Veolia Environnement SA (EPA:VIE)

AGM 2021

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Apr 22, 2021

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow shareholders, good afternoon to you all. Due to the health measures imposed in the context of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and in accordance with the measures adopted by the French government, we have been obliged, as was the case last year, to hold this Veolia shareholders meeting behind closed doors, that is to say, without the presence or any of the shareholders or any other participants. This is to protect the health and safety of our shareholders, our employees and our service providers. I am very grateful to the shareholders who have voted remotely and to those who have joined us online this afternoon to follow this shareholders' meeting. I would also remind you that you can continue to put your questions to us using the email address provided. We will answer as many as we can in our Q and A session. Attending the meeting with me are Mrs. Marie Oranion, Senior Director and Chairwoman of the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors. Mr. Claude Lerouell, Chief Financial Officer Mr. Olivier Brus, Director of Strategy and Innovation Mr. Helmut de Pajas Sichvald, General Counsel and Secretary of the Board of Directors and Estelle Bratianov, Chief Operations Officer, who will join us for the question and answer session. I propose to begin straight away by asking mister Helman Repatha Sichuan to explain the legal formalities for the opening of this meeting. With pleasure, mister Chan. Ladies, gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. As usual, I shall try to keep the opening formalities of this general shareholders meeting chaired by Mr. Antoine Freud, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company, to a few minutes. The combined shareholders the combined general shareholders meeting has been convened on this day, 04/22/2021, behind closed doors in accordance with article 22 of our articles of association and pursuant to article four of ordinance number twenty twenty three hundred and twenty one, adopting the rules of formal meetings and deliberations by general meetings and governing bodies of legal persons and entities without legal personality under a private law because of the COVID nineteen epidemic as extended by decree number twenty twenty one two fifty five. By notice of meeting published in the gadget of statutory legal notices on 03/17/2021, by notice of meeting published in the gadget of statutory legal notices on 04/02/2021, and also by letters sent to registered shareholders. I confirm that the following documents required by law for the proper conduct of this general meeting have been filed and made available. A copy of the articles of association, a copy of the gadgets containing the notice of meeting, a copy of the notice of meeting sent to registered shareholders and auditors. The meeting attendance sheet certified by the officers. The level of participation will be given just before voting on the resolutions. The statement of a postal vote and and shareholder proxies received by the company, the various reports to shareholders, and a copy of documents sent or made available to shareholders at the registered office of the company. The documents required by law have been made available within the prescribed time mainly on the company's website in the section dedicated to these shareholders to this general shareholders meeting, which will therefore dispense with reading all the reports. I shall now read out the agenda for this general shareholders meeting. First, with regard to the resolutions forming the ordinary business of the general shareholders Meeting, Resolution one to 16 cover respectively the approval of the company financial statements of fiscal year twenty twenty, Resolution one. Approval of the consolidated financial statements for fiscal year twenty twenty, Resolution two. Approval of the expenses and charges referred to in article 39.4 of the general tax code, resolution three, appropriation of the net income for fiscal year twenty twenty and payment of the dividend, resolution four, approval of a regulated agreement and commitments for the resolution five, renewal of the term of Caisse des depot and consignation as director represented by Mr. Olivier Marois, resolution six, Renewal of the term of miss Marion Guillaume as director, resolution seven. Appointment of mister Pierre Andre de Chendal as director, resolution eight. Approval of the of the internal economic performance criteria linked to the vesting of performance shares granted to the chairman and chief executive officer under plan number one granted by the board of directors on 05/02/2018, resolution nine. Approval of the amendment of the internal economic performance criteria linked to the vesting of performance shares granted to the chairman and chief executive officer under plan number two granted by the board of directors on April 2019 resolution number 10 Approval of the amendment of the internal economic performance criteria linked to the vesting of performance shares granted to the chairman and chief executive officer under plan number three granted by the board of directors on 05/05/2020, resolution number 11. Vote on the compensation paid during fiscal year 2020 or awarded in respect of the same fiscal year to mister Otten Favre as chairman and chief executive officer resolution 12. Vote on the information related to the 2020 compensation of directors excluding, the chairman and chief executive officer as mentioned in article l twenty two ten nine one of the French commercial code resolution 13. Vote on the chairman and chief executive officer's compensation policy in respect of fiscal year twenty twenty one resolution 14. Vote on the director's compensation policy excluding the chairman and chief executive officer in respect of finance of fiscal year 2021, resolution 15, and finally, authorization to be given to the board of directors to deal in the company's shares, resolution 16. Next, turning to the resolutions forming the extraordinary business of the general shareholders meeting. Firstly, in resolution 17 to 19, you are asked to delegate the necessary authority to the board of directors in the context of VELS takeover of the force to increase the share capital by issuing shares and or securities giving access immediately or at a later date to share capital with preferential subscription rights resolution 17. Issuing shares and or securities given access immediately or at a later date to share capital without preferential subscription rights by public offering the context of the company stakeholder, takeover offer for SUEZ resolution 18. Resolution 19 is intended to allow an increase in the number of shares to be issued in the event of a share capital increase with or without preferential subscription rights in terms of resolutions seventeen and eighteen. Furthermore, under resolutions 20 to 22, you are requested to delegate the necessary authority to the board of directors to increase the share capital by issuing shares and or securities giving access to share capital and reserved for members of company savings plans with preferential subscription rights in favor of the latter, Resolution 20. Increase the share capital by issuing shares reserved for certain categories of persons without preferential rights for the benefit of the latter in the context of the implementation of employee share ownership plans. Resolution 21. Make free elements of shares already in issue or to be issued to group employees and corporate offices of the company or some of them with an implied waiver of the shareholders' preferential subscription rights, resolution 22. Resolution twenty three six to amend the articles of association to allow the appointment of a director to represent employee shareholders. Resolution 24 enables the articles of association to be harmonized with legal and regulatory provisions in force. And finally, with regards to the resolution forming the ordinary and extraordinary business of the general shareholders meeting, the purpose of the resolution 25 is to delegate powers to carry out legal formalities. Turning now to the appointment of officers, for the general shareholders meeting. In accordance with the statutory and legal requirements, I call upon the following to act as scrutineers. A representative appointed by the and a representative appointed by the classic Sequoia collective employee share ownership plan, Sequoia classic FCBE, one of the ideal employee share, ownership funds. These two shareholders present who were appointed from among the 10 shareholders with the greatest number of voting rights have agreed to act as scrutiny. With the agreement of the chairman and previous scrutiny, I shall act as secretary to the officers of the general shareholders meeting. I should like to point out that the proceedings of this meeting are being recorded and the video is streamed live on the company's website. In accordance with the law, combined general shareholders meeting is duly constituted when members present and represented are the first notice of meeting for the approval of the resolutions to be adopted in extraordinary form hold at least a quarter of the voting shares. That is to say, $141,516,607.02 shares. And shareholders represented all who have voted by post in total total hold a greater number of votes than this number after taking account taking account of possible double voting rights. The combined general shareholders meeting is duly constituted and can validly deliberate on both the general resolutions forming the business of an ordinary general meeting and of an extraordinary general meeting. Thank you for your attention. And I now hand over to mister Poul LaRouette to present the the 2020 Annual Financial Statements. Good General afternoon, you for ladies and gentlemen. Veolia's financial performance in 2020 was obviously marked by the health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But the group has been remarkably resilient due to the very nature of its activities, the provision of essential clean water and heating services, but also thanks to the speed and effectiveness of the measures we put in place. First of all, we very quickly put in place all the conditions to allow employees to feel safer at work than anywhere else and decided on a series of coherent and complementary measures, including doubling our savings program in 2020 to €550,000,000. It enabled us to bounce back very quickly. As a result, from the third quarter, we regained the level of activity for 2019 and resumed our growth in the fourth quarter ahead of our target. What's more, we've maintained all the priorities of the impact 2023 strategic plan and in particular, our investments in growth and development. At the same time, as you know, we embarked on the most significant project for Veolia in thirty years. On the October 6, we bought 29.9% of the share capital of Suez from ENGIE at €18 a share. The aim was to buy the whole company and become the world champion of ecological transformation. Our takeover offer was lodged with the financial markets regulator on February 8. Finally, despite the crisis, our group's balance sheet remains very solid with a decrease in net financial debt in 2020 excluding net financial acquisitions. In such exceptional circumstances, the financial statements for fiscal year twenty twenty speak to the strong resilience of the company, its responsiveness, and its ability to bounce back. At €26,000,000,000, our revenue has remained at a high level with a return to growth in the fourth quarter of point 9% at constant exchange rates. Our EBITDA reached to 3,641 million or €3,641,000,000, and that is higher than the target we set ourselves at the start of the pandemic and post remarkable growth of 4.2% in the fourth quarter. With savings of €550,000,000, they are much higher than the original target of 250,000,000 that we set ourselves. At €415,000,000, current net income group share remains largely positive despite the scale of the recession that has hit most countries in the world. And that is thanks to the strong rebound in the second quarter. And lastly, our operations remain highly cash generative. We have net free cash flow of $5.00 €7,000,000 also above our target. Let's now look at the fourth quarter figures in more detail on a geography by geography breakdown. Although the second wave of the epidemic affected tertiary and commercial waste activity, where volumes were slightly lower than in 2019, The rebound that we've had in the third quarter was confirmed in the fourth quarter with revenue growth of 0.9%. In geographies of France and Europe excluding France, we saw the renewed growth from the third quarter of the year. France posted growth of 2.5% in water as in waste. The rest of Europe rebounded strongly by 5.3%, especially in Central Europe and that is thanks to good pricing levels and the integration of new assets. In the final quarter, group operations in the rest of the world almost recovered their level activity from 2019 and growth in China rose above 4%. After rebounding the third quarter, especially in construction, global activities stabilized in the last quarter. And lastly, thanks to the efficiency and adaptation measures that we implemented, EBITDA in the fourth quarter increased by 4.2%. And that demonstrates the return of our operational leverage. For the year as a whole, group revenue was down by only 2.5%. Now let's try and break this down by geography for the year as a whole. In France, activity recorded a decline of 3.9%. Water was 2.2% lower. As for waste, waste posted a drop of 5.9%, but it returned to growth in the second half of the year. Ex Europe, excluding France, showed good resistance to the crisis, growing point 4% with a fourth quarter rise of 5.3%. For the rest of the world, it was down by 1.7% at constant scope and exchange rates, but returned to twenty nineteen level of business in the fourth quarter. And lastly, global activities were down by 5.3% at constant exchange rates and stable in the fourth quarter. Let's now look at the pattern of revenue by business. At constant exchange rates, water is slightly lower, falling by 1% with stable volumes and prices rising 0.7%, but with works activity being temporarily penalized by health measures in the second half. Waste declined 3.2% with volumes down by 5.2% and prices rising 2%. Energy fell 5.8, but only by 2% on a like for like basis after the disposal of the heating networks in The United States end twenty nineteen. Let's now move on to EBITDA. Overall, the group's EBITDA fell 8% in 2020 at constant exchange rates and 7.1 at constant scope and exchange rates. This is mainly as a result of the decline in activity related to the health crisis whose impact was reduced thanks to the specific cost saving plan, Recover and Adapt. These adaptation measures and also the rebound in our business from the third quarter enabled EBITDA, as I just mentioned, to grow again in the fourth quarter by more than 4%. With regard to cost savings, the group doubled its original target and achieved 550,000,000 in savings in 2020, of which $278,000,000 came from the ongoing efficiency program and $272,000,000 came from specific savings that were implemented in response to the crisis, again, as part of the recover and adapt plan. So this plan included a number of cyclical savings related to purchases, adjustment to maintenance due to reduced activity, overheads, events held remotely, for example, and bringing in house services normally that were subcontracted. But we also have developed new efficiency levers. In particular, we accelerated our digital road map. And therefore, we shall be able to make additional savings in 2021 of about €100,000,000. And this again from the recover and adapt plan. As I was saying to you at the beginning, our operations remain strongly cash generative. We therefore generated net free cash flow of 507,000,000, which is above our target. Thanks to controlled investments, two point one five one billion while maintaining growth investments up strongly by 20% in 2020 to 435,000,000, and this safeguards the group's future growth. But also, thanks to further improvement in working capital requirements, which are down 233,000,000, all thanks to a very strict collection policy. Net financial debt stood at 13,217,000,000.000. In 2019, net financial debt benefited from the proceeds of sale of the heating networks in The United States, and that was to the tune of $1,250,000,000. In 2020, the group reinvested €1,476,000,000 in targeted acquisitions and financed the acquisition of 29.9% of the capital of Suez with debt to the tune of 1,453,000,000.000 with debt. So financial leverage was 3.2 times as of September 31, excluding the acquisition of 29.9% cash of Swiss. Excluding acquisitions in 2020, net financial debt declined by $392,000,000 to €10,288,000,000. Let us now move on to dividends. In view of the exceptional circumstances last year, the dividend has been reduced to 15¢ euro cents per share. This year, given Veolia's strong recovery since the second half and the prospects for strong earnings growth in 2021, We propose that this general shareholders meeting vote on an increase in the dividend to €70 cents. And lastly, the objective for 2021 is to resume our precrisis dividend policy. To be clear, what I mean by this is that we will have a distribution level equivalent to what we experienced previously, so between 7075% of current net income. In 2020, Veolia continued to improve its nonfinancial, environmental, and societal performance for all stakeholders. On four particularly important nonfinancial objectives, we have customer satisfaction, climate, employee engagement, and access to essential services. For these four areas, Veolia made significant progress in 2020 despite the health crisis. For example, in the fight against climate change, under which Veolia has committed to eliminating coal from its energy mix by 2030, And that will be for Europe. We have €400,000,000 being invested to be made by 2023. On top of that, 104,000,000 has already been invested by the 2020. The group's ESG performance also improved further in 2020. In particular, we had great success in terms of nonfinancial ratings such as, for example, the FTSE4Good index in which Violi retains its number one position in water utilities and is top 5% of the sector, and that is out of 76 companies that were selected for the rating. Let's now move on to objectives for 2021. Despite the ongoing health crisis in the first part of the year, Veolia should make more than more than make up for the adverse effects of 2020 and expects to achieve strong growth in results. With revenue above 2019 levels, with cost savings of €350,000,000, 250,000,000 under the ongoing efficiency plan, and €100,000,000 of additional savings under the recover and adapt plan. There's EBITDA above €4,000,000,000. In other words, growth of more than 10% compared to 2020. Net financial debt will be brought below 12,000,000,000 by the end of 2021 and a net debt to a EBITDA ratio below three. Objective returning to the pre crisis dividend policy in 2021. The coronavirus crisis has not changed our strategic policies in any way. On the contrary, it has reinforced the relevance of our choices, which proved to be particularly sound since the activities we chose to develop held up very well. And some of them, such as hazardous waste, even continued to grow through 2020. On this slide, you will see an overview of our main activities by business segment, water, energy, waste, and of our major challenges organized in order of strategic relevance and what we have and what we will accelerate or optimize or conversely reduce. As I said, we continue to invest in our growth areas in 2020 and that despite the constraints imposed upon us by the crisis. So that our main projects have not been delayed, whether they be in hazardous waste, recycling of plastics, or energy transition investments. Is also in an ideal position to benefit from stimulus plans as have been seen in a number of countries that are key to ecological transformation. Our strategic plan is therefore more relevant than ever. The crisis will simply have shifted the financial objectives by a year. So finally, on our forthcoming tie up with Suez, it will enable us to strengthen and accelerate its implementation. I'll end with our stock market performance. As you will recall, in the wake of the excellent performance in 2019, up 32%, Veolia share rose at the beginning of 2020 in anticipation of the presentation of impact 2022, which was our new strategic program. Then at the onset of the crisis, after a very sharp fall in line with the CAC 40, our share price regained ground after publication of the first half results and full year outlooks, which reassured markets. Lastly, the market broadly welcomed the announcement of the tie up with Suez and was fully reassured earlier this year by the group's commitment to make an offer, and then when it was submitted on the February 8. So in 2020, Violi's share price fell by 15.6%. And that said, since the 01/01/2020, Violio's share price is up 11% compared with 10% increase for the CAC 400% for the utilities index, which is our benchmark for the sector. And over a rolling year, the share price has recovered by 17%. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, due to this meeting being held behind closed doors, the principal and deputy statutory auditors, the firms KPMG and asked me to report to you on their work in fiscal year twenty twenty and to present you with the reports that they prepared for you concerning today's extraordinary and ordinary shareholders general meeting. Following the usual practice of such meetings, I would suggest that I summarize their reports on the company and consolidated financial statements, regulated agreements and commitments, the certificate on the statement of nonfinancial performance, and their reports on capital transactions. The reports on the company and consolidated financial statements express their opinion and the basis of their opinion, and in particular, the audit risks identified referred to as key audit matters and how they address those matters. This information is detailed on pages four thirty eight to four forty one of their report, and that's a report on consolidated financial statements, and on pages four eighty four to four eighty six of their report on the company financial statements. These reports also give details on their responsibilities relating to the orders of the financial statements of the responsibilities of the management and of persons constituting the governance of the company, of the information that they have presented in a specific report to the audit committee and of other legal and regulatory information, including the early application by the company of European regulation number two zero one nine slash eight one five relating to the presentation of company and consolidated financial statements in a single electronic reporting format. They remind you as well that the consolidated financial statements were prepared in accordance with the IFRS adopted by the European Union. The company financial statements, on the other hand, have continued to be prepared according to French accounting principles. In accordance with French orders and principles and standards, the purpose of their mission is to give you reasonable assurance that the company and consolidated financial statements taken as a whole do not contain any material misstatements and that the accounting methods are appropriate, that the estimates of risks made by management are reasonable and that the laws and regulations in force have been observed. Their approach is suitable for the group's activities and different businesses. They endeavored to check both day to day operations and specific events, and they carried out their procedures in accordance with professional standards applicable in France. In 2020, the key audit matters that they identified relating to the risks of material misstatements having regard, one, to their relative influence of the accounts, two, to the complexity of their assessment, and, three, to the importance of the judgment exercised to evaluate them. Relate, a, in case of the consolidated financial statements, to the goodwill impairment tests of cash generating units, Mexico, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latin America, and Chinese concessions. Assessment of recoverable values of contracts, intangible, tangible, and financial operating assets, potential liabilities arising from litigation in The United States with Flint, K plus S Potash in Romania and Lithuania. B, and in the case of the company financial statements, the valuation of equity interests and related receivables. They also carried out the specific verifications provided by law and checked the board's management report, paying particular attention to the accuracy of the info of the financial accounting information that it contains, of the information relating to the compensation and benefits paid to corporate offices, and of the information concerning corporate governance. In conclusion, they state that they have expressed an unqualified opinion on the company financial statements of Veolia Environment S. A. And on the consolidated financial statements of the Veolia Andreanemont Group. The report on regulated agreements and commitments is reproduced on pages one eighty one to one eighty two of the universal registration document for 2020. It is the responsibility of the statutory auditors to inform you of the principal terms and conditions of those regulated agreements and commitments brought to their attention or or which they may have discovered in the course of their work, as well as the reasons justifying that such agreements and commitments are in the company's interest without having to express an opinion on their usefulness or appropriateness. They inform you on one hand that they were advised of an agreement authorized and concluded during the year between the company and the association to an amount of €300,000. On the other hand, that the agreements or commitments already approved and which continue to be performed during the fiscal year are, on one hand, agreements relating to the license of the Violier brand and to payment for guarantees issued for the benefit of group subsidiaries and, on the other hand, an agreement concerning the lease of the group's registered office. Let us now move on to the report of the independent third party on the consolidated statement of nonfinancial performance. Information relating to the presentation of the group's business model, its principal nonfinancial risks, how the group address those risks, and the outcomes of the policies implemented, as summarized, in particular by means of performance indicators, are the best sub are the subject of reports from the statutory auditors appointed as an independent third party. You will find this report on pages 288 to two ninety of the universal registration document. I would remind you that by law, the independent third party must give a reasoned opinion expressing a limited assurance conclusion on the compliance of the statement of the board of directors with the provisions of the commercial code, the fairness of the information including key performance indicators relating to the results and the actions taken to address the company's principled nonfinancial risks. At the group's request, the independent third party has also reached a conclusion on certain information identified by a tick mark in chapter four entitled corporate social responsibility. And that chapter is the chapter four of the universal registration document. The indicators that were checked this year include indicators that are on environmental, social, societal, commercial, and multifaceted performance indicators. And some of them to a level of limited assurance, others to a level of reasonable assurance. With regard to the reasoned opinion on the scope of their work, they indicate that they did not find any material misstatement liable to call into question the compliance of the consolidated nonfinancial performance statement with the applicable regulatory provisions. And that taken as a whole, the information was provided fairly in accordance with the guidelines. With regards to reasonable assurance conclusion, they inform you that the selected information was prepared in all significant aspects in accordance with the guidelines. Let us now move lastly on to reports on capital transactions. In respect of the extraordinary business of the meeting, the statutory auditors have prepared four reports concerning proposed transactions affecting the company's share capital. These reports detail the work done regarding the delegation of authority, including authority to sub delegate, to issue shares and or securities giving access to share capital with or without preferential subscription rights as provided by resolutions 17 to 19. The issue of shares or negotiable securities giving access to share capital reserved for the members of company savings plans without preferential subscription rights and that is subject of resolution 20. The issue of shares or negotiable securities reserved for certain categories of persons without preferential subscription rights in the context of employee share ownership plans in accordance with resolution 21. The authorization to be granted by the meeting to grant existing or newly issued free shares to group employees or corporate offices as proposed in resolution 22. The statutory auditors recall that in the case of all these transactions, they have carried out their work in accordance with the professional guidance issued by the French national auditing body. That the purpose of these resolutions is to ask you to delegate to the board your authority or competence to decide upon or carry out such transactions. Resolutions eighteen twenty, 21, and 22 propose to cancel your preferential subscription right, and resolution 19 delegates your authority in the context of a capital increase with or without that right. The statutory auditors do not have any observations to make on these various transactions on the understanding that in the case of transactions without preferential subscription rights where your authority is delegated to the board of directors, they will have to prepare an additional report when the delegated authority is used. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the communication from the statutory auditors with respect to today's shareholders meeting. I would now like to hand over to Olivier Brussel for a presentation on multifaceted performance. Good morning, everyone. In 2019, Veolia established its purpose. It describes its corporate project and gives meaning to everything its employees do. Veolia's purpose is based on the concepts of usefulness and value creation for all its stakeholders. And it is the compass that guides the group in the actions it takes for the long term. Based on this new demanding corporate vision, we seek to make Veolia ever stronger, more competitive, more distinctive, and therefore more prosperous over time. The COVID nineteen health crisis, the social and economic crisis that it has caused, and the environmental crisis that we are facing have simply confirmed the necessity, dare I say even the urgency, for businesses to profoundly rethink their place in society. And against this background, Violi is committed to being equally attentive and maintaining the same high standards for all its stakeholders. No longer assessing its actions merely on the basis of economic and financial performance, but also on environmental, commercial, human resources, and social performance. At Veolia, we call this multifaceted performance, as symbolized on your screen right now by this wheel whose various different colored segments represent the various dimensions of performance. In each and every one of its actions, the group aims for the best balance between these dimensions. And it is precisely in order to achieve this balance of impact between our stakeholders that Veolia has publicly committed as part of its impact 2323 strategic program presented last year to 18 priority goals that you can see here in this wheel. And I will now shortly give you a progress report on the 2020 update. I would like to just say where we are in terms of implementing multifaceted performance within the group because this approach is truly and generally transforming and affecting all levels of business. First, since they were created, Veolia's purpose and multifaceted performance have been supported and directed at the highest level. A coordination and governance mechanism was put in place to assist the whole group in this process. The board of directors supervises its proper implementation while the executive committee monitors, assesses progress and difficulties encountered and decides upon new actions that need to be taken. A purpose steering committee chaired by Antoine Ferrero coordinates those involved internally and drives the process within the group. And last but not least, a committee of independent experts known as the critical friends challenges the group's initiatives and helps it to stay on course. A second key issue is that of internal appropriation. Our priority is to involve all our employees, even at the most local level, by making them aware of the process and by helping managers not only draw up action plans to enable us to achieve the 18 goals that we have set, but also to think about how to make multifaceted performance a daily feature of their actions and of their decisions. Specifically, this is done through managers' awareness workshops, working meetings with group experts, and the sharing of best practices via a network of purpose correspondence in all the group's functional and operational entities. Another challenge is that of the evolution of our internal processes consistent with our multifaceted performance goals. For example, for investment decisions or the preparation and monitoring of budgets, risk mapping, HR processes, and the executive bonus plan. And thus, as we announced to you last year, all the multifaceted performance indicators have been integrated into the compensation of the chairman and chief executive officer, as well as the group's senior executives who now also have variable compensation based on the achievement of multifaceted performance goals. All the progress indicators associated with the 18 multifaceted performance goals are regularly audited by an independent third party, in this case, KPMG. You'll be able to find the details in the universal registration document that has just been made public. Now let's have a look at where we are in terms of our various multifaceted performance goals. I'll quickly pass over financial performance as Claude L'Harwell just described that in detail, and we'll talk about four indicators reflect a very solid performance in a particularly difficult context of 2020. In regards to commercial performance, we are in line with the various goals that we set ourselves. Customer and consumer satisfaction, deployment of innovative solutions, treatment and recovery of hazardous waste. But a word on customer and consumer satisfaction. We monitor this goal using the Net Promoter Score methodology, NPS, and we use that to question our customers directly. In 2020, the NPS was implemented at eight twenty eight BUs, 14 more than in 2019. And the group's average NPS score, again, based on a sample of combustors selected by business units, is 41, which means that Veolia is at a good level compared to other companies operating in comparable sectors. Now moving on to environmental performance. With regard to our goals for combating climate change, at the 2020, we were on course to reach the goals that we had set. First, the investment plan aimed at phasing out coal in Europe by 2020 by 2030 is well underway with CapEx of €104,000,000 by the 2020 to transform installations that are concerned. And here we're talking about facilities in Germany and The Czech Republic. The goal being to commit 30% of the program's CapEx and estimated at €1,200,000,000 between now and 2030. Similarly, our annual contribution to avoid emissions for our customers reached 12,800,000 tons of CO2 carbon dioxide equivalent. That's 6% more than 2019, which is again in line with our set targets. Our plan is also on track for our plastic recycling and also for sustainable management of water resources. We have water distribution network efficiency that continues to grow across all of the OLE's contracts. On protecting the environment and biodiversity, the indicator that we used is the progress rate of action plans to improve environmental impact and biodiversity at sensitive sites. 137 of our sites and facilities are concerned across all of the group's geographical areas. The deployment and environmental impact measures at sensitive sites was considerably delayed in 2020 due to the health crisis. Operational staff were particularly made aware of this issue, and we are taking steps to catch up lost time. The original 2030 target, progress of 75% with action plans, remains the goal that we have kept. Moving now on to human resources performance. For employee commitment, the indicator we use here is the rate of commitment of all employees measured by an independent survey with a target of reaching above 80%. In 2020, all employees who were surveyed by the survey showed a commitment rate of 87%, which is up three percentage points compared to 2019 and with a much higher participation rate of 70%. The rate of commitment or the engagement rate is eight percentage points higher than the average utility's score, which is 79%. Among the top 5,000 managers, the rate of commitment in 2020 was up was 94%, which is up two percentage points compared to 2019, compared to 82% for utilities. Among others, these results show an increase in the level of support and confidence within the group against an unprecedented background in terms of health. The challenge now is to continue to work on the levers, confidence, and engagement to keep ourselves at this level. Moving on to training. The indicated used is the average number of training hours per employee per year, and the goal is to increase it from eighteen hours in 2019 to twenty three in 2023. COVID, again, unfortunately had a negative in 2020. But certain countries took the opportunity to speed up e learning. They used digital technology and it shows that we will be able to expand our actions in this In terms of diversity, our target is ambitious 50% of appointments within the group to be women, top management during the period 2020 to 2023. In order to achieve the group's goal, diversity must become reality at all levels of the organization. In 2021, the group is going to strengthen its actions in this area, in particular by creating a pool of women managers and also by developing a mentoring program for women executives. And lastly, on social performance. We are on track with the various goals. That's to say job and wealth creation in our different territories, ethics and compliance, and finally, access to essential services for water and sanitation, which is very closely linked to our purpose, which I would like to comment on now. The indicator used is the number of people benefiting from inclusive measures for access to and maintenance of water or sanitation services within Veolia contracts. These measures may include solutions to respond to consumers' financial difficulties such as pricing policies, innovative financial measures, social connection programs, payment schedules, debt remissions, water vousers, or even technical solutions to deal, for example, with difficulties associated with limited technical means, geographical difficulties, or resource availability. Here, infrastructure, methods of service, and the list goes on. In 2019, 5,100,000 people benefited from such arrangements within Veolia's contracts. The target is for us to increase this number by 12% by 2023. In 2020, the indicator increased by 7.3% compared to 2019, which is particularly due to the connection to the network of previously unconnected districts in India in areas around Nagpur and Nongloy. And social pricing and the speeding up of water voucher deployment in the Water France business. There are few words that describes the progress of our multifaceted performance approach. At the end of 2020, 16 out of 19 indicators were on track. Only three were lagging behind the original trajectory that we had set out, but necessary steps have been taken to catch up lost time. In 2021, we will continue to make progress with our goals, and we'll do so by mobilizing all the OLE employees and continuing to transform the group's processes to make them consistent with the multifaceted performance benchmarks. Next year, we'll report to you again on progress made over this five fiscal year. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention. And before handing over to our chairman, mister Antoine Ferrero, I would like us to watch now the highlights of 2020. 2020 will forever be remembered as a critical year for humankind. On top of the global challenge of the climate emergency came the shock of the COVID nineteen pandemic, a worldwide crisis with profound and undoubtedly long term social, health, economic, and environmental consequences. Humanity faces an unprecedented challenge, and its future depends on its ability to adapt. From day one, Veolia has fully mobilized to maintain essential services and continue its fight against the climate emergency. In February, almost a year after announcing its purpose, the group unveiled its new strategic plan, Impact 2023, and set out its goal of becoming the benchmark company for ecological transition. This goal is backed by a powerful commitment to the multifaceted performance that Veolia offers to all its stakeholders, employees, customers, shareholders, society, and the planet. March 2020, the COVID nineteen pandemic spread. Special measures were put in place around the world to protect people's health and support national economies. In a lockdown world, Veolia organized and adapted to ensure the continuity of its essential services, making sure the health of its employees was always protected. The group's digital transformation made it easier to manage operations from remote locations. From Asia to Latin America, day after day, our teams remained fully focused on meeting people's day to day needs for water, energy, and waste processing. But the gravity of the health crisis cannot hide the urgency of the need to take action to protect the climate. In spite of the unprecedented times, In Gum Springs, U. S. A, Veolia stepped up its position in hazardous waste treatment with the acquisition of a plant from the Alcoa U. S. A. Corporation. In China, the country's largest steel producer, Tongshan Industry, consolidated its relationship with Veolia, which will process its industrial wastewater and lower its environmental impact. In Hong Kong, Veolia operates the only plant authorized by the city government for the treatment of chemical and hazardous waste, which is then converted into energy. Every day, Veolia continues to reinvent its traditional business lines, boosting their impact and performance, whether commercial, social, or environmental. For example, 2,000,000 residents in Bucharest, Romania will benefit from the modernization and extension of the city's water and sewer networks. In The Czech Republic, Veolia already operated the district heating network on Prague Southbank. In future, it will operate Northbank network too. Despite being in the middle of lockdown, teams from Veolia began operations to process and recover industrial and hazardous waste at 26 sites in Colombia operated by Coca Cola FEMSA and are planning to launch a trigeneration unit at one site. And in The United Kingdom, over 110,000 Norfolk homes will be powered with green electricity using energy recovered from household waste. In France, in the Colonc National Park, the new biological treatment unit designed and operated by Veolia means that discharges into the Mediterranean from the Altea plant are of a quality never previously possible, helping to ensure that the plant can continue to operate while also protecting biodiversity. This expertise in wastewater proved all the more significant during a pandemic. By detecting the presence of the virus in wastewater, our new Vigil COVID nineteen plus service helps local authorities to better anticipate changes in the spread of the epidemic in their region. And thanks to a partnership with the CNRS National Scientific Research Center, the Gote d'Azur University, and IAGE, it can track variants to assist in the creation of a tailored local health strategy. Veolia develops innovative partnerships designed to meet the needs of tomorrow's world and protect scarce resources. With General Electric to recycle end of life wind turbine blades, transforming them into new raw materials for cement factories. With Solvay and Renault to recycle lithium batteries from electric vehicles. And by developing an energy generating project with Solvay that uses solid recovered fuels instead of coal to heat the boilers. This buoyant commercial activity, although slowed by the first wave of the COVID nineteen outbreak, accelerated over the summer driven by teams who understand that the commitment to ecological transformation has to be a collective commitment. Fall twenty twenty, centerpiece of this upturn, Veolia acquired 29.9% of Suez shares from ENGIE. The complementarity and future synergies between the two businesses open up multiple possibilities for creating the group of tomorrow for the world of tomorrow. December 2020, the coronavirus continued to make life difficult around the world. Mass vaccination campaigns were rolled out, pointing the way to a return to normal. In an unprecedented year, Veolia stayed the course and looked to the future to become the global champion of ecological transformation. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow shareholders, what a year we had last year and what a year this one is turning out to be. In an economic environment that was turned upside down, the group very quickly and completely recovered after just the first three months of the COVID crisis. It strengthened its positions in the most lucrative sectors and furthermore embarked upon a major strategic transaction. History is full of these pivotal years that radically change the future of countries, cities, and businesses and that mark a break between the past and the future. 2020 was undoubtedly such a year, and 2021 will be too. Before I describe the group's future prospects to you, I would like to look back on the year 2020. Last year was exceptional for the whole world. But for our business, it was exceptional on three counts. First, because it was the first year of our new strategic program impact 2023. Secondly, because of the coronavirus pandemic, which violently plunged us into a different economic and social reality. And finally, because during that year, Veolia embarked upon its major plan to merge with Suez. In these extraordinary circumstances, the group fulfilled your expectations and those of all of its partners. The ambition of the impact 2023 program that we launched in 2020 is to make Veolia the benchmark company for the ecological transformation. It is based on contrasting choices to accelerate, optimize, or to slow down our activities depending on their respective potential. This is in order to focus our resources on the most promising activities. The activities that we want to accelerate strongly, pushing them in all of our geographical zones are the most lucrative and differentiating activities, and they are the ones that are most beneficial for the planet. They include treatment of hazardous waste, plastics recycling, recovery of materials from organic waste, solid recovered fuels, the energy efficiency of buildings, the management of water from industrial processes, and the ecological management of industrial parks. Veolia is the master of these activities in which it is the world's number one. Then we have activities that we want to optimize and continue to develop at a robust pace. These relate to our traditional businesses, municipal water, the treatment of ordinary waste, and the management of heating and cooling networks. We have been engaged in these activities for a long time now, and we are the world leader. However, make no mistake, these traditional businesses are still creating value and have a bright future. First, because we are reinventing them through innovation. And secondly, because fresh demand is emerging. To take the example of municipal water, it rapidly developed during the decade 2000 to 2010 and then stabilized. However, recently, we have seen renewed interest in our services from local authorities, and we expect the market to develop in this decade. In the same way, we have seen a surge in demand for heat clean heating networks with low CO two emissions, which is a sector in which our group excels. Finally, there are the activities that we intend to slow down. This can be either because they have reached maturity and we can no longer create much value from them or because they have become commonplace, highly competitive and have low margins. Consequently, our preference is to reduce our investments in them to provide more financing for the most promising activities. The second key event of 2020 was, of course, the coronavirus pandemic, which has ravaged so many lives, countries, and indeed businesses. Yet one thing that has stood out during this extraordinary crisis has been Veolia's resilience, responsiveness, and remarkable capacity for recovery. During this crisis, which has been unprecedented in terms of its speed and spread and magnitude, our actions have been guided by two priorities. First of all, to maintain the continuity of all services all around the world twenty four hours a day even in the most complex circumstances. In order to deliver, we activated our crisis units, triggered our continuity plans, mobilized additional resources, reorganized our teams, and invented alternative solutions without delay for those that no longer worked. Our second priority has been to provide our employees and their families and friends with maximum protection. In order to do that, we either purchased or manufactured millions of masks. We produced hydroalcoholic gel, and we were the first French company to offer tests to all of our employees so as detect so as to detect potential COVID cases. We were one of the pioneers of in house anti COVID vaccinations. Not only did we provide to our employees sanitary protection, we also provided them with financial protection. For example, in France, we supplemented the state payments received by persons put on short time working so that they could receive their whole usual wages. The group's resilience and its responsiveness and also its capacity for recovery are reflected in its annual financial statements. Our revenue at EUR26 billion has remained at a high level. Our cost savings have amounted to EUR550 million compared to the €250,000,000 in savings originally expected as a result of the additional savings plans that we launched to limit to the maximum extent possible the impact of the recession on our results. Our EBITDA has reached €3,600,000,000 and exceeded the revised target that we had set ourselves at the beginning of the pandemic. At 415,000,000, current net income group share remains broadly positive in spite of the magnitude of the recession that has hit most countries in the world. This remarkable financial performance achieved by fighting tooth and nail in a weakened economic environment is the fruit of Veolia's ability to adapt and Veolia's agility. Thanks to the measures taken from the very start of the pandemic, our businesses experienced an early and strong recovery. In the third quarter, our 2020 performance returned to its 2019 level. And in the 2020, it clearly surpassed the level of 2019. In less than nine months, the group was able to erase the damage done by the crisis and resume a positive trajectory. At the same time, we have vigorously maintained our commercial momentum targeting new activities which in the new fee near future will provide new sources of growth. The iconic transactions reflecting our strategy have included the takeover of the heating network on the right bank of Prague, a contract which will provide annual revenue of €230,000,000 The acquisition in France of Osis, a company specialized in the maintenance of sanitation networks and structures, the development of the cogeneration activity to heat districts of Budapest in Hungary, the twelve year extension of our water and sanitation concession in Bucharest, the renewal of our contract for the treatment of hazardous waste in Hong Kong, or even the contract of the treatment of processed waters from the Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in Freeburg. There are several reasons why Veolia has been so successful in withstanding the health and economic crisis. The first relates to the nature of our businesses, which are essential for everyday life. In periods of crisis, as well as in normal times, cities and businesses need to have supplies of drinking water. They need to be heated. They need their waste water and waste to be collected and processed. However, our economic model's resilience is also due to our businesses broad geographical and sectoral distribution. In which the most dynamic areas and sectors offset the temporary slowdown of the others. Next, this resistance and this capacity for recovery are the direct result of our company's responsiveness in dealing with extreme events without delay. Its inventiveness in resolving problems that it had never encountered before and its boldness encountering the uncertainties arising from the crisis. Finally, there is another more profound and more decisive reason from which ultimately everything else flows. The exceptional dedication of our employees, they have given their all to deliver our services in these difficult times. They are acutely aware of their mission and they are determined to carry it out completely during this destabilizing period. These qualities which helped our group to overcome the health and economic crisis in 2020 will help it succeed, complete its strategic plan impact 2023. Because in spite of the upheavals caused by the pandemic, the ecological challenges and their urgency remain. In the long term, the context remains particularly favorable for our activities. For this reason, our impact 2023 plan remains entirely relevant as does the ambition on which it's based, to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. This is particularly the case because the crisis has confirmed that our choice was the right one. In fact, the activities that we have decided to develop are those that have best withstood the crisis and that have been in the highest demand from our customers. What is more, Veolia is in an ideal position to contribute to recovery plans, a substantial proportion of which will be devoted to the ecological transformation in several countries that are crucial to the group's development. The European Green Deal, the return of The United States to the Paris Agreement, China's objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, and the new demands of the health sector, all of these things will support our future activities. Eolia therefore has solid development projects. Where do we stand today in terms of implementing our impact 2023 plan? The answer is quite simple. In spite of the impact of the pandemic on the world economy, the group has achieved everything that it had planned to do by 2020 and has thus prepared perfectly for the future. In 2020, we maintained all the investments that will feed our future growth and increase our margins in the next few years. In particular, these investments relate to the three priority activities that we have decided to promote in all of our geographical areas. First of all, the treatment of hazardous waste. In China, we have increased our capacity for treating such waste by a third. In Singapore, we have opened a new plant. In Saudi Arabia and in Germany, we are building new installations to treat such waste. Secondly, in the plastics recycling sector. We have acquired the company Toripet in Spain, which increases our annual processing capacity by 40,000 metric tons. In Indonesia, we have commissioned a new PET recycling plant designed in the context of our partnership with Danone. In Japan, we have formed a joint venture with Mitsui and seven Eleven to build a plastics recycling plant. Finally, in the area of energy efficiency, we have signed several private public partnership agreements with hospitals in Italy. Furthermore, we have continued with our program to eliminate coal from the power generation facilities that we manage in Europe. By the 2020, we had invested a €104,000,000 of investment over the out of the 400,000,000 planned between now and 2023, and our plan to completely eliminate coal was therefore not slowed down by the health crisis. In terms of asset rotation, we have concluded transactions worth €2,000,000,000 I. E. Two thirds of our target for the 2023. But 2020 was also the year in which, as you know, we launched our major project to merge with SUEZ and succeed and succeeded with its first stage by acquiring 29.9% of its capital. This transaction gives us a historic opportunity to create the world champion of ecological transformation. With this industrial project, we will be able to make a substantial response to the environmental challenge of this century. The unequaled industrial units that we will create will give us more resource in terms of talent, know how, geographical platforms, research and development, and investment capacity to ensure that the world's essential ecological transformation will more quickly become a reality. By joining our forces, we will be able to better serve big businesses and mega cities. These industrial or municipal giants need partners of sufficient size and with an adequate range of skills to work on all the dimensions of their environmental impact. Faced with giant pollution, we need a depollution giant. It is this depollution giant that we will create by merging with SUREZ. And of course, the merger will also enable us to give all the smaller customers the benefit of the solutions that will be invented as a result of the merger. This project is clearly in line with the purpose that our group has set itself. It benefits all our stakeholders and will enable us to not only create more value for them, but also to maximize our impact on them. It is good for you, Veolia shareholders, because it will be a source of sustainable growth and additional profitability. It is a benefit to our customers and the regions because it will enable us to offer cities and industries wider and more complete offers to respond to their needs more efficiently. It preserves employees' jobs, thanks to the social commitments made by Veolia, which qualify as best practice for this kind of transaction. And thanks to the potential for exciting career development that it offers to all. It is useful for France because it consolidates the country's sovereignty in a key area that of ecological transformation. And it is a benefit to future generations and the planet because by creating a world champion, it will help us take on the huge challenges facing the planet. Climate change, scarcity of water, energy and raw materials, treatment of toxic pollution, access to essential services for all. The list goes on. There are two phases to this project. A first, quick stage in which Veolia acquired 29.9% of the capital of Suez in October 2020 in response to ENGIE's decision to sell its stake. The second and longest stage is in two parts. First, to obtain the agreement of the competition authorities. This process is underway as planned and will last another few months. Though we are doing everything we can to reduce that delay to a minimum. Secondly, a public takeover bid filed on 02/08/2021 with a view to acquiring the remaining 70.1 percent of SWEZ's capital. As you know, last week, we removed the last obstacles to this merger by reaching an agreement with SWEZ. Thanks to this negotiated solution, we have avoided a situation of uncertainty and conflict. The offer made by Veolia values Suez at €20.5 per share and will be recommended by the Board of Directors of Suez. This will make it possible firstly, to create around Veolia, the world champion of ecological transformation with revenue of about €37,000,000,000, hold all of the assets that we have judged to be strategic. Secondly, to create a new SURES with assets that form a coherent and sustainable whole from an industrial and social point of view, with revenue of about €7,000,000,000 including €5,000,000,000 in France and with real potential for growth. This agreement gives France a benchmark company in one of the most important business sectors of this century. It is beneficial for the whole world since it guarantees SURES' sustainability in France, it preserves competition, and it secures jobs. All of the stakeholders of the two companies therefore emerge from this as winners. The time for confrontation is over. It is time for reconciliation to begin. Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see throughout last year, the group acted to ensure that this crisis would not win and it has not won. Results for the fiscal year 2020 prove this. The prospects opening up before us also confirm this. In financial terms, our objective is to return to our pre crisis performance by the 2021. Thus, we are aiming for revenue of at least 2019 level or even higher and EBITDA of more than €4,000,000,000 representing growth of at least 10 versus 2020. Furthermore, our cost saving target is €350,000,000 including €250,000,000 under our recurring efficiency program and a further €100,000,000 under our additional program related to COVID. Last November, the group carried out an internal survey of 90,000 employees. These employees were spread across 55 countries or entities, and it showed that 87% of them feel strongly committed to their work, an increase of three percentage points versus 2019. This record level of commitment by reference to many comparable companies is a further advantage in the implementation of our Impact 2023 plan. By means of this strategic plan, the group seeks to have more impact on its stakeholders, whether that impact is environmental, social, societal or financial in nature. More impact on you, shareholders, thanks to a better return on investment, more impact on our customers by improving their performance and reducing their costs, More impact on our employees by broadening their skills and their professional development opportunities. More impact on the regions by making them more attractive and more sustainable. And more impact on the planet by reducing the extraction of natural resources and reducing the emitted pollution. We will assess this impact every year using a system of 18 indicators that we have introduced to measure our multifaceted performance. This system will guide the effective implementation of our purpose in all our functional processes. It is therefore intended to become a management tool for the entire business, as Olivier Bruce, Director of Strategy and Innovation, just explained. For Veolia, a good performance can only be multifaceted in nature. That is to say, an exacting performance, but one that is balanced in all of its various environmental, economic and social dimensions and performance that benefits all of the group stakeholders. The reason the group places so much emphasis on impact is that the success of a business cannot be gauged solely on what it accomplishes. Its impact on all of its stakeholders must be taken into account. Veolia's impact on all those working by its side is tangible evidence of its usefulness and therefore of its prosperity. Because at the end of the day, you can only prosper if you are useful. Amongst other things, Veolia is backing innovation to increase its impact. Here are two illustrations. The first relates to the circular economy of electric vehicle buildings batteries. This business is booming because in ten years worldwide, the number of electric vehicles in circulation will multiply by nearly 15 from 8,000,000 units today to 116,000,000 units in 02/1930. Currently, we deal with a quarter of the batteries recycled in Europe and we want to go further, improving the performance of our processes that we use to recycle such waste, which is full of rare but toxic metals and giving ourselves enough processing capacity to handle the rapid increase in the market. For this reason, we have set up a closed loop recycling project from the metals from end to end life batteries in partnership with Solvay and Renault. The aim is to reuse at least 95% of these metals in the manufacture of the new batteries and we are achieving that. Having perfected processes in the lab, that makes it possible to achieve very high level of purity which is necessary to make new batteries, we have now moved to the pre industrial phase and have commissioned a pilot unit. It will be followed by the construction of a plant capable of extracting and purifying the metals contained in end of life batteries at a large scale. This technology intensive project has enabled us to break down one of the barriers to the energy transition, the availability of strategic metals. Because without recycling, the first shortages of these metals will arise in the next decade. This project constitutes a huge step forward towards a cleaner, more sustainable, and more local economy. It allows us to make the transition from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy and respond therefore to a threefold challenge. An ecolog ecological challenge, first of all, to preserve natural resources and reduce the environmental impact of electric vehicles. Natural resources are overexploited while waste is underexploited. We recycle the latter to preserve the former. By reusing nickel, cobalt, and lithium from end of life batteries, we are creating the minds of the future, and they will be in Europe. An economic and social challenge also with the development of new businesses, new value chains and new jobs. And finally, a sovereignty challenge to guarantee Europe's security of supply of critical materials. The rapid expansion of the electric vehicle market has in fact made the issue of battery recycling a crucial one. Another innovative solution has been designed by our engineers to recycle the blades of onshore wind turbines. In North America and in Europe, many first generation wind turbines are coming to the end of their life. They, and in particular, their blades are difficult to recycle because they're made of composite materials. After several years of research, our teams have invented an original process to transform these blades into a raw material that can be used in the manufacture of cement. Not only are the blades crushed and burned to produce heat, they are also converted into raw materials and used in the cement manufacturing process. In this way, we have managed to recycle more than 90% of the weight of the turbine blades. This solution performs so well that General Electric has signed a contract with our subsidiary to recycle thousands of turbine blades from their wind farms in The United States over the next years. This technological innovation is accompanied by a new economic model, bringing together wind farm managers, cement manufacturers and Veolia. Recycling the used turbine blades is a success on two fronts. First, we are helping General Electric solve the difficult issue of managing end of life turbines. And secondly, we are reducing the CO2 emissions of cement manufacturers by 27% and their water consumption by 13%. In so doing, we are taking the ecological transformation to its logical conclusion, making installations producing renewable energy even more ecologically friendly themselves. Ladies and gentlemen, you have had an opportunity to assess the responsiveness and capacity for recovery of the group during the year 2020. You have also been able to see how, in spite of the crisis, it has methodically exploit exploited its huge development potential, concentrating its resources on the most promising business sectors and geographical areas. If the group has been able to perform like this in an unsettled economic environment, imagine how much better it will perform in the buoyant context that is opening up before us in 2021. Our rapid return to a trajectory of growth and profitability would not have been possible without your active support. So allow me to Thank you because your support gives us valuable encouragement, whether in difficult or prosperous times, to continually improve our performance. The work that we have done in the background to put Veolia back on a project on a positive trajectory as quickly as possible means that we can give you the just reward that your loyalty deserves. For that reason, we propose that you increase the dividend per share to €70 cents to be paid entirely in cash. With your backing and sure of the relevance of our strategy and the qualities that the group has displayed during the crisis, we can approach the next few years with confidence. As proof of this, the company has set itself the target of raising the dividend to its precrisis levels as early as 2021. This is also a way for us to show you our gratitude for your commitment to Veolia. At this meeting, we will have to update the company's governance. It will therefore be proposed to you that you renew two directors terms of office for a period of four years. First, that of the ques de depot represented by mister Olivier Maroz. The ques de depot was the first and is the oldest of the group's shareholders because it has been with the company since the very day of its creation. I would therefore like to salute its exemplary loyalty on which the group has been able to rely in its development. Secondly, the term of office of missus Ma Yong Yu, who has been a member of the board for nine years. Mister Paolo Scaroni, whose term of office as a director is due to expire, has not decided to ask for it to be renewed. I would like to say how grateful I am to him for the fourteen years during which he has served the group as a director and for his unfailing support, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic and then during the planned merger with SURES. Also, mister Jacques Ashenbois has resigned from office as a director with effect from 05/28/2021. I am very grateful to him for the vast experience that he brought to the group over the last eight years. This was as a director, member of the accounts and audit committee, chairman of the research, innovation and sustainable development committee, or member of the commission of directors working on the planned merger with SRES. He has devoted himself with energy and passion to Veolia's governance and has played a key role in the group's transformation and development plans and in the completion of the planned merger with Suez. Since only one of these departing directors will be replaced, the number of directors on the board will be reduced to 12. At the same time, it is proposed that you ratify the appointment as a director of Mr. Pierre Andre de Charlander, chairman and CEO of Saint Gobain. He was a director of Veolia from 2009 to 02/2015, and I'm delighted that he has agreed to rejoin us to contribute to the work of the board. Following the success of the Sequoia twenty twenty operation, in which more than 50,000 of the group's employees took part, the percentage of shares owed by Veolia owned by Veolia employees has reached a level of 4%. Consequently, at next year's shareholders general meeting, it will be proposed that you appoint a director to represent employee shareholders alongside the two directors who already represent the employees. Take this opportunity to express my gratitude to each of the members of the board for their hard work, particularly in the context of the measures taken to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and for the work they have done on the merger with SUEZ. Since the shareholders general meeting in 2020, so over a year, the board met 16 times and a specialized merger commission met 25 times. The availability of the directors, the quality of their opinions and the richness of our discussions have provided me with invaluable assistance in carrying out my duties. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the Shareholder Advisory Committee for its attention and for the useful recommendations that it has sent to the group. Ladies and gentlemen, you are living in historic times because a huge ecological transformation is underway. Its purpose is to reduce the excesses of which man is both the perpetrator and victim. Excessive extraction from the environment causing scarcity, excessive discharges of waste into the environment causing pollution. Given the scale of the environmental challenges facing humanity, half measures are no longer enough. We must profoundly and rapidly transform our economic models. This is no longer the time for transition, but for a higher, more demanding and more pressing ambition, that of ecological transformation. In order for it to spread, new technologies, new economic models and new resources need to be invented and the group is working hard to do that. However, at this moment, it's historic for another reason, which directly concerns you, the shareholders. An industrial tool will soon be created that will structure not only your company, but also the profession itself for several decades. Thanks to the agreement reached last week with Suez, the merger between our two companies will quickly take effect. The entity formed around Veolia will be able to offer its industrial and municipal customers all the services they need to carry out their own ecological transformation. This merger is a major step in the life of the company. A company that was formed in France more than a hundred and sixty years ago now to provide healthy water to urban populations and to protect them from waterborne epidemics that ravaged cities in those days. A company whose business quickly expanded to cover other activities, other customers in other countries. A company that historically was French, naturally European, and that has a worldwide calling. Confronted with environmental tragedies that demonstrate both how powerful and yet powerless man is in the face of CO two emissions, the major waste product of the twenty first century and in response to insistent demands for a cleaner, more frugal, more supportive economy, Veolia is producing more and more solutions that give our worried societies new hope and reopen a future that had appeared to be closed. Whether to overcome the coronavirus pandemic or to play our part in the ecological transformation of cities and industries, our ambition is huge, but so is our determination. Ladies and gentlemen, we can do all of this thanks to your confidence and your support. With you, we can imagine solutions to resolve problems that are required and have up until now been lacking, and we can shape the future with you. We will win in this world that needs an ecological transformation. Thank you for your attention. This is an historic moment. Never has humanity's future been so closely entwined with environmental concerns. This is urgent. Our climate is changing. Natural resources are running out. Biodiversity is collapsing. Our house is on fire. We all know it. Everyone is talking about it. Now we must act. Practical, high impact solutions already exist. Now more than ever, we need industrial players to accelerate their deployment. But other problems remain to be solved. We must do all we can to invent the solutions of tomorrow. We must go beyond transition. There is no time left for gradually changing our methods. To reconcile the environment and human development, we must make decisive, difficult and structuring choices. That is why Veolia aspires to a larger, higher, impact We are also seeing business, of every assessment, every decision. It means developing radical, meaningful solutions to meet humanity's existential challenges, decarbonizing and distributing that climate warming, promoting the circular economy to combat resource depletion, decontaminating the air, water and soil, protecting biodiversity and creating a more resource efficient agriculture. None of this would be possible without the coordinated action of all our stakeholders, our 180,000 employees, of course, but also our customers, our shareholders, our partners and wider society as a whole. We are committed to delivering a multifaceted performance and convinced that economic, social and environmental concerns must form an indivisible whole. Decontaminating, sanitizing, refining, recycling, recovering, conserving and facilitating access to resources, Veolia has always worked to create solutions capable of building a better, more sustainable future for all. Today, we want to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Our ambition is huge, but so is our determination. Ecological transformation, that is our purpose. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, thank you for your loyalty and your attention. I now would like to give the floor to Marie Soleignon, Director and Chairwoman of the Compensation and Benefit Committee of our Board of Directors for a presentation on the policy for compensation and benefits for the CEO. Policy of corporate officers is all on Page eighty two and eighty seven of the notice and information brochure posted on the company's website. So we now turn to the say on pay. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm now going to present the components of Mr. Henrient Renaud's compensation, the twenty twenty compensation covered by Resolution 12 to be voted on by this meeting. You'll find the details in the notice of information brochure, pages 76 to 81, and in the universal registration document, pages 171 to 175. The 2021 compensation policy, the Exxon des Sey en Pei, is dealt with in Resolution 14, details of which appear on the notice of information brochure, pages 83 to 86 and in the universal registration document, pages 176 to 179. Concerning 2020, I would like to remind you of the process that was followed for that exceptional year. As early as April 2020, the group's management tools showed that due to the pandemic, the budget was no longer relevant. Nor were the annual variable compensation of executives or the 2018 performance share plan due to mature at the 2020, which was based on the sole criterion of the average annual increase in current net income per share. At the same time, it was clear to everyone that the health crisis and its social and economic consequences would require unprecedented mobilization of the whole management chain. So in order for executives to remain fully motivated to put the group back on the right track, The board, therefore, took the view that it was in the company's interest and in the interest of all the Veolia stakeholders first to draw up revised but nevertheless very ambitious financial targets at the July based on the half yearly financial statements and including the impact of the health crisis for the purposes of calculating compensation and secondly, to neutralize the year 2020 for the purposes of calculating the performance condition while canceling one third of the shares that beneficiaries would have been able claim under the 2018 plan. I think it is important for me to explain the four principles that informed the recommendations of the compensation committee and the choices made by the Board of Directors. These four principles are: first, to align the compensation of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and of the whole management chain with the management of the company's human capital. There was no redundancy plan associated with the pandemic. There was a 100 compensation for the wages of French employees on short time working and payment of on-site bonuses for those engaged in exposed activities. Secondly, to align the compensation of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer with that of the shareholders. And in that respect, I would emphasize Mr. Fregor's offer, accepted by the Board of Directors, to reduce the quantitative part of his twenty twenty variable annual compensation by 30% since the dividend put to the vote is 30% lower than that, which would have been paid a priori in the absence of the health and economic crisis. Thirdly, and we have paid a great deal of attention to this, the absence of any windfall. Veolia does not operate in sectors that have benefited from an increase in business. On the contrary, it has been necessary to offset what was definitely lost in the first half by making greater efforts, which the board was careful to achieve by setting particularly ambitious targets in the second half. Finally, to compensate performance, the rate of achievement of all of the quantitative criteria, whether financial or nonfinancial, have been published. You know them. And I would like to stress the performance that exceeding the targets contained in the recovery and adapt plan represents. In the last seven months of the fiscal year, million were added to the annual plan of EUR $250,000,000 in spite of the second wave of the global pandemic in the second half and while embarking upon the major strategic project to merge with SURES. The excellent commercial and financial performances of the 2020, excellent results of the employee commitment survey and the historically high level of participation by those same employees in the employee share ownership plan as a result of which employees now account for substantial proportion of the shareholders with 4% of the capital. All of these elements provide an a posteriori validation of those choices made by the Board of Directors. I would now like to briefly remind you of the performance indicators used as the basis for calculating variable compensation. With regard to the financial quantitative part, 50% of the target bonus, the calculation of this variable part gives the result of 143.41% of the target bonus. You have in the notice of an information brochure the different levels of payment achieved in respect of the four financial criteria depending on the achievement of those targets: 119.6% for current net income group share 185 for the net free cash flow criteria and 100.7% for organic revenue growth and 150.7% for ROCE. Let us now move on to the nonfinancial quantitative part, which was aligned on the criteria contained in our corporate purpose. The calculation of this variable part gives a result of 122.74% of the target bonus on the basis of six different indicators, the same as usual, health and safety, ethics and compliance, climate, treatment and recovery of hazardous waste, commitment, training. Lastly, with regard to the qualitative part, 20% of the target bonus, this is assessed globally by the Board of Directors on the basis of managerial performance on the one hand and the strategic dimension on the other. Respect of 2020, the calculation of this qualitative part gives a result of 160% of the target, which reflects the excellent results achieved and from several angles. Launch of Strategic Impact 2023 program and a number of commercial successes, particularly in new businesses exemplary management of the COVID crisis, both socially and from an operational standpoint the excellent results of the commitment survey the overall level of commitment rose to 87% compared to the utilities benchmark of 79%. Managers' level of commitment reached 94%, where it is 82% for the utilities benchmark. A historically high rate of subscription for the employee share ownership plan. As a result of which, employees now account for a substantial proportion of shareholders, they account for 4% of Vilnius' capital. And of course, the Board also took into account the launch of the project to merge with SUEZ in August 2020 and of the success of its first stage with the acquisition of 29.9% of the capital of the SUEZ company. After all these criteria are applied, the total quantitative and qualitative parts of Mr. Antoine Ferrero's variable compensation in respect of fiscal year 2020 amounts to 1,377,150 or 140.52% of his basic target bonus. We should recall that at its meeting of 07/29/2020, the Board of Directors decided on a proposal from the compensation committee that his 2020 variable compensation could not exceed the amount of his 2019 variable compensation, namely €1,206,000 However, in any event, this cap does not come into play because Mr. Trejo has unilaterally decided to waive the 30% of the constitutive financial part of his 2020 bonus so as to be fairly treated in line with the efforts required of the group stakeholders and, in particular, its stakeholders, its shareholders. Consequently, his total variable compensation is reduced to EUR 1,166,137 in respect of fiscal year 2020. Let us now talk about the longer term compensation. It will be recalled that the rules of the performance share plans that provide that only the Board can, in exceptional circumstances, decide to amend the performance conditions aposteriori. However, in the interest of good governance, three resolutions, nine, ten and eleven, concerning the performance share plans established in 2018, 2019 and 2020 are put to the vote of the shareholders at this meeting. The Board of Directors has decided to neutralize the fiscal year 2020 as regards the only internal economic performance criterion, in other words, the current net income group share and to reduce in the same proportion the number of performance shares available. This decision is intended to guarantee that the interests of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer are aligned with those of the company and its shareholders. These adjustments remain in line with the targets that Veolia had set itself for 2021. In other words, greater revenue than in 2019, thanks to sustained organic growth, EBITDA in excess of EUR 4,000,000,000, net debt of less than 12,000,000,000 and a return to the pre crisis dividend policy from fiscal year 2021. With regard to 2021, the Board has, taken the following decisions. Put the vote. First, to maintain Mr. Freud's fixed compensation. Secondly, to maintain the other elements of his compensation in identical form, target bonus, the cap on the variable part consistent with the average applicable to the CAC 40 executives as well as benefits and other items such as collective supplementary pension scheme without a top hat pension, collective insurance and health care benefits company car. Thirdly, to renew the calculation of the variable short term part with the same structure, I. E, a quantitative part of 80% consisting of a financial quantitative part of 50% on the same four criteria: current net income, group share, free cash flow, revenue growth and ROCE and a nonfinancial quantitative part of 30%, comprising criteria related to health and safety, ethics and compliance, climate, the prevention of toxic pollution, commitment and training. And there will always be a qualitative part of 20% linked to individual targets, and this is the strategic dimension and managerial performance. Fourthly, to renew the long term incentive compensation by renewing a performance share plan in 2021. This is, in fact, the subject of the twenty second resolution that will continue we will continue with the criteria chosen in 2020, which are in line with the Strategic Impact 2023 program. Namely, as to 50%, performance conditions are associated with the company's purpose, including indicators related to climate, customer satisfaction, gender mix, access to essential services, innovation, protection of water resources, the circular economy, the social economic footprint and biodiversity and as to 50%, economic and financial performance conditions, I. E, current net income, group share as before and the new indicators, the stock market performance of the value of shares in comparison with the STOXX 600 Utilities Index, here again, to align with the interests of shareholders. This proposed performance share plan would apply to the Chairman and CEO and about four fifty other people equally distributed amongst management executives on the one hand and staff with high potential or key contributors on the other. This plan would cover the business for the fiscal years 2021, 2022, 2023 and would be deliverable therefore in June 2024. As before, the allocation of performance shares to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer would be capped at the equivalent of 100% of his gross fixed annual compensation, and the retention obligation would be kept at the same level as in the previous plans. Finally, we are asked to vote on two resolutions related to directors' compensation. Their 2020 conversation, this is the thirteenth resolution pursuant to the policy approved by last year's shareholders' meeting and the fifteenth resolution, which is the compensation policy that will apply to them in the context of the annual budget for 2021, annual budget of €1,200,000, which is unchanged. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you, Marie. Ladies and gentlemen, we can now move on to our usual question and answer session. I'd like to thank the shareholders who used our electronic letterbox that we made available to them to ask us questions. Edmund Paddus Sisrad will read out the questions. And we can start right away with Edmund. Thank you, mister chairman. First of all, I have to tell you that we have received written questions pursuant to article l two twenty five one zero eight and r two twenty five eighty four of the code of commerce that is to say accompanied by a certification of registration proving the status of shareholder. The sustainable investment forum holder of a one share has asked a series of questions last like last year, 13 questions to be precise on the investments enabling us to comply with the Paris Agreement, on the mitigation of the impact of diversity loss on Veolia's future revenue, on the anticipation of the growing scarcity of some natural resources and on the securitization of their supply chains, on the support to suppliers or clients impacted by the crisis, on the social impacts of remote working, on the guarantee to pay a decent salary to the group's employees and the group's suppliers' employees, on the inclusion of environmental and social criteria in profit sharing agreements, on the use of green funds for company savings plans, on tax reporting, on the analysis of the changes in the equity ratio, on gender equality policies and objectives, on interest representation practices and on the involvement of social partners in the surveillance plan or in the document of extra financial performance. Shareholders are invited to read the questions and most importantly the answers in the dedicated segment on Veolia's website. Let's now move on to the other questions. First of all, a question from Nicole Sableon from the advisory committee of individual shareholders. Tackling c o two emissions has become a priority. To address this issue, we obviously need to reduce emissions, but we hear a lot about carbon capture as a solution to the issue nowadays. He's the only opposition positioning himself on this market. We, madam, the groups Yes, madam. Group is moving quickly on this market. His carbon capture will enable us to draw down some greenhouse gas emissions quickly. For example, those emitted by the industrial sectors such as chemistry and cement. And carbon capture also opens up extra growth opportunities. And this is why over the last years, our group has been behind a number of initiatives to capture and also reuse carbon. For example, in France, we have a pilot unit at the CDBEX site near L'Ouave. And there, we capture and reuse CO two from smokestacks. Another example from India, thanks to the creation of a joint venture with the Carbon Clean startup specialized in carbon capture. We are therefore strengthening our position on this market by targeting countries where rules and regulations help economically viable projects emerge at a large scale. It's no surprise we then have two questions on our project to build a champion of the ecological transformation. The first one from, Fabienne Chobard, individual shareholder. I would like to know why the company has made the deliberate choice not to increase its capital with the DPS for its current shareholders. While letting newcomers benefit from a discount when existing shareholders can't. Well, first off, we always spoke of the possibility of including a stock option in the bid for Suez in order to have Suez employees play an active part in creating a major champion of ecological transformation. If such a package were to go through, it would not be done at a discount price and would be done within a parity bracket with Veolia shares. The benefit of such a subsidiary share bundle would be to realize all operations both for the bid and financing in one fell swoop and to have major shareholders of Suez who are essential for the future of our group and for them to be active participants. The second question on our project is from Nicolas Andreu, member of the advisory committee of individual shareholders. Can the debt increase undermine or slow down the development of the new group? Claude once again. The answer is simple. No. Will not have too much debt. It will maintain a solid p and l that would impart the necessary level of flexibility to further finance growth. The purchase of Suez is first and foremost a wonderful industrial project and a driver of growth. But nevertheless, you are right. We must not lose sight of financials. Fifteen years ago, excessive debt was one, if not the primary issue facing the group. And we worked hard to reduce Veolia's debt burden, and our efforts paid off. We were once again able to find financial flexibility and growth was on the up. So the Suez bid was mounted and put together in a way so as to protect the group's financial integrity. Divestments that we will have to undertake the second the purchase goes through as part of efforts to create a new Suez will aid us in once again seeing a healthy looking p and l. Another question from the advisory committee of our individual shareholders with Benedicte Catlama. In 2020, the dividend was drastically reduced. In 2021, it went back up to 70¢. Can we expect a return to precrisis levels by 2022 and even reach higher levels? Well, I'm sure you gathered the answer to that from our previous speeches. Last year, the environment was completely economic. Environment was completely destroyed by the public health crisis. And out of solidarity with stake stakeholders, we drew down the dividend to €50 cents. We didn't remove it completely because we believe that the shareholders will legitimize in receiving a return on investment. Our aim is to strike the balance that we've always had and to get back to that as soon as possible. That is why from this year on, the dividend will be brought back up to €70 cents. And then from 2022, we will once again return to our pre crisis dividend policy based on a distribution rate of between 70 to 75% of the annual net profit. But there's more than that. As a source of growth and additional profitability, The merger with Suez will have a very positive impact on the overall operating profit of the new industrial entity, which will enable us to increase the dividend furthermore. One last question. For the past eight years, there has been only one woman sitting at Villa's executive board. Are you doing enough to promote gender parity? Not enough yet because gender diversity is a key concern for our group. To give women proper representation at all levels within the group and across business lines, the group has set an action plan specifically for this. And there are three goals behind this action plan. First of all, developing diversity in operating positions including in the field. Secondly, getting more women in top management and governance. And finally, promoting gender diversity in the representative bodies. And we've already seen great successes from this plan. Our board of directors, for example, is exemplary in this field because we have 45% of women versus just 5% in 02/2011. Our management board has 20% women, which is not yet enough, but there were only 5% women in 02/2011. Our group has 21% of women in its top 500 executives versus just 14% in 02/2013. We have made real progress, but we can, and you are right, we must go further. VEODA has set a number of hard targets going forward, one of which is a target that matches our corporate purpose, which is 50% of women be appointed between 2020 to 2023 into the top 500 executives of the group. This is one of the 18 indicators that we have chosen to measure our performance at Veolia in this field and also to calculate the long term compensation for executives. Thank you, mister chairman. The q and a session is now over, and we can move to the vote of the resolutions. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I shall now give the results of the votes on each resolution. Let me remind you that these resolutions are set out in detail in the notice and information brochure sent to shareholders and published on the company's website. These documents were published and made available to shareholders in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements. I should mention that miss Fabrin Biche Cord Beiliffe is responsible for verifying the technical legality of the remote voting operations. Before proceeding to the statement of the voting results, I would like to give you the final forum which appears on the screen now. We can now proceed to the statement of the vote on the resolutions. First resolution, approval of the company financial statements for fiscal year 2020. This resolution proposes that shareholders approve the company financial statements for fiscal year 2020. The first resolution is approved. Second resolution, approval of the consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2020. This resolution proposes that shareholders approve the consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2020. The second resolution is approved. Third resolution, approval of the expenses and charges referred to in article 39.4 of the general tax code. This resolution submits for shareholder approval of the nondeductible expenses and charges referred to in Article 39.4 of the French General Tax Code. This mainly concerns the charges and expenses related to the company's vehicles for the portion of their acquisition price that exceeds €18,300 This provision also being applicable to long term leases. The total amount was €1,048,908 in 2020. The third resolution is approved. Fourth resolution, appropriation of net income for fiscal year 2020 and payment of the dividend. This resolution concerned the appropriation of net income for the financial for the fiscal year and the date of payment of the dividend paid in respect of 2020. The general shareholders meeting as proposed by the Board of Directors resolves to appropriate the distributable profit as follows. Net income for the year, June distributable reserves for 7,104,501,770 million euros and retained profit from prior years, €1,307,837,016 while making a total of €9,033,241,614 to be allocated as follows. Two legal reserves, €0 to dividend, zero seven zero for 565,771,689 shares, so €396,040,182 to return earnings, 1,000,000,005 and 32,699,006 and €62 For information shareholders' equity after appropriation of profit and dividend distribution is as follows: Capital 2,000,893 million 56,810 Share merger and transfer premiums, euros 7,104,501,770. Legal reserves, 289,305,682 million Other reserves returning earnings for 2020, $1,532,000.000699662 million euros for the total of $11,819,000.000563924 euros The dividend of €0.70 per share will be paid with effect from 05/12/2021. The fourth resolution is approved. Fifth resolution, approval of regulated agreements and commitments. This resolution submits for shareholder approval the transaction agreed or carried out as described in the special report of the statutory auditors relating to fiscal year twenty twenty. First, agreements and commitments submitted for approval by this general shareholders meeting. For fiscal year twenty twenty, the only new agreement recorded in this report concerns an agreement regarding payment by the audio environment of an exceptional contribution of €300,000 to last issued a lot of this authorized by the board of directors on 12/11/2020. Second, agreements and commitments approved in prior fiscal years that continue to be performed, during the fiscal year just ended. Brand license, board meeting of November, the fifth twenty fourteen and board of meeting of 02/24/2016, person concerned, mister Antoine Ferro. Lease agreements relating to the administrative headquarters of the VEODIA Environment in Aubertadier, board of director of the 10/22/2012, person concerned, Last, agreements for the payment of guarantees issued by the company on behalf of its subsidiary, Board of Meeting of the 05/17/2011. Person concerned, mister Antoine Ferro. The fifth resolution is approved. The sixth resolution, renewal of the term of Quintilipo e consignation as director represented by mister Olivier Matoes. The sixth resolution is approved. Seventh resolution, renewal of the term of miss Marion Guillaume as a director. The seventh resolution is approved. Eighth resolution, nomination of mister Pierre Andre de Chandon as director. The eighth resolution is approved. Ninth resolution, Approval of the amendment of the internal economic performance criteria linked to vesting of performance shares granted to the chairman and chief executive officer under plan number one granted by the board of director on the 05/02/2018. The Board of Directors on the proposal of the compensation committee decided to amend the internal economic performance criteria, current net income group share of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 performance share plans and in the interest of good governance to submit this amendment for your approval under the ninth, tenth and eleventh resolutions as they relate to the Chairman and Chief executive officer in his capacity as beneficiary. It should be noted that the amendment of the performance condition in the 2018 plan had already given rise to announcement on the 04/01/2020. The other performance criteria of these plans remain unchanged. Indeed, given the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-nineteen epidemic, the components related to fiscal year 2020 are not representative of the overall performance of the group during the reference period of the plans and we therefore have a disproportionate effect resulting in the loss of all rights under the criteria for all beneficiaries. Consequently, following the compensation committee proposal, the board of directors at its meeting on the 03/09/2021 decided to neutralize fiscal year 2020 in its measurement of achievement of the sole economic performance criterion and to reduce by the same proportion, that's to say by a third, the number of rights vested for the 2018, 2019, and 2020 performance share plans in order to guarantee the alignment of interest of the chairman and chief executive officer with those of the company and its shareholders. The ninth resolution is approved. Tenth resolution, approval of the amendment of the internal economic performance criteria linked to vesting of performance shares granted to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer under Plan two granted by the Board of Directors on the 04/30/2019. As mentioned previously, the purpose of this resolution is to amend the internal economic performance criteria, current net income group share per share of the 2019 performance share plan and in the interest of good governance to submit this amendment for approval by the general shareholders meeting since it relates to the chairman and chief executive. The tenth resolution is approved. Eleventh resolution, approval of the amendment of the internal economic performance criterion relating to the acquisition of performance shares awarded to the chairman and chief executive officer under plan number three granted by the boards of directors on the 05/05/2020. As mentioned, the purpose of this resolution is to amend the internal economic performance criteria, current net income group share of the 2020 performance share plan and in the interest of good governance to submit this amendment for approval by the general shareholders meeting since it relates to the chairman and chief executive. The eleventh resolution is approved. Twelfth resolution vote on the compensation paid during fiscal year 2020 or awarded in respect of the same fiscal year to Mr. Antoine Ferro by virtue of his duties as chairman and chief executive officer, exposed a vote. Shareholders are asked in this resolution on the basis of the corporate governance report. On the one hand, the information mentioned in article L22-ten 91 of the French Commercial Code, is presented therein pursuant to Article L22-ten 30 four-one of the French Commercial Code and on the other hand pursuant to Article L22-ten 30 four-two of the French Commercial Code to approve bringing forward the fixed variable and exceptional components of the total compensation and benefit of all kind paid to mister Antoine Frereault in fiscal year twenty twenty or awarded in respect of the same fiscal year by virtue of his duties as chairman and chief executive officer. I should remind you that these components are described in chapter three, section 3.4 of the 2020 universal registration document and also in the report of the board of directors on the resolution submitted to the general shareholders meeting were presented earlier by the senior independent director and chair of the compensation committee, miss Marie O'Lanion. The twelfth resolution is approved. Thirteenth resolution, vote on information on the 2020 compensation of the directors excluding the chairman and chief executive officer as mentioned in article l twenty two ten nine one of the French commercial code exposed vote. The shareholders are asking this resolution to approve binding to approve with the binding code. The corporate governance report on compensation paid during fiscal year 2020 are awarded in respect of the same fiscal year to all directors except the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. It should also be noted that details of all these components are given in Chapter three, Section 3.4 of the 2020 Universal Registration Document and also in the report of the board of directors on the resolution submitted to the general shareholders meeting and were presented earlier by the senior independent director and chair of the compensation committee, miss Marie Donanion. The thirteenth resolution is approved. Fourteenth resolution, vote on the compensation policy for the chairman and chief executive officer for fiscal year twenty twenty one, ex ante vote. This resolution submits for shareholder approval with the compensation policy for the chairman and chief Executive Officer for fiscal year 2021. It should be noted that details of all of these companies are given in Chapter three, Section 3.4 of the Universal Registration Document and also in the report of the Board of Directors on the resolution submitted to the General meeting and were presented earlier by the senior independent director and chair of the compensation committee, miss Marise Orenon. The fourth resolution is approved. Fifteenth resolution, a vote on the compensation policy for directors excluding the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for fiscal year 2021. This resolution submits for shareholder approval of the compensation policy for directors for the fiscal year 2021. It should be noted that details, once again, of all of these components are given in Chapter three, Section 3.4 of the Universal Registration Document and also in the reports of the board of directors on the resolutions submitted to the general shareholders meeting and were presented earlier by the senior independent director and chair of the compensation committee, Ms. Maurice Olaignon. The fifteenth resolution is approved. Sixteenth resolution, authorization to be given to the board of directors to deal in the company's shares. This resolution is to renew for a further eighteen months period the authorization granted by the general shareholders meeting on the 04/22/2020. This resolution authorizes the Board of Directors for an eighteen month period to deal in the company's shares except during takeover offers up to a limit of 10% of the company's share capital within the scope of the objectives authorized specifically in order to first implement any stock option plan or similar plan of the company. Second, allocate or transfer shares to employees in terms of the provisions of the French Commercial Code or French Labor Code. Third, allocate shares upon the size of rights attached to securities. Fourth, cancel all or some shares repurchased. Fifth, provide shares under a liquidity contract with an investment services provider. Sixth, lastly, perform any other operation in accordance with the regulation in force. Maximum purchase price per share may not exceed €36 and the total amount allocated to these buybacks may not exceed €1,000,000,000 expressed in terms of the purchase price of the shares. This resolution does not apply during a takeover offer period except with the prior authorization of the General Shareholders' Meeting. The sixteenth resolution is approved. Seventeenth resolution delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the share capital by issuing shares and or securities giving access immediately or at a later date to share capital with preferential subscription rights. Resolutions 17 to 19 are specific capital increase resolutions for the financing and refinancing of the takeover offer for SUEZM. Their purpose is therefore to delegate to the Board of Directors the necessary powers to execute this transaction. These powers may not be used for other purposes. The purpose of the seventeenth resolution, which does not apply during the period of the takeover offer for the period, the environment except with the prior authorization of the general shareholders meeting is to authorize the board of directors to carry out one or several capital increases with preferential subscription rights and this in the context of the takeover offer for Suez. The overall ceiling for capital increases that may be made pursuant to the delegation of authority and those conferred in application of resolution 17 to 21 is fixed at €868,000,000 in nominal values, 30% of the capital as of the date of the general shareholders meeting. This delegation of authority will be granted for a twenty six month period. For information, the authorization already granted by the general shareholders meeting of the 04/22/2020 has not been used. The seventeenth resolution is approved. Eighteenth resolution, delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the share capital by issuing of shares and or securities giving access immediately or at a later date to share capital without preferential subscription rights by public offer in the context of the company's takeover offer for SUEZ. The purpose of this resolution, which does not apply during the period of the takeover offer for VLDR environment except with the prior authorization of the general shareholders meeting is to authorize the board of directors to issue VLDR environment shares, in particular in the context of a subsidiary option in shares that the company could offer in the context of the takeover offer for SUEZ. You are therefore requested to waive your preferential subscription right in order to give the Board of Directors the flexibility required to seize this opportunity. The nominal amount of issuance, that would be made under Resolution 18 may not exceed the ceiling of €868,000,000 30% of the share capital for capital increases without the preferential subscription rights or the overall ceiling for all share capital increases with or without the preferential subscription rights specified in Resolution seventeen, eight sixty eight million. The validity period of this delegation would be set at twenty six months. For your information, the delegation granted for the same purpose by the general shareholders meeting of the 04/22/2020 has not been used. The eighteenth resolution is approved. Nineteenth resolution, delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the number of shares to be issued pursuant to a capital increase with or without preferential subscription rights under Resolution seventeen and eighteen. Under a capital increase with or without preferential subscription rights pursuant to a delegation of authority granted by the general shareholders meeting in the context of the takeover offer for Suez. And in the event of oversubscription, the purpose of this resolution, which does not apply during the period of the takeover offer for Vale environment except with a prior authorization of the general shareholders meeting, is to grant the Board of Directors the power to increase the number of shares to be issued at the same price as that of the original issue. This over allotment option could be exercised up to a maximum of 15% of the original capital increase. The nominal amount of capital increases that may be carried out pursuant to this resolution shall be deducted from the ceiling stipulated for capital increase operations with or without preferential subscription rights. The validity period of this delegation would be set at twenty six months. For your information, the delegation granted for the same purpose by the shareholders meeting on the 04/22/2020 has not been used. The nineteenth resolution is approved. Twentieth resolution, delegation of authority to the board of directors to increase the share capital by issuing shares and all securities giving access to capital and reserves to form members of company savings plans without preferential subscription rights. The twentieth and twenty first resolutions are in line with the company's policy of promoting employee share ownership. As of this on the thirty first of this at 12/31/2020, the percentage of share capital held by employees and former employees of the group amounted to about four point o 6% of the company's share capital. First, enter the twentieth resolution. You are requested to delegate authority to the board of directors to increase the capital on one or several occasions by issuance of shares on negotiable securities giving access to capital to members of one or several employee savings schemes without preferential subscription rights. The nominal amount of capital increases that may be carried out pursuant to this resolution would be limited to a maximum of 2% of the share capital. And the validity period of this delegation would be set at twenty six months and would terminate the delegation granted by the General Shareholders' Meeting on the 04/22/2020 under the twenty first resolution issue on 12/17/2020 of 9,206,811 new shares or about 1.6% of the share capital as of that date. The twenty eighth resolution is approved. Twenty first resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to increase the share capital by issuing shares reserved for certain categories of persons without preferential subscription rights pursuant to the implementation of employee share ownership plans. The twenty first resolution would renew the authority granted to the Board of Directors of the company to increase the share capital by issuing shares without preferential subscription rights for the benefit of employees and corporate offices of company's affiliated to the company and or collective investment fund invested in shares of the company and or any credit institution or company owned by such an institution acting at the request of the company to set up alternative savings schemes. The purpose of this resolution is to enable employees located in countries where it is not possible for regulatory attacks or other reasons to make a traditional share offer to benefit from equivalent share ownership schemes in economic profile terms to those from which other employees of the Veolia Group benefit. The nominal amount of the capital increases that may be made under this resolution would be limited to a maximum of 0.6% of the share capital. The authorization to issue would be valid for an eighteen month period from the date of the General Shareholders' meeting. The twenty first resolution is approved. Twenty second resolution, authorization to be given to the board of directors to make free allotment of shares already in issue or to be issued to group employees and corporate offices of the company or some of them with an implied waiver of the shareholders' or subscription rights. The purpose of this resolution is to authorize the Board of Directors to make free allotments of shares on one or several occasions to employees of the Veolia Group and to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Veolia Environment. Under this resolution, the company would be able to make free allotments of new or existing shares under a performance share plan up to an overall limit of 0.5% of the share capital as at the date of this meeting. A ceiling of 0.4% of the share capital would be applied to the allotments to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the ODR environment. Allotments made under the performance share plan would be subject not only to a condition of being employed by the company at the expiry of the performance share plan, but also to the achievement of performance conditions at expiry. These conditions are described on Page 60 of the notice and information brochure. The period of acquisition would last up to three years. In addition, at the end of this period, an obligation to retain a proportion of the shares acquired would apply to the chairman and chief executive officer and members of the executive committee. This retention obligation and also the performance conditions linked to the allotment of these shares are set out on pages one zero two 102 to 104 of the notice and information brochure. This authorization would be valid for a twenty six month period from the date of the general shareholders meeting. The twenty second resolution is approved. Twenty third resolution, amendment to of the articles of association to allow the appointment of director to represent employee shareholders. The purpose of this resolution is to insert a new paragraph in article 11 of the articles of association of the company that would allow for the appointment of a director to represent employee shareholders. The election of employee shareholder representative to the board of directors of a limited liability company is mandatory when employees of the company as well as employees of affiliated companies hold at least 3% of their share capital according to the legal provisions in force. Since the company fulfilled this condition as of 12/31/2020, about 4.06% of the capital of the company being owned by company company employees. A director representing employee shareholders as well as replacement will be appointed at the general shareholders meeting to be held in 2022 and upon proposal by employee shareholders in accordance with the articles of association subject to approval of the amended proposed to this general shareholders meeting. The duration of the appointment of the director representing employee shareholders will be identical to that of the directors representing employees. The twenty third resolution is approved. Twenty fourth resolution, harmonization of the articles of association with legal and regulatory provisions in force. The purpose of this resolution is to authorize the amendment of the company's articles of association in order to make them compliant with the new legal and regulatory provisions applicable resulting from ordinance number twenty twenty eleven forty two of the 09/16/2020 and decree number twenty twenty seventeen forty two of the 12/29/2020. Details of the amendments made and the articles amended are set out on page 107 of the notice and information brochure. The twenty fourth resolution is approved. Finally, on the ordinary on the ordinary and extraordinary business of the general shareholders meeting, twenty fifth resolution powers four formalities. And the purpose of this resolution is to grant the authorization required to carry out any formalities required by law. The twenty fifth resolution is approved. The presentation of the result of the votes on each of the resolutions is now complete. Mister chairman, I now hand over to you to complete this general shareholders meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow shareholders, since there are no further matters on the agenda for this combined shareholders general meeting, I declare the business of the meeting closed. Thank you to all for attending this meeting remotely and for taking part once more in these exceptional circumstances. Thank you also for your loyalty and support. I would like to wish you all a very good evening.

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