Ladies and gentlemen, share holders, good afternoon. In the context of COVID pandemic and its fight against its propagation, Saint-Gobain has an absolute priority, which is to protect everybody's health and safety. That is why, according to the regulatory provisions concerning the organization of general meetings in this area, and particularly Article 4 of the Decree dated 25th of March 2020, this general meeting will be held in closed session. Thank you very much for your participation. You have
already voted before the general meeting, and many of you are following this broadcast, the general meeting, live. Benoît Bazin is a lead independent director. Antoine Vignial is responsible for CSR and SRIDA. Maître Éric Vellet, with a bailiff, is also present at our general meeting. Let me propose to.
Constitute the Bureau, and then I'm going to read the agenda.
We are going to validly constitute the Bureau. As Chairman of the Board, I have the honor to chair this general meeting. In view of the exceptional context and period, and according to the regulation, the function of teller is going to be ensured by Mrs. Sibylle Daunis, mandated by the Supervisory Board of the pension fund of the group, and by Mr. Antoine Vignial, Secretary General responsible for CSR and individual bearer of shares. Both of them have accepted that duty. I would like to appoint Mr. Antoine Vignial as a secretary of the assembly with the agreement of Mrs. Daunis.
Thank you very much, Pierre-André. First of all, I'm going to read the agenda to you.
The basis of the general meeting. First of all, ordinary part, approval of the accounts. Appropriation of income and appropriation of earnings, renewal of the term of office of the directors, co-optation of the director representing the shareholders' employees, appointment of a new director, vote on the compensation components of Mr. Pierre-André de Chalendar and Mr. Benoît Bazin in respect to 2019, fair and pay ex post, vote on the compensation components of executive corporate officers. You can find that in the report. Vote on the compensation components of executive corporate officers for 2020, ex ante CNP, vote on the compensation policy of the directors by that program, ratification of the transfer of the head office of the company. That's the ordinary part. Concerning the extraordinary part, statutory changes concerning the director demo offices for the director representing shareholder employees.
Now, let's move over to the approval of this assembly regularity. This meeting has been held upon a first notice, and 20% of shareholders having a voting right is necessary in order to vote on the resolutions for the ordinary part of the meeting, and 20% quorum is necessary for the other resolutions which will be discussed during the extraordinary general assembly, combined general assembly. The attendance list has been established up until the expiry of the regulatory deadline yesterday, on the 3rd of June, 3:00 P.M. More than 78% of shares having a voting right have expressed, so the quorum has been reached.
In the file which has been sent to the Bureau, we have all the documents concerning the summon or the notice of summon for this meeting, the board of directors' report, the statutory auditors' report, the resolution text, the text including the bylaws, and the list of bearers of shares. Of course, all the documents according to the law have been made available to all the shareholders. Therefore, the general meeting has been validly constituted and can discuss the agenda at them. First of all, CFO Sreedhar N is going to present the financial results. With Benoît Bazin, I am going personally to talk about the strategy and outlook for the group. We also have Jean-Dominique Sénard, lead independent director, and Anne-Marie Idrac, chairwoman of the nomination and compensation committee, who are going to be heard.
Bertrand Pruvost, on behalf of the statutory auditors, also prerecorded, is going to present a video. Mr. Vignial is going to make the announcement of the vote results. He is the secretary general interim of CSR, and the general meeting is going to be closed. I'm going to give the floor to Sreedhar N, the Saint-Gobain CFO. [Foreign language]
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I'm very happy to be able to present the results of the group for 2019. First of all, 2019 has been an excellent year concerning many items in spite of a slight downturn in the second half of the year. According to the indicator, the prospects are good. Organic growth of the group sales has increased by 2.4%. The operating income has increased by 4.7%, and we have a 10% increase of the net recurring income.
Finally, the operating margin has improved by 30 basis points, and net debt has decreased by about EUR 700 million. A few specifications concerning the sales strength. You can find on the graph 2.4% of organic growth that I have just mentioned. On the basis of actual data, the sales trends have benefited from a positive currency impact, particularly related to the stronger US dollar versus euro. The changes in group structure are negative. It corresponds to the acceleration of the disposal program in the framework of the transformation plan of the group. Our strategy is to bring up the sales price in a context of lower inflation of the cost of the input cost, and this has been a success. Now, a few comments according to the results, according to the reporting segment.
The high-performance solutions have posted an almost stable level of sales in spite of a slowdown in industrial and particularly automotive markets. In this context, the operating income has been resilient with a 12.7% margin. The group positioning on the various high-added value segments, for instance, the electrical car, all the life sciences, these positions have continued to bear fruit. In Northern Europe, the sales have slightly increased with a good momentum in the Nordic countries and in Germany. Conversely, the situation is more challenging in the U.K. The operating income has increased strongly or significantly by 70 basis points, supported by a positive price-cost spread, and particularly by the success that has been scored in the framework of the transformation plan. We have been able to save money and optimize our portfolio. Concerning Southern Europe, the sales have been quite buoyant.
France has had a very good year with a very buoyant rehabilitation market related to the high energy efficiency demand. The insulation solutions have progressed on a two-digit basis. Concerning the other European countries, the progression has continued. However, the Middle East and Africa still have a challenging environment. Concerning the operating income, the region has increased by 80 basis points, supported by the strong improvement in France and the accelerated setting up of the new organization. Within the Americas, North America had her sales strength increase during the second half of the year, particularly thanks to the gypsum business line in Latin America. Conversely, growth has progressively slowed down during 2019 in an uncertain macroeconomic environment, particularly in Brazil. The margin has gone down in this context in spite of a fine improvement between the first half of the year and the second half of 2019.
In France, the Asian region has a fine progression of its margin. It's a fine year and with a two-digit growth. In China, it has been a good year, as well as in Southeast Asia. Saint-Gobain has continued to develop its business thanks to its investment. A few words concerning the very good financial discipline that we have been able to show this year once again. We have carried out, we have made EUR 310 million in savings related to the continuation of our excellence program. In the framework of the group's transformation program, we have been able to generate EUR 120 million additional savings, EUR 120 million additional savings containing our structural expenditures. The new organization is leaner, more agile, and closer to our customers, and we have become more effective. We have continued to manage the working capital requirements in a very stringent way.
We have decreased it to two days. Our free cash flow has increased by 50% with a conversion rate which has strongly improved. Balance sheet structure and our credit rating remain quite robust. From a strategic point of view, 2019 has also been a year of renewed ambition and of renewed investment for the future of Saint-Gobain, thanks to R&D, thanks to our additional capacity investments, and thanks to fine acquisitions that we've made. You know very well that we have concluded, beginning of February 2020, the acquisition of Continental Building Products, which considerably strengthened our positioning on the building market in North America. This portfolio rotation, from the point of view of acquisitions and disposals, improves the profitability of the group.
You can see that we have disposed of activities representing about EUR 3.3 billion in sales with a low 3% margin, and we have acquired fine companies with more than 20% margins. Now, a few words about the first quarter of 2020. In spite of a fine beginning of the year, the month of March, of course, has been hit by the beginning of the coronavirus impact. All the segments have been impacted to variable degrees. On a lag-for-lag basis, the sales have gone down by 4.9%, and the prices have increased by 0.6% in a low inflation of input cost context.
As far as the return to shareholders is concerned in this unprecedented context of a period of pandemic, the group has suspended buyback of shares after having bought back 6 million in shares in the beginning of March, and we had to make a difficult decision, which is to suspend the dividend payout. According to the trend in the situation, the board is going to review by the end of the year the shareholder return policy. Finally, in a nutshell, your group remains very robust. Benoît Bazin is going to explain in detail all the actions that have been, all the measures that have been taken in order to manage the present crisis, and he's going to show you how the group has been able to adjust very rapidly and with determination to the present crisis. Thank you very much for your trust and your attention.
Thank you, Sreedhar N, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. As you have noted, the year 2019 was excellent. This very positive momentum has continued in the beginning of 2020 before being suddenly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought to its knees in a few weeks most of our worldwide economies. I wholeheartedly hope, by the way, that each of you has been able to go through this health crisis under the best circumstances, and I have really thought about all the shareholders and employees which have been affected personally or through one of their relatives or loved one by the disease. Now, we are going to come back to the management of this very deep and unprecedented crisis, the impact that it has for the Saint-Gobain Group and our development strategy for the future.
However, I would like to show you what happened during the past 12 months since our last general meeting, and I'm going to show you a few images. 2019-2020, a year of deep transformation in the framework of our Transform and Grow plan, an ambitious project in order to reorganize the group for each country for the inhabitant and building market, and for each market for our worldwide customers, a transformation in order to be closer to our customers and extend and integrate our range of products. The transformation also marked by the changes in our portfolio in order to create more value. In 2019, Saint-Gobain has made strategic acquisitions, acquisition of Continental Building Products, for instance, acquisition of the mortar and glue and tiling in Peru, acquisition of Placo Mexico production and distribution of plasterboard in Mexico, acquisition of high-performance metal seals, which is a metallic seals producer.
In 2019, the group has made EUR 3.3 billion in disposal of Saint-Gobain Building, disposal of Henkel Glass Industry Building, of House Building, disposal of expanded polystyrene in France, disposal of the glass transformation for Glass Solutions, disposal of the materials distribution. It is a transformation of the group that we all have complied with our basic values. For instance, safety. Secondly, innovation. Materials and solutions, bio-cleanable and acoustic solutions, responsible and efficient solutions for the external solutions and insulation, development of a new seal set Techscom. For incredible achievements, ownership of the Saint-Gobain Tower everywhere in the world.
New opera in Hangzhou Yuhang, high-speed train station, new football stations at Alverca and Albite, new international airport in Beijing, Diana Towers, a certified LEED Diana Tower in Mexico, Museum Kosciuszko in Krakow, first Metro Line in Doha, new high-speed train station in Konya, Turkey, Leonardo Tower in Johannesburg, South Africa, Museum of the Future in Dubai, with all our ecosystem. Presence of Saint-Gobain at the European Council, 15th edition of the architectural student competition, industrial excellence with new investments, extension of the fiberglass material production in ADFORS, in the Saint-Gobain plant in ADFORS, opening of the first plant in Angola, rehabilitation of the float line dedicated to automotive production, second mortar plant in Ghana, new blowing wool line in ISOVER, launching of a new coater, then women and men, human resources at the center of our priorities.
Eighty-seven of our employees are proud to say that they are working at Saint-Gobain. Well-being program, two new internal programs for the well-being of our employees, for the protection of our teams, and for setting up a high-quality working environment in order to have a new collaborative organization for our employees. Protection of the earth at the core of our corporate project. Climate Action Summit in the United States, Zero Net Emission by 2050, Climate Change List. The pandemic has profoundly shaken our society, but we still would like to be ambitious as far as the protection of the environment is concerned. During the pandemic, the group has adapted to four priorities: protection of our employees and their relatives, the support based on solidarity for health professionals, business continuity, strengthening the financial capacities within the group. We are united and we show solidarity.
We are very confident in the beginning of this new area. It's a multi-local model, digital development for all our activities. One-of-a-kind customer commitment for performance and sustainability, a strong brand based on sustainability and trust. It's our commitment to protect the environment for the world and for the next generation. The world is changing, Saint-Gobain is changing as well.
[Foreign language]
As you have seen in these images, offering a material that changes lives is something that is all the more relevant today when it's a question of improving the comfort, the well-being, and the health of all, and to strengthen the productivity and the performance of our clients while at the same time contributing to a more sustainable world.
This is how Saint-Gobain is designing, producing, and distributing their materials and their solutions that have been thought out for the well-being of all and the future of all. This strategic position has shown its strength and its relevance and enabled 2019 to be a remarkable year. Sreedhar has showed you, gave you the figures for 2019, but let me just go back over the main figures. With internal growth of 2.4%, operating income that is up 5.7%, an increase in the net results by 10%, and a free cash flow up by 50%. The share price has increased by 25%. All of this has been in an economic context that has been less buoyant than 2018, particularly with a slowdown in the industrial markets and above all in the automobile market, and a very moderate growth in the construction sector from one country to another.
These good results over the last few years have been extremely positive, extremely dynamic, as you can see on the slide. Over the last five years, our operating income has increased on an average by 6.5% per year, and our net income has increased by 13.2% per year. This is a result that is thanks to the constancy and the determination of the group's teams who are working on a daily basis to make sure that our vision becomes reality. Last year, in fact, we finalized, last week, sorry, we finalized the disposal of our participation in Sika. We sold off to qualified institutional investors for an amount of CHF 2.56 billion, the equivalent of EUR 2.41 billion. It is a beautiful financial operation for our group with an excellent return on investment, 2.6 times what we have put into it in two years.
These funds are going to flesh out our balance sheet and Saint-Gobain's liquidity, which is a precious thing in this period of great agitation. 2019, therefore, has been a year of very profitable growth for Saint-Gobain. We outperformed our markets by proposing sustainable, innovative solutions and by targeting segments that were in growth. You have some illustrations of this on your screens. We are enlarging our capacities and our selection of solutions when it comes to energetic renovation. Last November, I actually inaugurated a new blowing wool production line in ISOVER at Chermiers so that we could meet the needs of the growing insulation market. This extension was done in an exemplary manner if we look at the environmental aspects of it. We are also offering solutions for interior wall separations or light facades that substitute heavier materials by lighter materials that do not emit as many greenhouse gases.
These solutions are decreasing half the CO2 equivalent emissions compared to other traditional construction methods. We are also very well positioned in strong growth markets. In India, for example, we've got prefab solutions that mean that we can ensure the Saint-Gobain quality for consumers who are more and more demanding. I could talk about the ventilation market, Clean Plus in France or Bevigor in the Nordic countries that are distributing ventilation products that ensure excellent quality in the air in our houses, so vital for the health of the occupants. Security is also offering solutions that accompany the very rapid growth of electric vehicles with lighter windscreens or acoustic solutions or different components that can be used in the manufacturing of batteries. Overall, about 60% of what we have to offer directly contributes or indirectly in decreasing CO2 emissions.
2019 was also a very important year in the area of CSR, corporate social responsibility. It was a year of change, a year of decisions that are a crossroads in Saint-Gobain's history. These topics that I have been looking at today and that I have been concentrating on during my presidency are a source of great pride for us and have created value creation for our shareholders. For over the last 10 years, considerable efforts have been made to ensure the health and the safety of our employees working on site, staff training, site refurbishing, training in managerial skills. Security is at the heart of all of us in Saint-Gobain. It is an absolute priority, a day-to-day priority for each and every one of our managers, and our indicators are continuing to improve, particularly in 2019.
Because health is not just a question at the workplace, we've also launched a new program called Care by Saint-Gobain, which is a social protection program for all of the group's employees as well as their families throughout the entire world. It will be progressively rolled out until 2022 and is a great step forward.
[Foreign language]
As for fighting climate change, in the Action Climate Conference in the United Nations last September, I announced that our group would be carbon neutral before 2050. This is a very strong and a highly ambitious commitment, particularly for industrial groups such as ours, but I firmly believe that we can achieve this if we give ourselves the wherewithal to do so.
We will do that as we have done over the last few years with the objectives that were announced in COP21 and with which we are fully in line. We are, in passing, extremely proud of being for the second consecutive year on the A-list of the international organization, the CDP, that recognizes, acknowledges companies that are fully involved in fighting against climate change. The development of the circular economy is also a priority, not just upstream so that we can ensure our deliveries of raw materials and the design of our products, but also downstream for their recycling. For example, recycled glass or pallet has represented in 2019 45% of worldwide needs of glass that is used to make ISOVER wool. Our objective is to increase that even more. The use of one ton of calfit actually engenders a decrease of 350 kg in CO2 emissions.
One must also note that when we're talking about recycling, our commitment to all of our different brand names and those who are distributing our equipment, these have been very promising initiatives. In all of our countries, we are operating with great care when it comes to the creation of local value. We are inclusive, and it's in the spirit of solidarity that our teams have also worked during the COVID-19 crisis, as we will see in just a few moments. Our principles of action and behavior that are at the very base of our commitment and our ethics are our common denominator in the group. We are also promoting inclusion and diversity wherever we are present. Again, this year, we received the Top Employer Award. Now, you must know that only 13 companies have obtained that label around the world.
Between now and 2025, we have also laid down new gender equality objectives. We deliberately would like to have 30% of women in our executive committees and 40% in their boards. As you can see, 2019 was marked by major steps forward in corporate social responsibility. It was also the case in innovation, as you will see in just a minute when Benoît takes the floor. He will also be giving you the results of our transformation plan, Transform and Grow, that we explained in great detail last year. Today, I can assure you with great serenity that the rolling out of Transform and Grow has been and is a great success. Benoît?
Yes, you're quite right, Pierre-André.
Our plan, Transform and Grow, has been a great success. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, I'd like to begin by talking to you about the two pillars of our program.
First of all, our organization, and then our activities portfolio that we have significantly changed to make Saint-Gobain even stronger. First of all, the portfolio rotation via acquisitions and disposals based on three strategic methods. First of all, we are strengthening Saint-Gobain's leadership positions in the local markets. That is how we acquired Continental Building Products acquisition, which placed us amongst the leaders of building products in North America. We've also consolidated our position and distribution in the Nordic countries by buying local companies. We have sold off, on the other hand, certain activities that were not leadership activities, such as our material distribution in Germany or flat glass in South Korea. Secondly, we are also further developing our positions in technological niche markets thanks to our targeted acquisitions in line with the know-how of the group.
In 2019, we bought HTMS in Belgium and American Seals in the United States. These are for high-performance metal joints resistant to high temperatures. In the building, we have solidified our presence in acoustic ceilings in Brazil and the United States. Thirdly, we are also enlarging our geographic footprint in these strong growth markets such as Asia or Latin America. Last year, we bought a plasterboard plant in Mexico or mortar in Peru. Portfolio rotation is rolled out with great discipline, and it is based on three strict value creation criteria. Our activities that have been disposed of represent an EBITDA margin of 3%, and our acquisitions give us an EBITDA margin of 23%. It is very important that we carry out these transactions properly.
The main goal was to value at their best possible value the assets that were disposed, that were seeded, and the acquisition of new assets at a very attractive price. This gave rise to an acquisition average multiple of eight times our EBITDA adjusted after synergy, whereas our disposals were valued at 10x EBITDA. We are also very attached to doing this quickly. Let's move on now to the second pillar of Transform and Grow, the change of our organization. We have respected our objectives, i.e., to be more agile, to be closer to our clients. In our local jobs, all of our activities, material distribution, gypsum production, insulation, mortar, building, chemistry, and flat glass are today grouped together per country, managed by a country director who is fully in charge of optimizing his operating account.
The country director is an entrepreneur who develops growth synergies and masters costs and adapts his offer to the local market. In Vietnam, we are Vietnamese; in the United States, we are American; in Germany, we are Germans. Our world economies have also regrouped in high-performance solutions and have been organized per final market: mobility, life sciences, industry, construction, and other industrial markets. They are offering each of their world clients great technological differentiation and specific co-development. These economic plans go hand in hand with a new organization and have borne fruit. EUR 120 million in savings were achieved in 2019, which is even quicker than what we initially planned. EUR 250 million in savings have been identified thanks to more than 1,000 concrete activities, and that is quite in line with our objective.
Let's remember that these savings are flanked by EUR 310 million in profits achieved in 2019 thanks to our operational excellence programs, in the industrial sector, in buying, in logistics. I'd also like to point out the success of our transformation has been made possible thanks to the work put in by the teams. 74%, that is 115,000 employees, answered our survey, and that's more than an 80% commitment amount. 80% of them said that they are extremely proud to work in this company, and I'd like to thank them for having participated in this survey. This new organization means that we're going to be able to explore new growth synergies under the initiative of the management teams in countries or in markets.
For example, the combination of several countries selling and buying gypsum for insulation and, when necessary, in mortar means that they will fully be able to, that our clients will be able to fully benefit from a better territorial cover. In other cases, we have developed facade systems that are integrated. We are aiming for excellence in our client service. As well as this radical transformation of portfolio organization, we have also intensely continued our investments in innovation, hoping to decrease our development cycles and to make the most of our research, particularly thanks to our eight centers in the group. These efforts, which meant that for the ninth consecutive year, Saint-Gobain has been classified amongst the 100 most innovative companies the world over, allow our countries and our business units to renew and to enrich their solution portfolios.
One or two examples: the new Optimax Habito system of wall insulation offers craftsmen, thanks to very simple fixings, a much easier assembly and therefore 20% time saving, as well as enhancing safety on the workplace and decreasing the amount of waste produced. In distribution, PIONT.P has launched its own brand, ULTIBAT, which is ready-to-use concrete, and this will decrease the carbon impact of the worksites by some 35%. In the digital world, we've also continued the rollout of intelligent marketing. Using artificial intelligence optimizes our recommendation motors that are used on the glass assembly lines, whereas the very fine analysis of client data allows us to develop highly performant targets.
For example, Cadeau, which is the French company for health and heating distribution systems, today has a tool that means that based on data collected over the 24 previous months, they will be able to offer clients products that, for the moment, they are not yet using, but that could be tailor-made for them. We have also taken great strides in transforming the way in which we work. For example, in distribution in Dallas, Denmark, clients today can scan with their telephones products that they are buying and can then simply sign off on their acquisitions. In our plants, you also have e-labeling, which makes it easier to trace quality. You have understood that 2019 has been a key year for Saint-Gobain when it comes to transformation and innovation.
In the light of the beginning of 2020, I can but congratulate myself on what has happened in 2019 because we came into the COVID-19 crisis in battle formation. This is a crisis that has shaken, that has rocked all of our societies and our economies, that has undermined our individual references, and that has completely called into question the way we live and the way we work. Saint-Gobain had the necessary wherewithal to overcome this. Let me tell you how we've managed the crisis. Our top priority was the health of our employees, our clients, our suppliers, and their families. Right since day one, that has been the DNA of our group.
This involves respecting the social distancing and rolling out all of the protective measures in the plants and the sales points, logistics centers, or offices, reorganizing the footfall in each site, and communicating regularly so that we were able to maintain permanent social dialogue. We have been managing the crisis in a coordinated and decentralized fashion, and we've seen that this new organization has proven its worth. We have been agile, flexible. We have been operational locally, and this has been able to be rolled out in all countries on a local level thanks to cooperation and best practices being respected. I would like to say that the Saint-Gobain teams were exceptional in the face of this crisis.
Our strength has been the men and women of Saint-Gobain, their human values, their common cultures, their spirit of enterprise, and their capacity to innovate and to quickly find solutions to make sure that our production tools could continue to be used for transitory hospitals or other equipment and material that could be put to medical use. The solidarity of our employees has also been seen in a number of very generous initiatives across the world: financial donations, donations of masks, of gloves, of hospital gowns in hospitals where they did not have them, or the manufacturing of visors. Our professional commitment was something that we had announced in 2003 in our behavior and action principles. This culture is something that can be seen in Transform and Grow, and it strengthens our pride in belonging to the Saint-Gobain group.
I'd like to thank all of the teams for their exceptional achievements. As well as our priority in health, at the very beginning of the crisis, we laid down our three top priorities in business. First of all, protecting our assets and our skills and remaining close to our customers. Secondly, to secure our financial liquidity, and thirdly, to preserve our income statement. We used these levers extremely quickly because on the 31st of March 2020, the group had a cash flow that was estimated at EUR 3.8 billion before taking into account the recent bond emission of EUR 1.5 billion. Other additional measures were also rolled out in a determined manner, decreasing industrial investments by EUR 500 million in 2020 over 2019, adopting partial employment in countries where this was possible, and finally, even more cost-cutting throughout all of our activities.
As I have already said, our new organization shows every day how very good it is to decide and to carry out the right decisions because it is rapidly adaptable and can be adapted to each local situation. When we talked, when we announced our turnover in the first semester, we talked about the situation of the group up until the 15th of April. I would now like you to give us some information on the activities over the last six weeks since the lowest point that we reached at the end of March and mid-April. At the end of April, the group's global activity has achieved 60% of what it was up to yesterday, but many countries have seen their health and economic situation favorably improve.
Throughout the month of May, the group's activities have reached 80% of what it was over last year, with some differences from one country to another or one market to another. For high-performance solutions, these activities have progressively been recovering in May. The activity is still somewhat partial, with the exception of China, which has already surpassed its achievements from last year. The activities in other industrial markets that have been less impacted than the automobile sector are continuing to improve. Activities in industry and building have a somewhat moderate recovery compared to last year, but there is good progress in life sciences. In Northern Europe, the region again differs from one country to another. The Nordic countries have almost, at the end of May, achieved or reached their level of last year, as they did in April. Germany and Eastern Europe have been much less affected.
They have an activity that is still somewhat slow because the progressive startup of the glass production plants and also the automobile and construction has been very slow. In the U.K., their activities are increasing by about 10% a week since the lowest point, and they have reached about 70% in the last week in May. Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, since mid-April, the global activities are already exceeding 50%. In the region, there has been a sequential improvement to reach 85% in May, thanks to France, Spain, and Italy. In France, distribution is reaching levels of last year, and Spain and Italy are progressively starting up again. If we move on to the Americas, North America is widely differing from one state to another, but it has been in constant improvement since the lowest point in mid-April.
The activities in May are very close to what they were last year, thanks to volumes that have bounced back in external solutions and in gypsum. Latin America, despite the very difficult health situation there, is improving week by week. It was at 40% of operations mid-April, and it has reached some 65% in May, with an increase in Brazil. In Asia and Pacific, after the progressive startup of all of our production sites in China, as from March, the country's sales have already reached the levels they were at the same time last year. India is still very disturbed with a very slow startup because of the complex lockdown that they have there. Asia, Southeast Asia, again differs from one country to another. Strong recovery in Vietnam, which has surpassed its figures from last year, but very slower recovery in Thailand and surrounding countries.
Preserving our cash flow, reducing costs and discretionary expenditure is continuing very regularly, and we think that we'll be able to exit from the partial unemployment in June. Let's take a look at what this looks like now in a video.
Action, solidarity. To protect its employees. To ensure business continuity in the plant.
We are helping our customers continue their activities, and we are operating the full capacity of the plant.
[Foreign language]
Our employees understand their responsibilities.
[Foreign language], ISOVER
Solidarity among employees.
South Korea, Managing Director. In the outlet, new operating modes have been set up. Network Manager in France. In order to take into account the customer's needs and all the while respecting the health instructions. Telephone, you shouldn't lose your battery right now. I think that the digital meetings are going to be more and more important for us.
Saint-Gobain, to actively fight COVID-19 all around the world. It has been mobilizing its production facilities. Our own contribution to fighting. The first stage, we can reach 1 million masks a month. Materials and products for medical use. Ventilators and respiratory devices. United States. Supply for hospitals, Spain. Supplies all kinds of protective equipment for medical teams: hand sanitizer, visor, gowns, apron, gloves. Saint-Gobain also launches a donation program in Poland, donation of computers for remote learning, food donation in India, in Brazil, food donation as well. Solidarity with actions and initiatives. Our 170,000 employers are a credit to the value of the Saint-Gobain group. That is it. Your group has been able to manage the crisis with very much highly mobilized teams, and we have focused on the right priority. We have confidence from an operation point of view, and the crisis strengthened the relevance of our strategy.
Pierre-André is going to present that strategy now.
Thank you very much, Benoît. The group is well prepared to the crisis, and it has reacted with greater agility. The level of activities has been increasing each week. Since the low point in April, we have progressed up to 80% in our activities versus 2019 on a like-for-like basis, and up from April, where the percentage was 60%. It is a really tremendous shock, and the board of directors had to make a difficult decision not to pay out dividends this year. According to the changes in the situation, the board is going to review by the end of the year the group policy concerning shareholders' return. The situation of the group has been reinforced from a liquidity point of view, but this exceptional decision has been taken in the interest of the group and its stakeholders.
In view of the uncertainties concerning the scale and the duration of this crisis, we have to be very cautious at this point in time. However, I'm convinced that the Saint-Gobain strategy is going to be supported by that crisis. After that short-term shock, the long-term trends are going to be accelerated, and it's going to justify our past choices. The world after, well, it's more digital, more research of productivity, more productivity for our customers, more innovation for comfort and performance, and more and more attention and respect for the environment and the fight against climate change. Now, let me give you details about those points. More digital should be taken for granted. The crisis has been an accelerator of a catalyst of trends, and I don't think that there will be any going back on those items. We'll accelerate our sales online. We will redesign the clients' experiences.
We have new collaboration modes within our group and with our customers. It has been an opportunity to make new experiences and to make progress. It has made it possible for us to come closer to the final customer, and the customer is going to give more and more attention to the quality of his or her habitat. Secondly, more productivity for our customers. Automation and integration of the logistical supply chain are our obvious priorities in order to gain in productivity and resilience as well. More than ever, we have to go on with our efforts in order to support our clients in their quest for productivity. Prefabrication and building, analysis of data in industry, digital communication channels are all the levers that we are going to enhance. New business models are developing. For instance, the transition from the ownership economy to the economy of use.
In ceramics, for instance, we sell to our customers the performance of our customers, for instance, expressed in life cycle. In aeronautics, it's the same, and it's expressed in flight duration, flight hours. During the crisis, our ceiling business has brought immediate solutions to health problems, and we are going to capitalize on this success. Same situation for artificial intelligence. We're going to enhance the use of artificial intelligence to better target our customers. More sustainable development. Green Deal is at the heart of the recovery plan stated or announced last year for more than EUR 250 billion. It is excellent for Saint-Gobain, and this is excellent for rehabilitation, energy renovation, efficiency, circular economy, and green economy. In Europe, half of our sales concern the rehabilitation market. We have a one-of-a-kind portfolio, and all those plants are going to step up the growth.
In France, we think that the pace of renovation should be multiplied by three in order to support the national ambitions as far as energy efficiency is concerned. Our strategic priorities are accelerated by the crisis, and our priorities are based on a value creation model, which is one of a kind and which positions us in an outstanding manner for the future world. We have six main assets: a multilocal and decentralized organization led by leaders who are rooted in the market, our offerings of solutions and products supported by inspiring and strong brands, which are in fact a safe investment in the sum of uncertainty, our innovation and operational excellence policy, our engagement and commitment concerning CSR, and of course, quality and commitment of our employers. I would like to pay tribute to their expertise and relentless commitment and dedication.
All of them share the same corporate culture ambitions, and the corporate purpose will be redesigned by the end of the year. In this context, our group would love to confirm the prospect that has been presented at the end of April concerning the sales at the end of the first quarter. In view of the worldwide economic crisis related to the coronavirus, we anticipate or forecast a challenging second 2020 quarter before a turnaround in the second half of the year. In view of the uncertainties of this period and in view of the varied recoveries around the world, in these countries around the world, we're not in a position to give you an outlook concerning the results for all the full 2020 year. We know that our group is going to overcome the crisis and will be stronger in the future.
I hope that I have convinced you that our outlook, our prospects are very robust, and our strategic choices have been confirmed and are more and more promising. Shareholders, thank you so much for your loyalty, which is so valuable to us and reflects our support for the strategy of the group. Let me also thank the members of the board for their dedication to excellence. Drives us towards excellence. I would like to thank all our employees who, on a daily basis, experience all the values of our group and commit themselves towards the group's success. Benoît and myself, we would like to thank all the employees publicly, and we would like to pay tribute to them with those images. We have been affected everywhere. You have hanged on. You have been resilient.
Protecting gesture. Tolerance zero. One meter distancing. Let's take care. Keep distance, please. Well done.
One person maximum. Thank you, our employees. Now, we are going to watch the pre-recorded video made by Jean-Dominique Sénard, lead independent director.
Shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, as your lead independent director, I'm very happy to be with you today as each year. In order to report about the activities of the board, of course, we are going to talk about the main activities of the board, the way it works, and also focus on the other main activities. What are the main board activities, the key activities? First of all, organization and strategy of the group. All throughout the year, we have monitored the execution of the transforming growth plan. During each meeting, we have worked on strategic matters and we have related those issues with the strategy of the group, particularly during the annual seminar, but not only.
We have also made an analysis of the evolution of the group's situation and the acquisitions project, particularly Continental Building Products in the United States. It has been very successful, and we have contemplated disposals. There were quite a few, in particular building distribution in Germany. We have continued the in-depth work of benchmarking with our main competitors, with a really substantial and in-depth analysis, and that was very positive for the board. We also have discussed capital allocation, which should be taken for granted, and also we've discussed the digital transformation for Saint-Gobain. It's a pillar of its current strategy. We also have monitored the risks. We've had a risk mapping exercise. We have monitored the management risk scheme, and we've focused particularly on cybersecurity. At present, the group's work is quite significant in this area.
We also reviewed the main litigation proceedings and the way they could be settled. Of course, we pay a lot of attention to compliance. We also monitor corporate social responsibility, CSR, and particularly the climate issues. You know that the board has paid a lot of attention to climate change and CO2 emissions reduction. We have particularly discussed during the yearly strategic seminar, particularly discussed the fight against climate change and CO2 emissions and energy consumption reduction. You know that Saint-Gobain's objective is to reduce by 20% those emissions between 2010 and 2025, and there is a longer-term objective set by the CEO, Chairman and CEO, this famous carbon neutrality by 2050. It is quite a demanding roadmap. We also have focused on circular economy, which is very important for our activities.
We have hired international experts in order to think about future trends and in order possibly to change the group's strategy. We also have looked into the safety issues at each board meeting. Of course, the CSR roadmap, the biodiversity activities have been discussed as well. We had specific sessions concerning the pandemic. The CEO has mentioned that, and he might mention it again. We have spent some time checking that the group was attentive to the employees' health, and we have discussed the way we could exit the lockdown, and we should end the lockdown. We, of course, have paid a lot of attention to the group's activities. We have made significant decisions on the dividend payout and the director and corporate executive officer's compensation. We also have assessed the board itself with the help of a specialized consulting firm.
The scope, of course, as every year is wide-ranging: operation of the board and committees, composition of the board, and detailed assessment of the individual contributions. Now, if I had to sum up the main conclusions, we could say that the operation of the board is very positive, very constructive. Discussions have been held in 2019. I told you so last year as well. The composition of the board is well balanced with varied and complementary experiences and skills. Concerning the potential future nominations, we consider increasing the internationalization and lowering the average age of the board. We would like to maintain the proportion of directors who hold or held office as executives in other large international groups. We also want to explore the following topics in more detail, particularly the climate issues and its strategic impact on our strategy, value creation, and stock price trends.
We have concluded that it was necessary to keep the combination of the Chairman of the Board and CEO works. We think that it's well suited to the Saint-Gobain current situation, particularly because of the experience and highly transparent approach of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer towards the board. This has helped to ensure a more responsive and efficient corporate governance and strategy implementation. The balance of power is ensured with a high ratio of independent directors, including the committee's chairman, the existence of a lead independent director, myself, the role of the COO, Chief Operating Officer, which has become stronger this year. We regularly hold executive sessions, excluding the management present. We have the main shareholders' representatives attending our board meetings, the employee shareholders, and corporate mutual fund representatives, and until this general meeting, vendors.
This enhances our discussions, brings a lot of substance, and helps us to discuss in depth about the impact of our activities on the whole group and on the employees. I can tell you that there is a prior approval of the board for specific significant transactions. Of course, we look into other items, for instance, identification of conflicts of interest. There were no conflicts of interest this year. We examine the independent status of the directors and potential independent directors. We monitor closely the succession plans for the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in the event of an anticipated vacancy, as well as in the long term. We have executive sessions which are very interesting and intense, and I have met myself with certain other management representatives. I have met several shareholders in order to discuss Saint-Gobain's principles of governance.
Now, in a nutshell, those were the main activities of your board this year. You can see that those activities were intense and outstanding. Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much, Jean-Dominique. We are going to listen to the pre-recorded video by Mrs. Anne-Marie Idrac, Chairwoman of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Those two presentations have been made available on our internet site for the shareholders in order for you to be able to communicate with you in spite of our closed session. Ladies and gentlemen shareholders, I have to talk about the project of resolutions that are presented to you concerning compensation and nomination and remuneration. Let me give you the background. Those are the main data concerning our board of directors. We have 14 members, 45% women, one independent director, two employee directors, and one director representing the shareholders' employees.
We have had nine meetings in 2019, and you can see that the attendance rate was very high. The skills and experience of the directors are presented here. You can see on the left-hand side of your slide that we have more than one-fourth foreign directors, all women, and you can see that the members of the board are highly international. On the right-hand side of the slide, you can see the varied experiences and skills of the directors, and they are very complementary. A few words on the diversity policy within the board. In the context of future appointments and after a board's assessment that was conducted with a specialized consulting firm, we would like to strengthen among its members distribution, digital, and e-commerce skills. We would like to consider increasing internationalization or international footprint.
We would like to continue lowering the average age of the board meeting while maintaining a good balance between directors with more seniority and more recently appointed directors. We would like to maintain the proportion of CEOs who hold office in another large group or have such experience. The proposal to appoint Mr. François Cirelli and Mrs. Sibylle Daunis, co-opted in March 2020 as directors, fully satisfied these objectives. A few words about the committees. You are familiar with the Audit and Risk Committee chaired by Philippe Varin, Independent Director, and the committee I am the chairwoman of, Nomination and Remuneration Committee. One word about the CSR Committee, which has been created yesterday morning. We had what we call the Strategic and CSR Committee chaired by Jean-Dominique Sénard, our Lead Independent Director.
It met five times in 2019, but it appeared to us that the committee's skills concerning strategy were exercised by the board, whether it concerns Transform and Grow monitoring or the changes in our portfolio and the strategy as a whole. The CSR issue is important enough to justify creating a specific committee, which will be chaired by Agnès Lemarchand. Those issues are very important for our group and overall very important for corporate projects of large companies. Now, I would like to present the changes in the composition of the Board of Directors proposed to the general meeting. The first proposition is the renewal of Mr. Jean-Dominique Sénard as an Independent Director and Lead Independent Director. I don't think that I have to give you more details about the résumé of Jean-Dominique Sénard. All the details are in your notice of meeting.
The second proposition concerns the renewal of Mrs. Ieda Gomes-Yell, as an Independent Director. There again, you will find her résumé in the notice of meeting. She's perfectly adapted to this job. She is a member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Next proposition, the third one, proposed appointment is the first time of Mr. Jean-François Cirelli as a new Independent Director. You know his résumé. You have all the information in this document. It's important to specify that he is president of BlackRock, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Mr. Cirelli is not appointed in this capacity, but as director in his personal capacity, he will not represent BlackRock at the Board. Last proposition is a co-optation. The point is to ratify Mrs. Sibylle Daunis' co-optation representing the shareholders' employee. You have her résumé, and she is the PUM, a general manager.
Now, let's talk now about the remuneration and compensation of the directors with 2019 and 2020. You have all the elements of our policy, and I would like to highlight three principles. First of all, we want the corporate executive officers and directors' compensation to be in conformity with the Afep-MEDEF corporate governance code, particularly concerning the transparency and performance measurement requirements. We want to ensure that the compensation of the CEO and Chairman takes into account the group's performance and market practices, and we want to take into consideration the benchmarks that have been carried out with CAC 40 companies that are comparable to Saint-Gobain. I would like to highlight the CSR commitments of the group. Those are quantitative objectives of the executive corporate officer's variable compensation.
It has been since 2013 for the Chairman and CEO, and those objectives are part of the criteria applicable to the long-term compensation, and this has been so since 2017. Now, concerning this specific year and the COVID situation, Mr. de Chalendar and Mr. Bazin have decided to waive 25% of the variable part of their compensation for 2019, which would be paid in 2020, and a fixed compensation for 2020. This will apply to the period during which the Saint-Gobain employees will have partial employment in the framework of the measures taken by the French government in order to halt the spread of the pandemic. These amounts are going to be donated to the Paris Public Hospitals Foundation. Concerning Mr. Bazin, you know that we intended to increase the variable part of his compensation from 120% to 150%, but Mr.
Benoît Bazin wishes to waive this increase in % for the 2020 financial year. Even though those amounts should have been paid to him in 2021, the board, of course, welcomes those initiatives. I'll come back later to the directors' compensation. In the framework of the solidarity shown by two executive officers, whether they are Saint-Gobain directors or not, whether they are members or not of the executive committee, many managers were invited to follow on a voluntary basis the solidarity initiative. Let's talk figures now concerning Say Export for 2019. Let's start with Pierre-André de Chalendar. You can see that the fixed compensation has not changed, and the annual variable compensation part reflects the improved performances in 2019 versus 2018. Those figures, fixed compensation plus annual variable compensation, are given to you before the solidarity effort has been made by Mr. Chalendar.
You can see here on this slide the performance shares and the stock options. Those stock options have been measured on the basis of IFRS valuation. This remuneration does not exist any longer. For the performance shares, you can see that their valuation has been carried out when they were allocated last November on the basis of the then stock price. Of course, in view of the changes in the stock price, this valuation would not be the same. Concerning Benoît Bazin, same principle, he has waived part of his compensation in 2020. Calculation of performance shares with the IFRS valuation basis, same as for Mr. Chalendar. A few details concerning annual variable compensation in respect of 2019. Quantifiable objectives on the left-hand side of your slide representing two-thirds of the total amount of variable compensation. On the right-hand side, you have the qualitative objectives.
You can see them on the slide, and I don't have to go into any details. You need to know that the variable part of compensation promotes the achievement of financial and non-financial objectives. Overall achievement rate in 2019 versus the previous year, 122% against the target with the weighting procedure for quantifiable and qualitative objectives. It is quite a good year. Long-term compensation in respect to 2019, this is Say on Pay ex post. We have not changed the criteria. You can see them: [Foreign language] financial and non-financial criteria. The caps that are indicated here reflect the moderation spirit at Saint-Gobain. You can see that there are differences in the caps for Mr. de Chalendar and Mr. Bazin. The allocations indicated here have already been explained, particularly concerning the valuation that was carried out last November. Let's address the 2020 compensation policy.
This is SAYE on pay ex ante. You have all the details on that slide concerning fixed compensation, no change. This compensation level is at the median of the CAC 40 industrial companies comparable to Saint-Gobain. Concerning the cap, you can see that the annual variable compensation has been set after Benoît Bazin's decision. I'm going to give you all the details concerning the distribution between qualitative and quantitative objectives. Now, for 2020, we keep the former principles: 2/3 for quantifiable objectives, 1/3 for qualitative objectives. Now, let's focus on the quantifiable objectives on the left-hand side of the slide. The same criteria apply as last year, but we have increased the OCF percentage in view of our priority this year.
Concerning the qualitative objectives, left-hand side of your slide, there is a change in the portfolio rotation, further evolution, further implementation of the Transform and Grow plan and the group's digital transformation, implementation of the CSR policy, and management of the coronavirus crisis, new criteria for 2020 with health-related objectives for the Saint-Gobain employees and the stakeholders. The objective is to guarantee solidarity. Now, no specific comments concerning the next slide. It is a reminder of the principles for the compensation policy concerning the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operating Officer. Now, this is a new slide. It is the first time that, according to the regulation, we have to make a presentation about the ex ante compensation policy for directors for 2020.
You can see the allocation rules with a variable compensation related to the effective presence and the various amounts whether it concerns a director, a chair of a committee, or a member of a committee. Jean-Dominique Sénard did not want to receive a compensation in respect of this position, and the CEO does not receive any compensation in respect of his role as a director. As I indicated earlier, the corresponding amount is 25% of the amount of the remuneration for the period during which the group employees are subject to partial activity. Now, those amounts are going to be donated to charitable organizations whose purpose is to support fragile or vulnerable populations affected by the coronavirus abroad. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, this is the information that I wanted to pass on you in order to highlight your votes and give you information concerning your votes about compensation and remunerations.
Thank you.
Going to watch Mr. Bertrand Pruvost's presentation. He is going to present a summary of the statutory auditor's report. This presentation has been made available to the shareholders on your internet site.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon. It's a great pleasure for me, on behalf of the College of Statutory Auditors, to show you the four reports that we have drafted. These reports have been rendered available by your company on the internet, and I will summarize them. First of all, we have an opinions report on the consolidated accounts, on the annual accounts, secondly, on the consolidated accounts, thirdly, on the related party agreements, and lastly, on extra financial statements and specific verifications. In the first and in the second resolutions of your ordinary general meeting, we will be looking at the non-consolidated financial statements and consolidated financial statements.
You will find these from pages 294 to 299 and 305 to 330 for the annual accounts. We would remind you that our objectives are to obtain a reasonable assurance that the financial statements and the information that is contained therein give a true and a fair view of the group and that there is not any significant abnormality. In order to do this, we have done the necessary due diligence in all of the Saint-Gobain perimeter group in France and in the world. This covers approximately 1,000 companies in over 60 countries. Our approach has also been updated because of Transform and Grow and better adapted to the group's structure, to its geography, and it covers current activities as well as the events that have occurred during the financial year. Our work regularly gives rise to summaries and presentations to the audit committees of your group.
For the key audit matters, we apply the IFRS 16 Standards that are described in Annex 3. We also detail in our reports the key points of our audit. For the consolidated accounts, there are four topics that we look at. First of all, the measurement of goodwill in tangible assets and property, plant, and equipment. Secondly, the measurement of provisions for liabilities and any litigation related to asbestos. Thirdly, the measurement of supplier discounts and distribution. Fourthly, the first-time adoption of IFRS 16 for leases. The main elements that we have looked at in these four topics can be seen on the slide on the right. For the annual accounts, there was only one key item that was in our report, and this had to do with the measurement of financial investments.
The work that we did was to assess the procedures that were implemented for impairment testing, as well as analyzing certain key assumptions. I would now like to sum up the reports that are compliant with law. Our special report on related party agreements can be found on pages 184 to 187 of the 2019 Universal Registration Document. In the report, we talk about the characteristics of the party agreements that we were made aware of. We were made aware by your board of certain agreements that had to be submitted for the approval of the annual general meeting. I would remind you that there was a previous related party agreement that had already been approved by the annual general meeting. This party agreement that had been for Mr.
Benoît Bazin referred to compensation that would be due should he cease being the COO, and it was not triggered during the previous financial year. We have also drafted a report by one of the statutory auditors who was appointed as an independent third party on the non-financial statement included in the management report, and you will find that on pages 351 to 352 of the 2019 Universal Registration Document. We have no matter to draw your attention regarding this report. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, Chairman and CEO, thank you very much.
Thank you very much. This brings us to the next phase in our ordinary general meeting and extraordinary general meeting, and this is the questions.
Now, because this general assembly is being held behind closed doors, no question can be asked during the meeting, but we have received a certain number of questions, a written question put forward by the Forum for Responsible Behavior, as well as a second. The board has put on the assembly page of the Saint-Gobain internet site the replies to these questions. Amongst these questions, there are one or two that I would like to draw to your attention, and I will allow you to read them so that we can, despite the closed doors, dialogue with you. In the same state of mind, before moving on to the questions, I would also like to show you a pre-recorded meeting message by the ONG Trust team who were unable to be here today because of the COVID situation.
Chairman, members of the board, shareholders, we, Christie Finance and BNP Paribas Asset Management, are making this declaration as a shareholder and a member of the Climate Action Management Group Coalition, which is an initiative of the institutional investors who want to dialogue with great companies who have an opportunity to fight against climate change by decreasing carbon emissions and improving the protection of the climate. Up till today, more than 400 investors representing more than $39 trillion in assets under management. This is about 1/3 of all of the asset management under management the world over. Chairman, as a long-term investor managing long-term retirements of millions of people, climate change is one of the greatest systemic risks that we are confronted with today. We are convinced that this major challenge in decreasing the carbon economy will necessitate unprecedented efforts from the public and the private sector.
With this in mind, we would like to thank Saint-Gobain for the highly constructive dialogue that we have had on this subject over the last two years. We would like to congratulate Saint-Gobain for the progress that they have made over the previous year, the rolling out of strategies that are compliant with the Paris Agreement. In particular, congratulations for saying that you'll be carbon neutral between now and 2050, in line with the limitation of the global warming to 1.5%. Congratulations for having decreased the hothouse gas emissions by 10% between now and 2025 compared to what they were in 2017, in line with the SBTi targets. Congratulations for giving very positive impact solutions to your clients to show that you can still be a carbon neutral company and take advantage of the green economy. We are expecting from Saint-Gobain certain precisions concerning the long-term vision.
We would like a long-term target for 2030 for perhaps a 42% decrease of greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2010. We would like measures and action plans to be described so that we know how you will achieve that across all of the different technologies and different types of research. We would like to know exactly how much, what percentage of your products can be considered as improving the lifespan and the ecological lifespan of all of your construction products. We would like to know what you will do in your supply chain and in the construction as well. Thank you very much.
This leads us to the questions. As I have already told you, the answers have been put on our site, but some of these questions, I will read some of these questions as well as the replies that we have brought.
The first question comes from Patrick Motrot. As far as Lapeyre's future, are you still looking for a partner, and is there any timeframe for this? Benoît, do you want to answer this question?
Thank you very much. In the same way that for some time now, we had said that the Lapeyre priority was for their activity to recover. This is even more important today as the shops and plants and all sorts of factories have been totally shut down during the confinement period. The operational ramp-up is ongoing, and as quickly as possible, it flanks the different strategies that are also improving, be it in the logistics and all of our brand names or the product ranges and also in IT.
This research, the search for a partner, that project is still strategically valid today, but we would have to look at eventual proposals with a great amount of gravity. Perhaps in the future, we might have to pause in this project. We do not know yet. If that is the case, I think that around summer, we should be able to continue to look for partners. Second question, what about partial unemployment? I can only answer for France. There have been a certain number of other initiatives in Germany, for example. Since we were locked down on the 16th of March and up until the 16th of April, the drop in activities hit almost half of France's workforce. There has been an impact of between 60% and 66% of the workforce.
Since the 17th of April, the number of people on partial employment has decreased regularly, and at the end of May, it reached a rate that was lower than 15% of the workforce. This downward trend should continue during June. We think that the end of these exceptional measures will be seen around the end of June. Amongst the questions from the forum for responsible investment, I would like to read just four of them. The first is, what is the list of your activities that are not compatible with the Paris Agreement, the climate scenario, increase in temperature of less than two degrees, and what type of actions are you going to roll out in 2020? Now, as you know, the fight against climate change is one of Saint-Gobain's main priorities. I talked to you about it earlier.
We have taken a certain number of ambitious decisions for 2025. In 2020, for the moment, we are dead on time in the achieving of these goals. This is a very important personal commitment. As I said earlier, I have also committed the group to being carbon neutral by 2050. In most cases, there are existing technical solutions, but they are not yet fully economically viable. There must be a great research and development project to try to decrease the costs in cutting carbon. It is also clear that we will not be able to do this alone. The setting up of a carbon price that should progressively increase internationally, and I think that this is one of the main themes that is discussed today, particularly in Europe, I think it will be necessary for us all to work together if we wish to achieve these aims.
Might I remind you that anticipating this, we have anticipated in our carbon prices in Saint-Gobain and in our research and development. I'd also like to say that a lot of our products and services, as I mentioned earlier, contribute to energy efficiency and to the decrease of carbon emissions in the building market and the mobility market. To be more precise, there is no activity in the group today that is not compatible with the Paris Agreement. That does not mean that Saint-Gobain's activity portfolio is going to remain carved in stone. As I told you, Transform and Grow plans for a change in our portfolio. Underlying it all, we want to strengthen the profitability and the growth of the group. Another question from the forum for responsible investment. The COVID-19 crisis is going to strongly weaken the social fabric of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Have you envisaged changing perhaps the payment scheduling for these SMEs and where? Saint-Gobain is fully aware of the problems in different territories. There are perhaps three or often we have a very, very complex supply chain with buyers who decentralize their acquisitions. Because of COVID-19, all of the members of our group have reacted extremely responsibly the world over, and particularly when it came to the small and medium-sized enterprises. We do not intend changing anything here. For the last two years, we already had a hotline or an early warning system that would allow us to see whether there would be any difficulties in the supply chain. The group's policy is based on partnerships that are medium and long-term, and it has always been responsible. This will apply also to the payment scheduling.
Another question of much the same order.
How is your company preparing your employees for the transition of the 21st century that is completely overhauling our society? Now, Saint-Gobain's industry has been evolving in an environment that has been continually changing. We've gone from a rationale of product to market. We have had to change to digital. Our markets have evolved, and it's quite clear that the crisis that we are living through has changed the ways in which we work. For several years now, the group has set up a management program in human resources. It is called Open. Our people in an empowering network based on mobility, diversity, commitment, and talent. Pierre Villeneuve, in a preceding general assembly, gave you quite a thorough speech on that, and you can find that on the site, on the website as well.
There are five attitudes that were defined, and they are extremely important in this open program: being close to the client, being an entrepreneur, innovative, to be agile, and to have an open culture. Our human resources have adopted even more tools for this, and I think that this has been acknowledged because of the many prizes, the many awards that we have won. We have always been seen as a company that has a very proactive attitude to ensure that mentalities change to be ready for the ever-changing world. We've also developed a lot of training courses, particularly recently a lot of IT training courses or digitization with a specific program called the Data Analysis Academy. Everybody has to be able to cope with digital today. Today, we have 1,500 digital experts, and our hiring is often largely focused on IT skills.
These are some of the questions that were asked. The others can be found on the website. I would also like to, there was another question concerning the different salaries that your employees are receiving, and in their salaries, is the environmental factor something that is used? I would say, and Anne-Marie Idrac pointed this out, but most of Saint-Gobain's directors have part of their variable compensation that is linked to those criteria. For the participation, company participation, this would need to be based on different companies. The profit sharing, sorry. Many more things are taken into account for profit sharing. Nearly all websites include a safety aspect for profit sharing. Another one on environmental factors, on absenteeism. We have between 10%-30% of all of the French companies that use profit sharing that do base this on a certain amount of environmental factors.
Thank you very much. The last question from the forum for responsible environment. The policy to ensure gender equality in compensation, is this something that you debate in your board meetings?
Y es. We very recently had a board meeting precisely on that topic. Generally speaking, Saint-Gobain recognizes the idiosyncrasies of each of their employees and respects the fact that there are more and more women who are being hired in the Saint-Gobain group. It's something that we are getting better and better at, although there is still a lot of room for improvement. In 2016, I had hoped that we would have 25% of women directors in 2020 and 25% by 2025. We are very much in line with those targets, and we get better every year.
We have just decided as well in our last board meeting, or they have signed off on a proposal that Benoît and I tabled, which was to have 30% women in the ex-coms of the group, including the Saint-Gobain's executive committee, by 2025. Benoît and I are keeping a very close eye, close watch on these indicators. The board is also extremely vigilant. You will, of course, have much more information on this and more facts and figures in the document that is available on the website. This brings me to another question from another shareholder. The piping market in Saint-Gobain, are you looking for any eventual financial partners in Europe? Is this something that you are still going to be managing in the future? The strategic relevance of our search for a partner is still relevant today.
Given the COVID-19 crisis over the last few months, COVID has had a considerable impact on short-term profitability. We have had to shut down the Pont-à-Mousson high furnace over the last six months. There haven't been any orders from the local authorities in France because of the municipal elections that were suspended. We last year talked about the recovery effort that has been ongoing since 2017 in the piping sector, and there has been an investment in productivity, although there has been a lower capacity in Europe. Today, it is less vital that we relaunch a certain number of infrastructure products. We also have the reciprocity clause on the public markets, as is allowed by the European directives. That has not yet been rolled out in France or transposed in France, but it has been transposed in a lot of other countries.
As soon as circumstances permit, we will start looking again for partners in the hope that we will ensure that Saint-Gobain, Pont-à-Mousson piping activity remains viable.
Thank you very much. This leads us up to the last part of our assembly, and that's the announcement of the voting results. I would give the floor to the tellers of the meeting. I would like to point out that a very short presentation of all of these presentations has also been rendered available to shareholders on the internet website so that it was easier for you to vote. Antoine, thank you very much, Pierre-André. Moving on now to the announcement of the resolutions, resolution by resolution. Resolution number one, the approval of the company's non-consolidated financial statements 2019. The resolution is adopted, 99.99%. Second resolution, approval of the company's consolidated financial statements for 2019. Resolution is adopted, 99.97%.
Third resolution, appropriation of income to retained earnings. The resolution is adopted, 99.91%. Fourth resolution, renewal of Ms. Ieda Gomes-Yell's term of office as director. The resolution is adopted, 99.40%. I would like to congratulate Ieda Gomes-Yell for her re-election. Resolution five, renewal of Mr. Jean-Dominique Sénard's term of office as director. Resolution is adopted, 99.14%. I'd like to congratulate Mr. Jean-Dominique Sénard for his re-election. Resolution six, ratification of the co-optation of Ms. Sibylle Daunis, director representing employee shareholders. The resolution is adopted, 99.28%. Congratulations to Sibylle Daunis for her appointment to the board. Seventh resolution, appointment of Mr. Jean-François Cirelli as director, independent director. Resolution adopted, 99.9%. Congratulations to Mr. Jean-François Cirelli for his election as a director. I would like to take advantage of this moment because he has filled the seat that was left vacant by Frédéric Lemoine.
I would also like to thank Frédéric Lemoine for the participation of the last 11 years in all of our work. Resolution eight, approval of the compensation components paid during the 2019 fiscal year to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mr. Pierre-André de Chalendar. The resolution is adopted, 95.46%. Ninth resolution, the elements of compensation components paid to Mr. Benoît Bazin 2019. The resolution is adopted, 95.49%. Tenth resolution, approval of the information relating to the corporate officers and directors' compensation referred to in I of article L22537.3. The resolution is adopted, 98.43%. Eleventh resolution, approval of the compensation policy of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for 2020. The resolution is adopted, 93.74%. Twelfth resolution, approval of the compensation policy of the Chief Operating Officer for 2020. Resolution adopted, 93.73%. Thirteenth resolution, approval of the compensation policy of the directors for 2020. The resolution is adopted, 99.83%.
Fourteenth resolution, authorization given to the board of directors to trade in company shares. The resolution is adopted with 97.33%. Fifth resolution, ratification of the transfer of the company's registered head office. The resolution is adopted with 99.99%. Sixteenth resolution, this is in the extraordinary general meeting. This is an amendment of the bylaws with respect to the mandate of the director representing employee shareholders. The resolution is adopted with 98.56% of votes. Seventeenth resolution, powers to carry out formalities. The resolution is adopted with 99.99% of votes. The agenda is now finished, and I declare the meeting finished at 16:58. I invite you to our next general assembly that will be held on Thursday, the 3rd of June 2021 in the Salle Pleyel, and hopefully, we will all be there.
Might I invite you to use the vote access internet platform that will allow you to do all of the necessary participation work upstream of the meeting. This is in line with our policy to try to decrease the number of paper documents that are sent out to shareholders before each general assembly. Thank you very much. The meeting is closed.