Mr. Florian Ollier. As secretary of the meeting, we will appoint Mr. Bernard Kühn, who's Group Legal Counsel. The quorum of a fifth of shares has been reached. The attendance sheet has been drawn up, and it will be finalized before we vote on the resolution. All the statutory documents required for the holding of this meeting has been made available to shareholders, I would inform you of the presence of two officers of the court to make sure that the proceedings are respected. You will have received the notice of meeting as per statutory requirements. We'll be able to open the meeting as part of a policy of interaction and outreach with shareholders, as was the case in previous years with a prior consultation to determine your requirements.
There'll be a film clip shown to you, all the materials were made available to you and on the desk. Mr. Jean-Jacques Guiony, our Chief Financial Officer, will present the results from the year 2014. The results are excellent, as you will see. Net profit from recurring operations, as well as the financial situation. I'll return in greater detail during my presentation on current trading. I'd like to mention a point that saddened us deeply was the passing of our colleague, whom I recruited over 25 years ago, Yves Carcelle, who headed up Louis Vuitton, the iconic brand, unfortunately, at a very young age, passed away last year. I'd like to pay tribute to him at the opening of this meeting. Over to Jean-Jacques Guiony to review the key financials of 2014.
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
I'll run through the key financials pertaining to 2014, starting with sales. You're all familiar with this presentation of business activity. Revenue is slightly above EUR 30 billion last year. Organic growth of 5%. Organic growth is the currency growth of our business, the true reflection of our entities. Change in structure of 3%. That's the consolidation of full year of Loro Piana. You'll recall that we finalized the acquisition of Loro Piana in December 2013, in 2014, we benefited from its consolidation. A negative Forex effect of 2%. It doesn't look much, in fact, it was sharply negative in the first half and recovered slightly in the second half. The dollar was pretty neutral over the bulk of the year, other currencies impacted to the tune of 10%. Sales up 6% all in all. A brief word on the geographic split of our sales.
Not much change. U.S. slightly up at 24%, really just to recall that overall, we have three prime areas of business that are pretty much on a par. Europe, the Americas, and Asia, with a third in each region. Still, on the regions, a word on how the regions performed last year. Figures in the respective currencies without Forex effect, the U.S. up 8%, picked up sharply at the end of the year. Japan up 8% with a rather artificial, complicated effect in Japan. You may recall that we had a VAT hike planned by the Japanese authorities at the 1st of April 2014, led Japanese consumers to buy more before. There was a slight dip before. Japan was slightly disrupted last year, comparison basis for the first quarter, rather difficult.
We published sales for the first quarter of this year, up 3%, slightly below the trend that we had last year. If we restate from the Japan effect, we'd be at 4%. That is in line with the organic growth posted last year. Japan, a challenging but positive year. Asia, difficult, down 1%, affected by the de-stocking wines and spirits and the sales of cognac in China, which heavily impacted the trend. If we restate this number for only that business, we see that Asian growth would've been a 4%. In Europe, 3% without being great is quite commendable given the general economic environment. Turning now to sales by business group. I'll just review the right-hand column. Organic growth, the most significant, I said wines and spirits, rather challenging. Not in champagne.
Champagne put in a very good year, up 6%, cognac, we're down 10% organic growth. That's fully linked to the de-stocking by retailers in China and the paradox of this business, we'll see this with the profit. Chinese business was very difficult, the rest of the business Led Moët Hennessy to deliver its best year ever in China. Very mixed year for our wines and spirit business. Rest of business is posting growth between 3% and 8%, I won't go into detail there. They're all pretty patchy. Watches and jewelry business was exceptionally good. Watches, under pressure there again, de-stocking by retailers, cautious when it comes to ordering high-end items, pressure there on our business.
In selective retailing, contrast between Sephora delivering quite extraordinary operational performance, be it in Europe, the U.S. or Asia, and DFS that suffered in the second part of the year from marked difficulties on its two major locations, Hong Kong and Macau. The income statement, as I said, revenue up 6%, pressure on gross margin only up by 4%, whereas revenue is up 6%. That's linked to the currency effects. I'll return to that in a moment. Gross margin went from 65.5% to 64.7%. No major change. Marketing and selling expenses up 8%, slightly less than they'd if we restate for Forex. 8% for administrative expenses with provision of a number of risks cautiously at the end of the year. That accounts for the increase in administrative costs that would have grown less. A drop of 5% in profit from recurring operations.
Other income and expenses, slightly more negative than last year. We booked a number of provisions for intangible impairments. There's some restructurings there, but not considerable. These are impairments for intangibles in order to clean up some assets whose value was high on the balance sheet. Net financial income spectacularly up. It went from EUR -200 million to almost EUR 3 billion. That's the result of the Hermès transaction. The distribution of Hermès shares are capital gains here. This is pre-tax of the order of EUR 3.2 billion. If you remove the EUR 3.2 billion linked to Hermès, you have a negative financial income of the order of EUR 200 million, not too different from last year. Taxes up. That's again due to the Hermès deal.
If you look at the tax rate, about 27%, it's actually lower than last year because the Hermès deal is less taxed for once than the rest of the group's businesses. Lastly, an increase, 64% group share net profit at EUR 5.6 billion are quite a spectacular increase there, linked there again to the Hermès transaction, which in net profit brings in EUR 2.7 billion. That's for the P&L. The profit from recurring operations, our prime business indicator by business group. As I said, Wines and Spirits, big pressure linked to de-stocking in China. Excluding China, not just in revenue, but profit would have reached remarkable levels. Fashion and Leather Goods up 2%. Perfumes and Cosmetics, pretty much the same as Fashion and Leather Goods. Increase lower than revenue. Big Forex impact there.
Watches and Jewelry, quite a lot of restructurings there, notably in the watches division, which impacts the result accounting for this drop of almost a quarter. Selective Retailing, where difficulties experienced by DFS at the end of the year, more than offset the significant progress posted by Sephora. The currency effect that you see on this slide, you're familiar with the impact of currencies on our revenue, the conversion of the results of foreign retail companies, and also changes in our hedging currency hedging policy, a very sharp negative impact of the order of EUR 280 million. A record in profit that's down 5%, EUR 282 million currency effect accounts for the totality of this decrease. A word on the balance sheet, it's changed a little with a decrease in shareholders' equity, which was 50% of the total, now down to 43%, but that's fully linked to the Hermès transaction.
We paid out EUR 6.9 billion in Hermès stock that reduced the equity out of the EUR 6.9 billion distributed, EUR 4.2 billion represented the economic capital gains booked on the Hermès stock pre-tax. This EUR 4.2 billion wouldn't have been there had we not done that deal. The decrease in total equity must, of course, be put into perspective. It still accounts for 43% of the balance sheet, and our rating hasn't been changed by S&P. Debt has evolved favorably, went from EUR 5.3 billion to EUR 4.8 billion. We had EUR 4.8 billion of available cash flow. We paid out EUR 2 billion in dividends, give or take, about EUR 1.6 billion to Hermès shareholders and EUR 400 million to minorities, number of activities in Wines and Spirits and Selective Retailing. About EUR 300 million of various acquisitions. EUR 2.8 billion minus EUR 2 billion, minus EUR 300 million is EUR 500 million, about the reduction in debt gearing.
Very favorable because debt over equity is 21%, which puts us in an excellent position. A word on the dividend. The dividend that we are submitting to your approval today is a dividend of EUR 3.20, up 3% over last year. You'll recall that we paid out an interim dividend of EUR 1.25 in December. This interim dividend is separate from Hermès, but had nothing whatsoever to do with the dividend here, which is the ordinary dividend with an interim of EUR 1.25. At the end of the day, EUR 1.85 the balance, EUR 1.95, which will be payable on the 23rd of April. As you show this chart, an average increase in the dividend over five years of 14%. This is the share price performance in blue, LVMH, with the CAC 40 benchmark over five years. I believe it requires no further comment. Thanks.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I was saying earlier, we'll start off with a video clip with the most frequently asked questions from shareholders, questions about the general annual meeting and the performance in 2014. All right. Well, not for me to reiterate the financial performance. As Jean-Jacques Guiony pointed out, this was an outstanding year, a record year for LVMH, both for net income and for revenue. From a macroeconomic standpoint, the year turned out to be more challenging than anticipated at a previous general annual meeting, and especially as regards foreign exchange. The situation has turned around that back in 2014, the currencies were low most of the year vis-à-vis the euro. That has had an effect on the operating profit, to a large extent. The general economic picture in 2014 was more promising.
There was growth globally, albeit very low in France and in Europe. In emerging countries, and especially in Asia, economic growth was sustained, and that, of course, was excellent for the company, especially in the United States, where business was buoyant. These developments in the foreign exchange has had a negative effect, but because we could export better, we had a positive development, not just in the United States, but also in Southeast Asia. From a geopolitical standpoint, there was a new deal in China. The Chinese market has turned around. Of course, there was the issues in Russia, and Russia has been a big customer for many of the brands, and the Russian market was severely affected, especially in the second half
of the year. Growth, nonetheless, was, as I said, strong in the United States. The performance was rather good in Europe thanks to tourism, and there was even more of that in the second half of the year. All in all, a contrasted picture, but as I was saying, from a macroeconomic standpoint, we did suffer a severe currency effect. Especially in wines and spirits, that's where the impact was felt. It was a good year by and by, except for China. Everything went well enough, especially champagne. Mr. Navarre went all out for some of the emblematic brands, including Dom Pérignon. Champagne did well. In China, there was de-stocking, and rather dramatic at that.
Because of that, we had to redirect part of cognac output to other parts of the world, but we could not completely compensate that de-stocking phenomenon, which is still continuing as we speak. It's bottoming out. Nonetheless, that in itself accounts for the entire challenge for wines and spirits, which other than that, did extremely well, not just in terms of revenue, but also new products coming out. We're not concerned over the medium term. Regarding Louis Vuitton, as I was saying earlier on, well, Louis Vuitton now is undergoing a sort of a reconstruction of its emblematic product, the jacquard monogram, the Louis Vuitton monogram, and we have as many as five of the greatest designers of the world redesigning, including Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Louboutin, Marc Newson, Cindy Sherman, and Frank Gehry, of course. They all contributed to developing original products.
I don't know if you have the pictures up on the screen, but these are, as I said, emblematic program, the products of LVMH, of Louis Vuitton, and of course, they were limited editions. They were sold out with tremendous, resounding commercial success. There was a renewal, not just of the product line, but there was also a renewed interest in this emblematic product. Of course, it is an outstanding product. The shortcoming, so to speak, is that it's very much in demand, and there's only so much we can produce. To avoid it being too much flaunted, we have to have limited editions. To make up for this, we create new products also in limited editions so as to ensure that while this is a worldwide success, these products remain highly desirable because there are so few of them.
We were able to balance that out extremely well. In 2014, there was, of course, new designers for fashion. We had as many as three fashion shows, very successful fashion shows, and with our new designer, Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton. That was, of course, a huge boost for us because Nicolas brings his creativity, his modern image. He has completely rejuvenated the Vuitton woman, and together with Michael and Delphine, they have designed products that are the very soul of Louis Vuitton, that is leather goods. These goods are selling like hot cakes. We can't keep up with demand. The small Louis Vuitton case, it takes a long time to make. This leather case is in demand everywhere, and we can't keep up with demand. This is a good sign, although it's not so good for revenue because we can't sell enough of them.
For the long-term name and prospects of the brand, this is excellent. Also, we enlarged and renovated a number of shops, including, of course, the new one at Avenue Montaigne in Paris. It was opened at the end of last year. It's a very successful example of what Louis Vuitton can do in terms of shops. Indeed, it had started off extremely well. You can see the refined collections of Nicolas Ghesquière, the leather goods, but also the Louis Vuitton hampers and baggage. These are superbly displayed in this remarkable shop. We also renovated. We're opening fewer stores. Rather than opening new stores, we're renovating existing ones. Of course, when we renovate a building or we enlarge it as we did in Avenue Montaigne, we find that sales per square meter go up. That's an interesting strategy.
It's well worth our while to renovate and enlarge our shops. In 2014, we reopened a remarkable shop in Bangkok, The Emporium in Bangkok, and likewise in Kuala Lumpur, there's an emblematic LVMH Shop in the exclusive shopping center. Now we have a number of other emblematic products. The Christian Dior perfume, J'adore and Miss Dior in particular, are growing and going from strength to strength, and there's still lots of potential. The Christian Dior brand carries with it the very concept of high quality. Back in 2013, we opened the Hélios Center for cosmetic products. This center is basically a center for quality research. Not only do they produce superb perfumes, but other cosmetics, including a blush that is called DreamSkin. They are doing quite a splash, if I can say so. These are bestsellers around the world.
Indeed, this DreamSkin is number one in many markets indeed. Then, again, about fashion and leather good. Fendi has enjoyed superb growth in 2014. Again, our policy has been very successful indeed because we've decided to redirect Fendi towards the more significant products. Fur, high-end fur items, but also again, leather goods, but there, the emphasis was on leather. Therefore, we find that we've enjoyed significant growth. Loro Piana had a very good year in 2014. That, by the way, is the first year we find that Loro Piana fully integrated in the group for the year as a whole. Well, Loro Piana is a case in point of what it is that we can do, that LVMH can do by joining hands with a family concern, with a family business.
The founder is part of the JV to the tune of 20%, but that company has a unsurpassed reputation in terms of excellence. There are very few examples, indeed, hardly no examples at all, of similar quality and excellence, especially for cashmere dress. That creates Well, we have there a highly refined environment. Not only that, the brand in itself works by word of mouth. I rather like the Chinese proverb that says, "In a river, only dead fish go with the flow." Likewise, at Loro Piana, we swim against the current. It's the only brand in the luxury industry that doesn't advertise. Well, not only do they save money on marketing expenses, but it works. I don't know whether my advertising executive would be happy for us to apply the same policy across the board.
It's worth pointing out that by going completely against the tide and decided not to advertise at all, you should not only do well, but even better from year to year. The other brands under Yves Roussel, especially for fashion, all of them did extremely well. Celine, we have a remarkable creator, a designer. It's a worldwide success. All of Celine's items sell beautifully around the world, but the shops are well-targeted. Loewe, again, we have a new creative designer, JW Anderson. He's not even 30 years of age, and he's already producing superb collections, and he has an eye for leather goods. He came out with a bag, which is starting extremely well. We can't even keep up with the demand. Givenchy, of course, has had a very good year. All these brands did well.
Now, a few words about the other brands in perfumes and cosmetics, Fresh and Benefit. Benefit, by the way, is a very strong brand for makeup. It's number one indeed in certain territories, especially Britain. It is expanding. Fresh, again, cosmetics, they do well, especially in Asia. I recently went to China, and I could see for myself that this brand and the shops are very successful, and the revenue is quite astounding due to the very quality of the products that they sell. In terms of watches and jewelry, Bulgari did extremely well last year. I don't know if Jean-Christophe is here, but that brand, Bulgari, has made tremendous strides with new jewelry, but also new watches. Both fronts we discussed this with Toni Belloni, and there are new models, new watches, Lucea and Octo, two new watches, and they were both extremely successful.
The new jewels, Mr. Bulgari himself won't contradict me on that. These new jewelry designs are so successful that all you need to do is take a look at the shops being renovated. Last year, we reopened the emblematic shop in Rome, the Bulgari shop, with the sort of new avant-garde architecture inside. It's working extremely well. Hublot with Jean-Claude Biver again, an emblematic watch. Again, this astounding success. TAG Heuer is now refocusing its business. That sort of reorganization accounts for some of the slowdown in the business. Jean-Claude Biver is working hard on this, and I'm fully confident on the prospects for TAG Heuer. For retail, well, a contrasted picture. DFS, because of the situation in Asia and China and all the issues that you are familiar with, DFS has suffered somewhat.
Sephora, on the contrary, has been surging ahead around the world, especially in the United States, where the Sephora shops have become number one. Well, the shops, but also the number one seller on the internet. We will also be in the stores ahead of Macy's for cosmetics. Store sales are gaining remarkable grounds. Likewise, in France, we're gaining market shares. Likewise, in Australia and in Asia. We have as many as 2,000 Sephora stores around the world, and we can only but marvel at that success. What else in 2014? Well, as I said, we opened the Louis Vuitton Foundation. This, you may remember, we announced the opening of this foundation, and it has drawn many visitors indeed. To date, since the opening of the building in October, we've had upwards indeed of 600,000 visitors.
This foundation is highly emblematic of LVMH's values of creativity, technological performance, well, technical performance, innovation, and of course, outstanding quality. That the building in itself is like a sculpture, and it's superb for not just the image of the group, but also the image of Paris and France around the world. We also had a very successful launch in 2014 of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers. We will be renewing the experience in 2015. We were able to attract as many as 20,000 candidates around the world. They applied online. There was a selection, a shortlist, and at the end of it all, a winner was found amongst Well, you had a jury made up of all the creators of the group, and it's probably the most prestigious jury you could think of. Certainly the most competent jury to choose a winner.
You can imagine this remarkable gallery of creators that picked a winner amongst the candidates. Even if they didn't win, the candidates had an opportunity to show their productions and ideas to these fine creators, and they got advice and opinions from these people. The winner, Thomas Tait, a young Canadian designer, carried the day. Of course, this was a tremendous boost to his career.
Final point mentioned by our CFO is the distribution of Hermès shares. I hope our shareholders are satisfied to see a distribution of such a high amount. This financial transaction, as we envisaged it as such from the outset, has allowed us this year to be the number one in the CAC 40 in terms of net profit in first place. I can't guarantee that we will be able to have a repeat of that in 2015. It's not absolutely certain. We can give it a good try. In fact, I read some criticism about that. Is it the job of a company such as yours to do such financial transactions and to provide such a return to shareholders? I don't know what you think. In respect of a "marginal" transaction, it ended not too badly.
If we can do others, quite frankly, I can put it to the vote later. We shouldn't perhaps pass up on such an opportunity, especially if it allows us to provide a greater return to shareholders. Let's now move to strategy. Just prior to that, I'd like to show you a clip, a rather different way. Two artists speak about creativity, craftsmanship, and then I'll say a few words on the group strategy.
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These two young artists, both equally impressive in their own right. The pianist was the awardee of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. We invited him to the foundation to give a piano concert. He's quite remarkable. I think he's set for a great career. You may have seen in the film, is very nice to boot. It's quite amazing to see the link between the world of artists and our products, our businesses. There's a very genuine link here that needs to be analyzed closely. There's a measure of proximity, but our concern at the end of the day is to sell our products. We're more in the field of applied arts. I really liked it when he mentioned the craftsmanship. He's an artist. He's not the composer. He's the performer.
We, in our products, we translate the aim of our craftsmen to elicit desire, to promote the desirability of our customers, to attract them to our products. That link is very apparent. I wanted to show you those few images to illustrate that. For 2015, the economic backdrop is significantly different from what it was in 2014. In terms of currencies, you will have noticed that the euro had the good idea to drop sharply. The price of oil has followed a similar trend. Interest rates are at an all-time low, and the European economy has entered a new phase. What we can hope for is that France will derive benefit from that and should not limit itself, as there may be a strong temptation to say that all's well and remains inactive. That remains to be seen. For exporting companies, it's all very positive.
You will have seen that yesterday in the results that we announced. Our revenue for the first quarter, the impact on the currencies is very different. That should not prompt our teams to be overly complacent because, of course, the figures are good, and they'll probably remain good for the rest of the year. We'll deliver excellent results. Profit from recurring operations will bounce back sharply, but like in a country, it mustn't lull people into a false sense of security. We must look to the future and see the adverse impacts that can stem from that. That's what we say to the managers of our business groups. I believe that the general economic situation in which we find ourselves won't last forever. We can't just drown, swamp an economy by throwing money at it. The day it happens, the wake-up call may be rather sharp.
Will it be in 2017 or 2018? In the U.S., where the situation has lasted longer, the situation will be reversed this year. We need to be careful. Interest rates in the U.S. are likely to rise during the course of the year, which will probably pour cold water on the markets. Will it have a knock-on effect in Europe? It's complicated. It's a good situation. At the same time, rather fragile. A situation that isn't set to last in the medium term. Globally, for our various markets, we expect good global economic growth, sharp growth in our businesses in the U.S. The year is off to a very promising start. In the wake of that, the situation in Europe is improving.
The euro's at an all-time low, which means we have a lot of visitors. Be it to the U.K. or Italy, a bit less in the U.K., in Spain and Italy, we're selling a lot. We're all familiar with the situation in Russia. You may have noticed that the ruble has risen sharply over the past few weeks, which shows that things can change rapidly, not always as expected. Why is the ruble rising? The oil situation remains pretty much the same. The situation there is complex. We have to reckon with that situation. Japan, for similar reasons, remains promising as regards its economy. Now the Japanese yen is low. It attracts a great many visitors from Asia visiting Japan, which wasn't the case at all three or four years ago. Chinese visitors in particular, who are purchasing our products in Japan.
The only rather more difficult point from the economic standpoint will remain so for the coming months is the Chinese economy and the surrounding area because the economic policy has been reversed. We can therefore expect a weakness on the Chinese economy front. Chinese customers for the LVMH group are growing. When they're not buying in China, they're buying when they're traveling. As they're traveling increasingly to Europe and to Japan because of their increased spending power, all that's well and good. What does that have as a consequence in terms of our brands? Our brands will be encouraged by this. For cognac, well, the situation is expected to rebound, at least in VSOP. Louis Vuitton will continue its good performance. The start of the year is excellent. The same for April. A great many new products.
You've seen some very promising advertising, very evocative of the image created by our designer for the Vuitton woman. Our men's products are equally successful. Obviously, we're trying to overcome the waiting list difficulty by increasing the capacity of our workshops. Next May, we're organizing a show, a fashion show, in a cruise liner in the U.S., and that should accelerate our presence in the United States. We just opened, or rather reopened early this year in Los Angeles, that is exceeding all our forecasts. Other brands will continue their strategy. Fendi, Loro Piana, acme of quality, Fendi, as I explained earlier, fashion brands, Celine, Loewe, Givenchy, with Pierre-Yves Roussel, will be focusing on the turnaround.
With Marc Jacobs, we've decided to do the IPO, to place the company in orbit with a view to its listing in the next 3 to 4 years I see that Yves Roussel is nodding his head, but it really is a substantial effort required. Ditto for Donna Karan. In other business areas, I believe that Sephora will continue to reach new heights, even if Mr. de Lap uente's remit has been broadened, I'm sure he'll continue to focus on this great brand and its teams. It's a great success for us. DFS, we'll see what happens in China. It won't be an easy year. We'll have to focus on efficiencies and really try and maintain the bottom line of the business in other areas. Bulgari. Bulgari is off to a good start this year. The products are selling very well.
Watches that I've mentioned, the Diva line is also selling well. The year should be excellent. Other brands for watches, we're continuing the same strategy. That's just a few words on the brands. Now turning now to the general strategy. As I said on several occasions, the group's strategy is to have a long-term perspective. I often tell my teams what I'm interested in, what motivates me day in, day out is to ensure that our brands remain global leaders in 10 to 15 years times. It's not just the results of the year, the profits of the year can be a consequence of this long-term vision. That's why we're working with a long-term perspective in mind without focusing excessively on the day-to-day aspect of things. Obviously, the human resources people may disagree with that.
Of course, we look in great detail at everything we do in terms of figures and results. What counts is the long-term vision. It's true that what's going to happen over time is more interesting for us than what's going to happen in 3 months' time, even if what's going to happen in 3 months' time is also important. You need to know that for us, and in fact, with human resources, we held a conference this year. I don't really much like those conventions. On the future, forward-looking convention. The future's fascinating. It's both fascinating and at the end of the day, rather unpredictable. Who would have thought that the euro was going to pretty much collapse, that the price of oil was going to be halved? Who would have thought that a year ago?
What we need to do in the group is to follow the strategy that we've been following for 20 years now. To be in a position where we're not affected by these changes in the environment. We can really face these unexpected events with steadfastness and continuity. It's been the case for 20 years now. Even the most trying times, we're better. It doesn't mean that when the going is easier that our results drop, but we tend to raise our game when the going gets tough. We manage our business over the long term. The leading business of the group, the first activity was founded in the 15th century. Is there another French company, say, that one of its assets in early 15th century, d'Yquem, that was founded in 1493, which is still reckoned to be the best wine in the world.
It's great when you see changes in the world today. We do have strong, solid roots, and it's a fundamental asset to our group. In the strategy, we have three pillars. Creativity. Creativity, that's absolutely fundamental. We saw that with the presentations on the artists. It's innovation, the ability to deliver novelty to the markets. It's Einstein who said creative capabilities are more important than knowledge. The future is more important than the past. Creativity is the future. That's what we focus on, but it's pragmatic creativity. It's not a matter of designing dresses to put them in museums. We're not painters. Even if we produce great artistic shows and expeditions, we're there to create products pragmatically. Even the foundation is pragmatic, and you'll have seen this if you've gone there. The outside is breathtaking in terms of its creativity. It's an amazing structure.
Inside, I asked the architect to make it simple and easy to use. There are rooms that are the shape of parallelepipeds, and they are simple, easy to use, but also pragmatic. Strategy, second pillar is quality. Know-how is part of the group's DNA. We devote a lot of time to it. At the beginning of the year, we opened the Guerlain plant next to Chartres, where we produce the bulk of our cosmetics, makeup, and skincare products. The quality of the products that are manufactured there is second to none, and we have wonderful craftsmen and women. There are a number here in the room. These craftsmen are really at the heart of the group's success. At Loro Piana, the same. At Louis Vuitton, you need to visit the workshops at Asnières, and I urge shareholders to do that.
Final and third strategy is the spirit of enterprise, entrepreneurship, that the companies are decentralized, self-reliant, managed by managers who, I hope, feel as though they are members of the founding family and owners, and manage the business as if it was their own business. In such an organization, what's crucially important is what I said earlier, is to arrive, and we manage to do this, is to preserve a critical gaze, a critical eye, and to constantly call ourselves into question. The world is constantly changing, and if we want to remain leaders in the brands as we are today, we must accept criticism. Even when things are going well, to see what can go less well.
Steve Jobs, who had the reputation of being rather obsessive and always, and perhaps saw what could go wrong. Businesses can fluctuate and change. Take, for example, the first business in the world, Apple Corporation. Back in 1998, it was about to go bankrupt. So it was a spectacular turnaround. But things do happen. Things can turn around in the world of business in the most incredible way. Just because we happen to be rather resilient to change because our brands can withstand the test of time, this doesn't mean that we can dispense with the critical mind, with the open mind that we need when it comes to our way of doing things, to our strategy. That is the state of mind that we have to keep very much alive.
That is the corporate spirit, as it were, and it has been very positive indeed for all of us. If I may, having said all that, we do have an issue to address, and that is sustainable development and responsibility. You know that we have many factories and workshops. We insist on being exemplary, on being socially responsible, all the way from the design of the products to the customer experience. Our investment decisions are always consistent with our societal and environmental philosophies. Very often, what we do, our trades, are very much connected to nature. Indeed, because we need nature, we need to nurture nature, and all our businesses have a vested interest in protecting that capital, that asset, which is nature. We have to protect nature. The example of the Château d'Yquem wine is a beautiful example indeed.
Ever since the 15th century, the technique is pretty much the same. Year on year, century after century, we have produced this remarkable product. Those of you familiar with Château d'Yquem wine know that from the earth, from its natural environment, we can produce this marvelous wine. Likewise, for creativity, we have to have the same spirit. It is good for our teams, for our designing teams, to know that whatever they do is good also for the environment. 2014 was a good year in this respect. We have the LIFE program, LVMH Initiatives for the Environment, LIFE, which looks at precisely environmental indicators. The idea is that all the work that we do has to be, in a way
Provided by a spirit of our long-term perspective, we have to have these environmental values at heart. While we have a very diversified group, we want to have an environmental approach, and we are members of the Foundation for the Support of and Protection of Diversity. So we have the Dior Gardens, the reasoned, as we call it, or reasonable wine making. You know that in 2015, this year, there will be the COP 21, the environmental summit. Even the logistics supply chain of Louis Vuitton is the first one to get an environmental certification. That's very important. Indeed, with LVMH Lighting, we are constantly looking for the best technologies that can enable us to save on energy. When it comes to lighting our shops, we want to look for the most affordable economic solutions.
Indeed, when we build new buildings and whenever we are involved in any kind of project, we insist on getting the HQE label, High Environmental Quality label. It's a French label, but it is something that has its international equivalence. That's the environmental approach. But of course, our main resource, our main assets, are our people. Our human resources policy is something that we work on year-on-year, and I should like to take this opportunity to congratulate all our staff, all of the people who work with us and for us, for this outstanding performance. It is thanks to our people. This is a collective work. It is teamwork, and this teamship is what has brought the success of the company. I can only encourage every one of us to keep it up. We have 120,000 people working for us.
In France alone, we have 2,500 people and 25,000 employees at LVMH, and 120,000 working one way or the other for the group. You can see with all these people, just in France, we are good for the economy. We create jobs. But not only that, we bring the best in our midst. We attract talent, and that is, of course, the key to our success, the fact that we can be attractive to young talents. We recruit a lot of young people. We can draw them in and, well, not just young people, but mostly. We find that if you look at young students and their hopes and expectations, whom they would like to work for, especially those working in business school, they all want to work for us. We are the number one.
I'm always surprised because every so often, I give a talk in a business school, and people ask me, "What do you think of marketing?" Because these people are very much interested in marketing. Of course, the students are a bit disappointed because I tell them at LVMH, we don't do any marketing. If marketing is what you want to do, don't come to us. Our business is creation, offering fine products, and the market buys these products. But this is exactly the opposite of marketing, because marketing consists in analyzing what people want. They do statistics, and then based on these questions, they come up with the product that will meet the consensus. There is sort of a committee work. If that's what you want to do, you don't do this at LVMH.
We have competitors that do this, but this is not at all what the luxury industry is all about. Yet, in spite of that, our business students still want to come to work with us, and that's what some of the interesting paradoxes. There we are. These marketing people, they come to this company that does no marketing. We do something else to help the younger generation. We recruit people not just in business schools, but also in schools of engineering. We have people from the prestigious French École Polytechnique or École Normale. These are very industries, and these are crafts. Our purpose is to support these crafts because we want to have craftsmen amongst us. That's what I had to say, my friends. Having said all that, it is now for me to give the floor to our auditors who will tell us about the accounts.
I believe, I'm not sure. Is there a video clip? In any case, thank you for your attention.
[Foreign language] Bonjour à tous. En 2011, pour différentes raisons, j'ai pensé qu'il était important que le groupe propose un événement d'ouverture, un événement de partage, un événement d'échange. En imaginant les Journées Particulières, je ne soupçonnais pas le succès public qu'allait rencontrer cette opération. 100,000 personnes en 2011, 120,000 personnes en 2013 ont franchi le seuil de nos maisons et ont découvert nos savoir-faire, notre artisanat et surtout nos artisans. Cette expérience était bien évidemment gratuite pour permettre à ceux qui s'intéressent à nos métiers, à nos lieux mythiques, mais aussi nos savoir-faire, de côtoyer les artisans, de leur poser des questions et de pouvoir observer la passion avec laquelle ils exercent leur art. Nous avons eu envie de vous donner une nouvelle fois les clés de nos maisons et avons décidé d'organiser une troisième édition des Journées Particulières dans la première partie de l'année 2016.
[Foreign language] Souligner la contribution de votre groupe à la préservation du patrimoine, au développement des savoir-faire et de l'emploi en France et en Europe est un message important et je suis heureux que le groupe LVMH prenne ses responsabilités et propose ce grand rendez-vous d'ouverture et de partage. Je vous dis donc à tous à bientôt. Nous allons commencer dès à présent à travailler à l'organisation de ce bel événement et je crois que nous connaissons d'ailleurs déjà les premiers visiteurs. I came here especially from the U.K. [Foreign language] Sicuramente mi ricorderò di questa edizione e se ce ne sarà un'altra sicuramente parteciperò se ne avrò l'occasione.
[Foreign language] Si c'est à refaire, sans problème, je viendrai plutôt la fois prochaine encore pour voir peut-être plus de choses.
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. On behalf of the auditors, it is for me to present the reports that we have drawn up. These reports were made available at the company's headquarters. You also find them in the general document that you find at the entrance of the room. I am not going to read them through. Leave it to the highlights. We have as many as eight reports, two on the accounts themselves, one on related party agreements, and five on operations regarding the company's capital. On the annual accounts and consolidated accounts, you will find this on page 215-216 for the annual accounts in the Document de référence, and in pages 188 and 187 for the consolidated accounts. Regarding the revenue, the organization, the accounting conventions, and the internal audits, we had a full report.
The findings were passed on to your top management, to your audit committee, and the board of directors. Our report on the consolidated financial statements are based on analysis conducted in as many as 54 business units. As a result of this, we can certify the consolidated financial accounts without reservations. We also have a report on regulated related party agreements. You will find them in pages 217-219 of the French Document de référence. These are agreements between your company and companies where they have directors in both companies. You have five agreements, one, an amendment to the assistance agreement with Groupe Arnault, another amendment to the service agreement with Christian Dior, the renewal of the service agreement with AA Conseil. There's a service agreement with Mr. Trapani, there's the sale by LV Group to LVMH of its investment at stake in Hermès International.
The board of directors on 3 February 2015, the board of directors disqualified the joint venture agreement between Christian Dior Couture and LVMH related to the production and distribution of their watches by Des Ateliers de la Lanterne as not being subject to the procedure for regulated agreements. The other agreements and commitments authorized in prior years, which remain current during the year, are also presented in our special report. Regarding the extraordinary part of the general annual meeting, we have a number of special reports on resolutions which may have an effect on the company's capital. These reports will be found on pages 271-276 of the French Reference Document. You have a resolution on the authorization to decrease share capital, issues of share marketable securities with the retention and/or waiver of preferential subscription rights, granting of stock subscriptions or purchase options.
The issue of shares in marketable securities reserved for employees who are members of the company savings plan and the granting of existing shares or shares to be issued for no consideration to employees and senior executive officers. Our reports have no observations about these operations which are part of the provisions provided by the French Code of Commerce. Thank you for your attention [Non-English content ]. I am told that the number of shares represented stands at 350,258,372. 70% of all the shares. In any case, before we move on to the resolutions, we have time for questions, the executive board is asked to join us on stage. All right. We are now here to take questions. If you have any questions, please introduce yourselves before you ask the question. The first question, number 5.
"Good morning, all. Good morning, Mr. Arnault.
My name is Sonia, growth in China in 2014 was at its lowest in 24 years, I was wondering what LVMH's exposure was to the Chinese market, what were the consequences? What are the financial consequences of this slump in China? I would also like to know the outlook for years to come.
Well, you're right to point out that the Chinese market is undergoing change compared to the past 10 years. The growth rate is down. We're only looking at 7% this year. What counts mostly is our Chinese customers, our Chinese customers, whether they buy in China or outside China, they are the key indicator. What counts for us is whether Chinese customers are attracted to our products. From this standpoint, there has been growth in 2014, we expect more growth in 2015.
We have a number of items that have suffered. Cognac, the destocking, that is an issue because cognac is mostly consumed domestically. I think, as I said, we've bottomed out, we certainly expect to have a rebound in the cognac business in China.
Anybody else has a question for me? For the board, for the executive board? Yes, number 8 at the back of the room.
"Good morning. My name is George Oras. I'm an individual shareholder. I would like to take this opportunity to mention the fan club, that is the shareholders club. I would like to thank the people running this club very courteously, very effectively, and I would like to thank them."
Thank you very much. Well, that was a nice statement. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir.
Number 4.
"Good morning. I have a question. My name is [Gilles Bugeaud ].
I'm a shareholder. I have a question for our CEO. How do you position yourself regarding the digital business? Luxury goods do not lend themselves to the online business, what's your view on that for the future?"
Well, we do sell online, and we also advertise online. We are present on social networks. Some brands in particular can be found in a number of social networks, Facebook, Snapchat, and a number of websites. WeChat, a Chinese social network, is also an outlet for us. We have to remember, our brands, each of our brands have websites of their own, and they have millions of visitors. We have more visitors online than in the Louis Vuitton shops themselves. We're talking about visitors. We're talking upwards of 100 million visitors a year who come to visit the website.
We do have a digital presence. The digital environment is, of course, a place for creativity. If you go to Louis Vuitton or Sephora or Christian Dior, there's lots of creativity there. The next question is, do we sell and how do we sell online? As years go by, inevitably more and more items will be sold online. The real question is how quickly should we gear up the online business? Sephora, we have a number of merchant websites, especially in the U.S., and you have significant sales generated online for Sephora. Sephora is enjoying significant growth online, but not all the items are sold online. It's a selection. Some, you have to go to the shops. We try and adapt to changing times in this respect.
Having said all that, the fact that you can purchase an item online and then collect it in the store on the same day is in itself a valuable service. If they see an item in a shop and it's not available, well, they can order it and have it delivered to the home. These are services that customers are keen to have, and we're working on it. These are, as it were, the logistics of it. Question number five. Number five. Good morning. My name is Roger Tran. I have two questions. First of all, I should like to thank you along with other shareholders for the distribution of the three Hermès shares back in December. We don't know where the shares come from.
Was that Jean-Jacques Picart doing, because I know that you've known Jean-Jacques Picart since 1986, and I was just curious, is he connected to you? Will he become a member of the board of directors? We have a question about La Samaritaine. There's a gentleman by the name of Alexandre Gady who is close to the Pinault family, and we were wondering whether Mr. Pinault is trying to put spokes in your wheels, or how are things looking for the Samaritaine? Regarding Jean-Jacques Picart, this is indeed someone with whom we've worked for many, many years, and he is very knowledgeable on fashion. I'm not quite sure he's any way connected in the distribution of dividends. This gentleman certainly doesn't have any inklings on accounting.
If you're talking about the same Jean-Jacques Picart, I very much doubt that he would be in any way connected to the distribution of dividends or calculations of that sort. Having him on the board of directors, well, we want now to have mostly women. That's basically the answer. Now, for the Samaritaine. Well, it's true that we are at a standstill. We're awaiting the decision of the French, well, Supreme Court, as it were, the Conseil d'État. We have a case. We sought remedy. That's where we stand. I'm afraid that's all we can say. Are there any other questions? Number nine. Number nine. Good morning, sir. My name is Daniel Logereau. I am also a shareholder, and I'm also a member of the National Association of French Shareholders.
Mr. Chairman, the Swiss franc has been more or less trading on par with the euro for the past few weeks. The watches that you make in Switzerland find that the rate you get because of the exchange rate is coming down. The Swiss franc has gone up, you are losing out. My question is, do you propose to build digital watches or solar-powered watches? Your competitor, Swatch, sells EUR 25 million in fine watches, but anywhere between EUR 700 million and EUR 800 million quartz movements. This is, of course, an attractive market for you, but also for the future. What do you have to say? Good morning, sir. If you look at the total industry, back in 2014, there was some growth, but mostly stable. Within that, some brands do better than others.
In our case, Hublot, as was mentioned by Mr. Arnault in his presentation, Hublot had a magnificent year, indeed is still gaining ground in 2015, even though there was an unfavorable turn in the exchange rate. We are actually building a new factory just to keep up with world demand. On TAG Heuer, TAG Heuer is a brand that is more globalized, and we've decided to refocus the brand to revisit some of the collections, to emphasize certain aspects, the sporting aspects or watches for the younger generation. Again, there's great potential. This is a buoyant market, we want to stick to our culture of luxury, quality, excellence, and we will keep up that particular business. I see number six now. My name is Marie-Louise Denis. I'm an individual shareholder.
Mr. President, I would like to congratulate you on the superb ending of the Hermès operation, we were able to take part in the capital gains. Are there other possibilities of investment and acquisitions in the luxury industry? As far as we are concerned, or the LVMH group, what really counts is to try and find attractive companies. We had Loro Piana a couple of years ago, Bvlgari four years ago, companies with whom we have some affinity and where we can develop or we can work using the company's know-how, where we find such affinities. Such opportunities are few and far between. I don't know if there are any around left. I cannot tell you about what we are looking at now because it's all confidential, we don't even know whether there will be any acquisitions at all in 2015 or in 2016.
The main thing is not to be in a hurry. The partnership with Bvlgari, we've been talking for 10 years before we reached an agreement, these things take time. Regarding possible acquisitions, there's something else I need to highlight, that's, of course, it's less money-consuming, it's certainly worth looking into, that's young startup companies. As you know, we have as many as 65 brands in the group. We have the ability to run big companies, we also have the ability to support small startup companies. For instance, last year, we've invested in a small Italian startup company. It's a young creator called Marco De Vicenzo, that business we felt was worth looking into. The year before that, we worked with JW Anderson, who now is the chief designer for Loewe.
In terms of numbers, this doesn't make much difference, you may remember that 10 years ago, that was the basis of our relationship with Marc Jacobs, look at where we are now. Question number two. Pierre Piton. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I'm a private investor. I have a question regarding your executive committee, whose representatives are on stage with you. There are 10 of you, nine men and one woman. You're lagging very much behind when it comes to gender equality. Do you plan to accelerate things? Thanks. That's a point well taken. Having said that, in LVMH, the majority of employees are women. I think we have something like 70% of women employees at LVMH, you see. Perhaps not at the level of the executive committee, if we take all employees, it's 70% women.
In executives, they're more dynamic because those moving up the ladder, I mean, okay, executive committee members have all of a certain age. They're not old, but there are a number of women moving up the ladder speedily, there may be more in 5 or 6 years' time, but the present members are clinging to their positions. Next question, please. We have a question from the other room. Soufflot. No, not "Rue Soufflot." That was when I was a student. It's the overflow room. Good morning, Chairman. I'm a private shareholder. Thanks for taking my question. I'd like to know, first of all, why I was sentenced to attending the AGM on video screens, whereas I live on the outskirts of Paris, I've come all the way
From the outskirts of Paris to attend the meeting. Furthermore, I'd like to congratulate you on the LVMH share price performance, I'd like to express a wish in this regard. Would it be possible for the board of directors to consider a scenario of a stock split, divide the share value by half, given that it's very high, it could discourage certain shareholders such as I, from buying your share? Thank you. Well, on the overflow room, I'm really very sorry, that's the price of success. This main hall is full, obviously, as you will appreciate, we need to be able to accommodate the people who wish to attend. Depending on their time of arrival, they have to be seated in the overflow room. Well, as to the stock split, only the board can consider that. We're far from record levels.
If you take the Warren Buffett company's stock price, it's at $100,000. There's still some way to go. Perhaps when we reach the 50,000 mark, we'll give it a thought. We'll certainly consider it. Next question. Mr. Chairman, good morning. I'm also a representative of a shareholders' association. Congratulations for inviting us as regards members of your shareholders club to visit the foundation. It really is a gem, very original structure. Also, congratulations for offering, in 2016, a third special shareholders event to visit the LVMH workshops. My questions, the first concerns TAG Heuer, your iconic watch brand. It would appear that you've signed agreements in order to include the Android operating system in your watches, it'd probably be the first luxury connected watch. Could you say a bit more? Do you plan to forge other partnerships of those that you've already concluded?
Second question, just picking up on a point you mentioned in your intervention, which is the Excellence Institute. It would appear that in the next 10, 20 years, you're going to have to replace 10%-50% of the highly qualified personnel who take time to acquire these skills. Do you think that this institute will be able to replace those who will be retiring over time? My third question considers the AG that doesn't believe that you're disclosing enough on the number of employees who have access to your bonus share allotment program. Thank you. Well, sir, we made an announcement during the Basel Trade Fair with regards TAG Heuer, the cooperation with Google. It's a big innovation launch by companies in the electronic sector such as Apple.
We embarked on developments in order to pave the way for the future and not to leave the field open to others, especially for the younger customers, very important segment for TAG Heuer. We've begun developments. We believe we should be able to produce a connected watch and release it early 2016. If these watches are successful, we want to be part of this success. On the Crafts Institute, we'll hear from our head of human resources in a moment, but let me say that every workshop recruits. It's over and above recruitments by workshop. It's not just for employees of the group. Absolutely. The idea of this Institut des Métiers d'Excellence is really to work with the schools and institutes in order to enhance the talent pool.
It will be for our own needs, but to allow to promote jobs for young people and to acquire skills and training with the best craftsmen, promoting the transmission of knowledge in order to get young people who enter the labor market to interact with more senior craftsmen who convey their expertise and skills. And this for jewelry, for leather goods, for fashion, and we will be for the further partnerships in September. It's a long-term effort. As to the bonus, the special shares for employees, it concerns about 1,000 executives. Another question, please? Over there. Yes, then we'll have to move to the vote on the resolutions. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning, Chairman. My name is Manuela, and I'm a part of the project European Women Shareholders. I really calling for gender equality.
I'd like to thank the gentleman earlier who asked the question that I wish to put. I'd also like to congratulate you because the fact that you have one woman on the executive committee is not the case of all the companies that I have the honor of visiting in Paris. The future is more important than the past, and I'm just repeating the quote you gave about half an hour ago. I'd like to ask you, sir, what is your concrete strategy to promote the rise of more women to these decision positions of responsibility in the higher echelons of your company? You clearly mentioned your general strategy for the long term, but also your interest in making sure that we want to attract more women to the company.
I quote you, sir, and I hope that that won't happen in the five to six-year timeframe that you mentioned, but rather sooner. It's high time. Well, it actually ties in with the earlier question that was asked to me, and my answer is pretty much the same. Amongst the companies that you visit, are there many where there are 70% women employees in total? I don't believe there are. If you visit the automotive sector, I'm sure we're quite far from such proportions. As to women, there are many in the executive committees of the various companies of the group. What really matters, it really accounts, it's the companies, the leading brands that are close to women, close to the products where obviously the role of women who are also customers, is key. You're absolutely right. I'm very much in favor of that.
Of course, one has to face up to the reality of the situation and look at people's individual talents and decide on the basis of that, and not just reject men because they're men. It's also good to grow them too and move them up the ladder. We can't really have a hard and fast view one way or the other. Okay, last two questions, please. I'd like, because Mr. Arnault was extremely modest there. It's true that there's a woman on the executive always, says Mr. Arnault. We've expended major effort these past seven years in the group in order to promote women careers, and these efforts have borne fruit. We've gone from 27% to 38% of women in executive positions, so it's a substantial increase. Then, of course, we rigorously monitor. I'm particularly attached to this.
We want to achieve 40% in 2050. I think really that'd be a record in terms of CAC 40 companies. Doesn't mean that our efforts are over. Efforts are paying off and we're getting concrete results. We hired 27,000 people worldwide last year. 70% of these hires are women. The future's also assured in terms of the recruitment pipe. Question, penultimate question. Yes, Chairman, I have a question regarding the photographs there. The government has passed a law against very thin women in fashion shows. Is this a topic that resonates with you? We of course, abide by the law. I didn't quite see what the criteria were, how they're going to be applied, how they're going to be measured, all that's rather complicated. We of course abide with the law. It is rather intricate because some of the models are not of French nationality.
Obviously, we'll try and choose those that fit the bill and meet the criteria. We'll see what the rest of the industry does. My thought is there are probably more important things addressing in France than that type of matter. That's a personal view. Last question over there. Yes, Chairman, good morning. I'm also a private shareholder. Two questions, if I may. The first, I'd like to have your view on the share price, which indeed is at an all-time high. Some might say it's expensive, your view on that. The second, just to return to what you're saying about Warren Buffett. If Warren Buffett, whose share price is at $212,000, starting from $20, if he or Mr. Bill Gates were to ask you to join the clubs of the biggest donors and philanthropists, what would your answer be? The share price.
I don't want to give you any advice. I can tell you about the stock market. It's true that it's not at its lowest. The stock market is boosted by the economic environment, which is quite surprising. In fact, it's somewhat extravagant. Obviously we're printing money hand over fist, and that's going to continue to be the case in Europe, flooding the market with new money in Europe. In terms of governments and states, we're treating alcoholism by giving alcohol to the patient. It's beneficial to start with. Is it going to kill the patient? Is it going to put him in a state of euphoria such that he won't realize what's happening? We're in a rather special situation, which of course, pushes up the stock market, because when you have zero or negative interest rates, there's no better investment. I'm not talking about LVMH.
stock markets will continue to rise, but it won't last forever. As to Mr. Warren Buffett and Mr. Bill Gates, well, I think you should ask them, what are the tax breaks they obtained by their donations, then I might give it some thought. Well, ladies and gentlemen, let's now move to the vote on resolutions in the interest of time.
All right, resolution number one. The company financial statements, the parent company financial statements. There's no music during the vote this year. There we go. All right. Approved. Resolution number two, approval of the 2014 consolidated financial statements. Approved. Resolution number three, related party agreements. All right, carried. Resolution number four, proposed gross dividend EUR 3.2 per share. Approved. Resolution number five, renewal of Antoine's appointment as director. Approved. Congratulations, Antoine. Resolution number six, renewal of Mr. Albert Frère's appointment as director. Approved. Congratulations to Albert. Resolution number seven, renewal of Lord Powell of Bayswater's appointment as director. Approved. Congratulations, Charles. Resolution number eight, renewal of Mr. Yves-Thibault de Silguy's appointment as director.
Approved. Bravo, Yves Thibault.
Congratulations to Yves Thibault. Resolution number nine, opinion on items of remuneration due or attributed to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for 2014. Approved. Resolution number 10 is the opinion on items of remuneration due or attributed to the Group Managing Director for 2014. Approved. Number 11, authorization to be given to the Board of Directors to trade in the company's shares. Thank you. Resolution number 12 is a delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital through capitalization of profits, reserves, et cetera. Approved. Thank you. Then the following resolution, number 13, authorization to reduce the share capital. All right. Resolution 14, that's a delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital. Approved. Resolution number 15. That is a delegation to increase the share capital without preferential rights. Approved.
Resolution 16 is a delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital without preferential subscription rights through a private placement reserved for qualified investors or a restricted group of investors. Approved. Number 17, and that's authorization to set the issue price of shares giving access to the share capital. All right. Now we are at resolution number 18, delegation of authority to increase the number of securities to be issued under the terms of resolutions 14, 15, and 16 in the event that the securities on offer are oversubscribed. It is approved. Number 19 is delegation of authority to increase the share capital in the scope of a public exchange offer. Approved. Number 20, a delegation of authority to increase the share capital within the context of contributions in kind. Approved.
21, authorization to grant subscription options or share purchase options to employees and senior executives of the company. Carried. Resolution 22, a delegation of authority to increase the share capital in favor of members of the company savings plan. Approved. Resolution 23, which is a determination of an overall ceiling for capital increases.
Approuvé. 24ème résolution, les actions gratuites pour les salariés. Vote est ouvert. Approuvé. Dernière résolution, mise en conformité des statuts. Le vote est ouvert. Approuvé. Mesdames, Messieurs, je vous remercie.
All right. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen