beauty is a powerful force that moves us that's why at L'Oreal Group we create beauty that empowers everyone with 100% of our brands committed to diversity equity and inclusion beauty that supports all with 53% of our leading positions held by women in 2023 15% of employees over the age of 50 with more than 30 years of empowering people with disabilities and we create beauty that supports all generations with 25,000 opportunities for people under 30 at L'Oreal Group we create the beauty that moves the world so good morning again and welcome to this 2024 annual results presentation kristoff Babul our CFO will kick off with a presentation of the 2024 financial statements then each head of divisions will summarize the 2024 key points for his or her division as well as the prospects for 2025 so we'll start with Miriam Quelgrren president of the dematological beauty division then Omar Rajiri president of the professional division Sir Chapi president of L'Oreal Lux and Alexi Perakis Valadat president of the consumer product division and I will conclude this first part of the meeting share with you my key takeaways for 2024 my thoughts on 2025 and how we will continue to expand our beauty conquest uh then we will of course move to the Q&A session which we expect to last around 40 minutes and finally I draw your attention to uh the disclaimer that's now on that screen so I give you a little bit of time to read it and then we will start with Kristoff's presentation so Kristoff please uh you can go to the [Music] desk okay so ladies and gentlemen good morning a record year for L'Oreal in 2024 L'Oreal set several new records let me share some of the highlights with you first like for like growth came in at 5.1% marking another year of market outperformance at 74.2% our gross margin reached a new all-time high up 30 basis points from last year our operating profit margin increased 20 basis points touching 20% for the first time and our operating net cash flow at 6.6 billion euros up close to 9% implied a cash conversion of over 100% consolidated sales increased by 5.6% reaching 43.5 billion euros on a like forlike basis growth amounted to 5.1% the change in scope of consolidation was a positive 1.7% it was mainly due to the acquisition of ESOP in August 23 and the impact of hyperinflation accounting in Argentina and Turkey foreign exchange had a negative impact of minus 1.2% as the euro strengthened throughout the year you can find detail on our invoicing currencies in the appendix of the presentation growth was driven by a combination of volume up 1.4% and value up 3.6% 6% well balanced between price at 2.1% and mix at 1.5 each division grew on a like forlike basis professional products grew 5.3% supported by the ongoing boom in premium hair care and the division's successful omni channel strategy consumer products posted 5.4% growth with all four key brands contributing emerging markets and Europe were particularly dynamic laurel looks grew 2.7% like for like and 4.5% reported boosted by the consolidation of EOP outside North Asia sales grew slightly more than 10% driven by continued strong momentum in fragrances and L'Oreal Dematological Beauty reported a 9.8% 8% increase in sales allowing the division to hit the 7 million 7 billion euro mark for the first time from a regional point of view 24 was a tale of two cities as you can see uh very clearly on this chart momentum was strong in three of our regions helping offset the softness in North Asia europe advanced by a remarkable 8.2% making it the single biggest contributor to our growth every country in the region grew with Germany Spain and the UK particularly dynamic in North America growth was solid at 5.5% each of the division advance with Lux the most dynamic with 11.7% growth the emerging markets remain in the lead they accounted for more than 16% of group sales and more than twice that of group growth sapa SSA grew 12.3% driven by Australia Thailand and Saudi Arabia latin America was up 11% led by Mexico and Brazil which crossed the 1 billion euro mark in North Asia sales declined by 3.2% on a like forlike basis this was due to the continued weakness in both mainland China and travel retail as a result of that let's take a look at the distribution of our sales by region which has changed quite dramatically in the last five years our exposure to North Asia declined from almost 27% to less than 24% of sales our developed regions remain stable with a stronger contribution from North America but the real winners were our emerging markets they now account for more than 16% of SEA from just 14% 5 years ago let's move on to our categories every one of them grew in the order of their growth fragrances up 14.1% were the most dynamic category for a fourth consecutive year boosted by our couture brands at 12.7% hair care was our second fastest growing category driven by the continued premiumization in both mass and professional makeup increased by 5% with solid growth in both the consumer products and lux divisions skincare our largest category advanced by 2.8% all regions were up with the exception of North Asia and hair color advanced by 2.3% like our regional footprint our category footprint changed significantly over the last five years despite its significant exposure to North Asia the contribution from skincare increased by four points illustrating its critical importance in aging increasingly health and wellness conscious world fragrances saw the biggest increase in its contribution rose from 9% in 2019 to 14% today and there is more to come as we are adding two new licenses this year the contribution from these two categories increased by almost 10 points which clearly had a favorable impact in our mix and now let me put some perspective around our topline performance in 2024 first 24 was a tale of two cities on our like for like growth to that 5.1% but excluding Asia it amounted to a very strong 8% as you saw earlier all other regions contributed to that growth led by Europe and our emerging markets but 24 was also a tale of two halves as a strong first half was followed by a softer second let me take through the three main reasons first over the course of last year growth in the global cosmetic market eased from a dynamic 5.5% in the first half to a more moderate 4.5% in the full year as you know we had expected that slowdown as inflationdriven pricing started to unwind but the shape of the slowdown was different from what we had predicted on the one hand developed markets especially Europe held up better than anticipated on the other hand the Chinese ecosystem which we had hoped would at least stabilize did not let's take a closer look at what happened in this Chinese ecosystem in mainland China total beauty market growth deteriorated from minus2 in the first half to minus4 in the full year in a selective market that continued to decelerate the Lux division continued to gain share and reach a new record high in mice we slightly underperform a rapidly slowing market impacted by our online footprint in Asia travel retail total beauty market growth went from minus3 in the first half to minus 10 in the full year driven by both Hainan and Korea together they are down 35% from 2022 levels and we choose to accompany this decrease in consumption with a reduction in our stocking trade we believe that the resizing of the travel retail business in Asia is now largely behind us and I'm happy to say that we are entering 25 with healthy inventory levels across the region my third comment is about dermatological beauty the difference we had observed between selling and sellout in the first half mainly related to sunare in Europe reversed in the second half sellout is robust and ahead of saline save slowed in the US this is partly due the low of big numbers in the last seven years the brand has grown sevenfold and is now our second biggest brand in the US in addition our key launch the brand's first entry into hair care happened at the very end of the year starting with Walmart.com with that let's move to the P&L gross profit rose 6% to 32.3 billion euros the gross margin reached a record high of 74.2 2% up 30 basis points yearon year while currencies and scope of consolidation had a negative 30 basis points impact this was more than offset by a strong contribution from price and mix as well as cost efficiencies research and innovation expenses increased 5% to 1.4 billion euros we continue to invest behind our brands advertising and promotion expenses rose 5% to 14 billion euros equivalent to 32.2% of sales selling and administrative expenses were up 40 basis points at 18.9% of sales and operating profit amounted to 8.7 billions up 7% the operating margin increased 20 basis points to a record 20% on a comparable basis consolidating ease up in both 23 and 24 our gross margin increased 50 basis points on that same basis advertising and promotion expenses rose 10 basis points selling and administrative expenses were flat reflecting once again our discipline approach to cost management including several reorganization and restructuring measures in several regions last the operating margin increased by a very strong 40 basis points in 2024 each division reported an operating margin in excess of 21% and with the exception of Lux reach a new record that of professional product was up 60 basis points at 22.2% that of consumer products increased by 60 basis point to 21.1 that of looks was flat at 22.3 but up 50 basis points on a comparable basis and that of dermatological beauty rose by 10 basis points to a best-in-class 26.1% non-allocated expenses consisting mainly of corporate and fundamental research cost rose slightly to 2.5% of sales before we look at the rest of the P&L I would like to take a step back and remind you how much we have achieved in the last five years reported sales increased 46% to over 43 billion euros like for like our four-year Kagar was an impressive 7.6% more than twice that of the market despite going through a period of severe cost inflation gross profit advanced at a slightly faster pace than sales resulting in 120 basis points gross margin expansion we invested behind our brands to secure our future growth relative to sales and was up 140 basis points in 24 alone it amounted to over 14 billion euros last but not least our operating profit increase at a four-year Kagar of over 9% and our operating profit margin expanded by 140 basis points or 30 basis points per year let's return to the P&L the net financial charge came in at €261 million the dividend from Senopi amounted to €445 million income tax was slightly over€2 billion euros representing a tax rate of 23.4% very slightly above that of 23 net profit excluding non-recurring items amounted to 6.8 billion e diluted earnings per share coming at 12.66 up by 5% now to help you estimate your EPS for 2025 I would recommend that you base your calculation on a diluted number of shares of 535 million.9 non-recurring items amounted to€378 million e they included other income and expenses of 438 million euros of which primarily 237 millions of restructuring charges related to various reorganization measures at group divisional and regional level and 100 million euros related to product liability law cash flow increased by 6.4% to 8.5 billion euros working capital continued to improve capital expenditure of 1.6 billion euros came in at 3.8% of sales operating net cash flow amounted to 6.6 billion euros an increase of 8.6% implying strong cash conversion we paid a dividend of€3.6 billion euros spent 160 million euros for acquisitions and half a billion euros for share buybacks and redeem our lease depth you will find the acquisition of our 10% stake in Galerma in the order line given it was a minority investment the residual cash flow came to 51 million euros the balance sheet remained robust with shareholders equity of 33.1 billion euros or 59% of the total balance sheet as as a result the financial situation remained healthy in 2024 at the end of December net depth amounted to 4.4 billion euros and 2.5 billion excluding the financial lease depth the gearing ratio stood at 13.4% the financial leverage at 0.4 times based on a eida that has surpassed the 10 billion euro for the first time earlier this week as you have probably seen we sold 2.3% of our ST in Sani benefiting from the recent share price move this allows us to diversify our sources of financing following the ESOP Galerma and Dr g transactions and give ourselves the means for other acquisitions and there are plenty of opportunities the quality of our performance in 2024 coupled with the strength of our balance sheet led the board of directors to propose a 6.1% increase in the dividend to€7 per share at the AGM this results in a payout ratio of 55.3% and illustrates L'Oreal's consistent and dynamic dividend policy now with regards to our L'Oreal for the future ESG program 24 was another year of progress on this slide you can see some of our achievements in the effort to fight against climate change to manage water scarcity to respect biodiversity and to preserve our natural resources let's take climate last April the SBTI approved our short-term and long-term decarbonization targets as align with the 1.5 degrees trajectory additionally in 24 L'Oreal already reached 97% renewable energies for its size in 24 L'Oreal once again rewarded for its social and environmental performance and recognized among the best companies in the world by nonprofit organizations rating agencies and international bodies thank you very much for your attention thank you Kristoff thank you for your presentation and now on to Miriam Green for L'Oreal Dermatological Beauty good morning everyone 2022 2024 is another year of record for LDB reaching 7 billion almost double digit at plus 9.8% the division reached his highest profit ever at 26.1% up 10 basic points and well ahead of its main competitors now you know it was a year of two halves the first half was boosted by sun pre-sale and the sun and a strong valuization carryover in contrast the second half was impacted by sun stock adjustment and CV deceleration in big mass medical markets especially in the US still the damoc cosmetic market remain very dynamic at plus 7.8% 8% and LDB overperformed growing 1.3 times faster hence reinforcing its leadership to reach a historic 25.5% market share four key success factors explain our over performance first the strength of our brands 2024 has seen a historical moment for the division as two of our brands have conquered the top five in total worldwide skincare market lar Pose reached the top three position while serve jumped to number five all brands are growing fast l pro contributed to more than half of the division's growth getting close to the three billion euro mark at plus 13.1% the performance has been fueled by exceptional results in the US and by MEAB3 the biggest innovation Laros Puzz has ever seen siri crossed the two billion euro mark and is now 14 times bigger than that acquisition the brand is the second biggest share winner in the demo cosmetic market after Larouch despite a stter mass medical dynamic in the US civ consolidated its number one position in total skin care while also pursuing its successful international rollout on the aesthetic front Skineticles recorded doubledigit growth driven by amazing performances in China and in the US pto the brand best ever innovation is being launched in China right now our second success factor is that we reinforced our medical leadership we are now directly reaching more than 310,000 doctors worldwide three of our brands are in the top four most prescribed brands by dermatologists skin suitical is number one in the professional market worldwide while skin better science new news became number three the third reason for success is our digital leadership e-commerce grew by 23% and we also consolidated our number one position in medical advocacy on beauty tech innovation continues with scalp consult pro a revolutionary device for personalized scalp diagnosis the fourth success factor is our international expansion emerging markets are performing at plus 12 while mature markets remain dynamic with high singledigit growth there are many noteworthy performances mainland China grew at 14% in net sales in a flat demo market north America reported a plus 7% in net sales outperforming the market with Laros Pose being the number one contributor to market growth europe recorded yet another great year at plus 10% growth and lastly amazing performances in subsaharan Africa and in India with a successful launch of CIV in Mumbai and Delhi and we are now ready for further expansion in India so what is the outlook for 2025 i'm confident that we will carry on growing strongly we expect the market to remain dynamic roughly two points above the beauty market the underlying long-term growth trend of our market remain intact it continues to be driven by the unfortunate rise of skin pathologies and the boom of aesthetics we will carry on winning as we pursue our internationalization and by seizing two major growth opportunities new targets and new categories regarding new targets males and boomers are under potentialized consumers our genderneutral products are ideally suited to attract male consumers separately our health brands perfectly address boomers who are twice more prone to skin issues than the total population cv intense moisturizer innovation is the perfect solution for them on the category front hair care is a major growth reservoir in the past five years DOS has become number one demo hair care brand where it is present in the US we are now launching DOS and disrupting the category with our new Saravee hair care both launches are off to a strong start and there's more our growth will also be driven by an unprecedented innovation stimulus resulting in a twopoint gain in innovation rate of business you will see groundbreaking innovations designed to match the efficacy of their methological golden standard yet with high tolerance just to name a few on age management Vich collision 16 powered by cobonding technology the results of 15 years of research on photo protection antimmune boosted by a successful melazil molecule to protect from UV damage while correcting hyperpigmentation and finally to seize the boom of aesthetics and push the boundaries of skin health we believe that the complimentarity between topicals procedures and oral supplement is the future you will see the launch of skinles region 6 a disruptive regenerative skin care proven to repair while reducing the side effect of procedures it will set new standards in professional beauty performance and in the US a breakthrough biotech supplement on skin better science it is together with leading dermatologies and our brands that we are shaping the future of beauty thank you thank you Mariam and now up to Omar for professional products division good morning everyone 2024 was another year of outperformance for the division we grew by 5.3% in a market which we estimate to be around plus 3% our market share reach a new record high of 26% this robust performance consistent across both semesters is driven by a winning strategy based on three key growth drivers the first key growth driver is our strong momentum on premium mer in a dynamic premium mer market growing at plus 5% we continue to outperform our value growth reached plus 13% fueled by strong performance across all our major brands and driven by blockbuster innovations such as absolute per molecular by L'Oreal professional and asing bonding concentrate by redken the second key growth driver is our omni channel expansion our winning omni channel strategy allows us to reach and engage consumers across all touch points we've solidified our presence in more than 400,000 salons we've achieved significant acceleration in e-commerce at plus 19% expanding our reach across all regions we've continued to accelerate in selective retail at plus 30% notably by opening new doors and putting professional quality products in the hands of Gen Z e-commerce and selective retail now represent 38% of our total turnover the third growth driver is our broad-based expansion in our top three regions North America Europe and North Asia despite a sluggish salon market and thanks to e-commerce and selective retail we achieved growth of plus five plus six and plus 7% respectively in the US which accounts for 40% of our total turnover our American brand Redken has continued to gain market share and strengthen its leadership as the number one premier brand in Europe kastas is now the second largest beauty brand online in China we deliver solid growth at plus 9% kerastas is the undisputed leading hairare brand online we also expanded our geographic presence across emerging markets with great successes in Mexico at plus 15% in Brazil at plus 19% and in the Gulf countries at plus 18% the strategic combination of channel and geographic expansion is yielding strong results and increasing our global market penetration in the years to come the division will maintain its growth momentum fueled by a strong potential of conquest first we have still a strong potential of conquest of new consumers on premier mercare the increasing demand for premium hair care is boosted by social media and propelled by strong underlying trends long hairstyles diverse hair types and increasing scalp concerns premier care is a powerful engine offering significant potential a key example is the US the US is our most developed premier care market yet on the total hair care market we hold a market share of 10% in value and less than 4% in volume this shows the tremendous opportunities of recruitment that lie in front of us everywhere and we are uniquely positioned to capture these opportunities thanks to our powerful brand portfolio with our strong French and American brands we cover all her needs at different price points all our blockbuster innovations are powered by cutting edge scientific discoveries led by our global L'Oreal arena premiier our latest Gastas launch benefits from a unique technology that reverses 96% of damage in one use in parallel we are continuously elevating our salon services through advanced diagnostics deeper care treatments and luxury hairspa experiences lastly our unrivaled salon footprint allows us to leverage statist advocacy at scale which amplifies the reach and legitimacy of our brands as you can see we are perfectly set to attract and engage new consumers on premium care our second potential of conquest is the conquest of new stylists since 2019 in a declining salon market we have been able to grow and gain market share in salons our acceleration in premium hair care in new channels has given us the means to invest in salons and build up a new and successful operating model with our B2B e-commerce platforms and our online academies we have a strong digital and datadriven ecosystem in an ever evolving industry characterized by the rise of independent stylists we reach stylists at scale we are now interacting with more than three million stylists out of 7 million worldwide we are also perfectly set to attract and engage new stylists our third conquest level is the conquest of adjacencies multi-awwarded Airlight Pro is a revolutionary haird dryer powered by infrared light technology it represents a significant step into the three billion euro premium air device market launched at the end of 2024 in France and in the US Alight Pro has received exceptional feedback from pros and consumers we will roll out Alight Pro in Europe and unlock a new growth engine for the division now starting 2025 we will fuel the market with an exciting beauty stimulus plan boosted by 20% versus last year innovation in hair care with Gloss Absolute by Kastas the cutting edge solution for Gen Z seeking glossy and bouncy hair vitamin Color Spectrum by L'Oreal Professional the ultimate professional color care innovation the first night and day bonding serum by Redken for 247 repair glowmania by Matrix the first laminating hair care for all hair types innovation in hair color with the relaunch of our iconic color range majerel by L'Oreal Professional as you can see we are ready for the future ready to continue leading the professional beauty industry thank you thank you Amar thank you and Siril let's talk about Laurel Lux with a very exciting news good morning in 2024 Laurel Lux grew plus 2.7 like for like and plus 4.5 reported achieving net sales of 15.6 billion euros h1 was at plus 2.3 and H2 at plus 3.2 confirming the division has accelerated its growth you should not be worried about Q4 at plus one since we anticipated shipments on Q3 for the holiday season sellout itself remained extremely robust at the end of the year reaching plus six in December for instance in 2024 we reinforced our leadership worldwide significantly outperforming an otherwise softer market at plus two it was the 14th consecutive year of market share gain for Laurel Lux at the same time our profit margin level remained very high at 22.3% the same level as in 2023 and this despite the dilutive effect of ISOP and market turbulences in China this level of profit is way higher than most competition regarding our regional performances Laurel looks grew at a remarkable double-digit pace outside of North Asia rebalancing its footprint 2024 marked a major milestone in the USA where we become the number one luxury player for the first time laurel Lux is now the luxury leader in three of the four regions where we are present north America Europe and emerging markets in North Asia lalux is number two but a very solid number one in China with a new record market share in North America or tailored omni channel strategy bore considerable fruits seguring a year of strong growth at plus 11 significantly above the lux market which was at plus 7 in Europe we remained firmly dynamic consolidating our leadership and growing at plus 9 also above the market at plus 8 in North Asia in a still challenging market context at minus 7 we continue to get market share evolving at minus 5.5 in emerging finally we maintain strong momentum at + 12 in a market at + 10 in 2024 Laurel performed successfully in both brick and click channels in offline we elevated permanently the quality of experiences and service both of which are essential to building strong luxury brands from freestanding stores to gondor corners in online we expanded our footprints in ecom and in social com our strategic partnership with Amazon in the USA and with Tik Tok shop in Sapena yielded both impressive results and isop inaugurated its worldwide online D2C with a state-of-the-art consumer e experience in 2024 Laura continued to strengthen the balance between its three categories fragrances and skincare now each represent 40% and makeup 20% in fragrances we boasted exceptional results at plus 14 outperforming a dynamic market several of our recent launches earned top rankings myself and Libra by San Lauron born in Roma Donao by Valentino wanted by Azaro Paradox by Prada and Stronger with you by Armani in makeup our strategy shakeup was successful we grew at plus five and reconquer market shares the endeavor was particularly impressive for Ipsalon which continued to lead in China and obtained double-digit growth in the USA and Europe osl shine was for sure the hottest makeup launch of the year valentino and Prada forged ahead also with ambitious expansion plans doubling both of our makeup businesses skincare presented a contrasted picture on the one hand it faced a challenging market context deeply affected by the situation in North Asia but on the other hand 2024 brought several key moments the worldwide launch of Lancome Geneificate executed to perfection everywhere reflecting the enduring power of it historical icon the launch of Kills on Amazon allowing the brand to reach new consumers in the USA and additionally in skincare or recent acquisition continue to demonstrate very promising growth potential youth to the people became the number one cleanser in North America and Takami became the number one lux serum in North Asia and of course is up conquest accelerated with a growth rate at plus 9 and a very healthy like forlike sales evolution now what's our outlook for 2025 well the division is perfectly positioned to keep outperforming the luxury market significantly in 2025 we will continue to leverage our powerful and deeply complimentary portfolio of 25 brands covering all price points from 20 to€500 this remains more than ever a key competitive advantage for Laurel it allows us to play on all luxury segments and increase market penetration by growing a customer base year after year in all our region in 2025 we will roll out our recent licenses and acquisitions to maximize the potential think of Prada or Valentino which have gone from less than 100 million to more than 500 million each of them in just four years think of his which will open 20 new unique stores worldwide more than ever in sync with luxury consumers evolving desires for experiential retail in 2025 we will also reveal what's destined to be the brand launch of the year Miumu and finally I'm extremely honored and excited to announce that we just signed a long-term license deal with the fantastic Jacmuse brand in 2025 we will keep building upon our innovation power bringing forth a true beauty stimulus plan this beauty stimulus plan powerfully addresses the wants and needs of today's consumers across all three of our categories spanning all generation from Gen Z to boomers the plan also encompasses some key breakthrough in beauty tech including the incredible Lancome's micro ding booster overall our 2025 launches will represent four more points of weight of business this is massive in 2025 we will double down on the USA market we should see strong growth in premium we will continue accelerating in emerging markets and we will and we will work hard to reignite the China market with excitement at L'Oreal Lux our fantastic teams around the globe are motivated by building extraordinary luxury brands 2025 is poised to be yet another incredibly ambitious year for them as the world's number one luxury beauty player Laura Lux is determined to continue to deliver future fit highly profitable growth thank you thank you Seril and uh now Alex Perakis valat for L'Oreal consumer products division so good morning the mass beauty market has normalized following a period of inflation but it remained dynamic in 2024 growing at plus 6% our division delivered solid growth at plus 5.4% 4% slightly below the market but building on a record-breaking comparative from 2023 and above our pre-COVID average all our global brands grew strongly and what's exceptional was the performance of L'Oreal Paris the world's largest beauty brand was also one of the fastest growing at plus 9.2% 2% thanks to innovation on all fronts from winning product launches to the introduction of beauty genius the first ever virtual beauty assistant powered by Genai our other big legacy brands achieved key wins garnier extended its skincare success championing natural ingredients augmented by science and Maybelline New York consolidated its position as the world's number one makeup brand including a very strong second half innovation plan that gives the brand momentum entering 2025 we also had a great dynamic from our own global indie brand NYX Professional Makeup which grew twice as fast as the market in Europe and the US thanks to its unique positioning blending entertainment with makeup artistry but beyond the brands the strength of our model is its balance enabling us to capture growth from wherever it comes by region our strong progression in Europe and the emerging markets offset a slower market in China emerging markets accounted for 50% of our growth powered by Mexico Brazil Saudi Arabia and Thailand while Europe continued its strong dynamic particularly in the UK and Ireland Iberia and the Nordics meanwhile the US faced headwinds from a soft makeup market but we have big opportunities to rebound in 2025 by category we have a very balanced footprint across makeup hair and skincare and in 2024 all three achieved mid to high singledigit growth within that hair care led the way at plus 14% driven by the outstanding success of Elviv by Laurel Paris finally the growth was very healthy combining unit price and mix this balance is vital to our strategy to democratize and premiumize mass beauty it also fueled a very significant increase of our gross margin enabling us to boost operating margin by 60 basis points to reach an all-time high while increasing our investment behind our brands so looking forward to 2025 we expect the mass beauty market to remain dynamic and our division is embarking on a plan of conquest to both stimulate the market and outperform it this plan is built around four chapters chapter one is to accelerate innovation with a special emphasis on high potential consumer groups for boomers L'Oreal Paris Duo Serum is an anti-aging revolution and our cool silver treatment will magnify their gray hair for men our men expert franchise is launching derma control to address acne and oily skin and Lviv has a major unisex innovation with growth booster a cutting edge technology to anchor hair and stimulate growth for Gen Z we have an exciting makeup plan with Maybelline Teddy Tint NYX Face Glue and L'Oreal Big Deal Mascara this groundbreaking lineup will particularly help reinvigorate the US market but beyond makeup Gen Z will love the Garnier pimple patches a powerful new solution for their acne emergencies finally for emerging markets Ghana has two new skincare winners while Elviv is building on its hair leadership in Latin America with Dream Sleek together this launch plan is not only powerful it's actually tailored for incremental consumer recruitment of high potential targets chapter two is to capture today's major beauty trends and I'll mention two in particular first is health and sensitive skin and that's why we're scaling Mixa our mass medical champion it was our fastest growing brand last year and we will launch in three more countries in Europe in 2025 the second trend is K beauty like K-pop and Kdrama Korean beauty has global prestige and viral potential our division is poised to bring K beauty to the world with two powerful indie brands 3ce the number one K makeup brand in the world that we are now deploying in Southeast Asia and soon Dr g Korea's leading skincare brand with infinite global potential chapter 3 is to democratize underpenetrated beauty segments today's beauty savvy consumers are adding new steps to their beauty routines they use UV protection every single day hair treatments on top of shampoos and new brow makeups our division is accelerating innovation in these segments to win new consumers and grow with those that already love our brands we're also democratizing underpenetrated price tiers in multiple ways first with complimentary innovation in hair color for example Gier is conquering the premium segment with good and the accessible segment with color sensation second through our format strategy as in India where our multiple formats of Ghanaian vitamin C serums are recruiting at many levels the fourth and final chapter of our plan is to double down on emerging markets this opportunity is bigger than ever and it's not just the growing middle class its key consumer shifts young and digitally savvy populations empowered women elevated beauty desires and the rise of modern trade and e-commerce all of these trends play to the strength of our brands and of our division giving us the highest right to win where our market shares are the lowest that's why we're doubling down our focus and investments in Latin America Africa the Middle East India and Southeast Asia to strike while the iron is hot each of these four chapters represent an incremental growth opportunity putting the recruitment of tens of millions of new consumers at the very heart of our plan because today we touch just a little over 1 billion out of four billion potential consumers this untapped opportunity is the fuel of our confidence today and of our determination to sequentially accelerate growth throughout the year and build a brilliant future for our division thank you thank you Alexi for your confidence and determination so so good morning everyone uh it's an important day today because 2024 marks the turning point for the group as we've laid the foundation for what I call the next chapter of the Laurel adventure you've heard the word conquest mentioned a lot in the division's presentations indeed we have geared up for our own space conquest or more precisely the conquest of three new spaces but before I take you on that exciting journey allow me to stay grounded for a few minutes and share you share with you my thoughts on our performance in 2024 and our outlook for 2025 let's start with 2024 we delivered solid growth at plus 5.1% in a year that yet again did not unfold as planned at all L'Oreal once more outpaced the global beauty market which we estimate grew by 4.5% we outperformed the markets in three out of four division our three out of four regions sorry our slight underperformance in North Asia was mainly due to our country mix with the impact of a negative Chinese market where we remain a strong leader 2024 as Kristoff said was a tale of two cities outside North Asia which was impacted by the continued challenges in the Chinese ecosystem ourselves grew 8% all of our regions contributed and in the last two years our exposure to the Chinese ecosystem has significantly diminished it now accounts for 17% of our sales well below the level in 2022 we continue to believe in its future but are less dependent on it as our global footprint has become a lot more balanced let me share with you some personal highlights of last year first the US accounted for one quarter of our total growth making it our number one growth contributor as a country europe advanced by 8% and was once again our single biggest region contributing to growth at group level emerging markets contributed to 36% of growth they accounted for over 16% of sales overtaking mainland China for the first time but the results I'm most proud of this year is our financial performance our capacity to keep our P&L virtuous and deliver steady improvement in operating profit despite the turbulences in China and travel retail our gross and operating margins reached new record highs at 20% our operating margin was up 20 basis points or 40 basis points if we exclude the impact of ESOP on a comparable basis our brand fuel increased by 10 basis points as a group we have once again proven our ability and determination to consistently deliver on our promise to steadily improve our operating margins all the while providing the fuel for our long-term growth we are confident in the future and we increase the dividend to our shareholders by 6% beyond our financial performance we were awarded the Eco Valley Platinum Medal Rating honoring the group's determination to stay at the forefront of extra financial performance and I'm very proud of the three-year partnership we signed with Lulu entitled of All Beauties a guided journey of 108 selected works that perfectly illustrate the essentiality of beauty across the ages now let's talk about 2025 we expect market growth of plus4 to 4 and a.5% and we are determined to outperform this market again we expect our growth to accelerate progressively as the first quarter will face particularly tough comparisons this acceleration will be supported by our beauty stimulus plan as you've seen in the division's presentation our innovation pipeline is stronger than ever and each bug that we will invest behind these innovations will deliver a bigger bang thanks to the continued rollout of bet IQ which has clearly proven its efficacy this year each of our divisions will have an important role to play consumer products as you heard is our door opener in emerging market it will be the trailblazer of consumer recruitment luxe will continue to champion the fragrance boom which we are convinced will last while bringing elevation and creativity across all categories esop will play a key role in delivering experiential luxury and wellness to growing global trends and professional products will continue to spare the expansion of the premium professional hairare market and take a bigger piece of that growing pie ldb will continue to expand its playground expanding emerging market with Sarave as a trailblazer doubling down on hair care and assertaining its position at the forefront of premium aesthetics before we turn to the next decade let me take a quick step back 2024 was in many ways a defining year for the group as we laid the foundations for the next chapter we strengthen our research capabilities as always we as we always do we invested 3% of ourselves in RNI and that's more than 1.3 billion euros but at the same time we accelerated significantly the creation of partnerships with academic institutions and participations in biotech these foray into a broader innovation ecosystem are paving the way for the invention of the future of beauty along and sustainability we invested in further augmenting beauty with AI in RNI we leverage AI and our 10,000 terabytes of data to accelerate and strengthen our innovation processes partnering with AI champions like IBM thanks to the gradual rollout of our AI powered beta IQ in more countries we continue to improve the returns on our A&P and the output of our creative teams is boosted by CIC our internal beauty content lab all of this ultimately serves the consumer enhanced by augmented services like beauty genius which already boasts over 100,000 users in the US we have advanced the harmonization of our more than 20 IC systems on one SAP platform which will allow us to achieve significant efficiencies across the entire organization and help us to increase both our agility and our capacity to leverage economies of scales we finalized the simplification of our organizational structures in Europe alone we combined 25 countries into eight hubs significantly reducing overheads we created six shared services centers across Europe the Americas in Asia responsible for accounting treasury and controlling we strengthened our operational resilience including the inauguration of the state-of-the-art fulfillment center in Suju reflecting our belief in the strong future of China and at the same time we continue to localize our productions for brand like Sarah to futureproof our operations in an increasingly complex and unpredictable world last but not least we continue to sharpen our portfolio we acquired licenses for two prominent fashion houses Miumu and as announced this morning Jacmus we also acquired the Korean skincare brand Dr g and we took minority stakes in aesthetic powerhouse Galama and in Middle Eastern fragrance champion Ammoage and of course we sold a number of smaller brands as part of the pruning of our portfolio i strongly believe that all these measures will allow us to go ever faster and further in our ambition to write the next chapter of the L'Oreal adventure which I call the conquest of new spaces in the beauty galaxy always following our mantra of doing only beauty but all of beauty these new spaces are the geographic space powered by favorable demographics and economics the new consumer space with superior growth and penetration opportunities and third but not the least we will explore new technologies that will shape the beauty of tomorrow let me start with our regional space opportunity the first region where we see favorable demographic and economic dynamics is the USA this might sound surprising since the US is already our largest market accounting for one quarter of group sales but let me explain first the US is one of the few developed markets with actual population growth over the next 5 years the number of potential consumers is expected to increase by 12 million this growth will be driven by the Latino population which is younger and more focused on beauty especially makeup and fragrances with our leadership in both we are well placed to recruit in this consumer cluster second the number of consumers that identify themselves as multi-racial has over the last decade more than tripled to over 10% of the population and it will continue to rise this will lead to a variety of new beauty needs and nobody is better positioned than us given the breadth and depth of our category and regional expertise third the US accounts for onethird of the global affluent population and 60% of their global spend that current tailing of consumer confidence and wealth will continue to drive the growth of our luxury division last we have a unique portfolio to conquer the US market it combines our 18 American brands three of them are part of our billionaire club then of course emerging markets two billion of our potential consumers live in emerging markets over the next five years their number will increase by another 500 million half of them in India alone these consumers are increasingly affluent they are young digitally connected and beauty savvy all of which support strong beauty market share growth for years to come in the last four years our sales in emerging markets doubled from 3.5 to 7 billion euros and their contribution to group sales increased from less than 13 to over 16% that is only the beginning and I truly believe that the time for us to win is now and those of you who joined our CMD in Mumbai last year saw with their own eyes emerging markets are ready for Laura why well because the rise of a sizable and affluent middle class plays to our strengths and because the emergence of e-commerce and modern train modern trade has created the level playing field in which we can successfully compete and because as you can see our 37 global brands still have a lot of white spaces to fill we have the right footprint to drive the this expansion our six regional RNI hubs enable us to bring the right products to the region but also from the region to the world as we did with Alanier vitamin C serum our 36 manufacturing plants ensure proximity to the local markets the Middle East and in particular Saudi Arabia is also a major opportunity that's why beyond the local appetite for western brands we have decided to invest in Ammoage the magnificent fast growing prestige fragrance brand from Oman let me now take you to the second space consumer clusters that offer superior growth and penetration opportunities we estimate that there are four 4.2 billion potential beauty consumers in the world and that we touch 1.3 billion of them today over the next decade it is our ambition to reach two billion consumers let's start with Gen Z they already account for over 1/5if of our potential consumers and it will increase by another 150 million in the next five years what makes them attractive well first Gen Z are the biggest consumer clusters in emerging markets and their rapidly r rising affluence digital savviness and beauty obception make them a core target second by 2030 370 million Gen Z consumers will be over the age of 25 entering a new life stage with more disposable income and more sophisticated beauty routine third 200 million Gen Alpha consumers will be coming of age in 2030 this matters as this cluster are what I would call the beauty crazy generation giving us the opportunity to nurture the consumer of tomorrow across all our divisions we have very strong plans to intensify the recruitment of Gen Z acne will be a key focus for a number of our DMA mass and luxury brands and the Lux division has several targeting makeup launches including Lancome with a new spokesperson Olivia Rodrigo let's move on to men male products contribute to less than 10% of the global beauty market yet men account for one quarter of global beauty usage and they con constitute half of our potential consumer base the opportunity is huge on the one hand the weight of man differs widely by category we will double down in fragrances where men already account for onethird of our sales recent launches like YSL myself or Valentino born in Roma are flying we will offer more differentiated products in hair care offering men more solutiondriven products like LV growth booster we will step up innovation in skin care to improve penetration rates and encourage more sophisticating plus one routines and we see penetration rates increasing everywhere in China we know that more than 50% of men regularly use facial skincare products but now their European counterparts are catching up at 32% the younger generations are adopting regular skincare routines making them a highly attractive cluster this is especially true in emerging markets in India for example men account for 50% of the Garnier brand last but not least the 60 plus cohort by the end of the decade it will comprise over 1 billion of our potential consumers that's 200 million more than this year twothirds of the 60 plus years old will be the boomers one-thirds Gen X more than half of them will live in developed markets this makes them a very attractive cluster as consumers in developed markets spend more on beauty as they get older the average boomer spends over $400 per year almost twice as much as a Gen Y and two and a half times as much as a Gen Z today over 60s account for 21% of the population but 28% of the beauty demand and this brings me to the last of our three space beauties the future and the future and new technologies one of the biggest obsessions on the planet today is longevity we all want to live better for longer and optimize our beauty capital and it goes without saying that longevity is as much an obsession for us as it is for our consumers last year we took a stake in Swiss longevity biotech company timeline and we partners with a British biotech company Senisca but more importantly we have dedicated a significant amount of our research to the topic over the years in fact our approach to longevity builds on 15 years of advanced research culminating in 38 scientific publication we call it L'Oreal longevity integrative science and I'm very excited to introduce to you today the longevity wheel of the the L'Oreal wheel of skin longevity powered by a proprietary AI longivity cloud l'oreal Longevity Integrative Science a unique comprehensive approach focusing on the nine hallmarks of skin aging nine interconnected biological mechanisms activated by the science of biomarkers introducing the Longevity AI Cloud a map of 267 biomarkers the longevity AI cloud enables us to create three intervention models and extend skin cellular health span in ways we never could before early onset anticipate to preserve skin's youth capital at a molecular level midage intercept to halt metabolic dysfunctions at a cellular level more mature reset to reverse damaged biological functions at a tissular level l'oreal longevity integrative science allows us to target the root causes of aging in a truly integrative way science to move the world so as you have just seen we believe that L'Oreal Arena has cracked the code of lifelong skin health and you can see first results in recent outputs like Cell Boprint introduced this year's at the CES in Las Vegas and Lancome Absolute Longevity which has just been launched in Korea that said I believe that to address consumers concerned about longevity and well- aging we require beauty solutions that expand outside the traditional beauty market one of them is supplements cosmetic and beauty supplements are a 15 billion euro market that is growing two to three points faster than the beauty market as penetration rates are rapidly rising across all regions we are entering this attractive market with the launch of biorind from skin better science with more to come as a number of our brands are well equipped to win in this space another opportunity are devices devices have of course been around for over hundreds of years but for us they are a new and exciting space and we absolutely have a right to win in this space last year the consumer product divisions launched L'Oreal Paris Color Sonic the very first hair color device the L'Oreal professional product division introduced Airlight Pro a revolutionary hair dryer that uses infrared light technology to dry faster and to leave hair smoother more hydrated if first consumer feedback is any indication this is set to become a real blockbusters while we have entered these three territories there's a fourth one that we continue to observe from the outside and that's aesthetics we need to understand whether we to understand whether we want to play and have a right to win inside this market or whether we remain on the outskirts with our existing topical demo beauty brands skin suiticicals and skin better science that's why we have taken participations in clinics in China and North America and taken a 10% stake in Galerma and signed with them a scientific partnership this gives us a privileged position to observe and understand this market and we remain today in this position regardless of the Sanopi stock sale so I have told you how we will conquer the three spaces at the heart of the next chapter of the Laurel adventure an adventure that will see us strengthen our beauty leadership and continue to push the boundaries of beauty i believe that we are uniquely well placed to excel as this conquest as they will be fueled by science our own science science had been at the heart of what we do from our first day 115 years ago and we will leverage this competence for tomorrow's beauty solution and they will be augmented by AI which touches everything we do and where we continue to widen our competitive modes at L'Oreal we've always been explorers and conquerors and I would like to thank all L'Oreal teams for their passion and engagement we see beauty as an as an everexpanding universe and nothing excites us more than adding more planets to the beauty galaxy i thank you very much for your attention and I think we'll now move to Q&A [Applause] so we are ready for to take questions i will just take a sip of water so we who will want to ask the first [Music] question come sorry as usual uh please state your name and your your the bank you're you're representing or the establishment you're you're representing first on on fragrances and perhaps that's for uh fragrances is not showing any sign of of slowdown down plus 14% again this year that's actually quite a big chunk of of L'Oreal today now what are the key drivers you're seeing in 2025 to maintain that kind of growth and L'Oreal outperformance in the category and then secondly uh you mentioned beta beta IQ uh could you give us a bit more detail on the progress uh you've seen uh coming from beta IQ if it has reached its full potential yet and if we should assume that the imp ratio will progressively come down towards perhaps 31% or or 30% over time thank you so we start with Sil you're right fences have been a very dynamic for us has been several years in a row and the market is very dynamic itself this market has been growing double digit for the last 3 years um it's due to two factors uh first an increase of um the penetration uh of fragrances uh to give you uh numbers uh the penetration for women of fragrances in Europe is 70% today in uh China it's only 42 in the US only 52 so there has been an increase across region of the penetration i think one day the penetration across region will reach the level of Europe for men uh the penetration is 56% in Europe only 32 in China 38 in the US so you see the potential by addition of consumer by increase of the penetration that's the first factor of growth second factor of growth is uh obviously the the valorization uh which had happened uh both through price but also very importantly through mix as uh consumers uh want to upgrade towards more selective unique fragrances which is the fragrance collection phenomenon which a brand like Ammoage is playing very nicely with uh so overall these two factors penetration and valorization I think will continue for the years to come so I'm uh very positive for the market evolution and why are we going to keep winning well I think because we have the best brand portfolio of the market uh we have brands which go from accessible fragrance to super premium fragrances and uh I think between our cooer brands and our cooer licenses including two that you seen today Miumu and Jackmus who are going to be big successes in fragrances i think we are we are very well equipped and also because we have a unique experience a unique uh sorry expertise in fragrances uh we have a dedicated ANI in fragrances which I think very few companies have and this RNI uh in very much behind the success of most of our juices working on their uh level of technicity intensity the quality of selection of the ingredients with uh perfumemers partners and this is also very unique so best brands and a very strong fragrance science uh as you know we did a big exhibit at the beginning of this year which called the art and science of France this is what we do at Lo so Olivia another question on Beta IQ so Beta IQ uh has uh we started in uh really in in 23 with two countries uh we rolled it out to six countries of course we start with the biggest ones in uh in 2024 uh covering around 45% of our consumerf facing so uh and there every time we see a real uh productivity and by the way productivity in the efficacy of our N&P but also in the time of our own teams uh that they spend you know planning for their campaigns and the plan is to continue to roll it out in the year 2025 so we we aim to reach uh eight countries uh so that's 60% of our uh consumerf facing uh we will not by the way because it's a it's an it's a you know AI powered system so for the smallest countries they will uh learn from the lesson from the bigger ones but uh we will be probably close to complete at the end of uh of 2025 and as far as the efficacy or at least the weight of A&P on our P&L I would say that uh I mean the trend is that potentially the the weight would lower uh on an existing portfolio because it's true that we are getting more and more productive and we see real differences that 10 to 15% gain in productivity but as you can see we are adding new brands new licenses wanting to enter new territories so this will may take a bit more time to build so we'll of course adapt our uh our investment to these uh new conquest uh in the end the message is uh we're on the offense we're here to conquer new consumers new markets and of course uh that will require investment on these new territories and new brands seline Merc JP Morgan um my first question is on market growth so you said four to four and a half uh 425 the second half was about three and a half um how do you see I mean what is driving the reaceleration and if you could help us understand by regions maybe um especially China which has been weak you know how what you've baked into that market growth um and then one market um that you flagged and I'm wanted as well to come back to is the US um we've seen a weaker performance in the fourth quarter uh some of your peers are talking about a slowdown in the market so can you share your perspective on the market growth but as well how is um the selling seller dynamics because I think there are different for the different categories and your market share thank you so on the on the dynamics by uh by by category I may uh I may hand over to some of the divisions but I will give you a a broad um a broad analysis first of all on the global perspective of the market I would say four to four and a half uh because we believe uh that the emerging markets will remain dynamic uh we see Europe uh relatively consistent it will lower it will be closer to the second part of the year because there's less inflation but we see good consumption dynamics and we believe that based on the excitement that uh that we see from the the you know the business people which we meet around the US economy that the the consumption of particularly premium goods in the US uh will be dynamic of course there are many unknowns on the situation of the US markets uh you know what the tariff uh uh strategies may evolve and then whether it will have an impact on local inflation is hard to predict today we see the US as a land of opportunity and it's for us it's both a market uh that is our biggest one but where we have a share that's lower than our uh average share globally we have a 15 share of the beauty market we are 13 in the uh in the US so we see potential we have the brands I think we've evolved very clearly uh our on our channel strategy uh the strangely in the US was one of the parts of the world where our share was the lowest in e-commerce and clearly the you know it took us a certain amount of time to agree on the way to develop our brands with Amazon now that we have we see a tremendous acceleration potential in e-commerce that's what that makes us pretty confident uh in our own performance in the US markets uh and then uh there is the as you know as you say the big unknown is China so we have uh you know accounted in our own calculation for a flat ish market for for for China uh we think that travel retail will remain difficult and only good surprises come can come from there so that's where hence the bracket now as you know it's very hard to uh to predict we had to last year we had to correct our assessment of the market but today uh we are um pretty bullish in the US confident in emerging markets uh steady on our on our stronghold in Europe uh and big question mark in uh in uh in chi in in China as far as um selling sellouts it's clear to say because you know of course I read some of the comments that I have of our publication that there was a disappointment on North America at the in Q3 as we said we had anticipated a certain amount of invoicing particularly in lux uh in fragrances because we've had again and I think we have to get used to that uh we've had to anticipate a little bit of of inventory building because of our IT transformation again uh we have a new system called ODS which touched a few warehouses and we shifted a couple of points of growth from Q3 to Q4 and by the way if I have a message I can use this uh room to convey is that as we are transforming this uh move from 20 SAP platforms to one one country after another there will be variations from one quarter to another so analyzing quarters uh will make a bit less sense we will always be very transparent but sometimes even ourselves we can we cannot anticipate uh the the magnitude of the inventory building so overall the US for us kept on its trajectory and I will hand over to the to the divisions in terms of uh of their sellout but uh I think probably the the uh the two divisions the two biggest ones are lux and uh and and mass uh I will start with with Lux because I think the the news aside from becoming number one Siri you have a good news from the sellout uh in November December in the US market absolutely our sellout uh as I mentioned in my introduction remained extremely dynamic uh uh in the holiday season and particularly in the US uh we grew actually double digits in sellout on November December so it remained very dynamic uh and it was through fragrances and also makeup we had a very strong end of the year and indeed for the Lux division as Nicola mentioned uh the selling between Q3 and Q4 is not to be taken into account because we anticipated uh significant uh shipments in Q3 versus Q4 if if outside of these shipments we are progressing between uh Q3 and Q4 yeah so for the US first the in 2024 the market remained robust on a very strong 23 comparative because the mass market in the US grew at about 4% last year on a comparative 23 of plus 12% so it's a it's a dynamic market we've seen a bit of softness on the on the makeup market that was slightly negative but there again a very strong comparative and in a way the the softness of today are the opportunities of tomorrow so we performed extremely well on the hairare market where we grew two times better uh than the market on the on the biggest hairare market of the world where we have a low market share we have about 12% market share on the hair market so big opportunity for the future and extreme extremely mobile also on the NYX professional makeup we underperformed on our two other makeup brands and especially on Maybelline because our because our launch plan was back weighted but what we launched in the S2 uh started extremely well and of course will give us a lot of momentum this year so we have you know three reasons to be very optimistic for the future and for the near future first we have a much stronger innovation plan much stronger weight of innovation in makeup second and that I think it's important for you to know that also is that we've aligned our US organization with what we do in the rest of the world and especially in Europe because uh you know uh some years ago in Europe and in many countries we've we've created a one CPD sales force in the US we still had four different sales forces and we've aligned we've aligned it that will give us a lot of efficiency and it's also great for the retailers because they have really one one single point of contact which is very very significant and uh the third thing is talking about retailers we're also having interesting ongoing projects with US retailers because I think one of our objectives in the US is to to increase and to make the shopping beauty experience the mass beauty shopping experience more more exciting for the future so for the for the LGBT division in the US the market remained overall dynamic in the year at plus 6% and we overperformed from the market significantly uh in each period what we can say on the market is that the the growth is driven with slightly different dynamics versus the past the reduction of the mass medical uh segment that is still growing but lower than in the past and the emergence of a new demo premium category that is flying uh mainly behind the exciting Lose explosion l Pose is the number one contribution to the market growth and has become the the number three uh brand in the market another element is the continued growth of the aesthetic professional market uh at around 8% and there again we also had an outstanding performance of both skin and skin beta science uh with an acceleration that we see at the at the end so double digit for the two brand and acceleration at the end of the year and Omar for the US the premier mer market is extremely dynamic high single digits and we are beating that market I have to say by far with a strong acceleration of red ken and kastas which has boomed in the US during the last five years we multiply by five the turnover of kastas accelerating very fast on e-commerce and selective retail and we have in the other hand the the professional salon market which has stabilized I have to say but I can tell you with on this market where we see a very strong explosion of independent stylist with salon centric our distributor model we are extremely strong to capture this this market for you to have in mind there is 1.5 1.4 4 million independent stylist in the US and we serve with salons 1 million of them so we are in the best position and has become two years ago the first distributor of professional beauty product in the US so I can tell you that we are set to capture the growth wherever it coming from it's coming from thank you Omar and just you know it's hard to comment on the beginning of the year because you were we're just one month in uh but if we look at what we see today there's no major change uh everywhere january is a small month in most countries uh uh because it's just right right after the holidays the only thing we can say about the start of the year in China is that we see it uh you know last second half of the year was negative we see a market that was over January February flattish so we it's not like a huge uh uh you know rainbow but it's uh it's uh it seems to have been stabilizing at least for the the first couple of weeks of of the year so uh we'll be monitoring this uh uh progressively yes please yeah Jeremy so again do not forget to state your name and your company okay morning Jeremy Felco HSBC so a couple of questions from me uh first one is on your innovation uh pipeline so you've talked about all of the divisions this really quite meaningful kind of pickup in the innovation across I think all of your divisions um is this coming off a you know a slightly lower base of innovation in 2024 that was a sort of a quieter year um or do you think this is just kind of the new pace of innovation in the um group you know for 25 then also likely to be for kind of 26 and 27 uh going forward and what are the any sort of organizational changes that you need to make sure that these all land well and then the second question is on is on China so clearly the market is is tough the consumer is sentiment has not been great when you look at the market on a medium-term what do you think of the some of the more let's say longerlasting changes in the Chinese consumer and how do you think you might want to adapt your portfolio or your business to you make sure that you carry on taking market share thanks well first of all on innovation um clearly as you know beauty is an offer market uh and in the end uh it's a market that always grows ba b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b based on our capacity uh to seduce consumers t consumers uh with new innovations that that perform better that are more beautiful that are more exciting and clearly when we see um a market that slows down a bit uh a market where also there is more competition from indie brands that puts us on uh on the offense and we decide to increase our uh our innovation uh plan so it's not because last year was uh you know below par it was a good year of innovations as always some worked very well some work a little bit under expectations but uh you know from the the the very early days of 2024 we said okay we have to be even more creative even more innovative uh we asked our nice teams from RNI to give us a pipe of innovation of new textures and products and also our packaging teams that were richer and uh and the teams have uh have developed great products so at the beginning of the year at company level we have an you know an estimated 200 basis points more of launches uh versus uh last year but as as as always you know we can't predict whether they're all going to be hits or home runs or what have you but it's it's been a concerted effort whether it's uh it's uh bound to to last it always depends because as you know uh uh if an if an innovation is a success will will work on it for several years and by the way you just saw the renovation of Geneifi which is has been a long long haul success so we always adapt uh and react uh but here as we are entering new spaces we also uh that also leads us to uh to innovate more so um uh that's the and in the end it's a little bit the answer on China today uh the Chinese market uh because of the economic situation and the lack of confidence of uh of Chinese consumers the market has uh been more uh focused on value for money uh and that's why in the market you see uh the performance of the luxury segment has been inferior to the one of the mass segments but within these segments you see brands with fantastic performances i take uh if San Lauron I take Prada even I take Esop there are expensive brands and they are doing great why because they are providing products that justify their price that are truly innovative that are truly exciting consumers and so I think the the the game in China uh is probably uh tougher than when you know all the consumers were just eager to discover great new products now it's becoming as competitive as the US and our role is to face this competition so it's probably one part of the world where I want to where I want to strengthen my innovation team and be even more rely even more on our RNI uh teams in uh in Changdu is is China it's it's a it's you know it's a it's a competitive game and we like to compete and we like to come up with better innovation so uh the market will probably remain a little bit like it is today until there is better consumer confidence because it's very related and that will you know depend on the measures that are taken by taken by the the the leaders of of China but within this context I think we can do better uh we've done we've maintained our share this year overall in China but I I want to win share and I think we can do it with more innovation questions oh yeah it's Ian Simpson Barkley couple of questions from me if I can so you talked about outperforming your expectation of four to four and a half market growth this year but you also flagged the very tough comparators in Q1 so is that outperformance for the year as a whole or is that we should set Q1 to the side and you'll outperform through Q's 2 three four that would be the first question uhhuh and the the second question I wonder if you can give us a bit of a sense as to how pricing um in Europe which I think is normally done on a sort of annual basis is shaping up in in 25 versus 24 because obviously we're coming out of a period of quite high inflation in Europe and and just trying to get cited on the pace at which that moderates thank you so much so I will hand over to you Alexi on the pricing in Europe as it's mostly it's often a mass uh a mass discussion um as far as the the growth uh and the overperformance in the end you know we uh uh we we want to overperform the market uh on a fular basis so we we don't measure our overperformance by quarter because it depends on calendar launches it will depend even more uh you know in these periods as I said on some of the evolutions of our of our IT programs and the impact on on inventory building so the only thing I can say is that uh our plans is to have a progressive acceleration so our our weakest quarter should be the first one and it will it will get uh uh better across the across the year and in the end you know on any game uh whether it's football or rugby we have a big game on Saturday uh it's at the it's at the last minute so it's uh we have to see at the end of the year uh whether we beat that market and uh we are confident that we can achieve that and as far as prices uh Alexi you want to say a word yeah so on pricing uh As always there are there are many components of pricing uh of course straight pricing will come down and will be I think very minimal uh in Europe in the in the in the months to come however there are other ways to create value uh and we're we're very uh we're very engaged on what we call our revenue growth management programs and and there are I would say two main other ways the the first way is to price through innovation and renovation so most of the innovations that you we've that you've seen are premium price versus our baseline and even we also do renovations for example we're reststaging our LF brand which is a very big business for us in Europe with a new packaging that by the way is 20% less plastic but with with also better formulas and when we do these kind of moves uh of course because we offer more to the consumers we uh we we price and of course our retailers take their decisions on pricing but uh uh but there's a reason to price there and then the second way to uh to do pricing is also through mix because I talked to you about this kind of underpenetrated beauty categories the price of a serum by ml is higher than the price of a of a cream by ml so we're activating all the levels of pricing knowing that straight pricing obviously will come down here's we said we would take the journalist questions uh and at a later moment so we'll go there on the right then Sah and uh we'll try to move from there uh morning is Tom Sykes from Dodge Bank morning um just firstly on Derma I appreciate that you budget on a fullear basis but I think your H1 profits were up 18% and then they were close to flat in the second half of the year um given what you're saying about the tougher comp in particularly Q1 but maybe H1 how do you feel about the sustainability of the 26% derma margin if that is slightly slower growth please and particularly I guess if serave is or isn't higher than that 26% and then just you picked out a lot of inventory effects the SAP the fragrances the sun selling tariff maybe pre-by can you at least maybe ahead of time say at least H1 versus H2 do those kind of is that net negative H1 and positive H2 or how should we think about that because you've got more moving parts in that than than maybe you nor normally do in terms of inventory effects that's a tricky one i'm not sure I have the calculation uh on top of my mind we will have some impact in H1 uh probably be a bit less in H2 uh but it's uh frankly I I wouldn't want you to take that for uh for certain because uh there's a lot of moving parts it's you know suffices that the uh the go live is pushed by by a month and it it shifts from one quarter from one half to another so what I can what I can I can commit to is to be always totally transparent when it happens but it's very hard to to to give you an exact phasing uh of uh of this and uh before I hand over to uh to Miam uh to hopefully reassure you on uh uh on LDB's profitability uh we managed uh we manage our our profitability at group level so uh uh first and second half are by the way not always very representative because we you know as we know we invest a lot on of fuel in the second half uh particularly around the holiday season and the more we sell fragrance the more we invest fuel at the on the second part of the year but we don't do a uh you know half by half by division and division uh objective uh Miam has the objective to improve improve her profitability next year and I'm not concerned that she will not achieve it are you yeah I I feel confident we can carry on increasing our profitability as my boss just said um and it's also managing obviously the the activation and the fuel that we put on the brand but also the mix of the brand and so what you can see over the the last semester is the acceleration of the aesthetic brands that are very profitable brands and large poss also very profitable brands so what we do is we manage the mix of the brands to in the end drive the mix at sales level and the profit at bottom level thank you okay thank you i think we had Sara you had a question so I can bring the mic over there in the center and we'll go back to probably over there over there um it's Sarah Simon from Morgan Stanley sorry I've got more than one question um I've got a couple um first one was the the weakness in the pharmacy chain in the US has obviously been quite an issue um can you give us an idea of how exposed you are to that and how far you think you are through that kind of normalization process second was on supplements um do you have the sort of in-house capability to roll that out uh to be bigger or is this something where we should expect potential um M&A and then the third one was just on bet IQ when you've launched into a market how long does it take for the system to really be at full kind of productivity potential because I assume it takes time for the system to learn from the data thanks okay so first one is for you uh on the pharmacy on the drug in in the US so yeah on the pharmacy the drug stores are going through a difficult moment as there's a reduction of the traffic our exposure is uh is uh not growing and manage through mix of channels as we uh we see a report of the traffic that of the sales that are not happening in in pharmacies in the ecom where we are flying and overperforming the market so that's what I would say on the okay So on supplements uh it's um it's a market where we feel we want to enter with a few specific brands uh you've seen the potential and it's it's a growing trend and because it's a uh people want to live longer better i don't know if any of you has watched on Netflix the uh the the don't die documentary on Brian Johnson i think he takes 400 different supplements every day so that's not my recommendation uh but we'll have of some of our brands skin better science maybe a few others in uh um in Durham beauty in hair there are now a clinical test that demonstrate the efficacy of uh of these uh and the safety of course of these uh products uh we are working uh with external uh specialist manufacturers who are the state-of-the-art of these uh of these technologies and uh have no plan at least today but we have no plan for M&A because this is is an extremely fragmented uh market uh in terms of brands and it's really more the the ingredients and our capacity and that's where our science helps us uh tremendously is the capacity to assess uh the proper efficacy of uh these different uh components so uh it's more a uh an external purchase of uh of products but with our own science to both validate them and to uh to ensure the uh the efficacy of the products um and as far as beta IQ is is concerned I think there are two questions in your questions one the time to set it up it's about training the algorithm and there it probably takes around a year uh to do it in a uh in a given country and then the the adoption uh by teams well then it's about training it's about change management and it can go uh pretty fast but it keeps on improving even even after we've started it it takes probably another year to to be uh at full speed and we see today in the UK that it's really delivering uh even better than it was in the beginning so uh uh it's like it's a several year plan but uh it's getting uh better every time so uh we we are very excited to be able to use this this tool i'll go over there if you and then once here yes uh good morning thank you for taking my questions charlotte from um the first question is on the travel retail channel uh could you please remind us your exposure to the channel and if you can give us some granularity by regions this would be helpful and also what support your cautiousness despite the expected realignment of seline and and sellout and the second question is on M&A uh you have created a lot of value through external growth by acquiring small brands and scaling them up uh what's the rational behind taking only minority stakes in some of the brands and groups I'm thinking about ammoage obviously galerma document to summer for example and if you could also give us some details about the ammoage transaction this would be very helpful thank you so let's start with travel retail um k on the weight for us yes as you as I've been explaining before you've seen that the consumption in travel retail have been uh decreasing now for more than two years in a row and of course the weight of travel retail now has uh uh decreased quite sharply what I want to focus news is that while on one side we have on the Europe and North America the business is still improving and increasing uh the key point is been of course the travel retail AP pack with Hainan and Korea I can tell you that uh those market that have been decreasing today if I think about Hainan is less than 1% of the sales of the group so um the exposure you know to those difficult market has dramatically decreased so that's why we are confident that uh in 2025 five we should expect now we don't know when but probably a progressive recovery in in the coming semester no and why am I not uh super positive still for the travel retail is that what we've seen and it's we're particularly seeing high none uh not not growing in terms of sellout we see passengers increasing the trend of pass air traffic is very positive it should grow by 9% again in 2025 we think by the way that the the market will be very dynamic in the west uh in the uh uh in the east you know over the holidays uh the the highland sales for all categories not just beauty uh we're still negative uh Korea is managing their inventory so we think that uh we're hoping for a stronger rebound we think we can have positive sellout uh across the year we have a healthy inventory but we don't see travel retail being a uh a growth powerful growth engine particularly at the beginning of the year the the more we move into the into favorable comparative the the better it may be but I would say that uh you know that was one of the you know the bad uh uh results of of Q4 is that uh it went back into negative territory when we were hoping it wouldn't so uh what what's important for us is that uh and that that's very key is that we paying a lot of attention to uh inventory management uh to make sure that we stay always on the healthy side and that's where that's where we are we are today uh I have I've been I'm told that there is a question on the phone so I'm asked to take a phone question and we'll take one question from an analyst on this side and then journalists so what what's the phone question there is a are we sorry apologies apologies yes we have Joffrey Belicha for Bank of America good morning everyone thank you very much for taking my question on on behalf of Ashley Wallace um our question is on mainland China the market has obviously been very tough through 2024 can you talk about the drivers of volume versus value uh in the country our understanding is that the volumes are still up in China and all the weakness is in value due to higher promotions and the gray market is this correct and if so when do you start lapping a comparison base where the average selling prices will will have stepped down is this in the second quarter of this year okay so uh on the on the the volume of the Chinese market there were uh slightly positive after uh Q3 i don't have the final numbers of Q4 but based on the fact that uh 111 which is the major uh promotional event was slightly negative with high numbers of returns we by the way we beat the market and once again we had two brands in the top three with L'Oreal Paris and Lancome uh I'm not sure that the Chinese market has remained positive but it probably probably flattish with a shift to more uh to more mass market so uh again I think the on on China I don't see an acceleration of the market but we need to have an acceleration of our own capacity to innovate and seduce the the consumers and that's what we are working on we have plans we saw for example if I take lus it was not a great year for long but since we've relaunched Geneifi with a new formula with new claims the brand is fairing better so it's all about uh innovation and that's how we will uh we will try to animate uh uh this um this market so I I must apologize uh to shall we because I did not answer the later part of this the latter part of this question and it's not I was not trying to dodge it uh just forgot it uh it's on M&A so clearly our um you know our philosophy is always to uh to try to acquire brands uh and to roll them out and we try to acquire brands with uh uh when they they reach a certain size they've proven they have passed the test of time and then we uh we we try to acquire them and roll them out and of course that's what we did with Sarave and that's what we hope to do with Dr g uh sometimes uh and I would put Galamas aside because I will make again a comment on that one but if I take Ammoage or a few others sometimes uh you know you see a brand that you love that you an area of the world that you're very excited about uh and so uh you meet uh founders of a brand and uh there are many moments uh where founders uh are uh eager to continue to run their business and to uh uh to have the to be part of the adventure and at the same time very excited to benefit from L'Oreal support and Ammoage is this is exactly that it's a it's a fantastic brand uh it's one of the most sophisticated fragrance houses uh in the Middle East which we've been uh you know observing for years we've met the founders the founders were indeed uh eager to uh to benefit from the support of L'Oreal uh and to welcome us in in their shareholding structure and then we'll see uh what the future holds in in all these moments where you take a minority share in a company you also learned to discover the management they get to know us and it also is a way to spread our risks in many brands many many small brands you mentioned documents we took two small shares in two small startups in fragrance in China documents and two summer we don't know which one of these brand is going to be passing the test of time and having a couple of uh you know of fingers in different uh uh pots of of jam uh allows us to uh to make sure we'll have probably at some point one that is uh that becomes a a star so uh that's part of uh of this market the beauty market has become extremely creative uh in number of brands we can't buy them all uh we can buy some of them but we can also uh learn and discover and probably seduce uh a certain number uh in a in a later stage so that's that's where this strategy lies and uh and again I would put aside gala mastic as we said and I'm just want to reiterate that uh we are already playing around aesthetics uh with the brands like skin better science skin which are sold in derm practices which are sold in in as a complement to treatments injections lasers that are performed in these clinics uh it's a growing market we say we do all of beauty so we just want to understand this market and the best way to understand it is to have this privilege observations uh situation and that's why we took a share in uh in Galama we've just laid the foundation uh uh uh of our scientific partnership there is a very strong mutual interest and obvious complimentarity so there will be a science output uh of this uh uh of this uh share and as far as the rest is concerned it's a couple of months ago we're still looking learning and we'll see what the future holds so now uh please on my right and then we'll take a question from a journalist uh to finish uh this is Roger Fujimari from Stifo i have a follow-up question on China and another one on the on the outlook so could you talk a little bit perhaps for Alexis the the market share trends in China H1 H2 the dynamics versus the local brands um how you are adapting of course to to the shift to the win the latest thoughts there and how are you balancing uh defending your market share um and um versus profitability and then on the outlook more broadly uh with your beauty um stimulus plan are you still um do you still believe you can deliver modest margin expansion in the full year thank you uh I'll start with the the end yes uh we are uh committed and I think we've proven this year and again you know sometime things uh look like they are obvious but if I look at the world around me being able to deliver 20% profits uh 6% increase of the dividend in a world that is so uh challenging with so many changes is really a performance I want to pay tribute to the the finance but the operational teams of L'Oreal and we are uh planning our year 2025 in exactly the same way we want to compete we want to win share we're going to invest behind our brands but there are many areas of opportunities in our P&L as you as you saw we reorganized our regions we're developing shared service centers our IT transformation has some like roller coaster effect on quarters but in the end it will deliver value so our uh our you know direction remains the same deliver uh increase uh in sales of course and profit as in percentage points so that's the uh that's clearly what's what we want to do um as far as uh as the the the market uh in China is concerned uh we've gained share uh very significant share in uh uh professional and dermatology because the the divisions were smaller but brands like Kristas like Save and Skin Suiticles are doing great in uh in China we we we've slightly gained share in uh in L'Oreal Lux and I think uh we've reached another record share so we recalculate every year because we had new brands but it's uh we we've gained share again in China yeah we gained share this year uh we passed the bar of the 28% market share so it's it's a massive share in China and and the only division where we have lost share in China is uh our consumer products division because this is the area where all the Chinese brands are are playing and uh Laurel Paris did great uh frankly uh very good performance but uh our our two makeup brands uh Maybelline and Stinandanda uh struggled in uh in the year uh in the year 2024 so uh you know they've had a couple of product successes but uh but we have a strong L'Oreal Paris and we have uh to work harder particularly on on on makeup and I think we have a good opportunity with Style Nandanda because uh Korean beauty is hot again and this brand is very very uh uh in sync with the uh with the expectation of the the Chinese consumers i don't know if you want to add something uh uh no you are right and I think the positioning of L'Oreal Paris there is the performance the size but also the the positioning of L'Oreal Paris which is very unique which is totally above above the crowd of the mass brands because L'Oreal Paris in China is really a luxury brand that happens to be accessible to many people so that's a very strong positioning and even on L'Oreal Paris we have white spaces because we're we're very strong on skincare but we're still strong we're still very small on hair care and on makeup on L'Oreal Paris so even L'Oreal Paris which is already the number one beauty brand mass beauty brand in China has has a lot of potential there okay so uh we have a question from a journalist please take your microphone in the middle here fourth row [Music] weour give us more details in on your in your stake uh in uh the fashion company Jackmus and apparently it's a minority stake but could it be extended and my last question is about the portfolio of fashion brand uh could you tell us a little bit more because now it's a very large portfolio your strategy and also the potential of this part of and also the weight in the luxury diversion hello so on on the uh on the portfolio strategy uh as I mentioned in my uh uh in my introduction uh we became the number one luxury beauty company worldwide because of the quality of of the brands we have in the portfolio so obviously uh we are permanently obsessed by uh improving this portfolio and if we see beautiful brands out there on market whether they are through licenses or through acquisitions we always take a close look at them so I'm I'm extremely excited by the two last licenses we added to the portfolio Miumu which is as you know the number one you may know the number one uh fashion brand on the list index today it means it's the hottest uh fashion brand in social uh its turnover has uh exploded in recent years uh and so you'll see the first Miumu product coming on market in the in the next month and then I'm extremely excited also to have a convinced Simon Portakm who's an incredible uh uh creative incredible genius to have um to work with us for his beauty development uh I think this these two brands uh for sure have a have great potential or cucher brands are all extremely dynamic saluron Prada Valentino Margella uh Armani Muggler that we acquired a few years ago all of them are extremely I mean they contribute strongly uh to our leadership position worldwide in uh fragrance obviously but also in makeup because couture makeup is uh is uh on trend right now good your makeup is growing in most regions and not only in China it's growing a lot in the US for instance good makeup and and to answer the end of the of the part of the question we do not intend to uh go higher in the capital of Jacmus we we do not intend to uh own fashion brands we happen to have one which is Muglare but it was part of the acquisition from uh from class but overall uh we uh I think we are very good at doing beauty and I'm not sure who would be uh as good at at doing fashion so uh we let we let the experts uh play with their own brands and lead their own brands but it's a it's a a good way to show uh Simon that we are supportive and believe in this brand and it helps him uh you know develop his retail project so I'm fine with that and uh this is you know equivalent of an upfront for a license so our last question will be for you then for those who stay as you know there is a cocktail where we will always be with you to uh answer the unanswered questions I have two questions how you plan to spend the€3 billion euros you get from Seni and what could be the criteria for next acquisitions please thank Thank you so as you know director so you know we we took the right momentum to sell a small part of the shares that we have in Sani so that makes uh three billion cash coming in the in the company uh on one side what we want is to uh make some breath in our balance sheet and of course to diversify our sources of financing and as Nicola has explained to you before I mean we are in a conquest mode in an offensive uh and therefore there are plenty of acquisitions that are today being worked and looked at and of course uh as you know we have plenty of white spaces that could uh be taken so that's We don't intend to do uh something else than go ahead with acquisitions and reinforcing L'Oreal with new brands in the portfolio and we are paying a nice dividend so it's also another way to to to spend the money okay so uh I guess it's now time uh thank you for having stayed with us so long it's now time to close this meeting it's been a pleasure to see you all uh thank you for your attention your questions and as you as it's customary there's a cocktail being served on the first floor and we will be more than happy to have a drink with you thank you so much [Applause]