bpost has not just grown, it has evolved, adapted, and diversified. Consumption patterns have changed radically in recent years, and consumers have new expectations. E-commerce, environmental issues, increased demands in tighter time frames. To meet the needs of as many people as possible, bpost has surrounded itself with the best partners and transformed from a local Belgian postal company with subsidiaries into a group, both in Belgium and internationally, bpost group. Whatever we do, whatever changes we make, we do so with one guiding principle: To connect people in a changing world. A world in which the needs of citizens, companies, and institutions have moved far beyond postal services, and in which our local success is inherently linked to our global achievements. To do this, the group has surrounded itself with complementary entities, each one an expert in its field.
Radial provides e-commerce order fulfillment solutions, enabling leading brands to deliver a seamless experience. DynaGroup offers complete and personalized logistics solutions from specialized last mile deliveries, repair and installation services, to cold chain logistics. Active Ants makes e-fulfillment more accurate and more efficient through innovation, automation, and the use of the latest technologies. Landmark Global enables customers' international expansion with its expertise and operational capabilities to manage cross-border parcel shipments, customs clearance, mail delivery, and returns. bpost connects consumers, businesses, and public sector organizations by delivering letter mail and parcels to homes and offices and providing logistics services. Each of these entities complements the others and contributes to strengthening the group as a whole. They all participate in the realization of a common ambition, growing together. Growing by connecting, sharing, and motivating each other. Growing by respecting our differences while looking in the same direction.
Growing with the aim of being stronger together and growing with the needs of its customers. Let's work on this together so that we can connect people at all levels in a changing world, because that's what makes us move.
Ladies and gentlemen. It is with great pleasure that I call to order the general assembly. Next to me, our ad interim CEO, our CFO ad interim, Koen Aelterman, and our General Secretary, Mr. Ross Hurwitz. The directors in the room are Michael Stone, Jules Noten, Sonja Rottiers, Sonja Willems, Mohssin El Ghabri, Lionel Desclée, and David Cunningham. The present auditors are Mr. Anne Wevers and Mr. Alain Schats for AldiPressPwC and EY respectively. I would like to invite Mr. Ross Hurwitz to the office as a Secretary and scrutiny our shareholders. FPIM and the Belgian state are taking part to this general assembly, and they are accompanied by their legal advice, Mr. Patrice Viane and Céline Fait for FPIM, and Mr. Richard Dewe for the Belgian state. The legal advice of bpost are also taking part to the general assembly.
Tom Bouwens, Yves Desmedt, Yvonne Desmedt, Joris Dewulf, and Bert Antonissen. The press is also present in the room with the various teams and the cameramen. Can I take it that the assembly agrees on the presence of those people? I will take that as a yes. Thank you. Giving the floor to the head of investor relationship who's going to give you a few explanation about the function of this meeting.
Thank you very much. Mr. Chair. The screens are not working. Sorry, the question is asked off mic. Those two up front. If you want to get closer. There are available spots in the first row. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Please turn off your microphone if that hasn't been done yet. Regarding translation, there is a simultaneous interpretation in French, English, and Dutch.
Channel 1 for English, 2 for French, and 3 for Dutch. Let's check if your device is working properly, and do not hesitate to ask if you need any help. Regarding votes, we will use an electronic system during this assembly. You should all have received a little reader when entering the room. The voting system, be it here in the room or remotely, will be explained during the assembly. For the questions. For the shareholders... Sorry, I thought you raised your hand. No. Okay. For the shareholders in the room regarding questions, you will have the opportunity to ask questions immediately to these speakers after presentations and before moving to vote. For the shareholders remotely, you can ask your question as of now on the Lumi platform. The messages can be sent at any time until the chair closes the Q&A session.
Indicated on the screen, you are invited to type in your message in the chat box at the bottom of the screen, you will also have a bar appearing saying, "Received." The questions will be moderated before being transmitted to the chair. The answers to the questions will be presented during the Q&A session. I'm now giving the floor to the chair of this assembly, Ms. Audrey Hanard.
The agenda of this meeting and the proposal of resolution have been put at the disposal of the shareholders before the meeting. The company has received no question from the shareholders and no request from the shareholders to add any item nor any proposal to change the agenda. We have received the requests by the shareholders to postpone two items, the approbation of the remuneration policy and the discharge to the directors.
The board has, in the meantime, decided to not vote on the remuneration policy. Regarding the directors, there will be a proposal to postpone the vote until the internal examination and the audit of the Belgian state, the two states that allows us to take a decision, an enlightened decision. It will then be postponed at the next general assembly in 2024. We will therefore present all the other items on the agenda. You will have the opportunity to ask all your questions. I'm now giving the floor to our Secretary General, Mr. Ross Hurwitz, to give us more information on the convening method and the number of actions that are represented.
The convening notice and agenda of the ordinary shareholders meeting were published in accordance with the company's articles of association and Article 7:128 of the Code of Companies and Associations, whose publications were made in the Belgian Official Gazette, De Standaard and La Libre Belgique on April 7, 2023. On the same day, the convening documents were made available to the shareholders of the company's website and sent to the registered shareholders and statutory auditors. A press release was sent to the general editorial offices, published on bpost's website and communicated to the market through Euronext and Euroclear. We also informed the FSMA. In accordance with Article 36, Section 3 of the law of March 21, 1991, the information was communicated to the joint auditors on April 20, 2023. All directors have waived their rights relating to the convening formalities.
The shareholders who have fulfilled the legal and statutory formalities to be able to participate in this ordinary shareholders meeting represent 123,720,501 shares, each giving right to one vote. The calculation of the required majorities will therefore be based on 123,720,501 shares out of a total of 200,000,944 issued and outstanding shares, i.e., 61.86%. On May 4, 2023, following the board of directors' decision to complete the statutory...
the draft statutory annual accounts per 31 December 2022, and management report to mention subsequent events, the deadline for shareholders to submit a proxy or to vote in advance, either by correspondence or electronically, was extended to Tuesday, 9 May 2023 at 4:00 P.M. Shareholders who had already voted prior to May 4 had to resubmit a voting form by correspondence or vote again electronically. Votes and abstentions that had already been cast with respect to the approval of the statutory annual accounts, as well as the discharge, which is directly related to the approval of the annual accounts, will not be taken into account. Votes by proxy and votes by correspondence will be attached to the minutes of this meeting in accordance with applicable legal provisions. I now hand over to our chair.
Thank you, Ross. I do see that the current ordinary general assembly is duly constituted. Given there is no special quorum, we can deliberate. I do see that this year we have more people in the room than the other years. This is not surprising given the late latest evolutions of this company. We're living through difficult times. We are doing everything that must be done within the company. I will come back on the current situation a bit later. I would like to give you a few words on the company. We would like to thank Laurent, Caroline, and everything they have done for bpostgroup as directors. I would also like to wish a warm welcome to Anne and Anne in this board.
They're giving us and bringing us international knowledge and a lot of experience that are an added value for this company and for the shareholders. I'm going to give the floor to our CEO and CFO ad interim, who are going to cover with you the year 2022 for bpostgroup. I know you're all expecting the information on what's happening to bpost for the time being. We have from the very beginning start, decided to communicate very openly and transparently. We will keep that promise and that commitment in the future. I would like to look at what we have done with you. In August last year, we had to carry out a compliance audit on the newspapers because there were too many doubts on this draft and on this budget. We all know the result of that audit.
We had to conclude the collaboration with the director and the CEO. We regret this. We have also put on a methodology with the compliance and the audit, which is fully competent. We have also benefited from the help of external expert in order to guarantee a profound and in-depth examination of the processes within the organization. It has been evaluated by the various experts. We have now the conclusions. Our objective was to be sure about everything that we were doing. We have adopted a good methodology to make that a reality. One of the important information for us as a board and for the direction is that our company has no adequate and strong compliance process. This despite what we have already done. We had no other choice than conducting other audits to know whether everything had happened correctly.
We have decided on purpose to build bpost on foundation, on strong foundations and not on errors. We are still carrying out audits for different contracts that we do consider and deem as critical. When we have seen that those contracts could have very important major consequences, we have decided to inform the market very transparently and correctly in accordance to the FSMA guidelines. This is why we had to withdraw our financial prognostic, the our forecast 2 weeks ago. The audit is still not ended. I cannot give you any further information. It is very important for us to be fully transparent regarding the contracts that we have with the State. We are fully aware that we have to give this information and provide this information to the stakeholders, and we're going to look at this very closely.
It is very important to notify and to notice that for those three contracts and for all administrative and financial questions, we have always provided a very good service to the customers. This is what we're doing. The inquiry is still going on. We have already drawn conclusions. We're implementing measures in order to avoid mistakes in the future and to redevelop the trust relationships that we have with the state and the customers and the collaborators. Trust and transparency are key values to bpost. Philippe Dartienne will talk about this. We have no choice. We want to build the relationship that are based on trust and values. This can sometimes be uncomfortable. I fully agree with you, this can take some time. We're all concerned.
I fully share the frustration that you have as a shareholder because we cannot give you more clarity about the future. We have to go through this in order to make sure that we can guarantee a future. We do have a future, a bright future. Financially speaking, operationally speaking, bpost is on a good track, as shown by the results of the first quarter. We have already shown that we are fully resilient. I do believe in the future of this company. I do believe in its strategy, and I fully trust the thousands of collaborators within bpost that are fully mobilized to achieve our key objective in order to provide a good service to the customers. I fully thank them for their day-to-day commitment, and we will end this process and this inquiry, sorry, stronger.
We will communicate transparently as soon as we can. The internal compliance review have shown that there has been mistakes vis-à-vis the existing legislation. The directors have spoken about this during the various meetings. We have implemented the necessary measures, we have also issued press releases. Those errors are also related to the code and the statutes, the bylaws of bpost, such as, for instance, the fact that we have a new account that reflect everything that is happening within the company. The directors had not heard about these mistakes, we, according to the article.
Explicit bedanken voor het leveren van uitstekend werk in moeilijke omstandigheden. Ik wil ook van deze gelegenheid gebruik maken om een zeer kort update te geven over de zoektocht naar een CEO. Samen met de raad van bestuur hebben we ons eerst verdiept in het definiëren van de rol van de groep CEO en in de structuur zoals ze vandaag bestaat. De drie business units internationaal en group level. Op basis van die analyse van de behoeftes en van het soort groep dat we willen worden, hebben we een profiel en een functieomschrijving gespecificeerd alvorens een externe partner te zoeken. Ondertussen doet het geselecteerde rekruteringsbedrijf, die een zeer goede reputatie heeft, haar werk. In tegenstelling tot wat ik in de pers lees, wordt de zoektocht uitgevoerd door de juiste mensen binnen het juiste bedrijf. Ik kan u geen exacte timing geven voor de benoeming van een nieuwe CEO.
We zijn het er allemaal over eens dat het beter is de beste persoon voor de job te hebben dan het proces te versnellen. U kunt er echter van op aan dat het vinden van een nieuwe CEO een prioriteit is voor de raad van bestuur en dat we met de nodige spoed te werk gaan. Nogmaals bedankt, Philippe Dartienne, en vertel ons alsjeblieft meer over hoe bpost group het doet in termen van strategie en financiën.
Thank you Audrey for your trust in our future, which I fully share. We did achieve solid financial results in 2022 and again in the first quarter of this year. We continue to execute our strategy and to progress on our growth and transformation plan. I would like to walk you through our management priorities for this year, which support ambitions to be a global e-commerce and logistic service provider with a sustained anchor in Belgium and to be recognized as a sustainable reference. In Belgium, the focus is to develop the
Merci pour le feedback. On va essayer de corriger. Est-ce qu'on peut vérifier que le canal 1 fonctionne ? Merci.
Maintenant, ça fonctionne ?
Le vent français revient.
Ok.
Ok, merci.
français.
On va essayer de parler plus lentement aussi pour permettre aux traductrices. Je sais que ça paraît très-.
We'll also try to speak more slowly for the interpreters. In Belgium, the focus is to develop the target operating model and the supporting organization based on client centricity and translating in higher quality and flexibility. Besides the business transformation, we will also increase the well-being of our employees in order to improve our current absenteeism levels. In E-Logistics Eurasia, we continue to execute on the growth plans of Radial Europe and Active Ants. We will also grow our commercial cross-border activities and will launch the execution of a multi-year turnaround plan for Dyna. In North America, adjusting to change market conditions, bpost group will develop and execute on the commercial pipelines across our entities, notably Radial and Landmark Global. We will continue implementing at Radial a network-wide lean operating model, driving further margin improvements.
The group is also pursuing its M&A ambition for our e-commerce, logistics and cross-border business in North America and Eurasia. We have a strong balance sheet. We therefore do not exclude acquisition if such opportunities should arise in the market. As a global logistics service provider, bpost has an impact on the environment across the eco-e-commerce value chain. Every day, we ship more than a million parcels around the world, generating a significant carbon footprint, which is why we are determined to fight climate change. In 2022, we set ambitious Science Based Targets for the group in line with the 1.5 degree pathway. This include a 55% reduction in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and a 14% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2030 compared to the 2019 baseline.
To accelerate our progress, we rolled out a new energy strategy and governance structure while also investing in sustainable policies to electrify our fleet, reuse and recycle packaging, use green energy and reduce carbon footprint on our buildings across the world. Active Ants, for example, introduce automated, personalized, sustainable packaging. This innovative technology automatically determines the ideal box size of the product that needs to be shipped, so it leaves the least amount of empty space possible. On the other side of the world in California, Radial launched its first solar panel installation in 2022 on the roof on a nearly 475,000 sq ft site. The 525 kV installation produces enough solar energy to meet 100% of the buildings electricity need for most of the year and up to 80% of the site's energy consumption during peak hours.
In Belgium, our Ecozone concept won the BeCommerce Innovation Award, the BeCommerce Logistics Award, and the BeCommerce Jury Award in 2022. Three splendid recognitions of the efforts undertaken by our teams for a sustainable approach to our business. Moreover, earlier this year, bpost was selected as part of the new Euronext BEL ESG stock index, tracking the Brussels-listed companies, demonstrating best practices in this field. A great recognition of our ESG strategy. Besides environmental responsibility, social responsibility is also important and part of our DNA. The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, we collected 140 tons on vital supplies across our 657 Belgian post offices in March and in April 2022. bpost volunteers drove company truck filled with this donation all the way to the Ukraine border.
The cargo was then hand over to Ukrposhta, Ukraine's post national post operator, which ensured it reached to the people most in need. Similarly, we responded again this year when a devastating earthquake hit Turkey and Syria. More than 170 tons of goods were collected across our 657 Belgian post offices. These were then transported to Istanbul, where the Turkish national post operator, PTT, distributed the goods to the people most in need. Both initiative show the compassion and the can-do mindset of our bpost employee, but also the generosity of the Belgian people. Following the preliminary findings in the compliance reviews chaired by the chair, bpost group announced on Monday, April 24th, a withdrawal of its full year 2023 financial guidance.
Pending further legal financial analysis, preliminary estimates indicate a negative adjusted EBIT impact ranging between EUR 25 million-EUR 50 million on our guidance in relation to the performance of these services in 2023. Mentioned by the chair a few minutes ago, we are more than ever determined to continue on our investigations and to shed full light on these matters. Following those inquiries, we will take all appropriate measures. It's undeniably a difficult moment in our company's history. bpost has been undergoing a profound transformation over the past years from a postal operator to an active player in a competitive market. The internal processes have evolved, but the investigation has shown that we need to continue to strengthen our governance and compliance systems to ensure our shareholders and our customers and the Belgian State can maintain their confidence in us.
It's crucial to clarify our values and rules again to all bpost employees. An e-learning platform will be launched in the next month to allow all colleagues of bpost group to undergo an annual training on our values, code of conduct, and responsible behavior. We must not only know our company rules, we must understand how they apply in practice and act accordingly as well. We have recently launched the Speak Up program. This is a new channel where colleagues can report misconduct or unethical practices that they become aware of. If this comprehensive approach reveals other possible irregular practices, we will investigate them equally, professionally and thoroughly. At the same time, we must move forward again and focus on the future of bpost. We owe this to our employee, our customers, and the government.
I would also like to repeat my confidence in bpost employee and its management. Even though a limited number of people have acted contrary to our values and business ethics, this has nothing to do with the vast majority of our employee, who do a fantastic job every day. I know how committed my colleagues are to doing their job in the best possible way every day again. As per our first quarter of 2023, we continue to execute on our strategy and to progress on our growth and transformation plan.
I am pleased to report that despite challenging macroeconomic conditions, bpost has delivered strong results in the first quarter, achieving good operational execution and top-line development with a performance even slightly exceeding the plan. Supported by strong parcels volume and price increases, our group operating income for Q1 stood on EUR 1,049 million, an increase of 1% or EUR 10 million. This includes a negative EUR 6.25 million revenue impact booked at Belgium level following the preliminary findings of the compliance review. Excluding this impact, this would have been an increase of 1.6% or EUR 17 million. Our group adjusted EBIT stood at EUR 78 million with a margin of 7.4%, or EUR 84 million before the revenue recognition.
Unsurprisingly, due to inflationary pressures on costs and macroeconomic trends, EBIT was down year-over-year, but our continued focus on productivity and cost control has borne fruit, and the decline in operational EBIT remains limited. Our adjusted net profit amounts to EUR 48.3 million or EUR 53 million before the revenue record correction. In summary, despite all the uncertainties surrounding us, the Q1 result show that our operating result remain strong and the foundation are there to continue to perform both financially and delivering quality service to our customers. Today, we can say that we are performing better than most of the other incumbent postal operator in Europe, which is something we could be proud of. The current turmoil surrounding our company should not overshadow this good performance. To end, I would like to repeat once again that we want to remain a reliable partner for all our customers.
Moreover, we want to be an ethical partner with more developed compliance rules known and adopted by all our employees and management. These are the necessary condition to ensure a sound future for bpost. Because we have great potential, bpost continue to deliver a quality service and record operational successes. With this action we are taking now, we are confident that we will be able to look with pride and ambition of the future of bpost group. I now hand over to our CFO ad interim, Koen Aelterman, who will detail the result of the company and the consolidated result of the group for the financial year 2022.
Thank you, Philippe. I will indeed walk you through our financial perform-.
Merci, Philippe.
I see apparently there's again a problem with the... Is it okay now?
No.
All right. In a difficult environment marked by persisting macro headwinds, including surging inflation and energy prices, pressure on household disposable income and lower consumer confidence, bpost nevertheless managed to deliver on its promises. Quarter after quarter, we successfully absorbed close to EUR 40 million of downside risk, thanks to the successful implementation of mitigating actions such as sales efforts, price increases, and cost reductions. This allowed us to report a total operating income of EUR 4,398 million and a group-adjusted EBIT of EUR 278.5 million, in line with our initial guidance. Looking now at the key financials of 2022. Besides revenue, OpEx, and adjusted EBIT developments, on which I will comment in breakdowns per business unit, one can note that our net financial result increased by EUR 47 million year-over-year.
This was mainly due to IAS 19 employee benefits in line with higher discount rates and the reassessment of a contingent liability for the remaining shares of the subsidiary. These were therefore non-cash impacts. The income tax expense decreased by EUR 23 million, mainly due to the lower operating results. The adjusted net profit of EUR 245 million remained roughly stable year-over-year. Let's look at the operational performance by business unit in more details, starting with Belgium. When excluding the impact of Ubiway, which was sold and deconsolidated as of the 1st of March of 2022, we see that external revenues remained roughly stable. Domestic mail revenues remained nearly stable year-over-year. Underlying mail volume decline amounted to -6.8% in 2022 against -5.9% in 2021.
This negatively impacted revenues by -EUR 74 million, yet was almost fully mitigated by a positive price and mix impact of +EUR 61 million as well as EUR 5 million of additional revenues from AldiPress, which was acquired on September 30th, 2022.
Noted in transactional mail, the COVID-19 communications provided a tailwind of around EUR 20.5 million to our revenues in 2021, while the contribution in 2022 was limited to EUR 11 million. Parcels Belgium recorded a decrease of -3.9% or EUR 18 million in revenue, reflecting a volume decline of -7.5% and a price mix impact of +3.6%. This decline is due to the decision of Amazon to insource a part of their volumes as announced last year. It resulted in 2022 in a decline of close to 50% of Amazon volumes. Excluding the impact of Amazon's insourcing, parcel volumes were up +1% year-over-year, reflecting on the one hand, the unfavorable market conditions that have deteriorated since the beginning of 2022 and reached their peak in the fourth quarter.
On the other hand, the impact of our successful commercial hunting plan with the progressive launch throughout the year of new customers such as bol.com, Nespresso, zooplus, and PUMA, just to name a few. By the end of 2022, thanks to these commercial efforts, the lost Amazon volumes were fully compensated on a full year basis. Despite being down 7.5% in 2022, it's important to note that parcel volumes were nevertheless still 55% above the pre-pandemic year of 2019. Proximity and convenience retail network revenues increased organically by EUR 21 million, mainly due to the new management contract, which came into force in 2022. In this sub-segment, the deconsolidation impact of Ubiway was minus EUR 116 million. Finally, value-added services increased by EUR 11 million, mostly resulting from higher revenue from the find solution.
Move to the P&L of Belgium. On the cost side, again excluding Ubiway, operating expenses increased by EUR 52 million year-over-year, mainly due to the persisting inflationary pressures. We have indeed recorded higher payroll costs per FTE, reflecting the impact of each of the 6 salary indexations of +2% between November 2021 and December 2022, as well as the change in night shift regulation and the premium paid to our employees to alleviate the pressure on purchasing power, as well as the higher energy costs. Besides continued focus on cost control, these impacts were mainly mitigated by the FTE reduction of around 720 FTEs year-over-year, excluding, again, the Ubiway impact, reflecting our continued focus on productivity.
Bottom line, our Belgium segment contributed for EUR 198.3 million to the group adjusted EBIT with a margin of 9%, well within the guided range of 8%-10%. Let's now jump to E-Logistics Eurasia. External operating income was down EUR 21 million. In eCommerce logistics, Radial Europe and Active Ants sales were up +17% year-over-year, mainly driven by recent customer onboardings and increased sales of existing customers in the second half of the year. At Dyna, sales were down year-over-year, which was due to the lower volumes in one and two-man delivery at Dynalogic, driven by the lower consumer confidence and lower spending in white goods, as well as less devices to be repaired at Dynafix.
The strong growth momentum at Radial Europe and Active Ants did offset Dyna's development with a combined increase of EUR 4 million in revenue for the sub-segment. Cross-border revenues decreased by EUR 25 million or -7%. This top-line development was mainly driven in the first half of the year by lower Asian volumes that were still heavily impacted by the new VAT regulation of July 2021, as well as COVID-induced supply chain disruptions in China. As a result, Asian volumes did not recover as anticipated. As from the third quarter of 2022, the top-line trend was nevertheless positive, supported by recent customer wins in Asia and the consolidation of IMX.
Moving on to the P&L of Eurasia, we see that operating expenses remained roughly stable, mainly explained by lower volume-driven costs at Dyna and cross-border, notably in transport, interims, and material costs, almost fully offset by higher payroll costs from inflation, the integration of IMX, and the recent site openings in line with our expansion and the strategic development initiatives for Radial Europe and Active Ants. Overall, reflecting the inflationary pressures on cost and the margin dilution from the lower top line, the adjusted EBIT stood at EUR 27.4 million with a margin of 4.5% below the initial guidance. Moving to our E-Logistics North America segment. The operating income of e-commerce logistics increased by EUR 244 million, or +17% increase year-over-year, or +5% at constant exchange rate.
At Radial, the top-line growth was mainly driven by the contribution of new customers launched in 2021, while the tougher market conditions started to weigh on sales development around the year-end peak. Radial revenues amounted to $1.4 billion in 2022, which is 5% above 2021 and 50% above the pre-pandemic 2019. At international mail, you can also see a deconsolidation impact of EUR 42 million, corresponding to the sale of The Mail Group in August 2021. Moving to the P&L and focusing on the operational performance in local currency, we see that alongside our total operating income, OpEx and D&A increased by 1.7%, excluding FX impacts.
While our variable OpEx increased in line with our revenue development and included higher labor costs, it was partially mitigated by productivity gains, and we also had higher costs from new site openings. It's also worth noting that in the third quarter of 2022, Radial had to book a provision to reflect a dispute with a terminated customer, with a negative impact of EUR 7 million on OpEx. In 2021, to the contrary, Radial benefited from 2 positive one-offs for EUR 12 million, namely the cyber insurance recovery and the one-time concession from a vendor. When rebasing the EBIT of 21 and 22 with these one-offs, the underlying EBIT increased by EUR 28 million or 43% and ended up at EUR 87 million with a margin of 5.2%, in line with the initial guidance. Let's now move to the last segment, corporate.
We see that the adjusted EBIT for corporate declined year-over-year by EUR 6 million to minus EUR 34 million. This is driven by EUR 8.4 million lower building sales in 2022. Despite continuously investing in our transformation and the inflationary pressure from the sixth salary indexations mentioned before, we see a decrease in operating expenses. This reflects the positive impact of our cost management efforts and measures on overhead, notably with a reduction of 4.5% in FTEs. Moving then to cash flow, we see free cash flow generation of EUR 397 million, an increase of EUR 107 million versus 2021. The main items to flag are the following.
Cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital increased by EUR 12 million year-over-year, with lower results offset by a favorable settlement of corporate income taxes in 2022. The change in working capital and provisions decreased by EUR 31 million year-over-year. The cash outflow from investing activities amounted to EUR 19 million, an improvement by EUR 126 million in 2022. Our CapEx of EUR 164 million, below the guided envelope of EUR 250 million, and the acquisitions of AldiPress and IMX being partially compensated by the sale of bpost bank and Ubiway.
The cash flow from financing activities amounted to EUR 262 million and improved by EUR 47 million in 2022, as we had a repayment of EUR 166 million of short-term debt in 2021 and a dividend payment of EUR 98 million in 2022. All in all, this results in a net cash inflow of EUR 135 million. Wrapping up this section on the results of the statutory accounts for bpost SA/NV, I've just explained the underlying operational evolutions impacting the statutory accounts when I spoke about Belgium cross-border and corporate. I do want to call out our statutory net profit, according to the Belgian accounting standards, of EUR 124 million. This BGAAP net profit is the basis for the dividend distribution capacity.
Based on the 2022 results, the board of directors recommends to this assembly to grant a gross dividend of EUR 0.40 per share to the shareholders, which corresponds to a payout ratio of 33% of the group IFRS net results. This is within the 30%-50% range foreseen in our dividend policy, as we adjusted for the significant non-cash impacts in 2022, notably linked to IAS 19. This will represent a cash outflow of EUR 80 million in the second quarter of 2023. I will now hand over to our chair for the next agenda point of this meeting.
Thank you very much, Koen. The presentation of the CFO and CEO allowed to touch upon the four first points of the agenda. We're going to speak about the remuneration report. Remuneration report was set up by the nomination and remuneration committee and approved by the administration boards on 16 March. This report is explaining the principles of remunerations for the members of the board, the delegated administrator, and other members of the executive committee of the group. The remuneration of the member of the boards, except the administrator delegate, is made of two elements: a fixed remuneration as well as a presence fee for members. The remuneration of the members with the delegated administrator is regularly set up and approved by the board based on the recommendation.
It is composed mainly on a basic salary. For the delegated administrator, it is indexed yearly, and for the members of the board, it's a salary reflecting the responsibilities as well as the feature of the role and the experience needed. There are some bonuses, such as A insurance and medical insurance, as well as a variable salary on the short term that is a percentage of the basic salary and varies depending on collective targets as well as individual targets. The part linked to collective targets depends on three financial and non-financial indicators. The financial results, that's to say, EBIT, 50%, the client customer loyalty, 15%, and absenteeism index at 5%.
The parts linked to individual objective corresponds to the reaching of objectives that are set at the beginning of the year for the delegated administrator and each member of the boards. These objectives are detailed in the remuneration report. Next point. As indicated at the beginning of the meeting, we have received a request of our reference shareholders to report to postpone the vote for discharging the administrator. Given this request, you are proposed to postpone the vote, waiting for the conformity internal exams to be nearly finished in order to have a discharge of the administrators that can be taken by the stakeholders at the latest for the next GA that will be held in 2024. Can I ask the agreement, the approval of the assembly on this? Thank you.
Next point, discharge to the administrators. You are invited to vote on this for 2022. After its appointment as a member of the executive committee, Mr. Jos Donvil resigned as an administrator on behalf of the Belgian State on the 31st of October 2022. On the 9th December 2022, on the proposal on the State and recommendation of the Remuneration Committee and Nomination Committee, Madame Ann Caluwaerts has been proposed for replacing Mr. Jos Donvil from 1st January 2023 on up to the next GA. The mandate of administrator of Mr. Laurent Levaux and Madame Caroline Ven is ending for the next assembly.
Based on a proposal of the state and recommendation of the Remuneration and Appointments Committee, the board is proposing to confirm the co-optation of Madame Ann Caluwaerts and to appoint her as administrator for a duration of four years and on the other hand, to appoint Madame Ann Vereecke as administrator for a duration of four years. The board is proposing to remunerate the mandate of these two candidates on the same basis of the other administrators in line with the remuneration policy of bpost. Based on the presented information to the company, the retained candidates don't have any interest conflict. We also suggest you to provide a special mandate to Mr. Ross Hurwitz, Mr. François Soenen, and Madame Hélène Mespouille with the possibility to be replaced in order for them to accomplish all the administrative formalities that are requested for the resolutions aforementioned.
We are at the end of the agenda. Before voting, we are going to answer the questions of the shareholders. Before answering the questions in the room, we are going to answer the written questions we have received. 4 questions we have received before the meeting from Mr. Bert De Laman. We received the following question: Did we already fill in a complaint based on the problems that were raised? What can I say? The report of the audit for the press was sent to the pocket, and the 3 audits that are being made are not finished, so we can't say anything. bpost is concentrating on the different option and will answer later on. 2nd question. Administrators who would have dispositions in their contracts, for instance, for damage, corruption, what about their responsibility?
You think you need to repeat your answer.
Sure. No... Can you hear now?
Does this?
Yeah. Okay.
that much better?
Directors have no agreement. They hold a corporate law mandate that the shareholders assign to them. They are responsible under applicable law, corporate law regulating director liability.
Market practice for this type of risk and insurance product. This insurance is applicable in accordance with the conditions set out therein. How many people have been asked by bpost? bpost decided to just get rid of them, get rid of the last CEO and the different managers for the audits that are being made. We are waiting for the end of the inquiry. Next question is on the same topic. It's for external people. People who haven't behaved correctly will have to respond for on their behavior. What is the answer? The inquiry is still going on, and based on the inquiry, we are going to take the necessary measures.
Finally, has everyone who has taken the decision and those who were aware of this decision but didn't say anything, would these people be out of bpost, or these people would be able to remain in bpost, in bpost and still continue to take measures for bpost? bpost decided to get rid of the last CEO and two other senior managers based on the inquiry that is made. We are going to take the necessary measures. For the contracts that are still under an inquiry, Philippe will have the floor for the next question. Is there a system, an alert system that is external and anonymous at bpost in order to get rid of all this policy? If not, what can you do? Yes, there is a system, an internal system that is existing at bpost.
Can I read the next question from Tom Rossel? Isn't it the right moment in order to buy PostNL?
As a global player in e-commerce and logistic activities, and results are paying off. Acquiring the mail activities of PostNL does not fit at this stage with the current strategy.
Good.
He was receiving different dividends and different allocations for dividends. Shareholders are paying 30% of income tax, and this is for the state. The state is asking them to repay that, so the cost of action is going down. Shareholders have paid too much, so other shareholders are disadvantaged. What do you think about that, and what can you do in order to solve the problem? We can't answer on behalf of the state, but you can answer for bpost. Yes, indeed. We are aware of the problem of the dividends. We have taken this question down, and we are going to make a legal inquiry on that, but we can't reach any conclusion on that. Thank you. Question from Jacques Voorspoels.
Why will Bpost, why will bpost give a bonus to top managers now that the cost of the share is really down?
This is not applicable since this point has been removed from the agenda. Now the question, the session is open for your question in the public, or you can write your question on Lumi, or you can just ask your question by raising your hands. Maybe we could collect some questions, put some questions together in order to be more efficient and in order to reduce the duration of this meeting and to allow the shareholders to ask their question. I would ask you to be brief, so shareholders and the people having a procuration can take the floor. If you ask a question, please say your name and also the shareholder you are representing.
I am looking at the platform and the room to see if there are questions.
Yes, I do represent myself, Dominique Carlier. I'm a small shareholder. I've bought my first shares at the time of the IPO. That was a very good thing, but it's not a good thing for the time being. I don't know about the future, I haven't lost all trust. I've been or I'm here for the first time since 2019. 2021, 2022, it was not possible. Warren Buffett says we have to diversify, we're looking at the long term. 2022, I went to another general assembly to just discover what one of the other company was able to do. There were eight general assemblies yesterday. I thought we would be 200, that we would have to add seats for my friends.
I don't know whether there are many people remotely. This is all over the press and all over the media, few people are here in the room, which is very surprising. Do you have an explanation? Looking at my colleagues, there are five people online. Sorry, five? Did you say five?
Okay. We're many more, when nothing was at stake, actually. Okay, no worries. I do feel empathy for you because your maternal leave hasn't been as quiet as it should have been for any other mother and not as a Chair of bpost. I do hope that the coming back to bpost was not too difficult. Feeling empathy for you. This being said, my questions are a bit accessory on site as far as bpost's situation is concerned, but they do have an interest.
Here, here for the forensic investigation, there is not just one dead body in the closets. There are many. I do love our movies. We have to open all the graves, but we have to open them all at a time and not just you open them month after month because this is a drama for the shareholders. I've bought new shares. I've actually doubled, tripled, my shares at EUR 5.25 because the price was so low that the only thing I could do was actually to go higher and increase. This is also one of the investment principle that I follow. I do buy when the price is very low just to make sure that I'm average.
The price of the previous shares and the new actions at a very low price come down to a middle price so that we can strike an equilibrium and a balance. They have gone, they have continued to decrease unfortunately, we're not at the end. In the annual report, I don't know when it was written, 6.35, page 58, I found a sentence that quite triggered my attention. Is it right? No significant event having an impact on the financial situation of bpost has been observed after issuance of the account. Speaking as of 31st of December 2022, I'm quite surprised.
Either the document has been written, or was written a couple of months ago, which could be an explanation. You could have an addendum or an additional page, an appendix, saying that the report was written indeed before that date and significant events have occurred since then. Could have been good. I'm just going to take the first question, if I may. Thank you. Thank you for your trust as you start with the trust. Thank you for your empathy. Thank you for the quality of your questions. We're very happy to actually speak to the shareholders who have an eye and who have a very precise passion for those details.
I do fully understand everything you said about the movies and the graves and the dead bodies, and the fact that we have to carry out that investigation as soon as we can in order to avoid up and downs and which would actually reassure the shareholders. The teams are working day in, day out, and we want to respect what we call due process in English. A current process respecting all the stakeholders, and I would like to insist on this. There is a high level of quality in the investigations that we're carrying out, and it is very difficult to do everything simultaneously. We're also held, sorry, by a certain number of rules.
When things can have a material impact and on the financial forecast, we have to communicate even though we might not have concluded the investigations, which puts us in the spot that we are in today. We are communicating and this creates uncertainty. I do hear your concern. This is an internal point. We're trying to go as far as we can and to avoid this kind of situation. The fact is that we have to respect the legal provisions and the legal rules when events occur in the meantime. Second item, I will give the floor to our CFO. Regarding the consolidated accounts, they are approved after the meeting of the board. You will not see those reference because the new events were not known at the time. In the statutory accounts that we're going to approve today, you will see the information.
It has been added. This is why we need a new vote for the people who have voted before. You now have the reference to regarding what you said earlier. When I spoke about the grave, of course, you cannot open all those graves in 24 hours. It takes time. You have to open all of them. Regarding finance, discharge is being postponed. That's good. Is it possible to vote a discharge separately for each director? This is my question, because I saw that the CEO is also a director. The CEO that had to be dismissed is also a director for which we would vote. Of whom we would vote a discharge. In other companies, for instance, Proximus, we can vote a discharge for separately. You're also a director at Proximus. We have voted a discharge for
Mr. Urbain at Proximus, each year we're refusing the discharge because Mr. Urbain had also a legal suit pending, which made it possible to vote a discharge for all the other directors. I do offer, and I do suggest that the discharge be voted separately for all the directors, which would make it possible for us to actually discharge the people who have done their work properly and not give a discharge to people who have done it badly. Thank you very much for that very good suggestion. We'll study it. Good. 100% affiliate. I do ask this question all the time. 155, 157 pre-affiliates, 100%, 157. You have the organizational chart with all bright colors. Is it necessary to have so many affiliates? Is that explained by legal grounds, reasons?
One affiliate in each country, that is logical. That is only logical. In one country, I don't know how many exactly. I think in the Netherlands you have more than 10. In Hong Kong, you also have many. Is it necessary, or could you actually streamline this? Thank you for that question, Kun. We're looking at the legal structure of the group, we are trying to streamline wherever we can, but this of course, has financial consequences, and is not always in the good interest of the shareholders to do it immediately. This is what the structure is. Sometimes we can also streamline, sometimes this is not possible. We are looking at this. We will carry on such change very soon, but this takes time, and we're going to do it only when it makes sense for the shareholder.
Positively, I've read the EY auditor report. It is moderate, it is average, and this is a good thing compared to other companies. No increase in the remuneration of the directors has been forecast, if I'm not mistaken, because you do have a fixed remuneration for the board and an attendance fee for the other meetings. It is very useful for people to know this because you have to go through the report to know it. The average duration and the average rate... Okay, I'm just going to skip that question. In terms of debt, we do have $185 million debt coming to an end this year. There is also a bond placement of $156 million running up to mid-2026. Can I just look at the room whether there are other questions?
Because you have so many questions, which is good, but I just want to make sure that everyone can ask the question, and thank you very much for those good questions. Is there any other question in the room? There is a hand raised. No. No question online either, please go on. This is not politically correct, but I'm, I agree. Another question. In the new... This is very good for you to be in the new BEL ESG index, even though the composition of that BEL ESG index is a bit weird. Some have complained about not being included and others are quite surprised to actually be included. This is good. Russia. Do you have any activity in Russia? Except for mail coming from Russia that you have to process in the markets and the other way around.
We have no affiliate, we have no activity in Russia, there are volumes, of course, leaving from Russia and coming to Europe or the other countries and the other way around. Mail and parcels. Yes. I did not have the opportunity to do it last year because I was elsewhere. In all the internal assemblies I did, I said it, the Ukrainian refugees are trained, they're competent, and they want to integrate within the society, within the societies where they come. They do not want to benefit from social security without doing anything. Given that there is a war on talent, there is a war to recruit new people, have you looked at this possibility to recruit Ukrainian refugees or in Belgium or in the other countries?
Would that be a possibility to include those people within the group, even though on a temporary basis? Sometimes we do know that for parcels, that can be a possibility. Thank you very much. I would actually like to answer on a more global scale. There is no specific treatment for the Ukrainian refugees. This is, of course, a situation that we regret, but they're not the only one in that situations. We do have a recruitment policy. We have more than 70 different citizenships on the payroll of the company, be it in Europe or in the United States. Diversity is very at the heart of our concerns and priority in terms of priorities, in terms of actions. 70 different nationalities working within bpost. I do repeat it. Okay. Page 3, you do have a figure that I do not understand.
The enthusiasm score of the staff 39.5, is that on 40? Is that on 3,000? That would make a great difference. There is no even a one or something sending us back to a footnote. 39.5, what does that mean? We're going to double-check the term and terminology, but this reflects the wish within the company to make it possible for the employees to actually share their commitment level. It is to make sure that the well-being is or remains a priority within the company. It is very important to also fight absenteeism. If this also reflects our improvement in terms of commitment, in terms of participation of the employees. This is something that we follow up, hoping that it goes up and not down.
Regarding terminology and technicity of that term, we will come back to you because I do not have the information right now, but we want to provide you with a good answer to know exactly on what basis this is calculated. We will come back to you in a few minutes. 39.5 out of how many? Out of 50, that would be good. 500, that would not. Just a couple of minutes, and we'll provide you with an answer. On a positive note still. A couple of years ago, I read in the annual report that you were top 1, top 2 in certain categories, that you had gained market shares. What I found sad, and it has not improved, is that you do not kind of boast about it. You do not put it out in your offices.
Just talk about it. We have been rewarded. We have won the first prize for that category. This is not you saying it. This is the prize saying you are among the excellent, you are top-notch. This is not exposed. This is not displayed. We hear, and we have to read through the documents to see those positive information. There are much space in the offices where you could actually boast about it. Thank you very much for that suggestion. On internet, there are 50 lines. Is it possible to actually make it public? Whatever. I don't know whether the slides are made public on the internet site, on the website. Solvay is doing it. Proximus is doing it. Are you doing it too? They also have Investors Day and the documents shared... Sorry. This, yes, an Investors Day.
The displayed documents are also available online, and it is very good for Joe the Bet to actually know, okay, this is not a bad company and this is very good. Yes, the documents will be available online as they are every single year after the general assembly. You can go on the website and you will find those documents. The results of the full presentation, the questions and the transcript. There are candidates to the board, are they present? I have two pictures and two names. You're at Proximus, and you know that when they're candidates, they do apply personally, explain their background, and also say why their participation to the board is a good thing. Excellent suggestion, and I'll take it. Note it down. You have a new headquarter. You have crossed over the Boulevard Anspach.
You are now in the former Philips building. This is a multi building, the propriety of Immobel. You have, and I take it that you have sold your offices in the Tour des Finances. Have you created any added value? Yes, the sale was carried out, but on an accounting basis, this is played over a few years. I have to look at the figures. We can actually give you the details during any investor relation. No worries. Why is the general assembly here or held here and not within your building? Next year, you could actually hold it within the multi tower. I take it that there is a big room in that tower, and you could actually organize a visit of the buildings. That could trigger some curiosity and some people might be actually tempted to come for the general assembly.
This is a good suggestion. Unfortunately, two constraints. One that is technical. For the online voting, we do not have the necessary infrastructure to ensure a proper functioning of the voting system, the remote voting system. No, we do not have a big enough room within that tower to welcome as many people.
Thank you. Other questions in the room? No question remotely.
directI do insist, can we actually have the technical details on the employee score? The score that is displayed and shared is the people who have voted, if I may. A certain number of people have voted, and this is the result of the vote. This is not to be compared to the 36,000 collaborators. This is a percentage. Good. I do not have any further information, unfortunately. We're looking at it. Okay.
I do see that all questions have been answered adequately, and we would now like to proceed to vote. The present shareholders or the represented shareholders, physically or online, who have not voted before the general assembly are now asked to vote on all the resolutions presented to them. The votes of the shareholders who have voted ahead of the meeting, electronically or by correspondence, have been registered in the database and will be taken into account during the meeting. The last attendance list indicates that the shareholders hold 123,720,501 votes. This is determined by a simple majority, and the vote is calculated in terms of votes in favor and against. Abstentions are not taken into consideration. I would like to give the floor to Antoine Lebecq for him to explain the practical functioning of that vote.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. A few practical information regarding vote for the shareholders within the room. We do use an electronic system. You should have received a card reader and the card that goes with it. With your votes, you have to follow the indications on the screens, the instruction on screens. Can you insert the card in the device at the top of the keyboard and just make sure that the chip is facing you? You would normally see the name on the screen. When you're asked to vote, please push on the number corresponding to your answer, and a line on the screen will also indicate the time that you have to vote. During that period, you can also come back to your decision, your vote, using the cross. You could actually cancel your decision and vote something else.
For the five people voting remotely, can you please open the window on the browser? All the resolutions will appear on the screen with the indications for, against, and abstaining, so that you can vote on each resolution. Please scroll down the page to make sure that you view all the resolutions. There are 16 total. When you have voted, there will be a message appearing on the screen, and there is also a little counter, a little clock that will appear on the screen telling you when you cannot vote anymore. Handing over to the chair of that meeting. I do suggest that we start voting. You do have three minutes on-site and remotely to vote on the six resolutions. Unfortunately, the microphone is not working and we cannot hear the voice of the speaker. Could we actually turn on the microphone, please?
I'm deeply sorry, but we cannot hear the speaker. We just have a background sound. Two things. First, at the beginning, we said that the press was here, that the media were here, that we're going to record the general assembly. I hear what you say. It has nothing to do with the people in the room, but we want to make sure that people who have no formal role within the company are not recorded, out of respect for privacy. I fully understand, and I see that those people at the back are nodding. Can you please actually cancel the images that you have recorded? No, just cancel them. Just delete them. Not that, not just these plates.
We all know that those recordings will end up on a network and that those networks can actually be hijacked and that those images can actually be stolen. First resolution regarding item 4, the approval of the statutory accounts and the allocation of the results. The results are going to appear on the screen. Approved. Item 5, the approval of the remuneration report. The results appear on the screen. Approved. Third. Item number 7, discharge giving to the auditor. Appearing on the screen. Discharge approved. Fourth, the confirmation for the co-optation and designation of Miss Ann Caluwaerts as a director for 4 years. Appearing on the screen. Approved. Fifth, regarding item 8, point 2, the designation of Miss Ann Vereecke as a director for a duration of four, of 4 years. Appearing on the screen. Approved.
Sixth and last, regarding item 9 on the agenda, the proxy for the administrative formalities. Appearing on the screen and approved. All items on the agenda of the general assembly that haven't been postponed have been concluded. I do ask the audience to give discharge to the secretary for the reading of the approval so that we can proceed with the report of that meeting. I declare this general assembly over. Thank you very much for your presence today, and I do invite you to join us in the room next door for a common lunch all together. Thank you very much.