Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being with us today. I am Bertrand Dumazy, the Chairman and CEO of Edenred. I am with Julien Tanguy, the CFO of the Edenred Group, and together we are very pleased to present to you the 2020 annual results of Edenred. I propose that we move to page two of the presentation, and in fact, I have five messages I would like to deliver today. The first one is, we knew that Edenred was a growth company. We know now, thanks to the year 2021, that Edenred is also a very resilient company through turbulences, and it's due to the fact that we are a unique intermediation platform connecting 50 million users with two million merchants, and we have solutions that are covering essential needs such as Eat, Move, Care, Pay.
The second thing I want to share with you is, in 2020, we have been able to leverage our digital leadership, our innovation capacity, and our business agility to deliver solid financial results despite the pandemic. Indeed, our total revenue went down only by 2% like-for-like. Our operating revenue went down only 1.6% like-for-like, knowing that we have been able to rebound as early as H2, where we grew by 1.1% in H2, once again like-for-like. As to the profit and the operating profit, with the EBITDA, our EBITDA is at EUR 580 million, which is in line with our guidance of between EUR 550 and EUR 600, and in fact, this EBITDA is down only 4.6% like-for-like in 2020, knowing that we rebounded once again in revenue but also in profit in the second part of the year because H2 2020 was at plus 2.5% like-for-like versus H2 2019.
As to the EBITDA margin, close to 40%, exactly 39.6% down 1.1 points like-for-like. After this EBITDA, we have been able to generate a strong free cash flow of EUR 640 million. This generation of cash flow has been driven by our business resilience, our cash discipline, but also a longer float retention time versus what we had in 2019.
All those elements led to our net profit group share of EUR 238 million and so based on those good results in 2020 and our confidence to do much better in 2021, a proposed dividend of EUR 0.75 is going to be done at the general meeting of May the 11th, knowing that EUR 0.75 is a growth of 7.1% in dividend versus last year. The third element I want to share with you is, in 2020, not only we posted solid financial results, but we also enhanced our growth profile.
First of all, we have been able to strengthen our digital leadership. Secondly, we foster the Beyond Fuel strategy. Thirdly, we have been able to target new markets such as the virtual canteen or the mobility benefits in France or the meal benefits in the U.S. And finally, we have been able to invest in our key assets, people, technology, and CSR to prepare as best as we can the rebound for the second part of 2020, more importantly in 2021 and later on. The fourth thing I want to share with you is we see four trends that have been accelerated by the crisis and that position the group well for the post-COVID world. Trend number one, we are in a more connected digital and contactless world, and Edenred is the digital leader, so should benefit a lot from this first trend.
The second trend, in a more remote working world, Edenred is developing innovative solutions. Third trend, in a world seeking more responsible behavior, Edenred is a powerful enabler and accelerator of social and responsible behavior. And finally, in a world that is seeking more and more digital payments, Edenred is digitalizing B2B payments. So, to make a long story short, when we look at the four trends that have accelerated during the pandemic, we see many opportunities for Edenred to accelerate its growth. Finally, in 2021 and after, Edenred is poised for sustainable and profitable growth. By leveraging our business excellence and innovation coupled with strong fundamentals, favorable trends, and selective M&A, Edenred's growth potential remains intact. And so, we have been able to be resilient in Q2.
We have been able to rebound in H2 2020 by posting some growth both at the revenue level but also the EBITDA level, and we aim at accelerating further in 2021 despite an uncertain health situation. That's why our commitment is a minimum like-for-like EBITDA growth in 2021 of 6%. So, if we go now more into the details after those five main messages, the first thing is the resilience and the strong capacity to rebound. So, if we move to page six, where does it come from? It comes from four things: our strong business and financial fundamentals, the disciplined management of the COVID situation, some new programs that have leveraged Edenred's unique digital platform, and finally, a sharp rebound that we demonstrated as soon as the situation returns to normal. So, what does it mean concretely?
As to the 2020 numbers, additional numbers versus the executive summary, page six, our level of digitalization has accelerated, so we are now digital at 86%. It represents, for example, in Europe, for the employee benefits business line, an increase of nine points, so Edenred is more and more digital. The second thing we discussed about is total revenue and EBITDA. In fact, despite the pandemic, we have been able to decrease only by 2% like-for-like in total revenue and EBITDA by minus 4.6% like-for-like versus 2019 at EUR 580 million. What is interesting to notice is our EBITDA margin at 39.6%, which is only a decrease of 1.1 points like-for-like versus 2019. We are a profitable company with a profit of EUR 238 million.
We have been able to generate a very strong cash flow of EUR 640 million, and thanks to this high generation of cash flow, our level of net debt went down from EUR 1.3 billion to EUR 1.1 billion in 2020. So, we are able to maintain our strong investment grade rating by S&P at BB B+ . So where does the resilience come from? First of all, the fundamentals of Edenred explain this resilience. We entered into the crisis in very good shape. In fact, we were growing at double-digit growth in every country and on every product line before the COVID crisis. Secondly, we are a global player that we play in 46 different countries, and we are playing on markets that are still vastly under-penetrated markets. Thirdly, we are a tech leader, and we aim at delivering relentless innovation around specific purpose payment solutions.
Remember that we manage 250 different solutions, and those solutions are covering essential needs: the eat, the move, the care, and the pay, and finally we are an agile organization with local corporate entrepreneurs and scale champions that create a very positive growth horizon for the company. Those elements, a global player dealing with many solutions, covering essential needs, entering into the crisis in a very good shape, help us to be resilient. If we continue, during this year, we have been very focused and with a strong operational discipline to overcome the crisis, and we focused on four things: community, customers, cost, cash, and CSR. Community, our duty number one is to take care of our people. Thanks to all the investments we have been doing for the last few years, we have been able, first of all, to switch very fastly to remote working.
At the peak, almost 100% of Edenred employees were able to work remotely. Thanks to these agile behaviors, we limited drastically the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. So, at the group level, we are at about 5% of the people who have been infected, and the good news is we didn't get any serious cases. So, priority number one has been to take care of our community. Priority number two is to take care of our customers. And thanks to the high level of digitalization of our services, we have been able to continue to serve well our customers, and even if our workers were remote workers, the digitalization allowed that. The second thing is we adopt further digital sales channels. So, we move to screen-to-screen meetings or web sales or telesales. So, we try to be very agile with the new deal of the COVID.
The third thing is we use our agility to promote specific purpose money, so for example as a key lever to relaunch the local economy, so we have been able to influence to increase the spending cap in France from EUR 19 to EUR 38 daily spending cap, or to influence in France and Italy tax-exempt amount for gift cards to allow to spend some money and contribute to the rebound of the local economy, so we have been able to promote specific purpose money program.
We have been able to develop new programs to leverage, in fact, our digital platform, and we have been able to continue to invest in our product innovation to improve the user experience, so we launched in Spain, in Finland, or in France the contactless payment and the cardless payment to make sure that we care more about the macro trends and the new working routines.
The third priority was to take care of our cost and our cash, and here, we have been very selective in the sense that we thought 2020 would be a year at double-digit growth. It was like that the first two months of the year, and then the situation has changed, so we adapted very quickly by redesigning our cost plans, and in fact, we have been able to put in place a EUR 100 million plus cost avoidance plan to make sure that we are able to achieve our goal and our guidances, but also, we have been selective because we believe in the future of Edenred, so we wanted to pursue our investments in key areas such as the innovation, the IT, the security, or the compliance.
So, our level of CapEx investments has increased by 6% in 2020 versus 2019 with only one goal: make sure that we prepare as much as we can and as better as we can the rebound. And in fact, the rebound came as early as H2 2020. We also focused on credit management, mainly in fleet and mobility. In economic situations that are more tense, we need to make sure that we are very focused on the cash and the credit management. Finally, you know that Edenred is a platform. It's a platform for good, and so we continue to invest into our CSR policy. We demonstrated a strong commitment through the People Planet Progress CSR roadmap, and we continue our many actions, as you saw in the video, in fact, before this presentation.
It's not because we have a pandemic crisis that all those works cannot be continued and even enhanced. The other explanation of the resiliency of Edenred is the fact, and you know that, that we are a very unique digital platform for services and payments. We make the intermediation between 50 million users and 2 million merchants in four specific areas: the eat, the move, the care, and the pay. And so, it's very unique in the sense that we go to market in B2B2C. We solve inefficiencies in those four areas: eat, move, care, pay. We operate through a specific purpose wallet, so it's never universal money that we deal with, but specific purpose money. So, we built private ecosystems of payments. If you look at the fact that it's very unique, what does it mean?
It means that we are able to design fast and deploy fast new solutions, and it's exactly what has happened in 2020. But as to those new solutions, remember that Edenred is a platform for good, i.e., the more the employees are using the Edenred products, the more they contribute to a better world. So, you can think about the Ticket Restaurant that is access to healthier food habits. And thanks to our systems, we are able to serve 1.5 billion meals every year around the world. You could think about the EcoCheque, for example, in Belgium, where we encourage eco-friendly consumption. And anytime EUR 1 is spent via our eco-friendly solutions, one kilogram of CO2 is saved on the planet. We also help transition towards sustainable commuting.
Think about Commuter Benefits in the U.S. or the Ticket Mobility in France, i.e., when we measure that, thanks to our program, only in the U.S., 500,000 tons of CO2 have been avoided in the U.S. in 2019. As I said, we are also able to help transformation to reduce its CO2 footprint with some compensation programs. When you think about Edenred, think about platform, think about a platform for good, i.e., the more the employees are using the Edenred products, the more they are contributing to a better world. In fact, the leverage of the platform is for the good of the planet, but it's also to be able to meet new needs that came with the crisis. We have been able, with a lot of agility, to propose new specific purpose money programs in record time in 2020.
One good example is the eVoucher systems to subsidize food for U.K. pupils. Basically, in two weeks, we built a site and, in fact, a private ecosystem of payment allowing 1.3 million British pupils to have access to a meal every day, knowing that without us and taking into account that the canteens were closed. Sorry, let me, sorry for that. So, the canteens were closed, and thanks to our private ecosystem of payment, we have been able to contribute to the feeding of 1.3 million British pupils during 2020. In fact, the satisfaction rate at the end of the program was 95%, and in fact, Edenred has been selected again for the relaunch of the program in January up to March 2021 in the U.K.
Two other examples of specific purpose money programs that we put in place are the Chèque Consommation in Belgium, so consumption voucher, or the holiday voucher in Greece. To make a long story short, we have the platform, we have the agility, and we have the willingness to meet the challenges of the working world and of the society. If you make the synthesis of everything I said, what does it mean in terms of financial results? The group operating revenue, you have it page 12 with the breakdown per quarter. What do you see? Quarter one, we entered into the year Jan-Feb up to the beginning of March, full blast, double-digit growth, every product line, every country. Then the COVID came, so plus 6.6%. Then the COVID was at the peak in Q2, minus 15%. We had an H1 at minus 4.6%.
Then comes the H2. Starting as early as Q3, we go back to growth, and then we have a small amplification of the growth in Q4, even if you remember that, in fact, in Q4, we saw the beginning of a new confinement in Europe and no exit from the confinement in Latin America. Even if the situation was very tricky in Q4, we have been able to post some growth in H2 at +1.1%. Resilient in Q2 and sharp rebound in H2, being able to post some growth. What does it mean per, in fact, business lines?
If we start with the employee benefits that represent in 2020 61% of our total operating revenue, what you see is exactly the same pattern as the general one that I described: a good start of the year, then the COVID crisis, and then a recovery to finish in Q4 with some growth at 0.6%. If we move now to fleet and mobility solutions representing 25% of our total operating revenue, you see exactly the same pattern and leading to, in fact, a year that is only at minus 1.2% like-for-like, which is mainly due to the success of our Beyond Fuel strategy, and then the complementary solutions where you see a year of growth like-for-like at almost 12% with every quarter that has been with a high level of growth.
Part of it is due, first of all, to the success of the new programs that we launched in Complementary Solutions and also due to the successes we had in our gift cards solution during the year and especially at the end of the year. Now, if we move to the breakdown per geographical areas, what do you see? I think Europe with 63% of our total operating revenue. What is remarkable is the fact that Europe is able to grow in 2020 with a growth of 1.3% like-for-like, and you see a strong rebound in Q3 with plus 7.3%, and then still some growth in Q4 at plus 4.5%, even if you remember that Q4 was the quarter of strong reconfinement in Europe.
In Latin America, the same pattern but a slower one, i.e., starting Q3, the situation is getting better, and Q4 is even better, even if we are still in negative territory, but the situation is improving slowly but surely in Latin America, and then same pattern for the rest of the world representing 8% of our total operating revenue, so yes, in 2020, we have been able to post some resilience and a strong capacity to rebound. The second thing we did in 2020 was to enhance our growth profile during the pandemic, so what did we do? Page 17. The first thing is we have been able to strengthen our digital leadership, and if you look at our program, whether in mobile strategy or in digital payment strategy, you see an acceleration of the deployment of our program.
In terms of Edenred app, we are now in nine countries covering three continents, and you see that the rating in terms of appreciation of our programs by the users are very high with more than four stars. If you think about the mobile payment, we have 41 programs covering 22 countries. And in fact, the number of transactions of mobile payment has increased by 32% in 2020. When you think about the online partnerships, even more impressive, such as meal delivery platform partnership, we have now more than 100 partnerships in 16 different countries. And if you look at the total number of transactions versus 2019 to go on those partnerships, it has been multiplied by six. And finally, innovation is also in the user experience with plastic-less programs. We launched, in fact, in Finland and Spain in 2020 and early 2021 in France.
So when you are using Edenred solution, you don't need a plastic card anymore. And so, the user experience is much improved. You have access to the service immediately, and anytime you pay, it's a direct payment. You don't need to enter your IBAN and the other things that make your life not as easy as a direct payment. The second thing we did was to foster our Beyond Fuel strategy. So we accelerated our value-added services for transportation companies across Europe. We have UTA One that has been, in fact, supported in 12 countries. And in 2021, we are opening four new countries. We made the integration of EBV Finance, and so we are now able to work on VAT and excise duty refund services in 31 different European countries. We facilitate the maintenance management in Latin America.
The Beyond Fuel strategy contributed to the good results of the fleet and mobility even during the pandemic, knowing that in 2020, the decrease was only -1.2%. This Beyond Fuel strategy success contributed also to lower the group revenue sensitivity to fuel price because in 2020, this sensitivity has decreased by 20%. The other thing we did as well, and that's the third element, is we targeted new markets. We took the example of what we call the Virtual Canteen. What is the Virtual Canteen? It's a solution like a Ticket Restaurant one, i.e., moving from a physical canteen to a Virtual Canteen. Why does it make a lot of sense? First of all, the user satisfaction is much higher with a Virtual Canteen than a physical canteen.
When we measure the satisfaction, we have three times more highly satisfied clients with a virtual versus a physical. And if we make the aggregation of satisfied and highly satisfied users, you have 20% more than with a physical canteen. So, from an employer point of view, from an employee point of view, it makes a lot of sense to have access to a virtual canteen versus a physical one. And why does it make a lot of sense? Because basically, it's the most flexible solution you can find on earth. You can use it anytime, for anything, anywhere, anyhow. And in fact, in terms of cost for the employer, it's very flexible and less costly. If you make the economic survey of how much does it cost, a physical canteen versus a virtual canteen, you have up to 20% savings with a virtual versus a physical canteen.
So when you look at this transformation of the society with more and more remote working, the virtual canteen that Ticket Restaurant represents is well positioned to replace a part of the share of wallet of the physical canteen. It's a plus for the employer because it's cost-efficient, and it's a plus for the employee because it brings much more satisfaction. When we say anywhere, anything, anyhow, anytime, what does it mean? Anything is thanks to the network you have access with Edenred to more than one million restaurants and food stores around the world. When we say anytime, obviously, the system is available 24/7. When we say anywhere, it means that you can eat at the office, at your home office, or in some coworking space, wherever you want.
And then it's anyhow, i.e., you can opt for the dining, for the click and collect, for the meal delivery, whatever suits you better, your needs every day. So, the flexibility and the universality of the solution is a plus. So, then what does it mean? What does it mean what we call the canteen 2.0? Well, first of all, during the pandemic, we made some short-term wins because, in fact, we were there to replace closed on-site cafeterias. But longer term, we see the opportunity to switch many companies from a physical canteen to a virtual canteen. And we have been able to have some first successes. So, for example, Siemens in Belgium trusted Edenred to move from the physical canteen to the virtual canteen. And in France, we changed with Orange and Société Générale, two major companies in France, to switch from physical canteen to virtual canteen.
It's true in Europe, but in fact, it's also true in the U.S. Due to the pandemic, suddenly some employers decided that they wanted to provide food benefits that they are not able to provide anymore because people are not on-site. So, for the first time in this story of Edenred, we have been able to sign a client like Spotify in the U.S. or CardLynx, but we have an encouraging pipeline. And it demonstrates that our solutions, even without any fiscal benefits, make a lot of sense in the new world we entered in, a world where the workers have more and more flexibility and choose where they want to work on a daily basis. But the other thing we did also in 2020 was to continue to invest in our key assets. Who are our key assets? First, our 10,000 employees.
We continue to invest in our employer brand, but also in our learning platform. But the other asset we have is also our technology. And as demonstrated before, we increased our CapEx by 6%. We believe in the future of Edenred. We believe in the technological leadership of Edenred. So we need to continue to invest and nurture our leadership. That's what we did in 2020. And the last thing as well, we believe in our strong CSR commitment. And when you look at our plan, People Planet Progress that we started in 2018, and if you compare the goals we are in versus the total sustainable development goals of the United Nations, in fact, Edenred is able to cover 12 out of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. And it's not because it's the pandemic that we do not continue to work on it.
And so we did it in 2020. And in fact, we have been able to achieve great progress towards our first milestone in 2022. In people, the number of women among our executive positions has reached 29%. So we are en route towards the 40%. As to the second pillar, which is planet, the intensity reduction of our greenhouse gas versus 2013 reached minus 46% in 2020. As to progress, in fact, we have more and more e-learning modules on anti-corruption, data protection, and diversity. So to make a long story short, we believe in our platform, in our platform for good, and we continue to work on our three pillars, People Planet Progress. And because we believe in it, we are not shy as to tie some of our financial instruments to the progress we are making on our CSR commitments.
So in 2020, our undrawn revolving credit facility of EUR 750 million for the first time in the history of Edenred was partly tied to social and environmental criteria to promote healthy and sustainable eating habits and to combat the global warming with the reduction of our greenhouse gas. So thanks to that, we have been able to record solid financial results despite the COVID-19. It's now time for Julien to explain to us how solid those financial results were in 2020. Julien, we are all yours.
Thank you, Bertrand. Good morning, everyone. As Bertrand said, Edenred demonstrated remarkable resilience and capacity to rebound in 2020. I propose we review in detail our solid financial results going through Q4 and full-year performance in terms of revenues. Then we will look at the full P&L. And finally, I will comment on free cash flow and net debt. I'm on page 25.
Let's start with our operating revenue. After Q2, deeply impacted by the first wave of COVID, Edenred has delivered two consecutive quarters of growth. In Q4, the like-for-like growth is 1.2% compared to 2019, confirming the performance of Q3. Like the whole year, Q4 has also been impacted by unfavorable currency effects of -9.9%, leading to a reported decrease of our revenue of -8.7%. For the full year, currency effects had an impact of -EUR 125 million on our operating revenue. All in all, thanks to our capacity to rebound during the second half of the year, we post a limited decrease of our revenue at -1.6% like-for-like for 2020. In 2020, our full operating revenue stands at EUR 1,423 million. We are now going to look at our operating revenue per geographies.
The trends of our business observed quarter after quarter illustrate the way the regions are recovering at different pace. Let's start with Europe. Europe performed extremely well in 2020 with both reported and like-for-like growth. The like-for-like growth stands at plus 1.3% for the whole year and at 1.9% in reported figures. Thanks to this performance, operating revenue reaches EUR 900 million in 2020. In France, the performance in Q4 has been impacted by curfew and stay-at-home measures decided in October by the government. These measures had a lesser impact on economic activity during the lockdown in Q2, and France's operating revenue grew by 1.4% in Q4. This growth is lower than in Q3. I remind you that in Q3, we captured reimbursement volume that had been accumulated by our users and had not been spent in Q2.
In addition, the new world situation has contributed to the strong ramp-up of transactions on meal delivery platforms for Ticket Restaurant. In the rest of Europe, our revenue growth in Q4 is outstanding, reaching mid-single-digit growth at +5.9%. The situations of our different countries in Europe were contrasted in Q4. In some countries, restaurants were still closed. In some others, the activity was more open. In this context, fleet and mobility business demonstrated good resilience thanks to sales success and value-added services such as toll. To conclude about Europe, we also did a good Christmas gift campaign. At the end of 2020, Europe represents 63% of our operating revenue. I move to page 27, and in Latin America, we notice a progressive recovery of our activities both in Brazil and Hispanic Latin America in a still challenging environment.
Our total revenue for Latin America is EUR 406 million, representing 29% of the total operating revenues of the group. In Brazil, our Q4 revenue is decreasing by 2.9% after Q3 at minus 4.5% like-for-like, confirming a progressive recovery. Stay-at-home measures are still in place, but the first signs of recovery are visible. In this context, thanks to our maintenance services and toll offerings, fleet and mobility deliver robust performance. And like in Europe, the meal delivery platforms are more and more used by our clients. Our digital platforms allow users to order easily their meals thanks to delivery food services and click and collect. In Hispanic Latin America, Q3 and Q2 have been badly impacted by the health situation, but we see clear signs of recovery in Q4. Some countries, such as Argentina, have lowered the level of health restrictions in Q4. Mexico is still impacted by the epidemic.
The impact of COVID on the economic situation is still high and is visible with the rise of unemployment and the negative retail fuel price effect in fleet and mobility solutions. The drop of our revenue is limited to minus 4.2% like-for-like after Q2 and Q3 at more than minus 15%. On page 28, let's have a look at our other revenues. Our other revenues have decreased from EUR 56 million in 2019 to EUR 42 million in 2020. Other revenues have been impacted by two factors. First, the low level of interest rates in the world. Interests are decreasing in all countries, including Mexico. Second, the significant negative currency effect due mainly to Brazilian reais and Mexican peso. These two effects are leading to a decrease of 11.9% like-for-like and 25% in reported figures. On page 29, we look at the total revenue of the company.
The total revenue is the sum of operating revenue and other revenues. Our total revenue reaches EUR 1,465 million in 2020. In Q4, our total revenue is increasing by 0.6% like-for-like at EUR 412 million, and our full-year performance is a limited drop of 2% like-for-like compared to last year. This minus 2% demonstrates the resilience and the rebound on Q3 and Q4 of the group. I move to page 30. And as Bertrand mentioned earlier, Edenred has posted an EBITDA at EUR 580 million in 2020. This EUR 580 million is in line with our guidance. And these achievements are the consequence of a limited decrease of our total revenue, as we have seen already, and the success of a cost-avoiding plan of EUR 100 million.
Regarding the cost-avoiding plan, you must bear in mind it has been launched in March after the first two months of 2020 with double-digit growth and an investment plan launched to develop our business. Thanks to a strong discipline of execution, we have been able to achieve our goals in terms of cost avoidance, whose main impact was in H2. Thanks to the capacity to rebound of our activity under control of our cost base, our EBITDA is decreasing by 5.6% like-for-like, and the EBITDA margin is moving from 31.1% to 39.6%, meaning a very limited decline of 1.5% in published figures and 1.1% decline in like-for-like figures. Looking at EBIT, the variation versus 2019 is minus 7.6%. This stronger decrease is due to the base effect. The decrease of value in EBIT between 2019 and 2020 is the same as in EBITDA.
If we move to page 31, another way to look at our EBIT evolution is this chart. It shows clearly that negative currency effect explains 75% of our EBITDA decrease, while our revenue only explains a small part of it. If we move to page 32, we're going to see how we go from the EBIT to our net profit. Other income and expenses go from minus EUR 25 million in 2019 to EUR 31 million in 2020, minus EUR 31 million in 2020. This increase is comprising asset write-off, restructuring plan, and more-than-ever relief plan. Regarding asset write-off, our legacy systems are progressively replaced by new platforms as we continue to rationalize our IT systems. The net financial expenses go from minus EUR 35 million to minus EUR 37 million. This expense is slightly higher due to lower interest rates on our treasury outside float.
I will come back later on the cost of our debt that has decreased in 2020. The income tax expense and the net profit attributable to non-controlling interest are in line with our global EBIT evolution. Consequently, the net profit group shares go from EUR 312 million in 2019 to EUR 238 million in 2020, meaning a decrease of EUR 74 million in line with the decrease of amount in EBITDA. In 2020, we have demonstrated our business model is ensuring profitable growth and high level of cash generation. We have generated a strong level of cash from operations, what we call funds from operations, with 2.7% like-for-like growth at EUR 475 million. This generation of funds from operations is key in our business model and is a first engine of cash generation.
On top of that, the level of cash inflow is high thanks to float increase related to business growth at the end of the year, and is boosted from float due to higher prepaid solution retention time. The increase of the retention time of approximately one week is explained by the health situation. Why did the retention time increase in 2020? Our employee benefit business is prepaid business mainly. When our clients place an order, they pay us, and then we are loading the accounts of our users. Once the accounts are loaded, users are spending their benefits progressively. Due to health restrictions such as lockdowns or curfews, some shops or restaurants were closed, and it has been more difficult for our users to spend their money accumulated on their accounts. At the end of 2020, this cash is on our balance sheet.
This is what we see in free cash flow. Then we take into consideration restricted cash. The restricted cash is due to an increase in float related to regulated programs such as Ticket Restaurants in France and an increase related to PPS external clients. The total cash generated from float when we take the float, the working capital, and the restricted cash is EUR 269 million. Taking into account the total of these three items plus the funds from operations and the recurring CapEx, we find a free cash flow of EUR 640 million. And as Bertrand said, we spend EUR 104 million in CapEx, i.e., more than 6% increase compared to previous year. So, as I said, in 2020, our free cash flow stands at EUR 640 million compared to EUR 400 million in 2019.
Obviously, the float, the negative working cap that has been, and the restricted cash that has been made this year will probably revert in 2021. With this high level of cash flow generation, we see that our debt has decreased going from EUR 1,290 million at the end of 2019 to EUR 1,115 million in 2020. In this bridge, we will find, obviously, the free cash flow, then the cash spent for acquisitions, of which Cooper Card in Brazil, EBV in Europe, and the exercise of UTA put option. Then we have the shareholder return, of which we find the paid dividend mainly, and then currency effects and other non-recurring items. For instance, non-recurring items are IFRS 16 new contracts that have been taken into account into this bridge. So, at the end of this year, our debt is lower than at the end of 2019.
On page 35, a high level of liquidity on a solid balance sheet plus a strong investment-grade rating gives us a robust financial position. Regarding our level of liquidity and our balance sheet, we have EUR 4.9 billion cash equivalent and restricted funds in our balance sheet. We have EUR 1.75 billion short-term financing options. In June 2021, we have extended the maturity of our RCF by one year. Its new maturity is now 2026. We have no financial covenants, and we have more than EUR 1 billion M&A firepower. Regarding our strong investment-grade rating, it has been confirmed in May 2020 by Standard & Poor's. Our cost of debt decreased by five basis points, down to 0.8%, and the average debt maturity has increased to more than five years. We have no major debt repayment before 2024.
Thanks to the result of the year and thanks to our cash position at the end of 2020, and because we are confident in the future, we will propose to the general meeting of May a EUR 0.75 dividend per share, i.e., a 7% increase compared to 2019. This dividend is consistent with the group profile and performance. Bertrand, I give you the floor.
Thank you, Julien. To conclude, what do we see for 2021? As I said in the introduction, when we think about the future of Edenred and based on the solid results of 2020, we see four trends that have been accelerated by the crisis and that position Edenred well for the post-COVID world. First of all, we are in a more connected, digital, and contactless world.
In fact, Edenred has the digital leadership of its industry and is able to continue to innovate and continue to invest into the innovation, even when times are more difficult, such as in 2020. Think about our plastic-less programs. Think about our Benefit Xpress program that we deployed and developed in Taiwan. Take into account that more than 50% of the global web traffic comes from mobile devices. In a more connected, digital, and contactless world, Edenred is well positioned to over-benefit from that. The second trend is we are living in a more remote working world. 60% of the employees who have been working from home in the main European markets would like to do it more in the future. 41% of managers are skeptical on maintaining the same level of motivation for remote workers. By so, what does it mean?
It means that Edenred is developing innovative solutions to overcome those challenges. Think about the Ticket Restaurant to move from physical canteens to virtual ones. Think about what we propose in rewards with ProwebCE or Easy Welfare to grow the need to preserve, in fact, the link with employees. Think about the new mobility solution that we put on the table with Ticket Mobility or the one that we have been nurturing for such a long time, such as Commuter Benefits. And we will come again and again, relentlessly, with new solutions for remote workers, leveraging this unique asset, which is our digital platform of intermediation between 50 million users and two million merchants. Then the third trend is, yes, we are living in a world seeking for more responsible behaviors. 90% of consumers expect strong CSR commitments from brands. And basically, Edenred is an enabler of responsible behaviors.
The more you are using Edenred products and services, the more you contribute to responsible behaviors. The third trend is we are living in a world seeking for more digital payments. As previously said, 50% of accounts payable in North America are still paid by paper checks and by cash. And we have a solution to improve that thanks to our CSI business in the U.S. And to give you an example, when you think about Sage, we have been able to expand our partnership with Sage at the beginning of 2021, and Sage will provide a fully embedded, integrated, payable solution powered by CSI. So we have a strong commercial dynamic as to the B2B digital payments, and we will see this trend increasing in 2021. So yes, we are poised for sustainable and profitable growth in 2021. If we summarize what we said, what are the pluses?
We have accelerated favorable macro trends that are impacting the working world, and we took four of them on which Edenred has a unique position. Then what we see, we see some strong innovation capacity and agility that leverage the Edenred unique intermediation platform. Thirdly, we demonstrated year after year that we have strong business and financial fundamentals. Not only were we able to grow, but we are also very resilient when times are tough, and finally, on top of this organic growth, we have the firepower to go after external growth with more than EUR 1 billion of firepower. Yes, we have many tailwinds, and there are a few headwinds, so we recognize as well that the level of unemployment will increase. The GDP recovery is going to be gradual.
But when we make, in fact, the synthesis of all those pluses and minuses, yes, we see Edenred being able to generate sustainable and profitable growth. But 2021 presents a still uncertain situation. There's one thing we don't know. We know about the growth potential of Edenred. We know that this growth potential is immense and intact, but there's one thing we don't know is by when are we going to be able to exploit fully the potential. Because there is one uncertainty, which is the conditions and length of time before we return to normal situation. And what we saw at the beginning of 2021 is new lockdowns and restrictions. Think about Germany. Think about the U.K. Think about France. Think about Brazil. We are sure that things are going to improve gradually with different speed depending on the continent. We know that.
But we don't know exactly by when it's going to happen completely and fully. So based on everything we said, with only one element of uncertainty that we don't control, we commit. And we commit to a minimum 6% like-for-like EBITDA growth in 2021. Thank you for your attention to all those matters. We have been a little bit long. It's only my fault, not the one of Julien. And Julien and myself, we are now fully yours to answer all your questions.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star two. You will be advised when to ask your question. And our first question comes from the line of Geoffrey Goodwin from Bank of America. Geoffrey, you are now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, everyone.
This is Geoffrey Goodwin from Bank of America. Three questions from my side. First of all, you mentioned you would expect Q1 to be quite resilient or to be fine. You mentioned you would expect strong resilience through Q1. Just would like to know if you can give us a bit more details and specific outlook for the start of the year and maybe what you see in January. My second question is, would you mind to comment on the competitive landscape you are seeing in France and basically maybe elsewhere? Are you seeing any change in terms of competitive landscape? And my third question is, beyond the funds accumulated by your clients during the pandemic, how much do you think has not been used yet and should be used in 2021? Thank you.
Hello, Geoffrey.
So, I propose to answer question one and two, and then I will leave the number three to Julien. So when we look at the year 2021, once again, our minimum commitment is plus 6% like-for-like EBITDA growth. You know us, and we love beating our guidances. When we look at the year, we are confident to post growth in H1 and also in H2. Okay? So when we say minimum 6%, we also say that there will be growth in H1 and there will be growth in H2. The quarter you mentioned, so the first quarter, is probably the one where when I look at the first two months of the quarter, we are in line with our plan. But the month of March is going to be an important one because it's where last year you saw the beginning of, in fact, the COVID crisis.
So to make a long story short, there will be growth. There will be growth in H1 and in H2. As to Q1, it's probably where we have a little bit of uncertainty due to the confinements we have here and there in Europe and continuing as well in Latin America. But I think the most important is a minimum 6% and growth in H1 and in H2 and our willingness to beat those estimates. But with one thing we don't know is a little bit of uncertainty as to the duration of the different confinements we still see in Europe. The second question as to the competitive landscape, basically, when we look at our performance versus our main competitors around the world, and you can think in benefits about Sodexo, or you can think in fleet and mobility, for example, in the U.S. with WEX and FleetCor.
If you look at all those players, you will discover that, in fact, Edenred overperformed on every business line versus the competition, so as I said at the beginning of my presentation, not only we demonstrated that Edenred is able to grow fast, but we also demonstrated for the last few years and also in 2020 that we are able to grow faster than the competition, and in the case of 2020, we demonstrate that we are able to rebound quickly and to be more resilient, so if you look at our performance in H2 2020, you will see that we rebound higher or we rebounded higher than the competition, so as to the competitive landscape, the dynamic we have been in for the last few years probably continued or was amplified, in fact, in 2020. That's why we decided to continue to invest selectively.
Our level of CapEx has increased by 6% because we want to continue to fuel the machine. That's why you see that we pay an increased dividend by 7% because it's our progressive dividend policy, but it's also because it's the proof that we believe in the growth profile and the future growth profile of Edenred. Then, Julien, the third question as to the retention time and the cash flow.
Yes. As I said during the presentation, there are two reasons behind the funds that have been accumulated at the end of the year. The first one is the fact that our business grew at the end of the year. You know that what we are presenting in terms of balance sheet figures is the result of the performance of the last months of the year.
The first reason is that we have grown in the last quarter. The second thing is related to the retention time. All in all, when we look at our balance sheet and we think about the total accumulated amount at the end of 2020, it is between EUR 300 million and EUR 400 million.
Okay. Thank you. Maybe just a quick follow-up on the first question. Bertrand, I get your comments regarding Q1, but do you think Q1 should be very different to the trends we've seen in Q4 and Q3 2020, or it should be broadly similar?
Geoffrey, one thing I'd like to say, my job is to manage medium- and long-term Edenred. One quarter is only one quarter. The most important is growth in H1, growth in H2. Why in Q1?
Q1 doesn't mean a lot because, in fact, we are in a very different situation versus Q1 2020. In Q1 2020, in fact, we were at double-digit growth in every country and on every product line. Okay? We know that the basis of comparison is very high, very high in January and in February, but the basis of comparison that is much better in March because March was the beginning of the COVID. And so the restriction we had the last two weeks of Q1 2020 were much more intense than the restrictions that we have today. So basically, January and February, we have a basis of comparison that is very unfavorable. But as you see, we have been growing sequentially from one month to another, in fact, in 2020.
So we expect this growth from one month to another to continue in January and February, but we have a strong basis of comparison. And in fact, March, we expect to see the continuation of our recovery month after month, but then the basis of comparison becomes much more favorable. That's why I'm able to tell you that H1 is going to be in positive growth territory. But then on a quarterly basis, I'm sure about Q2, we will see how it goes in Q1, and the month of March is a Q1.
Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from the line of Paul Sullivan from Barclays. Paul, you are now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Go od morning, Bertrand and Julien. Good to hear from you again. Can I just follow up on that? So the 6% guidance, it sounds like it's a function of conservatism.
Is there anything specific in terms of costs coming back? And when do you think you'll be able to restore the sort of the frontier targets? It does sound like we'll be back to double-digit growth in the second half or even potentially the second quarter. That's the first question. And then on the sort of structural stuff, virtual canteens, I don't know if you can quantify how much you believe that expands your addressable market. And you talked about the pipeline in the U.S. I don't know whether you could flesh that out in any more detail. Is that something that you believe could become a sort of a meaningful driver going forward? Thank you.
Okay. So Paul, first of all, what we said about the plus 6% like-for-like EBITDA is a minimum.
What you know is we love beating our minimum, and we have been doing that for the last five years. There's another thing that you know as well is we hate disappointing. We have an uncertainty. The uncertainty is nobody thought that in Q4, you could have some reconfinement. We had some reconfinement in Q4. By the way, when you think about our guidance that we gave EUR 550 million-EUR 600 million, we gave it by the end of H1 2020. We said without any reconfinement. We went through a reconfinement in Q4, and we have been able to post EUR 580 million in 2020. The uncertainty we have in 2021 is still about the reconfinement. Every week brings its lot of good news and bad news.
This morning, I woke up by listening to the mayor of Paris saying there's no way we're going to reconfine in Paris. Last week, the same mayor said, "I ask for a four-week total reconfinement in Paris." And there were only four days between those two messages. And what is true for Paris is true for many other areas of France. It's true for what's going on in the U.K., but also in Germany. Think about Germany. Germany in 2020, the confinement was very light. The confinement, hard one, strict one, started in fact in 2021. Nobody thought that it would happen. So I have to manage with the Edenred people this level of uncertainty. So to say it another way, we want to do more than 6%. So it's a minimum.
We will do everything we can to beat that because we love doing that, and we have been doing it for the last five years. But it's going to depend on the uncertainty we have about the confinement. It's true in Europe, but it's also true in Latin America. The good news is we commit. So if you look at our main competitors, if I'm not mistaken, nobody is given a guidance for 2021. And because we know that Edenred is resilient, we are able to commit to a minimum. Okay? So it has nothing to do with the cost because one of your questions is, don't you think that it's a question of cost? No. When you look at our cost structure, you will see that our cost structure by the end of 2020 is close to the one that we had in 2019.
So what did we do in 2020? We entered into the year with some great expectations in terms of growth. When you are the CEO of a company, to succeed at your growth challenge, you need to invest as early as possible. So we invested a lot in January and February, and we were in a good track to go after double-digit growth. Then the COVID comes, so we need to adapt. So we adapted very selectively our plan of expenses. And so we have been able to reduce the initial plan of OpEx to stay at the same level in 2020 as compared to 2019. It led to a cost avoidance plan of EUR 100 million. But what you see is the level of OpEx is quite the same between the two years. What does it mean?
It's not as if in 2020 we had to cut like madmen to meet our objectives. We did it very selectively on certain programs, and we have the same level as we had in 2019. As I said, we even increased our CapEx investments in 2020 by 6% because we believe in the rebound of Edenred, and we believed it well because, in fact, we have been able to rebound as fast as H2 2020, so then your question is, when can you restore the guidance pre-COVID? I don't know yet because I don't know when the COVID is over, but the one thing I know is I know that the growth potential of Edenred is absolutely intact, i.e., I continue to believe in the future of the growth of Edenred as much as I believed before the COVID crisis.
One of the reasons is the four macro trends that I shared with you and on which we start seeing the first materialization of the impact on our P&L. And so even if I recognize that the world post-COVID is going to be much more difficult in terms of GDP growth, in terms of unemployment, at the same time, we are the technological leader that will leverage all our assets and our investment to benefit from the four trends I shared with you. So on your first question, yes, +6% is the minimum, and we will do anything we can to beat that. And it's going to depend a little bit on the speed of the exit of the confinement. No, it has nothing to do with the cost.
Our cost structure in 2020 is equal to the one we had in 2019, and we even increased our investments into our technological assets to make sure that we will over-benefit from the new world we are living in. When do we restore our guidance pre-COVID? I don't know yet because I don't know yet when the COVID crisis is going to be over. So one year after another. Then your second question is about structural things we share with you. Let me give you a few numbers as to the virtual canteens. If you take a country like France, but in fact, you have many, many countries around the world who have the same pattern. In France, 25% of the workers have a solution like Ticket Restaurant, Ticket Restaurant, and the other competitors. 25% do not have Ticket Restaurant and have access to a physical canteen.
So the share of wallet of the physical canteen is the same as the share of wallet of the virtual canteen in France. When you look at what's going on, so as I said, the remote working, the high level of satisfaction, it's fair to think that part of this physical will become virtual. And it has happened, in fact, during the COVID exceptionally, and the exceptional will move to the structural. You could put the following assumptions on the table. You could say, "Okay, in the canteen, you have the canteen for the industrial sector, so for the factories." And so this part of the business is not going to move to physical canteen to virtual because when you have a factory in the middle of the countryside, you don't have any alternative to the physical canteen.
So you have to look at the physical canteen for the service in the metropolitan area. And then within that, you have to look at the percentage of the people along the next few years who will have to renew their premises and who will say, "Okay, I'm done with a physical canteen because it's more costly, and I move to virtual." But so you can put numbers behind that, but we are talking about significant percentage of growth for the next few years moving from physical to virtual. It takes time because when you change something like that in a company, you need to discuss with the social organizations, you need to change premises, or you need to refurbish premises. So a few things will happen very fast. So we saw it with Siemens in Belgium, Orange, or Société Générale in France.
Things will happen along the next few years. It's not going to be an instant inflow. It's going to be additional growth for the next three to five years to our businesses of Ticket Restaurant everywhere around the world.
It's very comprehensive. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Our next question comes from the line of Simon Lechipre from Stifel. Simon, you are now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Three on my side, please. First of all, if we look back to the CMD, I remember your sort of commitment on your ability to produce margin improvements, perhaps not every year, but at least over a three-year period. Just wondering if you're able to comment today whether we should see a B2B margin in 2022 above the level of 2019.
Secondly, in terms of your strategy around innovation and adjacencies, could you maybe comment on which market offers the largest opportunities today between non-fuel services, engagement platform, and corporate payments? And lastly, you mentioned more than 1 billion MNFI per year. So could you talk about your ambitions there? Is that something that is high on your agenda today? And if you can remind us on what sort of build you could look at. Thank you.
Simon, good morning. Thank you for your question. So as to the margin improvement, yes, as soon as we are back to growth, the EBITDA margin is going to improve because we are a scale business. So with a minimum 6% growth of EBITDA, it also implies in 2021 a margin improvement. So remember, we are still in uncertain times, but yes, in 2021, with growth, there will be some margin improvement.
The scale business is still the same. The more volume we have, the more we are able to dilute some of our fixed costs, even if, and you remember that, we don't make, let's say, a total dogma of the EBITDA margin improvement. We said that if one semester or one quarter, we need to accelerate to go after an opportunity, we will make the investment. So, for example, you have a program like DFE. You have the opportunity to feed 1.3 million children in the UK. It's a huge investment for us to put that in place. And it has to be done fast because the service needs to be opened two weeks after you sign the contract.
And to give you an idea, when we opened the service, the website of Edenred in the U.S. became the second most visited website in the U.K., just like that, in two weeks. You need to invest. And we will make the investments, even if it's a little bit dilutive on the EBITDA margin day one. Okay? So yes, we are a scale business. Yes, if we bring more volume, you will see an improvement of the EBITDA margin. No, it's not a dogma on a quarterly or semester basis, depending on the opportunities we find and we invest in to fuel the growth. Your second question is about what we have in our plate in terms of innovation and adjacencies and what could bring the most value. Making some prioritization into that is not an easy exercise.
When you think about it, in benefits, there are still many things we can do. Virtual canteen is one thing, but we have many other innovations in our bag, so when we are moving from a digital offer to a plastic-less offer, what does it mean? It's an investment, but we improve the user experience because when you are without plastic and you become an employee of a company, day one, boom, you have your account, and when you are using a plastic-less solution, you don't need anymore to type your IBAN with 60 numbers and then the expiration date, so you enter into a world that is very frictionless and seamless.
The investment into the technology, bringing a better user experience and decreasing our cost as well because we don't have to manage the logistics anymore of printing some plastic, securing, and delivering the plastic makes a lot of sense for us. We still believe that virtual canteens, innovation, penetration of the market on a well-mastered business that is the benefit business is somewhere we need to continue to invest because, yes, as we said during the Capital Market Day, we see between 5% and 10% growth on the benefits on a yearly basis. Another element on this market that I didn't share with you or quickly, the fact that the world becomes more a remote working world, what does it mean? It means that you have, unfortunately, less loyalty from remote workers than workers on site. The employers have to invest to increase the loyalty.
And we have some reward solutions that are fully digital that makes that possible. And we see that, and we saw that in 2020, where we had a very nice increase of our reward benefits or rewards business division. So in the first division of Edenred, we still have a lot that we can do to fuel the growth. Then, if you look at fleet and mobility that represent 25% of our total revenue, we are still very far from the full potential or Beyond Fuel strategy. Yes, we started the VAT collection. Yes, we started the maintenance in Latin America, but we need to continue to deploy that in Europe. And as you know, it's an install-based business. So every year, you bring another layer that comes on the top of the historical layers. So when we look at fleet and mobility, it's still unpenetrated.
We need to continue to penetrate, and we need to continue to increase the Beyond Fuel strategy. We will continue to invest into our product and services, digital, but also on our commercial forces to make it possible. We should be able to do both. Then when you think about CSI and digital payments, yes, things are changing in the U.S. We are putting the pipe, the digital pipe of payment, if I may say so, and the volume will come back as soon as the American economy is going to be vaccinated, if I may say so. The only thing I don't know is by when, boom, we have a complete reopening of the American economy. For sure, the trends we described at the Capital Markets Day are still valid and even more valid, in fact, after the crisis than before the crisis.
At Edenred, the way we are organized and our agility and financial power should allow us to go after those opportunities that exist on every division of the business, in benefits, in fleet and mobility, but also in complementary solutions. Your third question was about our firepower and our ambition. Yes, the good news is in 2020, our level of net debt went down, and our leverage is at 1.9%. I'm sure you remember when we started entering into the crisis, we said, "For the leverage, we don't know yet. We're going to learn because it's a new situation." Our commitment was no more than 2.8%. We finished at 1.9%. It means that, yes, we have solid financial fundamentals, and thanks to this strong generation of cash, we have a firepower of more than EUR 1 billion. What do we want to do?
The priority is the organic growth, but we love also the external growth. Our strategy did not change. First of all, in benefits, we want to continue to consolidate. Our ambition as the everyday companion for people at work is to make sure that in every country, on every product line, as long as we see some growth potential and some profitability on those product line/market, we want to be among the top three. In fact, you know us, we are competitive. When we are number three, we go for silver. When we have the silver medal, we are very excited to learn, to change, and to go for the gold medal. Yes, we will continue the consolidation of the benefits. We know that the targets are not that big, but in 2020, we bought a Cooper Card in Brazil. Why did we do that?
Because it's in a state where our relative market share was pretty low, lower than our global market share in Brazil. It's a good state to be in, well-managed state. So we are not able to do it organically because it's a pretty remote area. So we go through acquisition. And we will continue like that everywhere around the world. As to fleet and mobility, our strategy did not change. Fleet and mobility is a scale business. The more volume we bring, the better we are. And the more volume we bring, the more we are able to cross-sell our beyond fuel strategies. So we will do the build-up of the fleet and mobility around the world. As to the complementary solutions and thinking about the digital payments and so the payables management, we will do the consolidation, and the priority is in the U.S.
So as you can see, Simon, our strategy did not change. But the other thing that did not change as well is our financial discipline. We believe in the value creation, and we believe in the fact that we should pay the right price for the right acquisition. And we believe in the fact that it can be risky to make an acquisition. So we need to maximize our chances to make the right integration of the assets that we are buying. So we continue to have the same strategy, and we continue to be very professional in the way we assess the targets and in the way we want to integrate those targets.
Thanks for that very information.
Our final question comes from the line of Bruno La Rochebrochard from Bryan Garnier. Bruno, you are now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everyone.
A follow-up on your guidance, maybe just to clarify. What level of organic you have to generate on top line to increase 6% EBITDA? Secondly, regarding cost savings, what part of cost savings could be considered as recurrent? And finally, are there any risks of bad money? Thank you.
Sorry, Bruno, what is your last question?
Bad money. Are there any risks regarding the economic situation today?
Okay. Julien?
Yeah.
Go for it.
Y es. So we've seen in 2020 that due to what the government did for all the companies, we are at a very low level of bankruptcy in most of the countries. However, we know that in the future, we will have to manage this kind of thing. And we have decided to work a lot on our credit management, and especially in fleet and mobility businesses.
So obviously, the risk could increase, but we are doing everything we can to improve our DSO and to reduce our level of bad debt. And at this stage, we've managed that quite well. Okay. Just as a reminder, we are in the prepaid business as well. So our risk versus the bad debt is mainly in fleet and mobility. And that's why we have been cautious in 2020 with a specific management on that.
Then, Bruno, your second question was about the cost savings and how recurrent it is. Julien, what is your view on that?
Well, my view on cost savings, you've seen that in 2020, we have de cided to launch a cost avoidance plan. And you've seen that our level of expenses in 2020 is at the level of 2019. Now, what we expect in 2021 is to generate growth.
We think that we will need to invest, and obviously, we'll take care in the fact that our level of expenses cannot grow faster than the level of growth of our revenue. We cannot duplicate what we've done last year, but we will do everything we can to fuel the growth, taking care of our level of expense.
But maybe another thing we can add, Julien, is once again, the EUR 100 million is a cost avoidance plan. It means that our cost structure in 2020 is the same as the one we had in 2019. We start with, let's say, a clean table on which we can now modulate our level of spendings depending on the growth that we're going to be able to generate. But Bruno, make no mistake, it did not change. We are for sustainable and profitable growth.
So in profitable growth, what does it mean? And it was your question number one. It means that we must generate more EBITDA growth than the revenue growth, unless exceptional situation. So our goal in 2021, if we say that it's a minimum 6%, if we say that the EBITDA margin should go up as soon as we have a certain level of growth, it means that the operating revenue growth is going to be slightly lower than the 6%. So expect to see in 2021 a pattern that is the pattern we had for the last few years, i.e., a level of EBITDA growth that is higher than the level of operating revenue growth thanks to the leverage we have on our fixed costs.
Okay. Thank you. That's clear.
This is the end of the Q&A session. So I will now give the floor back to the speakers.
Okay.
So thanks a lot for all your questions and for your patience during the last 90 minutes we spent together. As I said, we knew that Edenred is a company that is able to grow, and we demonstrated that as early as the third quarter of 2020. The second thing we demonstrated as well is the fact that Edenred is resilient. It's a unique situation we have never been through. And now that we have been through, we demonstrated that even in pandemic times, not only were we able to rebound quickly, but we are also able to resist. And when I say resist, it's when we look at our financial numbers, it's a year where we have been able to deleverage Edenred, and thanks to a high generation of cash flow, and it's a year where we have been able to continue to invest. Why?
Because we believe that the growth potential of Edenred is intact. And so the year 2021 is now the year of back to sustainable and profitable growth. 6% is a minimum. We will do anything we can to beat that. And it's going to depend a little bit on the speed of deconfinement we will see everywhere around the world. Positive for a platform company and VSTEC, Tech for Good and Platform Company is Edenred. Thank you.
Thank you.