Hello, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, thank you for being here today for our annual shareholders meeting. It is a special moment to enable us to discuss about our company, your company, look at what has happened during the year, and to look to the future. I draw your attention to the fact that this meeting is a public meeting that will be broadcast live and recorded on the company's website. In accordance with the provisions of Article 19 of the company's Articles of Association, the Chairman of the shareholders meeting shall be the Chairman of the board of directors. It is in this capacity that I chair this meeting, and I'm pleased to see you today here.
Next to me, Fred Kindle, Vice Chairman and Lead Independent Director; Olivier Blum, Chief Executive Officer; Hilary Maxson, who I no longer need to present; our Chief Financial Officer; and Ségolène Simone-Andou Boulay, Secretary of the Board of Directors. I shall proceed with the constitutional bureau of shareholders meeting. I call for the duties of scrutiny: Jordi De brulle, representing Amundi Asset Management, and Caroline CASSOUX, representing FCPE Schneider Actionnariat. Both of them shareholders present with the largest numbers of voting rights. Who accepts these duties? Is that the case? Yes, thank you. Good. I'll invite Ségolène to perform the duties of Secretary. I note the presence on the other side of the hall: Ms. Juliette Decoux-Guillemot. Mr. Matthieu Bougard will be leaving us after many years working with us, and I'd like to thank him for his support. Ms. Séverine Scheer, Statutory Auditor of the company.
Thank you for being in attendance. I greet the members of the board of directors present today. I would like them to appear on film: Ms. Julia Kirkegaard, Clotilde Delbos, Rita Félix, Linda Knoll, Anna Olsson-Leijon, and Mr. Philippe Knoche, Abhay Parasnis, Anders Runevad , Greg Spierkel, Bruno Turchet. I would also like to greet the members of the stakeholder committee with Dr. Amini Abuzayed, Michela Conterno, and Amit Narayan. Thank you for being in attendance. I greet the members of the shareholder advisory committee, and I take this opportunity to thank all the committee members on your behalf for the work they conduct and the advice they provide to enable us to improve our communication and our relations with our individual shareholders. Now, headphones have been distributed.
I hope you picked them up as you entered the room to enable you to listen to the translation of some of our speakers who will speak in English. Channel one for the English version and channel two for the French version. I will now hand the floor to our Secretary to proceed with the legal statements.
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon. I remind you that the shareholders meeting was convened today on first convocation. A prior meeting notice serving as a notice of meeting was published on the Bulletin des Annonces Légales, BALO, on March 28, 2025. While the shareholders, they have 395,837,853 shares. The definitive number of shareholders present or represented will be announced before the vote of the resolutions. As of now, the shareholders meeting gathering more than 25% of the share capital is regularly formed and may validly deliberate on resolutions relating to both the ordinary shareholders meeting and the extraordinary shareholders meeting. You can see the agenda on the screen.
The documents for the convocation and the provisions of Article R22581 and R22583 and 88 of the French commercial code relating to shareholders information were complied with, and the documents covered by R22589 and R22590 of the same code were made available to the shareholders on time. We ask the assembly to allow us to now read the board of directors report, given that the shareholders had the opportunity of reviewing it before the meeting. The legal formalities have been completed, and the shareholders meeting may validly be formed. We can proceed with the meeting itself.
Before describing the previous year, I would like to share with you, present to you a film on a number of achievements that Schneider is particularly proud of. You remember when Notre-Dame burnt down, and France and the companies representing France were called on to help renovate this magnificent monument. Schneider, of course, was a contributor. With the systems we provide in terms of building management, what had been installed at Notre-Dame beforehand did not belong to the kind of technologies that are in existence today. We put all the expertise of our innovation teams and engineering teams to equip Notre-Dame, a historic monument, with the most modern technologies. To give you an idea of what Schneider is capable of in this kind of situation, I would like to present this video to you. An exceptional.
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There are different buildings, and Schneider equips many buildings in the world, and there is a unique building that is Notre-Dame. We are extremely proud, and you can imagine the skill required to install such equipment in the crypt of the cathedral. We had to take apart certain parts of the building and put them back, and the teams were really fully inspired in their work on this project. I am going to start the presentation this afternoon, a short presentation, because the presentation will be conducted by our CEO, Olivier Blum, but to give you the context, because we meet every year and I have been present at all these shareholders meetings, I would like to give you the fundamentals of our strategy. We have lived through a period which has been rather difficult and complex, and it is easy to be distracted every day with new events occurring.
You imagine each day we have to revise our priorities. In fact, at Schneider Electric, our guiding principle is to have a stable direction in which we are progressing or moving towards. What I am going to start to do is to remind you what are the fundamentals of our strategy. We are specialized in energy technologies, and when you look at what we contribute today in the world, where it may be is digitalization and electrification combined to provide our clients with efficiency. That is to say, to use less resources, less energy, and to be more efficient when it comes to operations and to support sustainable development and the sustainability of the companies. There are two essential pillars at Schneider .
We are a technology company, so investment in innovation, and we are committed to increase this investment as a function of revenue, and we invest more and more in R&D. The second thing is we have an organizational model that's extremely original. We saw before the others that this is a global world, but that is at the same time more and more regional, and we provide our regions and the teams who are working for us in the regions the means of developing an industrializing system at a local level. Schneider is a very local global company, and it enabled us to develop very fast in different parts of the world because the basis for a company is the engagement and the skills of the employees. When the employees have the right to take decisions locally, everything moves faster and better.
Now, you will also recall that the main issue that we address is energy with what we call the Trilemma in the world of energy. We realize that everywhere that energy is vital for everything we do during the Ukraine crisis in Europe, many people had problems to access energy and to even pay for the energy they needed. This was in Europe, but we work in many different countries where many people do not have access to energy. Energy is at the heart of this Trilemma. It must be accessible, available. When you don't have access to energy, you can't have a decent life to be affordable, because if you pay too much for your energy, you don't have enough to make ends meet. We know now that the consumption of energy is the first carbon emission and is at the heart of climate change.
I'd like to share with you this figure that really presents this dilemma of energy. We're 8 billion inhabitants. 5 billion out of the 8 billion have access, reliable access to energy. In the next 20 years, 2 extra billion people are going to increase the population of the planet. We'll be 10 billion inhabitants in the next 20 years. We need to supply to each person on the planet access to energy, which is a fundamental right. We're going to go from 5 billion people who have access to energy to 10 billion people that will need access to energy. It's a considerable effort that needs to be made, and we realize at the same time the carbon emission is increasing, and we have to reduce these emissions, and we have to use other technologies to provide access to energy. We are faced with a practically insoluble problem.
The good news that all of this means that rationale, the rationale that we need to address, we're not specialized in wireless transmission. Okay. All this means that when we look at the next 20 years, we need to provide energy for twice as many people. When you look at the different approaches geographically, they're very different. In developed countries, the mature economies, mainly Europe and the U.S., Japan, Australia, etc., are going to have energy consumption going down thanks to greater efficiency and new methods. China is also going to reduce its energy consumption if it continues to develop because of electrification principally. Of course, the new economies where many people do not have access to energy today are going to see their energy consumption increase.
For the last 15 years, we've been saying at Schneider Electric, the technologies are going to enable us to save energy, to be able to share this energy with people who are going to gain access. This justifies our multiple approach, multi-hub approach. There are very different approaches in the different parts of the world that are necessary to address these issues. That is why Schneider has developed this multi-hub operating model to adapt as quickly as possible to these very different situations in different countries in the world. Now, the technologies that Schneider has invested in and the technologies that we deploy daily are technologies that are profitable in the short term in terms of return on investment. 70% of carbon emissions can be tackled today with existing technologies that are easy to deploy and provide savings.
What we have built as a strategy over the last 20 years is to associate digital, connecting everything, and electrification to provide efficiency and sustainability for our customers. In practical terms for our customers, this provides our customers with new architectures, EcoStruxure, gives them access to all the technical data. Future is to know your data better, to be able to deploy artificial intelligence based on a connect platform provided by AVEVA and the capacity to bring energy management and industrial automation combined. Today, the major revolution will be that of artificial intelligence, which will enable all people who have this consistent combination of data to improve efficiency, optimization, and sustainability.
All of this describes the different trajectories we develop for our customers, provide them access to the data and to organize it so as to use it better, to deploy artificial intelligence and softwares to optimize all the systems, electrification to decarbonize, and to source clean electricity so that this electrification can be accompanied by a reduction in the carbon footprint. This is relevant in industry, in buildings, and all the applications that we are involved in. To give you an overview of this future that we are creating in terms of energy, the future will be fundamentally different from that we are experiencing today. It is a future, which will be electric.
The future is electric, and it will be entirely connected with solar energy, a lot more distributed renewable energy and electricity and systems that will be able to manage the volatility of renewable energies and the electric vehicles, heat pumps, batteries that we can consume our energy at the right time and then store the electricity when the electricity is produced renewably. This future that you're investing in, the future is the future you're investing in when you invest in Schneider Electric. I'm going to share with you a video, but before so doing, I would like to ensure that I introduce to you Olivier Blum, who is our new CEO. Olivier is a person who, for you, may be a new face, but for me, it's a person with whom I've been working for the last 30 years.
He knows the company on the tip of his fingers, and he's been working here 30 years. He started his career in France with French customers in commercial capacity. I sent him five years in China, five years in India. They have become the second and third most important countries for Schneider Electric in terms of business activities. In a more recent past, Director of HR at Schneider Electric, because you know the core value of Schneider Electric is to rely on the employees that provide the performance and the engagement and all the development of this company. In the last three years, Olivier managed an important project, which was the management of energy. Before handing the floor to him on stage, I'm going to ask him to stand up. I'm going to hand him this control and wish him all the best.
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Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, Jean-Pascal. Many thanks, Jean-Pascal. I have indeed been with Schneider Electric for 32 years, and it's a great pleasure for me to be here at this assembly. I'm going to tell you about the company that has fantastic commitment and engagement with its customers, with its team. You can really count on me to work and do my best in the interest of Schneider Electric. Why is this company truly extraordinary? Let me remind you of our purpose. Our activity, our business needs to have an impact to draw the best of energy and resources so that sustainable development and progress for all can walk hand in hand. It's not just a few words on a PowerPoint slide. It's very concrete in the manner in which we manage our strategy and contribute to our stakeholders. It's what we call Life Is On.
More than a purpose, we are hugely proud that others have acknowledged our progress. Last year was a very special year. We got a number of awards. TIME Magazine voted us the world's most sustainable company and another accolade by Corporate Knight, the second time we received that award in five years. We are truly unique. We do not work exclusively for these rewards, these accolades, but we are very happy to obtain them because it shows to our employees, technological partners, and customers that we are extremely serious in pursuing that purpose. What I could do is give you a brief update of the situation in 2024 and look towards the future. 2024 was a year with record revenues above target. Our target was between 6%-8% growth, and we obtained 8.4% revenue growth, EUR 38 billion, a wonderful success last year.
We also witnessed an acceleration between H1 and H2 in both of our business lines with different momentum. Energy Management was the main driver of growth in the past few years, with impressive performance and significant acceleration in H2 and in Industrial Automation in a market where the industry was very sluggish. It is in the trough of the cycle now. We did not lose any market share, but of course, the results were down. However, there was an acceleration in the second half of the year, and I think we have reached the low point and that, in fact, Q1 of this year is already witnessing a rebound. What I wanted to insist on is not just last year. It is a succession of many years of growth. It is a long-term strategy that delivers results over time.
Apart from 2020, which of course was a tough year for everyone because of COVID, we experienced almost 10% growth and 8.4% last year. Revenue for us is a very important indicator, both in Energy Management and Industrial Automation, but more importantly, how are we transforming? Jean-Pascal has started to re-explain once more Schneider's uniqueness. Schneider is very powerful in products, in equipment, but has chosen to digitalize its entire portfolio. See, what is known as the digital flywheel has made progress in our portfolio. We reached 57%, our digital offering, 57% of our revenue. You can see the mix here between products that are connectable. They are not always connected, but they can be services, automation products, what we call edge control, and all sorts of digital offerings, digital services. I will tell you a little bit more about that in a few minutes.
All of our software business is aligned with our medium-term target, which is around 70% of digitalization. Year after year, the revenue is growing and providing Schneider Electric with recurring revenues. It is always a challenge. We want to move faster and do things better. As Jean-Pascal was saying, if we want to create technologies that will help our customers to access electrification and digitalization, all of that is central to our strategy. In 2024, and that was not really new, we have very balanced end markets. We often talk about Schneider Electric's end markets, data centers, which are, of course, in the news. It is a fast-growing market thanks to AI, buildings, be they residential, industrial, or office spaces.
The industry, we need to operate in all of these different segments and preserve the balance between them because there's both end markets and geographies that allow us to be more resilient. In a fast-changing world with sometimes unpredictable economic phenomena, we can refocus on one segment when one is more sluggish. That's what we witnessed in some segments. We continue to have a very balanced exposure to these end markets, which are all growing at the moment, with different weighting, of course. If we now look at Schneider Electric's strategy for the future, what are we trying to achieve? We have a mission beyond the purpose. What do we do day after day at Schneider Electric? We invent the technologies that will allow us to be the trusted partner. Partner is a very important notion.
We have a great culture of partnership all around the world, be they sales partners or technology partners, to be the company that can offer the very best technologies to allow our customers to reach their sustainability and efficiency targets. That is the heart of our strategy. Nothing new, of course. In order to fulfill that, we want to be the company in the world that develops technologies that can make a difference for our customers. I started within Schneider Electric in the sales force. When your products are highly innovative, of course, it makes things much easier for you as a salesperson. This obsession with developing the technologies of tomorrow in a fast-changing world of energy, that's a priority. Second priority, we need to continue to be customer-focused. It's not just technology for the sake of it. It's technology that can make a difference.
When we say that we're customer-focused, it's a sales organization that is very different. We're organized per customer in various parts of the world, and we can present the entire portfolio, which makes us truly unique. It's also an organization that's focused on experience, digital experience, of course, but also human experience. I truly believe that we need to have different ways of interacting with customers. As I said earlier, customer-focused means a geographical deployment thanks to our partners. We are the company with the largest number of commercial partners, electricians, system integrators, and so on. That is what allows us to expand our geographic footprint all around the world. Third pillar, what sets it apart? We are a human business. We place our people at the heart of everything we do. Jean-Pascal has already said this, but it's interesting to note.
What we've been doing for the past 10 years is to develop all of these technologies. We were a product and equipment company initially, and our first priority was how to connect these products. Of course, the number one priority is to make sure that all of the products we sell are increasingly connectable. When connectivity is available, we can provide more for our customers. We can give them access to their facilities through an application. We can give them access to digital services increasingly to allow them to conduct preventive maintenance, for instance. The important thing for us is to continue to build on our historic strength in product and equipment. We're not going to let that go, of course, but we need to move increasingly towards a digital world to generate more value for our customers. Ultimately, our customers can interact with us through the products.
They can interact with us through the software, through services. Our great strength in our sales force is to offer more. Beyond that technological stack of products, equipment, services, and software, the company is the only one that has the ability to combine energy management, electrification of assets, and automation. Not just industrial automation, of course, but to have a truly unique offering. More than a long speech, I want to tell you about the example of Capgemini. There will be a short video at the end of this. I think that truly illustrates Schneider Electric's strategy. The CEO of the company decided to reach carbon targets and noted that around 90% of its carbon emissions came from its energy consumption, 70% in India, because Capgemini has a great number of facilities in India.
There's a local manager in India who manages all of the Capgemini campuses in the country and who wants to provide nonstop reliability. They have a huge number of data centers. They need to access that data. They consume a lot of energy. All sorts of problems to be solved. When I say that you can enter from the top or from the bottom, if you have an operations manager who wants to reach their operational targets, a CEO who wants to reach net zero targets, and Schneider Electric can provide all sorts of equipment, products, automation to provide all of the solutions that will help customers to have a very strong focus on data center reliability, energy management across all of their facilities in India.
They asked us to develop the software stack and a services contract above all of that, meaning that we have an energy office which is connected permanently to Schneider equipment and that can generate alerts, and we can act remotely or on-site. You will see all of this in the video, but it is truly a solution that was tailor-made for Capgemini. They saved 30% in their energy consumption aligned with our carbon targets. What you will see in the video is that we have chosen to deploy these solutions together. We do not just provide a project. We go and see other customers together and try to market that energy command center solution to other customers. When deploying that strategy, we are continuing to think about giving more to our customers through our historical activities and our digital solutions.
We want to move towards 60%-65% of group revenues by 2027 in the medium term and to have truly unique services that can generate recurring revenue. We sell solutions through contracts, but we also have service contracts where Capgemini will be paying us every year. That recurring revenue is something that can help us to reach our financial targets. More importantly, how can we transform Schneider Electric? A major transformation was initiated in Schneider's R&D. We had great strengths in all of that technology, but the transition from a product-based company to an increasingly digital solution, software, and services-oriented company requires a different style of R&D. In the past, we would develop a circuit breaker that would be installed in a building, and we did not really think about the maintenance of that circuit breaker.
Now, of course, what we do now is that we develop a circuit breaker with native connectivity that allows either the customer or Schneider services to gain a better understanding of the quality and health of the product, meaning that with all sorts of algorithms, we can understand any faults or defaults if the product is becoming obsolescent. It is still based on products, but it generates additional value. That requires a different style, a much more agile R&D. We need to interconnect all of Schneider Electric's divisions to offer more support for our customers. As you can see here at the bottom of the slide, beyond the transformation in the manner in which we generate innovation, we have chosen a number of years ago with Jean-Pascal and the board to invest more in R&D, both in products but also in our digital offerings for the future.
Beyond innovation and the overarching principles I told you about, as Jean-Pascal just said, what made a difference for Schneider Electric is our multi-hub approach. Of course, our sales organizations are local or regional because our customers are local and regional. What is different at Schneider Electric is the manner in which we developed R&D centers all over the world to be much closer to our customers and also to have a supply chain with logistics centers with local and regional suppliers. We are aiming to have around 90% of our products that are developed, manufactured, processed with suppliers in each of the regions. 90% of our supply chain needs to come from the region where the product will be marketed. Schneider Electric operates in a very complicated world. There was COVID a few years ago, or sometimes tariffs can kick in.
This hub approach allows us to be much more resilient. A great difference: sales, R&D, all the way to manufacturing and logistics. As I just said, beyond the technology and the customer focus, what makes Schneider Electric truly different is our focus on our people. Our people are at the heart of our project. What is very important for us is to continue to attract employees, to retain, to develop, to offer opportunities to all of our employees. All of these figures here show and reflect our engagement in terms of training, personal development, and employee engagement. One point I would like to particularly focus on, which is a hallmark for us, is that we've always been determined with Jean-Pascal. When I was HR manager, that was the case, is to engage our customers beyond their day-to-day job by encouraging them to become shareholders.
We had our 28th Global Employee Shareholder plan. We conduct that plan every year all over the world, except for COVID, of course. 61% of the employees who can access that employee shareholder plan decided to do so. I think that is a fantastic indicator of engagement. Beyond the employees, the company's leadership, to me, is hugely important. The company is managed by a management team, a CEO. We have an ex-com that is very powerful. I'm hugely proud of the team, but it is an executive committee that has all of the competence and skills that we need. I've said so many times. Our multi-hub approach, of course, and even here in our executive committee, we have people from all sorts of places, all sorts of backgrounds. We are very proud to have 41% of women as part of the executive committee.
Now that I am a CEO, when you're facing complex problems, you have much better instruction. You have people who have a diverse experience. I think that makes us much stronger as a company. Finally, of course, a hallmark of Schneider Electric is that it's a company that fits into its ecosystem and places sustainable development at the top of its priorities. Of course, we are very proud to report that we reached our sustainability targets across all of the index we had set a few years back and with a few indicators such as 679 million tons. We reached that target. We helped our customers to reduce their carbon emissions thanks to our solutions. In all of this sustainable development aspect, of course, it's a powerful commitment.
We're aiming to be a net zero company by 2050, by all of that with science-based targets. 1% of our carbon footprint is at scope one and two. We've done what we needed to do, what we committed to do a few years ago. In order to achieve that, we mobilize all of our stakeholders, our suppliers committed to, through a program that has allowed us to reach these targets. Scope one and two, only 1%. Of course, we need to move further into scope three, upstream and downstream, what we do with suppliers and Schneider solutions. This is what I wanted to tell you about: a strategic positioning that is truly unique, a company that is focused on technology, customers, employees that's determined to have a positive impact on the environment.
I'm now going to let you watch the video about Capgemini that really explains how Schneider Electric can create value for our customers. Just after the video, I shall ask Hilary, our CFO, to tell you more about our financial results. Thank you.
Capgemini decided to partner with Schneider Electric as we resonated with their ethos of Life Is On. They deployed EcoStruxure and IoT-based architecture to manage, monitor, and control all these assets from a central location. Today, we call it Energy Command Center. The Energy Command Center connects and controls 23 of our campuses and 70+ buildings in India. The collaboration resulted in 24/7 monitoring of all energy-consuming assets across our campuses, 29% reduction in energy consumption, and we transitioned successfully to 100% renewable electricity for our own operations. We also export excess renewable energy across four of our campuses to the local electricity grid. The Energy Command Center serves as a role model for Capgemini, providing EcoStruxure solutions for microgrid, IT, building operations, power, asset management, and advisory services.
With EcoCare membership service plan, Schneider experts are remotely monitoring all our critical assets and dispatching service representatives whenever it is necessary. The EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor provides guidance on managing distributed energy resources very efficiently and effectively. With Schneider Electric, we have also deployed green-labeled products for our energy-consuming assets: Ethernet-enabled Masterpact MTZ breaker. We also deployed EcoStruxure Transformer Expert, advanced power quality monitoring devices, and very efficient modular Galaxy UPSs for our operations. Interoperability of software within the Energy Command Center, integrating multiple applications for single-point control, is something we have achieved together. Capgemini has an ambition to reduce our client carbon emission by 10 million tons by 2030. This partnership with Schneider Electric aims to reimagine the world and ensure a sustainable future for everyone.
Thank you, Olivier. Good afternoon to all, dear shareholders. I'm delighted to be with you today. We will review together the results of your company for the year 2024, the performance of the first quarter of 2025, as well as the expected trends for the rest of the year. We ended the year with a record revenue of EUR 38 billion, with an organic growth of 8%. We also achieved a record Adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.6%, with an organic increase of 90 basis points. The net income reached EUR 4 billion, and we generated a free cash flow exceeding EUR 4 billion for the second consecutive year. All of this has resulted in a strong increase in our return on capital employed, now at 14.8%, well on track towards our goal of 15% plus. Moving now to the performance by activities and geographies. Energy Management achieved EUR 31 billion revenues, up 12% organic.
This performance is particularly driven by the data centers and infrastructure and markets. All geographies show good growth, particularly North America, with an organic growth of 18%, and the rest of the world with an organic growth of 19%. Western Europe grew 5% organic, and Asia-Pacific grew 6% organic. Industrial Automation achieved EUR 7 billion revenue with an organic decline of 4%. This performance is impacted by the overall slowdown in the Discrete Automation market during the year. North America was down 4% organic, Western Europe down 12% organic, and Asia-Pacific down 5% organic. The rest of the world was up 14%, driven by strong growth in the Middle East. Moving now to the performance by business models. Revenue growth is strong for our systems activities, which represent 31% of sales in 2024 and grew 19% organic. This growth is driven by the data centers and infrastructure and markets.
Software and services, they are growing by 9% and benefit from the growth of the installed base. Our focus remains on the transition to the subscription model within the software business. Products, which represent 50% of our sales in 2024, are growing by 2% with the discrete automation market, not yet returning to growth overall. However, we observed a positive evolution in demand for certain offerings in the fourth quarter, which has been confirmed at the beginning of this year, that is, in 2025. Let's now move on to the performance of the first quarter of this year, 2025, which was another solid quarter with a revenue growth of EUR 9.3 billion, with organic growth of 7.4%. Energy Management continued to grow double-digit, up 10% organic in the first quarter.
We continue to see strong demand, particularly in the data centers and infrastructure and markets, but not only, driven by trends related to electrification and digitalization. Industrial automation was around flat during the quarter, with sales impacted by seasonality at AVEVA. We continue to see signs of demand recovery in the discrete automation market. Overall, the good growth of the first quarter reflects the solid positioning of our portfolio, the advantages we derive from our multi-hub structure, our geographical diversification, and our business models. The year 2025 started in an environment of heightened uncertainty. In this context, I wanted to give you visibility on the trends we anticipate for the rest of the year. First, despite the uncertainty, market demand should continue to drive growth in 2025, with contributions across end market and all four geographies.
We also expect demand for systems to remain strong, thanks to data centers and infrastructure projects. We continue to foresee a recovery in demand in the Discrete Automation market, with sales growth weighted towards the second half of the year. Regarding software and services, our expectations remain unchanged, with double-digit growth expected from annualized recurring revenues at AVEVA and strong growth in services. We've provided information about our supply chain in North America during the presentation of our annual results. Nothing has changed, and we're already taking measures to counter the impacts of tariffs. Overall, we will remain agile and take responsible measures to manage our profitability, investments, and cash flow. In this context, we have reaffirmed our target for the year 2025 during the presentation of our first quarter results. We expect organic growth of Adjusted EBITDA between 10%-15%.
This performance would result from organic revenue growth between 7% and 10% and an organic increase in the Adjusted EBITDA margin between 50 and 80 basis points. Our capital allocation priorities are clear, and they will remain unchanged: strong credit-grade ratings as the first priority, maintaining a focus on shareholder returns with a progressive dividend policy, and financing of our organic growth. We will remain cautiously opportunistic and agile regarding acquisitions that strengthen the unique positioning of our portfolio in growing markets. At Schneider Electric, we value active and transparent engagement with our shareholders. Our shareholders' advisory committee, with which we have many exchanges, is an important relay of the company to individual shareholders. Our team's at your disposal, and you can address your questions or find information from the investor relations team by phone, email, or on our dedicated website.
We are pleased to see that this transparency is being recognized. Thank you for your attention and for your trust. Jean-Pascal, back to you after a short video.
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Notre-Dame has been connected, data center connected, company connected, and utility company in Aero region connected. The future will be connected and electric. I'd like to congratulate Hilary for having presented the financial report in French. It's not an easy task. Talking about finance in French is quite something. For the next sequence, I'm going to share the next sequence with Fred Kindle. We're going to talk about the board and its work and the resolutions that we have defined. These resolutions concern four aspects. First of all, approval of the statements and questions of compensation and benefits, ex-post and ex-ante appointments of the members of the board of directors, and all the resolutions concerning capital buyback of shares and the issue of shares for a number of projects. Here's the list of resolutions. You know them.
You have been able to consult them on the internet site before this general shareholders' meeting. In a nutshell, what we are presenting for your vote is a dividend at EUR 3.90 per share, an increase of 11% versus 2023, and it's the 15th year in a row of an increase of dividend. Few companies have achieved this continuity in terms of performance of dividend payouts. I hope this will satisfy you and reward you for your commitment as shareholders in our company. We have objectives that we set during the Investors' Day last year, objectives concerning increase in revenue between 7-10 per year, objectives improved profitability, 50 basis points on average per year, and a conversion of free cash flow of 100% on average year on year. Now, let's talk about the board, and I'd like to extend my gratitude.
We have the Representative of the Employee Shareholders, Schneider Electric, Ma Chère Rune, after two mandates. She's going to leave the board after an open selection process. The board is proposing Laura Ding to replace her, who is here today with us and who will be presented for a vote later on in this shareholders' meeting. We would like to warmly thank somebody who couldn't be here today, Léo Apotheker. I think everyone knows Léo because you've been at this shareholders' meeting many times. He's been a director at Schneider Electric during the last 17 years.
He was a partner who worked closely with me by my side to carry out all the major transformation in the group in software and the development of systems and solutions, and also management of major accounts, the internationalization of the growth, the digitalization of the company, and the constant transformation of the company. I would like to thank him very warmly. Even if he's not here, I suggest we give him a warm round of applause. Lastly, we are very pleased to present for a vote and to confirm co-option of Clotilde Delbos, who was co-opted to join the board from November 2024. We'd like to confirm this appointment by a vote at this meeting. The members of the board you have here, a board which has great diversity compared to all companies in the world.
The members of the board represent different countries where the group is doing business and provides competencies and skill sets and knowledge of the world, the energy world, the energy business, and knowledge of sustainable development. They have competence in digitalization and different specialties that are important for a board: finance, legal affairs. This is how we decided to co-opt our directors for the board of directors at Schneider Electric. This board works. I would also like to remind you that on our board, we have three directors who are employees, Schneider employees, who represent the French and European communities and the employee shareholders. We have five committees: Audit and Risks Committee, Governance Committee, HR Committee, Investment Committee, Digital Committee. There has been one change.
Abhay Parasnis, who joined us three years ago, joined the Digital Committee, and the chairman of the Digital Committee became Chairman of the Investment Committee, Greg Spierkel. I have also mentioned that for the renewal, we are going to propose Anna and myself for renewal during this shareholders' meeting. After this brief introduction, I am going to hand this device to Fred Kindle, Lead Independent Director of Schneider Electric.
Thank you very much, Jean-Pascal. Hello. Unfortunately, I do not speak French. I forget the words, the grammar, and so on. It is a pity. Please excuse me. Good afternoon. Thank you for having patience with me. I would like to share a few slides with you talking about remuneration. The first one is actually about two resolutions. It is about resolution number six and number seven. What you see on the chart up there is basically a slide that is divided in half, a left side and a right side. It is about the compensation for our CEO looking backward into 2024. And we actually had two CEOs in 2024. On the right-hand side, you see some numbers regarding Peter Herweck, the CEO that was here from January until the end of October. And on the left-hand side, you see the equivalent numbers for Olivier Blum, who started in November until December last year.
The basic compensation structure and also the main figures are exactly the same for the two, except for the fact that these are pro rata figures. So for Olivier, it's two months, and for Peter Herweck, it's 10 months. On top of that, you see at the bottom of the right-hand side, you see a few figures which are specific to Peter Herweck. They relate to the fact that we had to let him go. November 1st, Olivier Blum took over, and Peter had left us. As a consequence of his departure, he was entitled to a non-compete indemnity and also to a severance indemnity. This is according to our regulations that have been spelled out in our compensation policy that has been made transparent in previous years and also approved by you, by the shareholders.
I have to point out that there are a few investors and also proxy advisors who have taken issue with these particular payments because they feel they were too high, they were not proper. Putting that aside, I can assure you everything we have done here was perfectly fair and proper. According to our regulations and also the amounts which are there are strictly according to what has been set out in these regulations. Nothing shady, nothing special about it. This was according to contract. Also from a moral point of view, I can tell you I feel absolutely good about these figures. They are high when you look at them as a regular person, but considering the fact that this has been a CEO that has been with us for eight years in total, they're perfectly fair and commensurate.
With that, let me move on to the next chart that actually deals with four different regulations. I'll go through them one by one. Resolution number five on the left top-hand side is simply about the total compensation for the directors. You see the number here is roughly EUR 2.7 million. This, again, is in line with the envelope, the frame that we set in the previous year, so nothing special about it. We fulfilled what we promised to do. Below that, resolution number eight, you see the compensation for our chairman. It was the same as in the previous year. Resolution number ten, top right-hand side, is looking forward now. The proposal is not to change anything with regard to the compensation relating to the chairman of the board. No change whatsoever.
On the bottom, resolution number 11 is basically a precision, making the statement more precise with regard to the fact that we now have the opportunity to also take written decisions by the board. It simply says, in case the board takes a written decision, there is no fee being paid for that. As simple as that. With that, let me move to the next resolution. This is about Olivier Blum, about the CEO, again, resolution number nine, but now it is looking forward. This is a pretty rich chart with a lot of data points on it. Let me try to elaborate quickly on it. The basic message is we have decided to propose an increase in total compensation for the CEO. If you look at the line in the middle that goes horizontally from left to right, you see a few figures like the EUR 1.2 million.
That's the fixed annual income. Then you see the 130%. This is the on-target payment of a variable bonus in case the targets are exactly met. There was an increase in that. That's what we're suggesting. The total increase regarding the full payment for the full year is equivalent to about 11%. You can ask the question, 11%, is this fair? Is this justified? Is this proper? The answer from our point of view clearly is yes. First of all, Olivier has been with us for many years. Actually, it's 30 years, something like that. He's obviously had a formidable career. He's contributed a lot to the well-being of this company. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here where he is today as the CEO of Schneider Electric. A really great performance and a true loyal commitment to the company for many years, decades even.
The company, Schneider Electric today, is very different from what it was five years ago and 10 years ago. It is larger, it is more complex, it is also more successful, as Hilary has pointed out with the figures and also with the fact that we are able to pay a higher dividend. It really has increased its relevance in every aspect. The final point I would like to make is the third bullet up there, this competitive positioning. You see on the right-hand side, you see three columns. The first column is a comparison of the total compensation for the CEO in relation to the CAC 40 companies. The middle one is compared to what is called the Stoxx 50 companies. These are the 50 largest companies in Europe.
The last one to the right is a comparison to direct competitors, names that you know, European companies and some American companies. The first column shows you the bullet is fairly high up there, basically saying compared to the average total compensation of a CEO of a CAC 40 company, this compensation package is above average. I already said Schneider Electric has been doing very well. It's not just an average CAC 40 company. It's actually very large and a very successful company. If you look at, for instance, market capitalization, number of people, and also the increase in shareholder value, it has been doing tremendously well. I think it's very justified that our CEO is not just compensated on an average level, but slightly higher.
If you look at the middle column, the bullet is actually fairly low, saying comparing the compensation of the proposal, I should say, the compensation proposed for the CEO to the 50 largest European companies, we are clearly below the average. If this company was, for instance, based in the U.K. or maybe somewhere else, maybe the bullet would need to be higher. The third column is the same message. Even our direct competitors, companies that you know by name most likely, they on average pay higher. The compensation for the CEO at Schneider Electric is below the average. That is a lot of words to just simply say, despite the fact that an 11% increase looks pretty hefty, it is not. It is absolutely necessary.
We want to have a fair payment for the CEO, something that he can feel good about, that we can feel good about, something that is not excessive, but completely understandable. I think this is exactly what we're proposing here. My request to you is, please help us support these resolutions with regard to compensation. Moving on, I have two charts here. They include the standard resolutions relating to capital issuance. There is nothing special about them. They are the same every year. I am not going to discuss this in detail. Of course, if you have questions, you can always ask them in Q&A later on. It is actually two pages. There is the first one. There is a second one.
These are resolutions that are necessary for us to work in, for instance, for incentive plans for our management in case there was an acquisition that we need to deal with, basher issuance, and so forth. On the last chart, two small details, resolution number 29. It is about the fact that we have an employee shareholder representative in the board, a board member. If this person fell ill or something happened and could not fulfill his or her task anymore, we would need to replace this person. It is simply about the procedure, the process to replace this person. That is resolution number 29. Resolution number 30 is about the new possibility, according to French law, that we are now able to use written consultations, written approvals to certain things in the board. This was not the case before.
Two, you could say administrative precisions or details in our regulations. I think with that, I conclude this short presentation on compensation. As I said, I'm looking forward to your support. With that, let me hand it back to Jean-Pascal. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Fred. I would like now to call Séverine Scheer on stage from PricewaterhouseCoopers, who is going to present the content of the auditor's report.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, on behalf of the auditors for Faureuse, Mazars, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, I am happy to report on the fiscal year 2024. We've been appointed as statutory auditors for a number of missions required by law. Each of these missions is here to give you the appropriate level of assurance for all the information provided to you for your decisions. As always, I'm going to give you the main bullet points of the reports that have been handed out to you in the Universal Document of 2024. Report on annual statements and consolidated financial reports state that we have given a true and fair view of the assets and liabilities with no reservation in France and in the world. Our work is adapted to the type of transactions, the composition of the group, and our internal audit.
We focus on the main points of the audit, the points that we judge most important in the framework of annual accounts and consolidated financial statements. They all concern the revision of the risks and the way we have perceived them. Concerning the social accounts, we look at the credits and the main accounting principles. Concerning the consolidated financial statements, we look at the gap and the uncertain fiscal position, the recognition of the tax and assets linked to the deficit in the accounts. In our special report on related party agreements, we see that there has been no engagement of this type for the year. For the extraordinary part of your general meeting, we have given our report in view of resolution 17 to 22 and 23rd.
We delegate to this board of directors the decision to issue ordinary and mobile assets to also cancellation of preferential subscription rights in the maximum of the issuance. Our mission is to verify that the report of the board of directors is compliant to the law. Concerning the resolutions 17, 19, and 22, we don't see the specified cannot report on the choice of constituent elements used to determine the issue price. We cannot give our opinion on the calculation of the price for these issues. Therefore, we do not give an opinion on the preferential subscription rights that are given in resolutions 18 - 23. We will prepare an additional report in the event that the board of directors uses this delegation of authority.
25th resolution is for the proposal of authorization granted to your board of directors to freely allocate shares to the employees or to a category of employees and/or corporate officers of the company or of companies affiliated therewith as part of the long-term incentive plan. We have no comments to make on the information set out here. In the framework of 26th and 27th resolution, there is the competence to decide the issuance of shares without shareholders' preferential subscription rights. This is for a number of beneficiaries that are described in the 27th resolution. We do not give any opinion on this. Therefore, on the decision to do it without shareholders' preferential subscription rights. To finish, in our report on the share capital transactions, the 28th resolution, we have no comment to make on the causes for and the terms and conditions of the proposed capital reduction.
One last information I'd like to share with you. In 2024, our company published for the first time the information on sustainability information and verification disclosures requirement under Article 8 of the CCRD regulation. We give a limited opinion on the different objectives that are given here on screen, in particular in view of the ESRS. We do not identify any inconsistency, mistake, or errors, and we have given a detail of all the information that has given way to particular attention. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, this is our mission. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much, Séverine. We are now going to proceed with a Q&A session. I'm Olivier Blum, Hilary Maxson, and Fred Kindle, and we're available to answer any of your questions. Before we start, I must tell you that we have received five written questions from the Forum for Irresponsible Investment and 14 from a company, Conseil Gestion Résilience. All of the answers have been published on the website of your company. In order to keep the debate clear and to answer a maximum number of questions, please ask your question, and if you have several, just ask them all at once. Let me start with the Consultative Committee of Shareholders with Pierre-Yves Pélissier and Patrick Zielinski, who are its representatives here. Thank you.
Greetings, Pierre-Yves Pélissier, member of the Consultative Committee, the Advisory Committee. What are your forecasts for India and that part of the world? Olivier organized the investor day, so he can answer. As I said in my previous presentation, India has been a priority for Schneider Electric in the past 15 years. We've invested a lot there. To answer more specifically, we're very positive about India's environment. As Hilary said, the geopolitical atmosphere creates a lot of uncertainty, with India not yet having been hit by that. Our growth ambitions remain strong. All of that is consistent with our strategy: more electrification, more digitalization in all sectors, construction, industry, data centers. The big difference in India is that it's a country that is still developing, with a significant level one, level two, and level three cities in urbanization, which is important for us at Schneider Electric.
What sets us apart there is that we have developed it organically, but we have also created with Temasek a joint venture to acquire L&T Electrical, which allows us to have a unique geographical footprint in India. Capgemini, of course, is a very fitting example of this, but we have a huge market and partners that allow us to offer Schneider Electric products all over the country. We continue to strongly believe in growth prospects in the short and medium term, thanks to our unique positioning. Of course, everyone reads the papers. We visit India. There is an old historical conflict between India and Pakistan, and we are, of course, looking at things very closely. That may have an impact, but our ambitions remain untouched. Ladies and gentlemen, greetings, Mr. Chairman, Mr. CEO. My name is Patrick Zielinski.
I am a member of the Advisory Committee of Individual Shareholders, which assembled this morning. On behalf of the committee, I would like to congratulate you for the quality of your presentations and well done for the excellent results for 2024. This is my question. Please do. The applause is not for me, of course. One of the fundamental values of Schneider Electric, which is at the heart of its strategy and has been for decades, sustainable development and ESG, is under attack from President Trump in all of the elements in business. We can talk about renewables, in HR, diversity, and inclusion. The question is, what does Schneider intend to do to fend off these attacks from the United States? What does Schneider Electric intend to do to provide support to its American teams to allow them to conduct their business efficiently? Olivier.
Thank you. Thank you for your answer, of course. It's a very important question. I'll try to answer briefly. As Jean-Pascal said, the uniqueness of Schneider Electric is placed its mission at the heart of the energy transition, the electric transition. Its ESG and sustainable development is really not on the side. It's at the heart. When you look at what we do with Capgemini, we help them to reduce their power consumption, we make their installations more reliable, and we help them to reach their sustainable development goals. It's crucial for our strategy, but the energy transition is key, whether you're doing it for efficiency, resilience, security, or sustainable development. You do it for the planet, you do it for the wallet, as goes the saying.
The strategy we have at Schneider Electric to develop energy to make our customers more efficient and therefore help them to accelerate their climate transition, that's something that won't change. It's at the heart of Schneider's policies. We can support our customers who wish to access more renewables. We can make them more efficient in terms of demand. Everything that goes on around the world does not really affect our strategy. Major U.S. corporations continue to have a powerful focus on their net zero targets in the long term and even their energy consumption in the short term. To develop data centers, to reindustrialize the U.S., you need more energy and more electricity. Of course, we're at the heart of that. In terms of diversity, Schneider Electric's ambition was to create a unique company that offers opportunities for employees in a fair manner all over the world.
We strongly believe in diversity because it brings more innovation and more performance. That will remain at the heart of Schneider Electric's strategy. As we did in the past, we will continue to be fully compliant with regulations wherever they may be in the world, in the U.S. or elsewhere. A significant focus on energy efficiency and on developing different teams, new teams, who can be offered opportunities all around the world. Very well. Other questions in the room here in the middle? That person in the front? Dominique Chauvin.
I look into the future. We recently experienced, in quite an astonishing way, a general power blackout in Spain and Portugal. What is your interpretation of that power cut, particularly the disturbances in the power grid that created that? Looking to the future, do you believe that that blackout that I would call systemic across a major power network, is it manageable? What proposals do you, as a company specializing in the regulation of systems, and particularly energy systems, what could you offer Red Eléctrica, Spain's power grid? Have they been in touch? Did you have contacts or business relationships with Red Eléctrica in Spain?
First of all, of course, we need to be extremely wary. The Spanish government has launched an investigation, an audit to truly understand the root cause of the blackout. From a technological point of view, you can end up in a situation where there can be huge differences between supply and demand that may generate that kind of effect. Of course, it's not the first time that this type of event has happened, albeit at such a scale. At Schneider Electric, we believe that the world of energy is changing. Energy supply, energy demand, and the function of the conventional utilities that produce, distribute, and sell electricity, that's a model that will no longer exist. The end customers themselves will be creating their own electricity. You can do it in your own home with solar panels. The question is, how to create more flexibility?
Flexibility between the utilities that generate power, between consumers who generate power, and how can all of that work in real time to avoid these types of situations where there can be a huge gap between supply and demand? Of course, it's much too early, I think, to talk about Spain. All sorts of conflicting versions exist in the press or elsewhere. We do need to think about the world as being much more interconnected. The interconnection between supply and demand and everything we've presented with Jean-Pascal truly evidences that we're at the heart of that: products, equipment, software, because only software, of course, can help you to manage these gaps. All of that shows, of course, that the future is highly promising for Schneider. Let me pick up on what has just been said. Of course, the investigation has not produced its full results.
It might not be a gap between supply and demand. It might be a thermal constraint on the network that generated the imbalance. We'll see. There are three takeaways from that. First, in systems that are being used more and more because the future is electric, if things are not fully digitalized, it will be very difficult to measure things. You can see that in buildings, data centers, or factories. When there are algorithms that measure things in great detail, it's easier to anticipate these breakdowns and prevent them. It needs to be prevented rather than fixed. Second thing, electricity isn't the only thing that breaks down. There were places after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that could no longer obtain fossil fuels. We're much more dependent in terms of fossil fuels because, of course, in France, not so much.
Because with nuclear power and renewables, which remain limited, it's the start of a story. I think over the past 20 years, electricity was a competitive asset for France, which we did not sufficiently leverage. Third, energy in the old world was the remit of large companies who made and provided gas, oil, or great energeticians. Of course, an energy transition doesn't happen by simply providing electricity. Cars didn't become electric because there's more electricity around. They're going to become electric because they're better, higher performance, more comfortable, and probably very soon cheaper than internal combustion engine cars. In fact, the responsibility does not lie only on suppliers of electricity. People buy oil and gas because we haven't changed our boiler, our gas boiler, because we haven't transitioned to an electric car.
What I mean is that with a breakdown such as that, in the future, you would probably have an electric battery in the car that could probably have taken over powering your fridge, your IT, your security system, and perhaps even static batteries, meaning that every house, every home, every apartment would be made more secure. The conclusion of all that is that the future of energy is the responsibility of all. The energy transition is done through demand rather than supply. If you think that supply will need to ration demand, it will send people down in the streets because the bills will go through the roof. The energy supply needs to be transitioned through demand. That is what 99% of what Schneider Electric does. Sorry. Over to you. Yes, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I have two questions. You were talking about renewables.
It seems to me that it's much more difficult to manage a large number of energy producers rather than one big one, which might in part explain what happened in Spain and the intermittent nature of renewables. Of course, there's a development of wind turbines. I'm, like many people, I say, not in my backyard. Now, these wind turbines need to be at least 500 meters away from houses or 250 meters. You know that when you have a wind turbine right next to your home, the value of your home drops by 30%. What is your policy in terms of the distance between your wind farms and the closest home? What is it? 500 meters, 10 kilometers? That was my question. My second question about the non-competition clause and the remuneration. You had EUR 1 million fixed compensation and then all of these variable.
After eight years, of course, I think it's a lot, your exit bonus. I would like to know what the policy is now for the next CEO. If this CEO said that he wanted to leave, will he also receive that kind of bonus? I understand the competition way, but in fact, these people were well paid while they worked for Schneider Electric. Why do they need more money? For wind farms, we don't make wind turbines. The regulation, I mean, we may connect wind turbines or provide systems that control stuff, but I can't really answer that question. My wife is Dutch. There are very pretty windmills in the Netherlands. It's a national treasure. I think it's very different from one country to another. As for Peter Herweck's compensation package, it's pretty normal for an executive to have a contract.
The contract was voted by this very meeting before he left, and we simply enforced the contract. He had to go, of course, but number one, for eight years, he worked very hard in automation. He headed AVEVA. Then he left Schneider to take the helm at AVEVA when we bought the company. Second, he's a person who was a director for 18 months, and he worked day and night. I think it's perfectly normal to simply apply the terms of the contract. As for Olivier, the new CEO, he's been with Schneider for 32 years. I've been with Schneider for 39 years. It's a long-term commitment. Of course, it's a risk. We saw that with a previous CEO with whom things didn't work out. I think we're all convinced with the board.
All of these are, of course, board decisions and contracts that are signed by the board and subject to the vote of shareholders. Schneider is a reliable company which keeps its promises. Mr. Chair, Christian Chabrerie, I'm an individual investor. First of all, congratulations for your partnerships, particularly for AI and data centers. I'd say that you're one of the four French companies that was named in the NVIDIA GTC25 conference. So well done. My question is, what are the strong points that convinced NVIDIA to select you as a partner for their data center digital twin? Olivier. Thanks for your positive feedback. It's true that it's a very important strategic plan point. You know that since the acquisition of APC, we've had a presence in data centers. We put it, of course, on all sorts of equipment and created a unique positioning over the past 20 years.
In the past 10 years, we've worked even more with large companies such as Microsoft, Google, and others to develop data centers of the future that require increasing amounts of technology. As you know, AI has emerged since then, and it's a fundamental change of paradigm for the IT and electric infrastructure required. What we saw when we worked with the biggest players in data centers is that we needed to climb the value chain. We ended up, we faced NVIDIA promoted by our own customers who told NVIDIA that Schneider Electric was probably the most advanced with the most advanced portfolio of technologies. As you know, last year, we acquired Motivair, which allows us to make progress in the world of liquid cooling, which is why we've been selected as one of the most advanced players in data centers.
Of course, having these technologies is very good, but we need to work with chip manufacturers, people like NVIDIA. When they're working on innovations of tomorrow, we need to be in a position to know what the effects it will have on a data center, what type of energy consumption, what type of cooling. We have a historical positioning, and our long-standing partnership with data center players puts us in a good place. We are really delighted to be one of the partners of choice for NVIDIA because it always allows us to look into the future of the infrastructures of tomorrow. I'll take another question on this side of the room. Hello, Louis Mutt, shareholder for the past 30 years. I think that this year, you are above Total in terms of market cap, although it's the most profitable oil major. That's pretty good, isn't it?
My question is, you were talking about electric cars. It would seem that the speed of charging takes two minutes to fill up a tank, at least 10 times more for an electric car. Could you say a couple of words about how you're doing in that market? As you probably know, the important thing is that at Schneider Electric, of course, I said that we don't generate and we don't consume. We're everywhere in between. It is important for us. What we noticed very quickly is that with this transition to all EVs, customer habits were going to change. It's true in homes. It's true in commercial premises. In a home, the day when you buy an electric vehicle, of course, it changes your electricity consumption patterns. That's why we were very keen to be in there.
We created a common company called StarCharge with a Chinese partner. You know that the world of EVs is booming. The number of EVs in China is huge. It is the world's biggest market. That is where the charging technologies are the best. With Jean-Pascal, of course, we had to make a strategic choice. Either we did everything on our own, we would probably always be lagging behind, or we find a partner that is highly innovative in the world's biggest market and where things are moving the fastest. We created this common company with StarCharge, this joint venture, which means that we have exclusivity in developing these technologies in Europe. More than the access to technology, we work with StarCharge to co-design chargers for the French, German, or Spanish market. We know the installers. We know how installers and electricians work.
That truly makes a difference. We want to have a strong presence where it makes sense. I think that partnership really helps. These are Schneider-branded products adapted to Europe, specified for Europe, and they are reprocessed in terms of software and features by Schneider Electric. We have a full range, including fast chargers. I have good news for you. It is not two minutes. It is five minutes, which means you will have enough time to drink a coffee without burning your mouth. We are coming closer to fossil fuel. In fact, when people transition to an electric vehicle, they have different behaviors. For those who are fortunate enough to have a home, they never go to the pump except when driving very long distances.
They recharge the car at home with a trickle charge when the electricity is cheaper and when it balances out that because a car spends 94% of its time not driving. A lot of time to charge. As we were saying earlier, your car could potentially be used to power your fridge or your computer because it's a battery right there in the drive in front of your house. Hello. Congratulations, Mr. Tricoire, for everything that you have made Schneider into. I've been following you for years, and I always say the same thing. I do have a few questions, though. I didn't know that our group had worked for Notre-Dame. I don't think there was much communication about that. There was a lot of talk about others who worked on Notre-Dame, and I wasn't even aware.
My question is, how many million euros did that cost the group? My second question is the share price. The share price is, of course, much higher, but since January 1, it is dropping. It has dropped significantly. It is hard to understand. All of a sudden, I mean, the results are good, but the share price is dropping. It must not be easy for you, right? My third question is, you keep talking about organic growth. Do you not want to eat up a partner or a competitor to buy businesses? Are you not a monopoly player? Who should be answering that? Thank you for your support. Perhaps I can answer about Notre-Dame. I do not know. It is a donation. I do not think the figures are public, but it is a significant donation because it is an extremely complex building, and it took a lot of work.
He had to bring transformers and boards into these historic cellars. The teams were highly motivated, as you can imagine. A large part of the donation was not just money. It was paying an electrician to install our technology and engineering time and a lot of donated equipment. It is significant, but it is one of France's most beautiful buildings. Perhaps I'll answer the last question, and then Hilary can talk about the share price. You were talking about organic versus growth versus acquisitions. In fact, we confirmed our growth targets of between 7-10% in the next cycle and confirmed that that growth would be organic. Of course, you will have noted that we live in a fast-changing world, and the energy transition offers a whole lot of opportunities.
I think the work put into all of this for the past 10, 15 years has put us in this good position. Now we need to deliver on the transformation with product, equipment, systems, and all of that should provide 7%-10% organic growth, which is huge and which is the key focus for Schneider Electric, of our leadership, of our teams all around the world. As we have always done with Jean-Pascal, every time opportunities emerge to allow us to ramp up the execution of this strategy, we seize these opportunities. India, for example. We made an acquisition in India. Last year, I talked about it in my presentation. We noted that for data centers, one of an essential element in the architecture of tomorrow's data centers to deliver the efficiency in cooling, we noted that liquid cooling technologies were hugely important.
That is why we bought Motivair. We acquired Motivair. We could have done it ourselves, but rather than wait three or four years to develop the right solutions, we did it. In fact, most of our growth is organic because there are huge opportunities and we have a great positioning. If we can accelerate the execution of the strategy, we can do so if we find the right company at the right price. Let me answer the question. No, we do not play monopoly. I can confirm that. We are going to talk about the shares, of course, but there are a number of parameters. In fact, what disturbed the financial markets over the past three months? I am also an investor. Look at the fundamentals of a business.
If you believe that electrification is just starting, if this is just the start of smart manufacturing, smart buildings, and smart cities, continue to invest in Schneider Electric, and you will weather all of the cycles. If you think it's important to encourage progress and sustainable development for us, for all, it's a good way to do so. Hilary.
In fact, we think a little bit about the share price coming down also as an opportunity for our shareholders to enter sometimes. I think it's very difficult to say on a day-to-day basis where you don't have a perfect crystal ball. It would be worth a lot more money if we could tell day by day where the share price was going to be. Three things probably we would point to that we've heard a bit from a roadshow and investor standpoint. First, data centers.
There was quite a lot of information. We talked today about the fact that we remain a very strong player, really the market leader in data center. There has been a lot of different viewpoints in the market about where that market is going in the future, all positive. There is a big difference between growth rates of, let's say, low double digit and super high double digit. When things came out in the market like DeepSeek, some rumors about Microsoft, there has been a lot of impact in the share price, not just our share price, but the data center-related players associated with this. The second one is associated with tariffs, both some uncertainty around the impact to us on tariffs. We actually clarified that, but I think there is still some nervousness.
Secondly, more importantly, what does the uncertainty that all of this geopolitics mean to any company, Schneider included. That is probably another. The third one relates actually to your final question about organic versus inorganic. Actually, one of the key reasons we give the results organic is to put them in constant currency. When we spoke to the Q1, between the Q1 and now, tied, I think, to the U.S. Administration Policy, there has been a big degradation of the U.S. dollar. We have a lot of business in dollars. In euros, our earnings come down. FX or Foreign Exchange is also impacting us. It is not necessarily a bad thing. We are happy we have that geographical diversity, but that is something that the investors certainly noticed in the Q1 for us. Those are the three things we would point to.
Unfortunately, we can't day by day predict the stock price exactly. Again, I think we still feel comfortable with the guidance that we've given. We feel very confident in the 2025 guidance. 7%-10%, nothing to feel bad about, in fact, to feel quite good about. Hopefully, you feel good about the future prospects for the company and for the share price.
[Foreign language ]
Greetings, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your presentation. I have a question about artificial intelligence. You talked about the opportunities this new technology offers and significant growth in terms of energy consumption. I read somewhere that international organizations said that by 2030, data centers would be consuming as much energy as the whole of Japan. I might be wrong there, but I think that's what I read. Of course, huge opportunities with customers who make chips.
For the business, you were talking about an improvement in the EBITDA margin. Do you think AI will generate more efficiency in work? Will there be breakthrough innovations that will change the economic model? My second question is that we saw that over the past three months, there have been changes of leadership in a number of countries, the manner in which the world, with effects on how the world might turn towards renewables, and it creates a lot of volatility for supply with these new taxes. Will that require a reorganization of production? I'll answer the first part of your question about AI. AI, of course, consumes energy. When you look at the consumption of data centers, the place where AI actually happens, and in fact, AI is just part of that.
In fact, data centers is only 0.4% of the world's electricity consumption. It is only that. If you apply AI to highly inefficient buildings, even if they are heated with fossil fuel or electricity, if you have things that switch off automatically, if the heating system is regulated, if you do the same thing in industry, and Schneider can prove it, you can generate savings of up to 30%. When you look at the additional cost in terms of energy of AI and the potential gain, which is around 20%, there is no comparison. The answer to your question is that we need to make sure that AI should be used to manage things around us more efficiently, rather than generating fake news or fake photographs. In fact, 99% of what is done with AI is not dedicated to resource efficiency.
Of course, the opportunities and impact of AI. It is a dual opportunity. Of course, for us, more data, more data centers means more business for Schneider Electric. Your question is a very good one. Does that create more energy consumption in the world? In fact, AI technologies help us to accelerate the energy efficiency of all our customers. As Jean-Pascal and I said many times today, electrification is the number one pillar of energy efficiency. Without digitalization, nothing can happen. If you look at the digital technologies that existed until now, say in the past 10, 15 years, it was not fully efficient. An example, when we market equipment where you can access the data, we are implementing that. When we implement AI technologies in these solutions, we can significantly cut our customers' energy consumption. We used to have a services contract.
They would call someone in a call center who would analyze things. Now we can just process that data much faster with historical data. That really helps to improve energy efficiency for our customers. Infrastructure to support the data centers, that's, of course, a key segment for Schneider Electric, but also an amplification of all Schneider Electric solutions. As for the second part of your question, I showed a slide that showed that we wanted to see 90% of our supply chain or procurement to be based in each part of the world to allow us to be very resilient in the face of phenomena such as the one you're talking about. Of course, when the tariffs are more than 100%, there will be an impact.
What we communicated about in our quarterly results with Hilary is that we were looking at the situation very carefully to preserve our operating margin. We would work on the pricing in the regions concerned. In the medium term, we need to continue to have that regionalization strategy, what we call this multi-hub strategy, where we market, manufacture, work with partners, suppliers, and R&D regionally. That makes us much more agile in the face of these geopolitical phenomena. Number four.
Hello to all, and congratulations for this presentation, which conveys a lot of trust and is of top quality. My daughter is studying engineering in Phoenix, in the U.S. Elizabeth Bourne said that there would be some new quotas to help young ladies access engineering schools. This is quite a male-oriented industry with Schneider. What is your policy for the development of female talents? Thank you for your answer.
[Foreign language] Schneider Electric.
First of all, part of the answer is in my presentation. If you look at the executive committee, a large part is made up of women. It says a lot about diversity. To have 41% women at the head of the company is not something that happens overnight. Hilary is an example. There are people who joined Schneider many years ago and developed their careers over the years. This diversity is very important for us, as all forms of diversity are. This diversity makes us stronger, more innovative, and this is shown in our results. We are very committed to this diversity. We prove it at the top of the company, but we want it to take place at every level of management at Schneider.
You can count on me to be very proactive in this area. We want to encourage women to embark on technical careers. Very few students. This is probably due to the whole education sector. Also, it's really at the heart of competitiveness in the country. I will take two last questions, and then we'll have to end the Q&A session. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I have questions and a few comments to make. Peter Herweck, the CEO, left. We won't forget him too quickly. He was recruited just a few months ago, and we would like to thank him for his efforts. We welcome Olivier Blum, the new CEO. We realize that it's difficult to succeed with Mr. Lachmann, Mr. Tricoire.
Even if we are proud of having a new CEO that comes from the company, is it necessary to be French, to have gone to a French management school, business school, or engineering school? What would the message you would convey to young international managers within the Schneider Group? Will you be able to impose the French language as the official working language within Schneider? After I have moved to Hong Kong and have headquarters in the Middle East, what will the next center for Schneider be? Will it be in Seattle or Texas? With these moves, I would be interested in knowing what will be the next center of interest in the world. In America, with Trump, is CSR still a key criteria when addressing call for tenders? Congratulate your CFO for having presented the financial report in French.
We'd like to thank the CFO for having presented this report in the French language. Bravo.
We hope to hear the beginning of your speech in French by announcing, for example, the amount of the salary in French. [Foreign language ]
Concerning the nationality of the CEO of Schneider Electric, it's not a question of culture in different countries. The promotion within Schneider Electric, whether it be at the head of the company, and we talked about gender equality, in that area too, it's always a question of merit. That is the deciding factor for those who will take positions of responsibility. The board shows diversity, and it is the board that has the decisions to make, and there's no national bias. When somebody doesn't speak the language that is used in the room, we switch to English. If we're in China, somebody who doesn't understand Chinese, we speak in English.
It's the same in France. It's a rule that we have applied for a long time now. There are more people who speak English in the world than French. I regret it, but I also have a guiding principle. When I speak English, I always speak English with a strong French accent, and I insist on that. For the centers of development, when we set up in 2011 the multi-hub approach, which was a great success story, we have a large proportion of our revenue in North America and Asia. At that time, we had very little revenue in Asia. The basic principle is to be closer to our customer. We are not just in one place. They're not just people in Hong Kong. They're people in the U.S., people in Dubai. As a result, you have the performance that we have.
This is a company that is extremely global and the most global company within the CAC 40 companies. And the people who join Schneider can aspire to leading roles. Now, why do we speak French? Fifty years ago, we were a solely French company. But in 10 or 20 years, this proportion of French speakers will change. One last question concerning CSR and call for tenders in the U.S. The only change that's been has been for government contracts. When you work with the federal states, there are criteria that have changed when it comes to bidding for contracts. But 80% of what we do in the states, nothing has changed in that regard. We'll take a last question because we have no more time. At the back of the hall, please. You had a question? No. Don't care. I'll take this question. I beg your pardon.
Mr. Chairman, a member of the shareholder advisory board and represent the association of individual shareholders. Two brief questions. First observation. I'd like to thank you for the importance you give to the advisory committee, shareholders' advisory committee. I thank you for this. Second comment. We often here talk about finance in France in terms of amount of debt and amount of tax paid. I'd like to thank you for the positive and encouraging news you gave us in terms of dividend payout and prospects. Second question. The choice of the room, is it due to the fact that we are in the city of the town of Mr. Saint-Amédie, who is very adept in Oriental languages? Thank you for your approach to AI and mobility within the company.
Does AI help you in making decisions as to pointing employees to different positions in the world and job roles in the world? You talked about Notre-Dame Cathedral. I congratulate you for this project. Are you going to renew this kind of project in other French cathedrals or even cathedrals in other countries in the world? The only answer they will not give you concerning this venue. It was the only venue that is available. We are not in the Far East here, but in the Far West. I would like to insist or respond to the second question. Excellent question. Jean-Pascal, when I was in charge of HR, we launched a unique initiative which is called OTM in English. This was how could we open our talent pool globally. Simple, when you are a global company such as ours, a large company, you try to generate mobility.
It is very difficult because the way of managing mobility is you talk with your boss, you talk with your HR manager, and you try and find opportunities. It was quite simple. We realized that it was easier for our employees to find opportunities outside the company than inside the company. We decided to create this technological platform with a partner who made it possible to connect our employees with the opportunities within the company. It is not necessarily artificial intelligence that enables you to do that. It is more a question of using algorithms that enable you to find the right match between the employee and the job roles or positions. Your last question, as we explained in the video, each time there are major catastrophes in the world, Schneider Electric is proud to use its solutions.
We hope not all cathedrals will burn down for us to be called to intervene, but we will certainly be glad to work on heritage buildings everywhere. Thank you very much for this last question. Thank you for all of your questions. It's really wonderful to have so much interaction, so much interest during these shareholder meetings. If nobody has any other questions, I will hand the floor over to the presentation of the resolutions we'll vote for. It's an important moment in this shareholders' meeting, so I'll ask you to stay till the end of the voting sequence, and we will offer you a thermos bottle that will be given to you when you hand in your voting device.
Ségolène, take the floor.
Before proceeding to the vote, we note the status of the definitive quorum. The shareholders present or represented hold 394,391,266 shares, which is 70.21% of the share capital. Before voting, we invite you to watch and listen to the very short film explaining how to use the electronic box in your hands. This is a personal voting box. The number of shares you hold is represented on the box. You just see it on the screen.
Just use one of the three buttons: green, yellow, or red. Green is for yes, yellow for abstention, and red is against. After reading of each resolution, you can immediately vote, and we will say the vote is open. At that moment, you can see on your screen one rectangle indicating the countdown of the number of seconds you have to vote. When this countdown is finished, it will be said that the vote is closed and you will no longer vote.
The processing of votes is then in time, and the result appears just after the vote. One last element. Please switch off your mobile phones during the vote and give the boxes back when you leave the room. I just wanted to remind you to validate the choice within 10 seconds. Insofar as all the shareholders have been able to familiarize themselves with the draft resolutions and the documents enabling them to cast an informed vote, I will not read the full text of resolutions. 1st resolution: Approval of statutory financial statements for 2024 fiscal year. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 2nd resolution: Approval of the consolidated financial statements for 2024 fiscal year. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 3rd resolution: Appropriation of profit for the fiscal year and setting the dividend. The vote is open.
The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 4th resolution: Approval of regulated agreements governed by IL 22538 and following of the French commercial code. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. 5tg resolution: Approval of the information of the directors and corporate officers' compensation paid or granted for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, mentioned Article 22109 of the French commercial code. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is adopted. 6th resolution: Approval of the components of the total compensation and benefits of all types paid in 2024 or awarded in respect of the said fiscal year to Mr. Olivier Blum in his capacity of Chief Executive Officer. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted.
7th resolution: Approval of the components of the total compensation and benefits of all types in 2024 or awarded in respect of the said fiscal year to Mr. Peter Herweck in his capacity of CEO. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 8th resolution: Approval of the components of the total compensation and benefit of all types paid during 2024 or awarded in respect of the said fiscal year to Mr. Jean-Pascal Tricoire in his capacity as Chairman of the Board. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 9th resolution: Approval of the compensation policy of the CEO. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 10th resolution: Approval of the compensation policy for the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The vote is open. This vote is closed. This resolution is adopted.
11th resolution: Approval of the directors' compensation policy. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 12th resolution: Renewal of the term of office of Mr. Jean-Pascal Tricoire. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 13th resolution: Renewal of the term of office of Mrs. Anna Ohlsson-Leijon. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 14th resolution: Ratification of the cooptation of Mrs. Clotilde Delbos as a director. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 15th resolution: Appointment of Mrs. Laura Ding as director representing the employee shareholders. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. Resolution A: Appointment of Mr. Alban de Boulencourt as director representing the employee shareholders. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is rejected. Resolution B: Appointment of Mr. François Durif as director representing the employee shareholders.
The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is rejected. Resolution C: Appointment of Venkat Karimela as director representing the employee shareholders. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is rejected. Resolution D: Appointment of Mr. Gérard Le Goulvelec as director representing the employee shareholders. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is rejected. Resolution E: Appointment of Mrs. Amandine Petitdemange as director representing the employee shareholders. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is rejected. Resolution E: Authorization granted to the board of directors to buy back company shares. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted.
17th resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the capital by issuing in ordinary shares or securities giving access to share capital of the company with shareholders' preferential subscription right. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 18th resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the capital by issuing ordinary shares or securities giving access to share capital of the company without shareholders' preferential subscription right through a public offering other than those referred in Article L411-21 of the French monetary and financial code. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted.
19th resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the capital by issuing ordinary shares or securities giving access to share capital of the company without shareholders' preferential subscription right through an offering in accordance with Article 41121 of the French monetary and financial code. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 20th resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the number of shares to be issued in the event of a capital increase with or without shareholders' preferential subscription right. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 21st resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the capital by issuing ordinary shares or securities giving access to share capital of the company without shareholders' preferential subscription right in consideration for contributions in kind to the company.
The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 22nd resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the capital by issuing ordinary shares or securities giving access to share capital of the company without shareholders' preferential subscription right reserved for a category of person. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 23rd resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the capital by issuing ordinary shares or securities giving access to share capital of the company without shareholders' preferential subscription right reserved to one or more named person. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 24th resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the capital by capitalizing additional paid-in capital reserves, earnings, or other. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted.
25th resolution: Authorization granted to the board of directors to freely allocate shares to the employees or category of employees and all the corporate officers of the company or companies affiliated therewith as part of the long-term incentive plan up to a limit of 2% of the share capital. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 26th resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to undertake capital increase reserved for participants in a company saving plan without shareholders' preferential subscription right. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted.
27th resolution: Delegation of authority to the board of directors to undertake capital increases reserved for employees or certain non-French subsidiaries of the group directly or via entities acting to offer those employees benefit comparable to those offered to the participants in a company savings plan without shareholders' preferential subscription right. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 28th resolution: Authorization of the board of directors to cancel shares of the company bought back by the company under the share buyback program. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. 29th resolution: Amendment of Article 11.3 of the Articles of Association relating to the procedures of replacing the director representing employee shareholders. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted.
30th resolution: Amendment of Article 14.3 of the Articles of Association relating to the procedures of deliberation for the board of directors. The vote is open. The vote is closed. This resolution is adopted. Thirty-first resolution: Powers for formalities. The vote is open. The vote is closed, and this lst resolution is adopted. Jean-Pascal, over to you.
[Unknown Speaker]
Thank you very much. Thank you all for taking part in this shareholders' meeting. We very much appreciated the Q&A session and the discussions. Before concluding, the next shareholders' meeting will take place on the 7th of May 2026, and we hope that you will come, and we will have a drink all together and enjoy your evening. Bye-bye. Thank you.