In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, L’Oréal said its chairman and ceo Jean-Paul Agon will take a 30% pay cut for 2020 and that the group has renounced an increase in the dividend. The group will also create a new €150m-backed social and environmental solidarity program called L’Oréal for the future.
Agon said he would renounce all remuneration for 2020 relating to the financial targets of his annual variable remuneration, which represents a reduction of 30% of the maximum amount of his annual fixed and variable remuneration for the year. He said he would do so in a spirit of solidarity.
The group added that it would renounce its planned increase in dividend of 10.4%. The group will propose a dividend of €3.85, the same as that proposed in 2019, at its annual general meeting, which will take place on June 30.
The board has also decided to renounce to any share buyback operations for the whole of 2020, which amounted to €750m in 2019.
The new solidarity fund, L’Oréal for the future, was created for what the group calls the need for active involvement to make the world more inclusive and sustainable, which has been highlighted as a result of the pandemic. It says the initiative is in line with its sustainability program.
The new program will create: a charitable endowment fund of €50m to support non-profit organizations that help women around the world who are in vulnerable situations and victims of the social and economic crisis; and a investing fund of €100m for the regeneration of damaged natural ecosystems and for combating climate change.
“Over the coming months, our societies will face social crises giving rise to situations of great human suffering, particularly for the most vulnerable. At the same time, we are fully aware that environmental challenges are increasingly pressing. It is essential not to step back from the sustainable transformation that the world needs. We therefore wish to reaffirm our commitment to the environment and to the preservation of biodiversity, and to help mitigate the social crisis for women. These two causes reflect the values and the historic commitment of L’Oréal,” comments Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman and ceo of L’Oréal.