Good afternoon, and thanks for being with us this afternoon for this very important meeting in the life of your company. During this general meeting, we will obviously try to present the main points of this general meeting, resolutions and so on. We will spend time explaining what happened last year. We will tell you about the outlooks, the future, and in particular, the coming year. I officially declare open the general meeting, the combined general meeting, convened according to notices published in the bulletin of 4th of March, 29th of March, and in the official journal of the 30th of March. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this meeting is a public meeting that will be partially broadcast live or on a deferred basis on the internet site of the company.
According to Article 19 of the Articles of Association, this general meeting will be chaired by the Chairman of the Board of Directors. This is why I am going to chair the meeting. With me, Léo Apotheker, Vice Chairman of the Board and its Lead Independent Director, and Emmanuel Babeau, VP in charge of finances and legal affairs. We also have the General Secretary of the Board. The tellers will be Mr. Claude Briquet, who chairs the Supervisory Board of the mutual fund, Schneider Actionnariat, and Mrs. Frédérique de Brolles, representing Amundi Asset Management. Thanks for being with us this afternoon and on stage in particular. The two members of the general meeting have in fact the largest number of voting rights. Delphine Gieux will be the secretary of this general meeting. Mr. Jean-Yves Jégourel and Loïc Wallaert, the statutory auditors of the company, are present.
I would like to welcome the members of the Board of Directors who are all with us here this afternoon, except Mrs. Cécile Cabanis, who is attending the general meeting of Danone, which has been organized today as well. Linda Knoll, who is in the United States, and Fleur Pellerin, who unfortunately couldn't be with us this afternoon. Let me apologize on behalf of them. The members of the Board of Directors are on the first row here. I would also like to welcome the members of the advisory committee of shareholders. In other words, we have Mr. Pierre-Yves Pelissier, who joined the committee a few weeks ago. I would like to thank all the members of this committee on your behalf for the work they do and the advice they provide all the time so that we can constantly improve our communication with our individual shareholders.
The necessary quorum for a valid meeting is one quarter, at least, of the shares with voting right. In other words, 137,431,856, because after the 15th resolution until the 24th resolutions, the resolutions are related to an extraordinary general meeting. I would like to remind you that the resolutions which are related to the ordinary general meeting, the quorum is one fifth of the shares with a voting right. According to the attendance sheet, I can say that the number of shares present or represented is 360,570,331. In other words, the quorum is 63.3%. We have the quorum to organize a combined general meeting. A certain number of shareholders were able to vote by post. The members of the committee will sign the attendance sheet. I can declare that the meeting is duly convened and may act validly.
I will ask the general meeting of shareholders for permission not to read out the full agenda of this session. Maybe you can actually directly read the simplified agenda, which is on the screen behind me. During the session, we will go into the details of each subject, I will spare you the actual reading of this subject. I will put on the desk here. It's a physical exercise, isn't it? One copy of the articles of association, one copy of the notice of meeting and registered shareholders documents, a copy of the bulletin of the 4th of March and 29th of March, and the official journal of the 30th of March, the list of registered shareholders, the attendance sheet, and a table summarizing the powers of shareholders represented here today and the counting of the ballots sent by post.
The reports, among which the management report of the Board of Directors and the governance of the company, the financial statements, the statutory auditors' reports, the text of resolutions that will be submitted to the vote, and information about the various candidates to directorship. I would like to tell you that the reports and the financial statements, as well as the text of the resolutions, the list of shareholders, and all the legal documents, are at the disposal of each of you. Instead of reading the reports of the board, with Emmanuel Babeau, we will comment the various slides we have prepared for you that summarize our strategy. I will give the floor to Léo Apotheker, who is the Vice-Chairman of the Board and its Lead Independent Director.
He will tell you more about the governance committee of your company, and he will list the various resolutions that you will vote about later on. I hope that we will then have some time to answer your questions. I think it's a better way of explaining the life of the company, of telling you more about the future of the company, about our future. Let me start. Let me start with the strategy and vision. As always, I wanted to share our strategy and vision with you. Our strategy is based on two major transitions. First of all, digitalization. If you remember what happened in the 1990s, we had the arrival of internet, of people that actually changed the way we communicate, the way we work together. For 10 years now, 10 years ago, we entered a second episode. It's the digitalization of object, of things.
We are at the beginning of this new resolution, this digitalization phase will create as many radical changes, as many revolutions in the way we interact with our environment as the first revolution did in the way we communicate with one another. We should also not underestimate the problem of electrification. All new technologies, all transitions are connected to electricity. Electricity is the only consumption vector of energy. It's the only way, thanks to which we'll have less CO2 emission. It's the only way. We have to produce energy as close to its point of consumption as possible. After years of growth of electricity, this electricity consumption is speeding up under the pressure of information systems. Whenever you go on the internet, whenever you use the internet, you consume energy, electricity. One quarter of our communications are allowed thanks to electricities, thanks to Schneider Electric technologies.
Under the pressure of this energy migration, it's starting now. It's electrical mobility. Cars that used to consume fossil energies will, little by little, be propelled by electricity. You also have air conditioning. Air conditioning works thanks to electricity. All sorts of different elements need electricity. For example, you have energy production on the roofs of your house, in our factories, and all these new things will replace more traditional energy. We're fine-tuning all this, if you want. These digitalization, electrification are in parallel. Obviously, there is quite a paradox here. We have to find a solution to this paradox. We have to make sure that everybody on this planet has access to progress. To the 21st century, you must have access to digital world, to energy. Energy is the first step towards progress.
Having access to digital tool is your first step to network creation, to e-commerce, to modern world. All this requires energy. We discovered over the past few years that this planet is facing the climate change. In order to find a solution to these problems, technology should enable us to do all that we can, all that we do, but in a more efficient way. This arrival of digital world, arrival of decarbonated energy, will help us find a solution to this contradiction. This is Schneider mission. This is what we're going to talk about today. It's been our mission for years. We are leaders of digital transformation and of automation systems of energy management. At the end of 2018, EUR 26 billion earnings or revenues, I should say. We make constant investments in R&D.
More than 5% of our turnover is invested in R&D. 137,000 employees in more than 100 countries. Something specific for us is that 42% of our sales come from emerging energies, where cities are created, where factories, data centers are created, keep developing. Another specificity of Schneider in France and elsewhere is that we are one of the most global companies. Asia-Pacific, number 1 as far as sales is concerned. North America comes afterwards, then Western Europe, number 3, and the rest of the world. Again, it represents a lot, a major turnover or sales in South America, in Africa, in Eastern Europe. Schneider Electric here is one of the most balanced company. We are present in a very balanced way everywhere in the world. We are present at global level. Second part of this picture of two major activities.
First, energy management, which we use for this energy transition. The main objective here is energy or energetic efficiency. The other point is save resources with better processes, more efficient processes with industrial automation systems, what we call the Industry 4.0. It's this merging between the IT world and industrial world. Two activities, EUR 20 billion energy management, EUR 6 billion industrial automation. We have a balanced presence on the final market. We have business application, commercial application, data centers, 50% of the sales of Schneider Electric, and then you have the infrastructures, industries, representing as well 50% of our sales. The objectives of our strategy over the past few years have been that, whereas we were present in the tertiary sector in the past, now we have a much more balanced presence in various sectors, in the industry in particular. Now let's talk about numbers. 2018 results.
Something quite striking here is, again, how balanced the performances are, EUR 20 billion and EUR 6 billion. Both activities are growing by 7% or 8% per year. Both activities have a profitability level, which is about 18%, so well-balanced profitability level. These two activities grow by 20 to 28 basis points, 07 points, in other words. The whole group has a profitability level of 15 points, which is increasing in line with the indications given to the market, 50 basis points. A very balanced performance. Let me explain a little bit more what we actually do. In order to do so, we are present, as I said, all over the world. Let's go to Egypt, where we are extremely active. 300 software engineers in Egypt, for example.
We don't always imagine that Egypt is a country who is doing so much and so well in the software business. We're going to show you an example of what we can do for our customers. With Carrefour Egypt, thanks to our technology, Carrefour has been able to save energy and to better control all their equipment and facilities. Let's have a video. This is one example of what we are doing. We connect all components, so controlling energy and processes in the Carrefour stores. We bring information to analytics software, giving indication on components which might break down. For instance, if a fridge breaks down, consequences may be serious. You can do that throughout stores. Beforehand, we talk once at a time. In that case here, we bring all data to one center, and the best experts really help people.
What is important is that this system is not just at the disposal of a control room, but this data is at the disposal of the operators of the store on their mobile phone, close to their facilities. The coworkers can do their work in a more reliable and simpler way. Second example, this time we're going to move towards the industrial automation. The automatons in Italy for a water treatment plant. We had a very broad facility with water leakages and-
Aqueducts and the different water treatment plants in connecting everything, in automating all systems, 20% of operating efficiency, that was the target, which is rather easy to imagine when you're not connected. If there is a problem, you don't know where it is. If you are connected, we know exactly where the fault is and which repair part has to be used. You can save energy consumption and reduce water leakages by 10%. In the century, we'll have a shortage of water, everywhere we help the water experts to use the best technologies to reduce their losses. Let me talk about three basic pillars of our strategy. As you know, I've been talking about it every year, our strategy is based on sustainable development. Much so that we centralized, we focused the Schneider mission on efficiency and sustainable development.
The whole company is working at the service of sustainable development in the communities we work in. Our commitment is extremely serious and monitored. We set about 20 objectives in five spheres, we progress in those spheres, from ethics, health, to development, the security and safety of our colleagues, environment, of course, social aspect. We measure that, we assess that, most of our colleagues have part of their incentives related to our performance in the sustainable development, another portion is related to the financial objectives. In all that we are doing, we try to bring in a sustainable development aspect. This is true in our factories, working in a circular economy with waste, which we recycle ourselves, the Paris Marathon, where the nicest day in Paris of the year is the Schneider Marathon day.
Paris becomes green, you have 60,000 people running throughout the city, 6,000 are customers and co-workers of Schneider Electric. It's the first marathon where we have a carbon neutral footprint when we organize the marathon. People come from all over the world. What we did this year is to offset these carbon emissions because of the aircraft with a reduction in carbon emission in equipping villages in Kenya with ovens, replacing the oven working with timber. This way it was possible to offset, this was for this year in Paris. This is one of the only marathon in the world where men and women do not start exactly at the same time, the arrival will take exactly at the same time. Last year it was a man winning just before the woman, this time a woman has been the first one.
Sustainable development is recognized everywhere and outside. What we like to do with is to benchmark ourselves and to be assessed by external companies and experts. Once again, in 2018, we were awarded several prizes, especially we are the number 5 worldwide, where you have a lot of investment of sustainable development funds. We're going to continue this effort, we are extremely proud of this. The second pillar of our strategy is the following one. We want to develop men and women at Schneider. People, our co-workers, are really the wealth of our company, the only wealth of the company. We want people joining us. We want them to join us because our company has a mission which is meaningful because what we are accomplishing allows the world to grow while preserving resources.
It should be meaningful as well in the way we do our business, in adopting a way of doing business in line with the best global standards. We are one of the global companies the most engaged in the Global Compact, through our values, at the best level. The second topic is to be one of the companies, if not the company, the most inclusive of the world. We work in over 100 countries, each individual in our company should have an equal access to all opportunities, irrespective of the origin, irrespective of the way the individual has grown within the company, to make sure that our company is the most inclusive one.
Finally, make sure that each employee of Schneider may have an impact in being empowered as much as possible. Which led us, by the way, to choose a mode of organization and very specific engagements and commitments. For instance, for family holidays or for all employees of Schneider, global policies against harassment, all type of harassment, fairness and flexibility commitments, and this organization of multi-hubs, where the leadership is not just at one place in the world, but scattered closer to customers and close to the best talents, in Asia, in the U.S., in France, of course, and in the Middle East. What you also see is that the social body of Schneider Electric is well distributed throughout the world. Asia Pacific, 30% of our colleagues, and keeping growing faster than the rest of the world. 20%, you see the figures for Europe and North America.
The third pillar of our strategy I wanted to share with you is a very clear definition of our mission statement. I know I recognize a lot of faces here in this room. For those of you who attend the general meeting of Schneider each year, we always pay attention to specify the contribution of Schneider to the customers, but to the countries, communities, and stakeholders of the companies, communities we work with. We have collected all slides we presented in the various general meetings and shareholders meetings. You see that all this is quite consistent. There is a lot of discussions on the so-called raison d'être of companies, the mission statement of companies. We have not waited for this debate to deal with this theme and with the new PACTE law. We have to understand all its consequences.
We have the opportunity, based on the work we've done in the past on our mission statement, we have the opportunity to work into more depth with all colleagues of the company, to look at all aspects of our mission statement and to come back to you during the next shareholders meeting with a definition, which is even more precise of what we have submitted to you almost every year in the last 15 years. As I said several times, what we are doing at Schneider Electric is to allow each of us to do better and more with less impact on resources, anytime, everywhere in the world. What we offer to our customers is to organize these conversions in digital solutions of energy and automation in order to succeed in making a huge jump and to have an efficiency multiplied by 3.
We're going to enter into the crux of the matter and look at the details of 2018. A year ago, I talked about the strategy. This strategy has not changed. More products, more services, more digital, and more performance in the systems. If you remember, most of the transformation was based on, well, it was difficult, it was a lot of investments in our profitability sometimes suffered from this transformation process. In the last few years, we used those solutions better. We improve this performance in the systems. The learning of systems and solutions is now over. Time has come to make out of it a profitable growth. Let's look at all these priorities. More products, growth in 2018, a robust one. Some of you took part in the Innovation Summit. There was another summit last week in Russia, lasting four days, plus 56 innovation days.
30,000 customers shared with us the Schneider technology in the world. We are very good at the residential aspects as well. About 15 years ago, it was not possible for us to carry out one deal to develop more rapidly in the residential field. It was a personal challenge. Now this business accounts for EUR 5 billion and is growing at least by 5% each year. Last year, almost +10%. We wanted to have integrated solutions, high-quality products with a design team coming from consumers' goods and with decoration solutions as well. You'll have an exhibition hall, so that we can better know the products in this field. Second priority, more services. Our company was selling our products, but not services. Whereas now services account for 13% of our turnover. Last year, +9% of growth. Let me show you one example.
Agricultural cooperative in Normandy region of an international size. Now we work with them. We give them pieces of advice in terms of energy consumption. They can save about 10%-15% of energy. They cluster their sites in order to progress more rapidly. Third priority, more digitalization. I have been talking about EcoStruxure for many shareholders meetings. This is a digital platform combining connected objects, control platforms in places where we install the systems, a series of software enabling us to better manage facilities. Last year, we exceeded the 2 million threshold of connected objects on our cloud, +35% compared to 2017. This is the EcoStruxure plan, the solutions, and the architecture, two very striking elements in 2018 in the development in that field. The software. The first element was the creation of the company AVEVA.
We extracted from Schneider, our industrial software company. We merged it with a British company called AVEVA. 60% of this company belongs to Schneider Electric, but it remains a listed company on the British market. In 12 months, this company saw its value multiplied by 2, your shareholding in AVEVA had doubled its value because of the enthusiasm, because of the excellent industrial performance, EUR 820 million in 2018, a double-digit growth in 2018. When you merge 2 companies, it's always very complex, a lot of disturbances. When you succeed such a merger, at the same time you continue growing, it means that it goes very well. To explain to you what we are doing with AVEVA, our goal is to carry out 3 integration.
The integration of automation and energy, the integration of connected things, right up to analytics in the cloud, the integration of the whole life cycle of a plant, the design, the digital twin of the plant, right up to the operation of the site, including maintenance. It's much better to see that through a video. Let's look at this video clip with one of our Brazilian customers.
A Promon Engenharia é uma empresa que atua no Brasil há quase 60 anos, nos setores de engenharia e construção e desenvolvimento de obras industriais. A gente atua em indústrias como petróleo, oleogás, mineração, indústrias de geração de energia, transmissão de energia. A gente tem uma diversificação bastante grande. Dentro da visão que a gente tem na Promon, a gente está suportando os nossos clientes nessa evolução pro mundo digital.
A transformação digital nos próximos cinco anos provavelmente vai alterar a forma de execução e operação das plantas. Para o nosso cliente, é muito importante que a gente atue desde a fase do conceito até a operação. Por isso que a solução completa do ciclo de vida é muito importante para eles. A nova AVEVA é uma solução que vai direto com a nossa estratégia, que é a estratégia de atender o cliente desde a implantação, desde o início do conceito do negócio, a melhor solução de engenharia e a solução de operação.
Os números que a gente tem hoje dá uma ordem de redução de 15% em horas gastas da engenharia utilizando as ferramentas da AVEVA, seja na parte de simulação, seja na parte de projeto de detalhamento. Nesse caso em que a gente usou o SimCentral para rodar um caso real para o cliente, a gente teve uma economia de em torno de 60% do tempo ou de horas que a gente gastaria se fosse feito de uma outra forma.
O valor que a gente vê na evolução do portfólio com a AVEVA é a evolução que a gente vê da transformação digital aplicada ao mundo da engenharia, construção das indústrias. Esse ciclo fim a fim, você consegue fluir toda a informação, toda a capacidade, todo o desenvolvimento durante todo esse ciclo. Essa relação com a nova AVEVA passa a ser muito poderosa nesse processo de transformação.
Well, the example is.
This is the example of what AVEVA does and helps customers do. You have the example of very complex oil facility. In this type of facility, if you do not use the digital twin, 30% of the cost is reconstructions. In doing so, in putting optimization software, SimSci presented here, you are able not only to improve the design, but on top of that, to optimize the design in real time. Let me give you another example. Last year, we carried out another acquisition, IGE+XAO, from Toulouse electric design software. What we are doing at Schneider, we help our customers build electric cabinets or control tablets. It's quite modular 3D table. You have to include the electric, mechanical aspects, and installation aspects. The IGE+XAO software digitalize the whole design so that the electrician may have design and installation of the system much more easily.
This is typical electrical installation, and you have to combine not only armatures for the electric apparatus, but you have to have the lining of the cabinet and air conditioning systems, because electricity generates heat, and you need to release this heat. The design is not that easy and corresponds to physical rules set by the standard very often, or set by the experience. What the software allows us to do is to guide the person doing the design, often an electrician, to make sure that the design of the facility corresponds to the standard strictu sensu. The software will directly generate the list of necessary equipment. The customer will give this list to the distributor to place an order.
Once the cabinet has been designed, it is possible to bring the Schneider components one after the other inside and to optimize the sizing and the positioning so that it is simple to cable. Whether it's on a mobile tool or on a PC, you can do that. Therefore, it is more precise, it is in compliance with the standard and easier to assemble. Next slide. I wanted to add something when we talk of digitization. Well, this digitization often is on the technical aspects, but at Schneider Electric, what is really important is to digitalize this relationship we have with our partners. Schneider is the company in our field working the most with our partners. We don't do everything on our own. We work with a lot of electricians, integrators, automation experts to develop their business and using our technologies.
It represents hundreds of thousands of customers, Schneider works with them every day. One way of densifying those exchanges with the partners is to use those digital platforms. In Hanover, months ago, we've just launched the exchange platform enabling our partners, the suppliers of technology, the software developers, to come and create applications on EcoStruxure. If you have developed an app and you are from the Toulouse region, we may have a customer in Brazil because he himself is connected to our platform. Our customers have more opportunities this way. You have the example of a French startup company producing software for the industrial maintenance optimization connected to EcoStruxure, applying their knowhow to a facility in the dairy industry in order to speed up the cleaning time of the dairy facilities and gain in terms of productivity.
Fourth priority, improve the performance of systems. Past year was excellent. We were able to increase the operational margin by 70 basis points. In Schneider sectors, we have medium voltage. It's not as profitable as our other sectors, but when you look at what happened between 2015 and 2018, we constantly improved the profitability of that particular sector. It's now 400 basis points organic. It's getting into an acceptable profitability zone. All that I've been describing so far is good for our customers. This convergence of energy, automation in order to be more efficient, improves efficiency, reliability, security, sustainable development, it means better gains in all sorts of different sectors for our customers. I will conclude, I will give the floor to Emmanuel. I will conclude saying that 2018 was extremely good as far as growth is concerned.
We've talked about products, we've talked about services, digitalization, software, and systems. We've improved all our strategic priorities of our group. We've done better than our objectives. We've improved the global profitability of the company, and in all of its components, among which the operating earnings plus 10%. We've broken a record in net earnings. The benefit per share or profit per share is excellent, at EUR 4.21, and so on and so forth. This concludes 2018. Now what about the future? 2019. The organic growth should be something of the sales number plus 3%-5%. The margin should grow by 20-50 basis points. We want a better visibility in the longer term as well. In the coming 3 years, we should be able to increase our profitability by 200 basis points.
We will have to simplify things, get out of some less strategic activity, for example. We are going to simplify things in order to be more efficient. Obviously, as any other industrial company, we will try to improve our productivity. This is it for 2018 and our future perspective, or the outlooks for the coming years. Sorry. Now, time has come to actually go into the details of numbers. Maybe some of you hope that I won't be too long, or I won't give you too many details. Anyway, I would like to explain the driving force of our performance in 2018, I will explain the driving force behind our future performances. Before we do that, let's talk about something which is really the heart of our DNA. It's fundamental when we talk about sustainable development, when you talk about environmental forces.
This is what we call our principles of responsibility. What are these responsibility principles? I'm talking here about all the principles that will be at the heart of all the actions developed by the group. We want to be an ethical company, the most ethical company ever. We want to have the best practices with people. We want to have a favorable impact on the environment. At the end of the day, in order to be sure that we have a positive impact of things, we want to be able to improve society and improve the planet. Today, we are constantly challenged on those responsibility principles. People keep asking, "How do you improve them? How do you progress?" Customers keep asking us about that. Shareholders ask us questions on these issues as well. Even within the company, we keep getting questions. "Are you improving things?
Do you have a positive contribution on these dimensions?" Obviously, the regulations are such that we have to constantly progress. We're not starting from scratch. In 2002, we had a first definition of these principles of responsibility. This has been constantly evolving ever since. Now, we have worked on things. We have investigated, we are developing new dimensions, and we have a better approach of things. We have a more detailed approach of this. Today, we can articulate those principles of responsibility on five pillars. Here are the five pillars I'm talking about. First pillar, human rights and human development. It means that how can we interact with our employees? Are we in favor of diversity, for example? Do we focus enough on well-being at work, on health at work, on safety and security of people?
Do we have a zero-tolerance policy on harassment, for example, all sorts of harassment? Are we treating people with dignity and respect? First pillar. Second pillar, professional ethical behavior of the company. Do we walk the talk? Do we implement the best ethical principles that exist? Do we fight as much as we can against corruption? Whenever we work with a third party, agencies, partners, do we have the right level of requirement? What about regulations? Do we implement the rules? Second pillar. Third pillar, digital reliability and security. This is fundamental today. We are here to provide solutions, to provide security connected to the digital tools. We are not here to create additional risks or difficulties for our customers and partners on cybersecurity, for example. We have access to more and more information for our customers and partners.
We create more and more value because we get more and more information from them. It's very important to process this information in the best possible way. We have to guarantee confidentiality and private life and so on, private data. Fourth pillar, work for the environment. How can we minimize the impact of our activities on the environment? How can we help customers have a better access to this sustainable development? How do we guarantee total recycling of what we do? Fourth pillar, the environment. Last pillar, which is a bit more general, we have to be a responsible company in society. We have to be citizens of society. We do it in a very impartial way. We do not interfere with politics, for example. We're talking here about the impact we have on various communities, unfavored communities in particular. Access to energy, for example, is fundamental.
Training is fundamental. Education is important here. Five pillars, dense pillars, who really cover all sorts of dimensions. In order to do that, we have defined a very robust, solid governance. We want to be sure that this policy exists and works well. It starts at the top. No responsibility principle works if Jean-Pascal and the whole executive committee, if they do not represent themselves, these principles of responsibility. It all starts at the level of the executive committee. You have legal power. It's what we call ethics and compliance committee. They define, explain, communicate the rules. We have to communicate the rules. We have principles on the anti-corruption rules on gifts. We have a policy about gifts, about harassment, and so on. This committee here is in charge of drafting all these rules. The fraud committee.
The fraud committee makes investigations whenever there is a problem. We have justice represented. It's called disciplinary committee when something happens, when someone is not working properly according to the rules, well, we have this committee. As far as employees are concerned, we have people who help, what we call ethics advisors. We have compliance agents as well, make sure that things are properly communicated and well understood by people, and they are proximity agents for people. We have an alert system or a whistleblowing system. We have a specific line, it's called Red Line. It's within the company. We have an external line as well for our suppliers, customers, the Green Line. Red Line, Green Line. We are doing all that we can to face potential problems. We finish with this specific topic, which is very important with a concrete example.
What we call the vigilance or duty. We have to make sure that we all share the same values. We all have responsibilities. We work with our suppliers in particular to define what they should do in order to be able to work with us. It's human rights, health, safety at work, and so on and so forth. We have audit missions that make sure they check that the suppliers in question are in line with our specifications, and we have, obviously, so that we can correct the situation if it's wrong. We have 50,000 suppliers, rank 1 suppliers. It represents a lot of work, but this is an absolute prerequisite. We must all follow the same rules. These rules are very important to us all. That's it for these principles of responsibility, I have to start talking about the performance of your company.
It would be wrong to think that ethics, that these principles of responsibility are totally disconnected from the financial performance of the group. We perform well because we have all sorts of values, and we represent those values vis-à-vis our customers and investors, who are the major assets of this group. Schneider Electric will go on, will go further into these principles of responsibility. We will contribute to the progress of this company. Let's go into the details of the performance for last year. Our turnover or sales, EUR 25.7 billion. Objective, +3%, +5%. We actually did +6.6%. Adjusted EBITDA margin, 15.1%. We've been able to actually improve it by 50 basis points. Operational earnings, Adjusted EBITDA, EUR 3.9 billion. Our objective was +4%, +7%, it grew by 10%. Then Schneider Sustainability Impact, it's 6.1 out of 10.
We've done better than our objectives, the objectives we had decided at the beginning of the year. It's a clear illustration of our strategy, of the fact that we are doing well. We innovate well. Our portfolio is extremely strong. We have a portfolio of technologies which is absolutely great for all our customers to help them create value. Our geographical coverage is also obviously very powerful. It's another major asset. Obviously this strategy succeeds only when it's well implemented. We've done extremely well. Now, a few moments or a few minutes on the P&L account of the group. It's absolutely fundamental for the group. The margin and the gross margin. The gross margin obviously is the sales minus the cost of product solutions and services. This gross margin represented EUR 10 billion in 2018, and the gross margin rate is constantly improving.
It's been improving for three years now, plus 2 points. It was 37% in 2015. It's 39%. We are going on. We are still developing Schneider Electric, more added value for our customers, more technology, more differentiation. This is why we can improve this gross margin. Jean-Pascal talked about priorities like products, digital, softwares, more services. We have worked on industrial productivity, obviously, and having this gross margin. This gross margin is fundamental because it will help you invest in innovation, invest in people in the field, invest in better services, recruit more talented people in the software business, for example. This is why we can improve our cash flow, cash flow necessary, again, to invest and share dividends with our shareholders. Our margin is constantly improving. The operating margin constantly improved the past three years, plus 200 basis points, plus 2 points.
Combining this with the growth of the sales, the growth has been speeding up for three years now. This is why we can now generate an average growth of the results of the company by 8%. Excellent growth rate. It's very high. The EBITDA is growing of 8% and the net earnings are constantly improving. This is why we can increase the dividends. We've improved the free cash flow as well. The cash flow generation is still extremely high, EUR 2.1 billion. When the sales number of a group increases, it means you can meet the demand in a much better way. You have more customers. Keeping cash flow at that same level, in spite of the activity, was a great performance, and this was possible thanks to the improvement of the margin. The results of the company are extremely good. We had this AVEVA operation in 2018.
We finalized a share buyback program. We will suggest an increased dividend so we can, at the same time, invest, reward our shareholders while having excellent results. Now, let's look at this year. Net earnings plus EUR 3.8 billion. I said we organized a share buyback program. Profit per share, EUR 4.21. We are going to have a dividend paid to you this year of EUR 2.35 per share, plus 7% compared to last year. This is something we want to give to our shareholders. We want to give them constant performance. We want to go on improving year after year. We want to improve things every year. It's obvious when you look at the evolution of the dividend, which we've been paying so far to all our shareholders. Over the past five years, we've gone from EUR 1.92 per share to EUR 2.35 per share this year.
Average growth rate of about 5% per year. Regular growth rate as far as the dividend is concerned.
Nice financial performance, this is translated, of course, in the share price. As usual, if you look at the short term from the beginning of the year, you see that our share has grown by 30% versus 18% for the CAC 40. Nice performance, reflecting our results of 2018 and the beginning of 2019. I'll come back to it in a few seconds. If you look in the long term, over 10 years, if you had invested 100 in 2009, I know most of you are loyal customers, you have 405. If you had invested in a mid value of the CAC 40, you would have 266 for 100 in 2009. Schneider did much better than the average of the CAC 40 over 10 years, and we are delighted to have generated this performance to our shareholders. This is it for the past.
Let's look at the future. Our strategy. This is the strength of this strategy. It's clear, it works well, and we are going to pursue this strategy, as Pascal said. We're going to focus our company on two major growth drivers, the energy transition and the future industry. Our obsession is to strengthen those two pillars, and this is what we are doing through acquisitions. We took over ASCO some quarters ago with a new leadership position in low voltage in the U.S. We work in the energy management, we invested in the digital AVEVA for the industrial automations, IGE+XAO for energy management. This is for the acquisition portfolio, but we're also working on the existing portfolio. Where there's a weakness, we improve it, plus 400 basis points for the mid-voltage technology.
We can also dispose of assets not performing well, which is the case of a number of businesses or activities which are not strategic activities. In the last three or four years, we disposed for EUR 2.3 billion of non-strategic businesses, and we are going to review EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 2 billion of sales of businesses which are not core businesses, underperforming, and for which we are going to find solutions in order to focus your company on the strengths. Of course, it goes through more research and development, EUR 1.3 billion, it's on the increase. These amounts will keep on increasing. This is good for innovation. We talked about the innovation summits, and we are also on the lookout for innovations for the future technologies. We want to be at the source of innovation, and we created the Schneider Electric Ventures.
We want to find the future famous startup of tomorrow, the unicorns, Silicon Valley in France and so on. Which technology is emerging? On what do the startup companies work in order to be the owner later on? We want to be in the avant-garde in order to have the disruption of the future. This gives us a lot of confidence in the future of your company. We want to keep on delivering this combination of a strong growth of our sales and organic growth between +3% and +6% on average. For the three years to come, we want to keep on improving the operating margin of the group, +200 basis points, excluding currency effect. Keep on improving the added value created by your company.
We want to keep on rewarding our shareholders with a share buyback plan announced from EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 2 billion to give back money to our shareholders. 80% of the free cash flow was given back either in the form of dividends or share buyback. It shows that we want to have a return for our shareholders. Let me finish with a few words on the first quarter. It's nice to have a long-term vision, but how do we work? How do we start on this new journey for the quarters to come and the years to come? Well, we have started very well this year, 2019, with an organic growth of +6%, a strong growth throughout the geographic areas. Let's insist on North America, +10%, remarkable almost. Asia Pacific, +7%, quite dynamic. Management activities and industrial automation doing well.
We confirm our guidance, organic growth of the revenue between 3% and 5%, and an organic improvement of your operating margin between 20 and 50 basis points. This is it for my presentation. I will finish in repeating how important it is for us to have a continuous dialogue with our shareholders and our individual shareholders, and I would like to welcome here the advisory committee of our shareholders in the second row. I met them some months ago. I'm going to see them again soon. A lot of things are happening in your company, a lot of visits, a lot of contacts, so I invite you to the Innovation Summit. Do not hesitate. Come and see us. All those contacts are interesting for you and valuable, and it's a dialogue opportunity. We want to keep on improving this dialogue.
This is it for the information. I'm going to hand over to Jean-Pascal.
Thank you, Emmanuel. Before giving the floor to Léo Apotheker, who's going to talk about the operation of the works of the Board of Directors and the various committees, and he will report on his mission as Vice-Chairman Independent Lead Director, I would like to show you on the next slide Board of Directors, and I would like to ask the camera to zoom onto the first row of the room to see the members of the Board of Directors. Each member you see here on the slide. Each member was chosen for their expertise, experience, personal qualities, mindset, and his or her contribution and personal engagement in the Schneider Electric project.
We work in a team, the complementarity we have with each other because of our origin, experience we may represent, and the way we are working together. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to two members who are going to leave the Board this year, Betsy Atkins, who is in the meeting. Thank you very much for those many years. She helped us in the digital field and in developing in North America. Antoine Gosset-Grainville, who could not make it and who contributed very strongly as well to the development of our group. I would like to thank Betsy Atkins and Antoine Gosset for their contribution. I would like to welcome the newcomers. Let me start with Carolina Dybeck Happe. You can stand up, please. Thank you. Carolina has an impressive experience in the industry field. Xiaoyun Ma.
Xiaoyun, could you please stand up? Xiaoyun was part of one of the industrial and technological adventure, very impressive one in China. Lip-Bu Tan. Lip-Bu, could you please stand up as well? Thank you. Lip-Bu is having an experience on Asia, coming from Malaysia and Singapore, and a complete career in the Silicon Valley capital venture and industrial software. Welcome to you all, and we are delighted to work with you. I am going to hand over to our Vice-Chairman Independent Lead Director, Léo Apotheker. Good afternoon to you all, and welcome. I would like to show you my report and the governance of the company briefly. Let us start with the activities of the Board of Directors. What do we do? What are we doing? As our title says, our Board manages the company.
Our main activities may be broken down into 4 categories. In 2018, we worked on all topics except for the appointment of managers, fortunately. First, follow the performance of the group and make sure that there is a good redistribution to the shareholders. It is one essential and recurring mission of the Board. Then the strategy of the group in 10 to 15-year vision. We look at the possible opportunities and determine the strategic opportunities. The risk control, we follow up and we control risks. We map risks, and you saw this map in the yearly report. The Board of Directors is also dealing with the governance, choosing the mode of management, appointing and assessing the corporate officers, determining the compensation of managers, and carrying out a self-assessment on a yearly basis.
After those works, the Board informs the shareholders through the management report, you all read, of course, in the registration document, put forward decisions we submit to you for your approval. In 2018, the Board focused on the performance of the group in a volatile and difficult environment, difficult to predict, in order to really strengthen the energy efficiency. The Board is informed of all dossiers, we have a dedicated platform for our preparation of the meetings. We have periodical information letters. The members act with the various people in charge of the businesses. Informal exchanges are organized regularly with external personalities who are experts in their fields. Among the functions of the Vice-Chairman Independent Lead Director, I have the privilege to meet shareholders and to exchange with them on the governance.
In order to prepare those decisions, the board hears the reports of these five specialized committees before each meeting. We met nine times in 2018. The average duration of a meeting is five hours, the attendance rate is 95%. On top of that, there are committee meetings. Each director takes part in the works of one, two, or three specialized committees. The decisions submitted to your approval this year are on the following fields. Among the resolutions I would like to comment, you have the proposal of dividends because the board suggests that dividend of EUR 2.35 per share be distributed, plus 7% in 2018. We would like to approve the compensation of the corporate officers for your company in 2018, as displayed here on the screen. It is in full compliance with the policy approved last year.
The board wanted the bonus of managers be the strict reflection of the intrinsic performance of the group and the perception that shareholders may have, decided to reduce by 18 points the mathematical results, so to reduce the yearly bonus by 18 points. The compensation of Jean-Pascal Tricoire has decreased by 5% versus 2017, and the one of Emmanuel Babeau by 2%. Those graphs show you that because of the structure of compensation, depending on the results of the group to a large extent, and the value of the share price, the developments of the compensation of Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Emmanuel Babeau, reflect the performance of the group in all points in time. Based on this observation, the board suggests for 2019 to maintain the compensation structure of the managers unchanged. The board suggests, however, to change the performance conditions determining 80% of the compensation.
Two-thirds are in the form of shares measured on three years. The variable portion, the bonus, the board suggests to reduce the number of criteria to four, increasing the portion linked to the sustainable development to 20%. The portion attributed to shares will be submitted to the same criteria approved in 2016, the board strengthen the objectives. In 2020, if you approve the resolutions, the acquisition of performance shares will be submitted to three criteria instead of four, 70% financial criteria, yield for shareholders and earnings per share, 30% based on the sustainable development. The profitability criteria and the sustainable development criteria will be relative. In order to guide the performance of the group, the board pays attention to the fact that the performance criteria correspond to the strategic priorities of the group.
Let us say, continuous growth, profitable growth, delivering value for customers and shareholders, making sure that we observe the sustainable development in all its components. Among the four resolutions submitted to you on the Board of Directors, the first one is on the renewal of the mandate of Gregory Spierkel, former CEO of Ingram Micro, expert in digitalization. The first mandate is expiring and he's chairing the digital committee since its creation a year ago. In order to offset the departure of Betsy Atkins, we suggest to appoint three new directors. Carolina Dybeck Happe, she will provide her expertise in finance to the audit committee and the knowledge in industry. She comes from Sweden, she has been the financial manager of the Moller-Maersk .
Mrs. Mary Ma Xuezheng has a performance in finance and in digital technology she acquired within the TPG fund, and she will be part of the audit and digital committees, and she has an extremely good knowledge of the Asian markets. Finally, Lip-Bu Tan. He is American, general manager and director of Cadence Design Systems. He was president as well. He joined the Board as a non-voting member. Apart from his technological knowledge and his experience as investor, he contributes to the digital committee and the investment committee and is a candidate as a full director. We do hope that you will support those candidates, and if so, the Board of Directors will have 14 members, two representing employees, 82% of independent directors, and 46% of women, according to the calculation prescribed upon us by law.
In order to take into account the growth of the Board and the number of meetings and the specific committees, five of them, and without increasing the individual compensation of directors depending on their attendance rate, 80%, the Board suggests to bring the envelope from EUR 2 million to EUR 2.5 million. We could have another representative of the employees according to the PACTE law. The following resolutions relate to the yearly financial authorization in order to carry on the number of programs, like the share buyback program from EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 2 billion, the savings program enabling the employees of Schneider Electric to benefit from the profits of the company and to share your experience of shareholders. Thanks to this company savings plan, very much rewarded. Almost one employee in two is a shareholder, and this is really quite good, and it deserves your support.
From resolution 15 to 20, the financial support for various financial deals, so financial authorization on several years. Resolution 21 will allow our group to pay part of the compensation of the managers in the form of shares linked to performance. 100% of shares attributed to the members of the executive committee, including the two corporate officers, are submitted to performance conditions, and for the other beneficiaries, it will be 70%. In all cases, performances are measured over three years. As I indicated earlier on, 70% of shares attributed according to performance criteria, financial criteria, relative profitability, and 30% according to a sustainability criterion. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I hope that you are going to support all these resolutions. Thank you very much, and I am going to hand over to Jean-Pascal.
I am going to give the floor now to our Statutory Auditors who will make their presentation on the financial statement and regulated document and special report to granting free shares based on performance, increase of capital, while keeping or getting rid of the preferred subscription rate, the allocation of free shares, the increase of capital in favor of the profit-sharing plan, and increase the capital of shares issued for employees. So I am very happy to give you now the report that we have been able to establish for the ordinary and extraordinary General Meeting. All our reports are obviously at your disposal. You have a copy in the registration document you got when you entered this room, I will try and summarize these reports. I am not going to read them all. First of all, the financial statements.
Our report on financial statements are page 348 and 328 of the document of reference. Consolidated accounts have been calculated according to European rules, and they're presented according to French accounting systems. We want to get a reasonable guarantee on the sincerity and regularity of the accounts. We checked that there was no significant anomaly in those financial statements. We focused on the various activities of your group. We checked current operation and very specific operations, and we have put in place a due diligence according to our rules applicable in France. Apart from the fact that we sampled a certain number of operations and information in order to check them, we worked on the environment, internal control for the accounting principles you followed, and the picture in general.
After this work, we've been able to certify without any reserve the financial statement of the group and the consolidated accounts. We have a report on consolidated account, and we would like to draw your attention on the fact that for the first time this year, a new IFRS rule is being used, IFRS 16. We would like to remind you that our reports have a specific part on the key points of the audit relevant to the significant anomaly risk. According to our professional judgment, they were a bit more important this year compared to the previous year. We have checked the answers given to our questions. Four key points on this audit. First, the assessment of the acquisition gaps and determine the goodwill in general. First, we've checked the development costs, we've checked the recoverable characteristic of a certain number of taxes.
Last but not least, we have worked on the identification of risk and evaluation of provision for risks. In our report, we talk about the evaluation of a certain number of debt connected to participations. Last, we have checked according to French law, we have checked information relative to the group given in the report of the Board of Directors, and we have nothing to say about any potential problem. We can guarantee its sincerity. From page 406 to 408 of the registration document, we are explaining that we have not been communicated any specific point. All the points we have checked have been approved by the meeting, and everything has been done according to the rules. Nothing specific to say about all this.
As far as all the other operations on capital that will be part of Resolution 15 to 24, extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, reproduced page 409 to 413 of the registration document. I'm not going to read them all, there is no specific observation to make on these resolutions, apart from one, resolution number 20 on the issuing on shares and securities with a subscription right. It's a technical observation on the price at which they will be issued. We cannot give our opinion because this price has not yet been decided. We will make additional report when these authorization are actually used by your Board of Directors. That's it as far as my reports are concerned, and I would like to thank you very much for your attention. Ladies and gentlemen, we are at your disposal. If you have any question.
Before we start answering your questions, I would like to say that we have received no written questions, we will directly move to your questions in the room. If you want to ask any question, please use a microphone. If you have various questions, please ask them all when you have the mic. I'm going to give the floor to Marie-France Amic, Marguerite Marie-Denise, and Patrick de Bourdon, who represent the Shareholders' Advisory Committee. They have shortlisted a certain number of questions asked by shareholder on the internet site. Good afternoon. I would like to ask you a question on your raison d'être, I would say. I guess you have anticipated my question. Would you like to add anything to what you already said? The PACT law was voted, but it hasn't been implemented yet. Any answer on this?
The raison d'être, we've talked about it already. We tend to talk about our assignment or mission, not raison d'être. We work on this on a constant. We've been working on this for 15 years. The PACT law was voted beginning of April. We're still in April, so we have to understand the consequence of the law before we move on, we have to seize an opportunity here to work even more on what we're doing. For six months, we have been working with a certain number of people in this company, of different stakeholders. We are going to deploy this in the company this year, next time we meet, we'll probably explain our thoughts about this. This is something we've been doing forever in Schneider. We are constantly working on this raison d'être. We do it on a daily basis.
You had a second question, haven't you? No. Okay. Yeah, a question on governance. Mr. Lip-Bu Tan is part of the Board of Directors as a censor. What is his role? What is the objective of the Board when the Board recruits candidates that will become censors? In a very practical way, let me say that we made a proposal to Lip-Bu to participate to our Board. We had to vote today, but we wanted him to be part of our work before this general meeting. He's been part of the Board as a censor now. If the vote is positive, obviously, if you so decide, he will become a full member of our Board from today onwards. Schneider Electric is focusing on the Internet of Things. Some systems of the group have been questioned as far as cybersecurity is concerned, the Triton malware, for example.
How are you protecting your assets? How are you protecting your customers' assets? This is obviously one of our main priorities. It's the priority of all our technical teams, of all our operational teams. First, a connected world, is it more dangerous than a non-connected world as far as cybersecurity is concerned? Probably no. In today's world, what's important is not to build walls. You can bypass a wall. You have to actually keep an eye on what's happening on the network in systems. All systems, whether they come from Schneider or competitors, whatever, are constantly attacked. Cyberattacks, they're more and more sophisticated. Those attacks are more and more sophisticated and more complicated to avoid. It's a daily work. We have to develop our defense. We have to work on this. 5%-20% of our R&D efforts today are on cybersecurity.
In various activities, in all our activities, we're working on this on a daily basis. First of all, the fact that we all converge on the EcoStruxure platform means that we only have one platform, so it's easier to organize protection on one platform. Several companies have different platforms. We only have one. We multiply alliances with big companies and startup companies in order to be able to improve the defense of our systems. Third point, our internal services are developing every year because they're working more and more on these complicated issues, and we work hand-in-hand, obviously, with our customers. It's our cybersecurity business, by the way, and we work with our customers in order to design architectures that are more adapted to their needs in cybersecurity. It's one of the new parameters of the world in which we live.
It's a threat, obviously, but it's also a priority. It can be a major opportunity. Back to your question maybe, and then we'll give the floor to the room. Sorry. Something radically different, your acquisition strategy in China and India. Could you tell us more about it? We never talk about our acquisition strategy. In China and India, well, most of our development is organic in China and India. We've recruited, we've invested, we've trained, we have developed, and so on. These countries have become very important parts of Schneider. China is our second country as far as business is concerned. It's close to the U.S. India, if we finalize an acquisition we're working on at the moment, it will become the third country of the group. This shows how international we are. Our main countries will be U.S., China, and India.
We can say really that we've done something great. This is not surprising. China and India are part of those countries in which you have more than one billion inhabitants, so it's normal that our revenue is fairly high. We have made the acquisition of the Larsen & Toubro, one of their branches in India. It's a significant development for us in India. They're leaders in energy management, for example. Larsen & Toubro, it's a discussion I started with the owner 16 years ago. If you want to test your patience, it's really quite an exercise, believe me. We don't know yet the details of big news. The main point of this acquisition is our ability to meet the demands of the Competition Commission of India, and last week, this commission gave a favorable opinion to this potential acquisition.
We are still waiting for the formal letter, formal authorization. Everything's positive, I would say. We need a few months before we can actually conclude this operation. Anyway, our priority everywhere, but mainly in those emerging countries, is to grow with our own ability. We invest, we train, we recruit. That's how we grow. Number four question. Good afternoon. Thank you for managing your company so well. I'm very happy of that. I'm a shareholder. I'm very happy of the way you manage things and the way you organize this meeting. Being here at this meeting is always very pleasant. Anyway, I need a few explanations. You live in Hong Kong.
You're a CAC 40 manager living abroad, outside France. I heard that you're saying you want to be close to your customers, but people would like to see you in France, pay your taxes in France. I think a CAC 40 manager should be in France. I understand the fact that you are in Asia. After all, most of your customers are in Asia. Second point, you're talking about acquisitions. You're organizing this share buyback operation. When you buy your own shares back, it means that you don't have ideas. When you don't know what to do with your money, you buy back your own shares, so the price of the share increases, obviously. I'm bothered by that. Last year, you talked about batteries. Nobody can make batteries in Europe.
We say, "Oh, it's chemistry and so on." Your customers are making that. The know-how exists. Why don't you acquire this know-how? I don't understand that you're not investing in batteries and cells and so on. We need autonomous cars, don't we? We need that. You didn't convince me last year, so tell me more. Let me try again. Okay, second session of explanations. Asia, first of all. Well, I think that in Schneider, we're very pragmatic. 15 years ago, one third of our size today, compared to our international competitors, American and Japanese, whatever. In Schneider, we were not as international as they were. This is the reality of Schneider 15 years ago. We were running risks. We were far too small compared to the rest of the industry, and our growth rates were flat. They were not up to what we wanted.
You realize that 90% of the world population, nine people out of 10, live in what we call emerging countries, where people need energy. They have to build new factories, new cities, and so on and so forth. I have that problem with my team. What do we do? That's what we said. When you do things in a conventional way, obviously, you are not going to do better than those who started 50 or 100 years ago. Those who were already developing technology and so on such a long time ago. The only way out is to do things in a different way. In Schneider, we were present in China. I started developing emerging countries. The center of gravity of those countries is in Asia.
I started doing it from Paris. Seven or eight years ago, I realized it was not possible anymore. I moved there. I wanted to be at the front line of things. The result, well, today, three times the size we were 15 years ago. Asia has become our first market, our first zone. Asia will go on developing more than us. It's 50% of the global population. Many things are happening. They're developing technology, and so on and so forth. I'm pragmatic. I like common sense and I like numbers, and numbers prove that I'm right.
Where should a CEO live? Second topic. What about the taxes? Where are the taxes paid? Third question. I live where there is business and where the responsibility lies. Good news, we have a lot of customers in France. We like them, and we keep growing with them. 90% of the new things to be developed are in Asia, and it's better for the company and for the shareholders in this room that I am there in Asia. I have been now for 32 years in Schneider, and I was mainly in the operational fields and in the trenches and not in the head offices. I do not really believe in the head offices. I think that a company has to be close to the customers and colleagues, and I'd rather be over there than be trapped in an ivory tower in France.
That's the reason why I'm over there. Before you applaud me, let me talk about my taxes. Taxes. Schneider, as a company, pays taxes where we do business, and we comply with the international taxes. They are complicated, but we comply with all international rules. As I left, I do not set my compensation. I do not set the place where I am paid, but the Board of Directors and the governance board committee set the components or the elements of my compensation, and I pay taxes in Hong Kong, where I live with my family. My children go to schools there, so I pay for the infrastructure, the schools I use, the roads I use, the hospitals. The place where I pay more taxes remains France.
I believe, and I'm sure that we comply with international rules as a company and as an individual member of the society. You know what is missing? We dream a lot of countries like Germany exporting a lot and strongly dynamic countries, but we have the necessary resources to be like that in France. We have the capacity for that, but we should stop reasoning in a conventional way. We should adapt to the world as it is and not as it was. Each industry is different, but in our industry, the technology, the world is global. The development takes place in Asia. If you are lag behind, if you have to go among the frontrunner, among the pioneers, you have to do something not conventional. Share buyback now. Let's start with batteries, okay. To answer the second question.
The success of Schneider lies in the fact that we didn't do everything which was electrical. Some of our competitors have disposed of large portions of the electricity fields because they invested in the bad electricity facets. A company has to invest in the strengths, not in the weaknesses. Battery has to do with chemistry, and we are not a chemical company. We are integrator of technologies, and we create systems, platforms, software. We use, let me reassure you, we use a lot of batteries, not only Chinese batteries. Batteries come from all over the place, and our job is to adapt to all those batteries. You have batteries good for the stationary storage, batteries good for the car industry. We don't want to do battery for the car industry, and we don't want to have the onboard battery.
This is a strategic choice. We stick to it. We won't do batteries because it's not our core business. However, we'll continue making efforts and try and be the best integrator of batteries in the electrical systems. One of our strengths is not to do everything. We manage energy and we do automation. That's what we do well. We'll continue doing that well, but we'll not do all elements. We won't make solar panels, but we will integrate them. This is a strategic choice. Have I convinced you a bit more? Shall we start again next year? Okay. Last point, the share buyback. It's not a lack of idea. We keep on growing. We ask our shareholders for their help for the acquisition of APC, for instance. As we integrated those companies, once we have integrated those companies, we give this money back to the shareholders.
You are shareholders. We do not want you to be diluted by share issuance. Each time we issue for our employees to develop the employee shareholding, and we pay a lot of attention to that, we neutralize this so that the existing shareholders are not penalized by this issuance for the employees. We've been quite reasonable. Emmanuel, maybe? Yes, to add to this. It's a financial vision. We fully agree on the fact that it's not a strategy to do some share buyback, but it's kind of financial plumbing. There is a real interest for our shareholders. One of our mission is to enrich our shareholders, is to have a good debt level in our balance sheet, especially when the gas is not costly. For several years, we raised loans at 1% of fixed cost on a yearly basis.
When you can allow, when you have a robust balance sheet, there is an interest in buying back shares. We give money back to the shareholders. The pie remains more or less the same because debt is almost equal to zero. There is a financial interest of the share buyback, but it's not a strategy, yes.
Next question, number one.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for this very clear presentation. I don't mind you are in Hong Kong provided the company is well-managed. I have a question to bounce back on the question on cybersecurity regarding the cloud. In your presentation, you talked of digitization and the use of the cloud of Schneider. My question is simple. Do you have your own servers?
The data of your customers, are they hosted on your own servers, or do you work with service providers like Google, Microsoft, knowing that most of those service providers are American? What about the storage of this data? Are they stored in the U.S., in Europe?
It depends on the customers, I suppose. We know very well that there might be a problem in terms of access. If I am a Chinese customer, I'm not sure I would like to have my data stored in the U.S. Or if I'm a French customer- Very good point. We do what the customer wants to do. We work with external service providers. You mentioned a number of them on the cloud. It's either our choice, if the customer wants us to decide, or if the customer stores data on his own server. It's really up to the customer.
We are working with more and more customers buy from us services rather than the physical infrastructure of cloud. They buy from us the analytic value, the value of the software. This is an important matter. The Chinese customers would like the data to be stored in China. The American customers are a bit more open. In the rest of the world, you have different choices, many choices. Data, the ownership of our customers, the use of the data is under the responsibility of the decision of our customers, and we adapt to the desire of our customers. Any other questions? Number 2.
Good afternoon. Louis Mouton, registered shareholder. There is a problem with the shareholders' meeting. They are held at the same time. This afternoon, I had three of them, Danone, Bouygues, and you.
Danone is offering a very nice buffet to the shareholders, it might be tempting some of the shareholders. Maybe you should agree with your peers to make sure that you do not hold all shareholders' meetings on the same day. Why do I come to you, to your shareholders' meeting? It is because you are really excellent. You were part of a former company, Belgium and a French companies, Société Générale de Belgique, this company became Engie. Both of those companies were in the nuclear and the electricity, there is a huge difference. All, you look at the share price, my portfolio has been multiplied by three and has been divided by three as well with Engie. I am very proud and very glad.
At the next shareholders' meeting of Engie, if Mr. Clamadieu give me the floor, I will say to him, "Just go and see what Schneider is doing." 25 years ago, between Société Générale de Belgique and Empain-Schneider, the choice would have been made very easily. We would have chosen the Société Générale de Belgique. It is just an anecdote or a comment. I went to the U.S., to Florida, in the supermarkets, I saw that there were terminals or kiosks to recharge batteries. It was very practical. The instructions were in Spanish, French, and American. I was very much amazed, I said to myself, "Maybe Schneider is more French than what we think." Even in the U.S., in the supermarket, there were recharging stations and in French. What do you think of it, this electric car? What do you think of this electric car from your viewpoint?
What is the future of these electric cars, or is it just a gimmick for the taxpayers? Thank you for this question. I am not going to comment on the remarks, do not ask your question in the other shareholders' meeting. Each company has a different journey. Electric cars. It might take some time, it seems to be that this energy migration is the largest or the most significant migration to come in the last two centuries. This is about to come. Transportation accounts between 30% and 40% of the energy consumption worldwide. When you take an electric car, the electric transmission simplifies the drive transmission. You do not have a lot of mechanical parts, so less mechanical breakdown. If you generate electricity on a renewable basis, your energy is green.
I have an electric car in Hong Kong. I divided my energy bill by four. It is less costly. There will be an acceleration. China is betting on electric cars a lot. In some cities, all public transportation, including cabs, are having electric cars, Shenzhen, not far away from Hong Kong. The same will take place in Shanghai by 2020. This is going to accelerate the transition. Of course, you have infrastructure, a problem of infrastructure. Will we have enough recharging stations? There are some problems of cost, the cost of batteries, but the estimate is that the cost should become lower than traditional cars very soon. In that case, yes, the electric cars will grow. It will be less polluting, no particles, and less noise. If the generation is renewable, in that case, the car will be low carbon.
The acceleration rate is incredible, and acceleration is spectacular. No transmission loss on the transmission. It becomes a way of storage when the car is not used to drive. A car is not on the road 96% of the time. You can better manage Well, in France, we are saying that there are consumption peaks, but if you introduce digital aspects and storage aspects in the chain, you can reduce the peak and improve the performance. Yes, at Schneider, we believe in electric cars, and we have charging stations, as you saw, with multi-language instructions, including French, because in North America, you have Quebec as well, and they are French-speaking. We monitor this market very closely. What is interesting for us is upstream of the charging station.
Each house being equipped or each facility being equipped has to review the electrical distribution, and Schneider is very present everywhere in the world on that.
Number two. Bernard Gault. Individual shareholder. Congratulations to the management of your company. Just one observation on your speech. It was a bit long. I was a bit tired after a while. It's unfortunate because in the past, you showed your products. I don't know why. Well, you fell into sleep three times, so I had three video clips, so you probably slept. Next time, I'll make sure that it is a bit, well, you have more noise. I showed you the three video films. Any other questions? No? Good. Next sequence. Thank you very much for your questions. Thank you for this exchange. Okay. I'm going to put to your approval the resolutions. We're going to come to the vote.
Please stay till the end of the vote. We do not offer the same gifts as Danone, but we'll be delighted to offer you a multi-socket extension cord from the range of apparatus called Odace. You'll be able to coordinate your multi-sockets to your Odace apparatus. It will be possible to recharge traditional electrical devices. You have USB ports, you have a luminous status light to have savings, and you have a protection against a surge. This gift will be given to you against the exchange of your voting box. Delphine Gieux, you're going to explain to us the way to proceed.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. The number of shares held by the number is 362,212,711. That is to say a quorum of 65.63%. The quorum, therefore, for the ordinary and extraordinary meeting has been reached, and the meeting may validly act.
Before proceeding to the vote of resolutions, we invite you to watch the fourth film, presenting you the way the electronic voting box works. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, the box given to you is strictly personal. The number of voting rights you have or you represent is loaded in the box and displayed on the screen. You just have to use the three colors. Green corresponds to vote in favor, yellow, abstention, and red, against. After the reading of each resolution, we will proceed to the vote immediately. We will say, "The poll is open." You will see on the screen a rectangle indicating to you the counting, the number of seconds you have at your disposal to vote.
When the counting is over, we'll say, "The poll is closed," and it will no longer be possible to vote. Results will be displayed on the screen just a few seconds after. Thank you for switching off your mobile phones during the moment of the vote and to give back your voting boxes afterwards. We're going to proceed to the vote, and you have to validate your choice within 15 seconds once the poll has been opened. Rather than reading all resolutions, we're going to summarize them before moving to the vote.
First resolution, approval of corporate financial statements. We have to approve the financial statements for 2018, obviously. The poll is open. Vote. Poll is closed. Resolution one, adopted. Second resolution, approval of consolidated financial statements for this 2018 financial year. The poll is open. The poll is closed. Second resolution approved. Third resolution, appropriation of profit for the financial year and setting the dividend. The dividend will be EUR 2.35 per share. It will be paid on the 3rd of May, 2019. The poll is closed. Third resolution is approved. Fourth resolution, information regarding regulated agreements and commitments undertaken during previous financial year. The poll is open. The poll is closed. Fourth resolution is approved. Fifth resolution, approval of elements of the compensation paid due awarded in respect of the 2018 financial year to Mr. Jean-Pascal Tricoire. The poll is open. The poll is closed. The fifth resolution is approved.
Sixth resolution, approval of elements of the compensation paid due awarded in respect of the 2018 financial year to Mr. Emmanuel Babeau. The poll is open. The poll is closed. The sixth resolution is approved. Seventh resolution, approval of principles and criteria for determining, allocating, and granting the elements of a compensation and benefits of all types that may be granted to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in respect of 2019 financial year. The poll is open. The poll is closed. Seventh resolution is approved. The eighth resolution, approval of principles and criteria for determining, allocating, and granting the elements of the compensation and benefits of all types that may be granted to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in respect of 2019 financial year. The poll is open. The poll is closed. Eighth resolution is approved.
Ninth resolution, renewal of a directorship, Mr. Gregory Spierkel, for a period of four years, expiring at the close of the annual shareholders meeting to be held in 2023. The poll is closed. The ninth resolution is approved. Tenth resolution, appointment of a director, Ms. Carolina Dybeck Happe, as a board member for a four-year term expiring at the close of the annual shareholders meeting to be held in 2023. Mrs. Carolina Dybeck Happe will be a non-executive board member. The poll is closed. Tenth resolution is approved. Eleventh resolution, appointment of a director, Ms. Xiaoyun Ma, as a director for a four-year term expiring at the close of the annual shareholders meeting to be held in 2023. Mrs. Ma will be a non-executive board member. The poll is closed. Eleventh resolution approved.
Twelfth resolution, appointment of a director, Mr. Lip-Bu Tan, as a director for a four-year term expiring at the close of the annual shareholders meeting to be held in 2023. Mr. Lip-Bu Tan will be a non-executive board member. The poll is closed. The twelfth resolution approved. Thirteenth resolution, it's the determination of the amount of directors' fees to be allocated to the Board of Directors. These fees will go from EUR 2 million to EUR 2.5 million. The poll is open. The poll is closed. Thirteenth resolution is approved. Fourteenth resolution, authority granted to the Board of Directors to buy back company shares, maximum purchase price per share, EUR 90. The poll is open. The poll is closed. 14th resolution is approved.
15th resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to increase the nominal share capital within the limit of EUR 800 million, 34.53% of the capital, with a shareholder's preferential subscription rate. The poll is open. The poll is closed. 15th resolution is approved. 16th resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital by capitalizing reserves, earnings, premiums, or other amounts for which capitalization may be allowed. The poll is closed. 16th resolution is approved. 17th resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to increase the nominal share capital within the limit of EUR 230 million, 9.93% of the share capital, without shareholders preferential subscription rate through a public offering. The poll is closed. 17th resolution is approved.
18th resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to increase the amount of an initial issue as approved pursuant to the 15th and 17th resolution, with or without shareholders preferential subscription rate. The poll is open. The poll is closed. 18th resolution is approved. 19th resolution, delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital within the limit of 9.93% of the share capital for the purpose of paying the contributions in kind. The poll is open. 19th resolution is approved. 20th resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to authorize the capital increase up to a nominal amount of EUR 115 million. It has 4.96% of share capital without a subscription rate. The poll is closed. 20th resolution is approved.
21st resolution, authorization to the Board of Directors to make grants of free shares to corporate officers and employees of the company up to a limit of 2% of the share capital without the shareholders preferential subscription rate. The annual granting should be limited to 0.3% of the capital. All this will be submitted to performance. It will be to corporate officers and employees of the company or of companies affiliated therewith subject to performance conditions as the case may be. The minimum amount of time during which you can keep the shares is three years. The poll is closed. 21st resolution is approved. 22nd resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to undertake capital increases reserved for participants in a company savings plan up to a limit of 2% of share capital without shareholders preferential subscription rate.
There will be a maximum discount of 20% on the average share price. Even 30% if law permitting. The poll is closed. 22nd resolution is approved. 23rd resolution, delegation of powers to the Board of Directors to undertake capital increases reserved for a category of beneficiary in favor of employees of foreign companies of the group up to 1% of share capital, with a maximum discount of 20% or even 30%, law permitting. The poll is closed. 23rd resolution is approved. 24th resolution, authorization to the Board of Directors to cancel shares of the company up to a maximum of 10% of the share capital. The poll is open. The poll is closed. 24th resolution is adopted. The last resolution, 25th resolution, powers for formalities. The poll is open. The poll is closed. 25th resolution is approved. All resolutions have been approved. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your participation to this shareholders' meeting. We will meet again next year on the 23rd of April here in Palais des Congrès. Now let's have a brief moment of discussion around a drink. Thank you and see you next year.