per share, up 5.3% since December '20 compared to the low point in March 2020 NAVs, up 41.7%. First quarter was dynamic for the portfolio companies with consolidated organic growth of 6.5% and total growth of plus 2%. The recovery is largely supported by the companies that have been hardest hit by the COVID-related restriction. At the end of Q1, we'll come back to the performance of each company later, but let me give you a few highlights from this quarter. Cromology grew organically by more than 20%, while Bureau Veritas posted plus 6.6% organically and Stahl plus 9.6%. The financial structure of Wendel and of our portfolio companies remained solid and even more so than before the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis. We've also resumed our investment activities with the announcement on 23 April of our partnership with the Deconinck family for the purchase of shares in the target company. I'll tell you more about this transaction on the next slide. Wendel and the Deconinck family, founding family of Tarkett have launched a simplified tender offer for all the shares of Tarkett at a price of EUR 20 per share. Wendel will own approximately 30% of Tarkett and will invest up to EUR 280 million alongside the founding family. This will, of course, depend on the final number of shares tendered to the offer. The Deconinck family will retain a majority stake in the company. This operation follows a very precise regulatory process and the offer is currently underway, the TOB. So I will not elaborate much on the subject. The only additional comment I'll make is that we're extremely proud to have been chosen to join forces with the founding family in this transaction. Tarkett is a fine example of French entrepreneurial history, and we are happy to support the company over the long term alongside the family numbers. Now a few words on the performance of our companies in Q1. For Bureau Veritas, 2021 is off to a good start with organic revenue growth of 6.6% and plus 1.3% in total growth. It should be noted 58% of Bureau Veritas' portfolio actually experienced double-digit organic growth, thanks to the excellent performance of the certification, consumer products and buildings and infrastructure businesses. Bureau Veritas has also relaunched its strategy of targeted acquisitions since the beginning of the year with the addition of Secura, a cybersecurity specialist and Bradley Construction Management, a U.S. ICT player specializing in renewable energies to the portfolio. The currency effect had a negative impact of about 5% in the quarter, mainly due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar and some emerging currencies vis-a-vis the euro. At Constantia Flexibles, which did not suffer in 2020, sales remained virtually stable organically, reflecting a mixed performance in the Consumer and pharma divisions. In consumer products, the poor performance of the confectionery business in Europe was not offset by the high sales of pet food, while sales in the pharma division were affected by the decline in flu cases, which were down sharply because of the restrictions, the COVID restrictions in emerging countries, mainly India. The market is still experiencing a chaotic health and trade situation. It should be noted that Constantia Flexibles continue to generate a strong margin in the first quarter. However, the raw material price environment is much less favorable this year and significant price increases started to have an impact on the company in the second quarter. As for CPI, the company is returning to organic growth with the revenue level that exceeded pre-COVID levels for the month of March. As you will see on the next slide. On a quarterly basis, CPI posted organic growth of almost 3%, plus-10% growth year-on-year for accounting business. For the first time since the lockdowns in 2020, quarterly sales were almost at 2019 levels with the Q1 2021 sales, only 1% short of the 2019 levels. Regarding Cromology, first quarter sales were up 22.6% compared to the first quarter of 2020, and this is purely organic growth, which confirms the trend of strong rebound in business since the second half of 2020. Since the end of the first lockdown, recovery was faster and stronger than expected with a significant increase in paint sales, driven by sustained consumer demand. Cromology is also keeping a close eye on its supply chain because the strong rebound in business has led to tight material supply markets. And higher raw material prices. IHS saw its revenues grew 14.6% organically and around 9% on the reported basis, confirming its growth profile even during the pandemic. In addition to this final organic growth, IHS Towers continued its external growth operations, particularly in South America, with several operations completed and announced in Brazil and Colombia. Lastly, Stahl's sales were up 4.6% in Q1 with organic growth of 9.6%. Stahl is continuing its recovery, which began in the second half of 2020. This recovery has accelerated despite certain challenges in the supply chain and Stahl has exceeded in considering increasing its order book, leading to volume growth, partly driven by restocking movements. Growth was particularly strong in East Asia, the East Asia Pacific region, especially China. In addition, Stahl's automotive business, which accounts for about 1/3 of total sales continue to rebound. Now it's difficult to predict whether the positive restocking effect is sustainable, but we expect the pace of orders to normalize by the end of 2021. The timing is unclear, and raw material price increases are also likely to affect Stahl later in the year. This slides now allows you to appreciate the rebound in business all our unlisted consolidated companies in the first quarter. To summarize, the red curve shows the monthly business in the first quarter, above that of 2020 and that of 2019. CPI, for instance, in March returned to growth from pre-COVID levels in 2019. Cromology continues to grow. Stahl sees the opportunity to -- of the upturn in business by replenishing its order book due to stocking FX, but also by winning new customers. The increase in net asset value during Q1 amounted to plus 5.3%, resulting both from the appreciation of Bureau Veritas' share price from EUR 22.4 to EUR 23.7 and from the increase in the reference multiples used to value our unlisted assets. It should be noted that Bureau Veritas' share price is currently at its highest level in history, which could mean a significant increase in NAV, but also a discount that is not being reduced. On Slide 25, you'll see the amounts of cash and maturities of the bonds. As you can see, our balance sheet is very strong, very healthy with EUR 1.8 billion in total cash including EUR 1.1 billion of liquidity -- including EUR 1.1 billion in cash, complemented by an undrawn credit facility of EUR 750 million. Our strength is in line with our road map objectives. Our net debt remains at a low level and maturities are long. In May, we issued a EUR 300 million bond with a 10-year maturity to prepay the entire April 2023 issue and extend the group's maturities. Our strong credit ratings of BBB and Baa2 are sign of confidence for the future. It's also worth mentioning that during the first quarter, we signed an amendment to our credit facility to incorporate environmental, social and governance criteria, specific metrics from Wendel's ESG 2023 road map will now be taken into account in the calculation of the cost of this syndicated loan. Our road map for the second term is explicit about the quality of the balance sheet we're aiming for and the commitments we wish to make to our shareholders. We want to be able to maintain a sufficient amount of available liquidity to be able to invest EUR 300 million without difficulty. As the COVID crisis has shown us, once again, having a resilient financial structure is key to withstanding market shocks. We aim to distribute a regular and increasing dividend to our shareholders every year. Finally, we maintain to maintain our investment-grade rating profile. Now I hand over to André for a presentation of our road map and our investment strategy.

Thank you very much, David. Now it's my turn to present our ambitious road map taking us into 2024. In 2020, the Wendel teams got hard to work to draw up this road map. This was a shared effort. This road map was pitched by both of our investment offices to the then Deputy Director General and the Management Board. We all worked together on this. It was then approved by the Supervisory Board. Naturally, we cannot be too specific about its content so that we can maintain as much flexibility as possible for the types of changes and the timeline going forward. Dear shareholders, we have taken into account your suggestions. More diversification within the portfolio and a broadened portfolio. Of course, we want to offer you and the markets a diversified and attractive portfolio. Therefore, today, we are working on investment opportunities that are not subject to cyclical effects, therefore, less subject to macroeconomic trends. We wish to redeploy our capital to stronger growth assets as well. We want to build up a portfolio of 7 to 10 companies with new equity investments between EUR 150 million and EUR 500 million, initially. Finally, on a case-by-case basis, we will be investing in smaller amounts on high-growth assets through Wendel Lab. This is the type of target that we're looking for. We're looking to find companies that tick all of these boxes, and that is not easy. But it is our priority. And generally, we can tick at least some of these boxes. Single investments between EUR 150 million to EUR 500 million, as I mentioned, with majority stakes or co-control or large majority stakes in traded or non-traded companies with a value of EUR 350 million to EUR 2.5 billion, EUR 350 million to EUR 2.5 billion with a minimum EBITDA between EUR 30 million to EUR 40 million. We're looking at assets that are leaders in their own markets. that are working on long-term trends and that can set their own prices. Our approach has always been to rely with management teams that have the same corporate culture as us and who have a strong history. We're evading very cyclical or very capital-hungry assets, and we are looking for companies that have proven their resilience to shocks and economic cycles. Therefore, we're looking for things such as services to people, to companies, to animals at various levels of technology, telecom and education. Geographically, we're looking at the regions that we know the best, Western Europe, France, first and foremost, of course, and North America. Of course, supporting family-owned businesses is at the heart of our strategy. We also want to give ourselves levy to be opportunistic when we believe that Wendel can contribute in a unique way. Know that when the lab has multiple goals, invest, of course, but also helping us to learn to understand and identify the trends that are going to be in play tomorrow. Trends that may be good for us or bad for Wendel or our portfolio companies. Wendel Lab gives us the ability to grow our knowledge of digital and new technology sectors and the business models that may be disruptive tomorrow. Wendel Lab is not new, but we are firmly decided given its strong start to give it more means and more scope to eventually trend towards 5% to 10% of NAV of the company. By the end of 2020, we had already committed more than EUR 100 million with first level funds. To structure the development of Wendel Lab. We recently hired Chris Witherspoon, a risk capital expert, and he will be in charge of developing the fund portfolio for the Lab. We've already created partnerships with big names of venture capital in the U.S., such as Kleiner Perkins, Bond, Accel and the others. Let's look at our target portfolio. As I said, Wendel Lab is going to become more important and become more present with 5% to 10% of our NAV -- For the rest, we're looking to find a balance between publicly traded and nonpublicly traded companies. We break these down by category, and we have targets for each. For the publicly traded companies, we want a minimum of 7% per annum. For private equity, so nonpublicly traded mature assets, our target is at least 10% per annum. And for venture capital, we are looking at between 10% to 15%, if not 25% for the direct investments of that nature. In summary, the balance of the portfolio is not going to be turned on its head. However, its breakdown will evolve towards more growth and in diversification towards higher risk but better future trends. The takeaway of everything that we've said up until now is that our companies weathered the storm of 2020 with satisfactory business given the context. The bounce back at the beginning of the first year has now been shown through the evidence and has been remarkably strong in some cases. We remain vigilant of the raw material prices and we are relying on the effectiveness of the vaccination campaigns. In 2021, we have already closed some deals. And you can rest assured of our determination to aggressively redeploy our capital to create value in an ambitious but realistic way. We have strengthened our European investment teams with some targeted hirings that we believe are very high quality. Thank you for your attention. And I'd now like to give the floor back to Nicolas.

Thank you, André. Thank you, David, and thank you, Jerome. I'd now like to give the floor to Christine, who is our Head of Communication and Sustainable Development, and she's going to run down the ESG performance of the group. Christine?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dear shareholders, good afternoon. I'd like to discuss the ESG performance environment, social and governance performance of our group. During the previous AGM, we presented the new strategy to you, back in 2020. And 2020 was the first year of full rollout of the road map. Despite the issues that arose from the public health crisis and its consequences, we continue to work towards targets in a remarkably strong way given the environment again. We even launched new initiatives that I'll be coming back to you later. Bureau Veritas, Constantia, Stahl, Cromology and CPI, our controlled companies, have set a 3-year road map based on 4 priorities that were set by Wendel. These priorities are mitigating and adapting to climate change, diversity and gender parity, both in safety of employees and consumers and eco design or sustainable products and services. The group's performance and its companies is measured with a 100-or-so indicators that you can find in our universal record. Our ESG performance, as I was saying, is measured at Wendel level and also at company level. At Wendel level, for example, just to give you some examples of how we act as responsible investors, 98% of employees have received at least 1 day of noncompulsory training in 2020. 100% of our investment opportunities were the target of in-depth ESG due diligence, and we also carry out climate risk assessment of all of what we do. As I said earlier, we set targets for environmental action and also societal and governance responsibility. All of our companies launched plans to reduce their CO2 emissions, action plans to strengthen the position of women in management physicians. And regarding health and safety, our companies for a long time now, have had high performance in that regard and continue to improve. I'd like to dwell on the fourth point, which is the eco-designer products and services. This was set by Wendel, and it aims that the company's products meet our customers' demands for environmental and social criteria. We can see that it requires adaptability and creativity. Bureau Veritas has launched its green line, a range of services to support Bureau Veritas' consumers across the value chain. And this is an important part of their business. I would invite you to look at all of the information on the guidelines on Bureau Veritas' website. 51% of Constantia's products are recyclable. 80% of the -- Stahl cladding products are in line with the 0 hazardous chemicals initiative. And CPI, our training program from America has changed its offering of services with things related to public mask wearing. Cromology has done significant progress this year as well with some innovative products that I'd like to share. [Presentation]

As I was saying earlier, we went above and beyond our commitments -- this year, we strengthened our ESG commitments in our compensation and benefit policy. All of the managers within Wendel, for a number of years now, have had part of their variable component of their compensation that's been tied to environmental and societal criteria. In 2020, we included a performance criteria related climate risk management in the stock option plan. As we said earlier, a similar clause has also been included in our loan plan when it was renegotiated. As you can see, ESG criteria are taken into account at all levels of Wendel. These efforts have been commended by the nonfinancial analysis agencies and also other players, as André mentioned earlier. We aim to keep our business as transparent as possible in that regard, and we recently reworked our website so that all of our stakeholders can better understand what we do. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Christine. I'd now like to give the floor to Jacqueline Tammenoms Bakker, and she's going to give us the annual presentation for governance for Wendel.

Ladies and gentlemen and shareholders, it's a real pleasure for me to present governance for Wendel and the compensation policy for corporate offices. I'm sorry that I can't be with you in person today. Let us start with the breakdown of the current Supervisory Board before this AGM. These are the names and the photos of the members. Currently, there are 13 of them. You will note the presence, since this year, of 2 members representing the employees rather than one, which was the case previously. On the Supervisory Board, Nicolas Ver Hulst, Ms. Moustier and Bénédicte Coste have their terms coming to an end, and therefore, we are putting to your vote their renewal for a 4-year term. If their terms are renewed, Nicolas Ver Hulst will also be renewed in his role as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Edouard de l'Espée and Nicolas Ferguson have not requested to have their terms renewed, which will come to an end at this AGM as well. We would like to warmly thank them for their precious contributions to the works of the Supervisory Board. Under the condition of your vote, François de Mitry, would join the Board for 4 years. He was a member of the Supervisory Board in the past and is also on the Board of Directors for another entity of Wendel.

My name is François de Mitry. I'm 55 years old. I work in investment, and I have for the last 30 years, 10 years of which was a managing partner at Astorg, a storage and investment fund, European-wide, with EUR 11 billion assets under management, specialized in acquisitions of companies with high potential. I'm on the Board of Wendel participation and have been for the last 12 years a primary shareholder for Wendel. Between 2004 and 2012, I was a member of the Supervisory Board at Wendel. And I followed with close attention, investment in Dutch and Stahl, for example. I'm delighted to be once again requesting a term on the Supervisory Board for Wendel. I have a lot of experience in investment through my job positions in the past in 2 investment companies that are -- have worldwide presence. Working on the London Stock Exchange, I also got experience of publicly traded companies. I'm delighted to be joining Wendel's Supervisory Board to support the group as it develops.

Thank you, François. If François de Mitry is appointed the Supervisory Board, after this AGM, will have 12 members and we will have the following characteristics: 40% independent members, a majority of women well beyond the legal requirement, diversity with 6 different nationalities represented. Regarding the composition of the committee, François de Mitry, would join the Audit Risks and Compliance Committee, with Thomas de Villeneuve joining the governance and sustainability committee. The new composition of the committees is shown up on the screen. Let's move on to the Executive Board as Nicolas Ferguson indicated at the beginning of this meeting, the terms of office André François-Poncet and David Darmon were renewed by the Supervisory Board for a period of 4 years. The decision was prepared by the Corporate Governance Committee as part of the rigorous process, which the Supervisory Board was regularly informed. The community worked with the recruitment firm, established profiles suited to the group's new strategy and considered potential external candidates. The committee recognize the very high quality of the work accomplished by André François-Poncet since his arrival in 2018, in particular, in simplifying the portfolio, strengthening and streamlining Wendel's organization, deleveraging the launch of the ESG strategy and the implementation of an HR policy to attract and develop talent. The committee also recognized the work of André and his team in monitoring the companies in the portfolio, choice of managers, digitalization, ESG, acquisitions and strengthening number of balance sheet. This fundamental work now allows Wendel to look to the future with confidence despite the COVID crisis and its economic consequences. The committee also noted the quality of the tandem formed with David Darmon since September 2019, to find and implement the new strategic plan and the remarkable way in which David has fulfilled his role as a member of the Executive Board by driving change and creating a momentum conducive to the conclusion of new transactions. The committee level was pleased to ensure that André and David are both available to lead Wendel in this phase and to propose the renewal of their mandates to the board which unanimously welcomed it. The group's current performance confirms [indiscernible] the validity of this recommendation, as I speak 1 week prior to this AGM, Bureau Veritas' share price is at its highest level in 10 years. The markets we have some ups and downs, but we see this as a sign of the excellent work conducted by Bureau Veritas with the support of its main shareholder. Now let's look at the issues relating to the 2020 compensation of the management -- of the Executive Board and the associated resolutions. You'll find all the details in the universal registration document. Let's begin with the short-term compensation for 2020. The fixed and variable amounts are displayed on the screen. They are in line with the compensation policy approved by this AGM. The fixed compensation also reflects a 25% cut over 3 months, voluntarily granted by André François-Poncet and David Darmon in solidarity in this crisis -- context of crisis. You can see on the screen, the other elements and benefits from which they are benefited. As regards to Bernard Gautier, although his term of office on the Executive Board ended in September 2019, his employment contract continued during notice period until March 2020. So he was paid his fixed salary from January to March 2020 and the balance of his severance pay, the amount of which you would approve. A variable compensation was determined on the basis of financial and nonfinancial objectives. Your Board examined what had been achieved on the basis of measurable elements. It noted that 52.3% of the financial objectives has been reached and 100% of the nonfinancial objectives were met. You'll note that these objectives set at the beginning of 2020 were not adjusted to take account of the crisis. Given the 65%, 35% weighting applicable between financial and nonfinancial objections 69% of the maximum variable portion will be paid to members of the Executive Board, subject to your vote of course. Now long-term compensation for 2020. This is also in line with the principles you approved last year, both in terms of the number of stock options and performance shares to be granted and the conditions to which they are subject. Let's now turn to the compensation policy for the Executive Board for 2021 with connected resolutions. In the context of the renewal of the Executive Board for a new term of office, the corporate governance committee has worked on revising its compensation policy, which covers about 1/3 of Wendel's employees. It followed a rigorous process based on the following principles: pay for performance, alignment of interest with shareholders; and simplicity; and also consistency with the company's purpose and its strategy, the need to attract and retain new talent; recognizing the social context resulting from the crisis, benchmarking and analysis of best practices, asset made of recommendations and market expectations. This slides here displays the new compensation structure for 2021, which is balanced half and half between annual and long-term compensation. It is demanding since 77% of compensation is subject to performance conditions. Members of the Executive Board do not benefit from certain elements of compensation that may be offered in other companies such as supplementary pension. Here I present the items making up the 2021 compensation package, highlighting the main changes proposed this year. André François-Poncet's fixed compensation would remain identical at EUR 1.150 million, although the renewal of his term of office would have been an opportunity for an increase. Both the Board and André François-Poncet himself considered that this was not appropriate in view of the COVID crisis. David Darmon's fixed compensation was increased to EUR 770,000 to align his position with that of Chairman within benchmarks. This compensation still remains deliberately less than that of previous member of the Executive Board, again because of the crisis context. This was set for 4 years and will not be increased during the term of office. The variable competition would represent 115% maximum of the fixed compensation, so no changes there. The usual additional elements will continue to apply. Yes, more details regarding the 2021 variable compensation. It's based on objectives that are uncapped and cannot be offset against to one another. It is subject to 3 financial objectives, accounting for 65% of the variable compensation and relating to the following: the performance of Bureau Veritas and 5 unlisted companies and the maintenance of Wendel's investment-grade rating, which corresponds to a high category of credit rating, and this new objective replaces the level of net debt criterion that was used previously. Variable compensation is also subject to nonfinancial targets weighted at 35%. And related to the implementation of the strategic plan and that of other value creation initiatives but also specific criteria for portfolio companies, the ESG road map with the compliance mechanisms. As last year, the quality of management of the COVID crisis by the Executive Board in 2021 could substitute for all parts of the nonfinancial objectives. Regarding terms and conditions for stock options and performance shares to be granted in 2021. These have been tightened. The conditions of presence has been extended from 2 to 4 years with intermediate thresholds in the event of an earlier departure. The performance conditions have now observed over a period extended to 4 years, partly different from the past. Regarding stock options, we propose an innovative condition based on the consideration of climate change risk by Wendel subsidiaries. You will note that the ESG dimension is now present -- not just in variable competition but also in long-term compensation. As for performance shares, it will be subject to 3 conditions, 2 conditions linked to the value of TSR, total shareholder return, with an absolute and relative assessment compared to the Mid 60, which is a more restricted panel than the SBF 120 panel used previously. The third condition be the dividend payout. Indeed, Wendel's distribution policy, its payout policies is one of the biggest of its channels. Moreover, we proposed this year to cap the allocation of the Executive Board members according to a percentage of their manual -- maximum annual compensation. So each member will receive an identical proportion of 70% performance shares and 30% options with no possibility of choice between the 2. Finally, members of the Executive Board are entitled to severance payments. The terms of André François-Poncet's compensation has been harmonized with those of David Darmon, provides for an allowance of 18 months of fixed and variable compensation, subject to 2 performance conditions. There are also several cases of exclusion from the payment of that allowance. The effect of the departure of the members of the Executive Board on his or her options and performance shares is also provided for. There are no waivers of the performance conditions. And in the event of an exceptional waiver to the present condition, then we would apply a pro rata calculation. We will then conclude with the compensation of the Board and related resolutions first. The 2020 compensation of Nicolas Ver Hulst as Chairman of the Board, and this is in line with the policy approved last year. It should be noted that all members of the Board, including the Chairman have voluntarily waived 25% of their compensation over a 3-month period in a gesture of solidarity in light of the COVID crisis. And finally, the compensation policy for 2021 is identical to previous years. Namely the overall package remains unchanged, and the variable portion is made on the basis of actual attendance at scheduled Board and committee meetings. As to unscheduled meetings of which there are many because of the vendors and business activities, these do not give rise to any variable compensation. The presentation is now over. Thank you for your attention.

Well, thank you, Jacqueline, for this very comprehensive presentation on the governance and compensation of the group's corporate offices. I'll give the floor now to Mr. Jacques Pierres from Ernst and Young audit to read out the reports of the statutory.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. On behalf of your report of statutory auditors representing from EY and Deloitte, it is my pleasure to report you on the performance of our engagement for the year -- for the fiscal year 2020. This has then led us to perform work on the annual and consolidated financial statements of the company on related party agreements for the year and transactions relating to the share capital of Wendel. The conclusion of our work is set out in the reports that we issued and which are available to you at the office of this AGM. The content is intended to help you exercise your judgment when voting on the resolutions that will be similar to you later. As is customary, I do not propose to read out these reports in full but to outline their main points and conclusion. So reports on the annual and consolidated financial statement as part of your ordinary general meetings, we issued reports on the audit of the parent company and consolidated financial statements of your group. You'll find them respectively on pages 409 to 440 of the 2020 universal registration document. Our work consisted in verifying that the financial statements presented to you are consistent and fair. We verified that there were no material errors, that the accounting policies were appropriate, that the risks which your group is exclusive and properly provisioned and that the laws and regulations, of course, have been complied with. To this end, we performed and coordinated audit and review work in Wendel's main subsidiaries in France and abroad. Our approach is suited to the organization of the Wendel Group, its activities and our assessment of its risks. So we examine both current operations, but also onetime events such as disposals or acquisitions. The key items of this order are either issues on which our work was particularly significant. This year concerned the accounting treatment of acquisitions and disposals of portfolio companies, the assessment of goodwill and the contribution of company's account for -- on the equity basis in the group's consolidated net income. We also looked at the accounting treatment of mechanisms for associating management teams with group investments. And finally, for the audit of the financial statements, the valuation of the equity investments and receivables related to set equity investments. Our approach findings and conclusions were regularly shared with your audit committee with whom we held 6 working sessions this year and to whom we presented and submitted a detailed report documenting the progress and completion of our work. The findings -- our findings were also presented to your advisory board on 17 March. In conclusion, we consider to be -- we've had this necessary means to base our opinions and to enable us to fulfill and discharge our duties. We've issued an unqualified audit opinion on the parent company and the consolidated financial statements of the group. We've also verified the information presented in the annual report, and we have no matters to report as to its fair presentation or consistency with the consolidated financial statements. Still on the ordinary business of the AGM, we have issued the third report on related party agreements. It appears on Pages 466 to 474 of the universal registration document of 2020. Report set out the main features in terms of related party agreements, which you have been told about. It's intended to provide you with information to enable you to assess the benefits resulting from such third-party agreements. And this year, we were informed of 6 new such agreements. All of them were subject to prior authorization by your Supervisory Board. There were 5 related party agreements with Wendel participation relating to the use of the Wendel brand and amendment to the brand license agreement. There was an agreement regarding services in the area of anticorruption and country-by-country tax reporting and then administrative assistance services and the provision of premises rent. An agreement with Mr. François-Poncet, Mr. Darmon, Ms. Tomasi Parise and Mrs. Mates defining the principles of co-investment for the year 2021 to 2025, on the occasion of the renewal of the Executive Board for a new 4-year term. Now our report also mentions existing agreements already approved by the AGM previously and whose implementation continued in 2020. They were 4 agreements with Mr. Darmon relating to co-investments made by Wendel between 2011 in April 2013 for the period from April 2013 to April 2017. An agreement on the -- the transition agreement related to Mr. Darmon's employment in the U.S. and amendment to his French employment contract, it was an agreement also with Mr. François-Poncet, Mr. Darmon and Mr. Tomasi Parise relating to co-investments for the period 2018 to 2021. With 2 agreements with Wendel participation SC for various services and an agreement with Mr. François-Poncet and Mr. Darmon relating to guarantees in the event of litigation arising from the performance of their corporate offices. Regarding the extraordinary part of the AGM and resolutions liable to affect the share capital of the company on which you called going to vote, we've used 3 reports. You'll find them on Pages 475 to 477 of the 2020 universal registration document. These concern transactions convert by -- covered sorry, by the 19th, 20th and 21st resolutions. The transactions were presented to you by Mrs. Caroline Bertin Delacour. The descriptions of the essential elements of the transaction concerned are also included in our reports. We do not provide -- contain any observations. They relate to the issue of shares or securities getting access to the capital reserved for members of the company savings plan, the authorization to grant options to subscribe for or purchase shares and the authorization to grant existing or future shares, maybe. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention.

Well, thank you, Jacques. We'll now move on to the Q&A session. And I will now give the floor to Olivier Allot, who is Head of Financial Communication and Investor Relations. Jonas will start with written questions that we received ahead of the AGM. Caroline, will you read them out?

Yes, we received a number of questions in writing from [indiscernible] (01:24:15), about 2 issued, 1 on the target operations and they started with a comment that I will read out. When our basis of success on taking stakes in a number of companies, the latest date being targeted, presented as an opportunity by the Head of the Executive Board in the editorial, it will be for each shareholder target to decide whether or not to take up the offer, but Wendel has referred to the compulsory withdrawal imposing conditions to all. So even though the price was stated to be fair, some of them feel it's inadequate and some people would like to believe in the future. The targeted would like to hang on to their shares. If the argument seems acceptable for institutional investors, such as not the case for individual investors who very seldom sell their shares. And so now we move on to the questions per se. Number one, does Wendel propose in the future not to work with the firm that was asked to assess or value a Tarkett, which was not able to make its case?

André?

Right. Well, this is a question in writing, and so you will find the answer in writing on the website. So this is a rather technical answer, but you will remember that this bid was seemed to be compliant with regulation by the market authorities in March 2020 and the offer was published on June 9, 2021. And so the notice, the information notice of Tarkett participation and the answers to Tarkett, both of these offers were accepted. And this bid that is this take over a bid, which will be opened on June 20 -- which was opened in June 21. We'll not be able to go beyond that. The assessment of the authority felt that the offer was equitable -- fair and equitable with the possibility of compulsory withdrawal, with the bonus included in the price. This is in line with the independent expert, which felt that this is in line with the interest of the company, its employees and shareholders. We, as Wendel, do not have to add anything to the comments of the independent expert work for Tarkett. It is not for us to comment on his work.

Question number 2, still on the Tarkett operations. How does our company which is committed to the interest of individual shareholders, how this company can force them to sell off target shares that they did not propose to sell?

The answer it is for each target shareholders to decide whether or not they will make their shares available in line with regulation target participation said that it's intended to have this compulsory withdrawal should at the end of the offer minority shareholders should hold less than 10% of the capital share. Tarkett participation will then have additional shares coming from the shareholders with a compensation of EUR 20 per share.

Question number 3, this company would do well to waive this compulsory withdrawal and turn -- and accepting to have fewer shares of the company.

Well, after this operation, should individual shareholder wish to remain in the Tarkett venture could acquire Wendel shares, which gives access not just to Tarkett but to other companies as well because at the end of this operation Wendel will hold as much as 30% of Tarkett's capital.

And we have a series of questions from the same shareholder regarding the AGM. The question is, for the second year running the date of the AGM was postponed to the end of June rather than the beginning of June, which means that the payout of dividend comes later is that the new financial timetable of this company? Or is this -- is it an attempt to have a presidential meeting? Do we have the date for the 2022 AGM?

Well, in this context of the COVID-19 crisis, we have to revisit the usual arrangements for the AGM. We initially postponed the date hoping that the COVID situation would be improved. However, when we had to make a decision mid-May to publish the date of the AGM, the situation at the time did not allow to consider in presence a meeting and so we had to decide on the new camera meeting. Like most of the listed companies, we have not decided on the date for the AGM in 2022.

Thank you. We'll now give the floor to Olivier Allot, who will tell us whether questions were put on the web.

Yes, we have a question from [indiscernible] (01:29:33) from CCAW. This is a question on the road map to 2024. There are 2 parts. And so maybe other shareholders can ask their own questions. Well, the answer is being given first part, what is the latest investments thinking, for a strategic investment that is, in case -- in the context of the present recovery, which some seem to think is sustainable?

Well, thank you for this question, and we'd like to say that we are close to the work of CCAW, and we've been working quite well with this group of individual shareholders. I'm not quite sure I understood all aspects of the question. So I do apologize if I missed some parts of the question, but our investment strategy, as seen on the road map, is fairly straightforward. But as part of the context of an economic recovery, some of whom believe it to be lasting, I suppose that you want to comment on opportunities arising from such lasting recovery. Yes, we do see a recovery. We can see that the stimulus packages in Europe and the U.S. have not given their full effects yet that interest rates will remain low for the time being. So this could be indeed a lasting recovery. And as we saw the first signs are positive, now did we change our investment criteria, how are we responding? Well, it's always easier for certain companies to measure the effect of the recovery. So we looked at 2 specific cases, the B&B in hotels, what will the effect -- because people work remotely, travel less, what will the effect be on that business. We looked at Comexposium, a leader of big fairs and professional events. That's picking up again, but volumes are low. How exactly will this be calibrated. So in our investment strategy, we're still cautious both for those that were cyclically hit by the context. So those that were -- that had a one-of shock.

Next question in view of the latest crisis, did you change your investment positions. Have you ruled out some industries or ruled in new industries?

Well, I can skip on -- well, regarding the previous question, this is a robust recovery, but still shrouded in uncertainty. There are a number of question marks about a number of macroeconomic factors around the world. So we have to look more specifically at highly resilient companies. You have to tell there are more resilient companies from the other. So we're looking at growth all right, but we are definitely looking at companies in leadership positions. Regarding Olivier's question, we haven't changed our investment criteria, and we are looking specifically at a number of industries, service to companies, technologies, IT, and of course, health care.

Thank you. No more questions from the Internet platform. Well, then, thank you all very much for your questions and our teams of Investor Relations, Olivier Allot, Lucile Roch are there to answer your questions and continue dialogue informally. Thank you. We'll now move on to the votes of resolutions. Caroline?

Thank you, Nicolas. Now before we move on to the results of the vote, I'd just like to remind you of the terms and conditions of the vote. Your vote to be taken into account, the vote slips needed to be sent in no later than the 25th of June, and Internet voting needed to be in before yesterday at 3:00 p.m. To be legally adopted, the ordinary resolutions need a simple majority; extraordinary resolutions, a 2/3 majority. We can now move on to the announcement of the results of the resolutions, one by one, starting with resolution #1, approval of the parent company financial statements for 2020. This is adopted 96.76%. Resolution #2, approval of the consolidated financial statements for 2020, adopted 99.58%. Resolution #3, net income allocation, dividend approval and dividend payment at EUR 2.9 per share. Payment on the 5th of July, adopted 99.77%. Resolution #4, approval of the regulatory-related party agreements entered into certain corporate offices, adopted 98.89%. Resolution #5, approval of regulated related party agreements entered into with Wendel-Participations SE, adopted 99.53%. Resolution #6, starting with the composition of the Supervisory Board, renewal of Nicolas ver Hulst at the Supervisory Board, adopted 91.26%. Resolution #7, renewal of Priscilla de Moustier, the Supervisory Board, adopted 87.44%. Resolution 8 renewal of Bénédicte Coste at the Supervisory Board, approval, 87.16%. Ninth resolution appointment of François de Mitry to the Supervisory Board, he introduced himself earlier, adopted 87.02%. Moving on now to the resolutions related to compensation for corporate offices, pursuant to the presentation given to you by the compensation and sustainable development committee earlier at this AGM. Starting with the approval for the 2021 compensation policy. Starting with the Chairman of the Executive Board, Resolution #10, adopted 96.79%. Resolution 11, approval of the 2021 compensation policy for members of the Executive Board, approved 96.68%. Resolution 12, approval of the 2021 compensation policy for members of the Supervisory Board adopted 99.23%. Continuing now with the compensation policy for 2020. Resolution 13, approval of the information related to the 2020 compensation of the members of the Executive Board and the members of the Supervisory Board, approved 98.38%. Resolution 14, approval of the compensation items paid or awarded to in 2020 to André François-Poncet, approved 93.73%. Resolution 15, approval of the compensation items for 2020 for David Darmon, member of the Executive Board, adopted 93.81%. Resolution 16, approval of compensation for 2020 for Bernard Gautier, member of the Executive Board until September 9, 2019, approved 98.59%. Resolution 17, approval of compensation for 2020 for Nicolas ver Hulst, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, approved 99.27%. Moving on now to financial authorizations on the agenda. There are only 4 of them this year. The other delegations of authority were renewed last year for a 2-year period. Resolution 18, this is related to the share buyback program that's been offered in the normal way, adopted, 99.24%. Employee shareholding program. This is resolution 19. This is on the increase of share capital for the company share savings plan, approved 97.99%. Resolution 20 is authorization to grant stock options for the company's executive corporate officers and employees. This is approved 97.79%. 21 is on the grant of free bonus shares to corporate officers and employees. This is approved 97.32%. And then resolution 22 is the final one, this is powers for legal formalities. This is approved with 99.95% of the vote. I'd like to give the floor back to the Chairman.

Thank you, Caroline. First of all, I would like to thank you for renewing my term as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. I would like to thank Priscilla and Bénédicte for their renewal. François de Mitry, I'd also like to thank for -- and congratulate for his term and welcoming back into the Board that he already knows well. We've now come to the end of our agenda for today. And therefore, I recommend we end this session at 22:04. This AGM is now finished, and thank you for your participation.