The ENGIE community, rallied to tackle the crisis

ENGIE’s Shareholders' Meeting took place yesterday, in a very particular context. Given the health constraints, we decided on a digital format. To avoid this physical distancing creating distance in the dialogue with our shareholders, we did a lot of groundwork beforehand, with individual shareholders in particular, so that we could listen to their concerns and reply to as many questions as possible during the General Meeting. I think that the exercise was a success.

For me, it was the opportunity to present shareholders with the responses provided by ENGIE to adapt to the crisis.

The Group was very quickly able to adapt its working methods to the health context, to meet essential needs and respond to customer emergencies, and to be part of the upsurge of solidarity that ran throughout society.

I thank all employees for their efforts and their commitment. I also commend the work of the Executive Committee and the management team made up of Claire Waysand, Judith Hartmann and Paulo Almirante, who have demonstrated a remarkable ability to manage this situation with courage and confidence.

In this unprecedented context, the decision to cancel payment of the dividend for 2019 was motivated by a desire to show our responsibility and our prudence in a concrete way.

Our intention is to resume payment of a dividend, in the framework of the policy announced last year.

The Board will be required to determine the amount of the dividend to be proposed at the end of the 2020 financial closing.

Shareholders approved the inclusion of our purpose statement in the company’s by-laws (https://www.engie.com/en/group/purpose). This is excellent news, because it sets out the Group’s long-term direction. It will be very useful to us in the new period that is opening up, which we say should be a period of world economic revival through low-carbon investments. The Covid crisis demonstrates that the risks that threaten our societies, even when they seem distant or far in the future, must be addressed now to guarantee the resilience and durability of humanity. The climate agenda will most likely emerge from it strengthened. As a leader in the energy and climate transition, ENGIE is well placed to support this movement by providing low-carbon solutions and energies. We will speed up implementation of our strategic plan, to be ready to take the opportunities that emerge.

I feel great pride in seeing and experiencing the ENGIE community rallying to tackle this crisis.

Together, we will continue to work to strengthen ENGIE’s resilience and its ability to seize opportunities for growth and development.