Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Dear shareholders, I'd like to welcome you to our annual general meeting of Atos SE, and thank you for your presence. For those who are not present physically, this meeting is broadcast directly on our internet site. The recording of this meeting will be available.
Besides me, I have Jacques-François de Prest, on my left, who is the CFO of the group, and Cécile Cabal-Séz, on my right, Secretary General of the group and Secretary of the board.
I'd like to underline that all the members of the board are present here this morning in the room. The summary of this meeting is here on the screen. Now I'm going to proceed with the opening formalities of this meeting. The bureau of this meeting.
That I'm chairing includes two scrutineers who are the two members with the greatest number of votes and who have accepted this function: Simon Poirier, representative of Melqart, and Pierre Bosset, representative of Alken Asset Management. The role of the secretary of this meeting will be ensured by Cécile on my right. As I told you, the members of the board are in the room. There's Laurent Collet-Billon, who's the Vice Chairman, Elizabeth Tinkham, who is the Lead Independent Director, Sujatha Chandrasekhan, Joanna Dubak, Farris Louis, who is the employee shareholder, Françoise Mercadal de la Salle, Jean-Jacques Morin, Hildegarde Müller, and Mandy Metten, who is the Censor. All the legal documents required have been submitted to the bureau.
According to the law, the documents to be communicated to the meeting have been put at the disposal of the internet site of the company during the 21 days preceding the meeting and were put at the disposal of the shareholders at the head office for two weeks. Therefore, I will ask your meeting to dispense us from the reading of all these reports. The documents include the meeting notice, which appeared in the legal publications, the meeting brochure, which includes the report of the board, a copy of the meeting letters addressed to the statutory auditors, the articles of association, and the different reports of the statutory auditors. The universal registration document 2024 is accessible on our internet site.
This general meeting will have to vote on the agenda, which is indicated in the meeting notice published in the ballot on the 5th of May 2025, and it is also in the meeting notice published in the ballot and the legal journal d'Annonce Légale of the 23rd of May 2025, according to the legal provisions. The necessary quorum to hold this meeting is one-fourth of the shares of those who have the right to vote and 25% for the ordinary resolutions. The attendance sheet that the shareholders represented in this room represents 7,856 shares. The assembly with the quorum required is legally constituted and can therefore deliberate. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I declare this meeting open. I'll first present the highlights of 24-25, as well as the midterm strategic plan that we presented not so long ago in May.
Just a few highlights for 2024. Atos is opening a new chapter, finalizing its financial restructuring. That was on the 18th of December. We had a general meeting. The capital structure is reinforced. We've reduced our debt by €2.1 billion. We've added more liquidity, €1.6 billion of new funds and €145 million resulting from the subscriptions. Absence of the debt by 2029. Execution of the strategic disposal. We sold WorldGrid last year. That was announced in 2024. As announced a few days ago, we are disposing advanced computing, which will be disposed with the French state with the closing planned early 2026 in March. Renewed leadership, aligned and engaged with my arrival in October and the fact that I am the CEO since February. We've renewed the top 20, the top 200, and the top 20. There are eight new members in the top 200.
There are quite a number of renewals. There is a new commercial dynamism since Q4 with order entry and book-to-bill ratio of 117% and the renewal of multi-annual contracts, signature of new contracts. We are carrying on these renewals. We haven't lost many contracts in the first half. We have a rate which is more than 92%. We've presented the financial objectives. I'll go back on this and Jacques-François too. By 2028, that was the capital market day. Just a few figures for your information. We are aiming to revenue between €9 and €10 billion with the disposals plus the closing of certain countries. We believe that our recurring revenue will be around €7.5 billion, and we will not really touch it because the disposals will take place in 2026, the closures between 2026 and 2027.
This is just to say that this is the basis on which we want to rebound, and the objective is to finish by $9 to $10 billion by 2028. Operating margin at roughly 10%, and our objective is to go back to a triple B grade with an investment grade of triple B maybe in 2028. I'm going to go back to the strategic plan that I announced and presented with our teams in May. First, I would like to give you the figures for 2024. Our revenue was $9.6 billion with an operating margin of $200 million, 74,000 employees at the end of March. At the end of December, we had more, and we are present in 68 countries. On the right, we see our different business lines as we restructured them and reorganized them, and I'll go back on this.
In blue, you have the Atos brand, which is the brand of our services activities with six business lines: cloud, cyber services, digital workplace, digital applications, data and AI, which is emerging a little less than $200 million of revenue, and smart platforms. We have regional offers. Some countries have different offers compared to the global offers. Eviden is the brand that we're going to really drive. It's a software and hardware brand. Hardware, it's going to be sold off, so we'll only have software left, and we have three business lines there. You see the geographical zones. Our major country is the USA, followed by Germany, France. In the third position, we have our international markets, and that's everything apart from the others, the UK and Benelux and the northern countries.
The international markets, that's Latin America, Africa, and we have a few markets in Europe, especially Spain, Switzerland, a few countries in Eastern Europe, and you have the whole of the Middle East and Asia. In the different sectors, you have the breakdown of our revenue per sector. Public defense, that is roughly 25%. Banking, insurance, very good industries, telecom, media, 20%, healthcare and resources and services. Now, very quickly, what do the customers expect from Atos or Eviden? The first thing is our expertise. Our customers expect us to be the best in technology. We need to be proactive. Our customers, when we are with them, we have to come up with new ideas and new solutions, innovative technical solutions. We need to transform because the businesses are transforming.
Today, we know that with artificial intelligence, there will be a lot of transformations in many of our businesses and a combination of solutions. This is thanks to our global partners. Since we have six business lines in Atos and in general, we have a little less than two business lines per customer, we have to provide our different service offers to our clients. The ambition, we've left it in English because it is more impacting: a global AI-powered technology partner shaping secure end-to-end digital journeys. Now, global to begin with, why is global important? We've decided to remain in the USA because this allows us to strengthen our global partnerships. Some of our major partners are all in the US. It's true for the hyperscalers. The size allows us to invest in technology. This allows us to be the best provider. Our clients are reducing their suppliers.
It is important to have a given size to fight against other giants in this world, in the world of technology. Of course, the size leads to scale economies, and this allows us to optimize our delivery costs, our operational costs. This is why our decision was to remain a global player, although we will remain in fewer countries, but we will be a strong player. Technology, this is what differentiates us from many of our competitors. We don't do just technical assistance. We have many technical solutions. We have software solutions, technical solutions, especially in mainframe. The objective will be to be more innovative in the coming years. We have a Chief Technology Officer who will join us on the 1st of September. You will have a press committee probably by the summer. We'll invest some hundred millions of euros per year in R&D.
Our R&D budgets will be managed by our Technology Officer. Here, the objective will be to look at the sectors where we want to be better. The strategy is a choice, and with the envelope we have, we will decide where we will do better in technology. We are surrounded by an ecosystem of startups, and we would like to invest in some of these, and they will help us have innovative solutions in some of our business lines. Secure, that is cybersecurity. This is a world, as you know, which is quite unstable in terms of cybersecurity. Everybody's attacked today, whether it's in your homes or in companies. We are one of the global leaders in cybersecurity, number one in Europe in the field of services. So you have a revenue which is above $1 billion.
You see, according to what we are proposing, we have cybersecurity one at the bottom in blue in our various business lines. We do cyber in cloud. We do cyber on smart platforms in the digital workplace, of course, data AI in digital applications. We also have a line called cyber services under the Atos brand. Here you see what all we're offering: consulting, security, etc. In three, we have software with the Eviden brand. Here we have three business lines: data encryption, access management, and identity. End to end, this is just to explain that we are capable of proposing all the services that DSI can ask for. So consulting design, we have a small activity. We're thinking about this and will make a decision by the end of July. The six business lines that are under the Atos brand.
I'd like to remind you, digital applications, that the development of applications, smart platforms, that is setting up ERP. We have major partners with ServiceNow, SAP, data AI, that is all that is related to data, artificial intelligence. That's the business line that will grow most in the coming years. Digital workplace, that is the environment for an employee, his computer, etc. All related, that is related to security, cyber, cloud, and modern infrastructure. That's mainframe and cloud applications. From the strategic point of view, we had presented four projects that we're working upon. These are the Atos letters. SOTA, that's state of the art, isn't it? The first was simplify. The second is change our organization and our operating model. Our operating model will be complete by the end of July. We'll cut our costs because we're a company that has a negative cash flow.
It will still be so in 2025 and transform the company with AI because a lot of changes will occur in the coming years. Now, just about simplification, we've simplified our brands. Atos is for services. Out of the $9.6 billion last year, $8.5 billion for Atos and $1.1 billion for Eviden, which is the software and hardware brand. Geographical presence, we're going to go into a small number of countries and offers. We had 170 offers, and we will drive some 40 offers. So the 40 offers will adapt according to our six business lines. Here you see the plan for transformation. We call it Genesis. We've got 22 different projects underway right now, and they've all been opened apart from one, which is M&A. Anyway, there are seven major themes or strands. Firstly, growth. Growth. Here, we've got three projects.
The first one is the organization of key account management. By the end of July, we'll have totally revisited the organization in that regard. Industry, that is the industries we want to fast track on where we want to invest more, that is in R&D terms in particular, and all of our value propositions too. Value proposition is about 40. The second major workstream is everything to do with HR, culture and talents, bonus plans and LTI, long-term incentives and so on. That latter part is completed now. The third one is a country review. We're going to exit from some countries between 2025 and 2027. The bulk of it will be done between this year and next year, and there will be a few exits still in 2027 to be done. There will be either divestments or management buyouts in some cases.
Fourth workstream is the portfolio review that concerns our business lines and our value proposition. There are six business lines. Some didn't exist like data AI in the past. That's why it's important to highlight everything to do with AI because when you read the newspapers these days, not a day goes by but there's an article on AI. We also want to review loss-making contracts. That's another workstream. That is with a project margin less than 5%. We revisit those every single month. We review each of the loss-making contracts and will probably stick with two contracts that will be medium-sized ones, loss-making still this year, but one will finish at the end of 2026, and there will be still one that will be going on with a little bit longer.
Regarding our cash management, we will be taking a lot of action on the gross margin, the management of days sales outstanding, DSOs. We want to make that better. We started off at 75% to 76% at the start of the year. We will have nibbled away two extra points at the end of May, and we still have hard yards to go to improve what's done there. We hope to be where we want to be by the end of 2026. We have pre-sales costs, and we want to revisit. We want to also improve our MTA efforts, that is, turn around our project profitability. We have operational excellence, which is another workstream. We want to make sure that projects are led in a way that is in line with customer expectations and the R&D aspect.
Of course, we have a Chief Technology Officer who will be dedicated to taking care of that. Then the cost reviews. We have all the SG&A to revisit, the real estate costs, and our IT tools, of course. The tools, the ERPs for finance and for HR, but also we'll be looking at the operational tools that we use, everything to do with entering timesheets and so on for our engineers, everything to do with CRM as well. That's for our sales forces. And the delivery tools that we use to achieve our projects. And then cash, well, the management of DSO and DPO, as we were saying. We want to bring down the DSO, as I said, in a recurring manner. So there are teams taking care of that between invoicing and the payment of our bills.
We want to just shorten the lead time, make it as short as possible. And of course, securitization, well, we won't address that on 2026, no doubt. And CapEx, we want to be prudent in the way we use our available resources. We need to manage our tax losses that have come about and see what we do there when we come back into the black in different countries in the coming few years. So 22 major workstreams. The M&A workstream is the only one that we won't start just yet. It'll be started in 2026 or maybe thereafter, 2027. We'll be very cautious on that. But the objective is indeed to make sure that this Genesis transformation plan will be completed in 2027. A lot of the workstreams will be completed between now and next year, and a few will finish off in 2027.
We announced our strategy in May. We said already we've communicated internally and externally on that strategy. Of course, we communicated too to the markets and to the newspapers and all that. That kind of sets the course we want to steer between now and 2027. Now we just have to deliver the goods, so to speak. We've set ourselves stretch goals, ambitious objectives, and well, we'll see the results as we go forward. On the 1st of August, we'll be reporting our results for the first half of 2025. Then we'll have the revenues for Q3 that will be reported, and then the full year results and the guidance for 2026. That will be done next March, of course, in March of next year.
We'll give the floor now to our CFO, who will take the floor, Jean-Jacques François de Prest, who will talk about the financials,
Of course. Thank you, Philippe. Firstly, the consolidated financial performance for 2024 and Q1 of 2025. In 2024, the revenues of the group stood at €9.6 billion. That's organically down by 5.6% compared to 2023. The operating margin of the group stood at €199 million. That's 2.1% of the revenues, an organic dip of 210 basis points compared with fiscal 2023.
The free cash flow stood at minus €2.2 billion for all of the year, the full year, reflecting mainly the end of the one-shot optimization actions that we took concerning the working capital requirement, leading to a negative variation of the working capital requirement by €1.5 billion and CapEx that was higher, connected with contracts for HPCs, high-performance computers, an activity which is currently being divested to the French state. The nominal value of our net debt after financial restructuring stood at €1.2 billion at the end of December 2024. As you can see in our accounts, the book value of our debt, according to IFRS standards, stood at €0.3 billion, including the statement of the debt on a fair value basis as per IFRS 9 to the tune of €963 million in order to reflect the market value.
This restatement of €963 million will be depreciated in the coming few years. The net income group share for 2024 stood at €0.2 billion. That reflects mainly a gain of €2.7 billion connected with the financial restructuring of the group and the statement of the debt at fair value as per IFRS 9 to the tune of about €1 billion and an impairment charge for goodwill and other non-current assets for €2.4 billion. Finally, the liquidity position stood at €2.2 billion at the end of December 2024. It comprised in particular customer payments received before the due dates of our invoices for €319 million and the RCF, revolving credit facility that was undrawn to the tune of €440 million. I'd like to focus on our revenues for 2024. The dip compared to 2023 can be explained by two main factors.
Firstly, the organic downturn of the revenues, minus 5.4%, affected by terminations, exits, and the end of certain contracts, particularly because of the financial restructuring and also due to the slowdown in the market in certain geographical areas where the group has a footprint. Secondly, the scope effect over the last few years, mainly connected with the divestments of UCC, ECOAC, Italy, and our stake in the joint venture with State Street and also, to a lesser degree, the divestment of World Grid at the end of the year. This leads to a revenue figure of €9.6 billion for the full fiscal year of 2024. Regarding our profitability now, the operating margin of the group stood at €199 million in 2024, that's 2.1% of the revenues, an organic dip of 210 basis points compared with 2023.
As a whole, the drop in the margin comes mainly from two non-recurring items. Firstly, the booking in the operating margin of €103 million of SG&A booked in other income and operating income and expenses in 2023 because of the unusual, the non-recurring nature of these charges. It was abnormal and non-recurring because they were connected with the plan to split up, to separate out the different parts of the group that was conducted in 2023. Secondly, the operating margin includes about €40 million of provisions in respect of underperforming contracts following negotiations conducted with clients. Apart from the allocation of SG&A, the profitability was also impacted by the drop in the revenue figure and by a rate of use of resources that was lower. Let's now look at the P&L, right down to the net income.
The non-recurring items represented a net charge of €2.9 billion, and I'd like to comment on the key features of all of that. Firstly, the reorganization cost stood at €119 million, a strong reduction compared with the €696 million committed in the previous year. These costs integrate mainly the measures to adapt our teams connected with the restructuring plans rolled out in the previous year and also the cost for separation and transformation connected with the separation project in 2023. These costs were incurred mainly at the start of the year. Secondly, the impairment of the goodwill and other non-current assets standing at €2,357 million.
The amount of the impairment stood at €1.5 billion for the first half of the year and at €0.8 billion in the second half, reflecting the reduction in the enterprise value of the group, taking account of the fair value of the financial debts at a lower level and stock market capitalization that's lower. Just to remind you too, the amount remaining in the balance sheet concerning goodwill stands at about €600 million at the end of 2024. Thirdly, the other items represented a net charge of €288 million. These items include mainly losses connected to loss-making contracts which were booked in the other operating income and expenses item in previous years, also legal fees and settlements due to major pieces of litigation, impairment of current assets, and costs linked to the early retirement programs.
Fourthly, the cost of the net financial debt stood at €117 million as opposed to €102 million in 2023. This increase results mainly from the upswing in the interest rates, additional drawdowns in respect of our RCF, and also interest paid on the interim financing arrangements with respect to the new financing structure. Fifthly, the financial income specific to the restructuring, financial restructuring that was done in the group stood at €3.5 billion in 2024. This income comes mainly from the conversion of the debt into capital to the tune of €2.7 billion, resulting from the financial restructuring and the statement of debt at fair value as per IFRS 9. Sixthly, the tax charge stood at €214 million, representing an increase of €102 million compared to 2023.
This increase can be explained mainly by a loss of value, a write-down in respect of deferred tax assets reflecting the last business plan of the group and the prospects for taxable revenue, and also accounted for by a charge connected with withholding taxes that we couldn't retrieve in respect of dividend payouts. The net income group share therefore stood at €0.2 billion at the end of December 2024. Let's now look at our free cash flow table standing at €2.2 billion in 2024. Here we have the key features here on the screen. Firstly, the operating investments, CapEx, increased by €239 million compared to 2023, reflecting a substantial piece of investment in exascale technology with high energy efficiency.
Secondly, the free cash flow in the year reflects the end of the one-shot optimization actions taken in respect of the working capital requirement for €1.5 billion compared with the end of fiscal 2023. Thirdly, the total cost of reorganization, rationalization, and integration stood at €256 million, reflecting measures for restructuring and the pursuit of our German restructuring plans, and also the one-shot separation costs incurred mainly during the first quarter of the year. Fourthly, cash out connected with other variations that stood at minus €504 million as opposed to minus €312 million in 2023. That comprised mainly costs incurred in respect of costly contracts, costs for transactions paid for in the context of the restructuring, the financial restructuring that was done, and the costs connected with the interim financing arrangements and also costs connected with litigation.
Fifthly, the increase in capital stood at €3 billion and resulted mainly from the financial restructuring operations completed last year. The nominal value of our net debt at the end of December 2024 stood therefore at €1.2 billion before IFRS statement. The book value of our debt as per IFRS standards stood at €0.3 billion, including the statement of the debt at fair value as per IFRS 9 for €963 million in order to reflect the market value. This statement of €963 million will be depreciated over the coming few years. I'd like now to give you some insight into the performance of the group in the first quarter of 2025. As a whole, this quarter was marked by the confirmation of the pursuit of our business development, and there was also a dip in the revenues and cash consumption that remained limited.
Let's have a look at the detail of each of these items. Order intake achieved a level of €1.7 billion during the quarter. That's a book-to-bill ratio of 81%, up by 17 points compared with the first quarter of 2024. This strong increase is mainly shored up by the signature of strategic contracts, major contracts, and a return of customer confidence. The revenues of the group stood at €2.1 billion, down organically by 15.9% compared to 2023. This drop reflects the end of some contracts that were recorded in 2024 before the finalization of the financial restructuring of the company in December 2024, the deliberate reduction of the BPO activities in the UK, and the slowdown of the market in certain geographical areas where the group has a footprint.
The consumption of cash estimated was limited to about minus €40 million in the first quarter of 2025 compared with minus €415 million in the first quarter of 2024. I'd like to remind you that this figure does not include any factoring of customer receivables or specific optimization of debts payable. I'd also like to present our new financing structure and the timeline for our debt. The liquidity position stood at €2.2 billion at the end of March 2025. This means that we have sufficient liquidity to operate in the medium term and execute our business plan. The RCF of €440 million was not drawn down at all. Our gross debt stands at €3.5 billion. You can see the breakdown here on this slide between bonds, bank loans, and RCF.
We have no due date before the 18th of December 2029, with a first-ranking debt, first lien of €1.8 billion, including the RCF, and maturing in December 2029, and finally a 1.5 lien debt of €1.9 billion with a due date in December 2030, and finally a second lien debt of €0.5 billion with a due date in December 2032. Let's now look at the statutory accounts of Atos SC in 2024. The revenues of the parent company stood at €69 million and were mainly constituted of brand royalties received by Atos SC from its subsidiaries. The operating loss stood at minus €56 million.
The financial loss was minus €1.895 billion, mainly due to an impairment charge of investment securities of €1.316 billion, supplemented by a charge for appropriation to risks in respect of subsidiaries and investment stakes of €405 million. These charges reflect the adjustment of book values of the investment securities still held by Atos SC on December 31st, 2024 with respect to their market value determined on the basis of a multi-criteria approach, including the discounting of free cash flows and stock market multiples. The values taken on board are consistent with the valuations recorded in the context of the consolidated account closure and reflect also a substantial loss of value compared with December 31st, 2023. The exceptional result was minus €2.246 billion.
This comprises in particular net income of €136 million relating to the divestment of World Grid and a net loss of €2.104 billion as well. In fact, in the context of the legal reorganization of the group, Atos SC transferred by web contributions some of its subsidiaries to other entities of the group. Although the net income was a loss of minus €4.182 billion, coming mainly from the impairment charge of investment securities and from the non-recurring results, also connected with the loss of value of companies contributed by Atos SC to other companies in the group, which I've just commented on. On December 31st, 2024, the stockholders' equity of Atos SC was negative to the tune of minus €933 million.
As I explained in the footnote already in our document, your company avails currently of a safeguard plan, and it is not subjected to the provisions in the French commercial code relating to obligations regarding recapitalization. Let's now look at the non-financial performance for 2024. The group is pursuing the achievement of strong commitments that it gave more than 10 years ago already. The non-financial performance is an important element, and it's a strong value for the group. It is a key differentiator for our employees and for our customers. There are three key indicators concerning our environmental, societal performance, and concerning governance for 2024 that you see on the screen. First of all, in terms of the environment, we've reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 46% compared to 2019, and we are going towards our short-term objective validated by the Science-Based Target Initiative, a reduction of 50% by 2025.
Secondly, from the social point of view, the group has hired 43.2% of women in 2024, a strong increase compared to 2023, where the percentage of women recruited stood at 36%. Finally, in terms of governance, 75% of the expenses carried out with our suppliers were assessed by the Ecovadis board. Ecovadis was chosen as the main assessor of actual suppliers because of the deep analysis carried out in the field of environment, work, human rights, labor, and responsible purchasing and ethics. In 2024, the group maintained the leading position in terms of CSR, as illustrated in the rating given by Ecovadis and Standards and Ports. Now, let's go on to the 2025 objectives and our financial trajectory. These financial perspectives were presented during the capital markets day on the 14th of May 2025. In 2025, we are putting the foundations of our future rebound.
We are aiming at a revenue of €8.5 billion with an operating margin of roughly 4%. The net variation in cash should stand roughly at minus €350 million, which will be strongly impacted by the acceleration of the restructuring of the group. The cash situation this year is therefore not concerning, and a quick transformation is essential for the success and the profitability of the group in the future. In 2026, thanks to the implementation of our strategic plan, we are planning a drop in the financial trajectory with a return to organic growth and cash generation before the refunding of the debt and external growth. Of course, the M&As will not resume before mid-2026 and will be, of course, disciplined and will depend on a sound financial structure. By 2028, we anticipate a strong cash generation.
We're aiming at a revenue of €9 to €10 billion with an operating margin of roughly 10%. This will allow us to begin our deleveraging, supported with sustainable cash generation. As you have understood, our main priority is to reduce our net debt. We aim at a gearing under 1.5 times the EBITDA during 2028. This is aligned with our credit documentation after the financial restructuring carried out last year, and this should allow us to have a double B rating by 2027, and our ambition is to reach the investment-grade category afterwards. We're also planning to gradually resume our targeted strategy of external growth by 2026 when our capital structure will allow us to do this without having recourse to new fundings. We'll analyze our various opportunities online with our strategy and the market outlooks.
The dividends and the programs to buy back shares are not planned at this stage before 2028. We have a sufficient cash level and the necessary financial flexibility to realize this plan and operate in the midterm. To conclude, I'd like to present a last page, which illustrates our vision to make up for the difference with our main comparables in the sector. In this graph, on the X-axis, you can find the growth of revenue, and on the Y-axis, the EBIT margin. The red dots represent the regional players, including some Indian companies in the sector. As a global player, and considering our strengths and market position, we are aiming to get closer to the best operators in the sector, thanks to the implementation of our strategic plan. This is a demanding objective, but this is also a clear ambition coherent with our transformation strategy.
We believe that it is in this zone that Atos's performance will be placed. Now, just a few words on risk management. As a company, Atos is exposed to various risks. So as to reduce this exposure and to develop in a secure and sustainable way, Atos has set up a risk management system at various levels, and the governance can be described as following. The first line of defense is ensured by all the Atos employees in their daily work under the supervision of managers. They determine and execute the operational processes, the systems, and controls so as to ensure the resilience and compliance with the regulatory legislations, contractual obligations, as well as the group's policies and standards. The first line carries out the identification, assessment, management, and reporting of the daily risk.
The second line of defense provides supervision and control based on the risk analysis carried out, thanks to complementary approaches. It determines the demands in terms of governance and risk at the level of the company, as well as those concerning the resilience of our activities. It determines the functional policies, the authority limitations, and maintains the internal control framework while keeping an eye on the efficiency of the controls carried out and the support of the internal controls and the coordination of these risks. Finally, the third line of defense is made up of the internal audit team that works according to an annual plan approved by the group's management and the audit committee. They carry out audits, investigations, and consulting to provide an independent assurance on the efficiency of the first and the second line of protection.
The CEO and the executive committee of the group regularly receive topics related to internal control. The audit committee is informed of the activities at least six times a year, and we review the contracts presenting main large risks. Based on the mapping of the group, the elements presented on the slide identify the main risk classified by category and in decreasing order of criticality according to the last mapping exercise of the risk. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to give the floor back to Philippe.
Thank you, Jacques-François. Now, I suggest we listen to the video recording of Elizabeth Tinkham, who is the Chairman of our Nomination and Governance Committee. She's going to present the report of our committee and the resolutions that will be voted upon. Elizabeth is here in the room. She's in the first row, and she's available to answer your questions.
The video recording was done so that we can have a French translation.
Thank you. Dear shareholders, in my capacity as Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Nomination and Governance Committee, it is my responsibility to present to you the report on the work of the committee and more generally on Atos's corporate governance. You will find all this information in the 2024 universal registration document and the brochure. I'd like to start my presentation with the company's Board of Directors and the changes proposed to the Annual General Meeting. Then, I will say a few words about the work of the board and of the Nomination and Governance Committee in 2024. Finally, I'd like to share a quick reminder of the general management of the company. Let me now introduce our Board of Directors. The board, as of today, is presented on the screen.
It reflects all the changes you have approved during the last annual general shareholder meeting in January, including several ratifications, renewals, and appointments of new members. In a few words, our board of directors today is composed of 10 members with 9 directors and 1 censor. The board includes 1 employee director. The board includes 56% women in total and 62.5% excluding the employee director. 87.5% of the directors are independent members, excluding the employee director. At the close of this meeting, if you vote in favor of the proposed resolutions, the number of board members will remain the same, with 9 directors, including 1 employee director and 1 censor. Our board will continue to reflect a strong international presence, with members representing 6 different nationalities, or 7 if the censor is included.
The total number of women on the board would be 50%, excluding the employee director, and the percentage of independent directors will remain the same at a very high level, 87.5%, excluding the employee director. These ratios are not only satisfactory but even exceed legal requirements and market recommendations. Let's now take a closer look at the resolutions. As the terms of certain directors are set to conclude at this annual general meeting, the nomination and governance committee has undertaken a thorough review to further enhance the board's range of expertise. The board's diversity policy includes clear objectives regarding age range, gender balance, professional backgrounds, international representation, and importantly, the independence of its members. The resolutions being presented are designed to reflect and advance these goals.
First, under resolutions 4 and 5, we propose that you renew the terms of office of Jean-Jacques Marin and Françoise Mercadot de la Salle, which are due to expire, for three years, which means until the 2028 AGM. Second, under resolution 6, we propose that you appoint Serge Chatterjee as new independent director, also for three years. Finally, under resolution 7, we propose that you ratify the appointment of Mandy Menton as a censor for a period of one year. I have also informed the board that I will not seek renewal of my term of office, which expires after this general meeting. It is with great pleasure that I present to you today the candidates proposed to this annual general meeting for renewal and appointment as directors of Atos and for ratification as censor.
I will start with two candidates appointed in January 2024 and for which a renewal is proposed today. First, Jean-Jacques Marin. He was appointed independent director on January 2, 2024, and is the chair of our audit committee. He is currently Group Deputy CEO of the Accor Group and Premium, Mid-Scale, and Economy Division CEO, and has extensive financial and governance expertise. After starting his career with Deloitte, he held key positions, including CFO in the semiconductor and energy sectors before joining Accor in 2015. He has also held non-executive positions, including on the supervisory board of Valorek. Jean-Jacques Marin has been a key asset for Atos, particularly during the restructuring process. His financial and strategic expertise will also be a strong advantage as the company enters its next phase of development. We propose that you renew his mandate for three years. Next, Françoise Mercadot de la Salle.
She has been an independent director since January 2, 2024, and is chair of the CSR committee. She is also a member of the remuneration committee. She has an exceptional career that began in senior public service, then at Société Générale, where she led the group's digital transformation. In 2018, as CEO of Crédit du Nord, she strengthened the use of digital tools while integrating ecological issues into the business model. She is co-founder and president of AXO, a platform dedicated to sustainable transition, and co-chairs the Conseil National du Numérique. She also sits on the supervisory board of Eurazeo. She has extensive experience in the strategic fields of CSR and climate, as well as in technology and cybersecurity, and will continue to strengthen the board's skills in these areas. We propose that you renew her mandate for three years. Let me now introduce a new candidate.
Serge Chatterjee is a candidate for the position of independent director on the board. He is a seasoned technology executive from the United States with over two decades of experience driving innovation across global companies. He has deep expertise in artificial intelligence, combined with extensive product leadership at firms like Google, Coinbase, and Flipkart. In 2023, he also founded Emma United, a generative AI company. As Atos looks at the future and places AI as a core focus, Serge Chatterjee would bring his experience in technologies, AI, and strategy. He also has extensive financial expertise and leadership. We propose that you appoint him for three years. Finally, I will present our censor, Mandy Menton, subject to your ratification. Mandy Menton is currently HR Manager, Strategic Talent Leadership, Benelux, and Nordics in Atos. She was an employee director last year between February 28, 2024, and January 31, 2025.
However, after the last AGM, her term of office ended as the number of board members was reduced to eight. On January 31, 2025, the board decided to appoint her as a censor to the board, subject to your ratification. Why? As you know, the group has faced a challenging period marked by the restructuring of the group, significant change in executive management, and in the strategy, with substantial dilution of the shareholders, impacting also employee shareholders. The board wished Mandy Menton to continue contributing as censor, as we are strongly committed to maintaining high-quality social dialogue and employee representation, which are essential to the group's stability and long-term performance. In addition, her recognized expertise in CSR and HR brings genuine added value to the board's deliberations. She is a true asset to the board's work. What does it mean to be censor to the board?
The censor is invited to attend all board meetings as observers with no voting right. The censor can also sit on the board's committees. Her appointment as censor would be for a one-year term. However, if she ceases to be employed by the group, her term of office as censor will automatically end. I would like to say a few words about the work of the board in 2024. First of all, I would like to emphasize the strong involvement of our directors in the work of the board and its committees, with a very satisfactory attendance rate, more than 92% on average for 51 board meetings in 2024, and 92% average attendance of committee meetings for a total of 70 meetings in 2024.
We held an exceptional number of meetings to ensure the board could regularly and promptly review both ongoing matters and exceptional events, especially the implementation of the group's restructuring plan, its refinancing, and the consideration or approval of planned disposals. As in previous years, I oversaw the board's annual internal assessment in 2024. The overall assessment was very positive, and the board identified areas for improvement for the coming year, which were detailed in the 2024 universal registration document. It is also in this document that you will find details on the activities of the board and each of its committees in 2024. In 2024, the board has been supported by its five committees, namely four permanent committees, all chaired by independent directors, and one ad hoc committee, which was terminated on December 18, 2024, in view of the completion of the restructuring.
We will be sure to keep you up to date on the reorganization of current committees, which will take into account the departures and arrivals of new directors on our board. As chair of the nomination and governance committee, I can say that our committee met several times to discuss key topics and make recommendations to the board, in particular on the board's composition, the search for new candidates, and a new chairman and CEO, as well as on our diversity policy and talent retention strategy. Finally, I would like to briefly remind you about the general management of our company, as all updated information was shared at the last annual general meeting. As you know, the nomination and governance committee worked diligently in 2024 to renew and strengthen general management with rigorous and transparent processes and in line with the best practices of the AFDEF-MDEF code.
Philippe Saul was first appointed chairman of the board on October 14, 2024, and then as Chairman and CEO as of February 1, 2025. Since then, our new Chairman and CEO has brought renewed momentum, fostering the group's recovery and enhancing responsiveness. The management mode is combined with strong checks and balances in line with best governance practices. As you know, we have a very large majority of independent directors, 87.5%, and this will continue after this AGM if you approve the resolutions. In addition, a certain number of matters require the prior authorization of the board and are defined in our board internal rules. We also have specific rules, such as the holding of executive sessions within our board of directors without the presence of executives. Finally, there is a Lead Independent Director with powers and resources that have been strengthened by the board on January 30, 2025.
Since my mandate ends at this annual general meeting, the board will appoint and announce a new lead independent director after the AGM, based on the recommendation of the nomination and governance committee. Of course, we will keep you informed. I would also like to remind you that Laurent Colet-Bion has been vice chairman of the board since October 14, 2023. He assists the chairman of the board, in particular with regard to the proper functioning of the company's governance bodies. Thank you, dear shareholders, for your attention.
Merci, Lise. Je tiens à remercier aussi. Thank you, Lise. I'd like to thank Lise for her involvement on the board because she's been here for several years, and it is thanks to her involvement that a lot of things happen in 2024. As you've seen, there were a lot of boards, one per week, which is a sustained rhythm.
Now we're going to go on to the compensation of the corporate officers. I'm going to give the floor to Laurent Colet-Bion, who's the Vice Chairman of the Board and who's the Chairman of the Remunerations Committee. Laurent will present information on the remuneration of the corporate managers.
Thank you, Philippe. Dear shareholders, as the Chairman of the Compensation Committee, I'm going to present information on the compensation of the managers of your company in accordance with the say-on-pay procedure. We're going to examine resolutions 10 to 14 that we submitted to your vote today. We will first talk about the compensation paid, allocated for the fiscal year 2024, and the compensation policies applicable to directors for 2025. All the details concerning the resolutions submitted to the vote have been put at your disposal in section 4.3 of the universal registration document 2024 and in the meeting brochure.
The first part concerns the remuneration attributed during the fiscal year 2024. These are resolutions 10 and 11 on the agenda, which concern Jean-Pierre Musier, who was the Chairman of the Board from January 1st until October 14th, 2024, and Paul Salet, who was the General Manager from January 14th, 2024 until July 23rd, 2024. No other resolution will be voted because Yves Bernard, who was General Manager from January 1st to January 14th, 2024, the elements were already approved as concerning him during the AGM on January 31st, 2025. For Philippe Saul, he's decided to renounce any compensation as the Chairman of the Board for the period from October 14th to December 31st, 2024.
For Jean-Pierre Musier, he has decided to renounce any compensation as CEO from the period from July 23rd until December 31st, 2024. The 10th resolution concerns Jean-Pierre Musier, who was the Chairman of the Board from January 1st, 2024 until October 14th, 2024. In accordance with the compensation policy that you approved by 99.5% during the AGM on January 31st, 2025, only a fixed gross annual compensation of €250,000 was planned for the fiscal year 2024. Jean-Pierre Musier renounced to receive any such compensation, but this resolution will be submitted to your vote because Jean-Pierre Musier wanted the corresponding sum to be paid to the CSR program of the group in India that finances the schooling of underprivileged children. Jean-Pierre Musier also announced that he will receive a compensation as a Director.
Therefore, he received no payment for the fiscal year of 2024. 11th resolution. This concerns the compensation attributed to Paul Salet as the CEO from the period between the 14th of January and 23rd of July 2024. The compensation policy applicable during this period was approved by the AGM of the 31st of January 2025. This was the 26th resolution adopted at more than 93%. First of all, Paul Salet received a fixed compensation paid on a pro-rata temporary basis for a gross total amount of €403,226 calculated as following: from the 14th of January 2024 to the 31st of May 2024, the fixed annual compensation was €600,000 paid on a pro-rata temporary basis. For a short period of at least two months, from the 1st of June 2024 to the 23rd of July 2024, the fixed annual remuneration was €1,200,000.
It was also paid pro-rata temporary basis. Paul Salet had the right for an annual variable compensation based on three performance criteria. The first criterion, conclusion of an agreement between the shareholders and the creditors on the debt reduction and refinancing plan of the company, 50% of his variable compensation. Second criterion, retention of 50% of the largest accounts, 25%. Third criterion, retention of the key persons, 25%. The board met on the 26th of March 2025 and observed on the proposal of the compensation committee the realization of the objectives as presented on the screen. On the whole, and after a pro-rata temporary basis calculation, the variable annual share of Paul Salet stood at €632,258, which is an achievement percentage of 100%. Paul Salet benefited from the health benefits of the group, and the employees' contributions stood at €7,676.
No other compensation was paid to Paul Salet. He resigned on the 23rd of July 2024, and Paul Salet lost his right to perceive his multi-annual variable remuneration because the attendance condition was not satisfied and specific circumstances were not applicable. He did not benefit from any severance pay and antitrust pay. So the total remuneration paid to Paul Salet in 2024 stood at €1,035,884, which is in compliance with the compensation policy approved by the AGM. 12th resolution. As for the say-on-pay expose procedure, you are asked, as usual, to approve the information of Article L22-10-9 of the Code de Commerce on the compensation of the corporate officers for the fiscal year of 2024. This information is presented in the 2024 URD. You will note that all the compensations of the directors for the fiscal year of 2024 stand at €1,063,482.68.
The second part of my presentation concerns the compensation policy of our directors. These are resolutions 13 to 14 on our agenda that were established in accordance with the recommendations of the AFEP-MEDEF code to which your company refers. Before going to the details of this policy, I'd like to remind you that your AGM has already approved the compensation policy applicable to the Chairman and CEO for 2025 during the AGM on January 31st, 2025. Concerning the maximum total envelope, you are proposed to reduce it by €1.4 million to €1 million for fiscal year 2025 and the following fiscal years. This reduction reflects our engagement expressed during the AGM on January 31st, 2025.
This envelope was exceptionally increased in 2024 to €1.4 million, taking into account the exceptional engagement of the directors for the restructuring of the group and the very large number of meetings held last year. This was underlined by Mrs. Lise Tintin. This new amount included a remuneration of €125,000 for the Vice Chairman of the Board appointed in October 2023. To date, the restructuring is achieved, so the board proposes to go back to the envelope adapted to the board as engaged, as it had engaged itself to do during the last AGM. The breakdown rules of this envelope were reviewed. The board wanted the compensation applicable to directors be based on a variable share of the compensation, which is determined as follows.
The board observed that the variable share of the remuneration of the directors was lower than average and was average of the remunerations of comparable directors of such companies. To continue attracting talents, adjustments are proposed according to the distribution rules. You see them here on the screen. The fixed remuneration remains unchanged, €20,000 per year per director. Specific remuneration of €20,000 for the lead director, €100,000 for the Chairman of the Board versus €125,000 currently. The variable remuneration is related to the attendance to the meetings and will be increased. It will be €3,500 per board meeting versus €2,500 today. For the committees, it will be €6,000 per meeting for the Chairman and Audit Committee versus €3,000 now, €5,000 for the Chairman of the other committees versus €2,000 currently, and €3,000 for the members of the committees versus €1,000 currently.
For the censor, the board proposes to introduce a compensation at 50% of the amounts planned for the directors. Finally, the other more specific rules remain unchanged. For example, the written consultations are not remunerated. The directors benefit from the refunding of their costs, and they do not perceive any other form of remuneration apart from those mentioned here. Thus, we have covered all the resolutions related to stay-on-pay. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Laurent. I'd also like to thank the compensation committee for their work and for this presentation. Now I'm going to go on to item 6, which is the auditor's report. I'm going to ask Samuel Clochard, who is the representative of the auditors' college, to present their report. Mesdames et Messieurs les Actionnaires.
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear shareholders, on behalf of the joint auditors, that is Deloitte, Mazars and Grant Thornton, I have great pleasure in making a report to you today concerning our task as fulfilled for the fiscal year that ended on December 31st, 2024. In the context of the general meeting, meeting here on an ordinary basis, we issued three reports made available to you within the deadlines provided for by law concerning the consolidated accounts, the annual accounts, and the related party agreements. Deloitte Mazars was appointed as the sustainability auditor and also issued a report concerning the information communicated by the company when it comes to sustainability. I suggest I won't read out these reports in full, but I'll just sum up their contents.
Concerning our reports on the consolidated accounts and the annual accounts presented in section 611, page 302, and 621, page 337 of the universal registration document, in the French language at least, there are the page references. We'd like to recall that the objective of our task is to obtain reasonable assurance that these accounts do not comprise any material misstatements. To do this, we put together an annual audit plan adapted to the activities and the organization of the group, covering all of the materially important entities of the consolidation scope. This audit plan covers also important transactions or non-recurring ones, such as the financial restructuring process. We'd like to draw particular attention to the implementation of the accounting principles used and the review of the material estimates taken on board by the management.
Our plan, as well as the conclusions of our work, were all presented to the management of your group, the audit committee, and the board. In line with legal requirements, our reports on the accounts mention the key audit matters and also the procedures we conducted so as to meet the requirements. These key audit matters concern risks of material misstatements that we identified, given their relative weight in the accounts and the high degree of estimation and judgment or appraisal required, particularly to determine hypotheses used in order to evaluate them. Now, for the consolidated accounts, these key audit matters related to the following areas: the evaluation of the recoverable value of goodwill, the booking of the revenues in respect of multi-annual service contracts on a flat fee basis, the accounting statement of the financial restructuring, and the litigation with the Trizetto Company.
Concerning the statutory accounts of Atos SE, which we also audited, the key audit matters concern the evaluation of investment securities and the accounting statement of the financial restructuring. In conclusion, of the work we did, we came to the opinion that our work was sufficient and appropriate in order to found our audit opinion. We, therefore, can certify that the accounts of the fiscal year 2024 are fair and accurate and give a faithful image of the result of the operations of the past financial year and also of the financial situation and the asset position. That is the case for the consolidated accounts drawn up as per the IFRS reference base and the individual company accounts prepared in compliance with the French GAAP. Also, our reports mention the specific verifications that were incumbent upon us.
They concern, in particular, information given within the management report and the other documents sent to the shareholders, for which we have no observation to make. The limited assurance report presented in appendix 4 of section 5.1 of the universal registration document concerning information concerning sustainability integrated into the management report mentions the absence of any errors, omissions, or inconsistencies that would be material that we might have noted concerning the compliance of this information with the provisions laid down by law. Concerning our skilled report and related party agreements featuring in section 6.2.2 of the universal registration document, we were not advised of any such agreement that was authorized and entered into within the past financial year to be submitted to this general meeting here today for approval or any related party agreement already approved whose execution was continued. Ladies and gentlemen, that completes my report.
I'll give the floor back to the chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Clochard. I'd like to thank our auditors for their work. I have to specify that the auditor's report is available on the internet site of the company. Now I'm going to give the floor to the presentation. We're going to go on to the presentation of the resolutions. Sorry. I'm going to give the floor to Cécile on my right, who's the Secretary General and Secretary of the Board. She's going to present the resolutions that will be submitted to your vote today.
Thank you, Philippe. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, so 17 resolutions will be submitted to your vote today. For a great number of them, they were already broached during the previous presentations. This presentation will focus, therefore, on the subjects that have not yet been broached.
First of all, we're going to begin with the ordinary items of our AGM. The first three resolutions concern the approval of the financial statements and the allocation of the income. I'm not going to go into the details because these topics were mentioned in the presentation of our financial manager. The fourth and seventh resolutions concern the evolution in the composition of the board. These elements were presented earlier on by the Chairman of the Nomination and Governance Committee. The eighth resolution concerns the nomination of Fauves Mazars as a statutory auditor for the certification of the accounts of the company. I'd like to remind you that the mandate of Deloitte expired at the last AGM on January 31st, 2025 and could not be renewed anymore because of the limitation rules on the duration of the mandates.
I'd also like to remind you that Fauves Mazars had been appointed by decree of the Tribunal du Commerce de Pontoise on the 19th of December 2024, and therefore they conducted their auditing work and the certification of the accounts for 2024. This term will expire at this current AGM. The board, therefore, proposes, upon the recommendation of the audit committee, to appoint Fauves Mazars for six terms until the approval of the accounts and the AGM of 2030. This proposal takes into account the knowledge of Fauves Mazars of all the group's activities and organization, the expertise of their teams, and their audit approach. I'd like to remind you that the AGM held on the 31st of January 2025 appointed Fauves Mazars as a statutory auditor to certify all the sustainability information of the group.
The ninth resolution concerns the usual approval of the auditor's report on related party agreements. I will not add anything more because this report mentions that no related party agreement was authorized or was pursued in 2024. The 10th and 14th resolutions concern the compensation of the CEOs of the company. This was presented earlier on by the Chairman of the Compensation Committee. The 15th resolution is a traditional resolution for the buyback of shares by the company. This resolution presents the same characteristics as the one approved by the AGM on January 31st, 2025, except for the maximum purchasing price that was set at €100 to take into account the regroupment of the shares of the company.
As we do traditionally, the buyback of shares could be used for several reasons: to implement employee share ownership plans, and the cancellation of shares could not be carried out during the public offering period on the shares of the company. I will continue with the extraordinary part of this AGM. In the 16th resolution, we suggest to renew the authorization to be granted to the Board to reduce the share capital by canceling up to 10% of the share capital and for periods of 24 months, the treasury shares. This authorization would be entrusted for a period of 26 months and would replace the previous authorization given by the 2023 AGM. The last resolution is the traditional resolution on the powers to carry out all the formalities. I'd like to thank you for your attention, and I'll give the floor back to Philippe Sal.
Thank you, Cécile.
Before going on to the vote, we will have our traditional Q&A session. The hostesses are there to take your questions. I will just ask you to stand up and introduce yourselves and put your questions.
This session is open. I'd like to ask the shareholders to raise your hand, and we will hand over the microphone to you. On ne vous entend pas, du coup. Il faut qu'il vous mette le micro. Bon, ce n'est pas grave, allez-y. Sorry, there's a problem with the microphone. The interpreters cannot hear the question. Yes, I think the answer was we're renting this building until July 2030. C'est un peu prématuré, mais on est d'accord. The interpreters cannot hear the questions. The microphone is not working. Any more questions? Je n'ai pas manifestement, les micros ne marchent pas. The microphones are not working. On va vous changer de micro.
Pas mieux, mais ce n'est pas grave. Écoutez, on vous entend. Exactement, vous avez raison, monsieur. Essayez de nouveau voir si ça marche. Please try again. No, the microphones aren't working. Allez-y, posez votre question et je vais la répéter dans ce cas-là. So you can put your question and I will repeat it, so you have to be brief. Je vous ai déjà parlé de l'année 2024, on est là pour ça. Il y a eu une augmentation par 11 en contrejour du syndicat de Bruxelles Action. Ça a commencé deux jours avant la clôture de la période de souscription d'augmentation de capital et avec une intervention de Monsieur Armand, qui était à l'époque Ministre de l'Économie et des Finances, pour réitérer une offre d'achat d'une partie d'Atos qui était déjà connue.
Donc, ma question sur ce sujet, c'est : est-ce que, vu la férocité que le marché des actions de la Bourse de Paris a faite manifeste depuis quelques années, vous avez des moyens, en tant que société Atos, de protéger les épargnants dont je fais partie en tant qu'actionnaire individuel de ces manœuvres financières ? Très bien, je vais déjà prendre votre question. Okay, I'll take this question first. To repeat your question, I'll try to summarize it. La hausse du cours d'actions. The increase in the share price after the announcement we made in November on the sale of our supercomputer activities. Effectivement, le cours d'actions est remonté. The share price increased a lot later on, and then it collapsed again. C'était un peu plus tard. Oui, je pense que la direction générale de l'époque avait dit.
The chairman of management at the time had indicated that the share price had collapsed. Of course, we are in touch with the AMF, and when there are brutal movements on our share price, we are always in contact with them to understand, and with the market operators too. But we are subjected and submitted to these ups and downs when things aren't normal, if I may say so. Of course, there's investigation carried out by the AMF to find out why there were such brutal movements, but unfortunately, we are just subjected to the purchasing or sales, which are very strong. I don't think there was anything specific showing that the price share had submitted something, had gone to something abnormal. That was abnormal. I've never seen something like that. Yes, you're right. The share was at zero, and it's always complicated to see such brutal changes.
It went from €0.10 to €1.00 in a very short period of time. Do you have another question? Yes. I wanted to make a comment on the compensation of the former managers. Mr. Mustier had declared at the previous AGM that he would always tell the truth, and he didn't say that he was asking for €250,000 that would be taken off from his pay to pay underprivileged children in India. And the €600,000 of variable shares paid to Mr. Sallet. That is to say that there was the part of the people who defined the criteria of this variable compensation because of the loss of contracts. I mean, there was the termination, the loss of contracts. There were 135,000 people at Atos a few years ago, and you have 74,000, and you're aiming at 60,000.
To save Atos at that price, this is saving it under particular conditions. To give €600,000 to someone who came to Atos, who quickly declared that Atos was worthless, that was giving him a lot of money. The variable remuneration criteria should be determined differently. I hope it will be done by the future team because I think that this team has been really renewed now. I'm taking due note, but there will be a vote, and we'll see the results of the vote when this is noted. I have two questions. One concerns page seven of the meeting brochure. You're talking about 4,900 people who left Atos after the resignation of contracts in North America and the UK. I had already asked this question last time, my question is on the convention signed with one point.
Does that mean that today it is terminated? And what is the link? Because I had understood in a statement that one point was aiming at $900 million of revenue that would be transferred. So does this transfer? I mean, and what were the effects of this convention of one point? Have they been determined? What are the effects today, and what about the future of this convention?
Sur les conventions on a dit, on a mentionné des related party agreements, there is no related party agreement. The partnership agreement that was entered into with one point was an agreement of arms length one, entered into at normal market conditions. That indicates that it's not a related party agreement. That's why it was not reported. Well, then I didn't understand it properly at the outset, says the gentleman who asked the question.
Well, then what's in that agreement with OnePoint? I'd like to know because I have no information about it. I must have misunderstood what it was like, but what's in it? I read statements by OnePoint and $900 million worth of revenues. That's a lot of money. What's in that agreement with OnePoint? What were the effects of it in 2024? What will be the future effects going forward? The agreement with OnePoint. Regarding that agreement, it was a partnership, conventional agreement like you can have with companies in this industry. Concerning the figures, however, that ensue from it, I haven't got the exact figures. There weren't a lot of contracts in that partnership, neither contracts nor transfers, says Mr. Sal. It said it was an agreement to share business between OnePoint and Atos. There was going to do projects.
They were going to do projects together. That's what I read anyway. It was the intention, says the corporate secretary. So this information was published. Well, this was the intention of the partnership, says Cécile. But have you no exact figures to give me then, says the person who asked the question about the amounts or the number of people involved or anything? No more details? No, says Mr. Sal. No. But I'm just on your question, yes. My last question then concerning page 37 of the convening notice connected with what you said and repeated today. Not paying out a dividend before 2028. Now, that basically means that fiscal 2027 should enable you to possibly, if you so decide, to pay out a dividend. But on page 37, you say that the retained earnings at the end of 2024 is minus €9,214 million.
So I'd like to know how you're going to do this between now and 2027. Because to my knowledge, unless I got it wrong maybe, but I mean, the payout capability, I mean, it has to do with the retained earnings and the profits of the financial year. I mean, that's income so as to pay out a dividend usually. How come? How does all this tally? How are you going to earn enough money between now and then so as to pay out a dividend? I mean, it might be 2040 or 2050 when Atos will have come into the black sufficiently so as to pay out to share its profits with the shareholders. Thank you for some precise answers. Thank you in advance. The CFO: Yes, sir. I'll give you some brief answers.
Firstly, our page on the capital allocation where we indicate it wasn't planned to buy back shares, a substantial program for share buyback, or pay out a dividend before 2028. That is not a statement that we will have such a dividend in 2028. It's our intent. It's a gentleman asking a question without a microphone so the interpreter can't interpret, unfortunately. Well, that's what's written down. Can I continue giving you my answer, says the CFO? If you read the sentence, it says it won't be any before 2028. It doesn't mean that in 2028 there will. The gentleman's continuing without a microphone. Sorry. Interpreter didn't hear. Then the second more technical answer is that in our net income figure, in the statutory accounts, you saw that there are substantial impairments of stock value for certain of our subsidiaries.
That reflects the update of the business plan and the prospects for short to medium-term profitability in those subsidiaries. These are write-downs that are non-cash write-downs that take the form of provisions, accruals, change in value in those securities that will obviously fluctuate depending on the way in which the updates are done to the business plan and the profitability outlook in the following years. You may have lines of securities that are provided for. We book provisions for them based on the official business plan validated by the board, communication to the market, and so on. In a year or two years, hence, you might have a different business plan, profitability guidance that will be different or outlook that will be different.
We would then have to revisit those provisions and the value of those securities in our accounts and also have an impact therefore on the following years, which would be reflected by an impact on our stockholders' equity. The $9 billion is not something that will be static in the coming few years. In other words, the gentleman's adding something without a microphone. It's been negative by several billion euros. I mean, it could become positive to the tune of several billion euros too. We can't rule that out. Any other question from people here in the room in Baisan? There are hands going up. We'll give you a microphone.
Victoria Davis is my name. I'm an individual shareholder. I have a question. One question only. What about the buyback of the advanced computing division? Does that comprise taking on board possible debt?
Is there debt in the advanced computing part of the business that might be taken over? No, no, it's enterprise value you compute. And no, we wouldn't transfer the net debt, says Mr. Sal. Another question over there from one of our employees, I see. Yes, I am an employee indeed and a shareholder and representing the employee shareholders too. I've heard what you've been saying, and I support the efforts you're putting in, and we hope Atos will get by. Personally, I do believe in it. I'd like to be able to help, and my colleagues too would like to help you to achieve all that. However, the management recently denounced an agreement, terminated an agreement on health and protection. It terminated that agreement, and that is running counter to the rules concerning the negotiation of that agreement for the employees.
Now, we can accept certain things, but there are other things we can't really accept. We feel it's important, okay, to make savings, to be a bit less demanding. We must be less demanding too. We've got to wait for Atos to get back on the rails, and it will do that so as to enable us then to get back and negotiate a better deal for the employees, of course, and make the company into a company we want to work in and stay in. But we can't forgo the importance of employee health benefits, health and protection benefits. So please take care of that. The company has terminated that agreement. This is a French issue, isn't it? Not for employees outside of France. It's only for France, isn't that correct? Yes. I just wanted to explain to shareholders. It's for the French employees only.
It's not a global health and protection scheme. It's for French employees. I know there are negotiations underway. I'll look at this though. I will look into it, but I don't think that the corporate management in France wants to bring down the benefits provided in terms of health to our employees. I don't think that's the intent. Another question maybe? There's a gentleman with a question. Yes, hello. I'm an individual shareholder myself too. I have several questions. You didn't get any written questions by the look of it? Okay. Well, then it seems that you made publication with the AMF concerning 2024 in December and in November concerning additional clauses to your UORD for 2023. What does that involve? Could you tell us a bit more about those amendments to the UORD for 2023? Why did that take place?
Was it you who asked for it, or was it the MF? Sorry, asked for it. I can give you the references if you like. Then Ms. Tinkman will be leaving. She intimated that following this general meeting, she has defined a lead independent director. Now, in the past, Atos has seen many changes in terms of governance and management people, and this potential lead independent director should be indicated at this AGM. We'd like to know who it will be. The last thing concerns the board. Ms. Tinkman was the longest standing member of the board apart from the employee representative, Mr. Louis. She was in this post since 2022. Following this AGM, the most senior person will be Mr. Collet, sitting on the board since 2023. Does that leave you a free hand to attack former management people or in respect of management errors made in the past?
I'd like to know. I have another question, actually, concerning the FCP for employees, the open-ended mutual fund. 2.7% of the equity base was what they held. Now it's under 0.something. So it's a bit less than €39 now, the stock value. What is the cost price per stock? For the resolutions concerning the remuneration of the members of the board, the package has gone down. Will go down by €1.5 million. From €1.5 to €1 million, sorry. But it said that for each meeting, the payment, the amounts will go up because indeed it's been indicated that you looked at the peer companies to ascertain the right level. Now, what are peer companies? A company with €9 billion of retained losses, a company like this with a certain carrying a certain amount of debt.
What are the peer companies you use as a benchmark in order to ascertain the right level of remuneration? We're an SBF 120 index company, and the peers are the other companies in that index. So we're here to attract board members who will be talented people to the board. It's not as a function of the financial aggregates, but as a function of the benchmarks we do with our peers. For me, it's the SBF 120 companies. If you look at the other companies in the SBF 120 index, we're on a par with them. The FCP, open-ended mutual fund for employees, I think the price is much higher. I think there are hardly any niche shares. I might be wrong. I think it's nearly zero. Unfortunately, the stocks remaining for our employees.
Your other question about the board being renewed, well, that's the principle of when there's financial restructuring that usually happens. Will the board attack? I have no idea. That would be a decision that hasn't been taken by the board at this point. The Lead Independent Director, that's a decision to be taken by the board. To that end, the new board members will have to be convened, and the board will be meeting after this general meeting and will decide on who will be the new Lead Independent Director. I can't give you the name before that board meeting takes place and before the vote is taken. We need that vote to take place. Then we have the other question you asked regarding the correction in respect of the 2023 UORD. I'll leave the floor to Cécile because I wasn't around when that was published.
Yes, Cécile says, "In December, under the deployment of our restructuring plan, we made capital increases that require updates to be done to the universal registration document, the reference document, as we called it before." I think what you're talking about, this publication concerned the amendments that were published indeed in respect of that, published as amendments to the UORD because these were legal obligations when we issued shares. To finalize our financial restructuring, that was a legal requirement. We had to publish those amendments. The fact that there's an additional clause, but two documents, whereas I would imagine when you communicate those documents, you send them firstly to the AMF that rubber-stamps them. That means that one was published that you sent to the AMF. Then a month later, I haven't got the dates off the top of my head, you sent another one.
"Yeah, but that's normal," says Cécile. "Well, it's because there were several issuances, you see, of shares. That's why." When we did a capital increase each time, when you do that, I mean, you've got to update the information in the registration document. There was no mistake made. It's an update that must be done each time you issue new shares so that the market, the shareholders, and everybody has the right information at the right time when the subscription period is open. So they have full transparent information made available to them, up-to-date information too, to conduct the capital increases. The other question, says Mr. Sal. There's a hand going up over there. Sorry, I hadn't seen you. With the light, I didn't see you. Yes, a lady with a question. I have a few small questions. I'll stand up. I'm over here, she said. Okay.
Three short questions. Could you give us your name? Well, with all of the share consolidation, I've only got one share left myself. We had to reverse share split. Concerning the different tables you showed us, the timeframes are 2025, 2026, 2028, but there was nothing talking about 2027. I missed that in the timeline. No, calling me 2027 because 2025, this year, 2026, we should get into a positive cash flow by then. 2027, we don't know. Well, but you jumped into 2028. There was a big void for 2027. No, there's no mystery about it. Don't worry. That's all right then. I'd like to know if the new member of the board, person who's been proposed, a rather complicated name for me to pronounce as the lady, is he with us here today? Could he introduce himself maybe? Yes, Mr. Sergeant Chatterjee.
Yes, of course. They're all in the front row here. They're all here. Yes, indeed. I see him now. Okay, thank you. Because we saw his photograph, but we didn't see him for real. He's based in San Francisco and he speaks English. Okay. I think it's good that he should be here. Well done. I think it's good for you to recruit somebody who's in the IT space. It's not often the case on the boards of companies in this industry. I've been an IT person all my life, and I thought it was passing strange that in boards of such companies, you didn't have people who were experts in IT in particular. That's great. That's good news. I'm glad to see he'll be joining us. That's very important in the board, says Mr. Sal, is to have different skill sets.
You need all sorts of skill sets. Technology people, and there are other people with technology skills as well. Not just Mr. Chatterjee. Your chairman and CEO also has some IT skills. We have people who are total experts in strategy. So we need the whole lot. You need all those skill sets on board in the board. The next point is the Vice Chair, Mr. Collet-Billon, whom we heard from. Is his role really necessary? I'm not being nice to him. I know. I mean, he went from €125,000 to €100,000 so that increased the price for meetings for everybody. I don't see what his real role is. Is it a political role? I mean, why is that role there? Is that really needed? Why €100,000? It seems to me to be a bit superfluous.
Well, this is a decision to be taken by the board that then put to the shareholders to vote upon. And that will be the case today. If the board decided to have a vice chair, it's because we thought it was a good decision to make. And if we decide on that compensation level, it's because we thought it was the right amount. Okay. Okay, if the board is happy to have appointed a vice chair, but at that price, I wonder why. Is it worth it? There are other vice chairs in other companies, and the remuneration varies. And as chairman of the different boards, I pay different amounts. So it'll be put to the vote. Okay, that's all right. That's all right then. Thank you, sir, the lady who asked the questions. Any other questions?
I'll take one last question here in the room, and then we'll hold the poll, and you'll vote upon the resolutions. Hello. I'm an individual shareholder myself. I'd like to go back to a remark and comment made by Mr. Dupré earlier. If I'm not mistaken, when you talked about the parent company, you talked about the stockholders' equity being negative to the tune of $933 million. You made that comment. The company is looking into the means of remedying that. Could you give us further details, please? The CFO. Sorry, it's Mr. Sal. The negative capital, we're not allowed to have negative capital for certain within a certain timeframe, I mean, for a certain period. So the CFO. There are different ways, technically speaking, of reestablishing positive shareholders' equity. We're looking into this. You can have dividends paid from subsidiaries, another means also.
But as I said in my brief presentation, right now, it's not an urgent matter, but it's something that the company is mindful of and that we're working on. We're setting up action plans so as to rectify this situation in the medium term. Things can't remain negative indefinitely, so says Mr. Sal. We have the safeguard agreement that's protecting us, but we've got to come back into a positive stockholders' equity space. No impact? No, no impact this year, says Mr. Sal. I confirm no impact this year. That's great then. We have taken your questions, and nobody else has a question. Thank you for supporting us as Atos. We'll now move on to hold the poll on the resolutions. I'll give you the new quorum, the definitive quorum, rather, that we now have the figures of 7,862,641 shares that can vote.
That's 40.57% of the equity. So we have, of course, achieved our quorum. Now, I'd like to ask all of the people in the room to kindly stay in the room until the end of the meeting and also hand in your tablets to the hostesses as you leave the room. The tablets you'll have used for voting. Once you leave the room, it's a definitive departure, by the way. Please don't go out and come back in. You're not allowed. So we will now hold the poll on the resolutions. Now I'll give the floor to Cécile to organize the voting process. Et les résolutions de l'Assemblée. To vote on the resolutions of the AGM, you've been handed a tablet. It is strictly personal and will serve only during this AGM.
When we announce the voting of a resolution, the voting window will be displayed automatically on your tablet, even if it is in sleep mode. To vote, very simple. Just press on the button corresponding to your choice in favor, abstention, or against. Press on OK to validate your choice before the closing of the vote. Once your poll has been validated, you will not be able to change it anymore. Please return your tablet before you leave this room. So the poll is done for each resolution. I'm going to read the summary of each resolution as it appears here on the screen. First resolution, approval of the company's statutory financial statements, 2024. The vote is open. Le vote est clos. The poll is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.90%. Second resolution, approval of the consolidated financial statements for 2024. The poll is open. Le vote est clos.
The poll is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.90%. Third resolution, allocation of the net income for the financial year ending December 31st, 2024. The poll is open. The vote is closed. The poll is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.87%. Fourth resolution, renewal of Mr. Jean-Jacques Maurin's term of office. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The poll is closed. The resolution is adopted at 96.93%. Fifth resolution, renewal of Mrs. Françoise Mercadale de La Salle's term of office. The poll is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.69%. Sixth resolution, appointment of Mr. Sergeant Chatterjee as director. The vote is open. The poll is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.83%. Seventh resolution, ratification of the appointment of Mrs. Mandy Madden as a censor. The vote is open. The poll is closed. The resolution is adopted at 93.10%.
Eighth resolution, appointment of Forest Mazar as statutory auditor. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.86%. Ninth resolution, special report of the auditors regarding the agreements, related party agreements. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.88%. Tenth resolution, advisory vote on the compensation of Jean-Pierre Musier, Chairman of the Board, for the period from January 1st until October 14th, 2024. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.61%. Eleventh resolution, approval of the compensation of Paul Saley for the period between January 14th and July 23rd, 2024. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.46%.
Twelfth resolution, approval of the information related to the compensation of the company officers referred to in Article L22-10-9 of the French Commercial Code. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.60%. Thirteenth resolution, determination of the total annual compensation of the directors. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.67%. Fourteenth resolution, approval of the compensation policy applicable to the directors for 2025. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.57%. Fifteenth resolution, authorization to be granted to the board of directors for the purpose of purchasing, holding, or transferring shares in the company. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.78%.
Sixteenth resolution, authorization to be granted to the board of directors to reduce the share capital by canceling treasury shares. Le vote est clos. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted at 99.78%. Seventeenth resolution, powers. The vote is open. Le vote est clos. The resolution is adopted at 99.78%. Thank you, Cécile, dear shareholders. Therefore, close this AGM. Thank you for your presence and your attention. We will try to organize our next meeting in 2026 in May. Thank you and have a nice day.