Bonjour tout le monde. Good morning, all. We're delighted to welcome you with this AGM meeting for the first time in three years in presence mode. Generally, we done it by video, which was actually easier for participants, but more not so agreeable for you who could only see the screen. I'd like to open this general meeting, and thank you for being present. Let me remind you that we've given the possibility in addition to the legally framed scheme of written questions to send in your questions by email. I'd like to introduce the scrutineers who for Christian Dior, Mr. Sidney Toledano, and for Financière Agache, Mr. Nicolas Bazire, and that we appoint as meeting secretary, Mr. Bernard Kühn. The agenda, I won't go back over it. You are familiar with it. It's in the documents that we sent out to you.
Let me just remind you that this AGM is part of a communication policy with shareholders that led to organizing of a consultation prior to the AGM to identify your questions and expectations and a notice dedicated to the uninitiated and the broadcast live and deferred mode of all our proceedings at this meeting. Before handing over to Jean-Jacques Guiony, just a brief word because we are gathered together to approve and review the results that are already well known of the year 2021. Just to remind you that in terms of the results, and I'll come back in greater details in due course to the various results of the group. In 2021, an excellent year, record level in terms of revenue, EUR 64 billion and operating cash flow in excess of EUR 13 billion. Profit from recurring operations, EUR 17 billion.
Net income, EUR 12 billion. Over to Mr. Guiony to go into the figures in greater detail.
Good morning, everyone. It is my pleasure to introduce the remarkable figures for the year 2021. This first chart is a bit complicated. It shows the variation in sales between 2020 and 2021. Of course, the comparison with 2020 is a bit complicated because of the pandemic, but we did try to compare the numbers with 2020. Well, that's easy enough to do, but we also want to compare them with 2019. If you look at the third bar from the left, organic growth, outstanding of course compared to 2020, 36%, but also very good compared to 2019, up 14%.
That is organic without scope or exchange of currency effects, which means that in 2021, we were able to close the gap of 2020 rather, and indeed go back to the numbers of 2019. There's a scope effect, 10%, which is essentially the consolidation of Tiffany for the first year. I'll get back to that in a minute. The slightly negative currency effect, which didn't make much difference in terms of numbers but slightly on sales. All in all, we're 20% above 2019 and 44% above 2020. Regarding organic growth in 2021, this continued over the first three months of this year. What you have up on the screen is a simpler chart.
We are up 23% compared to last year in organic terms. Last year, which was a relatively normal year, even though some of the shops were closed in Europe. We're up 23%, and the growth rate is very promising indeed. Indeed, the currency effect, the Forex effect is positive. Last year, especially on the dollar, we were looking at 1.22, 1.21. Now we're looking at 1.08 or 1.09, so this is a favorable exchange rate development unlike last year. That generated EUR 18 billion in sales for the first quarter. Now, usually I like to show the sort of a geographical distribution of sales, and it gives you an idea.
The first country is the United States, at 26% of the global sales, very buoyant indeed. As you can see, it's written slightly smaller underneath. Sales in the U.S. were up as a percentage of the total. The first region is Asia, 35%, also growing significantly because part of the Asian business which used to be conducted through tourists here now are in a way being done back home in Asia. We have 15% for Europe, but 6% for France, so 21% altogether. That's slightly down, but that's as I said, because some of the Asian sales were back in Asia and Japan, sorry, remains stable.
Now then, looking at businesses, half of the business is fashion and leather goods. You know all the brands, and the balance is distributed between wines and spirits, selective retailing, watches and jewelry, and that of course grew significantly because of Tiffany, and then perfumes and cosmetics. That gives you an idea of the distribution of our businesses, but also the balance in our portfolio. We are the only group which is fully invested in all areas of the luxury industry. Back to the numbers for 2021 then, and how they have changed over time. You have the numbers for 2019, 2020 and 2021. On the right-hand side, you have organic growth per business line.
What you see there is that all these businesses did better in 2021 compared to 2019, with the exception of Selective Retailing. In fact, with the exception of travel retail, because within Selective Retailing, well, there's travel retail, the duty-free business, and also Sephora, which you are familiar. Sephora is up compared to 2019. For the other businesses, all lines are doing well. Wines and Spirits up 10%, Fashion and Leather Goods 42% above its 2019 level, which is pretty unique. I mean, not just in our portfolio, but also in a very competitive universe of fashion and leather goods. Perfumes and Cosmetics are back to their levels of 2019. Watches and Jewelry up 37%.
That's mostly because of Bulgari, because Tiffany is not organic, it's a scope effect. Tiffany, of course, enjoyed a very good year in 2021, and indeed, had a double-digit improvement compared to 2019. Tiffany is in line with this general picture of strong growth in 2021 compared to 2019. Going back to the consolidated income statement. EUR 64 billion in sales. Gross margin growing faster than sales, 68.4% of sales. That's four additional percentage points compared to 2020 and two points more than 2019, which is huge for that kind of indicator, which tends to be pretty stable over time.
Expenses grew significantly compared to 2020, but also compared to 2019. Here they're listed in euros, so there's a currency, the Forex effect here in these expenses. If you remove the 6 or 7 points of exchange, you go back compared to 2019, a growth of 6 or 7% compared to 2019, which is quite reasonable over two years. Shows that we've been controlling costs over a very challenging period. Profits from recurring operations while sales are up 14% organically compared to 2019, and that means that expenses grew less fast than sales. There's a Forex positive effect in the consolidation of Tiffany. Qualitatively and quantitatively, you have a summary of what happened in 2021.
The result is the profit is EUR 17 billion, 50% above 2019, and almost 100% compared to 2020. This is a very positive development, and that is, of course, our key indicator. On the other items, I'll go over these quickly. There are no additional expenses. Financial income is slightly positive because we had negative interest rates. Well, that means that you have a positive. Well, it does lead to positive financial income. Taxes 26% of pre-tax profit. More or less stable, with the exception of 2020 when it went up, but it's been stable for several years. Not much here.
LVMH improved its contribution. The net income attributable to the group is up 14.9% compared to 2019. Regarding Wines and Spirits, they were up 10% in profit from recurring operations. This is true for sales, but it's also true for wines, for fashion and leather. I mean, up 75% compared to 2019, which is an ordinary year. Perfumes and Cosmetics, the same level as 2019. Watches and Jewelry up significantly, thanks to Tiffany, but also thanks to Bulgari mostly. Up 50% compared to 2019, as I said.
On the next slide, you can see that this improvement in profit is mostly organic, even though there's a scope effect due to Tiffany, which brought in EUR 800 million in profit, but no currency effect, and everything else is due to organic growth in our businesses. On the financial structure, well, it has changed a little bit because of the consolidation of Tiffany, so about EUR 10 billion in intangible assets. Debt has grown a little bit, but equity account for 40% of the balance sheet.
What you do not see here, but we want to have lots of liquidity, lots of cash, should there be any need. On the debt, you have the two extremes which show the debt at end 2020 and end 2021 from EUR 4.2 billion to EUR 9.6 billion. It is a significant increase in debt, but you realize that through the acquisition of Tiffany, there were EUR 13 billion in acquisitions, so the debt is up EUR 5 billion, but there were EUR 13 billion in acquisitions. Why is that? Well, you can see it on the picture. There is operating free cash flow, EUR 13.5 billion, which is more or less the same as acquisitions.
You could say simplistically that in one year we paid for the acquisition of Tiffany. It's not quite true because there were other expenses, dividends for above EUR 4 billion. It's something, it's not quite right, but it does give you an order of magnitude the equivalence between cashflow and acquisitions. Dividends is up significantly, up to EUR 10. Of course, that reflects the improvement in cashflow and net profit and operating profit. We do try to have a cash out, a payout rate of about just below 50%, about 45%. Here, we stand there because we're looking at roughly EUR 5 billion.
An interim dividend was paid, EUR 3 per share at the beginning of December, so the balance on 28 April will be EUR 7 per share. One final chart which I always show, which is the share price. These are challenging times, but even in challenging times, our share price since the beginning of 2021 has been up 25%, faster than the index. Thank you.
Merci. Thank you for that. Now, before we move to some explanations and answers to questions that you'll no doubt wish to ask us later on, I'll ask that we are shown the questions that you have put through the emails that were sent out to you concerning the business and all its activities during 2021. In 2021, the world gradually emerged from the crisis. You hailed the strong rebound capability of LVMH, marked by the share price performance and financial results that you characterized as outstanding. You feel that 2021 confirmed the strategic course of the group with the integration of Tiffany and the opening of La Samaritaine. You feel that LVMH is maintaining its growth dynamic, both internationally and in France, where new workshops were opened. As LVMH shareholders, you naturally have questions about the consequences of the crisis in Ukraine.
How will they impact the 2022 results long term? How can we better anticipate rising geopolitical risks in the turn to the future? Many of you are expressing interest to better understand how digital tech will allow the company to reach out to younger customers with more innovative custom metaverse areas that the group must invest. LVMH is very committed in favor of social environmental responsibility. You continue to encourage the group to engage in continuous improvement with its stakeholders. Well, to begin with, a few thoughts and considerations on the trend that marked 2021.
You've seen that the results are characterized as remarkable, outstanding, but as they're really and truly excellent, I'd like to begin by thanking our teams, the executive committee that is present today, the heads of a number of our companies, quite a few group employees, and to say that it's thanks to them that these results were achieved. To acknowledge them, please applaud them. Now, it's true that the year 2021 follows, and we weathered a period of crisis, starting with COVID that arrived early in 2020, and the group has improved its performance still further in the luxury segment. The results shown here clearly demonstrate that, as compared to our peers, our operating profit is, generally speaking, as compared to most of our peers, either on a par or above their revenue.
It shows you the difference and the fact that LVMH has weathered this crisis like most of the crises that we've weathered for many years now by improving still further its relative performance on the luxury market as a whole. I'd said on another occasion that it's in these challenging times, like during a cycle race, when you are climbing the steepest slopes, that we realize the relative performance. It's not with a flat crossing in the sunshine. The group has through all these times delivered a particularly outstanding year 2021, starting with wines and spirits. Well, the results are excellent, and we weathered this period by facing supply constraints that we were still experiencing early 2022 on Cognac in particular. But in spite of that, the growth was good.
Our financial results and sales are up worldwide, notably in the United States, quite strongly. We have improved significantly creativity, the new products, and the quality of our best vintages. Now, the most buoyant, the most promising sector in 2021, as is the case in 2022 for that matter, is Fashion and Leather Goods. I'd like to hail the result and the performance of Louis Vuitton. That is really our flagship that has managed through this challenging year to deliver a quite significant performance with many events. In 2021, we celebrated the 200 years of the birth of Louis Vuitton. A whole set of events were organized in our flagships throughout the world.
I'd like to mention two that were opened the two previous years in Japan, one in Tokyo, another in Osaka, that are remarkable and whose results are very significant indeed. Now, of course, last year for Louis Vuitton was marked by a tragic event, the passing of Virgil Abloh, this outstanding designer who designed all the men's collections of Louis Vuitton and who sadly passed away at the age of 41 in November. We plan to open an exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton of all his creative works in all areas. He was creative in fashion, many other areas, and that will open as of April this year, and I hope many of you will be able to visit that exhibition.
The last fashion show took place at the beginning of the year in Paris and met with remarkable success, and I think the products that will emerge from this fashion show will indeed be very successful. I'd like to pay tribute to his genius and his immense contribution to Louis Vuitton. Other spearhead of our group in terms of fashion and leather goods is Christian Dior, of course. Now, Christian Dior, that has expanded strongly last year thanks to its teams, thanks to its design, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Kim Jones, through its leadership, Pietro Beccari in particular. Following that, we quite recently, about a month ago, we opened the Christian Dior house on Avenue Montaigne. I urge you to go and visit it.
It's quite innovative and impressive in the world of design, couture, and luxury with a great many innovations, and I think it really does mark a turning point in the growth of such a prestigious house as Dior because it's the fashion house that is the most widely known in the world. I mean, Christian Dior is one of the most widely known names after Napoleon worldwide. We're very pleased to invite you to visit the Maison Christian Dior, Avenue Montaigne. It took 3 years to renovate the building, so it's really quite impressive. We also have a museum. There's a gallery where we can see all the creations since the outset, 1947, where Christian Dior launched his house.
For the other brands that are growing quite remarkably, I'd like to cite Celine, with Hedi Slimane going from strength to strength. Very good profitability, whose products are selling very well. Stores are expanding. Of course, the network is smaller than that of Christian Dior, but gradually over time, I think that this company will reach the goals set for it initially. That is, rapidly top the EUR 2 billion mark in sales, and why not, even higher, subsequently. Loewe with JW Anderson, also great expansion. Very highly creative products meeting with considerable success. Fendi, well, Fendi is growing well, both in Europe and in the U.S., also present in China.
Since Kim Jones came on board for the women's collections, we're seeing a strong growth in that brand. That's briefly a review of Fashion and Leather Goods. Moving to perfumes. Perfumes performed very well. What we're very proud of in the perfumes is the performance of Christian Dior, and notably of the Sauvage fragrance and the Sauvage perfume that is an historic Dior fragrance. It's number one in the world, not just for men's fragrances, but we sell more than all the competing women's perfumes, and that's the goal that we've set for the Dior perfume lines, to continue with Miss Dior and J'adore. Guerlain met with considerable success.
The creams, Abeille Royale, and we can also cite Fenty, with the support and the design, 'cause she's very involved, of Rihanna. That's growing strongly, notably in the U.S. Now, we had a few questions about Tiffany, because, Tiffany joined the group last year. To say that the integration is going very well, that the management team that we put in place is very efficient, performing well. The results have leapt forward, sales growing a lot better than what we anticipated at the time of the acquisition. We're currently renovating the building on Fifth Avenue. That should be ready by the end of this year, at least I hope, because it's considerable renovation work. It's a very big space. It's gonna be magnificent. If it's not the end of this year, it'll be early next year.
The sale of jewelry and high jewelry products are developing extremely well. Of course, the advertising campaign, you probably saw it, with Beyoncé and Jay-Z, her husband, met with considerable global acclaim. Big success also for Bulgari, that is also growing strongly and has just launched its ultra-flat watch, Octo Finissimo Ultra, of only 1.8 mm thick. It's a unique feat, and it was chosen as winner of the watches in Geneva. Watches and jewelry business is growing strongly. TAG Heuer watches, that very successful tie-up with Porsche. I'm wearing one here. Very fine watch that works very difficult to find. There's a lot of demand for these timepieces, and we have many more technological with mechanical and connected watches.
The latest watch that is particularly well-adapted and suited to golf that I've tried and tested. It's very interesting that I'm sure many of you play golf from time to time, when you hit the ball to see the distance covered. If you miss your shot, you can start again and ensure that the result is a better one. Singularity that's actually quite unique. Hublot too, highly creative with Big Bang watch. They launched another watch that I also acquired. Very difficult, with Takashi Murakami, this great Japanese designer. Wonderful watch that was sold out in a week. Zenith, which in terms of historic watches, has brought out a whole series of models, and these models are really selling well.
I omitted to mention in discussing Vuitton watches, for that matter. Vuitton produces great watches. I visited the other day the workshop that manufactures Vuitton watches in Geneva. It's really quite extraordinary. I urge you, if you're interested in watches, we can organize a visit and go and see what we're achieving over there. It is truly fascinating. Lastly, for and still on watches and jewelry, I would like to mention the success of Chaumet. That's progressing very well. Fred also has acquired a yellow diamond that's quite remarkable of some 100 carat and was sold also by Mr. Fred Samuel that we acquired for the collection. It remains for me to say a word about selective retailing. Firstly, Sephora has rebounded very well with management of Chris.
Very disciplined and focused on that in the U.S. We have a great chief executive that managed to weather a difficult period and really boosted the figures of Sephora worldwide. However, DFS, slightly more challenging, was still weakened by the lack of travelers in airports, and it's difficult to address that. We limited the damage. The impact on the group is quite low, and also the reopening in 2021, because we're discussing 2021 of the La Samaritaine, and I'm sure some of you are able to visit it in Paris. It's a wonderful building dating back to the early twentieth century, Art Deco and Art Nouveau, with the Cheval Blanc Hotel. It's a complex.
It took us over 10 years to reconstruct, but today, it's one of the iconic landmarks in Paris, representing wonderfully France for all foreign visitors. Before moving to the second part of the presentation on the strategy, I really wanted just to say a word for our shareholders, say that you can be proud to be LVMH shareholders, not just through the results, the dividend, I'm not gonna dwell on that, but also through the economic footprint of the group in France. The economic footprint, that's to say everything the group contributes to France in terms of jobs, both direct and indirect, and also in terms of contribution serving the general interest. I've asked a renowned economist, Nicolas Bouzou, to give a small presentation to...
He'll explain that to you in a moment, where we see that the economic footprint in France of LVMH, that is to say, LVMH employees, plus the employees of all our suppliers, that's over 140,000 people. The economic footprint for public authority, for the taxation generated by all that from what LVMH produces, tops the EUR 5 billion mark. You see, it's the kind of budget for old age benefits. I think we can now show you the clip of Mr. Nicolas Bouzou, if I'm not mistaken.
We worked out the indirect and chain effects. The indirect effects are, well, the business of partners, induced effects, the consumption because of the LVMH employees, and then the chain effects, everything connected to investment and businesses of partners and suppliers. If you add it all up, this is EUR 37 billion. It's a huge amount, a significant portion of the French economy. The total employment, we're looking at 145,000 jobs or full-time equivalent jobs, and tax revenue generated by the group stands at EUR 5.5 billion. We're looking at one hell of a lot of money.
I mean, that's like sending 400,000 children to school, the one half of the entire age group. This is quantitative, but let's look at the qualitative aspect. Not everybody knows this because everybody says that, there's inadequate industrial production output in France. You consume more than you produce. Well, at LVMH, it's the other way around. LVMH produces a lot. There's a huge output on the French territory, and it exports a lot, and that is why the chain effects are so significant because, or the spillover effects, because you can produce, you can have a big output in France and we're not offshoring anything in France, and so you can generate not just job, but production.
Plus, LVMH employees are among the 20% best paid employees in the world, and that generates in itself indirect economic activity. All three indirect, induced, and chain effects and spillover effects. LVMH is indispensable for the French economy because its economic clout is huge. It also shows that to be successful in France in these economic conditions is possible.
Well, I thought you'd find that interesting because we always see results that seem outstanding, but we don't really see what the point of it all is, aside from paying dividends to our shareholders who are present, but it also serves the French economy. I'll now move to the more general section on strategy. I'll say a few words about that on the strategy. Once again, believe that this might be a bit deceptive. I mean, if we're not going to change the strategy, we continue with the same strategy that has been successful for many years. What we seek is the long-term success. We can seek long-term success because you're all part of a family company that's controlled by my family that has a long-term perspective. I'm gonna say something that you might not like.
It's that I never look at the share price, in fact, never look at share price. I never sell shares either. I advise you to do the same because I have colleagues, employees, people who hold shares, but I see from time to time that they sell them. You're making a mistake. Wait and adopt a long-term perspective and not think short-term. That's why in a company such as ours, we must think the long-term, and that's how we can do outstanding things because the economic result can't be a target. We don't work in the morning just to generate a profit. A profit really is a consequence of what we do.
We work during the day and all those who are here agree with me because we're passionate about what we do, by the product, by the stores, passionate for the people, the interesting people that we want to hire, grow, and the new adventures. The economic result, the profit, well, quite frankly, is just a consequence. Of course, we mustn't do anything. We have to manage it, but we can do that because it's a family-owned company. If you're a shareholder, if you remain a shareholder over the long haul, and I hope you will, then you're involved, you're part of a family. That's what we say to our employees when they join LVMH, that you're not an anonymous group. You're really in a family group. You're part of the family.
can't always keep all family members forever, but we try and do that, and they've been with us for a very long time. All those who are here in the front row, I mean, I'm not gonna tell you how long they've been with us for because it wouldn't make me any younger. But there are a number of years. There are some further back and who've been with us for a long time and will continue to do so. On the strategy, you've asked various questions. On digitalization, well, great many digital activities. All our companies have e-commerce sites that are regularly modernized, that are very efficient. You ask us the Metaverse. Well, it's really, everybody's talking about the Metaverse. We need to look at it. We're looking at it closely, but we think we need to be prudent.
There's no point, I think, to be the first. In any event, what we want is to sell real products. I mean, products that are purely artificial and digital, well, it's not really necessarily what forms part of our DNA. Our customers, I don't know if they wanna buy sneakers on the net to dress their avatar. They'd really like to buy the real thing, and we've just sold through Louis Vuitton the latest sneakers that Virgil Abloh designed, and we sold them, not to make money, but really for fundraising for the Virgil Abloh foundation . What's remarkable, 200, Michael? 200 pairs of sneakers we managed...
In selling those sneakers on internet auctioning them off with everything that we're doing NFTs et cetera but these are real products. We raised for the foundation EUR 25 million. It's incredible. They're real products. They weren't digital projects. Metaverse yet yes. Take a look. Yes. Maybe it'll yield something interesting. I don't think it's useful to rush in to do everything and nothing. We need. I mean let me just take. If you take Facebook which is a great business that was founded by someone who's just great. They embarked on the Metaverse. They changed their name. I had a few Facebook shares 'cause I don't just have LVMH shares but I was quite disappointed to see that they took a dive. I think they spent a huge amount of money there but it's probably very good.
Maybe the next five years, they'll be a great success. Short-term, we don't need that short-term or such an adventure. We need to be prudent, creative, but prudent. If we're as successful as we are, it's we remain faithful, loyal to our values. Let me remind you what they are. It's firstly, creativity. We have the best team of designers in the world, of creative people. We're constantly seeking young designers. Thanks to Delphine and the LVMH Prize that meets with global success, we can find. We've just launched the latest recruitment drive. I think there were 10,000 designers who registered, and we're gonna pick them, about 10 for the final. It's quite surprising in the designers of the past because this prize has been in existence for over 10 years.
The celebrities, in fact, there was Virgil Abloh, who was one of the finalists. He didn't win, but he was one of the finalists, et cetera, et cetera. Creativity, mentioned watches, creativity on perfumes. We're really in the midst of creativity is one of our values. Next value, excellence. The quest for excellence at every level, be it the products, be it training. Later on, Chantal will tell you about the institute for trades of excellence. We try and pass on the craftsmanship to young people to develop craftsmen. I could talk to you a lot about heritage, creativity that was amplified through the work, the quest for quality in every detail. Another third value is spirit of enterprise. All colleagues here are entrepreneurs. We're all entrepreneurs, and that's why we're very successful.
There are companies that are organized with matrix-based system, one at the top, one at the bottom. We get totally lost, we don't know who's running what, and efficiency is pretty limited. When we get lost, we call upon a consultant. I mean, I don't wanna talk about that, no, 'cause I know that it's really the kind of topic of the day. Call in McKinsey. It costs a lot. It's very expensive. I mean, I'm not contesting that. They're very smart people, but the entrepreneur doesn't call in McKinsey. I mean, McKinsey knows what to do. He's got people with him who knows what to do. I'm not saying that in any way in conjunction with any political event or whatever.
It's a totally separate fact because I understand that the various government departments, they were hired for IT. Maybe they're really good at IT. I don't in any way challenge that. Fourth value, but I'm not gonna dwell on that because it's going to be expanded at length subsequently, is the commitment for a positive impact both on our societal and environmental impact. Societal, Chantal Gaemperle will tell you more about that in a moment. The environmental impact, it's Antoine who'll give us a detailed presentation on that, so I won't broach those matters. Final question you put to us concerns the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis. What I can say, I mean, I'm not going to deliver any geopolitical considerations, and we'll be having a remarkable presentation by Hubert Védrine on this matter. Not now.
No, no, not now, Hubert. Later on during the board meeting. He's far more competent than I am, so I'm not gonna embark on that. I'd just like to say that at group level, we have a few activities in Russia. Now, these activities, for the time being, given the circumstances, have been halted. The economic impact on the group, that's what interests our shareholders, is really minimal. We're not like certain groups with a lot of activities in Russia. We have a few activities, essentially stores that sell our products. Nothing to fear from the economic standpoint. Not gonna give you my viewpoint on the rest. There's no fears on the economic front with this Ukrainian crisis.
I think I've done the rounds of what I wish to briefly set out, and now I understand there's a clip on social commitments, and we'll have Chantal speak to us. Thank you.
One can be creative. One can have an entrepreneurial vision. We are constantly pursuing our quest for excellence. We want to be the world leaders in luxury. What difference does it make if we don't work to create a better world? At LVMH, our commitment is to become involved in this actively. Indeed, we want to pass on the know-how that we've been developing for years. We want to see the big picture. We want to see far ahead. We want to see things together. We want to believe in youth. We want to dream of innovation. We want to do everything we can to protect the Earth, which has given rise to our creations. It is for us to protect those who live there now and those who will live there tomorrow. That means fighting inequality because everybody should be given a chance to succeed.
We need to promote art and culture every day so that they should inspire us day after day. At LVMH, we have a sense of duty. This is our commitment. We will act. We do act day after day with all our houses, all our people, on all continents.
Voilà. Maintenant, je passe.
Now I give the floor to Chantal Gaemperle.
Bonjour.
Good morning, everyone. As Mr. Arnault pointed out, the financial performance you have before you is due to our talents, that is the skills of our men and women working in the company, but first and foremost because of their commitment. We were able to see this during the pandemic. The first time we conducted a worldwide survey, sent out to all our people, translated into 12 languages, just to show them that we were standing by their sides and we were concerned with their priorities. We received a lot of feedbacks, as many as 80,000 verbatims, and there are three themes that came to the fore, and that is of great interest because this is in line with the questions that you as shareholders have been putting forward.
First, the need of a committed action on social and corporate environmental responsibility, inclusiveness, the career of women, and local engagement. Develop and grow our know-how in all our trades, and the career opportunities for employees. On that item, thanks to the work of our HR network, last year, we conducted a record number of internal mobility, more than 20,000, including 5,500 amongst our executives. Through internal promotion, we were able to have a turnaround in 75% of our key positions. This happened at a time when there was a record external recruitment. 45,000 people were recruited across our businesses last year.
We're convinced that the quality of our products from design to sale through manufacturing is based on unique know-how that should be preserved, passed on, and developed. The executive committee and indeed all the houses of the group got together to sign the compact for Trades of Excellence , whose purpose it is to enhance this unique heritage. Our program for professional and vocational training was created back in 2014. That has grown considerably since that time. It is now working in as many as 6 countries and had its largest class of apprentices last September, 340 new students, new trainees, and as many as 1,400 apprentices were trained to learn 27 trades. We have to go on down that line.
We have to create new callings and advertise the 280 trades that have been created. With the help of our artisans and experts and craftsmen, we have presented these trades in several cities in France, concluding that tour last week. We met with a very diversified group of school students, indeed people looking for jobs, and we had as many as 1,200 positions on offer. Now, that initiative is a good reflection of our need to preserve these various branches, to preserve jobs, to train the younger generation, but also to be inclusive because here we are reaching out to people who would never have thought of themselves able to work in one of LVMH's houses.
I'll give you one anecdote, that is the story of Alexia, a young student who grew up far away from Paris in the South of France. In 2014, at age 19, she was in the first class in leather goods in the Institute for Trades of Excellence . Today, Alexia works in a Louis Vuitton workshop. She's become a trainer herself in leather goods, and she teaches a class of 22 apprentices. Now, the trades in leather goods find it difficult to hire new hands, and so we have to attract the new generation towards these key positions. To strengthen our action to have an inclusive work universe within the company, we created a department called Diversity and Inclusion, and we promote, of course, the career of women. You know that I'm quite determined on that.
LVMH, which is our internal network we created back in 2007, 15 years ago, thanks to them, we went from 22% to 44% women in executive positions. We have 17 women running LVMH houses. I started off by paying tribute to the commitment of our people, and I would like to close by telling you about our commitment. Indeed, last June, we created the LVMH Heart Fund. This is, as it says, a heart fund. It's an emergency fund reaching out to all employees of the company facing adverse situations, accidents, or dramatic personal situations. It has EUR 30 million accessible to any employee anywhere in the world needing emergency assistance, financial or otherwise. It was resorted to as many as 1,300 times in 2021.
Ladies and gentlemen, the crisis reminded us of the need for solidarity, the need to be close to our employees, and it is, for us, an absolute priority. Thank you. Before we give the floor to Antoine Arnault in Louis Vuitton's successors, I should also. I forgot to mention the fundamental. It's Nicolas Ghesquière, who is a designer for women apparel, and he is quite remarkable. Good morning, everyone. A year ago, I announced the launch of a new environmental program, LIFE 360. Well, a year ago, it was online. Now, we're meeting in person. This is based on 30 years' experience working for the environment. This opens a new chapter in your commitment. We have new objectives for the years 2023, 2026, and 2030.
These objectives seem realistic. They seem reasonable because at LVMH, more than communication, we want to act. We want to act to improve our environmental footprint, and we've been doing this in 2021, and indeed, our products are the best example of this. Here are the sneakers of the spring/summer collection. They are in line with the upcycling strategy that Virgil Abloh developed, where we can redevelop existing items like the Felt Line items, where the logo is interwoven with that of the circular economy to make it more visible. These are examples right there. Here is the Louis Vuitton bag of the surplus collection, made up of discarded leather bits. This is one of the last copies that has just been made.
Here we're taking discards from rolls, also from previous collections that can have a second life. 2021 is the year where Nona Source, created by our employees through the internal training program, found its cruise speed by marketing fabrics and leather that were sleeping in our warehouses. Now, not everything is eco-designed, but this is our objective for the year 2030. The movement is underway. The upcycled, biosourced materials are developing, and the movement will go on. We have the proof that environmental concern can still be desirable. Well, in our champagne and perfume houses, we have families who for centuries looked after their environmental heritage, and we are continuing the tradition, limiting our impact and regenerating nature.
Regenerative agriculture is our new move in 2021. We're doing it in our fields, in our vineyards, and we find that the landscape is now accepting new hedges and orchards, as was the case in the 18th century. We are rehabilitating as many as 650,000 hectares around the world, thanks to this form of regenerative agriculture, but through strong partnerships with UNESCO or indeed with a great association entitled Reforest'Action. With UNESCO, we have a program in the Amazon forest, which is addressing deforestation and water pollution in the basin. I was involved in the World Nature Congress in Marseille a few years ago where we discussed this. Biodiversity also includes the climate.
We need to have good quality of soil that can provide better carbon capture, and that's what the NC program is doing. We may not be a very polluting industry, but we propose to make a difference in the climate effort. In 2020, we were above our objective. We decided to reduce our CO2 emissions since 2016. We are down to 2016 levels, and now we are seeing even further. We want to halve by 2026 emissions of Scope 1 and 2, and on Scope 3, that is transportation and raw materials, our objective is to have 55% reduction by 2030 per value-added unit. Our carbon trajectory in line with the Paris Agreement is robust, and it was validated by the SBTi, the authority in the matter.
Our climate performance in 2021 are going the right way. We are down 6% on Scope 1 and Scope 2, in spite of the growth that was presented today. Now, this is a difficult balancing act, especially on those items where we don't have full control. Awareness among all our houses is working full swing, and this is a source of confidence for the future. I was able to see this for myself when I met with all the heads of the houses to see how LIFE 360 was progressing in their houses. We have many examples. Samaritaine opened in 2021 with reduced energy requirements. Louis Vuitton is testing new SAF.
20 flights have been using used oil instead of kerosene, reducing the emissions by 25%, and we have new actions that will be revealed next week. Plastic-free packaging or alternative materials packaging materials. As you can see in our report, in 2021, we had significant growth in the certification rates in all our supply chains, and that means having very demanding criteria in terms of social and environmental standards. It means we need to audit our own suppliers way beyond rank one, and in some cases, we now need to put in place corrective action. We left out regions with high deforestation risk for leather products.
We cannot go on manufacturing unless we have transparency on certain key items, protection of nature, protection of the climate, protection of the environment. This is at the heart of our products. We want to have responsible growth at your service, you shareholders, but also at the service of our customers, our employees, but working for the planet as a whole. Thank you for the attention. I look forward to seeing you in a year's time to take stock then. Thank you.
[Foreign language]
Thank you. Now I'll give the floor to the auditors. [Foreign language: Merci, Monsieur le Président.] Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, it is my pleasure to introduce on behalf of the auditors the reports that were prepared for you. These reports were made available to you, and it is for me to give you a brief summary. There are as many as five reports. There's one on the parent company financial statements, one on consolidated financial statements. There's a special report on regulated related party agreements and two special reports related to transactions on share capital. Let me start with the report on the parent company financial statements, which refers to the first set of solutions.
The accounts were prepared using French accounting standards, and we believed that the assessment of the redeemable shares and provisions for risks and expenses were key items of the audit. We certified the statements without reservations or observations. Regarding the consolidated financial statements, prepared according to IFRS standards, we believed that the four following items were the key audit matters: valuation of fixed assets, in particular intangible assets, valuation of inventories and work in progress, provision for contingencies and losses and uncertain tax positions, and finally, the acquisition of Tiffany's. As a conclusion of our assessment, we do certify the consolidated financial statements without reservations or observations. Regarding resolution number four of this AGM, we produced a report on related party agreements.
There are, in fact, no new regulated party agreement that was entered into or authorized by your board of directors during the year. The agreements and commitments authorized in previous years and which remained in force in 2021 are presented in our special report. Finally, for the extraordinary part of the annual general meeting, we have two reports on resolutions that may have an effect on the share capital. There's first the authorization to reduce share capital, the authorization to award bonus shares to employees and/or senior executive officers of the company and affiliated entities. We have no special observations on such operations which are in line with the conditions provided by the French Commercial Code. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, Mr. President, thank you for your attention.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for us, if there are any, to take questions from shareholders. Unfortunately, this year we were not in a position to organize refreshments because of the COVID restrictions. You will be able to pick up a little gift when you return your voting device. You can get a bottle in exchange. If you do have a question, please introduce yourself, yourselves first. We have number four. Thank you for this presentation. I'm an individual shareholder. I have a question for the CFO. He talked about negative interest rates.
I would like to know whether the new loans that were used for Tiffany, did they enjoy the special conditions, i.e., negative interest rates? That is true. For most of them, we had negative rates. There was a long-term and medium-term financing, 50 roughly. For the short terms, the interest rates were highly negative for the euro-denominated rates, that was good for the short term. For the medium and long term, 2-10 years, part of the rates were negative, but for the longer terms, we had slightly positive interest rates.
Thank you. Are there any other questions at all? I see none. Oh, I see a hand being raised. Good morning, sir. You said that you didn't monitor the share price, but I do have a question. Do you propose to split the nominal share to make it more liquid that way for the. Well, it's not in our plans. Well, look, if there are no further questions, as I said, unfortunately I cannot invite you to join our refreshment. But I hope there will be one next year. We can share a refreshments together next year, provided the COVID is at long last under control. Thank you. Hang on. You still have to vote on the resolutions.
I was getting carried away here. We have to move on to the votes on the resolution. First resolution is the approval of last year's financial statements. Well, let me remind you have a device. Press green for vote in favor and red for vote against. Approved. Second resolution, approval of the consolidated financial statements. Please vote.
Approved.
Approved. Resolution number three, the dividend. Please vote.
Approved.
Approved. Fourth resolution, approval of related party agreements. Please vote now. Let's continue. Seems to be a hitch with the machine. We have to call in McKinsey. Well, let's continue. Well, if at that rate. Now, what's the next resolution? We're a bit lost here. Renewal of my term as of office as director. It's really. That's, it's a bad moment there. We can maybe vote by show of hands. That's all that's left for us to do.
The machine is working again. Next, renewal of the term of office of Madame Sophie Chassat. Please vote. [Foreign language]. Félicitations. Congratulations. Renewal now of the term of office of Madame Clara Gaymard. [Foreign language]. Please vote. Congratulations, sir. See if one of our board members reaches a hundred. Renew the term of office, Director Mr. Hubert Védrine. [Foreign language]. Please vote. Félicitations, Hubert. Congratulations, Hubert. Renewal of the term of office as advisory board member, Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Please vote. [Foreign language]. Approuvé. Félicitations. Approved. Congratulations, sir. Tenth resolution: determination of the maximum overall annual compensation payable to directors. Please vote now. Approuvé. Onzième résolution. Eleventh resolution: renewal of the appointment of Mazars as principal statutory auditor. Please vote. Approuvé. Approved.
Twelfth resolution: appointment of Deloitte as principal statutory auditor. [Foreign language]. Approved. Thirteenth resolution: observation of the expiry of the terms of office, the alternate statutory auditors. Please vote. Approved. Resolution fourteen: approval of the information on compensation of executive officers. Please vote. Approved. Approved. Fifteenth resolution: approval of the items of compensation awarded to the chairman. That's to say me. Please vote. Approved. Approved. Sixteenth resolution, same question for the group managing director, Mr. Antonio Belloni. Please vote. [Foreign language]. Approved. Approved. Seventeenth resolution, approval of the compensation policy applicable to directors. Please vote. Approved. [Foreign language]. Approved. Eighteenth resolution, approval of compensation policy in respect to the chairman and CEO. [Foreign language]. Approved. Approved. Ditto for compensation policy in respect to the group managing director.
Please vote. [Foreign language]. Approuvé. Approved. 20th resolution, authorization granted to the board to trade in the company's shares. Please vote. [Foreign language]. Approuvé. Approved. 21st resolution, authorization for the board to reduce the share capital by canceling shares held by the company. Part of the 20th resolution. Please vote. Approuvé. Approved. 22nd resolution, authorization to the board to award bonus shares with the removal of preferential subscription rights. Please vote. Approuvé. Approved. 23rd, final resolution, modification of articles 16 and 24 of the company bylaws. Please vote. Approuvé. Approved. Now back to the 4th resolution which didn't work. That's to say approval of related party agreements. Please vote. Suspense. Ça a marché. Formidable. It worked. That's great. The machine's working again. Thank you all very much.
Once again, sorry not to be able to share some refreshments with you, and I hope that next year, we'll be able to organize that. Thank you all very much.