Vivendi Se Unsp/Adr

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Vivendi Foliere 2021 earnings presentation.

This conference call will be hosted by Mr. Anu Dhipri Fontin, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, and Mr. Herve Philip, a member of the Management Board and CFO. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Duration of the call, you'll be on listen only. However, Later on the call, during the Q&A session, panelists will have the opportunity to ask questions without any follow-up questions. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your question at any time. If at any point you require assistance, please press star 0 and you will be connected to an operator. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Anu Desui-Funting. Please go ahead, sir. The line is open.

Thank you very much and good evening everyone. Welcome. Thank you for joining us today. I hope that you are all keeping well. Of course, I would like to begin by expressing our thoughts for Ukraine. We are, like everyone, very concerned by this war. We are in constant contact and solidarity with the Gameloft and HAVAS teams based in Ukraine. From a business angle, we have a very low exposure in Ukraine and Russia. Let's hope for a rapid end to this conflict. Before commenting on 2021 key highlights, I would like to remind you to take a moment to read carefully the usual legal disclaimers. Thank you. 2021 was a historic, significant year for Vivendi. As a group, we enjoyed strong growth in revenues and EBITDA. Revenues increased by 10.4% compared to 2020 and by 8.6% organically. This is our best organic growth since we took over the leadership of the group in 2014. In 2021, EBITDA has more than doubled compared to 2020. Hervé Philippe will elaborate on this outstanding performance. What is remarkable is that all our activities have been growing while continuing their transformation. Let me thank the Vivendi teams around the world for your commitment and talent for reinvention in a complex and unpredictable environment. The year 2021 also marked an acceleration in the implementation of our strategy, thanks to major restructuring operations that redesigned the controls of our group. The first one was UMG's listing on Euronext and the distribution of nearly 60% of its capital. On its first day of listing on September 21st, The company was valued at nearly 45 billion euros confirming its attractiveness as well as our ability to transform our businesses. We always believed in the incredible potential of UMG and its teams despite the gloomy predictions of others. We continued to invest for growth and contributed to the renewal of the music industry. As you know, Vivendi retains a 10% stake in UMG and we remained privileged shareholders. The second was Vivendi's entry into new business, perfectly complementary to our other activities. The integration of Prisma Media, the French leader in press magazines, was completed in record time. Thanks to its strong digital audiences, Prisma has enabled the group to climb into the top three digital groups in France in terms of unique visitors alongside Google and Facebook. Lastly, Vivendi acquired Amber Capital's shares in Lagardère in December, bringing its stakes to 45.1% of the capital. On February 21, 2022, the group filed its tender offer with the French securities regulator IMF. This merger will make it possible to pursue strong industrial ambitions with significant investments in quality and diversified content and contribute to the promotion of culture. This offer for the capital of La Gardère is thus in line with Vivendi's strategy to build a major group with European culture and global ambitions in media, content and communications. This strategic ambition is more and more relevant in the context of the rapid transformations and global consolidation in our sectors. No European player is currently among the top 10 global media groups nor among the top 10 internet players in the world. We believe that Vivendi can scale these heights by proposing an alternative offer of cultural content. We have a large catalogue of films, series and books which are hugely successful internationally. Let's take a couple of examples. Canal Plus Série, Le Bureau des Légendes, the Bureau of Versailles, distributed in hundreds countries, or authors like Michel Bussy, translated into 34 languages. Promoting European culture in all its diversity is our ambition. This is an immense responsibility. We want to play our full part. For this, we can rely on our strong assets, enabling us to look to the future with confidence in a context of never-ending appetite for content. Let me name a few. First, our ability to attract and develop the best talent. In 2021, Studio Canal Film, BACNOR, Boîte Noire and Le Loup et le Lion were huge box office successes. Havas agencies received 1,300 awards and distinctions around the world. Editis ranked 10 of its authors among the top 30 most purchased French language authors in modern fiction. Second, our significant capacity to invest in culture and creation. In 2021, we invested over 1.6 billion in content. We were also investing to modernize our sectors, thus helping transform the cultural and creative industries. Strong and appealing brands connected to their audiences. We have a direct link with many communities, viewers, readers, gamers. For instance, Editis has 1 million cumulative followers on Instagram, Gala, a Prisma Media brand, is the most followed European media on TikTok with 2.5 million subscribers. Then, the complementary of our businesses. Vivendi's promise is to enhance the common potential of its businesses and to make them grow together through value-creating joint projects. In 2021, for example, Avas, Editis and Prisma Media created the here, solution to accompany the recovery of the tourism industry. Then, the constant support of our principal shareholder, the Bolloré Group, who provide a guarantee of long-term vision and stability. And more widely, while continuing to perform economically, Vivendi is committed to being a responsible and sustainable company. Last year, I shared with you our new CSR program, Creation for the Future, built around three pillars, reducing the group's carbon footprint, making culture and education accessible to as many people as possible, and striving for a more inclusive world. This program was rolled out to all our entities in 2021. On this journey, we are making progress, more or less quickly, depending on the pillars and we are absolutely determined to move forward. Many initiatives have been taken. Many have been recognized, such as the AVAS campaign Undercover Avatar for L'Envent Bleu, a youth protection association, or our actions to promote inclusion and diversity with Vivendi awarded Media Diversity Champion of the Year by the European Diversity Awards. You will find more details in the appendices But let me come back quickly on our main ESG performance last year. On environment, Vivendi is committed to contribute to the global net zero carbon world and has submitted its plan and targets to the science-based targets initiatives in December 2021. On social, and specifically the position of women in our entities, within our businesses management bodies, women now represent 35% of the workforce. This was our objective for 2022, which means that we met it one year ahead of schedule. Lastly, on governance, a proposal will be made to the General Meeting of April 25, 2022 to increase the weighting of ESG criteria in the short-term variable compensation of the Management Board, illustrating the Group's determination to continue its efforts. You can see that we are very confident and ambitious for the implementation of our strategic plan, We are excited about the coming months. 2022 offers promising prospects for our group and will enable us to reach new steps. Thank you for your attention. I will now hand over to Hervé Philippe.