Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It's a great pleasure to welcome you here in this building where we now have our headquarters. Thank you very much for coming all the way over here. By my side, we have Laurent Mignon, who is the chairman of the executive board. David Darmon, member of the executive board and general director, and Caroline Bertin Delacour, who is the general counsel for Wendel. I would like also to thank all the members of the supervisory board who are here, as well as the shareholders and the statutory auditors. Thank you very much for coming over. I am now going to chair this meeting, and I suggest that we appoint as tellers Miss Priscilla de Moustier, who's a representative of Wendel-Participations, and Mr. Jean-Paul Vannicatte, who's representative of Eight Points Limited.
Thank you very much, Jean-Paul. So they are shareholders who are in the room and who represent themselves and by proxy, the greatest number of shares, and they've both kindly accepted to take on this role of being tellers. And if they are agreeable, I suggest that we appoint Caroline Bertin Delacour as the secretary of this assembly. Before I give over the floor to my colleagues, I'd like to talk about the recent developments at Wendel. The executive board and the board has rolled out a new strategy that we believe is going to create a great deal of value. We are moving towards a dual model with our historical management of our own investments, and then on the other side, we'll be managing third-party accounts.
That's the acquisition of IK, which was closed on Tuesday, but that's only one step on our journey. This business is going to allow us to make recurring incomes. IK, in fact, is three things. First of all, they're a management company, and we believe that the value of this company will increase over time. Of course, it will depend on the fundraising, and therefore, we're going to make sure that we can grow this management company with greater AUM as time goes by.
And then, as a management company, it is a company that is going to make management fees and with costs, which will be the payroll of IK in its seven or eight offices across Europe, and then benefits that we will enjoy as shareholders. These profits or the fee-related earnings for this year make up EUR 60 million. Then thirdly, at Wendel, we're going to invest in the funds that are managed by IK, and we believe that they are good investments. If you look at their track record, IK Partners have had very good results in the past, although, you know, it might not predict the future.
But every discussion that we've had with them has made us extremely confident in the activity that IK runs. So that's it for the management fees, the capital that we could entrust with them. All of this is very positive. So over the last year, for our main business, our proprietary asset management, we've had the acquisition of Scalian, an IT specialist with 5,000 engineers. The disposal of Constantia Flexibles with a very favorable outcome, and also four new investments made under Wendel Growth. So 2023 was a very good year for the group. Now, let's take a look at value creation for Wendel. Value creation for shareholders is something that we constantly strive for at Wendel, especially the supervisory board.
We also keep a close eye on the share price, discounts in relation to our NAV. This discount was very high, and it's a bit discouraging because we believe that the intrinsic value of Wendel is much higher than the actual share price. Our financial situation is very robust, which allows the executive management to offer a EUR 4 dividend for 2023, or for the FY 2023, 2023, sorry. 25% up compared to the year before that. And then finally, on governance, we're going to suggest that you renew for a 4-year term Thomas de Villeneuve's term, whose experience is extremely useful for the strategic evolution of Wendel.
I'm now going to hand over the floor to Caroline, to talk us through today's proceedings. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, this is an ordinary and extraordinary meeting in regards to the nature of the resolutions that will be voted. Mr. Simonin, who is a judicial officer in Paris, will be making sure that everything runs smoothly. The agenda was published on the ballot, on the website of Wendel, and is also in the convening notice, where you also have the different businesses of your company, as well as the resolutions and the rules and regulations. All the documents and information have been made available in keeping with French law and regulation, and are on the desk right next to me.
We have not received any request to amend the agenda from our shareholders. I also suggest that we don't go through all of the reports, nor the whole reading of the resolution, so that we have a bit more time for a Q&A session at the end, and some more time also for the presentations. You can also ask your questions out loud before we start voting on the resolutions, but you need to keep to your speaking time. Regarding the quorum, currently, for the number of shares, either in the room or by proxy, we have a current total of 69.84% of shares with voting rights, 30,615,000 shares. The final quorum will be shared with you before the vote.
We're going to be voting on 30 resolutions, and if you haven't voted before the resolution, you can use the handset, the tablet that you've been given at the entrance, and we'll tell you how to use that just before the vote. Thank you very much, Caroline. Now, I suggest that we follow what is written here on this slide. First of all, Laurent is going to be talking about the highlights of 2023, the performance of the portfolio. Then, David will talk about 2024 and recent events. And then Christine Anglade will take the floor, and she'll be discussing ESG performance. And then Gervais Pellissier will come up on stage. He's a Vice Chairman of the supervisory board and also sits at the compliance committee, and he'll be talking about governance and compensation.
Then Caroline will walk you through the resolutions, and then we'll hear the reports from the statutory auditors. And then finally, before we vote on the resolutions, we will answer the questions that we have previously received in writing, but also, of course, the questions that will be asked here in the room. Laurent, over to you.
Thank you very much, Nicolas. I am going to talk you through the main highlights of 2023, and we'll be talking about recent events as well with David. 2023 was a year with significant strategic changes. As Nicolas said earlier, we outlined our strategy in March 2023 to the financial markets, and we started rolling it out in that same year.
That strategy is based around two pillars, and also a broader reflection on the return for shareholders. The two pillars are, first of all, our proprietary account management, which is our long-standing expertise, i.e., long-term investment in quality companies, with a view to receive a significant amount of return on the capital that we invest. And we want to invest in companies where we have a good degree of control to help these companies grow, and we focus mainly on the non-listed companies, with investments that go between EUR 300 million-EUR 800 million. So this proprietary account management business is very significant. As Nicolas said, we bought up Scalian last year, disposed of Constantia Flexibles, and for Wendel Growth, four new acquisitions.
But, we also bought some stakes through, Stahl in ESG at the beginning of 2023, and it's a company in the, performance grouping, which allows us to, transform the, company. And in 2023, Stahl, paid EUR 85 million to Wendel with, an exceptional, dividend. So our portfolio has grown by, 6.4%, and, our stakes in all these companies have, grown, satisfactorily. And, we're going to continue to redeploy our capital in, high-growth, assets, with a view to have a, return on investment higher than 12%. So that's the first pillar, our historical pillar, that we are recalibrating a little bit, but it is very much in keeping with what we've always done. The second pillar now is a bit newer. We are-...
Preparing a new business. We are investing, but for third parties. So we are using our ability to invest and to receive management fees for that, which would allow us to have a recurring flow of income. Now, this new business can be achieved by going out to find investors who will entrust us with their money, or we can also buy up players who have this credibility, and that's what we decided to do, and then we help them grow to create a true, fully-fledged platform for third-party account management, which will, which will allow us to have a recurring flow of income and will allow us to drive also the amount of money that we can share with shareholders. We're going to focus on non-listed companies.
We believe it's a very interesting avenue to go down, and we believe that we are fully legitimate in going there. So this strategy, we articulated it in March 2023, and we started rolling it out in October 2023, with the IK Partners buyout project that was completed on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday, I think, where we signed off on the agreement. IK Partners, as you know, is a very good management firm that they manage EUR 12 billion for their clients or investors, and they operate in six European countries. And historically speaking, it's a company that has a huge footprint in Northern Europe, and a company that has also recorded strong performance, especially on the small cap and mid-cap across Europe.
We've bought up 51% of this company, and we'll buy the 49% remaining in the future. Since this will allow us to line up the interests of managers, shareholders, and investors for the long term. And what I can tell you is that, between Tuesday and today, so when we signed and today, we have full confidence that this was a shrewd move, and we are sure that the partnership between the teams of IK and Wendel will be good. They already actually are. Our objective is to reach objectives of a fee-related earning of EUR 150 million in 2027, which will allow us to have a recurring income for Wendel.
All of this, of course, implies a return for shareholders, hence our redirection on the dividend policy. For that dividend policy, we decided to give shareholders some certainty on that dividend policy. In other words, our objective is to have a yield on assets of plus 12% and to be a long-term investor. So, an important part of this return needs to be invested back into the company, and the rest needs to be shared with shareholders. So, we decided an 80-20 split. So, 20% of 12% is 2.5%. So, 2.5%, 2.5% is what we would pay out to our shareholders.
Then further on down the road, we will add a significant part of the flow that will come from third-party asset management, and the aim is to reach 3.5% in the mid-term. So it will allow us to pay out a dividend on a regular basis and allow our shareholders to capture a part of the value that we create, and the other part of the value that will be created will be invested back into the companies. So this is the main points I wanted to share with you. And in 2023, we had a very robust year.
Therefore, we bought back or are currently in the process of buying back EUR 100 million worth of shares, and we might have similar buyback programs in the future, but with the current discount, we thought that it was the right move to make. Now, let's talk about performance. The consolidated turnover for last year stands at EUR 7.1 billion, +5.7% for published data, but there's also foreign exchange effects to take into account. If you take underlying growth, organic, organic growth, it stands at 6.4% for 2023, which shows that the companies that we invested in are very dynamic. 6.4%, that's much more than the growth of the economies in which we have invested. Margins are robust.
The total contributions to our subsidiaries increased by 4.7%. Our liquidity is very high, more than EUR 2.2 billion. That has increased since then, but we'll discuss it with the disposals and with Bureau Veritas, which gives us a huge margin to invest in new opportunities and potentially invest in one of the two prongs of our business, either for proprietary accounts or for third-party accounts. And for our portfolio companies, the debt level is quite low, which means that the risk level for our companies are, well, quite low as well. We've worked on the liability of Wendel and also of our portfolio companies quite a lot in 2023, and that has definitely borne its fruits.
Now, the NAV for 31 December sat at EUR 162.2 per share, a small drop of 2.7% compared to last year, and taking into account the dividend that was paid out last year. The share price went down because of Bureau Veritas, but since the 31st of December, the share price of Bureau Veritas has gone back up and increased by more than 20%. I think that was the reading for yesterday. And Tarkett's share price dropped a lot in 2023 and is now more or less stable. IHS, unfortunately, their share price have continued to drop, but the relative weight of IHS in the NAV is only 2.5% and Tarkett 0.4%.
So what is really important here is Bureau Veritas' share price. As you can see, it's gone up, and we'll look at the end of March figures, and you can see how this has driven up our NAV overall. That's it for the non-listed assets performances. With a growth rate of nearly 10%, which drove the NAV, as you can see, EUR 10 of drop per share, which was attributable mainly to Bureau Veritas, and then good performance of non-listed companies, plus EUR 8.8 per share. And then there are other elements. So all the financial outlay for the company, that's -EUR 2.8, and the dividend paid out last year, that's the -EUR 3.2 per share.
If you reintegrate the dividend, you reach there to -2.7% that I mentioned earlier. Now, we are proposing EUR 4 per share. Now, this dividend is one that you can vote on later on, so EUR 4 per share. It's 2.5% of the NAV that I mentioned earlier, and it's up by 25% compared to last year. And on the 23rd of February, it represented a yield of 4.4%, probably 4.1% now with the share price that has dropped somewhat since then. Okay, that's pretty much all I wanted to say. Now, there's also the share buyback program, where we're nearly at EUR 40 million. You can see here the performance of the different portfolio companies.
You can see the strong dynamic in terms of sales for each of these companies, with significant organic growth, 8.5% for Bureau Veritas and nearly 16% for CPI. And a slight drop for Stahl, although the foreign exchange effects were positive for Stahl. That's pretty much all I could say on the group's performance for 2023. Now, the loan-to-value ratio gives you a good idea of the financial health of the company. You can see that we have very little debt at the end of last year. And currently, after the different operations, we have a negative LTV. We're at -5% at the minute. A moderate debt level. Here, you have the different transactions that took place last year.
You have a bit of a timeline. I'm not going to go into detail. I am now going to hand over the floor to David to tell us about the Q1 highlights.
Thank you very much. Indeed, I suggest that we talk about events since January first. Laurent talked about 2023. The beginning of 2024 is also quite robust, with 11.5% of growth, 6.9% of that is organic. I'll give you a breakdown later on, but as you can see, there is a good performance for most of our assets, especially from our locomotive, Bureau Veritas. The NAV stands at 178.1 EUR, a 11.2% increase compared to what Laurent mentioned earlier for last year.
And there again, Bureau Veritas was the main driver because the share price has gone up by 23% since the beginning of the year. And most of that growth was generated through the increase of our stake or the value of our stake in Bureau Veritas. Now, we're continuing to deploy our new strategic orientations with a disposal of 9% of Bureau Veritas share capital, generating EUR 1.1 billion. The disposal was made at a price of EUR 27.12 per share, so a 3% discount and 1% versus March 31, 2024 for the NAV.
We've also completed the acquisition of IK Partners, an acquisition that we announced in 2023, and gradually we were able to make progress on this transaction, especially with the competition authorities. We've continued to make progress on our share buyback program that we announced in October. We are at EUR 39 million out of the EUR 100 million that we've announced. Now, let's talk about the sales and this +11% that you, that you can see on the bottom line. With a breakdown, you can see that 8% of organic growth for Bureau Veritas with a negative foreign exchange impact. Stahl is back in the swing of things with growth, with a good volume effect.
And then there's the acquisition of ESG that we did last year. We're very happy with this acquisition and this integration, and with the results to date. Scalian is the latest arrival in the portfolio. Now, the FY closing date is somewhat different. So the first line that you can see, the EUR 137.5 million, that's the last three years of 2023. The first three years, it's the EUR 26 million that you can see underneath. We thought that the sector in engineering and digital for consulting would slow down, and it seems to be confirming quarter after quarter. The company continues to outperform its peers, but we do see that the business is slowing down.
So growth is positive, but much slower than the previous quarter. CPI is still making good progress with strong growth, with a slight negative foreign exchange impact. For ACAMS, it's very much a varied quarter. With new market shares conquered in Europe, North America, in the banking sector. And then we have also some clients that we hope to sign off with in the Q2, which should probably help us make up some of the lost ground during the Q1. And we expect to catch up later on in the year. So growth is slightly negative for ACAMS. Organic growth is at 6.9% for the group.
Now, NAV, as I mentioned earlier, we are at EUR 178.1 at the end of March 2024, and that was prior to the sale of our stake in Bureau Veritas. The Bureau Veritas transaction took place at the beginning of April. So for pro forma, you have to remove EUR 1.4 million to the 4.4 and add it to the cash flow that you have underneath to have the real effect of that transaction. NAV for 31st December is EUR 178, or a discount of 48%. Sorry, I said 31st of December. No, 31st of March. In any case, it's a 48% discount when compared to the 20-day share price average.
Now, this NAV is down to the change in value of our listed companies. Bureau Veritas suffered quite a lot in 2024, but then recovered quickly in... Sorry, suffered in 2023, but recovered in 2024. And you can see that the Bureau Veritas has driven up the increase in the NAV. For the other non-listed assets, they haven't changed much since the end of the year.
It is solid. So, a very strong situation. As you can see, we have a strong equity, more than EUR 2.3 billion in cash, and you can add to that EUR 875 million of undrawn credit facility. So we have enough means for new operations, whether for our proprietary accounts or for third-party accounts. We have also done the work for other entities. You can't see that here, but we've launched a refinancing for a CPI that allowed us to push back maturities by six years and lower the cost as well. So a very strong statement, good cash flow, very quite low average cost.
We have good credit ratings from Moody's and S&P, and so a loan-to-value ratio that's very weak, 0.6%. If we look at that pro forma with the operation that I mentioned, particularly Bureau Veritas, then the... And also the CPI dividend and the IK investment, this ratio then becomes negative, -5.1%. To conclude, what you need to recall from this Q1 is a solid activity of your portfolio for almost all entities. We're still deploying our new strategic directions that were presented to you, looking for new opportunities, also closing on IK, IK.
We have a very good financial statement with long maturities, a great rating, and so we have many projects that we still carry out to work on our goal of a two-digit TSR that Laurent mentioned earlier, both for our proprietary accounts and for third-party account management. Now I'll give the floor to Christine Anglade. She will talk about the ESG performance of the group, and I remain at your disposal for any question that you might have at the end of our session.
Thank you, David. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. So I wanted to talk to you about our ESG performance over the past year. We have been developing a new ESG strategy since 2021.
So we look at every company that we're interested in and looking at it with this ESG perspective, and we carry out action plans with goals and KPIs, and we have a strong monitoring of those elements. So after four years of this new strategy, you can see that we have been rewarded for our ESG performance. You can see we have great non-financial results. For the fourth consecutive year, we are part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and I want to say Bureau Veritas is first of its sector in this indicator. We've also made some progress on most of those ratings. I particularly want to mention the Sustainalytics rating.
We are top 1% of our sector here, and we've also improved for the CDP rating. We went from B to A-. So these are key progresses, and we are being rewarded by a non-financial monitoring agencies. Here on this slide, you can see consolidated portfolio on the 4 priorities. So basically, it's the consolidated performance of the different entities. So first, we have the first pillar, the employee and health and safety. This is something that's always been very key for us because of our industrial past. We've managed to decrease workplace accident frequency by 15%. We also have a second pillar that's products and services with environmental added value.
Today, these products and services amount to 53% of Wendel's consolidated sales, so those are products and services that have an added value, environmentally speaking. So it can be on the carbon footprint, anything that has a good impact on the environment or on society. Equity and diversity is also key for us. So 31% women on boards of directors. That's up 2% compared to the previous year, so that is a good result, encouraging results. It is still a priority for us and something that we'll keep looking out for. Then we have decarbonization. That's probably our main priority. And now we've launched a very ambitious decarbonization strategy, particularly with the SBTi, which is the reference standard that monitors decarbonization strategies.
And basically, you ask to be a part of this organization, and it took three months for us to get approved. Now we are SBTi approved. Bureau Veritas is as well, and Stahl as well. What does that mean for Wendel? That means that every time we will want to buy a company, that means we'll commit to making sure that this company is also approved, is also on that transformation path, and that's within the two years following the closing. So that's a lot of work, and right now, Scalian is working on its SBTi trajectory. I've said everything. So what I also wanted to talk about is the pragmatic perspective that we have when it comes to ESG. We're not putting everything on the same level.
We're looking at what matters for this company and for that company. And so here we wanted to present to you a case study, something that shows what we're able to do, with Constantia Flexibles. So, over seven years, what have we done? We'd realized that this company had three main challenges that needed to be tackled. When we bought this company, there were way too many accidents, and that is quite relevant, because it is an industrial company, and so if you're below a certain threshold, that means that there is work to do. So we did a lot. We incentivized the management with KPIs, and between 2014 and 2022, as you can see, we managed to reduce the accident frequency rate by 84%.
Another topic was the recyclability of product. Constantia Flexibles is a company creating packagings. It's the protective packaging. What that means is, it's, that's the first layer of packaging, for drugs, for foods, so it's, it's a useful packaging. It's, it's packaging that we can't do without. It's not about marketing or anything. So what we thought was, this company is useful. Obviously, there are some environmental issues that need to be tackled, but we can transform it. We can make it more. We can make it better for the environment. So we worked on the recyclability. We worked with the R&D teams to find some recyclable alternatives. We also we have a great system at, at Wendel. We worked with operating partners.
That's someone that goes on the field and helps our management and finds a way to actually implement those projects. And so, in 2022, 85% of Constantia's products were recyclable or had a recyclable alternative. So I think that's a great example of what we do in terms of ESG. There was also another pillar on climate, and I think that what Constantia did was great because they were, in 2018, the first to be approved by the SBTi with those two degrees trajectory, with adaptation plans and resilience plans, and they managed to decrease their greenhouse gases emissions, Scope 1, 2, and 3, by 17% over seven years.
And they have been, they've received good ratings, A- minus by CDP and a gold medal by EcoVadis. That's, that matters also for customers. And when we dispose of this, this company, that was key because buyers were very interested in those elements. So you can see it has a business impact, a tangible business impact. To conclude, I mean, it was a very short presentation, obviously. In the months to come, we are going to be focusing on a regulatory challenge, which is the new European directive, the CSRD. This is quite significant. We help our companies.
We have a team that's specialized at Wendel on that, and so we'll be able to talk more about that next year to see what happens in the first implementation year. Thank you.
Thank you, Christine. Now we'll give the floor to Gervais Pellissier, Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and he will talk about governance and compensation.
I just want to mention that the Supervisory Board is made of 12 members. Two members that are representative of the employees, and four independent members, and six are part of Wendel. We work closely together. We have two committees in this board. We have a governance committee chaired by William Torchiana. Unfortunately, he is in the U.S. He cannot be with us today.
And the audit commission headed by Gervais Pellissier. Those two committees are chaired by independent members of the supervisory board, not members of the family, and I have to say that they do work completely independently. Thank you, Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm really glad to present to you the governance at Wendel and talk about compensation. First, for the board. You can here see the names and the pictures of the 12 members of the supervisory board. 40% of independent members, 40% of women, and 50% of women if you include our colleagues who are representatives of employees. And we have four nationalities as well within this board.
This year, we have the potential renewal of Thomas de Villeneuve's term, and we ask you to please vote for his term renewal. Those two committees, Nicolas mentioned them, so we have the Audit, Risks and Compliance Committee and the Governance and Sustainability Committee. Here you can see on the screen how that works out, and we try to comply with the rules, the MEDEF rules, and we try to make it work as best as possible. When it comes to the executive board, it is obviously it includes obviously Laurent Mignon, our Group CEO, and David Darmon. Their term will end on April sixth, 2025. Now, we can talk about the executive board 2023 compensation. The compensation policy that was approved by your assembly last year was implemented.
You can see here the fixed compensation and the variable compensation for the executive board members, as well as all the other items and benefits of all kinds. When it comes to their variable compensation, it was determined depending on predefined objectives. First, on financial objectives, after analyzing the performance of the main companies of the portfolio, the board determined that those objectives were reached at 85.7%. When it comes to non-financial objectives, the board looked at all the different successes of the year and decided they were reached at 100%. The members of the board will then receive 90.7% of their variable compensation, depending on your vote as well.
When it comes to the long-term compensation for 2023, it is also compliant with the policy that you had approved last year. That's for the stock options and for the performance conditions and presence conditions that are here on the screen. To conclude, we have a resolution on the compensation, the shortened compensation for André François-Poncet, who was a member of the executive board until the first of December 2022. It is about the compensation that were paid to him in 2023 for his variable portion for 2022 and gross profit share for 2022. Now, the executive board 2024 compensation policy. Here, I just want to say that the compensation structure hasn't changed since 2021.
As you can see in the first graph, it is balanced between annual compensation and long-term compensation. On the second graph on the right, you can see that it is also demanding because three-quarters of the compensation depend on performance. So this policy is still being implemented for 2024. On the next slide, you can see the main elements that make out the 2024 compensation, so it's unchanged compared to 2023. A fixed compensation of EUR 1,300,000 for Laurent Mignon and EUR 770,000 for David Darmon, and a variable compensation amounting to a maximum 115% of the fixed compensation. And then the other elements, as last year.
When it comes to the variable compensation for 2024, the goals here are aligned with the with last year's goals, with some adjustments that you can see on in green on the screen. And they match what They match the the the strategic orientations that were detailed to you earlier in our meeting. So you can see the dual model of Wendel. So now we have four criteria. First, the performance of Bureau Veritas weighted at 20%. Then we have the performance of the proprietary asset management. Now, it goes from 20%-10% now. It has evolved to take into account the the scope changes, particularly the the integration of Scalian and the disposal of Constantia Flexibles.
Now, we have this performance for the third account asset management with the closing on IK, so that's 10%. And obviously, maintaining the investment grade notation of Wendel, now weighted at 15% instead of 20%. The non-financial objectives were renewed with the same criteria: strategic plan, human resources, and ESG, with a new goals and updated goals. Now, for the 2024 long-term compensation with the stock options and performance shares that could be allocated, we have the same condition of four years, the four-year presence condition. For the stock options, they are linked to the S of the ESG, with a training course on generative artificial intelligence. This performance condition with the one that is part of the yearly variable compensation.
That means that it amounts to 16.1% of the total remuneration being based on ESG criteria. Then for performance actions, we have the evolution of the TSR... and for 25%, the dividend evolution as well. Finally, the maximum allocation would be identical for both members of the board, amounting for 95% of the sum of the fixed and maximum fixed and variable shares of their yearly remuneration. Now, for the Supervisory Board's compensation. The 2023 compensation for Nicolas ver Hulst, Chair of the Board, is compliant with the policy that was approved last year.
When it comes to the compensation of the members of the supervisory board for 2024, you can see it here, same policy as the previous year, so unchanged at EUR 900,000, and that's the same since 2017. The remuneration structure guarantees the prevalence of the variable share linked to the presence compared to the fixed share. Thank you very much. I'll give the floor back to our chair.
Thank you, Gervais, for this very comprehensive presentation. We spent quite a lot of time on compensation, so I just wanted to say that our compensation policy is guided by two main elements. I'm talking about the board's compensation, but also that obviously has an impact on compensation for other collaborators.
Those two elements, those two goals that are key to us are as follows: First, we want to recruit the best people, and we want to retain talents, and so we have to be competitive on the investment market. The second element, the second constraint or concern, is that there needs to be an interest alignment between managers and shareholders. What I mean by that is that managers get more money as shareholders get more money as well. So this leads to a revision every four years, and now the time has come to, after the 2021-2025 period, to redefine a new compensation policy in 2025, and that will be a key work led by the supervisory board.
There might not be great changes, but this compensation issue is very, very key for the board, and for all people that work at Wendel. So thank you very much, Gervais, for this very comprehensive presentation. Gervais is not the chair of the governance committee. He's rather chair of the audit committee, and so I want to also thank the members of the supervisory board, and particularly Gervais and all the members of the audit committee, for all the work that they've done, because they do incredible work, and then, and particularly when we stop the NAV. We try to publish something that can be as just and justifiable as possible, something as exact as possible. We're not trying to... We're not trying to be too careful.
We're trying to be as close to the truth as possible, and a lot of work is being done by the audit committee, and I just want to express my gratitude to Gervais for the work that is being carried out by the committee. We can move on to the next point on our agenda, which is the presentation of resolutions by Caroline.
So, we have 30 resolutions for today. I want to present them to you with main themes: FY, governance, financial authorizations, and powers for legal formalities. So the first is the approval of Wendel financial statements. Net income of EUR 197 million, and the consolidated financial statements show a net income of EUR 142.4 million.
The third resolution is about the dividends, so the distribution of a EUR 4 per share dividend, as Laurent Mignon said, up 25% compared to last year's dividend, and that would be for a payment on May twenty-third. The fourth and fifth resolutions are about the approval of a new regulated related party agreements. So one was concluded with corporate offices, another one with Wendel Participations. The statutory auditors will tell you about it later on. Now, for governance, with the sixth resolution, the renewal of Thomas de Villeneuve's term, Gervais already mentioned it to you as a member of the board, and that is for a four-year term. The seventh resolution is new this year.
It's about the appointment of statutory auditors that will be in charge of the certification mission for the compliance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive of the European Union. We propose to appoint Deloitte and Associates and Ernst & Young Audit, who are currently statutory auditors for Wendel, Wendel for the account certification. This appointment would last as long as their current term, which is one remaining year, until next year's general assembly. Now for the resolutions on the compensation. The eighth and— From the 8th to the 12th resolution, we're looking at the compensation policy. No, sorry, let me start again. From the 8th to the 12th resolution, it's about the 2023 compensation, particularly compensation for Laurent Mignon, David Darmon, André François-Poncet, and Nicolas ver Hulst.
From the 13th to the 15th resolution, we're looking at the compensation for the executive board and the supervisory board for 2024. Then last theme is financial authorizations, and there are many of those. So we start with the share buyback program. That's the 16th resolution. We are proposing to allow the board to buy back shares of the society up to 10% of the share capital. The 17th resolution is about the share capital reduction, up to 10% of the share capital by the 24-month period. Any reduction of the capital should be authorized by the supervisory board. Now, for the share capital increases, so that's resolution 18, a cap of 100% of the share capital. Not looking at the sub-caps that I will mention now.
Resolution 19 to 22, it's about the end of the subscription rights. That would allow the society, the company to be flexible by raising the share capital, also with the authorization of the supervisory board. They are not usable during public offers and they can only work through 26 months periods. So the share capital increase with preferential subscription rights can only happen up to 40% of the share capital, and if that is done without preferential subscription rights, then the cap is 10% of the share capital. You can see the modalities on the screen. For the twenty, resolution 23 to 25, they can be done through the incorporation of reserves, profits, premiums, or other items, and that's up to 50% of the share capital.
Now, for employee shareholding, we have three resolutions. Resolution 27, renewal of the capital increase reserve for members of the group savings plan. That is to develop long-term employee shareholding, and that could be for an amount up to EUR 200,000 and a price, a share price, a discount of maximum 30%, in compliance with legal regulations. Resolution 28, 29 allow the board to allow stock options and performance shares grants to corporate officers and employees. But there are some presence conditions and performance conditions that were already detailed by Gervais Pellissier in his presentation.
30th and final resolution, powers for legal formalities. This presentation has now come to an end, and Nicolas, back to you.
Thank you very much. The floor is to Mr. Mussomelli for the statutory auditors.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, one and all. On behalf of Deloitte and Associates, I'm happy to take stock of the 2023 report. Take a look at the next slide. Here you have the findings of our mission for 2023, for FY 2023. The summary of the report, as well as our report for the extraordinary meeting for the Social Capital, your company. These reports are made available to all of you and help you vote on the resolutions later on.
I'm going to now sum up these reports. Next slide, please. Now, for the annual financial statements, you can find them page 293 to 298, 319 to 322 in the universal registration document. Our mission is to make sure that everything has been done abiding by the rules. We haven't noticed any significant mistake. There is a high level of compliance with accounting rules, standards, and regulations.... We've looked at different entities of Wendel, both in France and abroad. We've adapted and calibrated our audit to the specificities of Wendel. We've looked at recurring events, but also one-off events like disposals and acquisitions. We presented our findings to the executive management in February 2024.
In our report, we'd like to draw your attention to the fact that there is no particular risk for the accounts of 2023. The key points for 2023 are the following: First of all, the disposal and the acquisition of new entities, and then the mechanisms of the management team's involvement. Now, for annual accounts, like last year, we assessed the shares and stakes and the debt of the entities. And for each of these entities, we share our findings, we discuss the risks, and also discuss the work that we have undertaken. In conclusion of our report, we have certified the consolidated accounts and the annual accounts that closed on 31 December 2023.
We also checked all the information in the management report, and we have no particular comment or observation to make. They are sincere and in keeping with the other Wendel documents. Now, here you have the detail of our reports on related party agreements. And, in that report, we talk about the different agreements that we've reviewed and also why they are relevant for Wendel. We were made aware of these agreements, which was approved by your supervisory board with Mr. Laurent Mignon, David Darmon, and Ms. Harper Mates, and Sophie Tomasi. There is an agreement relating to co-investments in Scalian and Kimia, with amendment to the sublease contract of Workspace Rue Paul Cézanne.
Agreements then that were not previously authorized, but approved afterwards, that we have no comments to make on that. And finally, we were made aware of agreements previously approved by the annual general meeting with Mr. Laurent Mignon, Mr. Darmon, Ms. Harper Mates, and Ms. Sophie Tomasi, agreements relating to co-investments. On the twenty-sixth of October, 2023, your supervisory board decided to approve this agreement after the fact. Our special report shows no other observation. Next slide, please. We're now going to look at the extraordinary general assembly. Under that part of the meeting, we have five reports that we have published, and as you know, you'll be voting on these matters. We are looking at pages 353 to 358.
It is, in other words, the operations for the resolutions from 17th to 29th resolution. These operations were outlined by Caroline Bertin Delacour earlier, and we have no particular comment to make on these operations, nor on the information in the report. Next slide, please. Regarding the 27th and 28th resolution, we have no opinion on these matters, be it on the increase of the share capital for the issue of shares or securities, or the authorization to grant stock subscription or purchase options. And finally, I'd like to talk about the report for the non-financial elements.
Now, this is in page 211 to 213, and our report informs us that we haven't identified any significant anomaly likely to call into question the fact that the declaration of non-financial performance complies with the applicable regulatory provisions. Thank you very much. We're now going to move on to the Q&A session. Okay, we're going to start with the questions in writing. We've received a question in writing by Mr. Arnaud Deca, shareholder. By way of introduction, I'd like to say that this question was sent late in the day or after the deadline, but we've decided to answer it.
To be as transparent as possible, and an answer has been put on the website of Wendel this morning, and we're going to sum it up for him now. Mr. Decat, our alert or whistleblowing system did not work, apparently, or was not triggered in a company where there was an event of sexism, but before we invested in it. So the question is: When are you going to change the whistleblowing system, and how are you going to better keep in check governance? And our answer is the following: The facts that are mentioned by Mr. Decat are, of course, not what we want at Wendel, nor in our portfolio companies. We have a robust whistleblowing system that is open, public, and in keeping with the latest regulation.
Any report that we receive in that framework is reviewed and, if necessary, leads to an investigation. When the facts have emerged, then we have an action plan. When it happens in a subsidiary, we make sure that the proper solutions have been implemented by the company in question, which was the case in this particular matter, and there was no problem with the way in which governance handled the matter. Now, for financial and non-financial matters, we've worked with statutory auditors, with our own department in-house, and the Audit Committee also supervised all of these matters. On governance, the executive and non-executive functions are separated and entrusted to the Supervisory Board and to the Executive Board.
We stick to the best practices with 40% of independent members and make sure that everybody can do their work properly. Thank you very much, Caroline. I suggest that we now move on to questions in the room.
Jerome Chario, I have a double question on your investments as a company. We see that you've got a good track record in the U.S., but struggling a bit more in Africa. Is the company going to invest in far-flung markets in Asia, Latin America, or not? And second question: Do you have a sectoral or geographical approach to these investments, or a little bit of both? Well, I'm going to leave the executive board answer that question. But for the regions, the supervisory board is fully in agreement with the executive board.
Well, thanks for this disclaimer. It's true that we had long discussions on this, but your comment is absolutely right, sadly, about Africa, but quite fortunately for the US. And so the conclusion that we've drawn from all of this is that we wanted to focus our investments where we believe that we've got a good ability to assess the quality of our investments and then track them over time, and where we believe that the economy is favorable and going to grow. And when you cross these two elements, you end up with a lot of investments in Europe and in Northern America. Now, it doesn't mean that there are not other economies growing in Asia, Latin America, or even, for that matter, in Africa.
But it's also down to our ability to have teams out there who understand the ecosystems, and at the moment, we don't have that, and we're not able to secure investments there. So this is why we're focusing on these two areas, Europe and North America, and I think that it allows us to already find a great deal of companies that we can invest in. And actually, it will be the same answer for third-party account management. We're going to focus our efforts in the same locations. Now, regarding our strategy, is it more about sectors or about regions? Well, my answer is that on top of our regional approach, we've got a sectoral approach. We focus on a number of sectors that we know really well.
If you want to be a good investor, you need to well know the sector, the companies that are at play, the dynamics also that are at play within the sector. There's also the B2B services sector, which is quite large, that we know really well, the technology sector, as well as the education sector and the energy transition, just to share with you a few of the sectors that we're going to be focusing our investments in. So education, it means, you know, education and training, as you know, with CPA and ACAMS in the U.S. Do you want to add anything? Yes. So you talked about Western Europe and the U.S. They might be located in these countries, but they are very global companies.
CPI, for example, they're in Milwaukee, but, they have, people working for them all around the world. Same thing for Bureau Veritas. So the headquarters might be in Europe or in North America, but we make sure that, you know, they are also properly, global players. Do we have other questions?
Mr. Roche, I have two questions, one on CPI and another one on the net consolidated results of, Wendel. CPI is a global, leader in crisis management and in, training, and how to, also manage aggressive behaviors. Can you tell us a bit more about this company and why you invested in that company in the first place, in the first place, when it doesn't have any footprint in France or Europe?
And now, my second question, the net group share results for 2023 was divided by four compared to the previous year. So going from EUR 142 million to EUR 640 million, and it was EUR 1 billion in 2021. In the press statement that came along with the results, you told the market that this drop was down to the lack of significant disposal compared to 2022. Hence my question, the disposal of 9% of Bureau Veritas for EUR 1.5 billion, is it there to boost the net result, or did it allow instead to buy up 51% of IK, which you forked out EUR 3.8 billion for?
Okay, David, you're going to answer for CPI, and I'll talk about the net result, group share, and all of the rest. Thank you for this question. That gives us a chance to talk about CPI, which is a company that has been in our portfolio since early 2020. We talked about the acquisition at the end of 2019, and then acquired it during COVID. As Laurent said, it's a company that's there to train people in executive position in education or in healthcare. It could be nurses, it could be people working at the desk in hospitals or doctors, and then in schools, people in charge of security, but also teachers and, generally speaking, everybody who works inside or around schools. And it's split 50/50, more or less between healthcare and education.
It's about training people to react properly to a violent event. That could be, for instance, a patient that becomes very aggressive in the ER or waiting in the ER waiting room or in the operating theater, or it could be a student, a pupil who is violent, or somebody who is outside of the school, who is very aggressive towards the teaching staff, for example. So the idea is to make sure that everybody is on the same page, everybody behaves and reacts in the same manner, to make sure that this moment of violence can be dealt with, with a view to de-escalate the situation. So just make sure that everybody reacts in the same right way and in the right way to de-escalate the situation.
Now, this might seem very simple, but in actual fact, we are very much at a loss in these situations, and you need to be able to deal with them without losing self-control. What, what do you do, for example, when you have an autistic child who's banging his head against the wall, or when you have somebody who arrives at the ER who's drunk at 3 A.M. and starts smashing everything up? Everybody needs to react in the staff, in the hospital, or in the schools in the same way. Everybody needs to have the same reflexes. And what's beautiful about CPI is that they're going to train people in hospitals or in the school, and these people that they have initially trained are then going to go on and train on the rest of the staff.
So for example, CPI trains 20 nurses who then go on to train 20 or 30 nurses each. So it's very much a train-the-trainers model. And we believe that it has a very positive impact on our society at large. And we have more than 1 million people who are trained every single year. And the more people we train, the more we will end up in a world where it's going to be more pleasant to live. And then, as you can... As you've also seen, the financial criteria are very good. We've a great organic growth, great profitability as well. So it's very much the best of both worlds.
From ESG point of view, we're doing a good to, we're doing very positive things for the world, and then we also have a good financial return. I'd just like to talk about the lack of footprint in Europe that you pointed out, but it actually is a company that is set up in the UK and in France, and we are helping them to knock on the doors of hospitals and schools in Europe. They're very present in Asia, Singapore, but they also have some presence in Europe. Okay, I'm going to try and answer your second question, and I'm going to put on my old hat of a financial director to talk about our financial results. It's not always easy to understand.
Now, the net result for a portfolio company does not really capture the profitability of a given year, but rather the profitability of disposals and of our strategy in the long term. We disposed of Cromology in 2021, for example, and then in 2022, there was the IHS IPO that generated an important capital gain, which didn't stop the share price from going down. But nonetheless, from an accounting perspective, it was positive. Since there was no capital gain in 2023, because the only main disposal that we performed in 2023 was performed in 2023, but it was booked at the beginning of 2024. That's for Constantia Flexibles. So the capital gain will have an impact on 2024 and not 2023.
So 2024 will be up significantly compared to 2023, which will not mean that we've been much better in 2024 than 2023, although I do hope so, but it's just a matter of, you know, where you draw the line at the end of the year. And then you've got Bureau Veritas, which allows us to have an extra EUR 800 million, but it's not going to be a positive accounting flow since it's going to increase the equity of Bureau Veritas, but it's not going to end up on our balance sheet. So the net result, as it stands, is difficult to assess the profitability of the company. It is interesting, but you need to unpack it a little bit. The NAV is probably the best indicator.
It went down last year, and it's up this year. It's probably a better indicator. I'd like to reassure you on the fact that the acquisition of IK, which is very important, was not paid out at EUR 3.8 billion, but EUR 383 million, which is 10 times less, and I think much more reasonable. And it's EUR 383 million for 51%, and we'll buy the 49% remaining based on the performance of the company.
Olivier Bastou, individual shareholder. My question is this: Between your two businesses, how are you going to make the right trade-offs? If there's an interesting investment, are you going to go with it, go with it, you know, on your own behalf or on behalf of third parties? Have you got a rule of thumb on that?
Very good question. One that was at the heart of our discussions, and when we decided to work for a third-party account, of course, this question came up. Now, it's important that the investors who trust their money with IK Partners don't think that we give priorities if there's a good opportunity to Wendel, and conversely, people at Wendel shouldn't think that the good opportunities are going to slip over to IK Partners. And in actual fact, the targets of IK are slightly different to those that we have at Wendel. At Wendel, we want to invest on the long term and on quite large companies. IK Partners are focused on small caps and mid caps across Europe.
Our equity investment target was EUR 300 million-EUR 800 million, and the EUR 300 million is the high-water mark of IK, who invest in equity. So what we've decided amongst ourselves is that we've set a threshold, and when investments are underneath that threshold, the priority is given to IK Partners, and when it's above the threshold, then Wendel has a priority. So that threshold helps us to know who can have first dib. And IK will not be investing in the U.S. We have another question over there.
S orry, madam. Carl Belmar, individual shareholder. What about the future of BV at Wendel?
Well, Bureau Veritas is a great company. We've been shareholders for 27 years. As you've seen, I took over the chairmanship of Bureau Veritas. I mean, that tells you how important an asset it is to us, and we continue to work along with the C-suite of Bureau Veritas in its new strategy. Hinda Gharbi, the new general director, has got a very active way of doing things and a strategy that was very much appreciated by the markets, with an uptake in the share price of more than 20%. So that's very positive. And our desire is to continue to work with Bureau Veritas in unrolling that plan. However, the weight of Bureau Veritas at Wendel was getting quite high, so we wanted to alleviate that weight a little bit since there was a good share price. The discount was very small.
Bpifrance, so the public French investment bank, came on board, which is also very positive. So currently, we are alongside Bureau Veritas to roll out their strategic plan. You might have been to the capital markets day of Bureau Veritas with Hinda Gharbi. She had three key messages. She said, first of all, portfolio, people, and performance. It's a three P plan for 2024-2028. Portfolio, so that means that we are looking at all the different businesses of BV, and we've decided to focus on the areas where we have high margin rates and higher stakes.
So we are looking at the whole business portfolio of Bureau Veritas to see where we might want to do a disposal, and also look at where we might want to increase our stake, because there are some sectors that are growing quickly. Secondly, people. There is a whole training program, the people are very young, and they are digital natives at Bureau Veritas. It's very much an engineering business, but there is a training program of more than 35 hours per year and per employee. And then performance.
Now, of course, we have a financial bias in this area, but Linda Garby says that she believes she can grow to the tune of 8.9% across the next four years, and an adjusted operating profit currently is at 16%, and she said she could increase it by 180 BPS, and the cost would be 90 BPS, so we could have adjusted operating profit of 17%. All of this has been made public, but it gives, you know, Wendel a great amount of trust and confidence in BV going forward.
Good afternoon. As individual shareholder, I have the following question: You are entering in the investment capital markets. You're not the only ones, and I just wanted to understand where you stand. Is it at the French level, European level? What, what is your positioning on that market? As an individual shareholder, I, I always find it a bit difficult to choose a small cap or mid-cap titles. And compared to companies like yours, you're specialists, you're choosing the right companies. You know how to buy them and sell them back when, when it's right. For an individual shareholder, that's a safety to be interested in the small cap and mid cap markets.
Thank you for your question. You're fully right. We're entering in investment capital. We're already doing it for proprietary accounts, and now we're doing it for third-party accounts. The reason we chose IK Partners was because of the quality of IK Partners's network and its full understanding of small and mid-cap European companies. It's not something you can just come up with. This company's been around for 30 years. They have 200 employees, with 100 people that are specialized in investments in Norway, Finland, Denmark, the United Kingdom, France, and they have a very good knowledge of the local ecosystem, and that enables them to invest in companies that are small cap companies that they'll help grow, or mid-cap companies that they still bring to a whole another level.
They do that with the support of operating partners, who allow them to significantly improve competence. So by investing with Wendel, you're exposing yourself to the performance that can be done on European mid caps. But not only, because, as we said, Wendel is also investing in mid-cap companies in the U.S., where there are many opportunities, and we do think that the potential growth is interesting here. And you're also investing in non-listed companies when you're invested at Wendel, and these non-listed elements, you do not have access to it as an individual shareholder. When it comes to the positioning and how we're differentiating ourselves, what is our added value, because, as you said, the market is almost saturated. There are many, many different players.
The difference at Wendel is the horizon, the patience. We can give enough time to investors, to managers, to develop their business and to support them. If you're looking at Stahl, we invested in them in 2006. 18 years later, things would have been different if we were to sell that five or six years later. If we're looking at 2010 or 2011, the company was just out of the Lehman crisis. There was a lot of debt. It was a difficult moment, and we had started with an investment fund that left at that time. It was not a good idea because we stayed from 2006 to 2024. I mean, Stahl is a great story now.
EUR 200 million in EBITDA and no more debt. So we really helped and supported that group, and we were able to do that because we are patient enough and we have the time to do the—to do so. So our positioning is about that. It’s this patience element that really differentiates us from our competitors.
So if I understood correctly, this company is more present in Northern Europe. Is there some geographical complementarity with you? And you also mentioned a company. I want to mention another one in Northern Europe, that’s Tarkett. And I first heard about it. It had a strong prescription, and I don't really understand that, the drop for this company, which was a leader in its field, with its competitor, Gerflor.
First, on the complementarity with IK. IK is indeed very present in Northern Europe, where we're less present, although historically we did invest in companies in the Netherlands or in Austria. But indeed, IK started in Sweden over 30 years ago, and it is very much present in Northern Europe. They're not in Southern Europe at all, even though their portfolio. In their portfolio, France amounts for 40%, so they're still very much present in France.
But the complementarity is more about the size of the companies and the horizon, in terms of investment, this patience capital that David mentioned. Tarkett. Tarkett is a beautiful company. It still is. Tarkett, I mean, the sense, the more sensitive point for Tarkett... Well, it originally, it's a French company. They bought a Swedish company that was called Tarkett, and then they used the name for the whole company afterwards. Tarkett is a company that was mostly impacted after the invasion in Ukraine. It was doing good business in Russia, but unfortunately now it was difficult to get back the funds from Russia.
Although the markets in which it evolves has also been through a difficult period. But Tarkett is a beautiful company. It developed a new activity in sports, and it's doing very well. They're developing very well. They're working in North America as well, and that's also growing neatly. Antoine Issaverdens, individual shareholder. Mr. Chair, do you think that the governmental projects of taxation of share buyback programs for companies could lead to a change in your strategy in the future? The tax project has not been voted yet. It's still only a project for now, and if it should be voted, it should...
It should be about 1% of the share buyback program, and for buyback programs that lead to cancellations. Our current project is not about any share cancellations. We are buying them back one to potentially compensate the dissolution. That has to do with the stock options and the compensation of the teams, and also to use for the potential future acquisitions with the IK operation. IK operation, for example, we could pay tomorrow the 49 remaining percent with shares, so we're not about to cancel those. And so if the law was to indeed be voted, we would not be subjected to this new tax. But given the fact that this law has not been voted, we don't know the details yet.
I can't really give you more than that. It's based on an analysis of the dividend tax. Sorry, on the share buyback program tax in the U.S. In France, there is a problem of economic education, and that's very visible, that there is this idea that dividends are bad because they're enriching shareholders, same as share buybacks, buyback programs. That's absurd. It just shows that there's a lack of economic education amongst people, amongst lawmaking people. When a company distributes dividends, then the share price goes down proportionally because it leaves the company to go to the shareholder. When we are buying back the shares, it's the same thing.
There is no great difference between one and the other. And yet, in France, there is this idea that when shareholders get dividends, it's bad. It's, that's absurd! Laurent says, "I think that the audience quite agrees with you." You're preaching to the choir. Any other questions? If not, then we can move on to the resolutions vote, and I will give the floor to Caroline.
So I will tell you the final amount of present or represented shares verified by our commissioner. So the quorum reached 70.21%, amounting to 30,474,000 shares for 1,290 shareholders. The quorum is reached for the ordinary general assembly and for the extraordinary general assembly.
Before we move on to the vote, I just want to tell you about some rules. A double voting right is distributed to fully paid-up shares, for which proof can be given of a nominative registration for two years, at least, in the name of that same shareholder. In case of a dememberment of the share of property, the user has the right to vote for ordinary resolutions and the owner for the extraordinary resolution. To be adopted, the ordinary resolutions must get a simple majority of the votes, and the extraordinary resolution must get the two-thirds majority. We are going to proceed to an electronic vote. You have a tablet that were given to you when you came in.
You have on the tablet the necessary information and, as well as the number of votes that you hold or represent, and we'll show you a short film to explain how this will work. The tablet has been given to you. It is personal and is only usable for this assembly. When a resolution is announced, a voting window will open automatically on your tablet, even if the tablet is not turned on yet. To vote, it is simple. You just vote on the button that you want: in favor, abstain, against. Then you press Okay to validate your choice before the vote closes. Once your vote is validated, you cannot change it. And please give back your tablet as you exit the room.
The results of the votes will appear on the screen, and you'll get the results of the votes on our website in a few days as well. So now we'll move on to the votes, resolution by resolution, and we start with the first one. So on the approval of Wendel's financial statements for 2023, the voting is open. The voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Second resolution, the approval of consolidated financial statements for 2023. The vote is open. Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Third resolution, that's for the dividend. The vote is open. The voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. Fourth resolution, agreement of regulated conventions with certain corporate offices. Voting is open. Vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. Fifth resolution, agreement with Wendel-Participations SE. Voting is open. Vote is closed. Resolution adopted.
We now move on to the resolutions on governance. Sixth resolution, the renewal of Thomas de Villeneuve's term at the Supervisory Board. Vote is open. Vote is closed. Resolution adopted. Seventh resolution, appointment of Deloitte & Associates and Ernst & Young Audit as statutory auditors in charge of certifying sustainability information. The voting is open. Vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. Now, we move on to the resolutions on the compensation of corporate officers, first with the 2023 compensation. Eighth resolution, the approbation of the 2023 compensation report for members of the Executive Board and members of the Supervisory Board. The voting is open. The voting is closed. Adopted. Ninth resolution, the approbation of the 2023 compensation for Laurent Mignon. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Tenth resolution, approval of the 2023 compensation for David Darmon. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted.
Resolution 11, approval of the 2023 compensation of André François-Poncet. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 12, approval of the 2023 compensation of Nicolas ver Hulst, board chairman. Vote is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 13, approval of the compensation policy in 2024 of the board chairman. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 14, approval of the 2024 compensation policy of board members. The voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 15, approval of the 2024 compensation policy of members of the supervisory board. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Now we move on to financial authorizations. There are 15 resolutions here. Resolution 16 regarding the share buyback program. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 17 regarding the share capital reduction. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted.
Now we can start the series on the resolutions on capital increase. Resolution 18 with a global cap for those capital increases. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 19 allows for the increase of the social capital with the preferential subscription rights. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 20 allows for the increase of the consolidated capital by public offer. The voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 21 allows for share capital increase by private placement. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 22 allows for share price settings in case of capital increase for public offerings and private placements. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 24 allows for... I apologize. Resolution 23 allows for the emission increase in case of oversubscription. The voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted.
Resolution 24 allows for the share capital increase as remuneration for contributions in kind. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 25 allows for the share capital increase in the context of a public exchange offer. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 26 allows for the share capital increase by incorporation of reserves, profits, or premiums. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Now we move on to employee shareholding. We only have four resolutions left. Resolution 27 relates to the capital increase reserved for members of the group savings plan. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 28 relates the granting of stock options and performance to corporate officers and employees. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Resolution 29 relates to the free allocation of shares for the corporate officers and employees. Voting is open.
Voting is closed. Adopted. And we can finish with the resolution 30 for the publicity formalities for the present assembly. Voting is closed. Adopted. Vote is complete.
Thank you very much, Caroline. Congratulations to Thomas de Villeneuve for his new term at the Supervisory Board. He's an important member of that board and also a part of the Wendel family. And he also works for Seven2, who previously was Apax, an investment fund that lends us their long-standing experience in terms of investment. So thank you very much, and congratulations to him for this new term. Secondly, I should like to thank you for voting in a Soviet style because the percentages were so high. We're going to take it as a token of your trust towards us, us at the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board, and we are going to try and be worthy of that trust going forward. So thank you very much for that trust.
We have reached the end of today's agenda. It's 5:00 P.M., and it's a wrap for 2024. Thank you very much for coming over.