TotalEnergies, or when you have to be tricky to attend a general meeting


The general meeting of TotalEnergies on May 25, 2022 was disrupted by activists who prohibited access to the room. I was able to enter anyway. Narrative.

TotalEnergies, or when you have to be tricky to attend a general meeting |  Photo credits: DR

TotalEnergies, or when you have to be tricky to attend a general meeting | Photo credits: DR

At 10 o’clock sharp, here I am inside the Salle Pleyel to attend the general assembly (GA) of TotalEnergies. This right, reserved for all shareholders, today resembles a privilege. Indeed, I was able to access the interior of the room after a real obstacle course. Demonstrators landed en masse around 8:10 a.m. in front of two or three morning shareholders, a few security guards and several hostesses, all flabbergasted. In barely two minutes, very determined men and women were suddenly seated, with banners, placards and megaphones, in front of the access doors of the building, blocking the passage. The rest, we know. It was filmed by dozens of journalists, including myself. Their action “outside” was intended to prevent the AGM from taking place, to cry out their indignation at the group’s climate policy and to reproach TotalEnergies for not having sold all of its assets in Russia.

I pretended to be unwell to be able to enter!

Total does not respect the recommendations of the Paris Agreement. Demonstrate inside a GA, we had already done it in the past. Today, we wanted to strike harder so that the whole world can see that TotalEnergies could not hold its GA. But the activist was wrong. The meeting of “shareholders without shareholders” took place. I was there. How did I get in when the shareholders were kept out by the police and the security guards prohibited leaving the security perimeter in front of the Salle Pleyel? I pretended to be unwell by showing my press card to a colossus dressed in black who took pity on me and opened the security barrier. He probably thought I was going home. In the street, but on the right side of the barrier and free to move around, I contacted the group’s press service by telephone, one of its members ushering me in through a small door in rue Daru. It was through this door that the directors and members of the board of the group had entered.

TotalEnergies, or when you have to be tricky to attend a general meeting |  Photo credits: DR

TotalEnergies, or when you have to be tricky to attend a general meeting |  Photo credits: DR

TotalEnergies, or when you have to be tricky to attend a general meeting | Photo credits: DR

When I arrived in the room, there were many more TotalEnergies executives and directors than shareholders! Journalists could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Then everything happened as if nothing had happened. Patrick Pouyanné however apologized to the shareholders who could not access the room. Financial Director Jean-Pierre Sbraire returned to the excellent 2021 results with the strong point of LNG, alongside the exploration and production branch which benefited from high barrel and gas prices. It was recalled that 33% of the gross cash flow was distributed to shareholders (dividends and share buybacks). The TSR (return for the shareholder, ie the performance of the share dividends reinvested) over 3 years was established at 12% and the return on the share over 10 years reached 5.9%.

The question-and-answer session from the room was quite quick, since I was the only one to ask a question, on the reputational risk if the company does not sell its assets in Russia. Some answers were given to the written questions. They concerned, for the most part, the efforts of TotalEnergies in favor of the climate, deemed insufficient. At the end of the session, resolution 16, relating to the consultation of shareholders on the climate strategy, was voted by a large majority of 88.9% (compared to 92% last year). All other resolutions were also widely adopted, including the one on CEO compensation (resolution 13, voted 79.9%).


Sylve Aubert, at the general meeting




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