Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. It has now been more than four months since the world has faced this pandemic, which has affected us all in our personal lives, but also in our professional lives. It has also severely tested our businesses and economies in each of our countries. Even our shareholders' meeting has been impacted because, as you remember, we were supposed to hold it in the Pleyel concert hall on April 9th. On that date, a meeting involving several hundred people was still banned.
Our Board decided to postpone it and to reconvene it with a slightly modified agenda. Unfortunately, we are forced to hold it behind closed doors in order to protect your health. You know that the health and safety of our employees, but also of our shareholders, is our number one priority. First of all, I would like to extend my thanks to all those, and there are many of them, both in France and abroad, who were fully engaged during the lockdown period. It is their commitment, their engagement, that has kept our businesses and your group running. Thank you.
We would like to thank our colleagues from motorways, airports, and railways who have always ensured the continuity of our public service missions in an exemplary manner by enabling health personnel, but also public safety officers and HGV drivers to travel on our networks. We would also like to thank our works and maintenance teams, who, in particular, ensured the smooth running of the energy, water, and communication networks, which are also absolutely key to maintaining our activity. Thank you. Thank you to all that have contributed to urgently build field hospitals and new hospital equipment.
How is this shareholders' meeting going to go? There are four of us. We are gathered here at headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, and everything is broadcast live on our website. You can, of course, watch this shareholders' meeting at a later stage. I would like to inform you that this combined general meeting of shareholders is deemed to be held on first notice. The legal announcements relating to the shareholders' meeting have been made within the statutory deadlines. The financial statements, the reports, and all of the documents to be made available to the shareholders have been indeed made available in accordance with the legal and regulatory provisions in force.
These documents, by the way, are on the table, and I would like to ask you to acknowledge them. Your Directors, as well as the statutory auditors, are following, as you are today, the general shareholders' meeting via the internet connection. Your Board met this morning remotely and decided to set up the Executive Committee. I will assume the Presidency of the Executive Committee of the shareholders' meeting, and I will be assisted by two tellers. We have Mrs. Isabelle Spiegel on the one hand, who is an individual shareholder and Director of the Environment at VINCI, and Mr. Patrick Richard, individual shareholder also and General Counsel of VINCI and Secretary to the Board of Directors.
The offices have asked Mr. Patrick Richard to act as Secretary of this meeting. I'm very pleased that so many of you have spoken, both through written questions and through postal votes. I would like to point out that since the shareholders' meeting is being held in camera behind closed doors, all the votes that have been cast have been cast exclusively by correspondence. These votes include paper forms received by our financial go-between, the CIC, until June 15th, and also the electronic votes that were cast until June 17th, 3:00 P.M., in accordance with our regulations.
The total number of shareholders who voted amounts to 8,353 for a total of 365,028,000 shares out of the 554,379,714 voting shares. Let me also point out that VINCI's share capital is currently made up of 606,212,714 shares, and from this number, the number of treasury shares held by VINCI must be deducted, 51,833,386 shares, in order to obtain the number of shares with voting rights. Let me also remind you that the company's articles of association do not provide for double voting rights. We now have a quorum of 65.84%, which is higher than the 20% and 25% quorums that are required for the validity of the deliberations of ordinary and extraordinary general shareholders' meetings held on first notice.
All of this to say that our meeting can, of course, validly deliberate. I would like to remind you that the resolutions under the ordinary part are adopted by simple majority, and those under the extraordinary part must be carried by 2/3 majority. A few words about the agenda for this shareholders' meeting. It is now being posted on the screen. The agenda was published and is included on page five of the notice of the meeting.
I'm not going to read it in full, but I will briefly remind you of the different items. On an ordinary basis, first of all, we have the approval of the 2019 parent company consolidated financial statements and appropriation of earnings. Just a little comment, your board decided at its meeting on May 4th, due to the economic context generated by the health crisis, to reduce the balance of the dividend to EUR 1.25 per share instead of EUR 2.26 initially planned, but to also offer to shareholders an option to receive it in shares at a 5% discount to the last 20 share prices.
Second point, we have the appointment of Mr. Benoit Bazin as a member of the Board, as a Director. Number three, renewal of the company's share buyback program. Approval of the compensation policy for the members of the Board and the Directors and the CEO, as well as of the elements of the compensation paid in 2019 or allocated for the same year to all of the company officers and to the CEO. That was for the ordinary part of the shareholders' meeting.
On an extraordinary basis, we have further items: authorization to reduce the share capital by canceling treasury shares, delegations to carry out capital increases reserved for employees, authorization to proceed with free allocations of existing shares in favor of group employees, amendments of Articles 13, 14, and 15 of the articles of association. Your Board suggests that we amend the articles of association so that we can adapt them to the recent legislative and regulatory changes. We should specify, in particular, that in exercising its powers, the Board takes into account the interests of the company as well as the social and environmental challenges of its activities, of its business.
Finally, I would like to inform you that your company has not received any requests for the inclusion of draft resolutions on the agenda of this shareholders' meeting, and that the Social and Economic Committee has not made use of the right to include draft resolutions provided for by law. I suggest, as is our want, as we do every year, not to proceed with the full reading of the report of the Board of Directors, the text of which is included, by the way, in the 2019 annual report. How is this shareholders' meeting going to be organized?
Well, to begin with, very quickly, we're going to watch the film for the year 2019. We will have a series of speeches and films on our 2019 performance, on our solidarity actions and policies, on our environmental policy, on the resumption of our business after the end of the lockdown period, and last point will be on our 2020 outlook. We will have a presentation of the activity of your Board and of its four different committees. We will hear from our statutory auditors, and then we will announce the results of the vote after a presentation of Benoit Bazin, the new Director on the Board, whose election is submitted to your vote. Let us start with the film of the year.
[Presentation]
This film,` which is a beautiful video, is a really good example, a good illustration of the passion that drives us, but also it shows the beauty of our jobs as designers, builders, and operators of works and structures serving communities. This film also shows the dynamics of your group, which in 2019 will have achieved the best performance of its longer history that, as you know, dates back to the end of the 19th century. All of this, while preparing for many challenges such as the digital revolution, transition, and low energy footprint, the issue of global warming, smart cities, smart buildings, Industry 4.0, and many others.
All of this shows the ability of our model to deliver economic, social, and environmental performance. The ingredients or the recipe for success is very simple. First of all, we have a decentralized organization that makes it agile and adaptable. We have an effective synergy between the long-term business of concessions and the short-term nature of contracting business, a unique range of complementary trades and expertise and we can also rely on our good geographical coverage.
That allows us to pick up the projects where they are. It is this winning formula, this winning combination that explains the resilience of our performance and the dynamics of our development. Of course, we had not anticipated that we would be affected, that we would be hit so quickly by this public health crisis, which will, of course, inevitably have a very major impact on our financial year 2020. The ingredients behind our past successes will enable us to bounce back very quickly in order to continue to produce performance in the morning after. I will get back to this subject later.
For the moment, just a few comments on 2019. First of all, let's say a few words about our French motorways. On our French motorways, light vehicle traffic bounced back very well at the end of 2019 due to the base effect of the social crisis, which had greatly impacted our networks, as you will remember, in the last weeks of 2018, but also due to the fact that there were some strikes in the French railway company, the SNCF, at the end of 2019, and this resulted in traffic postponement. HGV traffic remained solid in 2019 with 3.1% growth rate. What is more important than that is that we are really actively preparing the infrastructure for the uses of the future.
In particular, let us talk about autonomous, connected, and shared mobility with offers and infrastructures that favor car sharing, carpooling, with developments based on AI and digital services such as, for example, the multimodal comparator or the mobility assistant. In 2019, we also launched our low carbon highway concept, and what we tried to do here is to reduce single car use by developing dedicated lanes for carpooling and public transportation on the high traffic roads. The purpose is to develop a complete and homogenous network of electric charging stations, and the purpose is to produce renewable energy on the hundreds of hectares of unused land around the motorways.
For its part, VINCI Airports was also really quick on its feet with 255 million passengers managed in 2019. VINCI Airports has become the first and the most diversified airports private operator with 45 different hubs or platforms in 12 countries. Part of our know-how at VINCI Airports is to imagine and convince airlines that they can open new routes. In 2019 alone, we will have opened 325 such routes, including 61 long-haul routes such as Osaka-London or Santiago-Barcelona routes. Thanks to this commercial dynamism, but also with the contribution of the airports in the AWW portfolio, including Belfast Airport, with the integration of the Belgrade hub, and of course, with the integration of Gatwick, the turnover of VINCI Airports will have increased significantly in 2019.
VINCI Airports is unfolding its policy of investment and innovation in order to serve passengers, airlines, but also local communities and the environment in general. For example, the Lyon Airport was awarded in September 2019, the title for best European airport in its category. Salvador de Bahia was voted best airport in Brazil, this was thanks to the environmental re-qualification investments that were made in record time from the moment when we arrived at this hub.
Looking at the contracting business. The year was very good too, with very good organic growth with the full year integration of the acquisitions made in 2018, i.e., PrimeLine in the U.S. or Wah Loon in Singapore, amongst others, also with the arrival of 34 new small and medium-sized acquisitions made in 2019. VINCI Energies will have multiplied its size by nearly three in 10 years, at the same time, while improving its operating profitability, which is at the best level, in this industry.
VINCI Energies now generates 55% of its business outside of France. It is remarkably well-positioned in order to meet the major challenges of the digital revolution and the energy transition. Eurovia, our road construction division, also turned in a very good performance with, in particular, 8.5% organic growth in France. With the full year effect of the acquisitions made in 2018, TNT in Canada, and more recently, the plant and paving division of the Lane company in the U.S. All of this with a very strong increase in order intake. Eurovia continues to expand internationally. International business now accounts for 46% of its overall business.
We've experienced some growth at Eurovia, this is virtuous growth, because the operating margin is increasing and has largely exceeded 4% in 2019. VINCI Construction was also very buoyant, very positive, with strong organic growth. Its strength, its dynamism, is fueled in particular by the ramping up of construction sites in the Paris region, particularly the Grand Paris Express project. This is also boosted by the good level of business in Central Europe, in the U.K. and Asia and the Pacific, and in Africa.
We should note that there were several major transport infrastructure contracts that were won in the U.S. and Canada, New Zealand, and very recently, a very large section of the high-speed line, HS2 in the U.K. that we won in partnership with our partner, Balfour Beatty. There were some additional major contracts that were won as part of the Grand Paris Express contract. Of course, these new orders are more than welcome, and they will compensate for the low level of activity in the oil and gas sector. No order book problems, as you've understood, for VINCI Construction, but we still need to work on improving our margins. One last point, in real estate, the labor market has held its ground. We can count on the country's needs and the persistence of very low interest rates.
All of this has helped to keep housing reservations and sales at a very high level in 2019. The problem was not so much, by the way, on the demand side, but it was more on the supply side in almost all of the major cities, including Paris, in particular because of the high cost of land. A good level of activity for VINCI Real Estate in residential, but also with offices and hotels. Obviously, the public health crisis has somewhat slowed down this beautiful development. We should keep in mind that France remains a country of builders. It is, by the way, probably the number one builder in Europe. I now turn over the floor to Christian Labeyrie.
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. As Xavier indicated, 2019 was a record year for VINCI, and it's particularly true as regards the economic and financial performance of VINCI. Revenue topped EUR 48 billion. That's a 10% increase over 2018. Organic growth accounts for just over half that increase. We need to go back eight years to find such a level of organic growth. The two main business lines, contracting and concessions, experienced similar organic growth rates of the order of 5% each. External growth contributed EUR 2 billion to revenue increase.
That's an additional growth of 5%. Firstly, the full year impact of acquisitions in 2018, principally by VINCI Energies in the U.S. and Singapore, VINCI Airports in the United States, Ireland, Serbia, and by Eurovia in Europe and Canada. To that, we can add the contribution of acquisitions made in 2019. The most significant are, of course, London Gatwick, integrated by VINCI Airports as of May. The road activities of Lane Construction in the U.S. by Eurovia and some 30 companies acquired by VINCI Energies in France, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain.
Operating income, EBIT, stands at EUR 5.7 billion, up 15% over 2018. That's a rate related to revenue of 12%. Most businesses improved their performance over last year. Net income after tax is close to EUR 3.3 billion. That's an increase of 10% in spite of the increase in financial expenses driven by acquisitions and the tax cost. Earnings per share is up in the same proportion. 2019 was also an outstanding year for cash generated during the year, free cash flow. Let's now analyze it. Free cash flow stood at EUR 8.5 billion. That's an increase of 23% over 2018.
If we adjust for the scope effects with the integration of London Gatwick and certain accounting methodology change, the increase in free cash flow is of the order of 10%. After taking into account the other flows, change in working capital requirement that trended positively in 2019 unlike previous years, financial expenses, taxes paid, current investments, operating cash flow comes in at close to EUR 5.3 billion. That's over a billion more than last year. Investment in new concessions project accounted for an amount higher than EUR 1 billion, close on EUR 800 million invested on our highway networks in France. The Strasbourg ring road for some EUR 200 million will free up the city from heavy trucks.
VINCI Airports invested EUR 250 million in its airports, essentially in Brazil, Portugal, Cambodia. After factoring in those items, free cash flow reaches a record level of EUR 4.2 billion. That's EUR 1 billion more than free cash flow the previous year. Compare that to net income after tax of EUR 3.26 billion. The passthrough rate of cash is of 130%. That's an historic performance. 2019 was exceptional in terms of expansion, the closing of the controlling stake in London Gatwick, second largest airport in the U.K., eighth in Europe with a total of 460 million passengers marked that year.
This transaction represented an investment of EUR 3.5 billion to acquiring just over 50% stake in the capital, to which we must add the debt of the acquired company for a total impact on our capital employed of EUR 7.3 billion. It's the most significant acquisition through its amount by VINCI since the acquisition of the motorways in Southern France in 2006. Net debt has increased by EUR 6 billion in 2019 to reach EUR 21.654 billion, December 31st.
It's a high amount in absolute terms, but must be compared to the group's profit generation capacity, which is predictive and recurring in normal business circumstances, excluding COVID-19. The ratio of net financial debt to free cash flow has only increased by a small amount. Went from 2.2% at the end of December 2018 to 2.5% at the end of 2019, which is reasonable. 2019 was also a very busy year for new financing. We raised on the market EUR 4.6 billion in new loans, an average maturity of 12 years, an average cost barely above 2%.
At the same time, we reimbursed loans maturing for an amount of EUR 1.4 billion, and the cost for that was at around 5%. It's important to stress that in 2019, we made two inaugural bond issues, one in GBP to refinance the acquisition at Gatwick Airport, the other in the U.S. to refinance acquisitions by Eurovia and VINCI Energies in the U.S. Both these transactions allowed to diversify our funding sources, which thus far almost exclusively concerned the euro market. The debt of the group is no longer almost fully denominated in euros, but in many currencies, as shown in the chart top right, which is the consequence of the accelerating international expansion of VINCI over the past few years.
In spite of that development, the cost of debt is well under control. On average, it stood at 2.4% in 2019, a level very close to that of the previous year. VINCI's signature and that of its affiliates, ASF and Cofiroute, are sought after by the lendings who particularly appreciate the strength of our concessionaire constructor model, our diversification, and the prudence of our financial management. Very good credit ratings are awarded by S&P and Moody's rating agencies. In spite of the sharp drop in our business volume after we entered lockdown mid-March 2020, both agencies maintained our rating in category A with a stable outlook.
At VINCI, we've always attached prime importance to liquidity. That is the ability to rapidly raise, if need be, significant cash amounts, firstly, to meet our commitments, that is to reimburse maturing loans. Next, to seize acquisition opportunities that are part of our strategy. Lastly, to meet contingencies such as the financial crisis in 2008, which led to a drying up of access to credit for companies over several months. The outstanding health crisis that we've been experiencing for three months strengthens us in this policy that some viewed too prudent, but is fit for purpose to manage the situation in which we found ourselves as of March 16th.
All our activities were stopped in their tracks in countries such as France almost overnight when we entered lockdown and the ensuing absence in revenue. During the period, we strove to strengthen the availability of our cash because we were entering uncharted territory regarding the scale of this unprecedented situation. We benefited the reopening of commercial paper market, thanks to the support of the European Central Bank. From our banks, we obtained an additional credit facility amounting to EUR 3.3 billion. We issued, through Cofiroute, a loan of EUR 950 million over 11 years.
After these various transactions, at the end of May, we have a cushion of liquidity close to EUR 19 billion, split EUR 6.1 billion for available treasury, outstanding T-bills for EUR 1.4 billion, and credit lines for EUR 11.3 billion, eight maturing only in November 2024. VINCI is today well equipped to face any deterioration in its operating treasury over the next few months, consequent from the reduction in revenue over the past three months and corresponding cash-in. Thank you for your attention.
[Non-English content] Christian. Thank you, Christian. I would now like to hand over to Isabelle Spiegel, who is our head of environment at VINCI. Isabelle, over to you.
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. As Xavier Huillard announced last January, VINCI has set itself some environmental objectives for the next decade. These goals are in line with the acting for green growth commitment of its manifesto. This follows up from work that has been carried out over the last year and a half, and that has engaged all of the divisions of VINCI. This collaborative work has consisted in making a list of possible actions and evaluating them. The purpose was to show the potential for reducing environmental impact and also to assess the reduction of economic impact of our actions.
The resulting objectives are organized around three different areas of action. This is what we call Environmental Objectives for 2030. The three areas are acting for the climate transition, preserving resources through the circular economy, and respecting natural environments. For each of these areas of action, I will give you some key figures. We will start with the reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions related to our direct activities. This is one of the ways in which we measure our activities in favor of supporting the climate transition. Our emissions last year were reduced by 28.3% compared to our 2009, which was the year of reference.
We want to do more. By 2030, we want to have curbed our emissions by 40%. Again, emissions resulting from our direct activities. We have this 40% target, which is really part of the Paris Agreement, and it is in line with the 2 degrees trajectory. In other words, it is the reduction that is needed in order to limit the temperature rise to a maximum of 2 degrees. Regarding the circular economy, we are acting on several levels. First of all, we try to integrate more and more recycled materials in our purchases, but also in the materials that we produce.
What we want to do is double the part of recycled material in the grand aggregates that are used for road pavings, but we also want to manage our waste generated on our construction sites and in our concession projects. Third area of action, that has to do with the protection to natural environments. We have several objectives. What we want to do is adopt an approach that aims at integrating biodiversity aspects and water management concerns into all of our projects, including abroad.
For example, there are some intermediate goals like the goal of using no plant protection products at all. I would now like to give you a few examples of our recent and concrete achievements on the ground. When it comes to climate transition, I'll take the example of Chammes. You can see it here. It's a plant, an asphalt mixing plant that is located in the Mayenne Departments. It's a Eurovia subsidiary. They managed to achieve a 40% reduction of their carbon footprint by introducing some additional measures. Several actions were undertaken, the reduction of energy expenses, the replacement of fuel oil by natural gas, the setting up of photovoltaic panels, and the increase in the proportion of recycled materials used.
When it comes to the second area of work, circular economy, I'd give the example of VINCI Airports. We have an airport that has just been quoted by Xavier Huillard as having been awarded a prize for best environmental performance airport. This airport has managed to reach the rate of zero waste dumped in landfills since January 2020. Third areas of work, to illustrate our actions to protect the natural environment, I'll take the example of the western bypass of Strasbourg. This is a project that's currently underway. It will be managed by VINCI Autoroutes. That would be the concession company. There are 24 km of motorways, but the land take up is 280 hectares.
A number of measures were implemented in order to avoid and reduce environmental impact from the design stage onwards, but also during the completion of the works. In addition to this, we decided to implement so-called compensation measures on 1,300 hectares of area that will be protected and where we've been able to recreate habitats for the protected species. These three examples really show you what we're trying to do in order to curb our direct impact. Even beyond that, the environmental ambition of VINCI aims at limiting the impact of all of our value chain, involving our suppliers and also our customers.
A key figure that I can quote from last year, we've been able to generate EUR 3.7 billion with projects that are green certified. All of the different business in the group are really engaged in order to develop dedicated environmental solutions. For example, in the field of climate engineering, anticipation of risk due to extreme events, the management of waste or energy renovation of buildings. 2019- 2020, these are key years for the deployment of VINCI's environmental ambition. This will be done by considering environmental performance as being on an equal level with economic performance whenever we take decisions.
The social aspect is also taken into account in this all-round performance target. We have 220,000 employees who are directly concerned by the environment, and we need to support them, and we need to give them information so that they can act on these issues. We want to continue with speeding up this ambition, implementing this environmental ambition to the full. Because of that, in September of this year, we will have the Environmental Award Scheme that will be launched. We will be able to share, highlight, and disseminate all of the sound environmental practices for the group. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Isabelle. Of course, when we talk about corporate and social responsibility, that has to do with the environment, but also with everything that is social and societal. We believe in the strength of civic engagement and the exceptional solidarity that has been shown in the course of the COVID-19 crisis. All of this shows that this is a shared concern, indeed. This is a shared concern that can translate into acts of solidarity throughout the group, and first and foremost, of course, in the field. We will discover this in the next video.
[Presentation]
That's great, that's great. It's the kind of operation that fuels the meaning, the sense that we want to give every day to our business. Let us get back to 2020. Where do we currently stand? Business is picking up. On the French motorways, we were, as you may remember, a bit ahead of schedule in terms of traffic until March 17th. Traffic collapsed by 80% during the whole lockdown phase. Since May 11th, traffic has been gradually picking up again. We were about 25% down last week compared to the same week of 2019, and we do hope that the summer will be good, which would limit the decline of traffic for the entire year.
At airports, passenger traffic has fallen to almost zero as far as passengers are concerned, and recovery is both delayed and slower than is the case on motorways, and this is due to restrictions, quarantines, and border closures. At this point, traffic within each country has started again. Intra-Schengen traffic has been picking up for a few days now, and we certainly hope that international traffic will be able to resume in the course of the summer. In any case, it will probably take many months before we get back to the previous traffic levels.
We will get there. We will get there because the business community needs to travel in order to do business, and also because people have a burning desire to discover the world and to meet with each other, to discover one another in person, face to face. In the contracting business lines, we started the year at a historic high level of order backlog, and we have since then improved it. Since the beginning of the lockdown period, we've been able to win several projects, including the HS2 high-speed line project in the United Kingdom that I've already covered, but also a few more contracts as part of the Grand Paris Express project, and we've won further projects still.
Our order book stands at a record high of EUR 42.5 billion at the end of May, up 17% year- on- year, which ensures good visibility, and that's an important point. The contracting business was impacted to varying degrees by the public health crisis, depending on the country, depending on the business line. In particular, building and public works activities were very low in France for a good month from the date of entry into the lockdown period. The activity gradually improved. Business picked up somewhat, and now stands at about 90% of its normal level.
Of course, the productivity remains impacted by all of the constraints that have been implemented in order to ensure perfect health and safety in our production sites, in our work sites. We'll try to double our efforts in the course of the summer, but there's still some unknown factors. For example, the speed at which our clients, and more particularly the public sector clients, will be relaunching a new project as of the start of the new school year in September. I'll give you a short video that shows how we have set out to engage in this recovery in the different businesses.
[Presentation]
For the year 2020 as a whole, it is certain that your group's turnover and results will be significantly impacted. Uncertainties about the return to normal production in the contracting business and the uncertainties about the rate of traffic recovery on our motorways and our airports. These uncertainties, of course, do not allow us at present to make reliable forecasts.
Overall, it's not going to be a good year. We feel that the important thing is to look beyond it. First of all, we can see in the various recovery plans that are prepared in a number of countries, and also at the European level, that growth will be green. The world has a historic opportunity to make a definitive shift, to take a turn in the fight against global warming. At VINCI, over the past two years, we're very pleased to have strengthened, in a big way, our strategy and our commitments in order to protect the environment. We've been very proactive, as Isabelle explained earlier.
We will need to accelerate further across all of our businesses. We will need to accelerate internally, based on our own practices, but also, and perhaps even more, we will have to accelerate movement externally. We will have to offer our customers products and services that will enable them to improve their environmental footprint. For a group like yours, it is in fact not to be seen as a constraint, but it's a real opportunity. It's an opportunity, on the one hand, to develop our business, but it's also an opportunity to reinvent our offerings.
This is very exciting. All the more so because we know how to reconcile economic growth and the environment. Like social and societal concerns, they are completely inseparable in order to produce what we call all-around performance. Everywhere across our divisions, across our teams, we have set a number of examples. We have gathered a lot of environmental expertise. We have VINCI Construction that is about to launch its range of low or very low carbon concrete, encouraging the entire industry to change its construction methods.
We have VINCI Autoroutes that promotes the initiative that I mentioned before, the low carbon motorway. VINCI Autoroutes also aims for zero plant protection products on its entire networks. We also have VINCI Airports that is making its airports carbon neutral by installing solar farms. They have become a reference in the environmental requalification process of the platforms that join its networks, as is the case with the Salvador Airport in Brazil. We've already mentioned that. We also see VINCI Energies in its role as a technology integrator, and it's been deploying solutions for its customers that combine digital and energy hypervision platforms and consumption management methods.
Eurovia also has become a significant player in the circular economy by developing Granulat+ process and by building the first 100% recycled road. Yes, when our companies are embarking on these initiatives, they concretely serve the environmental ambition of the VINCI Group. One of the very central components of this environmental ambition is energy. VINCI Energies has been able to weather the storm, weather the crisis better than the other contracting businesses. This is because power infrastructures, and increasingly communication infrastructures, are completely essential to life.
We are determined to grow in these businesses, where, as I've already said, we have tripled our business in 10 years, and we will continue to do so. It is also with these kinds of technologies that we can develop offers that enable our customers to achieve their own environmental objectives, and in particular, to curb their energy footprint and to curb their CO2 emissions. Finally, this is something that we all felt during the lockdown, the inability to move around was a source of frustration for many of us. Why is that?
Well, because every individual has an almost vital need for mobility in order to work, in order to meet people, to discover new areas, and to recharge our batteries. We've known for a long time now that transport infrastructures are accelerators of economic growth. Now, you could look at the impact of the Paris-Bordeaux high-speed line on the economy of the Gironde Department, even beyond that. That's proof of that. Think of the economic impact that the Grand Paris Express will have on the economy of the Île-de-France region, or think about the impact of the new motorways in Greece, Russia, and elsewhere on local economies.
Look at the impact of Cambodia's airports on the tourism economy and the development of tourism in this country. That's ample proof. This is in fact what will fuel our development, and this is what will boost our performance in the coming years. As you've understood, we understand the concept of performance as a very wide concept. It's all around performance we're talking about. This is explained in our manifesto, which is posted in all of our offices, in all of our concession businesses, on our sites, across all of our geographies. We are making progress on the different themes. We're making progress on safety, with almost three-quarters of our companies that have had no lost time accidents throughout the year.
With a frequency incident indicator that has been falling, thanks to enormous efforts in training, organization, and execution methods. We are also making progress on the theme of diversity, with the short-term objective of increasing the percentage of women managers to 25%. We are starting from a distance. We have a lot to do, but we are working on this with a great deal of resolve and determination. We are also making progress on the theme of sharing the fruits of performance. Last year, we had EUR 417 million devoted to our various collective profit-sharing schemes, with also 100% of our French employees who are actually shareholders of this group after the unilateral employees' contribution operation implemented at the end of 2019.
With 90% of our employees worldwide who are eligible for the VINCI share acquisition programs on very preferential terms. Finally, we are also making progress on the theme, which is already very deeply anchored in our corporate culture, of corporate social responsibility. On this topic, what we take pride in in 2019 is the launch of Operation Give Me Five. Our ambition is to welcome every year 5,000 pupils, eighth-grade high school pupils that come exclusively from underserved neighborhoods, for a duration of five days.
We organize internships for them. These internships have a real educational ambition. They allow them to discover the full extent of and the full richness of our businesses. We are also going to deploy the other components of the Give Me Five program. For example, we will reserve 20% of our internships and summer jobs for students coming from the same underprivileged neighborhoods. We will also set up customized onboarding programs for young people who struggle to find a job. Yes, indeed, we are optimistic for the years ahead.
We are also convinced and have been for a long time that there is no such thing as technical and economic performance on the one hand, and social, societal, and environmental performance on the other. Either we can talk about all-round performance, or we can consider that there is no performance at all. For the future of your group, we have therefore opted for this all-around performance. Our raison d'être, our corporate purpose, our deep calling, is to reconcile, to unite in the same movement the desire to be useful to the human communities and the concern for the health of our planet.
This, in a nutshell, is what I wanted to tell you for this year, for 2020, and what I had to say about the years ahead. This year, for obvious reasons, we were not able to involve our Directors in this shareholders' meeting, and that's why we chose to show you a few charts that summarize the activities of your Board and of its different committees throughout 2019.
Dear shareholders, we would like to show you briefly how VINCI governance is organized, as well as the activity of the Board and its Committees in 2019. Detailed information on these topics is, of course, available in the universal registration document at pages 136- 177. Your group has a diverse Board of Directors, comprised of 16 skilled and involved individuals. Two-thirds of them are independent and gender parity is well achieved. The directors participate in the work of the Board with great assiduity. All are members of at least one Committee.
The Board includes three representatives of employees, including a representative of the employees' shareholders, who hold around 10% of the share capital. The Board has set up four Committees and appointed a Vice President and a Lead Independent Director, whose missions are clear and useful. Their activity report appears in the universal registration document at page 270. In 2019, the board and its committees have deployed an intense activity by holding no less than 29 physical meetings.
In addition to their usual work, Directors actively attended a strategic reflection seminar with the Executive Committee and a formal evaluation process of its own operation conducted with the assistance of an independent external consultant. Your Board sees to it that the group shall create value through the achievement of a global performance, which includes not only economic performance, but also social and environmental performance. In so doing, the Board will ensure the sustainability of its businesses in the short and the long term, diversify its international exposure, and require the implementation of the clear principles and values set out in its manifesto and its code of ethics and conduct.
The Audit Committee, chaired by René Médori, is comprised of four Directors who review the financial situation and accounts in detail and report back to the Board. They also monitor the deployment of appropriate control mechanisms in the various divisions of the group. The Strategy and CSR Committee, chaired by Yves-Thibault de Silguy, has six permanent members, but all Directors are invited to participate in all meetings. This committee examines all material investments and long-term projects, as well as the monitoring of social and environmental policies. The Appointments and Governance Committee, chaired by Yannick Assouad, is made up of five Directors.
It reviews governance issues, proposes or validates the selection of prospective directors, as well as corporate officers. The Compensation Committee, chaired by Marie-Christine Lombard, consists in five Directors, including a representative of employees. It examines the components of the corporate officers' compensation, as well as the deployment of employee shareholdings in all their forms. The Annual General Meeting will have to decide on the compensation policy applicable to Directors. This compensation may not exceed an amount of EUR 1.6 million per year for the entire board.
It includes a fixed element and a predominant variable element. This policy is detailed in the universal registration document. The AGM must also approve the compensation policy applicable to VINCI's CEO. This policy, which is also described in the universal registration document, provides for the payment of a fixed part, a short-term variable part related to the performance of the past year, an allocation of share to be remitted at the end of a three-year period. The number of shares is conditional on internal and external performance criteria. The AGM must then decide on the sums actually paid or to be paid under these policies in respect of the past year for both the members of the Board of Directors and the corporate officers.
All these amounts are detailed in the universal registration document. Finally, your group puts great emphasis on employee shareholding. In France, all employees are shareholders, and the group implements international devices, allowing non-French employees to become shareholders under comparable conditions. Your Board also implements an annual performance-based stock allocation plan to motivate and retain beneficiaries from a long-term perspective. For the other shareholders of VINCI, this strong involvement of the employees is an asset. Thank you very much for your attention.
Merci. Thank you. I'd now like to give the floor to our statutory auditors, who'll present a summary of their various reports. You'll find the full content in the annual report and in the registration document. Let me add that their presentation was pre-recorded.
[Non-English content] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. It's on behalf of the Board of Statutory Auditors of VINCI, Deloitte, and PwC, that I'm pleased to report on our assignment and present to you our various reports pertaining to 2019. To report on our work, we've prepared 11 reports indicated on screen. They comprise our reports on the financial consolidated accounts and annual financial statements on the regulated agreements, four reports on various resolutions that might affect, in the future, the share capital of your company.
Lastly, four supplementary reports on the use by your Board of delegations that were approved by your shareholders' meetings to proceed in transactions on the capital for VINCI employees and its subsidiaries. Let's now look at the key points of these 11 reports. Work on the consolidated and annual financial statements are aimed at assuring you that the accounts comprise no material misstatement. Our audit approach took into account the specificities of the context in each of your group's businesses in terms of activity, organization, internal control, both in France and abroad.
We presented the detailed conclusions of our work to the audit committee on February 3rd, 2020, and their summary at the board meeting on February 4th. As regards the consolidated accounts, we focused especially on goodwill impairment tests in tangible assets and investments in concessionaire companies consolidated at equity. We also focused on construction contracts, provisions for liabilities and litigation across the acquisition of Gatwick Airport. For the annual accounts, our main assessments focused on assessing investment securities. We confirm that we reviewed the correct modalities adopted by VINCI to assess all these items.
In conclusion, in our report dated February 7th, we certify that both the consolidated and annual accounts are true and fair and faithfully reflect the income and financial situation and assets of your company. Events occurred known after the close of the accounts pertaining to the COVID-19 crisis. The February 4th, 2020 gave rise to several press releases available on the company website. We obtained drafts of these releases. We read these documents before they were published and have no comments to make.
Regarding our special report on regulated agreements to be found on page 46 of the registration document, we inform you that we have been informed of no convention to be put to the shareholders' meeting for approval, and we have not been informed of any agreement already approved by the AGM whose execution continued during the past year. Our other special reports, number four, the extraordinary part of your meeting. Their prime modalities are indicated in the presentation on screen. The first report concerns 11th Resolution, the renewal of the authorization given to the Board to reduce the share capital of VINCI by cancellation of your company's treasury shares.
The next two reports concern Resolutions 12 and 13, capital increases with waiver of the preferential subscription right reserved to VINCI employees as part of savings plans and to employees of some foreign affiliates to offer them advantages comparable to that of a savings plan. The last report concerns Resolution 14, the authorization to issue free share grants, performance shares for group employees. Regards all these Resolutions, we have no observation to make. We'll issue where appropriate a supplementary report if and when these authorizations are used by your Board. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you for your attention.
[Non-English content] Thank you to our statutory auditors. Now is the time for questions. We've received some written questions on the part of several shareholders, the Board that met prior to this AGM approved the answers to these questions. You can find those questions and the answers given on your company's website. We will now turn to the report on the votes. Voting has taken place. Your Board has decided to submit to your approval 18 resolutions, 10 under the ordinary shareholders meeting and eight for the extraordinary shareholders meeting. Before giving you the results of the vote, I'd like to allow you to better get to know Benoit Bazin, who you are asked to approve in resolution five.
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There is another resolution that just requires a comment. It's the fourth resolution aimed at allowing shareholders to opt for the payment of the balance of the dividend in shares rather than in cash. The issue price of these shares is 95% of the opening rate over the 20 previous stock market days, with the deduction of the balance of the dividend. When you do the math, you'll see that these shares will be offered at the rate of EUR 78.71. I'd now like to hand over to Patrick Richard, who will give us the results of the vote.
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I'm pleased to report on the results of the votes on the draft resolutions on the shareholders' meeting. You'll find the full text in pages 37- 44 of the document. For the ordinary part of the assembly, the first resolution, the approval of the consolidated financial statements 2019, adopted at 99.98%. The second resolution concerns the approval of the consolidated financial statements, adopted at 99.14%. Third resolution, appropriation of the net income, adopted 99.9%.
Fourth resolution concerns the option to receive payment of the final dividend in new shares, adopted 99.71%. Fifth resolution concerns the appointment of Mr. Benoit Bazin as Director for a four-year term, adopted 99.59%. Sixth resolution concerns the renewal of the delegation of powers to the Board in view of the purchase by the company of its own shares, approved 98.26%. Seventh resolution concerns the approval of the remuneration policy for Board members, is adopted 95.54%. Eighth resolution, which is the approval of the remuneration policy for Mr. Xavier Huillard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, adopted 92.4%.
Ninth resolution concerns the approval of the report on remuneration, adopted 95.33%. 10th resolution concerns the approval of fixed variable and exceptional items of total remuneration and all kinds of benefits paid during the course of 2019 to Mr. Xavier Huillard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, adopted 92.68%. Turning now to the extraordinary business. The 11th resolution concerns the renewal of the authorization granted to the board in the view of reduction of share capital through cancellation of VINCI shares held in treasury, adopted 99.64%.
12th resolution, delegation of authority to the board to carry out share capital increases reserved for employees of the company and VINCI Group companies in the context of savings plans with preferential subscription rights cancel, adopted 99.71%. 13th resolution, delegation of authority to the Board to carry out share capital increases reserved for a category of beneficiaries in order to offer employees certain foreign affiliates advantages comparable to those who directly or indirectly subscribe via company mutual fund in the context of a savings plan with waiver of the PSR.
This resolution is adopted by 99.66%. 14th resolution, delegation to the Board to make capital increase for performance shares existent for employees of the company in accordance with the provisions of Article L225-197 of the French code, adopted 95.13%. 15th resolution concerns change to Article 13 of the Articles of Association, adopted 99.99%. 16th concerns the amendment of Article 14 of the Articles of Association attendance fees, 99.08%. 17th concerns the amendment of Article 14 of the Articles of Association powers to the Board, adopted 99.78%. Lastly, the 18th resolution, ordinary part of the meeting, powers for formalities, adopted 99.99%. Thank you.
Merci, Patrick. Thank you, Patrick. I'd like to begin by thanking you shareholders for the trust you have placed in us, reflected in these score levels that are quite historic on our various resolution and the fine unanimity, with which you will allow us to welcome to our Board Benoit Bazin, whom I'm sure will bring a great deal on all the issues mentioned in his remarkable intervention. Welcome to Benoit Bazin. Thank you to our shareholders for the trust expressed through these votes. There being no further business on our agenda, we can now adjourn this session. I thank you for your participation. I wish you good health, fine summer. I'm impatient to see you in the flesh, so to speak, to shareholders visiting perhaps the Individual Shareholders' Club and all of you for our AGM.