Annual meeting of Euronext N.V. I welcome you on behalf of the Supervisory Board and the Managing Board of Euronext N.V. for our sixth annual general meeting as a listed company. Because of the COVID-19 crisis, we are holding this general meeting without you, our shareholders present, and without our board members and nominees for appointment. The only person with me in the meeting room are the company's Corporate Secretary, Paul Theunissen, and our notary, Mrs. Corrine Holdinga, and two technicians of our subsidiary Company Webcast, as we are webcasting this meeting. Mr. Stéphane Boujnah, our CEO, and Bernard Roeders , the Lead Partner of Ernst & Young, our external accountant for the 2019 accounts, will participate this meeting by video and phone, respectively. Euronext is an international company and its corporate language is English.
Therefore, this general meeting will be conducted in English, as announced in the convocation to this meeting. In accordance with the Articles of Association, this general meeting is held in Amsterdam, this being the municipality where the company has its seat. All shareholders have been called to attend this annual general meeting by the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board by means of a convening notice published on the 2nd of April 2020 on Euronext website, including the agenda and the explanatory notes thereto. This announcement explained the procedure for shareholders who wish to attend the meeting, provide instructions or grant a power of attorney. On May the 7th of 2020, the announcement on our website was changed in order to take into account new Dutch legislation with regard the holding of general meetings.
Shareholders have been given the opportunity to ask questions before the meeting via an email address of the Corporate Secretary. I will come back to those at a later moment. No requests have been received from the shareholders regarding the addition of proposals to the agenda of this general meeting. In accordance with corporate governance recommendation, the draft minutes of this meeting will be made available to shareholders within three months of the meeting by publication on the website, giving shareholders the opportunity to comment on these minutes during three subsequent months. Having taken into account all that has been expressed before, I conclude that this annual general meeting has been convened in accordance with all the applicable rules and the articles of association of Euronext N.V., that the general meeting may decide on all items that are placed on the agenda.
Before we proceed, I will now inform you how many shares are represented at this meeting in person or by proxy, and how many votes can be jointly cast. We have issued 70 million shares. The shares with voting rights are 69,565,125 shares. Represented shares are 55,200,27,373 shares. That's the percentage of the issued capital presented or represented is 79.38%. That means that the absolute majority of the votes is 27,600,013,687 shares. The qualified majority, in case there is a qualified majority needed, and that's 75%, the number of shares is 41,400,020,530 shares. I would like now on the agenda item two, to ask Mr. Stéphane Boujnah, the CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board, to present the report of the managing board on the financial year 2019 and also the first quarter of 2020. As mentioned, Mr. Boujnah joins this meeting remotely from Paris.
Stéphane, please go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everybody. Let us start on slide three with a quick overview of the Euronext Group at the end of 2019. Euronext delivered a solid performance. Over 2019, Euronext generated more than EUR 679 million in revenue, of which half was non-volume related. This performance translated into 58.8% EBITDA margin and an adjusted EPS of EUR 3.90 per share. Financially, the group remained strong and healthy, with Euronext generating EUR 254 million of net operating cash flows in 2019, converting 64% of its EBITDA into cash. This cash generation translated into a sound financial position reflected by a net leverage of 1.5x at the end of the year. From a market perspective, today, Euronext is valued at more than EUR 5.9 billion as we speak in the market. On the operating front, Euronext entering to its new strategic cycle in 2019.
We released the new strategic plan, Let's Grow Together, in October. We completed the deployment of our proprietary trading platform across all the asset classes, including derivative markets. These outcomes were achieved thanks to the commitment of more than 1,000 employees who make Euronext a successful enterprise, including a number of those who have joined the group through our recent acquisitions. Going into more details on the 2019 performance on slide four. As I said, Euronext reported a strong performance throughout the year with double-digit growth in the EBITDA and revenue and adjusted EPS. Revenue increased in 2019 by EUR 64 million, up 10.4% to EUR 679.1 million. This strong performance reflects solid core business dynamics with our diversified strategy for diversifying our revenues that continued to pay off with non-volume related revenue, representing now for 50% of the group revenue.
This is thanks to our strengthened custody and settlement business. These non-volume related revenues covered in 2019, 122% of our operating costs that year. Our core business proved its resilience against declining volumes in 2019 that were partially offset by strong organic performance on our listing and advanced data business. Corporate services did very well with double-digit growth and the listing business saw improving market condition during the second half of 2019. The indices part of advanced data services also did very well. Finally, Oslo Børs VPS contributed EUR 57.1 billion for little bit more than six months of consolidation in 2019. At the same time, we continued to deliver strong discipline cost as we outperformed our 2019 cost guidance. This translated into group EBITDA growing faster than revenue by 12.8% in 2019 to almost EUR 400 million, leading to a combined EBITDA margin of 58.8%.
Again, 2.8 points higher than the previous year. On a like-for-like basis, EBITDA margin even reach more than 60%. Finally, as announced to our investors, we told that we expect non-recurring costs related to the integration of Oslo Børs VPS and internal digitalization project to impact our cost base. As a result, and before the delivery of the first synergies in 2021, we expect operating costs, excluding the annual temporary increase, mid-single digit in 2020 compared to annualized second half of 2019 cost base. Overall, the strong operating performance over the year resulted in a good performance in adjusted EPS at EUR 3.90 per share. On a reported basis, 2019 net income was up 2.8% at EUR 222 million. Lastly, in accordance with the Euronext dividend policy, a dividend of EUR 1.59 per share is proposed for your approval today.
This represents a 5% increase from last year, despite various non-recurring costs in 2019. Moving to slide five, 2019 was a major transformation year for Euronext, reaching major strategic, financial, and operating milestone. As I said, we released our strategic plan, Let's Grow Together 2022. We finalized the deployment of Optiq, Euronext's cash and derivative platforms. We completed our largest acquisitions since the IPO in 2014. All in all, Euronext entered into a new strategic cycle in 2019. We've made progress on innovation and sustainable finance, which is now at the heart of our strategy. Euronext will pursue the development of innovative solutions. We are committed to build the leading pan-European market infrastructure. We are committed to pursue a growth strategy through high-valuated acquisitions. Lastly, as I said, we completed the deployment of the Optiq trading platform.
Euronext Dublin cash markets smoothly migrated to the Optiq trading platform early 2019. Derivative markets for the group migrated in late 2019. The last milestone will be reached this year with the planned migration of Oslo Børs markets to Optiq trading platform in the course of the second part of the year, in the course of end of Q3, beginning of Q4. We continued to diversify our revenue profile with success. We expanded our federal model with the post-trade franchise with the acquisition of Oslo Børs VPS. We entered into new asset class with the power trading and the acquisition of Nord Pool. We invested in innovative solutions such as tokenization platform with Tokeny and fund data with OPCVM 360.
Overall, our disciplined capital deployment is bearing fruits as we will continue to deploy our disciplined M&A strategy. Moving to slide seven, outline the first quarter 2020 results that we released yesterday. Euronext reported a very strong first quarter with notable revenue growth across all our business line. Revenue increased during this quarter by EUR 84.2 million, up 55.2% to EUR 236.8 million compared to Q1 2019. This strong performance reflects both high trading volumes across all asset class, but also the contribution of the consolidation of Oslo Børs VPS and Nord Pool. Non-volume-related revenue accounting for 44% of the group revenue. Thanks to our continued cost discipline, EBITDA grew faster than revenue. Group EBITDA grew by 68.1% in Q1 to EUR 150 million. This translated into an EBITDA margin of 63.4%, which is 4.9 point higher than last year's first quarter.
On a like-for-like basis, EBITDA margin reached for last quarter 66.7%. In addition, we achieved the targeted 8 million run rate cost synergies in Ireland for Euronext Dublin, two years after completion of the acquisition, but one year ahead of the initial target. In this context, we have confirmed to our investors our cost guidance for the year, as I previously mentioned. Overall, this dynamic performance over the quarter resulted in a 65.3% increase in adjusted EPS at EUR 1.44 a share on a reported basis. Our Q1 2020 net income was up 71.3% at EUR 96.1 million.
This performance is not only the result of increased trading volumes, this strong performance reflects what has been the trademark of the Euronext Group over the past five years, which is a rigorous and constant investment of technology to deliver best-in-class trading platform, efficient and constant cash trading market share management that allows us to capture a disproportionate share of volumes and volatility revenues, a continued cost discipline that allows us to grow EBITDA more than revenues, and a disciplined deployment of capital that allows us to acquire equity value-added assets that contribute to the growth of the company. Moving to slide eight and nine.
On slide eight, as I said, the acquisition of VP Securities is a major milestone in the geographic expansion in the Nordic region, because since 2019, Euronext has significantly increased its presence in the Nordic region, with more than EUR 850 million of capital deployed and committed. Through this deployment, we strengthen our post-trade business with the addition of CSDs and expanded into power trading. I want to underline that point. One year ago, we had a couple of employees in Stockholm. Now, we have more than one-third of the employees of Euronext that are based in Helsinki, in Tallinn, Vilnius, Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen and soon Copenhagen. Moving to slide nine, this disciplined capital deployment diversifies Euronext's profile and pro forma, including revenues from Oslo Børs VPS, Nord Pool and VP Securities.
Our revenue mix, which significantly increased exposure to post trade, that would account now around 23% of group revenue. In the meantime, we are also improving our exposure to healthy and solid local economies in the Nordic region that will generate around 25% of our 2019 pro forma revenue. Moving to slide 11, which shows to conclude the results of this year achievement, we can see that despite the COVID crisis, which greatly disrupted financial markets, Euronext share price increased by more than 40% since our last general meeting. Year-to-date, Euronext stock price is outperforming all the peers with a plus 16.5% as we speak versus the stock price on January 1st. Over to you, Mr. Chairman.
Stéphane, thank you very much.
Stéphane, thank you very much.
for this very clear presentation on the financial year 2019 and the first quarter of 2020. The annual report 2019 comes in the form of an universal registration document. Based on Article 9, Step three of the EU Directive 2017/1129, Euronext filed its universal registration document without prior approval of the AFM. The first item on the agenda is the explanation of the policy on addition to reserves and dividends, which is a discussion item. I refer to the explanatory notes to the agenda of this meeting for more information on our dividend policy. We believe that also under the current circumstances, Euronext is perfectly equipped to confirm its current policy to distribute 50% of our profits. In our view, this policy remains balanced and does not impair Euronext's flexibility to meet its short and its long-term liabilities and objectives.
No questions were asked or remarks were submitted to the Corporate Secretary by shareholders about this topic prior to this meeting. Before we proceed to the proposals to adopt the remuneration report and to adopt the financial statements, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Bernard Roeders of our external auditor for the 2019 financial statements. Mr. Roeder also joined this meeting remotely by phone, and I kindly invite Mr. Roeders to give our shareholders his views. Bernard, please go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We prepared a short presentation on the process of the 2019 audit of Euronext. As in prior years, we started our work with identifying the main tension points, being the new acquisitions, changes in the IT infrastructure, and evaluation of goodwill and equity investments. Also important areas included cybersecurity and compliance to new regulations, such as MiFID II. In planning the extent of our procedures, we used the materiality level of EUR 60 million, based on 5% of profit before tax, and we furthermore applied the full scope, the major operations of Euronext in Paris and Amsterdam, as well as the newly acquired businesses in Ireland and Norway, thereby covering about 90% of the reported income statement.
Our French and Dutch teams again worked out of a combined approach and used the same file. The teams included IT auditors as well as specialists for valuation, taxation, IFRS and laws and regulations. Following our audit work, we issued a management letter and a long-form report to the boards of directors and supervisors. These reports comprised our observations on the main attention points from our audit, of which the most important have been presented in our public auditor's opinion. These related to the accounting for the Oslo acquisition, the valuation of the equity stake in Euroclear, and the go live of the last phase of the Optiq implementation, as was also referred to by Mr. Boujnah. We found all three audit matters to be reasonable.
Finally, for this presentation, we note that the cooperation with Euronext has again been open and transparent, and as known to the shareholders, that we have issued an unqualified opinion to the 2019 financial statements of Euronext. This was my presentation, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Bernard. We have received no questions about the audit and the audit report of our external auditor, so I would kindly thank you, Bernard, for this contribution. We now can go ahead with agenda item 3B, that's our first voting item. In accordance with Article 2.135, Paragraph 5A of the Dutch Civil Code, the implementation of the remuneration policy in 2019, as outlined in the 2019 financial statements, will be discussed. In accordance with Article 2.135B, Paragraph two of the Dutch Civil Code, the remuneration report is submitted to the meeting for an advisory vote. As no questions have been received from shareholders about the implementation of the remuneration policy and the remuneration report, we will proceed to the advisory vote on the remuneration report, which is, as I said, the first voting item.
As no shareholder or their representatives are present in this meeting, I have been informed about the outcome of the votes that have been cast in advance of the meeting. BNP Paribas Securities Services, the company's registrar representing Euroclear France, in its turn representing in this meeting a total of 55,227,043 shares, informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: 2,549,790 votes against this item, 5,955 votes in abstentions, and 52,551,298 votes in favor of this item. I, in my capacity as chairman of this general meeting, have received powers of authority for 330 shares in total. All of these are being cast in favor of this item. The outcome of the vote is therefore as follows: 2,549,790 votes against this item, 5,955 votes as abstentions, and 52,551,628 votes in favor of this item.
The proposal to adopt the 2019 remuneration report has been approved, so we can proceed with the next item, and that is the proposal to adopt the 2019 financial statements. No questions or remarks about this item have been received. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: 1,040 votes against this item, 95,560 votes as abstentions, and 55,010,437 votes in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of these votes is therefore as follows: 1,040 votes against this item, 95,566 votes as abstentions. 55,010,767 votes in favor of this item. The proposal to adopt the 2019 financial statement has been approved, and we can proceed with the next item.
The third voting item of this meeting is the proposal to adopt a dividend of €1.59 per ordinary share. Prior to this AGM, we have received one question about this agenda item from Aura Traders, namely about the ex-dividend date of Euronext. The answer to this question is that the payment of the annual dividend will occur on the 22nd of May this year, with ex-dividend on the 20th of May and a record date on the 21st of May. The answer and this date can also be found on the website of Euronext. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: zero votes against this item, 4,532 votes as abstentions, and 55,102,511 votes in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are also in favor of this item.
The outcome of this vote is therefore as follows: zero votes against this item, 4,532 votes as abstentions, and 55,102,831 votes in favor of this item. The proposal to adopt a dividend of EUR 1.59 per ordinary share has been approved, and we can proceed with the next item. The fourth voting item in this meeting is the proposal to discharge the members of the managing board in respect of their duty performed during the year 2019. No questions or remark about this item have been received. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: 1,753,031 votes are against this item, 142,460 votes are abstentions, and 53,331,552 votes are in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item.
The outcome of the vote is therefore as follows: 1,753,031 votes are against this item, 142,460 votes are cast as abstentions, and 53,331,882 votes are in favor of this item. The proposal to discharge the member of the managing board in this respect of their duties performed during the year 2019 has been approved. We can proceed with the next item. The fifth voting item in this meeting is the proposal to discharge the members of the supervisory board in respect of their duties performed during the year 2019. No questions or remark about this item have been received. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: 5,105,529 votes are against this item, 142,460 votes are abstentions, and 49,979,054 votes are in favor of this item.
The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of this vote is therefore as follows: 5,105,529 votes are against this item, 142,460 votes are cast as abstentions, and 49,979,384 votes are in favor of this item. The proposal to discharge the member of the Supervisory Board in respect of the duties performed during the year 2019 has been approved. We can proceed with the next item. Further to the rotation schedule that has been adopted by the Supervisory Board and has been published on the website of Euronext N.V., two members of the Supervisory Board, Ms. Kerstin Günther and myself, will retire immediately after this Annual General Meeting.
Ms. Günther has decided not to stand for reappointment. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Günther for her valuable contributions to the Supervisory Board and the company as a whole in the past four years. We will certainly miss both her views and knowledge and her warm personality. Thank you again, Kerstin. As you have seen on the agenda of this meeting, I'm available for reappointment for a second term. The Supervisory Board has drawn up a binding nomination for my reappointment. The sixth voting item is the proposal to reappoint me, Dick Sluimers, as a member of the Supervisory Board for a term of four years. I refer to the explanatory notes to the agenda and its annex.
I would like to point out that following the departure of Mrs. Günther from the Supervisory Board, only two out of nine of its members will be female. While currently, three out of 10 members are female. Please be assured that diversity is high on the agenda of the Supervisory Board, and that this issue will have the Supervisory Board's full attention in discussion and decisions about its future composition. No questions or remarks about this item has been received. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been to instruct to vote as follows. 4,277,721 votes against this item. 139,552 votes are cast as abstentions, and 50,809,770 votes are in favor of this item.
The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of the vote therefore is as follows. 4,277,720 votes are against this item. 139,552 votes as abstentions, and 50,810,100 votes are in favor of this item. The proposal regarding my reappointment to the Supervisory Board for a term of 4 years is therefore being approved. I would like to thank you shareholders, for your confidence in me as chairman of this board. We will proceed with the next item. On the agenda of this meeting are the appointments of Mr. Øivind Amundsen and Mr. Georges Lauchard to the Managing Board.
The Supervisory Board has drawn a binding nomination for both appointments, each for a term of four years. Now, I'm happy to announce that yesterday we received approval for Mr. Øivind Amundsen appointment. We still are waiting for the approval of the appointment of Georges Lauchard. That has to do with the fact that we simply started his procedure somewhat later due to the fact that he was also appointed somewhat later. I refer to the explanatory note to the agenda and its annex for the reason behind this proposal and for information about the candidates. Approval for the appointment of Georges Lauchard from the Dutch Minister of Finance and from the College of Regulators is still pending. If the shareholders approve the appointment, the appointment will only take effect once regulatory approval has been granted. No questions or remark about this item has been received.
We will first vote on the appointment of Mr. Amundsen, which is the seventh voting item. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows. 1,721,113 votes against this item. 80,879 votes as abstentions, and 53,425,051 votes in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity of chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of these votes is therefore as follows. 1,720,130 votes are against this item.
80,879 votes are cast as abstentions, and 53,425,381 votes are in favor of this item. The proposal to appoint Mr. Amundsen to the Managing Board for a four-year term, therefore has been approved. Thank you, and all the best, and congratulations to you, Øivind, with this appointment. We will now vote on the appointment of Mr. Georges Lauchard, which is the eighth voting item. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows. 4,165 votes against this item. 80,879 votes as abstentions and 55,141,999 votes in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item.
The outcome of these votes is therefore as follows: 4,165 votes are against this item, 80,879 votes are cast as abstentions, and 55,142,329 votes are in favor of this item. The proposal to appoint Mr. Georges Lauchard to the Managing Board for a four-year term and still subject to regulatory approval also has been approved. Here, I also would like to congratulate Georges on his appointment, and I have full confidence that the regulatory approval will arrive soon. The next item on the agenda is a proposal to adopt a new remuneration policy with regard to the Managing Board, aligned with the Shareholder Rights Directive II as implemented in Dutch law. I refer to the explanatory note to the agenda for the reasons behind this proposal. Please note that this item will need a 75% majority of votes in favor in order to be approved.
No questions or remarks about this item have been received. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: 19,992,652 votes are cast against this item, 851,542 votes are cast as abstentions, and 34,382,849 votes are in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of these votes is therefore as follows: 90,992,652 votes are against this item, 851,542 votes as abstentions, and 34,383,179 votes are in favor of this item. The proposal to adopt a new remuneration policy with regard to the managing board, aligned with the Shareholder Rights Directive II as implemented in the Dutch law, has therefore not been approved.
I would like to state that the supervisory board and the managing board are disappointed that the new remuneration policy for the managing board has not received the required 75% majority from our shareholders. We have taken efforts to adapt the remuneration policy that was approved at the extraordinary general meeting held on the 8th of October 2019 to recent Dutch regulation, and we believe that we have submitted a fair and sound proposal to this meeting. Given that it has not been approved, however, we will submit a new proposal to you next year. In the meantime, the current remuneration policy will remain in place. The 10th voting item on the agenda is the proposal to adopt a new remuneration policy with regard to the supervisory board, aligned with the Shareholder Rights Directive II as implemented in Dutch law.
I refer to the explanatory notes to the agenda for the reasons behind this proposal. Please note that this item will also need a 75% majority of the votes in favor in order to be approved. No questions or remarks about this item have been received. Now, BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: 2,455,754 votes against this item, 390,552 votes were cast as abstentions, and 52,321,935 votes were in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as the chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of this vote is therefore as follows: 2,455,754 votes are against this item, 390,552 votes were abstentions, and 52,322,265 votes are in favor of this item.
The proposal to adopt a new remuneration policy with regard to the supervisory board, aligned with the Shareholder Rights Directive II as implemented in Dutch law, therefore has been approved. The 11th voting item on the agenda is a proposal to appoint Ernst & Young Accountants LLP as Euronext's external auditor to audit the financial statements for 2020. No questions or remarks about this item have been received. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: 423 votes against this item, 4,532 votes as abstentions, and 55,222,088 votes in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of this vote is therefore as follows. 423 votes against this item, 4,532 votes are abstentions, and 55,222,418 votes were casted in favor of this item.
The proposal to appoint Ernst & Young Accountants LLP as the external auditor to audit the financial statements for 2020 has therefore been approved. We can proceed with the next item. Agenda item nine contains two proposals. The first proposal is to designate the Managing Board as the competent body to issue ordinary shares, which is voting item 12. The second proposal is to designate the Managing Board as the competent body to restrict or exclude the preemptive rights of the shareholder, which is voting item 13. I refer to the explanatory notes to the agenda of this meeting. No question or remarks about this item have been received. We will first vote on item 12. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows.
291,258 votes against this item, 993 votes as abstentions, and 53,270,726 votes were cast in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of these votes is therefore as follows. 291,258 votes are against this item, 993 votes were cast as abstentions, and 53,280,056 votes were cast in favor of this item. The proposal to designate the managing board as the competent body to issue ordinary shares had therefore been approved. We can now go to voting item 13. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows. 3,622,564 votes were cast against this item, 993 votes were cast as abstentions, and 49,886,420 votes were cast in favor of this item.
The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of this vote is therefore as follows. 3,622,564 votes were against this item, 993 votes were cast as abstentions, and 49,886,750 votes were cast in favor of this item. The proposal to designate the managing board as the competent body to restrict or exclude the preemptive rights of the shareholders has also been approved. The 14th voting item is the proposal to authorize the managing board to acquire ordinary shares in the share capital of the company on behalf of the company. No questions or remarks about this item have been received. BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows. 2,095,996 votes against this item, 21,231 votes as abstentions, and 51,392,750 votes in favor of this item.
The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of these votes is as follows. 2,095,969 votes against this item, 21,231 votes as abstentions, and 51,393,080 votes in favor of this item. The proposal to authorize the Managing Board to acquire ordinary shares in the share capital of the company on behalf of the company has been approved. The 15th voting item is the proposal to authorize the Supervisory Board or Managing Board, subject to approval of the Supervisory Board, to grant rights to French beneficiaries to receive shares in accordance with Article L225-197-1 and sequence of the French Code of Commerce. I refer to the explanatory notes to the agenda of this meeting for further information on this proposal. No questions or remarks about this item have been received.
BNP Paribas Securities Services informed me that it has been instructed to vote as follows: 1,582,434 votes against this item, 5,532 votes as abstentions, and 51,922,011 votes in favor of this item. The 330 votes that I cast in my capacity as chairman of this meeting are in favor of this item. The outcome of these votes is therefore as follows: 1,582,430 votes are against this item, 5,532 votes are cast as abstentions, and 51,922,341 votes were cast in favor of this item. The proposal to authorize the supervisory board or managing board, subject to approval to the supervisory board, to grant rights to French beneficiaries to receive shares in accordance with the Article L225-197-1 and sequence of the French Code of Commerce has been approved. As mentioned, we have given our shareholders the opportunity to ask questions prior to this meeting.
Our Corporate Secretary, Paul Theunissen, has received only the question about the ex-dividend date that was answered early in this meeting. Before I come to a formal closing of this meeting, I would like to express a big thank you to all our people at Euronext who have been working so hard under these very difficult circumstances. These times were not easy for Euronext, but as our CEO, Stéphane Boujnah, did explain during his meeting, our results have been truly outstanding, and we owe that to all the efforts that were made in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the U.K. Thank you very much to all of you. I hereby close this annual general meeting, and I thank everybody for attending the webcast. Have a nice continuation of the rest of the day, and please stay healthy. Thank you very much.