Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, welcome to Orange's Combined General Meeting. I'm happy to see you again for this essential moment in the life of your company, which is a preferred opportunity for myself, our CEO, and the team around her to show you our achievements and projects and to answer your questions. It's also a pleasure to see you again here in this wonderful Salle Pleyel after over the last two years, and given the health crisis that impacted us all, after having had to organize our general meetings remotely. In order to have ample time for dialogue with you and who are present today, and as authorized by the Commerce Code, the answers to written questions that were sent to us were put online on the specific homepage for the general meeting on our website, orange.com.
Nicolas Guérin, our corporate secretary, will give you later the names of people and organizations who asked questions and how many. First of all, I would like to share with you some legal information on how this combined general meeting is going to be organized. Pursuant to the law in Article 21 of Orange's Articles of Association, I will act as chair of the general meeting organized on first notice. The preliminary notice of meeting was published in the BALO on 28th February, and a convening notice was published in the BALO on 20 April, as well as on actu-juridique.fr. Therefore, all legal information was correctly published. The required quorum has already been reached, both for the ordinary and the extraordinary part of the assembly. The provisional quorum is 73.9%. We will share with you the final quorum during the meeting.
I will now call to order this general meeting, and I suggest that we appoint as tellers the two shareholders with the largest number of votes are Bpifrance Participations and the French government. However, in order to promote pluralism and representation within our general meeting, Bpifrance Participations agreed for the employee share ownership fund Orange Actions, the third-largest shareholder of Orange after the government and itself, to act as teller in its stead. I will now appoint as tellers the government, represented by Mr. Charles Sarrazin, and the Orange Actions fund, represented by Ms. Nadia Zak Calvet. If they so agree, I suggest that we appoint Nicolas Guérin, Corporate Secretary and Secretary of the Board of Directors, as secretary of the meeting.
I have with me on stage Christel Heydemann, CEO, Ramon Fernandez, EVP and Head of Finance, Performance, and Development, and Nicolas Guérin, Corporate Secretary and Secretary of the Board of Directors. The other members of the executive board are also present today, and they can answer your questions later. I'd like to take this opportunity to commend the directors once again for the work that they've accomplished. They are here today. Also for the work done by the various committees of the board of directors. They are the guarantors of the rules of governance that we care about particularly strongly about. Our board of directors met 12 times in 2021, with collective attendance of its members of 97.2% and a usual meeting duration of 3.5 hours.
That does not include the 21 meetings of the three preparatory committees, the Audit Committee, the Governance and Corporate and Social Environmental Responsibility Committee, and the Innovation and Technology Committee. The statutory auditors of Orange are also present. They are the firms Deloitte & Partners and KPMG. Finally, I would like to thank our Shareholders' Advisory Committee for their involvement and their contribution and the constant improvement of our relationship with the shareholders. Now, let's come back to some more legal information. All of the usual documents are made available to the meeting. Legal documents were sent to all shareholders who requested them. The convening brochure, including an executive summary of the group's situation in 2021, as well as the agenda and the text of the resolutions, were sent to all registered nominative shareholders, either digitally or by mail.
All legally required documentation for this meeting is also accessible via the legal department and accessible online on the specific general meeting homepage on our site, orange.com. The current assembly is asked to vote on both ordinary and extraordinary matters, so on the management report, the report on corporate governance, and the board of directors' report on the resolutions for the general meeting. The additional board report on the resolutions presented by the Orange Actions fund. The reports from statutory auditors on annual and consolidated financial statements and the statutory auditors' reports on resolutions and regulated third-party conventions. If you agree, I'm not going to read these various reports that are already available to you in the 2021 Universal Registration Document and also in the convening brochure. Your meeting is also asked to vote on 21 draft resolutions established by your board of directors.
Two draft resolutions are presented by the Orange Actions fund. They were not approved by your board of directors. I would like to remind you that we have made internet voting available before today's meeting, and I would like also to greet the many shareholders following us live on orange.com, our website. To start this meeting, and before Christel Heydemann takes the floor, it is with certain emotion that I'm speaking before you for the last time. 11 years after speaking before you for the first time as Chairman and CEO of this wonderful company, Orange, in February 2011, I can see how far we've come together. Of course, it was sometimes a winding road, and we've been through difficult moments, but what I'll remember above all is Orange's strength.
Your company, as complex as it is endearing, was able to recover from an unprecedented industrial crisis and was able to take up daunting challenges and face many headwinds while starting structural projects for its future. Personally, it's with great pride that I harnessed my energy and my passion for this group and ever since the first of March 2010, when I was appointed CEO for the first time. I think that we've written a new page in the history of the company marked by the end of the France Télécom era. In the world of telcos and digital, maybe even more quickly than in other industries, transformations were deep, quick, and complex. We've been through several revolutions, in networks as well as in users.
The advent of 4G and then 5G on mobile, the deployment of fiber optics on fixed lines, the boom in smartphones and new uses like streaming or the emergence of fierce competition embodied in the GAFAMs. The digitalization of our lifestyles was further amplified by the pandemic, and we're now in the all-digital era. It is marked amongst other things by the rise of artificial intelligence, but also the first signs of breakthrough technologies that could provide decisive contributions to the fight against climate change and the reduction of development inequality in the world, but also the appearance of new threats like cyberattacks. In this constantly changing environment, Orange started several projects at the same time to start its transformation.
Pacified on the industrial relations front and consolidated on the financial front, now our company is recognized as a global industrial leader, especially thanks to its lead in the deployment of fiber optics. We were also ambitious, and we made bets that turned out to be winning bets to fuel our long-term growth. Lastly, in spite of a particularly uncertain current context, the mobilization of the whole team helped us make progress on many strategic projects over the last 12 months. In 2010, France Télécom was a company grappling with a deep social and human crisis. Reestablishing a climate of trust was to be the number one priority.
Several flagship measures were put in place, first amongst which the creation of a new social contract, but also the construction of our employer promise at Orange and the promotion of a new managing model, management model. The social survey that was established then helps measure how much our employees embraced this new project defended by the management. In 2020, over 90% of employees said they were proud of working at Orange. At the same time, a deep transformation project was started in France without any conflicts or strikes, with demanding social dialogue, but constant social dialogue. With that, the Orange Group was able to face a difficult competitive context in France with, as you'll remember, the arrival of a fourth mobile operator as early as 2012.
This arrival was a major shock and destroyed nearly EUR 4 billion worth of value on the French telco market in two years between 2011 and 2013. The mobilization of the whole team as well as their confidence in Orange's strategy were fully instrumental in the company's resilience to this earthquake. Our resilience was organized around three pillars, the quality of our network, a renewed marketing positioning, with especially the launch of Sosh on the low-cost segment, and finally, our open convergent offering. The arrival of this new player with still limited mobile coverage on the national territory raised the fundamental question of how this new operator would use Orange's 2G and 3G networks. A so-called roaming net contract was negotiated in spite of much resistance and much controversy.
Fully owned by Orange, this risk-taking turned out to be profitable on the financial, industrial, and commercial fronts. At the same time as there were upheavals on the mobile front, the past decade started an unprecedented turning point in fixed infrastructure with the arrival of fiber optics. We were the first operator to bet on fiber and to start deploying it. Now, Orange has the best assets on this technology in Europe. In 2025, the whole national territory should be covered by fiber. Fifteen years after the start of fiber, of this huge project. You need to be aware of that, this is a real industrial prowess to be compared with how long it took to deploy the fixed copper landline network, 40 years, or the electrical grid, 90 years.
With over 30 million premises eligible for FTTH, France is now the most covered country in Europe when it comes to fiber, and it's our pride and joy. Having deployed nearly 2/3 of all plugs, Orange was instrumental in this success. As a direct consequence of the health crisis, the subscription rate is accelerating, and now France has 14 million subscribers for fiber optics. In Europe, with close to 56 million collectible homes, we are the most widely recognized operator with this technology. This massive investment could be achieved with robust financial management of the company, allowing Orange to post one of the best balance sheets in the sector. This result is remarkable given the particularly stringent constraints on telco operators in Europe. Overall, the industry suffered greatly when you compare it with telcos in Asia or North America.
Between 2017 and 2021, the stocks telecom index for Europe declined by 1.1% when the equivalent index grew by 23.3% in North America and 4.8% in Asia. We have to admit that the market structure cannot be compared. Imagine that in China and in the U.S., there are three national operators when there are over a hundred in Europe. Against this backdrop, Orange has been posting since the beginning of the year the best stock market performance on the market with +24.6%. At the same time, as we worked to clean up the company situation on the industrial relations and financial fronts, we've started several strategic projects to fuel our long-term growth.
Geographically speaking, we've streamlined our locations in order to grow in Africa and Middle East, while successfully becoming the first convergent operator in Europe. Now, Orange Middle East and Africa's excellent results confirm its driving role in the company's growth. After a decade when we had external growth operations, Orange Middle East and Africa is now a full-fledged subsidiary. Since 2020, it's been headquartered in Casablanca in Morocco, halfway between the European and African markets. OMEA, as it's called, is now our main growth engine in Africa. In 2021, accounted for 15% of the group's revenues and 18% of its EBITDA versus respectively 7% and 9% in 2010. With 135 million customers in 18 countries, every 10th African person is an Orange customer.
Orange's ambition, while investing over EUR 1 billion a year on that continent, is to be the favorite operator for Africans in 2025, thanks to its strengthened leadership in terms of networks and the execution of its multi-service strategy, including Orange Money with 25 million clients, active clients, which is a great illustration. We can also be proud of the socioeconomic impact of our business in the countries where we operate. In Senegal, for instance, Orange contributes up to 18% of the country's GDP. Orange Money is also a great driver for financial inclusion on the whole continent. Our long-term growth will also be fed by the diversification of the businesses offered by the digital transformation in society.
We started investing as early as 2014 in cybersecurity, so Orange was positioned very early on on this growing market and it now has a unique positioning compared to other telco operators. Orange Cyberdefense has excellent results, and its revenues grew by 14% in 2021. That shows that Orange has a significant asset to support its customers. Banking is a bold diversification move also. In 2017, we started Orange Bank in France with the aim to democratize innovation and access to digital banking, thanks to synergies to be built between the banking sector and that of telcos. This first step was followed by the launch of Orange Bank in Spain in 2019, then in Côte d'Ivoire in the summer of 2020.
With 1.8 million customers in Europe, Orange Bank was able to carve its niche on the neobank market, and we were able to pull off that strategic pivot towards value-driven development. Orange has also always been a committed operator, careful about a responsible economic performance. While the environmental demands have kept growing within society in the last decade, our group was always a forerunner in this respect. As early as 2010, the Green ITN plan set a goal to reduce the energy use for our networks and information systems. That energy use was cut by 3% between 2016 and 2018, whereas usage growth was exponential and data traffic on our mobile networks was growing by 40% per annum. Environmental performance is still one of our priorities more than ever, as illustrated by our latest strategic plan, Engage 2025, setting our goal to be carbon.
Net carbon neutral by 2040. This will include the development of the circular economy, massive use of decarbonized energy, but also significant reduction of our CO2 emissions. Moreover, under our impetus at the GSMA, the whole industry has committed to reach carbon neutrality at the latest in 2050. Technological solutions are a great tool to serve humanity. However, at Orange, we share the belief that their massive adoption cannot be unconditional. That's why every day we are promoting a responsible digital industry akin to a belief that was translated into our company purpose enshrined in 2020 in our articles of association. I'll quote it here. "Orange is the trusted partner who gives everyone the keys to a responsible digital world." Much has been done over the last decade to support the group's long-term growth while respecting citizens as well as the environment.
This was also the case in the last 12 months, during which many achievements were made in spite of a particularly uncertain context. In December 2021, a so-called intergenerational agreement was signed by three trade unions representing nearly 55% of votes at the latest occupational elections. It will apply for the period 2020 to 2024, with ambitious measures in favor of employees at the end of their careers for inclusion of young people and knowledge transmission. In line with our tradition of social dialogue at Orange, this agreement was co-designed in the utmost respect of the men and women who make the company up, and the success of this implementation will be conditional on specific care given the human aspects. Four months after it came into force, the employees' appetite for it shows good momentum.
I'm also glad of the success of the employee share ownership operation that was concluded in 2021 called Orange Together. Over 64,000 employees from 37 countries subscribed to it, and thanks to this operation, employee share ownership will reach 7.4% of the company share capital at the end of 2021 versus 6.1% in 2020. Reinventing our job as an operator, that was the central ambition in our Engage 2025 strategic plan. This goes through optimized management of our infrastructures, among other things. That's the reason why, as we had committed to, this year, and after two years of work, we launched TOTEM, our European Tower Co.
With a current portfolio of 26,000 sites in France and Spain, the launch of TOTEM is a key step in our European infrastructure strategy because the creation of this entity will help us value our mobile passive infrastructure, for which we have leading operating expertise. In terms of fixed infrastructure, we successfully created Orange Concessions. As a new company owned 50% by Orange and 50% by a consortium of long-term industrial partners, the Banque des Territoires, EDF Invest, and CNP Assurances. This evidences our desire to roll out fiber for all men and women in France, in particular in rural territories. Orange Concessions illustrates fruitful collaboration and a value-creating partnership between national players coming together to bring a collective answer to the challenges posed by the country's digital development.
Moreover, its excellent valuation at close to EUR 2.7 billion, or EUR 600 a plug, is evidence of how well it's recognized by the markets. In April, we also announced a fiber co in Poland as a joint venture valued at EUR 605 million. Lastly, this year was particularly rich in terms of development. In Romania, we signed in November 2020 an agreement to take over one of the main fixed operators in the country, TKR. This step was a major step in our strategy to become the biggest converging operator in the country, which is now a done thing. Since the signature, our companies have been hard at work to succeed in the integration, and we launched our first convergent offer in Romania as early as March 2022.
In Belgium, in December, we announced the signature of an agreement to acquire the operator VOO after starting exclusive negotiations with Nethys in November. Once again, this signature is the culmination of a long journey. VOO will support our developments, our long-term development in Belgium, and will concretely contribute to making Orange a 100% convergent operator in Europe. Finally, on the 8th of March this year, we announced our partnership project with MásMóvil in Spain. As you know, this is a particularly difficult market. This partnership would be a joint venture co-controlled 50% by Orange and 50% by MásMóvil. With valuation of close to EUR 20 billion, this operation could be the biggest of the last few years in the telco sector.
The new entity will have its own network infrastructure, a high-quality infrastructure which is a significant asset to stem the slide towards low cost offers and the multiplication of players. Since 2010 and until the last moments of my term, I've worked every day with passion at the service of the Orange Group. I invested my soul, my energy, and the best of myself in it. Before I conclude, I would like to pay specific tribute to the 147,000 employees of the group everywhere in the world. Network technicians, shop sales operators, undersea cable operators, cybersecurity and cloud specialists, bankers, experts in marketing, finance, regulation, communication, human resources, researchers, data scientists, our engineers, our back office team in our business units and in our head offices from Lannion to Antananarivo, Madrid to Bucharest, Casablanca to Warsaw. They are the real asset of this group.
Their professionalism, expertise, and talent are priceless. I've learned so much from meeting them worldwide. It was an immense privilege to have been their captain. I would also like to thank our demanding but loyal shareholders, who, with us, went through this decade of change and challenges with ups and downs who are viscerally attached to Orange. I'm now leaving my functions as chairman with great emotion, but with pride, given what we've accomplished together. I think that together we have collectively proven how robust and ambitious we are, and also how able we are to face the unexpected. I sincerely believe that Orange is stronger now than it was 12 years ago, and that it has a rosy future ahead of it.
Before I give the floor to Christel Heydemann, I would like to give her my best wishes for success at the helm of this wonderful company of which she's been the CEO since the 4th of April. I know she's got the required vision, energy, and determination to keep growing Orange and organize its collective life. It is with you, dear shareholders, with support from your board of directors and the whole team of the group, that you'll write a new page in your history that promises to be exciting. Thank you.
Mesdames et messieurs, chers actionnaires.
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. A few weeks after starting as CEO of your company, I'd like first of all to say how happy I am to have joined Orange. I'm very proud to be writing with you, a new page in the story of your group. First of all, I'd like to thank everybody who has welcomed me warmly and enthusiastically everywhere I've been since the 4th of April. I also want to congratulate Stéphane Richard for everything he's done over the last 12 years. He's turned the company around, he's worked hard every day serving our company to consolidate it and to help it grow. I'm honored, motivated and determined as I speak to you here today.
I believe that Orange has exceptional potential to play a leading role in the digital and telecom sector and in society more broadly. I also feel profoundly responsible, and given the current context and the instability thereof, characterized in particular by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the climate emergency. Now, while our sector has seen its ups and downs over the last few years, the transformations to come will be even further reaching, even more structural in nature. They will continue to affect our daily business, our daily lives, and will leave no economic aspect untouched. Opportunities are numerous, but these challenges are huge. I know that Orange has robust assets which will enable us to tackle those challenges and turn them into collective successes.
My priority, therefore, will be to accelerate the workstreams we've initiated in your company in order to ensure they succeed, and before thinking collectively about to plan ahead for structural changes to our ecosystem. In the last two years, we have seen once more proof of Orange's resilience and responsiveness to emergencies. More than ever, we need to continue striving to meet the targets we've set ourselves. In spring 2020, the world was plunged into an unprecedented state of shock with the pandemic and the announcement of one lockdown after another. Networks showed how critically important they are for society in order to ensure business continuity, educational continuity for our children, and to ensure continuity of social bonds. Everywhere and resiliently, our networks withstood that shock.
True to our DNA as a socially responsible operator, Orange was responsible and showed itself to be so. First of all, our networks absorbed the spike in traffic of up to 30% on our networks in Europe. We also bolstered and upgraded our platforms' capabilities in order to facilitate working from home, which increased sevenfold over the period. Everywhere we're present, we worked with public authorities, and our foundations also stepped up. This unprecedented period also accelerated and amplified the digital transformation of society. It's caused a boom in certain uses, streaming, video conferencing, for example, and has created growth in citizens' needs and companies' needs for connectivity. To meet that need, our digital infrastructure, our networks are more important than ever.
Orange proved itself resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and its ability also to respond to an emergency and resist an external shock. If we were able to overcome those challenges, it's because collectively, we're able to draw on our solid, robust assets. The first of these assets is our human capital, the 147,000 women and men working everywhere across the world to serve our customers, whether they be individuals or companies. For over the last few weeks, as I've been around France, Spain, Romania and Morocco, I can see that everyone is as committed to and invested in customer service and serving the companies, and I'd like to thank everyone for that hard work.
I'm also thinking about our infrastructure in terms of an asset. Our strategy has always been to stand out thanks to the quality of our networks. In landlines, for example, we went for fiber optic as of the early 2010s. Now, that was not an obvious choice to begin with, but now with over 30 million eligible households, France has the highest rate of fiber connectivity in Europe. This is an achievement and it's a legacy. We can be proud of both of those. In mobile networks, our French network was awarded top French mobile network by Arcep in 2021 for the 11th consecutive year. And since 2019, we've been rolling out 5G across six European countries.
In Africa and the Middle East, we have the same ambition, investing over EUR 1 billion in our networks every year. Lastly, we have growth drivers which are starting to bear fruit. Middle East and Africa with revenue growth of up to 10% in 2021 is the first of those growth drivers. With over 135 million customers, 45 million with 4G connections, Orange is the third biggest operator on the African continent. It's also invested in cybersecurity from 2014 before any other telecom operator. Having made a number of acquisitions, Orange Cyberdefense is now one of the European leaders in its field and has an ongoing target of achieving EUR 1 billion in revenue by end of 2023.
Cybersecurity has been growing rapidly since the start of the pandemic, which unfortunately has led to a boom in cyberattacks and threats thereof. Orange, we wish to protect our customers from that. Other digital transformations have also grown, accelerated over the last few years. While we have major opportunities coming on stream and continuing to do so, we nonetheless need to be clear-sighted about reality in order to prepare ourselves and adapt for this structural change. In France, faster and faster shift from the copper network to a fiber optic network is going to impact us in various ways. First of all, financially. It will fundamentally reshape our financial model, moving from a model where we owned 100% of the network, i.e.
the copper network, and into a situation where we only own 60% of the fiber optic network, will necessarily create a drop in wholesale revenue and an increase in tenancy or rental costs from other networks. Our good performance in retail helps us offset that thanks to the hard work every year, every day of Orange France. This is also an important cultural shift for our group, which is the incumbent operator and has a history as such, and we therefore need to support our teams in the face of this development. Society's digitalization leaves no economic actor untouched, business and public authorities alike, however big they are or small.
That impacts our business in the corporate market, and so strong growth of customer needs in terms of connectivity is being accompanied by widespread take-up of IT cloud-based solutions. Technology such as big data or artificial intelligence are often core to these transformation projects. While we're already involved in these subjects, and sometimes we lead on them, nonetheless, we do need to fundamentally rethink and transform the way we operate and our skills. Now, those are massive challenges, but I know we have everything it takes to meet those challenges and together build future success. We need to remain striving to draw full potential from our avenues of development.
In the Middle East and Africa, we have strong potential for growth still and big ambitions in terms of diversification and cyber security. We've been able to make the most of the head start we had of our peers in order to scale up in a more and more competitive environment. We're also accelerating our operational efficiency program called Scale Up. The target of that is to make EUR 1 billion of net savings by 2023, which will allow us to fund some of our growth projects. It's also an opportunity to think together about how we can improve the way we work and prepare for the future with confidence.
That covers our corporate culture, it covers simplifying the way we operate, it, and it covers strengthening and increasing resource pooling, and also accelerating digitalization and automating things in order to serve growth. Our human capital, our infrastructure, and our growth drivers, therefore, are robust, solid assets, and they will be core to my strategy for Orange. That strategy will capitalize on all the projects we have ongoing and whose success is key, but it depends on our ability to actually implement them. Moving to Spain, we see the first signs of an improvement in the trend due to the unstinting hard work of all our teams.
A number of projects have been carried out simultaneously the last few months in order to improve our performance on a market which is heavily impacted, burdened by the low-cost trend. We've therefore reduced our brands portfolio to simplify the marketing strategy. We've streamlined our distribution model and carried out the carve-out of our towers by launching TOTEM. We're seeing the first fruit of this, and Spain continues to recover as a market, in particular, through an improved trend with regard to retail services. Our joint venture with MásMóvil is a big step forward. It will allow us to bolster our position and create an actor which has the necessary resources to carry out the necessary investments to develop the Spanish market.
The success of this major strategic project is a priority, and the deal is set to be signed this summer and finalized by the end of second quarter of 2023, assuming it's approved by the competent authorities as regards administration, regulation, and competition. At group level, we continue to rethink the way we manage our infrastructures in order to best prepare for the industrial model of tomorrow. In landlines, FiberCos are effective tools to accelerate the rollout of fiber optic. In France, as Stéphane reminded us, last November, we launched Orange Concessions. This is a new company with a strong ambition, which is to make fiber optic accessible to everybody across rural areas, drawing on the expertise of all, each of our partners.
We also started a FiberCo in Poland, which will allow us to roll out 2.5 million fiber optic connection points in Poland. Considering the passive infrastructure, our TowerCo TOTEM is now fully operational, and in April, we were able to present its first financial results. With a first quarter turnover of EUR 161 million, we are now able to take the necessary actions to create or increase the value creation from that asset. That will involve, for example, increasing the tenancy ratio on TOTEM infrastructure. At the moment, it's set at 1.34, but our target is to increase it to 1.5 by 2026.
We also need to be responsive in order to seize opportunities for inorganic growth as they present themselves. Now, managing our infrastructure raises a number of unspoken questions, which are broader. Sovereignty, the target industrial model for telecoms operators, in particular on the corporate market, in order to continue and grow profitably. The digital transformation is obviously a fundamental shift for companies, 75% of which say that the pandemic has been a shot in the arm for them in terms of digitalization. As a telecoms operator, we need to draw on our expertise in order to take the opportunities which will feed into our growth and which will allow us to grow whilst transforming. More than ever, networks are the backbone of the digital ecosystems of the corporate world.
Orange has a number of assets here as well. Our unique position with SD-WAN, with a software approach to corporate network management, is a good tangible example of that. Cybersecurity is also a strategic pillar of development for our group, as we have made a number of key achievements in this field. In cloud computing, Orange has a huge asset over hyperscalers, which is trust. We can therefore play a leading role in creating a new European alternative, a third way between China and America. More generally, the way our companies operate, the way companies operate is a major challenge for telecoms operators, and that has major impacts on our business model.
The greater need for connectivity and the shift towards IT solutions as collaborative solutions makes us need to think about how we can sustainably grow corporate business at Orange, and we're looking at all options on the table in order to draw full potential from this business line to increase our agility and responsiveness on a very competitive market. Extending our footprint to the African market was an ambitious choice, but now it is a success and an undeniable one. In 10 years, Orange has become one of the top three telecoms operators in Africa. While the European market is a mature and fragmented one with over 90 operators, in Africa the situation is very different. With regard to our core business and multiservice business, there is huge potential for revenue growth.
That will involve investing in quality networks and developing use models. Our strategic vision is clear, and we have identified growth drivers. Mobile data, revenue from which increased by 20% and more last year, as well as superfast broadband which has over 2.5 million customers, as well as the B2B or corporate market. Now, while our performance is exceptional, we nonetheless need to ensure we remain vigilant in order not to be outcompeted by new players. In mobile money, for example, the new startup Wave disrupted the Senegalese market over a few months and is spreading across Africa. However, our response plan and our hard work allowed us to limit the consequences of that.
Though the impact on our revenue was not neutral, and the threat has not been entirely seen off. We therefore need to draw our lessons from that experience in order to identify ways we can improve. In the longer term, building the future, preparing for the future for Orange will involve necessarily thinking about the structural changes afoot in our ecosystem. True to its history, Orange needs to remain a leading-edge player with a spirit of boldness and innovation. Moving to a digital world will inevitably require relying on our networks more, and we therefore need to think ahead, plan ahead for the fundamental shifts and changes in those. Having bet big on fiber optic network in France, by 2030 we will embark upon another huge project, decommissioning the copper network.
Because for financial, operational, and environmental reasons, we can't operate two networks in parallel. That's the way things are going, and moving away from copper is a collective thing we're doing to help modernize our country for the digital economy. The consequences will be beneficial for everyone across the sector, but in particular for customers, whether they be individuals or companies. My ambition is therefore to keep us at the leading edge of telecoms tech in the future, as we've always been. Because networks will not be spared by the natural shift towards new technologies, in particular software-supported solutions. This is a disruptive change which is going to hit our core business, our expertise and our skills.
We therefore need to continue thinking harder, step up our research efforts, in order to build the operator of the future and maintain leadership. As a telecom operator, our digital ecosystem is, by definition, in constant evolution, and finding the right position on it is therefore both a necessity and a challenge. Part of that is about regulation. In Europe, like all our peers, we have an adverse environment to deal with. The consequences are market fragmentation and lower profitability than elsewhere in the world. Things can change, and to do that, we need to be proactive.
The geopolitical tensions we've seen in the last few years between the U.S.A and China and the falling out of favor of the domination of big tech are opportunities for Europe to create a third way for a more responsible, respectful digital economy. That's the point of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act which the EU is championing. Operators also need to be supported with fairer sharing of the financial burden of investing in networks, 55% of which traffic is monopolized by only a few players. This throws up the question of the asymmetric regulatory framework between some of the major digital giants and telecoms operators.
We therefore need to rethink our relationship with the GAFAM, the big tech firms, which are both partners as well as competitors. Now they are starting to become teleoperators, telecom operators as well. The six-hour outage which hit WhatsApp in October last and led to the number of SMS and MMSs being sent to double or even triple reminded of this in intangible form. Yet they are huge players in the digital economy, and therefore we need to be clear-sighted in continuing to work with them on the basis of a trusting relationship, but balanced relationships. We need them, and they need us. Building a balanced relationship of trust with startups is also a major challenge for Orange's ability to innovate. What would be the ecosystem, digital ecosystem without startups?
Helping them develop for us is an opportunity to enrich our ecosystem with partners who will feed into our strategic thinking and will allow us to remain at the leading edge of excellence. Orange Ventures, our investment fund, whose ambition is to be in the top 10 of the corporate venture capital funds, is one of the pillars in its strategy. It has a budget of EUR 3,450 million endowment, EUR 50 million of which is set aside for the African continent as well as a fund dedicated for high-impact startups, specifically those helping us solve the climate challenge. The climate emergency is one facing all of us, individually and collectively. It's also an increasing need which is being expressed by all stakeholders, whether employees, customers or partners.
It's a requirement, a need shared by you as well as shareholders in our group. For a long time at Orange, we have sought to improve our energy performance, and we have a big ambition to reach net zero by 2040, 10 years ahead of the deadline set by the Paris Agreement. Our major challenge is to cope with the booming use on our networks by improving energy efficiency and using low carbon energy. That is the purpose of our commitment to the circular economy. The OSCAR program about reconditioning our network equipment and the Re program about recycling and repairing mobile phones.
While we're doing a lot already, the situation requires us to step that up even further, innovating, using our capacity to innovate in order to further everything we do in this vital area. We continue to promote a more responsible digital economy, more respectful of our citizens and their privacy, and that's a commitment which is core to the company raison d'être, set out by Stéphane Richard just earlier. For a conclusion, I'll draw your attention to the fact that, for the last few months, Orange has embarked upon a transition process which is smooth and constructive. I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to that. With the assets I've mentioned, your company has potential to stand up to the challenges of the future. It has promising prospects for growth.
My first few weeks in this company bolster me in this belief. I think we need to continue working hard to bring online all the projects and work streams we've started. I've mentioned a few, but there are many more. There is no time to be lost. The transformations pending will be further reaching, more profound and faster than all those we've experienced in the past. Our networks, business models, and all stakeholders are waiting for us to change. That's why I want to have a corporate project for Orange, and while we're still thinking about it, meeting people and discussing it, I will be presenting it to the board of directors meeting by the end of 2022.
It will help set out a vision and ambition for what we want to build for Orange by 2030. I'd like to thank you and suggest we watch a short video before Ramon Fernandez, our Finance Director, takes the floor after me. Thank you very much.
Chairman, Madam CEO, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, great pleasure now to set out the detail of the group results for 2021. I'll then talk about achievements in the first quarter of 2022 in a very particular context, that is the war in Ukraine and return of inflation. I'll convey a few words on the dividend to conclude. First of all, following on from our Chairman and CEO, I'd like to stress to what extent the development actions created done by the group this year have been decisive in executing the corporate strategy for your company.
Our efforts are beginning to bear fruit because we remain the uncontested leader in Europe of fiber optics and conversions. We have a head start, which has been bolstered by excellent commercial performance in 2021, and that's number one spot is going to be further bolstered with the recent integration in Romania of Telekom Romania, and the acquisition underway of VOO in Belgium, which will allow us to step up the conversion strategy in Europe. In March, we announced the joint venture in Spain with MásMóvil, and that's very much heading in the same direction.
Infrastructure-wise, in order to optimize the value of our world-class assets, to support further investments and growth, we've created two FiberCos, one in France, one in Poland, and we've introduced the new TowerCo, TOTEM, which as of 2022 will be a new reporting segment. Looking now at the results for 2021, which are very much in line with the ambitions we've set for 2023. Before I review the financial indicators, I just want to say a few words about our very impressive commercial performance. At the end of 2021, we had over 11 million converged customers and almost 12 million fiber optic customers, 57 million households being connectable. Our fiber optic customer base is up 22%, thanks in particular to France and Poland.
Orange remains the number one operator, uncontestably so, in Europe, for both fiber optics and coverages, and Arcep has rated us best mobile network in France for the 11th year running. In financial terms, group turnover increased by 0.8% in 2021, having grown by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. The OMEA region was the major driver of that growth in turnover with double-digit growth, almost 11%, followed by the six countries in Europe where we're present with the exception of Spain, up 2.6% and a corporate B2B business up 0.5%. French revenue remains stable if we exclude the impact of co-funding, which, by comparison, were very high the previous year.
Spain, though, continues to improve as a market, is still down minus 4.7%. Business-wise, the services invoiced to customers or retail services have continued to grow, sustained by convergence with 1.9% growth, in particular France and Europe, excluding Spain again, and also due to mobile, the mobile business, thanks to growth in OMEA. Landline services, however, dropped by 2.8%. Wholesale business is down 6.8%, mainly because of France, where the revenue from the copper business is down as people migrate to fiber optics. IT and integration services to companies kept growing as well as equipment sales, which almost came back to their 2019 level.
Let's move on to the group's EBITDA, down slightly by -0.5% for the year 2021, in line with what we expected. Note that this result includes the effects of a one-off operation for employee share ownership on 1% of the share capital, a great success, which represented a cost of EUR 172 million. It also includes the impact of roaming or international mobility traffic, which is far from having come back to its pre-crisis level. More details about each operational segment. In France, EBITDA declined by 2.9%, but if you look at fundamentals, the increase is 3.1%, excluding the impact of this employee share ownership offer and lower co-financing received on fiber.
In Spain, the annual decline was 12.7%, but with a significant improvement between the first and the second half of the year because we went from -16% to -9%. Other European countries posted solid growth of +6.6%, whereas Africa and Middle East countries grew quite remarkably, +16.8% over the year. Regarding companies, the consequence of the crisis was that it's sustainably changed our customers' habits. This has accelerated the decline of traditional activities with an impact on EBITDA, which declined by 8.3% over 2021. Finally, Orange Bank reduced its losses in line with our goal to reach break even by the end of 2024. Now let's look at a quick update on our operating efficiency and cost control program that Christel Heydemann has already told us about.
We are making progress towards achieving our commitment to have EUR 1 billion in net savings by 2023 on a dedicated base of indirect costs of roughly EUR 14 billion in 2019. At the end of 2021, we had generated over EUR 300 million in net cumulative savings by comparison to 2019. We've also signed a new intergenerational agreement in France for 2024, which will allow eligible employees in France to benefit based on their, if they so decide to have, part-time for seniors and have special working hours in the five years that precede their retirement. This is a key step in our transformation.
In spite of the current inflation context and strong pressures on energy prices, we are mobilized to have net cumulative savings of roughly EUR 600 million by the end of 2022 with initiatives aiming for more efficiency and more agility for your company, which will therefore have the necessary room for maneuver to buoy its growth.
This is also for that, to prepare the future to support our performance and offer the best network and service quality to our customers that we've mobilized major CapEx at set point, EUR 7.7 billion in line with our goals. Our economic CapEx indicator grew by 7.8% in 2021 after a year, 2020, marked by exceptional co-financing which reduced the bill and slowing down investments because of COVID-19. In the second half of the year, eCapEx started declining. Indeed, in France, our investment reached a peak and started declining. We have reached over 80% of our deployment goals for 2023, with at the end of 2021, nearly 29% connectable homes for fiber, including 16 million of them deployed by our own company. Let's come to cash flow from operations, the keystone of our financial commitments.
Organic cash flow is the amount of cash available for acquisition operations, the dividend, licenses, potential litigation, and potentially also net debt reduction. In 2021, it reached EUR 2.4 billion, which is mostly in line with our goal, which was over EUR 2.2 billion. Before additional investments made thanks to the exceptional amount received for the tax dispute that opposed us to the French administration that was settled at the end of 2020. We reached EUR 2.7 billion in organic cash flow in 2021, so we are in line with the positive trend that started the previous year. At the end of the year, 2021, our net debt reached EUR 24.3 billion.
This increase of EUR 800 million is mostly due to the allocation of the tax reimbursement and frequency purchases, but we are still in the category of telco operators with the least debt and with the best ratings from rating agencies. Our net debt is 1.91x EBITDA, in line with our goal, and our liquidity position is still very robust, with an average cost of debts which is still declining. The robustness of its balance sheet is therefore a strong asset for your company.
Our net income was -EUR 0.8 billion, mostly because of the counter effect of the tax reimbursement received in 2020, of the EUR 1.2 billion provision related to the new intergenerational agreement signed in France last December, and the accounting write-off of EUR 3.7 billion of the goodwill in Spain reflecting the difficulties faced on this market. This loss of value did not have any cash impact, and our turnaround plan is on the right track with lower costs, streamlined brand portfolio, and improved internal processes, and also the partnership with MásMóvil, which would allow us to accelerate the turnaround. We've already talked about it. Now, let's move on to our performance for the first quarter 2022. Against an inflationary and very uncertain backdrop with the war in Ukraine, but also the continuation of the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
In this difficult context, we are continuing with our strategy called More for More with price adjustments related to enriched offerings and the launch of new services as we did in April with Livebox 6 in France. This value-based strategy is strengthened by the continuation of our efforts in terms of customer satisfaction, which allowed us in the first quarter to strengthen our leadership in terms of Net Promoter Score in France as well as in Europe, and also to improve the customer experience in Africa and the Middle East, and also reduce the termination rates. These measures, combined with our convergent strategy strengthened by our leadership on fiber, helped increase revenues from retail services by 2% over one year with the excellent momentum in Africa and the Middle East, acceleration in France, and stabilization in Europe. A few quantitative pointers.
At the end of March, we had 11.6 million convergent customers and over 12 million fiber customers out of 58 million connectable homes. In France with over 6.2 million customers, fiber now accounts for most of our fixed broadband customers. On mobile, we serve 98 million customers with 4G, a 15% increase over one year connected with our strong momentum in Africa and the Middle East. In the first quarter, 5G offerings were available in six countries and accounted for 20% of our mobile base in France. Lastly, Orange Bank's customer base includes 1.8 million customers in Europe and 800,000 customers in Africa. Let's move on to financial performance.
During the first quarter, the group posted revenues of EUR 10.6 billion at 0.7%, thanks to growing retail services that more than offset the decline in wholesale services. It's noteworthy that the decline in regulated call termination rates in Europe impacted revenues for all of our European geographies, but without any impact on margin. If you look at segments, Africa and Middle East grew by 8.7%, and it's still the main growth engine for our revenues. Business services also grew by 0.8%, and TOTEM published its results for the first time with revenues of EUR 161 million, with so-called hosting activities that grew by 3.3%.
France was slightly down by 0.7% in spite of the continuing acceleration in retail services, which does not yet offset the decline in wholesale services. In Europe, Spain is still down by 4.6%, but retail services revenues improved and other European countries are stable. The second key financial performance indicator is EBITDA, and it reached EUR 2.6 billion thanks to 1% higher growth. With growth that is 1% higher than that of revenues, our margin rates grew by 0.1 percentage points for the first time since 2019, and we're confirming our goal to increase our EBITDA over the year. The third key financial indicator, investment, declined by 5.8%, a decline which reassures us about reaching our year-end goal.
Regarding our goals, despite a particularly uncertain environment, your group is fully mobilized to reach its 2022 and 2023 goals, with more specifically organic cash flow of at least EUR 3.5 billion after a threshold of at least EUR 2.9 billion in 2022. This is the pillar in our commitments. A few words to talk about shareholder remuneration. We are proposing to vote on payment of a 2021 dividend of EUR 0.70 per share. Given the interim dividend of EUR 0.30 that was paid on 15 December 2021, the remainder of the dividend that is proposed, provided that you approve it at this meeting, is EUR 0.40 per share. It will be paid in cash on June 9. The coupon detachment date is set at 7th of June.
For the fiscal year 2022, we will propose to keep the dividend at EUR 0.70 per share. For the general meeting of 2023, an interim dividend of EUR 0.30 per share will be paid in December this year. Thank you for your attention, and I will now give the floor to the statutory auditors after showing a quick video about integrated reporting.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, it's my pleasure to report on the independent mission that you gave to the College of Statutory Auditors, KPMG, and Deloitte that I represent here. All of our reports for the fiscal year 2021 are in the universal registration document, as well as in the electronic kit that you were given. These are mostly the reports on the annual and consolidated accounts for the fiscal year, the special report on regulated third-party conventions, and reports on capital operations.
Our work on the annual and consolidated accounts is here to give you assurances that there are no significant oddities in the accounts. As highlighted in our report, we gave specific attention to some key audit points that we deemed to be the most sensitive in forming an opinion, either because of the complexity of information systems or because they have significant elements of estimation or judgment. As part of our auditing of the annual accounts for the company Orange S.A., we looked at the revenue recognition from telecommunications activities, the assessment of the base business and participatory shares, and finally, the assessment of provisions for competition disputes and regulatory litigation.
As part of our audit on the consolidated accounts, we used the points addressed in our report on the annual accounts regarding the revenues and provisions for litigation, and we also gave specific attention to the valuation of goodwill, intangible and tangible assets, and finally, the recognition of deferred tax assets related to tax loss carry-forwards. The Audit Committee and the Board of Directors of your company were kept regularly informed of our work. At the end of our audit, we are certifying that the annual accounts of your company, based on French accounting principles, and the consolidated accounts of the group, based on IFRS accounting principles for the fiscal year 2021, are sincere and accurate.
They give a faithful image of the results from operations for the past fiscal year, as well as the financial situation and the assets of your company and your group. Without challenging your opinion, we'd like, however, to draw your attention to the change in method required by regulations because of a decision by the International Accounting Standards organization impacting the calculation of commitments related to certain defined benefit pension schemes. This decision was applied by the group in the 2021 consolidated accounts with a retroactive effect at the 1st of January 2019. Moreover, this decision was also taken up by the French Accounting Standard Organizations. The company decided to apply this change in method in its annual accounts.
It decided to make other changes in order to harmonize the accounting methods used in the individual accounts with those of consolidated accounts regarding the immediate booking in the financial statements of all actuarial gaps and the cost of past services over the period. The special report on regulated third-party conventions is subject to your approval for the fourth resolution. It quotes the authorized convention for the past year and the reasons that were behind its signature. This convention was preliminarily authorized by the board of directors in its meeting on the 22nd of January 2021. It was about the opening of the share capital of Orange Concessions to a consortium bringing together Banque des Territoires, CNP Assurances, and EDF Invest. The operation was finalized in November 2021.
Our report also mentions the convention concluded and approved previously that continued during the fiscal year. It is a convention extending to corporate officer the scope of application of Orange Group contracts in terms of healthcare, death insurance, and disability insurance. We have no observations about these conventions. Our report on capital operations impact resolutions 18, 19, and 20. They are related to the authorization to grant free performance shares to benefit the managers and corporate officers and certain members of Orange staff, as well as delegation of competency to decide the issuance and the potential cancellation of your preferential subscription rights, and finally, delegation of power to reduce share capital with cancellation of shares. These operations do not call for any specific comments from us, and we will write additional reports if applicable when these delegations are actually used.
Resolution A, proposed by the mutual investment fund Orange Actions, is an amendment to the 18th resolution in order to either grant free shares to all members of staff or to have an offer reserved to staff every year. We have no observations about the information given in the report from the board. Finally, we've also issued other reports and certificates which are not covered by resolutions for this general meeting. It is particularly a report on the non-financial performance consolidated declaration and the report on reasonable assurances on a selection of non-financial information. On the other hand, the certification on the overall amount of remuneration paid to the highest-paid individuals. We have no specific items to bring to your attention for these reports and certificates. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, thank you for your attention.
Very well. It's now time to open the discussion and the questions and answers session that we've organized first and foremost with the room, but also with those following us live on the internet and who were able to send in questions. I'll keep switching questions between the room and questions received on the web, but I'll start with the room first to pay tribute to all the people who came all the way here. I'll wait for the signs to be brought. We'll start with two here in front of me.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. On behalf of the Shareholders' Advisory Committee and on behalf of all shareholders, we wanted to thank you for what you did over more than a decade that you spent leading our company. I would particularly point out two things because you gave a very broad overview. The fact that you brought welcome peace back into this group a long time ago now, and also more recently, your development in Africa. My question will be about African development. Ms. Heydemann talked about it and the arrival of Wave in Senegal. How does Orange intend to reply to attempts at concentration happening currently in Africa? Thank you.
Madam Christel Heydemann will answer.
Yes, thank you for your question. I said that, and it was mentioned before. Africa is a success, and we have strong ambitions in Africa. As always, all possibilities for external growth will be looked at on a case-by-case basis. That's what we did in the past, and our current position as number three operator in Africa is the outcome of many successful operations.
We'll look at that on a case-by-case basis, either for national concentration or for geographical extension in order to accelerate our position once again and to leverage this strongly growing market. As we said, we also have strong growth drivers that are well identified. We have a very skilled team there, so we have everything it takes to be able to seize this type of opportunities if they arise.
Thank you. Christel, maybe I'll take one question from the web, and then I'll get back to the room. It's a very topical question, but it's important to discuss it today at this general meeting. I'll read the text of the question. After the current litigation with Scopelec, could you shed light on Orange's policy vis-à-vis its subcontractors? What are the provisions adopted by Orange to improve quality of service with its subcontractors? Maybe Christel Heydemann can start answering, and then Fabienne Dulac, who is here, can carry on.
Well, I'll let Fabienne add to what I'll say. She's the leader in France for the situation. Beyond the situation of Scopelec, which had difficulties even before the change in the contract, it's not entirely related to the commercial relationship with Orange. Orange seeks to be a responsible and exemplary contract giver with long-term contracts given and anticipation given to its subcontractors. For subcontractors, the previous contract was seven years. The new contract that came into force is a six-year contract that gives them stability and lasting investment to promote skills and quality. This is a balanced and respectful payer relationship, and we also have reliable and quick payment terms for the subcontractors.
As a good corporate citizen, I'll remind you that Orange is recognized as a responsible purchasing company. In any situation, Orange is positioned to support its partners in periods of deep transformation of businesses and jobs. Of course, this is what we are doing with this subcontractor, in particular Scopelec. I don't know whether, Fabienne, you'd like to add anything in particular.
Thank you very much. Maybe just two things to add to what Christel Heydemann said. It's true that in the last few years, because of the network growth that happened in France with strong acceleration, as Christel Heydemann and Stéphane Richard said, there's been more direct but also indirect jobs thanks to subcontracting, and we also strengthened the support to all of our subcontractors by strengthening our code and the way we support our subcontractors.
That was the case in particular during the lockdown and the crisis period in the year 2020. We helped them with cash front payments so that the whole industry could withstand these headwinds, whatever they were. Regarding Scopelec, we are maintaining this effort based on work led jointly with the state, and we're helping them face difficulties that go beyond Orange. Behind this question, there's also the question of quality of service, which is fundamental for us as operators, for all operators in France. That's related to the accelerated deployment of fiber. Now we can see that for all operators and for all subcontractors, fundamental efforts must be made to improve quality of service. There are action plans that have been led jointly with all operators.
With all the subcontractors, I'd like to remind you that quality of service goals are the same inside the company for Orange employees as well as for our subcontractors. We have the same practices, the same goals, and of course, we are still working together to facilitate the team's work and facilitate the service provided to our customers. Maybe two things to prove it. NPS that Ramon Fernandez was talking about a minute ago kept growing in the years 2021 and 2022, an almost eight-point gap, and we are leaving our competitors behind. This quality of service, which is validated by the Net Promoter Score, was also validated by the Arcep in its publication on customer satisfaction in May, which gave Orange at least a leading position in terms of customer satisfaction, which is, of course, central to our strategy.
Thank you, Fabienne. Thank you, Christel. Let's take number six.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Thank you for all the presentations. I have a quick question. Well, the whole presentation was based on networks and the telecommunications environment. Orange Bank, I still don't understand the reason why you created Orange Bank. So my question is, given the financial investment, over EUR 600 million, that you've made, what are you going to do about it?
Well, I'll start providing an answer, and then I'll ask Paul de Leusse, who's in charge of this business, to add to that. The creation of Orange Bank is a decision that was made by the group in 2015. After, I would say, thinking about it for a long time and a strategic discussion with many employees in the group and of course with the board.
This decision was well thought out, and it was approved widely by the board. The rationale behind this decision is fairly simple. It started from an observation that in our network business, in our telco connectivity business, we have operating conditions for competition and regulation everywhere, which mean that growth, financial growth, revenues and profitability growth in the last 20 years almost has been very difficult to achieve. When we manage to achieve it, you can see that it's very low, and it's low single digits. This network, this telco business is essential for the company, but it does not generate revenues or margin growth and hasn't for years, at least not in Europe. That's the case in Africa, and we're lucky to be there, but not enough, not in Europe.
For a while, our approach has been to see whether we could expand our playground. Expanding it means identifying different territories, so we need to make wagers. Otherwise we'll stay where we are, and so we just need to be happy with the company that has 1% or 2% growth in the good years and less than that in the bad years. Expanding our growth territory, that's what we're doing geographically by going to Africa and what we are also trying to do by identifying areas and opportunities that appear to make sense vis-à-vis the company, vis-à-vis its assets, its brand, its employees, its shops, its know-how. That's what we've been doing in B2B with cybersecurity, with some success, I think. Here that also requires investments and certain bets.
For the mass market, that's what we decided to do with banking in 2015. Why banking? We started from a successful experiment in Africa. Africa is the continent that invented the usage of banking on your phone, so to speak. It was a bit rustic at the beginning, but it was gradually fleshed out and became more sophisticated. Now in the last few years we can see the boom in digital banking. All the traditional banks that we've known forever, those banks had to change a lot, and they're all now facing the advent of these digital banks in your pocket, banks on your phones. Also with the arrival of new players called neobanks. There were a lot of them. Quite a few of them had great success.
At the end of the day, we thought that by leveraging our experience on the African continent with our knowledge of uses, with our ability to go towards a combined physical and digital model, we have a shop network that exists where our customers regularly go. That also gave us an opportunity to offer digital service, but also human contact, which is very important in this business. And also around the Orange brand, we also saw the trust attributes that it has. We considered that to be a great opportunity. We started this project. You're saying that it's a loss maker. Well, it took 20 years for Amazon to make a buck. If you consider that a new project has to be profitable in year one, there won't be a lot of new projects.
It's true that it's a project that requires some investment. We said that from the get-go, it would take 10 years. 10 years, we started it over four years ago now, so I can confirm that it's a project that financially will still incur losses for a few years. The losses are smaller and smaller. We saw that earlier. For the results 2021, we have significantly reduced the negative contribution, but it's clear that you can't start such a project without making some efforts. This effort is reflected in the financials with the losses. Now maybe to characterize the situation, trying to be as clear-headed as possible about the bank, maybe I'll give the floor to Paul.
Thank you, Stéphane, and thank you for that question. I think Stéphane has explained very clearly the rationale behind creating the bank, why the group made that choice. Obviously you have a right to ask the question as to whether it's worth it, whether it's working. Now, launching it was not easy because it's a business project. Like any entrepreneurial project, you have to take decisions and then live with them and then develop that bank. Now, everything we've been doing the last four years, however, has begun bearing fruit. There are three examples I could cite. Ramon and Stéphane mentioned the first, which is the strategy is about value.
Now you have over 50,000 customers joining Orange Bank every month, and over 80% are paying for their services, and it was only 20% paying for their accounts to begin with. We started off with free services, and now we've got paid for services. That is one of the reasons why the result has improved so much between 2020 and 2021. The second is we want Orange Bank about quality because we know that Orange is about quality. People choose Orange for telecoms, for example, because they have a quality of service. We want the same with Orange Bank. Hence, we have invested a lot in quality.
It's cost us a lot, admittedly, but it is why we're rated best neobank in France this year, way ahead of all the others. The third, this is something we underestimated to begin with, is the closeness, the proximity between Orange and Orange Bank. Fabienne Dulac here and her teams we have to thank for this, because now if you go into an Orange shop, for every 100 mobile subscriptions we sell, at the same time, we're selling or carrying out 45 commercial actions for the bank, whether it be credit, whether it be banking services, generally, or whether it be insurance. That means that Orange vendors have managed to pull off everything that bankers fear. That is, to integrate the bank into the telco.
We've got a telecom company which incorporates the bank. It was a long way. It was a long path getting there, but we are getting there. I think we're getting there, thanks to the Orange France teams who are working hard every day to make it a reality. We haven't finished. There's another page still further pages to be written in that story. Clearly, if a bank opens a new branch in the street, it takes 10 years to make it profitable. I'm not saying we're going to take another 10 years, but we're not at the end of the process yet. That's all I want to say. We're improving year- on- year. That's why we have 1.7 million customers and more now.
That's why, I think it's one of the great strengths of Orange, which can incubate such a business project like that and take it through to fruition as it is, now doing.
Thank you, Paul. Now a question from the Internet before returning to the room. So this is about TOTEM. Could you tell us, what the purpose of TOTEM is, how it will help Orange Group, and what the prospects are for developing TOTEM? Well, I can perhaps answer that one. As each of you have seen, I think, over the last few years, pretty much every operator across the world, and particularly in Europe, has created TowerCos or has been involved in a TowerCo. I'm not saying every operator, perhaps. Lots of operators actually have just sold their towers.
Indeed, maybe most of them have sold their towers. In France, we're the last as an operator to actually own our mobile towers. All our competitors have sold that mobile passive infrastructure, which is the case in other European countries across the world as well. That's the trend. This unbundling, if you like, between the telecoms business and the ownership and therefore the management of this mobile infrastructure. The masts are a separate business. Now, we've always considered at Orange that it's important to keep control of that of our infrastructure, whether mobile or fixed, well, landline, that is. At the same time, we've seen that trend play out across Europe. We've taken an interest.
As a way, we've seen it as a way of improving the management of those assets. The reason being that you invest a huge amount in it. You've seen in the report how much we're investing. It costs a lot to invest and maintain them. Therefore, it's logical to ask ourselves how we can optimize the management of our assets, specifically towers. Hence, we have created TOTEM, which is, for the time being, an entity within Orange. It's 100% Orange-owned, but within which we've hosted, if you like, we've got 25-26,000 towers across France and Spain. Now, we've done it in the short term to improve the performance with regard to the management of those assets. We're talking about the tenancy ratio of 1.3.
1.3 is an average of 1.3 occupants of a tower. Sometimes Orange, sometimes not. What it means in practice is that about a third of our towers have a second occupant. We want that to increase the tenancy ratio by opening it up to more competitors, allowing them to rent our towers as well, with the objective of 1.5 as a tenancy ratio by 2025. These TowerCos have also become their own line of business. Some of them are listed, some of them are pure players. That's all they do. You may be aware of Cellnex, which in some ways broke new ground in this field in Europe.
There's the American Tower Company in the U.S., of course, with another big TowerCo. Then you have TowerCos which have been started by operators and which remain under operators' control. Vodafone, for example, created one called Vantage Towers. Deutsche Telekom has also started one. The Deutsche Telekom one remains within Deutsche Telekom, but they've begun a process whereby capital could be opened up to other partners, and the Vodafone one is already listed in its own right. TOTEM will give the company an additional card in the deck, if you like, in the strategic deck in Europe, because we see a moment coming at some point, an opportunity for consolidation across Europe concerning towers. I can't tell you what shape that will take precisely.
I don't know what it will be in terms of closer collaboration, joint venture, I don't know what. In any case, having that card in the deck, having that weapon in the armory, I think is very much an asset for Orange, and it will allow us to be a player when the moment comes to consolidate the tower business in Europe. Without, and this is important, without losing control of our infrastructure for a very good reason. When you change technology, and mobile, now we're onto 5G, whereas it was 2G only a few years ago. It moves very fast, and therefore it's important.
We've seen it all throughout the process how important it is to control your own network, otherwise you're dependent on third parties for your, for quality, for investments necessary to move from 2G to 3G, one generation to another. In the long term, we think that controlling our infrastructure is a big part of our strategy.
Thank you. Let's come back to the room. Number three, please.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for that answer on Orange Bank. I'm not 100% satisfied with it, I must say, because banking is a very specific business. It's very different to your core business. It's a very competitive industry, and banks themselves, dedicated banks, are having difficulties. I think they'll fight back if you start treading on their toes.
I'm not sure that Orange will really penetrate much this difficult, competitive market. Anyway. My question actually concerns fiber optics. Now, I have a second home in the Côte d'Azur, and I was surprised, happily surprised, pleasantly surprised to see that my local road is being connected to the fiber network. Because it's run by France Télécom, who supplied me with a satellite dish, but it hasn't worked since the 24th of February. Because I think since Ukraine was invaded, some of the satellites have been hacked by Russia, and they don't work anymore. But the bad news was that while we have fiber, it's been installed six months ago, it doesn't actually cross the street.
It's in my road, but it doesn't cross the road. It doesn't come as far as my home. Now, the reason for this is that the road actually runs between two départements. It's like running between two counties. The two administrative districts. I mean, it's only a 4 m road and that's only the width. France Télécom told me that I would have the fiber optic network and then told me that in fact I wouldn't.
I hope I won't have to wait till 2025 for the fiber optic for 4 m from my home can cross the road or perhaps tunnel underneath it in any case to so that I can be connected because it really is just a question of connecting the box on one side of the road to our side so that we can have the same services as our neighbors opposite. Now, who can we call on? Who can tell us when we might be able to hope to have access to fiber optic? In particular, because some, obviously the satellite isn't working at the moment for the obvious reasons. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Even in the best of times, it's intermittent, and if you're trying to work from home, that's difficult.
Thank you, sir, for that question. I think I might ask Fabienne to clarify that. I can tell you one thing. Unfortunately, however powerful Orange is, we are unable to redraw the administrative boundaries of France, alas. I can't tell you, I can't tell the state to change where the one department starts and one ends. Now, Fabienne.
Yes, there is this administrative issue, plus in that area we are not the local operator. We're not the deployer of the fiber optic network. What we do is we connect to another operator who has deployed or rolled out the network. Best thing to do, perhaps, is to communicate bilaterally.
Give me your address when we at the end of the meeting, and we will communicate with the Public Initiative Network who launched the network in that area. That's a collaboration between a number of operators, one of which may be Orange, but we're not the whole, the sole operator there. Therefore, we need a bit more clarity as to how we can engage with them commercially speaking, such that you can have fiber optics. That's the only thing I can suggest. We don't hear you, sir. The question is inaudible. Sorry. I asked this question to the man installing the fiber optics, and he said he was doing it for Orange. Hence I'm surprised.
No, it's not the Orange as an operator which rolled it out. He was working. He works for all the operators. Believe me, we can make contact with the deploying operator, and it will. I'm sure we can work things out.
Let's take question from number five, please.
Good afternoon, everybody. Jean-François Delcaire. I work for HMG Finance. We are one of your shareholders. Orange has a number of lines of business which could be listed one day, potentially. You mentioned towers, obviously. Cybersecurity is another one. Africa, the Africa business unit is another. I have two questions. What to date has prevented the board of directors from doing so? Second question is for the new CEO, Madam Heydemann.
What is your view as to those that possibility of a future listing? On the first part of the question, allow me to respond. Concerning cybersecurity, as we said earlier, that started in 2014. We made a number of acquisitions to create what you have today. We think that subjects have changed, but we think it's not yet reached the critical mass in that area such as to merit a listing. We're on a growth trajectory. In the long, or in the medium term, maybe listing is an option. To date, the board of directors has not considered it timely that we're not there yet. You have to ask yourself also, why do you list the company? Why do you go public?
Well, it's to give yourself an additional opportunity to grow. In particular, if the targets you're looking at have much bigger values than Orange's group and can often buy a company worth 25 times the value of your own company, maybe listing isn't the best thing to do. It's a question which I think is on the agenda or the menu of the board of directors. The principle in any case is why not? It's more like the detail. Africa is the same story really. I think technically we're pretty much ready there.
We've decided not to make that step yet, because for pretty much half of last year, the listed African operators' stock market prices were very disappointing because you had multiples which were lower than even what we have in Europe. If you take the biggest, strongest growing part of the group, in terms of profitability and revenue share, and then offer it to shareholders on the basis of a value which is lower than the average of what we have within Orange Group, that doesn't seem a very clever thing to do. Now the situation is turning around, and it has turned around. Since the end of last year, we're in a very different context now, and obviously I can't commit to this.
It's Christel's job really to talk to you about this. In the longer term, I can imagine this, that will be back on the table at some point.
Just to build on what Stéphane said, my priority will be to create an ambitious strategic plan around those two lines of business. Africa, of course, I've talked about with my team, and then really it's a matter of which will need to be discussed with the board. On cybersecurity, as we said, that's. It's an area of business which is intrinsic to the rest of our businesses. We have a advisory consultancy service, so with Orange Cyberdefense, we want to see growing further. Cybersecurity is important as well for SD-WAN, for companies, for example, or for supporting SMEs, et cetera.
With cybersecurity, we have to ensure that we have a growth plan for that business across every pillar of the company, in addition to everything that's been said. In that area, the technology moves fast. The value of the companies tends to be very different to the value of operators, and that therefore raises the issue that Stéphane mentioned. Now, we have ourselves made acquisitions in that field in the past, and it's very much on the agenda at some stage.
Thank you. Maybe then one internet question. Which is for everyone, but I think it's more for Ramon than anyone else. How will the distribution of dividends policy change over the next few years? Is it likely to increase or decrease, Ramon?
Well, I think it's a very brief answer I'll give you. The EUR 0.70 that we are asking you to approve today for 2021, which will be our proposal also for this year as well. That EUR 0.70, that's a base, and it's a solid one. It's a robust floor value. That's it. Second point, as we've been telling you for many years now, on the basis of that baseline, we can then also look at the opportunity for increasing the dividend depending on how our cash targets develop. We have ambitious targets on cash. We need to meet those. We need to look at our group development targets as well to meet those, and also overall, how can we share value across different parts of the company?
No, I intend to remain an Orange shareholder, so I was listening very carefully to your answer. It's a very interesting answer. Thank you.
Okay, let's just take question three then from the floor.
Thank you. Good afternoon. You're talking about the low margins in Europe and slightly better margins in Africa. Now, margins in North America are even better. Are you thinking maybe one day of making a purchase, acquiring somebody in the U.S. to try and take advantage of that?
Well, if you compare the American market with what you have in Europe, it's characterized by two salient features which are different to Europe. First of all, fewer operators, 330 million inhabitants and three operators only.
Secondly, costs, and therefore, revenue for operators are 2.5-3 x as high as they are for European operators. Hence, for the same level of investment, the business is simply much more profitable, and the stock market values reflect that in the U.S. than it is in Europe. The U.S. sector, the telecoms sector, has not been really properly disrupted for a long time. If you look at the three operators who have split the market between them, you have the former incumbent, AT&T, for both mobile and landlines. You have Verizon, which is the number one, top dog on the market, which initially was a mobile operator, but has expanded into landlines as well. You have T-Mobile.
T-Mobile U.S., which of course is a subsidiary, a minority share held by Deutsche Telekom, our German friends. Now, the Germans bought their first licenses in the U.S. in the 1990s, so they've been present in the U.S. for the last 20 years or more. Over those last 20 years, just to respond to the gentleman who was worried about the bank's losses, those were 20 years that took huge amount of investment and a lot of losses as well, in a what was considered to be a desperate situation, for our German colleagues, up until about the mid-2010s or so, where the current head of Deutsche Telekom actually tried to sell off that business, T-Mobile U.S. Tried to sell it to AT&T. They signed a deal.
The U.S. antitrust regulator said no. Thus, the Germans kept that business and, well, stuck with it, so they carried on investing. Which is a good thing, really, because it is now their main growth driver within Deutsche Telekom Group. It's pretty much 2/3 of their business, and in particular, of Deutsche Telekom's value in America. There's no newcomers. There are no new entrants. There are no significant investments being made in the U.S. market, and haven't been for a long time. What that means is that getting into the American market, breaking it for an Orange, a group like Orange, involves either investing in a very specific area, I don't know, fiber optics, for example. There's plenty of people offering fiber already.
The investment costs are huge, hence the level of risk is also huge. Maybe buy an existing operator, but that is not something we could afford to do. If you look at the value of those operators, our pockets aren't deep enough. Now obviously, if you like, you look at the American market and your mouth starts watering, I understand. It's the kind of thing you want to get into. The way in is difficult. It's a very narrow way in, and it involves spending tens of billions of euros. It's not within our scope of action. I don't think anyone could afford to break the American market now. That's just the way things are. I mean, for now.
Maybe one day there will be opportunities. Maybe smaller actors will come on stream and carve out little niches. I don't know. In any case, we've got plenty of business in Europe. We've got plenty in Middle East and Africa. Given the size of Orange, given the resources we have, and given the way we all our stakeholders, I think maybe we should consolidate what we currently have. That's the right way forward.
Now, maybe to alternate again, looking back at a question asked online. Orange often talks about digital sovereignty. Could you perhaps say what Orange's ambitions are and your intended position in digital sovereignty? Michaël, who's sitting on the front row, is perhaps the ideal person to answer that question. Digital sovereignty.
Thank you, Stéphane. We talk a lot indeed about digital sovereignty because telecoms are a vital part of our lives. They're vital infrastructure, critical even, for the economy, for political life, for people's individual lives as well. Also, sovereignty is becoming more and more important because the world is becoming more polarized, politically speaking. We've seen tech wars between China and the U.S. Now, obviously, we have a real war going on in Ukraine. Therefore, we need to keep providing this vital service of telecoms whatever happens, in an independent manner, without the risk of it being interrupted, because we don't want to be under the dependency of a foreign power. There are two major challenges here.
One, as a support, as a supplier of services and operator, and the second is in supporting our customers via Orange Business Services in particular. Now, returning ourselves, how are we gonna do this? The best way of support, ensuring our digital sovereignty is via our technological expertise and in second instance, by diversifying our suppliers and partners. Because avoiding risk in doesn't mean just doing everything yourself. It means On the contrary, it means having as many suppliers as possible so you can choose so you can switch if you need to.
The last part of the solution to that problem, difficulty, is to help keep helping to build the ecosystem in the most critical areas of the sector which are most critical for our business. That's why today we're working to expand the ecosystem, in particular in Europe. That's it. It's important on modern technology, what we're using now. Classic network and so on. Then trying to plan ahead to think of the what's gonna happen in the future. As well as working on more software-based solutions, telco cloud, and so on. Now, for our customers, as a company, we're present along the value chain, providing solutions they can trust. Clearly, with the connectivity we supply, either on public or private networks.
With all the cloud issues that are coming on stream and we're hearing about, we have a project called Bleu. We're working with Capgemini in order to do the best of what hyperscalers do. Because at moments, the best solutions in the cloud are coming from the hyperscalers. We want to make them take control of them, if you like. Make them more trusted, make them in particular take them outside of the Cloud Act. Lastly, as was said earlier, everything we do in terms of cybersecurity, again, supporting customers who are very aware of those issues, whether they be public or businesses.
Thank you, Michaël. Let's take number seven, maybe.
Good afternoon. I'm Thomas Trescrique, Secretary General of ACSED, the Association for Retirees from Orange. On behalf of all members of our association, thank you for this, these specified labor relations, and congratulations to your successor. It won't have escaped you, this is the Cannes Film Festival now. We can go back to cinemas after the pandemic year. You didn't discuss it, there are a lot of emerging content platforms like Netflix. What's Orange's strategy in content, with OCS or multimedia content? And I'll remember, Mr. Chairman, Game of Thrones and its incredible success. Thank you.
Well, maybe I can answer, but fairly briefly, because I won't give you the full history of the relationship between telco operators and content providers.
There were a lot of changes and big acquisitions and bets that were made, and we have to admit that on the operator side, there were a lot of failures. The most dramatic was the acquisition of Time Warner, which is the parent company of HBO, producing Game of Thrones by AT&T three years ago, three or four years ago, and it led to an observed destruction of over $40 billion as recognized by AT&T last year. Unfortunately, you might deplore it, but it's this perennial dream of having sort of vertical integration between those who distribute content, i.e. us, with our networks and our access and those that produce content. It didn't really work out in a way.
As far as we are concerned, we have assets in content, mostly, with OCS, but I'll remind you that by nature, we are a major content distributor because we offer television over the internet for one million people, especially in France, but not only. This is an offer that includes both free to air and pay TV content. We are an essential distributor, so we have strong and essential relationships with content producers. It's also a source of growth and profitability for us, and we can also enrich the customer experience. It's a major aspect on which a large team is working inside the group. There's not just media, there's also games and other content. What's more, we've got OCS, our own pay TV channel, which now roughly has three million subscribers.
It went through some success in terms of ratings with the exclusive distribution of HBO products that I was mentioning earlier, including your favorite show, Game of Thrones. The issue is that this exclusive contract with HBO was time limited. It was renewed as much as we could, but HBO has changed its strategy, and they decided to start their own service with their own brand. We need to look at the end of this exclusive distribution relationship with HBO. More broadly, this begs the question of the future of OCS in this context. For a number of months, we've been working on these issues. There are ideas and proposals. I won't give you the details here, but it will be Christel and her team's responsibility to make decisions about the future of OCS in the next few weeks and months.
Maybe based on the sequence that I decided myself, I'll take a question from the web. The question is, how is Orange involved in supporting the environmental transition and the circular economy? What concrete actions were put in place? What is the impact of the climate on Orange's business, and on what natural resources is Orange the most dependent? Elizabeth, who's in charge of all these matters, is going to give you an answer.
Yes, thank you very much. As Christel Heydemann and Stéphane Richard recalled, Orange made a commitment to be carbon net zero in 2040, so 10 years before the deadline, not just set by the Paris Agreement, but also by the whole industry, by the GSMA.
To reach this goal, there's a very powerful goal, which is, of course, the circular economy that we've been deploying within our organization in all our processes to cut our impact, but also that of our suppliers and our customers on resources and raw materials. In this respect, we set several goals by 2025 that are part of our strategic plan, Engage2025, and I'll name but a few. One goal in terms of eco-design. By 2025, 100% of Orange-branded products, so our boxes and set-top boxes, will have to be part of an eco-design approach to limit their carbon footprint when they're manufactured, distributed, but also their energy use when used. Another goal is about used mobiles collection. We have a goal to collect 30% of used mobiles in Europe, given the overall volume of handsets sold in Europe.
In Africa and Middle East, the aim is roughly 20% from waste electrical and electronic equipment diverted from waste. We also want to increase the sales of remanufactured mobiles. It will have to account for 10% and maybe more of our handset sales in Europe. I'll also name an attractive repair service in all countries where Orange operates in Europe. I'll also talk about the acceleration in the use of remanufactured equipment on our network for our information system as well, so via an internal marketplace or via the promotion of remanufactured, reconditioned equipment from our suppliers. Regarding the critical materials on which we depend the most, since 2011, we've started an initiative to take that matter into account. It's based on a database which is updated very regularly and which remains confidential.
With that, we can analyze risks with greater generality, trying to look for substitution resources. Out of the priority materials, there's gold, germanium, and indium, and there's a very promising solution, which is the reuse of waste electrical and electronic equipment. Imagine that now in France, there are 100 million handsets sleeping in our drawers, and there are so many urban mines. It's now estimated that these urban mines account for 40 times more minerals than what you have underground. That's why we're accelerating the collection of mobiles, but also, at the same time, we've started discussions with industry in various sectors and also with the authorities to support the growth of a industry which is going to reuse waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Well, thank you, Elizabeth, and I'm sorry in advance for those of you who wanted to continue, but the timekeeper has been telling me that time's flying for a while, and so we need to move on to the next step in this general meeting. Maybe one last question, but which? Number one. Which really wants the floor?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Madam CEO, Gérard Gallé, individual shareholder. I read resolution 18, where shares were to be granted freely for managers. What about small shareholders? It's weird that performance shares would be the only way for us to try and reduce our losses in our Orange portfolio. You know that the share went to EUR 210, it's now at EUR 11, and there's only the granting of free shares that would help us cut our losses. Thank you for your answer.
Well, if you're talking about the share price at EUR 210, it would be difficult. If you're talking about looking at what stocks were at such high prices for a very limited time, you had to be very unlucky to buy shares at EUR 211 back then. It will be very, very complicated, unfortunately, to come back to an offset mechanism, whatever it may be. What we've tried to do at least. Under our responsibility in the last decade, we've tried to work seriously to have a certain share price, which is what it is. It was in a corridor that many would deem to be too low. That's also our case. In fact, fluctuations have been fairly limited in the last 12 years. We paid out a major dividend.
If you look at your portfolio losses, you should include the dividend, EUR 0.70 per share on a share worth EUR 11. That's a yield. If you compare that to financial assets, that's quite attractive. Maybe we're not very good on the share price, but in terms of yields, we're number one. Then you're talking about free shares. Well, free shares, they're given separately. There are a few awards for all employees, and we're not giving free shares to managers because if that's what your question is about, it's not unconditional. A certain amount of shares may be part of an incentive plan for managers and corporate officers, and it's subject to your approval, ex post and ex ante, as is the case now for all listed companies.
I think we are fairly moderate in terms of, in the use of this type of instruments, but you don't get them automatically. You get them if you achieve a certain level of performance and results. It's not a gift that is given to managers. It's rather an incentive given to them, a financial incentive that is part of a package that should be looked at comprehensively if you want to make comparisons. That's roughly my answer. I don't know whether the CFO would like to add anything.
No. The only thing I can add so that we can put this question to rest on an optimistic note. Since the beginning of the year, the share price has grown by 24%, when the average for all telco operators in Europe is at +2%, and the French market's been at -10%. Since the beginning of the year, we've been widely overperforming. Of course, we had some catch up to do, but I think that it's a sign that we have a rosy future that we can all ride together.
Well, on this last question and this last optimistic note, I will ask Nicolas Guérin to start the last sequence in this general meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. In my capacity as Orange Secretary General and Secretary of the Board of Directors, I have the great pleasure to report today's shareholder meeting on the work done by the board in the year just gone. Before then, I wanted to remind you that your company gives great importance to dialogue with its shareholders. As such, a number of written questions have been asked by the Forum for Responsible Investment, 10 questions. The Mutual Fund Employee Shareholder has one question. Jacques Aschenbroich, two questions. The Association for Protection of Employee Saving and Shareholding, ADEAS, and CFE-CGC Orange, 12 questions. As well as Élisa Mistral, Nadia Sakhri, and Eric [Rapper], who have together asked five questions. The board met shortly before today's meeting and has finalized its answers to them.
They are available on the dedicated website for today's meeting. The role of the board is to give its view on all major decisions on strategy, the business model, the employee relations, finances, or technology. The specific context and the competitive environment that Orange works in requires us to discuss regularly between the management and the board members, whether they're the independent representatives of the public sector, Orange employees, or employee shareholders. The board members are heavily involved in the life of your company. The preparation of board meetings and committees requires a lot of work, given the complexity of the impact and the associated challenges.
That's why in December 2021, there was a strategic seminar held in order to understand better major challenges facing the company, such as climate change or progressive decommissioning of the copper network. Attendance of board members in 2021 was very high, 97.2%. The number of other positions your board members occupy in other companies is lower than the four on average held by board members on other listed companies covered by the Afep-Medef code. That shows you to what extent they wish to be as available and attentive as possible in performing their role.
In 2021 and in 2020, the board paid particular attention, working closely with senior management to monitoring the group's situation and the measures taken in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic to protect employees and customers alike. As well as the regular moments in the company's existence, during the first half of 2021, the board has looked at infrastructure related matters. In particular, it authorized the conclusion of an agreement with Banque des Territoires, CNP Assurances, and EDF Invest to sell 50% of the capital and co-control of Orange Concessions, which is an asset valued at EUR 1.8 billion.
It also approved the principle and the details of the partial asset contribution agreement between Orange and [TotalEnergies]. In September 2021, the board also approved the intention to acquire control of VOO in Belgium and more recently, the joint venture with MásMóvil in Spain. Having purchased TKR in Romania, these operations show how your group wishes to continue a strategy of consolidation of its positions as a converged operator in Europe. I can also tell you that, as it does every year, its operation and its committees' operation, at the end of 2021, the board carried out a self-assessment exercise.
A number of associated recommendations are being drafted and will focus on the strategy and role of the board, quality of debate and functioning of the board, and the practical organization of the board with a new self-assessment take place in 2023. A detailed description of the work of the board and its committees is contained in the universal registration document 2021. Concerning renewals of governance, the board has followed a particularly rigorous process, despite the difficult circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of 2021, July 2021, looking forward to the end of term of office of Stéphane Richard and Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner, who is chairwoman of the Governance and Social Environmental Responsibility Committee, the GSER committee, as well as Bernard Ramanantsoa, who is the lead board member, jointly started identifying a list of potential candidates. The purpose of that process was to allow the board to give its views on the split between the roles of president of the board of directors and the CEO. That was a split which Stéphane Richard wanted himself, and it was something the board members wanted as well, and they expressed their views in the second half of 2021, as well as by the stakeholders.
Therefore, an ad hoc committee comprising Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner and Bernard Ramanantsoa worked closely with our reference shareholder to carry out a process to find and identify a candidate to act as new CEO. As of November 2021, that committee carried out a number of interviews to sift and refine a list of potential candidates who were asked to formalize their vision for a strategic roadmap for the group. All the stages of that process were shared with members of the board as well as the anonymized roadmaps drafted by the candidates. The ad hoc committee also worked closely with board members, the independent administrators, the employee administrators and the chairman and CEO.
At the end of the process, the board appointed Christel Heydemann as new CEO on the recommendation of the GSER committee and the ad hoc committee, assisted by specialist consultants. They agreed on her remuneration, which were proposed to her. The ad hoc committee then continued work looking for a new chairman of the board of directors and a new independent board member to replace Helle Kristoffersen, who is independent board member, who wished to quit as a board member on the 31st of January 2022, having been a board member for 11 years.
Thus, on the 30th of March 2022, the board proposed to, as a replacement for Stéphane Richard, whose term of office ends at the end of today's meeting, the candidacy of Jacques Aschenbroich to act as chairman of the board of directors and the candidacy of Valérie Beaulieu-James to replace Helle Kristoffersen. Both of those will take up their new role as of today. Criteria for their independence have been reviewed and confirmed. Before we continue, I suggest that we listen to their two introductory videos from both candidates. I'm a trained engineer by training. I've had an international career. I worked in Asia, Brazil, Germany, the United States. Today, I chair the board of directors of Valeo, the group OEM, which is a world leader in assisted driving and connectivity.
Now, why did you want to be a board member? Well, I like companies like Orange, which have a technical culture and which are undergoing a transformation of their business and international competition. I know the Orange customers and workers. I've been a customer in other companies I've managed, and I know they have great skills. Telecoms are facing a deficit of growth, getting back to growth, finding striking the right balance between profitability, growth, cash flow, and developing staff with a great ambition. What can you bring to the group, is the question. Well, the board decided that it wanted a change of governance with a board, a chairman of the board and a CEO. Christel Heydemann, the new CEO, is the boss of Orange Group.
What I would bring to the table is my experience of governance, which I acquired as chairman of Valeo, but also in other positions I've occupied in other French companies. I would bring that experience, all my energy to ensure that Christel is a success and Orange is a success. Any messages for the Orange shareholders? Orange has French roots, very deep roots. It has a European and African base, and that's a great basis on which to get back to growth. I think in the years to come, we will get back to growth, as I say, and find the right balance between growth, profitability, cash flow, and development of the 140,000 Orange employees. A few words on your background.
Well, I joined Adecco Group about a year ago after spending 30 years in the tech industry and 24 years in particular at Microsoft, where I was a sales director, a marketing and a general manager in the U.S., across Europe and in Asia. Why do you want to be an Orange board member? Well, I'm a French woman, and I've spent many years abroad, and having been a trade advisor for France's external trade, I'm very proud to bring an international experience that I have to the Orange board. In particular, my international experience has shown me to what extent French companies, Orange in particular, have assets that we need to be proud of. Sometimes we're too shy to boast about them.
I also learned from our American competitors our ability to get things done, to execute, and I think that's my strength that I can bring to the board. Now, I'm bringing to the board over 30 years of experience from the tech sector, and I will try and bring all that expertise to bear and access to my network in order to give an informed point of view to our discussions about the group's innovation and strategy. Any messages you want to share with the Orange shareholders? Well, Orange has great assets to write the next chapter in its growth, and my job will be to bring my experience, my expertise to bear in order to help define and execute those targets for group success.
Thank you. I would like to thank, and I think that I can do that on behalf of the whole board, I would like to thank Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner and Bernard Ramanantsoa for the quality and the rigor of their work within the ad hoc committee and their constant involvement, and I can testify to that, to see this governance renewal process through. Here also on behalf of the whole board, I would like to thank Stéphane Richard for the role that he played for all these years as chairman, his constant personal involvement in the work done, his care for transparency, and the specific attention he gave to the quality of discussions between directors and general management. Based on the work thus led, the board has drafted resolutions five and six submitted to your vote today.
In line with the articles of association, the duration of the terms proposed is four years until the end of the general meeting that will decide on the accounts of 31st December 2025. With the adoption of these resolutions, the makeup of the board will have balanced gender representation and will address the goal set by the group to have diversity in profiles and competencies. I hope that these elements helped underline the care that we have for governance at Orange and the constant concern on that at the board and general meeting and to evolve towards the best practices to benefit, in particular, you shareholders. I'll now move on to the presentation of the other resolutions.
After approving the accounts, you'll be asked to approve the distributable income for the fiscal year 2021 and decide the payout of a dividend of EUR 0.70 per share. If your assembly approves the resolution, the remainder of EUR 0.30 will be paid out on 9 June 2021 because an interim dividend of EUR 0.30 was paid out on 15 December. Resolution number seven will raise the maximum amount for the envelope for a director compensation from EUR 750,000- EUR 1,050,000. The previous envelope was granted by the general meeting 2014 and had remained unchanged. It will take into account the strong involvement of the board and the major role played by the chairman, the chairs of the three committees.
Resolutions 8- 11 are on ex post remuneration for corporate officers and directors, including benefits of all kinds received in 2021 or awarded for the same year. You'll be asked to vote on resolutions 12 to 14 on the criteria and principles of remuneration for the year 2022 or the ex ante remuneration policy. Resolution 12 is on the corporate officers and so the CEO and the deputy CEO, and from the fourth of April the new CEO and the deputy CEO. Resolution 13 is on the remuneration of the chairman of the board, and resolution 14 on that of directors. All these elements are in chapter five of the URD 2021 on remuneration of corporate officers. They are also in the convening brochure that you received or could read before the general meeting.
To conclude the ordinary side of the general meeting, resolution 15 will offer to authorize the board to buy back shares of the company with a maximum of 10% of the issued share capital and maximum premium of EUR 24 per share. This authorization will be valid for 18 months, starting from the general meeting, and can be implemented at any time apart from public offering periods on the shares of the company. For the extraordinary part of the general meeting, there are several changes to the articles of association. In resolution 16, an amendment of the articles to keep track of legislative and regulatory changes. Resolution 17 will adjust the age limit for the chairman of the board. For a chairman who would reach the age of 70 during a term, they could serve their term until its end.
Resolution 18 will ask you to authorize the award of free performance shares to corporate officers and certain members of staff. In line with the previous schemes, this scheme would position the manager of the group with similar schemes for executives that have similar responsibilities in other major companies. This award would be part of the LTIP long-term incentive plan for the period 2020 to 2024. This LTIP is extended to members of staff designated as executives and leaders according to the same conditions, excluding the number of shares. Now we will vote on the resolutions. Before we start voting, let's watch a quick video explaining how to vote, and then I'll take the floor after that. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, your voting device is strictly personal. The number of votes that you have and/or represent is loaded into the device and displayed on screen.
You will only need to use the green, yellow, and red keys. Green is for, yellow to abstain, and red for a vote against. After reading each resolution, we will immediately proceed to the vote, and the secretary will say, "The vote is open." Then on screen, you will see a rectangle giving you a countdown of how many seconds you still have to vote. When the countdown is up, the secretary will say, "The vote is closed," and you will no longer be able to vote. Results will be displayed immediately on the projection screen after this vote is closed. Last comment, please switch off your mobile phones during the vote, and please return the voting devices when you exit the room. We are able to vote because the final quorum is 73.9%.
I'll suggest that we start with the ordinary resolutions, with the first resolution, approval of the statutory financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2021. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution. I'm sorry, I can't see the results. The resolution is adopted with 99.63% of the vote. Resolution 2, approval of the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2021. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 99.63% of the vote. Resolution 3, allocation of income for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2021. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 86.20% of the vote. Resolution 4, approval of regulated third-party agreements. The vote is open. The vote is closed.
The resolution is approved with 89.45% of the vote. Resolution 5, appointment of a director, Mr. Jacques Aschenbroich. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 76.86% of the vote. Congratulations, Mr. Aschenbroich. Resolution 6, appointment of a director, an independent director, Ms. Valérie Beaulieu-James. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 96.69% of the votes. Congratulations. Resolution 7, setting the amount of the overall annual compensation for directors. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 99.82% of the vote. Resolution 8, approval of the information on 2021 remuneration for corporate officers mentioned in the corporate governance report. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 96.95%.
Resolution nine, approval of the components of compensation for 2021 for Mr. Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 95.32% of the vote. Resolution ten, approval of the components of compensation for 2021 for Mr. Ramón Fernández, Delegated CEO. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 95.86%. Resolution eleven. Approval of the compensation for 2021 for Mr. Gervais Pellissier, Delegate CEO. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved with 95.86%. Resolution twelve, approval of the 2022 compensation policy for the chairman and executive CEO, the chief executive officer, and delegate chief executive officer. The vote is open. The vote is closed. Approved with 50.55%.
Resolution 13, approval of the 2022 compensation policy for the separated Chairman of the Board of Directors. The vote's open. The vote's closed. The resolution is approved with 99.87%. Resolution 14, approval of the compensation policy for directors. The vote's open. The vote's closed. The resolution's approved, 99.85%. Resolution 15, authorization to be granted to the Board to purchase or transfer company shares. The vote's open. The vote's closed. Approved 98.99%. Now let's move on to the resolutions for the extraordinary shareholders' meeting. Number 16, amendment of the articles 2, 13, 15, and 16 of the articles of association. The vote's open. The vote's closed. Approved with 99.54%. Resolution 17, amendment of the articles of association regarding the age limit of the Chairman. The vote's open. The vote's closed.
The resolution is approved with 92.48%. Resolution 18, authorization granted to the board to allocate free shares of the company to corporate officers and certain Orange Group employees. The vote's open. The vote's closed. The resolution is approved 85.40%. Resolution nineteen, delegation to the board to issue shares for members of savings plans. The vote's open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved 98.84%. Resolution 20, authorization to the board to reduce the capital through cancellation of shares. The vote's open. The vote's closed. The resolution is approved 86.83%. Number 21, powers for formalities. The vote's open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved 99.98%. I still need to get you to vote on two resolutions that were not approved by the board of directors.
Resolution A, amendment to the eighteenth resolution, either to grant free shares to all members of staff or an offer reserved to staff every year. The vote's open. The vote is closed. The resolution is rejected with only 18.44%. Resolution 4, Resolution B, amendment to Article 13 of the articles of association on plurality of mandates. The vote's open. The vote is closed. Votes in favor 15.68%. The resolution is rejected. This is it for me, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you very much, Nicolas. Well, this is the end of this general meeting 2022. Here, I would like to say once again, thank you, and wish you all the best, of course, for Orange, for its management, for its employees, and all its shareholders. Thank you, and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.