Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. We are delighted to welcome you once again to the general assembly for Imerys. Just before beginning, a few safety instructions. We are well equipped at New Cap here, we want to indicate that if there was the slightest worry in terms of electricity, if you saw some smoke or anything within the room, a message will be provided. Please, you will have to exit the room quietly. There will be a green light that you can see right behind you. Take the main staircase, then the second lateral staircase, or at the end of the corridor, you have a safety exit that leads to the street directly on the Quai de Grenelle. The rally point, the meeting point is Rue Nelaton, just behind near the pharmacy, for some of those who know about it.
This will help us to count you and to know whether everybody was able to exit the building. If this has never occurred in the last 25 years. I wish you an excellent general assembly, Imerys General Assembly.
We are a diverse company united by a common goal: to be the global leader in specialty minerals. Together, we're working to make this vision a reality. Together, we are unlocking better futures. For our planet, we are minimizing our environmental impact to preserve, protect, and restore biodiversity wherever we operate. For our customers, we are addressing societal challenges. With our expertise, partnerships, and rich history of innovation, we help our customers thrive in the markets of tomorrow. For each other, we're investing in skills, nurture talent, and create the opportunities that make us a successful business.
We believe that every person matters, and everyone at Imerys deserves to work in a safe, healthy, inclusive environment. As the partner of choice, we help our customers solve tomorrow's challenges. We strive for better by continuously learning, improving, and innovating. We work as one team together, collaborating for the best possible results. We operate as enablers of tomorrow, protecting the future through sustainable actions. Our direction is clear, and each one of us plays an essential part in bringing this promise to life. We are Imerys, and together, we are unlocking better futures for our people, our customers, and our planet.
Very well. Thank you very much. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. We will switch to French. It is 2:30 P.M. I declare the meeting open. I would like to inform you that the meeting is currently being broadcast live and will be available later on our website as every year. Are present by my side, Alessandro Dazza, Managing Director, Sébastien Rouge, Group Chief Financial Officer, and Denis Musson, Group Legal Director and Secretary of the Board of Directors. In front row, Véronique Saubot, ESG Lead Director, and Marie-Françoise Walbaum, Chairman of the Appointments Committee and the Remuneration Committee, will also join us in a few moments for the presentation to our meeting for the elements relating to sustainable development on the one hand and corporate governance on the other. Are also present in the room current members of the board of directors and candidates whose appointment is proposed.
Also present in the room, Mr. Olivier Boisson, Partner at Deloitte & Associés, and Cédric Hasser, Partner and PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit, representing the board of statutory auditors. The general meeting convened on first call has the character of a combined general meeting, ordinary and extraordinary. I would like to ask Mr. Denis Musson to kindly report to you on the completion of all the formalities relating to the convening and holding of this meeting. Denis, the floor is yours.
Hello, everyone. I confirm that in accordance with the law, the prior notice of the meeting serving as notice of a convocation for this general meeting, presenting, in particular, the agenda, the draft resolution submitted to the vote of the shareholders, as well as the conditions for participation in voting at the general meeting, has been published in the Bulletin des annonces légales obligatoires on April 3, 2023.
Shareholders holding registered shares were convened by letter or email sent on April 19, 2023. The notice of meeting was published on the actu-juridique.fr website on the same date. In addition, the documents and information that must be made available to shareholders pursuant to the provisions of the French Commercial Code have been posted on the company's website. The shareholders also had the option of reading prior to this meeting and within the legal deadlines, the documents provided for the law. Finally, following the review of the company's 2022 financial statements, the Social and Economic Committee gave its favorable opinion with reservations on the economic and financial situation of the Imerys group on May 5, 2023. A copy is made available to any shareholder who should request it.
Thank you, Denis. Subject to the usual verification, it appears from the statement of the attendance sheet that the quorum of one-fifth and one-quarter, that is 16,896.422 shares and 21,125 shares applicable respectively to the ordinary and extraordinary general meetings have been reached. The scrutineers are the two shareholders present. Having the greatest shares, it is Frederic Wermers, Representative of Belgian Securities BV, representing 92 million 682,540 votes, and Mr. Stratis Papastratou, Representative of Blue Crest Holding SA, representing 8 million 87,217 votes. I thank them for their presence, and I would like them to confirm this. Fantastic. You are present. This is what we imagined when seeing you.
I suggest that Mr. Denis Musson is appointed Secretary of the assembly. It is not remunerated. Do not worry about it. As usual, and in order to leave more room for the representation of your group's activities and results, the various reports required by law will not be read. Indeed, the latter are fully reproduced in the 2022 universal registration document filed with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers on March 22. According to the law, copies of this document and notice of meeting have been made available to shareholders in the meeting room. I hope this time things were done in the right way. In addition, a time for dialogue with the shareholders present is planned at the end of this meeting after the presentations. You know that voting boxes, electronic boxes, have been made available to you.
We will come back to the terms of their use before proceeding to vote on the resolutions. It is quite simple. I also would like to inform you that a written question has been received and the board provided an answer. You will see this according to the text. It will be available on our website. This question is a general one. The answer that the board provided will be there as well. This was very administrative. Now I'd like to delve into the heart of the matter and I will give the floor to our CEO, Mr. Dazza. He is going to talk about the highlights of this year, 2022.
Thank you, Patrick. Hello, everyone. Hello to the Imerys shareholders. Thank you once again for having come today to this general assembly. Let's begin with some highlights for 2022.
It is a year that once again confirms, if necessary, the solid financial performance of our group and its resilience in the difficult context. 2022 was marked by inflation, an extraordinary one, with prices of energy that reached record levels, namely in Europe and during the summer, especially. In this context, Imerys managed to close the year with a positive contribution of prices on variable costs. We will see in a few slides. We managed to have a two-digit organic growth for the whole of the year. The volumes for the year were negatively impacted by some external factors such as...
I'd like to remind you that the crisis in Ukraine, the war with Russia and the Covid crisis from the previous year, the decrease in production for paper, which, we see this historical trend once again after a short recovery post-Covid in 2021, and some weaknesses of the industrial markets at the end of the 2022 year, where we were faced with destocking for our clients. Sébastien, our Financial Director, will go deeper into these topics in a few moments. What is most important, despite the decrease in volumes, Imerys showed its resilience and recorded an increase of EBITDA of 11% in the year, of 23% of the net current results.
As a reference to underline the performance, our results, our net results in 2022 is at the same level as in 2021 even if we have sold, we had the disposal of assets business. I will come back to this. Approximately one-fourth of the company. The EBITDA, the current EBITDA, as I just said, increased by 11%. We have more than Well, this is EUR 20 million more than we expected. The group generated an operational cash flow of EUR 105 million despite inflationary environment. We had strategic in-investments, EUR 85 million of investments in 2022, which will increase our ability and capacity in production for end markets that are strongly growing. I'll come back to these topics a little later.
Finally, Imerys achieved on January 31st, 2023, the completion of the sale of HTS, cash impact of approximately EUR 10 million. Based on these good results and on the disposal of HTS, the board will suggest to this assembly to provide a dividend of $85 million per share. This is an extraordinary element that will be given back to shareholders from this disposal just mentioned. The President will comment on it a little later. If we look at the evolution of the year and the last years, Imerys confirms that its economic model is very robust and resilient, even in difficult times. We rapidly went back up recovered after the COVID crisis, we mastered well the inflationist environment.
The group was able to increase its EBITDA and its turnover, which reached record levels on the former perimeter before the HTS disposal. This was possible thanks to our first position as solution provider with a diversification in our portfolio, our market, end market and geographies, and the huge effort of our teams to control costs and expenses. Now let's take a look at the markets that we serve, the underlying markets. The two disposals are ongoing. HTS and most of the assets serving the paper market are end markets that are attractive and growing. On the left side, our previous exposure to end markets, on the right where we stand today, after the disposal of HTS and before the disposal.
As you can see, our exposure to paper is still an important one, around 9%, but it will be reduced almost to zero after the disposal that is of our assets serving the market. The new Imerys is clearly less exposed to steel, the steel industry. It is a good market, but very cyclical one. You can also note on the right-hand side the relevance of the energy market and electronics now separately shown, because it will be a lever for the group. In this context, it will be still the most important part of the market. Its construction and infrastructure. On this slide, we will focus on costs and prices. Imerys managed to compensate thanks to selling prices, the rising inflation.
This is illustrated on the right-hand side of the board of the table. This is fantastic. We see the variable costs on all of the year. I think that it is really about an exceptional achievement taking the context into consideration. I am convinced that we are now after the peak of this inflation, or at least in manufacturing. This should give us the possibility to enable finally to our clients to save money. I believe it's important to preserve this, maintain this relationship with our clients on the long term. Let's take a look at our main investments for 2022. As mentioned, we spent EUR 85 million dedicated to strategic investments in 2022. The first Jade project in China, which will help Imerys produce locally mineral and specialties for lightweight polymers, especially for auto parts in China.
This is a technology that is owned by Imerys. China today is the greatest automotive market in the world, and this investment will place Imerys at the center of events. The servicing will start soon. On the right side of our activity, we just achieved the last production line and started the fourth line in Belgium for carbon black productions to produce batteries, lithium batteries. It will add more than EUR 100 million in turnover for the group. In Bodio, Switzerland, we are finishing the third synthetic graphite capacity expansion under construction. In this case, again, the project of the new range will answer to the growing demand of lithium ion batteries. Finally, we are pursuing our work on lithium called EMILI.
I'm very happy to announce this EMILI project. We have produced quality battery products in labs and confirming our technology works well. It is also important to mention that EMILI was selected as a program winner France 2030 and will receive a state aid of EUR 22 million in favor of the R&D and pilots. Let's move on to innovation. Last year, the group launched more than 80 new mineral solutions, focusing on three axes: green mobility, sustainable construction, and natural solutions for consumer goods. I will not go into details for each new project that is too technical, I would like to underline that today they're examined by an assessment framework for the sustainability of our portfolio.
By an external and independent company. Why should I mention this? We would like our products, our future products, to be sustainable. In fact, our clients expect not only new products, but products that are sustainable. I will now give the floor to our Financial Director, Sébastien Rouge, who is going to give us more details on the group's accounts.
Hello, everyone. I'm going to go back over the key aspects of our financial performance in 2022, starting with the sales. As it was indicated, the activity on High Temperature Solutions does not appear in these figures. The sales reached EUR 8.4 billion, up 16.8% compared to previous year. Mainly thanks to a good organic growth of 12.5%. The contribution to prices adjustment was significant and exceeds the loss in volume and compensates for the loss of volume that was indicated. The EUR 72 million negative amount in scope has to do with one activity in North America. The sales figures includes also a positive currency forex effect of EUR 211 million, thanks to the increase in value of the dollar compared to euro.
If we look at the way... At the breakdown in terms of profitability for the group, EBITDA 2022 was EUR 720 million, and this change reflects a decrease in the, in the contribution of volume for EUR 100 million. It reflects, as was indicated, the increase — violent increase in variable costs for EUR 483 million, consequence of very strong inflation in the cost of energy, of transport, and and various other inputs. There was also a downward variation of 130 in overhead, EUR 103 million in overhead brought forward by inflation. These increases in costs require a significant increase in our sales prices, EUR 704 million, which made it possible to maintain a price-to-cost ratio which is positive throughout the whole year.
EBITDA was up by 11%, standing at EUR 720 million. In percentage of sales, the margin went from 17.7 in 2021 to 16.8 in 2022 because of this mechanical impact on the part of inflation. If we look now at the various other contributing factors to the P&L, in absolute terms, the net income for continuing operations is up by EUR 180 million. It's a bit higher than the EBITDA that we already looked at. The net financial income stood at EUR 500 million, up by the increase by Forex amounts and marginally by the increase in rates. The corporate tax stood at EUR 500 million, corresponding to a tax rate, effective tax rate of approximately 27%, which is in line with 2021.
Net income from continuing operations is continuing and is up 22.3%, standing at EUR 284 million. Other income and expenses, net, which were posted, were impacted by a loss of EUR 108 million linked to the depreciation of goodwill with respect to the paper market. As you see, these activities are currently being sold. Total, the net income stands at EUR 237 million as compared to 240 for the previous year in 2021. Now, if we look at the financial structure globally, in 2022, we saw the finalization of the HTS activity, which led us to a new reinforcement of the financial structure of the group.
The main movements impacting net financial debt and generation of free cash flow, net of EUR 20 million after the strategic CapEx, which we already spoke about. As to disposals and acquisitions, we generated a net product of, in cash, of a positive nature standing at EUR 86 million positive prior to the closing of HTS. EUR 138 million were paid out in dividends. Essentially, the dividend, EUR 122 million were reclassified to abandoned activities. As a consequence, the net debt was slightly up in absolute terms, reaching EUR 1.6 billion if we look at the balance sheet in 2022.
If we take into account the products from the sale of HTS, which took place on 31 January 2023, and its net positive impact on the cash position of EUR 710 million, the net financial debt falls back down below EUR 1 billion, and the ratio of debt to EBITDA stands at 1.3. On this positive note, I'm going to hand back to Alessandro Dazza to summarize the first quarter results in 2023.
Thank you, Sébastien. Let's have a look now at what's been going on in the first quarter of 2023. There are a few events of note. Difficult quarter. Imerys managed to reach almost EUR 1 billion in sales, slightly down compared to last year. The market conditions were difficult. Volume was negatively impacted by the normal decrease in the paper market due to the weakness in this industrial market, mainly impacted by inventory de-stocking.
We also suffered in Europe and in the U.S. from the increase in interest rates. Despite the decrease in volumes, Numérice was resilient and posts a current EBITDA higher than 15% thanks to a solid price effect and rigorous management of overhead. There's an increase in the operational results of EUR 105 million of operating income before non-recurring items, more than 10% up for the last quarter. Along the same lines, the net result for activities is up by 12%. These results were made possible thanks to very significant actions taken with respect to pricing, but also the actions necessary to compensate inflation on our costs and fixed overhead. I would like now to speak about sustainable development in Numérice. In 2019, the group launched an ambitious program called SustainAgility.
These are priority items where the objectives are both quantitative of a clear nature, almost all of the objectives in the middle term that the group had fixed in 2019 have been met with a three-year program. Several were actually exceeded of these objectives. There are two objectives. The diversity and inclusion were not fully reached, five of the 71 sites targeted have not totally defined an action for protecting biodiversity. These results and all of the other information that is non-financial in nature that are relevant are detailed in chapter three in the universal document for 2020 concerning the group. Internal audit at Deloitte was run without any reserves being expressed. Numérice has been concentrating of the implementation of a clear roadmap for each priority area. A few examples here.
In terms of diversity, the number of senior managers that are women in senior management and executive committee are strongly up. 26% of senior managers and 20% of executive committee members are women. In terms of safety, the recordable injury rate has improved year after year. We also are concerned by keeping our value chain with a third-party audit. The third party audit of 33% of our highest risk suppliers in 2022 are up, and 86% of our sales evaluated and rated by the SustainAgility solutions. These are measurable items in terms of sustainability. In terms of the environment, we continue working with the scientific, recognized scientific partners with respect to biodiversity, we have reduced our CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions by 35% since 2018.
Strong governance to foster long-term value creation in ESG is an effective governance. The board of directors is playing a lead activity in this ambition of sustainable development of the group. We have a ESG lead director since 2021, Véronique Saubot, who is present here today, she will be saying a few words in just a minute. Her role is to make sure that the strategic orientations that have been set by the board include, in appropriate fashion, the environmental and social conditions in the long haul, that the strategy targeted by general management will be aligned with these priorities. On a more operational plan, our program, SustainAgility, is supervised by a sustainable development committee that I preside over.
They meet every quarter. We take care of the responsibility of establishing our targets in terms of sustainable relevance for the group, to validate key milestones, and to keep careful watch over the objectives of the group in this sense. In addition, the variable part of pay of managers is strongly linked to the realization and performance of the sustainable development objectives of the group. These same objectives are also transmitted to the executive committee and senior managers to make sure that all of the organization works hand-in-hand towards these objectives of sustainability and over the long haul. New three-year roadmap to support the group's strategy, even more ambitious for the next three years. We are continuing to concentrate on material issues of strategic importance for our company and for society at large.
These new plans are the three-year plans set 13 quantitative objectives with a deadline 2025. We're talking about the historical performance and future objectives. These are in chapter 3 in the single document for 2023. With the new roadmap, we will be continuing to set the bar even higher so that we will remain a reference in our industry in terms of sustainability.
Insofar as integrated and transparent climate strategy, we have set up an appropriate governance to implement and keep track of our progress so that we can make sure that we will be decarbonating our activity in compliance with the Paris Agreement. We are committed to continue to communicate publicly in our universal document all of the details in our decarbonization plan in compliance with the recommendations of the working group about financial reporting linked to climate change, which we call the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. To get into detail, in 2019, Imerys has set objectives for reduction of CO2 emissions in relative terms with respect to sales. These objectives have been exceeded. At the end of 2022, we decided to make two significant changes. First of all, we are aligning on the trajectory of 1.5 degree centigrade trajectory.
We were aligned on that trajectory of 2 degrees in the past. Secondly, we are targeting to reduce emissions in absolute terms in terms of the CO₂ emitted. Our objectives would be to reduce that greenhouse gases by 42% by the year 2030, starting from the reference year, which is 2021. This objective, which is to reduction, was defined according to the criteria defined by the science-based targets, and the objectives were submitted for validation to the SBTi in the month of December, and they should be approved by 2023. 40% reduction is a very ambitious objective, we believe that we will be able to reach that objective in the future. For your information, last year, we've reduced our emissions, our greenhouse gas emissions, by 10% in absolute terms. How will we succeed?
Well, there are several ways of leveraging decarbonation, which you can see on the left on the slide. We've run simulations with various hypotheses in phasing out and to reach the objectives of reduction in Scopes 1 and 2 of the group by 2030. As you can see here, there's a few examples for decarbonation in reducing emissions of greenhouse gas emissions. We will be reducing our energy consumption thanks to energy efficiency, and replacing fossil fuel by biomass and increasing our consumption of electricity by weak carbon emission solutions based on photocells and photovoltaic applications. At Imerys, we are committing to use solid methods to quantify our performance in ESG according to international standards.
These fundamental factors will contribute to defining our leadership position in terms of sustainable development, which is recognized by our ESG ratings agencies, where we are regularly classified as the leader in our industry. I'd like to present now Aurélie Sabot, who is our ESG reference person.
Thank you very much, Alexandre. Alexandre, it's a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. I will explain in a few words my role as a referent on the board of directors of Imerys. As ESG referent on the board of directors of Imerys, it is to ensure that long-term environment and societal considerations are fully taken into account by the board of directors. As ESG referent, I make sure that relevant topics in terms of sustainable development be presented at least twice a year to the board of directors. I also maintain a dialogue with general management. Regularly, I make recommendations to ensure that the content presented to the board and its committees is appropriate. I'm also associated with the all board committees to ensure that relevant.
Audit, compensation committees to make sure that the ESG-relevant topics are properly addressed by each of these committees. The committees also ensure the necessary follow-up of these topics, ESG and by the Imerys management. The strategy committee has, in particular, reviewed the ESG program on the basis of a benchmark, taking into account peer companies and competitors of the group. The strategic committee also reviewed and validated the materiality analysis. This is an analysis that better helps understanding ESG objective, the committee validated the priority themes for 2025. The strategy committee also validated, taking into account the criteria of CO₂ tons emitted and more widely all the important aspects for evaluating an acquisition target.
The Audit Committee has, for its part, ensured the monitoring of ESG performance against the objective set in 2022 and reviewed the extra-financial communication of the group. The Remuneration Committee also included a review, reviewed and validated the ESG 2023 objectives related to the compensation of the Chief Executive Officer. The Committee also proceeded to reviewing indicators on diversity and inclusion. To close, the Board also reviewed different topics, the validation of objectives for 2025 and the new roadmap for 2022 until 2025, the review and validation of the SBTi target, the Science Based Targets initiative. You know, it is a referent organizations on best ESG practices, and the Board also achieved the decarbonization plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Based on the actions carried out since 2021, I consider, as a referent director, that Imerys is mature in integrating sustainable development topics into its activities. The group has achieved, to this day, solid results that set it apart as a sustainability leader in its industry, and it will continue to pursue its efforts, plan to prepare for future sustainability challenges. Thank you very much. I would like, first of all, to thank you and the teams, the Imerys teams, who worked on these topics. I'd like to add that there is a recommendation of market authorities to create ESG committees, et cetera, we're gonna think about how we can think about governance. Things are really unfolding in a satisfying way with Véronique, who ensures the interface with the different committees.
I would like to add that Véronique will also join the Audit Committee because we have more and more areas of interactions between risk analysis, that is within the Audit Committee, and ESG questions as well. We need to ensure there's cross-functional In all of the activities. Apologies. There are sound issues. Apologies. I would like to offer now to move on to details that are interesting to shareholders and people taking part in this general assembly. It's the question of dividends. The Board of Directors proposes to this meeting, we will deliberate about a global payment of EUR 3.85 per share. EUR 3.85 per share. I was talking in former francs, EUR 3.85 per share. Why did I go too far?
Because even at EUR 3.85, it's the most important dividend that was paid, I think, if I remember correctly. This dividend, to come back to more serious topics, it's the element that's EUR 1.50, EUR 1.50, not EUR 1.50, corresponding to the payment of an ordinary dividend. This represents EUR 2.35 to the payment. This is in line with the usual practices, to which we add what the Board of Directors wanted to offer shareholders to participate to the production of the exceptional session that took place before 'cause of the Calderys disposal, EUR 200 million, so EUR 2.35. Therefore, this EUR 3.85 is the sum of the ordinary dividend, EUR 1.50, and the exceptional dividend of EUR 2.35.
Once again, this testifies perfectly. We are very careful to give the company the financial robustness that is requires and the financial solidity that it has. This dividend is of no problem. This shows that the group is solid, we think this is very attractive for shareholders. We will have the opportunity to deliberate on this question in the framework of the different resolutions that will be submitted to you. I would like to ask Denis Musson to kindly summarize the different resolutions that you will be asked to vote upon. We will go deeper in certain of these items during the reading. Thank you, Mr. President. The general combined assembly, this combined general meeting is called upon to decide. I would like to say that no further additional resolution has been made by the shareholders.
In addition, the resolutions submitted to the vote of the meeting, and which will be presented to you below, are reproduced in the universal registration document for 2022, as well as in an, our notice of meeting brochure, both available in paper in this room and on the company website. The first and second resolutions relate, as usual, to the approval by the meeting of the management and the annual financial statements of the company and of the group's consolidated account for the past financial year, as they were just commented to you. The third resolution relates to the allocation of Imerys' 2022 earnings. As explained above, the board of directors proposes that you pay a cash dividend. Under the fourth resolution, you are then called upon to approve the special report of the statutory auditors on the regulated agreements entered into by the company.
A detailed presentation of this report will be made to you through the speech of the statutory auditors in the next few minutes. You are informed that the board of directors, during its meeting of February 16th, 2023, notably re-examined all the agreements with related parties. The board thus observed that no regulated agreement was entered into during the 2022 financial year. No regulated agreement entered into during a previous financial year and already approved by the general meeting continued in 2022. You are presented below with a summary of the resolution relating to corporate governance and in particular to the compensation of the company's corporate officers.
Before proceeding with this presentation, we remind you that all the elements relating to the determination and content of the compensation policies for corporate officers, so-called ex-ante votes and information relating to any compensation paid under or allocated during the 2022 financial year, so-called ex post votes, appear on pages one sixty-t- and on the Universal Registration Document, chapter four and chapter eight. Thank you very much. Denis w e will pursue with the presentation of the resolution, 5 to 13, which, those relating to the so-called ex-ante vote. I will call Marie-Françoise Walbaum to join us. She's Chairman of the Remuneration and Appointments Committee, and she will present you with these items.
Hello, everyone. In the framework of the fifth to seventh resolution and in application of the legal provisions relating to the so-called ex-ante vote, you're called upon to vote on the compensation policies for the company's corporate officers for 2023, as approved by the Board of Directors on February 16th, 2023, following the recommendations of the Compensation Committee. As a preliminary, the principles that govern the determination of these policies are displayed on the screen, in particular, respect for the corporate interest and its adequacy with the commercial strategy and the sustainability of the company. The main changes made to the compensation policies compared to 2022 appear on the screen and have been developed in the Universal Registration Document. As in the past, you are presented with a summary of the elements of the said compensation policies for Imerys corporate officers for 2023.
With regard to the chairman of your board, Patrick Kron, his compensation exclusively includes an annual gross fixed compensation which remains unchanged at EUR 400,000. With regard to the compensation policy 2023 for the chief executive officer, the board of directors has decided to make certain significant changes aimed at: to simplify the structure of the annual variable remuneration, to further reflect the commitments made by the group in terms of ESG, to respond to certain observations made by the shareholders on the occasion and since your last general meeting of 2022. The 2023 compensation policy for the chief executive officer would include the following main elements: annual fixed compensation increase to EUR 920,000.
The board considered that its 15% increase was justified due to, on the one hand, the lack of change in the fixed compensation of Alessandro Dazza since he took office three years ago, and the quality of his individual performance during this difficult period. On the other hand, the positioning of his current fixed compensation, which is below that observed within a panel of comparable companies. Annual variable compensation based on the achievement of quantifiable criteria linked to the group's economic and ESG performance, as well as the achievement of personal criteria as described on the screen. Thus, with regard to the quantifiable criteria linked to the group's economic performance, these are unchanged compared to 2022 and include current operating profit, operating free cash flow, and organic revenue growth. These criteria are weighed at 65% of the variable compensation.
The expected levels of achievement are in line with the 2023 budgetary objectives. Regarding the quantifiable criteria linked to the group's ESG performance, these are detailed on the following slide and include, in particular, a criterion relating to the fifth fight against climate change through the reduction of the group's greenhouse gas emissions. These ESG criteria are fully aligned with the group's SustainAgility roadmap presented above, the objectives are set in line with it. The weighting of these criteria is at 15% of the variable compensation. Furthermore, the personal criteria target, among other things, the active management of the business portfolio in line with the group's strategy and the placement of the group on a growth trajectory. The weighting of these criteria is 20% of the variable compensation.
Finally, it is specified that this annual variable compensation is capped at 165% of the annual fixed compensation of the Chief Executive Officer. The compensation of the CEO also includes, in particular, an end of contract indemnity in the event of a forced departure of a maximum amount of 2 years of remuneration, a non-competition indemnity, an amount equal to 1 year of fixed compensation, and the average of the last 2 years of variable compensation and 85,000 performance shares, an increase of 10,000 shares compared to 2022. This increase results partly from that of the overall allocation envelope to all beneficiaries of the group's 2023 general performance share plan and on the other hand, the maintenance of the same allocation percentage set according to the total annual compensation of the CEO.
The 2023 performance share plan would be fully subject to performance conditions based on the group's economic performance, and this is new in 2023 on its ESG performance. These conditions would be set in line with the relevant budgetary objectives and in accordance with the group's ESG sustainability roadmap. The are detailed on screen. The ESG criteria applicable to the annual variable compensation and the long-term compensation in performance shares of the CEO under his 2023 compensation policy are detailed on... Subject of the 7th resolution, the compensation policy, 2023, for members of the board other than your chairman, is unchanged for 2020 from 2022. Thus, the annual remuneration of the members of the board will be determined according to the scale which is displayed on the screen and always within the limit of EUR 1.2 million per year.
This limit has not changed since 2018. In the conference of the eighth resolution, you are asked to vote on the compensation report aimed at bringing to your attention, in a clear and detailed manner, and this for each corporate officer, all the elements of compensation and benefits of any kind and various items relating to their mandate for the past financial year. In the context of the ninth and 10th resolutions, you are also called upon to vote on the elements of compensation paid or allocated in 2022 to each of the executive corporate officers. That is, for the benefit of your chairman of the board, the company allocated and paid in 2022 gross annual fixed compensation of EUR 400,000.
For the benefit of your chief executive officer, the company awarded and paid annual gross fixed compensation of EUR 800,000, a paid annual variable compensation of EUR 1,265,000 following approval by the general meeting of shareholders of May 10, 2022. Awarded an annual variable compensation of EUR 660,000, corresponding to 82.5% of the 2022 annual fixed compensation. Granted an exceptional compensation of EUR 250,000. This award, corresponding to 31.25% of the 2022 annual fixed compensations, is part of the group's successful strategic repositioning in a particularly difficult context, and including, in particular, the sale of the business High Temperature Solutions finalized in January 2023.
With regard to this sale, the board notably took into consideration its strategic and structuring nature for the group and its implementation in accordance with the expected valuation objectives. As a result, the total cash compensation awarded for fiscal year 2022 would be down 17.1% compared to the previous fiscal year. The amounts corresponding to the annual and exceptional variable compensation will be paid subject to the approval of the resolution by the meeting. The 2022 compensation of your chief executive officer also includes an allocation of 75,000 performance shares, fully subjected to performance conditions as well as benefits in kind, representing a book value of EUR 119,880. The following resolutions relate to the composition of the board of directors. The meeting is reminded that Mr.
Aldo Cardoso has expressed the wish not to seek the renewal of his term of office as director as of this meeting. Together with your chairman of the board, we would like to warmly thank Aldo, on behalf of the board, for the quality of his contributions to the work of the board and its committees. During this meeting, it is proposed to you within the framework of the eleventh to thirteenth resolutions to renew the term of office as directors of Mrs. Annette Messemer and Véronique Saubot, expiring at the end of this meeting, and to appoint as director Mrs. Stéphanie Besnier, all for a period of three years.
Stéphanie Besnier, whose information of a professional nature has been made available to shareholders in accordance with legal requirements, has all the qualifications to make a great contribution to the board. Her curriculum vitae is, her CV is displayed on the screen. We thank her for her presence and look forward to welcoming her if you vote in favor. I invite Mrs. Stéphanie Besnier to rise and introduce yourself, please. No microphone for this speaker.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. Stéphanie Besnier. I'm 46 years old. Today, I'm financial director of OVH Cloud, one of the startups in the French tech today, listed on the stock exchange and storage, data storage. My career, I worked as an engineer and an economist.
I worked at the Ministry of Finance. I worked for 15 years within the WendelG roup, a company, family holding, very similar to that, to GBL. In these 15 years, I took part in different investments in the industrial sector, namely. I also took part in the management of investment for Bureau Veritas, another French company active in services. More recently, I joined at the beginning of 2021, during the COVID crisis and then the Ukraine crisis, the Ministry of Finance, during which I had the opportunity to manage the impact of crisis on transportation, on the energy sector, and also the defense sector. These are very strategic for the French government. I joined OVH Cloud more recently.
I am delighted to be with you this afternoon, if you choose to vote favorably for me, it will be dear to me to defend your group. I find it especially interesting to join this board of directors, Imerys being the world leader in its specialty, but also, and most and foremost, supported by a strong transformation commitment, and I thought this was very attractive. It has a strong and clear positioning on these new growing sectors, and the strategy is very inspiring.
In this context, I will try to provide you with, and the board, if you vote in this way, my expertise to steer listed companies, because I was part of a number of listed companies, Orange, ENGIE, Safran, for a few of them, and I supported changes and shifts and transformation of companies for ENGIE namely. It experienced important transformation plans, and I have an experience as an investor and a financial director. Thank you very much for your attention.
I hope that you will follow. You've noted it's in our interest. We better not fall asleep during the resolutions. I think indeed, after having been involved with startups, we're so happy to welcome someone from a startup who is regularly renewed to deal with new adventures upcoming in terms of the green mobility, the energy transition, and so forth, and so forth. I would obviously like to join what Marie-Françoise said, to thank Aldo. I don't know how we can do that in words, because Aldo has greatly contributed to the development of the group over the last 18 years.
All of those battles, for some 15 years, not counting tax where he serves on the Board of Directors in the committees, but as well in specialized committees, in particular in his capacity as Chairman of the Audit Committee and the Strategy Committee. I don't know how many years, but a lot. It's such a pleasure to have Aldo in the Audit Committee. It's an absolute guarantee of serenity of the chair. He's not gonna have to tear out his hair, so much the better. This is absolute solidity. As well as the member of the Strategy Committee, where you've had a vast experience in various industrial areas, which gives a certain amount of weight to your contribution. Thank you so much. We are so attached to Aldo, as is illustrated by his presence here today.
Not only he doesn't want to be renewed, but he wants to accompany us. He's curious enough to come as an outside observer today. I'm not a little, I'm so happy to verify that the good ideas that you've been whispering in our ears will continue to be implemented and be translated into actual facts. I'd like to thank both of you, one for his contribution in the past and the other for her contribution, potentially in the future. There we are. I would like now to hand over once again to Madame Walbaum, who will continue to speak about governance. Thank you. Consequently, and subject to the approval of these resolutions, the new composition of the board of the company will be shown...
That is, which is shown on the screen currently. It shows for each member whether or not they're independent, as assessed by the board of directors on the recommendations of the appointments committee, as well as their membership of the specialized committees of the board. You can see in this list that Mr. Dazza is not replaceable, but he will be succeeded as chair of the audit committee by Lucile Ribot, who's here, who participated in this work for several years now, and who accepted very kindly and with determination and a bit of hesitation, to carry that flame once again in the audit committee. The audit committee to which, if you read it clearly. She went to the École Polytechnique, has a very high level of competency in finance, thanks to her education and experience.
We'd like to welcome her into the team, into Lucile's team, as we indicated just a second ago. As Valerie indicated, given the importance of both the risks of the audit committee and ESG-related concerns that they're also dealing with. Thank you. I've finished, in fact. I'm going to hand over to Denis. Thank you, Marie-Françoise.
We could look at the 14th resolution. Has to do as usual on renewal, a new 18-month period of the authorizations to buyback of shares, with the objective of the new program, as are described on the screen. There's nothing new here. The maximum amount of shares is 10% of capital per period of 24 months, starting January 2023.
Thus, the objective of this program is to keep these shares for use in the future of a merge, merger acquisition or other action or purchase through EUR 85. This plans that the board will not be able to use that authorization in a public offering with the company shares. The 25th resolution authorizes your board to sell all or part of the shares limited to 10% of its capital in over 24 months.
We also propose to renew in favor of the board under the same conditions, in particular, the ceiling and duration for a period of 26 months, all of the delegations of authority and financial authorizations and delegations which had been granted to it by the general meeting dated May 10, 2021, with a view to increasing the company's capital by issuing shares or securities, giving immediate or future access to the company's capital. Traditionally, these financial authorizations have been designed to give the board of directors the greatest latitude and the greatest flexibility in order to decide on the terms of issue that are the most favorable to the company and its shareholders, and the most suitable for the changes in the market in the financial context of the moment. The table appearing on the screen presents the main characteristics of these authorizations.
In the 15th and 16th resolutions, these concern the authors, and the 22nd provides the possibility for the board of directors to carry out one or more capital increases by incorporation of premiums, profits, or any available reserve within a limit of EUR 75 million. The 22nd resolution sets the ceiling, the global ceiling for all of the capital increases, with or without preferential shares that may result from the use of all of these authorizations, and thus has set the global amount of EUR 75 million or 44% of the registered capital. In addition, in the same resolution, plans as well for an overall subceiling common to all capital increases that may be carried out with cancellation of the preferential subscription right of EUR 15 million, or approximately 9% of the existing share capital. This is a subceiling.
Finally, the total nominal amount of marketable securities likely to give access immediately, will be limited to EUR 1 billion. We'd like to point out that all of these resolutions exclude the possibility for the board of directors to make use of these financial delegations during a possible public offer period for the company shares. As this meeting is called upon to decide on the renewal of delegations to the board that may lead to one or more capital increases of the company in cash, it is also proposed to you in the context of the 23rd resolution to renew for a new period of 26 months the delegation of authority to carry out capital increases reserved for group employees who are members of a company savings plan or a group savings plan, and who also fulfill any other conditions imposed by the board of directors.
The ceiling for this authorization is set at 3% of the share capital. It is common to the 24th resolution and is deducted from the overall ceilings provided for in the previous resolution. In the framework of the 24th resolution, you will be asked to vote on the renewal of a certain authorization granted to the board of directors to proceed to the benefit of certain employees and corporate officers in the group with the allocation of performance shares. The conditions and terms of allocation provided for by these new authorizations are identical to those currently in force and impose mandatory performance criteria. The 26th and last resolution is, as usual, to grant the powers necessary to carry out legal formalities subsequent and required for by this meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Musson, for your very short speech. I'd like now to invite Mr. Olivier Bosar, who is signatory partner to Deloitte & Associés, who's on behalf of the College of Statutory Auditors, to present all of the general reports and special reports that are issued in terms of the financial year 2022.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. In the name of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit and Deloitte & Associés, I'm going to report back on our mandate for the exercise closed on the 31st of December 2022. I'd like to summarize the terms of our mission and our report drawn up on the 15th of March 2023, which is on the next page, the Universal Registration Document of Imerys.
In the consolidated financial statements on 311, 371, our annual report on page 312-315, a special report on the regulated agreement on page 316, lastly, a report on the various authorizations for operations on capital of your company on page 351-355. PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte provides the control of all corporate companies and of note in the group. Our work has an objective of obtaining reasonable assurance as to the fairness and accuracy of the consolidated and annual financial statements and the absence of any significant anomalies.
To do this, in accordance with European directive, we have an audit approach which takes into account the changes in risk, the economic environment where the group is evolving in, as well as its affiliates and changes in scope. An audit approach is adapted to the different activities of the group, as well as the organization of the group. Our conclusions were shared with the financial management of the group during regular exchanges and with the general management. We have also reported on the organization of our work to the audit committee, as well as to the board of directors of your company. Compliance with European regulations, our report, it was brought to your knowledge, audit issues in terms of any possible risk of anomalies.
In terms of the consolidated accounts, we have considered four key points: assessment of the recoverable amount of goodwill, assessment of the provisions for dismantling of the industrial site and rehabilitation of mining sites, evaluation of any litigations, and the processing and accounting presentation of operations of sale of the High Temperature Solutions activity as well as the paper market activities. For the annual accounts, we have considered one key point was assessment of participation shares. Subsequent to our work, we have certified without reservations that the group consolidated accounts of your group and the annual accounts of your company. Our work also consists in verifying the management report and other documents that are intended for your attention.
We also verified the sincerity and exactness of information given in the management report, and we attest to the existence in the Board of Directors' report about the corporate governance, any information required by the French Commercial Code. We've also verified that the accounts agreed with the compensation and advantages paid and the commitments with respect to social corporate officers. Concerning the regulated accounts, there were no third-party agreements signed, submitted to the approval of the General Assembly or any conclusions that were that would have been continued. Lastly, we issued 4 reports to the about the capital of your company. One report for the issue of shares or securities with preferential subscription rights within the frameworks of resolutions 15 to 19 and 20 to 22.
A report by statutory auditors on the issue of ordinary shares and/or securities giving access to saving programs in the company in the framework of the 23rd resolution. A report by the statutory auditors on the authorization of attribution of free shares existing or to be issued in the framework of the 24th resolution. For the giving delegation to the board of directors to reduce the capital of the company by canceling its own shares in the framework of the 25th resolution. There are no particular observation on these items and required by us. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your attention. Thank you very much. All is well. If that's a concise one, but it's short, it's short and sweet.
Now, we are going to move on to the more interactive phase of what we're here to do in our exchanges today. I did indicate there was a question, a written question that was handed over to us, and the distribution of a dividend compared to share buybacks. We answered said question. It's a question, as I said earlier, which is kind of a generic question, which involves a lot of companies. I think this question has been shot off to many companies. We answered that. There's no. We pay our shareholders by dividends. There's a very high dividend this year, but it is an ordinary and extraordinary dividend combined. This makes it possible to compensate the dilution due to the possible allocation of performance shares. The conditions of performance shares were there.
You can look at the details of all of this on our site. If you agree, I would like to proceed with the question and answer session. We're available to you in order to respond to any questions you may have, having to do with the general management. There are microphones in the room. Please don't hesitate. Raise your hand. We're available to handle any question you might have for us. We're more than willing to listen. It's hard to ask that first question, but please. Yes, start with the second one. Oh, great. It's up to you, sir. We'll hand you a microphone.
I was wondering for the ongoing sale, do you have dates?
It's hard to predict because we're talking about the future, right? It's definitely difficult to answer that.
There's one ongoing session. His microphone is off. There's one session ongoing which has to do with assets linked to the paper market. We signed an agreement with a private equity fund. From a technical point of view, it's kind of complicated because there are several plants in the world that we need to separate. These are dedicated companies that have to put them together in one company and sell it. So this is ongoing. It's being prepared. Normally, we wanted to do this before the summer. That's the target. You didn't say what year, though, but obviously he means 2023. I think that was it. That was all.
Also, for the litigation about talc. Do you have any dates about that ongoing litigation with respect to talc? As soon as we have our General Counsel.
Denis, would you like to respond? You're the legal representative of the company. If there's any news in this respect. Since the... We'd rather hold back from this kind of pronouncements because there is a trigger for this, which is submitting a new reviewed plan for the reorganization, which is still undergoing negotiation, and it's under mediation, actually, under the court. We'd rather avoid any kind of commitment orally, so long as there are some disturbances involved by Johnson & Johnson, who have announced a new attempt at Chapter 11, which would create some disturbances in the calendar. I think we'd better not do any, make any oral commitments as to dates that we are not able to control. That's unpleasant. We all agree about that. We don't have-- it's not up to us to... It's not our...
The ball is not in our court. It's at. These are tentacles, multiple tentacles. We're obviously, we're sussing out the problem properly, and it has to be approv ed by the courts, and that does take time.
Mr. Chair. Individual shareholder from a long time. I've been following the share value. I wanted to get back to the criteria. There are several criteria. We're talking about ESG. We haven't talked much about the S of ESG. What are you doing with respect to the civil society with respect to shareholders? That's my first question. The second, in your balance sheet, you're talking about Scopes 1 and 2. We don't talk about Scope 3. That's because it's not enough to subcontractor, externalize, or outsource some activities. Scope 1 and 2 pass on to 3, and you just verify the criteria. I think a big part of what ESG is communication. For all companies, it's like that. The IPCC has just issued a report where there's no company that's on the rails to face up to objectives by 2050.
There's not 1 question. There are several questions. Let's talk about the S in ESG. If you look at the point about There are 3 pillars. You have the planet and the environment. That's number 1. The second is products. That's sustainability over the long haul of products that we make. The third is people. In people, there are several things in that S, in that social.
Perhaps these shareholders are less considered. For me, social has everything to do with people that are employees and security and safety. These are programs with community where we work. There's a lot of activities around our mines and our plants, and the whole program of biodiversity and aid provided to the community. That's under S. We do a lot. If you do look at those and the reference document, but also the ten target items that were set for the future, you will see that there are indeed several social, socially orientated actions. You see that these are the shareholders are not considered perhaps. The second question. Well, it's a record distribution. I don't see how you can say that the shareholder is not being considered. One is never considered well enough.
If there are precise areas you would like to raise where we can improve communication, we are all ears. In terms of the share price, we cannot work on the share price. That are the results of what we do. We can't act on that. What we try to do is create the conditions that are conducive to creating value, such that the share price will reflect the creation of value that we have achieved. I am the same as you. I am frustrated by the level of the current stock price. I think, I think that we can hope we'd have a 100% support in terms of this declaration. We are trying to do better. We want that share price to go up.
It has gone up in the last few months. What has happened over the period compared to our peers, every six months, we check what's going on with the competition and what's going on elsewhere. We are not behind them. It's not reason to be satisfied with the current condition, but it is, I mean, comparing does reassure one, but we can certainly do better in the valuation. That's what we're doing in terms of the portfolio and the industrial activities that we're ramping up and improving. The valuation over the long term will be improved. I have a question about Scope 1 and 2 to explain furthermore. If you don't know Scope 1, that is CO₂ and greenhouse gas emissions, which we produce in our own activity.
Scope 2 has to do with electricity and energy that we buy, which clearly causes CO₂ emissions because it's being produced. That's what today we are using, and that's what we're audited on. This is indeed what all institutions considered that needed to be included in those. It's quite simple that Imerys we add to that Scope 3, which is typically upstream transport of whatever we're buying or what customers are buying. This is a difficult time because Imerys has thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of customers which do totally different things. If you take paper and cars and pharmaceuticals and so forth, for us, this is very difficult for us even to estimate, and it has nothing to do with whether it's good or bad. It's just basically to establish this, the amount of CO₂ linked to Scope 3 is an impossible task.
Nonetheless, which you may have seen in the Universal Registration Document, we've committed to reducing Scope 3 with a new commitment that was taken and submitted for approval. We have committed to reduce Scope 3 by 25%, and very often it's difficult to establish who are the suppliers for Scope 3 and the production of CO₂. We have committed by 2030 to reduce it by 25%. The last point, what are we going up to 2050? You're right, Imerys has not been committing to do zero by 2050. We have committed to respecting the temperature, 1.5 degrees by 2030, which is the Paris Agreement, which is very close indeed. We have to do something by 2023. We have to reduce over 5-7 years, 42% of our emissions, which is a lot.
Perhaps we need to stop breathing. I think it's more engaging today to say, "I'm going to reduce this by 42% by 2030," than to say, "I'm gonna be zero at 2050." Certainly, Alessandro will not be here. With the government, you never know with what's going on with retirement. Well, reducing that 42% is not easy. We're committing to it. We've already analyzed and found solutions for 2/3 of that commitment. We have 7 years to find 1/3 left with new technologies and new production and techniques. I think that it's much more meaningful to have a very strong thing over the short haul than something that my successors will be discussing that in 2035. As you said, Alessandro, the processes are audited, the figures are audited.
In other words, this is not just pulled out of our hats to keep people happy. Any other questions? I have a little question about the EMILI project. How's that moving? Where do we stand? How's it coming? Can we dream a little bit about EMILI? We need to dream. That's an obligation, absolutely. That's what we're here for. We found an incredible reservoir of talent at Echassières in the Allier region of France and near our Kaolin site. This is material that we used for porcelain.
There's other clay deposits which have a very good quality and quantity of lithium, so we've done in-depth studies and the board has approved significant investments of about EUR 30 million to do all the necessary studies and to do carroting, to find out the quality of the ore and to determine the technology needed for extraction. Where do we stand? Well, we've almost reached the end of the preliminary studies, which for the moment are very positive. Positive means there is the quantity, there is the quality, and there is the technology to extract it. We're currently studying the cost, of investment, this is gonna be a very heavy investment. We announced something of greater than EUR 1 billion in investments to extract a significant amount of lithium from here to 2028. This is not something that's gonna happen tomorrow.
There are ongoing studies. We have to set up a pilot plant. It's a new technology. It needs to be tested out on a large scale. This will probably be by 2025, 2026. That'll be the time that we would be setting up that pilot plant. A big production plant in France, if all goes well, we'll have production by 34 million tons of lithium and oxide, as it were, per year, which would be the equivalent of 700 thousand.
700 million cars per year.
700,000 cars per year. France is doing 1.3 million a year now, currently. We can dream. We can continue to invest. We're gonna finish running our studies, our assessments, and we'll certainly be in the future. I hope that we'll be making an investment in that pilot plant first and then a big mine, and then a big commercial plant. This is a 5-year project, thankfully. Where every quarter we're saying, "Are we moving forward?" Of course, we're moving forward, but it's a process over the long haul, and we don't wanna make a mistake either. This is a mineral that's not much used currently. There are two other competing technologies for lithium, so don't wanna make a mistake on that technology.
There are some technical aspects and economic aspects in play. That's why we're gonna be running that pilot program. It's not just to save time. It's necessary. I think it makes it possible for us to firm up all the technical criteria. It's good news, I think, but obviously we need to convince other people around us, because traditionally, there are certain people that find that disquieting. Whenever you open a new plant, People's ears perk up, and they're near neighbors that need to explain things to as well. We need to find a place where there are already holes, we can put the waste into those existing holes and the, you don't impact the environment. There's also can be subterranean activity.
There are virtues in terms of protecting the environment. It's more complicated to do subterranean railroads to recover the ore before it's sent on to be refined, and you have to transport it to a plant that would be adapted for the refining process. Didn't hear the question. We need to explain what we're doing. What, what about water? What about noise? We'll explain. The only option is being transparent. That's what we're gonna be doing is transparency.
Any other question? Yes. Last year, you mentioned this deposit of the lithium under the Kaolin one. The national press talked about it extensively and, therefore, the share went up to EUR 40. It went down slightly, but I wanted to ask you, do you have any other projects to look for other minerals? Because I was thinking about cobalt, I was thinking of nickel, copper. Are you researching around the world to try to find new mines? We are gonna rename us, ourselves Imetal, as we were at a time where I had the privilege of being the CEO of the company. I would like to say that we have this lithium mine. We are looking for minerals, industrial minerals, those that we can find on a daily basis, and this is our work.
This is what we look for, kaolin, carbonate. This is what we do on a daily basis. What has changed in the last three years is the ecological transition that started. This is the shift, and this is unavoidable now. This created a big demand for different material. You talked about copper. Yes, there will be more, a better use of copper. Lithium, this is a mineral that is very sought after. Now today, with the lithium batteries, it is something rare that is sought after everywhere. Of course, we try to organize studies and pullings to understand, because lithium is a. Well, there's a concentration at 0.5%-1%, and when you look for the carbonates, it's, you don't look at the tiny elements.
Today, we are restarting studies to make sure that if we can find lithium elsewhere. Other minerals, metals, I'm not think that metals is our core work, but we will see whether there are other interesting minerals that have become more interesting today because of the energy transition. I'm talking about rare earth, and we need to understand this. Typically, they are at 0.01%. These are things we weren't looking for. It was our priority, and today, maybe it can become a business. We haven't found anything on which it's worthy to speak about, but we are really looking into this. There are new needs, of course, that saw the light with this energy transition. We can dream. We can continue to dream. Yes. Very well. Yes, gentleman has a question.
I have a question on the distribution policy for future dividends. It is higher than the results compared to the year. What we could wonder, if this policy will continue in the future and in a more global manner, why not favor a repurchasing of shares? First of all, it is of an exceptional character. It is exceptional. If we had the intention of making it ordinary, we wouldn't have called it extraordinary. There are two elements, as I said. Compensation, the traditional one that corresponds to the net current results, which means outside of outstanding these exceptional elements, 46%-47%, if you look at the history, this is in line. Exceptional elements, they go over the results.
It is not important because in fact, what counts is that we had a closing and we did it at the beginning of 2023, and we considered that we needed to give back a third of the amount. I'm not saying that this will be a program that will take place each time for the. Rare. We can talk about those if we. We didn't have exceptional distribution at that time, but we'll decide on a case per case basis. There will not be these exceptional dividends systematically. I mean, since one dream will become a reality, we will need to use a lot of money and CapExes, so we will see. If you think it is not a good thing, do not vote for this exceptional dividend. What is going on? Should I?
Please stand in front of me there for... I can look at you. Otherwise, I will see the door across from me. Do not speak on the side. No, I was looking at the gentleman because if I say something wrong, they do not hear otherwise. Sorry about that. Should I use another type of microphone? Two mics next time, I promise. Okay. One on my tie. Okay. I promise. Next time, I will give you a microphone. I have my two microphones. I hope you will not to have too many sound issues. Sometimes I look at people asking questions. I promise not to do it again. Do we have any other question, any further question in the room? Gentleman. I'm curious about the financing plan for the project. We cannot be too quick.
The lithium project, what we communicated since the beginning of the project, we announced in October 2022. It is an important project for our group. We're talking about EUR billions. Today, Imerys invests every year around EUR 300 million. This is recurring. plus strategic investments on the opening of new plants, EUR 85 million this year. We can say that the investment is about between EUR 300 million-EUR 400 million. EUR 1 billion is huge for the group. A billion is for one project and the EUR 300 million, EUR 400 million on 300 projects. You see, it's not exactly of the same nature. For this reason, we announced to the market that we will consider inviting partners. We have time. We need to finish our studies, understand the value of the project between valuing it and valorizing it.
This is what we have ahead to decide how to finance it. It could be France and Europe want to support these type of projects on the European level with subsidies and a financial support one way or the other. This is under discussion in Europe. We do not have the answers yet, expected answers yet, but we will get something. This is very strategic for Europe. We have time before our big investments. That is important for the company, and we'll not make it, change it into a danger for the company. This is a big project. We have to go step by step to tackle the risks and to see what the best way possible is for our company to finance it with partners, alone, in that way or the other. Today, we have to follow our...
pursue our an analysis and know what we have in hand, the value of this project. Maybe, yes, we need to reduce the risk, how we can share the upside, as we say in English, the value, and how we reduce risks when there are difficulties. We take all of this into consideration, we need to look at it, closer. Very well. I do not dare taking a look at people in the room anymore. I'm gonna be yelled at, okay, I have the authorization. Ladies and gentlemen, what I suggest to do is to give the floor to our financial director and our legal advisor and president of the board who will explain how we are going to vote.
Th ank you, Mr. President. The first time, we have, voting boxes that were handed out by the hostesses. To use these voting boxes, three keys: the green key corresponds to a vote for, in favor of the resolution, the red key to vote against the resolution, and the yellow key for an abstention. We will read the resolution, the title of the resolution. You will have 12 seconds then to vote. If you make a mistake, you can press on any key, and the last one pressed will count. The last key pressed will count. We will see all of the results on the screen in the room a few moments after closing the vote. After the assembly, I will thank you to please hand back these voting boxes to the ladies who have lent them to you. If you wish, to the host and hostesses.
If you wish, we suggest that you vote on a test question to familiarize yourself with the box. The test question was chosen to make sure we will do better than this test question during the real vote. We will proceed to this test question. The question being: Are you satisfied with the weather in Paris today? The voting is open. The hourglass is running. If you said, say 100% yes. The vote is closed. The assembly is in a good mood. Very good. Therefore, I now that this test was a success, I submit... Well, success, I don't know. We could discuss this. The first resolution relative to the approval of the 2022 financial statements. The vote is open. Voting is closed. Better than the weather. The second resolution relative to the consolidated financial statement 2022. The vote...
The vote is open. Thank you. Voting is closed. This was approved. We can say it was approved. Resolution number 3 on the allocation of earnings and the determination of the 2022 dividend. The vote is open. Perfect. We can move on to resolution number 4. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Resolution number 5 now. If we don't say vote is open, does it open anyhow? Okay. Anyway. Yeah, it is. Voting is open. Favorable result. We can move on to resolution number 6 on the 2023 compensation policy for the CEO. Voting is open. Let's do better than the weather result. This resolution is also approved. We can move on to resolution number 7 on the 2023 compensation policy for the board members. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Very well. Approval of this resolution.
We can move on to resolution number 8 on the report on the 22 compensation of corporate officers. Voting is open. Voting is closed. This resolution number 8 is also adopted. Resolution number 9 now on the 2022 compensation of the chairman of the board of directors, Patrick Kron. Voting is open. Voting is closed. The resolution is also approved. We're moving on to resolution number 10 on the 2022 compensation of the Chief Executive Officer, Alessandro Dazza. Voting is open. Voting is closed. The resolution is also adopted. We're moving to resolution 11 on the renewal of Annette Messemer's term of office as director. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Resolution 12 is adopted. Resolution 13 on the appointment of Véronique Saubot's term of office, renewal of her term of office as director. Voting is open. Voting is closed. The resolution is also adopted.
We are moving to resolution number 13 on the appointment of Stéphanie Besnier as director. Voting is open. It's not 100%, it's rather good, rather positive. We can move on to resolution number 14 on the action by the company the buyback of its company of its share. Voting is open. Voting is closed. The resolution is also adopted. We are moving on to resolution number 15 on the delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the share capital of the company with maintenance of the preferential subscription right. Voting is open. Voting is closed. The adoption number 15 is also largely adopted. We're moving to resolution 16 on the delegation of authority to the board of directors for. Voting is open. Voting is closed. The resolution is also adopted.
We're now on resolution number 17 on the delegation given to the board of directors to increase the share capital of the company with removal of PSR. The vote is open. Voting is closed, and the resolution is adopted. Let's move on to resolution number 18 on the increase of the number of shares to be issued in the event of capital increase with or without PSR. The voting is open. The resolution is adopted. We're moving on to resolution number 19, the authorization given to the board to set the issue price of the shares in the event of the cancellation of the PSR within a limit of 10% of the capital per year. Voting is open. I didn't give you vodka, though. It was water. Resolution is also adopted.
We're moving on to resolution number 20 on the delegation increase in nature, contributions in kind, sorry. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted resolution 21 now on the delegation given to the board to increase the share capital of the company by incorporating reserves, profits, merger premiums, contributions or other. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Adopted. Moving on to resolution number 22 on the overall limitation of capital increase. Voting is open. The resolution is also adopted. We can move on to resolution number 23 on the delegation given to the board to increase the share capital of the company reserve for company savings plans with the cancellation of the DPS. Voting is open. Adopted. We're moving on to resolution number 24. We still have two more. On the authorization given to the board to allocate bonus shares to employees or corporate officers of the group.
Voting is open. Voting is closed. The resolution is adopted. We are moving on to resolution number 25 on the authorization given to the board to reduce the company's share capital by canceling treasury shares. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Very well. The resolution is also adopted. We are moving on to resolution number 26 on powers for formalities. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Thank you very much for all those votes. The resolution is adopted. Thank you, Dennis. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. We are now coming to the end of this assembly. The final resolutions, as you have seen, have been approved, and the details of the votes will be available as soon as possible on our internet website. The company website. Ladies and gentlemen, the agenda is exhausted. We are too.
This is why we declare the meeting adjourned at 4:30 P.M. I would like to inform those who would like to stay that a refreshment is provided upstairs for the shareholders. Please come by. Thank you, everyone.