Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. We're very happy to welcome you here today for our shareholders meeting, our annual general meeting. As a preliminary, in line with our regulations, we'd like to inform you that our general meeting is being webcast. It will also be available, of course, as a replay. Please switch off your mobile phones, and if you haven't already done so, you might like to pick up a translation headset from the hostesses in the room because there will be a contribution made in English. I'd like to now conduct the formalities, the legal formalities, so as to set up the committee of our meeting. In line with Article R.225-101 of our French Commercial Code, it's been proposed to the two shareholders representing the majority of the votes here to kindly become the scrutineers.
We have with us today DNCA Finance, who hold 3.6% of the registered capital, represented by Mr. Boris Radondy. AXA Investment Managers Paris, holding 0.68% of the registered capital, represented by Ms. Héloïse Courault. Thank you to both of you. These two shareholders present today, holding the largest number of votes, have on a prior basis accepted the post of scrutineers, and we would like to thank them for doing so. Mr. Eduardo Coutinho, on my left, who is the chief legal officer of the group and member of our ELT, our executive leadership team, is also the secretary of the meeting. We've the pleasure to welcome the members of our board of directors, Mr. Philippe Sallé, who is Vice-Chair and Lead Independent Director. In the room we have Ms. Anne-France Laclide-Drouin, Ms. Colette Lewiner, Mr. Michael Daly, Ms. Amélie Oyarzabal, and Mr. Mario Ruscev.
Mr. Olivier Jouve unfortunately couldn't join us here today. He is attending the meeting thanks to the internet, thanks to the webcast. We also have members of our executive leadership team, Mr. Henning Berg, director of operations, the Chief Operations Officer, who is the candidate to the post of board member and future CEO, with Ms. Emma Muller, who is in charge of human resources, Mr. Emmanuel Odin, who's in charge of sustainability, and Mr. Jérôme Serve, who is the CFO. We'd like to also thank our statutory auditors, Deloitte et Associés, represented by Mr. Emmanuel Odin, and BDO Paris, represented by Mr. Eric Picarle, who will present their work on behalf of the joint auditors later on at this meeting. As the committee has been set up, I'd like to formally open our session.
I'd like to inform you that we have looked at the attendance sheet, and the number of shareholders present, represented, or who have voted by correspondence represent, in the current state of our count, a total of 7,216,212 voting rights. That is 52.79% of shares with voting rights. We'll give you the definitive figure before we vote upon the resolutions. The quorum of 25% required for a combined general meeting is therefore achieved. In preparing this combined general meeting and in line with legal requirements, a prior notice of meeting was published in the BALO official gazette on the 17th of April 2026. The combined general meeting was convened through a notice published in the BALO and in lesechos.fr on the 13th of May 2026. We are duly convened. On our desk here, we have all of the documents for the meeting that are required by law.
These documents were published on our website and were made available to the shareholders at the head office of the company within the legally required deadlines. I'd like to also inform you that we did not receive any written questions or any request to incorporate any other draft resolutions apart from the ones that have been published, or items on the agenda. The first part of the meeting will be the presentation of the business activities and the financial results for 2025, and then we'll give you some insight into the first quarter results for 2026 and the prospects for the group for the coming year. Our statutory auditors will make their report. We will then do an update on governance with a presentation of the composition of our board of directors and its committees.
Finally, we'll present the main items of the compensation policies for the corporate officers for 2026. Like every year, we'll also give you the floor yourselves, of course, during the Q&A session before we have the poll on the resolutions. I'd like to now review our operational and financial performance in 2025. I'll look at Q1 of 2026 and the prospects going forward, the outlook for the company. Viridien is now a company that's a high-tech company in the area of Geoscience. We're a leader in our three core businesses. That is Geoscience, Earth Data, and Sensing & Monitoring. Our solutions that we offer to our clients are mission-critical to meet the complex challenges connected with natural resources, also connected with the energy transition and their infrastructures. We manage to leverage on our expertise so as to gradually develop in adjacent markets.
The markets you see on the screen here, low carbon, HPC, high performance computing, and structural health monitoring. We are a class leader in terms of ESG in our sector. We have high ambitions. We cover all the aspects of E, S, and G, and we're acknowledged by rating agencies in those regards. Here are some items of interest, especially carbon emissions. We've committed by 2050 to be carbon neutral. In the meantime, we've set ourselves interim objectives, and in 2025, we already reduced by 83% our CO2 emissions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 compared to 2019, which was the baseline. The other metrics you see here are the number of female members in management posts and 26.8% was the figure in 2025, as you can see. When it comes to employees, we have 3,136 people in our organization.
The bulk of our headcount in Geoscience and Sensing & Monitoring. Geographically speaking, we have a big footprint in France and in the U.K. too, and then in North America we have quite a lot of staff too. We have a 70/30 breakdown concerning the female members of our staff. Let's review the operations next. Here's a summary of the performance for fiscal 2025. It was a fine step along the way in our transition towards our three core businesses that are quite differentiated. The asset-light business model that we committed to in 2018 that has now finally been set up in 2025 with the full exiting from the commitments connected to the vessels. It was an important step along the way in our financial transformation because we refinanced successfully our bond debt, and we pushed back the maturity date to 2030.
We also generated a positive cash flow of $107 million. The objective was $100 million. We overshot it. Our revenue figure, up by 4% over the period of a year, supported by our Geoscience activities that put in a sound performance, also defended by a business model that's quite differentiated. When it comes to our Earth Data library, we did very well. In terms of Sensing & Monitoring, well, we were slightly down. When it comes to profitability, the EBITDA exceeded $550 million worth, the net income progressed by 40% in one year. We've already talked about the $107 million of cash, that reflects in particular this transition towards an asset-light model and our new modus operandi, enabling us to project ourselves into a future where we will generate a recurring positive cash flow.
In line with our commitments, all of this cash generated was devoted to driving down our debt deleveraging. You have more detailed information on the next slide coming up. The refinancing that we did in March helped us to drive down our gross debt by $230 million on a like for like basis, Forex wise, in 2025. I'll now review quickly each of our core businesses. We start off with Geoscience. Fine growth in 2025, the third year running where we post growth. This business is driven by our differentiation, in particular in our three core businesses, the U.S. Gulf, Brazil, and Norway. We're developing also, by the way, in other geographies, especially in the Mideast. This is a long-haul piece of work, of course, to develop there, but we achieved fine results last year, especially a positive momentum in Abu Dhabi and in Saudi Arabia.
Here we see productivity gains measured by the total production per employee, which is continuing to go up year in, year out. That's connected with the growing use of our computing capabilities and also the fact that our algorithms are being developed very well, too. You'll see these results being reflected in improved profitability too, of course. Here we sum up the reasons why this business model for Geoscience is quite differentiated. It's subsurface imaging and the activity in the seismic and geophysical value chain that differentiates us the most. We have highly competent people, we're innovating the whole time, and we've got technological resources that are quite substantial, especially when it comes to computing capabilities. That is a big entry barrier for others. Our model is underpinned by these two pillars. We have the expertise and the people dimension.
We are loyalizing the best experts around the world working for us, we have a culture of excellence and a service-focused culture, the kind of profile that we recruit are PhDs very often, and particularly in physics. By nature, they're people who are really focused on resolving problems and on problem-solving. They work with our clients hand in hand so as to try to continuously bring technology forward. The second main pillar of our model is our expertise in algorithms and in high-performance computing, HPC. At the end of 2025, we had 700 petaflops of computing capacity. That's being increased every year. Our model is to increase our capacity the whole time continuously. We decided in 2025 to widen our infrastructure in the U.S. so as to continue to grow that computing capacity.
Finally, it's important to recall, too, you see this on the right-hand graph, that we are part of development and production a lot, and we're not just exposed to exploration as was the case at the start of the company. We're pretty balanced in the value chain in exploration and production, and we work for all the different clients. That gives us a market share that is greater than 50% globally in that sector of Geoscience. If we move on now to the Earth Data part of the business, I didn't comment on the revenues of Geoscience, $ 440, I think it was, from memory. Here we see the revenue figure was up by 6%, $406 million. That growth was driven by demand for our data library, especially in our key basins. That's the U.S. Gulf, Brazil, and Norway.
There's another effect that is the consolidation of the clients on the market. When there's consolidation going on in the industry, there are data transfer costs from one client to another, and we had several of those consolidation transactions last year, and that generated revenues for us. At the end of 2025, the net book value of our data library was $414 million, and you'll see the breakdown of that book value here in the key basins as it breaks down into the key basins here on the slide. This is a young data library, by the way. Here we wanted to present the general strategy that we adopted in the last few years so as to continue developing this business. There are three main strands.
We have the data library I mentioned, we're continuing to refresh it and extract more value from it, from the data that we have already, by investing 10%-15% of our annual CapEx spend, $200 million, to bring an added value thanks to the most recent technologies in Geoscience. Here we have clients interested in re-imaging processes. Last year, we did it for a Norwegian client, NVG South, also in Côte d'Ivoire, re-imaging for clients that requires minimum expenditure on our side. Another focus is to bolster our presence in the key basins. We have a big footprint, we're investing further in the legacy data. The existing data has between two-thirds and 80%, last year was about 80%, of our total figure. We have Laconia OBN in the U.S. Gulf, we have Utsira North OBN in Norway.
OBN, it's ocean-bed nodes on the ocean bed. These are more advanced technologies that clients are looking for these days, so as to better understand what's going on in the subsurface and invest in a more focused, efficient way. The last strand is to position ourselves as of now in the upcoming emerging key basins. We've got to identify them and invest in a modest way so as to adopt a stance, adopt a position. We do it through the re-imaging, maybe of public data or making moderate investments in partnerships. Here we've listed some investments last year in Malaysia and in the equatorial margin, as it's called in Brazil. Next, we'll move on perhaps to Sensing & Monitoring, which was down by 5%, that's the revenues at least, in 2025. What you see is it's nuanced.
We have onshore that's more or less stable thanks to a very broad installed base. Onshore, fairly stable, fairly flat, and marine going down. As we've seen in latter years, the revenue figure has been going down, and that continued in 2025. If you look at our strategy when it comes to Sensing & Monitoring, when it comes to exploration and production, our core business representing 80% of the revenue figure for S&M last year, well, it's really driven by our installed base with a market share of about 50% globally. Thanks to that installed base, we have this recurring business. We're trying to develop services around these products that we sell. That represented 15%, roughly, of the 80% that I mentioned of the core business revenues.
We're continuing to invest about $30 million per year in R&D as well, so as to target future developments, so as to bring in new technologies and innovations to the market the whole time. Last year, we rolled out what we call Accel, which is an onshore node technology. For our customers that are service companies, it'll give them operational gains of about 30%, so it's very worthwhile for them. We started in 2026 to do our first sales of the Accel technology. We also want to step into new markets. In our three business areas, that's the business of course. This particular business, S&M, is the one with the most new business. With 20%, that's structural health monitoring that posted good growth that will continue growing in 2026 going forward. The third strand in our strategy
It's to bring down the break-even point. We embarked in 2024 on the plan for two years, a two-year plan to bring down the break-even point. It's to bring down our fixed cost by about $30 million and to free up $60 million of working capital requirement. Thanks to all this action that we've been taking, we brought down the break-even point so as to be capable of remaining in the positive and generate cash in respect of revenues that will be the lowest we'll have seen in the last 10 years.
Let's have a look at the financial statements and figures. Remember, sales. Next slide, please. EUR 1.17 billion in terms of sales up by 4% with two different types of trends for Data, Digital & Energy Transition, Geoscience and Earth Data up 8%.
This is driven by our technological differentiation and Sensing & Monitoring down by 5%. Next slide, please. If you look at profitability impact, profitability has increased significantly EUR 551 million in terms of EBITDA, a 21% increase versus last year, and the margin is standing at 47%. If you look at our three core businesses, the EBITDA margins are different. Data, Digital & Energy Transition posted a high EBITDA margin. Remember when we talked about growth for DDE, and this segment contributed quite a lot on the EBITDA margin. Beyond that, it was generated by the increase of the sales by 4% and the productivity gains that we touched upon earlier for Geoscience. Why? Because we've been using our computing capabilities to automate our algorithms. The third dimension, we haven't paid any penalties connected with the vessels and ships.
For those who've been following our company for quite a long time, we paid high fees in 2023, in 2024, and in 2025. We didn't have to incur this cost, bear witness the result of EBITDA. There's another dimension that is less conspicuous for the shareholders. We've continued to work on the overheads of our company, and we lowered down these central costs from EUR 38 million to EUR 28 million, and we've managed to handle our costs. The currency exchange rate was favorable, not favorable. In fact, the dollar depreciated and the euro increased. In dollar terms, we've managed to reduce the corporate costs. We are a French company, so I need to show you the IFRS figures on the understanding that we consider that the figures of business activities on which we communicate, these are the figures that better mirror our business activities.
The difference between the IFRS figures and the method being used for the business activities, including Earth Data. There are lots of projects that we acknowledged when the projects move ahead. This does reflect the cash flow figures, the billing figures, and the savings made with these products. With IFRS, you cannot acknowledge these projects when the projects end. There are some distortions. Last year, we had lots of ongoing projects that were not finished, and these projects will be completed this year. There was a negative impact on IFRS. Despite this situation, the net income has increased by 40% in order to reach $71 million. The global cost of debt is stable. If you look at the other financial expenses, they do reflect non-recurring costs connected with the refunding of our debts, especially bonuses that we had to pay.
You had to consider the currency effect that was not favorable, having an impact on this business line. For the cash flow now. Better margins, better results. Cash generation has increased, and this is the main financial indicator that we've used for the results. $107 million in terms of cash flow generation, overshooting our objectives to which $100 million in 2024, we generated $56 million. The two main factors that are instrumental in this increase is EBITDA, but we've made some low investments regarding data, Earth Data library, EUR 250 million last this year and $200 million this year. These positive elements were offset by a negative variation of the working capital requirements and other items and the impact of debt refinancing.
What you see here on this table, you can see the profile of a company, the brand new profile of a company whereby we can improve cash generation in a significant fashion and in a sustainable way. To end my presentation, let's talk about the debt. Over the past two years, we've managed the balance sheet very stringently, we want to reduce the funding cost, and we want to beef up the risk profile of the group. On a like-for-like basis, over the past two years, we've managed to reduce the debt, EUR 230 million, and it is $849 million. In 2025, we embark upon two major actions, debt refunding or refinancing in March, with a maturity date that has been postponed to 2030. We used part of the available cash to dwindle the debt amount that we've refinanced. Second, we've continued our path.
We had to redeem our debts. We had to deleverage in line with the commitments that we made. We used the cash that was generated during the year so we can reduce the financial expenses. This is a very virtuous circle, and now we have more cash so as to deleverage. One of the key indicators and visible indicators of this improvement is the leverage ratio from 2.6-1.6 times, and we want to improve that ratio. Regarding the Q1 results, when we presented the 2025 results, we said that the start of the year wouldn't start very well. That's still the case. If you look at the situation, the customers made their budget in 2025, had anticipated a drop in the oil price, and hence a drop in their revenues for part of 2025. The start of the year was quite cautious for them.
There were some tensions in the Middle East that emerged, the energy markets are more volatile, the customers are more cautious and especially in terms of decision-making. In the first quarter, we generated sales worth $214 million, the profitability is in line with the sales and earnings. What is important is that we've managed to get a positive cash flow to the tune of $26 million as against -$20 million last year. We used $41 million of our cash in order to deleverage for the first quarter. Let's have a look at the outlook, what the future has in store for us. The war in the Middle East has reinforced our beliefs. Security issues are pivotal. Energy supplies is also a key, you need to take into account the diversity of our portfolio.
You have lots of customers turning to Africa, turning to Asia, it's important to have a structurally positive market. The price of a barrel is above $90 as against $60 late last year. In the midterm, this structural rise in oil and gas prices, together with our diversification policy for supplies, there's also a need to reinforce reserves in order to meet the needs of demand for gas, all this will bolster the investments in our sector, especially for the offshore part, we are extremely exposed to that. For Viridien, this situation is extremely positive and favorable because we will be in a position to support, underpin data, subsurface data, technological data. We'll be able to better understand the subsurface. The offshore basins are complex. These are deepwater. Business activities are quite expensive.
If you can get as much information as possible of a situation, this is pivotal for our customers. All our customers are exploration companies. Production companies are getting prepared to invest in exploration, in frontier exploration, something that we've seen in their financial publications over the past few months. Frontier exploration is key, but it's a matter of optimizing the production of the existing fields, and access to high-caliber imaging is absolutely critical for these projects to be successful. If you look at the first quarter, it's been sluggish, but this does reflect the expenses of our customers. In the second part of the year, we'll be able to catch up. In the first quarter, we confirmed our target for cash generation worth $100 million, and the seasonality is historic and comparable to that we observed last year.
To end my presentation, we are very confident about Viridien's position as part of the industry and we have a key role to play, a long-term player, in order to support the customers. Much for the results of the operational figures. Shareholding, there's a piece of good news. There are lots of good news regarding the shareholding base. Individual investors represent 70%. Individual investors have continued to represent a significant proportion, to the tune of 30%, but this figure is down by 10 percentage points year-on-year for the institutional investors, 70%, with 16% of funds based in North America. A lot of diversity, 26% in the U.K. and 16% in France. We have leading French and international asset management firms. They've acquired stakes in the company, including Janus Henderson, Schroders, AXA IM, Amundi, and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations.
The Consignment and Deposit Office now invite the auditors to present their work and reports for the financial year 2025.
Thank you, Chair. Dear shareholders, on behalf of the statutory auditors, Deloitte et Associés and BDO Paris, I will report to you on the performance of our duties for the 2025 financial year. We've issued four reports to assist you in forming your judgment when voting on the resolutions.
Three reports relating to the ordinary general meeting. These reports cover the financial statements and related party agreements and one report relating to the extraordinary general meeting. This report is required by law in connection with the proposed delegations of authority of powers to your board of directors to carry out operations. Finally, BDO Paris issued an additional report on the certification of sustainability information, it is not subject to approval by the general meeting. We are not going to look at them in detail, let's have a look at the key points and conclusions. As part of the ordinary general meeting, I will present the report on the annual and consolidated financial statements, as well as the special report on related party agreements. The financial statements were approved by your board of directors on February 26, 2026.
For this meeting, we issue reports on the audit of the group's consolidated financial statements and the parent company's annual financial statements as of December 31st. Pages 315 - 318 and 354 and 357 of the universal registration document. Our work is designed to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements presented to you are regular and fair, in accordance with French accounting rules and principles, and that they give a true and fair view of the company's results, financial position, and assets. Our reports on the consolidated and financial statements also highlight the key audit matters, the areas we considered to be the most significant in the audit of the original financial statements. For the consolidated financial statement, the key audit matters relate to the valuation of goodwill and of data studies.
For the statutory financial statement, the key audit matter concerns the valuation of equity investments and related receivables recorded on the company's balance sheet. All of the work and conclusions were regularly discussed with the group's audit committee and its board of directors. In conclusion, having obtained the necessary evidence to fulfill our engagement, we issued an unqualified opinion on both the parent company's annual financial statements and the group's consolidated financial statements. You will note that a technical emphasis was included in our report on the annual financial statement regarding a charge in accounting method resulting from the application of ANC regulation. Still within the ordinary general meeting, we issued a report on related party agreements. This report states that we were not informed of any agreements subject to approval by the general meeting, nor of any previously approved agreements that continued during the period.
As part of the extraordinary general meeting, with respect to the resolutions relating to the company's share capital presented in the extraordinary section of the meeting, we issued a report which is available on the company's website, and this report covers the proposed authorization to grant existing or newly issued free shares. Our procedures notably included reviewing the content of the board of directors' report on these transactions and assessing the proposed arrangements in light of the applicable legal provisions. We have no comments to make on either the terms of the transactions or the information provided in the board of directors' report. Ladies and gentlemen, Madam Chair, thank you for your attention.
Thank you, auditors, for your presentation. Philippe Sallé will present you with the latest development regarding the governance of the company.
Thank you, Sophie. Hello, everyone. Good morning to all of you. I would like to mention again here a major decision made by the Board of Directors, which is fully in line with the group's principles of good governance, namely the return of a decoupled governance structure. Following the end of Sophie Zurquiyah's term of office, during which she held the dual roles of Chair and Chief Executive Officer, the Board of Directors decided to reinstate a separation of roles commensurate with its commitments last year. Sophie Zurquiyah will step down today from her role as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and will henceforth serve solely as Chairman of the Board of Directors, subject to the renewal of her term of office as a director by this General Meeting.
Henning Berg, who is here, whose appointment as a Director is also being put to the vote at today's meeting, will be appointed Chief Executive Officer by the Board of Directors, which will meet in the wake of this meeting. As for me, I will continue to serve as Lead Director and Vice Chair of the Board in order to ensure a balance of power. The Board of Directors comprises eight Directors. During the 2025 financial year, the board met on nine occasions with an attendance rate of 100%. One meeting was devoted entirely to the group strategy, with a particular focus on new business ventures. Page 34, please.
In addition to reviewing the accounts and risks associated with Viridien's activities, the board, during the past financial year, continued its debt reduction policy, proceeding with the early refinancing of its bonds, and the issue attracted keen interest from national and international investors. The board also approved the sale of part of the gauges business, which forms part of S&M's restructuring action plan initiated in 2024. Finally, following the recommendation of a nomination, remuneration, and governance committee, the board appointed a new Chief Executive Officer whilst ensuring continuity in governance. Furthermore, we would like to remind you that in accordance with AFEP code, the board held one executive session last December, i.e., without the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer present. This session enabled the board to discuss, in particular, the governance structure and the performance and objectives of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Viridien.
With regard to its composition, the board of directors fulfilled its commitments in terms of diversity during the 2025 financial year. It comprises 50% women, 87.5% independent directors, well above the 50% threshold recommended by the AFEP code. Our board also comprises members of three nationalities, French, American, and British. The average age of directors is approximately 64. Furthermore, board members possess a wide range of expertise in areas of fundamental significance to the group, namely energy, innovation, digitalization, technology, IT, and strategy. The board has established four committees reporting directly to it. The audit and risk management committee chaired by Mrs Anne-France Laclide-Drouin. This committee met six times in 2025 with an attendance rate of 100%. We have the remuneration, appointment, and governance committee under Colette Lewiner, who chairs it. This committee met seven times last year with an attendance rate of 96%.
We have the Sustainability Committee that I chair myself. This committee met three times in 2025 with an attendance rate of 83%. Finally, we have a new committee, which is called the New Business and M&A Committee, chaired by Mr. Michael Daly. This committee met three times in 2025 with an attendance rate of 100%. Finally, as I said, there's also a joint session held between the Sustainability Committee and the Audit and Risk Management Committee. That meeting was held in February 2026 concerning sustainability reporting. That's everything to do with CSRD. I'd like at this stage to review with you the candidates proposed for renewal or re-election or appointment to the Board. We have the Board at the recommendation of the Remuneration, Appointment, and Governance Committee, which proposes to renew the term of office of Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah for a period of four years.
That is until the end of the general meeting in 2030 that'll be approving the accounts of the previous year. Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah has been a board member of the company since 2018. As you know, she was CEO since 2018 and was Chairman and CEO since the 30th of April 2025 up to this meeting here today. She's 59 years of age. She's of French and U.S. nationality. She has 8,592 Viridien shares. Her attendance rate at the meetings of the board is 100%. Apart from her post in Viridien, Ms. Zurquiyah is also a board member of TechnipFMC, a listed U.S. company. Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah, if she is renewed in office by this meeting, will be appointed Chairperson of the Board of Directors.
The board of directors, at the recommendation also of the Remuneration, Appointment, and Governance Committee, proposes the appointment of Mr. Henning Berg as a board member of Viridien, also for a period of four years. That is until the end of the general meeting in 2030 that will be asked to approve the accounts of the previous financial year. Mr. Henning Berg is 54 years of age. He's of Norwegian nationality. He is COO since the 3rd of March 2026 and was appointed CEO of Viridien by the board, which will be held today following this meeting. Mr. Henning Berg has longstanding experience of 25 years or more in the oil and gas sector. All of his career was within Schlumberger, SLB, where he occupied several management posts within different operating units. With the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Henning Berg here with us.
He's here in the front row, and I'd like to ask him to come and introduce himself to you. Henning, if you'd like to take the floor and give us an introduction of yourself. Henning will, of course, speak in English.
Thank you.
Which is better than Norwegian, probably.
It's better than Norwegian. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, and dear directors. My name is Henning Berg. I spent the last 27 years in the energy industry, having a variety of leadership positions within SLB across the globe. It's both a privilege and an honor to address you today and to ask for your support as I stand for election to the board of directors and to prepare to assume the role of Chief Executive Officer of Viridien. I joined the group three months ago to ensure we had a smooth transition and to gain a deep understanding of our business, our people, and our markets. During this period, I have had the opportunity to meet many employees, customers, partners, and investors as well.
These discussions have only strengthened my conviction that Viridien possesses exceptional strengths, world-class talents, recognized technology expertise, strong customer relationships, and a unique position in the markets we serve. As I prepare to take on the new responsibilities, I would first like to acknowledge the remarkable work accomplished by my predecessor, Sophie, and by all the teams in the group. Their commitment, expertise, and dedication has built a strong foundation of which we'll continue to develop the company. My priorities are straightforward: to build on these strengths, further reinforce our leadership position, continue executing our technology differentiated and asset-light strategy with discipline, and create sustainable value for our shareholders. Maintaining a strong balance sheet and continuing our deleveraging efforts will remain a priority. While every leadership transition naturally brings fresh perspectives, continuity also matters. The strategic direction of the company remains clear and unchanged.
I firmly believe the long-term performance is built on innovation, quality of products and services, operational excellence, and financial discipline. These principles are deeply embedded within Viridien and will continue to guide our actions. Finally, I attach great importance to maintaining an open and transparent dialogue with all stakeholders, and especially with our shareholders. Trust is earned through consistency, clarity, and execution, and I'm fully committed to preserve and strengthen that trust. I'm delighted to see you here today and look forward to meeting many of you in the months ahead. I'm excited to take on this responsibility and grateful for the trust that you are placing in me as we embark on the next chapter of Viridien's development. Thank you for your confidence.
Thank you, Henning. Thank you, Henning. Thank you very much. I give the floor now to Eduardo, who is our Chief Legal Officer in the group, who will present the main items concerning the compensation, the remuneration of our corporate officers.
Thank you, Philippe. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. I'd like to, first of all, review together the items making up the remuneration of the corporate officers, starting off by the items paid to the Chairman of the Board in 2025. Mr. Philippe Sallé was Chairman of the Board from the 1st of January to the 30th of April 2025. His remuneration was therefore paid to him on a pro rata basis. In respect of his ex-post remuneration that is in respect of fiscal 2025, the amounts paid or allocated are in line with the policy approved by the shareholders meeting in 2025 and were paid out on a pro rata basis.
That is EUR 56,668 as fixed components and EUR 23,333 variable compensation. Concerning the other items of his compensation, the chairman of the board is eligible for the general protection and health scheme, and he has a company car but did not avail of that. Let's move on now to the ex-post remuneration of the CEO for 2025. Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah was CEO from the 1st of January to the 30th of April 2025. Her remuneration was therefore paid on a pro rata basis as a consequence of that, and is in line with the policy approved by the shareholders in 2025. Ms. Zurquiyah therefore received, on a pro rata basis, fixed remuneration for her period when she was CEO of EUR 226,800.
The board of directors, on the recommendation by the Remuneration and Appointment and Governance Committee, evaluated the amount on a pro rata basis of the variable annual remuneration as being EUR 293,964 for 2025, on the basis of a general achievement rate of objectives of 129.62%. It was decided that concerning the long-term incentives, long-term remuneration that is currently being vested, Ms. Zurquiyah would avail of vesting on a pro rata basis for the plans in 2024 and 2025. Let's now move on to the ex-post remuneration of the Chairman CEO for 2025. Ms. Zurquiyah has been Chairman CEO from April 30th, 2025 onwards. Her remuneration was therefore paid out on a pro rata basis as a consequence of that.
Concerning the components of remuneration paid or allocated to the Chairman and CEO in respect of 2025, these are in line with the policy approved by the shareholders in 2025. The board of directors on the recommendation of the Remuneration, Appointment, and Governance Committee, apart from the payment of a fixed remuneration on a pro rata basis of EUR 503,600, has evaluated the pro rata basis of the amount of annual variable compensation at EUR 652,736 for 2025, on the basis of a total achievement rate of objectives of 129.62%. In addition, Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah was allocated 10,000 shares in 2025, and the definitive vesting will be done on a pro rata basis subjected to performance conditions. The vesting period of these components of remuneration is three years.
Concerning the ex-ante remuneration policy of the Chairman CEO for 2026, this will be applicable to Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah for the period between the 1st of January to the 3rd of June 2026. This provides for the maintaining of an annual fixed compensation of EUR 755,400 paid out on the pro rata basis. Concerning the annual variable portion, the principles remain unchanged. The target is 100% of fixed remuneration, with two-thirds of financial objectives and one-third of non-financial objectives. For the financial objectives, the criteria are as follows: the net cash flow of the group, the free EBITDA, and the external revenues of the activities of the group.
The non-financial objectives are focused on the following 3 points: the strategic plans of the group for the new businesses, the management of the commercial and operational performance of the group, and of the human resources in Viridien, and also the social, environmental, and governance responsibility of the group. Finally, in respect of 2026, another criterion has been introduced so as to vouchsafe a successful transition between Ms. Zurquiyah, current Chairman CEO, and Mr. Henning Berg, the future CEO. The compensation policy of the Chairman CEO provides for a vesting on the pro rata basis of the long-term remuneration plans for 2024 and 2025 and does not provide for any long-term remuneration for fiscal 2026.
The remuneration policy for the Chairman CEO comprises other benefits such as a company car, a general protection and health scheme, also a supplementary pension scheme, an international medical insurance policy, senior manager unemployment guarantee and severance pay and non-compete commitment. Concerning the ex-ante remuneration policy of the Chairman of the Board for 2026, this will be applicable to Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah for the period between the 3rd of June and the 31st of December 2026. This policy provides now for only fixed remuneration for the Chairman of the Board, which is an amount of EUR 350,000 per year, which will be calculated on a pro rata basis. The proposal to increase the remuneration of the Chairman, unchanged since 2018, is underpinned on service done on comparable remunerations and also takes account of the previous functions as Chairman CEO, which were fulfilled by Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah.
This adjustment reflects also the widening of the responsibilities connected with the transition process for the CEO, because Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah will have to fulfill a reinforced role in an advisory capacity and a support capacity for the transition for our new CEO, who will, for the first time, become the CEO of a listed company. Finally, it's planned too that Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah will retain her current benefits as Chairman CEO, especially the international medical insurance policy and the company car. Concerning the ex-ante remuneration policy of the CEO for the fiscal year 2026, this will be applicable to Mr. Henning Berg for the period between the 3rd of June and the 31st of December 2026. It provides for an annual fixed compensation of EUR 650,000 paid out on a pro rata basis. Concerning the annual variable portion, the principles remain unchanged.
That is, the target is 100% of the remuneration, the fixed remuneration, with two-thirds of financial objectives and one-third of non-financial objectives. For the financial objectives, there are three criteria: the net cash flow of the group, the free EBITDA, and the external revenues of the group's business activities. The non-financial objectives are based on the following points: strategic plans of the group and for the new businesses, the management of the commercial and operational performance of the group and of the human resources of the group, the social, environmental, and governance responsibility of the group. Finally, in respect of 2026, another new criteria has been added in so as to guarantee a successful transition between Ms. Zurquiyah, current CEO, and Mr. Henning Berg, the future CEO.
Concerning the long-term variable remuneration, this remains conditional on certain basic elements concerning the growth of the stock price of Viridien compared with the relative trend of an index composed of a group of peers, the revenues of the new activities that we call Beyond the Core, the average net debt over EBITDAs, and the ESG performance of the company. The vesting period and appreciation period for the performance conditions for this long-term remuneration will be three years. The remuneration policy of the CEO also comprises other benefits, including a company car, a general scheme for protection and health, also supplemental pension, an international medical insurance policy, senior manager unemployment guarantee, severance, indemnity clause, and a non-compete commitment. The CEO will also receive an allocation for housing of a total amount of EUR 70,000 paid out on a pro rata basis.
Concerning the remuneration policy applicable to the board members in 2026, the total annual package is maintained at EUR 550,000, unchanged since 2020. The rules for the breakdown of the remuneration of the board members, there will be a fixed portion representing one-third and a variable portion, which will be preponderant, representing two-thirds, identical to 2025. This policy provides for a revision of the remuneration, fixed and variable, with an increase ±10%, indicated in pink on the screen. That's an increase of roughly 10%, as you see on the screen.
I give the floor back to Ms. Zurquiyah now.
Thank you, Eduardo, for this presentation. I think at this point we'll open the debate. We'll have a Q&A session. Before giving the floor to our shareholders, I'd like to recall that in line with the regulations in force, our meeting is being webcast. The recording will then be available as a replay on our website. When you take the floor, you may or may not give your name. You do not have to. You will not be filmed. We will only hear your voice and record your voice, that is. We will now open the Q&A session, the question and answer session.
Yes. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning, everybody. I asked for a paper document when I came into the meeting, and they couldn't give me one, and I can't work on a tablet like that. I take notes, I do percentages, and I do mental arithmetic, and I write down some of my sums. As to be able to advise my clients what to buy into their portfolio. I miss the paper that I like to work on at the meeting, during the meeting.
I'd like to have paper documents available so we can do our job properly, please. I see you've presented your figures as per your business figures, as opposed to IFRS, the IFRS standards, which would be more conservative. When the IFRS figures get better, I assume that your business figures won't be presented anymore. It'll be the IFRS figures. My question concerns the income, the results, financial results. Having a quick look at this tablet, it seems to me that your results stem from a drop in the amortization representing EUR 90 million or so. The income, the result for 2025, the earnings would be less than what we had in 2024. Could you give us some details on that, please? Thank you.
Thank you for your comments that we will take on board. Regarding the results.
I talked about the increase in the performance that is indeed connected, of course, with an increase in our revenues, more productivity as well, and we have boosted our margins in general and we've had cost reductions. Our CFO is with us. He can add further comments if needed.
Well, the net income, as you've seen, is presented as per IFRS requirements. Our income as per IFRS, especially from the data library, it's less substantial than what we had in 2024. The library is depreciated over four years, amortized over four years or depreciated over four years. With the lesser income, the amortization is lesser too. That is hopefully an explanation. We have an obligation to present things in a certain way. The IFRS results are presented every quarter and every year. There's no issue on that.
It's just that it's less interesting to really take the pulse of Viridien's business volume, business activity. If you do segment analysis, you'll see we're really closer to reality. We present both. We do present both.
I'd like to first of all thank you, madam, for the work you've put in and congratulate you and congratulate Mr. Henning Berg. I would wish Mr. Henning Berg the best going forward. You continue along the same lines as you said. I have a question on Sensing & Monitoring, S&M. It's hard to really understand with the current geostrategic context we have in this world. You haven't mentioned it much. Could you tell us more about how you're doing in that respect?
The market is a niche market, a restricted market that's gone down over the last few years. You'll recall that in Sensing & Monitoring, we're selling to service companies, the ones who acquire seismic data. The activity we exit from, the vessels and the onshore activities, and we provide services to them. Those service providers provide services to the end users who are the exploration and production companies. We're in the second line, so to speak compared to the end user, the end client. When the markets are complicated or they find it hard to project themselves into a positive long-term dynamic, well, those companies in the middle stop buying in CapEx. We sell equipment. That's CapEx for them, though. At times like this, they don't do that so much. The context is the acquisition of data is fairly depressed, and these service companies don't buy much equipment these days.
If you look at the different subsets, marine, the streamers of the ships are 12 years old, and these streamers haven't been renewed for quite a long time. Remember, in 2014, there was a bullish trend, and this is a trend that we haven't experienced. In fact, we have to deal with the sluggish revenues and the margins that are not too high. Cash generation is poor. In the end, we'll start to foster the sales of CapEx when the companies will cast a future-oriented eye, taking into account their momentum. Regarding the marine part, we made the most with equipment, with sensors being sold to the Chinese companies for Middle East operations. We are facing some headwind regarding that topic. Once everybody is equipped, you are dealing with a kind of recurring market. For Earth business activities, the installed base is very broad.
That's why we managed to bolster our operations at a time when the market is not really buoyant in terms of acquisitions. We think that the situation will improve. We are in a positive cycle, but these companies will have to cast a future-oriented eye regarding their long-term strategy. We've expanded many efforts in terms of diversification in this business that we took over two companies over past years.
Hi. Hello. I'm here. Okay. Different questions, I mean, to put to you. We have secured a foothold in China. What do we do in China? We have two subsidiaries, one fully owned, one 50% owned. China has a reputation for adopting a hard stance with the foreign companies. We've been profitable. There are fewer shares than in the past because these shares have been pooled. I wish we could have voted for a symbolic nominal dividend of EUR 0.01 of dividend. It's less than EUR 80,000 in terms of cash being consumed or used.
Regarding the economic situation, when do you think that when all companies will. Contracts again, have in mind the two French companies, the two oil companies, Total and Prom. Total said, We've reduced our costs drastically, but we can open the floodgates, says Total. We have more margins, as it were. Maurel & Prom, they have a different stance. We would like to buy some assets. We are focusing on Venezuela because there are some contracts over there, but it's a little bit expensive, so we won't invest now. This is their position. Other questions as well.
Of course. Thank you for the three questions. As regards China, indeed, we have two entities, a fully owned Viridien company. We are working on Geoscience-related activities, and we also sell equipment, sensing, and monitoring equipment. The other entity, 51%, this is a joint venture within Sensing & Monitoring business activity, and the objective is to make equipment in China.
We make a subset of equipment in China for the international market, and we are very happy with our business activities in China. It's a joint venture that was established more than 20 years ago. In addition to that, this joint venture works well, but the Chinese market is different to the other markets. Why? Because we are dealing with some customers who are eager to acquire technologies that are less interested in services. Geoscience and services business activities are quite modest. We sell our software, our imaging software. Once again, there's a rational acquisition of technologies. We are selling software so that they can use them, and we sell a lot of equipment to the tune of 20% or 30% of the revenues of Sensing & Monitoring with China.
If you look at this equipment, they are made in China or in other international countries, especially in Middle Eastern countries. Much for China. Now, allow me to talk about shares and dividends. We have a clear stance. In order to deliver some value to the shareholders is to curtail our debt to leverage. If you take into account the fixed corporate value, when you reduce debt, it will be converted into an equity. At the end of the day, you will make some money when we redeem our debt. As regards dividends, we will look at the situation when the leverage level is deemed to be acceptable in line with the risk profiles of a company. We will be dealing with that at a later stage. Regarding the customers, you talked about Maurel & Prom. You talked about Maurel & Prom and TotalEnergies.
I started to talk about Maurel & Prom. We don't work with them because of their assets. They are focusing on Earth assets, and they are geared towards Africa, and we would like to work with them, but they are not in our targets. For TotalEnergies, we've been working with them. Globally, they said that they are more open-minded to the increase in CapEx, so the addressable market. This is the CapEx of exploration and production companies. This is what they said, but things do not move a lot. Capital discipline is pivotal, and the budgets have increased by a few percentage points a year. When we put the question to them following the cash generation that is a result of the rising oil barrels, so they told us that they will be very disciplined regarding capital allocation.
In 2016 and up to the COVID years, some of them faced existential threats, so they don't want to be in this situation again. Capital discipline is key to them. We'll see what the future has in store. In 2026, we don't expect any increase in expenses.
Another question that I would like to put to you. The Brent crude oil, EUR 100 a barrel. What's going to happen if the barrel is EUR 50 a barrel? What will be the impact on your revenues and sales if this situation does materialize, especially in the light of the conflicts in the Middle East?
There are different scenarios. First scenario, the barrel of oil might be down once the situation has been stabilized, but we need to be ready.
Just a reminder, regarding the asset-light strategy, there was an objective to be flexible in order to cater for the major market variations, something that we experienced in 2015 and in 2016 as well. There was a kind of de-correlation. With COVID, the situation was tough, but our customers de-correlated their spending from the price of a barrel. The break-even point was very low, $30 million, $40 million, above $50 million, our customers feel comfortable. What does it mean? That they are comfortable, they are able to invest in their operations. They can have a correct CapEx level to maintain production, and they are in a position to give value back to the shareholders, dividends or share buyback programs. If you look at the budget of customers, the barrel of oil was about $50 or $60.
If it were to be the case in the future, there might be some decreases, but these won't be substantial decreases. In order to get some substantial decreases, the barrel should be $40 or $50. Once again, there's a piece of good news. The market is more stable, and we are not as correlated as we were in the past to the oil barrel price.
Got a question regarding the computing power. It has increased by 32% in petaflops from 520 to 690, page seven, the annual report. What is your take on that? What is your target for the future? Is it a power that you are using for you, or do you lease it? If it belongs to you, do you outsource that to other people? What about quantum technology? Will it change something for you?
If you had a less petaflops capabilities, would it change something for your customers in terms of speed when it comes to finding some fields?
Thanks a lot for this question. If you look at our strategy, we have a kind of unique strategy in our business, in our industry, or in the industrial world. We have a perfect command of our environment and high-performance computing strategy. We have a strategy. Every year we want to increase the computing power. You have the memories, the disks, and all the rest of it. If you look at our rationale, we don't buy a huge computer every five years or every three years as it is the case for other industries. If you look at our trajectory, it is continuous improvement. We haven't set an accurate goal because with the computing power, there's a cost associated with it.
We need to find a balance between the additional cost on our ability to get good margins and to beef up our margins. We need to strike a balance, adding computing power and to be able to advance solutions and to innovate with the computing power. What is important here is to monetize all that with our customers and clients. To answer the third question, if we had an unlimited computing power, that's not possible or feasible because the cost will be quite high and profitability levels would have to pay the price. We need to find the right balance between the right computing power so that we can provide some differentiated solutions, and our customers are ready to pay for them at a higher price than the technologies of our competitors in terms of subcontracting. The computing power belongs to us. It is used by Viridien.
The bulk of it is being assigned for our own imaging needs and a small part being used for the small business of HPC. The HPC segment should increase, and it is being used across other sectors, about technologies or the science of materials. We are quite small if you take into account the internal needs.
Alfred Charois. Individual shareholder. Historically, your main customers were the oil companies. I've figured out that you've tried out to branch out. Diversification strategy is key to you. What is the percentage of your sales not taking into account oil companies, and what was the trend of the past few years?
Thank you for your question. BTC, Beyond the Core or new businesses. This is what we called. We have the new businesses. For these new businesses, some of them are still within the oil sector.
There are new markets with new customers, and they accounted for 10% of our revenues last year. This year, the figure should increase with a better percentage of revenues for low-carbon business activities. It's a matter of extracting iron ores, BHP, Anglo American, Eramet in France. These are the main companies. Regarding HPC, I mentioned about technologies and science of materials. As regards infrastructure monitoring, we are in the infrastructures business. We can work for SNCF in France, the French railway industry, the equivalent of SNCF in Saudi Arabia. We performed some stability studies on rail tracks. We are working on the construction of tunnels in New York. We are monitoring work in New York. We are monitoring the drilling process of those tunnels. We have a diversified range of activities.
I've been able to find the other questions that I wanted to put to you. Regarding the memory boards, we know that prices skyrocketed at the start of the year. I think that this has a domino effect on orders of equipment. What about the financial impact? Is it significant in the 2026 accounts? Will there be a financial impact? Next question, regarding the Middle East, do you have to repatriate people? What about the operations? Are there minimal operations?
Some years ago, we sold some businesses there, so we are less exposed than in the past. As regards artificial intelligence, maybe you can shed light on different things. There are lots of issues here. AI agents, are they being used on our platforms in terms of safety and security? You have young people aged 13 or 14. They can hack the agency in charge of ID cards in France.
Thanks a lot for your question. We will take your three questions.
From a technical viewpoint, on the tablet that we've got, we've got the convening brochure, but we don't have the search bar for the words. Is it possible to have the paper presentation, and is it possible to get the written questions? Oh, there was no written question, by the way, but point duly noted. The increase in the GPU prices. Demand is quite brisk for hyperscalers. With our business model, we are protected from that because every year we place some orders. In the end, prices haven't increased. We were not submitted to the tariffs that were implemented in the United States. As I said, we are following our trajectory because we don't place huge orders in one batch. These are recurring orders, and we increase our computing capabilities in a recurring fashion. We have M&A, we have a diversified strategy.
There was a question about quantum. I haven't answered this question about quantum technology. We look at quantum technologies. We think that quantum technologies will be used for the subsets of our algorithms. Today, the GPU makes it possible to meet the needs of the physical algorithms that we need to address today. Regarding the Middle East, if you monitor the situation, the situation is back to normalcy, but there's a slight difference. There is no tourist, but local businesses have picked up. Kids get back to school. Life is almost normal. We've got some geoscience sites in Abu Dhabi, Oman, Saudi Arabia. People worked from home, and there was no interruption of work, and they are back to the offices. Regarding the impact on the Middle East, offshore seismic operations were discontinued and acquisition companies discontinued their activities, and we were selling some equipment to these.
The sale of this equipment to these companies will be postponed. Regarding AI, we are looking at AI, how we can use AI in an optimal fashion. You have lots of objects with AI, lots of tools and solutions associated with AI. We want to segregate the use of the tools regarding the use cases, the profile of users. We've implemented some agents for some business activities. When it comes to using the HPC, we are currently looking at integrating more AI as part of the support functions in order to bolster efficiency. No doubt these tools will be used for the cyber hackers, and we are bracing ourselves for that potential threat, and we are getting prepared for it. Very last question, maybe?
Yes. Good morning. Well done for this remarkable work that you've been doing, changing the business model of the company. Ms. Chairwoman, I'd like to talk about the financial objectives and ask a question. On slide 25, you summed up some figures, $100 million of net cash flow was mentioned. On page 23 of the Universal Registration Document, you connect directly this objective with the payment of overdues. Pemex overages. There is $46.7 million that have been mentioned in that regard. 50% of the object. That's a receivable that was mentioned, I think it goes back to the end of December 2024. This is a receivable that's more than 180 days old and is impeded for political reasons, apparently. My question today is: have you seen the start of any resolution of this issue?
Given the local political situation, might it postpone the resolution of this particular issue until later on? Will it be resolved in 2026?
Well, I'll give you an answer, and I'll let Jérôme add anything he'd like to add. In the first quarter, we received certain settlements. We didn't communicate on the figure in question. Receivables were unblocked in Q1 of this year, and we do hope that we'll recover them in full during the course of the year. We said we'd stopped working for Pemex last year given this receivable that was starting to build up and accruing a lot of value. The receivables were becoming bigger. The payments have started in the first quarter of this year. My colleague, does Jérôme want to add anything now?
No, we won't give you any figure on that because, well, it's not necessarily the most important part of our results.
Somebody speaking without a microphone, says the interpreter, so we cannot translate because we can't hear, unfortunately. Person is speaking without a microphone. Last year, we received some of the backdated receivables from Pemex, that enabled us to wipe out a debt that we'd contracted for the construction of a data center in the U.K. The cash flow ended up at EUR 107, but cash-wise, it was more than EUR 136. We used about EUR 30 million for that to pay back that debt. This year, it's more or less the same phenomenon because Sophie mentioned an expansion of our data center in the U.S. There's quite a lot of CapEx to be committed there this year, and we're going to utilize this incoming monies from Pemex to pay for that CapEx. We'll keep our guidance there for with the target of EUR 100 million for the year.
It's more or less the same proportions, Sophie.
We could add, as I said earlier, that it's highly likely, I don't know what will be the Pemex overages at the end of the year, but there'll be some that will be reimbursed and others that will be reconstituted, so to speak, if we start working with them again. I think we've done the rounds of the questions. They were indeed very pertinent questions, and I'll give the floor now to Eduardo.
Thank you, Sophie. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, before we move on to vote upon the resolutions, we're going to screen a short film that will explain how your tablet voting box operates so as to enable you to cast your vote. Here is the film.
[Presentation]
I'd like to correct a figure that was given at the start of the meeting, 7,216,212 was the total number of shares and voting rights in the company. In fact, the present and represented shareholders are ones who voted by correspondence. It's 3,812,561 voting rights. That's 52.89% of the total number of voting rights in Viridien. I just wanted to correct that.
That's the quorum. The quorum of 25% required for a combined general meeting is therefore achieved. As it's the case, we can vote upon our resolutions. The full text of the resolutions represented in the convening brochure published on the website with the company. I will just read the titles of the resolutions before we open the poll each time. Firstly, let's vote on the resolutions within the remit of the ordinary meeting. These resolutions will be adopted on the base of a straight majority of the votes of shareholders present and represented. In respect of the ordinary general meeting, we will now screen the title of the first resolution, the approval of the statutory financial statements for financial year ended December 31st, 2025. The poll is now open. The poll is now closed. This motion is approved.
Second resolution, the allocation of earnings for the financial year ended December 31st, 2025. Please vote now. The poll is now closed. This resolution is also approved. Third resolution, the approval of the consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended December 31st, 2025. The poll is now open.
The poll is now closed, and this motion is carried. Fourth resolution, the renewal of the term of Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah as director. The poll is now open. The poll is now closed. This motion is carried. Fifth resolution, the appointment of Mr. Henning Berg as director. The poll is open. The poll is closed. This resolution is approved. Sixth resolution, the statutory auditor's special report on related party agreements. Acknowledgment of the absence of any new agreement. The poll is now open on resolution number six. The poll is closed. This resolution is carried. Seventh resolution, the approval of the information mentioned under Part One of Article L.22-10-9 of the French Commercial Code. Please vote now. The poll is now closed. This resolution is approved.
The eighth resolution, approval of the fixed variable and exceptional components constituting the global remuneration and benefits of any kind paid during the past financial year are granted in respect of the same financial year to Mr. Philippe Sallé, Chairman of the Board of Directors until April 30th, 2025. The poll is now open. The poll is closed. This motion is carried. Resolution number nine, approval of the fixed variable and exceptional components constituting the global remuneration and benefits of any kind paid for the past financial year are granted in respect of the same financial year to Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah, Chief Executive Officer, until April the 30th, 2025. The poll is now open. The poll is closed. This resolution is approved.
10th resolution, approval of the fixed variable and exceptional components constituting the global remuneration and benefits of any kind paid for the past financial year are granted in respect of the same financial year to Ms. Sophie Zurquiyah, Chair and Chief Executive Officer from April the 30th, 2025. The poll is now open. This resolution is approved. 11th resolution, approval of the remuneration policy of the directors. The poll is open. The poll is now closed, and this resolution stands approved. Resolution number 12, approval of the remuneration policy of the Chair and Chief Executive Officer. The poll is now open. The poll is closed. This resolution is carried. 13th resolution, approval of the remuneration policy of the Chair of the Board of Directors. The poll is open. The resolution is carried. Thank you. 14th resolution, approval of the remuneration policy of the Chief Executive Officer.
The poll is now open. The poll is now closed. This resolution is approved. 15th resolution, delegation of authority to the Board of Directors to buy back the company's shares in accordance with Article L.22-10-62 of the French Commercial Code. The poll is open. The poll is closed. This motion is carried. Now we shall vote on the resolutions that are within the remit of the Extraordinary General Meeting. I'd like to recall that the quorum of one quarter of the voting rights has been achieved, so we will have a two-thirds majority this time of the votes held by the shareholders present and represented. Resolution number 16 then, the authorization given to the Board of Directors to grant performance shares to certain employees and/or executive corporate officers of the company and/or of companies related to it. The poll is now open. The poll is closed.
This resolution is carried. 17th resolution: the overall ceiling for the authorizations of issue in the 16th resolution of this general meeting and in the 17th resolution of the general meeting held on April 30th, 2025. The poll is open. The poll is closed. This resolution is carried. The very last resolution, the 18th resolution, powers for formalities. The poll is open, please vote now. The poll is closed, this motion is carried. This brings us to the end of the resolutions. We'll now give the floor back to Zurquiyah to conclude.
Thank you. I think before that, Philippe had something to add.
Just wanted to steal the floor for a minute and a few seconds, just on behalf of the board of directors. I just wanted to heartily thank Sophie for the eight years of management duties that she's put in to help to turn around this company. It was not in great shape in 2018 when she came in, when we both came in, and she's put us back on the rails, and very promising indeed. Thank you. A big thank you, Sophie, from the board for the remarkable work done the last eight years. I would wish all the best to Henning in taking over. Thank you. Thank you to the board.
It's teamwork, of course. Philippe was at my side for nearly all of the eight years, and many of the board members here present too sided with me, shouldered with me, and we had to resolve certain issues over the years. We're very happy with the current status of the company and the progress made. Thank you for attending here today. Thank you for approving all of our resolutions. Through your votes, you have given us a lot of support, valuable support for the management team, the executive leadership team, in implementing the group's transformation strategy. The outcome of the votes