On a tout petit peu de retard. Est-ce qu'on pourrait commencer, ma chère Constance? Voilà. Merci beaucoup. Alors, tout ceci est évidemment retransmis, comme vous le savez.
All this is being broadcast, as you know, live on our website. So we will have just as many people watching and listening than the people in this room, which belongs to us, Folies Bergère. So let's get started. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, and welcome to this general assembly for 2024. I would like to say hello to some of the people in the room before I give the floor to Pauline. I want to thank those who came, those from Vivendi. I won't mention them all, but I would like to mention two, because these are people that I interact with and work with since November 21. Michel Sibony, in charge of performance within Vivendi and also us now, so he's in charge of quite a few things. Cost, but not only.
I want to highlight this, and with Michel, we have some very honest, efficient, and productive relationships. He's in the room. Thank you for being here. François Laroze as well, financial director of the Vivendi group, and I spent even more time with him reviewing the budget still since November the twenty-first, reviewing the budget, monthly control, et cetera. I really appreciate our relationship with François, who's a very strict character, and that's also very positive for us. I'm sure this will help us make great progress together. So I'm very happy with this collaboration. Even more than that, because we're now a team, and we're together. I'd also like to thank the members of the board of directors, including the employee representatives, Marie and Pascal. I know you're in the room. Sorry, you're in the first front row. Welcome to you.
I also want to thank Arnaud de Puyfontaine, who's been here from day one. He's the most frustrated out of us because not only was he there when he couldn't speak much, but even since November 21, there are certain aspects of the group which he knows very well, that's publishing, where he cannot speak or act for now. I would also like to say hello, finally, and most importantly, President Mr. Sarkozy, who's always in first line to defend the interests of the Lagardère Group, and he also wrote a bestseller in 2023, published at Fayard. So he contributed even further to make sure that the accounts we'll present are particularly good. So thank you, dear Nicolas, for being here. Somebody's absent, and I would also like to recognize them, just like Nicolas, because with myself, we were the ones who prepared the arrival of Vivendi.
That's Vincent Bolloré, of course. I want Lagardère to be another success for him and his group. And if I may say a little personal note, I think that one of the greatest successes of Vincent are his children. I liked when people said that about my father. They didn't say it so often, but it's really exceptional, and I'm happy to say it in front of Yannick, who's chairing the surveillance group of Vivendi, and we really owe him the efficiency of this operation. I'm very happy to work with you, Yannick. You, of course, have the skills, but also the kindness that we need, and it's not always easy when you're in the storm. Vincent Bolloré is also very well surrounded, has a great team.
And if I'm saying this is for our friend Maxime Saada, who's on stage, he's the Vice President of the Lagardère Group, and we spend a lot of time together, and he'll say a few words later on to answer some questions, if any, on industrial synergies, which will be crucial to us in the coming years with the group that he perfectly manages and that he helped bounce back in an exceptional manner. So thank you, Maxime. So thank you so much for being here. On stage, we have, from the right to the left, Virginie Banet, who chairs the Appointment and Compensation Committee and the CSR Committee, Véronique Morali, who's in charge of the Audit Committee, Pauline Hauwel, who you know very well. She's the General Secretary of the group, and of course, Sophie Stabile, who's the Director of Finances.
Somebody might be missing, you might say. Somebody who's been here for years, Pierre Leroy, who after 40... 54 or 55 years for Sylvain Floirat , for those who know him or knew him, and then for Jean-Luc Lagardère and myself, and he has decided to have another life, a new life, and we're thinking of him. We're going to miss him. I'm going to miss him... very much, but he won't be too far from the group, hopefully, and I hope we'll always or still will benefit from his advice, his kindness, his intelligence, and his negotiation skills with the unions, with the authors, as he did at Hachette. Pierre, we miss you, and I'm saying this in the name of all the people in the room and those listening. Pauline, I'm going to let you open the administrative part of the assembly, and then I'll speak again.
Thank you, Arnaud. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. With this ordinary general assembly, chaired by Mr. Arnaud Lagardère, as the CEO of Lagardère SA, the two present shareholders with the largest number of shares, that is Vivendi, represented by Mr. François Canavaggio, director of the society, and Lagardère Capital, represented by Mr. Arnaud Lagardère. And as per appointed by the bureau, I will be the secretary of the assembly. I will provide the temporary figures for the participation. 2,044 shareholders are present in person and online. This, and I think this will show on screen, 130,000+ shares, the quorum, so much more than the 20% legal quorum, the general assembly can deliberate. All of the documents were provided to the shareholders as per the legal obligations. They're on the Bureau of the Assembly.
That is, the meeting notice on March 6, 2024, convocation in April, convocation letters to the auditors, the three reports as per the auditors and an independent organization for extra financial performance, the required information as per article highest remunerations, the convocation brochure, and the universal registration document. The assembly is called upon deliberation on the agenda sent. That is also included in the brochure, which you can access through your voting pad, and I will do a summary of it as it shows on screen. Resolutions 1 and 2 on the approval of yearly consolidated accounts for 2023. Resolution number 3, allocation of social result and distribution of dividends. Resolution 4, approval of a regulated convention, MOU, around the autonomization of the radio department implemented in 2023. Resolution 5, ratification of co-optation of Yannick Bolloré as administrator or director, rather.
Resolutions 6 to 11 on voting policies for 2024, for the general management and compensation provided in 2024 to the board of directors and general management. Resolution number 12, authorization to give to the board to operate on the shares of the company for buyback programs. Resolutions 13 and 14, to appoint Deloitte and Mazars as auditors to certify information in terms of sustainability in the implementation of the CSRD regulation. Resolution 15 for proxies for formalities. As Arnaud said, the assembly will start with a little video of the activities of the group. Mr. Lagardère will present the strategy of the group. Mrs. Sophie Stabile, Financial Director, will present the accounts for 2023. Then we'll get a presentation of the sustainable development strategy by Céline Soubranne, Director of CSR. This presentation will also follow a short video of the actions taken in 2023.
Finally, a presentation of governance and the board's activities presented by Virginie Banet and Véronique Morali, and the auditors of Lagardère SA in the front row will present their 3 reports. Then we'll move to a Q&A session for about 30 minutes, and then voting on the 15 resolutions. Thank you for your attention, and I'll give the floor back to Arnaud.
Before I speak, we have a little video, so we're going to show it now. It's a short video, don't worry.
In my presentation, I will also be the spokesperson of Constance Benqué for news, Stéphanie Ferran, who manages publishing with me, Dragos Constant from travel retail, so I can see them. I can give them the floor, and Uncertain for the pricing, and Jérôme Langlet , who's in charge of the venues, live venues. Let's start. We'll have three parts. The first one is crucial, of course, because it will be the pace of the group, and I will explain our expectations and Vivendi's expectations, of course. This is the breakdown of the capital as per today. As you know, we'll have the EUR 24.10 option for next year, which will probably change the breakdown of the capital, but this is the information. It's very clear.
After moving from an anonymous company and a sponsorship, we are now a family company, and we're part of the Bolloré family, which is even more flattering to me. So what will we do together, and what benefits will we use from this operation? First of all, accelerating development. We don't do this only for financial purpose, but rather industrial one, and we want to leverage as much as possible the assets, human assets, technology, and financial assets of the Vivendi group to accelerate our development. We're not only here to work as per usual, but to do even more. Strengthen our accounts, because the financial strength of Vivendi and its cash position will be crucial, because it will help us in negotiating with the banks first, and of course, when you have enough weight and strength, when you negotiate, you are perceived differently, of course.
Improving performance is also crucial through a size effect, of course. For example, when you buy paper at Vivendi, between us two, Michel Sibony will intervene, of course, and even more efficiency because we'll have even more weight for paper sellers, which will benefit everybody. Even more importantly, because we haven't mentioned it yet, because we were not allowed to do it, these are the industrial synergies. Maxime Saada will say a few words about this in the Q&A session, but this is also crucial to us. It could be for Prisma and also, and most importantly, Canal+, but I don't want to mention that yet. We have many projects in the pipeline since November 21st, 2023, and this will be an asset to us to attract authors, to have a different life for them, and for everything we'll get to develop with them.
Then the improving the cash transformation rate, this is crucial. It's really at the heart of the Vivendi strategy and Bolloré strategy, and I don't wanna be too tough on us, but this is an aspect that the Lagardère Group, throughout its history, they didn't... we didn't leave it on the side, but it was not a priority. The priority was market shares, was to have great visibility throughout the world, but we didn't focus as much on cash as Vivendi or Bolloré. So it's a slight change in the culture, in a way, which will do great to us, I must say. Earlier, I mentioned the impact of François Laroze. He will be crucial.
During the Q&A session, I'll come back to that because there are questions about Vivendi, but these are our expectations for Vivendi and what Vivendi expects for the next year, and it's a lot of work. But without the synergies, these are the figures for 2023, and once again, they're quite exceptional in an environment that is good for travel retail, but not so good, and actually more and more difficult, on publishing and radio. 14% increase in turnover and 19% of the operational result, which means greater margins compared to last year, and this is a record number, which never happened before in its current scope, but also before. Which means beyond publishing and travel retail. For each branch, there is a contribution, with publishing first, +2% in turnover when the market is not improving.
As you can see here, and we could come back to the previous years, we were between EUR 200 million and EUR 250 million euros operational results. The year was exceptional for us. Netflix was not the only one who benefited from this. We've really gone up, and we managed to stabilize at 300 million, way beyond the previous years, thanks to all our efforts and also to additional results who joined us, and unlike what the studies say, they partly stayed at least. The results are historical, and once again, congratulations to everybody. For travel retail, it's even more exceptional. Not only traffic is back, that's sure, but it's not yet back at the same level as 2019, but we're way beyond the 2019 figures. And this is due to the work to adapt since the COVID crisis.
You can see the losses here in the operational results, EUR 245 here. So not only do we benefit from this growth, but we even do better than the market. This is what we call a positive bounce back. This is due to great managers, so Dan, you can congratulate your team. So these are the consolidated figures, for once we went beyond the EUR 461 from 2009 and 2010. I cannot tell you more, because as you know, the budget is not public, but I fear for our haters that this is going to continue to improve. I can also tell you, and I think Sophie will mention that in a moment, this year will be even better. It's better during the Q1. This morning, we published our statement with a total turnover.
We did not communicate on the operational result, but the increase is +9%, mainly due to travel retail, so what? But also to publishing. And let me tell you that this figure is quite exceptional for publishing, and it's not usual for the Q1, because these months, especially January, are often the most difficult ones on a market that is decreasing strongly in France. Stéphanie, you can correct me, but I think it's -5% or -7%, depending on the segment, and we've maintained our position maybe because we were lucky, but also talented, to have the right new publications, the costs, and to adapt to a market that is no longer in great growth. For travel retail, it's still a great moment, so congratulations. And for news, it's flat.
You know that radio is struggling, so the market is very difficult on the decrease for everybody except for Europe 1. You saw the ratings. We were criticized a lot about our great blue lady, so we can be very happy with this increase. We'll stay humble, you'll see. I hope it will continue, but at least we can say that there seems to be a change in what our competitors think about Europe 1. So congratulations, Constance. For publishing now, there's a great debate, Stéphanie, between being number two or three. We might be number three. The first ones are the Germans on the Penguin Random House, Penguin Random House. They've been number one for a while.
This number two could be Pearson, but they mainly work on education in the U.S., which is a very specific market that we're not present in, and there's a debate between those three spots, so I decided to be number two, which is our actually actual position. As you know, in France, we're really strong. We get criticized for this. We're also strong in the U.K., in Spain, and in the U.S., maybe not enough, but we will definitely remedy this if we have great opportunities, because that's what's really crucial. And the first publisher of magazines, I always say because we started from scratch, we didn't make any acquisitions, and for leaflets, it's a very profitable market. Not always easy, but you see our position. Some might regret it, but the French language is not the main language for publishing. It's often English.
And when you add this together, you see the result. We are mainly a literature group. We try to develop elsewhere. It doesn't mean that we don't believe in literature, but also because there are other aspects making Hachette grow elsewhere than in general literature. What we call others, for example, board games. Isabelle, I see that you're here. Thank you. Illustrated publishing, which is a great success of Isabelle Magnac with leaflets, and of course, Asterix, which made us so happy last year. Unfortunately, it's only once every two years. We, we publish 15,000 books per year, so this really shows how much we love books, but sometimes too much love can be a downer, and that's why we need to think about the number of books we need to publish every year.
Sometimes we could think that actually we've got too many books that are being published, and maybe we should be concentrating or focusing on a series on a limited range. This is something that we're going to be looking at, and maybe we'll be reducing the reference, which obviously has nothing to do with the fact that Hachette is going to continue with the exponential growth that we're seeing. It's a beautiful group that we're seeing within Hachette. Obviously, you know this part better than I do. We've got everything. We've got L'Iris Blanc , which is a comic book. We also have Captive. Captive, which was a phenomenon with more than 1 million copies being sold worldwide. We will... This actually came from TikTok, so you can see actually TikTok made BookTok.
BookTok, which, we've got a young Algerian who was able to win over lots of young women. I don't know, she has absolutely hit it out of the park, which means we need to be very open-minded with the types of authors. We probably would have never had these types of authors before, but our teams are being revolutionary, and as I mentioned earlier, because I think it's important for us to give ourselves a pat on the back when we can. We also can talk about Le Temps des Combats, which is the bestseller from my friend, Nicolas Sarkozy. It's very difficult for political personalities to actually have their books flying off the shelf. We've also got other business lines as well that are important to, as I mentioned, board games earlier, and board games fall under, Isabelle.
So careful what we're going to continue to invest in this. We do have synergies with what we're doing, obviously, otherwise we wouldn't do them. But we were actually relatively surprised with just how well board games did, and COVID helped a lot with this. And we were also very pleasantly surprised to see that we really took the right options. So slowly but surely, and I actually would not be surprised to see us kicking things up a notch in over the course of upcoming years. Podcasts and audiobooks are also increasing. Actually, they're doing a lot better than e-books and Kindles or e-readers. We have invested in this, and obviously, it goes without saying it's important for everyone to talk about this, not only for our employees but for our authors. We are conscious of CSR.
Hachette is the first publishing house in the world to look at their carbon footprint, and actually, it's very flattering, but I imagine we'll have a presentation on this later on. Just a summary of what I've just said to you. You've got the slides that are available on our website. We are growing. We're growing in a flat market, and we are going to make the most of our international development, and we are going to be looking at literature. Why? Because Maxime will tell me, but will tell you guys is better than I can. We need, in this digital ecosystem, stories. Stories, because stories are important. This is what we can see, what we can hear, and what we learn about. For travel retail, travel retail, we are in third position. Third position, we have had exceptional work in travel retail.
These are figures that are relatively significant. As you can see on the screen, we're 17% in France, so it's not, it's not the most important region or business line, but it is a foundation for us, and it's at the heart of what we're doing. We are French. We are a French group, and we will stay a French group. I would also like to thank the Bolloré Group because we have the ambition and the idea to stay French because this is essential to us, which doesn't mean that we won't be able to develop elsewhere in the world, as you can see on the screen. This pie chart, this pie chart is very unique. We have had a lot of debate with Dag in the past. This has always, always been difficult for us to recognize, and I am humble in this.
It's always been a strength for us from a strategic point of view, for Dag Rasmussen and his teams who wanted to be balanced across all of the big business lines. For travel retail, we are unique. We are maybe less so now, unfortunately, because our competitors, our opponents actually saw that it was a very virtuous equivalent. So we've got airports. Airports rather like to have their fingers in many pies, which allowed us to develop, but it also means that it's a bandwagon that our competitors can jump onto. We've got important operations. In 2023, we had lots of different calls to tender, and actually, there will be even more in 2024. We will be looking at disposals, but also new calls to tender, new airports who will also want to develop their offering.
And as you can see, you feel this when you travel, I imagine then, they're more like shopping centers than transport hubs, which is something that suits us. Obviously, I'm not going to go through them one by one, but know that we are on standby, and we will have a lot more in the future. Over the course of this year, we are going to be applying and responding to many call to tender. We're looking at growth. We're chugging along. Obviously, we know that it's important for us to think about money that we're injecting or CapEx that we need to invest. We are in an expansion phase, and we need to find that middle ground that is maybe easier said than done sometimes.
The fact that we need to develop ourselves, but also we don't want to create too much frustration within the travel retail team so that they're able to see that the shareholders are behind them, and they're going to help them to develop further. We want to be exemplary from a carbon point of view. Obviously, that goes without saying because we're talking about aviation, and as you know, sometimes, and this is wrong, there are misconceptions with regards to businesses, not our own, but businesses that are highly polluting. Therefore, we're trying to be as exemplary as we can for other activities. No, it's not nice to say this in this fashion because obviously, we love everyone as much as we do. But you can see we have these four different areas. We've got the news hub for magazines, which is ELLE.
ELLE is actually more than just a simple magazine because we've got licenses, licenses that are being created by Uncertain . This is actually highly profitable, this allowing us to finance new rest. We also have another part, this with the authorization of Vivendi, because we went through the board. We wanted Lagardère News to be part of a shared holding partnership. We wanted to look at so that we could be in line with Arcom, and this actually reassured Arcom, which allowed for this shared structure, which means which doesn't mean that we can't have other synergies with the Canal Group. I would also like to say that the first agreement that was made between Universal and Canal is from 2011. It was with ITV. It was a huge deal, a historic deal for us. This is a friendship.
It's not just a working relationship, but a friendship that has been in place for a number of years. Therefore, we want to continue with this, and it goes without saying.... four different entertainment, live entertainment venues. I know that during COVID, Jérôme was not having the best time, but actually the trajectory is the same for travel retail. Obviously, the figures aren't of the same magnitude or the same density, but actually, once again, they're chugging away very nicely. We've seen a bounce back that has been absolutely exceptional. For those of you who want to entertain yourselves, it's a little bit expensive, I understand that, so Lagardère Paris Racing. But we do have something that is still left from our sporting activities, which we have been negotiating with this town hall or the City of Paris, who do have a license for this type of activity.
I know that there are lots of people who like going, it is very, very profitable. We have a couple of ideas to develop and perhaps to make more international for the brand, and also for the know-how that La Renaissance has been able to implement. Once again, say bravo to you. Amongst all of these different operations, I'm not going to go through them one by one. I think that for 2023, the Arcom endeavor was the most important because we never know what could happen in these types of situations. We're renegotiating, this is something that can really turn out anyway, and we're very happy with the way that things have panned out. As I've seen here and there, we wanted to hide this partnership, that we could have had with...
We don't want to hide, rather, this partnership with Vivendi, which is maybe something that people were thinking, and you can see a number of other operations that we were able to undergo. So live entertainment was very quickly, as I mentioned earlier, I'm not going to come back to this. Bravo to Jérôme and bravo to all of Jérôme's teams as well. It's wonderful. It wasn't easy. I know that not all of the different live entertainment venues were able to bounce back, so it's not sitting at home, sitting on your laurels, that you're going to be able to do so. And I just want to conclude with these couple of points. I would just like to remind you, obviously, that we've had historical and exceptional results.
A reminder, because if I'm not the one saying this, no one else is going to say this, so I am saying it. I'm going to shout this loud and clear from the rooftops. We are going to continue with this, therefore, I'm going to cross my fingers, because normally we should be able to continue to grow not only our turnover, but also our recurring EBIT for 2024. What is going to be a determining factor and what's going to allow us to kick things up a notch with even better performance is not only the place that Vivendi has with us, but also the support. The support, the vision, the support to the different activities that Vivendi like with us, that they're supporting, that they like.
Also, from what I have understood, this came as no surprise to me. I think that we've been living together now for four or five months, and I can say that we have not been disappointed in the slightest. Obviously, we had a couple of teething issues. Our Vivendi friends, they look at industrial performance, and maybe we've got a little less leeway than before, but I recognize this, especially when it comes to the different cash aspects that need to be watertight in the next years. Therefore, we are extremely happy to be for this new marriage, and this will be my conclusion. We are looking to, once again, kick things up a notch for expansion.
When I speak about expansion for growth, for results, I don't forget about the 30 employees from the group, because we are a group that doesn't have any industrial goods, we don't have any patents. Our capital is human capital. It's you guys, it's all the men and women working for us, but mostly women in this group. And we obviously... I think that we are so lucky to have this workforce, and I hope that we'll be able to attract even more people. Let's move on to the more concrete aspect. Let's move on to the figures and the results, just to show you that everything that I just mentioned really is, holds water, and this is exceptional, exceptional for us as well. Sophie, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much, Arnaud.
My dear shareholders, dear members of the Board of Directors, ladies and gentlemen, I'm delighted to present to you the excellent results achieved by our group in 2023, driven by the historic performance of its main business segments, as specified by Arnaud Lagardère. I propose that we break down our business by division before looking back at the main financial highlights of the past year. The group sales figures were actually published this morning for the Q1 of 2024, and confirm our good momentum. In 2023, Lagardère Publishing posted sales growth of 2.2% on a reported basis and 1.9% on a like-for-like basis to a level of activity reaching EUR 2.8 billion.
This performance reflects the division's ability to draw on the diversity of its portfolios to secure bestsellers, as well as capturing new trends on social media. If we have a look at the geographic regions now, we observed an acceleration in France with a growth of 6.1%, and this thanks to a particular sustained pace of publication, including Illustré, mainly with Asterix, but also bestsellers, for example, Son odeur après la pluie from Cédric Sapin-Defour . In the United Kingdom now, in the United Kingdom, we've seen an increase in sales by 6.2% for best sellers and then we also achieved growth of 17.9%, thanks to strong momentum in the education segment, driven by educational reforms.
The United States and Canada accounted for 29% of sales, compared to 32% in 2022. This decline is mainly due to a tighter market and the absence of bestsellers in the fall, because we had a lot more in 2022. A quick reminder, in 2022, we had Colleen Hoover by James Patterson, and we also had the Dolly Parton that were very high performing. For profitability, profitability has been maintained. So Lagardère Publishing's profitability has been held up well from the last year, preparing EBIT before associated, remaining at a high level of EUR 301 million. We also have 0.7%, which is close to record. That was a significant improvement on these with regards to 2019, which was our pre-COVID level, where we're at 9.2% of margin.
Maintaining a high level of recurring EBIT has been made possible by the ongoing operational efforts of our team, and I would like to thank them today. Their actions have made it possible to offset inflationary pressure on production, transport, personnel costs, and partners and staff, and this is thanks to continued management. Moving now to Lagardère Travel Retail. This year, as Arnaud mentioned, this was a pivotal year for Lagardère Travel Retail. We had come back to a level that was basically the same as 2019, where it's 95% of global traffic. We've got the division sales reaching an all-time high of over EUR 5 billion, up 27.8% on a reported basis, 0.4% on a like-for-like basis. Lagardère Travel Retail also looks to benefit from an improvement of air traffic across all regions.
In the EMEA region, which is up 26.6% from performance, and also in Americas, we're up 60.3% and with an increase of 52.1%, which is an improvement in traffic. The growth in 2023 was also driven by other activities, for example, food service and acquisition, strategic acquisitions that were made, for example, in Marché International in Germany and Taste on the Fly in the United States. Segment now account for 27% of the business activity, compared with 23% in 2022. For profitability and circling more of the recurring EBIT, we've got EUR 245 million operating margin of 4.9%.
This exceptional performance was made possible mainly by increased sales in all regions, thanks to operational efficiencies generated by the LEAP performance plan, which brought in an additional EUR 95 million in recurring EBIT in 2023, and the remarkable commitment of our teams, whom I would like to thank once again. For the other activities, now we've got sales for the year that came up to 2.4, 3.2% on a like-for-like basis. A number of factors stand out here. On the one hand, a decline in the news division due to lower audience levels and press print run, as well as advertising revenue for 2023. This was offset by the Elle International licensing and also great activity that we've seen in Lagardère Sport and Entertainment, which had huge growth in 2023.
Looking at the group's overall figures now, the most important element is the net result, which is EUR 4 million. We have a slight fall compared with last year, and this is mainly due to financial items that are below... including a higher financing cost due to higher interest rates, higher level of tax due to dynamic activity in Europe. Let's move now on to the cash flow. We've got good dynamic. We've got operating cash flow changes and working capital, which increased from EUR 524 million to EUR 611 million. We also had an increase in CapEx, which underlines our commitment to the group's future development. We have a last element linked to our M&A strategy.
We've got EUR 223 million worth of different acquisitions in Marchand International in Germany, Taste on the Fly in the United States for Travel Retail. Globally, we, Lagardère Group, is much stronger from the post-COVID period. Let's now move on to the debt. We have seen an increase of 2.2 million, 2.1 billion at the end of December 2022, compared to 1.7 billion at the end of 2022. This is mainly just going to be M&A activity that I've already mentioned. However, the gearing ratio remains below 3x at the end of December. Let's move on to the dividend. We have noted this year that we invested both in travel retail for our shop network, as well as in acquisitions in the United States in order for your group's future results.
We are now seeking to reduce our debt to give in interest rates. Against this backdrop, we are proposing a payout of EUR 0.65 per share for 2022, which you will be asked to approve in a moment. Now, on to the business review for the Q1 of 2020. All your group sales are up against a backdrop of normalization in air traffic. Overall, turnover has risen rather, by 8.9% on a like-for-like basis. Like other publishing, managed to maintain a high level of activity, up 0.8% on a historically high base rate of comparison, and this thanks to the success of bestsellers in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
If we move on to travel retail for 2024, so for this Q1, we have a dynamic growth across the majority of all geographical regions, and we've got, turnover up 13.6% compared to the Q1 of 2023. Growth was particularly strong in the EMEA region, and relatively favorable in North America. For other activities, we have growth that was virtually stable at 0.1%, thanks to the growth of Lagardère Live Entertainment entertainment venue businesses. To sum up, you can be proud of your group's performance in 2023 and the favorable content in the Q1 of 2024. Together with your efforts in order to ensure the growth and development of your group's various business lines. I would like to thank you for your attention. Thank you very much, my dear Sophie. Thank you so much.
I know that you're not in the hot seat as much as the operating departments, but shall we continue? Yes. So before giving the floor to Céline Soubiran, who is the director of CSR, who will be joining us on stage to present our corporate strategy, we would like to invite you to watch a short film by way of introduction, so you can see what we've been doing in 2020.
... Clearly. Frankly, I would go back without even thinking. But since we have 600 Hachettes, I shouldn't be selfish and give my spot to others. But if a small Hachette is available, yeah, with pleasure.
Bonjour, à toutes et à tous. Nous avons pu, effectivement-
Hello, everyone. We did get an outlook of all the actions taken in 2023 in terms of CSR, and I'm going to give you a snapshot of the strategic pillars of the actions that we will continue to take in 2024. The first pillar is to limit the environmental footprint of products and services. Of course, as soon as we talk about the environment, we think about the climate. Lagardère has committed to decarbonize its activities in a very ambitious way. The objective is to reduce our CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030, which requires to implement optimization measures to reduce our energy consumption in our facilities and in transportation, and we will continue to steer this trajectory, doing what we call our Scope 3 carbon reporting, which will include all the energy consumption for our products and services.
This is a regulatory obligation, but as per what Arnaud said, it's also a criteria to give calls for tenders in the airports and stations. Another pillar of the environmental policy is the circular economy. Hachette Publishing has developed a great program since 2021. The objective is to reduce plastic use by 25%, both to produce books and also in the logistics chain. Lagardère Travel Retail is also doing a similar action with a very important program to reduce food waste in its restaurant chain, and we are going to extend this program to reduce waste to travel essential and duty-free segments. So this is for circular economy we continue to develop. And the second pillar of our strategy, and I'm sure those who regularly come to the General Assembly know it, we want to place humans at the heart of our strategy.
I'm not going to provide all the details of the actions. We've seen quite a good snapshot in the video, but I would like to highlight a result we're particularly proud of, and Arnaud Lagardère highlighted it earlier, that is the place of women within the company. We have met our criteria to feminize the top X. We have reached 46%, and we want to reach 47% next year, and we want to thank our HR managers who developed this working space, which is inclusive. A third pillar of the strategy is also to share the social and cultural diversity of our activities in the media, publishing, live events. We want to ensure access to knowledge and entertainment to all, for example, people who are disabled.
This is why all the new books published by Lagardère are accessible, and since we are at the Folies Bergère, we have made great efforts and innovated. Lagardère Entertainment has created a guide for those who have autistic disorders so that they can enjoy fully the live events, and we've also shared knowledge and entertainment by fighting those who are struggling with literacy. We want to promote reading, and we started this in 2022 with about 20 programs impacting more than dozens of thousands of beneficiaries. We have the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation, which has been working for more than 20 years, and this, it's very well known. And finally, the Lagardère News and Radio actions.
I wanted to highlight that we have a new indicator this year to track production of radio shows that are so-called green shows, which aim at raising awareness around the climate and the environmental transition. We're tracking this with a new indicator with the radios, which adds up to what we were already tracking on the written media. So this is it for the social and cultural diversity in our activities, and I will conclude with the fourth pillar, which might be the foundation of what I just presented. That is governance, responsible and ethical governance. Our directors have strengthened their work to prepare for the new European standards for extra financial reporting. We continue to consider the fight against corruption as a priority, and this year, we've launched a new training aimed at all of our employees, so about 80% of the employees by 2026.
We continue to secure our value chain by rolling out a social and environmental assessment of our so-called at-risk suppliers. We're already assessing half of them, and we will reach 80% in 2026. As a conclusion, I want to say that our managers are determined, the teams are very much mobilized in the field. All positions are involved, CSR, HR, operations, finance, procurement, in order to continue to develop the growth of our activities, a sustainable and inclusive growth. Thank you for your attention.
Congratulations. Yes, I'm going to give the floor to Virginie Banet, Chair of the Appointment, Compensation, and CSR Committee, so she can present the work of her committee.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. Your assembly must give its opinion on three resolutions about governance. I'll start with the first one, ratifying the co-optation of Yannick Bolloré as a director.
The board, on December the eighth, after René Ricol's leaving, decided to appoint or co-opt Yannick Bolloré. Beyond the fact that this is reducing the average age of the board, which is good, thanks to his knowledge in the media, he has a very international experience and a great knowledge of CSR-related topics and innovation, which is AI, which will have a great role in our business. So we're asking you to ratify this co-option. As for resolutions 13 and 14, that is the appointment of auditors to certify information around sustainability. As part of the new extra-financial reporting, which you've all heard, that is CSRD, aiming at strengthening the quality and comparability of sustainability reporting, we are going to publish our first report in 2025, and we need auditors or independent third-party organizations to certify.
In March, the board decided, after the recommendation of the Audit Committee and Appointment Committee, to appoint the auditors of the company who's currently in charge of certifying accounts. We are asking you to vote on the appointment of Deloitte for 3 years and Mazars for 2 years. I'm now going to briefly talk about the governance of your company, which you already know because it hasn't changed much. We have three committees: two standing committees, Appointment, CSR, and Audit, and an ad hoc committee as part of the public purchase offer. The board still has 11 directors, including several employees, and as Arnaud Lagardère said, they have a crucial role as part of our discussions. The feminization rate is at 55%, and this is higher than the AFEP-MEDEF code requirement. As for the work of the board, we met 11 times.
The attendance rate is 99%, which is exceptionally high. We, of course, worked on strategic and financial issues with accounts, financial report, and universal registration. In terms of governance, two things: co-option of Yannick Bolloré and appointment of Arnaud de Puyfontaine as part of the Compensation, Appointment, and CSR Committee. We also worked on compensations. This was an important topic during our meetings since we are proposing a new compensation policy for 2024 in order to be in line with best practices and demands of agencies. Increase of the fixed remuneration of the general director, which had not changed since 2009.
In addition, we have this proposing a change of the criteria for the variable compensation in order to avoid compensation effects between those different criteria, with a maximum of 150% of the fixed remuneration, which was 200 before. The board has also decided to create a new performance free shares system, and it's important because the board believes it's good that the employees can be shareholders if they want to. In 2023... A decision was made to extend the free shares program to all of the employees of the group with a plan called We Share Lagardère, which allow to get five years of free shares if you'd been working for more than two years in the group and working at least 50% of the time. In terms of sustainable development, we worked on the `CSRD directive.
We'll come back to that later. And of course, the board worked on the project to get the Vivendi and Lagardère Group together, and to implement the autonomization project for the radio branch. Regarding the compensation appointment and CSR committee, which I chair, there are six members. You can see them on screen. We met six times. The attendance rate was 100%. Different interventions from Pauline Noël, but also the sustainable development director, and employee representatives of the branches and CSR representatives of the branches. For the first time, we had plenary, audit, and CSR meetings due to the implementation of the new CSRD standards.
Regarding the work of the committee, in terms of governance, I won't come back to the members, but we can highlight the rate of independence and attendance, which is higher than the average of the SBF 120, which is a good thing. This was highlighted earlier, but it's very important. It's a specificity of the Lagardère Group. Today, we have 55% women of... in the board, 43% in the executive committee, and 45% at the highest management level, which is high, and we hope it will be even higher next year. The committee also did a self-assessment of the board. Last year, we reached out to a third party. This year, we did it independently. Out of this assessment, it came out that the organization is positive and quite a diverse range of skills.
Two areas of improvement might be spending more time on analyzing the competition with benchmark studies and on the digital and AI issues. Another aspect was to question the ad hoc committee created as part of the Vivendi operation. Regarding the compensation, I won't come back to that, but just as a reminder, all the details are in chapter 3 of the universal registration document, which is available to you. In terms of sustainable development, which we're working hard on, given the new European standards, we followed up on the compliance work with the CSRD directive in order to fully understand the standards, to track the analysis of double materiality, for those who know. And in order to define the priorities, these standards will be very time-consuming for the teams in order to get a report by 2025.
Given how technical those CSR issues are, even further now with the new standard, we wondered whether it would be necessary to train the directors on this topic. We are discussing this within the board to see what kind of training the members would like to get. This is the end of my presentation. I hope I wasn't too long, and I'm going to give the floor to Véronique Morali.
Thank you, Virginie. Hello, good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I'm delighted to present to you some slightly less glamour work than what you heard so far from the audit and ad hoc committee. First of all, the members, as you can see, it hasn't changed. Virginie Banet, Valérie Bernis, Fatima Fikri, and myself. I won't give the average age of the committee despite what Virginie said. But the committee met six times.
The attendance rate is 96%, which is very positive. The meeting, meetings of the committee take place in the presence of the general secretary of the group, the auditors, of course, financial management, accounting management, internal audit, risk control, compliance, IT system, management, control. All these committees take place in a fully independent manner because we have a 75% independence rate within the members of the committee. As Virginie said, we now have common meetings with the appointment and CSR committee because the audit committee is now responsible for this as per the European taxonomy and the implementation of the CSRD standard. This is a new joint approach that we now have in the presence of Céline Soubiran, of course, who's guiding this work.
The activity of the Audit Committee 2023, it's quite traditional, as you can see on screen, reviewing consolidated and social accounts, quarterly accounts, the financial reports, yearly reports, financial information drafting process, cash forecast, and what we call also cash pooling. Compensation of auditors, which is always too high, but we strongly negotiate it. Summary of analysis, financial engagement reports, and everything around reviewing the budget, yearly budget, and plans over several years. As for internal control and auditing and safety, we constantly review risk management, internal control, self-assessment campaigns that Virginie Banet just mentioned, and of course, internal auditing activities, audit plans with the management of any areas of improvement. A very important topic, safety of IT systems in the group, including cybersecurity, which is very important here and everywhere else.
The plenary with the appointment committee, I mentioned it, and of course, once a year we review the tax policy, legal litigations, assistant needs in 2022, which also continued in 2023. We have also specifically reviewed the infrastructure transformation plan for Hachette Publishing France, which led to several decisions mentioned by Arnaud Lagardère. This is it for the Audit Committee. Now, the Ad Hoc Committee, we've mentioned it. It's a more temporary committee. It was implemented in December 2021 when the operation with Vivendi started. President Sarkozy, Pascal Jouen, staff representative, Pierre Leroy, did not get a voting right, but he was present during all the committees, Valérie Bernis and myself.
The committee met twice during the year 2023 in order to review the project to take over control of Vivendi and the whole process with the European Committee, which led to the final closing on November 21, 2023. We also guided the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on the transformation of Lagardère Radio into a sponsorship company as part of the discussions with the Arcom, in order to autonomize the radio branch and put it under the exclusive control of Arnaud Lagardère. I'm done with the presentation of the activity of those two committees. Yes, you can, you can give them a round of applause.
Thank you. I'm now going to give the floor to Mr. Simon Beillevaire, representing the auditors.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I'm happy to present, in the name of the auditors, Deloitte and Mazars, the reports that we have created for the year 2023. They are available to you, and I can summarize them for you. There are three reports: one on the yearly accounts, one on the consolidated accounts, and one on the regulated conventions. I will start with the yearly accounts for the first resolution. They are prepared based on French accounting principles, and we thought that the participation or shareholding system were at the heart of the audit. As a conclusion, we certify the yearly accounts of the company without reservation or comment. Regarding the consolidated accounts, based on the IFRS standard, there are two key areas in the audit.
First of all, the assessment of acquisition gaps, given how important it is to management and uncertainties to the estimates and assumptions. The second one is about the assessment of return in recognizing the turnover within the Lagardère publishing branch, given how high those returns are assessed. As a conclusion, we have established a certification report without reservations on the consolidated accounts of the group. Finally, regarding the fourth resolution of your general assembly, we have made a report on regulated conventions. A new one was created and was approved by your board, that is the protocol for Lagardère Radio SA. The point is to autonomize the radio branch of the group. The agreements approved during the previous year and that continued in 2023 are also included in the report. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you for your attention. Merci, Simon. Simon.
Before we move on to the Q&A session with the room, I want to tell you that we have received two written questions from two shareholders, Eliane Kalman and Francis Lescaret. The answers were provided in writing and available on the website in the General Assembly section. Yes, and out of the two written questions, there's a lot, of course, but there's also underlying topics which are crucial to us. That is the industrial synergies that we can expect with the Vivendi assets, and I'll give the floor to Maxime about this. He's much better positioned to answer those questions. Over to you, Maxime.
Thank you, Arnaud. You mentioned a few earlier with Lagardère News, of course, and everything we do with the Europe 1 teams or the JDD and the Match teams.
We had Pascal Praud joining Europe 1, and the success of Europe 1, which had the greatest rating increase. So thanks to Constance Benqué, Donat Vidal Revel , and not just Pascal Praud, because 95% of the slots have increased in their rating, so that's great. Most of what we will get to do together will be around Hachette. There has been a production increase that tripled, especially in cinema and series, with the arrival of great American platforms such as Netflix or Disney. And just to give you an idea of the weight of literature in there, 42% of the greatest successes of American box office were adaptations of books, and it's 44% in France. So half of the cinema successes are adaptations of books. The Consent, Le Consentement, is an Hachette book.
It's one of the greatest successes in cinema in France, soon on Canal+. And a French series, which was a great success, was also a book. D'Argent et de Sang, it's also a book adaptation. The greatest success is Tokyo Vice, also an adaptation. The greatest success of StudioCanal is Paddington, which of course is an adaptation. The biggest movies of StudioCanal selected for the Cannes Festival are adaptations of books, La Plus Précieuse des Marchandises et L'Amour Ouf by Gilles Lellouche. And these are not just books, because earlier you talked about board games, and we're about to launch on Canal+ a new series, which is a game adapted from Les Loups-Garous, a very well-known board game, and that will be one of the greatest launches in September. So this is not the kind of thing you can do overnight.
We've been actively working under your management and under the control of Stéphanie Ferran and the Hachette management to see what we could develop in the future. As franchise, we've identified one, about the Guide du Routard, with an adaptation with Christian Clavier, and the StudioCanal are filming it now. I'm sure it will be a great success. And we have a huge series of developments on IP with... As you said earlier, the idea is that authors are talents. At Canal+, we've been working with talents from the cinema industry, directors, authors, actors, actresses, for a very long time, and we want to see what we can offer to those talents and how we can optimize the potential of Vivendi and its activities to make great proposals to those authors and talents who are unique.
This will help us have the capacity to develop TV production with Hachette, but also to attract new authors thanks to this unique proposal. This is the Lagardère assembly. I can only talk about Lagardère, but I'm sure you'll do that in your assembly at Vivendi on Monday. But you can really see the potential, Bolloré, rather. It's a huge potential, and as we often say with Maxime to our teams, this is in the social interest of both companies. I can actually see that this is a very rare development strategy outside of our main industry, which is literature. Of course, there are board games, but this is extremely powerful, and we're lucky enough that our mother company is a global leader, so it's only positive for us.
And once again, I said it earlier, I'm spending a lot of time with Maxime and the Hachette publishing teams because this is one of the keys of the transformation of the Lagardère Group. It's another step. We're not just slightly improving, we're improving a lot. So thank you, Maxime. I know you spend a lot of time on this, and it's crucial to us. Q&A session, and then we'll conclude. You look like you are bursting at the seams to take the floor, so can we have a microphone for the gentleman here who cannot contain himself? We're in a theater, so... The microphone is on its way to you.
... Yes, thank you very much. Good. My name is Jean-François Verdier. I think that we've got an issue here. I am part of the FCPE Lagardère Actionnariat . We have about 530,000 shares within Lagardère. Over the course, I've actually been to quite a few GMs now, and I would like to congratulate the board, and I would like to congratulate all of the different teams and the employees for the quality of the results 2023, but also for the revenue that you unveiled this morning. I have three questions for you, Mr. Lagardère, and one question for Vivendi. My first question is with regards to Travel Retail, I would like you to talk to us about the trajectory for activity for 2024. How are you anticipating this?
Maybe you spoke about this this morning, but you can talk about 2024, what 2024 will have in store for retail. Maybe you can talk about the Olympic Games as well. Is this a factor that you think will have an impact on our activity? That was my first question. The second is the following: for Paris Match, I think that there is a disposal that is underway. The price has not yet been unveiled, but maybe you could qualify or quantify the disposal price that you're looking for. That's my second question. My third question is a question that is about the level of the share price. We saw that the results for 2022 were the best in 15 years.
So even if, yes, you reminded us that we have been increasing over the course of the past few years, what about the value, the value of the share price? And Mr. Lagardère, how do you feel about the fact that we're looking at a share price of 20 EUR per share? And for the Vivendi Group, if you would like to maybe give the floor back to Mr. Bolloré and Mr. Saada, I have a question, which is the following: So since the 21st of November, what have you found in... So when you opened the bonnet, if we may, for the Lagardère car, when you had a look at the engine, what were you surprised about? What did you find, and what are the different areas of improvement that you have been able to identify?
We're not just talking about cash conversion, because cash conversion has been mentioned, but maybe you guys can tell us about where you think that improvement, improvement can be made. Thank you very much to Mr. Lagardère for all of the different answers that you're going to give to my questions. Okay, so yes, I can see. Thank you very much for your congratulations, and obviously, all of the different teams that are watching, I'm sure, will be delighted. We know that it's very well deserved from Lagardère Travel Retail for 2024. If I can—if anyone wants to add anything, obviously, the trajectory is always ascending. It's still ascending, ascending because we've got positive air traffic, despite the fact that we've had a couple of issues in Asia.
But generally speaking, it's quite positive because we've had efforts that are made from a cost perspective, also with Mission Simone. Why? Because we've understood that the COVID crisis was a way for us to maybe look at a clean slate, look at how we can change some of our models so that there's less variability, even though our strength is also the fact that we're quite decentralized, because this allows each country to react quicker and fast and stronger. We are very optimistic about where Travel Retail is going. I don't see any negative points here, apart from maybe from Asia, as I quickly mentioned before, but I think let's not count our chickens before they've hatched. The Olympic Games, so I actually asked this question to you guys, that it's going to be wonderful, and but actually, no, it's not going to be that wonderful.
I think it's going to be... Obviously, it's not nice to say this because obviously, we, we've got the Olympic Games on our doorstep, but I think it will be more of an issue than anything else. I'm not sure that people are going to come and consume. The Olympic Games, no, it's not really for you, something that's exceptional. In fact, it's probably something that's more of a hindrance, I would say, even negative for us. But we're delighted to be able to follow the Olympic Games on her home soil. And, for Paris Match, the offer that was put forward by the LVMH is underway, and the board will be looking at this. The price will only be unveiled if there is we sign on the dotted line. Constance is not really...
How, how can I say this? Just the fact that we're having to look at this, I don't know, it's not, it's not something that we like doing, but we're not here to do things that we like doing. We also want to ensure that we're doing best by our shareholders. Therefore, we owe it to you guys to examine or look at the offer, and we will share the result with you. I don't exactly know when, if this will be before summer, after summer, but professionally speaking, we're doing everything we should be doing on both sides, and we'll see where this will lead and what the consequences will be. I am going to go to your last question, so your penultimate question in regards to the share price. We're never satisfied with the price, especially at, at the moment. We are working on this.
This is a cause of concern for our teams. It's obviously a cause for concern for Vivendi, because this is, well, how they're being valued as well. And we think that we, actually, we've been capped, I think, at EUR 20, but we think that the share price should be higher. If I did have a silver bullet, I would implement this, but I don't think that we deserve this. I think we deserve more. So don't think that we're not thinking about this. We're going to do everything we can, and we hope that in the future this will increase. So your last question, I'll give the floor very quickly to Maxime and to Yannick as well, who will be talking quickly about this with regards to what they discovered under the bonnet, if I want to use the same analogy that you gave, Maxime.
So when you opened that bonnet, what did you find underneath? So I was very impressed when I opened the bonnet by how you guys managed to bounce back after COVID. The figures, the figures speak for themselves. It is a group with exceptional strength, with remarkable performance, especially after COVID, did a lot better than their competitors, and is a real global group. Yeah, maybe we can have a- Thank you very much, Arnaud. Thank you for your questions, and thank you for everything you said. Yes, it was a wonderful discovery for us. We'd been waiting to be able to talk about this for a couple of months because the first, when we started buying shares in March of 2020, I think it was the 30th of March, 2020.
I remember the date because actually it was the date at which we received the regulations for the then first 10% of the sales, Universal Music Group, and obviously is a period that we all remember. March 2020, everything was at a standstill. This entertainment venue, which, as others, were all closed. Therefore, we needed to be very courageous and brave to say, "Okay, we are going to support Arnaud. We are going to support Arnaud's group in a battle or struggle that seemed epic at the time." And when I look at the situation three and a half years down the road, in November 2021, we got the authorization from Brussels, and we were able to sign once again on that dotted line, and it was a wonderful surprise. I'm not going to come back to the figures.
The figures have been commented on. They are excellent. We were talking about publishing, that it's, has hit over that EUR 300 million bar. COVID was exceptional. Well, it's not just Netflix or Canal+ that were able to make the most of lockdown. Travel retail, which for us was com, discovery 'cause we haven't worked in this before. We've been able to brush shoulders with Lagardère. Saying that they've bounced back after COVID would be an understatement, given their superior results. This opens many doors, in fact, all of the different discussions which aren't simple between the shareholders and the directors of this branch, is what is the level of cash are we going to plug in so that we can continue with consolidating this sector? A sector, as you can see, that is looking to completely reinvent itself, but with wonderful perspective.
We're also very surprised and pleasantly surprised to see different assets in the media division, incredible assets, or medias that we know, media outlets that we know in France. Here we are in an emblematic entertainment venue. We've also got Lagardère Paris Racing. I've been one of the lucky few. I've been a member for the longest time, actually, far longer than I care to share. We've got great prospects for these branches, but what really took me aback when I opened the bonnet was the quality of the team. Arnaud Lagardère has spoken about human capital with Arnaud de Puyfontaine. We have exactly the same takeaway. It's the men and women of the Lagardère Group that are making the group what it is, and not just in the cultural or sales sector, but actually the teams are highly qualitative.
Vivendi is not trying to take ownership of the results for 2022, 2023, because actually we weren't allowed to get involved at all. Therefore, it's all on you, it's all on your team. And just for Arnaud, oh, Arnaud and I have had known each other for 10 years, but not as well as we know each other now. It was quite frustrating because we weren't allowed to talk to each other.
But I've got to know not only the human being, who is very kind, very caring, very smart, with exceptional qualities, especially when it comes to public speaking, but he is also the leader of a business that is highly performing, which is the Lagardère Group, in every sense of the term, and his contribution to the group is major when it comes to the success over the course of the past few years, but also the upcoming success for the Lagardère Group and all of its shareholders. Thank you for listening. So after Yannick, I think maybe we can all go home. Let's, let's finish on a high. Thank you very much, Yannick, and I obviously can only echo what you said about me. For yourself, I just want to answer the question for...
Yes, when we open the, maybe Paris Match will not be under our bonnet for much longer, but the fact that we're looking at this offer is because we've got a very important French actor, which is the same as the Bolloré family. They're going to fly... They fly the French flag high. It will be a family-run business, and this is essential for us. Therefore, we are having a look at this with particular attention. We, obviously, the figures will also be the ones that maybe help us make that decision. We could have had lots of different acquirers, so we're happy that we have a French acquirer, or that we would have a French acquirer if we were to go- Yes. Yes, but there was this gentleman just before you, and then I will give you the floor.
... English readers.
So I will try to honor them by. Okay, English question, but I guess the theme is very really easy to understand. So dangling dividends may hurt some shareholders in many ways, but the outcome seems wise. Not all we can claim should be given cash. That would be a hazardous bringing wider surmise. Each euro looks useful for a strong rise. Cleans up the mess of former heavy bills. Let us, however, ask for secured sales. I think both goals can merge in one appraise. Please, tell us quick about your plans and prayers, so we can follow with serenity ever and again what provide your skills. Yet, we hope you will do nothing silly. Our ambitions are probably the same. Unwrap your mind. Let's entertain, but let's understand your game.
You're looking for an editor, is that right?
You're looking for an editor, is that right? Was this a poet that you wrote—a poem that you wrote? There were a couple of editors in the room. Thank you very much for your question. I'm going to be very clear in my response. I don't know if that was a question. Was it a poem? What was it? But maybe we'll take it as that. It was a work of literary arts.
Okay, nothing to add. It wasn't. No, it wasn't the language that was an issue, it was. Okay, I understand. You're upset about the dividends. Exactly. Yes. Okay, you're upset about the dividends. There's a very simple reason for this. You know that the group is in debt, and it is not unreasonable debt.
But once again, I spoke about this earlier. We mentioned the fact that we need to be very rigorous and the fact that Vivendi is ruling with an iron hand, ironclad fist. Therefore, we thought it would be more reasonable to take the approach that we have for dividends, even though, I, I'm a victim, just as you are. We thought it was a lot more reasonable to cut the dividends in half so that we could maybe increase this in the future and as our results increase, so the cash transformation increases as well. So yes, I understand you're upset. I'm sharing your upset, but share my hope as well, and I hope that we'll get back to normal dividend distribution. But it's really-
Yeah. Mm, madam, did you have a question here?
I can't hear, unfortunately. We had a question number one earlier.
We had a question number three as well. I just wanted to talk about Paris Match. Why do you not want to keep it? The same thing, because when you have an offer, we present it to the board, and I can't not look at this. Once again, the name, the reputation of the buyer also needs to come into play. Therefore, if you're asking me: would you prefer to sell or keep? Obviously, I prefer to keep it.
However, there comes a time that when we have offers and when I know that this asset, it's a historical asset of the group, but if we're leaving it in good hands, hands that we can trust, both for us and for the magazine, and if the price makes sense, then we have to cede in a certain sense, okay? I can't say any more, especially because we're still analyzing the offer, but we will get to this in due course. There was another question, number one over there.
Hi, I am an individual shareholder. Thank you very much for organizing the event. I just had a... We have Wi-Fi that says AG Lagardère, but we can't access this because it would have been a good idea for us to be able to fact check the... Okay. Obviously, I had a couple of other points as well.
Maybe for radio, we know that we are a shared partnership. Well, the Lagardère group has been a fortress in the past, so I don't understand why we haven't created a foundation. Maybe you can give us a little bit more information because I don't understand. It's like a golden parachute here. From what I've understood, you could, so this shareholder, I don't understand why you chose this, and then I want to talk about the Lagardère management resolution four. Maybe you can talk us through this type of functioning. And the last question is more of a comment with regards to Paris Match. The way that Paris Match has been presented, I imagine that it's a done deal, or, Gala was meant to be sold because, or had to be sold because of what the European Commission said.
Then I don't understand, maybe a couple of months later, with some saying selling Paris Match. So why didn't we keep Gala if the-- and sell Paris Match?
I can't speak for them, but if Vivendi could have disposed, not disposed of Gala, then they would have done, but they were-- the hand was forced by Paris Match, by the European Commission, because Paris Match and Gala were put into the same segment. But I cannot speak on behalf of Vivendi, Yannick can also do it, but I don't think it was fair that that's the way that they did this. So I think that it's something that is, yes, a shame. I agree with you, and once again, I'm not going to repeat what I've already said about Paris Match, because like you, I regret this.
Maybe I would regret the disposal as well, but there are things that we can't come back on. Okay, so when you talk about... I'm not saying that for, I'm here up until 2027 for the share, the shareholder structure, but this belongs to the shareholders. Nothing has changed with it from an economic standpoint. I'm not getting any additional money. The idea was just to allow for the whole of the group, the day where this was accepted, to not put Europe 1 in danger, so to not have this authorization, where we would go back to an auction. I think that the strategy has paid off, and Arcom said this as well, and now the group is under the control of Vivendi, and but we are, and they are the shareholders, the owners rather, of the Europe 1 assets.
Don't worry, I'm not going to go AWOL with the assets. Okay, I say this with a smile, obviously, you know this isn't true.
And for the second question for Pauline, what was your point? That the management shouldn't, shouldn't still be in place, is that right?
Yep, we have a certain number of the executive board. We modified or simplified rather, the structure last year. Why? Because the effects are neutral. This country looks at... A company rather looks at all of the elements of remuneration, and there isn't any margin taken, so from a cost point of view, it's exactly the same thing. These costs, it's as if the costs were part of the group, and actually this gives more transparency. Why?
Because in addition to all of the information that is given as a reference point, the isolated amount of this invoicing is communicated every single year. We've also got due diligence that is conducted by the audit committee and our auditors, and is presented to you during the AGM. Maybe if we could just talk about the radio, the operation has been structured, and we've got absolute financial neutrality. This is why we've got different... We could have looked at foundations, yes, but it wasn't an idea that was retained because we don't want to move away from the group study. The group is going to continue to sustain, from a capital point of view, the radio hub, as well as all of the different financial flows.
It's the legal control that has been changed now to Arnaud Lagardère, who is in charge of the authorization of the radio, with the different structures and synergies that have been implemented by Gala. Just all of this has been implemented with Arcom, but also with the ad hoc committee and independent experts. We have a report that is publicly available on this website, and this operation is being voted upon today. It's being submitted for your approval, therefore, I think that all of the different rules have been followed. There was also a third question that I didn't note down.
Yes, the Wi-Fi.
Oh, yes, the Wi-Fi. It wasn't a question, it was a comment. Okay, Wi-Fi. Number 2, and then number 4. Number 2 and number 4.
No?
Number four. Mr. Chair, in a context looking at macroeconomic inflation, our group needs to be resilient. We've got 30,000 employees, we've got individual active shareholders, and we're looking at plurality with economy. If I think about publishing now, how can we maintain diversity? Because our millions of readers are congratulating us for. So for different profitability reasons, we have had exponential growth in the number of publications. Without taking into consideration the different dimensions linked to the market, this would be a risky wager. I also think about how we could make this sustainable. The fact that we want to standardize production in order to look at to get rid of useless cost without looking at the impact will only disfavor our ecosystem, taking away creativity, motivation, and lose trust of the different actors that are contributing to our current success.
In addition, the fact that we've got a double jurisdiction means that we need to understand exactly what's going on, and we also want to look at the fact that we are having a return of the emblematic anomaly. It would be a shame that the different authors diverge. Therefore, when we look at all of these different challenges, are you able to reassure the different members of our group as well as Hachette Livre that all will be okay? Yes, I can, obviously.
Yes, I can, and you are absolutely right to talk about Fayard, emblematic Fayard, which will be essential to us, and we are going to, I think over the course of the upcoming weeks, we will be looking at a number of different announcements that will be made for the replacement of Isabelle, as you know, who has left us, but left amicably. You're also right to mention diversity, core diversity, which for me means that nobody should be left behind. And this is exactly what we're going to do. We're going to ensure that nobody, absolutely nobody, is left behind. So of course, I understand what you're saying here, and believe me, I often talk about this with Stéphanie and also Michel Sibony. We are very, very concentrated on this. Once again, we have a lot of work to be done.
We need to know where we're putting the clicker, because a book is not a product, but it is a work. We are working in businesses that are very particular, that you know more than I do, and Maxime knows as well, and where we have the different requirements that we have. This is why we're here. We also need to be very careful with regards to where we're putting that clicker, which doesn't mean, on the flip side, that we're not able to look at different progress that has been made in order to ensure that we can be high performing and more profitable, so that we're not having an impact, a negative impact on the quality of our work. Having a negative impact on our authors or our publishers either, and that I am very well aware of.
You can be reassured, be reassured, rest assured that everyone is in the same basket, and that everyone will be able to find their way.
Thank you very much, and I can see that you are a connoisseur of the business.
We'll take a couple more questions before wrapping things up. Number 3, yes? I want to continue by talking about the interest in buying merchant. And I think... Would-- Could we also talk about travel retail? Because duty-free in airports have a lot of LVMH products and Christian Dior. Is this fake news, or are we looking to reboost the branch? So travel retail. And my question: we know that the Moulin Rouge lost its wings last year.
Do you think that if the Moulin Rouge was to be put up for sale, that we would perhaps be able to purchase this, purchase this, so that we could have a wonderful synergy between the Folies Bergère and the Moulin Rouge? So for travel retail, I think obviously it's not up to me to answer this question. I'm not sure that we-- they would be looking for travel retail. I think that they already have a big shareholding, and I don't think that it's a strategic axis for LVMH, but obviously it's not up to me to make this decision for them. For the Moulin Rouge, yes. Yes, we could have a mass effect. I don't like saying that because it's almost as if I'm bastardizing what we do, but the size could help us. I don't know whether the first reflex today would be to...
Okay, let's make the most of the fact that they're in a tricky situation, but I can't really say anything more for the moment. If they were looking for an acquirer, then yes, we would have a look at what they had to offer, like everyone else. I just want to correct something that was said earlier, because I actually said the wrong name. It's because I think about Sibony all the time, but actually, to answer the question that was mentioned, it was not Michel Sibony who were working with Hachette Livre, but actually the director of sales, which is Mr. Bruno Bosc, who is independent. So sorry, I got that wrong, says Arnaud Riou. It is him and only him, who will be reporting to Stéphanie Ferran, and who will be looking at what we can and cannot do.
Sorry, it was, it was my mistake, and I apologize for that. Are there any other questions? I think that this will be the last question, and if there aren't any other questions, we're going to move on to the voting. Okay, no vote, no further questions? No further questions. Okay. Okay. He put his hand up, but it was a mistake. So good job, well done at the auction here. Thank you very much for your questions. Let's move on to voting. Pauline, you have the floor. Thank you very much. I'm going to give you the definitive numbers for the quorum. 2,130 shareholders who are voting either in person.
We've got a total of 130,821,580 -- or 130 million, rather, 821,580, full quorum of 89.2%, and 161,514,484 votes. Before going to the votes, I would just like to share one last film to explain the tablets that are available to you.
Pour voter les résolutions de l'assemblée générale, une tablette vous a été remise. Elle est strictement personnelle et sert uniquement lors de cette assemblée. À l'annonce du vote d'une résolution, la fenêtre de vote s'affiche automatiquement sur votre tablette, même si celle-ci est en veille. Pour voter, rien de plus simple. Appuyez sur le bouton correspondant à votre choix: pour, abstention ou contre. Appuyez sur OK pour valider votre choix avant la clôture du vote. Une fois votre vote validé, vous ne pouvez plus le modifier. Merci de bien vouloir restituer votre tablette en sortie de salle.
Très bien. Donc, nous allons ouvrir le vote avec la première-
We are going to start the vote with resolution number one.
Donc, résolution numéro 1.
Resolution number 1: approval of yearly accounts of the year ending on December 31, 2023. The vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
La résolution est approuvée à-
The resolution is approved at 99.99%.
Résolution numéro 2.
Resolution number 2: approval of the consolidated account of the year ending on December 31, 2023. The vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99 virgule-
Approved at 99.99%.
Troisième résolution-
Resolution number three: allocation of the social results and distribution of a dividend. The vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
The vote is closed.
Approbation à 99-
Approved, 99.99%.
Quatrième résolution, approbation d'une-
Resolution number 4: approval of regulated agreement for Article L. 225-38 of the Commercial Code. Our vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99-
Approved at 99.97%.
Je précise que, Monsieur Arnaud Lagardère-
Let me clarify that Mr. Arnaud Lagardère did not participate directly or indirectly to this vote, since he's directly involved.
Cinquième résolution-
Resolution number 5: ratification of co-optation of Mr. Yannick Bolloré as a director. Vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99-
Approved, 99.98%. Congratulations!
... Dans la vie d'entreprise, dans la vie politique. Sixième résolution: approbation-
Resolution number 6: approval of the information provided in L. 22-10-9 of the Commercial Code for compensation. Vote is opened.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99-
Approved, 99.97%.
Résolution-
Resolution number eight: approval of compensation and benefits provided during the year 2023, Mr. Pierre Leroy, Vice General Director. Vote is open.
Arnaud Lagardère-
Sorry, that was Arnaud Lagardère for resolution number 7. Vote is opened.
... Le vote est clos.
Is closed. Approved at 99.96%. Resolution number 8, approval of compensation and benefits provided during the year 2023. Mr. Pierre Leroy, Vice General Director. Vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99.60-
Approved at 99.60%. Resolution number 9, approval of the compensation policy 2024 for the CEO. Vote is opened.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99.58%.
Approved at 99.58%. Resolution number 10, approval of the compensation policy 2024 for the managing director. Vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99.95%.
Approved at 99.95%.
Onzième résolution, approbation de la...
Resolution number 11, approval of the compensation policy for 2024 of the member of the Board of Directors. Vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Closed.
Approuvé à 99.97%.
Approved at 99.97%.
Douzième résolution, autorisation à donner au conseil d'administration pour une-
Authorization to the board for 18 months to operate on the shares of the company. Vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99.99%.
Approved at 99.99%. Resolution number 13, appointment of Deloitte and Associates as auditors to certify the information in terms of sustainability. Vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Vote is closed.
Approuvé à 99.99%.
Approved at 99.99%.
Quatorzième résolution, nomination-
Resolution number 14, appointment of Mazars as auditors to certify sustainability information. Vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Closed.
Approuvé à 99.99%.
Approved at 99.99%.
Quinzième résolution-
Final resolution number 15, proxy. Vote is open.
Le vote est clos.
Closed.
Approuvé à 99.4-
Approved at 99.99%.
...
I just wanted to dedicate this assembly to the most loyal and tenacious member of the company, Pierre Leroy. We miss him very dearly. See you soon or next year. Thank you, everybody.