Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I declare the meeting of the Combined Shareholders Meeting of Alstom open. First of all, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the shareholders present here today, as well as the shareholders who've kindly logged in to attend this meeting remotely. It's the very first Alstom shareholders meeting I have chaired. With me on the stage, Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO. Mrs. Petrovic, General Counsel, and Bernard Delpit, CFO of the Alstom Group. I would like to welcome. In the first row, the members of our Board of Directors, with the exception of Jay Walder, who sends his apologies for not being able to attend this meeting. We also have the pleasure of welcoming Jean-Pierre Farandou, Chairman and CEO of the SNCF Group, who will do us the honor of speaking.
In accordance with the law, it is now my turn to elect the officers of our board. I would like to call as scrutineers Kim Thomassin, representing the Caisse des Dépôts et Placements du Québec, our largest shareholder, holding 80,930,484 shares, and Mr. José Gonzalo, representing BPI France Investissement, which holds 34,930,254 shares, the two members of the shareholders meeting who represent the greatest number of votes and who have accepted this function. They are with us, and I would like to thank them for that. I propose, with the agreement of the scrutineers, to appoint Mrs. Emmanuelle Petrovic as the secretary to the board officers. We also have our company's statutory auditors, Dominique Muller, representing Mazars, and Richard Beugeot and Hugues Girard, representing PwC Audit. I would like to thank them as well for being here. I'm going to give the floor to Emmanuelle Petrovic.
Thank you, Chairman.
The agenda and the resolutions to be put to the vote at this Combined Shareholders Meeting are set out in the Notice of Meeting brochure online and sent to our shareholders. The agenda and the resolutions are also set out in the Notice of Meeting published in the bulletin on the 2nd of June 2025. The Board of Directors' report on the resolutions is included in the Notice of Meeting brochure. The statutory auditors' reports have been made available to you as well and are also in the brochure. In order not to prolong the meeting unnecessarily, I propose that we do not read out the agenda and these reports. The documents on the desk here, required by the law and listed in the minutes of this meeting, are included in the file placed on the desk.
All these documents have been made available to the shareholders at the registered office. Having made this clarification, I hereby inform you that the meeting will be conducted as follows. Our CEO, Henri Poupart-Lafarge, will present a review of the financial year 2024-2025 and an update on strategy, including a presentation on the high-speed train. Jean-Pierre Farandou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the SNCF Group, will also honor us with his speech. Bernard Delpit, our CFO, will comment on the group financial results for the year. The priorities in terms of CSR will be presented by Kevin Cogo, Head of Group Strategy. Corporate governance and remuneration issues will be presented to you by Philippe Petitcolin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and by Baudouin Prot in his capacity as the Chairman of the Appointments and Remuneration Committee. Finally, the statutory auditors will present their reports.
Following all these presentations, there will be an opportunity for discussion with the audience. You'll be able to ask your questions orally or in writing using the form you will be given as you enter the meeting. Finally, we'll conclude the presentation and vote on the resolutions. As usual, in order to display the results more quickly, an electronic voting system will be used. When you enter the meeting room, you'll be given an electronic voting box. I ask you to keep it close at hand, and please do not forget to give it to the hostess on your way out. The attendance sheet is currently being checked, and we will welcome shareholders until 3:00 P.M. at the date of registration of the shares to which at least one voting right is attached. The share capital of your company comprises EUR 461,944.
866 shares with a par value of EUR 7 each. According to the provisional attendance register, the shareholders present or represented are voting by proxy hold. 73.19% of shares with voting rights. The quorum required for this general meeting, which is being held on first call, is 20% for the ordinary part and 25% for the extraordinary part. The quorum of 25% has therefore already been reached, and the shareholders meeting can validly deliberate. I would like to remind you that this meeting is being filmed and broadcast live on the website, and I would like to inform you that Obeidif is also present in the room. Thank you very much, and I'm going to give the floor back to our Chairman.
Thank you, Madame Secretary. I'm going to give the floor to Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to meet you each year.
It's an important moment in the life of the company. Since the listing of Alstom on the 22nd of June, 1988, I attended all shareholders meetings, irrespective of my positions. I'm saying that to you because this shareholders meeting is quite specific. I have been at the head of the group for 10 years now, almost 30 years that I have been dedicating my complete energy, and we have to choose the right moment to pass on the baton. This moment came, and it came mainly because Alstom, and you will allow me to say it, Alstom is on a very good track. You'll see when we'll illustrate the strategy. Alstom is very well positioned. Alstom is very robust. We'll see it given the geopolitical uncertainties. The resilience of Alstom is quite high. The portfolio is very robust as well.
We are on the right track, very good track. Furthermore, Alstom has a very good management team and very good employees. 95,000 employees throughout the world. They will keep on developing the company and strengthening the success stories. Here around the table, we have our directors representing the shareholders, and Alstom is lucky to have two very solid shareholders to support its growth, long-term shareholders. Alstom is on a very good track and a decision made serenely, well thought over. I will support, of course, this moment. The transition succession is always an important moment, so it would be dear to my heart not only to strengthen the development of this group right to the last day, but to make sure as well that the succession takes place under the best conditions. Yes, we celebrate somehow.
The 10-year anniversary of the creation of Alstom as a company fully focusing on railway. If you remember, 2015. Selling the power activities of Alstom to General Electric, giving rise to the Alstom as we know it now, in reality. An in-depth transformation took place. At that time, in 2015, Alstom was facing internal and external challenges. We were focusing on domestic markets in France. If you remember, Alstom depended on this domestic market. There were discussions on that, and we were depending on the rolling stock as well. This business is volatile by nature, a risky one with production cycles, and by definition, they cannot be foreseeable. We also had external challenges at that time. The competition in Europe, not only in Europe, but especially in Europe, this competition was fierce. We were number three in Europe at that time, without talking about the Chinese competitors.
A lot of players for signaling, it was necessary to have our industry consolidated. We rolled out a strategy, a globalization strategy for our group, and we wanted to refocus on not only the rolling stock business, but the digital business and service business. This took place in two steps. I'm not going to tell you the full story, but 2020, 2019, 2020, with 2015 and 2020 widening our portfolio to define this service business and extend our geographic footprint and launch the renewal of our range of products. It was necessary to renew these products given our status. Then 2025 was the second step, a second milestone, where we sped up this strategy with the acquisition of Bombardier, but not only. This allowed us to reach the point we are in today, i.e., we are a major stakeholder.
We are a leader, a global leader, no longer number three in Europe. We were centered on Europe in the past. Now we are present in all possible large markets. Therefore, we can strike a right balance. Here on this slide, you talk of 63 countries and 225 sites. It may seem a bit complex to manage, but it is very useful. Proximity today, to be close to your customers, and in a fragmented world with geopolitical tensions, I can tell you that Alstom is a resilient, very resilient industrialist because of this. Geographic fragmentation and proximity as well. Sometimes it is imposed upon us in a number of countries. We also acquired central positions in the digital business, number one, for instance, for the urban signaling in the train automation and a service portfolio unmatched, really, for services.
We do business equivalent to what Alstom did 10 years ago for all businesses. Coming back to those main milestones. Here we are. The first step was from 2015 to 2020 was organic growth. I am sure some of you were there already. We said we would invest EUR 300 million in a number of plants throughout the world, either directly or through partnerships. It is quite striking to see now that the most iconic plants, those making trains in South Africa, in India, or in Kazakhstan, are among the plants that have the best performance in Alstom. They are very modern. They've been built under 10 years ago. If you haven't been to Manai Pura, to Johannesburg, or Samar, you cannot understand the power, the strength of Alstom's model. In these countries, we use the local industrial footprint. We hire our staff locally. You see that.
Bihar, for example, is one of the poorest states in India, very far from production centers. This is where we produce trains every month with great quality. In Johannesburg, we recruit people from a township just around Johannesburg, and we have the best, most performant plant producing 10% of our activity there. The inhabitants, the local communities, are providing us with that manpower and also local competencies. That is really what is so unique about Alstom. We are the only operator going to all the geographies with a new operational model. We can grow and develop those plants with great success, either directly, as I said, or through partnerships. As you see, we have been able to go in many new countries thanks to that experience and thanks to this new operational model and with new deployment.
Because we know that we need to have an overall operational system that is well controlled, well defined, very precise. Thanks to all this, at the moment of consolidating our organization, as we knew was going to happen, we were in a very good position to make the acquisition of Bombardier. With this acquisition, we were able to scale up and bridge the gap in the areas where we were undercritical in terms of mass. The strength of Bombardier and the strength of Alstom combine perfectly, as you can see in Germany, the United States, Mexico, and markets such as Germany and the U.S., which are the most dynamic markets worldwide. You might have seen the news lately, the orders for the subway in New York, for example.
You see that even in the country of cars, there are trains, and Alstom is well positioned on that market. In spite of the political and geopolitical tensions, we continue to develop. This complementarity, which is geographical, is also completed by our product complementarity. We now have a modern product range. It is well deployed. We've reached a good critical size to become leaders in the Western world, number two after a Chinese operator. Bombardier also had great competencies in services, which really balanced our portfolio. We now have this service activity, which provides great technology with predictive maintenance and also a lot of operational stability. We also have been able to build customer intimacy, which is something we didn't have previously to having this service activity, service business. We can better meet our customers' needs with this. Again, as you see, a great balance, 1,000.
Customers. It's a more resilient customer base we ever had. You all heard about this integration phase of Bombardier Transportation. It was made possible thanks to the model we put in place and all the teams we have worldwide who've done an incredible job. The reason why we acquired Bombardier are reasons that are still valid today and could totally confirm because we didn't know by then that the world would all split up. The presence of Alstom locally is more significant than ever. We didn't know that the digital economy would be so significant. However, now we see that the digital is really at the heart of our business. By combining our strengths with Bombardier, we were able to step up to a better scale in terms of the digital offer. Now this integration is done. We achieved the most difficult part of our journey.
It was an incredible journey, I must say. Very enriching. Maybe challenging for most of our teams, but it is now behind us. Our customer satisfaction has reached a record level. Our portfolio has been completely reshuffled and is now stabilized. The EUR 400 million in synergies were also achieved, and our operational indicators are now again in the green. Moving forward, we can say that Alstom is one single company working all over the world with one same performance level. I was talking about our product portfolio. It is important. We do not describe this well enough. About 10 years ago, we decided to completely renew our offering, beginning with the tramway from 2012 to 2015, and then the subways, regional trains, and the last stage of the rocket here was the renewal of our French TGV, our fast train.
Also with the technology of Bombardier, we are able to improve and reinforce our locomotives, and with the technology coming from Alstom. Great efforts were made in terms of R&D, in terms of innovation. These are many challenges at the time of starting our first projects. When we start a new platform, a new tramway or metro platform, this is a new challenge, of course, and we're happy to see that now we are moving forward. With Jean-Pierre, we're going to commission the TGV M this year, and this will be the last stage of the renewal of our platforms. We have at least three or four projects in each platform. In terms of signaling, also the modernization is there. We modernized the signaling range for the European rail. It is under a number of standards, and we comply to those functionalities.
You also heard about the urban signaling. We have been able to develop a new comprehensive urban signaling system. We are the only ones to master that technology. It is not just about having track equipment with the signaling and signals that will say whether a train can go or no go. Now it is going much further. We have train-to-train communication now. We can say that trains give themselves orders of passing or not passing. This dialogue is much more efficient than having to go through the voice system. This signaling system is implemented in France, in China, in many other geographies. We will have that also on the 18th metro line in Paris. We are thus celebrating the first equipment on our 18th line. I insist once again on the fact that we have renewed our services range. This is one of our main assets.
We have an installed base of 150,000 wagons. We have 30,000 cars that are served. We have invested heavily in the quality of services, predictive maintenance, the digital monitoring of our fleets. We now have a database with 150,000 wagons. This allows us to know when they will need services. We do not have to wait until our partners require services on their cars. We can do predictive maintenance, and we anticipate the needs of this fleet throughout the world. This is why our services have exponentially grown in the past few years. I am not going to bore you with numbers, but the main message you need to remember here is twofold. First, that the size of the group has tripled in the past 10 years. Also, the second message, each year our group has grown organically. This reflects the strength of Alstom's model. Of course, there are risks.
We do live up to our technical challenges. Our delivery times need to always be improved to serve our customers better. However, in terms of market, in terms of business, we now have a global coverage, and this makes us extremely resilient in the face of the economic cycles. Remember that all this happened in the past few years where there were huge difficulties worldwide. We went through the COVID, war, inflation. Huge challenges globally, but also locally in France with our political upheavals in France. Whatever the conditions in terms of pressure, Alstom was able to grow in a measured way. We weathered through all that. We will continue to grow in a very well-controlled way, with our objective of 5% growth per year that we wish to fulfill this year again. One last zoom here on the period following the acquisition of Bombardier.
This is also another major challenge. Strategically, it is quite rational. The purpose of this acquisition is totally justified, as we see in the model and in all the assets it is providing us in terms of geographic coverage in particular. In the past few years, unlike what might happen in the times of integration, we did not have any reduction in the activity. There has been no removal, no loss of businesses, of customers. You see that in the past three years, our growth is exceeding 20%, and each business had a double-digit growth. More than 10% for each activity, more than 20% for the past three years, moving from EUR 15.5 billion to EUR 18.5 billion. We had the previous years before the merger, it was around EUR 14 billion. As you know, we had some operational challenges, but we were able to.
Reestablish our performance, and we have now a margin of 6.4 instead of 5. We have EUR 1.2 billion in profit, and our margin is higher than our industry's average. It is possible to say now that we've reached a very strong and robust situation. I will come back on our perspectives after speaking about 2024, 2025, but previously, we decided to deep dive on the TGV, which is our star product in the group. Let's have a look at the last renewal and the last innovations in our range. I would like to open another slide here. Here we go. For the TGV, we have a high-growth market, plus EUR 2.7 billion, plus 7% in market growth. It is a great performance everywhere in Europe, particularly in France, and fueled by newcomers in the different countries. They can be traditional operators from one country going to another country.
This is the case in France, Spain, and Italy. Or it can be some private new operators giving new momentum to the market. This year, we had some commercial success in France with the SNCF. Also with private operator Proxima, and also some success in Morocco with a new tranche of Moroccan TGVs. Our number one ambition this year is the commissioning of the TGV M. As a coincidence, we also have the commissioning of the American TGV. The American TGV commissioning should take place very soon on the same platform, same as the TGV M, of course, modified to comply with the American standards. Given this success, we adapt our production capacity, and we said that we were going to invest EUR 150 million in our production capacity. That is to say, multiplied by three our production capacity in France.
In order to meet the demand in terms of TGV. Let me remind that. We have two high-speed trains. The TGV we call the Avelia Horizon. This is our double-deck train set. It is called Liberty in the American version. Large capacity, very efficient. In terms of the cost of acquisition, the energy, and maintenance, and a train with one deck only. The origin is rather of an Italian origin that was in our Pendolino range, sold in Europe, across Europe. It was a high speed, not a very high speed, 200, 250 per hour, and it ramped up throughout Europe. The markets are different for Everyday Stream and Horizon. Some players rather have the single-deck train, and other stakeholders would like to have a double-deck train because of the large capacity. This double-decker train is scalable. You can change the number of cars according to your needs.
The high-speed market is expanding. In the last 10 years, we increased by almost 50% the network in Europe, the very high-speed and the high-speed network. We have a lot of projects in the pipeline. Not only is the market getting more dense because of the traffic increasing, growing, but it is extending as well. There is a major project of high-speed lines in Central Europe. The large TGV countries, by tradition, were France and then Germany, Italy, Spain. Poland now with one line supplied some years ago. They would like to have a network and the interlinks between countries in Eastern Europe from Poland directly to Berlin and then right up to Vienna. You have a lot of cross-European projects boosting high speed. I'm not going to elaborate on that because you will see a video on that. It's the story of our partnership with the SNCF.
Of course, I would like to thank our friend Jean-Pierre to be with us. Philippe agrees, of course, with me. We have a long story with Jean-Pierre. It is an honor and a professional honor and an amicable honor to have him with us. The story of Alstom with SNCF and the TGV is a wonderful story. It started in 1981 with the first TGV trains, and it is prolonged today with Avelia Horizon. This date of 1996 with the first double-decker trains. Just to tell you that what we are doing today with the SNCF, the French Railway, we are not going to do that every five years. It takes place once every 30 years. When I am talking of the renewal of our product ranges, those life cycles are quite long.
The last time we had the same level of effort in terms of range renewal, it was in 1996 as we launched the double-decker trains. With Euro Duplex, you had innovations. The architecture remained the same. Whereas here, we are completely changing the architecture of the train, the technology of the train. The effort deployed today takes place every 30 years. It's not going to be repeated that much. Often. I unveiled the topic. The major characteristics of this TGV is plus 20% capacity, minus 20% energy consumption, minus 30% maintenance cost. Minus 20% of power consumption is for the train sets. It means per person, it's almost 40% less energy per passenger. What we wish you is for you to have the most efficient TGV. Some years ago, we broke the speed record of 574.8 km an hour.
We do not want to have the highest record, but the most efficient, the most comfortable TGV, the most available TGV for the operators. Jean-Pierre, it's going to be your turn.
Okay. I am going to give the floor to Jean-Pierre. Once again, I would like to thank you because I know that you have a very heavy agenda. Please give him a round of applause. Thank you, Jean-Pierre.
Good afternoon to you all. Yes, it's a great pleasure for me to be with you. This one is a collector tie. Really, it's a special tie. Okay. Thank you very much, Henri, for putting a tie to welcome me here. Okay. Indeed, it has been a wonderful story. A very strong partnership between Alstom and the SNCF. This national pride is called TGV, our engineers built it in the 1970s, and it arrived in 1981.
My personal story, when I joined the SNCF in 1981, that's a nice symbol. We started together, the TGV and I, and I can define myself as a TGV baby at the SNCF because I was. Lucky. To participate in the launching of three TGVs. To tick the box three times is good. I started with a small TGV, an innovative one, north between Paris and the north of France. It was Nord Pas de Calais at that time. It was not called the Eau de France yet. The volume was not that big, but it's a new generation of TGV, the network TGV, a good soldier, a well-born baby. We've been working quite a lot. Went across France, network went across France. You remember this TGV as quite innovative in terms of tariffing because it was the first time we did lean management. 30 years.
Later, we are still talking about it. It was 1993. I was the project leader. I was not dealing with the train. Alstom was dealing with it. I was not dealing with truck, but services. We offered frequencies, tariffing, distribution, marketing, and. We wanted, of course, to be a bit profitable. It was my first experience. Second experience at the SNCF for me with Thalys, of course. The brand Thalys is no longer there, but it's dear to my heart because we put it up. It is a European experience. The SNCF was playing this card well with structuring and strategic partnerships with the neighboring countries to take the lead of the high speed, but a soft lead. We do not want to impose ourselves, but we want to find a joint brand, a joint vision, and Thalys continued.
In the first launch of Thalys, you had Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam in May 1996, and then in December 1997, opening to Germany, very symbolic. You know, the relationship with Deutsche Bahn is complex, but we were right in reaching Germany. It was a huge success story. I was very proud for this innovation and proud of this robustness. We were ready on time, commercial success immediately, some marketing innovations, quite pleasant ones, very, very good memories. The third intersection is not of the same order. I was not a project leader in the same sector, but it was for production. It was for the Marseille TGV. It was a technical project, a complicated project. We launched it in May, and we controlled it more or less in August. We had three technical innovations, difficult to monitor. We had to tame it. We had.
Some works on the road and river, not fully stabilized. We had to reduce the speed for safety reasons. We had sensors triggering not the right way. We had to apply safety rules. We had to dismantle all TGVs to realize everything was fine. At the same time, in the meantime, a train was missing. In Marseille, the switching station was changing the interface between man and machine. In the past, people pressed down buttons with a clear vision of the itineraries, but here it was through IT, and on the keyboard, they were lost. They were slowing down the throughput. It was not possible to have the number of trains scheduled, therefore delays. We decided to have a light regional plan to give the priority to the TGV. It's not good, but I hope that the region would not complain about it.
It was 20 years ago. A very strong link between me and TGV, hence my tie. Very proud of showing this TGV tie. TGV, of course, beyond Alstom and SNCF, is a national pride. If we ask the French people what are the major innovations striking the population, one was wonderful, but the future of which was reduced, is the Concorde. We were very proud. Supersonic aircraft flew to go to New York. It is wonderful, but we know the fate of Concorde, unfortunately. Some people were not really likening the Concorde. You remember these accidents, devastating accidents. The nuclear power plants, of course, with ups and downs and now ups again. Nuclear power is really a source of pride, French pride. Unfortunately, we had some problems in the past, but now ups again. The TGV is a linear success.
No weak points, always moving forward, an immediate success, a commercial success. A reputation success, image success. The major advantage of TGV is that it is environmentally friendly. As the ecological transition came to the public debate, nuclear power, you can discuss it, even if it's decarbonated. Aircraft, it's nice, but TGV, wonderful. It's environmentally friendly. It's a solution. A few years ago, we said that we were 93 times less polluting than aircraft. The aircraft industry didn't like us that much. TGV is the right solution to long traveling, to a distance of between 500 and 800 or even more kilometers. Of course, the tourists use the TGVs, but even the business customers now accept to stay three or four hours on the TGV. It extends, thanks to the speed. It extends the offer, of course, for.
SNCF in terms of a reasonable market. We, as an operator, are lucky. The last born, the newborn, we have this common platform. We have eco-design, the co-design. As you said. TGV, you did not say that it was recyclable. 97% of it, that is a circular economy because it lasts 40 years, which is not negligible. On top of that, after 40 years, 97% of the raw materials can be recycled to produce another type of TGV of another generation. It is the complete demonstration to which extent the railway business now is on the right side with ecology, fuel consumption, sustainability, and so on. It is difficult with this new TGV, and not everything is easy, but it is better to wait a few months and make sure everything is fine. Take all the innovations on board, 400 innovative aspects to this TGV.
It will be a major milestone. It's going to be the most modern train in the world. I hope for the longest time. Compared with the builders and the operators. Our operators buy the TGV, understand now that if they didn't buy them, they would be in dire straits. It's great to have that. We have this new design, and it is recognized as having a great value. It's better to have it than not have it. It is also meeting a very strong demand. Our trains are full. They are, as users, a great option. We're very happy to see the commercial success of our trains. We could sell more trains, so we're happy to have a new one. We're impatient to be able to market that, but we need to improve our capacity. We make a lot of.
Proof of imagination to have as many passengers as possible. Some are ready to work by night to make sure the day shift will be up and running. This is very important. Everybody is making an effort, and we have great performance now in terms of operation and different shifts. We have a very, very good operator for high-speed trains. Alstom has competitors, and SNCF also is discovering competition, and this is new for us. Now, a word about the future to agree with Henri. Good news, mobility is expanding. This is great. A lot of people spoke about depression, about reduction of travel. No, not at all. We see that people are happy to move, to travel in France, in Europe, or even now we call it the great Europe. You have seen the Draghi report. We speak about a utopia, but it is reachable.
With a TGV that would reach all Europe enlarged. We have, thanks to the train, made it possible to have a united Europe. Traveling with passengers and with goods as well. There is also military mobility. It might not be on a TGV, but the army has also discovered that when the front is 2,000 kilometers away, it is better to travel by train because you can carry more stuff. We have to be prepared. As you say, if you want peace, prepare for war. The train still has a very strong and strategic position. In France, competition can be seen as a spur. It means that our business is attractive. It will create more opportunities. We know that competition will stimulate the business. Travelers will want the good quality for money. This is also a way to grow the market.
The real competitor is the plane and the car. It's not even the plane in France. It's the car. We have to continue and convince people to leave their cars in the parking and take the train. We have many projects, and our ex-Prime Minister Jean Castex has launched a growing line on the southwest, on the Riviera, which is the best way to reach the Riviera. The train is the best way because it is such a tight place to go between the mountain and the sea. There are plenty of spaces still where we need to go and conquer. We think of a great European network of high-speed trains. Eurostar is there as well. There are business opportunities here. There's a lot of negotiation underway. We hope to conclude that, find a win-win convergence. Eurostar is going to buy many, many trains. This is great.
The Paris-London is one, but also the ex-Thalys dimension is great too. We continue to export to Italy, in particular, where we have many orders. We will have trains if we can solve the problems with Italy and have the opening. We can have more opportunities there also between Belgium and France. There are many Belgian customers who want to go to the south of our country or south of Europe. It is also a great opportunity. We also work in cooperation with Spain because Alstom is maintaining our trains in Spain. You see, our playing ground is quite extensive. We will need to continue there, continue to grow, and we will need Alstom to succeed. Worldwide, also, we have some projects. SNCF is part of it, like in Morocco, for example, where Alstom has sold a number of trains.
It's the only thing where I said to Henri there's the World Cup, the football World Cup, so I can accept to go to Morocco. I think you understand why this is said. It is now made public, and you can understand my position. I'm generous. I can privilege the Moroccan football to our business. You see how generous I can be. In Morocco, we also have a very good tradition of partnership. We really helped Morocco to start the first stage with a very sincere cooperation. We have a maintenance JV with Alstom Services. We have engineers who came to SNCF and went back to Morocco. We have a historical relationship with Morocco. In diplomacy, there's been ups and downs, but we are on the up again. Oof. We're very happy to relaunch this partnership. I was in Morocco a week ago.
I was able to sign this contract for partnership, maintenance, and services. It is 400 km of tracks, trains, workshops. It is the Casablanca local train also that will be launched for the suburbs. They have 6 million inhabitants in Casablanca. Also intercity trains. They are not buying them from Alstom. That is too bad. There is also Canada. I think that Caisse des Dépôts is part there. It is the number one shareholder. I think you know the project very well. I think it is quite a huge project, seeing this wonderful country using now high-speed trains. You see in Europe, we have many, many towns here with the high-speed train. We thought it would be great for Canada since the distances are so big, but we needed to have all the right conditions in place.
It seems that things are now happening with the Caisse des Dépôts, an ex-partner of SNCF. We have an excellent relationship with your main shareholder, by the way. Together, we were able to get new business. We will start all the preparatory work. Personally, I consider this as a wonderful, a beautiful project. SNCF could maybe contribute for the success of this project. I would be proud of that. A friend state like Canada starts high-speed choosing a French solution. It's really great. It's something that is really great. We are happy to continue and maintain our relationship. It's a very long-term relationship. There can be tensions like in any relationship, but it's a good one, a good partnership, and I hope it continues in the future. Obviously, you are our best supplier, our greatest supplier. We are your best client.
We have common interests. I think that it is possible to continue. We need to go through a number of major steps if we want to move forward. For our two companies and for our country, our government, we need to find the right convergence. I am sure that this is at reach. It will go through the men and women of our companies. In the past, we knew that we would be able to reach that goal. Thank you very much. Enjoy your meeting.
Thank you, Jean-Pierre.
Avelia Horizon n'est pas simplement un train. Né d'un partenariat avec SNCF Voyageurs, c'est un concentré d'innovation, de performance et de durabilité. La cinquième génération de TGV représente une avancée technologique majeure : 20% de consommation d'énergie en moins. 30% de réduction des coûts de maintenance. Et une expérience passagers entièrement repensée.
Son design modulaire et ses systèmes numériques avancés redéfinissent les standards de la grande vitesse ferroviaire. C'est le fruit de plus de 40 ans d'expertise d'Alstom. Depuis le lancement du premier TGV en 1981, en partenariat avec la SNCF, la grande vitesse n'a cessé d'évoluer. 1989, le TGV Atlantique entre en service commercial. On va déjeuner à Nantes et on revient. 1994, développement du KTX 1 pour la Corée du Sud, alors que l'AVE relie Madrid à Séville et l'Eurostar Paris à Londres via le tunnel sous la Manche. 1996, le Thalys est né. Il dessert Bruxelles, Amsterdam et Cologne. La même année, Alstom dévoile le TGV Duplex, première rame à deux niveaux. 2007, le prototype V150 bat le record mondial de vitesse sur rail à 574.8 km/h.
2011, une nouvelle liaison est établie entre Paris et Milan, alors que le premier Euro Duplex circule sur la ligne à grande vitesse Rhin-Rhône. 2018, le premier train à grande vitesse arrive en Afrique. Le TGV Euro Duplex entre en service commercial au Maroc. Cette même année, la SNCF commande la cinquième génération de TGV, l'Avelia Horizon. 2024 marque un tournant avec la première commande par un opérateur privé français, Velvet. Cette année, le Maroc a commandé 18 rames Avelia Horizon. Et les États-Unis accueilleront l'Avelia Liberty entre Boston et Washington D.C. En 2026, la SNCF mettra en service le TGV InOui sur ses lignes françaises. Alstom a investi EUR 150 million pour tripler sa capacité de production et répondre aux besoins du marché. Aujourd'hui, aucun autre train n'offre un tel équilibre entre performance, confort et responsabilité environnementale. C'est l'avenir de la mobilité.
Conçu en France, façonné pour l'Europe et inspirant le monde.
Before I give the floor to Henri again, I wanted to say that it is great to see a client who is so passionate about his industry and our products. It's great to see that in the middle of a general meeting such as ours. Henri, would you like to continue, please, speaking about achievements?
Thank you. Yes, I'm sorry. The temperature is cooling down. We speak about numbers. Describing this year's P&L. We are coming back to more tangible achievements, facts. We're going to have the facts and figures. EUR 19.8 billion in orders booked in 2024-2025. There's a ratio between orders and turnover, which is higher than one. It is diversified with the different business lines and also among the different continents. I'd like to focus on a couple of orders here.
We spoke about the TGV and Germany also, which is the number one market in Europe. It's one of the main challenges of our integration with Bombardier. We won the two best orders, the urban one for Hamburg or suburban for the Cologne region. Services with the regional fleet. Signaling also is very important. We reached a record level in terms of orders, almost EUR 8 billion and EUR 3 billion in orders with two framework agreements that are very important in Europe. A great year in terms of commercial aspects. Jean-Pierre spoke about the market and the opportunities. You see that our commercial activity is growing. We're very active. This success should continue for the next few years. We have a solid performance, and we will come back to that later. EUR 18.5 billion in orders, EUR 5 billion in sales.
We are in line with our objectives, which is 5% organic growth per year. It's actually 6.6% achieved this year. This is a regular, solid, and resilient growth year-after-year. Our EBIT is in line with our objectives, with a margin of 6.4% and an 18% increase in our EBIT year-after-year, or operating margin income. The Free Cash Flow is at the top of our estimates. We thought it would be between EUR 300 million-EUR 500 million, and we achieved EUR 502 million in cash generation. This is linked directly to our commercial activity since we are funded by our customers and also to the operational quality of our deliveries and the fact that we are maintaining our deliveries. Jean-Pierre highlighted this aspect, and I am totally in agreement with him. There's an important environmental interest in the train.
It's what we call green mobility by excellence. And this is putting a number of obligations upon us. The products have to be environmentally friendly. Much better than other mobility possibilities, and we have to make them ourselves. We want to have this. Insured. We have scope one and two, which is for the internal part of CO2 emissions. We reached -8%. It's a 40% reduction over the past five years, and we are ahead with our objective. We are ahead of five years. We are working a lot with SNCF and all the different operators. And there's scope 3 that is the emissions. By the products we make. For example, the TGV's lifeline. Emissions. It will also depend on how much electricity or power will be put by the operator. In France, as you know, electricity is decarbonated, so we have this great comparison against. Aircrafts, for example.
In other countries, electricity is with more carbon, so we have to be careful in view of scope three. Technically speaking, we are the industry with the highest taxonomy rate, and this is quite natural given the environmental value of the trains we have. Just a brief update on the operational aspects. We made a lot of progress last year in the delivery of our train cars. The beginning of the year was a bit more difficult because of supply problems that solved in the course of the year. Good progress, therefore, on our sales, production and sales of cars in the last quarter. Since 2023, we have increased our production by 9% each year. We achieved our objectives of last year. Germany, as I said, is one key point for Alstom. It is one challenge. We adapt a lot.
We adapt a lot of our industrial footprint. We disposed of one of our sites, and this way we could streamline our industrial tool. I'm very proud of that without any labor problems. Kim Deas is going to take over the headcount of our factory, as you know. In Germany, we regained a very strong sales positioning, and we were awarded two major projects and a few indicators now. Since the integration of Bombardier, we have reduced. We have divided the external demurrage by four. We have manufacturing throughput plus 43% since March 2023. So we increased by 43% the throughput. Once again, post-COVID. And for the rolling stock, we also increased the points. I would like to thank Jean-Pierre for the relationship we have with SNCF. We co-design the TGV with the SNCF.
It's not always easy, but we are working hand in hand to improve the execution and therefore the delivery time. We increased by 21% the trains delivered on time, which has an immediate impact on the NPS, record NPS. Okay, the some trains are on good tracks, as I said, but the story is not over, of course, far from that. We are opening a new chapter. We had a strategy called M2025. We are going to open up a new chapter because this chapter of globalization, this chapter of renewal of the product range and increasing services, this chapter is there, is well robust. We are going to open up a new chapter with new challenges and new ambitions. Among the main priorities, I'm going to comment on this slide, page 25.
We want to seize the profitable opportunities and shape the profitable opportunities. We want to rely upon our industrial footprint, our engineering footprint across the world. As I said, very much proximity, very close to customers, a fragmented world asking for this local industrial footprint. We have a positioning which is unique. We want to rely upon this unique positioning to be even closer to our customers. Through partnership, we can then have more profitable opportunities. When I say more profitable opportunities, it's not necessarily the fact that we're going to sell our trains at a higher price. No, the fact that we are close to our customers will allow us to define with the customers the best solutions for the customer and for Alstom, be profitable for Alstom, but also more efficient for customers. This commercial work.
Is made possible because we are close to our customers. Thanks to this fragmented structure and our very strong local geographic organization. We absolutely need to improve execution. That's key. Of course. It was true 10 years ago. It will be true 10 years later. It is really our daily work. We need to be swifter in developing trains. The quality should improve. Why do we say it constantly? It is because the requirements are higher and higher. The world is becoming more and more demanding. The ecology, the reliability of trains, all those requirements. If Jean-Pierre was there, he said it, by the way, that some trains in the past had some difficulties. What customers expect is that on the very first day of commissioning, the train should be perfect, that it should be made available.
It was not that much the case 10 years ago or 20 years ago. The electronic complexity of trains and so on. We need, therefore, to keep on improving the execution, meeting the requirements. Two differentiators: service. We already talked about services, but here we need to change the DNA of the group. Based on a project transactional one in the past to a daily service DNA for the future, which means that service is our front face. It is our door open to the customers. There is much work to be done, not only to increase the volume, but also changing in depth the DNA of the group, which is very much project-focused in order to be more service-driven. This is, of course, consistent. Once again, our geographic proximity allows us to have that.
We have hundreds and hundreds of warehouses and service points worldwide. Therefore, this meshing. Finally, digital. Digital technology, extremely important to improve the execution internally. We have common tools throughout the group. There is a last effort to be made on engineering and the digitization of our engineering, the automation of our engineering, which is not at the right stage yet. We are also mentioning the digital solutions. Our operators, our customers want us more and more to take on board their digital information services to incorporate our trains in their complete systems. We have to do it, but safely, of course. That is to say that we take care of the cybersecurity of our customers. This, again, is fully consistent. Therefore, we need to be close to our customers throughout the life cycle of the trains and to be in partnership.
With our customers. As you know, cybersecurity is a moving item which has to be adapted constantly. Those priorities are very strong priorities. We are going to work detailing this new roadmap. It is a highly ambitious one, focusing on execution, services, and digital technology. This is it. I am going to give the floor to Bernard. Once again, I would like to finish in saying that I will pay great attention to this transition period so that the succession takes place successfully, in developing the group each day while securing the transition and succession the best way. As Jean-Pierre said, we can all be proud of having a large leading group. I would like to say to our friends beyond the Atlantic Ocean, we are very proud to have a French national company and the SNCF and so on, and we have to preserve that. Thank you. Bernard.
Avec. Bernard, the objective is to make sure that the audience is a lively one. Okay, that's your objective.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders of Alstom, it's an honor for me to present the financial statements of your company for the financial year ended the 31st of March 2025. I'll try and do it in giving you figures and the resolutions submitted to your vote, especially resolution number two, where you will have to vote on the consolidated financial statements of the Alstom group for the fiscal year 2024-2025. The main figures were commented upon by Henri. Sales, EUR 18.489 billion. Organic growth, 6.6%. For the total growth versus the last financial year, 4.9% because the currency impact was negative.
The contracts we executed in a currency which is not in EUR, when we transferred them into EUR, it had a negative impact because of the appreciation of the EUR. So the operating income adjusted one. EUR 1,176 million + EUR 180 million versus the previous year, representing an adjusted operating margin of 6.4%. That is to say + 70 basis points versus last year because of, or thanks to, the volume, mainly on the increase, sales increasing, but also a cost reduction. The operating margin, you have non-operating expenses on the decrease last year from EUR 610 million to EUR 198 million. It will be still further reduced because those expenses were representing the integration or onboarding expenses of Bombardier. This integration phase is now over. Therefore, those costs which were non-recurring, that is why they are regarded as non-operational, will keep on reducing.
Last year, they already decreased to a large extent. Furthermore, under this operating margin, you have financial expenses, EUR 214 million last year, down versus EUR 242 million previous year. We have to see the impact of the deleveraging plan implemented very early during the financial year. Therefore, we reduced the debt of the group. It is a favorable result, thanks to the increase in the capital you voted on last year. The increase in profitability, that is the increase in taxes. Unfortunately, we have to pay. They went from EUR 33 million to EUR 217 million this year. We pay about 35% of our EBIT before taxes. Our objective is to reduce these rates while, of course, complying with the tax legislation in all countries we are represented in.
All these items lead us to an adjusted net profit on the very strong increase versus last year, now EUR 498 million versus EUR 44 million last year. If we incorporate the depreciation and the goodwill counting impact related to the acquisition operations of Bombardier in 2021, you will see the increased income going from a loss of EUR 307 million to a positive result this year of EUR 153 million. I'd like to take this opportunity to speak also about our social results following the French standards and no longer the international IFRS standards. The head company, right, of which you are directly shareholders. The net income of Alstom is a profit of EUR 84.6 million. The reserves are now of EUR 6.6 billion. There will be no dividends this year. This is due to the payment of the debt.
It's a plan we continue in 2024-2025 and as well in 2025-2026. Because of this situation and because of this plan to reduce our debt. Last year's debt at the same date was about EUR 3 billion. It was first reduced thanks to the execution of the disindebtment plan. We have a divestiture of assets in the United States. Debt emission, one component of the capital, so it's deleveraging, and EUR 1 billion in capital reduction that has been voted here. With this deleveraging plan, there was also a cash flow generation, as Henri described, for EUR 502 million this year. By the way, this EUR 500 million is the highest cash generation ever made by Alstom for many, many years, and particularly since the creation of Alstom Transport. It is a positive performance. It is also the fruit of increased margins and a good control of.
Temporary treasury movements, what we call the working capital requirement, which was quite limited this year when traditionally it can be quite high in our industry based on projects. Beyond the Free Cash Flow, there are two other items that are worth noting. The interests of this hybrid debt, what we call the hybrid coupon that has to be paid back, and also the interest that will vary according to the accounting laws but are integrated in the debt. The payment of the debt is reducing the lease. Instead of EUR 3 billion last year, it is EUR 434 million this year. You see the debt has been reduced considerably. The rating agencies, which are important in our environment since they determine our rating, therefore the cost of borrowing and also the cost of the guarantees we use to manage our activities vis-à-vis our customers.
Moody's, this rating agency, confirmed our debt when last year it was going to be degraded. Speaking about the debt. Alstom's debt is EUR 2.8 billion and the gross debt is EUR 2.3 billion or EUR 2.4 billion in cash. So the debt is of roughly EUR 400 million as presented. The maturity is three to four years. This year we have no debt to repay. We will have EUR 500 million to pay in 2026 or EUR 700 million. It is not at a high price since the interest rates were negative when the debt was started. When the interest rates increase, we will change our plans. We'll see. Here are the perspectives, the outlook that was announced to the investors in May. This outlook is based on a number of assumptions we made, hypotheses that are very robust. First, because we think we have a supportive market demand, as was explained earlier.
The number of carriages or cars produced, it can be locomotive or it can be a TGV carriage, gives you an idea of our industry. The number of cars produced would be stable, around 4,500 this year, knowing that the number of cars is only one indicator of our rolling stock. Next to that, we also have signaling and services. However, it is a significant indicator that we monitor. R&D expenses will also increase to exceed 3% of our sales. Finally, we exclude potential negative impact from tariffs, particularly the American customs on the execution of our contracts in the United States. We consider that we are well protected and we are able to measure what those tariffs will be after all the announcements are translated in reality.
We think we are well protected thanks to our contracts and we can reclaim part of the impact from our customers. With this outlook, we think we'll have a good commercial activity. That is that the ratio between our orders intake and our turnover will be higher than one, particularly for Rolling Stock where the ratio was under one in the past two years. Our sales organic growth should be from 3-5%, which seems little compared with the 6% last year, but there are a number of technical reasons to that. We think we will be on the higher part of this bracket. The EBIT margin will be around 7% when it was 6.4% last year. It is going up. We think we'll have a positive cash flow generation from EUR 200 million-EUR 400 million. We indicated to the market, as you might have noted.
When we speak about the half-year result, we have a negative cash flow generation on the first half of the year of EUR 1 billion linked to what I said before, the volatile cash linked to the execution of our contracts. For some contracts, we are in a phase where we will not receive as much payments as we will have in expenses to deliver our trains. At medium term, we will confirm our ambitions. The book-to-build level will be above one. The average sales growth will be around 5%. The EBIT margin might exceed this 8%-10% range. There is another perspective, which is the Free Cash Flow conversion trending to 100% over the cycle. Last year, we had EUR 500 million in cash generation. We have done that already. We look at this for the next years.
We confirm our objective, which is to generate for the third consecutive year, last year, this year, and next year, a EUR 1.5 billion cumulative Free Cash Flow. Here is the share price evolution. Since the last general meeting, you see that Alstom's share price has increased faster than the French CAC 40 and the SBF 120 during that same period. Last year, we said that there had been a sharp decrease of the share price in October 2023. Since then, there has been a good evolution with even a peak around EUR 26 during Q1 due to the announcement of a great infrastructure plan in Germany Alstom should benefit from. It redecreased due to the announcement of our Free Cash Flow seasonality effect, which discouraged our investors. Yesterday, the share price exceeded EUR 20 once again. This is what I wanted to explain today.
Thank you, Bernard.
We see with the applause that you made this financial presentation quite exciting. Now I would like to give the floor to Kevin Cogo, our Chief Strategy Officer. He will describe our CSR priorities and the results for Alstom.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's the first time I attend this shareholders' meeting, so I'd like to thank you in advance for your attention. We're going to speak about our corporate social responsibility and our priorities by 2030. We'll speak about our ambitions and the previous achievements. I would like to thank Henri and also Jean-Pierre Farandou because, as you heard, many aspects are not only for CSR but also for business have to be seen under the angle of CSR. Here are the five priorities. Number one, facilitate the zero-emission mobility. We develop new technologies to support that.
In our portfolio, we made a number of choices on electricity only, and we are also investing in hydrogen-based batteries to improve our impact with our rolling stock. The second priority is our resource preservation, biodiversity, thanks to eco-design. Also the circular economy. This year, we have signed a contract for our low-carbon steel, which guarantees 95% recycling in the steels that we're going to use. This is the contract we signed with the SSAB company. The third priority is to improve the security and safety of our employees. As you know, we have many, many people in the plants and out there in the field. It's a top priority, and we continue this year, and we exceeded our objectives in this year in terms of incidents and accidents. Our fourth priority is people care and growth and also access to mobility.
That's one of the key aspects for TGV M. It's the access possibilities for people with disabilities. We've been working with a number of associations to understand the needs and find the right options and solutions that could be available on the new TGVs. The last ambition is our responsible value chain. It is a major challenge for us, as you will see in this slide. We are taking also our suppliers in this. Social performance. Journey. We continue to inform our suppliers in the next few years. They represent a great part of our impact. Speaking about our objectives. This is our transition plan to net zero in 2050. To achieve that, we have three main implementation areas. Henri started speaking about this for our results. The first one is the upstream scope three. This is actually embarking all our supply chain and all our suppliers.
We want to reduce by 30% our CO2 impact by 2030. We confirm this ambition, and we are committed with an action plan with our suppliers. The second point is scope one and two. We have a lot of tools for that because it has to do with our plans, our footprint. It only accounts for 1% of the emissions along the total value chain, but that's where we have the opportunity to make a difference. We confirm the objective of - 40% in 2030. We have already reached it. We reached it because of mild winter, sorry, and large variation in our electric consumption. In the years to come, we'll have some challenges. That's why we maintain this objective. The last point, which is the biggest challenge, that's scope three for the rail. Downstream, the use of our technical solutions by our customers.
Our ambition is to reduce by 42% the CO2 impact per passenger per kilometer by 2030. You saw the TGV M. Reduce reduction by 20%, but for passengers, it's almost 33-35% of reduction per passenger. That's the most difficult challenge for us. We invest a lot in R&D to introduce new technologies, but also more efficient traction chains. What matters is that the rail, by nature, as explained by Mr. Farandou, is a strong contributor to the emission reduction for one ton spent. When you take the train, you avoid about five times more if you had used different modes of transportation, be it the car or the plane. This is very important for Alstom, and that's why we invest so much in this field. If we look at what we've been achieving, some major achievements, we have 53 sites equipped with LED lighting. This investment was.
Started some years ago. Thirty-one sites are in progress, 100%. Moving to 100% of LED lighting, significant impact on consumption. Since the 1st of January in Europe, 80% of the electric power consumed comes from renewable sources. We also invest in solar panels heavily for some of our plants. We equipped 12; we produce 12 GW on our sites, and the investment plan continues. It accounts for about 3% of the consumption, but it remains investments, and our sites have become a bit more autonomous in terms of energy or electricity generation. The last point is the renewable electricity share in the world. We went from 77% to 88% in 2024, mainly thanks to some countries like Australia, the Czech Republic, Romania, but also Canada, with contracts of renewable energies. That's what I wanted to share with you.
I thank you very much, and I'm going to give the floor to me. Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Kevin. Okay, so. I'll be talking about governance. I will invite afterwards our Chairman of the Appointment and Remuneration Committee, Baudouin Prot, to take the floor. Regarding the governance. Next slide, please. Here you are. The Board of Directors, which I have chaired since last year, is made up of 12 directors. Among whom, compared to last year, we have two new directors appointed on the 1st of January. Representing the employees, Mr. Claude Mondar and Mr. Mario Orlando Campa. Maybe you can stand up so that our shareholders can see you. Mario Orlando Campa, thank you. I don't know whether you've seen them. Okay. We also have a new representative for the sensor, Mr. Édouard Ringuet, the observer. He joined us recently. He replaced Benoît Rayard.
Maybe can you stand up, Édouard? Thank you. The observer. And the independence rate within the board is high, 80%. The diversity, especially, is good. Good equilibrium, 50% men and women, various nationalities, and various expertise and experiences. It's complementary. Your board of directors complies with the regulation, therefore, and the best practices of governance. You will note that. The board has been strongly committed and engaged with 11 meetings and an attendance rate of 98%. Four executive sessions without the general management, level of 100% attendance rate. Now, if you look at the committees, we have three committees within the board of directors. Each committee is made up of at least two-thirds of independent directors. You will note that last June, we terminated the integration committee set up for the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation. The three committees in place now.
Had a high rate of activity during the past year. With four to six meetings each year, and the attendance rate is between 96% and 100%. If you are interested, you can find all these details and even more detailed information, especially on the topics examined by the committees during the financial year in chapter five of the universal registration document, page 198 right up to 245. You will have noted the absence of resolution relating to the composition of the Board of Directors this year. Indeed, no terms of office is expiring after this Shareholders' Meeting. Thank you very much for your attention, and I'm going to ask Baudouin Prot, the Chair of the Remuneration and Appointment Committee, to come to the podium in order to present the resolutions submitted to your vote in terms of remuneration.
Thank you, Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon.
As the Chair of the Appointment and Remuneration Committee of Alstom. Allow me to present the resolutions between five and 10 submitted to your vote regarding the remuneration policy for the financial year 2024-2025, and furthermore, the remuneration for the corporate officers of the past year. First of all. Resolution number five regarding the remuneration policy 2025-2026 of the CEO. Regarding this remuneration policy. It is unchanged versus the previous year, and it is made up of. Three components. Yearly fixed compensation, unchanged since 2021. Variable short-term compensation. 80% of which will depend on the overall objectives of the group, and 20% specific to objectives of the CEO. And the third component, variable long-term compensation performance shares, the acquisition of which will be submitted to internal performance conditions. Let's come to. The remuneration of the CEO. It includes also benefits in kind. Defined contribution pension schemes, and non-competition indemnity.
You will find the information on page 249 and further following of the universal registration document. Let's come to the remuneration policy 2025-2026 for the Chairman of the Board. Resolution number six regarding the remuneration policy 2025-2026 for the Chairman of the Board. You will be voting on it, resolution number 6. It has remained unchanged versus the remuneration policy of the previous year, with a fixed annual compensation and benefits in kind mainly. You will find all details on page 256 of the registration document, the URD. Remuneration policy 2025-2026 for the board members. The compensation policy of 2025 for the members of the Board of Directors is the subject of resolution number seven. It is unchanged versus the previous year. This policy was based on an annual envelope of EUR 1,300,000 authorized for the first time by the 1st July 2014 shareholders' meeting.
Allocation rules set by the Board of Directors. Comprising a fixed portion. And a portion attached to the attendance rate. You had the information on the attendance rate of the various sessions. You'll find this information on page 248 of the URD. Back to now the remuneration of the past year, resolution number eight, nine, and 10. We'll start with a general report on the remuneration. After resolution number eight, you'll be invited to vote on the general report on remunerations of all corporate officers of your company. I'm not going to enter into the details of the Chairman of the Board and the CEO because I'm going to talk about those conversations subject to specific resolutions I'll present later on. This report comprises other information as well. Remuneration of the board members, altogether, they received an envelope of EUR 848,124, representing approximately 73% of the total envelope.
The part paid by reason of attendance amounts to around 64%. For the remuneration of your Chairman and the CEO, you will have all the details regarding the average statistics and this remuneration of the Chairman of the Board and the CEO, page 257, 267 of the URD. Remuneration of the past year of Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO of our company, resolution number nine. Henri Poupart-Lafarge received a fixed annual compensation of EUR 950,000. We receive a variable yearly remuneration of EUR 1,117,200, corresponding to the achievement of objectives of 117.6%, linked to the overall performance of the group, 80%, and specific objectives, 20%. This variable remuneration can only be paid to Henri Poupart-Lafarge if your vote on the resolution is positive. The fixed and variable remuneration for 2024-2025 will be then reaching a total amount of EUR 2,067,204.
On top of that, you have benefits in kind and shares received for performance share plots 2021. Acquisition in July 2024, and the defined contribution pension schemes. It's in the URD. Finally. With regard to the remuneration of our Chairman of the Board of Directors, resolution number 10, you will have to vote on the remuneration of the Chairman. Mr. Philippe Petitcolin received an annual fixed remuneration as the Chair, EUR 352,500. This compensation was paid. He was appointed as the Chair, that is to say, from the 20th of June 2024. Mr. Philippe Petitcolin, until then, received remuneration as a director, and did not receive it once he became the Chairman. You'll find all details on this compensation on page 267 of the URD 2024-2025. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, thank you for your attention, and I'm going to hand the floor back to our Chairman.
Merci, Monsieur le Président.
Thank you very much, Mr. President, of the Committee of Remunerations. I would like now to ask Dominique Muller from Mazars to come and present the Statutory Auditors' Report.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon. On behalf of the Statutory Auditors, Mazars, I am happy to present the Auditors' Report for 2025, and I am going to summarize the terms of the different reports which are at your disposal and are in the URD, which was also delivered. I would like to start with the report on consolidated accounts. This report was presented following the IFRS standards in Europe. We certified those accounts with no unqualified or unmodified remarks, and some aspects have been attracting our attention. The audit looked at the reflection of the long-term contracts and the evaluation of investigations and disputes.
The fundamental part of our mission is to have a reasonable assurance about the true and fair view of the accounts. I want to make sure that the accounts have no significant anomalies. In order to do that, we want to see all the significant subsidiaries of the group, and we made a report on all the business activities and organizations of the group. We also verified the management report and any other document sent to the shareholders, bringing no further comment. Concerning the annual report of the accounts of Alstom SA, according to French accounting standards, we looked at the evaluation of the participation in Alstom Holding. We certified these accounts in an unqualified and unmodified way. Concerning our report on regulated conventions, we have a new convention for the exercise on 31 March 2025, authorized by your Board of Directors.
In view of a contract between your company and a financial establishment. We have never not seen any other convention where there would be. The development during the last fiscal year. We can also speak about the report on sustainability, which is the first report of that kind presented in March 25. Our remit was to give unlimited reassurance on the CSR of Alstom. One is the compliance of the analysis system of double materiality assessment of your company. In respect of the obligation of consultation of the social committee. It also covers the compliance of information provided with the sustainability standards, the OCRS, and the request for publication in view of the regulation on taxonomy. In synthesis on the sustainability report, we haven't seen no inconsistencies, mistakes, or omissions concerning the compliance of the process and information in terms of reliability in terms of ESRS.
We made an unqualified and unmodified comment. Concerning the extraordinary part of this general assembly, we provided five reports you can see on the screen with resolution projects that are submitted to vote this afternoon and concerning the operations on equity. We made no observation on the principle mode that was presented by the Board of Directors. Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Mr. Muller. We are now going to open the floor for discussion. You have hostesses in the room. You can ask your questions in written or orally. If in written, you can use the form that was given you at the entrance of this room. Before we start, I'd like to draw your attention on the fact that Alstom Company received a written question relative to 12584 of the Code of Commerce by Mr. Cheris, who I'd like to thank.
The answer to this question is compliant to the regulation and was sent online on the company's internet website previously to this assembly. We will not address this question in this meeting. I give the floor further to the floor. Number three.
Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thirty years ago, you said there would be a link between Thalys and Houston with a TGV, but this project never took place. Why are there so few developments of Alstom in the United States? I do not think there is any fast-train development like the TGV in the U.S.. When we have so many links between 500-1,000 kilometers between the cities, it would be a great competitor to cars and planes. My second question is about hydrogen. You are investing in hydrogen.
What is the economic interest for Alstom with this type of investment? Thank you for your answer.
Thank you, Henri. We'll answer those two questions.
Thank you for your questions. Speaking about the high-speed trains in the United States, we do have a number of projects in the United States, but as you say, this has been around for a very long time and none really succeeded. There's a sort of triangle in Texas that was always promoted by the Japanese with Japanese investments, and this project failed and was never implemented, although there is still an intention of the Texas government. In California, there's another high-speed train project, but it is hard to find investments for that or funding. There's a private operator, Brightline, trying to commission a link by 2030 between Los Angeles and another town in California. There are many other projects in Chicago and so on.
As far as Alstom is concerned, we were the first to sell the TGV in the U.S., so the TGV M for the Northeast Corridor. This corridor goes from Washington to Boston. This TGV will be commissioned in the next few weeks. Now, why is it a specific project and why we did not qualify it in the same way? Because we are using an existing line, or Amtrak did not want to start a new track. You can imagine the price of a new track between Washington and Boston, given the real estate and all the investments this would mean. There is also the Avelia Liberty, which is on that TGV. Brightline will be covered by a competitor, but we do have some presence on the American territory with that TGV. However, you are absolutely right, and this was mentioned by Jean-Pierre Farandou.
Seen from Europe, there are many places in the world where we could have TGVs. We spoke about Canada, the United States, Australia, where there is also an obvious corridor between Sydney and Melbourne. It could be Kuala Lumpur to Singapore; it's an obvious corridor. A few things are developing. Vietnam, for example, has a TGV project. China also is funding a number of high-speed projects or TGVs in Southeast Asia or the Pacific Rim. India also is launching a high-speed train project, and we would like to take part of that. Yes, TGV is not only European and Chinese; it is more and more a global project. Concerning our investment in hydrogen, let me give you some context to that. In Europe, half of the train network is not electrified yet. The question is, how should we electrify the rails and stop having diesel locomotives?
It's the same in the U.S., where 97% of the network for American freight is not electrified. What technology is available? You can electrify through catenaries, but the infrastructure is very expensive, and this can only be justified if you have a very dense network. India, for example, has accomplished great work here with electrification, moving from 70% to 97% in a few years. It's 50% in Europe, almost nothing in the States, and 100% in India. It doesn't seem obvious, but they have more electrified networks in those countries. If you don't use catenaries, then you can use batteries, for example, which is one other technology which is more mature than hydrogen. The problem with batteries is the autonomy. You can have 100 or 150 km with batteries, but we are looking at.
A mix or combined power with catenaries at the beginning and then batteries for the rest of the 150 km. That's one possibility. Now, what do we do for large distances? The only technology we can look at is hydrogen. It was slowed down. It was slowed down in the past few years. Given our hopes in this idea. We invest very little in hydrogen, actually. We are investing in fuel cell batteries, and we integrate batteries also in our trains. We do not develop those fuel cells ourselves. We've sold a number of trains in Germany, for example, in France or in Italy with hydrogen-powered systems. It will be only one part of the fleet. It's 20% of the fleet because it is only for the less dense networks. There are different ways to do that.
It might reach 5%-10% of the market max, but the hydrogen technology did not develop as fast, did not mature as fast as we would have wished. Or as it was sold to us, actually. It is taking some time to become a reality. We think there could be a good commercial growth in the next few years, but it was postponed by a few years. To address this market, we need to find a solution to decarbonate transport. Fuel cells are a great idea. They are successful. We are the only ones to have a train operating every day. In Germany, for example, people are commuting every day on a hydrogen-powered train. As you said, it is expensive. Also, it is not always available. Maintenance is another issue. It is not a mature technology, but it will happen. Thank you. Another question.
I think they all fell asleep.
No, I was clear. I was clear.
Yes, this time you were clear. If there are no further questions, we can now move on to our resolutions. I would like to give the floor to Emmanuelle Petrovic, who will start the voting process.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will start to present you the vote procedure, the electronic vote.
Mesdames et messieurs les actionnaires. Le boîtier qui vous a été remis à l'issue de l'émargement est strictement personnel. Le nombre de voix que vous détenez et/ou représentez est chargé dans le boîtier et affiché sur son écran. Vous n'aurez à utiliser que les touches verte, jaune et rouge. La touche verte correspond à un vote pour. La touche jaune correspond à un vote abstention. La touche rouge correspond à un vote contre.
Après la lecture de chacune des résolutions, il sera immédiatement procédé à son vote et il sera déclaré : « Le vote est ouvert. » À cet instant, vous apercevrez sur l'écran un rectangle vous indiquant le compte à rebours des secondes dont vous disposez pour voter. Lorsque le compte à rebours sera achevé, il sera déclaré : « Le scrutin est clos. » Et il ne vous sera alors plus possible de voter. L'affichage des résultats s'effectuera sur l'écran de projection quelques instants après la clôture du scrutin. Dernière précision. Merci de bien vouloir éteindre vos téléphones portables pendant la durée du vote et de restituer les boîtiers à la sortie de la salle.
As indicated at the beginning of this meeting, the quorum needed for this is 20% for the ordinary part and 25% for the extraordinary part.
The final statement of the attendance sheet shows that the shareholders present or represented or voting by proxy hold 338,111,180 shares with voting rights, which is 73.19% of shares with voting rights. Therefore, the quorum is reached. Resolutions must be adopted by a majority of votes held by shareholders present, represented, or voting by mail or by distance for the ordinary business and two-thirds majority for the extraordinary business. I propose to present a title summarizing each resolution, provided that no one requests that it be read in full. I see that there are no objections. Therefore, I will present the resolutions and invite you to vote on each of them after I have declared the vote is open. First, ordinary resolution, approval of the annual accounts for the financial year ending on the 31st of March 2025. The vote is open. Closed. Resolution approved.
Resolution number two, ordinary resolution, approval of the consolidated financial statements for the financial year ending on the 31st of March 2025. The vote is over. Resolution approved. Third resolution, ordinary appropriation of the results for the fiscal year ended the 31st of March 2025. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Resolution number four, ordinary special report by the statutory auditors on regulated party agreements, approval of a regulated party agreement. Vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Resolution number five, ordinary resolution, approval of the remuneration policy 2025-2026 for the CEO. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Resolution number six, ordinary resolution, approval of the 2025-2026 remuneration policy for the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The vote is open. The vote is over. Resolution approved. Resolution number seven, ordinary resolution, approval of the 2025-2026 remuneration policy for the members of the Board of Directors.
The vote is closed. Resolution approved. Resolution number eight, ordinary resolution, approval of the information specified in article L22109 of the French Commercial Code report on remuneration policies. Voting over. The resolution is approved. Resolution number nine, ordinary one, approval of the fixed, variable, and exceptional components of the total remuneration and benefits of all kinds paid during the last fiscal year or allocated for the fiscal year to Henri Poupart-Lafarge in his capacity of Chairman and CEO and then CEO. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution was approved. Resolution number 10, ordinary resolution, approval of the fixed, variable, exceptional components of the total remuneration and benefits of all kinds paid during the last fiscal year to Mr. Petitcolin as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved.
Number 11, ordinary resolution authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors to trade in the company's shares. The vote is open. Over. Resolution approved. Number 12, extraordinary resolution authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors to reduce the share capital by canceling treasury shares. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Number 13, extraordinary resolution, delegation of authority to be given to the Board of Directors to decide to increase the share capital by capitalization of premiums, reserves, profits, or any other percents. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Number 14, extraordinary resolution, delegation of authority to be given to the Board of Directors to decide to increase the share capital of the company or of another company by issuing shares and/or securities giving mutual to access the share capital with preferential subscription rights. The vote is open. Over. Resolution approved.
Number 15, extraordinary resolution, delegation to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital by issuing shares and/or securities giving access to the share capital without preferential subscription rights by public offering. The vote is open. Over. Resolution approved. Number 16, extraordinary resolution, delegation to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital by issuing shares and/or securities giving access to the share capital without preferential subscription rights by public offering specified in number one of article 411 of the Monetary and Financial Policy Act. The vote is open. The vote is closed and the resolution is approved. Number 17, extraordinary resolution, delegation to the Board of Directors to increase the company's share capital by issuing shares and/or securities giving access to the share capital without preferential subscription rights reserved for members or saving funds. Voting over. Resolution approved.
Number 18, extraordinary resolution, delegation to the Board of Directors to increase the company's share capital. Reserved for category of beneficiaries without preferential subscription rights. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Number 19, extraordinary session, delegation to be given to the Board of Directors to increase the number of securities to be issued. The vote is open. Over. Resolution approved. Number 20, extraordinary resolution, the increase in capital by increase in shares or securities. Consideration for contribution to the cash consisting of securities and securities giving access to the capital. The vote is open. Closed. Resolution approved. Number 21, extraordinary resolution, delegation to the Board of Directors to issue shares in the company following the issue by subsidiaries of the company of securities giving access to the company's share capital without preferential subscription rights. The vote is open. The vote is closed. Resolution was approved.
Resolution number 22, extraordinary resolution, authorization to be given to the board to make free grants of existing shares or shares to be issued to employees and corporate officers of the group or some of them. The vote is open. Closed. Resolution approved. Number 23, extraordinary resolution, ratification of an amendment to bring the articles of association to compliance, participation of directors in board of meetings via means of communication. The vote is open. Over. Resolution was approved. Number 24, extraordinary resolution, amendment to bring the articles of association to compliance, proxy voting by shareholders. The vote is open. Closed. Voting over. Resolution approved. Number 25, amendment to bring the articles of association to compliance, participation of shareholders in shareholders' meeting via means of communication. The vote is open. Over. Resolution adopted.
Number 26, extraordinary resolution, amendment to bring the articles of association into compliance, participation of bondholders in bondholders' meetings via means of communication. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Number 27, extraordinary resolution. Amendment to bring the articles of association into compliance, procedure applicable if the shareholders' equity falls below half of the share capital. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Number 28. Amendment to the articles of association, decision of the board of directors via written consultation. The vote is open. Voting over. The resolution was approved. Number 29, extraordinary resolution, amendment to the articles of association, postal voting by directors. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. The last resolution, number 30, ordinary resolution, powers to carry out legal formalities. The vote is open. Voting over. Resolution approved. Thank you very much.
Thank you to our secretary.
I would like to remind you that hostesses are available in the reception hall to collect the voting boxes that you have been given and which can only be used for electronic voting in shareholders' meetings. Thank you to give them back. Before joining this meeting, I would like to thank you once again for your attendance and your renewed confidence. For the company. As summary, I wish you a very pleasant evening. Thank you.