Hello, my name is Vagn Sørensen. I'm Chairman of the board of Air Canada.
Canada, and around the world. We're glad you're joining us wherever you may be. I begin by reiterating our commitment to the inclusion of Indigenous Communities. I want to also recognize that Air Canada's domestic and transborder network crosses many treaty lands, as well as unceded and traditional territories of Indigenous Nations, tribes, and governments on Turtle Island, in other words, North America. In doing so, Air Canada recognizes the ancestral and traditional lands of the Indigenous peoples it flies over.
After my opening remarks, I ask Marc Barbeau to lead certain parts of the meeting relating to the conduct of the meeting and other business.
We'll talk about Air Canada's opportunities in 2024 and beyond. After Mike's remarks, we'll have a Q&A session moderated by Arielle Meloul-Wechsler. It's a privilege to take this time with you to share some of the things Air Canada achieved last year, and why we believe Air Canada has the right leadership, the right strategy, and the right governance to capture the opportunities Mike will be speaking about shortly. Last year, our team returned Air Canada to its flight path, carrying over 46 million passengers safely to their destinations. Even in a complex global environment, we strengthened our business, our operational depth, and our financial position. These are important milestones for our shareholders, also serving as a foundation for our customer-centric priorities and our plans to meet anticipated customer demand. Our performance in 2023 has given us more confidence in our strategy and capability to achieve long-term growth.
As we do this, there are long-standing values and priorities guiding us. We have continued to place safety first at the heart of everything that we do. We want to reflect all of Canada at its best, and to continue to nurture diversity at all levels of Air Canada. I'm proud of what our board has done these past years in this regard, and we remain determined to do even better.
We're also very proud of Air Canada's legacy in terms of language, official languages, and we want to promote friendship with all our stakeholders in Quebec, where our headquarters are based.
Official languages is only part of our company's larger commitment to climate and other sustainability priorities, something we know you care about, just as we do. We appreciate the support every board member nominee received from investors in the run-up to today's meeting. Together, they bring remarkable experience and expertise into the boardroom, drawing on so many diverse backgrounds and fields, such as airline and retail industries, carbon policy, digital transformation, cybersecurity, finance and operational experience, global business, public policy, and health, safety, and environment. We know that the annual meeting is a special moment in our dialogue with our shareholders on a number of topics. This year, one of the shareholder proposals we received concerns the format of our meetings. As this is directly related to our relationship with you, we saw this as an opportunity to consult with you, rather than recommending one approach over another.
The results will help inform how we fulfill our duties in the future. Notice of the meeting having been duly given and quorum being present, I call the 2024 annual shareholder meeting to order. I'll be serving as the chair of the meeting, and Marc will be serving as the secretary. I refer you to the agenda I've adopted to govern the order of business and to the general rules of conduct for the meeting. You'll find these at your webcast screen in the Documents tab and at our shareholder meeting website. Our financial statements can also be found there and are thereby placed before this meeting. Our meeting will include a formal portion, which we've streamlined to allow for as much time as possible for Mike's remarks and our Q&A session. Marc will now briefly report on certain formalities and the matters to be voted on. Marc?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Voting is now open for all agenda items being voted on today, and will close shortly after question period. If you have already voted, there is nothing further to do unless you wish to change your vote. Instructions for doing so can be found under the Documents tab on your live webcast screen and on our shareholder meeting website. At any time, if you need assistance with voting or any other matter, you can reach us by email, as indicated in the meeting guide under the Documents tab on your screen or on your website. Thank you for confirming your Canadian or non-Canadian status so that we can comply with the applicable requirements. This allows us to allow me to confirm that no adjustment to variable voting rights will be necessary today...
We invited shareholders to send us their questions as soon as our meeting documents were published. You can now do so from your live webcast screen, in French or in English. We plan to answer questions submitted in advance, and those asked live during the question period indicated on the agenda. If you have any questions or comments that you feel should be addressed before this question period, please let us know clearly in advance and in good time. In all cases, simply click on the Messages icon at the top of your screen. As our comments or responses at today's meeting may contain forward-looking statements about Air Canada's prospects, objectives, and strategies, I refer you to the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements in Air Canada's public information file, which can be found at aircanada.com or on SEDAR+.
This file also includes explanations of the Non-GAAP measures that we sometimes use, as well as reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Representatives of TSX Trust Company are here with us today to act as scrutineers. Board nominees are also present, as are representatives of our independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and our senior executives. The first item on the agenda was to submit Air Canada's financial statements for 2023 to shareholders, which has now been done. Please direct any questions to the live webcast screen. Today, you will be presented with four management proposals as well as two shareholder proposals. They're all described in the proxy circular for this year's meeting. We have ensured that each proposal has been submitted or seconded, as the case may be, by our Air Canada colleagues from across our global network.
We thank them for participating in our meeting and for facilitating its smooth running in this way. The first matter to be put to the vote is the election of directors. The following 13 persons were duly nominated by the board: Amee Chande, Christie J.B. Clark, Gary A. Doer, Rob Fyfe, Michael M. Green, Jean-Marc Huot, Claudette McGowan, Madeleine Paquin, Michael Rousseau, Vagn Sørensen, Kathleen Taylor, Annette Verschuren, and Michael M. Wilson. The board of directors recommends a vote in favor of each candidate. The board of directors also recommends a vote in favor of each of the following three proposals to approve: the appointment of our auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, until the end of the next annual meeting of shareholders, the increase in the number of shares reserved and issuable under Air Canada's Long-Term Incentive Plan, and the advisory resolution of, on the board's approach to executive compensation.
The following items are shareholder proposals from Mouvement d'éducation et de défense des actionnaires, MEDAC, whose supporting statements appear in our proxy circular, along with our board of directors' responses. MEDAC has chosen to withdraw three of its original proposals described in a circular, so that shareholders are asked to vote on only two rather than five proposals. Mr. Chair, this concludes my reMarcs on the conduct of the meeting. Thank you, Marc. The representative of MEDAC, Mr. Willie Gagnon, will present each of that organization's shareholder proposals in a moment. I would like to remind shareholders that they can send us their questions or comments and vote or change their votes. Mr. Gagnon, I now invite you to present your proposals. The floor is yours.
Thank you. Can you hear me? I hear a voice feedback. Can you hear me? I'm just waiting for you to let me know if I have the floor. Okay, good.
Thank you. My name is Willie Gagnon. I'm here for the MÉDAC. We have five proposals this year, and it ended after the circular was written, so we are pleased that we removed three proposals, even though the circular had already been published. But we agreed with the company to make sure that necessary arrangements regarding votings would be done on time, and it would be published on our website and on SEDAR's website. We thank you for that. It's a new way of doing things, so in the future, we will do that.
So we removed two proposals, regarding the language spoken by administrators, which had been done previously, even though there was no formal proposal regarding that matter, language spoken by the directors. We're pleased that the company decided to act on it. We would have preferred that this would be done in person instead of going back to it. In the future, there will be the proposal, there's the incentive, salary with ESG. We think that there's an opportunity to have new incentives on salary with the objective is related to the performance of the organization.
Regarding ESG factors, we noticed that it was already planned for Air Canada, and therefore, we decided to extend that approach to other performances, including sustainability and incentives of 370 senior managers, that we're pleased with the results. Therefore, we accepted not to vote on that matter. Now, regarding the auditors, we think that there could be other auditors, since there was an abstention vote at the last meeting. We think that there should be a certain deadline for auditors, and therefore, this is taken into consideration, but it shouldn't determine the auditor's functions. So we have questions to ask to Air Canada. Could an auditor that has been in place for more than 1,000 years could be renewed?
Would you say that it's reasonable that the length of time is never a significant factor? We think that the answer is no, that's why we think that shareholders should vote in favor of our proposal number proposal number five. Regarding proposal number two, the on-site AGM, we think that it should happen on-site, in person, and there could be complementary remote meetings. Therefore, we think that it's not possible to substitute online on-site meetings. There are certain things that cannot be replaced with remote meetings, and therefore, we consider that we have to see people even though it's not possible, whereas with an in-person meeting, the situation would be different.
It would have been possible to use the telephone when it was invented in 1876, but we haven't done so because it's important to be in the same room, shake hands, see how many people attend the meeting, and ask questions on the mic and see people's faces. So these are all factors that are important for AGMs, which isn't possible to do virtually, at least not for now. I don't see other shareholders who are present right now. Therefore, it is remarkable that the company didn't vote on that. We thank you for this initiative. We're pleased with that. It's the first time that a company doesn't give an official recommendation, so we're pleased with the situation.
Of course, we will wait on the result, and we would like to remind the shareholders that we had won that vote, for instance, in other situations, for instance, with Metro. The MÉDAC, but not only the MÉDAC, for instance, CCGG, prefers to have on-site meetings. We don't see why these meetings shouldn't be done on-site. Of course, it's possible to have virtual meetings. It's a new right that has been legally approved during the pandemic, but these constraints don't exist anymore. Therefore, that's not the reason why there are no online on-site meetings anymore, and we invite shareholders to support this motion, which would get things back to normal, to the situation prior to the pandemic. Forgive me for taking so much time, but this proposal is important to us.
It's, it's a very, very important situation. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for your time. It's quite complex to have to hear the meeting, because we're on remote meetings, so thank you once again for the time allocated. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Gagnon. We share your interest in the issues you have raised, even if the means we choose may sometimes be different. We hope that the answers and comments we have provided in the proxy circular have been helpful to all our shareholders in deciding how to vote.
Cast or change their votes now as we prepare to close the ballots in a few minutes. With the proposals presented and with the vast majority of shareholder votes cast in advance of the meeting, I'll now ask Marc if he could share preliminary results.
Merci, Monsieur le Président. So the number of-
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Based on the number of final votes already cast, we can now confirm that all 13 nominees for election as directors have been elected. Their terms of office will expire at the close of the next annual shareholders meeting. Shareholders have also approved the appointment of our independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the advisory vote on the board's approach to executive compensation, and the increase in the number of shares reserved and issuable under our long-term incentive plan. Also, the shareholder proposal concerning the format of our annual shareholder meetings was approved, while the shareholder proposal concerning the auditor was not approved. Mr. Chair, the final voting results will be posted on SEDAR+ shortly after our meeting. Thank you, Marc. We will now-
Shortly before it ends, in order for shareholders who've yet to vote or want to change their votes, to do so. I now welcome Mike Rousseau to share his remarks with us. Please.
Thank you, Vagn, and good morning, everyone. Bonjour. Merci, and thank you for joining us today. Air Canada's 2023 results show that our airline has truly recovered from the pandemic. We generated record operating revenue during the year, and for the first time since 2019, we reported a full-year profit. For 2023, we had operating revenue of CAD 21.8 billion, up more than CAD 5 billion from 2022. Full year operating income was nearly CAD 2.3 billion. Net income was almost CAD 2.3 billion, versus a loss of CAD 1.7 billion in the prior year, a CAD 4 billion improvement. In 2023, we carried 46 million passengers, more than the entire population of Canada. Most importantly, we carried them safely, which is always our highest priority. We saw a considerable improvement year-over-year in key operational metrics.
Our on-time arrivals of 14 rose by nearly 10 percentage points above 2022, and we're above 2019 levels for the fourth quarter. This positive trend has continued into 2024. We have seen increased customer satisfaction across the entire system, with our most significant areas of improvement being the handling of disruptions and missed connections. While more work needs to be done, our achievements were recognized globally throughout the year. This includes for Best Airline in Canada and Best Airline Staff in Canada at the Skytrax World Airline Awards. There were many other awards, too, including for service, product, Aeroplan, and employee relations. We achieved this success by concentrating on four guiding principles that also help us to reinforce our strategy with all our 39,000 employees, so they can work in a coordinated fashion on shared goals.
The first of these is to fund our future. At its core, this ongoing priority means earnings and revenue generation. It also includes a continued focus on cost control and balance sheet management. Keeping expenses down and meeting our cost and EBITDA guidance will remain our top financial goals. It is also why in 2023, we reduced our net debt by nearly CAD 3 billion, including by aggressively prepaying our more expensive debt. This has continued with a financing transaction earlier this month, which included the repayment of $1.1 billion in senior debt, the refinancing of other debt, and increasing our revolving credit facility. Our leverage ratio is now solidly back to pre-pandemic levels. We ended 2023 at 1.1x EBITDA.
This is a significant improvement from a leverage ratio of 5.1 at the start of the year. In addition, we had total liquidity of CAD 10.3 billion at year-end, and we increased our unencumbered asset pool to CAD 6.6 billion, excluding the value of Aeroplan. These achievements give us the resources to take advantage of opportunities and add an important layer of resiliency to manage the temporary and structural headwinds impacting our industry. Our strong balance sheet and liquidity levels also enable us to take a long-term perspective. This includes our scheduled fleet plan additions, investments in technology, and advancing our climate action strategy. And there are many examples of this. We invested another $5 million, for a total of $10 million, in Swedish hybrid electric airplane maker Heart Aerospace.
We became the first airline in North America to sign up for the Airbus Carbon Capture offer. We are investing in upgrades to equipment, technology, and information systems to support our employees and customers, such as a baggage tracker in the Air Canada mobile app, a Canadian first. And we launched our new distribution capability to make it easier for the vital sales agency community to work with us, making our full inventory more readily available to all our customers. The next priority is to reach new frontiers. This is the most visible and fun part of the business, because we are adding exciting new destinations around the world to our network. Throughout 2023, we announced new destinations, restored routes, added frequencies, and made other strategic adjustments, mainly aimed at strengthening our key hubs and ensuring our resiliency.
We increased operating capacity by 20% from 2022, and we flew to 188 destinations with an average of 1,025 daily flights, up from 945 a year earlier. Internationally, we relaunched, extended, or increased frequencies on 34 routes across the Atlantic and the Pacific. This is not only exciting, but profitable. We saw a 50% increase in our 2023 passenger revenues from international services over 2022, and these services accounted for about 65% of the growth in total passenger revenues. This highlights the strength of our network and our position as Canada's leading global airline. 2023 was also a very good year for sun and leisure destinations, with ground package revenues at Air Canada Vacations driving a 43% year-over-year increase in other revenues.
Within North America, we grew capacity on nearly 70% of all routes served. In Canada, we resumed seasonal routes, increased frequencies on others, and launched nonstop services with the help of Air Canada Express. We restored 13 transborder routes and increased frequency on over a dozen others to the US. This year, we will continue to launch new services, including a new route from Vancouver to Singapore this spring, and shortly thereafter, new flights to Stockholm from both Toronto and Montreal. Extending our international reach are strong partnerships with other carriers. Foremost is the Star Alliance, and it is enhanced by joint business agreements, codeshare relationships, and interline agreements. For example, our relatively new agreements with Emirates and flydubai are opening up opportunities in Southeast Asia, a market of great potential. Our network expansion also creates synergies with Air Canada Cargo.
The cargo division is present in more than 50 countries, with hubs in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, London, and Frankfurt. As our dedicated air freight division, it leverages Air Canada, the passenger flights, its own freighter flights, and other modes of transport, such as trucking services. It was recognized earlier this year when it was named Cargo Operator of the Year by ATW, citing its customer-friendly adoption of digital technologies. Long-term, cargo will continue to feature in Air Canada's diversification strategy. For example, significant additional capacity will become available as we induct the 787-10s with their larger cargo capacity in our fleet in the coming years. And there are other frontiers that we're also exploring. This includes building on our long-standing use of advanced technology to explore how GenAI might make a difference in our business and our operations.
Next winter, we will become the first airline in the world to test a new aircraft de-icing system. It uses heating strips that melt the ice instead of having it removed during a stop at the de-icing bay before takeoff. This will not only save travel time, but is expected to yield environmental benefits with less chemical de-icing and reduced fuel burn. With the end of COVID restrictions, we have seen fierce competition in our industry. In fact, it now takes six airport billboards to list all the airlines that fly into our Toronto Pearson global hub. This competition means customer service is even more important, so we have made elevating our customer experience another corporate priority. Through our multi-year ECX program, we are continuously refining our services. We're doing this with technology enhancements and training programs, and by engaging regularly with our customers.
In 2023, we delivered on 41 initiatives related to on-time performance, customer insights and communications, disruption handling and recovery, employee engagement, and service excellence. We also accelerated initiatives for our customers with disabilities. It is an ongoing focus area as we work to remove barriers for both customers and employees. In 2023, we had approximately 1.3 million requests for special assistance. While the overwhelming majority of these customers travel with no issues, we know we must do better. To this end, in 2023, almost 17,500 employees completed training to better serve customers with disabilities. I'm proud of the leadership we're showing. In the past few months, we became the first carrier in North America to offer the Sunflower program for customers with non-visible disabilities, and the first airline in Canada to offer real-time tracking capability for those who check their mobility aids.
We are also investing significantly in improving our product in airports and on the aircraft. In this regard, three new premium airport lounges were opened in San Francisco, Newark, and Toronto Island, bringing Air Canada's network of lounges to 29 worldwide. We expanded in-flight food and beverage offerings to suit a variety of tastes, such as with our recent announcement of more than 100 rotating options on our onboard menu. We also launched pre-ordering of in-flight meals for our Air Canada Signature Class and Premium Economy customers on international flights from Canada. This not only helps to meet customer preferences, but also reduces waste, contributing to our sustainability goals. When flying, customers now have a tremendous range of entertainment options. This includes free Wi-Fi, texting for Aeroplan members through a multi-year partnership with Bell.
We also offer live TV in North America, and there has been more than a 200% increase in the amount of onboard content through collaborations with industry leaders such as Apple, Audible, and Disney. We were the first airline in the world to offer Disney+ originals, Apple Fitness+ customized meditation videos, hayu reality TV shows, and HBO podcasts. We've also elevated our customers' experience through Aeroplan. It's hard to overstate how effective our program has been as an essential driver of loyalty. Aeroplan Elite status recognizes Air Canada's frequent flyers and provides meaningful awards to the program's most engaged members with a range of priority travel services and member benefits. Aeroplan is also being improved by offering more value to less frequent travelers. Taken together, this program is an incredible competitive advantage.
It has been five years since we acquired Aeroplan, and it has built itself into Canada's leading travel loyalty program. Key to the award-winning program's success has been a strategy to affiliate with top brands to generate everyday engagement. Aeroplan has grown to more than 8 million members, roughly double since the acquisition. The program's contribution to our bottom line has also grown, and we are excited by the many opportunities we see ahead. We know the importance that our customers and stakeholders place on corporate responsibility, especially with regard to the environment. During the year, we moved forward on our climate plan through our commitments for new aircraft and carbon capture technology. We also took smaller, relatable measures such as shoreline cleanups, new bamboo cutlery, and the expansion of our Beehive program. For our efforts, we won the Sustainability Airline Award at BTN Group's inaugural Business Travel Sustainability Awards.
SAF is key to our industry's environmental strategy, and we announced agreements to purchase sustainable aviation fuels in San Francisco and Amsterdam from Neste. We urge governments in our country to seize this global opportunity. Canada must recognize the potential of SAF, both commercially and for our environment, and invest appropriately in the development of these fuels, as other countries do. For a country as big as ours, transportation is more crucial than in many other places. The final priority relates to our people. It is perhaps the most important one of all, in that our people enact all other priorities. We must lift each other up. In 2023 alone, Air Canada hired more than 8,000 new employees. By the fourth quarter, we had an average of 9% more people on a full-time equivalent basis than before the pandemic in 2019, strengthening our operational resiliency.
We have emphasized training and invested in our employees' growth and development so they can better serve customers. We do that by using the latest tools, technology, and teaching methods. These optimize engagement, support skills development, and encourage the acquisition and transfer of knowledge. We also work hard to develop our culture and foster unity of purpose. As part of this, we held 32 employee town halls across Canada in 2023 to give employees insight and gather their feedback on our vision, plans, and goals as we continue to rise higher. Integral to our culture is diversity and inclusion, beginning with an emphasis on bilingualism and the promotion of Canada's two official languages. Apart from meeting our obligations as Canada's only airline subject to the Official Languages Act, we are proud that customers are served and our employees can work in the official language of their choice.
Beyond this, a diverse and inclusive workplace is not only in line with our values and aspirations, but it is also a competitive advantage for Air Canada. It lets us attract and retain the best global talent. Even more, our customers and stakeholders should see themselves reflected in our employee base. Our DEI efforts include the implementation of a four-pillar strategy with a DEI executive council, a DEI steering committee, a DEI champions program, and the formalization of employee resource groups or ERGs. We are also determined to increase representation of designated groups in senior management positions. Lifting each other up also means helping communities through the Air Canada Foundation and sharing the best of Canada with the world, including our passion for sports.
We are proud to be the inaugural premier partner of the Professional Women's Hockey League and the official airline for the team, for the league's first six teams. Our HR practices were recognized frequently throughout the year, including with awards for such things as workplace engagement and diversity. I want to conclude by first thanking our 39,000 employees globally for their hard work and dedication. They safely transported more than 46 million passengers in 2023 and did so with care and class. Their commitment, shared passion, and professionalism are among the many reasons I'm so optimistic about our company's future. I also thank our board of directors for their support. I deeply appreciate our board members' insights and advice. Finally, I want to thank our customers for their loyalty and shareholders for their trust and investment.
Shareholders can be assured we have a strong foundation, solid plans for future investment and growth, and a proven ability to execute on our value-creating strategy. Our results in 2023 show that our investors can rely on us to work hard to deliver on our commitment far into the future and make meaningful returns. I look forward to reporting back to you on another successful year at our next annual meeting in 2025. Have a great rest of the year. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mike. I'm Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, and I'm pleased to now welcome you to the question-and-answer portion of the meeting. We want to thank you for the questions you submitted in advance. We will now answer those. They have been reformulated for clarity and concision. The first question is: What is Air Canada going to do to proactively get in front of problems such as on-time performance, disability, or IT issues, and avoid them playing out publicly?
Good morning, it's Mike Rousseau. I'll take that question. Thank you, Arielle. So aviation is a very complex and emotional business that attracts a lot of media attention, for better or for worse, and the pandemic years have added a magnifying lens effect on any mishap within our industry. But our operational indicators, flight completion, on-time performance, baggage success, in the past 6 months have been in line or better than what they were in 2019. We serve almost 1 million customers every week, and the vast majority is satisfied with their experience. And for all the negative attention, we also see good coverage on our network and customer innovations, such as our in-flight entertainment or meal offerings.
In fact, we have seen our brand strengthening among our customers last year, and based on a study conducted in October of 2023, Ipsos ranked us the 38th most influential brand in Canada, up 40 ranks from the year before. We've also received many awards for our performance, as I mentioned earlier, but we're not gonna stop there, and our main focus remains to improve the overall experience for all customers through better operations, product, and a strong investment in people, process, and technology.
Thank you, Mike. Our next question is: Mr. Rousseau's compensation totaled CAD 12 million in 2023, which is above the average of the industry, despite a share price that hasn't tracked the fundamental performance of the company, resulting in a three-year total loss of 29% for the shareholders. Why is that? And if the share price does not improve, do you plan to start paying dividends to the shareholders?
So I'll address the first part of the question about compensation. Our executive compensation is based on external and independent benchmarking of a peer group of large Canadian and US companies of comparable annual revenues and size within and outside the transportation and aviation industry. Executives are key in the continued success of Air Canada, which is why we need to maintain and retain total compensation opportunities to market competitive levels, generally near the 50th percentile of the comparator group, while maintaining significant weighting on at-risk compensation. In that regard, 88% of the CEO's compensation is variable and based on performance. The performance is based on a combination of multiple criteria, short and long term, including financial and operational performance. Moreover, 73% of the CEO's compensation is equity-based, which specifically aligns pay with shareholders' interests.
Finally, note that the amounts disclosed in the proxy circular for option and share-based awards are calculated based on grant date fair values, which means that the realization of these values will be depending on the applicable performance targets being met and Air Canada's share price increasing.
Good morning, it's Mike Rousseau again. I'd like to take a moment to talk about the second part of the question. I'd like to add that our share price over the last five years has generally performed in line with other large, publicly traded airlines around the world. We ranked second in our performance group of international airlines for a total shareholder return during that period. Regarding dividends, specifically, our capital allocation strategy will continue to prioritize additional gross debt reduction, where it's economically beneficial. We also continue to fund our fleet plan strategy to grow our network, pursue a modern and efficient fleet, and prepare the airline for the next decade. With a sound fleet plan and resilient balance sheet, we will be able to assess more traditional and historical shareholder return programs in the near future.
Thank you, Mike. Mr. Chair, I confirm that there are no other questions.
Thank you, Arielle. As we reconvene our meeting, and the discussion of matters for shareholder consideration is completed, the polls can now be closed. Marc, are there any other matters that have been raised or that otherwise remain to be addressed?
No, Mr. Chairman, there are no remaining questions.
That wraps up our annual shareholders meeting. Having completed the business of the meeting, I want to thank everyone who made today's event possible. I also want to thank you all for joining today's meeting and for your questions. We're looking forward to your continued engagement in the year ahead.
I now declare this annual general meeting 2024 over. Thank you very much, and have a great rest of your day.
Enjoy the rest of your day.