Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. I'm very pleased to welcome you here to this shareholders' meeting, and I would like to thank you for following this meeting on the internet under very special conditions, again, this year. In accordance with the emergency measures adopted by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19, the meeting is being held today behind closed doors without the physical presence of shareholders and other persons usually authorized to attend. At my side, Christopher Guérin, Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Christophe Juillard, Chief Financial Officer, and Nino Cusimano, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Later on, we'll have for presentations, Anne Lebel, Independent Lead Director, Vincent Dessale, Chief Operating Officer, David Dragone, Director of Human Resources, CSR, and Communication. I would like to welcome the members of the board of directors attending today's broadcast, as well as the statutory auditors whose statements were recorded previously.
As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic continues and still affects millions of people. Despite this unprecedented global health and economic crisis, 2020 marked a turning point for Nexans. With the main concern, the protection of our teams and the continuity of our business at the service of our customers, our group has demonstrated its ability to accelerate its transformation and exceed its financial objectives. On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to thank and congratulate Christopher Guérin, Chief Executive Officer, and his executive committee for this leadership in this very special context. I would like to pay tribute to all employees who are fully committed to serving our customers. At this annual general meeting, we will comment on the performance of 2020, on how Nexans has come through this year, and how it intends to continue its successful trajectory.
Chris will detail our new ambition, Electrify the Future, and will outline the strategic positioning that establishes your group as a major player in renewable energies and energy transitions. At all levels, we are fully mobilized to open up a new chapter in your group's history and execute an ambitious program. Furthermore, this shareholders' meeting will be the opportunity to renew the terms of office of Marc Grynberg, Andrónico Luksic Craig , and Francisco Pérez Mackenna, three directors whose knowledge of the group, the industrial, managerial, and financial experience, are particularly valuable to the work of the board in pursuing Nexans' transformation. We submit for your vote the candidacy of Selma Alami at Nexans for nearly 20 years, Deputy Managing Director for Northwest Africa, to represent employee shareholders on the board.
Finally, in order to implement a more transparent dividend policy and to involve you more closely in our results, we propose the payout of a dividend of EUR 0.70 per share. Before starting the meeting, I would like to express my sincere thanks to a member of the Board of Directors whose term of office is coming to an end today, Marie-Cécile de Tassart. She's been a member of the Board of Directors for five years, representing our employee shareholders. She has given us the benefit of her experience in the field and her perfect knowledge of the Nexans Group. I would like to thank or to announce that the France Group Works Council of Nexans has reconducted the term of office of Angéline Afanoukoé as the Director representing employees for a term of office of four years.
I declare open the shareholders' meeting of Nexans for the ordinary and extraordinary sessions. I remind you that exceptionally, it is not possible to vote live during this meeting. Your votes were all recorded. They've been recorded until yesterday at 3:00. We will announce the results of the resolutions at the end of the meeting, and the details will be available online at the end of this broadcast. All documents relating to this meeting, including the notice of meeting, and the universal registration document, can be downloaded from our website. It is my responsibility as Chairman of the Board of Directors to constitute the officers of the meeting. The Board of Directors has appointed as scrutineers the two shareholders holding the largest number of votes, invesments representing by Maître Guy, Maître Borgala, and Bpifrance
Participations representing by Emmanuel Blot. Both participate in the meeting by video conference. Nino Cusimano, Secretary General and General Counsel of the group, will act as secretary. The bureau is therefore validly constituted. I remind you that this meeting is convened on first call, the legal required quorum having been largely reached over 83%. Consequently, the officers note that a combined shareholders' meeting may validly deliberate on the items on the agenda, which are the responsibility of the ordinary shareholders' meeting for resolutions 1 to 17 and 30 and A, and of the extraordinary shareholders' meeting for resolutions 18 to 29. This meeting will be conducted as follows. First, we will proceed with the usual formalities. Then a video entitled "Turning Adversity into Opportunity" will review the key moments of the year 2020.
Christopher Guérin will continue with a commentary on the results of the past year, and then Jean-Christophe Juillard will continue the presentation with the financial results of 2020 and the revenues for the first quarter, 2021. Chris will take again the floor for a presentation of the new strategic orientation of the group. Vincent Dessale, Chief Operating Officer of Building and Territories Europe and North America, will explain in particular our activities and ambitions in the electrification value chain. David Dragone, Executive Vice President of Human Resources, CSR, and Communication, will then present our corporate culture, the Nexans Living History of Nexans, and how employees embody the new values the group has adopted.
Finally, we will offer you an update on governance, on the candidates for the board of directors, and on compensation with a presentation by Anne Lebel, the Independent Lead Director, Chairperson of the Appointment and Corporate Governance Committee and the Compensation Committee. Anne's presentation will include short videos introducing the two candidate directors representing the shareholders as well as the new employee representative.
After that, we will hear the presentation of the statutory auditors, which was recorded a few days ago. Finally, Nino Cusimano will inform you of the results of the votes on the resolutions. The company has not received any requests for the inclusion of resolutions or items on the agenda. We will answer written questions during the meeting and the questions you may ask directly. I call upon Nino Cusimano to call to order the documents placed on the desk of this meeting.
Thank you, Chairman. All the documents required for this shareholders' meeting have been made available to the shareholders on the company's website and at the registered office. In particular, you will find the report of the board of directors on pages 21 to 179 and 294, and following of the universal registration document 2020. As usual, we will not read them out. Thank you.
I will give the floor to Christopher Guérin.
Thank you, Jean. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders of Nexans, it's a great pleasure and the feeling of an accomplished duty. We welcome you during the shareholders' meeting. Let me explain to you through a very short video how Nexans went through this year and this health crisis successfully. This health crisis turned out to be as well an economic crisis, and it is unprecedented. [Foreign language] As you've seen, this year will have allowed us to transform the crisis into several opportunities. We are in a favorable position to take the challenge of tomorrow and to make Nexans a global leader. We made strong choices. Our two priorities would be, of course, to protect the health of each of our employees, but also to make sure that most of our production tool would remain active while securing the health of our employees.
We succeeded and , therefore, it was possible to recover very soon at the end of the first wave. Then we took the opportunity to carry out management analysis and so we're going to detail that v ery quickly. We were convinced of the fact that complexity was a real obstacle from an industrial, economic, financial point of view. The free cash flow was a major item and we had to respond. Therefore, we carried out, in 2020, complete restructuring of all our activities, portfolio, customers, and products, and the way we manage cash on a daily basis. Then we were proven to be right, because never in the history of Nexans Group found itself one year later with such a high level of free cash flow and a low level of debt.
This is, of course, reassuring in front of a possible new health crisis, and it's possible to contemplate an external growth. On this slide, let's go back to our financial performance of 2020, EBITDA of EUR 347 million, in line with the guidance. ROCE above expectations, 10.2%, thanks to this in-depth work, and a free cash flow beyond expectations, EUR 157 million before disposal, and EUR 310 million with the disposal of the cable entity in the U.S. At the same time, in the last two years, we have strengthened our ESG commitments, and we are very proud. Nexans was acknowledged as very emblematic by the CDP. Nexans, therefore, is on the prestigious A list against the climate fight. We were awarded for the actions aiming at reducing the CO2 emissions and mitigating the climate risk and developing low carbon emission. Let's move on to the next slide.
Let's see the performance of various businesses. Building and Territories and the Energy Distribution. The revenues were strongly impacted by the various lockdown measures during the first half year. Energy Networks, compared to Building, were a bit more resistant. Altogether, for Building and Territories, we recorded a drop by 8% in revenues, and backlog increasing by 6%. For the High Voltage, Subsea and Land, and Projects, in spite of the health crisis, was okay. With the solid execution of projects, you see that revenues remain stable and a good backlog growth by over 17% versus last year. Next slide, a few words on Industry and Telecom. For Industry, well, without any surprise, the automotive industry was strongly impacted. Our sales dropped by over 60% in April, but a very good recovery during the second half year.
Two other sub-sectors like renewable energies, the business in 2020 was good throughout the year. Altogether, for industry, we recorded a drop in 13% for the revenues, but the backlog is rather stable. Telecom, t elecom and data, t he deployment of optic fiber was strongly impacted in 2020. Two reasons, t he stoppage of the deployment of optic fiber in countries because of strict actions, and then the arrival of the Chinese competitors, especially on the French market. The subsea telecom cable, however, was very good, r ecord backlog in 2020, and it will be beneficial in 2021. Altogether, we record revenues a drop by 15%. The backlog is on the increase. Altogether, transformation, a s I said, the Nexans team carried out a remarkable work in cost management, in productivity management in this complex context.
What is very important is that huge work has been done on the working capital requirements, and Jean-Christophe will detail that later on. I would like to mention that this work carried out in 2020 is not just due to the context, but it's a structural in-depth work, and it will resist over time. I will finish with this slide. An important point for this energy transition, i n 2019, we decided to upgrade our American site of Charleston in South Carolina to convert it into a dedicated site, dedicated mainly to the connection between the wind farms and a very good choice. It was possible to be awarded major contracts and to be number one on this sector in the U.S. I invite you to go and see our website, our second investment, and to look at our new cable-laying vessel called Aurora, being almost completed now.
This vessel started the first trials at sea three days ago. It is unique in its design, and it will be dedicated 100% of its time to the connection of the energy transition from one country to another. I would like to give the floor to Jean-Christophe, who is going to detail the financial statements of 2020 and our financial performance of the first quarter of 2021.
Thank you, Chris. As Chris just explained to you, despite the fact that we had a worldwide unprecedented health and economic crisis, this 2020 was a turning point for Nexans. We proved that we could accelerate the transformation of our group and even go beyond the financial objectives in terms of ROCE and cash generation. That means that our indebtedness was at its very lowest in the 10 years. What's more, we had even improved our prospect and our ranking with Standard & Poor's. Now, as you can see, what our organic growth, it's -8%. It's a slight improvement compared to the first quarter of 2020, which was down by 10%. We carried on with our selective clients and we concentrated more on the value growth than on volume.
Before the COVID-19 contract of EUR 446 million, we find that the EBITDA is at EUR 446 million, and that is thanks to the shutting down of op site, operational sites, particularly in the first half year. There was a clear improvement in the second half year. EBITDA is at EUR 347 million on the margin of 6.1% for 2020. We have reached our aim as estimated first half of 2020 and so now we are in a bracket between EUR 320 million and EUR 360 million. Our EBITDA margin has only gone down by minus 30 basis points compared to 2019 despite COVID-19. This is essentially thanks to our selective volume effort that we simplified our portfolio and accelerated cost reduction. The operational margin has been maintained and is at 3.4%.
As you see on this graph, we are very much in line with the aims that we had fixed during our last meeting, and this is based on three main axes. Firstly, it is cost reduction. End of 2020, we were already at 79% of our commitment of EUR 210 million of reduction over three years. The COVID-19 crisis enabled us to accelerate our effort and m ost of these EUR 90 million that we were able to earn in 2020 were recurrent. Secondly, was the SHIFT program. We aimed at EUR 100 million over three years of the plan, and so far, we are at EUR 36 million already in 2020. The program was deployed in all the lines of work in our group and reinforced during the crisis with a major concentration on working capital that I'll talk about later.
Finally, selective growth on strategic markets, particularly insofar as subsea high voltage was concerned, led to an extra EUR 11 million of EBITDA for this year. The context as you see in the growth is negative of EUR 31 million, and that's essentially related to a drop in volume in the second half of last year following the pandemic, particularly in buildings and territories. Operational net income that you see is at EUR 246 million, and this is inclusive of reorganizational costs, EUR 107 million, where EUR 44 million which remain of the costs following the restructuring New Nexans plan that we'd announced in 2019. The total cost was EUR 250 million, of which EUR 200 million were taken in 2019. The second half of these reorganizational costs are more recurrent, EUR 63 million.
For example, we reorganized our production tool in Brazil and shut down our factory in Chester in the U.S.A. in June 2020. Another important point in our operational income is the divesture income that we had by the sale of our land cable factory, Berk-Tek, in the U.S.A. for EUR 140 million. The other elements that have an impact on our operational income is the increase in copper prices in the last few months of 2020, plus improvement, therefore EUR 42 million in the stocks, and depreciation of assets by EUR 21 million in Brazil. Now, the tax expenditure is higher, particularly with the sale of Berk-Tek of EUR 40 million, roughly, in the U.S.A. In general, the net income of the group has improved, and it is up to EUR 80 million as opposed to EUR 118 million loss in 2019 despite COVID-19.
As I said in the introduction, this financial performance is more highlighted in 2020 and shows our ability to generate free cash flow, which is really at record levels before sale of assets and despite a drop of 17% of EBITDA. In fact, we have gone way beyond our aims of cash flow of EUR 157 million without counting M&As, and as we had said, of EUR 50 million and EUR 100 million. This is really thanks to the exceptional improvement of EUR 366 million of our working capital needs. I'll touch upon this point a little later in the presentation, but most of this improvement is structural, and long-lasting. Now, the cash impact of the reorganization costs is high, and that is due to the New Nexans plan. It's up to EUR 170 million.
We have maintained a high level of investment at EUR 225 million in 2020, essentially because of strategic CapEx of EUR 130 million, thanks to the conversion of our factory in Charleston, and the construction of a new vessel, Nexans Aurora, and which will carry out its first trials in sea next week and be operational end of May. Now to add to the M&A, and particularly the divestment of Berk-Tek, the cash flow is at EUR 310 million in 2020, and that shows that our gearing ratio is very low. It's a 0.7x EBITDA and the lowest possible debt in 10 years for the group. Let's take a look now at our working capital needs. We are often questioned about our low level of working capital needs and the ups and downs that we have.
In Nexans, between the first and the second half of the year, the crisis we went through last year for Nexans was a real catalyzer, and it obliged the group to change itself, and structurally reduce its working capital needs. With a rigorous application of the SHIFT methodology, we've gone from a working capital ratio on sales of 12% in June 2019 to 7% in June 2020, and 5% at the end of 2020. This graph is a perfect illustration of this dropping trend in our working capital needs ratio right through 2020, which is amongst the lowest and the best in the industry at the end of the year. As you see in the blue circle, despite the fact that turnover has started going up as of the third quarter, the ratio is still improving and which just goes to show the efficiency of the method.
We fully believe that we must maintain a lower level up from 7% in the future thanks to a very strict management of our customers and of our products, while continuing to reduce the complexity that we have within the group. As far as the return on capital employed is, or the ROCE, not counting to the negative impact of COVID, it is limited to just 15% in 2020, which is very much in line with our estimate of our equity story. In fact, we've even overstepped it, which was 15.2%. The work carried out in 2020 has enabled us to reduce to EUR 336 million, the working capital required, despite the drop in operational margins due to COVID, and the return on employed capital remains above 10% in 2020, which was much better than what we had announced in the beginning of the year.
In conclusion, because I'm finishing with the presentation of our financial results in 2020, I'd like to remind you that this year, 2020, we were able to maintain our high levels, a very sound balance, and that's all thanks to the work we did. The interest rate on EBITDA has slightly gone up due to a drop in EBITDA related to pandemic and interest rates. On the other hand, our gearing ratio is the lowest possible of 14% in our history, just like our net debt ratio is at 0.7x of EBITDA, e xcellent ratios for us. Our excellent level of cash, end of 2020, EUR 1.7 billion, enabled us to pay back in February, in advance, our state guaranteed loan of EUR 280 million in June 2020, as well as the loan, the bond loan that we have made of EUR 250 million in May of this year.
I may also point out to you that Standard & Poor's, the rating agency, has improved our prospects from negative to positive and has reconfirmed our double B ranking. This is certainly a sign of recognition of our success and of the transformation of the group and all the work that we have done in generating cash flow as well as a return of confidence in the future of Nexans. Now, very briefly, let me share some of the key figures for Nexans S.A. On the 31st of December 2020, Nexans S.A. is then the mother company, the holding company, and works as a holding. Let me start off firstly with the operating income, which is essentially made up of the management costs of the group, or i n other words, it is EUR -34 million in 2020 and EUR -36 million in 2019 comparatively.
The non-operational income is EUR 48 million and this is made up of dividends received by the subsidiaries as well as the cost of financing. This drop is essentially thanks to the drop in dividends that were paid out to the subsidiaries because of the pandemic. These exceptional results have slightly gone up, and this is essentially because of the sale of proprietary act, and the fact that there has been EUR 1.3 million of free shares that were paid out. Now, the financial debt has gone up to EUR 270 million because of the state-backed loan that was of the same amount that we reduced. Let me get back to the financial information of our first quarter. In the first quarter, the turnover was of EUR 1,537 million at standard rates. This was a 1.3% increase in organic growth and 5.8% compared to the last quarter of 2020.
This just goes to show our ability to take advantage of the key growth areas despite the constraints related to pandemics. Secondly, that we have continued with our selective portfolio of customers. Thirdly, to share the first consequence of inflation in raw material impacts on prices. Besides, Nexans has also shown that our order book is now shooting up in all sections because of solid commercial dynamics. The bidding area, particularly in subsea high voltage, has remained extremely powerful and is a source of much acceleration right through this year, we hope. Let's start with building and territories, now i n this particular sector, we are, as you can see, at EUR 615 million at standard metal rates in the first quarter of 2021. Given that Chester factory is shut, organic growth is -2% compared to the same period in 2020.
If you correct this shutdown, then it is +3.2%, and n ow the growth in turnover is 2.8% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, and t his is thanks to a coming back of order, particularly in most of our geographies and most of our areas. Plus, this constitution of customers because of the change in prices. Now let's talk about projects and high voltage. Here we are at EUR 147 million, first quarter of 2020, so that's a drop of 24.7% compared to the earlier year. Now, this division is suffering because of this high comparison, and the first quarter 2020 showed an increase of 56% compared to 2019, which clearly showed that there were two contracts out for repair and defusing, which were favorable to the projects that had been carried out.
Despite a very slow start in 2021, we expect a major organic growth in 2021, particularly due to the backlog of our order book, which is extremely high, and also our new Charleston factory and the coming of our new vessel, Aurora. Let's have a look at telecommunications and data, w e are up to EUR 74 million in the first quarter of 2021. Organic growth is down by 4.2% compared to 2020, same period, but there is a 2.2% inconsequential improvement thanks to improvement in cables and land systems, which were really impacted by the low demand in optical fibers and accessories. In conclusion, the turnover of Industry and Solution is at EUR 344 million at standard metal rates in the first quarter of 2021.
Organic increase of 5.8% compared to the earlier year, and saw an improvement, a sequential improvement of 10.9%, and this is essentially because of a record performance in automobile harnesses. However, aerospace business is deeply impacted by the pandemic. Now the group is on the right path to finalize its transformation plan, meet all its objectives, both the financial and operational, and prepare its ambition for 2022, 2024, despite the crisis, and n ow Chris will introduce this to us.
Thank you, Jean-Christophe. It's on a sound and healthy basis that we have started our year 2021 to amplify the strategic plan communicated on the 17th of February, so l et's focus on our ambition. It is a structuring ambition. We defined it for the next 10 years, and with the management and with the board of directors, we designed it for about 18 months. To understand, I would like to share with you the basics of our analysis. All megatrends, a ll megatrends converge towards the same observation, t he electrification of the planet is the main energy challenge of the next decades. We are right at the beginning of an electric revolution, an unmatched one, like the electric revolution coming from the after war, during the 1950s, the global demand of electricity will increase by 20%.
80% of additional electricity generation capacities will be renewable energies to be in line with the COP21 Paris. The share of renewable energy in the energy generation worldwide could reach between 30% and 35%. In parallel, the electric grids which are dating are partially obsolete in Europe and North America, and require investments to renew the infrastructures. We should not forget that unfortunately, 900 million inhabitants worldwide still do not have access to electricity. You do understand, easily understand to which extent electrification will play a major role, and b ased on those observations, we have changed our [Foreign language] . Nexans decided to dedicate its efforts to electrification, the sustainable electrification 100%, and t he world needs to have a sustainable, decarbonated electricity managed and optimized through the digital technology for the benefit of populations while complying with the environment strictly.
This new electric revolution requires cables and systems of a new generation able to support massive flows, and we will supply them, so w e will be the pioneers of electrification, the future electrification. To be consistent with this new ambition, we launched an in-depth project to redefine our values, our mission, and also our signature, our [Foreign language] , to Electrify the Future. I will leave the floor to David Dragone so that he can give some more details. Let's go to slide 25. Okay, l et me detail what we call electrification, the ecosystem of electrification. This is just simply the electricity chain starting from generation of energy through the renewable energies, wind farms at sea or solar farms. They will be installed in the next nine years.
The transmissions through the sea or through land, through high voltage cables, distribution to towns, and the access to electricity within our buildings and infrastructures. In a nutshell, Nexans will support through its cables and systems the trajectory of electricity from the wind farm right up to the bulb above our head. There is no electricity without any cable. Okay, so w hy the Wind of Change? This is the title of our roadmap. It is time to refocus. We are at the beginning, as I said, of a new electric revolution, which will require many, many in vestments, be it from the production tool or from an innovation point of view. The historic model of the group is based on eight major sectors, 34 sub-sectors. It's a generalist model and it will not allow us to deploy sufficient resources to cover the developments of all those sectors correctly.
All those sectors, all of them are promising. This is why by 2024, we decided to simplify our business, our organization, to amplify our impact and, th erefore, refocus our activities and our deployment, our investments, to focus on four main sectors, energy generation, transmission of energy, distribution, right up to the use of this electricity through our cables and systems, so f rom eight macro sectors and 34 sub-sectors to four macro sectors and 12 sub-sectors. Slide 27, a s you see in the recent announcements throughout the world confirm this trend and this ambition. You see the demands of electricity will increase by about 20% by 2030. Large areas in the world are massively investing in decarbonated energy or the renewal of electricity grids.
$2,000 billion announced by Biden on the renewal of infrastructures, $300 million for solar energy, and so many, EUR 1,000 billion in Europe, and a five-year Chinese plan, just as ambitious as China is, but t ime has come to act. It is time to act because only electrification will allow us to reduce our carbon deficit for our children and the future generations. The world in the next few years, and as we experienced that this year, will continue facing many risks, health risks, climatic risks, whether they are related to the resilience of electric grids or, as Vincent will comment, the electrical safety of our buildings. By 2024, Nexans is converting all those resources and strengths to take up the challenge, face those risks, and contribute to better solutions, and therefore, a better world. Those new challenges and new risk also generate new customer needs.
One customer said to me, and rightly so, it was last year, "Chris, if you do not want Nexans to become the Kodak of the industry, time has come to move now, to change now." What does it mean? This customer implies a risk of not understanding the migration of our customers. The customers, by three or four years' time, will want to buy more than just cables. They would like to have systems or subsystems which are much more complex and exhaustive, ready to be connected to their grids. Let me give you one example. In our industry, what is happening is what happened in the telecom industry or in the automotive industry about over 10 years ago. The needs of customers become more sophisticated. The needs of customers are quite demanding, and it's up to us, suppliers, to adapt to meet their requirements.
In a nutshell, if I had to summarize with just one slide, I would use this slide. In the last 120 years, Nexans has always been part of the story on electricity. You saw that in our film last year, the discovery by Edison right up to this new world, more and more electrical world. Nexans has always been part and full, an integral part of this living story. The world changes very rapidly and opening up a new era, a new era, whereby Nexans has to play a key role in order to continue writing its story, and t hat's why Nexans will become, I do apologize for this English word, but a pure player, a pure player, a player, which cannot be bypassed in terms of electrification. I'm going to give the floor to Vincent. He's going to show you around all these activities linked to electricity. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and shareholders. It's, of course, much easier to talk about electrification and its different components because the generation, transmission, and distribution and the use of energy. Let me start off by talking about generation and production. Let me tell you what Nexans does. It does it on the basis of engineering. We prepare the design in collaboration with our customers and quite obviously, the production of systems, cables, accessories, their installation and their protection. Once a wind farm or an interconnection is being operated, we also propose what we call after-sales services, for instance, inspection, maintenance, and repairs. Production, generation, and transmission of energy, renewable energy is undoubtedly a very structuring element worldwide when it comes to energy transition. L et me give you a few figures. Wind energy in the next 10 years is going to be huge.
We are talking of more than 200 GW that will be installed in the world. Europe is going to be the main market, but Asia and the U.S.A. are also very close behind, which means that there's going to be an annual growth of 11.5%, and between now and 2030, it'll be EUR 8 billion. Now, Nexans is in an excellent position on this market. We are the only players who are industrially present in Europe with our plants in Halden in Norway, Asia, in Japan, and in the U.S.A. with the Charleston site that you just heard about in South Carolina in the U.S.A. Besides, I must insist that today we are the only providers of solutions for high voltage subsea ones, which are locally settled.
Other structuring elements in the market is the wind farms, offshore, which are far from the consumer site, and that's the reason why we'll have to create and develop what we call energy highways to transport all this renewable energy to places of consumption. Here, too, it's the undersea interconnections and the land connections will grow enormously, nearly 14% in the next 10 years, which is 72,000 km of cables just in the U.S.A. These energy highways will cut across from north to south, east to west, and will represent EUR 27 billion worth of investment, and o ur site in Charleston, once again, is ideally located to meet these needs. We have decided to increase its role by investing once again to meet the technical requirements of these corridors, which will be the high voltage direct current connections. Now, that's happening in Europe also.
Look at what's happening in the Mediterranean with major technical changes, and we'll go down to 3 km. Here, once again, Nexans is perfectly centered to meet this challenge. With the new vessel, Aurora, I'm sure we'll be able to meet this challenge. Once again, we have decided to more than double our capacity of our Norwegian site to meet these challenges. Nexans is and will be an ambitious player in this world to reach carbon neutrality. In the last few years, we have achieved several new innovations. Let me just give you a few examples. In 2018, it was the first link between Italy and Montenegro, undersea one. In 2019, Hywind, the first floating offshore wind farm, and this is all thanks to dynamic cabling.
Our teams are continuously working on this innovation and on innovation in the future by picking the right material, particularly for long distance cables, going down very deep in the sea, dynamic cables with higher voltage. The West Coast, U.S. farms, wind farms will be floating farms. Nexans is ready and will continue to be a leader when it comes to generation of electricity and its transmission. Now I suggest we now talk about distribution. What is distribution? Distribution is also a key element in this energy chain because it is between generation and use. It's like the spinal column, if you like, but I mentioned to you those energy corridors. In the next 10 years, we'll see an increase in the population, greater urbanization, and that'll lead to an exponential increase in the use for energy.
1.8 billion inhabitants more will have access to electricity in the coming years, or 17% of extra electricity needs worldwide, EUR 4.4 trillion of investment. All this will lead to two major developments. To simplify it all, I would say, let's say in the geographical areas of Europe and North America, and it'll be actually just replacement of existing aging grids to move towards what we call smart grids, and that would be a must to optimize and better control consumption. In developing areas, we will be moving towards modernization and extension of existing grids. Here's something I'd like to share with you. One of our solutions when it comes to distributions and t his is NeoGrid. That's what we have as a solution to simplify our role in electrification. We have a complete connectivity plan, including financial.
Of course, there's cable production, but in addition to that, there's installation and the commissioning. We have electrified 35 villages in Ivory Coast, and this is in the rural electrification program. There'll be another 15 that'll be done. Our expertise lies in all this and it is much more than just cable production. We are providing complete solutions which are innovative and we are participating actively in the economic development of the given countries. Let's just go on with my promenade, if I might say, on our energy highways. Briefly, what is this usage? The usage of electricity is everywhere, all around us. Every time there's a human activity, there's electricity, be it at home or in shopping malls, factories, hospitals, or schools, transportation systems, and data centers.
This is a very dynamic market with a growth of over 50% in the next 10 years, which would be EUR 26 billion of increase. Quite obviously, this is due to increase of population, urbanization, electrification in rural areas, just like distribution, and also, and this is really specific to the use of electricity, new rules and regulations. There's going to be the technological revolution of buildings. By that I mean tomorrow's buildings will be a sort of mini hub of distribution. They will produce energy, they'll store energy, and they'll include photovoltaic panels in the building itself, and they will also have docking stations to recharge electric vehicles. In other words, technically speaking, they're going to be much smarter, more sophisticated, and will require more power, more energy. Besides, they have to be very safe living spaces.
Did you know that 80% of fire in emerging areas are due to counterfeited cables? Whereas in Europe, there's a fire every two minutes due to electric failure. The use of electricity and its safety is a key component of our everyday life. For Nexans, which already has a major experience in the field of fire-resistant ignifuge cables with all our own patents, with our own fire testing laboratories, it's quite obviously that we will keep improving on these systems and subsystems concerning fire and security. For the future, innovation is really the moving force of our teams, and we have decided to amplify this capacity to innovate, and that's really part of our DNA, thanks to the organization that is dedicated to the acceleration of innovation.
Our operational teams today are counting on what we call design labs, which are distributed right through the world, and t he aim here is to reduce the time to market, and th at enables us particularly to propose innovation to our customers in all the countries where they are at the same time. It's a simultaneous rollout. This, of course, requires technological development of cables and systems, but it also implies improvement in transportation, fitting, installation of the cables with the end consumers. It also means we must have the right logistic chains and recycling, which is a key element now, plus digital solutions that we propose, not just to the final user, but also to our customers. Nexans is the final link in this chain in the use of electricity is, again, major when it comes to electrification because we offer complete solutions and applications which are customer-oriented.
So together, we have just covered all the highways of energy going from generation to usage, and I hope you notice that Nexans is present in each phase of electrification with systems, subsystems, and complete solutions for our customers. We are preparing tomorrow, we are preparing solutions for the future, and we are willing to take advantage of the major increase in this market and the upmarketizing of electricity.
Thank you, Vincent. Thank you so much. Might I just remind you, because I didn't really have time to tell you that we have signed up several partnerships to help us in this particular approach with Microsoft, Schneider Electric, also for recycling, Suez, Veritas also for safety management and risk. Now I must go on to the financial chapter. Christophe, you're back again. Over to you, Christophe.
Thank you. Let's move on to our financial commitments and this strategic ambition of Nexans between 2021 and 2024. During this period, we're going to transform the group into a pure player of electrification. As you see on this slide, we will not aim at increasing sales, t hey will remain about stable, EUR 6 billion or EUR 7 billion in 2024. However, the structure of our revenues is going to change in depth. Today, the electrification business in dark yellow on the graph accounts for about EUR 3 billion, and we're going to grow this activity in an organic way to reach about EUR 3.5 billion by 2024. Our telecommunication and industry businesses will be replaced by about EUR 2 billion or EUR 3 billion of new electrification activities by 2024.
During this period, we will reduce the revenues of the metallurgy industry from EUR 1 billion to about EUR 500 million. This activity is critical for Nexans' growth, but it is dilutive in terms of margin. Therefore, we'll give the priority to the needs of Nexans, and then we will reduce to a large extent the external sales in order to limit this dilutive effect. Okay. What about this turnover of assets? What does it imply? First, we are going to simplify the portfolio, concentrate our resources, and increase the creation of value. In terms of financial performance, we will make commitments on our existing electrification business, but also commitments at a group level. Let's start with our existing electrification business. We're going to improve the profitability while increasing the EBITDA margin, which is 8% to 10%, and move up to 11% to 13% by 2024.
Later in the presentation, I will show you how we will reach that. In terms of cash flow generation, we'll move on from a conversion cash flow rate, EBITDA cash flow, which is 30% in 2021, into a ratio above 40% in 2024. Return on capital employed will also increase to a significant extent, moving up from about 15% in 2021 to over 20% in 2024. At a group level, we are going to become a pure player of electrification, replacing telecom and data and industry by EUR 2 or EUR 3 billion purely linked to electrification. This transformation, which is inorganic, will create value for Nexans thanks to the fundamentals of electrification, thanks to the implementation of the SHIFT program, and the expected synergies.
For 2024, we make following commitments. The EBITDA margin at the group level will move from 6% to 8% to a range between 10% and 12% in 2024. At the same time, we will double the standardized cash conversion ratio above 40%. The working capital requirement will not exceed 6% of the current revenues. Investment CapEx will not exceed 2.5% of sales and our net debt ratio will never be 2.5x the EBITDA. All those measures to protect the robust balance sheets we have at the moment. What are our financial commitments by 2024? As I said, during this period, we are committed to improving the existing EBITDA of the electrification portfolio of EUR 150 million, an increase by EUR 150 million of EBITDA. To reach that, first, we'll keep on rationalizing our cost base and improve our industrial performance.
We expect an improvement by EUR 15 million through these actions in terms of EBITDA. Second possibility to have an increased EBITDA is what we call to amplify, thanks to additional volumes and growth in value, especially for building and territories activities, as well as the ramping up of our new plants of Charleston and the Aurora vessel for the subsea industry. Those initiatives amplified will generate EUR 50 million. Third point, SHIFT. The SHIFT program with an increased price, thanks to innovation, selectiveness of customers, and a reduction in complexity. SHIFT will deliver EUR 40 million during this period. Then, we will carry out strategic investments in our subsea industry with two lines of productions, additional lines in Halden, in Norway, in our plant, in order to meet the demand of the energy transition market, which is a growing demand.
Those two additional lines will generate EUR 45 million of EBITDA by 2024. Let's look at the financial trajectory of the Nexans Group between 2021 and 2024. How do we see the amplification of the value for the Group. As you see here on this graph, we're going to increase the margin of EBITDA by three or four points between 2021 and 2024. In order to do so, as I said just before, we are going to increase by EUR 150 million, th e EBITDA of our existing electrification business. Next to that, we are going to reduce sales in the metallurgy, as I explained, in order to generate an improved EBITDA by 50 basis points. The third aspect is the disposal of telecom and data and industry, replaced by acquisitions in the electrification. This turnover of assets will improve the margin by about 100 basis points.
It will depend on the timing and the type of assets and that's why we put a range between 100 basis points and 150 basis points of improvement. Thanks to a disciplined execution of our strategic ambition, we are convinced that Nexans will achieve the objective of EBITDA margin between 10% and 12% by 2024. Let's have a look at the way we're going to allocate the cash flow generated by those improvements during this period, 2021, 2024. Our new equity story will generate, before the M&A, between EUR 500 million and EUR 600 million cash flow over the three years of strategy. We will allocate this cash flow according to three main categories. The first one will regard the strategic investments, which will use about 40% to 45% of the cash flow.
When I say strategic investments, I mean the two additional lines of production CapEx for the subsea high-voltage business, as described previously. Number two, second allocation, we'll redistribute within EUR 150 million and EUR 170 million to the shareholders through the payout of a constant dividends, and we'll set up a distribution rate, a minimum one of 20% each year. Number three, we will keep on reducing the debt of the group to have a cash net position in 2024. As I said, without exceeding a net debt of 2.5, the EBITDA, Nexans will have about EUR 2 billion to have targeted acquisitions. On top of that, the cash flow coming from the disposal of assets, and i ncluding the disposals, the group may count on an investment capacity in between EUR 2.5 billion and EUR 3 billion to execute its strategy.
Therefore, we will have the means to achieve our ambition without resorting to a capital increase.
Thank you, Jean-Christophe. Okay, this is an ambitious plan, as you can see, but we are going to open up the HR chapter because why do we work? Why do we work every day? It becomes even more significant because of the health crisis. The corporate culture, the sense of belonging are valuable assets for our industry, we pay a lot of attention, and even more in these last few year, and w e are working hard at it with employees. I invite David Dragone to present the way culture lives on a daily basis within the group. David, the floor is yours.
Well, good afternoon. As we've been seeing from the beginning, we are now living in a more connected digital and mobile world, a world which is aware now of environmental stakes, and Nexans as a key actor in electrification, plays a major part in energy transition for tomorrow's world, and another world, also to provide greater meaning and link for all employees. We believe that to prepare for the future, we must also honor the past, and so know where we come from. We started in May in 2020 by making a film that you might have seen last year. It's called "Nexans Living History," which explains where Nexans comes from and what the role of Nexans is in electrification. This film was shown to nearly all the employees and people were just delighted with it.
This was extra proof, as if we needed it, of the pride they had in belonging to the Nexans Group to understand where we had come from and the work we were going to play in the future in the city and to contribute towards the electrification of the world. Along the same lines, we asked employees to choose an image representing Nexans today. We decided to have a photo competition, which we felt was an easy way of involving employees also, so that they share their feelings with us. The winning photo that you see over here is an employee based in Norway, and this photo was used in several communications kits, both for internal and external communication. Last summer, with the executive board, we took a second look at the foundations of our strategic and cultural transformation.
Firstly, we redefined the reason why we exist so that it would be a perfect illustration of our strategy, which is electrifying the future. This was also shared both within and outside of our Nexans during our first ESG event last November. We clarified our mission, that helped us to prepare our employees towards the new group strategy, which was announced on our Capital Markets Day in February. We base it on our culture, our history to show who we are, and our DNA to introduce our strategy. We know the reasons for our being here and the why of our mission. What is missing is how and t hat is the values.
If our decision was to define our very being and our mission with the executive committee, we believe that we must have as many of our employees as possible to define the new values of the group. We did that in two phases. Firstly, with the top management by asking them about their personal values and Nexans' values today, plus values of Nexans in the future. In the second phase, by asking all employees, by choosing through a cloud of words, which three words are the most representative of Nexans in the future. We are explorers, researchers, founders, and we contribute towards the creation of standards in the future for sustainable future electrification to meet the incredible stakes that we have to now face, which is why we believe that we are pioneers. Pioneers is therefore our first value.
Our strength lies in the fact that we concentrate on our results, and that's what made such a success of us in 2020 in the face of COVID. We are dedicated to our stakes, to the means that our company has, and the needs of our customers. We are doers and, therefore, we are dedicated, and t o get there, we must be united. That is the third value we have, united. We are united within our company. We must count on each other. It's everyone's commitment. We are done with all the silo organizations and pyramidical ones, both in our organizations and our minds. We're also united with the outside world, with our customers, our shareholders, who are with us because they trust us.
We are also united with local community where we are, where we are working with them, and that is thanks to our Foundation and local action. We are all united together to meet and reach new summits. These three values, pioneers, dedicated, united, are the largest common denominator, which is totally in sync with the choice of employees and the meaning of New Nexans. That's also why we decided to illustrate our values with the photos of our employees. Autun in France, t hese employees, as you see, show the diversity of our company, diversity of gender, age, origin, training, and vocational past. We have the foundations of this new culture, the reason why we are here, our missions and our values. It's an essential chapter to deliver this message.
Our real history begins only now. These values must be known, they must be visible, and they must be imbibed. They must be also appropriated, learned, and represented by each one of us. We want everyone to note them so that our behavior enables us to identify each other. These values will come alive, that would be through a series of initiatives. Let me talk to you about the first one. The first one is Nexans Remarkable People, which would enable you to recognize or identify an employee or a team who is an incarnation of this value in particular. The next one is called Nexans Living Values, which is a workshop which is fun and entertaining and participative to recreate social linking and to enable each employee to express the kind of behavior that they would like to see or express in these three values.
To do so, we hope to have a kind of behavioral model within Nexans in a very inclusive, dynamic way, do it also very simply, visibly, and practically. Now, this Nexans Living History is part and parcel and essential of our new strategy. Since December 2020, each business unit, and there are about 20, defines its own BU ambition story. BU ambition story. That's based on group strategy on our CSR commitments and business commitments. Each BU management team defines its mission and its means and methods to involve the employees. This is extremely well perceived by the employees in each of the BUs. Now each one understands more simply and more directly what the group's strategy is all about and what exactly it means in their ecosystem and in their daily lives.
It's a great way of belonging. We are writing this new page in our history and our contribution to electrifying the world. Nexans, Electrify the Future.
Thank you, David. That was wonderful. There was such a wealth of information that you put together. Now I suggest that we go on to the governance and compensation committee. Anne Lebel. Anne is an Independent Lead Director who is chairperson of the committee on corporate governance and compensation. She will speak to us about our corporate governance and the compensation of our corporate officers. Over to you, Anne.
Dear shareholders, I'm going to show you the summary of the works of two committees, the designation and the governance committee and the compensation committee, and the resolutions which are submitted to your vote. First of all, the composition of your board of directors, 14 members end of 2020. There is a balance in terms of skills, experience and diversities, nationalities, ages, and genre. In terms of nationalities, 50% of our directors are of a foreign nationality, which is important for a company with an international ambition like ours. Our directors have experiences in the industry, energy, finance, HR, and services, and for a majority of them in managerial positions. The representation of men and women is well-balanced, s even men, seven women. The number of women is 45%, in line with the commercial code.
The employee and directors, or representing the employee shareholders, are not taken into account in this ratio. Our board is well-balanced in terms of representation of different stakeholders, s even independent directors, four directors representing the main shareholders. Out of three, the main shareholder in Nexans, and three directors representing the employees, two employee representatives, and one for the employee shareholders. The number of independent directors is 65.3%, which is in line with MEDEF, the quality. It is reviewed each year. Beyond the separation, the president is independent, and we also have a lead independent director. We are one of the rare French-listed companies to have a lead independent director. The four committees of our board have been very active in 2020 with a high attendance rate, 92%, and y ou have here the summary of the main works carried out by each of them.
For the audit committee and five members, the attendance rate was 100%, and f or its mission, beyond the works linked to the financial information and accounts review. Th is committee carried out an important work in terms of follow-up on the audit, and activities linked to the internal control, including cybersecurity. For designation and the governance committee, five members at that stage, the attendance rate was 92%, and this committee focused beyond the preparation of a reconduction of terms of office or appointments. They focused on the review of succession plans of the Executive Committee, the diversity policy, and the action plan follow-up from the assessment work of the board in 2019, and then the follow-up of the action plan. Let's talk about the compensation committee with six members. The attendance rate amounted to 92.7% in 2020.
This committee reviewed all items related to compensation and the Employee Shareholding Plan Act 2020. Then the strategy and the sustainable development committee with six members had an attendance rate of 94.4%, focusing on the review of the strategic plan and the business portfolio, as well as on the policies and priorities of the group in terms of social and corporate responsibility. Let's move on to the presentation of resolutions related to the appointments and renewals of directors and statutory auditors, resolutions 4 to 8 and A. We submitted to your vote three reconduction of terms of office this year, which I'm going to show you on the following slides. We will welcome a new director representing the employee shareholders. Then resolution number 8 relates to the reconduction of the Mazars firm as the statutory auditor and represented by Juliette Coudert-Guillemot, replacing Isabelle Sapet.
Resolution number 4, the reconduction of Marc Grynberg, Independent Director, submitted to your vote. He's been a member of the Board since 2017. He is a company manager in the industry and energy industry, and has skills especially in the financial, strategic, and transformation fields so t hat's key for our Board of Directors. Resolutions 5 and 6 relate to the renewal of two major representatives for the major shareholder in Nexans, the Group Quiñenco. Andrónico Luksic , Chair of the Board of Quiñenco, the main shareholder of the company since 2008, joining the Board in 2013. He has an international expertise as a manager, and he is involved in all strategic decisions of the Board. Francisco Pérez Mackenna, the General Manager of Quiñenco, joined the Board of Nexans in 2011.
He contributes to the board as an international manager and contributes to the four committees of the board of directors, and this is essential. Let me move on to resolution 7 and A. You are going to vote on the choice of a new director representing employees. Two candidates were submitted to you. Selma Alami, in the group Nexans since 17 years. She is, for the time being, the Deputy General Manager of the operating unit in the Northwest Africa after having occupied several positions within the MERA region, and she's also a director in several subsidiaries of Nexans. Selim Yetkin, in the group since nine years, in charge of the ISP Power sales, Nexans U.K., having occupied various positions in the sales field. Two candidates of top quality and w e're going to see a small video clip.
This is it for the presentations. The board recommends the application of Selma Alami with practice of governance and management and an experience in Africa. Since October 2020, we have welcomed a new director representing the employees with Bjørn Erik Nyborg. He is in charge of consumables for the warehouse of the plants of Halden in Norway. He's been in the group since 2005. Beyond his knowledge about the activities in Norway, he has skills in practices in social management, having represented the Norwegian workers within the European Works Council, and he's been a member of an external board of directors. We're going to see the video clip of Bjørn.
Now we shall speak about compensation for 2020, to begin with, and f or the corporate directors, as you see in resolutions 11 to 13. To begin with, let's start with the corporate officers. A total of EUR 650,000 was paid in 2020, as you can see up here on the slide. This includes a reduction of compensation for each corporate officer, thanks to all the commitments made for handling the health crisis. It also reflects the activity of 15 meetings of the board and 22 of the committee in 2020. As far as the chairman's compensation is concerned, resolution number 12, and in compliance with the compensation policy of our ex ante vote of 2020, the elements of compensation, they remain unchanged since 2019, and I just mention the fixed compensation, that is EUR 237,500. In other words, after deduction related to the management of the health crisis.
Let me talk to you about Christopher Guérin, CEO's compensation for 2020, as you see described in resolution 13 submitted to your vote. You were asked to decide all the various elements of this compensation, the fixed portion, the variable portion, and the long-term variable portion. You've got the details up here on the slide. To start with the fixed compensation, it was at EUR 570,000 in 2020 after deducting the reduction related to the health crisis. The fixed compensation was at EUR 600,000 in 2018 when he was first nominated as managing director for three years. This has remained unchanged. Concerning the variable portion of the compensation for 2020, this represents 100% of his fixed target compensation, and t hat means it can go between zero to 150% of his fixed compensation. It is made up of 60% of collective aims and 40% of individual aims.
The collective portion is based on the ROCE aims, that is return on capital employed, 25% represents that, and ratio on EBITDA is 50%, and free cash flow 25%. The achievement of the collective portion represents 96.7% of the maximum potential sum, and the ROCE criteria, the free cash flow as defined in the budget that was revised in July 2020 have largely gone up. The individual portion is based on five individual aims that were defined during the year by the committee. These aims were related to the pursuit of transformation operations and meeting aims of the transformation plans, as well as meeting the net income indicator of EUR 80 million.
Deployment of projects to improve operational efficiency, follow-up and control of costs, and then also the preparation of the strategic plan and Capital Markets Day for the RSE also, and finalization of the development plan, succession and so on, p lus a new mission of values. Beyond these individual aims, under the aegis of the chief officer, the management of the health crisis was exemplary from all points of view, b e it the health and protection of employees or the continuity of operations, they were all covered. Since all this was anticipated and a lot of mobilization was put in, the meeting of individual objectives was therefore considered at 100% by the members of the Board.
As far as the long-term compensation is concerned, it is 20,000 performance shares that will be granted to Mr. Guérin in line with and in compliance with the policy that we have in terms of fixed compensation. Let me come to the presentation of resolutions number 14 and 15 on the compensation policy for 2021. To begin with, concerning the chairperson and the corporate officers, this remains unchanged for 2021, be it for the chairperson or for the corporate officers. As far as the directors or corporate officers are concerned, this is based on fixed compensation completed by variable compensation related to attendance rates to these meetings and committees. As far as the chairperson of the board is concerned, it is a fixed fee, and we regularly compare with a panel of companies of the SBF 120. These sums remain unchanged.
You decided insofar as the compensation policy for the director general was concerned, we made the following changes. We submitted to vote the following changes of his fixed compensation, an increase. As mentioned earlier, it was EUR 600,000 in 2018, and we wish to take it up to EUR 750,000 for the next three years. The main reasons have been detailed here on the slide. As initially fixed, this compensation was 25% below that of the reference balance and 45% below of this median for the same panel. The performance achieved by our director in these three years, apart from all that he has already achieved, enabled us to double our market capitalization as Nexans, plus significant growth of the price share, plus a remarkable management of the pandemic. As far as the variable remuneration is concerned, the criteria remain unchanged.
I'd like to point out to you that for 2021, as far as individual aims are concerned, 50% are related to ESG, as opposed to 15% in the past, which just goes to underline Nexans' commitment in this policy. Two other modifications were made and which was in line with our compensation policy for better practices. One is related to the acquisition of performance shares in case of retirement of our managing director, and these will be on a pro rata temporary basis. The other is related to the requirement of achievement rate for various objectives for the variable compensation in case of an enforced departure of the managing director. This has gone from 60% to 80%. I would like to talk to you about the employees' share plan that we have.
You decided concerning resolutions 25 and 26 to obtain the power of booking 400,000 shares for employee members of this plan, 100,000 additional shares for employees for countries which are not covered by this group savings plan for employees. Finally, and this is resolutions 27 to 29, concerning long-term compensation, resolutions 27 and 28 aiming at renewing our long-term plans in the same conditions as given before, and that you have up here. Resolution number 29 is on the introduction of a specific plan related to a new strategic plan. This is ambitious and very demanding and is required to ensure that we meet the commitments and retention of our key players in the company, particularly our managing director and key officers in the group. We would like now the ability to set up an envelope of 100,000 performance shares dedicated to this plan.
With this, I come to the end of my speech, and I thank you all very much for your attention.
Well, thank you, Anne. Thank you very much. Now let's listen to the auditors, by Isabelle Sapet and Édouard Demarcq from PricewaterhouseCoopers. They will share with us the reports which are related to the ordinary general assembly for the accounts, as well as reports that are related to the extraordinary general assembly on operations connected to the capital and the allocation of free shares and performance shares. At the same time, I would like to thank Isabelle Sapet for her commitment with Nexans in the last six years, because 2020 was her very last year as signatory associate of the Mazars firm.
Well, thank you very much, President. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
We issued three reports for the ordinary shareholders' meeting and seven for the extraordinary shareholders' meeting. Those reports were put at your disposal, and we suggest we summarize them. The report on the financial statements were made in a complex and changing context of the global crisis related to COVID-19, creating specific conditions for the preparation and the audit of accounts for 2020. This crisis and the exceptional measures taken within this framework generates a lot of consequences for companies on activities and their funding and increase uncertainties. Some of the actions, such as restricted traveling and working from home, had an impact as well on the internal organization of companies, and the implementation conditions of audits. Our report on consolidated financial statements are between 262 and 266 of the universal registration documents. We confirm our independence. The consolidated accounts are in line with the IFRS.
We certify them without any reservations. The key audit matters identified are the accounting of contracts for goods and services, antitrust investigation and dispute, measurement of goodwill, property, plant, equipment, and intangible assets, and measurement of deferred tax assets. We have no comments on the information presented in the group management report, and we certify the presence of the non-financial performance statement. The management of your company decided to be in line with the European regulations. We have no conclusion on the observation of this format in the annual financial report. Our report on the annual financial statements are between 287 and 297 of the URD. It's in line with the French accounting rules. We certify them without any reserve. The key audit matters are the evaluation of the shares and antitrust investigations and disputes.
We have no comments to make on the management report, on the information on payment terms or on the corporate governance report. We certify the accuracy and fairness of the information provided in accordance with the provisions of the French Commercial Code on the compensation and benefits paid to corporate officers and on the commitments made in their favor. Our reports on the related party agreements are on page 317, 319 of the URD, and i t's based on the information given to us, the characteristics and the essential modalities of the related party agreements, which we would have discovered without our missions, without having to make a statement on their justification or the existence of other agreements. Agreements submitted for ratification at the shareholders meeting, t wo new agreements authorized previously by the Board of Directors.
The first agreement is on the sale of CEIA and CICE receivables from the company to Bpifrance Financement. The second one, state-guaranteed loan contracted with a banking pool, including Natixis. Four agreements already approved by the shareholders meeting. It's on the letter of commitment of Nexans, the amendment with renewable credit of December 2015 signed with banks, among which Natixis, so a nother agreement signed with Natixis. Detailed information regarding those related party agreements are in our report and allows you to have an assessment. Now for the extraordinary shareholders meeting. We issued seven reports on various resolutions which may have an impact on your share capital in the future. For those resolutions, we implemented the necessary measures deemed necessary according to our profession. We have no comments to make on the terms and conditions of the proposed transactions.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the summary of our report. Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you. Okay. We are going now to answer questions received from our shareholders, and then we'll take questions directly. I would like to remind you of the fact that the shareholders may ask questions on the dedicated chat on the website of the broadcast of this shareholders meeting, and we will answer them in the order of arrival. We have a first written question received before the shareholders meeting and t hat's for Chris. You have communicated a large extent on your ambition in order to fight the climate change. Can you please be more specific in terms of your commitment?
This is a basic question, yes, so 1.5 is the trajectory of the Parisian Accord. Neutrality, carbon neutral by 2030, a reduction by 4.2% versus 2019 reference year, and f or Scope 1 and 2, and also partially for Scope 3. The group has a direct action possibility, reduction in waste, recycling of waste, reduction in the travelings and so on. 100% of our waste coming from our productions should be recycled. That's one of our objective. 100% of R&D projects will be dedicated to the energy efficiency. We signed a partnership with Schneider Electric so that all our sites worldwide use renewable energy to run our plants. By 2030, we're going to deploy energy efficiency solutions throughout the sites. So let me go a bit further than that. We wondered about the performance management a lot so that the criteria and ESG criteria could go in line with profitability.
In 2020, we thought over our management model, performance management, while taking into account the economic aspect, of course, this is obvious, but taking into account environmental criteria and the commitment of teams, a kind of barometer of team commitments. David Dragone talked about it with the corporate culture and y ou have it in strategic plan presented in last February. We have a model called E3, so three E, economic, engagement, and environmental. In the last eight months, every quarter, each of our businesses is assessed based on those three criteria. There are about 20 criteria altogether for the three E, and w e analyze performance, the economic performance of each entity, but we also make sure that this economic performance be not to the detriment of environmental criteria and not the detriment of the safety criteria. We have a kind of award system, internal awards.
We grant an award every quarter for entities having a good balance within economic, environmental, and engagement. It's innovative and it's to create an internal emulation. We go further than that in the analysis of our carbon footprint, and we calculate what we call the ROCE per square meter, where the ROCE is the return on capital employed, but now we cross it for all units, and that's what we are doing. A new ROCE, which is the return on carbon employed. We analyze the financial performance on the one hand, but we want to make sure that our carbon footprint is okay. In each entity, it's not per square meter but, of course, w e make sure that each entity will be able to achieve the financial objectives, but at the same time, reduce the carbon footprint.
For instance, in using short circuits, more and more, we're going to forbid to have shipping or delivery of more than 1,000 km. We have to use short circuits, and that's why our management teams now will be assessed on the relevance of their business management, and based on those three criteria: economic, environmental, and engagement criteria, so t hat's it, t o answer this first question.
Thank you, Chris. Okay, good. The s econd question that's come in through the chat. It's about raw material. How are you anticipating the rarefaction of certain natural resources and the difficulty of supplies for strategic resources like copper in particular? How would it impact your business and how are you planning to secure your supplies?
Now, that's a very basic question. Now let me tell you why. When you look at the ecosystem that I just talked to you about and which Vincent gave us greater details of, which goes from generation of decarbonated energy and the transmission and distribution and use, there is in fact a line running right through it, and which is common to the entire use of it. What is it that does it? It's the copper that links them all up.
Since we are now facing an unprecedented electrical revolution in terms of demand, there's going to be high pressure on raw material, particularly on copper. That's why a lot of investors have asked us this question through the roadshow that we held with Jean-Christophe in February and March, and t hat was about how to maintain metallurgy, which is also one of our production tools, because it doesn't contribute very much to group performance. My answer is as follows, that it's a strategic asset. You don't see that, but you'll feel it in the future. You'll see it in the future because sooner or later, there's going to be a rarefication, in fact, of this particular resource. Look at the cost of aluminum, because now everybody is now converging towards more electricity, so t here's going to be a lot of competition for these metallurgical assets.
We have them in North America, an excellent factory in France, in Lens, and in Montreal as well, which are essentially for our internal needs of copper. We also have a capacity of recycling, which is extremely high. We recover virtually all the cable waste that hasn't been used or from our customers, and we separate all the polymer on the one side and the copper on the other, and t he copper is used again in our foundries in order to live through a second life, and t hat is a second part of our capacity, which is in the circular economy. I think it's going to play a fundamental role in the coming years. In fact, there might be some speculation these days concerning the cost of copper, which has really gone up to $10,000 a ton.
I think it's going to be a physical tension when it comes to supplies. Since Nexans is virtually the only copper player, and which has maintained this vertical integration in metallurgy, I think it's a major plus point for us, for our group, and particularly for the development and implementation of our ambition. Metallurgy is really your future.
Now, here's another question that's just come in live on the chat, and this time it's on India. The question is, how far is the group exposed to the Indian market given this major crisis it's going through?
To begin with, our heartfelt feelings for this population suffering from COVID-19, maybe a little later than all the others. Nexans is not too exposed to the Indian market, which is a wonderful market in terms of work.
Another question that's just come in live. Your plan is extremely ambitious. How are you going to manage your acquisitions and your divestitures at the same time, your sales?
We've often heard ambitious very often. What we were trying to say is that we want to be transparent and honest. We had so many comments from investors, that maybe for an investor, it's not so important to have a very detailed strategic plan, just as we've detailed it. It's important for us to use these strategic intentions as an internal communications tool, because w hen you say that you can't cover all the 34 sectors, because if you want to be on all fronts, you're nowhere, a jack of all trades and a master of none. As a result, you will under-invest in certain sectors where you really need to invest.
It is the choice of the manager, of the helmsman of a company. You have to make the right choices to arbitrate and decide what is good in the short, medium, and long term. Our options were as follows. We decided to refocus on our key acquisitions and perhaps just spin off, for instance, our activity in automotive industry, in telecom, and so on. This is business which are financially doing very, very well. It's also the quality of your assets and the quality of financial assets also reflects the quality of the group. These are not sales that will take place immediately. However, it was important for us to announce it, that it not be something hidden from our internal teams. It doesn't mean that they won't have a brilliant future. On the contrary, they really have a brilliant future.
It's just for us to find the right partner who do exactly what Nexans will do in electrification. In other words, make major investments, innovate, and make acquisitions, do exactly the same thing with all the businesses that we wish to sell, and that is telecom industry and electric beams, which require new partners who will provide more cash and more investment, and help them to grow further and get more modernized, r evamp them. These are very exogenous factors, and it's always a bit difficult to handle both acquisitions and sales. In terms of acquisitions, we did a worldwide analysis of the electrification market and all the players on this market. More than 130 that we looked at, so w e selected about 20 potential candidates.
It doesn't mean there'll be 20 acquisitions, but it may be five or six out of them, as Jean-Christophe explained, with the aim of EUR 1.5 billion of asset acquisition, and this over a period of 2021 through 2024. As Jean-Christophe explained to you, we have a free cash flow, which is fairly high, and as a result, we don't need to sell first in order to buy after, just because we run short of cash, t hat's not the case.
Very good. Is there something that you'd like to add on the impact it's likely to have on employees?
Well, we had communicated very quickly in the day that we would be refocusing on just three or four sectors without pre-specifying which ones, because this was for legal reasons. Now, naturally, for several of these businesses, it'll take several months because you are not the core businesses.
Let me give you an example of a North American business that we sold in 2020. We sold it to a connections company. They don't make cables, but the connections at the end of cables. Now this business that we were involved in for nearly 20 years, generally speaking, in the last eight years, and despite our investment capacities, which are all said and done, limited, we are spending nearly EUR 1 million of CapEx every year, EUR 1 million, whereas we knew that we would need at least three or four times more. Since this business was handed over to Leviton, which is an American company in connections, they have already made an investment of EUR 3 million per year. They are part of a group including telecoms, which is the core business, so t hey know exactly, we know exactly what to do.
We don't want to be in the generalist system, but in mega specialist system, and that means revise the entire production chain in order to amplify their effort and their impact.
Thank you. Next question is on the foundation, Nexans Foundation. Which are the projects that you are supporting, and are you planning to increase the budget given that the pandemic took place?
No, well, we won't increase the budget. It's EUR 300,000 a year, it'll remain at that level because we are also doing something else. This example of what Vincent just mentioned to you. We are extremely involved in Africa, in village over rural electrification, so t he group's working in this field, and so is the foundation does. The foundation was set up in 2013, and since then, we have supported maybe 122 projects through 62 NGOs.
Now we are well-known, particularly when it comes to electrification of villages, of dispensaries, of schools, everywhere in the world. In 2021, we'll have our next Nexans Foundation board meeting, and w e've already received 140 candidatures coming from 30 countries. We are very proud of this. I'm very proud of our Nexans Foundation and we shall remain very active.
Here's another question on innovation. What sort of innovation are you planning to start in your program?
I'm not going to share all the innovation with you, because I'm sure that even our competition is listening to us. These days, we are working in a more ecosystem kind of environment. It's a strange term and j ust companies by themselves will not be able to do things alone. We must work together. There has to be a uniting of forces for solving difficult issues like involving environment and innovation, and t hat is why we have decided to call upon other companies to help us, to shoulder us, and either to modernize some of our businesses
With Schneider Electric, w e're deploying the 4.0 version now right through the world, and Microsoft in terms of artificial intelligence. We've also signed up a wonderful partnership with Orange Business Services. I'd like to greet them now. We now introduce captors in the Internet of Things, which also require energy. We are going to make them even smarter by putting little detectors in the cables that reached out to them. We are also working on innovation in recycling new polymers, new conductors in metals. That's why we need that metallurgical asset, because we can renew over there. Our partnership with Suez also helps us hugely in circular economy, so a lot of innovation between now and 2024 from Nexans.
We must come out in flying colors, and w hat's more, we must make sure that all our employees are with us in this new environment. Be extremely innovative and creative, to meet, as I said, our customers' expectations, and as you said, a customer very dear to us.
It's time for us to move really quickly, this is what we are going to do. Thank you. Thank you very much, Chris. That was the last of the questions. Now I suggest that we carry on with it, we shall now go on to the presentation of the resolutions. Nino, over to you.
Thank you, Jean. Here's the outcome of the votes on resolutions. It will be displayed here on your screen, and the details will be available on the website after this meeting. The first resolution was the approval of the company's financial statements, 2020, and the management reports. First resolution adopted. Second resolution, approval of the consolidated financial statements 2020, s econd resolution is adopted. Third resolution, allocation of income for the fiscal year ended on December 2020 with the dividend payout, t hird resolution adopted. Fourth resolution, renewal of the term of office of Marc Grynberg as the director. Fourth resolution is approved. The fifth resolution, renewal of the term of office of Andrónico Luksic Craig as director. The fifth resolution is approved. Number six, renewal of the term of office of Francisco Pérez Mackenna as director. The sixth resolution is approved.
The seventh resolution is the appointment of Selma Alami as director representing employee shareholders. The seventh resolution is adopted, is approved. Resolution A, appointment of Selim Yetkin as director representing employee shareholders. Resolution A was rejected. Resolution number 8, renewal of the statutory auditor and appointment of an alternate statutory auditor, adopted. Resolution number 9, approval of a regulated agreement entered into between the company and Bpifrance Financement, adopted. Resolution number 10, approval of a regulated agreement entered into between the company and Natixis. It's approved. Resolution 11, approval of the information relating to the compensation items paid during the fiscal year ending on December 2020 for the corporate officers, approved. Resolution number 12, approval of the items of compensation for Jean Mouton, Chairman of the Board of Directors. Resolution number 12 is approved.
Resolution number 13, approval of the items of compensation paid for Christopher Guérin, our CEO, approved. Resolution number 14, approval of the compensation policy of the members of the Board of Directors for the Fiscal Year 2020. Resolution number 14 is approved. Number 15, approval of the compensation policy of the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Fiscal Year 2021 and i t's approved. Resolution number 16, approval of the compensation policy of the Chief Executive Officer for the fiscal year 2021. The resolution number 16 is approved. Resolution number 17, authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors to carry out transactions involving company shares. It's approved. Resolution number 18, authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors for the purpose of reducing the company's share capital by consolidation of its own shares. Approved.
Resolution number 19, delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors to decide upon the capital increase by the issuance of ordinary shares and securities or securities giving access to the equity securities, or giving the right to the allocation of debt securities with preferential subscription rights. Approved. Resolution number 20, delegation to the Board of Directors to decide to increase the share capital via the capitalization of premiums, reserves, profits, or other amounts limited to EUR 14 million per par value. Resolution number 21, it's approved, and r esolution 21, delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors for authorizing the issuance. Resolution number is approved.
Resolution 22, delegation of authority to be granted to the Board of Directors for the issuance of ordinary company shares or securities granting rights to equity securities within the limits of a par value of EUR 4,375,000 subsidy share, a pproved. Number 23, delegation of authority to be granted for the purpose of deciding to increase the number of securities, a pproved. Resolution 24, delegation of power granted to the Board of Directors to issue securities or shares, and i t is approved. Resolution 25, delegation to the Board of Directors to issue maximum of 400,000 shares for employees, a pproved.
Resolution 26, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to issue a maximum number of 100,000 shares for one financial institution so that employees of external foreign subsidiaries can benefit from a shareholding plan, a pproved. Resolution 27, authorization to the Board of Directors to grant performance shares, a pproved. Resolution number 28, authorization to be granted to the Board of Directors for the purpose of granting in 2022 free shares, limit of EUR 50,000. Approved. 29, authorization to the Board of Directors for the purpose of granting in 2021 performance shares, existing or free shares, sorry. It's approved.
We have one resolution for the ordinary Shareholders' Meeting. This is the power to carry out formalities. It's resolution number 30 and t his resolution is approved. Up to you, Chairman.
Thank you, Nino. Dear shareholders, I would like to thank you once again for your strong mobilization and engagement. You expressed your opinions with a record quorum over 83%. This participation is an important sign of your involvement in your company. In the first few months, we had the pleasure to exchange our views with a lot of you. Thank you for your availability.
You should know that our door is always open and we keep listening to you. The improvement of our governance in the interest of all stakeholders is our priority. Like each year, we'll come back to you in due time to share with you our priority. We have no items left on the agenda, so I would like to adjourn the meeting. Thank you to you for attending this meeting remotely. The members of the board of directors and the statutory auditors and all employees of the group, thank you very much.