Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and welcome to today's annual general meeting that will examine the accounts for fiscal 2023. We've left you five minutes not to sit down, but for those of you who were... We have a lot of independent shareholders in the room, because we have a Wheel of Fortune in the room next door that will hopefully have enabled some of you to win tickets for the Paralympics. But there was a fun side to this Wheel of Fortune. I heard a lot of people enjoying themselves and laughing, but bear in mind that the Accor Group is delighted to work with the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
This is a point of honor for us to ensure that there will be as many spectators and as much enjoyment, as much emotions as possible in the Paralympics, because we would like the stadiums to be full. To ensure that we will have a full capacity, of course, the employees of the group, and many of you, I hope, will be in attendance. So thanks to those of you who have taken the trouble to come here in person to our head office. It's important for us to see you, to hear you, and to spend a pleasant morning together. I'm going to show you a short video that talks about audacity. I hope you'll recognize the group's values of humanity and generosity. So if we could have the video, please. Thank you.
... unfolding for 60 years. At Accor, we don't just define hospitality, we create what's new and what's next. Our story kicks off in France in the 1960s, a decade of new beginnings. These two daring entrepreneurs had an idea: adapt an American concept never seen before in Europe. Together, they launched a new hotel brand, offering not just a room, but a complete set of services tailored to address the needs of new travelers. This was visionary, and so began an international success story with a French touch. Expanding rapidly and diversifying, accompanying changes in society year by year, continually perfecting the art of hospitality.
Novotel paved the way for more than 45 hotel brands, each one meticulously designed to meet the desires of different kinds of travelers: those looking for affordable, easygoing breaks, those searching for refined journeys, those eager for extraordinary escapes, and those craving for uniquely creative getaways. Extending hospitality even beyond the walls of our hotels, we offer lifestyle experiences, not just for guests, but for everyone. From delightful dining to vibrant nights out, from remote work to time for wellness, creating places to truly experience life. With its pioneering spirit, unrivaled know-how, and range of brands, Accor stands as a leader in hospitality all over the world, still augmenting hospitality in all dimensions, providing innovative, tech-driven services, a single online booking platform, and the most generous loyalty program, building on all client experiences to nurture every guest's journey.
From its beginnings, Accor has been committed to sustainability, always looking to shape a mindful approach to travel, giving back to the planet and to communities. Today, this is the great challenge of a generation, and it is still ours. Reinvention is our essence. It defines us, a team of more than 330,000 Heartists, committed change-makers, passionate, diverse, caring, each with their own unique stories and opportunities to grow. Imagine 60 years of audacity with always at heart a new beginning. At Accor, we create what's new and what's next.
Well, it's quite a video, isn't it? Well done to the people who produced that video. Without further ado, let me give the floor to the person who is running the ceremony today, Besma, who's going to talk to us through the legal formalities.
Thank you, Sébastien. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, welcome to today's combined annual general meeting. I'm going to begin with the legal formalities. The Bureau will be comprised of Sébastien Bazin, who will chair today's AGM, Ugo Arzani, who's representing the Qatar Investment Authority, and David Mountfield, representing Kingdom Hotels. Ugo Arzani and David Mountfield will act as tellers, which is the role given to the shareholders present with the largest number of votes. I will act as secretary for today's AGM. As every year, this AGM will be webcast and will be available on replay on the same website.
The Bureau will devote the last 30 minutes of this AGM to questions from the room and to questions received in advance, as well as questions raised directly or via a dedicated platform available to shareholders following remotely. Now, notice of this meeting was put out and published in the Bulletin des Annonces Légales Obligatoires , as it's known, respectively, dated the 19th of April and 8th of May this year. Notice was also published in the Legal Gazette on the 10th of May, 2024. On the desk here, we have available to you all the documents and reports put before the AGM are provided for by law. Documents that are available to shareholders have been available to, at the head office or have been sent to you if so requested. They are also, as I say, on the desk here.
As for the attendance sheet, the attendance sheet is currently being counted, but we know as of now that over one quarter of the shares comprising the share capital are represented, and that today's AGM can duly conduct its business. Let me wind up these legal formalities, reminding you of the agenda. Under the authority of the ordinary AGM, we have approval of the statutory accounts for the period ended December 31, 2023, approval of the consolidated accounts for the same period, appropriation of earnings for the same period ended December 31, 2023, and setting of the dividend. The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit in charge of certifying the information regarding sustainability for the remainder of the period under consideration. Setting of the total amount of compensation for members of the board.
Approval of information concerning the compensation of all executive officers in pursuance of Article L. 2210-9 of the French Commercial Code. Approval of the fixed variable and exceptional components of the total compensation and benefits, paid in respect of the period ended 31st of December, 2023, or attributed in respect of the same period to Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO. Approval of the compensation policy for the Chairman and CEO. Approval of the compensation policy for directors. Special report of the auditors concerning related party agreements under articles L. 225-38 et seq. of the French Commercial Code, and approval of a regulated agreement with Rubyrock Capital Co., Limited.
Authorization to the Board of Directors to trade in the company shares, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to issue equity warrants in the event of a public offer on the share capital and powers for formalities. The only item under the extraordinary AGM is the approval of a partial contribution of assets to the Luxury and Lifestyle business to the benefit of Luxury and Lifestyle SAS. There have been no additional items requested for inclusion on the agenda. That's it. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Besma. Thank you very much. I'm now going to ask Martine Gerow, who is our Chief Financial Officer, to be so kind as to present you the accounts for 2023.
Thank you, Sébastien. Thank you, Besma. Dear shareholders, good morning to you all.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to present the results of your group, and I'm going to begin with the landmark events of 2023. Now, we ended 2023 with very good results in the fourth quarter, which is a follow-on to the very good performance in previous quarters. Let's begin by the drivers of operational growth. RevPAR, which is the revenue by available room in Q4, rose 11%, which is a clear indication of sustained demand. Prices continued to contribute two-thirds of that growth, but the occupancy rate also improved and contributed to one-third of this growth. Overall, during the year, RevPAR was up sharply by 24% over 2022, which is in line with the guidance we gave you last October.
Net unit growth was 2.4%, again, in line with the guidance given, guidance of between 2% and 3%. The group pipeline saw its growth accelerate to reach 4.2%, which gives us good confidence in our ability to accelerate net unit growth, which is one of our goals. Furthermore, we have achieved a record level in terms of value of signatures, which is a clear indication of how attractive our brands are. Now, this strong operational performance has been reflected in our accounts. Revenue was up 18% to reach EUR 5,056 million. EBITDA exceeded the one billion mark to EUR 1,003 million, which is above the high end of the guidance we gave to the markets.
Recurring free cash flow also reached a record level at EUR 596 million. This is the equivalent of a 59% cash conversion of EBITDA into free cash flow. Finally, we considerably improved the return to shareholders in 2023, returning EUR 676 million in the form of share buybacks for EUR 400, over EUR 400 million, and dividends for EUR 276 million. Overall, a very good performance in 2023, where we kept our promises on the, from the operational and financial points of view. Now, this performance is in evidence in our income statement, because in 2023, our net income was EUR 633 million, up from EUR 402 million the previous year.
That's a 57% increase in net profit. As for diluted earnings per share, they were EUR 2.22 per share, which is a, again, a substantial increase, a 60% increase on the previous period. This sharp improvement of net income was mainly due to the increase in EBITDA, but also the recognition of deferred taxes in France, which had a positive effect on our tax bill for 2023. If we were to neutralize these deferred taxes, the growth of profits would still be very high at 48%. Now, these good results have enabled us to strengthen our balance sheet and to improve our return to shareholders. The good management of the balance sheet has borne fruit. In September, we were restored to investment grade, a grade that we lost during COVID.
Now, as a top-ranking issuer, we now have better access to the financial markets and greater flexibility in how we structure our debt. As we announced, this was a prerequisite to the refinancing of our hybrid bond. That's a EUR 500 million hybrid bond that we successfully refinanced last October. We also signed a new revolving credit facility for EUR 1 billion, which replaces the existing RCF, which had expired. We've also committed to improving our balance sheet in line with our investment-grade rating and have reduced our gearing ratio, as requested by Standard and Poor's, to a factor of less than three. That is an improvement of 0.5 by comparison with 2022. On the right-hand slide, you'll see the sharp increase in the return to shareholders, which began back in 2023.
This is because we once again have a very attractive policy after a difficult period during COVID. In 2023, we returned EUR 676 million. That is a 11% of market cap over the period, 4% in the form of a dividend and 7% in the form of share buybacks. By way of conclusion to this part of the presentation, in 2023, we exceeded our guidance and marked two landmarks with the share buyback and the EUR 1 billion mark that we exceeded. This is in line or even exceeds the guidance that we gave at the Investor Day back in October.
We are confident about our ability to maintain a strong growth momentum over the forthcoming period and to achieve the medium-term prospects that we announced at this Investor Day, and recalled for you on the right-hand column. I now propose to look at the first quarter of 2024, certainly the landmark moments of the quarter. In Q1, our business remained strong, dynamic, thanks to the good geographic diversity of our portfolio. RevPAR rose 8% in Q1 by comparison with the corresponding period last year. This growth is still supported by prices to the extent to the tune of 75%, but the occupancy rate also continued to improve during Q1.
We'd also like to point out that the net unit growth has accelerated to 3.1% over the last 12 months, which is an improvement of 0.7 of a percentage point. This is driven by the strong pickup in hotel openings and in the first quarter, that was twice as high as the hotel openings reported in 2022 and 2023. We're beginning to reap the benefits of this new organization by divisions, which has led to stronger net unit growth. Finally, in the first quarter, revenue rose 8% to over EUR 8 billion. As for capital allocation, we continue to follow our guidance with a good, solid investment-grade rating. Fitch has actually upgraded us to positive, the outlook to positive, that is.
Our debt maturity has been extended, and we have completed this with a EUR 600 million senior bond issue. As announced in February, we carried out a second share buyback tranche for EUR 400 million, canceling 3.9% of the share capital accounts. The number of shares in circulation is now 242.4 million shares, which is an 8% reduction by comparison with this same meeting last year. Very briefly, a few words about RevPAR in Q1. The PM&E division, which is premium, mid-scale, and economy. So its RevPAR grew by 8% in Q1, which is a reflection of average prices and very good performance in the Middle East and Pacific Asia regions, where growth was actually 12% in the first quarter.
The Luxury and Lifestyle division, so its RevPAR rise 7% in the first quarter, driven by occupancy and by average prices. The growth in RevPAR and Lifestyle was sustained at 10%, thanks to strong demand in hotel complexes and resorts in the Middle East in particular. Now, the combination of these good results and the keeping of our promises are all reflected in our share price, which rose 24% since the last AGM in 2023. Over the same period, the CAC 40 Index rose by 8%, and the CAC 40 ESG rose by 11%. Let me take this opportunity to remind you that we are now back in the CAC 40 since the fifteenth of March. We exited the CAC 40 index during COVID.
This is a big improvement for the group and evidence of its ability to adapt, but to be resilient and just show how resilient our model is. In line with our payout policy, that's dividend payout policy, which aims to distribute 50% of the recurring cash flow for the year. At today's meeting, we are going to propose for the year 2023 financial period, the payout of a dividend of EUR 1.18 per share. That is a 12% increase on last year. Remember, last year, we had an exceptional dividend of EUR 0.34 in the price. Let me now give the floor back to Sébastien to tell you about the outlook and the current affairs of the group.
Well, I, too, like to take this opportunity, since I'm here, to really praise Martine. She joined the group... It's her first AGM. She joined the group eight months ago, and so thank you. Not just to you, Martine, but when you hold an AGM, when you present the financial statements, there are thousands of hours of work put in on the annual financial statements, non-financial performance indicators, registration document. You've got a lot of people in the group who go unmentioned.
We talk about the brands, we talk about the geographic networks, the initiatives, but you have a quality of team in this group, taxation, audit, legal, that are not only remarkable, but you probably noticed this over the past 10 years, that we never got it wrong when it comes to the reliability of the financial statements on their assessment on our diagnosis, and this is down in large part to Jean-Jacques Morin who was here as CFO. But Martine, in a space of 6 months, it's amazing where you've really taken over the reins, and you have with you Pierre and Patrick at your side. But a very big thank you for all those who work in the shadows, perhaps here in the room, and who've been able to highlight all these financials.
For me, for the Executive Committee, it's incredibly comfortable to have foundations and a financial basis that is under control for such a long time. So it wasn't at all planned that I should say this, but it was perhaps the right time to do so. Just returning to macro, let's exit Accor for a minute and take a kind of a step back and look at what we're facing in terms of size, market, and geographic distribution. On the left, you have chart that you're familiar with. You'll recall that we were very pleased right before COVID to talk about 1.5 billion people who leaving their country and traveling international travel. Borders were shut down.
There was a drop of close on 1 billion travelers who weren't able to travel during COVID. We didn't know if the rebound was going to be swift, where the rebound would occur. We know today that 2024 probably allow us to return to the level in 2019, not far from 1.5 billion. The figure given here, given by the UN for travel, talks about 4.408 billion. I'm pretty-- I'm actually pretty convinced that we'll top the 1.5 billion by the end of the year, above 1.488. On the right, it's not quite the same story, depending on the destination and the reason in where you're traveling. Well, it's true, very encouraging.
The region that bounced back the fastest, way above 2019 levels, 22% higher, is Middle East. Middle East, you've got a number of new countries that have placed tourism and travel as a priority, notably Saudi Arabia. 100 million travelers who headed for Saudi Arabia last year, which is considerable. See that Africa, -4%, well, there again, between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, the figures vary. North Africa rebounded faster than Sub-Saharan Africa. Europe was still at -6% last year. Probably, we should return to zero today, that is, 2019 levels in Europe. We'll tell you more about Italy, Spain, Germany, the UK. It's a mixed bag across Europe. In a word, the South is doing better than the North in terms of tourism and travel.
America, between North and South, minus 10%. Here again, we're set to return to zero in 2024. That is on a par with 2019. ASPAC, Asia Pacific, the rebound is the slowest. Very encouraging, the Chinese, 150 million to travel outside China back in 2019, just under 50 million in 2023. In other words, two-thirds of them stayed at home. The Chinese rebound's very significant, not as significant as expected. Figures from the Chinese authorities, between 80-100 million Chinese will travel during the course of 2024. It's not sufficient in terms of the 150 million, but it's far better than the 40 million-50 million. What's happening now and what's happening very swiftly before our eyes, you've got two regions in ASPAC that are growing very strongly, rebounding strongly.
Southeast Asia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, Malaysia, they're benefiting from very strong rebounds. So if I see you next year, probably, in all likelihood, across each of the regions, you'll have positive figures versus 2019. So why? Well, there are a number of explanations that are, in fact, quite simple, and that we share the figures every year with you, and you have six boxes. Well, the first box is, like many industries, the quality of the corporate results are very linked to global economic growth or GDP growth in the country where you're based. So GDP growth, global economic growth is set to reach about 3.4% this year.
It varied because probably around 1 or 1.2%, whereas we'll see probably more than over 6% in India, but growth is there. So we have onboarded energy to leverage that growth, benefit from a bit of inflation that's always been good for the, for the hospitality sector, but so we have the wind in our sails. We're going to take benefit of that. Of course, growth varies across country. President Sarkozy mentions it very. Demography, it's the preponderant criterion that has allowed the hospitality industry on tourism to grow. More people on the planet, more these people one day will have the urge to travel. But within the demography, there's one that's even more important, which is a sub-criterion. What is the growth in the middle classes? Well, you have about 7.8 billion people on this earth.
We know that for 10 years now, 1 billion new people have had access to what we call the middle class. We know that over the next 10 years, probably 1.3 billion people will enter what we call the middle class. A large part of that 1.3 billion people, maybe 200 million-300 million, will probably be solely in India. We'll tell you more about the importance of India and the growth of Accor and hospitality in general. Supply, that is overtaken by demand. Demand, 3.7% a year, and supply, that is new hotels built, that for 20 years, between 1.5%-2% growth a year.
That we're part of the few industries where the past 20 years and the next 10 years, you have customer demand that is 2-3 times higher than the supply, which is a huge benefit, gives us a tremendous ability to predict tomorrow as well. Corporate travel strengthening. We had loads of questions on the after COVID, whether the great efficiency of tools such as Zoom and Teams, this ability to stay at home, not to go to the office, not to travel, and to interact with someone who's far away. Well, that works very well. It's very effective. People are on time. We manage to talk business and to have growth results for the the company.
In fact, I was one of those who said that in all likelihood, given these, tech enablers, given our desire to protect the planet, corporate travel could shrink by 20%-25%. Going forward, it's not at all the case—they're not the same corporate travelers. Give you this, an example. The person who traveled from Seattle and heading for Singapore, that was a long trip, expensive trip, and tiring. Same person who did that four times a year back in 2018, 2019, will do that same trip today, maximum twice. The rest meetings will be Zoom or Teams. So, long-haul corporate travel has shrunk by about 50%, but there's another form of corporate traveling. That's all the small, medium-sized companies. People are working from home.
We see them less and less need to, bring their teams together by clusters of 20, 30 people, couple of times a month, and they, meet two hours from home for two days in a hotel. We've never seen these small clusters of people, 20, 30 people, in so many hotels across so many... You lose the traveler from afar, and you recover, clusters of people who travel far less, far, which is great to protect the planet. Many of these business travelers go by train, so change in consumption patterns, you know? Increasing number of people own less and less, clothing, a car, or what have you. People today preferred to spend their money in entertainment, travel, and usage.
The figures tell us that the middle class is 20% of what they spend per year is in travel and entertainment. And travel, of course, some is domestic, so you stay in France, so you're not in the 1.5 billion people I referred to earlier. Finally, we're benefiting directly from global events. So happens we've got two, well, it's three, here in the next six months. A major one that will favorably impact Germany, that's the European Soccer Championship that's gonna be held in 10 days' time. And so the figures there are a number of German cities very good figures during these events. You've got another that I mentioned earlier with the Olympic Games. So what's the real impact of the games on hospitality? Well, in fact, it's uncertain today.
We're about 71% occupancy rate for the hotels concerned. We could have expected 85% at least. You probably heard, some silly things were done by some hoteliers a year ago, asking for outrageous prices, thinking that their hotel was going to be absolutely fully booked. We'll probably be of 85% during the games, but there are still rooms available for these events. Then you've got a third event. It'll be good for France, good for the French economy, good for tourism and hospitality. Third event, another country, the America's Cup, that's in Barcelona, sailing between 23rd of August and early October. Three events-- three events, located in European countries where Accor has the, greatest market share.
Shown here, it won't take long because you can't read, is the name of the hotel, nor can I, written wide on white, and even if we're trying to make efforts. These are openings in luxury lifestyle in 2023. As I know some, I can tell you a bit more about them. Top left, you probably you've got one of the five finest hotels in the world. It's the Raffles, the old war office in London. Those of you who are fortunate enough to head to London, go visit it. It's absolutely unique. It was the war office under Winston Churchill. It was the office of the defense Minister, Winston Churchill. You can re the command room, where all the major decisions were taken to save this country, France, and many other European...
It's a wonderful building, a lot of restoration, where you'll find residents, Raffles and 120 rooms. It's amazing. MGallery Troyes, Maison Delano Paris, next to the Élysée. Handwritten, a new brand growing world collection brand just below MGallery, the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay there again. If you're fortunate and available just to go in your car by, it's 45 minutes from Paris in the Vallée de Chevreuse, a building that dates back to 1140, that's been totally renovated by a certain high society. It's absolutely amazing, refined, and it's worth spending an afternoon there after lunch. And then you've got Rixos, Montenegro. That's a former Venetian palace that has been totally refurbished by our company, Rixos. Find the same price, different images, but equally interesting and elegant on the PME business.
In China, very often our brands are splendid in terms of quality and spending. Grand Mercure here, another hotel in China, Swissôtel, which is a Swiss hotel. Novotel Bangkok, that's been totally refurbished. That's very fine that I know. I know especially, you can head to Lyon quite easily. Go visit the new Pullman. That's right next to the train station. Took two and a half years to set it up. Probably the finest Pullman in Europe, done by franchised investment, the family Didier Ferré. It's a fine building in which all the ground floor is linked to bar and hospitality. You're lucky if you find the front desk. It's hidden next to the bar. Fine hotel in Nairobi, and you got an ibis Styles that's quite fun and winsome in Rotterdam.
I talked to you about the games, but just wanna dive for 3 minutes deeper into what behooves us. We're a partner. We're proud to do that. We're gonna accompany the athletes, but we're really responsible of welcoming and the experience of the 15 million visitors and travelers heading for France. We've got 1,700 Accor hotels in France. About a third of them, 650, are in the 10 cities where the competitions will take place. A third of Accor hotels present on Olympic sites. We've trained 40,000 group employees to give them this agility and make them understand that they're going to receive great many people who don't speak French, and to offer them best possible experience. We got 1,200 bars and restaurants.
They'll be used with a variety of events, and 22 brands are there from Accor that will radiate. And Parc de la Villette, there's a Club France that was set up. Very often, the Club France is where the Olympic medallists go celebrate their medals with their partners and families. So at La Villette, if ever you wanna be there during the games, every evening there'll be a number of festivities, and Accor Limitless very present in the bars and dining villages. Now, we've agreed to manage 100 different buildings, 71 residences for the athletes, and 23 residences for the media. Not quite in the same place. The media near Le Bourget, whereas the athletes are located at Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen.
That means that we're going to receive 25,000 athletes that we're gonna have to manage the reception. That is, collect the baggage, help them find their room in 73 different buildings, give them their keys, give them all useful directions, so they can find the buses, the metros, all the logistics, and lastly, to be able to serve breakfast. It's catering's done by Sodexo, and we're in charge of services, hospitality, two different sections, which suits us fine. For our friends from the media, also 15,000. It'll be 70,000 beds managed. It's not a worry for Accor. It so happens that we did it recently, barely 10 months ago, during the World Cup in Qatar. You probably heard about it. Back then, we managed 80,000 beds in about 400 residences.
To go from 400 to 100 is quite easy. To go from 85,000 beds to 16,000 bed, we've done, and we can do it again wonderfully well. And then you've got a reservation platform. Accor was picked 7 years ago through a call for tender, so we're managing for 4 years now, all the reservation corridors for reservations for accommodation and all the hotel offering, whether it's independent or part of Accor, was wonderfully managed by a young woman, Iris, and I never know what her surname is. So Iris is in the driving seat on that with a full team that in the organizing committee team at Saint-Denis. So we asked ourselves a question almost 10 months ago. It was back in July 2023.
You know, in 10 years, we've gone to 46 brands group, 86% European down to 45% European. We've conquered many new territories, many new continents, a lot of different cultures, different languages, different educational backgrounds. So the question that was put within the group was to say: Can we find what brings us together between people who are working in an ibis in Nigeria or Chile, as well as other brands? It wasn't an easy question to answer, and so this questioning was linked not only to what brings us together, but also what's our purpose. And so an effort was done. I'll explain you the pathway, but right talking about the pathway, I just want to show you the film that retraces large part of the interaction between people in the group.
What if the art of hospitality, our art, could be a force for good? With tailored experiences crafted for every guest and authentic connections to local cultures and communities, leading to greater awareness of the world's beauty and fragility. What if we could enrich lives one journey at a time? Wishful thinking? We don't think so. We believe it's the future, our future, and we are exploring it right now, paving the way to new horizons, infusing everything we do with heartfelt care, from the smallest act of kindness to the most ambitious sustainability initiative. That's what sets us apart, learning from one another, unleashing collective creativity, making everyone feel unique, our hosts, guests, and owners alike. This is what we do. We dare to think big and redefine what's possible. We are pioneering the art of responsible hospitality, connecting cultures with heartfelt care. This is our purpose.
More than a sentiment, it's a commitment, a commitment to our communities, a commitment to the world.
I'm going to tell you a bit more about what you just heard very briefly. We're going to dwell upon it on one of these slides coming up very shortly. I told you about this question we asked ourselves: What have we got in common? What is our purpose? And to answer that question, when you have 320,000 different people in 120 countries, you need method.
...So we organized what we call a working group, and very quickly, we found ourselves talking to people who had a lot of issues in this group, the Executive Committee, or ExCo. We didn't want to be just among ourselves, so we brought in people from outside of the group: owners, government representatives, partners, suppliers. And very soon we realized that the answers may be different depending on whether you work at head office and those who work in our hotels. So we wanted to hear from as many people as possible in both cases. Now, that's not all written here, but I'd like to thank the Board of Directors who are here in front of me. We also held two board meetings, which were very interesting because we didn't agree on everything, by the way.
Two board meetings about the fundamentals of these questions and answers and what directors felt, and the directors who know the group just as well as I do. Then we worked with the Ethics Committee. Hélène Auriol is chair of this Ethics Committee, and it's their task to check that this purpose is aligned with our values and the group's ethics. And finally, we set up a number of workshops with support functions. So between July of last year and today, we have had 8,000 people involved in answering the questions we put to them. 77% of these people work in our hotels throughout the group. But most impressively, it's not the 8,000 contributors and the 77% response rate. Can you just imagine what it takes to read 50,000 quotes?
Some people wrote a line or two, others submitted four or five quotes. So we had to look at each and every one of these sentences submitted by our 8,000 contributors to arrive at something that is common, shared. That's a huge undertaking, and we eventually arrived at this sentence. Now, 80% of all this was done in English, which I'm sure you'll understand, because English is probably the common language of the 300,000 Heartists. Now, I'm going to read this nice and gently because I'd like you to appropriate this sentence. It's pioneering the art of responsible hospitality, connecting cultures with heartfelt care and generosity.
The first thing that strikes me, and I'm reading through this as I did with the board and the Executive Committee, the first thing that strikes me is in this sentence, you have not got two words that I feel could well have belonged. The first is result, and the second is performance. So we're not talking about results and performance, despite the fact that this is a listed group with a lot of shareholders. One might have felt that the notion of achieving performance and results would be maybe self-evident in the purpose of a group. But quite intentionally, we decided that they should not be in our purpose because it—we didn't get it back through the 50,000 quotes, and secondly, because we are absolutely certain that if you are to answer this question, without any mind, you will get...
With this sentence, you'll get the result and performance that you deserve. So pioneering the art, they're two very different words. The word pioneering is probably what characterizes the group best since it was created. Entrepreneuring spirit, audacity, moving, taking risks, innovation. You have the word art. Art means excellence, which I, I often say this to people working in the group. A lot of our employees are not sculptors or painters or dancers, but they do master their art, which is the art of hospitality, and it's just as important as being a sculptor. Responsible hospitality. For over 50 years in this group, maybe more so than ever before in the last 5 or 6 years, we have been examining how we work our way through this group, what impact we have on local communities, what impact we have on water consumption, on carbon emissions.
Are we aware of cultural and regional differences? And you'll find that in this approach, there's a whole series of questions about the speed at which the group has expanded. Should we continue to open 300 new hotels every year? So we're connecting cultures. This is just the next part of the sentence. We love diversity. I think if there's something magical about this group, as I often not say, or maybe all too often say, we love culture. The idea of recruiting over 100,000 people with different languages, cultures, and skin colors, this is something we love. We do it very happily. We do it passionately, and it always works for us. So the group has an ability to listen and appreciate differences, which is nothing short of remarkable. So we must continue to connect and talk with one another. Heartfelt care.
Well, heartfelt care and generosity is all about celebrating human beings, the individual, rather than the group. Understanding that we have very, very different clients, owners, and different qualities, and all of this must be borne in mind. The one thing to be guided by, by far the most important, is our hearts, our hearts, our heartfelt care, and generosity. So I ask each and every one of us, myself included, that when taking a decision, we should always use the same criteria. You begin with your gut level, what your stomach tells you, and when your guts tell you what to do, you then, you then, use your heart to see what the impact that your decision will be on the people who will, I say, be affected by your decision.
Only then, only then do you apply your brain, because the brain will only give you one thing. It will give you the timeframe of your decision. So the heart is absolutely at the heart, at the very core of all our decisions. Now, when you have defined your purpose, you have to roll it out, and if you're going to roll it out this kind of thing, you have to be responsible and understand it. So there's a whole trajectory here. So this purpose has four pillars, and you're going to find the fragments of the sentence. The art of hospitality I've already talked about. The important word here is how to encourage people to go beyond their own creativity and their own curiosity. We are all different, and we all have a different reading, a different understanding of how we should proceed.
The second thing is responsible hospitality. That's the second pillar, and it's important to understand the impact we have on other people, the impact we have on food, on water consumption, which you'll see in the CSRD, is one of the main pillars. Connecting cultures, again, I mentioned this just a few minutes ago. It's all about understanding that we are all very different and that this is something very to be celebrated, all the local aspects of the regions and countries we work in. Finally, heartfelt care. Here, I think the important word, the very important word, more so this year than ever before, is benevolence and well-being. It's about... As passion and generosity have been part and parcel of this group for the last 50 years, it's incredible how kind this group is.
Maybe we're too kind, but it's a group that we feel happy in. It's a group where there's great transparency, happiness, and a lot of sincerity. But I think we need to take all this a step further. When we talk about our obligations in terms of corporate social responsibility, there's a lot in that basket. There's a lot about carbon, about energy, about food distribution, fauna, flora, biodiversity, and of course, then there are the social aspects. So with the Board of Directors , we decided to dedicate a department to what we call Social Care & Impact. This is quite close to human rights, and I'm going to speed this up because I see I'm running behind schedule. So about a little over 10 years ago, we made a commitment. This was parity in pay.
We took this at the UN of five different companies, five governments, five universities, and we were one of the five companies involved. Now, not unsurprisingly, in three or four years now, we have perfect parity in pay between men and women in the group. For the same job, same skills, we pay the same amount to men and to women. We've done a lot to protect, the presence, so, to protect women against, violence. We've taken a lot of initiatives in France and elsewhere to ensure that domestic violence ceases, that, harassment, harassment, should I say, ceases to exist. But we've also done everything we can to ensure that women are better representative on our managing, bodies. We have almost 42%. We hope to soon arrive at 50% in our governing bodies.
In some of the management boards, you'll see that there are very often a majority of women, but overall, at group level, we are 42% women in our governing bodies. Social elevator, as we call it, I get quoted the figure of 100,000 people recruited every year. Now, that's a good figure, but even more importantly, 60% of these 100,000 people recruited every year, 60% do not have a diploma for the end of secondary studies, be it A- levels or high school or whatever. 60% of them have never worked before. This is their first job, and this is because they've never had the opportunity or the privilege to work before or to get these diplomas.
So Accor is probably one of the very few groups in the world capable of extending a hand to people who have neither training, nor experience, nor degrees, and yet we take them on board. And the whole idea of this is to retain these people, to help them become hotel managers, capable of managing, even though they've never done secondary studies. About 30% of our hotel managers did not do secondary school, 30%. In terms of human rights, that's the right-hand column, we have to be not just careful, but we need method. There's a program called WATCH that protects children, and as in all our hotels in Latin America and Southeast Asia, we have mapped out the risks to ensure that we have the right priorities in the right places at the right time with the right populations. So-...
That's where it's all about, it's all about. Now, by way of conclusion, I'm sure we could have drafted a list of tens of priorities, but with just a short list of three. First and foremost, we probably have the most diversified and most innovative brand portfolio in the hospitality industry in the world. That's easy for me to say as CEO of Accor. I imagine the person who's CEO of Marriott or Hilton might would like to say the same thing, but day in, day out, this has been confirmed, and the Orient Express is clear confirmation of this, and it's more Huntington, Tag. This brand portfolio is nothing short of highly wonderful and diversified. Secondly, and I've discussed this at some length, our group culture is perfectly natural, very profound.
We don't impose it upon anybody, but this, culture of benevolence is supported by our, talent, and this helps us support our social and environmental ambitions. Final conclusion, without which nothing else will be possible in terms of social and environmental commitments. Thirdly, we have to be able to roll out our plan. As Martine said, we had a Capital Markets Day, and for 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027, we have made a number of commitments based on growth hypotheses. We met these in the first quarter of 2024. We will meet these targets in 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027. In other words, we will execute our strategy, roll it out, and continue to return to shareholders, as indicated only 14 months ago.
Let me now give the floor straight away to Brune Poirson, our Chief Sustainability Officer, who will now join me on stage to tell us what she is doing in terms of sustainable development. Thank you, Brune.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, dear directors. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning to you all. As Sébastien Bazin has just said, I'm going to share with you the progress we have made in the terms of the environment over the last 12 months. First and foremost, we don't always realize it, but tourism and traveling, in general, have an impact on the economy and our society, and we don't always realize this because it's a very fragmented industry.
I'm not going to read the figures on the slide, but to give you some idea of the positive economic and financial impact that tourism has, do bear in mind that in certain countries, it's up to 70% of that country's GDP that is dependent on tourism, up to 70%. That's how big a how great an importance a group like Accor can have on a given country's economy. There are also social and environmental impacts, and I'm thinking of CO2 emissions, for instance, which are rising, and if we follow the current trend without reacting. Now, we are reacting within our sector, but these emissions will continue to grow by 20% between now and 2030.
Then, there's the impact on biodiversity, particularly on water, which is rising, and of course, is very closely related or correlated to food. Again, I'll come back to that. So an important impact, but means that we have rolled out of great strategic importance. Some of you know this already, that we're targeting three important thrusts. First of all, we are seeking to reinvent our guests' experience. Just, it's hard to imagine everything that actually happens in a hotel, but this is where we want to considerably improve not just our operations, to ensure that we manage our hotels more sustainably, much more sustainably than we do now, than we've done in the past, but with much greater discipline. It's important to be more attractive in the way we manage data, to better manage our hotels on a day-to-day basis.
But of course, upstream of all that, there's the eco-designing of our hotel. We are working on the materials of the future. We are working on how hotels are organized to ensure that they're as environment-friendly as possible. The second big thrust, or strategic pillar, is food. Why are we talking about food? Because we serve almost 200 million meals a year. 200 million meals, and it's very often through the agricultural sector that we obtain the raw materials, the ingredients we need to cook. This is where the environmental footprint is located, in agriculture. We are working very hard to change some of our suppliers, or better still, to help our suppliers to lay in supplies in a more sustainable way.
There's food wastage, which is one of the first things we work on, and we have made commitments in terms of reducing food wastage. And we're also talking about new experiences. We have already proved that we can change part of our food habits while having as much pleasure in eating or tasting new food experiences in our hotels and restaurants throughout the world. The third strategic pillar is to reinvent the way that we travel. As you know, ours is a sector that is very closely correlated with air travel, which uses a lot of kerosene and carbon, produces a lot of carbon. But as of now, I think we need to ask ourselves other questions about the way we interact with nature, with the spaces we operate in...
I talked about biodiversity earlier on, but what we are selling in hospitality is very often a view. A view or the, let's say, the ability to enjoy nature. And here again, we have a very special responsibility that Sébastien Bazin has talked about at length. It's the importance of local components and working with the local communities. Now, okay, I've mentioned the three pillars. That's all very fine, saying that we have a clear strategy. We've started to roll out that strategy, but it's better again, when you have targets with figures on them. These are science-based targets. This is, again, with the support of the U.N., among others, that help us set the targets that we have set ourselves. I'm not going to quote all of these, but these are targets that are based on science.
For instance, in terms of our carbon footprint, we have committed to reduce Scope 1 and 2 by 48% in absolute terms, and Scope 3, we will reduce by 28% in absolute terms once again. As for food waste, our target is to reduce food waste by 60% between now and 2030. Another example, we're working with SBTN. These are the science-based targets on biodiversity, or diversity, I should say, with a view to reducing our impact on freshwater. Some of these have target dates at 2030, but we're not waiting for 2030 to start. We've already set these targets, but let me point out once again that this is not the entire vision of all the objectives we've set ourselves. I just wanted to share a few examples with you, particularly single-use plastic.
We've done quite a lot in getting rid of single-use plastics. There are 57 single-use plastic items that have been done away with in our hotels. You may say that that's easy, but it's now part and parcel of our culture. First of all, it's part and parcel of our hotel culture, largely thanks to Accor. We have set up standards that industry, the industry has followed. I think we are the leaders, and others have followed, and this is how we approach sustainable development. This is part of our very purpose that Sébastien described. We are pioneers, and we believe that the way we manage our hotels should be not just an art, but also a matter of performance.
In terms of plastics, you can imagine in countries where tap water is not drinking water, you can imagine what it means to do away with plastic bottles. You need a lot of creativity to invent new ways of providing drinking water, risk-free drinking water, to our guests, and in sufficient quantity. That goes without saying. As for measuring our emissions, one of the key words here, the key words are ambition, discipline, measurement, and we are collecting data, particularly carbon data. 60% of our hotels were measuring their carbon emissions, and we are rolling out this measurement tool in 110 different countries in an ever-increasing number of hotels. You can imagine just how big a challenge this is.
As for food waste, as I told you, this is one of the group's top priorities and has been one of our top priorities for quite some time. This is really part and parcel of our culture and borne out by the target we exceeded last year, measuring food waste. We are one of the top 300 hotels that have defined a baseline value for their food waste. In terms of gender parity, that's equality between men and women. Here again, and I won't dwell on this because Sébastien has already talked about it. He's explained how gender parity is part and parcel of our genes. We have again, once again, exceeded our target in gender parity. When I talk about targets, I think it's always important to stay humble. We can never be entirely happy about our non-financial performance, and I'm not talking about being self-congratulatory.
We have been acknowledged by a number of rating agencies. Let me draw your attention to the fact that Accor is now on the CDP's A List in terms of carbon reduction and fight against global warming in Europe, where 20,000 firms have replied to the questionnaire, only 141 are A-Listed. So we are A-Listers in CDP. That means that our endeavors in terms of transparency, rigor, discipline, in terms of carbon, are widely acknowledged. We are still part of the ESG CAC 40, and as for the under indices, we have improved, say, maintained or improved our rating, which is clear evidence of the group's commitment and the fact that this commitment is acknowledged outside of the group. This should reassure our shareholders about our ability to reach our targets.
I mentioned the word transparency, and I talked about measurement. I also mentioned recognition by third parties. Well, this is also borne out in the figure I'm going to share with you here today. This is not a figure we can feel happy about. In Scope 1 and Scope 2, by comparison with 2022, our greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 11.6%. I think it's important to tell you about this figure. This is due to our business model. Again, Sébastien Bazin talked about this. We have started questioning ourselves. We're not going to revolutionize our business model, but we are now looking at the number of hotels we open every year.
Because that figure tells you that we are opening more and more hotels, sometimes in countries where the carbon mix is and I'm thinking of sectors like the luxury sector, where the carbon production is high. I know a number of people here in the room could bear me out on this, but we are actively rolling out a reduction of our consumption. So it's all about sobriety, sobriety, and sobriety. The idea being to consume 50% less energy by 2030, by comparison with 2022. The idea is to improve, let's say, to reduce the amount of energy we use through better energy efficiency measure and the target of reducing our carbon intensity by 8%. Again, we will work on the energy offering, so more green energy, working hand in hand with our hotel owners to achieve this goal.
As I said, I'm only sharing a very small amount of what we do, but we've placed great emphasis on innovation. We are letting our people innovate, particularly on the occasion of COP 28, but also because we have signed an agreement with ADEME, our Captain Cause. Now, these are three examples I'm quoting because there's a lot of creativity on the part of our employees throughout the world. Also, because this is at the service of our hotel owners who need concrete solutions if they are to reduce the carbon consumption of, or production of their assets. Now, these are big challenges. We're not going to overcome all the obstacles alone. We will get there working hand in hand with other companies in the sector. And this is why we are very, very active in the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance.
This is why our procurement people, Caroline Tissot's team, this is why they are working with EcoVadis and other actors in hospitality to reduce the carbon in our chain of value. In 2021, we set out targets that are very clear. They're all about decarbonizing our assets, all about eco-certifying our activities to attract clients, and our people are working hard at this. We are giving local teams the opportunity to innovate in the most disciplined way possible, and believe me, our people are very, very involved in this area. Now, just a few very concrete examples to wrap it up. First of all, Novotel Abu Dhabi, which has applied solutions, AI solutions, to reduce food waste. It's almost reduced its food waste, or cut its food waste in half. We're also aiming to reduce our water consumption.
The hotel that comes to mind is Mövenpick Petra, where we've replaced bathtubs and replaced them by showers. We call this nudging, and it works very well. Another example would be Sofitel Casablanca, where our food offering is increasingly vegan or, or, or vegetable-based, more local food to attract people to our restaurants. There are also in-depth refurbishing jobs that we do, for instance, in the Fairmont Royal York. And finally, in Istanbul, we have tested a new way of serving breakfast. So rather than a buffet, we have opted for an à la carte breakfast, which is even more enjoyable for guests, while reducing our impact on biodiversity and the environment. That's what I wanted to share with you. Let me now give the floor to the next speaker. Besma. Thank you.
The next person, Brune, is Besma, who's going to talk to us about the governance of our company.
Thank you, Brune. Thank you, Sébastien. I'm gonna talk to you briefly about the board and its committee's composition of the board. 13 Directors, including Anne-Laure Kiechel, who joined us last year after the last AGM, and two directors representing employees. That's a total 64% of independent directors, 55% women. The women directors representing employees excluded from these calculations. As you know, the board meets several times, 10 occasions during the year, with an attendance rate of 93%, covering a number of issues. We've displayed a few on this slide, notably the implementation of the internal organization in two divisions: Premium, Mid scale, E conomy and luxury lifestyle, with the contribution of assets we'll come to later. The sale of the building where we are, to Valesco Group.
A specialized committee devoted to CSR, the ESG committee, and the board followed the missions conducted by the ALL Heartists Fund. For this, it relies on five specialist committees. Firstly, the Audit, Compliance, and Risk Committee that met on four occasions this year, reaching an attendance rate of 74%. This committee notably reviews the annual financial and quarterly financial statements, but also is informed of the group compliance and risk program. Risks in terms of cybersecurity, protection of personal data. Appointments compensation committee made up of seven members, 67% independent directors, four meetings in 2023, 89% average attendance rate. It's in charge of compensation for Mr. Bazin and the directors. Next committee, Commitments Committee, the membership is open to all directors.
It met four times this year and reviews the various group commitment projects in terms of M&A or disposal. And then International Strategy Committee considers the major geopolitical issues and their impact on the group's business this year, the impact of the situation in the Middle East and in Russia, with an attendance rate of 100%. And of course, this new ESG committee that was set up in February last year that reviewed the group's commitment in terms of CSR, just discussed by Brune, and then the CSR criteria for Sébastien Bazin's compensation. Turning now to compensation, that'll be presented by Bruno Pavlovsky. Thank you.
Merci, Besma. Thank you, Besma. Ladies, gentlemen, dear shareholders, good morning.
I'm pleased to be with you once again this year to present the work of the Appointments Compensation Committee, as well as compensation of executive officers during 2023. Committee proposed the creation of a new committee to the board. ESG committee reviewed the directors' independence criteria, discussed gender equality policy, tracked the functioning of the committees undertaken with the help of a consultant. Turning now to compensation of executive officers, you're asked today to vote, as every year, on the information pertaining to compensation of benefits paid or allocated to all executive officers during the course of the elapsed year. Then more specifically, on the compensation of benefits paid during the past year, or allocated in respect of that same fiscal year to our CEO, Mr. Sébastien Bazin, there to Say on Pay ex post.
Compensation of directors for FY 2023, an amount of EUR 1,277,661 distributed amongst directors, depending on their attendance at committee board meetings. Regarding compensation of our CEO, the base pay compensation of Mr. Bazin remains unchanged, and that since 1 January 2016, that's EUR 950,000. His annual variable compensation was adopted on the basis of the achievement of the targets that we've agreed together. Quantitative targets involved EBITDA, free cash flow, net organic growth number of rooms, as well as three ESG criteria. Percentage of managed or franchised hotels that have scrapped single-use plastic in the customer experience, including consumable water bottles. Percentage of managed and franchised hotels for which a carbon emission tool was in place at the end of last year.
Percentage of managed, franchised hotels that measured their food waste. Percentage of women in Executive Committees globally. To that, we add qualitative targets pertaining to the rollout of the new Turbo organization and talent development. Having noted the attainment rate of each of these targets by the committee, the board concluded that the variable component... the compensation of Mr. Bazin reached EUR 1,868,865. That's 139% of the reference amount, the potential being a maximum, 150% of that reference amount. Your CEO was also awarded 2023 performance shares in accordance with compensation policy, and therefore subject to obligation to conserve them in conditions of performance defined in the Universal Registration Document made available to you.
Furthermore, as part of the say on pay ex ante, you're asked to vote on the compensation policy of executive officers for the coming year. In regard to the compensation policy for directors, you're asked to increase the total package so as to maintain a compensation level that's equivalent for director. Madame Anne Lauvergeon joined the board at the last AGM, which has increased the number of directors, and that the overall package hasn't changed since 2018. Regarding the compensation policy of our Chairman and CEO, the fixed compensation for FY 2024 remains once again unchanged. The reference amount variable compensation of your Chairman and CEO remains unchanged at EUR 1.4 million.
Let me remind you, variable compensation can vary from 0% to 150% of that reference amount, depending on the attainment of agreed performance conditions by the board upon recommendation of the committee. Quantitative targets representing 80% of annual variable compensation, on the one hand, financial, EBITDA, and free cash flow. Furthermore, non-financial, to wit, net growth of the network and three ESG criteria, reflecting the group's priorities, presented by Brune Poirson earlier, percentage of hotels with a reference basis for water consumption, percentage of eco-certified hotels, percentage of women that have a position at least equivalent to vice president according to the internal classification of the group. Quantitative targets representing 20% of variable annual compensation are based on the implementation of Turbo, talent development, and supporting the rollout of the CSR plan. Lastly, Mr.
Bazin can benefit from a number of performance shares representing up to 280% of his gross annual compensation. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. Thanks, Bruno. I'm gonna ask, Besma to now present the 14 resolutions to you.
Thank you. So I'll begin with the first, second, and third resolutions and move fast because, of course, these are the resolutions that concern the approval of the company's annual consolidated financial statement and allocation of earnings, a proposed dividend of EUR 1.18 per share. Fourth resolution aimed at appointing, PricewaterhouseCoopers as, statutory auditor in charge of certifying sustainability information, and that for a 1-year term. This new requirement that's aimed for CSRD, Corporate, Sustainability Reporting Directive, European directive regarding, notifications in terms of sustainable development, requires an auditor to audit, that.
That's what we're proposing with the appointment of PwC. Fifth to ninth resolution concerns compensation of corporate officers to increase the total package of attendance fees. Sixth and seventh resolutions concern say on pay ex-post. That's to say total compensation in 2023 of directors and Mr. Bazin, whereas the eighth and ninth put to your approval compensation of the chairman and CEO for 2024, that's say on pay ex-ante. All the information on compensation of corporate officers is in the URD for 2023. The tenth resolution asks you to vote on a related party agreement concluded in March twenty subsidiary Jin Jiang International purchase off market a block company's shares held by the company.
You're also asked to take note of the statutory auditor's special report and the regulated agreements concluded during the past year, and whose effects continue into this year. 11th resolution is aimed at renewing the authorization you give every year to the company in order to trade in its own shares, a limit of 10% of capital stock, maximum, price of EUR 70. 12th resolution, approval of the proposed partial contribution of assets of luxury and lifestyle business segment by the company to its subsidiary, Accor Luxury & Lifestyle SAS. Since January 1, 2023, the group has implemented a new organization based on two distinct divisions: premium, mid-scale, and economy on the one hand; luxury and lifestyle on the other.
To ensure that this organization enables better adaptation to market developments, you're asked to bring all activities of luxury and lifestyle to a subsidiary of Accor, Accor Luxury & Lifestyle SAS, that will combine all the assets, dedicated brands, contracts devoted to luxury and... It's a purely internal transaction. We'll make this new organization fully operational and to follow its performance in a detailed and efficient manner. As required by law, a contribution agreement was submitted to you, and the contribution auditors were appointed by the Nanterre tribunal, and the auditors will present their conclusion. The contribution was evaluated; in turn it will be paid in company shares, Accor Luxury & Lifestyle SAS. All the details of this contribution will be presented to you by the auditors. I would say that the social and economic committee of the company issued a positive opinion on this proposed contribution.
Subject to your approval, this proposed partial contribution of assets will complete on the first of June 2024. Thirteenth resolution, you're asked to let the board issue share warrants to be issued to freely to shareholders in the event of a public offer on the shares of the company after prior approval by an ad hoc committee composed of three independent directors. Fourteenth resolution, powers for formalities. Over now to Mr. François Jaumain, representing the auditors for their report. Thank you.
Shareholders, good morning. On behalf of the auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit and Ernst & Young, I'm gonna report on our assignment on the year ended the end of 2023. Our report on the annual financial statements and related party agreements are to be found in the URD for FY 2023, as well as in the convening notice to this meeting. Our other reports are also to be found in the convening notice. The corresponding page numbers are displayed upon screen. As per usual, I will now summarize the main items concerning a report on the financials. We recall that the purpose of our assignment is to obtain reasonable assurance that the financials represent a true and fair view of the company, and that they comprise no material misstatements.
Our approach is adapted to the activities, various businesses of the group, as well as its international organization. We strive to audit both current operation as well as specific events, and have implemented our audits in accordance with professional standards applicable in France. Conclusions were shared with the financial divisions group, financial department during regular exchanges. We also reported on the organization of our work and our conclusions to the audit committee, as well as to the board of your company. Now, I'll begin with our report on the annual financial statements of Accor SA, to be found on pages 412, 415 of the URD, drawn up under French GAAP rules.
We've certified them without reservation and considered that the assessment of equity securities was a key audit matter, and described the various procedures that we conducted in this regard. Turning now to our report on the consolidated financial statements drawn up under IFRS, as adopted by the EU, to be found on page 379-382 of the Universal Registration Document. We've also certified them without reservation or observation. Considered that the assessment of intangible asset was a key audit matter, notably, owing to the significant estimates by management on this, and described in the report the specific procedures that we conducted on this project. Lastly, we made sure that the management report did indeed comprise the information required by law.
Now, we also issue a report on related party agreement, pages 214 to 216 of the universal registration document, and we were informed of a new agreement reached with Rubyrock Capital Co Limited, controlled by Jin Jiang International, on the acquisition of a block of shares. And our report also mention the agreements whose execution continued in 2023, previously approved by your general meeting. We also, as an independent third party, issued a report of moderate assurance on checking the non-financial performance, to be found on page 211 of the URD. No major material misstatements noted in terms of compliance with regulations or the sincerity of information contained therein.
Lastly, we issued a report that was made available to you by the company, and is to be found in the convening notice on page 46, concerning Resolution 13, to issue freely to shareholders. This doesn't comprise any particular observation, and we'll draw up an additional report in due course if this authorization is used by your Board of Directors . Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much. We'll now give the floor to Messrs. Kling and Munoz, who'll tell you about their report as the contribution auditors.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'm going to report on our mission as demerger auditors in the partial contribution of assets to Luxury and Lifestyle by Accor SA to the Luxury and Lifestyle SAS company. So, I'll talk to you about the value of the compensation of the contribution, and my colleague, Didier Kling, will talk about the compensation. Now, all the assets and liabilities in the making up Luxury and Lifestyle, well, there's a very close connection between the companies concerned, because Accor owns 100% of the capital in the beneficiary of the contributions. So far as this is a contribution to a wholly owned company, it's the net book value that we use as a valuation in compliance with the general accounting rules in France.
So the value of the contributions is comprised of total assets of EUR 2.984 billion, with total liabilities of EUR 262.189 million, and a net book value of EUR 2.722+ billion. So, the work that the auditors have done on the contributions to the demerger, this is, of course, in compliance with the accounting principles and methods, and our profession in general. These have consisted in checking compliance with the accounting regulations in force regarding the appraisal of contributions, in checking the reality of the complete branch of activity contributed, checking the reality of contributions, the correct evaluation of contributions taken individually, and the correct appraisal of contributions taken overall. The goal of our assignment is to ensure that there's no overestimation.
We take two approaches: an individual approach and an overall approach. And the methods used to check that the real value is at least equal to the net book value and the valuation of flows, these are methods that are absolutely traditional in the sector, and the valuations arrived at by these methods confirm the individual valuations of the contributions. As for the overall valuation of contributions, the methods used to assess the overall value are the sum of parts of the individual values of contribution, so far these are mainly equity securities, and the stock market comparables method. We've also applied the overall real value of the contribution, which is higher than the book value of the net assets contributed, thus confirming the value of the contributions as set forth in the agreement.
So, by way of conclusion on our audit, we can confirm that the contribution value retained amounts to EUR 2.722 billion, is not overvalued, and the net assets contributed are at least equal to the amount of the capital increase of the beneficiary company increased by the contribution premium. So much for the value of the contributions. Thank you, Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, the Court of Commerce entrusted us with a twofold task. The first of these is to ensure that the value of the assets contributed in this transaction, as described by my colleague. The second part of the mission is to ensure that in the transfer of assets, that operating assets are exchanged for equity security. So we have to ensure that this compensation is satisfactory.
In other words, that the two sides of the balance are very equal. So our task is to meet the requirements of the Court of Commerce, which ask us to ensure that the compensation is fair compensation. Secondly, we have to ensure that the methods are the methods applied by the National Association of Statutory Auditors. These show that the overall contribution of approximately EUR 2.7 billion. On the other hand, the beneficiary company is increasing its capital by EUR 2.83 billion, and the difference is what we call the contribution premium, which you own because you wholly own the beneficiary company. I'm not going to go into the details of this work, which you'll find in our report, and which has been recorded in the transaction document.
I think the important thing to tell you is that the compensation is fair compensation for the contributed assets. Isn't it? How can you make complicated things sound so simple? Thank you, Jean-Noël. Thank you, Didier. Just a little aside, if I may now, on this transaction that we have called Turbo. That's in-house jargon, which I think what the auditors have just talked to you about... Well, a lot of you here in the room today, especially to my right, Besma in particular, all our legal, accounting, financial people, have been working on this for 14 or 15 months. This is a huge undertaking that has enabled the auditors to review all the details of this transaction, and you have all of this in front of you for approval in the form of several resolutions.
But it's a very difficult, arduous undertaking, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved. If you approve this, I think we will have cause to celebrate the benefits of our hard work. Let's move on to the pleasant time. This is the questions and answer session. I think this is what people enjoy most at AGMs, and what's more, the lighting is on, so we are not alone in the spotlight. I'm going to leave the floor to Besma, who will tell you about the answers to written questions. Well, these questions were answered before the AGM, and we will be putting all these questions and answers, very numerous, by the way, on the website, rather than deal with them live. So we're going to take about 30 minutes, as we usually do, to deal with questions.
I can't see much, but I do see a number two. We're going to take questions from the consultative committee of individual shareholders. The first question is: What are the Accor group's prospects in the high-growth market of India in the short and medium term?
No.
D'accord. Okay.
At the high-growth market in India in the short and long term. Well, India is a country we're very interested in. As I've said, 1.42 billion inhabitants, 40 million international travelers, 6% annual growth for the last two years, and they expected similar growth over the next few years. One third of the population of India is now what we call in the middle classes, and probably two thirds between five or seven and 10 years. So it's strong growth, but it's also a country where the increase in the middle classes is among the highest. This tells us several things. First of all, the more you have the means to spend over above your bare necessities, the more you will travel.
First of all, in India, and India is a huge country before you even consider traveling abroad. So the first indicator is that demand for travel has grown. In fact, there's a great demand for travel and entertainment. Second indicator, which is just as important as the first one. Second indicator is: Does India have the means to organize the travel? Have they got the cars, the trains, and the planes for all that? No doubt about the number of cars in India. I'm not very expert in railways in India, but certainly in—for air companies, we are very present because for 18 years now, we've been partnering with a group, Mr. Rahul Bhatia's family company called IndiGo. This is an InterGlobe company, and IndiGo is the airline that they set up about 20 years ago.
IndiGo now has a market share of about 55%, 50% of air travel in India. And as you may have read in the newspapers, IndiGo is the biggest buyer or biggest orderer of Airbus aircraft. They ordered 500 A320s, in particular, in Le Bourget two years ago, and they're raising options on A350s. I think another 500 or possibly even 750 aircraft, so huge buyers. Now, IndiGo has opened up 80 hubs in 80 different destinations in India over the last five years. They are currently setting up 240 or helping create 240 different airports in India. And over and beyond the 80 destinations in India, IndiGo has 30 international destinations, basically in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
This means that we also have a flourishing, high-growth company that's expanding, and this company is a partner of ours. So we expect high growth in the hospitality industry in India and a high growth in the number of Indians traveling abroad. We expect 40 million Indians to travel abroad next year, and pretty much a safe bet that Indians will be as important as the Americans and Chinese, who are 150 million recently. So between 40 million today and the 150 million, probably take four or five years before we get there. So that's going to happen very, very fast. Now, with China, when the Chinese started to travel abroad, 80% of them remain within the boundaries of Pacific Asia for food reasons, for their own comfort zone.
So we can expect something similar to happen with the Indians. They will fly four hours to the east of Malaysia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia. They will head towards Saudi Arabia, to the west, to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Africa. That's fine. They're precisely the markets in which we are best established. So we have two parts to India, two real questions: How do we accommodate domestic expansion? Because it takes complicated, because it takes six years to open a hotel in India, while it takes only three in Europe and two in the U.S. So we'll be working on domestic travel in India, but we're going to have to revise our methods.
We hope to have something to announce later on in this year. But, as for international travel, we're spending a lot of time with India on the 30 destinations that IndiGo services. So India will have a major effect on hospitality worldwide and a very significant impact on Accor. So we're very confident about this. It's a market we're very familiar with. We know the actors well, and I think we're working alongside the right people at the right time. Second question: Why not propose a payout policy that includes shares? Well, for the simple reason that we are buying back our shares. You will have seen that we spent EUR 400 million buying back shares in 2023, EUR 400 million in 2024.
About 23 million shares that have since been canceled, so it's not a good time to be distributing shares while we're buying them back. So the emphasis on dividends in the form of payment in kind or payment in cash, rather than payment in shares.
Okay, next question, number two. If you just pass the mic.
Bonjour.
Madame Boumaza told us that the reference document and notice of meeting were available. I've been calling the toll-free number for weeks, and I have not succeeded in obtaining the documents. The statutory auditors, indeed, you yourself, madam, when you presented the resolutions, have mentioned time and again the notice of meeting. How do we go about obtaining this notice of meeting? I still haven't received it, despite asking for it every week. Every year, it's a problem. Furthermore, since the year 2000, I've been a member of the Shareholders Club. I have a little dumb phone, as they're called, not a smartphone, and have no access to the various outings and events that you organize.
... how do we, go about joining this when you don't have internet at home?
Well, on your first question, well, first of all, I must apologize. It's actually one of the documents you should be able to receive at the end of the convening notice on the website. There's a form you can send in. I know what you're going to answer, but I'm very sorry. I'm going to see with Soc Gen, that manages our free phone number, why you haven't been able to receive those materials. On your second question, Soc Gen? She's at Soc Gen. Okay, very delightful person at Soc Gen, so you should get the documents upon the request. We're gonna look into that. Thanks for notifying us.
On the second question and the shareholder club, well, we're going to, of course, see with our communications team how to get in touch with you personally, because convening notices are generally sent out by email, but we'll see how we can improve things.
Next question on my right, please. Bonjour, Monsieur le President. Chairman, good morning. I'm an individual shareholder. My question concerns the non-financial performance you presented. Very fine results, ambition to ambitious targets. Of course, this policy requires financial resources that are considerable, that will, in all likelihood, impact the economic and financial performance of our company. I'm not at all challenging the paramount need of our sustainability policy. Could you give us orders of magnitude on the financial impacts of our ambitions in terms of non-financial performance? Thank you for answering my question, which I recognize isn't perhaps consistent with the analysis of the quotes you presented earlier, if I understood you right.
I'm trying to understand your question. On the non-financial, we're spending sufficient for our ambition. Have we quantified the investment allocated to the group's non-financial performance? Undoubtedly, yes, but I don't know the number today.
Our targets, of course, include hotel-based targets, reducing plastic bottles. Those are savings generated, and for hotels and many of our targets are to be found in the hotel savings or hotel efficiencies rather than at group level. It's probably EUR 12 million, Besma's said it right, 90% of all initiatives taken, recalled by Brune Poirson, initiatives that are recommended and rolled out by Accor, but whose financial burden rests with the hotel because reduce water consumption, onboarded new technology, reducing carbon consumption. He invests and reaps the benefits in terms of messaging and value for the group. But you know what? With group - with, with Brune, we're gonna get down, get a handle on that. We should be able to know by hotel, do they spend EUR 5,000 or EUR 100,000 per hotel?
We'll get back to you and get your contact details. That's a good question to understand how much money is involved. Probably colossal. Thank you, sir.
Still over on the same side of the room. Thank you. Good morning. I'm an individual shareholder. Congratulations for your purpose. I find it speaks volumes, makes sense, and it's in vogue. Third question on the share price: I find there's a lag in terms of the sound management of the group, because over 5 years, we're only at +22 and +6 over 10. So from my view, the group has done nothing over 10 years, stood still over 10 years. What's your take on that? Second question on the scourge of these bed bugs, and you know, what is the situation in the group, and how are you managing the situation?
Thirdly, the Shadow Comex. That was really good. Perhaps maybe you should referred, revert to it differently, because, this was followed in other companies. So it was your idea, so perhaps it's time to, revamp it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Well, firstly, a big thank you for hailing our purpose, 'cause as I said, it's been the subject of a great deal of work, a lot of time devoted, and like you, we're very proud and pleased of what, we arrived at. On the share price, well, for a very long time now, we've been asking that same question together. It's my tenth AGM with you, and, each and every year, people point out that, the share price doesn't reflect the underlying value of the company. We deplore that.
We're trying to be clearer, to commit more sustainably, to affirm that the transformation of the group's behind us, and Lord knows there have been many milestones over the past 10 years. We've managed, in part, this effort. Like I said, while the group is transforming, it's difficult to assess, to read it. It's difficult to buy its stock because you've got a lot of pro forma financials. So we really focused on that for the past 5 years. Since it's done and COVID behind us, fortunately, the share price rebounded strongly from EUR 22-EUR 42 at an all-time high. 90% increase, is that enough? Answer, no. Can we do more? Without a doubt, yes. How to do more?
I think the true answer, the real answer to that, probably said too quickly.
You got a number of new shareholders, revolving around. The, the share capital has changed a great deal over the past six months. You have a lot of investors hold between 4%-10%. The group wasn't the case previously. You got investors who had over 10% previously, and they've reduced their stake. Notably, our Chinese and friends from Qatar took advantage of the rising share price to exit with a profit. The only way of onboarding more shareholders and boost the share price is to deliver on the results and assumptions that we gave at the CMD. It was 3%-4% RevPAR growth, 3%-5% growth and new openings, 9% growth in EBITDA, and probably growth of our EPS. We can't miss the first year. We did that.
Second year, we delivered in Q1 2024. I think we'll deliver in Q2. Now, we must deal with Q3 and Q4. If you deliver 8 consecutive quarters, there's every likelihood that those doing the rounds will have the necessary comfort to get them to believe that 2025, 2026 will also deliver. So all it takes is to be rigorous, stringent, and to walk the talk, execute what we promise for all of us, Martine, Jean-Jacques, and others, to spend time with the shareholders, that we do almost 25% of our time. In fact, we're heading to New York on Sunday to meet a number of U.S. investors. We've never had so much, so many requests for meetings. This group is clear, is forward-looking, the best talents in the world, geographies, where the markets are growing. So the time is right.
Time is ripe. I've been patient. I think we're getting there slowly but surely. Bed bugs. Well, if it's not an issue, it's because it's not an issue. I mean, are we on the watch? Of course, vigilant. Are we getting alerts in a number of hotels that are material in the group? Answer, no. Unfortunately, the answer is no, because we have everything to assess and to remedy, not to get these bugs setting up shop lastingly in the group, and we'd have known it immediately through social media and customer experience. Accor is far better equipped than independent hotels through our ability to assess and respond to that. It's not among the top ten fears of the group, given our efficiency. Third question, Shadow Comex. That's an excellent, great idea.
It was a great idea 6, 7 years back. It's done its time a bit. We weren't able to give members... There were 3 classes at the Shadow Comex. We didn't give them the necessary boost to have a better career development. In fact, we've lost almost half. The more you highlight that, the more it's visible on the international stage, more our peers and others have poached our talents. We do differently. We stop this Shadow Comex business. Many other procedures in place, HR, Reveal Talent, as it now WomenUp, where we support a dozen individuals, identified N- 1 or N-2s.
We do a skills review, spend time with each of them so that we can understand where they wanna go, their skill set, what they're lacking, devote time, mentorship, so that even if it's not called a Shadow Comex, it's equivalent to promote them, and we no longer lose them. We can retain them and hope, allow them to grow as they deserve.
Next question over there, please.
Thank you. I'm an individual shareholders. Bravo for the very feminine table. It's rare at AGMs. We tend to have all males on the platform. Just in terms of-- Well, could you just put a bit of, have the house lights because we're really in the dark here, if we could see ourselves better? And then I've got a question.
On the compensation, the only presentation that wasn't backed up by slides, it's a bit of a shame. I noted that in your compensation, it's linked to no more plastic water bottles. It's anecdotal on the compensation. You've got a director, a female director, five board meetings on page, if people want to follow, 221 or 251, and she was present only 25% at the compensation committee. That's a pity. Is she I mean, just your board meetings, does she sit on other boards? You mentioned the U.S., you're heading for New York. What's the ADRs in transaction. If you got EUR 100 million traded at a Paris market, how much would that represent on the ADRs? And then I've got a question on your shareholders, too. Employee shareholders, it's called Share19.
Have you done another plan since 2018 on your shareholders, Parvus, that owns 20% as Parvus asked to talk to you to have a seat on the board, and what are your relations with that shareholders and the others that are growing?
Thank you very much and fine thing. Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, you can reach the abbey on a bike, and that's very eco-efficient. Loads of people riding past the abbey on a bike. If you're going to the abbey on your bike because the Vallée de Chevreuse can accommodate many cyclists. If you need to stop before you're furious, give us a call to book. Book, because you've got dozens of cyclists who want to enter, and 90% of them are turned away because they haven't booked. So I don't want to spoil your day.
If you want to go to the abbey, go on your bike, but, don't forget to book beforehand to have a great welcome. The problem—I don't even have a pen to note the question. It's too late now. Share19? Oh, Parvus. Yes, well, Parvus, 10% of the capital they've reached, across the 5%-threshold because we canceled some shares. Very studious, very organized, a lot of assessment as a group before investing. I think it took them over a year before deciding to invest. They did it, no doubt, at the right time. Come to see us every two or three months, based in London. Don't want to be represented on the board. In fact, they're never represented on the board, I can tell you. Active shareholders, that is, commitments taken by this group, need to be met.
But outside of their presence, we'd have done exactly the same things. Competent, experienced, and active shareholders that I respect profoundly. Just to the participation of Compensation and Appointments Committee, there's a good degree of attendance by our directors. Indeed, there is a female director who this year attended less frequently than previously. She's usually very present, but this year, owing to circumstances linked to her for professional reasons, were unable to attend meetings of the Appointments Committee and but that won't happen again. Share19, there hadn't been a new plan, employee share ownership plan. These are plans that run for five years, so this one will, Share19, will unwind at the end of the year, so we'll look at next year, the matter.
But each plan, we let each plan end before asking the question. ADR is very, very small, less than 1% of the volume through the ADRs in New York. So our presence in New York is nothing to do with facilitating ADR, but to urge Americans to directly buy Accor shares Euronext.
Well, let's have another question over this side.
Merci beaucoup. Thank you for all the information you have given us. My name is Colette Broquet. I have been a shareholder in Accor since Accor has been issuing shares, as far as I know. My question is that you haven't mentioned Australia. What is your foothold in Australia outside of Sydney?
First of all, thank you for being such a loyal shareholder, and please stay with us for as long as possible. But in Australia, we're actually very, very well-positioned in Australia. We're not just very good in Australia, but in Australia and New Zealand, we have a little over 300 hotels. Our competitor has only 22. So the acquisition of Mantra several years ago doubled the size of our exposure in Australia. The two countries in the world where we have a very strong foothold, that's France and Australia. The biggest Australian company is called Australia Asia Pacific. A lot happening in Sydney. It's called Accor Arena, in the same way we have an Accor Arena here in Paris. It's a lot of events.
So a wonderful market, a market that has been suffering in the last 2 or 3 years because it's dependent on Japanese, Korean, and Chinese guests in particular, to the tune of about 85% of its business. There's a very big business called the Gold Coast. That's the west of Australia. Sorry, the east of Australia, I should say. That's the sunny side of Australia. And in our network in Australia, we have hotels in 38 hotels, I think, and 80% of our business is outside of Melbourne and Sydney, so we are well established. We're also the biggest player in New Zealand, which is a much smaller market than Australia, and we are waiting impatiently for the results for November, December, and January, which is the festive period of the year.
We know that there's been a big pickup in the last three months.
... particularly among the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese clients. So we have the right people, we have the right locations, we have the right brands. We just want people to get traveling again. We're not exactly worried, but it is one of the parts of the world where we are 15%-18% below the level we had pre-COVID, back in 2019. 4 minutes left for questions. 4 minutes. Right at the back of the room, number 4. "Good morning, my name is Madame Bonkai, and I'm a long-standing shareholder. I receive my dividends as a registered shareholder from Société Générale. This has happened to me before, about 10 years ago, and it's happened again. I haven't received my dividends in recent times.
They tell me that, the problem is currently being solved, but the problem is that these dividends are declared to the tax, administration, for the year I was supposed to receive them, and they have been declared once again to the tax authorities this year. I've been unable to get explanations from the bank. When asked, "What have you paid to the tax authorities at a given, date and time?" They do not answer my question, so I have a real problem with the bank called Soc Gen, Société Générale. What can you do about this? In addition to that, I am penalized in terms of by the tax I pay, and apparently, I am not the only person concerned by this. Well, we're certainly not going to ask the person from Société Générale to stand up and answer.
That wouldn't be very kind of us, and I'm not sure that the representative of Soc Gen would like to be the scapegoat. What I can say is two things: First of all, once this AGM is over, we will contact Soc Gen, or Societe Generale, to ensure that what's happening to you and others is clearly understood and does not occur again, and we have really the means to sort this out. It's probably a matter of efficiency, and we will look at that. The second thing I can say to you is that Société Générale is a remarkable bank. It's a very good bank, and they are our main bank.
Over and beyond issues of efficiency, which I can't deny, I'd like you to know that Soc Gen, as a bank, is a very efficient, competent, working very much in our favor for many, many years. That said, we will deal with the issue you have raised, madam.
One last question. Two, and the gentleman whose hand is raised. "Sorry, I can't see everybody here in the room. I'll stand up so you can see me.
My name, Karin Bakke. I live in Seville, in Spain, and have lived there for the last 23 years. I have been a shareholder of late and would like to hear all you've had to say. I won the wheel of fortune for seats at the Paralympic Games, so I'm delighted. But I wanted to raise the issue of luxury and lifestyle that you have talked about.
This is the new division that you are creating and will be rolling out over the next 10 years. I'd like to know what your plans are for Spain, because you're not very, very present in Andalusia. There are wonderful monasteries, haciendas, and castles and... that, I will be delighted to see you in. So I was just wondering what your plans are for the south of Spain. Thank you.
Don't leave. We'll get your name. If you have a collection of hotels and need partners, we're here. We'll get your name at the end of the meeting. Andalusia is a terrific growth market in which hospitality is very present, but it's also a market in which we are not sufficiently well-established. Possibly because of lack of, because of a lack of local talent. We have some, but not enough.
Secondly, the south of Spain is a market that is very well managed by Meliá, NH, Barceló, and others, our Spanish partners, who haven't left us a lot of room to develop. So in my own words, I would say we haven't been very good in Spain over the last 10 years or so. We're trying to improve our foothold. We've opened a very nice hotel in Sotogrande, but we know there are opportunities in large cities. We need partners. We need ideas. We have the brands, we have the means, we have the desire, but we lack just a little bit of strength. So in my own words, welcome. We'd like to talk to you about your network. One final question. Three from the gentleman three rows behind you, and then we will move on to the resolutions.
If I could just add to that, could you tell us about the group's exposure in Russia and Ukraine?" With pleasure, sir. With pleasure. For Accor, the situation is as follows: We are still present in both countries. I believe we've been extremely present, and will continue to be extremely present with the Ukrainian colleagues and the Ukrainian authorities for urgent help, protecting our populations, protecting our employees. But 2.5 years ago, we decided not to close our hotels in Russia in order to not be any more detrimental than before to populations who haven't decided this event. We've always been present in the events of health problems or geopolitical problems. Though we've kept our hotels open in Russia, we have our ears to the ground and have decided not to expand.
So, we've decided not to open any more new hotels, nor have we decided to develop hotels in Russia, so we've stopped a number of initiatives. Some have been taken over by others. In fact, we've decided to stop all bookings for Russia. In other words, as things stand, unless you are a Russian national, you cannot book a hotel in Russia, which means that our level of business is much lower than it used to be, and it's solely for Russians in Russia. It's true that some of these hotels are used by the international media, who, if they are to inform us about what's happening in Russia, need to be accommodated. So we have been asked to keep these hotels open and to accommodate the media.
So we've taken the decisions not to open, not to expand, not to develop our business, not to work on the profitability of hotels, not to take bookings. That is the situation as far as we are concerned and our exposure in Ukraine and Russia. Thank you. We are going to move on to the resolutions, which is, an equally important moment in our AGM. To see, how the shareholders react to our... Right, we're now going to vote the resolutions. Could we have a bit of light in the room? Somebody's asked for it. In fact, for ourselves, it's much more enjoyable.
Thank you.
Okay, the number of shareholders taking part. 5,567 shareholders are present or voted by correspondence, a total of 73.9 million shares out of the 242+ million shares with voting rights.
The final quorum is therefore 67.66%, and today's AGM can duly conduct its business. I'd also like to remind you that since 2019, abstentions and spoiled votes are no longer counted as negative votes. They are simply factored out of the accounts. By virtue of the legal provisions, the shareholders have been entitled to vote by correspondence or by internet. 4,000, or 4,000 employees, representing 201 million shares, have chosen to vote by correspondence or by internet. Now, before voting, I'd like to explain how to use the voting devices. We have a short film showing you how to use your devices.
To vote on the resolutions of the general meeting, you have been given a tablet. It is strictly personal and is for use only during this meeting. When a resolution is announced, the voting window appears automatically on your tablet, even if it is in standby mode. Voting is very simple. Press the button corresponding to your choice: for, abstain, or against. Press OK to validate your choice before the vote closes. Once your vote is validated, you cannot change it. Thank you, please return your tablet when leaving the room.
Okay, we can now proceed with the voting of the resolution. The first resolution is approval of the statutory company financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. Voting is now underway. Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved. The second resolution asks you to approve the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. Please vote now.
Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved. The third resolution concerns allocation of profits for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, and determination of the dividend. Please vote now.
Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved. The fourth resolution asks you to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit as statutory auditor in charge of certifying sustainability information for the remainder of its term of office as statutory auditor. Please vote now.
Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved. The fifth resolution asks you to determine the total annual amount of compensation to members of the Board of Directors . Voting underway. The voting is over, and the resolution has been carried. The sixth resolution asks you to approve information concerning the compensation of all corporate officers referred to in Article L2210-9 of the French Commercial Code. Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved. In the seventh resolution, you are asked to approve the fixed, variable, and exceptional components of the total compensation and benefits in kind paid during the fiscal year ended at the end of 2023, or awarded for the same fiscal year to Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Please vote now. Voting is over, and the resolution has been carried.
Eighth resolution concerns approval of the compensation policy for the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Voting is underway. Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved. The ninth resolution asks you to approve the compensation policy for directors. Voting underway. The voting is over, and the ninth resolution has been approved. The tenth resolution concerns the statutory auditor's special report on related party agreements governed by Articles L. 225-38 and thereafter of the French Commercial Code. That's approval of a related party agreement with Rubyrock Capital Co., Limited. Voting underway. The voting is over, and the resolution has been carried. Eleventh resolution asks you to authorize the Board of Directors to trade in the company's shares. Please vote now. Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved. The twelfth resolution asks you to approve the proposed partial contribution of assets to the...
of the Luxury and Lifestyle business segment by the company to its subsidiary, Accor Luxury & Lifestyle SAS. Voting now underway. Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved. Thirteenth resolution asks you to authorize the Board of Directors to issue free share warrants or equity warrants to shareholders in the event of a public offer on the shares of the company. Voting underway. Voting is over, and the resolution has been rejected. 14th resolution is powers to carry out legal formalities. Voting now underway. Voting is over, and the resolution has been approved, which brings us to the end of the resolutions. Thank you.
... Thank you, Besma. We're not just on time, in fact, we're ahead of schedule. Let me thank you all for joining us here. Let me thank you all for following us live on the webcast or otherwise, and we look forward to seeing you again next year for next year's AGM. You can, of course, follow us when we announce the first half year results at the end of July. Thank you, and have a good day.