AGM 2021

May 26, 2021

Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good morning. I hereby declare open the combined general meeting convened by the board of directors following the notice of meeting published in the bulletin des anons les garrobi gatoire dated 03/31/2021 and the notice of meeting published in that same bulletin on 04/30/2021 as well as in the legal gazette des affiche Parisienne on April 30. Given the health reasons and in accordance with current regulations, this general meeting is exceptionally held in camera without the presence of shareholders and other persons entitled to attend. It will be broadcast live on the company's website and as every year a video recording of the meeting will be available on the general meeting page of Valeo's website. Beside me, to my right, we have Robert Charvier, Chief Financial Officer and to my left, Eric Antoine Fredette, General Counsel and Secretary General. The statutory auditors are also attending remotely. Let us now turn to the composition of the General Assembly Bureau, which is constituted in accordance with the regulations in force. In this respect, the Board of Directors has appointed as scrutineers BNP Paribas Asset Management represented by Mrs. Ausolia Galle and Amundi Asset Management represented by Mrs. Corinne Ferrier, here present. I suggest that you appoint Mr. Eric Antoine Prodette as secretary of this assembly and I will give him the floor so that he can tell you the quorum of the assembly and explain the agenda. Thank you, chair. Societe Generale, the centralising institution responsible for organising the meeting, informed the offices of the status of the quorum, the votes cast by correspondence and by vote access and the number of powers allocated to the Chairman. After examination by the officers of the meeting of the attendance sheet and its certification, it appears that the shareholders who voted hold 170,638,800 of the 240,596,808 shares entitled to vote. A quorum of 70.92% which is excellent and I think it's a record from previous years. I therefore note that the meeting, which includes more than a quarter of the shares with voting rights, is duly constituted and may validly deliberate whether on an ordinary or extraordinary basis. Your meeting has been convened to decide on the agenda, which is included in the notice of meeting brochure. I suggest that you don't read out the entire agenda and the subject of each resolution will appear on the screen when the voting results are presented. As for the meeting documents, they are available to the members of the bureau. I would also like to remind you that all information for shareholders is available and can be found on the company's website. Chair, I will give you the floor. I declare that all the documents and information required by the regulations in force have been communicated or made available to the shareholders in the manner and within the time limits provided by law. Dear Shareholders, This is a special General Assembly. Firstly because it is being held, like in 2020, behind closed doors because of the Covid pandemic. But this year, in order to maintain the dialogue that I value dialogue with the CEO of your company but also with its Board of Directors. You can ask questions during this General Assembly, questions that we will try to answer. The question and answer session will take place before the presentation of the voting results. This is also a special General Assembly because it is the thirteenth and last time that I will have the honour of talking to you as Managing Director of your company. As you know, Jean Michel, the Lead Director, will explain to you later, the Board of Directors has chosen Christophe Perrier to take over the responsibility of Chief Executive Officer as of January 2022. I have known Christophe since I joined in March 2009. His competence, his knowledge of Valeo and the automotive world, of our customers, his charisma and his strategic vision make him undoubtedly the best candidate for this position. As far as I am concerned, I will support him until the end of my current term of office as Chairman of the Board of Directors, with the sole ambition that this succession be exemplary in terms of governance at a time of technological change in the automotive industry for which Valeo is perfectly prepared. Robert Schaffier, the Financial Director of your company, whom you know well will present the financial results for the year 2020. Because of Covid, 2020 was a very special year. The first half of the year saw an almost total halt in activity due to the successive lockdowns. The absolute priority was to protect the health of our employees by implementing a health protocol considered to be the most effective in the industry. A protocol that was confirmed by our social partners and audited. The second priority was of course to protect our assets, our cash, so that we could deliver as soon as the market recovered to our customers. The second half of the year saw a rebound in activity from the third quarter onwards, a stronger rebound than expected which enabled the financial results to return to pre crisis levels in terms of EBITDA and free cash flow generation. On my behalf and on behalf of all the members of the Board of Directors, I would like to warmly thank all Valeo employees for their unwavering commitment during this complex period of global pandemic. In France we have signed a collective performance agreement with the trade unions which will improve the competitiveness of the French sites without affecting employment and I have undertaken not to close any sites until the 2022 or to make any forced departures. I would also like to thank you, our shareholders, who have placed your trust in us during this difficult period and have continued to support us. Despite the difficult situation last year, your Board of Directors has decided to continue paying a dividend which has been reduced to 20 Eurocentines per share for the financial year 2019. At this general meeting, you will be asked to vote on a dividend of 30¢ for the year 2020. In this period of uncertainty, your Board of Directors has sought to find the right balance between all of Valloy's stakeholders, our employees of course, our shareholders and the areas in which we operate. I would like to remind you that last year we donated FFP2 masks to hospitals and contributed alongside Air Liquide, PSA and Schneider to the manufacture of 10,000 ventilators. And now, as the epidemic is escalated in India, we have decided to donate and send ventilators to this suffering country. Turning now to the results for the first quarter of twenty twenty one. Valeo posted a very strong outperformance and growth in all regions of the world, in particular 21% in China, 12% in Europe and North America and across all activities in particular 21% at CDA driven by ADAS and 15% at PTS driven by electrification compared to 2019. This outperformance will continue in the second quarter. Valeo benefits from its unique positioning as a true leader in electrification and ADAS with technologies recognised by our customers that ensure our commercial success and reinforce our growth potential. In this context, we have confirmed our objectives for 2021. In addition, in March 2021 your group was including the new CAC 40 ESG Index which includes 40 companies that have demonstrated the best practices from an environmental, social and governance perspective. Our inclusion in this index rewards our strategy, our performance and our transparency for more than ten years in environmental, social and governance matters. You may remember since 2010, we have put CO2 reduction at the centre of our strategy. Our turnover generated by CO2 reduction technologies has increased 20 fold and will amount to approximately 10,000,000,000 Euros in 2021. At the beginning of the year we communicated a carbon plan validated by the Board of Directors which includes ambitious targets for carbon neutrality by 02/1950. We should have achieved almost half of our objective by 2030 and Christophe Perrier will talk to you about this later. In line with the group's commitment to improving diversity and gender balance in its management bodies, the board has also set targets in 2020 for gender balance in management bodies by 2030 with intermediate targets in 2024 and 2027. An ambitious and realistic target of doubling the number of women on the group's management committees from 16% on 01/01/2020 to 32% on the 12/31/2013 and Catherine Delay will talk to you about this later. With regard to the renewal and the composition of the board, today we are proposing that you renew the mandates of Maury Devine, Marie Noel Legere Gault Avesier and Veronique Valles as directors. All three are experienced members of your board and thanks to their expertise and experience they provide us with indispensable competence. As I have already mentioned, it is also proposed that you appoint Christophe Perrier as a director. The board has also strengthened employee representation with the appointment of Gregor Schelag as a director representing employees alongside Eric Chauviret by the European Works Council on November 19. At the last general meeting, you approved the transformation of Valeo into a European company. This transformation took effect on the March 9. Valeo is a company with French roots of which we should all be proud. But its base is now European. This new legal status allows us to better represent the European dimension of the group to all our shareholders. In particular, our employees and customers. As you will have noticed, this transformation, like I said last year, does not affect either the place where Valeo resists on the stock exchange or the way its governance operates. I will now hand over to our Lead Director, Jean Michel, who will give you the main information on our governance. Thank you for your attention. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. It is my pleasure to address you today in my capacity as Lead Director and Chairman of the Remuneration and Governance, Nominations and Corporate Social Responsibility committees. As is the case each year, the report on my work over the past year is included in the Universal Registration Document of your company. I invite you to consult it and will therefore limit myself to here just speaking about the essential points. I must obviously begin by mentioning the Covid-nineteen crisis and tell you how much the entire Board of Directors believes that it was managed in an exemplary manner by Valeo's management, both in terms of its responsiveness and for the correct choice of its priorities integrity of employees, continuity of service to customers, preservation of the industrial tour, listening to and being close to all stakeholders, protection of the balance sheet and cost reduction. In this unprecedentedly violent crisis, management has shown unfailing rigour, professionalism and transparency with the constant support and backing of your board of directors. If it is in the storm that the quality of the crew has demonstrated and if it is in turmoil that the values of a community are revealed, then I am proud to be associated with Valeo. With regard to governance, the annual evaluation of the functioning of your Board of Directors was carried out this year by a specialised consulting firm. It once again highlighted the quality and balance of Valeo's governance which the directors all emphasised as working well. This is particularly true of the way in which the preparation of Jacques Aschenbroich's succession plan, the major governance event of 2020, was conducted. To quote the report, the succession and governance evolution process was conducted with rigour and professionalism and resulted in a solution approved unanimously by the board members. As Jacques Ashenbourg indicated to you, the work on the plan concerning his succession was indeed initiated by the Board of Directors in the second half of twenty nineteen, under the guidance of the Governance, Nominations and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee and with the participation of the entire Board of Directors. It was carried out over a period of twelve months in a very thorough, professional, rigorous and transparent manner. It led to the choice of Christophe Perrier, notably in view of the high quality of his career as Vario's Chief Operating Officer, his in-depth knowledge of the automotive industry and the Board's confidence in his vision, his potential and his ability to lead the companies into a new chapter in his history. Given the uncertain and turbulent nature of this current period and the scale of the changes underway in the global automotive market, the board felt it wise to ensure that the managerial transition would be gradual and that the future chief executive officer would be able to take on his or her responsibilities with the benefit, for a time, of the experience of the current CEO. Your board of directors has therefore unanimously adopted a three stage transition whereby Christophe Perrier, appointed deputy CEO of Vallio on 10/27/2020, will be appointed today as chief operating and then when the functions of chairman and CEO are separated in January 2022 as chief executive officer. From that moment on, Jacques Ashenboche will remain chairman of the board of directors with specific duties until the end of his term as a director, which is scheduled for the end of the annual general meeting in May 2023. As you know, since I took on the role of lead director, I have been organizing meetings between independent directors after each board meeting. These so called executive sessions offer the possibility of an open and informal exchange without a pre established agenda on all sorts of subjects relating to your company and thereby enrich the content of the dialogue that your board maintains with the company's management. They contribute to the quality of governance of your company. I would remind you therefore that all the members of the Board of Directors are independent exception of Jacques Ashenbosch and the directors representing the employees, Eric Chauvieray and Gregorges Schelag. In the area of Corporate Social Responsibility CSR, a carbon neutrality plan for 2030 and 2050 on the one hand and ambitious gender diversity objectives for 2030 on the other were adopted this year following an in-depth and continuous dialogue between management and your Board of Directors. They constitute two major steps in the company's commitment in these areas and I would invite you to consult their content in your company's Universal Registration Document. Two decisions were also taken which demonstrate the importance that Valeo and your Board of Directors attach to CSR issues. First of all, Ulricha Steinhorst was appointed on twenty seven October twenty twenty, the person responsible for leading CSR issues on behalf of the Governance, Nomination and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. Secondly, the Board of Directors, on the recommendation of their Remuneration Committee, considered it appropriate to include two CSR criteria among the so called performance criteria in the long term incentive plans for management. These criteria on the one hand relate to the level of CO2 emissions of the group and on the other hand relating to the gender diversity of the 300 most important management positions of the group. They are obviously aligned with the medium term objectives that I have just stated. Lastly, allow me to provide you with some details on the remuneration of your Chairman and CEO, Jacques Aschenbord and on that of the other corporate offices of your company in the context of the succession plan. Given the very exceptional nature of last year's context, the Remuneration Committee initiated at the start of the year a reflection on the subjects of remuneration of your company's corporate offices and met several times on the subject. In accordance with the remuneration policy that you approved last year by 93.03% and on the recommendation of the Remuneration Committee, your Board of Directors considered it justified to use the flexibility that this policy gives it in the context of the Covid crisis to build its proposal for the remuneration of the 2020 financial year. It did so both with regard to its variable remuneration and to the so called performance share plans. It has done so in a way that it wanted to be well thought out, balanced and fair with regard to the context of 2020, the financial situation of the Group and that of various stakeholders. I would invite you, if you wish, to look at the details in your company's document as well as highlighting three elements that seem important to me. As you have been told, 2020 consisted of a first half marked by a concern to protect against the crisis and to prepare for a possible recovery and the second half was marked by rapid return to activity and by high quality results above the July and October 2020 guidelines. To to decide on the variable component of your CEO's remuneration for 2020, the board of directors based itself on the analysis of the year's performance that I have just mentioned. It assessed the achievement of the quantitative criteria half of the maximum potential, which it reduced by 20% taking into account the economic situation of the company and that of the various stakeholders to set a final level of 46% for a maximum possible of 115% Combined with an achievement rate of 53% for a possible maximum of 55% on the qualitative criteria, the variable part of your CEO s remuneration for 2020 amounts to 99% of his annual fixed remuneration for a possible maximum of 170%. In the same spirit, the board assessed the achievement of the economic performance criteria ROA and operating margin of Jacques Ashenbois twenty eighteen-twenty nineteen-twenty twenty three year performance share plans. The Board debated 50% of the allocation for the year 2020 of the twenty nineteen-twenty twenty plans I. E. A sixth of the shares allocated and it did not grant any performance shares under the 2018 plan. In the end, the Board of Directors therefore noted a reduction of more than one third of the shares allocated under the 2018, 2019 and 2020 plans. I would also like to remind you that the performance shared delivered to the Chairman and CEO will be produced on a pro rata basis when the governance is unbundled in January 2022. Finally, as we indicated to you, Jacques Ascendbar and all the members of the operating committee paid 25% of their fixed remuneration during the period of the cessation of activity linked to COVID nineteen in favor of solidarity actions in relation to this pandemic. The directors of your company followed them in this initiative. With regard to ex ante remuneration policies, I would invite you to consult the detailed information in your company's document. I I would like to draw your attention to the following two points. In application of this succession plan, several remuneration policies have been drawn up and are being proposed revoked today. Those of Jacques Ashen Roche for 2021 as chairman and chief CEO and in anticipation of the Dissociation of Functions planned for January 2022 as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Those of Christophe Perrier as Deputy CEO as of today and in anticipation of the dissociation of functions as CEO in January 2022. These remuneration policies are fully consistent with those proposed to the general meeting over the past several years and always widely approved. Finally, and in the same way as in 2020, flexibility is granted to your board of directors to take into account, if necessary, the possible impact of the COVID nineteen pandemic and its consequence, in particular the prices in electronic components when assessing the degree of attainment of quantifiable objectives. If this were to happen, it would of course be done within the framework of the remuneration policy in force and in full transparency. In view of all these elements, as Lead Director and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, I consider that the 2020 remuneration of the Chairman and CEO, as well as the remuneration policies for corporate officers that have been drawn up are consistent, balanced and reasonable based on ambitious criteria and on the performance of your company. They are therefore in line with your interests and have moreover received a favorable opinion from the main voting advisory agencies. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders for your attention. Thank you, Gilles. I will now give the floor to Thierry Moulanger, Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee. Good morning. At the beginning of the 2020 financial year, the Audit and Risk Committee was composed of the following six members, Marie Noel Jego Larvisiere, Veroni Grail, Stephanie Frachet, Olivier Pugh, Bruno Bezard and myself. During the 2020 financial year, Julie Arrange Chopin was appointed to the committee, bringing the number of members to seven at the end of the financial year. The members of the committee are all independent in terms of the criteria set out in the internal regulations. The company is therefore complying with the provisions of the FEP MedEF code in its November 2016 version recommending that the proportion of independent directors on the audit and risk committee be at least two thirds. In addition, all the current members of the audit and risk committee have accounting and financial skills through their training and professional experience. The committee met six times last year with a 100% attendance rate. With a large amount of interactivity in a demanding and constructive environment. We also, during each of our meetings, had the presence of Peshakar St. Paul. The committee has a very broad remit which covers in particular the monitoring of the accounts, accounting methods, significant risks and off balance sheet commitments and the accounting and financial treatment of acquisitions and transfers of more than €50,000,000 This mission also extends to monitoring the effectiveness of risk management and internal control systems including compliance and to monitoring the work carried out by the internal audit. In order to carry out its mission, the Audit and Risk Committee's main contacts are the General Management, the Finance Department with Robert Chavieux, who I meet as well as having the committees at least once a month in a bilateral way. The legal department and the ethics and compliance department as well as the company's statutory auditors. I would like to underline the quality of their work and their professionalism. I meet them several times a year bilaterally. In particular, the committee heard paying particular attention to efforts to adapt to the context of the health crisis. Martin LeBrais, the finance director Anita Lebengeu, director of financing and treasury on the group's financing policy France Curies, the Director of Tax on the tax policy of the Group and France has retired so on behalf of the committee I would like to thank her for all of her work, input and wisdom on the tax policy. Christophe Aubier, the Director of Information Systems, Lionel Montier, the Director of Internal Audit, Internal Control and Risk Management. On the results of the Internal Control self assessment campaigns, the assessment of internal audit missions and risk mapping. As well as Stephane Boulanger, the Director of Insurance on the group's insurance programme. The committee has also given great importance to the risk mapping activity as well as the plans for monitoring and the prevention that are part of risk mapping. The committee has also deeply discussed cyber security issues with Florent Albaud, the Group's Head of Information Systems Security. In this respect, it's important to note the growing maturity of the security level of Valeo's information systems and the proper management of the remote connection means that had to be rolled out in record time to meet the home working needs during the pandemic. Cyber security is obviously still a very much sensitive, complex issue that your committee will continue to monitor very close this year. The non recurring items that affected the accounts in the first half of twenty twenty. These items are mainly related to the effects of the COVID crisis, which led us to review our medium term assumptions for the automotive industry. These items were the subject of a detailed presentation to the committee. The committee specifically studied the Group's financing policy and the levers for generating free cash flow and controlling debt implemented by the Group thereby ensuring the liquidity management was adapted to the context of the health crisis. Many other topics were of course discussed within the Audit and Risk Committee and you will find more details in the Universal Registration document that you have received. Overall, as Chairman of this committee, I can confirm to you, ladies and gentlemen and shareholders, that the work of the Audit and Risk Committee has been in line with the objectives entrusted to it during the financial year that your group has efficient and professional teams and that the general principles of ethics and compliance, site protection and risk management met high standards. Furthermore, at no time did the Audit and Risk Committee have to express reservations on the company consolidated financial statements nor on the half yearly documents presented to it. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Thierry. Dear shareholders, I would like to remind you that the detailed information on the twenty twenty accounts as well as the management report of the Board of Directors and the reports of the statutory auditors are included in Valeo's universal registration document, is available in full on the company's website. I will therefore, as usual, dispense the Board of Directors and statutory auditors from reading their reports in full. The financial statements for the year 2020 and the results for the first quarter twenty twenty one will now be presented to you by Robert Schlavier, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, the COVID-nineteen pandemic has massively affected the automotive industry during 2020 and this has, for both our activity and our results, led to two contrasted half years. During the first half year, the pandemic started by affecting China in January before spreading to the rest of the world. In this context, our first priority was to protect our colleagues, namely by putting in place a health protocol. The pandemic during the first half of the year translated into a drop by 34% of global automotive production. So our second priority was to protect our cash by putting in place an expenditure reduction plan. This was a very ambitious plan and we believe that the expenditure has been reduced by EUR570 million during the first half. We have also reduced our investment by EUR140 million and our inventories were also brought down by EUR243 million. We have also put forward a significant reduction in dividend, which represented for the group a cash out savings of EUR141 million. Furthermore, we have increased the Group's liquidity by negotiating new credit lines for EUR1.1 billion. All of the credit lines, and I will come back to this later, have never been drawn out during 2020 and still are not. During that time, all of our clients had to freeze a significant number of bids which stopped order taking during the first half of the year for the group because the orders for the 2020 were €5,600,000,000 In this kind of context, it should be noted that Valeo continued to outperform the market and I will come back to that in a moment. We also recorded exceptional charges for €622,000,000 a topic that I will also come back to in a few moments. As regards the activity in the first half of twenty twenty, the Valeo Group has shown resilience and was able to outperform in all regions. As you can see in China Valeo has outperformed the market by 15 points Valeo has outperformed the market in Europe by nine points, six points in Asia excluding China and four points in North America. A total outperformance of six points around the world above what the group had performed in the 2019 and just below the outperformance during the second half of twenty nineteen. Despite the health crisis, the 2020 confirmed the car market trend for more mobility and greener mobility. So business groups and the sales in the 2020 were driven for the different business groups, both by the sales of driver assistance systems by launching new front camera systems as well as the driver systems which had new contracts in the hybrid vehicles. Therefore these two business groups were able to outperform by 11 points for comfort and driver assistance systems and eight points for the propulsion systems. Internal combustion and visibility systems also outperformed by two and five points respectively. Like you have heard previously, the health crisis due to COVID in the first half led to a drop in automotive production by 34% and this drop led us to significantly downgrade our growth perspectives for the automotive sector in five and three years around all regions in the world. After reviewing these mid term perspectives, we then reassessed all of our assets and this was translated into accounting non recurring charges in the first half of EUR $622,000,000. These non recurring costs mainly affected to depreciation of operational assets for EUR392 million. We also have depreciated for EUR53 million the assets from the order mechanism which will be becoming extinct in the coming years, but we have also disengaged from some start ups and to suffer the consequences by reducing their value to zero in our accounts, €31,000,000. Then the degradation of perspectives led us to decrease by EUR37 million the values of deferred assets tax deferred assets. It should also be noted that the vast majority of these non recurring costs did not have a cash effect. They reached about 90% linked to the COVID-nineteen crisis. During the second half of the year, there was a quick restart of all of our factories in safe situations. The growth in production was particularly lively in China. During the second half of twenty twenty, car production in China grew by 8% compared to what it was during the second half of twenty nineteen. The recovery in production was slower in Europe. Production was reduced by 3% during that half of the year compared to 2019. The recovery of activity translated into a strong rebound for Valeo's performance in terms of the acceleration of its growth and the significant improvement in EBITDA over the 2020 reached 13.9%, a record level with generation of free cash flow during the 2020 reached €1,340,000,000 The generation of free cash flow allowed us to reduce our debt to less than EUR 3,000,000,000 at the 2020 with a year early in fact compared to the objective we had at the end of the first half of the year to reduce this debt to under 3,000,000,000 at the end of twenty twenty one. With 13,300,000,000.0 Euros of orders in the second half of twenty twenty, the order intake was above that pre crisis. The recovery in sales during the second half was particularly fast. As you can see on this graph, after recording a drop in the activity of 49% in the second quarter, the level of turnover in the group was then only reduced by 5% in the third quarter and was higher by 5.4% during the fourth quarter of twenty twenty. In terms of operations, the recovery of our activities in the third quarter was extremely demanding because over 150 production sites had to be restarted in just a few weeks or in just a few days in some cases as well whilst adhering to a rigorous health protocol and of course by protecting the industrial efficiency of our factories. In this context, the Group in the second half of the year continued to outperform the market in China. As you can see that outperformance in China is at eight points above global production. In Europe and in North America, we outperformed our markets by two points. In Asia, excluding China, the outperformance was still negative minus 6% because of the conclusion of some production contracts. Ended and new contracts were put in place but they were put in place at the start of 2021. With €13,300,000,000 in orders in the second half of twenty twenty, this order intake represented 1.7 times the sales in that period. This number is a favourable comparison to the order intake in the first and second halves of twenty nineteen. You can see in the 2019 order intake with €11,700,000,000 was 1.3 times the sales of of the the year and in the 2019 with €10,900,000,000 of orders that represented 1.3 times the sales over that period. Furthermore, it's also important to say that 56% of order intake related to innovative products And I would also like to underline that during that half of the year some orders were for extremely accurate technology linked to cameras for autonomous vehicles, for example products such as triple clutch or air con systems with heat pumps to equip electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles. During the introduction I undermined the particularly contrasted situation in the two hearts of 2020 and I think that the figures that you have before you do demonstrate that very clearly. You can see that our turnover in the 2020 increased by 33% compared to the first half of twenty twenty. The operational margin in the first half was a negative level, EUR $840,000,000, which was affected by the non recurring costs over EUR 400,000,000 and despite the cost reduction. During the second half of the year, you can see that the operational margin was 5% of turnover, an equivalent level to the operational margin in 2019. Finally, the operational margin including the amount in equivalent companies was a loss of €650,000,000 In terms of the net result, the first half of the year was a loss of EUR1.2 billion and in the second half we had a positive amount EUR156 million, 1.3% of the turnover, which should be compared once again to the net result of 1.6% of turnover in 2019. Lastly, and I have already said this, after having consumed €1,400,000,000 of cash during the first half of twenty twenty, the Group was able to generate in the second half of that year €1,300,000,000 of free cash flow, which has enabled us to close the year with a net generation of cash of €294,000,000 which is below what it was in 2019 but it still represents significant progress during the second half of twenty twenty. In this context, you can see that our debt, the net financial debt on the 12/31/2020 was €2,900,000,000 which is below the €3,000,000,000 that we had given ourselves as a goal for the end of twenty twenty one. And you can see that in the second half of that year, we were able to reduce our debt by over €1,000,000,000 because at the end of the first half of twenty twenty, the net debt of the group was €4,370,000,000 At the end of twenty twenty, the leverage ratio, which essentially compares the amount of net financial debt to the EBITDA, it was 1.96. This level is far lower than the credit line amount which is 3.5 and our ambition of course for 2020 is to put this leverage ratio back to a level comparable to what it was at the end of twenty nineteen. As regards our debt and liquidity, firstly it should be noted that at the end of twenty twenty, the group had liquidity at EUR 5,300,000,000.0, 2,300,000,000.0 was credit lines, non drawn and EUR 3,000,000,000 was liquidity in the balance sheet. Furthermore, the average length of the debt on the December 31 was three years. By excluding financing from the BEI, at the start of twenty twenty one we negotiated first funding with the European Investment Bank at €300,000,000 which hasn't been drawn yet as it stands. If we take into account the current environment and the need to continue lowering the debt of the group, we will be paying a dividend of €0.3 per share compared to the dividend which last year was set at €0.2 for 2020. On the April 28, we published the data relating to the group's turnover for the first quarter. In a context marked by significant disruption in automotive production because of the shortage in electronic components, Valeo was able to confirm its potential for strong growth compared to the market. Our unique position in the electrification of vehicles and driver assistance systems, which we call ADAS as well, has enabled us to grow by 8% in terms of our turnover with constant charges compared to the 2020 and we were also able to outperform compared to the 2019 in all regions around the world and in all of our activities. You can see on this graph that our outperformance compared to 2019 corrected with the geographical mix reached 14 points and this outperformance reached 26 points in China, 12 in North America and Asia and 26 points in South America. What's important here is that all of the business groups have contributed to this outperformance and to this growth. Once again, thanks to our unique position in the vehicle electrification and driver assistance systems. On the April 28, we confirmed our guidance regarding 2021. This guidance in terms of the basic scenario plans for a turnover of €18,200,000,000 for 2020, EBITDA levels of 13.4% and free cash flow of €550,000,000 This scenario is set at production growth in the world at 10% and it takes into account costs linked to the disruption in the supply and the shortage of electronic components and costs linked to the increase in the price of raw materials at €90,000,000 We furthermore confirm the acceleration of turnover growth at Valeo Siemens and Automotive as well as the reduction of this joint venture's contribution to the losses recorded in the equivalent company's share for 2021. These are the main points that I wanted to underline regarding the highlights of the Group's profitability during 2020 and the forecasts for 2021. Thank you for listening. Thank you Robert. Like I said in my introductory remarks, the management and Board of Directors of Valeo is committed to diversity. And Catherine Delay is going to explain what the nature of our commitment is. Diversity at Valeo is a reality, it's a culture and it's a commitment. It's a reality because thanks to its presence in 33 countries, Valeo counts more than 100 nationalities among its employees. It's also a culture. The teams are international, multidisciplinary, naturally inclusive of all diversities without discrimination whether they relate to origins, religions, orientation, generation, opinion or gender. Diversity at Valeo is finally a commitment. In fact, it is the result of a number of commitments made by the General Management and the Management Team. First of all, in favour of young people. We are very attached to young people's access to training and employment. We participate in many initiatives in this area. Moreover, despite the COVID crisis, we have recruited three fifty apprentices in France in 2020. The percentage of work study students now with French teams is currently 5.2%. This is also a commitment to seniors. Experience is valued and recognised at Valeo. Seniors are respected and we will continue to recruit them. This is also a commitment to workers with disabilities because Valeo has set up highly effective programmes for people with disabilities in France and abroad. Finally, diversity also means particularly strong commitment by the general management and management teams to women and more specifically to parity Equal pay for men and women and equal opportunities and career paths. The Chairman and CEO has made equal pay an absolute priority since his arrival at Valeo. The detection, analysis and correction of unjustified wage gaps, all other things equal are always a priority in this respect. The Equality Index or PENNICOR Index introduced in France in 2019 was immediately extended to many countries. Equal Opportunities has been the subject of a programme for over ten years with the ambition of recruiting and helping women to develop their careers. However, two years ago at the instigation of the Chairman and CEO, Vallejo decided to go further and double the number of women in the group's three fifty most senior positions in ten years. Vallejo has therefore committed to increasing the number of women on its management committees under its executive bodies and to do this has drawn up an ambitious programme including a detailed action plan, precise objectives, indicators and a timetable for the next three, seven and ten years. This program was presented to the board of directors, which approved it and has since been monitoring its implementation regularly and with particular attention. It has also been endorsed by the entire management team whose involvement is essential in supporting women, developing their careers and ensuring their success at Valeo, to such an extent that gender diversity objectives have been integrated into the annual variable remediation objectives and performance share allocation criteria of those eligible. As you can see, is truly committed to diversity. Thank you Catherine. Valeo is committed to diversity and it is also committed to sustainable development and adherence to the Paris Agreement. Christophe. Hello and thank you for your support. The subject I'm about to address is important. It's important for the world, Evalio and all its teams. Because everybody understands that mobility is life, so working tirelessly to reconcile mobility and sustainable development and becoming a champion of sustainable mobility development isn't that a great ambition for your company? This is not a new ambition for us. For ten years Vallejo has been working to develop sustainable mobility. In 2020 our sales contributing to sustainable mobility represented 60% of our turnover. They have increased 26 fold in eleven years. The rating agencies validated this transformation by giving us the best available ratings, which made our entry into the Cat four TSG possible. Valeo's teams are committed. They are committed to continuing this transformation and from this year onwards, sustainable development criteria will be part of the variable remuneration of more than 1,500 of our managers. What we have achieved is now in the past. Today Valeo is going further and we have unveiled a plan for carbon neutrality in 02/1950. To make the objectives very concrete, we are committing ourselves to a shorter time frame, 02/1930, and to a very ambitious objective to reduce our CO2 emissions for scopes one, two and three by 45% from 2030 compared to 2019. This objective is in line with the Paris Agreement and the ambitions of the European Green Deal. This slide is a bit complicated but it shows the seriousness with which the plan has been developed. For scopes one and two, I. E. The consumption of carbon based energy by our production and R and D sites, we will reduce emissions by 75 in 2030 compared to the baseline set in 2019. On the Upstream Scope three, so our suppliers' emissions, we will involve our suppliers in a programme to reduce their emissions by 15%. Finally, on the Downstream Scope three, so the emissions due to our products during their life cycle, we will reduce these emissions by half thanks to our commitment to products that contribute to the electrification of sustainable mobility. It is this last point that I would like to develop now. On this point, Vallejo is really going further, not only by working on electric car technologies, in fact beyond the electric car we are electrifying everything that rolls two wheelers, so bicycles, mopeds, motorbikes, three wheelers, rickshaws and four wheelers, droids and shuttles. On the electric car, our product range is very broad and well known with the propulsion system which includes the electric motor, the actuators, the charger, the inverter and the assembly of all these components into an electrified complete axle. This is the raison d'etre of our subsidiary with Siemens. But because an electron that heats up the passenger compartment is lost in order to move the car forward, we are working to have a complete and very efficient thermal system with its heat pump, compressor and battery cooling. In total, Valio received orders for thermal and propulsion systems worth over €18,000,000,000. When the car is not all electric but electrified in low voltage 48V, Vallejo is the leader with more than 8,000,000,000 Euros in orders. Because everything that drives will be electric, we are electrifying all new forms of mobility. Because the solutions that work on the car also work on new forms of mobility. More than 200,000,000 orders have already been received. Sustainable mobility also means safer mobility and here again Valeo is going further Valeo is working on intelligent systems that make mobility safer. A five gs connected vehicle, a driver who can stay focused on the road thanks to an interior cocoon, smart lighting, high performance driving aids and top level cleaning systems. All of this is driven by software written and validated by our 5,000 software engineers. One word to remember, Vallejo is committed. I am committed on behalf of all of the teams at Vallejo to the success of our development towards sustainable, electric and safer mobility. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Christophe. Yes. The key word of the general meeting is valio is committed. And if valio can be committed, it's because we are a technological leader. A technological leader for sustainable mobility. And we are also committed because since 2009 we have changed paradigm. We have a unique position and we are committed to sustainable mobility. We have changed a dimension, a few figures. We've gone from 52,000 associates to 110,000, so 2.1 times more. A 120 production sites to 187. We are in 27 countries, now in 33. And Europe has seen its turnover multiplied by 1.6, but it's gone from 65 to 47% in terms of the weight that this has. But our turnover in Asia has multiplied by 4.1 and it's gone from 17 to 32% of our turnover. I would remind you that Asia represents over 50% of the market today so there is still a lot of work to do to make sure that our regional turnover represents the balance in the automotive sector. But beyond these figures, the content per vehicle has gone from 100 Euros to almost 200 Euros per vehicle, doubled basically and the price of this share, even if I'm disappointed that it has gone down since the start of the year, price of this share has gone from 3 Euros to 32 Euros per share between the 03/06/2009 and the December 31. So a 10 fold increase there. If we can compare, like Robert was saying earlier, the turnover from 2009 or the financial results from 2009 compared to the guidance for 2021, our turnover has gone up 2.4 fold. Our EBITDA, which was 8.9% of the turnover, is now 13.4% multiplied by 3.7 and our free cash flow limited to £155,000,000 in 2009 multiplied by 3.5% for this year €550,000,000 In ten years Valeo has changed its dimension, which means that it can be committed. It is committed thanks to our unique position in terms of the car. Like Christophe was saying earlier, car is still at the heart of our sustainable mobility but the car is also at the heart of safety and health, Smart mobility that we are accelerating, that we are committed to, will enable us to have a new source of growth. Sustainable mobility is a greener, safer and smarter mobility. If we can be committed it's because today we are number one in electrification. Low voltage and high voltage number one in ADAS and number one in the world in terms of visibility. So you can see that this transformation, the road that we have managed to accomplish. There are some vehicles that ensure our growth. Firstly, with value of Siemens, the Volkswagen, Daimler, for Renault, the Stellantis, but also low voltage electrification with Stellantis, Lioto in China. Across all geographical areas we have a high presence in these products with high technological content. But beyond electrification, we are also present, like Christophe was saying earlier, in ADAS. Global leaders in LiDAR and the next vehicle will be the one that we are developing with Daimler. We are the first to have all the l two, l three features. Just l two with front camera and l three with front camera and the software. We also work with Ford, with Audi, with Volkswagen and with the GM group. Like Christophe said, we are committed to new dimensions, types of mobility, two, three, four wheelers that enable us to develop and use our technological platform to address these markets in a viable way. You can see that thanks to this shift in dimension, thanks to our technological development, Valeo can be committed to sustainable development. But sustainable development would be nothing if we weren't also committed and we've said this before to corporate social responsibility. Firstly, this commitment in terms of reducing CO two. In 02/1930, we will get halfway to our 2050 goals. But we need commitments to our colleagues as well. Kathleen Deleigh spoke about our commitment in terms of diversity earlier, in terms of the diversity in our teams, transparency, responsibility, accountability, ethics, professionalism and in terms of teamwork. So this is a range of commitments that we have taken for all of our stakeholders like our customers, like I've said and our colleagues as well. Valeo is a global company, a global leader, but we have French roots that we are extremely proud of and we have a European foundation that we are also very proud of. We invest in France in innovative technologies for battery cooling systems, the new electrification activities for bicycles, triple clutching, 48 volts and high performance lighting systems. The first research centre for artificial intelligence is located in Paris, of course. But because we have French roots, we also have a European foundation. Robert earlier spoke about the European Investment Bank funding £600,000,000 for research projects. The company, like I said in my introduction, since the March 9, is a European company and we invest in facilities in Germany, The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, with a view to continuing to nourish this European foundation. A few figures France represents 14% of our colleagues but Europe is 48% which is very close to the weight of Europe in our turnover. In fact, all of the investments that we have done since 2009 represent €1,750,000,000 in France and €4,900,000,000 in Europe. Our R and D cost is very much still located in our French base and our European foundation. We are a leader on these growing markets. Thanks to our shift in dimension and our strong technological competence, we also have a position on markets that are growing quickly. Electric will be growing fivefold in the coming years and it will represent a global turnover of €160,000,000,000 on the market. The ADAS market will be growing threefold to represent a €50,000,000,000 market and visibility will double and will represent a global turnover of 40,000,000,000 Euro. So you can see that thanks to our shift in dimension, to our investment in technological platforms that give us unparalleled technological prowess, are able to reach this level on these growing markets. It's this technological position on automotive sectors and mobility sectors that enable us to ensure growth that is both unequally profitable and unequalled development. With this strategic and mobility based presentation I would like to ask the statutory auditors now to read out the most important passages of their reports. I will give the floor to Gonzaga Stanleys from Mazar who will speak on behalf of the auditors. Ladies and gentlemen, the shareholders, good morning on behalf of the statutory auditors of Valeo. I would like to present the reports that we have established for you for the ordinary and extraordinary general meetings. Both here today. All of our reports were made available to you by the company before this meeting so I will just be reading out the most important passages of these reports. Firstly, the two reports on the accounts for 2020. I would like to start by saying that the fundamental goal of our assignment is to get reasonable insurance in the lack of significant anomalies to certify the regularity, sincerity and the 'loyal image' of consolidated accounts and annual accounts. Our checks took into account the specificities of valio in terms of its activities, organisation, internal audit and accounting rules. This is in a complex and changing context linked to the Covid-nineteen pandemic. Our work was regularly shared with the management of the company, the audit committee and the Board of Directors. You can find our report on the consolidated accounts for 2020 on page three ninety three in the Universal Registration Document. After our work we have certified unreservedly the consolidated accounts for 2020 of the Balliard Group. We, in our report, have written down the key points of the audit. The three key points related to the depreciation tests of acquisition gaps, units generating cash flow, capitalised income and specific assets, the evolution of shares in the VESA company and assets and liabilities of specific quality. For each of these three key points we have assessed the assumptions, the documentation and the calculation methods that were used for these estimates as well as the financial information which corresponds to the consolidated financial balance sheets. We have also unreservedly certified the annual accounts for 2020 for Value SA, established following the French accounting principles. Our reports can be found on page four forty three of the Universal Registration document. The key point of the annual accounts is about assessing the participation securities and the risk provisions for subsidiaries. Our report on regulatory conventions, our special report is short. We received no convention that was pursued during that year, no convention that was authorised and concluding during the year that needed to be submitted to this meeting. We have informed of the execution of a convention that was already approved by the general meeting on the 06/25/2020 with a special report from the statutory auditors. This is a commitment to withdraw for the president effective from the January 1. It has the same ceilings and performance conditions as the previous system. For the extraordinary part of your general meeting, we have issued four reports relating to authorisations and delegations to be given to your board of directors to issue the shares with the preferential right of subscription of shareholders, proceeding to attributing free shares that exist or to be issued and reducing the capital by cancelling shares. We don't have anything to say about these different operations. They are part of the conditions pursuant to the Commerce Code. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you for listening. Thank you very much, mister Sandys. Despite the exceptional circumstances, we wanted the general meeting to remain a fundamental element of shareholder democracy. Therefore, in order to encourage the participation of our shareholders, particularly you who are watching us, a system allowing you to ask questions remotely and live throughout this general meeting has been put in place. Unfortunately, no questions were asked. I hope that next year when we are finally able to hold a general meeting in person that you will be able to ask questions then. Since there are no questions, we will move now on to the resolution votes. This year, since the general meeting is being held in camera, there will be no vote during the meeting. We will therefore find out the votes cast for each of the resolutions, the full text of which can be found in the notice of meeting brochure which is available on the Valeo website in the general meetings section. The full text of each resolution will not be read out as the secretary will indicate the number of each resolution before revealing the result of the vote. Eric Antoine, you have the floor. Thank you, chair. First resolution. I'll give you a bit of time just to find the subject of it. You can see it on the screen. The result of the vote now. The result, please. This resolution is adopted at 99.99%. Second resolution. This resolution is adopted with 99.99%. Third resolution. This resolution this is the third resolution. This is adopted with 99.24%. Fourth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 99.98%. Fifth resolution. This resolution is adopted at 92.03%. Sixth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 83.93%. Seventh resolution. This resolution is adopted with 91.81%. Eighth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 99.54%. Ninth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 99.09%. Tenth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 84.61%. Eleventh resolution. This resolution is adopted with 99.96%. Twelfth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 96.51%. Thirteenth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 96.13%. Fourteenth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 95.14%. Fifteenth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 98.87%. Sixteenth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 97.63%. Seventeenth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 94.98%. Eighteenth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 94.97%. Nineteenth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 94.42%. Twentieth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 94.91%. Twenty first resolution. This resolution is adopted with 91.09. Twenty second resolution. This resolution is adopted with 99.85%. Twenty third resolution. This resolution is adopted with 98.02%. Twenty fourth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 95.38%. Twenty fifth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 97.11%. Twenty sixth resolution. This resolution is adopted with 99.61%. Twenty seventh resolution. This resolution is adopted with 99.99%. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Eric Antoine. There being no further business, I declare the meeting closed. Thank you.