Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'd like to welcome you to our annual general meeting. The entire Antin team and I are delighted to meet with you either in person in Paris or by video for those watching remotely. I'd like to extend a special welcome to all our directors and auditors who are here with us today. This general meeting is an important event in the life of our company, and we're pleased to be here. To commence the official opening of the 2025 general meeting, we'll proceed with the constitution of its office and a reminder of legal formalities. With regard to the Office of the Assembly, I will chair it in my capacity as Chairman and CEO. Marc Crosby and Mélanie Biessy will act as scrutineers, and Camille Mathieu will act as secretary. Camille will now present the legal formalities governing our meeting.
Good afternoon, everyone. With regard to the formalities for convening the meeting, a meeting notice and a convocation notice were published in the official journal on 23 April and 19 May, respectively. Registered shareholders and auditors were formally notified of the meeting via post or email on 21 May. All documents required by applicable regulations have been made available to shareholders in a timely manner and in accordance with necessary formalities. We've not received any requests for additional agenda items or any written questions. Regarding the attendance sheet, we can confirm that 95.6% with voting rights are represented, meaning that the meeting can validly deliberate finally in accordance with established practice. We respectfully request that you waive our reading of the various reports and resolutions in full, and I'll now hand back to our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you, Camille. In view of the aforementioned information, I'm pleased to declare the 2025 General Assembly open. I propose the following structure for this meeting. Firstly, we will review our activities in 2024 with a particular focus on our fundraising, investments, exits, and asset management, the core of the Antin reactor. Following this, Felix Heon, our Head of Sustainability, will present the progress made in our Responsible Climate Strategy. Patrice Schuetz, our CFO, will then provide commentary on our financial performance in 2024, and then Mélanie Biessy, Administrator, Managing Partner, and Director of Operations, will provide an update on our governance and compensation systems. Lastly, our auditors will present their reports from the previous financial year. Following these presentations, there'll be a question and answer session, and finally, we'll be voting on the resolutions. Highlights: 2024 was another landmark year for Antin for a number of reasons.
First, because we closed the fundraising of Fund V at EUR 10.2 billion, the largest infrastructure fund worldwide, closed in 2024. We're particularly proud to have succeeded this in such a challenging environment. 2024 was also marked by the sale of our final Fund II asset, retail, 14 rail stations managed in Italy, offering an excellent return on investment of Fund II as to our other funds. They continue all to perform on or above expectations. Antin's fundraising activities enabled us to achieve a record financial performance with an EBITDA of EUR 187 million. Thanks to our low capital intensity, this EBITDA, in turn, translated in a strong distribution to shareholders with a 93% payout ratio of our net income. As regards the future, we announced the annual results on 5 March, that we stated that we expected 2025 to be a year of transition.
The headwinds blowing from America since April have not altered this message one way or another. Impending exits on Funds III and III-B, in conjunction with the ongoing rollout of Fund V, Mid Cap- I and Next Gen- I, should make Antin even more appealing for its clients and lay the foundation for our subsequent vintages and a more extended range of products. This will allow Antin to leverage infrastructure trends such as decarbonization, digitalization, and drive excellent earnings growth medium term. Let's go back to 2024 for now. As previously mentioned, we closed Fund V last December at EUR 10.2 billion, of which EUR 1.1 billion was raised during the year 2024. That illustrates the extreme difficulty of fundraising conditions in the capital markets.
We also deployed EUR 1.8 billion last year with three new investments: Portakabin, a modular infrastructure provider that will be introduced shortly; Proxima, France's first privately owned TGV company, which I'm sure will be of particular interest to some of you in the room; and GTL Leasing, a liquefied gas and hydrogen storage supply, which we acquired through our Next Gen Fund. With regards to exits, the sale of Grandes Stazioni Retail represents the final exit from Fund II with a final gross multiple of 2.6 times. This fund ranks in the top 25% of funds in our sector and demonstrates our ability to generate value for our clients even in a complex environment. With that said, I invite you to watch a video about our investment in Portakabin.
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Portakabin's strong growth has been underpinned by a general move towards more use of modular construction, and in particular, Portakabin is focused on a few sectors where this is growing, specifically in healthcare and education, which today is roughly half of Portakabin's business. There's an increasing use of modular buildings. Portakabin is, in addition to that, focused generally on the public sector and really critical end markets, and that is about three quarters of the business today. Portakabin is already number one in the U.K. and Ireland. We see the opportunity to further reinforce its position in continental Europe. It already does have some good positions in certain subsegments, and we see the opportunity to grow further in those markets. There's a really excellent management team in place, and we've already been working very closely with Dan Ibbetson as the CEO and his team.
When the Portakabin was invented by Donald Shepard, it was the original inception of the modular building in the U.K. and many parts of Europe. What we've done is evolve that initial concept of a portable space that you can link together and introduce the rental model. That's sort of how Portakabin has evolved over the last 60-plus years. The business has had a phenomenal track record of delivery and has been growing consistently for the last 12 years. In terms of the key elements of the strategy, the customer is at the heart of those, but there are other features around people, around data innovation, how we optimize our capital through management of fleets, how we deliver more services in and around the building for a great customer service. The partnership with Antin is a tremendously powerful partnership.
I think everything that we expected and hoped Antin would be and the team would be, they have delivered on that and some. I think with effort, with the support of Antin, I feel very confident about the next five years and beyond.
That was Portakabin, an excellent investment for our Fund V in the social sector. Since we're discussing Fund V, I'd like to take a few minutes to review its fundraising. With EUR 10.2 billion in commitments, it's 56 larger than its predecessor, Fund IV, despite being raised in a particularly challenging macro environment. We'd hoped to raise more in a shorter timeframe at the time of our IPO nearly four years ago. However, given the context, this fundraising remains a remarkable achievement and positions our flagship fund series as one of the fastest growing in the sector. This growth can be attributed to two key factors. Firstly, the loyalty of our fund investors. Many of them returned once more and contributed a total of EUR 5.8 billion to Fund V, equivalent to 90% of Fund IV, despite facing major liquidity constraints for these investors.
Second, we've been entrusted with the management of 120 new fund investments, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, and family offices, entrusted with EUR 4.4 billion to manage. This contrasts with the general trend of clients concentrating their funds in a few managers. The success of Fund V with investors is due in no small part to strategic choices made in developing our client relations teams in New York, Singapore, and Seoul. These teams have enabled us to double our fundraising with Asian investors and to quintuple it with North American investors. It is a resounding success and the business relationships that our client relations teams have forged and continue to forge are promising for future fundraising. As mentioned previously, 2024 was also marked by the resumption of exit activity.
To date, we've disposed of half of all Flagship investments made since Antin's inception, 82% of which have produced returns on or above plan. Specifically, the exit of GSR led to Fund II achieving a gross multiple of 2.6 times and a gross IRR of 19%. Both figures are well above our respective targets that were, remind you, of 2 times and 15% respectively. With regards to our upcoming disposal, we anticipate a steady increase over the next two years. These will initially be drawn for Fund III and Fund III-B, and then Fund IV, likely commencing next year. These upcoming exits will put us in an excellent position for the next round of fundraising by returning capital to our fund investors. As for asset management, 2024 saw a resurgence in the growth of our fund multiples after a period of stagnation in 2023.
The graph illustrates the progression of these multiples over time. In order to facilitate more effective comparison, we've repositioned the curve so they all start at the same point. Almost all our funds experienced significant value creation in 2024. In spite of more gradual initial development, Fund V and NextGen-I have gained significant traction. We're particularly pleased with their asset performance in 2024 and early 2025. Meanwhile, the Mid Cap -I fund is making steady progress on a quarterly basis. For Fund IV, we're currently awaiting the attainment of a critical size by some of the companies, at which point their role as a platform and value creation matching the scale will be recognized.
Lastly, Fund III's curve may appear to be a step below its predecessors, but this is essentially because exits will occur later in the fund's life cycle that very often entail significant revaluations to give you a clearer indication of the value generated by our funds. The majority, and in fact almost two-thirds of this value, derived directly from the growth of our portfolio companies. Our three investment strategies are value-add. This means that we buy companies with strong growth potential and help them realize this potential either strategically or through organic growth or by capital provision to achieve ambitious goals. This growth can be internal or external, achieved through the right acquisitions and good integration. We'll illustrate this in a few moments. The remaining value creation for our funds is derived from three additional financial factors.
Firstly, with regard to investment choices, we prefer to focus on niche or undervalued sectors. Notable example is Opdenergy , a solar company in Spain, previously listed but which fair value was not recognized by public markets. We therefore proceeded to acquire the majority of shares in the company and subsequently delisted the company. Operations of this nature are complex, but we have the necessary expertise. Secondly, we can enhance value by proactively managing our company's capital structure to substantially reduce the cost of debt and augment the debt capacity if required. Our dedicated team is specialized in these financing issues. Lastly, during our ownership, we de-risk these companies. That is, we allow them to achieve operational, financial, and managerial stability that will be appreciated and valued when we sell our shares. This allows us to attract buyers with a lower cost of capital and thus maximize the exit value.
Now that we've outlined our value creation tools, I will use a few figures to demonstrate the performance of our portfolio companies in 2024. Last year, Antin's portfolio sales grew by 12%, and above all, its EBITDA increased by 20%. Three-quarters of the companies in our portfolio we've held for at least two years have improved their margins during the last financial year. In addition, our financial team has been extremely active, successfully raising or refinancing EUR 8 billion of debt in 2024 across the portfolio in 12 operations. It is also interesting to note the 152 additional acquisitions achieved, of which almost 80 were made by one Fund IV company, Hippocrates. Let's watch a video about that.
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Behind the success of this investment really is a strategic idea. The strategic idea was not about some M&A plan. It was about creating a real healthcare platform in the country that will then meticulously be able to integrate new pharmacies into the network. You need to have the right team to really drive this idea and put this vision into place.
Each acquisition is evaluated for its revenue performance, customer demographics, profitability potential, and overall ability to fit within our existing retail network. We look for pharmacies that, on average, post EUR 1.6 million in annual turnover, which translates into approximately 40% premium versus the market average. The acquisition effort is carried out by the M&A team, which during these seven years has worked to create a sourcing network to deal with the fragmented nature of the market. Once an acquisition candidate is identified, negotiations are carried out to agree on a price and sign a letter of intent. Each acquisition candidate undergoes then a rigorous due diligence process that covers both financial and operating items, legal, labor, and tax matters. Our acquisition playbook has enabled us to maintain a significant pace of two acquisitions every week or 100 new acquisitions per year.
Hippocrates' operational excellence is built on a very strong industrial platform. Our new state-of-the-art 10,000 sq m warehouse, 70% automated. We are able to deliver products to the pharmacies in a timely manner. We receive real-time data from our pharmacy that allows us to significantly increase our profitability thanks to higher penetration of direct purchases. With centralized procurement, we are able to optimize our networking capital that allows us to readjust the replenishment of our central warehouse to reduce inventory levels and optimize stock, optimize networking capital management, which releases cash. Hippocrates' impact extends far beyond financial metrics. This is also related to the role the pharmacies play in this country, an integral part of the national healthcare systems. We provide a public service to the local communities. That's why it's very important we continue delivering healthcare services to the local communities.
Services like vaccinations, ECG, Holter, these kinds of services help alleviate the pressure on the national healthcare system and hospitals. Pharmacies are extremely important in a country where 25% of the population is above 65 years old. There is a strong correlation between age and drug consumption. With this commitment to proximity healthcare, Hippocrates is not just transforming pharmacies. Hippocrates is transforming lives.
We've built the platform. We have the right team in place and can really capitalize. If you look at the size of the market in the country today, there are 20,000 pharmacies not in the network. The size of the opportunity is still enormous. If you think about what we're set to do, it wasn't just some M&A plan. It was really to help shape the future of the Italian pharmacy system and the Italian healthcare system. That is really the point of this company, being the first contact of healthcare services in the country. This is not only an M&A success story. This really is a vision for a healthier future.
We often talk about investments that are platform-based, and I think that what we've shown you on Hippocrates fully illustrates the merits of building a platform for growth. I'll now hand over to Felix, who'll present the progress of our climate strategy and how it helps to de-risk our investments and create value.
[Translator] Thank you, Alain. Hello, everyone. As Alain mentioned earlier, the purpose of my presentation today is to outline our main achievements in the area of sustainable development in 2024, with a focus on our responsible investment approach. First of all, as a reminder, our sustainable development strategy is based on two main ambitions. Firstly, act as a responsible company, striving every day to manage the environmental, the social, and governance issues, ESG issues that are specific to our activities as an asset manager. Secondly, of course, to act as a responsible investor. On the one hand, we strive to invest in companies that have a positive impact on the environment or on society. On the other hand, we try to proactively integrate ESG risks and opportunities throughout our investment process, from the earliest stages of the acquisition phase to the exit phase.
Responsible investing has always been at the heart of Antin's DNA because we believe that taking ESG issues into account is a real source of protection and value creation for the companies that we invest in. Therefore, it's a key performance driver for all our funds. On the slide, we have highlighted what we consider to be the six main drivers of protection and value creation associated with taking ESG issues into account for our companies, on which a responsible investment approach is essentially based. From a value protection perspective, ESG integration first enables our companies to maintain and strengthen the resilience of their operations by helping them guard against risks that could have significant financial, reputational, and regulatory repercussions. These risks may, for example, include environmental pollution incidents, which are increasingly frequent, also extreme weather events, also increasingly frequent.
They're linked to climate change, as well as workplace accidents, social unrest, or incidents of fraud or corruption. In addition, some ESG issues, such as carbon emissions, natural resource consumption, and biodiversity protection, are becoming increasingly regulated in Europe and North America. ESG integration enables our company to ensure regulatory compliance, but also to anticipate and adapt to potential future regulatory changes that could impact their business model. For example, the introduction of a carbon tax for their industry or the gradual ban on polluting products that are currently key to their operations. In terms of value creation potential, strong ESG performance now enables many of our companies to stand apart from the competition, increase their competitiveness, and gain market share. This is particularly true of companies operating in the energy, environmental services, and digital sectors.
Their customers are often large groups, public institutions, or local communities with sustainable development strategies that often include very high environmental and social performance expectations for their suppliers. ESG integration also enables our companies to reduce their operating costs, including direct costs associated with water and energy consumption, for example, but also indirect costs associated with high absenteeism, employee turnover, or workplace accidents. Sound management of social issues, such as well-being or health and safety at work, also tends to promote employee engagement and have a positive impact on productivity as well as on the quality of services offered by our companies, particularly those companies that operate in the social infrastructure sector where employees are in direct contact with end consumers.
Finally, for our companies, committing to improving the ESG performance of their activities or having business models that are aligned with the environmental transition, that's become an important driver of access to financing, generally at lower costs, either in the form of impact loans, whose interest rate is indexed to the achievement of ESG objectives, or green bonds. Since 2021, to finance the growth of our companies, we have raised over EUR 6.5 billion in debt with this type of financial instrument across our portfolio.
As a result, in 2024, of course, we continue to strengthen the integration of ESG and sustainability criteria into our investment activities, in particular with significantly fast-tracked investments in decarbonization, with EUR 4.4 billion invested in companies promoting the energy transition and the circular economy at the end of the year, and more than EUR 500 million invested in companies involved in the rail transport sector. In addition to allocating a significant portion of our AUM to decarbonization, we continue to integrate ESG risks and opportunities across all our investments. During the year, we also raised $1.9 billion in impact loans and green bonds across our portfolio to finance the sustainable growth of our companies. We also continue to make progress towards the targets of our climate strategy, which was officially launched in 2023.
At the end of the year, 15% of our capital was invested in companies that have set decarbonization targets aligned with what science deems necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This represents an increase of 11 percentage points compared to 2022, a reference year, and brings us gradually closer to our target of 100% by 2040. We have also conducted, for the very first time, our first medium and long-term climate risk analysis covering our entire investment portfolio, which we will refine with our companies over the coming year. Finally, to maintain our progress in the years ahead, in 2024, we strengthened our sustainable development team with two additional hires, and this brings to seven the total number of professionals in the team.
We have also strengthened our ESG control system with a rollout of three new digital platforms dedicated to managing climate risk, carbon impact, and ESG data in general across our investment portfolio. I'm now going to hand over to Patrice Schuetz. We'll discuss the financial performance of the group in 2024.
[Translator] Thank you, Felix. Good morning, everyone. French is not my native language. Therefore, I will present the financial results in English, but we will keep displaying the French language for your convenience.
I would first like to say that it is a pleasure to be here at the AGM and present our financial results. As you have probably seen, this is my last AGM, as I will step down as Group CFO next month. I will say upfront that it has been a great pleasure and honor to serve the company, to partner with a wonderful management team, and to serve you, the shareholders. I'm also very pleased that I can present to you record financial results for Antin. While I will keep the presentation to the most important elements, our detailed activity report and financial statements are available in the AGM convening brochures. For your convenience, we have printouts of these brochures available by the auditorium's entrance in French and in English. For those joining us remotely, these documents are also available electronically on our website.
Now, looking at the key metrics for 2024, I'm pleased to report that we achieved record financial results, including the highest level of fee-paying AUM, Assets Under Management, Revenue, and EBITDA in Antin's history. The growth over the last two years has been driven primarily by the significant step-up in our revenue and profit capacity that has been added by Flagship Fund V, for which fundraising started in 2022 and completed in 2024. Fee-paying AUM increased to EUR 21.6 billion, up 7.3% year-on-year, and up 6.3% per annum over the last two years. Revenue rose to EUR 318 million, up 12.6% year-on-year, and up 21.9% per annum over the last two years. Underlying EBITDA followed and grew to EUR 187 million in 2024. That represents a 6.5% increase year-on-year and an impressive 25.6% per annum over the last two years.
Our dividend payout ratio remained significant at 90% or above 90% and consistent with our dividend policy to distribute most of our profits to shareholders. Year-on-year dividends were flat, while growth per annum over the last two years stood at +30%. Now, let's take a closer look at our assets under management and our revenue. First, our fee-paying assets under management increased by EUR 1.4 billion in 2024 and reached EUR 21.6 billion. This increase is primarily due to fundraising for Flagship Fund V, as I have alluded to before, and due to additional investments that we've made in some of our earlier fund vintages. Total AUM grew to EUR 33.3 billion. Now, as a reminder, our total AUM consists of our fee-paying AUM, co-investments that are non-fee-paying, and the value creation across the investment portfolio.
The key driver of our P&L today is our fee-paying AUM, which is resulting in management fee revenue that are long-term contracted. In 2024, management fees represented EUR 309 million and contributed 97% to our total revenue. This includes approximately EUR 28 million in catch-up fees, which are essentially late management fees charged to investors that have committed capital to a fund after the fund's first close. The remaining revenue were mainly performance-related revenue and admin fees. Now, talking about carried interest, which is a great topic, Antin has so far recognized small amounts of performance-related revenue in its P&L, and that's because we started to allocate carried interest to the company at the time of the IPO, and it typically takes several years for carried interest revenue to be recognized.
Having said that, the potential for performance-related revenue is very significant, and if we continue to achieve strong investment performance, it should materialize over time. Now, for example, this is the math we're showing on the slide. If Antin was to achieve a two-times gross multiple on its funds, it would generate more than EUR 500 million in performance-related revenue. That more than half a billion euros in potential performance fees relates to funds that have been raised over the last four years. The two-times gross money multiple target that we apply on this table is consistent with the target returns of the funds. It also compares versus a 2.6 times gross multiple achieved on all realized investments since the inception of the firm. That lends additional credibility to this number.
More near term, we expect Fund III-B to potentially generate some carried interest revenue in 2025, depending on the successful rollout of our Fund III and Fund III-B exit plans. That carried interest is embedded in the EBITDA guidance that we have communicated to shareholders in March. Now, moving to our EBITDA and net profit. Our EBITDA increased by 6.5% year-on-year and reflects the growth in our revenue and controlled increases of our cost base. You will see on the slide that we had a very significant step-up in profits in 2023, so the year before, and a more measured increase in 2024. That is linked to the fundraising and reflects the non-linear growth profile of our P&L.
When we raise a substantially larger new fund, as we have done with Fund V, we typically see a significant step-up in profits, which is then followed by more measured growth until we raise our next sizable fund. The same pattern applies to our net profit, which we've grown by 6.6% in 2024. Turning to our balance sheet, we retained a strong cash position of close to EUR 390 million at the end of 2024, and no borrowings and no debt. This cash was invested mostly in term deposits and money market funds. Our objective is to move towards a more efficient capital structure over time, and we're going to do this in three ways. First, by returning capital to shareholders.
As we operate a capital-like business model, we are in a fortunate position to be able to distribute a high share of our earnings as dividends, and we expect to maintain or grow our absolute dividends going forward. Second, we intend to continue to invest in our funds, demonstrating significant alignment of interest with our investors and generating upside through potential investment income. Third, oh, sorry, I'll finish on that. We invested EUR 25 million from our balance sheet into our funds in 2024 and have another EUR 113 million committed in addition to that. Third, we expect to use a portion of our cash balance to support the strategic growth and strategic development of the firm. That can be either to see new investment strategies or to opportunistically consider acquisitions. Turning now to dividends, we propose, subject to shareholder approval, a dividend of EUR 0.71 per share.
That's in line with last year's dividend and represents a 93% payout ratio with respect to the 2024 earnings. The first EUR 0.34 per share have been approved by the board last September and were distributed last November, and the remainder should be paid soon, subject to approval. Now, should you approve the proposed full-year dividend, we will arrive at a cumulative EUR 1.95 dividend per share distributed since our IPO three and a half years ago. A total of EUR 350 million in dividends have been distributed since the IPO. Looking forward, our objectives are threefold. On growth, we intend to continue growing faster than the private infrastructure market over a fundraising cycle. That's what we delivered consistently since the inception of the firm, and that's what we intend to deliver in the future.
With respect to the profitability, we expect to achieve an underlying EBITDA above EUR 160 million in 2025 and a significant step-up in earnings by 2027, which evidently would reflect additional fundraisings. Lastly, on distribution, we maintain our guidance of stable or growing dividend distributions and expect a stable dividend for 2025 at approximately EUR 0.71 per share. This concludes the financial part, and I will now hand over to Mélanie to present governance in French. Thank you.
[Translator] Thank you, Patrice. Good afternoon to you all. First of all, I'm pleased to inform you of the completion in January 2025 of Antin's first free float expansion. Since its IPO, indeed, on January 17, last, a group of partners of Antin sold a total of 4.55 million shares, which is around 2.5% of Antin's capital.
Half of these shares were acquired by two managing partners, while the other half was sold on the exchange to qualified investors. As a result, Antin's free float now represents 16% of its capital. A word now on governance. The Board of Directors of Antin, currently composed of six board members, including three independent directors, it is a united, engaged board, and each member has a positive assessment of its overall functioning. On October 29 last, the Board of Directors reviewed its composition and wish to propose to you today the renewal of the mandates of directors Lynne Shamwana and Dagmar Valcarcel for a three-year term. Lynn and Dagmar are independent directors. They joined the Board of Directors when Antin went public and have since demonstrated consistent involvement in the board's work as well as that of the committees in which they participate.
Their contributions are invaluable, and they support Antin in the continuous improvement of its governance. That is why, in the event of a positive vote from the AGM on the proposed renewals, it is expected that Lynne Shamwana and Dagmar Valcarcel will continue to sit on the committees of which they are currently members and to chair the committees which they currently hold the chair. The Board of Directors relies on the skills matrix presented on the screen in order to conduct the annual review of its composition. You can see on screen the skills and expertise deemed essential for Antin, considering the activities and main challenges of the group. As you can see, the current composition of the board is viewed as extremely satisfactory. The current composition of the board is satisfactory in terms of independence, gender representation, age, and nationalities of its directors.
Three of the six board members are independent, accounting for half of the board. This exceeds the 33.33% recommended by the Afep-MEDEF Code for control companies. The board is international, with five nationalities represented. The average age of its members is 62.5 years, and the board is perfectly balanced in terms of gender. Regarding the composition of the board committees, emphasis is placed on its independence. Both the audit committee and nominations and remuneration committee are entirely independent. The sustainable development committee has two-thirds of independent members. All this reflects the strong involvement of independent directors in the life of our group. Let's now move on to the remuneration of corporate officers. I'll start with the remuneration structure of a Chief Executive Officer in 2024. It's straightforward. It comprises only a fixed salary and a variable component. The variable remuneration 2024 is determined using quantitative and qualitative criteria.
The four quantitative criteria are weighted and collectively account for 70% of the variable remuneration. They are presented on screen. These criteria assess Antin's performance by measuring its ability to attract investors, invest the raised capital, and to create value. They also allow for the evaluation of the group's financial performance. The two qualitative criteria, on the other hand, account for the remaining 30% of the variable remuneration, including an ESG component and a component that measures the quality of governance and management. The board assessed that the criteria were fully achieved in 2024, such that the Chief Executive Officer will earn 100% of his variable compensation in 2024 if you vote positively on that matter. As for 2025, the CEO's remuneration structure will remain similar, comprising fixed and variable annual remuneration. The latter variable annual remuneration would remain capped at 100% of fixed remuneration.
The board is pursuing its policy of aligning the increase in the Chairman and CEO's fixed compensation with that of employees. Consequently, we're implementing a similar increase to the one granted to employees in 2025, as you can see on screen. With regard to variable compensation, the qualitative component remains capped at 70% and quantitative at 30%. The qualitative component of variable compensation will be measured based on three equally weighted criteria consistent with our key financial performance indicators. Firstly, growth in assets under management generating fees and revenue. Secondly, growth in adjusted EBITDA. Thirdly, growth in distributable profit. These criteria will be assessed using a rolling four-year average to take into account Antin's non-linear growth profile as well as to coincide with the fundraising cycle observed by Antin and its peers.
This observation was already communicated to the market for the four-year cycle last September, and we are aligning today our remuneration criteria with our financial communication. As to the qualitative component of annual variable compensation, it will continue to be measured on the basis of two equally weighted criteria relating to ESG objectives and the quality of governance and management. With regard to the other directors, only independent directors receive financial compensation for their services as directors. The details of their remuneration for 2024 are shown on screen. The Board of Directors has determined these following a recommendation from the Appointments and Remuneration Committee in accordance with the remuneration policy approved at last year's Annual General Meeting. The remuneration policy for independent directors applied in 2024 will be renewed for 2025.
Remuneration principles are outlined on screen with a fixed amount linked to the role of the directors and a variable amount contingent on their participation. Thank you for your attention, and I hand over to our statutory auditors, Hervé Tanguy and Nicolas Assart, who now present their various reports. Thank you.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen shareholders. I'd like to begin by summarizing our audit reports on the consolidated and annual financial statement presented in the brochure that you receive. The prime purpose of our assignment is to obtain a reasonable assurance that the accounts are true and fair and that they comprise no material statements. We certify with a non-qualified opinion the financial statements approved by your board. In a complex and changing environment, we report in our reports the key audit matters relating to material misstatements which cover and which have been the most important for audit.
The key audit matters on the consolidated financial statement are the assessment of non-current asset share of funds, the assessment of carried interest held directly by AIPSA. Lastly, the audit matter on the individual statement concerns the assessment of the equity investments, AIPSA's, AIPUK on the management report. We have no comments to make regarding the consistency with consolidated financial statements. For the individual financial statements, we have no comments to make regarding the other audits provided by law. The other concerning information supplied to shareholders, notably the report on corporate governance and the management report regarding the format of presentation of consolidated financial statements and annual financial statements in the annual report. On the basis of our work, we conclude the presentation of the consolidated financial annex as well as the annual financial statements in the report. Respect significantly the single EU electronic format.
Over now to Hervé, who will run through our special report as well as our other reports. Thank you for your attention.
Ladies and gentlemen shareholders, I'll firstly present the report on regulated agreement regarding agreements put to the approval of the general meeting. We have been informed of no agreement authorized and concluded during the past year to be put to the approval of the AGM, consistent with the provisions of L238 of the Code of Comments as regards agreements already approved by the AGM. We inform you that we have been informed of no agreement previously approved by the AGM whose implementation continued during the past year. Turning now to all the specific reports on which you will be voting, the first concerns the report on capital reduction under resolution number 13.
This capital reduction by cancellation of shares regards the provision of Article 22-10-62 of the Code of Commerce. In conclusion, we have no comments to make on the causes and conditions of the envisaged capital reduction. Next, we have a report of overall delegation concerning resolutions 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, and 25. Resolution 14, delegation of authority granted to the board with a view of increasing the capital by issuing ordinary shares and/or securities with maintenance of preferential subscription rights. Regarding resolution 15, delegation of authority granted to the board with a view of increasing the capital by the issuance of ordinary shares and/or securities with waiver of the preferential subscription right through public offering outside the offers referred to in paragraph one of Article 441 of the Monetary and Financial Code.
16th resolution, delegation of authority granted to the board with a view to increasing the capital by issuance of ordinary shares and/or securities with waiver of preferential subscription rights as part of an offer for qualified investors or a restricted circle of investors referred to in paragraph one of Article 4112 of the Monetary and Financial Code. Resolution 13 concerns delegation of authority to be granted to the board in the event of issuance of shares or any security with waiver of preferential subscription with the aim of setting the issue price within a limit of 10% of the share capital. 18th resolution concerns delegation of authority to be granted to the board with a view to increase the amount of issues conducted with maintenance or waiver of preferential subscription rights in the event of surplus applications.
18th resolution, delegation of authority to be granted to the board in order to issue ordinary shares and/or securities giving access to the capital of the company in the event of a public offering with an exchange component initiated by the company. 20th resolution concerns delegation of powers to be granted to the board with a view to decide on the issuance of ordinary shares of the company and/or securities giving access to the company's capital to remuneration contribution in kind, capital or securities, or securities giving access to capital of third companies outside a public offering with waiver of preferential subscription rights for the holders of capital securities or securities subject to contributions in kind. Resolution 20, delegation of authority to the board with a view to deciding on the issuance of shares or securities with waiver of preferential subscription rights for one or several persons designated by name.
25th, overall limitation of the amount of issues of shares and/or securities. I'll now deliver the conclusions of our report. Subject under and respect to these resolutions 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25. Subject to later review of the conditions of issues to be decided. We have no comments to make on the modalities for determining the issue price of capital stock to be issued in the board's report in respect of 15th, 16th, and 17th resolution. Moreover, this report doesn't specify the arrangements for determining the issue price of capital to be issued as part of the implementation of resolution 14, 19, and 20. We cannot give a view on the items for the calculation of the issue price.
For the 24th resolution, in the absence of a decree referred to in Article 22-10-50 of the Code of Commerce, we cannot give our opinion on the arrangement for determining the price of capital to be issued set out in the board's report. The final conditions in which issues will be undertaken are not yet set. We're not forming an opinion on these, consequently on the proposal of waiving the preferential subscription right that is put to you in resolutions 15, 16, and 24, largely in accordance with Article 22-51-16 of the Code of Commerce.
We'll draw up an additional report if need be when these authorities are used by your board in the event of issuance of securities that are capital securities giving access to other capital securities or to debt securities in the event of issuance of securities giving access to capital securities to be issued with issuance of shares with waiver of preferential subscription rights. We still have two further reports. These are two further reports that are a lot simpler. The penultimate report concerns the report on the capital increase reserved to members of a corporate savings plan, resolution 22, delegation of authority of 18 months to be granted to the board with a view to increasing the share capital through the issuance of company shares with waiver of preferential subscription rights to the benefit of employees who are members of the corporate savings plan.
The total amount issued premium of capital increases that might be undertaken should not exceed EUR 10 million. In conclusion, subject to a later review of the conditions of capital increase that might be decided, we have no observations to make on the arrangements for determining the issue price of ordinary shares to be issued set out in the board's report. The final conditions under which the capital increase will be undertaken have not yet been set, so we're not expressing an opinion on those. Consequently, on the proposal to waive the preferential subscription right that is put to you in accordance with Article 22-51-16 of the Code of Commerce, we'll draw up an additional report if need be when this delegation of authority is used by your board.
Lastly, final reports concerns resolution 23 as the report on capital increase reserved for categories of beneficiaries made up of employees of companies as a group, the issuance of shares of the company with waiver of the preferential subscription right for categories of beneficiaries made up of employees of group companies for a maximum price issued premium concerned of EUR 5 million. It being stated that said ceiling will apply to the cap mentioned in resolution 22. Furthermore, on the total ceiling limit in resolution 25. Conclusion, subject to a later review of the capital increase conditions that would be decided. We have no comments to make on the arrangements for determining the issue price of ordinary shares to be issued set out in the board's report. The final conditions under which the capital increase will be undertaken not yet been set. We're not expressing an opinion on these.
Consequently, on the proposal to waive the preferential subscription put to you in accordance with Article 22-51-16 of the Commercial Code, we will draw up an additional report if need be if your board uses that delegation of authority. Thank you.
Thank you, Hervé. Time for Q&A. Ladies and gentlemen, your shareholders, my team and myself are on hand to answer any questions you may have. Let's start with a shareholder here who has a lot of enthusiasm. Into a microphone, please. Otherwise, the interpreter cannot hear you.
[Translator] Good afternoon. Cher, my name is Jean-François Belker. And just like last year, I would like to thank you for your kind welcome and for those exhaustive presentations. There is really a lot of information. We know that those reports are highly standardized and therefore, under the law, you are not required to read them in full.
I suggest that maybe not next year, but maybe in two years' time. How about summarizing the summary? I'm listening. I have four questions. First question. My first question is manifold. It has to do with the market environment. How would you describe the current market conditions when it comes to fundraising or exits? Second question. If I understand properly, you are contemplating a gradual improvement of the exit market for your companies. What is that based on? What is the basis for your confidence? Third question. In the private equity world, a number of companies are thinking of proposing their services to retail customers. Is that on the table for Antin? In January, you recalled that a number of long-standing partners were reclassified on the stock exchange in the trough in the cycle. Could you tell us more about that? And second to last question.
Rumors abound about transactions, potential transactions. We heard about capital fall sparking the interest of a lot of stakeholders. How much appetite is there on the board for making further acquisitions in the asset management space? Last question, what is the board's perception of the share price and market cap of your group? Thank you very much for your answers.
I'll take a few of those questions and then we will share the workload. Regarding the market environment, when it comes to fundraising, market conditions remain difficult. Obviously, fundraising is the main weapon in our arsenal. The overall funds raised in 2024 were below the 2019 level, so our fundraising business has contracted very strongly. This is due to a number of factors in quick succession. The war in Ukraine has caused uncertainty on the markets, and this has meant inflation, as you well understand.
Interest rates have increased, and this has meant a slowdown in asset disposals, which are a way to return capital to shareholders. This means reinvestment into new funds is a process that's been stalled. It is important to determine an investment plan for funds over a multi-year basis, 5-10 years. If for a year or two you're seeing a weakening of returns and no immediate visibility, obviously investors tend to pull out. This means lower figures. Based on my personal perception, I believe that this improvement could have taken place in the second half of 2024, but that hope did not materialize for two reasons. First of all, the wait-and-see attitude on the market as a result of U.S. elections in the United States.
Since Trump is now back in power, a number of decisions have been made, and this has caused further instability on the market. Now, when it comes to exits, yes, we're seeing a contraction in business. Obviously, we do have a few exits under our belt. It is true that the volume of exits has been much reduced over the past two years. I would say that this business will kick back up very quickly once interest rates and inflation rates are more favorable and will provide for better visibility. Today, we can say that inflation is no longer a systemic risk, but real interest rates will be high. At some point in time, we'll have to come to terms with the fact that markets have to be valued at market level. There is a delayed impact. Clearly, assets will be sold.
When it comes to retail customers, we've had a whole discussion on that topic. A little bit of background information. Firstly, today, our customer base is almost 100% institutional. We're talking pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds. Those are our core customers. We do not reach out to private investors or individuals or, contrary to some of our American counterparts, because that's not part of our strategy. If you read the news, there's actually an excellent article that came out, a Bloomberg article detailing the risks entailed when you target individual investors. Honestly, I completely concur with this article, with this approach. It's a risky strategy. Investments into risky funds, such as infrastructure funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, etc., obviously, under EU regulation, particularly French regulation, investors must know what they're doing. They must have the skills to make such risky investments.
Investors, whether individuals or individuals representing holding companies, get to fill out questionnaires. That is a way to make sure that they are aware of the risks, aware of the risks that they are taking because there is a potential loss of capital. We do not want bad surprises. Investors must be aware that high returns will come with high risks. We do not reach out to retail customers. We do not believe in such products. However, we are looking at whether or not investors may be given access to Antin funds via secure vehicles, via secure structures. When it comes to reclassification of some shareholders, I believe that we all have our own priorities and our own needs. Needs for liquidity, for example, needs for cash, the need to pay taxes, etc. We staggered this over three years.
We do have a five-year low cap, and we have restrictions on share sales, and this was determined under our pact for shareholders. For three years, there was a ban on selling shares, and then there are windows of opportunity through which you can obtain liquidity gradually in controlled fashion. The first window opened, and investors could sell as much as 25% of the capital. I would like to emphasize the amount that was sold. That represents 2.5% of the capital. It could have been 10 times that amount. These are very low amounts compared with the entire capital held. We are talking a handful of partners. As our Chairman rightly said, this is mostly intended to cover tax needs. British residents or U.S. residents, in particular, needed to pay their taxes once they have exercised the option under the shareholders' agreement.
Like I said, these are very small amounts, only 2.5% of the total capital. As a subscript to what Mélanie just said, 50% of the equities sold were bought up by other partners, including myself. This shows the extent of our trust in the company. To be clear, on a personal note, I would have preferred to buy back all of the shares, but our excellent CFO explained to me that it was a good idea to increase the free float. Of course, I listened to Patrice's wise recommendations. Now, regarding rumors of acquisitions, in our line of work, the human factor is key. Interpersonal relationships are key. Those relationships must be based on trust, on a shared vision, on a shared ambition that is absolutely key. In our line of work, it's not as though we have tangible assets.
If something's not working out, you replace someone with someone else, are they head of a bottling plant or whatever. It is important to get along. Since the IPO, we have initiated a systematic review of all asset classes in which we could potentially invest or develop new strategies. We have talked to a lot of people for obvious reasons. We're not going to disclose the details, but yes, it's on our mind. The primary criterion is not financial in nature. Obviously, it may be tempting to embrace a partnership so as to grow bigger, but what matters the most is whether or not we're compatible. Our ability to work together as opposed to fighting each other. The human factor is absolutely key in our line of work.
This is why we rule out 90% of potential acquisitions or potential partnerships because it simply does not make sense. It is true. We operate in a market that, for very specific reasons, there is consolidation taking place. The main reason, I think, has to do with the fact that in the private equity space, the market is much more domestic in nature than the infrastructure market. Founders wanting to retire or discontinue their business, they sell it. This can, of course, feed into our funds. Microphone, please. Question was a notable answer. It has been 18 years, and we have not done it yet. No, we have a very systematic approach. You may have noticed that a number of infrastructure companies are backed by private equity groups. The CVC group, for example, is a bridge point. Individual bridge in the U.S.
Obviously, we're taking a look, and we perform a systematic and methodical analysis. Like I said, it's been 18 years, and we haven't done it yet. However, we now have three different strategies for infrastructure: flagship, Mid Cap, and NextGen. [Foreign Language] What is your question exactly? Are we happy with our share price? Regarding the share price, we're paying close attention to this. Obviously, we're keeping our eye on the ball. A little bit of background information so you'll understand. Firstly, the IPO took place at the highest, at the peak of the cycle, at the highest level. What is it that put a spanner in our works? The conflict in Ukraine.
Because share prices of a lot of companies, particularly private equity funds, actually took a dip as a result of the war in Ukraine. The P at which we became listed was EUR 40, and that was double the level for American companies for two reasons. Firstly, perception of shareholders. Shareholders felt that there were fewer listed private equity funds in Europe, and so the potential growth in the U.S. was much higher. Secondly, in our case, in our parlance, we are a pure player. In other words, we specialize in a single investment class, infrastructure, as opposed to bigger U.S. players that may have four or five different strategies. This had an impact on our evaluation approach.
If we look at the market today, I would say that market perception in Europe boils down to strong, real potential for growth, but it's not material enough to presuppose multiples that are completely decorrelated from the U.S. market. Things in the U.S. haven't changed. That is my explanation. It's a rational explanation behind our share price. There are re-rating or down-rating phenomena because of growth prospects, competitive growth prospects in the U.S. and in Europe. Other questions?
My name is Jacques Callot. I used to be an industrial and financial economist. I know your reputation, which is why I've invested, and your growth I find convincing, but I do have a key question. Does the stock exchange understand your strategy when it comes to the free float? Shouldn't you be a "momentum" player?
Because you're referring to the momentum in the U.S. market, but owning Antin shares is an opportunity to diversify one's portfolio. So my question is this: are you allocating sufficient carried interest to the management company, in other words, to the SA?
[Translator] Our investor or rather our investment profile, is it properly valued on the stock exchange? I would say, once again, forget about the level of valuation. I would say that today, the fact that fundraising is not smoothed out is probably a negative impact. So we need to find a way to smooth out our AUM fundraising, looking at the purely financial performance of our company. Let me take an example. The next fundraising, major fundraising for a flagship fund, will have a huge impact in 2027-2028. Today, our share price is valued on the basis of our performance in 2025, 2026 and 2027.
Therefore, we believe in our growth. If we look at our history, we've been able to at least increase by 50% our performance from one fund to another. There will be a huge impact on value creation, financial value creation by 2028. That is not captured yet by the company. It will be much more so in the next few years. That is the situation we are currently in. That is the situation. That is the way it is. Turning now to the carried interest. We are in a market in which there were positions of our peers since the market exists as a stock market class. Very different positions 15 years back. KKR, Blackstone, Carlyle IPO, their assumption was to say, "We're going to put a lot of carried interest in the company." That was a choice that was made.
It was linked to the asset base of the main founders, leading, culminating in the fact that the carried interest available for the team is reduced. If I take Carlyle, KKR, Blackstone, 60% of carried put in the management company, giving right to carried interest to tune to 60% for the shareholders, which means the carried available for the team is only 40%. The carried was done to remunerate fundamental performance of the fund managers. That is the first point. Secondly, when we look at the valuation of the carried interest, it is something that is difficult for the market to value. Everyone, I mean, if you listen to and read what Stuart Schwartzman, Andrew , is saying, that it is poorly valued as the carried by the financial markets. It is in cash. When the cash materializes, it is complicated to materialize it.
We opted for a far purer model where we allocate 20% to the carried, the management. The team has 18% to remunerate. 80% to remunerate is the whole team. Everyone has access to the carried interest. All other things being equal, the ratio is doubled for the team, carried interest versus Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, double. For us, that's extremely virtuous. We are very comfortable with that model. We have given indications of carried that might be valued, say, at 2030, about EUR 500 million in the management company. It is extremely material. We are talking of a notional valuation element. It is an indication, of course, we will try and do better if we can.
Good afternoon. I am a retail individual shareholder. Well done for the fact that you have lowered the 10 with the flagship. How many funds worldwide that have topped that quota as an order of magnitude generally?
Thank you for your resolution 10 with the salary increase of 10% because, in fact, it's the same for your employees. I like that alignment. I had a question on Proxima. I was given to understand that you've spent EUR 503 million on Ferrovia. I think it's Proxima. Proxima, you're starting from zero, if I understand right. It's something in which you'd like to move forward in the going forward? Was it by happenstance, by opportunity? On the pharmacy entity in Italy, are these the things you'd like to develop subject to regulatory green lights in other European geographies? Thanks.
Thank you for your approval, your appreciation on our fundraising performance in 2024 worldwide. The biggest fundraiser achieved was that of [Vantaer].
If we take a broader perspective, if we look at the number of companies raising funds higher than our funds in activity, not raised in 2024, but in activity today, we have funds. Infrastructure. Infrastructure, we have KKR, Blackstone, Brookfield. Stonepeak, yes? No. They're smaller funds. Stonepeak, EUR 6 billion, EUR 8 billion. Equity, GIP, that's EUR 6 billion. [Offee], EUR 6 billion, EUR 7 billion . Yeah, EUR 6 billion, EUR 7 billion. We are truly in the pack. You need also to understand that we are in a phase of high growth of the activity. That's not always well understood, but going to be compared with more stabilized PE activity, more normalized. EUR 10 billion funds, very big at the same time. Infrastructure needs are colossal, and we all see that states aren't always capable of funding them for many of them. We also have a factor that's crucially important to assess.
One of the strong dynamics for growth of the fund size in infrastructure funds is that if we work well, we and our peers, of course, we're not the only ones, but we're trying to work well. If we do a good job, we'll create wealth. That wealth means that the size of companies that we'll offer for sale will be significantly high, say, two and a half times as was explained. If you put EUR 1 billion in a company, that's EUR 2 billion. Have to assume we're going to sell something that's worth EUR 5 billion, four, five, six years down the road. That is a factor that is totally new. We're setting up large fiber platforms in Europe, but also in the U.S. In particular, we in Europe, we've teamed up with two big fiber platforms. There are others also in Europe, in the U.S. Ditto for data centers.
There are loads of activities that are created, creating really big companies. Of course, the size of the funds that are going to be invested to buy these companies will obviously have to be significantly higher. It is going to happen through a mix of far bigger funds and institutional investors that are investing increasingly very big tickets, mega tickets, EUR 500 million, EUR 1 billion, north of that, next to funds such as our own. The growth of funds is hugely important. Therein lies the challenge. Yes, I will not really discuss salary employee alignment here, but in truth, it is aligned. I agree with that of the Antin employees. Proxima is a project that is close to our heart.
It's a project that's rather unusual for us insofar as we don't generally do a greenfield investment where we start from scratch, setting a company, buying the trains and the rolling stock one by one. We bought two of the 12 trains of latest generations from Alstom. It is a very unusual investment. We did that because we're a major investment historically in rail. Particularly, we began in the U.K. with Porter Brook, which was a very fine investment for us. We invested also activities in the U.S., in the Great Lakes region in the U.S., also invested in rail cars and chassis, Germany. We're familiar with the market. We can read it right. We did that working wisely with the National Rail Company, recruiting the former head of Highspeed Rail activities that's running that project. Just need patience to get these trains will be wonderful.
It will not be out before 2029, but a really fine piece of rolling stock. It is all linked to the possibilities linked to regulations that apply in Italy. For a long time, it was totally impossible, like in France for that matter, to create large groups in the pharmacy sector, a bit like what was achieved in the U.K., particularly with Boots, and also in the U.S. with several chains of drugstores that were developed. There was a regulatory change that occurred in Italy allowing the combination into companies of chains of pharmacies. Our wager was on two Italian entrepreneurs, truly remarkable, ones of pharmacists. We saw that growth potential. We spotted it at an early stage in the growth of the company. I have to say it is something that is very gratifying. These people, the short video was very well crafted.
These people had a vision and said, "We're not going to just do M&A 20, 35, 100. We're going to build a platform to be more efficient, offer products more affordably, and also pick products that will offer to streamline procurement across pharmacies." Platform investing, that's what it's all about. It's investment that has been hugely gratifying. We have a request for the floor over there.
Good afternoon, Chairman Jean-Claude. I'm an individual shareholder. I've got a few quick ones. I'll start. There are 12 resolutions that pertain to capital increases. In the extraordinary part, next year there'll be 13 because you'll have a sustainability report in addition to that. Let me point out that the authorizations are delivered for a purpose that runs from 18, 24, 36 months. I know that for reasons of ease, we go kind of all out every two years.
Couldn't we have kind of a timeline to kind of lighten this rather tedious presentation? Secondly, you mentioned a free float of 16% in your free float. Are you familiar with the share of investment funds at healthcare or the individual carriers? Do you do TPIs? I saw in the composition of your remuneration amounts paid out in pound sterling. Do you have offices in London? As a follow-up, where's your head office? Because here you have offices, but to contact you, one has to go to Rue Saint-Honoré. The head office is Rue Saint-Honoré. It's actually here. There are two entries that give access to the building, but the official address is 374 Rue Saint-Honoré. Here we're between Wales and the central kind of island of this block of buildings.
You are indeed at the head office and to the registered office.
Flows in pound sterling or in dollars for that matter. We have several offices, the historic office here in Paris. We also have another office in London, another in New York, an office in Luxembourg, and two representative offices for investor relations, one in Singapore and one in Seoul. Our main offices where all the teams I have, essentially Paris, London, and New York. We have employees and partners who are paid in dollars or in pounds. As regards to the financial resolution, we do, of course, plan. We are not going to submit them to the vote every year. Those that are presented this year that were put to the vote two years ago, so it is on an every two-year basis. We will indeed reduce the presentation time to make it easier for our shareholders. We will make an effort next year on identifying the shareholders.
Now, with respect to the free float, an overwhelming majority of the shareholders that are part of the free float are institutional investors. It includes names like Capital World, Fidelity Research and Management, DNCA, which is based in Paris as well, LGT, for example. It is a combination of American and European investors, predominantly. Predominantly European, American, French institutional investors who make up the bulk of the investors in the free float, those who are natural persons. I mean, I do not know if we can actually assess their number, but it is really—yes, we can. We could. Yeah. We will answer you in writing. We do not have the information at our fingertips, but we will reach out to you with that, sir. Final brief comment. Your funds, when you close them, you announce an IRR and a multiple over the lifetime of the fund.
Could you give us a sort of ESG criterion to your fund once they're closed? On what basis? Is that something the market or people who invest, your investors, expect? Felix.
Yeah, that's what we've been trying to do increasingly with our fund at the ex, quantify the economic impacts that it's had on a company portfolio. But a sale of a fund, Fund III maybe will perform the exercise to see what the impacts on the fund's performance in a quantified way.
Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon to you all. I'm an individual shareholder. Personally, what encourages me to buy your share is the Proxima project. My question concerns rail. Proxima, I find it's interesting because we have a competitive framework in France, not very welcoming for new entrants for several. Seen a lot of failures. Rye Carbare France in 2006, 2007 wanted to run TGV.
What I find interesting with Proxima, you're doing in an Oslo offer of service that is freely organized, as it's known. That's competitive. Is the construction of the cars progressing? There was an article in the Economic Press countering the kind of hype of Proxima, of Le Train Dévoline, where the manufacturers kind of counter the hype by saying that nothing's built, the orders haven't been let. Is the order for Proxima progressing? Do you think the project will come to fruition? Because for an alternative operator to do rail, you need to be very solid financially, also in terms of rolling stock and staff. Do you plan in rail to invest in rail freight on infrastructure of railroad platforms, notably?
Thank you. Thanks for your interest for Proxima, which for us is a truly important project.
Plainly in projects of this kind, there's always an element of risk that is significant. We tried to cover that to the maximum. We hired the former head of the TGVs of SNCF. Secondly, we know well the SNCF company. We know we clearly positioned our offers to complement and not to compete head-to-head with the company. Typically, the activity on the Atlantic coast is showing a shortage of trains, be it to go to Brittany, to Bordeaux. There is a real need for additional trains. SNCF today has many other challenges to address, way beyond the TGV, to renovating the rail, signaling to secure local lines and suburb lines. If there was an accident, there were fatalities in a commuter train 30 km from Paris.
It does show a growing need for investment in rail investment, purely financial rail investment in France. Now, as regards the change in the supply trains by Alstom, I tell you that things are progressing well. You need to understand that for Alstom, what operators such as Proxima is offering is to no longer be in a dialogue or a duo, if you like, with SNCF. With on the one side, an operator, we try to make him understand, impress the need to buy French trains. On the other, a manufacturer, a train manufacturer who must take into account whose number one client is SNCF. It brings to Alstom, not to name them, I think that our offer is extremely attractive because it can demonstrate that it exists well beyond, even if it's a number one market of orders from SNCF.
I can tell you it's our calculation. Alstom is seeking and striving to ensure that we'll be satisfied clients. [Foreign Language] if they came into the French market, this may be seen as a direct threat to the monopoly. We're not competing. To reiterate what I said, we're not competing with the main legacy operator.
We are here to provide additional services. We will pay close attention to this. The last thing that protects us, I think, in this situation is our finances. This is not just true in France, it is also true in the U.K. or Spain. SNCF in France has significant financial constraints. They are cash poor. They need funds to finance new rail projects or refurbishment projects. That is where we come in. When it comes to freight, we looked at those projects. It is a complex market. On paper, it makes sense. In actual fact, you need top-notch logistics. Everybody needs to play ball. Rail players, road players as well. What is the day-to-day? Wednesday? We talk about highways, but it is not the right term, actually. We are talking trucks on roads. That is road transport for you.
Intermodal transport does exist to some extent, but it's pretty limited.
I'll ask the question in French. My name is Alfred Chawa. I'm an individual shareholder. It always means something when a CFO of a listed company is leaving the ship. You will leave in a month's time. Could you please tell us why? I mean, you're working for Antin. It's a company that's working really well.
Sure. Sure. Thank you.
Why are you leaving?
First of all, I'd like to say it's been a really great work relationship and partnership with Alain, Mélanie, and all of the team. I will leave with difficulty looking back on a great time and very good work relationship that we've had. As careers go, they go for a long period of time and opportunities come up. Things change over time.
For me, this was about a change in my life and about a change in opportunity, but in no way reflects on Antin or on the great partnership that we've had.
That means you're moving to another company? You're not setting up your own competing companies?
No, of course not. No, of course not. I will not be competing with Antin, of course. Of course not.
We are delighted with Patrice's excellent contribution over the years.
Thank you for giving me the floor once again. I have another question. Is Antin also interested in operating nighttime train lines? For a number of years now, nighttime trains are becoming increasingly popular. Over the past 10 years, there was a legacy rail operator that said that night trains were obsolete. Because of COVID, those are back in fashion.
Now we realize that those train lines are very popular. They're full to the brim. Is that something Antin could be interested in?
Train lines. Oh, I love riding the train at night. Ever since I was a kid, we'd go on vacation. We'd take the train late at night. We'd spend the night on the train. Loved it. On a more serious note, yes, attempts have been made in Austria, in particular, in Italy, in Germany. Those night trains are operating rather well, but nothing to write home about. Those are niche operations. I don't believe this is compatible with the kind of key large amount big ticket investments we are willing to make. I mean, I know I used to love it as a kid. You leave at 10:00 P.M.
In the evening, and you arrive in the morning, and you find yourself on the French Riviera. You used to love it. I suggest we now move on to the presentation of the resolutions and the vote on those resolutions. This will be a quick presentation of the 27 resolutions we are submitting to your vote.
The first few resolutions mean you get to vote on the consolidated financial statements. Secondly, we will look at allocation of profit and also determination of the dividend, EUR 0.71. Fourth, appointment of the statutory auditor responsible for certifying sustainable information. Sixth and seventh, renewal of the directorships of Dagmar and Lynne. Those are resolutions regarding competition in 2024 and 2025. All of this information was presented in detail by Mélanie. It is also found in the ORD. We will discuss renewal of the financial authorizations.
And then upgrading the bylaws to comply with the provisions of the Loi Attractivité. Without further ado, let's now vote on the resolutions. Use your voting devices, please. Resolution 1, approval of the FY statutory financial statements. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 2, approval of the consolidated financial statements for FY2024. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 3, allocation of 2024 net income and payout of EUR 0.71 per share. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 4, acknowledgement of the statutory auditor special report. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 5, appointment of the lowest statutory auditor responsible for certifying sustainability information. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 6, reappointment of Lynne Shamwana as a director for three years. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 7, reappointment of Dagmar Valcarcel as a director for three years. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried.
Resolution 8, approval of the information relating to the compensation of corporate officers for FY24. Please vote. Number 14, resolutions approved. Resolution 9, approval compensation paid or awarded to Ms. Dana Richard, Chairman and CEO for FY24. Please vote now. Resolution carried. Resolution 10, approval of the FY25 compensation policy for independent directors. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 11, approval of the FY25 compensation policy for the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 12, authorization for the Board to buy back Antin shares. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 13, authorization for the Board to reduce the share capital by canceling treasury shares. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 14, delegation of authority to the Board to increase the share capital with PSRs. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried.
Resolution 15, delegation of authority to the Board to increase the share capital with waiver of PSRs by way of a public offering. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 16, delegation of authority to the Board to increase the share capital with waiver of PSRs by way of a private placement. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 17, authorization for the Board to set the issue price within the limit of 10% of the share capital in the event of the issue of shares and/or securities with waiver of PSRs. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 18, delegation of authority to the Board to increase the amount of issues with or without PSRs in the event of excess demand. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried.
Resolution 19, delegation of authority to the Board to issue shares and/or securities in the event of a tender offer with a share exchange component initiated by Antin. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 20, authorization for the Board to issue shares and/or securities as consideration for contributions in kind with waiver of PSRs. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 21, delegation of authority to the Board to increase the share capital by capitalizing premiums, reserves, profits, or other items. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 22, delegation of authority to the Board to increase the share capital with waiver of PSRs by issuing shares and/or securities reserved for members of an employee share purchase plan. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried.
Resolution 23, delegation of authority to the Board to increase the share capital with waiver of PSRs by issuing shares and/or securities reserved for employees of Antin Group Companies. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 24, delegation of authority to the Board to increase the share capital with waiver of PSRs reserved for employees or people designated by name. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 25, overall ceilings for issues of shares and/or securities. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 26, alignment of Article 17 of the Articles of Association with the Attractivité legislation. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. Resolution 27, powers for formalities. Please vote. Time's up. Resolution carried. The final quorum comes to 95.61% of shares with voting rights. That is 97.5% of existing voting rights. Thank you.
Thank you, Camille. We've exhausted the agenda. All the proposed resolutions have been approved.
I formally declare this AGM closed. We will meet again on June 10, 2026, for our next AGM. Until then, enjoy the rest of the day. Godspeed.