Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, welcome to Edenred's General Meeting. I'm very pleased to welcome you here today. It's being held at Comet Bourse in the Second District. After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, I'm delighted to be holding this meeting in your presence. My name is Bertrand Dumazy, Chairman and Chief Executive. Before we open formally, I'd like to spare a thought for all the victims in Ukraine and thank the 10,000 people of Edenred when it came to sheltering our employees, workers in Ukraine, and their family, or to assist, Ukrainians by devoting both time and money. Let me remind you that Edenred is not directly exposed to the conflict, aside from an acceptance network of mobility solutions in Russia and Belarus that we closed as of March 22nd.
Present at my side, Julien Tanguy, Executive Vice President of Finance of the Group, and Philippe Relland-Bernard, Executive Vice President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs. Maitre Marek, Officer of the Court, is there to supervise this meeting. I'd also like to thank members of the board, those who are present with us today in the room. Madame Françoise Gri, who's the Lead Independent Director. Mr. Jean-Paul Bailly. Madame Sylvia Coutinho. Mr. Dominique D'Hinnin. Monsieur Gabriele Galateri di Genola. Madame Angeles Garcia-Poveda. Jean-Romain Lhomme. Madame Monica Mondardini. Mr. Philippe Vallée. Lastly, Madame Graziella Gavezotti and Jean-Bernard Hamel, our board members president from the employees group. Thank you all for being present at this meeting. I'd also like to acknowledge the presence of our auditors, Mr. Pierre Jouanne from Ernst & Young, and Mr. Patrick Suissa from Deloitte.
In order to form the bureau, I would call upon La Financière de l'Echiquier, represented by Madame Stéphanie Bobtcheff, who holds 3,373,277 shares and voting rights, and DNCA, represented by Mr. Arthur Morel, holding 3,503,646 shares and voting rights to act as scrutineers. I thank them for agreeing to discharge this duty and being with us. With the agreement of scrutineers, I suggest we appoint Mr. Philippe Relland-Bernard as meeting secretary. Philippe, over to you.
Thank you, Bertrand. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. We will now proceed with the formalities before opening this meeting. This combined meeting was convened by the board. All formalities have been discharged as per law.
Regarding the quorum for this meeting to be validly convened, the quorum must be one-fifth of voting rights for the ordinary meeting and of voting shares for the extraordinary. The attendance sheet is being tallied, but I can already tell you that 3,846 are present, voted by proxy, holding 273 million shares. That's 83.56% of shares with voting rights. All the documents necessary for the meeting in the pack on the desk are all documents required by law. Notice of meetings in the mandatory [LEDI] of the first of April 2022, and in Les Affiches Parisiennes of the 22nd of April 2022. The full list will be in the minutes. Now, all documents were made available to company shareholders prior to this general meeting, as per legal requirements.
To facilitate the vote and to post the results more speedily, electronic voting will be used for this meeting, and when you entered the room, you will have received a digital tablet. There'll be a short video clip before we move to that to indicate how it operates. Keep them within reach and hand them in on your way out. Lastly, I'd remind you that for shareholders following live, it's possible for you to put questions live, and this session will end just before the Q&A session. Bertrand, back to you to open the meeting formally.
Bertrand Dumazy, Chairman and CEO of Edenred. Firstly, the setup put in place for you shareholders is aimed at promoting shareholder dialogue. This meeting is being broadcast on our website, edenred.com, in French and English.
If you have questions, you can put them before the Q&A session that will be held at the end of the meeting on the site indicated on this slide. You also have instructions available on the general meeting page of the edenred.com site. Documents are available on edenred.com, including the universal registration document and also our full report document, Enrich Connections for Good. The shareholder base of Edenred is strongly international because 45% of our shareholders come from the United States, 20% from the U.K., 20% are French shareholders. The proportion of French shareholders has strengthened. 14% rest of world. We have gone from French shareholders of 14% in 2020 to 20% at the end of 2021.
Second characteristic of our shareholder base is that it's floating at 99.6% and 5.1% individual shareholders. If we split the main shareholders of Edenred, there are three groups. Capital World Investors that holds just over 10% of the shareholding. FMR, F for Fidelity, that owns just over 6% of the share capital. Select Equity Group with 5% of the shareholding. A shareholder structure that's very international and very floating with almost a 100% of floating shareholders. Shareholder dialogue in 2021 is substantive and transparent in respect of institutional. Thanks to Cédric Appert and his orchestra, we met with over 1,300 investors through 20 roadshows and 16 investor conferences. Particular attention focused on individual shareholders.
We met with more than 250 individual shareholders in person at two meetings held in Annecy and Biarritz. We took part for the first year in the Investir Day fair. Two letters sent to individual shareholders. Let me remind you, there is an E-club, and you have the registration link shown here. Sustained and transparent shareholder dialogue in 2021 is an award winner approach. Edenred is the winner of the Shareholder Democracy Information Transparency and Quality of L'Agefi. Also winner of the Transparency Grand Prize in the website category. Edenred was once again hailed by the Institute for Responsible Capitalism as winner of the Grand Prize for Diversity and Gender Equality. The agenda for today is to explain Edenred, what we've accomplished over the past six years, particularly in 2021.
That was an absolutely record year, and then we'll talk to you about governance. We'll hear from our statutory auditors, and there will be ample time devoted to Q&A before we move to the presentation and vote on the proposed resolutions. Sometimes images are worth a thousand words. That's the case for 2021.
I would like to thank Edenred for their support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Donation helps us to go further in the understanding of the virus and autoimmune diseases. We are very grateful of this trustful commitment which concretely supported medical research.
As Group HR Chief, I'm very pleased. I can remember all the messages from employees that I received who often thanked me. They said, "Thanks to Edenred, I was able to go to the hospital. And not just me, this also helped my mother, my wife, my daughter, and so forth." We got a thank you from these people, and you really feel great positive emotion when you hear that kind of message from people, that kind of feedback. Okay. Sustainable development is a priority. 83 initiatives have proven this. We've got very strong commitments on these three historic pillars, people, planet, and progress. We can say that we're also focusing on solutions to have a positive impact. Let's illustrate our commitment. For instance, think of the Ticket EcoCheque in Belgium, which is a concrete action to preserve the planet.
Think of soft mobility solutions through commuter benefit in North America. Of course, you've got the meal tickets that users can use to eat meals, well-balanced good food. Now, the three pillars, people, planet, progress. A few illustrations. 10 objectives here. We can say not only are we very much in sync, in line with all, on target with all of these objectives today as per the 2018 decisions, but we're actually going beyond several targets and in a big way. Furthermore, our commitment, these results that we can see here. Next slide, please. These results are recognized by the rating agencies. For instance, let's look at a couple. MSCI has confirmed our AA rating.
We've made big progress with DJSI, up 13 points, Fitch & Moody's, up 12 points, and we're in the FTSE4Good for the tenth time in a row. Now we're also rated 79 out of 100 from S&P Global CSA. This brings us well above the global average. We're 7th ranking among French-listed companies. So we've got ESG, right? And set for Edenred. This is very specific in terms of our commitments and our achievements and very specific in terms of our ratings by the ratings agencies. Next, we'll be hearing from Emmanuelle Châtelain, Vice President for Communications.
Thank you, Jacques. Good morning to you one and all. Emmanuelle Châtelain, Vice President, Communications. Starting in 2020, the communication and CSR teams jointly were bringing forward a major project at Edenred to define our purpose.
You've seen our purpose. It's enrich connections for good. To enrich connections for good. You will have just seen this in the video earlier as you were filing into the room. We revealed this purpose to you a year ago at our last annual general meeting, and I can confirm today that this is very much our North Star that guides our 10,000 employees every single day. Our purpose isn't just a slogan or a video. It entails actual achievements based on our three sustainable development targets. These are the main focus of people, planet, and progress, which Jacques just explained to you. Between now and 2030, we've committed firstly to have 40% women among in executive positions.
Secondly, we're committing to cut by 52% our greenhouse gas emissions, compared to the 2013 level of emissions, and 85% of merchants and users will have their awareness raised in terms of sustainable food and food waste, which has to be significantly reduced. To further boost the significance of these commitments that are tied in with our purpose, they've also been factored into the long-term compensation plan for our top managers. As I said to you a moment ago, our purpose is something that accompanies each of our employees every single day. It can also be seen as a concrete illustration evidenced by our solutions which help improve the world, make for a better world. Four examples I'd like to mention to you right now. Let's talk firstly about rolling out Agri in Africa. Let's watch this video.
Yes, after Cameroon, let's now go to the U.S. We're promoting green mobility. In 2021, Edenred became a founding partner of the online Intuit platform, helping 1 million U.S. small businesses to take positive measures to cut their carbon footprint by 50%, between now and 2030. The commuter benefits solution enables these SMEs to pay for some of the transportation costs, the commuter costs of their employees. In France, Edenred is proposing the mobility ticket. Employees get the employer to pay for their mobility expenses to commute from home to work using a digital account and a cell phone application up to EUR 600 worth per- year. This budget can be used in a broadened network with over 150 partners, the biggest in the market.
There are people from public transportation, other partners from carpooling, also, scooter rent services. We signed with Vélib', the bicycle, mobility service here, and there are others, such as BlaBlaCar. There are others we're working on in Belgium. By boosting access to this new mobility, which is being assisted by government authorities, Edenred is making its contribution to fostering responsible commuting on a daily basis. A last example I'd like to give you, which is quite something. It's a hot meals program delivered to elderly people in Romania. Edenred, in a record time, came up with a digital solution which is win-win for the local economy and the users. Let's watch this.
Autoritățile și mediul privat s-au mobilizat pentru a găsi soluții care să ajute ambele categorii. În acest context a apărut programul Mese Calde, realizat la inițiativa Guvernului României și cofinanțat de Uniunea Europeană.
Cine s-a gândit și la noi că suntem bătrâni și nu mai putem, foarte bine. A venit băieții cu mașina, ne știe pe unde stăm, am ieșit așa. E bine. Mâncare caldă, pâiniță. Eu nu pot să gătesc singură și vreau să meargă în continuare.
Programul a avut și un efect surprinzător. Bătrânii au învățat foarte repede să utilizeze cardul, ceea ce a fost o premieră pentru mulți dintre ei. Au fost emise și folosite peste 300,000 de carduri și au fost instalate peste 2,000 de POS-uri în mediul rural, punând bazele unui model de digitalizare cu efecte pozitive imediate în comunitatea locală, care poate fi ușor replicat în orice regiune din țară. Programul i-a ajutat pe micii proprietari de restaurante să-și mențină activitatea. Ei au reușit să-și păstreze angajații, să-și mărească echipa sau chiar să achiziționeze echipamente noi, contribuind implicit la bunăstarea comunității locale. Pentru unii dintre ei, acest proiect a generat chiar și venituri mai mari decât în 2019.
Am achiziționat un număr semnificativ de mașini de transport. Am angajat un număr de 12 livratori. Am angajat pe zona de bucătărie, pe zona de curățenie 15 persoane în plus. S-a creat o relație ca și nepot-bunic, îi așteaptă la poartă.
Programul Mese Calde a îmbunătățit în mod real calitatea vieții persoanelor aflate în dificultate și a sprijinit în același timp o industrie cu foarte mulți angajați. Împreună putem face lucruri frumoase.
Thank you very much for your attention. I'll give the floor back to Bertrand to continue.
Thank you, Emmanuelle. It's good. Bertrand Dumazy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Edenred. It's good to have a hot meal. I'm really proud to be at the head of a company where my 10,000 employees can mobilize quickly, use their energy and intelligence and the digital platform so that people can get a good hot meal with bread. We're doing this to generate sustainable and profitable growth. Next slide. Yes, we'll be patient, and I think the next slide will appear since I'm optimistic. Leveraging the platform advantage to generate sustainable and profitable growth. What does this mean exactly? Well, first of all, the markets where we operate are broad markets, and there's a great deal of potential still. We can look at penetration rates in these markets.
Penetration rates vary between EUR 200 billion - EUR 10 billion. These are the addressable markets. These are very broad markets where we're not using all the potential yet. We can say that right now we're seeing strong growth speeding up, faster growth. We grew by 14% like for like in 2021 compared to 2020. Our margins are growing. It's also all about scale effect. The more people you have that take part in the platform, the more services you offer, the more transactions there are on the platform, the better your margins are. The margins went from 37.5% in 2016 to 41.1% in 2021. Now, to achieve this, you need to be able to invest. Our capacity to invest at Edenred has increased.
Our annual investments in technology went from EUR 150 million in 2016 to EUR 300 million in 2021, which means we invested over EUR 1.3 billion in Edenred technology since 2016. Those are our achievements. Now, let's say we've got the wind in our sails. Absolutely. We see four very beneficial, very positive trends assisting us at Edenred. Firstly, the first trend is we're in an ever more connected digital contactless world. Edenred, which has digital leadership in these markets, continues to invest to innovate. Therefore, in all likelihood, we will reap the benefits of this tailwind. Furthermore, there's more and more remote working worldwide. Edenred has developed solutions to make it possible to support employees during their remote work. Thirdly, we're living in a world that's seeking more responsible behavior.
COVID, this pandemic, which made us all realize how fragile we are, really helped us decide on the importance of priorities and gave some more meaning to priorities, and made us understand it was important to protect all these fragilities. Look at Edenred's products and services. When they're clearly well-defined, well-used, they indeed make it possible for employers to foster more responsible behavior amongst employees. Lastly, in a company where companies are looking for ever more efficient and secure payments, Edenred is digitizing B2B payments. When you pay in cash or check and you're during a time of lockdown, if you can gain access to digital payments, that's very helpful, so that you can ensure business continuity. These are four favorable trends. They're major trends. They speeded up during the COVID crisis.
At Edenred, we very much intend to continue being boosted and move ahead faster in a more agile fashion than our competitors. Now onto the next slide. Yes, we need to say hello to everyone and see the next slide. Let's talk about where the growth will be coming from. We're focusing on new user experiences, new partners, and new services. Let's focus first of all on new services. Next, page, please. New services. We talked about our long-standing business, the meal ticket. We've also talked about all the things we do beyond meal tickets and beyond food, as we term it. Now we're proposing solutions at Edenred that are multi-benefit solutions with a single digital account. Our first example, Brazil.
We announced the Ticket Superflex, which is a single digital account, and using a single digital account, you can access five digital wallets, food, remote working, home office, education, well-being. We've got FedEx and Unilever that are biggest two initial clients that subscribe to Ticket Superflex. Next, if you take an airplane and go up a few thousand kilometers and go from São Paulo to Los Angeles, here we're talking about the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. They just signed with Edenred a combined offer, which we call Commuter Benefits and Ticket Restaurant for 6,500 of that hospital's employees that are eligible for the programs. Monthly appropriation is fixed per employee for mobility spending and also meal spending. This way, it's possible to promote the local economy, surrounding this or nearby this Los Angeles hospital.
What we're doing in food, on the job, we're also doing in commuting and professional mobility. If you talk about beyond food and then beyond fuel, what does that boil down to? Let's remember, on the left-hand side of the screen, fuel only represents 10%-30% of total fleet costs. Because when you've got a vehicle fleet, there are many other things. You've got fuel, you've got tolls, you've got parking, you've got fleet management services, and then the cost of holding the vehicles. On that point, Edenred can't do anything about the cost of holding vehicles. However, considering the other 50%-70%, if we broaden our range of services, indeed there are further contracts to be sought. Therefore, we've developed a whole connected ecosystem with our Beyond Fuel strategy.
Henceforth, when you're an Edenred client for professional mobility, you'll have access to energy, fossil fuel or electricity. Furthermore, we can also do your maintenance management, provide financial services, i.e., to recover VAT, for instance. Also, there are tolls and parking payment services, as well as fleet optimization services through data-powered solutions. Think back to James, who's a fleet manager. We saw him earlier. He uses GoHub, which is a data-powered product, i.e., he gets the information immediately. It's at his fingertips in real time on his fleet, changes in his fleet consumption patterns, and so forth, so he can optimize fleet usage. Beyond fuel. Supporting the progressive shift to electric vehicles. We've got fleet managers who are looking for simple solutions. Our business is to meet that request of theirs. We just signed with a very promising partner, ChargePoint.
They're offering 240,000 electric charging points in 32 European countries. Henceforth, our clients will have one single platform, one single invoice, and one single data source for all their services. Our clients who have fossil fuel vehicles as well as electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, they can use this Edenred card and manage these vehicles in an optimal fashion. Looking for profitable, sustainable growth. That's great. To be able to explain it's even better. It's when it's recognized by our investors, i.e., you, that's wonderful. If we look at Edenred's performance, we can say this is probably the logical consequence of what we've achieved. Look at our performance since January of 2016. The SBF 120 rose by 20.
Over 29%, and Edenred's share price went up over 155%, 155. We can say that Edenred's transformation has been beneficial. Without Edenred's teams, none of these achievements would have been possible, and none of our future achievements would be possible either. Edenred teams are the keystone to our success. Who are we exactly? Well, henceforth, we've got 10,000 employees at Edenred. 45% of our employees are under the age of 35. Average age is 37. 50% women employees, and we're very fortunate to have over 60 nationalities under the Edenred name. Our corporate culture, based on five core values. At Edenred, we're individually humble, collectively ambitious. Our collective ambition is shown in our overall performance.
At Edenred, we want to live in a certain way, and the way we want to live is to be very respectful of the five values we've all chosen together. What are the five core values? Passion for customers, respect, imagination, simplicity, and having an entrepreneurial spirit. Gender diversity, of course, is a key concern of ours. I think Jacques would have been in a better position than me since he's the keystone of that program. To sum up specifically what we are doing to increase the gender diversity within Edenred. If we look at the top 400, we started with 21% women in 2017. 2021 reaching 34% women among the top 400. Our target for 2030 is to have at least 40% women. The good news is that we've achieved the faster speed.
We started low-ish, 21%, gaining 13 points over the years, and it's all speeding up. For this to go well smoothly, we're doing four things with always abiding by the principle of meritocracy, of deserving things. When it comes to recruiting and hiring, the way we see things in your beautiful company, is that when we've got a candidate who's got the performance and the right attitude, then we'll select the candidate from the most underrepresented gender. If both candidates are on equal footing, have the attitude and skills necessary for the position, again, we will opt for the most underrepresented gender. This is our hiring policy to further speed up our achieving a greater pool of talented women. Next, retention and promotion. Retention is an indicator we keep a careful eye on. We look at this in conjunction with several criteria.
The o ne of the important criteria is gender. Secondly, we've got an internal mentoring program done on a voluntary basis. This is for our women executive managers. We also work a great deal on representativeness. We realize that to believe in your opportunities, you've got to see other people who've made it, who've been successful, who've been trailblazers. I come from Tourcoing, and I've always loved Raymond Devos. You realizing you can be born in Tourcoing and be good at speaking French and be funny. I just see how much I need to do to be as good as Raymond Devos was. Another way of putting this is we all need role models to look up to. It's important for there to be high potential women and for them to have representatives they can look toward. We've got various programs.
We pay special attention to this. I've got some great news for anybody who's not yet convinced. It's so much better to have 50% women and 50% men on stage rather than 90% men. It's really better, and messages are conveyed better in that way. Henceforth, this is something that's very much part of our corporate culture. We're strengthening our talent management policies with our Compensation, Appointments and CSR Committee. Every year, we get a presentation of our talent evaluation matrix, and time is spent on making sure that women talent management is done properly. Now, in the Equal Opportunity, Gender Equality Index for Edenred France, we stand at 96 out of 100, which means if you look at the governmental requirements, you can see that Edenred is doing a good job of it, but it's not a done deal yet.
We've got to continue and speed up our efforts. Furthermore, we've got to increase people's awareness in order to continue moving in this direction. We have to monitor indicators and act if things get off track. We've got two bodies dedicated to monitor diversity and inclusion. You've got a mandatory module on diversity and inclusion in our e-learning platform called EDU. In all of our local and internal promotions, we pay special attention to gender representation. When we look at this and look at the pool of top 400, we've achieved a lot here. We've made two-thirds of our progress, with one-third remaining, to make sure that all this is sustainable, long-lasting, and complies with an absolute principle which is achievements based on merit. Whoever you may be, whatever you may believe, whatever your lifestyle may be, you're welcome to Edenred.
You'll only be evaluated based on your contribution to our overall project and nothing else. Diversity and inclusion. We feel this drives wellbeing and performance. We're addressing other areas of diversity and inclusion, such as increasing people's awareness of invisible disabilities. In France and Italy in 2021, we had a webinar on women's empowerment. We're giving the requisite tools to some of us, some who might otherwise hold back and not to dare move forward. We have to make sure that further progress is made in all of these areas. Our teams are committed to create value in a responsible fashion. This was well explained by Emmanuelle and Jacques. Now, Ideal Day, the best day of the year. We try to do Ideal Day around 21st of June, since that's the longest day of the year.
Now, let's make sure that on 21 June, the longest day of the year, it is the real Ideal Day, the day when we're acting for others. In 2021, 100 solidarity initiatives were organized for Ideal Day. We supported 120 associations, 3,000 employees volunteered, and 1,500 days were volunteered all in all in 2021. After this presentation, which I think was very exciting, let's now take a look at 2021, which was a record year. Julien, you'll have the floor now, and I hope the remote control worked better for you.
Julien Tanguy, Executive Vice President, Finance. Good morning. 2021 results, as we're in May, I'll be focusing on our performance for Q1 2022. As we've seen, annual 2021 results that record organic growth, double-digit across our business lines, across our regions. We'll go over in detail all these items. Firstly, revenue. Total revenue up 13.8%. This revenue comes in today at EUR 1.6 billion. Double-digit growth versus 2020. Even more importantly for us, it's also double-digit growth versus 2019, which was the last year before the COVID crisis, an ability to return to over 10% of our 2019 activity. If we look at how this growth was split by business line and region.
By business line, all our business lines are double-digit up over 10% with 20% growth of our fleet mobility solutions. Fleet mobility solutions represent 26% of Edenred's revenue. 12% growth on employee benefits, 63% of activities. Growth of 10% on complementary solutions accounts for 13% of our revenue. Our growth by region is also very sustained and split across the three areas where we operate. The three areas, revenue is up double-digit 10%, 18% Latin America, close to 12% in Europe, 16.5% up in the rest of the world. This top-line growth has generated record-high EBITDA in 2021. EBITDA at EUR 670 million in 2021. The previous record dated back to 1968.
18.4% growth like for like versus 2020. As Bertrand mentioned, we have since 2016 been in a position to improve year- after- year our EBITDA margin, and in 2021 we have the EBITDA margin we had back in 2019. That is proof positive that we're in a business where scale is key and the more we generate volume to our platforms, the more we can generate value. With profitable and sustainable growth, we can improve our EBITDA margin. This significant increase in EBITDA, of course, flows through to other indicators. On a reported basis in euros, our EBITDA is up 15.5%. Our net profit group share went from EUR 238 million to EUR 313 million, growth of 32%. That's a record figure. We generated EUR 312 million net profit in 2019.
That's reflected in earnings per share, Group share, EUR 1.26 . Growth close on 30% over last year. EBITDA that's growing, net profit growing, and we've had a great ability to transform this growth into cash generation. Increased cash generation between 2019 - 2021. We've generated, excluding one-off items, EUR 675 million in free cash flow. That's more than what we delivered in 2020 marked by an impact of cash retention on Edenred products not spent by our users. This record cash growth at EUR 675 million allowed us to decrease the level of net debt because at the end of 2021, our net debt is EUR 816 million compared to EUR 1.1 billion at the end of 2020.
The leverage ratio of 1.2 x, that means that we need 1.2 x EBITDA in order to have the equivalent of the debt that we carrying at the end of 2021. These are ratios that are very positive, allow us to consider M&A deals in the months and years to come. Given this strong financial performance ability to generate cash, we're proposing a dividend of EUR 0.90 in June 2022. That's an increase of 20% versus the dividend that was paid in 2021 in respect to the year 2020, which sees us return to the gradual increase in the dividend policy put in place back in 2017. This dividend payment is possible through the cash generation that I outlined and our ability to finance our investments.
Today, we're investing up to 7% of the company's total revenue, and we're in a position today to make acquisitions. We have more than EUR 1.5 billion in M&A firepower. When we look at potential targets, of course, we respect a high degree of financial discipline, and we're stringent when it comes to taking investment decisions. In terms of value sharing, we generated total revenue last year of EUR 1.64 billion for suppliers payments. When we look at how the shared value of EUR 1.2 billion is distributed, 46%, the largest portion goes back to employees through wages and social costs. 17% devoted to development CapEx. Very few acquisitions last year, so 70% primarily devoted to investment. 19% for civil society and 19% for our shareholders and lenders.
That was the 2021 performance. Let's now look at the trend in 2022. Q1 that was excellent with revenue growth on a reported basis of over 17%. If we look at the split of this growth across our various business lines, 15% growth for employee benefits, close on 30% growth of fleet and mobility solution, 5% growth for complementary solutions. Slightly weaker growth 'cause last year during Q1, we operated a number of programs that were COVID linked, one that we presented earlier, Hot Meals in Romania. We still had programs running in the U.K., a program that we did for the U.K. Ministry of Education. That's growth by business line in Q1.
We look by geography, 14% growth in Europe on a reported basis, 26% growth in Latin America, both organic growth and growth that benefits from the rise in the value of the Brazilian real that's taken place for some months now, and growth in excess of 14% for the rest of the world. First quarter with very strong growth and growth that we're generating versus the year 2021. That was a record year. Very good level of activity in the beginning of the year. This strong activity early in the year allows us to confirm our annual targets consistent with the targets we shared with you when we presented the Next Frontier strategic plan presented in October 2019.
What we commit to for this year 2022 is to generate organic growth of our operating revenue of a minimum of +8%, to generate annual EBITDA growth of a minimum of 10%, and to have an annual free cash flow EBITDA conversion rate, our ability to convert EBITDA into FCF of minimum 65%. To end this presentation, evolution of the share price of Edenred since the 1st of January of this year. Since the 1st of January, the Edenred share is up, share price up 10%, SBF 120, the market's down 15%. It's both the publication of the results of the year 2021 and Q1 2022 that have allowed to achieve this share price performance. Bertrand, back to you for the next step.
Congratulations for the 2021 results and a very promising Q1. Governance, we can say that 2021 is a record year, Q1, highly encouraging, but none of that would be possible without the Edenred teams, and none of this would be possible either without governance guarantees and the group's performance. What does all this mean? If we look at the next one. Yes. Okay. Bertrand Dumazy speaking, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Edenred. Let's talk about the Board of Directors and how it operates. We've got a Board of Directors with 13 members. 91% are Independent Directors, 45% are women. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. We have a Lead Independent Director, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Everyone has a four-year term in office. Our governance structure now.
We've got three committees to prepare decisions made by the Board of Directors. We've got an Audit and Risks Committee. We've got a Compensation, Appointments, and CSR Committee. Lastly, we have a Commitments Committee. Now let's talk to you about the membership of the Board of Directors. 91% of the members are officially termed Independent Directors. As you can see, five members of our Board of Directors have a term that's up for renewal in 2022. Among them, Jean-Paul Bailly and Gabriele Galateri di Genola won't be renewed. The renewals for Jean-Romain Lhomme, Jean-Bernard Hamel, and the other person will be subject for a vote today. If the resolutions are carried, as well as the resolution on appointing Bernardo Sanchez Incera are adopted, then your Board of Directors will have 12 members, which is the same number of members as in 2020.
I'll use this opportunity to very much thank Jean-Paul Bailly and Gabriele Galateri di Genola, who are attending their last AGM for Edenred as Director. On your behalf, dear shareholders, but also on behalf of the 10,000 Edenred employees, on behalf of the Edenred management team, I would very much like to thank them very warmly. Their wisdom, their intelligence, their abilities, and their loyalty have made major contributions to the success of this beautiful company, Edenred, over the last 12 years. Without them, once again, let me say, none of our achievements would have been possible. Jean-Paul, Gabriele, I know just how fortunate I've been to have you at my side. I hope you realize how fortunate we've been to have them as board members. On behalf of all of us, and from the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank both of them.
Now, let's talk about the skills of the members of the Board of Directors. Here you have the director skills matrix. If you take into account the challenges Edenred's having to contend with, we're a digital platform, B2B2C, we're highly international. We've got to have a full understanding of general management. Also got to have great finance skills, understanding of non-financial performance, CSR. We've also got to have a good understanding of strategy in the broadest sense of the term, noble sense of strategy. You can see we require great skill sets, and we're fortunate to have directors who do contribute these skills to our Board of Directors. Renewals proposed in 2022, resolutions four, five, and six, which are also described in pages 366 of the universal registration document for 2021.
Here we're talking about Bertrand Dumazy, yours truly, and Maëlle Gavet, as well as Jean-Romain Lhomme renewals proposed. We're also pleased to propose to you the appointment of a new Independent Director, resolution number seven, page 366 of the URD. I'm very pleased to ask Bernardo to please come join us at the rostrum to introduce himself. Bernardo, welcome. If the AGM confirms this during voting.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a real pleasure for me to be here with you and to be able to introduce myself for your vote. I very much share in those values. I've also got the professional background, which is highly international, not just because I'm non-French, but also I have built my business skills in many countries worldwide. Half of my expertise is in finance. I've held responsibilities in banks, as well as other companies. I've also got commercial and retail wholesale experience, which probably is appropriate and a good tack on of skills. I'd like to thank you very much, and I hope it'll be my honor to be able to join you. Thank you.
Now, let's talk about the selection process for Directors at Edenred. We have a compensation, appointments, and CSR committee chaired by Françoise Gri. That committee works with international hiring firms to shortlist candidates. The selection is done based on criteria that are defined and discussed at the Board of Directors, such as the skills matrix, gender balance, as well as international experience. The selection process for Directors is available if you'd like more information. We can also answer any questions. Available on page 166 of the universal registration document.
Now, in the selection process for Directors, there's another process, which is appointment of employee representative Directors. The way this happens at Edenred, and this is in compliance with recommendations and Code de commerce regulations, our Board of Directors includes two employee representative Directors, Graziella and Jean-Bernard. These Directors representing employees are appointed by Edenred's social and economic council. You know, since last year, Edenred is a European company, an SE. So this method of appointment ensures good representation of employees at the Board of Directors. Gender balance and diversity at the Board of Directors. Our board comprises five women 45%. If these resolutions pass, we will then have 50% women members of the Board of Directors. That was on the Board of Directors.
Now, at Edenred more broadly, as I already said to you previously, if you look at the overall employees at Edenred, around 10,000 employees, just over 10,000, 50% women and 50% men. That's the first piece of good news. In the management bodies at Edenred, proportion of women is now 34%. We need to make further progress here. Progress has already been made. We went from 21% to 34% women in management bodies. We've talked about our gender diversity policy. This is also available if you'd like to look this up on pages 194 - 195 of the URD. As Chairman, let's talk about the main matters addressed by the Board of Directors in 2021. Recurring matters on the left-hand side of the screen.
Let's also look at some of the specific matters addressed in 2021. First of all, we looked at adoption of Edenred's purpose, enrich connections for good. Let me give you a secret. Thanks to several of us, often during the decision-making process, one of us will say, "Let's never forget our purpose. It's our North Star," as Emmanuelle said. The decision we're making right now, is it in line with our purpose? Is it in line with this course we need to stay, enrich connections for good? Edenred's conversion into a European company, SE. We issued sustainable linked bonds, convertible and exchangeable for ordinary new and existing shares called OCEANE. They hinge on our Edenred's non-financial performance.
We've worked very hard on changing the membership of the Board of Directors as well as committees. Further specific matters in 2021, we worked on renewing yours truly, the Chairman and CEO, also monitored the COVID-19 health crisis. 2021 was also a year of COVID health crisis at Edenred. Now, communicating between Board of Directors and executive committee. We've been asked to ensure smooth dialogue and ongoing extensive dialogue. We've got an ongoing permanent dialogue between executive members of the group as well as the Board of Directors. We hold an annual strategic seminar where the major business line managers come present their future vision for their company. Each Board of Directors meeting wants to look at current topics. In advance, prior to each board meeting, the board committees use their knowledge, their expertise to look at technical topics.
This ensures in-depth dialogue and discussion with the executive managers at Edenred. We also make sure that our processes are sustainable. Furthermore, our Directors have to have a full in-depth understanding of our business activities. It's not always easy to understand. We're located in 45 countries, 250 different programs, so we've got an onboarding process for Directors, which is very important. We decided this morning, for that matter, at a Board of Directors meeting to improve the onboarding process with specific topics, sessions for everyone, not just for the new board members. We've got a very high satisfaction level with the executive committee, and the board's annual assessment is a plus.
The Board of Directors is evaluated every three years by an external evaluator and does a self-assessment every year with a discussion session on what we can learn from a self-assessment. Satisfaction rate on the executive. The dialogue between executive committee and the Board of Directors is very high. Another piece of information that you'll be even interested in, how at Edenred we manage the succession plans for our top managers. This is a broad, regular process. Succession plans are reviewed every single year by the Compensation, Appointments and CSR Committee chaired by Françoise, and it's submitted to the Board of Directors. Here we're talking about monitoring 400 key group managers. We call them our talents. We do a specific, a special focus on succession plans for executive committee members.
During this process, which takes place every year, we also look at every specific situation. History has shown, of course, that things are often very unpredictable, but we do look at these points. We also look at succession plan for the company officers. We make distinctions between renewals and vacancies. If you need additional information, we'll be happy to field any questions you might have. Furthermore, you've got additional information available on page 191 of the universal registration document. Assessment of the board practices and procedures. As I said to you, there's a self-assessment done every single year. We use an external consulting firm for the assessment every three years, led by Françoise, who does a great deal of work, as we can see at the Edenred board. She's the Lead Director and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Self-assessment is done using a specific questionnaire to this end, which complies with the AFEP-MEDEF code. Now, what do we learn from the self-assessment? First of all, things that are doing well at the board, satisfactory, i.e., it's felt that the work is in line with suitable work is done to prepare for changes in composition of Board of Directors. I.e., we've got enough, that's been done to focus on changes in composition of the board. We've got a balanced membership in terms of gender balance and also skills balance. Governance is also deemed excellent overall, with the level of discussion considered adequate to allow thorough, meaningful exchanges on agenda items as well as detailed minutes. There's always room for improvement.
Now, in terms of areas for improvement, these have been identified and they were discussed at length at this morning's Board of Directors meeting that began at 8:30 A.M. I have my list with around six areas for improvement which have been suggested, and this will be very important for us to implement them. The only thing not changing at Edenred is that things do change. Let's do it. Absolutely. Let's improve on things even further. After the AGM, there'll be a proposal that Dominique D'Hinnin will become vice president of the Board of Directors. Dominique, you know Dominique D'Hinnin will replace Françoise Gri, who will continue as a Director at Edenred. Unfortunately, starting in June 2022, Françoise is no longer deemed independent as per the AFEP-MEDEF recommendations.
Believe you me, she's certainly got an independent mind set, but not deemed Independent Director by AFEP-MEDEF. Françoise will be continuing to serve as a board member, but no longer independent. Therefore, it's preferable for the Vice Chairman to be an Independent Director. I'd like to thank Françoise from the bottom of my heart for all the achievements we've made together. You're never successful alone. She's a highly talented woman, and I thank Françoise for assisting all of us and especially me. I'd like for us to applaud her. Dominique, welcome, and have a great time moving forward in Françoise's footsteps. If the resolutions are passed, resolutions four to seven are passed in a few moments' time, what will the committees look like?
The Audit and Risk Committee chaired by Bernardo, assisted by Dominique D'Hinnin, past Chairman of the Risk Committee, Monica Mondardini, and Graziella Gavezotti. Compensation, Appointments, and CSR Committee chaired by Dominique D'Hinnin, past Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee, assisted by Sylvia, who continues as a Director within the same committee. We're very pleased to be welcoming Angeles , who joined the Board of Directors at Edenred last year, and who is very much a member of the Compensation, Appointments, and CSR Committee. Similar point for Monica Mondardini at the Audit and Risk Committee, as well as Graziella. Now, the Commitments Committee, since Jean-Paul has reached the age limit. Again, when I look at Jean-Paul and Gabriele, I very much regret this because we know that Jean-Paul and Gabriele show their young age every day.
Nevertheless, Jean-Bernard is becoming Chairman of the Commitments Committee. Under his leadership, there's Maëlle, Jean-Bernard, Philippe who's joining the committee, and Françoise who's also joining the committee. They will endeavor to make sure that the acquisitions policy at Edenred is very much ambitious, and all the while complying with very strict financial criteria. It's time for me to give the floor to the Chairman of the Audit and Risks Committee for a few minutes. Dominique, welcome to the stage.
Dominique D'Hinnin, Chairman of the Audit and Risks Committee. Good morning to you all. I have the pleasure to present to you the work of the Audit and Risk Committee in 2021. To begin with, this committee is comprised of three members, whose names and photographs appear on screen. In 2021, we met on four occasions with an attendance rate of 100%. The prime task of the committee, if I can get this slide up on the screen. The prime task of the Audit and Risk Committee is to ensure with the assistance of auditors that the accounting policies are appropriate and applied consistently to monitor the process of preparation of financial information to ensure that the strategic objectives are met.
In 2021, two of the four sessions were devoted to reviewing the parent company financial statements, the consolidated full year statements, and to review the financial communication processes, futhermore, the committee. Moving on to the next slide. Furthermore, Audit and Risks Committee follows very closely the planning and the results of the internal audit team to ensure the quality of internal control within Edenred. Furthermore, the Audit and Risks Committee is tasked with ensuring the assessment and control of the risk exposure of your group. This is based on risk mapping effort, regularly updated, and the follow-up of action plans to control and manage them. Specific attention in 2021 was related to the impacts of the health crisis. The missions continued to evolve and be enriched.
In 2021, as in the previous year, the committee addressed closely the ethics, compliance, and internal control aspects. The new ethics charter drawn up in 2020 that covers the key issues, business conduct, compliance with human rights, preservation of the environment, and local community development. This charter was disseminated and rolled out throughout 2021 to all group employees, and it has been signed by close on 100% of employees. Compliance with the various regulations to which the group is submitted involved an ambitious and mandatory training program for all employees on issues of anti-money laundering, personal data protection, as well as compliance with competition law. The Audit and Risks Committee also focused on tracking indicators pertaining to the group's corporate social responsibility and the ever faster changes in requests from French and European regulators in this field.
We monitored initiatives combating digital fraud. That's a particular watch point in 2021 through specific training schemes, procedures reviewed and strengthened in-house, and the implementation of dedicated tools. Thank you for your attention.
Françoise.
Fran ç oise. The Lead, Independent Director, Vice Chairman of the Board. Good morning to you all. I will now present the work of the compensation appointments and CSR committee. This committee comprises three independent board members. We met on five occasions in 2021 with an attendance rate of 100%. The main duties of the committee are essentially to prepare the board's decisions regarding changes in the membership of the company's management bodies to the incentive plan of the group's major executives and to work on CSR and ESG matters of the group. Shown here is all the work conducted in 2021 presented at length during this morning's presentation, so I won't go back on that. I will, however, address the compensation policy for the Chairman and Chief Executive.
We have four principles that we have applied for many years. A principle of continuity. It's a good practice recommended by the AFEP-MEDEF code to have a compensation structure that continues over time. Second principle is one of compliance. Compliance with the legal and regulatory provisions and also the marketplace AFEP-MEDEF recommendations. Third principle, one of comparability. We ensure the positioning of the CEO's compensation against a peer group of next 20 of comparable companies. Fourth issue that's very important is one of linking compensation to performance, because today 79% of the Chairman and Chief Executive's compensation is linked to the short and medium-term performance of your company. Shown here is the Chairman and CEO's compensation policy as it's put to your vote through resolution number eight, ex-ante vote.
The detail is set out in pages 200 - 208 of the universal registration document. These principles and this compensation policy is unchanged since 2015. Following the continuity principle, gross annual variable compensation. You see the structure between fixed compensation, variable compensation, and long-term compensation. We propose a gross annual fixed compensation for the Chairman and CFO for 2022, and the duration of his term be at EUR 980,000. For this compensation policy and its application in 2021, of course, it's the application of the compensation policy that was widely approved at the AGM last year. Compensation and the calculation of targets that stem therefrom.
Gross annual fixed compensation that hasn't changed in 21 years is EUR 825,000 for 2021, and you see the calculation of the variable compensation that is put to your vote. That stands at EUR 1,585,000. Long-term compensation that proposes to allocate 54,033 shares to the Chairman and CEO in respect of performance in 2021, applying the compensation policy approved by the AGM last year. A few important ratios that matter in terms of good governance as a company. A ratio concerning equity, taking two scopes, comparing the Edenred scope in France and globally. You see that the equity ratios are stable between 2018- 2021, whereas the Edenred performance has grown significantly.
That conversely, the compensation of the Chairman and CEO evolved in light of that performance, but of the order of 5% in comparison with a 25% growth in the company's EBITDA. That's a policy that we deem as reasonable as compared to the company's performance. Shown here is the detailed description of the resolution, but which is really just covers the points that I've just presented the resolutions. Hoping the next slide will appear on the screen. Two resolutions that stem from what I just presented, both ex ante compensation policy with the changes in fixed compensation that we're submitting to you. Secondly, the 2021 compensation voted in 2021, with the results in 2021. That brings me to the end of my presentation.
Thank you, Françoise. We will now hear from the auditors. Mr. Patrick Suissa from Deloitte will now deliver the auditor's report.
Thank you, Bertrand. Good morning to you all on behalf of the statutory auditors, Ernst & Young and Deloitte. I'll report on our assignment for 2021. The purpose of our assignment was to ensure that the financial statements comprised no material misstatements. We covered all the significant entities of the group in France and abroad. Our audits were, of course, adapted to the COVID-19 persisting crisis in order to ensure a good level of assurance. The 2021 exercise was not marked by major disposals or mergers, and the implementation of IFRS and major disputes didn't have an impact on the accounts. Our approach and assessments took account of the group specificities in terms of business, organization, regulation, risk, information system and internal control.
With the agreement of your Chairman, I propose that I not give you a detailed reading of our report to be found in the documents submitted to you. Just to summarize the three the salient point. Firstly, our report on the consolidated financial statements to be found at pages 232, 235 of the URD and highlights, three key audit matters. Firstly, the assessment of goodwill and financial intangible, the booking of the debt in respect of, securities and circulation, and claims for, disputes, claims and tax risk. Secondly, our report on the, financial statements to be found in the URD. For Edenred SE, we had one key audit matter, that is the valuation of shares and loans and advance.
For each of these key audit matters, we reviewed the main assessments of management assessments, their sensitivity to the underlying assumptions, and ensured the quality of the information supplied in the annex. Our work also involved highlighting specific work as part of the publication of the annual financial report in digital HTML format ESE F regulations. Our overall assessments are part of the initiative of the accounts taken overall, which contributes to forming our opinion and allows us to certify with an unqualified opinion your company's financial statements. Thirdly, we issued various reports that concern resolutions to put to your vote. That's the case of our special report on related party agreements to be found on page 382 of the URD, resolution 12.
We've not been notified of any agreements authorized during the year ended 2021 or agreements previously approved by the AGM implementation continued during that year. We issued various reports under the extraordinary AGM, pages 383 of the URD, covering capital assessment 15 and 22, where you're asked to vote. We have no matters to report on that. We also issued certificates on the best salaries and sponsorship expenses without resolution. They prompt no comment on our part. Lastly, as an independent third-party body, Deloitte issued a report on selected CSR information to be found on pages 154 of the URD. On that basis, we've noted no matters to challenge the compliance of this non-financial report that's not submitted to you. Thank you for your attention. Merci beaucoup. Merci.
Thank you. I'd especially like to thank Patrick Suissa, who was our statutory auditor for six years. You can't do well without highly rigorous, competent statutory auditors. Patrick has been very rigorous, very professional. That's been very beneficial for Edenred. Patrick, thank you very much, and I wish you every success in your new adventures. Welcome to Guillaume Grignou, who's replacing you. It's my pleasure now to begin the Q&A session. People are asking for the floor right now for a question. The gentleman to the left will be asking a question.
To my left. After that, we'll hear from the next person who asked that question.
Hello, Bertrand. I am the CEO whisperer. I've got three questions. Question one. What's Edenred's transformation that you're so proud of? That you're most proud of? Gender, equality, decarbonization. People talk a lot about CSR, after all. I have another question. Since you've tried to assist poor people in Romania, well, let's not forget, in France, there are also poor people. I'd like to know what type of assistance you're trying to provide to them. Question three, since you are a company. Well, you realize that the tax authorities have audited you several times. Could you tell us what your experience has been in other countries, in Brazil, Turkey, Italy, and so forth? Thank you, sir.
Thank you for those three questions, which will enable us to give a good overview of some other topics. What am I most proud of, you ask me? Well, firstly, generally, our in-depth transformation at Edenred. We've got a beautiful company. You've got a beautiful company with moderate growth in commodities-type business lines. Together, we've managed to set our sights on a new ambition, define it, and actually make these achievements over 10% growth every single year now. We've got this ability together to enact disruptive transformation, really change our business model. I'm so proud of that. Tremendously proud. We've achieved this together. We've achieved this all the while adhering to our longstanding values. These are our foundations that we've focused on and brought forward. It's a real transformation every single year, which has made us what we are today. We're very proud of this.
Plus, we're very enthusiastic about what's yet to be done, to be achieved. The new avenues to embark upon. We know that Edenred is stronger, got greater resources than it may have had in previous years to move forward very courageously and be interested in moving forward in these high seas, these new seas. Next, you talked about poverty in Romania and France. A very good question. Edenred is the demonstration that you can be very good at one thing and not always as good at something else. We're a French company, a global company. France only representing 16% of our revenue. There, where we've had our hardest time convincing the government authorities to use digital solutions operated by private operators is indeed in France, the French authorities. We've been very successful in Romania.
We can also talk about our achievements in Italy, in Brazil, in many countries worldwide. There, we've had the most problems convincing the government to use modern digital solutions such as ours has been in France. A couple, three ideas that we're working on right now, let me mention to you. President Macron has committed to a food check to help people counter-inflationary effects. We've explained to him, we sent a memo, we explained exactly how this could be done with a fully digital solution. Possibly, this will end up being understood. We don't lose hope. We continue explaining. We keep repeating our explanations. Probably at some point in the future, our solutions will be opted for in France as well. Since I'm an impatient optimist, I would say there are a lot of things that are already being done in France.
You must realize, Julien, who was in charge of France, could talk to you about two, three emergency programs that were set up during COVID. Julien would like to talk about this.
Yes. We did set up several emergency programs, particularly for students during the COVID pandemic. We made available to the universities products that students could use to buy food at times when the university canteens, cafeterias were closed. We have other programs we set up as well, for instance, for housing, accommodations, such as Action Logement, a company in France that collects the 1% fee, that then pays that back to employees for accommodations. In 2018, they started a program which is voluntary investment. Action Logement was granted EUR 2.5 billion in subsidies for three needs.
First of all, mobility needs to commute to work. Employees were able to get EUR 1,000 to finance a move, a housing move to get closer to work, not have to commute as far. A second target for Action Logement was to make it possible for people over 60 years of age to stay at home, so they wouldn't have to move to nursing homes. The principle was to make it possible for these people to have their bathrooms re-done, to replace their bathtubs with showers and so forth. We do the outfitting of their housing so they could stay in their homes. A third action through Action Logement was energy renovation of buildings. Edenred built and operated the distribution platform for these subsidies.
First of all, with an enrollment pathway for users, people who requested to be paid, therefore were able to sign up. We then processed the request and processed the payments. Money wasn't paid to the users as such, but to the companies directly who did the refurbishment work. We worked to sign up and validate the companies that were going to be doing the renovation work. The platform that handed out EUR 25 billion in subsidies was operated and continues to be operated by Edenred today. Your third question on tax audits of Edenred, I don't think that we could say that they're going overboard at all. We have regular tax audits, yes.
We are located in 45 or so countries, which means there are 45 tax authorities that monitor us, which also means each country is, of course, trying to add to the government coffers. To do so, they want to make sure everybody's paying the right profits. This is the right tax base, the appropriate tax base for each country, so that taxes can be levied. Yes, we're audited, as are all other companies. It may seem like a lot since we're located in 45 countries and there are often audits. But let me just say that generally speaking, our tax books are very carefully kept at Edenred, and we have audits that usually don't lead to much back payments at all. Sometimes there are slight tax hiccups that can happen.
The Brazilian authorities, for instance, said, "Well, fees paid to Edenred SE can't be above 1%." Then the French say, "No, no. In all countries, what's paid back to France is 2.5%, so it's 2.5%." We look at both of them and say, "Yes, but you need to agree among yourselves, first of all, and then we'll comply." They smilingly say, "No, we're in France, and we think it's 2.5%, so you owe us thus and such." Then they say, "No, we're in Brazil, and we'd say it's 1%." Sometimes that's where you end up between a rock and a hard place. You've got some inconsistency and some slowdowns by the tax authorities. At any rate, certainly, we pay the taxes that we're required to pay in all countries.
At any rate, our tax policy can in no way be an aggressive one since some of our revenue comes from government programs. To be entitled to the government programs, you've got to have the right reasonable tax strategy, though tax optimization is not against the law.
Yes. The next gentleman, we said we would give you the floor, and you have it.
Yes, I've got two questions. Question one on Edenred's membership in the CAC 40, and then the second question on Edenred's purpose. Now, for a while, Edenred has been nearing becoming a member of the CAC 40. Not yet officially a part of the CAC 40, blue chips. Thirty-third in the SBF 120 with around EUR 11 billion in market cap. According to the wise people in charge of the CAC 40 in Paris, the market cap isn't the only criterion they consider. They also take into account, number of securities traded, i.e., liquidity of the securities. Individual shareholders, 5% of the company's share capital, are the most loyal ones, therefore don't trade a whole lot in their Edenred shares. It's not the same, though, when it comes to institutional investors. 94% of the share capital held by them, and they're not typically highly loyal shareholders.
Question, therefore. How can you explain Edenred's share price is so illiquid, continuing to prevent, Edenred from becoming part of the, CAC 40, cherished group of companies? What do you intend to do to address this? This brings me to question two, which has to do with your corporate purpose, which you revealed just a year ago. Well, before Bitcoin, the Frenchman, Jacques Borel, in 1962, created a virtual currency, meal vouchers or meal tickets. 20 years later, the Ticket Restaurant became owned by Accor Group in July of 2010. There was the divestment of hotel businesses and services, the spin-off, and then an IPO and the new company came into existence called Edenred. Question: Being so French, such a French background, Borel, Accor, Edenred, why have established a purpose that's stated in English since you're with such a highly French background?
Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to express the purpose of the global leader of this type of money in the French language? To enrich connections for good, expressing it in French and using the French words as your purpose. Mr. Larocque, thank you for the presentation.
Thank you for the two questions. You're one of my many rays of sunlight. I carefully listened to your questions, and I heard the questions you asked last week of Alain Gal, for that matter. Regarding our being part of the CAC 40 blue chips. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, if we're not one of the CAC 40 companies, it's your fault. It's because you're not selling enough Edenred shares. You believe too much in the potential for growth at Edenred.
Since shareholders aren't selling their shares and others therefore aren't buying them, our liquidity level is fairly low-ish, as you said so well. In terms of market cap and float, we're 30th. In terms of liquidity, we're 50th. The CAC 40 is an index of liquidity, really. What you sell to investors is liquidity. Liquidity makes up 50% and market cap and float making up 50%, which is why today, as of the most recent evaluation, we're barely 40th. What could be done? I would propose to all shareholders to continue being loyal to Edenred. In other words, it's a beautiful thing. It's great that our shareholder base believes in us, believes in Edenred's strategy, and believes in our ability to make good on this strategy. Most importantly, don't change and hand these shares on to your children and grandchildren.
We all need loyalty and loyal shareholders. When it comes to liquidity, we can't do much. We can't change that much. Naturally, what could well happen, a positive thing, there could be an acquisition, which would mean the market cap would go up and would make up for a lower liquidity, which will continue to be low-ish, thanks to shareholder loyalty. I also believe, it's very part and parcel of who we are at Edenred, profitable, sustainable growth horizons we have. Also part and parcel of our complex business model. There's no equivalent business model elsewhere. It's hard for an Investor to fully understand and make comparisons and see equivalents and peers. So for a well, informed investor to invest in Edenred, they need to spend time to get well-informed and brainpower.
This is something that's very important, and it's not easy to fully understand in spite of all we do to explain ourselves to everyone. This is one of the explanations for low-ish liquidity. When you know who Edenred is and you know who we are, you stay on board with us. Otherwise, you might not understand who we are, and it takes a while to get a full understanding of what makes us up. Okay, so what can we do about that? First of all, to come back to what you were saying, the Holy Grail being part of the CAC 40, this would be the consequence of our achievements, and we will end up getting there. We've got time. We'll continue having double-digit growth. We'll continue having profitable, sustainable growth.
We'll continue working on non-financial performance, and we'll end up becoming part of that group. What we can do. Well, regarding liquidity, not much. Right now, Julien is looking at liquidity contracts to make sure they're maximized. As acquisitions might be made by us, our market cap will go up, and we'll end up getting there. Believe you me, we will never make an acquisition just to become a member, to be able to become part of the CAC 40. We would make an acquisition to create value. If that created value is well communicated, that would well indeed help us become part of the CAC 40. Your second question is very meaningful to me, our purpose. Believe you me, we talked about this at length at the board and executive committee. I'm looking towards Jean-Paul, a big defender of the French language.
I had in meeting and outside of meeting discussions with him about using French. I agree with you. We should very much defend the most beautiful language in the world that gives you so many shades of meaning, the language of the philosophers worldwide. Century after century, they've used French. We read de Tocqueville to understand French genius. My heart would say you're right, but my mind would say a company that's got global reach, whose revenue in France is 16% of overall revenue, that communicates with people who unfortunately don't necessarily understand French. English necessarily has become very meaningful, very important worldwide. Our growth horizons are very strong in both France, but even stronger outside of France, which is why we're trying to be as efficient as possible.
To be as effective as possible, we need to have our purpose expressed in English, which in-house is also our working language. We had to all agree to one vehicular language. Ranging from Santiago to Chile to Tokyo, our working language is English. What I would suggest to you is that we not change this. However, we mustn't forget just how important the French language is and how magnificent it is. We'll do our best, our utmost to really express things in French and to bring forward French language and French culture. I very much believe that we're heading in that direction. Believe it. Believe me, count on us. We'll never forget that we've got a French background and the red, white and blue of France at our very core. We'll continue leading in that direction.
D'autre question?
Next question, please. You, sir.
Yes. Good morning. You've presented Edenred to us very well. Ethics, value, sharing, that's something that we can only welcome, and it's quite normal because in the way you view the business, there's redistribution, there's subsidy, there's sharing. So it's good to focus on that and to remain on that route. I'd like to know in terms of net profit, you have given your initiatives, meals to truck drivers during COVID. That's good. Do we have an idea of the percentage versus net profit? Is it a metric going forward? You're right, you have profit to generate for us, but redistribution is also very good, and that's your role. My second question is that you speak a lot, perhaps a bit too much about gender equality quotas, men, women.
It seems to be of prime importance for you. It irritates me. The percentage of disabled people in your company, that's a high percentage when we know the percentage of the population that is, alas, disabled. My third criteria is from time to time, I see you kind of nudging close to easy payment. I'm thinking of our banks you've just had as a client, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale. You're not worrying them, but from time to time, are you not flirting with easy payment, the fintech, and I'd like to have your take on that. Thank you. I'd like to thank you for showing me that in your company there's ethics.
Thank you, sir, for those very useful questions. Now, the amount in percentage of net profit, I don't know it, but we can calculate it quite quickly. Knowing that we have to highlight various things, the easiest thing is to give money. The most difficult thing is to give the most precious thing we have is time. It's ultra fresh. The second passed will never return. Money comes and goes. That's why I'm very keen with the management team in ensuring that these Ideal Days should take place. We give what we have that's most precious. I've said that time is the most precious thing. We'll give the longest day. We'll gift it around June 21st. I share with you an anecdote that I'll always remember. A few years, it was an Ideal Day.
I was in Santiago in Chile, and the Chileans decided to all together get involved to renovate from top to bottom a nursery in the outskirts of Santiago. Santiago, Chile, is the Switzerland of the Middle East, and Santiago is actually a very modern city, probably the most modern in Latin America. As soon as you leave Santiago, there's no suburbs. You almost immediately find yourself in slums. We all went off to renovate that facility from morning till dusk. It was a great day of interacting with the local. Then at the end of the day, I did my plan, and I said, of course, that we give what we can. 21st of June is the longest day. You're in the Southern Hemisphere.
For us, actually, it's the shortest day of the year, June 21, summer solstice. The day we top the EUR 1 billion EBITDA, we'll do two days ideal , one June 21st, the other December 21st. That way, the North and Southern Hemispheres will both be well-represented. By that, I mean, we'll do the calculation, but what drives me most are things that are more difficult to quantify. The time we devote, the intensity with which we devote it, and the ties of friendship and understanding. When we're Edenred employees, of course, we're extremely fortunate. The company's not perfect, but it wants to continue to make progress, and we have a salary that allows these families to live, and many people in many countries, unfortunately, don't have that opportunity. It gives us a sense of perspective.
What we do with our hands probably is the best way of contributing to that effort and keep our feet firmly on the ground. Julien, can you tell us total amount versus net profit? No, I can't answer that, unfortunately, says Julien. More than ever that we created during COVID, and we decided at that time to devote the dividends that were not paid as part of the MEDEF request to reduce dividends in 2020 versus 2019. More than ever devoted some EUR 15 million to the various initiatives that we put in place, that we didn't quantify that as a percentage of net profit or the activities that you're referring to that are many in number. That, in fact, the Ideal Day, but we also clearly have other initiatives throughout the year to support our communities. Let me give you an example.
With the Ukrainian crisis, the Poles re-welcomed 2.5 million Ukrainians overnight. Our people were welcomed by Polish employees, and the whole family was welcome. No time to quibble. We went flat out. A Ukrainian woman from Edenred, housed by us in Poland, continues to work, says to me, "I've come just with a single bag and my son, while my father was trying to defend the country. My son is a real soccer fan. I arrived Monday in Poland. On the Wednesday, my son was playing at the Polonia Club of the neighborhood. The Polonia Warsaw Club is equivalent of the Paris Racing Club de France soccer team. They arrived on Monday. Seven kids continue to live a form of normal life, playing soccer with his friends of his age who are Poles. It's a lesson for us all.
By that, I mean, immediately our Polish teams devoted time and gave money. The seeds we sowed are flourishing at varying paces depending on the people and on the individual. We'll take a look, but I have to confess that whatever the amount, I mean, what I'm interested in the non-quantifiable things that are seeds that sow and flourish in individual hearts depending on their own individual pace. Your second question on disability, yes, of course, you're absolutely right. In fact, what happened. What's happening. All investors take a close look at gender equality, hence all these explanations. Probably a good thing, good thing for Edenred because the margin for progress is high and continues to be strong for Edenred. It's a good thing. Why are we talking about this.
'Cause we're scrutinized on that. Don't worry. On diversity, there are many other forms of diversity. You mentioned disability, of course. These are things that we also do, but we promote less. In fact, if the truth be known, I'd rather not promote it at all 'cause I think that good things don't make any noise. It's a bit against our nature to talk about it, but we have to adapt to the world in which we live. We do with good grace, but rest assured, it's all forms of diversity that we wish to uphold to return to a common sense principle. Come to Edenred as you are, remain as you are, and contribute to the maximum of your capacity to help us progress.
At Edenred, you will only be viewed through the lens of merit and nothing else, if only the friendship that we owe you. Third question on the payment that you described as easy. Well, in fact, we are a fintech. That's to say that our business is on a platform to manage. Well, first of all, we are a platform, that is, we aggregate 50 million users with 2,000 merchants. There's a phase which is program issuance. We are a program designer. Then there's the delivery of these programs. That's our second business. In these programs, there are payments, and the payment that we make is just filtered payment. We never manage or rarely universal money.
That's to say that, as was well said, we print money, and the Edenred money can only be used for specific uses, certain type of good or service for a certain amount, certain days in certain places. That's our business. In that sense, we are a fintech. That is, we develop technologies that print money and to make these, to acquire these transactions, but solely in a universe that is one of directed money and not universal money. Without going into. Well, you could say, "Well, it looks like bank, it's like banking activities," but it looks like it, but it's not at all that. That is that we only print money, the specific money from time- to- time. Are there overlaps? Yes, because banking business is changing and our business is also.
Sometimes we're in partnership, they distribute our product. Sometimes we share technology. For example, we have processing centers that just process filtered money, but we can do that. It so happens with an additional development, we can do fractionated payments. If you go to Decathlon and you buy products and you pay in three installments, the tech is installment-based payments developed by Edenred. Why do we do it? Because the tech challenge is of interest to us and because there are markets in which we can make a bit of money. Is it close to banking activities? Yes and no. That's to say a bank could think about that. We don't manage. We don't have a deposit account, and it's not a regulated activity to go further. Is it our intention to enter into regulated banking activities? The answer to that is no.
Hello. Monsieur.
Yes. Next question.
Good morning. In your financial presentation, there's something rather specific in your balance sheet. You have negative equity of close on EUR 1 billion that Accor gave you in 2016, and you're not reducing. I know you're gonna say that it doesn't prevent you from acting to buy all that. The other day, I heard a fund manager saying, "I don't buy a company that has negative shareholders' equity." Secondly, you've just said that you were a candidate for the CAC 40 index. I mean, I don't know if it's a plus point to arrive with negative equity. My second question, Sodexo has put up for sale, I think 40%, and I think it's sold to a fund. Does that change anything for you? And have you looked at? Did you look at that deal?
My third question is really just a statement of fact picking up on a previous point, CSR, ESG criteria. What we're showing is wonderful. We're not showing what's less favorable. There are agencies that have some pretty wacky requirements in terms of pay. There's a CFO of a big company who said an agency was asking her to split all her invoices into green and non-green. She said, "I can't do that, and it's gonna cost me a fortune." That's some of the wacky requirements that are not presented, and as you said, were scrutinized. Well, saying it's a dictatorship on the part of these agencies. There's fierce competition between these agents. It's greener, whiter, et c. That's my comment. Just one final comment. You held meeting in the provinces, shareholders meetings that was halted.
Do you plan to resume those shareholders meetings? I think it's good things in terms of shareholder outreach.
Thank you, sir, for those questions. The last question, yes, we plan to resume regional meetings. Dahlia has just joined us, and she'll run that with the great talent. Is there competition between the standards? Is it the Wild West? Answer, yes. Sometimes you come across some pretty fanciful examples, such as one you cited. As an optimist, all that's going to normalize, and the quality of non-financial reporting standard will be on a par with current financial. We have to be patient. In the meantime, we have to show judgment and pragmatism and find our way through all that and keep a sense of proportion.
That's what we're trying to do, and we'll continue to do up until things normalize. Of course, we try and work when we have a choice. For example, what was presented to you on the non-financial rating, well, we picked the largest rating agency in the world with S&P. We need to keep a sense of perspective, find our way, remain optimization on normalization that will come and work ahead of the phase. We're the seventh French company to accept a rating that's not mandatory. The sooner we go for it, the faster we'll learn how to live with these standards. Next on Sodexo. Did we take a look? No.
Because when you look at the competitive position of Edenred and the competitive position of Sodexo, a combination on those activities in light of the criteria of the antitrust authorities in the temperature and pressure conditions in 2022, well, that's just a non-starter. It's not an opportunity that we looked at. Of course, had we not had these antitrust issues, something that we would really have liked to have done. Next, on the negative equity. What you describe is true, and it's really a legacy. I mean, does it prevent us from acting? Answer, no. Maybe the investor likes to lose a lot of money that he put in EUR 100 in Edenred in 2016, he would have notched up 300. I mean, it's down to individual choices.
You come across people who don't want to invest in a company with negative equity. It's a legacy of the past. It doesn't in any way crimp us. If we were to supplement these negative equity, we'd need EUR 1 billion. Is that EUR 1 billion better used to plug the negative equity or invest in the future of the company? The answer was to use that money to drive profitable and sustainable growth at Edenred. It's not to be ruled out that gradually, as we're well de-leveraged, the negative equity will be increased. I mean, it's not a negative. It's not a priority because it doesn't prevent us from doing what we need to do. At first sight, the first reading, that is, bothersome.
Just for the shareholder meetings that you mentioned, the next is to be held on June 22nd in Lyon. Action, reaction at Edenred in Lyon, June 22nd. Would you like to vote? Yes. Okay. People are asking for us to hold the vote. Let's move to the vote. First of all, I very much want to thank you for these questions, making it possible for us to step back, think things through further. It's also an ongoing thought process for us. The questions help us to consider possible changes that could be made in this beautiful company. Thank you very much for your active contribution. We'll hand over to Philippe now for the voting process and the resolutions.
Ladies and gentlemen shareholders, we'll begin moving on to the agenda of the combined general meeting. You can find it in the universal registration document. Shareholders received this as per regulations. I'd also remind you that the Board of Directors report, which contains the resolutions, is on pages 49 and following in that self same brochure. I'd also like to give the final quorum. Attendance sheet is now settled. 311 shareholders represented and voted remotely, holding 208 million shares, representing a quorum of 83.55%. There'll be a brief video. Very brief. Don't worry about using the voting boxes. This will be the first time some of you will be using these type of voting screens, a sort of tablet. We'll watch that before we vote on the resolutions.
Pour voter les résolutions de l'Assemblée Générale, une tablette vous a été remise. Elle est strictement personnelle et sert uniquement lors de cette assemblée. À l'annonce du vote d'une résolution, la fenêtre de vote s'affiche automatiquement sur votre tablette, même si celle-ci est en veille. Pour voter, rien de plus simple. Appuyez sur le bouton correspondant à votre choix, Pour, Abstention ou Contre. Appuyez sur OK pour valider votre choix avant la clôture du vote. Une fois votre vote validé, vous ne pouvez plus le modifier. Merci de bien vouloir restituer votre tablette en sortie de salle.
Bien.
I suggest we vote on resolution one. We're waiting for it to display on the screen. Approval of the company's financial statements for financial year ended 31 December 2021. Vote now, please.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution two, approval of the consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2021. Please vote now.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution three, appropriation of profit. As Bertrand said, dividend of EUR 0.90 per share. Please vote now.
Le vote est.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution four, renewal of Mr. Bertrand Dumazy as Director. Please vote now.
Le vote.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Let's move on to resolution five, renewal of Ms. Maëlle Gavet as Director. Please vote now.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Great. Resolution six, renewal of Mr. Jean-Romain Lhomme as Director. Please vote now.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Let's move on to resolution seven, appointment of Mr. Bernardo Sanchez Incera as Director. Please vote now.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Welcome, Bernardo. We move on to resolution eight, approval of the compensation policy for the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Please begin voting.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution nine, approval of the compensation policy for the members of the Board of Directors, excluding the Chairman and CEO. Please vote now. No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution 10, approval of the report on corporate officers compensation for the 2021 financial year global ex-post. Please vote now. No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution 11, approval of the 2021 compensation components for Bertrand Dumazy as presented by Ms. Françoise Gri. Please begin voting.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting.
La résolution est adoptée.
The resolution is approved. Resolution 12, approval of the statutory auditor's special report on related party agreements. Please vote now.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting.
La résolution est adoptée.
The resolution is approved. This brings us to resolution 13, reappointment of Ernst & Young Audit as Statutory Auditor. Please vote now.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. The last resolution under our ordinary session, resolution 14, authorization granted to the Board of Directors to trade in the company's shares, as foreseen by legislation. Please begin voting.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. This brings us on to resolutions for the extraordinary general meeting. Resolution 15, authorization granted to the Board of Directors to reduce the company's share capital by canceling shares, limit of 10% of the company's share capital. Please vote now. No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution 16 now, delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital with preemptive subscription rights. Please vote now.
Le vote est clos.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution 17, delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital without preemptive subscription rights by public offer. Please vote now.
Le vote est.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution 18, delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital without preemptive subscription rights through an offer addressed exclusively to a restricted circle of investors. Please vote now.
Le vote est.
No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution 19, authorization granted to the Board of Directors to increase the amount of issuances with or without preemptive subscription rights, which is called greenshoe. Please vote now. No further voting. The resolution is approved. Resolution 20, delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital without preemptive subscription rights as consideration for contributions in kind made to the company. Please vote now. No further voting. The resolution is approved. Let's move on to resolution 21. Delegation of authority granted to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital through co-capitalization of reserves, profits, premiums or other eligible items. Please vote now. No further voting. Resolution approved. This brings us to resolution 22.
Delegation of authority granted to the Board to increase the share capital without preemptive subscription rights through an issuance reserved for members of a company savings plan. Please begin voting. No further voting. Resolution approved. Last resolution before Bertrand's conclusion. 23rd resolution, powers to carry out formalities. Please begin voting. No further voting. Without any surprise, resolution is adopted. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you very much. Bertrand, you have the floor.
Thank you, Philippe. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the trust you have placed in us through your attentive presence this morning and also through your vote on the resolution. There being no further matters on the agenda, the meeting is adjourned. Have a fine day and see you soon for further adventures. Thank you.