Earnings Call: H2 2013

Feb 13, 2014

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for having come to attend this meeting for analysts, which is on a webcast. We have already put this presentation on the website. For those who are connected with us either by telephone or by webcast, have had access to the presentation. As you know, the presentation will be given in French. The slides are presented in English and in French. As this meeting is being held here in France, we are going to give the presentations in French with a simultaneous translation into English. We are going to present our results, which are excellent based on all financial indicators, and we are very proud of this, and this in spite of circumstances which have not been very easy with Europe, which is still experiencing difficult issues, which still has problems, both in the north and the south, and also with emerging countries, which are trying to find new strategies, and also with a number of world strategic changes taking place worldwide, which are most interesting, in particular, in the digital area. I wish to discuss all this when presenting our figures. Before we start, could you please read the disclaimers with attention. There are a number of rules to be reminded to you. I am not going to read out the disclaimer personally. I am sure that you can do that by yourself. Just asking you to pay attention to this, as our legal department is requesting me to do so, and I am following this without any restriction. This has been an excellent year for many reasons. Just a few things which I will refer to in a minute. In this very blue sky, we can say that there are outstanding results, EUR 6,953,000,000. You can see the increase is 5.2%. Organic growth has increased by 2.6%. This is perhaps the shadow which I could mention, and which I will return to. It could have been better. But the operational margin has reached EUR 1,145,000,000, and the rate is 16.5%, excluding merger costs, referring to our merger planned with Publicis Omnicom. It is necessary to exclude them to give you necessary comparison figures. But there is also another column into which we have recalled the figures taking into account merger costs. You can see the figure, 16.5%, an increase of 7.8% for our operating margin. The net income, which is above EUR 800,000,000, which is a record figure, but an increase of 11.5%. Even if we were to take into account merger costs, we would be at EUR 792,000,000, which is a strong increase, too. EPS, diluted EPS is EUR 3.64, an increase by 9%. Free cash flow, EUR 900,000,000, an increase of 19%, by which we can consider a dividend to be submitted to the general assembly decision, which would be EUR 1.10, that is an increase of 22.2%. Let us look at these various figures. We can note that as far as growth is concerned, which is what I am going to deal with now, organic growth is 2.6%. Let me recall that initially it was to be between 3.2% and 3.5% in our forecast. In the summer period, I thought it would be closer to 3.5 or even slightly beyond that, beyond 3.2. Unfortunately, Q4 was not what we expected. It is always a quarter during which there are a number of uncertainties, as it is an adjustment variable in companies. On that year, all the variables went the same way. So we have suffered a number of setbacks. Europe had been low or slow, which is not a surprise. We were not expecting Europe to wake up suddenly. We were expecting this, more or less. For the BRICS and MEASA, it is a real setback or disappointment with Q4, minus 5.9%, almost 6% negative. It is true that we were starting from a high level, but we should face this as there has been a number of setbacks in China, where we are over-weighted in the luxury sector in China, but also investments have been put to a stop in India following a very hard discussion, as well as what we have seen in Brazil with a number of slowdown due to public protests. This has not prevented from reaching a number of our goals. The first of them, which I would like to emphasize during a few minutes, is the digital world. Now, we have been anticipating for quite a long time that the fact that we were going to see a major shift in investments from analog into digital, and this has now happened and is being accelerated. We have taken this turning point for a market which is about 17% or 18%. We amount to 38.4% of our revenue in 2013. For Q4, it is 40.4% with an organic growth at the level of 13.9% over the full year, and Q4 is +20%. This is a performance for which we should be very happy and very proud of, but which is something very good for our future and which gives us a lot of good reasons for hope and upside for the future. Let us look at our operating margin. 40 basis points improvement, and Charlie Tian will return to this to go into more details. I will give you all the necessary items that make up this performance and why we have reached this level, and the reason why you should be confident in this level as being a solid strong basis for the future. So 16.5%, which is even beyond our own internal forecast. Next, double-digit increase as to our net income and net, we have the headline diluted EPS 10.6%. I have mentioned the dividend and free cash flow as well. We can see all this is moving upwards with outstanding results. It has been a record year. In spite of this small cloud, I might say, which is like the drop of milk in a cup of tea, so to speak, as it is something which at this stage appears to us not being something different than a small incident, a small blip. We will return to that in the presentation. Regarding strategic goals, I mentioned the digital area. I do not think there is much to add. A significant increase in our margin. Nothing much to add there either. Not as far as the other right-hand side concerns. It is interesting to see that our business model, this is the demonstration which was given by Jean-Michel when we met in London on April 23, at a time when many people among you were wondering about the weakness of the growth rate in our model, in our business model. The idea was that we were rather shy, but the idea was to show that even with a low growth rate, we were capable of improving our margin in a substantial way, and we were quite capable of carrying out and following the path that we had set for ourselves at the time. For 2018. Under difficult circumstances, under this macroeconomic environment, we are seeing that most companies are suffering, and we are successful in showing that our business model can withstand this upheaval. The net new business. It is at a very high rate, $4.5 billion. There is quite a long list of acquisitions which are in the addendum. A number of wins which you will find in the addendum, which I will not elaborate on, but just a few comments as we have many activities in the digital world, some of them being planned. It is clear that we are going to see the new businesses develop further. I am not so sure that the new business is as strong an indicator as it was a few years ago. But it is very encouraging to see that we are successful in new business, which shows the high quality of our teams, quality of our services. And the fact that our different entities are quite attractive in the market. Let me stop at this level to give the floor to our financial manager, Jean-Michel Étienne, who will take over to present our financial results. Jean-Michel, please. On to you. Thank you, Maurice. Good morning to all. We will start on page 2 of our presentation, the presentation you have been handed out for 2013. 2013 revenue by geography. On page 48 in the annexes that we handed out to you, too, you will find the specific figures of our organic growth for the full year and for Q4. On page 12, as you can see on this revenue 2013 by geography analysis, you will see that Europe, excluding Russia, in spite of a slightly positive Q4, has had an annual rate of -1.6%. This negative growth is due mainly to Nordic countries and to Southern Europe countries. Western Europe, mainly France, U.K., and Germany, have reported a stable growth at 0%, and Central Europe, excluding Russia and Turkey, have shown positive growth. There are a few positive elements in all this. Northern America shows a satisfactory growth, +4.7%, and even the U.S. above 5% for the full year. This growth was based mainly on media activities as well as in digital, in spite of a disappointing growth rate in PR and healthcare. In terms of healthcare, we should note an interesting recovery during Q4 with a positive growth again. For BRICS and MEASA's growth at the end of June, as you probably remember, was up 5.5%, but it considerably slowed during the third and fourth quarters, and for the full year, growth has reached 1.0%. For BRICS in particular, it's up 0.4%, and for MEASA, +3.4%. This is a slowdown that is rather well distributed over all countries. For the rest of the world, growth is up 6.8%. Countries such as Australia, Colombia, Thailand, Philippines show a good year with a growth rate much higher than 5%. In total, the group organic growth for 2013 is up 2.6%, including acquisitions and currency effects. Our income and revenue has grown 5.2%. On the following page, you will find the detail per country. Most countries are between 0% and 5%, the U.S. above 5%, as I mentioned earlier. Q4 by geography. Growth is 0.7%. You have in Europe, France, 7% growth, U.K. 7%, and Germany 7.2%. The smaller countries, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, which lead the average growth rate to a decrease. For North America, Q4 has shown a slowdown, which started in the third quarter, especially in creative agencies and in the PR sector. This is offset partly by a good performance on the part of media and digital agencies, and also a return to good and positive activities in the healthcare sector. For BRICS and MEASA, the Q4 rate is strongly impacted, -5.9%, by a slowdown of activities with a basic effect, which is quite significant. Growth was up 13% in Q4 2012. Only Russia, Mexico, Singapore, and Turkey have shown a positive growth approaching 5%. For the rest of the world, Q4 growth was 4.8%, good performance in Latin America, excluding Brazil, Malaysia, Philippines, and the Emirates. Page 15. If we show our revenue in dollars, the amount would be $2,559,000, including acquisitions. Next page, our development in digital, which is one of the pillars of our group strategy as already indicated. Our revenue in digital has reached 38.4% in 2013. And 14.4% for the fourth quarter. We are quite ready to be on target, 50% of our revenue in digital by 2018, thanks to our organic growth of revenue in this category, which reached +13.9% in 2013. For fast-growing countries, the performance is not as clear because of the weight of LBi's acquisition. Revenue in this category is 24.4%, compared to 25.5% in 2012. This also takes into account the depreciation of currencies in emerging countries. Growth rate for those countries was +3.3%. Of course, this is not satisfactory, but as you've noted, it is higher than the growth in BRICS and MEASA countries. Next page. You see the table showing a growth per region and per activity. Digital, as you can see, shows a double-digit growth in all regions, which is not a surprise. Activities in the analog sector have been decreasing in all regions except for the rest of the world region. Now, let's move on to our income statement. The simplified income statement that is presented on page 19 is the income statement before merger costs with Omnicom. On page 53, you can find the income statement before and after merger costs. Merger costs amount to EUR 38 million and impact the other operating expenses. I will now comment revenue and our income statement before merger costs. As you can see, our revenue has reached EUR 6,953,000,000, up 5.2%, including acquisitions and currency effects. Operating margin, a record level of EUR 1,145,000,000, up 7.8%, and a margin rate at 16.5%, which shows a 40-basis point improvement compared to 2012. I will come back to this later on. Now, under the operating income, I will only comment on those lines for which there are no details in this table. First of all, amortization of intangibles, EUR 49 million, as you can see. It has been up compared to 2012, exclusively due to the allocation of LBi acquisition price. Now, impairment shows an expense of EUR 4 million, improvement compared to 2012. Non-current income and expenses shows a capital gain on the disposal of former True North shares that have now become Interpublic. Maybe you have forgotten this. True North was purchased by Interpublic in March 2001. You may not remember this. We have sold all the shares that we held, and we have recorded a capital gain of EUR 47 million and a cash amount, EUR 61 million. Associate income has been down EUR 20 million because of the change in our consolidation method for BBH, which is now consolidated globally as from July 2012. Minority interest. The reduction here is exclusively due to the buyout of minority interests, which took place in 2013, and I will come back to the analysis of financial costs and taxes. Net income, excluding merger costs, EUR 860 million, up 11.5%. On page 12, our operating margin. Personnel expenses, 62.3% in 2013 compared to 61.7% in 2012. This increase can be explained by an increase in the provision for bonuses, an increase in restructuring costs, especially in Europe, and an increase in the IFRS incentive plans in shares. What is most important is that the ratio of our fixed personnel costs, as well our freelance costs, have been improved compared to 2012. Other operating expenses have also improved as a share of revenue, and depreciation and amortization have also slightly decreased in absolute terms, and in proportion with revenue, they show our investment policy, which prioritizes the development in the digital sector, as well as the implementation of our IT infrastructure. On the following page, how can we move on from an operating margin rate of 16.1% in 2012 to 16.5% in 2013? First of all, there is a currency impact, and also the impact due to the implementation of IAS 19 on pensions. Those two elements account for a 20-basis point impact, which reduces the margin rate. The impact on personnel expenses is negative by 20 basis points. But as I explained, that this was due to bonuses, to restructuring costs, and to the IFRS 2 impact. If we eliminate those three impacts, then the ratio of personnel costs has improved. There have been improvements due to the client management for 40 basis points, especially for client incentives, but also reversal of provisions. For shared services, they have been bringing their contribution to an improvement of our operating performance. All the improvements due to shared services amount to 40 basis points. As for operating costs, we have an improvement of 30 basis points distributed all over the categories of our expenses. We have been able to fully control this category of expenses in 2013. This would have led us to record margin for our group of 16.8%, but the acquisitions we made in 2013 led to a 30 basis point impact, as you can see on this graph. This is an illustration of our operating margin in a general environment of moderate growth. On page 22, let us now move on to financial costs. Overall, they have improved by EUR 11 million, mainly due to the absence of financial costs related to Océane 2014, which was converted at the end of July 2012, and on the other hand, due to financial income, non-cash financial income of EUR 17 million, which materialized in 2012 when Eurobond 2012 was reimbursed. Other financial costs have been improved by EUR 8 million due to the earn-out revaluation, which have been included in the income statement for acquisitions made since January 2010, and also due to some currency effects, currency gains. In terms of taxes, the effective tax rate has been reduced by 40 basis points. This is due to a purely technical impact, which deals with the use of former tax deficits, the use of former deferred taxes, which was not the case before. The earnings per share, diluted earnings per share, excluding merger costs, is EUR 3.64, up 9%. The headline diluted EPS, according to the method that was presented to you some years ago, has improved by 10.6%. Let us look at the balance sheet. As of December 31st, 2013, it has shown a substantial improvement compared to a very satisfactory situation at the end of 2012. The working capital requirement, negative as you know in our activity, has improved by EUR 188 million. Net debt, which is not a debt actually, but a net cash of EUR 593 million, has improved by EUR 375 million compared to 2012, and total equity has improved by EUR 474 million to EUR 5 billion 132 million. This is a strong balance sheet. This year again, we have carried out some simplification operations on our balance sheet. These operations, for some of them, were carried out in the perspective of our merger with Omnicom, and in particular, ORANEs. ORANEs holders met last October and approved the project of reimbursement in the form of Publicis shares on the date of the merger, and also approved unanimously the principle of our merger with Omnicom. Océane 2018. Given the evolution of the share price conversion into shares of 79% of existing convertible bonds was carried out, which led to a reduction in our financial debt of EUR 100 million. We have exercised the issuer's call option on the remaining bonds in January, so there are no longer any convertible bonds in our balance sheet. For warrants, they were exercised. They were linked to Welcome Bacon 3. They were issued at €30.50, and this is about 50% of our warrants. We have just about the same amount at the end of December 2013. For the net debt, as I said, net debt has improved by EUR 375 million. It takes into account the funding of the various acquisitions that we performed in 2013, and in particular, the major part of LBi investment. For free cash flow, we have had quite a good year, as you can see here on this table. Free cash flow before change in WCR reached EUR 901 million, which is an improvement of 19% compared to 2012. All the components show an improvement, quite a noticeable improvement. In terms of the use of cash, this is of great importance. The change in WCR has been an income of EUR 355 million for 2013, which is a record level for our group. Acquisitions mobilized resources for EUR 488 million, earn-outs and buyouts have been a cash expense of EUR 287 million. The cash expense related to the payment of dividends was limited to EUR 130 million because of our successful option of payment in the form of shares. At the beginning of 2013, we bought back the remaining shares held by Dentsu for EUR 182 million. Financial ratios on page 30. Obviously, financial ratios go far beyond the objectives that we had set ourselves, especially average net debt over EBITDA is 0.40 for an optimum level, which is under 1.5. So we are far better than all the ratios. In terms of dividend, the dividend which will be proposed to the general shareholders meeting on May 28th is EUR 1.10, up 22.2%, given the successful option of payment into shares last year. We will again offer this possibility to our shareholders to obtain either a payment in cash or in the form of shares. Payout will reach the threshold of 30% and will certainly reach the objective of 35%, which is our firm objective and commitment. Liquidities on December 2013 is EUR 3.3 billion, a slight improvement compared to December 2012. This is quite good. To conclude my presentation, you will find on page 34 the change in the ratio on capital employed, which has been since 2011, well above 13% and also well above the average of the first seven years at 12.6%. 2007 was the beginning of our switch to a digital and to emerging countries strategy. This ratio is also well above the WACC of the group, which is close to 8%. Once again, this shows that over this period of seven years, we have performed significant acquisitions, and all these acquisitions have been satisfactorily integrated within our group. This is the end of my presentation, and I would now like to give the floor back to Maurice. I am going to deal with two things, the interest of which might be less than the things that have just been mentioned, but I will deal with the merger and the outlook. I am going to try and maintain your attention. Regarding the merger update, we are facing the largest merger in our sector. This is something requiring a huge amount of work. This is running very smoothly and quietly, perhaps taking slightly longer than what could have been expected, but without any major difficulties. Now, if you look at the antitrust to start with, we had to file for different authorizations with the antitrust authorities. We got all the necessary clearance under phase 1 without any correction, without any corrective request from either the U.S. or the European Union. The only thing that we were expecting so far, we are still expecting, is that of coming from China, which has taken slightly longer. But this is a longer process than elsewhere in China, and we were aware of that, and there are many filings in China, and there is a bottleneck there. We had expected to get this clearance before the Chinese New Year, but it happens that it was not the case, but we are not running up against any major problem. We have a very positive dialogue with the Chinese authorities, and things are running without any major problems. We now have to go through other stages or phases, in particular with financial authorities, with Securities and Exchange Commission, or with the AFM, that is the equivalent of the AMF in the Netherlands. We have to translate our IFRS accounts into US GAAP. Same thing from US GAAP into IFRS with our friends, and we have to file all these accounts, and we have to start this dialogue process with all the different authorities, which is a rather time-consuming amount of work, which also requires supplementary audits, in particular for those accounts which have to be translated. All this requires time. Nothing very difficult when John Wren considers that it is possible that this operation might not be concluded on the 30th of June, but the beginning of the next quarter. Something that we have to face. There are also areas where we can speed up things, but there are other fields in which we have very little authority, and of course, it depends on the sovereign authorities, which have to give their clearance. And we have to comply with a number of procedures, which we do very gladly. But this requires quite a long time. It is only a matter of time. We have not run up against any major obstacle on the way. On the other hand, we did quite a huge amount of work in order to reflect on integration. We have held the first integration seminar, and more than 70 working groups have been convened on the very important issues relating to the future, whether to do with the group's identity, its philosophy on how we were to be positioned on the digital area, how we were to develop our shared services, how to manage high potential employees, et cetera. Many things that are moving in a reasonable pace. And of course, there has been a slowdown since Christmas, more or less, perhaps because of the end of the year. But mostly because of the closing, which has mobilized our resources, although they are very many. We had to work a lot on the closing of our accounts, which may account for the fact that things have been slightly slowed in this regard. Things are catching up and moving on, and we are now pleased to be in a position to work in this. As far as the merger itself is concerned, I am very optimistic that we can comply with dates, and even if there is a one or 2 months later, I do not think it is a major problem. We have been quite positive in our estimate because we, as heads of firms, would like the pace to be stronger and faster. We like things to move forward. I will, of course, reply to your questions. Any questions you might have about the merger, as well as Jean-Michel. Just a few words about our outlook and about the forecast that you are very familiar with, as you have been familiar with our forecast with ZenithOptimedia. The forecast with 5.3% for worldwide media, seen from the media angle. If you convert media into advertising agency that is for the large percentage of our business, we are no longer referring to fees in percentages, but our ad agency's revenue is about 3.5%. If we now focus on the major markets, and we have taken the different markets, we see that with the U.S., we have about 5%, 4.7%. For Japan, we have a positive figure, which had not been the case previously, which is 2.2%. For the Euro zone, unfortunately, it is lagging behind slightly, but forecast is a positive figure at 0.7%. It is not so high, but there is a lot of differences. For Germany, it is +1.5%. For France, we are coming out of the red area with a slight increase in percentages, 0.3%. Italy is still in the red, -2%, 3% almost. An interesting piece of news, Spain would be out of the red and would even reach a growth rate of 1.8%. I am not quite sure we can achieve all these figures. I still wonder about Spain because moving from -10 to +2 seems to be quite a lot. I know there are many good news for Spain, but I am not quite convinced that it can move as fast as that. This does not have such a high weight on our accounts. The very good news for Europe is United Kingdom with a very positive end of year. Microeconomic indicators are quite interesting, particular as far as unemployment is concerned, but still a heavy debt and public deficit. Much more so because of reasonable taxes rather than due to exaggerated public spending. It seems that public spending is going to be controlled. What we can expect is that a new economic improvement will contribute to reducing public deficits. We are expecting an increase in advertising revenue over 6% for the U.K. The good news is from BRICS. All the BRICS are on higher figures. There is still a figure which I am wondering about. I am not sure it would be as high as the 10.5% for China, which we see for ZenithOptimedia. My impression, and these are indications given by our customers as well, we can expect that growth will return to China very soon. Brazil is +5%. I can even hope that they will do better than this. We know what the consequences of a World Cup might be. We've seen that in France and in other countries, and this can have more consequences than what we get in the estimates. All in all, this is quite encouraging, even if there are shadow areas, even if we can't be fully optimistic, and we have to be quite modest in our forecasts. This leads us to think that we could do better than 3.5%, which are our forecasts for the advertising market. Now, I'm referring to 2018 goals before you today, in spite of the fact that we'll be in a merged group by then, and this plan is only a temporary reference. But to the extent we had committed ourselves before you with this plan, which was presented on April 23 in London, it seems to me important to refer to the progress we've made and how this plan is moving. We mentioned we wanted to reach 50% in the digital sector. We have reached 38.4%. I mentioned 40 for Q4, which means that we could have a figure above 40% for the whole of the year 2014. Now, digital is still going up strongly. So in our forecast for 2014, we are in the double-digit figures. Now there are countries which have not fulfilled what was expected. In particular, there has been a slowing down in the third quarter, in particular in the last quarter. But this is an important growth challenge for the future. But based on all the indications we have, we think that these fast-growing markets should be restored to a high pace of growth, even if it will not be the same growth rate they had experienced in the past, but at least over the one we have in Europe. So the goal of 35% is one which we maintain and on which we can hope to make further progress. We're almost at 60% revenue from digital and from fast-growing markets, so the 75% goals could be reached. So you can see here what has happened and what things look like. I can tell you that the 16.5% is slightly above our working plan. We were expecting 20 to 30 basis points, and being at 40 is slightly above. But it's true that based on some indicators, due to the fact that Publicis is very strict in applying a remuneration system, that performance is a key element. So bonuses have not been planned to be paid at their full capacity. There have been some savings planned at this level. So our goals for 2014 are very simple. First, we'll have to implement all our programs and tools, and all our working groups will meet to make this a full success, which requires us to carry out the proper preparation so that fulfillment can be achieved in line with what the market is expecting, and that we can successfully complete the Publicis Omnicom merger. Of course, we will also have to accelerate our internal 2018 plan as- Stand alone. As we intend to have a much better growth than what we have reported, we also hope to further improve our margin. You cannot expect that there will be a new increase of our margin by 40 basis points in 2014. But we do intend to improve it in a rather substantial way, but not at the level which we managed to reach in 2013, but in a satisfactory way. This is what I had to tell you about all this. I would like to thank you for your attention. I will now join Jean-Michel at the table to answer your questions from the audience here in this room, but also questions put to us from the website. And of course, we will tell you whom you can ask your questions to. Question here in the first or second row. Third row. Good morning. Tanoshi Kobayashi. I have three questions. One on emerging countries, BRICS, and MEASA. You have mentioned quite a number of reasons for their slowdown, but how can you explain such a big difference with Omnicom's figures? Don't you think that some clients have been lost there? Second question on Zenith forecast, +3.5% for ad agencies in 2014. In the past, you used to say that you were quite confident that Publicis would outperform those figures. This time you didn't say that. What should we expect for at least a few quarters until the merger takes place? And a third question to Jean-Michel, could you come back to page 41 with the 40 basis points related to the merger, to the reversal of provisions? Okay. Thank you for your questions. The difference with Omnicom, well, Omnicom performed extremely well. This is extremely positive for our future merger. When you look at the fundamentals of the merger, you can see that the strength of both sides appear. We are very strong in digital, in the generation of cash, of margins, and they are very strong in terms of growth. All this is quite positive. We have different portfolios of activities and of clients. Our portfolios are different. In terms of budget losses, of client losses, this hasn't been any significant event. Some events did take place. We had some changes in management. And in some cases, this leads to periods of transition that have to take place. And it so happened that we had that in India and in China. And you also have the market situation. In China, the Chinese model used to perform well since Deng Xiaoping until quite recently. With the new team, now the Chinese model has changed. They have switched from a model based on infrastructures, creation, and construction, and from being the factory of the world to a more added value model based on consumption, based on improvement of the middle class purchasing power, and based on drawing most of the poorest in the Chinese population out of poverty. These are very heavy programs that take quite some time, over five years, and this is totally changing the paradigm in China. In addition to this, there have been a number of elements in the sector of luxury and advertising for company presence, for example. You have seen in the luxury sphere that there has been a number of setbacks. This is also an element. China went down 10% in this respect, while we were starting from a base effect, which was quite high, 13%. But that is the situation. Now, as to India, the situation is quite different. Over the last few months, there have been debates, public debates about the new directions that India should take among the various political parties. The number of decisions have not yet been made in the midst of all this electoral discussions. I was in December in India myself, and I took part in the FICCI's debate. All the political parties took the floor, and I can tell you that democracy is extremely vivid in India, and I could realize that the discussions between Jean-Marc Ayrault and Jean-François Copé in France are quite different. In India, these discussions and dialogue are much more vivid and dynamic and encouraging. We have somewhat changed our scope of activities there. We have made a number of investments in the digital sector, not only to serve Indian companies, but also to support some of our activities there. We purchased a number of agencies in India, which we use as production platforms for U.S. entities. This was our strategy in order to better adapt to this new environment. As far as Brazil is concerned, you know the situation. You know that Brazil was not very happy with the way things were distributed in several areas, and this led to a number of slowdowns and even some stoppages in our ad investments, ad production. Things seem to be improving. The prospect of the World Cup, of course, has a very strong impact and a very dynamic and reinvigorating impact on a market such as Brazil, which really counts on, of course, winning the cup. All these are very specific circumstances to us, and on the basis of all the data we have, we do not believe that this ought to lead us to being fearful of the future. Let me remind you that during our call for Q3 figures, I was extremely cautious then about Q4. I told you that there were a lot of uncertainties every year, but this year a little bit more than usual. On several occasions in interviews, I highlighted this because we could see that a number of major brands would stop or defer their ad investments. Now, as to the 3.5% of ZenithOptimedia, let me be quite clear. We do count on being beyond 4%. These are our internal objectives. I'm not going to dwell on this. I'm going to be quite clear. This is an over-performance that we expect here, and we've made all the steps necessary. We've taken all the steps necessary in order to be able to reach and to achieve that objective. Of course, given the fact that markets will probably slowly recover and we will therefore have a gradual growth. We should not expect to have a tremendous first quarter followed by a slowdown later on over the year. No, it should be the opposite. I suppose we will be gaining speed as the year goes on, as we improve our growth in terms of strength. This is how we consider, we envisage our growth for 2014. I've been quite long on this reply, but it really needed to be quite clear on these two points, and I'll give the floor to Jean-Michel for the rest of the question. Now, for the 40 basis points that you see on the client one-off part. Each year, we reassess our provisions. It so happened that this year, some elements which could justify maintaining those provisions were no longer there. There was no specific element, no specific high element that I should highlight here. It just so happened that we did not need those provisions any longer. We also improved our overdue rate, and a lot of things were improved this year. Of course, this explains why there was this reversal of provisions in our income statement. Jean-Michel, we should also explain that we are always very cautious in terms of provisions, and we should explain that we have certainly not reduced our provisions to zero. No, you have to look at all the balance sheet lines to see the confirmation of what Maurice just said. Thank you. Another question? Oui, merci. Bruno Harran from Oddo. I have two questions. First, to return to China. You were referring to government measures, anti-bribery, anti-corruption in the press release. I would like to know what has been the impact of this, or to what extent is it only temporary? Second question, now that you better know Omnicom after some time, what are the main differences between the two entities? What are the strong points for you and Omnicom, and a few weak points, or at least points on which improvements can be made? I have not referred to anti-corruption measures specifically. What I said was governmental measures. What happens, let us be very clear, in the steps that have been taken by government, by the administration, anything that can look like a gift of some value could be considered as a form of corruption. For example, we are not implied in what I am going to mention, but there are travels that had been organized to China by pharmaceutical industries, by the motor industry. All this will not be possible as people do not want to take any risk in that. Even if these travels were really for study reasons, they would be stopped, and if it is for leisure, of course, they would be stopped for a double reason. But things are being very clear. Anything to do with travels with spouses and children in pleasant tourist areas is being stopped as well as gifts which are too visible. I mean, let's, gift of a nice watch or a nice handbag of things of this kind. Luxury bottles, all these kinds of gifts which can be quite pleasant might be interpreted in the wrong way. That's the reason why it used to be stopped. As it is at the end of the year or at a time when advertising operations reach full-fledged. Let's say will reach their peak, if you like. It's true that this part of the advertising operation has been strongly impacted. You have to be aware that the luxury part amounts for 6% of Publicis revenue, and we don't expect this figure to go down next year. Forecast is still going to be quite strong, but it will be distributed slightly differently. The companies have already changed their offerings in an interesting way or given them a new orientation. It's only to these issues and nothing else. Publicis has paid a lot of attention to the way to proceed in these companies. We signed the Global Compact agreement. We were the second company to do so. The first one was Saint-Gobain. I can't remember very well. The second one was us, was Publicis. So we're very strict in complying with these working rules in the different countries in the world. Sometimes we were late in our establishments because we're so very strict in this respect. It's very difficult to know with accuracy what the major differences are in Omnicom, because, for example, we don't have access to information, or Omnicom doesn't have access to our information. This because we are complying with regulations very strictly. I've discovered Omnicom figures at the same time as you. We received them at the same time as the press did, and not 5 minutes earlier. We see to it not to mention any details that might bother us. But we have a confirmation of what we already knew, and we have a good confirmation of this. First, that there are two very successful companies. Very strong companies with very satisfactory performances, with marked profiles. Omnicom is more growth oriented. Publicis, they're more profit oriented. This has always been the case. We've always had higher margins. We have the best margins on the market. It's true to say that having the best margins, we have better margins than our competitors, including Omnicom. It's not heard anybody. We are also more digital than they are. This is due to our strategic choice and major investment. Because of our presence in emerging markets, we are more present there in terms of percentages and also in some way, in absolute terms. But they have a more in-the-field profile than we are, and they have capacities, capabilities that we don't have, and which are most useful, and for which we have the feeling that we can offer new services to our customers as well as they will offer new services to their clients by opening to them all the digital world that we have put up. They're also working with agencies in a different way than we do. For example, with our creative agencies, mostly advice oriented, advice to customers and creativity. Whereas theirs are already clusters in which there are already below the line businesses by which they can resist shocks better. Also, not to speak against Publicis agencies, but it is true that we have always recognized that Omnicom creative agencies are more creative than Publicis agencies. There are rankings that show it that way. Our operational mode is also quite different. In particular, our asset, which is quite huge, is our shared services. It is the way we can manage a number of support businesses centrally. By which not only do we know what the costs are, but we can also reduce them and have the necessary tools to make a number of these functions automated. Of course, this requires some qualifications or nuances once we know all the details. Be reassured that once we are ready, John and myself will discuss this very widely and give you all the details. We will now give the floor to the audience here. Thank you. My name is Julia Rossi from Morgan Stanley. Three questions. My first question is about Publicis Omnicom cash generation, as often was above expectations, and therefore there will be a low debt situation once the deal is concluded. What do you expect to do with this cash? Will Publicis culture give the way to Omnicom's way of going about it? Second point, were you able to look into possibilities of cost savings? You said you saw the figures just as we did, but do you think that their figures were a bit cautious for last year? Third question, as Publicis really outperformed in Q4, do you have the feeling that you can see now the light at the end of the tunnel? As far as cash generation is concerned, this is one of our qualities. It has been one of our major qualities over the last years. We have had an excellent management, cash management. Jean-Michel is extremely cautious. We have here with us a former Publicis treasurer, and we have another one here also in the room, and they all contributed to laying the foundations of an extremely good system. Dominique perfected the system, and we have a cash management system that is quite satisfactory. We have always been extremely cautious on the use of our cash. This was quite a good thing, because in this way, we were able to go through all the major crises without being too leveraged. We were able to take initiatives when there was the opportunity. Whereas other companies had to withdraw from the market. We, for example, purchased Bcom3, and we started negotiating about it 10 days after 9/11. This was quite bold and quite courageous, but we also needed a very good and strong balance sheet. We dared to acquire Digitas at a time when no one thought that the digital sector was promising. We acquired Razorfish in 2009 at the worst time, just after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Why did we manage to do that? Because We were extremely cautious in the management of our balance sheet. We've always shown the best and the strongest balance sheet in the industry. Most robust balance sheet. Well before our discussion with Omnicom on the merger, a number of steps were taken. Some will say that those measures were quite timid on our part, but for example, we canceled all the shares held by Dentsu. This was quite something. We had to absorb all this. We did it, and this was extremely positive for our shareholders. We also, and this is something that we already said in March, and we repeated in April, that we wanted to improve our payout ratio and to increase it gradually to 35%. We would do it through stages, and this is something that we had announced well before our merger plan with Omnicom. Well before that, we also announced that we were considering a 35% payout ratio right from the first year. Once we close our accounts, it will be 35% of payout. This is our objective, and this is the objective that we want to have for the future. We think it's quite appropriate. Now, two major points. When we look at Publicis and the way we come from, we've made quite a number of acquisitions. We had quite a major acquisition program, and we still have a number of acquisitions to make in the coming months in order to complete our process. In the framework of the merger, we're going to have quite a number of assets that will supplement our assets, and these should be extremely positive for both sides of the merger, for both partners. This means that the acquisition program will be lighter. It will be lighter because there were some acquisitions that we had planned to do that we won't need to do. Also, we will turn ourselves to more big data and other such activities. So we will be using our cash in a different way. It will be up to the board of the newly found company to make the decision. I would be surprised to see that the board doesn't want to return some part of the cash to shareholders. I'm sure it will. It might be in the form of higher dividends or of share buybacks, I don't know. But I think we can expect that this will be part of what will be done. I don't think it is exaggerated to say that this new board will really want to see to it that it has an appropriate leverage. We certainly don't want to increase our debt, but we certainly don't want to live with too much either. We have to be very careful and attentive to this. To give you some breathing space, I would now like to give the floor to our webcast followers. There might be one or several questions in English. I will answer in French. I won't need the translation. I will answer in French. This is the rule of the game that we have decided upon. We speak French here in France. A question from the telephone or webcast. J.P. Morgan. Good morning. I'll put the question in French, if I may. I have three small questions. First, you can refer to answer or not. I'd like to have your views about advertising agencies, whether before the next 2 years, we could see a further consolidation among large agencies, and whether you would be the one to consolidate. Next, I'm wondering about the next acquisition wave for agencies. What will be targeted? Will that be companies which are somewhere between digital, IT, and creativity? This would be in order to acquire a potential budget that would come from the IT agency. Third question, sorry to refer to this small cloud you were referring to, which I hope will not become a major storm. It's a question about the emerging country markets, emerging countries. Could we extrapolate on the slowdown of this market and what you're seeing in your press release? What about the postponement of your advertising operations? Could you give us figures or an indication to know what is the part that has been postponed or carried forward to 2014? Thank you, Filippo. Yes, I just realized that I've not answered the question about France. Just to give you two words about this, we have the impression that there is a small, moderate increase. This is an indication that we are very cautious about the meaning of this signal. It's fragile, but we can say there is a small improvement, and we can't say more about this. Forecast for 2014 are still being rather modest. As far as the cloud is concerned, Filippo, let me start with this. We'll see whether we can delve into this in a more specific way about what has happened. If a client tells us we're going to postpone and somebody who tells we're going to cancel, this is taken as an immediate reduction because it can mean next year or next quarter, and we consider it is an immediate reduction. So there is an immediate consequence. We're going to try and assess this and give you an evaluation, and we'll see with Jean-Michel the more accurate answer we can give you. If we can identify things, we can put these various items on the website so that everybody can have access to. What I mean to say about this, that there are a number of things that we can simply identify, and I can tell you immediately what is about the luxury world, and is cancellation immediately. All those who had planned operations for gifts at the end of the year, these operations were canceled. So this is true cancellation, and we'll see what they will spend next year. But in case there has been things that have been delayed, and there are simple cases, for example, in China, we have a motor car and an advertising campaign which would be postponed to March. But this can take place. It has happened in France. It can happen elsewhere because quality hasn't been reached, because production is not there, because the customers or clients are still trying to improve their product further. So things happen all the time, and they have no consequences. As far as acquisitions are concerned, you are right, 200% right in this. If you look at what has been acquired, about businesses that we have acquired, whether in China or India, even in U.S., you have a number of entities who are strongly technology-oriented, and which we would not have acquired a few years ago if we hadn't had the necessity of reinforcing us in this area. But about e-trade, e-commerce, we have strengthened ourselves strongly, and this is based on technology. In India, we have two or three entities who could be held by Accenture or Capgemini because there is a sort of blurring of borders taking place. And there is a project, it's not a proper operation. It's a project where we were faced with Deloitte and Accenture. Well, happened that we won against these two companies who could very well have carried out this project, perhaps not as good as we could, but they could have taken this. They could have won. But if we won, it's because we can bring something to the knowledge of consumers, to the brand itself, which makes us a very good partner. And in this moving environment, technology is taking over, is prevailing. It's very important for us to be consolidated further. As far as the industry is concerned, what I can tell you is that I was attending the Davos meeting as a chairman of the Governors Meeting for Media and Entertainment, and there were about 40 CEOs coming from this environment, from the media, from advertising, entertainment, and information. My major competitors were there, and we came to a general consensus about the fact that there would be further consolidation in future years. Whether we will be part of this or a player in this, I think we have already done our share in this. Interest is to go deeper in a number of sectors, which is what we are doing. Thank you. Could we have the next question, please? Thank you. We will now take our next question from Tim Nollen from Macquarie. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thanks very much for taking the question. I just wanted to ask about the Omnicom merger. I know there are some limitations on what you can be doing now before the deal is closed. Just operationally, in terms of staffing, in terms of agency organizations, IT-wise, in terms of merging platforms, all these sorts of things, could you please comment on what you have done, what you can do, what you have to wait to do until actual deal closing? I guess the follow-on is what could possibly go wrong if the deal closes and you may or may not have understood things. Thanks. Not that good yet. Thank you, Tim. I am just surprised that you did not ask your question in French. I will answer in French, as I said. In a way, we are positively helped by the time here in this respect, because this allows us time to give possibilities to our working groups to work on all these. In December, when those working parties were set up, there were so many other things to do, closing the accounts, seeing and visiting the clients. The work of our working parties, or what we call work streams, was a little bit slowed down before the end of the year. Now, what about limitations? Of course, there are a number of things that we cannot talk about, things that are sensitive for our competition. This amounts to quite a lot. We see this as covering quite a number of aspects, because we do not want to take any risks. While we were working within our integration seminar, we had with us a lawyer, a watchdog, who attended all of our meetings in order to make sure that we would not say anything that could be an obstacle or a problem with SEC or FTC or the European Union or any other institution. We want to be very cautious and really comply with the rules. Let us start with the good news. We have to share this good news with all of you. Some of our competitors really insisted on the fact that we would be faced with a number of criticism and questions from advertisers. For all those who looked into the antitrust measures, they all know that there are what is called market tests, and antitrust authorities, whether FTC or the European Competition Directorate within the European Commission, they all ask questions to advertisers. If advertisers had expressed themselves negatively or reluctantly, I am sure that those authorities would not have given the green light in the first phase of the process. There would have been many more questions and much more work of analyzing and some measures of remediation that would have been requested from us, and all this was not the case. Also, when we look at our competitors today, we note that they agree with what we do. All the rumors on the market have not had any impact. When we look at our clients, they all keep supporting us. When we look at clients' interviews in the trade press, we see that our clients do support us. Of course, we cannot do anything without our clients, but we do have clients. We are happy with this merger project. They support us, and they are happy with this stage that we are going through. So much so that a lot of people say consolidation is a normal process in the industry. When you look at Time Warner Cable, when you look at what takes place in the platform sector, you can see that consolidation does happen, and it becomes a key element in the world picture. It is very difficult to escape from it. Now, within these working streams, they are looking at the synergies, at the operating modes, at all the difficulties we might be faced with in order to work in such and such a way. They're looking at the differences between the two partners. In some cases where they thought we were very different, they realized that we are much more similar than we thought, and conversely. So it is a process of mutual discovery. The fact that it takes some time, as I said earlier, is in a way positive because it helps us go very deep into this discovery process in order to make sure that the transition is smooth. Lastly, there are very few things that could possibly go wrong. Very few things, because our determination to be a merger of equals will really make sure that it will be a merger of equals. Both partners will be fully represented in a very balanced and appropriate way. This is of major importance for all staff in each group. This is not an operation where Publicis is taking control over Omnicom or Omnicom taking control over Publicis. It is a true merger of equals, where the balance between the powers, between the distribution of roles is a key driver to make sure that this operation is a success. This is why we want to take our time to make sure that everything is set in place in due course. This is a guarantee for a very successful merger. This is why I'm quite optimistic. Our last point now, we certainly do not consider merging major networks. We certainly don't want to merge Leo Burnett with BBDO or BBDO with Publicis or Publicis with Saatchi & Saatchi within our scope of consolidation. No, certainly not. We want to preserve the client management dimension, the data protection dimension, and this is why we move ahead very cautiously in order to avoid anything going wrong, and this is why I'm extremely positive and serene about this merger. I certainly do not minimize risks. I'm fully aware of them. We have been measuring them. We are quite clear about those risks. But we have to explain that this is not a walk in the park, as we say in English, or un long fleuve tranquille, as we say in France. It is a very long process. It takes quite some time. We do have to work overtime. We have to travel much more. It's quite time-consuming on the private lives of all of our staff, but it is a wonderful project, and the enthusiasm that we note within teams is something that will spread very quickly and very easily. I'm quite reassured about this. Of course, we do need to remain cautious. Now we can move on to the next question. Thank you. We will take our next question from Brian Wieser from Pivotal Research. Please go ahead. [Foreign language] I was wondering if you could provide additional color on the deceleration in the U.S. and the degree to which you think this was industry-wide, just given what was going on in Washington, D.C., and the American economy in the fourth quarter. And a separate question on your working capital. It grew quite substantially in the quarter. I was wondering to what degree this was due to changes in payment terms or some other factors, all the more notable given the relatively slow organic growth. Working capital. Well, our improvement in increasing the working capital. First, something that you have to be aware of is the way we are managing working capital within Publicis. It is managed in average terms. That is, we have average goals, and every month we have an average performance, which is reviewed and assessed, and this is the way we move forward. We are not doing anything to improve the end of the year part. Nothing special about that. Everything is being done as an average working capital goal, and there are goals set to different sectors and there are average goals in terms of dues as well. We are only measuring things in terms of mean or average. I think it's a good way to proceed for cash so as to avoid any drift and to avoid having things look nice one year and have a major problem the next one. The reason why our performances were the ones that you have observed along this last year is due to this rather strict approach. About what is happening in the U.S. I will not give any comments on what is happening in Washington, D.C., from here in France, which would be related to political issues. For these reasons, I will not make any comments, as I find it already difficult to understand what the political intentions are in France, and it would be even more difficult for me to do it for the States. I don't think I'm in a good position to do so. Of course, I'm reading the press with great attention. I'm trying to understand those decisions that can have a macroeconomic effect on the U.S. economy. What we can observe, whether in the Fed, the American Central Bank, or in various central economic authorities, we can see that there is a determination to see unemployment go down, and the general situation would improve. Real estate is an important element, as we can see. We can see that the situation of many major players in the States has been greatly improved. If we look at things with our clients, we are greatly encouraged. I was recently in the U.S. next to the interesting things such as Super Bowl, and also the fact that I was suffering a very serious flu, by the way. I must say, I was impressed by all the meetings I had with the clients, as I spent a lot of time meeting many clients over four days, and was deeply surprised by the fact that our clients had a high optimism with that, considering that we're out of the crisis for good. The macro situation is quite optimistic and could make it possible to start with very high growth rates. Optimism is well reasoned, with a great deal of confidence, and it's possible for these companies to take positive decisions for investments, both in marketing as well as in industry. It seems to me that we are in a situation which I think could be benefit for the whole industry, and I hope we will benefit from it more than the rest of the industry, for two reasons. First, the shift into digital is being accelerated on, and what is taking place for mobile phones is extremely good, and we are well-positioned in this world. The development of e-commerce is quite outstanding. In this area, we have impressive capabilities, and we are successful in gaining confidence from many new clients. Also, in operations which are now almost classical, conventional operations in digital, we have a range of services, which is a dream to anybody. We could benefit from the growth of digital much more so than the rest of our competitors. This is why I have great confidence in all this. On the other hand, our activities can be quite attractive. We can see that we are repositioning ourselves. There are new wins. You can read the long list which is placed in the addendum to our press release. All this confirms. And if you look at our figures in 2013, we have outperformed all our competitors in the U.S., and I hope it will still be the case in 2014, and I am quite confident. This is what I can say at this stage. Can we move on to the following question, please? Thank you. We can take our next question from Thomas Singlehurst from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Good morning, Maurice. Good morning, Jean-Michel. Tom Singlehurst from Citigroup. Please forgive me for asking my question in English. I had a question about the polarization of growth, in particular in the fourth quarter, because the 20% growth in digital that you talk about implies that the analog part of the business must be going down around 10% or falling about 10% in the fourth quarter. The question is this: Can we just split the minus 10% into what is temporary and postponement-driven, what is sort of cannibalization, and what is underlying? Because given the profile that you paint on page 18, I guess there must be elements of that analog business that are still growing. There must be equally, even within that minus 10, bits that are falling 15%, 20%, 25% in that fourth quarter. I just want to understand what parts of the business they are and how much visibility we have on the rebounding growth in analog. Thank you. Thank you. Analog is not down by 10%. Analog is, yes, that is in Q4, by 8%, and analog for the full year is down by 2.9%. I expect analog. Well, first of all, I am sorry, I forgot to follow the rules. I should have said, "Hello, good morning, Tom. Thank you for your question." Let me start again. Analog in 2013 did go down by 3% altogether for the whole year and 8% for Q4, unevenly distributed throughout the regions. I believe that this downward trend for analog will have a stronger impact on some of our competitors. Because we have the strong increase in digital, which is stronger for us than it is for our competitors. This is far from being neutral, and it is of major importance. Second point, the situation is such that we do have to bet on the fact that analog will continue to go down, but more slowly. If we have had this strong reduction in 2013, it is because budgets were not increased. The decision to work in digital was made in order to take this away from our work on analog. Now, we believe that there will be, in 2014, a strong increase in ad investments, and therefore there should be a lower decrease in analog. And we have also reached a point where there has been a reduction in the difference because television will certainly increase, our share will increase. But the press has now reached such a level that it will be difficult to decrease it further. We will see the disappearance of quite a number of written media, written newspapers. This is unavoidable, and we will see quite a number of media that will totally disappear, and therefore, analog will play a much reduced role, and the digital sector will play an increasing role. Digital media have considerable assets, and they should be quite successful. I believe that this polarization will remain. It will still be strong, but maybe not as strong as it was in Q4. Let us now move on to the next question, if you so wish. [Foreign language]. This is a question in French. Well, I look at the organic growth, and it seems to me that last year, there was a difference between overall advertising growth and advertising agencies growth of about 100 basis points, and this year it seems to be 200 basis points. What do you have to say to this? Second question about the operating margin. From what I understand, the operating margin for 2013 has grown organically by 70 basis points, and your forecast for 2014 of less than 40 basis points, would that mean organically or through acquisitions? Thank you. Thank you for both your questions. Jean-Michel will answer the second one, which is the easiest one. That is quite normal. The first question, let me try to give you an answer. These are estimates. We do not have specific and accurate measurement tools because our competitors do not give us their figures nor their estimates. It is very difficult. We base our work on a model, and we tend to believe that this would be around two-thirds. We certainly cannot see things in terms of basis points, but in terms of percentage, it is a calculation, but it has to be approximate. Of course, we have the feeling when we look at what happened in previous years, we take into consideration a number of elements, a drop in prices, pressure of advertisers on negotiations. We take into account the fact that there are fees instead of commissions. Growth acceleration is not as strong as when we have commissions, but it is also true when we have negative growth. So it is more or less a rough estimate. The figure we give is the result of this rough estimate. It could be 3.6 or 3.4 compared to 5.4. It is difficult to say. I am not specifically accurate here. It is just a statistical estimate. It is not a scientific calculation. It is based on experience rather than on a scientific model. Now, Jean-Michel will give you a much, much more intelligent answer to your other question. Yes, as to 2014 margin, you said that for 2013, there are 30 basis points of acquisition impact on the reduction in margin. Now, if we want to have this concept of organic margin, this could mean an improvement of 110 basis points for 2013. But I think we have to be clear here, we should not go into that type of reasoning. The margin is the margin that we present in due course. We should forecast a slight improvement into the 2014 margin in the light of acquisitions. That is what I have to say. We still have a number of people asking questions on the phone. One or two more questions, please. Julien Roch de Barclays. [Foreign language] [Foreign language] C'est Julien Roch de Barclays. Je vais poser mes questions en français. I will put my question in French. First, about the redemption of Omnicom shares. When presenting the results, they said there were two conditions for this redemption program. First, submitting S-4 to U.S. authorities, which will take place in a few weeks time. Second, to have your authorization, because in the merger process, it is necessary for them to have your authorization for a buyback. Are you prepared to give them this authorization for them to take this buyback, for this buyback? Second part of my question about the slowing down in emerging countries in Q4, about your comment that there will be a progressive increase in growth over the year. Based on the trends in the first term, can we expect BRICS and MEASA to be positive in the first quarter? A question to Jean-Michel, could we have the impact of the rate of exchange if the spot stays where it is, and the impact of M&A based on last year acquisitions and the few acquisitions you have in your pipeline? These were my three questions. Thank you. Jean-Michel, I will start with the impact of acquisitions. We have made these acquisitions. By memory, I can say that the impact of acquisitions of 2013 over 2014 is EUR 75 million. Whereas this year it was a stronger impact. What about the impact of foreign exchange? Would we have a constant budget calculation? We do not have this impact figure. We do not have any forecast regarding the rate of exchange when comparing our budgets. Further question about the BRICS and MEASA countries. This will be a progressive growth. I think that in the first quarter, it is more likely to be zero or slightly positive or slightly negative, and not expecting to have a positive shift. I am not expecting to have a strongly negative situation either. We have our figures for January, which are good on the whole, but with a negative impact for some emerging countries. In total, it is a good overall figures. I think that things will go on improving, and for the quarter, should be close to a zero impact. As far as authorizations are concerned, it is a very simple issue. We have a fixed parity which we cannot have any possibility to change this parity. If there was to be a share buyback program, it cannot be one-sided. We have to look at things. We cannot answer such a vague question, which is a question of principle. We are getting along with each other, and we can discuss what is possible. There is nothing at stake, really. It is a question of being on an equal ground. There is nothing at stake in the negotiation. We have to comply with the parity that has been established. If there were to be a program, we will have to see when and what can be done on the other side. This will be submitted to the boards on both sides. Not a question that I can answer on my side only. Can we move on to another question? One more. Thank you. We can take our next question from William Meyers from Nomura. Please go ahead. Hi. Yes, it is William from Nomura here. Just going back to the cash returns and the balance sheet. Before, you mentioned that you would be surprised if the board would not return cash to shareholders, as long as you keep an appropriate leverage ratio. I guess my question is just around that leverage ratio and perhaps the maximum level of debt which the new group could take on without impacting the credit rating. Then the second question is just more specifically on the regulatory filings. I know we touched on it before, but I was just hoping for a bit more precision around when you anticipate to file the full accounts, and therefore afterwards the S-4 form. Then my third question is just on tax. Previously, you have mentioned the $500 million being conservative. I am just wondering if you think the tax, EUR 80 million of savings is also potentially conservative as well, and if you see upside to that figure. That is it. Thanks. Thank you. Now, as far as the leverage ratio criteria are concerned or debt equity ratio, et cetera, this will be for the new board to decide what it should be. In Publicis, we have very conservative criteria, which you are familiar with, which we've always complied with, and we're clearly below. We're very cautious, and the new board will have to define or approve a financial strategy. The new management of the new company will suggest or make proposals for criteria and maximum levels, and we'll see how things happen. It's difficult to say what it will be at this stage. It's part of the things on which Omnicom and Publicis have to sit around a table and negotiate at management level with the financial department. The new company will have to define a financial policy. This is how this is going to be implemented. I cannot give you the maximum debt level. I would like to do so, but I can only tell you what are the Publicis criteria on which we could feel at ease. But this is to be discussed. As far as the filing process is concerned, we're going to have this carried out in the next few weeks. It's just a matter of weeks, not a matter of months, whether it's 2 or 4 weeks, but it's somewhere between 2 or 4 weeks, and not any longer than this. Now, about taxes, I cannot give any comment on this. I don't know whether Jean-Michel can say something on this. No, it's difficult to comment this. It's about Omnicom, mostly this $80 million in savings, which have been announced by Omnicom. It's on their side, on Omnicom side. We cannot give you any information on this. I think there is one last question maybe, and then back to the room here if there are questions from the audience here. But one last question, sir, from the webcast. We will take our next question from Lee Dunlop from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen. Just a quick question on the merger terms. Omnicom last week announced another quarterly dividend. I just wanted to confirm whether that results in a slight adjustment for Publicis shareholders on the merger terms. If so, when that adjustment will be detailed. Thank you. As far as I know, I could get back into all the agreements we've had, but the dividend was included in the agreement. The following dividend could possibly be the subject of an adjustment, but this dividend had already been included in our agreement. There were to be three dividends, and we have now reached the third one, so things should happen just as they had been planned. Now, how is it going to be adjusted? We'll see. There is a possibility for adjustment. This is what I have to say. Thank you. I would like to thank all of you and all those who've listened and taken part from the webcast. Now I'd like to turn to the room here and ask if there are any further questions. If not, I fully understand that it's lunchtime and that you therefore would wish to go out for lunch. I would like to warmly thank you for attending this meeting. Jean-Michel and myself have been extremely happy to share this information with you and to provide you with all the information that could be of use to you to prepare your models and recommendations, which we look forward to with great interest. Thank you, and have a nice day.