Ladies and gentlemen, and shareholders, good afternoon. We're very happy to meet up with you for this General Shareholders' Meeting, which is a milestone for any listed company. This meeting is broadcasted live on our internet site. Considering the sanitary situation, we decided to hold this meeting at the corner of the La Défense district, without the physical presence of shareholders. In those circumstances, no admission card was delivered, and you will not be able to vote live directly, physically. But you voted remotely before this meeting, either through Votaccess or by sending your voting form by the post. In the same way, you gave power to the third party that you wanted to. In the preparation of this meeting, the board reviewed particularly the 27 written questions that were sent to us by six shareholders.
As usual, the answers Board of Directors were made public on the internet site of the company, but to favor dialogue with our shareholders, and as a supplement to this legal system for written questions, we encouraged you to ask questions on an online platform that was open on the 10th of May. You could ask questions in writing, but also by audio or video, and we were very happy to see that almost 140 shareholders used that possibility and expressed questions through this means, and you still have the possibility of asking questions during the session until the end of the Q&A session, and we're going to try and answer them as well as we can. We will have gathered questions by theme.
And, as it is also the tradition, we have conducted, in the preparation of this meeting, a dialogue with our institutional and individual shareholders. I exchanged directly, even though it was virtually, with the advisory board of the shareholders, associations of shareholders, employees, and a number of institutional shareholders. So that's basically a roadshow that's, and the chairman is involved, to open directly the dialogue with our institutional shareholders to understand what are their concerns, to my side, today. And it shows that diversity is a very topic at Engie. Catherine MacGregor, our General Manager since the 1st of January. Judith Hartmann, the CFO, and Claire Waysand, to my left-hand side, vice president in charge of the General Secretary. Françoise Malrieu, chairman of the Appointment and Remuneration Committee, is present, as well as our auditors, statutory auditors, who will express themselves later on.
I'm going to call as scrutineers the two present shareholders representing the biggest number of votes, Claire Vernet-Garnier, who represents today the French State, and Frédéric Gabriel, representing Amundi. I suggest that we appoint Claire Waysand as the secretary of this meeting. The bureau that we've constituted has got the documents that prove the regularity of the way this meeting was convened. Considering the conditions, the holding of this meeting, the final quorum and the results of the vote were determined yesterday, the 19th of May at 3:00 P.M. when the Votaccess platform was closed. The final quorum is 1,667,458,538 shares that represents 68.90% of the shares with voting rights. Excuse me, that quorum is reached. I note that the legal quorum necessary of a quarter of shares with voting rights is reached.
As a consequence, I can declare that this meeting is properly constituted and may proceed. Right. Our agenda includes 16 ordinary resolutions and four extraordinary resolutions. I've got to specify also that an amendment to the third resolution, proposing the reduction of dividend was filed by FCPE Link France, one of the funds of employee shareholders. That resolution was not approved by the board that made a different proposal in terms of dividend. Our general meeting should last about two and a half hours. I will open it in a few minutes, coming back to the striking facts of the year 2020 and the beginning of this year. Catherine will present the strategic plan in the midterm of the group that she shared some days ago with the market.
We organized those two presentations so that we could come to you after the exchanges with the financial markets to talk to you about the strategic plan. Judith will present the results for 2020 and will tell us about some prospects, and we will hear our statutory auditors. I will then come back with my colleagues, the chairmen of the committees, to share with you some information and comments about the Board of Directors work and the works we've done in the last year. Finally, we have planned an hour of dialogue before we actually look at the results of the votes that Claire will share with us, so I hope this agenda that is very complete will allow us to deal with the different subjects that deal with your concerns, and I'm going to start it with some highlights of 2020.
2020, quite a complex year for Engie, which allowed for some useful clarifications. I think I gathered my comments in three themes of the response of the group to the health crisis, the clarification of our strategic directions, and the setting up of the new governance of the group after transition phase. The health situation, you'll know it, health crisis that hit us in the beginning of March, even though some of our businesses in Asia had encountered it in the very beginning of the year. Our first decision was to adapt our working methods and make our employees safe. We were quite responsive. In less than 48 hours, we placed many of our employees in teleworking.
And for the people, for our people in the field, we adapt our working methods so that our employees could work safely. We ensure the continuity of our essential missions. And one of the characteristics of the group is that sense of public service. It really expressed itself. I don't know any situations where we would have not been able to bring to our customers the essential services that they need. That is energy supply, obviously, which is essential for any business, but also services to support the first-line workers, hospitals, the cooling chain. So the group was present, and we demonstrated strong capacity to adapt. And I would like to seize this opportunity to thank again all of our employees for their commitment, their flexibility in this period.
I think that the values of the group, I was talking about the sense of public service, but I could add our focus on customers, but also our sense of solidarity expressed themselves very strongly in this crisis. You know, it is a crisis that had a very strong impact, and it led us to decide we told you about in the last general meeting last year to cancel the payment of dividends. We didn't know in May last how that crisis was going to develop, and it seemed to us to be a wise decision in that uncertain context. Later on, Judith will get back to the impact of the crisis on our accounts.
It was strong in the second quarter, but towards the end of 2020, we got back to a level of activity that was the same as before the crisis, except for the sectors that are directly impacted by the crisis, like transport. In total, this year and this particularly difficult year, Engie showed its resilience and the quality of its teams. 2020 is not only the year of the management of the crisis. We initiated as soon as 2019 some thoughts, supported by the conviction that the group was too complex, wanted to be in too many fields of activity and too many geographies, and clear choices were necessary. On the occasion of the general meeting of 2020, we made you approve a purpose which you approved very enthusiastically because the vast majority of the votes were in favor of that purpose.
That purpose was a guide in the strategic thinking that we did in the following part of the year. Those thoughts translated into a number of announcements that were made at the end of July 2020 with a very clear message on the fact that we wanted to focus our development efforts in two fields: renewables and infrastructures, and in particular, decentralized infrastructures, local authority infrastructures, that seemed to us to be two business lines in line with our purpose. We've got strengths in those two sectors and to continue being one of the leaders. It is important that we can devote an important part of our resources.
In the same time, a simplification of our service activities with the decision to create an entity that is called Bright, that is going to gather all of the service activities that are a bit more remote from our core business of Engie company and that may find new prospects, being a bit more remote from the group. We also announced at the end of July 2020 that in this context in which we wanted to simplify and post clearly priorities, our stake in Suez was no more strategic. And that triggered a process that you may have followed in the press, which unfortunately at a time gave the feeling of some violence, of a brutal fight between two big French companies.
From the point of view of Engie, we were guided by one objective, that is the one, of the defense of the interests of Engie, and the best valuation of this stake, being attentive to the fact that the commitments taken by the buyer, in this case, Veolia, because, in fact, it was the only company that showed its interest, the commitments taken by Veolia in terms of employment jobs and its will to conduct merger in the best way possible, Board of Directors decided that those conditions were good enough, and we disposed of our stake in Suez. Then there's the situation of the nuclear activity. We've got seven tranches in Belgium. The Belgian law currently says that those activities have got to stop at the end of 2025.
A debate was opened in Belgium to know whether those, some of those units could be extended. We said that two could be extended. And along the exchanges that were set up in Belgium in the autumn and the decisions announced by this government, we considered that it was not very likely that such an extension could be possible. So we announced officially the stop of projects of extension that could have been initiated. So it means that as from 2025, we're going to start the dismantling of these activities in the framework of dialogue with the public authorities in Belgium, but also with other stakeholders, including the staff representatives.
So all of those elements, the clarification of the directions in July, the priorities, the launch of Bright, the disposal of our stake in Suez and the stop of our nuclear activities in Belgium contribute to a clarification that will allow Catherine to announce a strategic roadmap today that is characterized by simplicity, clarity, and priorities that are very strong. Last point for this year 2020, that was quite a busy year for Engie governance. The departure of Isabelle Kocher the end of February, the setting up of collective management with three people, Judith Hartmann, who's next to me, Paulo Almirante, who was in charge of, well, he was interim manager, and Claire Waysand. I'd like to thank them. They had to face complex challenges, and they managed to overcome them. Having said that, we needed to identify a new manager for the group.
This is what we did, through a process that was conducted with a lot of rigor and with a strong involvement of Françoise Malrieu and all of the committee of appointments, final decision made Board of Directors in the beginning of October, and through this process, we have identified Catherine MacGregor as being the manager who we thought could met what was at stake in the group. And in the last days, I'm sure you were convinced that we have chosen a manager who shares our concern for clarity in the strategy, in the definition of the group, a manager who's got an industrial career that is very dense, and I think that theme of operational performance, this theme that consists in saying that the core of the know-how of Engie is around the capacity to prepare, achieve, and operate projects, industrial business.
Those were essential points for us, and the schedule of this selection process allowed us first to clarify our strategic directions and to ensure with the applicants that we had retired that there was a good alignment between their ambitions, expectations, and those strategic directions, and it is this process that led us to appoint Catherine MacGregor as the General Manager of the group. She started in this job on the 1st of January, and you have seen lately that she perfectly understands the issues of the group, and she can express the strategic roadmap of the group very clearly. The word on the dividend policy, obviously, the chairman has got to express himself about this.
We propose today a return to the payment of dividends in application of the dividend policy of the group that we reasserted in February last at the time of the making of this decision of the payment of a dividend. And on the occasion of the meeting of Catherine with our financial community, reasserted our dividend policy. So we proposed the payment of a dividend of EUR 0.53 per share. That is at the top of the range of payout ratio that is our reference. In total, I've got the feeling that 2020 was very dense, very rich. The management of the crisis allowed to show the resilience of the group and the quality of our teams.
It allowed also this year, 2020, to clear up our strategic directions and our ambitions and allowed us to identify a manager who is now in control after having set up an executive committee of quality. That leads me to give the floor to Catherine MacGregor after a short video that is going to illustrate the essential elements of our strategy. Thank you.
The climate crisis challenges the world. Faced with an unprecedented pandemic that has highlighted how interdependent we all are, energy transition and resilience are at the heart of all recovery plans. Over 120 countries are committed to carbon neutrality by 2050. A new world of energy is taking shape. Our purpose and our know-how are fully aligned, giving us a unique position to rise to the challenge.
By building today the affordable low-carbon energy system of tomorrow based on a balanced and reliable mix, we are on the path to sustainable growth. We are implementing at pace a simpler, refocused Engie and accelerate with an ambitious carbon target for us and our clients to reach net zero carbon by 2045 by concentrating our investments in renewables to grow our capacity from 31 GW in 2020 to 50 GW in 2025, phasing out of coal globally by 2027, accelerating our development in distributed energy infrastructures and related services with the target of 45 million tons of CO2 avoided emissions for our customers by 2030, and strengthening our pioneering role in green gases to achieve 4 GW of renewable hydrogen capacity by 2030. Our objectives are ambitious. Our roadmap is clear.
Streamline our client solutions business with the creation of a global leader in multi-technical services, focus our efforts on our historical markets close to the expectations of our customers, adapt our organization to make it even more efficient and clearer, make operational excellence the keystone of our activities. We can count on the mobilization of all our teams: inspired, engaged, expert women and men driven by the same ambition. Together, thanks to our industrial approach, to position Engie as a leader in the energy transition committed to people and the planet. Chers actionnaires. Dear shareholders, hello. I am particularly pleased to participate in this general assembly. It's my first as the CEO of Engie. I'm also very happy to share with you a summary of our strategy in action.
This is the roadmap that we presented in greater detail to the financial markets two days ago when we presented the results from our first quarter. The energy world is undergoing a singular dynamic driven by, in particular, the climate transition. We have significant growth opportunities for Engie, and our group must seize them and will seize them because we have unique strengths. In particular, we have teams that are extremely professional and motivated. We have teams that are committed to our purpose, our purpose, which is to accelerate our transition to a carbon-neutral economy. We also have a portfolio of very strong assets and long-standing expertise. However, we find ourselves faced with stiff competition that we cannot ignore. On certain markets, Engie has sometimes gotten behind. It's true.
This is why, with the support of the board and in line with our strategic guidelines that we announced last year and that Jean-Pierre Clamadieu reminded you of just a moment ago, we decided to reposition ourselves in a major way. This means going back over our portfolio and setting up a simplified organizational structure that is more focused on our group's métier, our expertise in industrial fields. We are going to focus more on operational execution and excellence. I truly believe that Engie must be managed in a way that's more integrated and, above all, more industrial. That is truly what drives the roadmap that I'm going to share with you today. Our goal is to reposition Engie for long-term growth that is sustainable. This will be a simpler Engie focused on industrial excellence with activities that are aligned with the major trends in the sector.
We are going to make a true commitment to net zero carbon, and we are going to opt for an excellent ESG performance. Our new organization will be an empowered organization focused on performance. We will allocate our capital in a way that allows us to maintain our growth in renewables and in infrastructure, in particular, distributed energy infrastructure. We have a unique position at Engie in order to lead an energy transition that must be affordable, reliable, and sustainable. We have identified four major levers for this repositioning effort. We are going to reposition ourselves for growth, and we're going to do this with a geographical repositioning and a repositioning as well of our métier. We've announced that we are going to go from 70 countries where we worked in 2018 to below 30 in 2023.
We're going to go over our activities, and Jean-Pierre Clamadieu talked to you about this already. I'll tell you more about it later. We are streamlining our organization. We're going to go from 25 business units to four global business units, and I will present them to you. There will be a major responsibility vis-à-vis P&L, cash, and operational performance. We will also continue to capitalize on our historic presence that is local and strongly grounded, and that is going to allow us to stay close to our shareholders, our stakeholders, rather, and our clients.
We announced a performance plan that will bring EUR 600 million to our EBIT over the period 2021 to 2023, three major focal points here: the deployment of our industrial expertise with operational performance targets that will be completely in line with our financial results, a broader deployment of our data and digital tools, and lastly, a strengthening of our support services, so those are the three main points that I wanted to share with you about the performance plan, and we are also going to accelerate our growth, and we announced on Tuesday an investment plan of EUR 15-EUR 16 billion in CapEx between now and 2023. This will be focused mainly on renewables and infrastructure for distributed energy infrastructure. The energy industry is entering a new cycle of growth, a massive cycle of growth, with a significant increase in renewable energy capacity.
It will be multiplied by three and a half in the coming years. All of this will mean cities, governments, and companies will be increasing their commitments as well to speed up this energy transition. In this transition, we believe that gas has a role to play. We need an energy transition that is affordable, reliable, and sustainable. In order to achieve that, we need flexible solutions, and that is where the focus is increasingly these days. These need to be dispatchable solutions in order to round out this drive for growth in renewables. We believe that in Europe alone, we need to increase capacity by 30% between now and 2050 in order to maintain our energy system's resiliency. We also plan and are planning for the emergence of a hydrogen economy, and Engie is extremely well positioned for this.
I'll tell you more about this in just a moment. So there is an alignment between our core business and the demand of society and of our clients. Engie is the best-suited company to lead this energy transition. We have a position that is very strong regarding renewables, and we also have gas equipment going for us. So it is very important for us to build an Engie that is simpler, focused on this energy transition that is affordable, reliable, and sustainable. And we are setting up four global business units to achieve this. They will all contribute to this energy transition, in particular, with renewables. They will produce decarbonized electricity. There will be energy solutions that will house our low-carbon distributed energy infrastructure. We have infrastructure that will ensure energy delivery at an affordable price.
Then we also have our thermal and energy supply GBUs, which will provide flexible energy production. These four GBUs represent an infra-like business model, and they have complementary profiles. The renewable and energy solutions GBUs have a strong growth perspective. Infrastructure and thermal will provide us with stable income and a lot of cash flow. One of the major points of our roadmap is the acceleration of our growth in renewables. This slide sums it up well, but you have to remember that we are starting from a position that is little known but is strong. Today, we are number one in wind and solar. We are number one independent producer in Brazil, and we also have strong growth in the U.S. We have a major ambition to reach 40 GW of installed capacity by 2030, and we are starting with 31 GW.
We explained on last Tuesday to the markets that we have the goal of increasing our annual capacity. Currently, it's 3 GW, roughly. We want to go up to 4 GW and then to 6 GW. So we want to double our capacity, our additional annual capacity, between now and 2025. To justify these additions, we have come up with a 56-gigawatt portfolio in a very detailed way, and this is how we are going to make this renewable energy transition perfectly clear and credible. We have competitive advantages here. In particular, we have very strong skills in the development of projects. We have recognized skills in terms of the management of energy, so energy management. And we also are working with the global business unit called Renewables to strengthen our advantages as operators and as industrial actors vis-à-vis renewables. In terms of client solutions, we are creating two leaders.
We have Energy Solutions, which is a leader of low-carbon distributed energy infrastructure and related services. Then we have Bright. Just to remind you, it's a temporary name. It's going to also be a leader in multi-technical services such as cooling, electrical systems, and building renovations. We are going to be able to drive this growth with Bright as well because the energy transition means more Bright-type solutions. Bright seeks to be a reference on this market, able to attract the very best talent and a strong focus on operational performance and also added value and innovation. The two entities, when you look at Energy Solutions and Bright, both of them have a lot in perspective for the future, and so they're both looking very promising. The Bright project is on the right path. The consultation with employee representatives started in February. It's underway.
It should be finished roughly at the end of the second quarter, so we are on the right path to set up independent management of Bright within Engie by July 1st of this year, and we're also going to follow this up with a marketing phase for the evolution of the shareholders of Bright. Bright is a very important project. We're very happy with its progress, and Jérôme Stubler, who joined us to lead this project, is doing a tremendous job with his team to position this new entity as a leader on these markets. Just a brief comment now regarding Energy Solutions. This is a GBU with ambition focused on long-term projects such as infrastructure contracts. We are the leader on a lot of these markets, in particular, heating and cooling markets, and also on-site utilities, distributed solar PVs, and low-carbon mobility. For this GBU, we've announced a goal.
It's a powerful goal of increasing our infrastructure capacity for decentralized or distributed infrastructure, and we're going to increase it by eight GW between now and 2025. We also have a portfolio of projects of roughly EUR 11 billion that allows us to have both a selective approach to select the projects that we think will benefit Engie the most and also maintain this ambition. This GBU is contributing to the decarbonization of our clients. We've developed a methodology that allows us to quantify the CO2 that we are able to avoid producing when we provide services and projects to our clients. So we have a goal for 2030 of 45 million tons of CO2 avoided for our clients. In addition to these more mature markets, we are convinced that Engie is a pioneer of the energy systems of the future.
We believe that in building a strong position in renewable gases, we will be able to keep a leading position in this field. I'll start with biomethane. Biomethane is already very much here in France. Last year, in 2020, 1% of the consumption of gas was biomethane. We are planning to multiply this by 10 by 2030. Biomethane benefits Engie in two different ways. We're both a player in terms of the production of biomethane and also thanks to our infrastructure in gas in France with our transportation networks and our storage capacity. We are very much present in production. Currently, we have roughly 20 units of biomethane production sites, and our goal is 4 TWh by 2030. We can also develop this activity abroad on the markets that we have identified as target markets. I'm thinking of the U.S. and Brazil in particular.
Then, of course, there's hydrogen, not just biomethane, but hydrogen. Hydrogen is the electricity that meets gas halfway, and so we've created a business unit for this. It was created two years ago, roughly. It was a hydrogen business unit that has given us a lead. When you look at Engie, you see that we have everything left to accomplish because all along the value chain, we have strengths outside of the manufacturing of electrolyzers, so that is transportation, storage, resupply for mobility, and above all, production. We have goals that are very ambitious for hydrogen, both in terms of our goal of increasing our production capacity. We want to reach 4 GW by 2030. We also want 700 kilometers of transportation networks by 2030, and lastly, over 100 resupply stations for hydrogen by 2030.
All of this is a bit like I was saying for renewables, and this will allow us to see how we are going to accomplish these goals over the medium and long term. We made some important announcements regarding our climate commitments to reach our net zero carbon by 2025. For all of our goals, both direct and indirect, we have set up specific milestones. We have major emissions reduction goals, and you can see this on the chart on the left, and also for energy sales, we are going to be certified by SBT for a trajectory that will be well below 2 degrees Celsius. We have already taken action in a very visible way, concrete way, to reach these concrete goals, these ambitious concrete goals. We announced in February that we would put an end to coal by 2027.
We're also greening our gas-fired power plants and our gas sales. In our investment process, we have carbon budgets that are very strict, and we are sticking to them, and we are also aligning our goals for the top management vis-à-vis these carbon goals. The end of coal-powered energy production has been confirmed. The idea is to find a just transition. We are prioritizing for the end of using coal, certain closures, and also conversions to gas or biomass when it makes sense from a business standpoint, and also when that is not something we can do, we are going to dispose of certain assets. Of the 10 remaining plants that we have 4 GW, roughly, we are only going to dispose of two of them. In Chile, this is becoming a new reality because we have a plan to put an end to our activities by 2025.
We have taken part in the country's energy transition plan because currently we have 1.9 GW of capacity with 60% coal, and we are going to move toward, for 2025, 3.5 GW, with 60% being supplied by renewables. So that's a major transition over a fairly short time frame, and that shows the energy transition in action in a given country. Engie is also committed to remaining a societal responsibility leader. I was talking earlier about our employees' talent. They are an essential part of what we do, in particular, their commitment to our purpose, which is a very strong commitment, and that is going to drive us to continue to make progress as Engie. 90% of our employees, according to the most recent poll, are proud of working for Engie. Our ability to attract new talents is, of course, a competitive advantage.
Last year, in 2020, we received 800,000 CVs, so Engie draws in talent. We have goals that are very strict to improve social conditions by 2030, in particular, with a focus on parity in our management team. We also have the training component and the continuing education component. We're going to continue grounding ourselves in our strong human resources to help drive our transition and to strengthen our performance culture, which will be very important when it comes to achieving the goals that we have set ourselves. Now, I'm going to summarize our financial commitments that we made for 2023. We announced that we are aiming for net recurring income group between EUR 2.7 billion and EUR 2.9 billion by 2023. We said that thanks to our growth investments and our performance, we are going to see our results grow over this period.
Our 2023 figures reflect a new Engie that does not include a Bright contribution. And as Jean-Pierre Clamadieu said this earlier, the board confirmed our dividend policy and also approved our base dividend of EUR 0.65 per share for the 2021-2023 period. And we are maintaining a strong investment-grade commitment by 2025 to give you a sense of what is to come beyond 2023. We are going to aim for our employed capital to completely reflect our strategic priorities with over 90% of capital invested in renewables and infrastructure. In particular, the employed capital in renewables will double between now, or rather between 2019 and 2025. This transformation plan is what will allow Engie, post-Bright, to have high single-digit CAGR strong growth.
We are repositioning ourselves to seize the significant growth opportunities in these markets, and we are fully committed to our role as an industrial leader in the energy transition. This is once again thanks to our industrial approach. A few figures for you because we've talked a lot now about our goals on Tuesday. The most important figures, in terms of operational figures, have to do with our net zero goal by 2045, accelerating renewables from 3 to 4 to 6 GW per year. That's growth in renewables, decentralized energy infrastructure. That's an area where we have a lot of competitive advantages, simplification of the organization, moving from 25 business units to 4 global business units, our performance plan with EUR 600 billion between 2021 and 2023 in terms of EBIT impact, and also production of green hydrogen, 4 GW in 2030.
In conclusion, I'll leave you with this image that I think does a good job of clarifying what Engie is at its heart. We're a global energy player. We are focused on renewables and infrastructure. And by doing so, we support the decarbonization of our customers. And today, we are building the low-carbon energy system of the future. Thank you so much for your attention. And now I'm going to give the floor to Judith Hartmann. Thank you.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. First of all, I would like to thank you for attending this General Assembly. I hope that you and your relatives are all in good health. The unprecedented COVID crisis has impacted the results of your group in 2020. However, we managed to be extremely proactive.
Thanks to the mobilization of all of our teams, we managed to keep providing services to all of our customers, and we limited the financial consequences of the crisis. Your group proved to be resilient in this difficult context. I would like to applaud the amazing work that each and every employee has accomplished. Let's now have a look at the progress made in 2020. In spite of the crisis, we kept working on clarifying the group's strategy. We've announced new guidelines based on two pillars. First of all, the speeding up of the investments in renewable energies and infrastructures. And on the other hand, the streamlining of your group by studying opportunities in terms of asset disposals for those assets which are no longer in line with our strategy. Thanks to this, we can reallocate the capital and generate value.
In 2020, we started a sustained dynamic when implementing these orientations. We managed to make fast and important progress with the disposal in October 2020 of 29.9% of our shares in Suez, as well as the launch of strategic reviews important in our customer solutions business and also our participation of 40.4% in GTT, an expert company in containment systems for the transport and storage of liquefied gases. We've also kept repositioning Engie to reach a sustainable and long-term growth. Our investments in 2020 make it possible to improve our business mix and prepare for the future with four billion EUR invested mainly in renewable energies and infrastructures. Our ramping up of renewable energies is visible with 3 GW of capacity commissioned and the acquisition of 2 GW in 2020. Now, turning to our financial performance, I would like to mention the following highlights.
First of all, we have managed to maintain a robust financial structure and a high level of cash flow throughout the year. At the end of 2020, we had a cash flow of almost Net Recurring Income Group Share amounts to eur 1.7 billion for 2020, in line with the forecasts announced at the end of July. Board of Directors now suggests the payment of a dividend for 2020 of EUR 0.53 per share. This amount corresponds to a distribution ratio Net Recurring Income Group Share, i.e., the high end of our dividend policy. Aside from this summary data, 2020 was marked by the consequences of the sanitary crisis, exchange rate effects, and unfavorable temperatures.
The operating result experienced an organic degrowth Net Recurring Income Group Share went down by 34% in terms of organic drop. The operating result was impacted by the sanitary crisis up to EUR 1.2 billion. Most of the negative impacts were seen in the second half of the year when the restrictions were the most stringent. And then the second half year experienced a rebound. Adverse exchange rate trends and high temperatures accounted for EUR 300 million and EUR 200 million. And non-recurring elements impacted our net result, which is now negative at minus EUR 1.5 billion. The disposal of most of our shares in Suez triggered a capital gain of EUR 1.7 million. But this capital gain was offset by the accounting for impairment losses.
The most important was the depreciation of EUR 2.9 billion linked to nuclear assets in Belgium after the decision to stop all preparation work to keep units beyond 2025. Let's now have a look at organic dynamics for each of our global business units. We see very mixed results here. Renewables in 2020 experienced an increase of 11% of their organic growth in terms of operating result, thanks to the performances of our wind and hydraulic activities and the commissioning of new capacity. Infrastructures were shown to be resilient in spite of the pandemic. The organic decline of 14% is mainly due to high temperatures at the beginning of 2020 in France. Customer solutions had to face an unprecedented situation in 2020 because of the pandemic. Access to the site for our customers was very limited during the very strict lockdowns in the spring 2020.
Thus, some services were not provided. The operating result has plummeted by 58% in spite of the efforts deployed to reduce costs and in spite of the strong rebound experienced during the second half year. Thermal activities have gone up slightly, thanks in particular to the good performances of our European assets. Energy sales was also highly impacted by the crisis in Europe and in the U.S. It suffered from a drop in global consumption during the different lockdowns and high temperatures in France and in Belgium. The nuclear segment is up by 65% thanks to high prices and a drop in operating costs. Let's now turn to the financial structure of your company. We paid close attention to that in this exceptional year. Net indebtedness is EUR 22.5 billion on December 31st, 2020, which is EUR 3.4 billion less than 2019.
This drop stems mainly from the disposal of most of our shares in Suez. The cost of gross debt of 2.4% went down. It was 2.7% in 2019. The Fitch Ratings gave Engie A- credit rating, and Standard & Poor's gave a ranking, a BBB+ ranking, strong investment grade. So our rating is among the highest in the industry. Engie has a robust balance sheet with EUR 23 billion of liquid assets at the end of December, including EUR 13 billion in cash flow. I would like to come back to the creation of value for shareholders after the effort asked for last year in a quite special situation. We announced we would pay dividends in the framework of our policy.
This year, the board suggests allocating to Net Recurring Income Group Share, i.e., eur 0.53 per share, which is at the high end of our dividend policy. It's also important to see that the value creation profits other stakeholders. Almost EUR 12 billion in compensation and benefits were paid to our employees. EUR 35 billion in procurement were made with our commercial partners. Lastly, EUR 1.8 billion were paid to the state and to local governments under the form of taxes or charges. This value, which I have just commented and I presented its reallocation, this value is created in a demanding CSR context. CSR is a key success factor for Engie. It represents a major asset for its resilience and attractiveness.
Our ambition in this matter does not only lie on the fact we're confident that it's the right thing to do, but also on the fact that we believe that we're going to generate value. Our raison d'être, which 99% of you adopted in 2020, confirms the leading role Engie wants to play in promoting energy transition for the benefit of everyone. We are presenting here the three indicators in terms of CSR that we've committed to publish with our financial results. This shows how important it is for us to give an integrated vision of our performance. First of all, greenhouse gases emissions when it comes to our energy output. In 2020, these emissions went down by about 10%, and as we already said, our carbon neutrality commitment by 2045 entails a reduction by 99% of these emissions. Next, the share of renewable energies in our electric capacity mix.
This share has reached 31% in 2020, so an increase compared to 2019. We have a goal to reach 58% by 2030. This goal is inescapable in a world that needs green solutions. Lastly, the share of women in management. In 2020, this indicator went up slightly. The sanitary crisis disrupted recruiting campaigns. However, we do confirm our goal to reach gender parity by 2030. Of course, our commitment is not limited to these indicators. Engie's results are acknowledged outside the company. Indeed, the rating of your company in terms of corporate social responsibility is higher than the industry's average for most indexes. Moreover, our integrated report is a benchmark in this industry. The 2021 edition drafted in consultation with our stakeholders was published on Tuesday. The analysis of our performances for 2020 is now over, so I suggest we have a look at this year and beyond.
Two days ago, we published our results for the first quarter 2021. These results show a solid operational performance with strong organic growth of operating result by 10%. This performance results from higher contributions from the infrastructure supported by solid operational performance and more favorable temperatures, and also contributions from the nuclear segment thanks to the availability of plants combined with high electricity prices. And thanks to this good start in the year, we reasserted our guidance for 2021. So we are forecasting a significant improvement of our financial performance, supposing that new lockdown measures do not happen and supposing that there is a gradual loosening of the restriction measures in place.
We are forecasting an operational result between EUR 5.2 billion and Net Recurring Income Group Share between eur 2.3 billion and eur 2.5 billion, a dividend corresponding to a distribution ratio between 65% Net Recurring Income Group Share, and a strong investment grade credit rating confirming the sturdiness of our balance sheet. Turning now to midterm prospects. The group is refocusing on buoyant sectors, especially renewables. Through EUR 15-EUR 16 billion investments in growth, including 40%-45% in renewables, we Net Recurring Income Group Share and an increased operating result. In 2023, this result should reach EUR 5.7 billion to EUR 6.1 billion, leading to a net result ranging between EUR 2.7 billion and EUR 2.9 billion. We should keep our strong investment grade credit rating throughout this period.
Lastly, we want to confirm our dividend policy so as to have an attractive return on investment for shareholders. We will keep our payment policy up to 65%-75% of a net recurring result. And this expected growth should trigger an increase in dividends. And between 2021 and 2023, we should have a floor dividend set at EUR 0.65 per share in order to improve visibility. I would like to conclude by once again applauding the work of our teams and thanking them. I would like to also share my confidence in the future of your company. Major underlying trends showed how relevant our strategy was. Increased demand from society for more accountability from major companies are visible, but also governments and nations are prioritizing climate and societal challenges.
Thanks to these industrial companies, Engie is in an ideal position to lead an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy transition. I thank you for your attention, and I'll hand over to the auditor.
Ladies and gentlemen, the shareholders, hello. On behalf of the College of the Statutory Auditors, composed of the firm Deloitte and EY, I'm going to tell you about our mission for 2020. In accordance with our professional standards, our work's aimed at obtaining a reasonable assurance that the consolidated accounts of the group in IFRS and the annual accounts of Engie SA, according to the French accounting principles, didn't have any significant anomalies. The closing of the accounts for fiscal year 2020 and the audit that's involved took place in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we had to adapt our audit modalities to ensure a good level of assurance.
Our approach and our diligence were also adapted to take into account the specificity of the regulations, risks, organization, and system of internal control within the group, the strategic directions of which have been confirmed beyond the sanitary crisis. Fiscal year 2020 is characterized by an absence of major structure operations apart from the disposal of the Suez shares and by the absence of particular events. The conclusions of our works were presented to the audit committee, but with the agreement of the chairman, I'm not going to read it all. I'm going to tell you about the main points in three stages. First, our report on the consolidated financial statements.
It raises five key points: the assessment of goodwill and other long-term assets for which provisions for a loss of value were accounted for EUR 3.6 billion in order to take into account events that took place in 2020, in particular the incidence of the decision not to proceed to investments for the extension of nuclear units. Secondly, the assessment of provisions for the management of the upstream of the fuel cycle in Belgium with a view to the next three-year service to be conducted in 2022 and the stop of the nuclear units between 2022 and 2025. Third point is about the assessment of provisions for litigation claims and tax risks. Fourth, the estimate of turnover relating to energy and meter. Fifth point is about the assessment of the accounting impact initial relating to the expansion of the trading accounting to other gas contracts of the Europe zone.
Secondly, our report on annual financial statements. With regard to the annual statements of Engie SA, we have three key points, two in common with the consolidated statements, that is, the assessment of provisions for litigation claims and tax risks and the estimate of energy and meter. The third point of Engie SA regards the equity is EUR 60 billion after accounting for depreciation of EUR 4.9 billion for 2020. For every one of these key points relating to the consolidated and annual accounts, we have examined and reviewed the main decisions and estimates of management, ensuring that the notes to the accounts gave appropriate information. Our works also consisted in reviewing the presentation of the accounts and the quality of the financial information and to check specifically a number of items according to the new annual financial report in accordance with the new ESEF regulation.
Our audit approach conforms to our opinion, which is that we can certify without any reservations the consolidated accounts and the annual accounts of Engie. We have also issued other reports relating to matters that are submitted to your vote. That's for example a special report on regulated contracts. That's the subject of the fourth resolution that you're going to vote about, as well as other reports relating to the extraordinary general meeting that's on pages 49 to 51 of the brochure. Those reports relate to operations presented in resolutions 16 and 19. We have no observations about them. The other reports issued without resolution concern, among others, the reports on the extrafinancial performance. Those different reports do not call for any particular remarks. I thank you for your attention.
Thank you. I'd like to thank Patrick Suissa for his intervention on behalf of the statutory auditors.
This closes the part of our general meeting devoted to the presentation of our activity highlights of 2020 and our accounts. We are now going to talk about the working Board of Directors of engie that I've got the honor to chair is composed, as of today, of 13 members. Since the departure of Isabelle Kocher in February, it's a board that worked a lot in 2020. I told you why earlier. There were aspects related to the crisis, but also work on the strategic roadmap and governance issues and the process to recruit our new General Manager. So that translates in a number of meetings, 16 meetings. It's a board where most of us participate in all meetings, 98% attendance, and you can see in the reference document how often each of us attend.
Those meetings took place, unfortunately, for half of them by video conference in the context of the health crisis. I think we've tried to use these electronic tools as well as possible, but I'm convinced that to get back to physical meetings is necessary because they allow for a better quality of dialogue. With regard to the composition of our board, two elements of information. The first one that you know is the fact that the mandate of Christophe Aubert, he represents employee shareholders, ends with this general meeting, and we're going to ask you to name his successor. An appointment that took place yesterday is the only director that could be appointed outside of the general meeting is Stéphanie Besnier because the state may appoint a member of the board. So Stéphanie Besnier was appointed in replacement of Isabelle Hudon.
Stéphanie has had an administrative career, but also a long career at Wendel, which led her to deal with investment projects. So a very diverse curriculum, and she will strengthen the skills of our board. Just like every year, the board made the assessment of its functioning, of its working. I think it's very important because it makes it possible for us to take a step back from our daily routine and wonder about how we work. So we made that assessment at the end of last year. It put in light a number of positive aspects and also things that we've got to improve, our priorities for 2021 relating to the nature of the projects that we will undertake, as for positive aspects, and I think that we see here one of the results of the reduction of the size of the board.
We were able to make important decisions in a complex environment with a media context that was intense. We were able to make those decisions in a very professional way with, in mind, our duty, that is, to defend the interests of the group. And we did it respecting the positions of each and every one of us. And I was quite stricken to see the capacity of every one of the members of the board to share with the board the reasons why he or she took this or that position. It's very important. It shows that today we've got at the head of the group in the supreme governance body a board that works well.
Another point that is important in the independence of the board, two-thirds that corresponds to what is to be wished for, bearing in mind that we've got to have representatives of employees, quality of information that is considered to be satisfactory at the time when we made that assessment. So rising attendance rates, I was commenting on it just a minute ago. And well, things we've got to maybe focus on in 2021, there are priorities for the year. I'm thinking of the implementation of the strategy, focus on the creation of financial and extra financial value. We saw in Catherine's and Judith's presentations the opportunity to see that in business lines that we chose as priority renewables, for example.
It is important to keep an eye on value creation to make sure that the projects that we undertake can meet the expectations of value creation of the group and of its shareholders. Something that can be improved also is confidentiality. We've had some discussions, exchanges that took place during the board meeting who were reported on in the press. So I have got to remind board members this obligation of confidentiality. And last year, with the temporary management team, there was a strong collaboration momentum, and we will continue on this path with Catherine. And I can confirm that this momentum is being pursued. So the board bases its work on the works of committees. There are four committees that you see on this slide, 30 meetings for all the meetings in 2020. So we work intensively with attendance rate between 96% and 100%.
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and Ross for their presentations. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to tell you about the Strategy, Investment and Technology Committee as its chairman.
We deal with three main types of subjects: the strategic directions of the group, projects of internal and external growth, when they reach a certain threshold, and the examination of strategic choices in terms of technology. In 2020, that's the first two subjects that mobilized us. We spent a lot of time talking with management, preparing for the board discussions about the strategic directions of the group, also about the subject of the geographical selectivity, the decisions that led to the decisions that Catherine told you about before, and also, obviously, the response to the health crisis along 2020, and a series of investment projects, acquisitions, and disposals. That's very important because those investment projects allow the board to get into the concrete of what is the activity of investment of the group, and especially in renewables.
We had, at almost every board meeting, a project that is presented to us for solar or windmills in diverse geographies. More recently, we're very much involved in the development of the strategic plan that was presented on Tuesday. I've got to say that for certain subjects, we got used with Marie-José to meeting together the Audit Committee and the Strategy and Investment Committee, which allows us to deal with subjects from a strategic point of view, but also from an accounting point of view with the Audit Committee, and I think it's a good practice that we're going to continue, so this is what I meant to tell you about the working of your board. I'd like to now get to the presentation of the resolutions submitted to vote this year. We are submitting to you 20 resolutions.
The texts of these resolutions are on pages 33 to 48 of the brochure, with detailed explanations about them, and also in the report Board of Directors. the first 15 resolutions are submitted to your vote as part of an ordinary meeting, a simple majority vote. As for the others, it's for the extraordinary meeting, and then the majority is two-thirds of the votes. Claire Waysand, and then there's also another resolution with simple majority. Claire Waysand will present the results of the votes at the end of this session. The first resolutions that are so-called ordinary on the slide regard the approval of the financial statements number 1 and 2, the allocation of the result of the income.
I've got to say that if resolution number three is adopted, the result of the vote will make not applicable the alternative resolution that the proposal of the FCPE Link that would lead to a different decision regarding the amount of dividend that would be paid for 2020. The approval of the report of the auditors will be the subject of resolution number four. The authorization given to the board to operate with shares of the company, trading shares of the company. That's resolution number five. The resolutions six to eight relate to the composition of the board. In particular, resolution number six on the agenda provides for the appointment of Catherine MacGregor as director. You can see on the slide some elements of her biography. I think it is not useful to review it anyway. The press talked at length about Catherine.
She's had a very successful industrial career along the hierarchy that she escalated very quickly. A very strong commitment to operational performance. And we consider that in our governance, it is important that the General Manager participates in the works of the board. And that's why we propose to you to appoint Catherine as a director. Resolutions seven and eight relate to the appointment of a director representing the employee shareholders, Christophe Aubert, who is that director today. His term expires today. And I'd like to thank him for his constructive and positive contributions to our works. I've got to add that personally, I am very happy to have employee shareholder representatives or employee representatives. It is a good means for the board to extend its skills and to have more of an overview on the basis of field expertise, thanks to those directors.
As for the replacement of Christophe, the supervisory boards of FCPE Link France with the French employees and FCPE Link International with the non-French employees. They both appointed an applicant, Jacinthe Delage for FCPE Link France, and Steven Lambert, appointed by FCPE Link International. You can see the characteristics of those two applicants. They have different profiles, but they both are very interesting applicants. We have let our directors choose. The one who will get the most votes for resolution seven and eight will be appointed a director representing employee shareholders for a term of four years that will expire at the end of the meeting in 2025. The resolutions nine to fifteen regard remuneration, compensation, so a record number of say-on-pay resolutions. I'm going to give the floor to Françoise Malrieu, head of the Appointments, Compensation and Governance Committee, who will tell you about them.
As Chair of the Appointments, Compensation and Governance Committee, I would like to present to you the compensation policy for our corporate officers and its implementation. A detailed description is provided in the notice of this meeting and in the universal registration document that is published by the group. In accordance with the law, in order to allow you to cast different votes, seven resolutions devoted to the compensation of corporate officers are presented for you to vote on. All of the resolutions are submitted to you Board of Directors on the recommendation of the Appointments, Compensation and Governance Committee. Four resolutions, numbers nine to 12, known as the Say on Pay ex post resolutions, relate to implementation compensation policies for the 2020 financial year. The corresponding remunerations are, of course, all in line with what you approved a year ago.
More specifically, the ninth resolution presents implementation of the compensation policy for directors for the financial year 2020. Resolutions numbered 10, 11, and 12 relate to the compensation of the executive directors for the 2020 financial year, the variable proportion of which is subject to your approval. There are three resolutions, number 13 to 15, known as ex ante say-on-pay resolutions, which are devoted to compensation policies for the 2021 financial year. Among them, resolutions numbered 13 and 14 concern the compensation policies for the directors and chairperson for the financial year 2021. Finally, the 15th and last resolution, known as the say-on-pay resolution, relates to the compensation policy for the new CEO. These resolutions are all in keeping with the spirit of moderation that defines our group and is in respect of the company's interests and value. They also ensure alignment with the interests of shareholders.
Variable compensation is designed to encourage sustainable financial and non-financial performance in the short term, the medium term, and also the long term, in line with the group's statutory purpose, which you adopted a year ago. Your company duly publishes the compensation multiples known as the equity ratio, which is between the compensation of each executive director and those of employees. For 2020, the ratio between the compensation of executives and the average compensation of all employees in France was nine for the chairperson and 27 for the CEO. Let us turn now to each of the resolutions that were submitted to you. Let us first review the resolutions relating to compensation paid or to be paid for the financial year 2020, which, as I have already pointed out, are all in line with the compensation policies that you approved a year ago.
Payment of the variable components of this compensation is subject to the approval of this assembly. As regards compensation paid to the directors for their work in 2020, which is the subject of resolution number nine, the overall amount was EUR 809,000, gross taken from the annual envelope capped at EUR 1.4 million. These sums were distributed among the directors in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in the internal guidelines, with a fixed proportion combined with a predominantly variable proportion depending on the director's attendance at meetings of the board and its committees. This, of course, is in accordance with the requirements of the AFEP-MEDEF code. The table in the universal registration document highlights the very high level of attendance by all members of the board.
The tenth resolution relates to compensation of Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, chairman of the board, which amounted to EUR 450,000 gross for the financial year 2020, in accordance with the requirements of the AFEP-MEDEF code on the independence of the chairman Board of Directors. the chairman does not receive any annual variable compensation or have access to any long-term incentive schemes. The eleventh resolution concerns the variable portion of the former CEO, Isabelle Kocher, for the period of the first to the twenty-fourth of February 2020. This variable portion amounts to EUR 166,000 gross and is accompanied by a variable contribution dedicated to the retirement fund in view of her departure on the former CEO, twenty-fourth of February 2020. The board has decided, therefore, on a lump sum basis, on a pro rata temporis basis, of the variable compensation paid for the 2019 financial year.
The twelfth resolution relates to compensation paid to Claire Waysand, acting CEO, from the twenty-fourth of February to the thirty-first of December 2020. Let me remind you that given the transitional nature of her mission, Claire Waysand's employment contract was maintained during this period. Under this employment contract, the compensation elements were as follows: fixed annual compensation of EUR 550,000 gross, an annual variable compensation component in the form of a target bonus corresponding to 100% of her fixed compensation, being 550 gross and capped at 150% of the fixed remuneration. 65% of this variable compensation was subject to quantitative criteria and 35% of this to a qualitative assessment. The quantitative objectives were based on half of the group's share of recurrent net income and a quarter each of operating profit and economic net debt.
Finally, compensation was supplemented by a long-term variable component in the form of performance shares. As regards to the quantitative Board of Directors has set the rate of achievement at 37.5%. We would like to stress that this rate is strictly based on the target set Board of Directors in february 2020. In other words, no adjustment has been made to mitigate the impact of the negative effects of the health crisis on the performance of the group or on the compensation of the interim CEO. With regard to the qualitative assessment, the board has set the success rate of Claire Waysand's objectives at 132%. Taking into account the respective weightings of the quantitative and qualitative objectives, the overall success rate has been set at 70.58%, being a variable proportion of EUR 332,000 gross under the employment contract for the period under review.
In addition, subject to two performance conditions, the effectiveness of the functioning of the collegial management team and its ability to ensure operational management of the group during this period, and Waysand's ability to steer the group during this period, has capped this specific compensation at EUR 400,000 gross, given the quality of management during this transitional period in light of the previously cited objectives. Finally, Claire Waysand has been granted EUR 60,000 performance shares under her employment contract following termination of her mandate as managing directors. These performance shares will effectively rest in 2024, subject to and in proportion with the fulfillment of her associate performance conditions. So that covers it for 2020. I now come to the compensation policies for the year 2021.
The thirteenth and fourteenth resolutions propose that compensation policies for the directors and Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, chairman Board of Directors, to be maintained, as I have already presented. They will be renewed unchanged. That is the proposal. I will conclude with the compensation policy for 2021 for Catherine MacGregor, CEO, since January first. The arrival of a new CEO is a natural time to review the compensation policy based largely on group practice, the career path of the new executive, the compensation awarded to managers of groups of a similar size and scope to Engie, the expectations of stakeholders, and in particular, the expectations of shareholders and the group's new strategic priorities, including, importantly, climate change and corporate social responsibility, CSR in general.
I would like to stress from the beginning that Catherine MacGregor does not have an employment contract, and her compensation is therefore based exclusively on her mandate as CEO. Furthermore, in order to align her interests with those of shareholders, Catherine MacGregor will have to respect an objective of holding a portfolio of ENGIE shares of at least equal to two years of fixed remuneration, essentially through the long-term variable incentive component, which I will address in a moment. We note that in March, Catherine MacGregor already acquired EUR 15,000 ENGIE shares in her personal capacity, which represents a personal investment of around EUR 185,000. The CEO's compensation comprises four main items: a fixed component, an annual variable component, a long-term incentive component, and a pension contribution. The fixed compensation amounts to EUR 1 million gross per year.
The target annual variable component, or short-term bonus, amounts to 100% of the fixed compensation, being EUR 1 million gross. For a target achievement rate of 100%, it can reach a maximum of 140% of the fixed compensation, being EUR 1.4 million gross in the event of outperformance. This is based on 65% financial criteria aimed at remunerating economic performance and to 35% being based on non-financial criteria. There are Net Recurring Income Group Share, the recurring operating income, the ROI, the free cash flow, and the net economic debt. Compared to our previous policy, the free cash flow objective has been added to reflect the importance that we attach to the generation of operating cash, which makes it possible to finance both the group's growth and investments and the compensation of its shareholders.
The non-financial proportion of the annual variable part, which represents 35%, is based on performance conditions linked to health and safety of employees, to compliance with CO2 emissions targets linked to energy production, the group's CSR ratings, and the implementation of the strategy. That covers the proportional annual variable proportion. I now come to the long-term variable incentive component, which takes the form of an annual allocation of EUR 120,000 performance units. The amount itself of EUR 120,000 performance units is unchanged from the group's previous practice, but the performance conditions attached to them have been revised to include non-financial performance, whereas up until now, previously only financial results were taken into account.
Henceforth, 20% of the long-term incentive will be conditional on the achievement of the group's quantified objectives in terms of greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, in terms of increasing the share of renewable energy capacity, which is a core element of the group's strategy, and finally, also in terms of increasing the proportion of women in management. The financial performance targets, which represent the remaining 80% of all performance conditions underpinning the long-term incentive, are three in number. It should be noted that two of these directly compare your group's performance to that of its peers. These Net Recurring Income Group Share compared to our peers, secondly, the Total Shareholder Return, which measures the compensation of shareholders through the stock market performance of Engie shares and the dividend policy, and this is also assessed in comparison with our peers.
The third condition concerns the achievement of the return on capital employed provided for in the medium-term business plan. I would like now to draw your attention to the nineteenth resolution submitted for your vote, which concerns the performance share plans for approximately 7,000 employees. It is planned that the performance conditions of the 500 senior executives of the group will henceforth be fully aligned with those of the CEO. I can now turn to the fourth and final item in Catherine MacGregor's compensation package, which is in relation to her retirement. In accordance with its practice, the group will pay a contribution to a third-party organization corresponding to 25% of the sum of the fixed and variable annual compensation within the framework of the so-called defined contribution pension plan.
Finally, and I will end here, the group has evolved its policy by including conditions that are applicable or would apply in the event of the departure of the CEO, and this brings us in line with best practices in this area. These conditions are perfectly in line with the code of the AFEP-MEDEF. In the event of a forced departure of the executive not linked to serious misconduct, the policy provides for an indemnity corresponding to two years of fixed and variable remuneration, subject to compliance with performance conditions. In addition, and without the sum of the departure and non-compete indemnities exceeding the ceiling of two years of fixed and variable Board of Directors will have the option of imposing on the executive a competition commitment for a period of 12 months following the departure, remunerated at one year's fixed and variable remuneration.
I have now concluded my presentation on the so-called say-on-pay resolutions, and I thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Françoise, to have made this presentation, which was rather technical, quite lively. I would like to specify that the last resolutions that will be submitted to your vote are about employee shareholding with capital increase reserved for employees and two resolutions relating to the allocation of free shares in the context that was recalled by Françoise. So this closes the chapter about the governance of the group and the presentation of the resolution submitted to your vote. We can now start the question and answer session that we're going to also try and make rather lively, despite the conditions that we've got to work under. We received 27 written questions from shareholders.
Answers were approved by the board meeting that took place earlier today and were put online before the general meeting of shareholders on the internet site of the group. More than 140 shareholders asked questions on the online platform, and some of them asked during this meeting some more questions that we're going to try and answer, so thank you for having taken the time to ask those questions. It was possible to do in writing or using a video, an audio recording, and you will see that in this session, there will be a variety of the latter. We've tried to gather questions by theme to make them more legible.
I suggest we start with the first question.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Could you explain to us what is the reason for being of Engie in comparison with big players like EDF or Total? Thank you for your explanations.
Thank you. I don't know that. This refers to what we hear sometimes that is too many to have three main energy groups. Well, Engie has got a rich history through the gas business line with Gaz de France, the Suez activities, and that history is one of the elements on such that Engie is Engie today. Beyond the three players that you've mentioned, well, we can see that there are strengths that are different. EDF is mainly in nuclear energy. It's the main nuclear operator in the world. I think Total is still very much anchored in fossil energy, even though they're trying to go towards a more diversified energy mix and renewables. As for Engie, well, the originality of Engie is the diversified mix of its businesses. We produce electricity by thermal means, but also with renewable sources of energy.
We have in our DNA a number of activities relating to gas, to the transport and distribution of gas. I think it is an original element because gas has got a role to play in energy systems, has got a role to play today because it facilitates energy transition when it is a substitute to coal, dividing by two CO2 emissions, but also when it supports the use of renewable energies thanks to its capacity to basically feed stations that are dispatchable. I believe that the originality of Engie, just like Catherine said before, it's this capacity to combine different sources, different kinds of energy to be at the core of the energy system of today and tomorrow.
I think that this gas know-how prepares us to be an important player in hydrogen that should play an essential role in the evolution of energy systems in Europe. I hope you are reassured as to the fact that Engie is original and has got strong reasons for existence beyond EDF and Total.
Good morning,
Mr. Chairman. Good morning, all. As you know, renewable energies are in expansion. What I'd like to ask you is, will Engie benefit from the expansion of renewables? We know that the competition is fierce. There's Enel and Iberdrola that are of another scale and that are very present on the market. So will Engie be well positioned? Will Engie be the right player? But I think so, but I'm going to turn to Catherine.
I think this definitely draws a lot of actors in.
I hope that we've convinced you earlier by showing you the roadmap for our GBU. Engie has major strengths. We have an important position because we have an installed capacity of 31 GW, but above all, we have a roadmap that is very ambitious, that is based on a project portfolio that is very robust. We've talked about five to 6 GW with 1,000 projects. Excuse me, 56 GW with 1,200 projects, and we are perfectly in line with this strategy that the renewables GBU is aiming to develop, so we have average annual growth of 3 GW that we are going to increase progressively over time, first up to 4 GW and then 6 GW to reach our goals of 50 and then 80 GW by 2030. We are going to base ourselves on our competitive advantage, and this is something we're going to develop and strengthen.
First of all, our local strengths, our ability to develop in a major way to sell this renewable energy, and lastly, our ability to manage our operational excellence, and when we do all of that, that is going to allow us to stay at the forefront of renewable energy in the future. Thank you for your question.
So live question that we received during the meeting, considering the importance of growth investments and the financial strength of some of our competitors that are also engaged in energy transition, shouldn't we increase our capital significantly? Thank you very much, Catherine.
Yes, in line with the response that I gave to the previous question, our development of renewables is both ambitious and realistic. It's based on a certain number of criteria.
In particular, the size of our portfolio, the 56 GW, so the size of our portfolio, also our competitive position in terms of geographic considerations, and also our ability to finance these projects. That is why today we can say that our base scenario does not include capital increases in our plans because we have scaled our ambitions in order to reach 56 GW in 2025 and 80 GW in 2030.
Jean-Jacques Peyer, Belgian shareholder. My question is about biomethane and hydrogen within Engie. What are the result objectives for these two lines of business by 2030? What are the investments that are planned during the period? What is the return on investment that is expected? When do you see the comparative prices between natural gas, biomethane, and hydrogen? And finally, Engie in Belgium, can we play a major role in the development of decarbonated hydrogen with a strategic position?
Thank you. Thank you very much for this question, and it's the opportunity to greet our Belgian shareholders. As for individual shareholding, Belgium contributes a lot to this individual shareholding.
Yes, thank you very much for this question. I'll respond with two separate responses. Let's start with biomethane. I talked about biomethane earlier in my presentation of the strategic roadmap, so biomethane is a reality in France. In particular, our goal is by 2030 to have 10% of our gas mix be biomethane. At Engie, we have a goal with regards to our production capacity, which is four terawatt hours. In addition, we have the goal of connecting our network and our biomethane production capacity, of course, so this represents significant investments, and we estimate this will be over EUR 2 billion in our gas networks in France by 2030 that will be generated.
Regarding green hydrogen, earlier I was talking about our enthusiasm at Engie regarding the emergence of this hydrogen market because it will impact all of our different activities at Engie, and we have specific goals for each of these activities. But if I were to cite an example, I would cite that of our green hydrogen production for GW by 2030. And you're right, we are looking ahead to opportunities for green hydrogen production in places with a lot of industrial activities, especially in the Netherlands and maybe in Belgium. Thank you.
Another live question. You announced the conversion to natural gas of the coal-fired plant in Chile. Where will the gas come from? Catherine.
Yes, the gas will, in theory, be imported. I think in particular, some of it will be supplied by LNG from Chile because Chile is not a gas producer.
As for what can be foreseen, what will be the impact of the nuclear fleet on the results of Engie for the next five years? What is the foreseeable cost of the closing of the Belgian nuclear?
Thank you for this question.
Yes, thank you, Jean-Pierre. Thank you for this question. Yes, we are gradually moving away from nuclear in Belgium in 2022. The current existing capacities will then go down gradually, as well as the contributions associated with this production, to reach a total shutdown by 2025. Of course, we set up a very specific plan for the shutdown of these plants. At the end of December 2020, the amount of the provisions for the decommissioning of these plants amounted to EUR 6.2 billion.
These provisions come on top of those linked to the management of the downstream part of the nuclear fuel cycle at EUR 7.9 billion at the end of 2020. You can find information in note 1019.2.3 of the consolidated accounts of the group.
Does Engie wish to dispose of some of its subsidiaries like GRDF? Catherine.
It's true that the PACTE Law, which has given us a certain amount of flexibility, means that Engie holds 100% of GRDF shares and the majority of GRTgaz shares, which has been opened at a level of 25%. With our strategic roadmap, we announced that we were going to rebalance our portfolio in infrastructure, both in the direction of France and countries abroad on the one hand, and in terms of gas and electricity on the other hand.
There is a possibility that we will dispose between 10%-15% of GRTgaz. That's in the list of the EUR 9-EUR 10 billion disposals that I announced on Tuesday when I presented our strategy to the market. The goal is still to maintain this asset consolidated in our accounts. Thanks.
Thanks a lot.
Mr. Chairman, good morning. Good afternoon, Lucien Crolard, member of the advisory board of shareholders. Regarding the structuring projects, there's the separation from some service activities. Could you tell us where the group is in this project, including in terms of labor? What are the new resources expected? What is the use that are going to be made of them? Thank you for this detailed question. Catherine, you talked about it earlier. Could you specify the project?
Yes, you are right to underscore that it's a highly structuring project for Engie and the 74,000 employees that will be part of this new entity right within Engie. So our goal is to create a leader of multi-technical services with areas that are very much aligned with the energy transition, the building energies and other things like that. So we are going to create this entity within Engie, and that is underway. The social considerations of this operation, of this transaction, are very important as well. We are certainly paying attention to that. We're spending a lot of time on that. So the only thing that I can say is that we have a time frame for creating this independent entity within Engie, which needs to be carried out around July 1st, 2021. So we are on track for that. Thanks.
Two new live questions regarding our positions in B2C and B2B. First one, what is the place of energy sales to residential customers in your strategy in the midterm? Second, what is the ambition of the group in electricity on B2C and B2B electricity markets? Thank you for these questions. Well, the jargon that we use, that's not always understandable. B2C, that's sales to households, to individuals, and B2B, that's sales to companies. And it is good to know what is our ambition on those markets. Catherine.
Yes, Jean-Pierre. We don't necessarily separate them, but today, currently, we sell 150 terawatt hours per year in energy. 25% of that is electricity. And the rebalancing toward more electricity is something that's going to be progressive.
If I were to start talking about the part of this that is B2C, I can say that we're very focused on five specific locations, obviously France, but also Belgium, Romania, Italy, and also in Australia, and for each of these locations, for each of these activities, we have goals for development that are very specific. In particular, we are developing green offerings. They're very local, they're very adapted to our local clients, and they try to improve and incentivize our clients to save energy and to go after green offerings. In particular, in France, there's biomethane. We have goals for 2030, including a goal to provide a lot of biomethane to our gas clients, and regarding B2B, yes, we're very present in terms of B2B, very active, in particular with regards to sales to companies.
and there's been a clear evolution over recent history because our clients are increasingly making commitments toward carbon neutrality. They're trying to combat climate change. and so we are a major player because we provide them with energy. And this is an area where our position as an energy actor is something that makes us very competitive. We are able to provide them with solutions, green energy solutions that are adapted to their needs, to their profiles, and to their consumption. so B2B is very much at the heart of Engie's strategy and is very important for us. Thanks.
For some years now, the share price of Engie has not been increasing for more than 10 years. I haven't recovered my initial capital. Well,
I think the answer to this question is complex, but I would tend to separate things in the following way.
That is, on the one hand, if we think about 10 years ago, the energy situation was very different, and I think, unfortunately, that we operate and we are going to continue to operate in a context that does not make it possible to think that the Group may be again in the same situation as 10 years ago. As for the recent years, I think that, and especially in the last two years when I was the Chairman of the Board, I think that the performance has suffered. The dividend relates to the operational performance, and the operational performance encountered some difficulties and lack of availability of our nuclear equipment in 2018, nuclear reactors, difficulties of the health crisis more recently, and when we look at the net result, Group share since 2016, it's been flat.
What is at stake, and it's one of the objectives that we pursue in the strategic roadmap that Catherine presented. We've got to get back to a momentum of growth of our net result. This is what can support the evolution of our dividend. What are the concrete actions envisaged to increase the share price? Well, before I give the floor to Catherine, I would say that there's no magic wand. The issue is the improvement of operational performance.
Yes, it's clear we are going to spend a lot of time over the coming months focusing on the execution of our roadmap, which is clear, which really shows us where we're headed, and it's going to underscore a certain number of actions. I talked about performance. We have a lot of stocks, and we are going to simplify our organization.
We are going to focus on certain countries, on certain activities, and there's also capital allocation. It will be very disciplined. We have very clear priorities. We will invest in a way that is very focused in growth potential activities, and by doing so, by executing this roadmap, as I've just outlined and according to what we've said we'll do, we believe that the market will appreciate this,
and I would add that the board paid very much attention in the discussion with Catherine and her team to set variable compensation systems in line that align the interests of shareholders with those of the management. Those systems are challenging, as they say, but it will allow management to benefit from variable compensation, only if our performance is of good quality.
With our benchmarking efforts, we've made sure that we're comparing ourselves to peers that have succeeded with this transformation, and these are the competitors we're racing against.
Martial de Guernon. Martial, Engie shareholder since 2008. I'd like to ask two questions. One about the dividend. A dividend of EUR 0.80 was planned and provisioned for 2019, but wasn't paid because of COVID. So why this provision didn't allow to pay a dividend of EUR 0.80 this year instead of 0.53? Second question about the loss of value Engie recorded in 10 years, EUR 40 billion of value loss. I would like a summary over this period of the causes and consequences. Thank you.
Thank you very much for these two questions. I'm going to answer the one about dividend, and I will let Judith answer the second one. As for the dividend, we don't provision dividends.
We proposed in February of last year before the start of the COVID crisis a dividend, but acknowledging the situation of the group, but also the situation of the economy of the countries in which we operated at the end of April, we changed that proposal and the general meeting never had to vote on that dividend of EUR 0.80. This year, and for reasons that I explained last year, it's about being careful, being cautious. It's not an easy decision to take for the board because the dividend, it creates some pressure in the relations between shareholders Board of Directors. i have received testimonies of very big investors or individual investors telling them that that decision impacted them. So it's not something we did without truly thinking about it, but we analyzed all the different scenarios and risks, and we thought that decision was necessary.
This year, we considered that the group really had gone through the crisis in good conditions with an impact on its results, but no questioning of its fundamentals. We are resuming our dividend policy in the top part of the range, 65%-75% of the net result of the group, and hence the calculation that you know today. That was the reasoning of the board about those two decisions, the decision taken last year and the one made this year. Judith, about value loss.
Yes, thank you for this question. You've been following the company for a long time, and it is true that we have seen important impairment losses.
But we have to remember that in 2010, between 2010 and 2020, commodity prices dropped significantly, and all of the energy industry had to face the consequences and had more than EUR 120 billion of impairment losses the last few years. These impairment losses are mainly linked to structured operations when commodity prices, including electricity prices, were at their highest historical level. This is the case for the buyback of half of the Electrabel in 2005, or the merger between Gaz de France and Suez in 2008, when the stock exchange price was at more than EUR 40 per share. So thank you very much for this question.
So why did you destroy the former GDF Suez with the sale of the Suez shares? The synergy of the two groups was the guarantee of global management of the environment of local authorities.
Yeah, thank you to get back to this subject. It was very much in the media last year. To say things simply, the initial decision that was made at the time when we got closer with Suez, when Gaz de France got closer with Suez, merged with Suez, the idea was to make Suez a separate entity, that Engie was a shareholder, and there was a shareholders' agreement signed that expired in 2013. There never was, in fact, despite what our shareholder said, there never was a true operational synergy between the two companies.
The two activities were independent from one another, and turnover in joint projects was about 10 million EUR for groups that represent EUR 60 billion and the other EUR 20 billion . It shows how little we had operational relations. Suez was a financial stake. We didn't consolidate it. We just had two representatives at the Board of Directors.
When we decided in July of last year to move forward towards clarification and the simplification of the group in the direction of a focus on energy services, we thought of disposing of that stake and obviously informed my counterpart at Suez, Philippe Varin, of that intent with enough anticipation so that he could get prepared. Then things progressed quickly, and Veolia came to us at the end of August with a proposal, an interesting proposal. We didn't think it was acceptable. We negotiated it. But then we tried to encourage Suez to generate an alternative proposal. That alternative proposal never materialized, and even in the recent period, there never was a true alternative offer. So that's the story. But we do not regret any operational synergies because there never were any.
The two activities, those of NG and those of Suez or Veolia, are very different activities, and we don't see any synergies today to exercise them within the same hall. Those are the reasons for the sale of the Suez shares.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Gérard Mignon, individual shareholder and member of the advisory committee of shareholders. NG sold its Suez shares at EUR 18.50. Veolia is going to launch a call for takeover bid at EUR 20.50. Will there be some catching up with the Suez shares sold by NG?
Thank you for this question.
It's the second question asked by the advisory committee of shareholders. It's a committee that really has a life and is good means for the group to stay in contact with its individual shareholders, which is sometimes difficult because by nature they're not that numerous.
And in the recent period, we decided not to have any more regional meetings with shareholders, but we will resume them as soon as we can. So the answer to your question is yes. We planned in the agreement with Veolia about the disposal of our stake in Suez. We planned a clause that consists in saying that if an offer is made at a higher level during a certain period, and we are in this period, we would benefit from a supplement of price. In total, the sale of our stake in Suez must represent EUR 4 billion , EUR 4 billion, as confirmed by Judith. And that's a very good result. When we announced our intent to sell our stake in Suez, the value was EUR 1.5 billion . So we managed, thanks to the momentum that was built, to value that asset.
What is the use done of the proceeds of the sale of Suez?
Well, that's a question for Judith.
Thank you. Yes, it's a very good question. Once again, the sale of Suez is part of the streamlining, which is really important for our group, i.e., to sell assets where there are no synergies and that are no longer in line with our strategy. So as to reallocate these funds where the industrial skills are and where the buoyant markets are. So we already heard the figure that we are talking about. This amount will finance part of the growth investments that we already mentioned earlier in 2021. We plan on investing between EUR 5.5 billion and EUR 6 billion, of which two-thirds will be invested in renewables and infrastructures.
Why did it take it so long to find a new General Manager?
Thank you for this question.
The answer is simple. We had to find the best one, and it takes some time, and what I'm saying is just not trying to be funny. We had a very structured process in two steps. We didn't want to start that process before the decision that led to the departure of Isabelle, and so the first step of this process before the summer led us to identify a number of applicants, of possible candidates, and seemed to us to be important Board of Directors first clarified the strategic direction of the group so that there would be a good alignment between the profile of the applicants and the expectations of applicants and the strategy elaborated by the board, and this is what we ensured with Catherine and others, and it led to a decision made in October.
When I compare it with the situation of other big European companies, I think that it's a process that was maybe a bit longer than the average, but not that much, and in a difficult year during which exchanges were slowed down by the pandemic, but I think, and I'd like to conclude with this, that on the one hand, during the transition period, there was no vacancy of the management. Claire, Judith, and Paulo did a great job steering the group in that period, and I tried to support them in that regard, and we made decisions, important decisions. Exiting Suez was a good example of it, with transition general management.
We have today a General Manager that meets exactly the profile that the board had set, had decided for that role, and who has shown in the last months her capacity to absorb very quickly the group in its diverse aspects to build with the support of the ExComm a great strategic roadmap. It makes me think that we made the right choice. Obviously saying that, I put pressure on Catherine's shoulders.
What do you think of the compensation of the corporate officers and managers of Engie, their performance shares, etc., while the shareholders acknowledge their losses year after year?
I've got to answer in a very straightforward way to this question. To say that we've got compensation policies that are quite reasonable in the group, Françoise developed in the presentation of the resolutions of Say on Pay.
The approach that we've got about those subjects, the compensation, well, Catherine's compensation, to take that example, is very reasonable in comparison with other managers of companies of the same size. Second comment, I would say that we've got variable compensation systems that are variable. I refer to the information presented by Françoise regarding the resolutions according to which you're going to approve the compensation paid. The variable rate of Claire Waysand was 37%, whereas the target was 100%, and the ceiling was 150%. So we've got a reduction of the variable compensation relating to the lesser performance of the group, and that's quite legitimate. When we look at the long-term compensation plans, we note that, well, in the past, and that's bad news for the beneficiaries, we know that when the group is not up to the target, the performance shares were not delivered.
We may say at Engie that we've got a reasonable compensation policy, and there's a strong alignment between the interests of shareholders and those of the managers. To insist on that we set some time ago. When we look at the systems and the compensation policy proposed for the coming years, we note that strong alignment with a number of objectives in comparison with our peers and the selection of a benchmark that is quite ambitious because we've decided to retain the best players in the sector as being comparable to us. I think if there aren't any other questions, this is the end of our question and answer session. I suggest we get to the last part of our meeting. That is the one of the votes. I'm going to give the floor to Claire Waysand.
Thank you very much, Jean-Pierre.
This is an important time because we are going to share together the results of all of the resolutions that were proposed to you. So the first one relates to approval of the annual accounts for the financial year 2020. This resolution is adopted and approved at 99.93%. The second resolution relates to the consolidated accounts for 2020. This resolution is adopted, the consolidated financial statements, 99.98%. The third resolution relates to the net income and declaration of the dividend for the fiscal year 2020. This resolution is approved at 95.5% of votes. The fourth resolution relates to approval of the regulated agreements referred to in Article L. 225-38 of the French Commercial Code. This has been previously approved for the previous financial year. This also is approved at 98.68% of votes.
The fifth resolution relates to renewal of the authorization Board of Directors to trade in the company's shares. This also is approved at 99.41% of votes cast. The sixth resolution relates to the appointment of Catherine MacGregor as director. This resolution is approved and adopted at 98.71% of votes. And congratulations, Catherine. The seventh and eighth resolution relate to the appointment of a director representing employee shareholders. As explained previously, there were two candidates put forward for this vote. The one with the highest number of votes is the one who will be elected. So let us begin with Jacinthe Delage. She received 85.92% of votes, and Steven Lambert received 69.74% of votes. And it is therefore Jacinthe Delage who has received the highest number of votes and is therefore appointed as director representing employee shareholders.
I'd like to congratulate Jacinthe and thank Steven for having accepted to apply for this mandate.
That brings me down to the ninth resolution, a resolution relating to approval of information relating to compensation of corporate officers paid during the financial year 2020, awarded in respect of the same financial year. This resolution is approved and adopted at 98.29% of the votes. This is the first say-on-pay/ex post resolution. The tenth resolution, approval of the total compensation benefits of any kind paid during the financial year 2020, awarded in respect of the same financial year to Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, Chairman Board of Directors, 99.87% approval. The eleventh resolution relates to approval of the total compensation and benefits of all kind paid to Isabelle Kocher, CEO, for the period from 1st of January to 24th of February 2020. This resolution is approved at 76.24% of votes.
So maybe just a quick comment about this resolution. The fact that a number of shareholders voted against this resolution relates to a debate that we had last year about the departure package of Isabelle Kocher, especially the non-competition clause. The board made the decision that we thought was the best for the defense of the interests of the group, and the percentage of votes that we see for this resolution shows the pursuance of the debate. We didn't manage to convince all of our shareholders that it was the right decision, but a majority was expressed in favor of it. And.
.[Foreign language] Twelfth resolution relating to approval of total compensation benefits of all kind paid to myself, acting CEO, from 24th of February to December 31st, were allocated for the same period. This is approved at 92.57% of votes cast.
The thirteenth resolution, approval of the compensation policy for directors. This is again the same resolution. This is approved at 99.87% of votes cast. The fourteenth resolution on approval of the compensation policy for the chairperson Board of Directors approved by 99.91% of votes. The fifteenth resolution on approval of the compensation policy for the CEO. This resolution is approved by 96.02% of votes cast. The sixteenth resolution on the issuance of shares reserved for employee members of Engie, employee shareholding plan. This is the employee shareholders' plan. This is approved at 98.55% of votes. The seventeenth resolution on the issuance of shares reserved for category beneficiaries as part of the implementation of an Engie Group international employee shareholding plan. This resolution is adopted by 98.48% of votes.
The eighteenth resolution on the authorization Board of Directors to award bonus shares to all employees and officers of Engie group companies, except for executive corporate officers of the Engie company and to employees participating in an international employee shareholding plan of the Engie group. This resolution is approved by 97.53% of votes. The nineteenth resolution on authorization Board of Directors to award bonus shares to some employees and officers of the Engie group of companies. This resolution is approved by 97.13% of votes cast. Finally, the twentieth resolution, which gives powers to implement the resolutions by the General Shareholders' Meeting and to perform related formalities. 99.92% of votes approve this twentieth resolution.
Thank you, Claire, for the presentation of the results of the votes.
I think the votes about the twenty resolutions approved by the board and that have been adopted at a wide majority, but for one specific subject that I commented on, I perceive it as a sign of the support of our shareholders to the group, to the way it is managed today, and to the strategy that was presented today. At the end of the shareholders' meeting, the board is composed of 14 members. Welcome to Catherine and Jacinthe. Independent directors, 60%; proportion of women, 40%. MEDEF provides for a different way of accounting for our directors, and so this is a balanced board, as I wished. I was told that there's a question that I didn't answer before, a question about Belgian shareholders, to know whether they could participate in information meetings in Belgium as we do in France.
I had made that commitment last year, even two years, I think. It can be honored for reasons that you know, but when we can resume the organization of physical meetings of shareholders, I would be delighted not only to organize them in France but also in Belgium. Thank you very much for your participation in our General Shareholders' Meeting. It was a peculiar format. We tried to make it as lively as possible. I'd like to thank Catherine, Claire, Judith, and all of the teams that have contributed to the preparation of this event. I can tell you that this event is considered as very important in the life of the group. The broadcasting will be accessible on the internet site of Engie for two years, and I hope we can meet next year physically. I wish you all a very good end of day.
In this period, even though there's some exuberance in France because of the easing of the restrictions, take good care of you.