Dear shareholders,
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Following our Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, and as Chair of the Orange Board of Directors, I am delighted to share the changes to our company’s governance introduced over the past year and update you on Orange’s solid financial performance and strategic pillars.
This plan sets our objectives for 2025 and prepares us over the long term to anticipate disruptions in our industry and strengthen our leading position in
Europe and Africa.
The priority is to create value in our core business. We will continue our fiber and 5G investments and strengthen our satellite offer. We will accelerate the use of data and AI to offer our customers an ever more personalized experience. We will strengthen our commercial strategy and pursue a reasonable increase in prices to partially offset inflation.
We will innovate in new industrial business models to foster agility, resilience, and performance while modernizing our networks at the right pace. We continue to invest to deploy infrastructure that is adapted to our retail customers. Finally, we are accelerating our TowerCo value creation.
The internet, along with cloud and collaborative software, have revolutionized companies’ digital uses, calling into question the traditional Telco B2B operator model. We’re transforming our model to adapt and refocus our portfolio of secure connectivity offers. Our transformation plan is based on 4 levers: simplify, refocus, digitally transform, and accelerate cybersecurity.
Orange Middle East and Africa has become the Group’s leading growth region, achieving €7 billion in revenue in 2022. Encouraged by sustained market growth and exponential increase in uses, our strong regional ambition is driven by mobile data, the business segment, fixed very high-speed broadband and financial services with Orange Money. We’re aiming to maintain revenue growth above 7% per year reach € 8.4 billion in revenue in 2025.
We’re aiming for net zero carbon emissions by 2040, achieving a 30% reduction in our CO2 emissions by 2025 compared to 2015 on scopes 1 and 2, and a 45% reduction by 2030 compared to 2020 on scopes 1,2 and 3. We’re focused on strengthening our network energy performance of with initiatives such as the Green ITN program, using more renewable energies such as solar, and accelerating the circular economy by refurbishing, repairing, and recycling equipment wherever we operate.
First of all, we are projecting a slight growth in Group EBITDAaL over the 2022-2025 period. In addition, a decrease in our eCapex will fuel a continued increase in our organic cash flow to reach €4 billion by 2025, with a growth in return on capital employed, ROCE, over the period. Our balance sheet policy will remain unchanged, and we confirm a net debt ratio target of around 2x EBITDAaL in the medium term. Our 2023 goal is to generate organic cash flow of at least €3.5 billion thanks to a slight growth in our EBITDAaL and a sharp drop in our eCapex. In terms of shareholder compensation, we propose a dividend for the 2022 financial year of €0.70 per share, increasing the floor for the 2023 financial year to €0.72 per share and including an interim payment of €0.30 per share in December 2023. Finally, we propose to increase the floor to €0.75 per share for the 2024 financial year, to be paid in 2025. This commitment to a continuous increase in our dividends demonstrates our confidence in our outlook for increasing cash flows.
A dividend payment of €0.70 per share for the 2022 financial year was put to a vote at the Shareholders’ Meeting on 23 May 2023. Taking into account the €0.30 interim dividend paid on 7 December 2022, the remaining dividend of €0.40 per share will be paid in cash on 7 June 2023.
Here is an overview of our various indicators:
The Group’s revenue is split between convergent services, mobile services, fixed services, IT & integration services, wholesale, equipment sales and other revenues.
or “EBITDA after Leases”: operating income (i) before depreciation and amortization of fixed assets, effects resulting from business combinations, reclassification of cumulative translation adjustment from liquidated entities, impairment of goodwill and fixed assets, share of profits (losses) of associates and joint ventures, (ii) after interest on debts related to financed assets and on lease liabilities, and (iii) adjusted for significant litigation, specific labour expenses, fixed assets, investments and businesses portfolio review, restructuring programs costs, acquisition and integration costs and, where appropriate, other specific elements. EBITDAaL is not a financial aggregate as defined by IFRS standards and may not be directly comparable to similarly-named indicators in other companies.
or “economic CAPEX”: (i) acquisitions of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, excluding telecommunications licenses and financed assets, (ii) less the price of disposal of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets. eCAPEX is not a financial performance indicator as defined by IFRS standards and may not be directly comparable to indicators referenced by similarly-named indicators in other companies.
(telecom activities): for the perimeter of the telecom activities, net cash provided by operating activities, minus (i) lease liabilities repayments and debts related to financed assets repayments, and (ii) purchases and sales of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, net of the change in the fixed assets payables, (iii) excluding effect of telecommunication licenses paid and significant litigations paid or received. Organic Cash Flow (telecom activities) is not a financial aggregate defined by IFRS and may not be comparable to similarly-named indicators used by other companies.
0Resolutions were
put to the vote
19Resolutions (ordinary) were approved
12Resolutions (extraordinary) were approved
4Resolutions not approved by the Board of Directors were rejected
Find out more about our resolutions and votes in the 2023 Shareholders’ Assembly documentation.
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It was a great pleasure to welcome you here today.
With our Annual Report and ballot box ready, the Shareholders’ Meeting can begin.
From left to right: Jean-Michel Thibaud, Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner, Jacques Aschenbroich, Christel Heydemann, and Nicolas Guérin.
There was time before and after the AGM for our shareholders to meet and greet.
Our dedicated team is on hand to help you with further information.
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Renewed governance to deepen shareholder relations
As you know, 2022 marked a profound transformation in Orange’s governance to better equip us for the challenges ahead, following the company’s Board of Directors decision that it was better to separate the roles of Chair and Chief Executive Officer.
As soon as I took office as Chair of your Board of Directors, I wanted to encourage regular shareholder dialog. That’s why, from the second half of 2022, I have continued to meet our corporate shareholders as well as individual shareholders – whether employees, through employee shareholding funds, or as individuals; in particular, I met the representatives of the Orange shareholders’ advisory committee (CCAO).
… supporting Orange’s strategy
As you know, the role of the Board of Directors is to validate the strategy and monitor its implementation. Christel Heydemann, as Chief Executive Officer, has the broadest leadership powers when it comes to appointing the members of the Executive Committee, agreeing investments, and implementing our industrial and innovation policies that will allow Orange to remain a world leader in digital communication infrastructures, ever faithful to its purpose.
Thanks to everyone’s efforts and diligent management, Orange achieved its financial goals in 2022. Despite a context of high inflation and geopolitical instability, which meant we had to increase our prices across our footprint to ensure value creation as well as a strong customer base, these 2022 results constitute a solid foundation to implement, with determination, our new “Lead the Future” strategic plan. Orange is now pursuing long-term business growth and lasting organizational transformation to become ever more agile, while respecting our social commitments. This has led the Board of Directors to propose an increase in the 2023 dividend to €0.72, including an interim payment of €0.30 in December 2023, and propose a dividend of €0.75 in 2024. I am hopeful that the Orange share price will continue to rise.
With the support of the members of the Board of Directors, you can count on my determination and ambition in serving Orange and supporting Christel Heydemann and her teams as, together, we face the challenges that lie ahead.