Good evening everyone, welcome to the big interview. Two interviews tonight: I will first receive Laurent Guillot, who is the CEO of EMEIS – you know, of course, it's ex-Orpea, because we might forget that. Good evening, Laurent Guillot. Good evening. Thank you for being here. And then later Xavier Durand, CEO of Coface, will be with us with the publication of his barometer on country risks. You'll see, it's very interesting, with some good and bad surprises. Laurent Guillot, thank you for being here. You held your general meeting today. Let's recall that it's been three years since you took the reins at the time of Orpea. You changed the name to become EMEIS, which means 'us' in Greek. And you have tried to restore the image of your company. We see that it's not always difficult. Tonight or this morning, you took an important step perhaps precisely in restoring the image by becoming a mission-driven company. Why is this not a band-aid on a wounded foot?
First of all, I was asked the question as soon as I arrived in 2022 about becoming a mission-driven company, and at that time I said no, we are not ready. The company is not ready because it had not done the exercise of recovery, of introspection, but above all more action on the quality of life, the quality of work of our employees. Taking care of them is very important. Taking care of our patients, our residents, improving quality and support, and then recovering and improving the company's results. Today we have made progress on these three aspects, and so it seemed to us that we were ready to take a new step, which was to become a mission-driven company.
And in fact, what will it change beyond the talking points? You see what I mean? It's a way of highlighting values, transformations, etc. What does it fundamentally change?
Well, the company, the part and the commitments of the mission-driven company, these are not commitments that concern the company itself because that is its role, its corporate purpose, under the supervision of the board of directors. These are additional commitments that concern either the company and society more broadly, or to bring society along with it to transform. For example, on changing the view of fragility, for example on the fair recognition and attractiveness of our professions. So, what does that mean? Sorry, changing the view of fragility – you see, you're pulling that from the sheet in front of you. Concretely, what does it mean? It means, for example, opening our facilities to the public and making them participate, because what is also important for people is to maintain social ties, to bring back and have open nursing homes, for example. That is participating in this change of view: bringing in intergenerational classes so that children meet elderly people, and the elderly tell them the stories they had when they were little. That can be interesting. There is that, but also, for example, the recognition of professions more generally. When we progress on health and safety at work by significantly lowering our accident frequency rates, we want to set an example. Explain why we do it. When we progress on taking care of our teams, we go to nursing home congresses to explain how we do it, why we do it, to set an example as well. And you see, that's all of that, and that's what we set as a mission in the mission-driven company, as a commitment that will be monitored by a mission committee alongside the board of directors.
Just allow me to take a small step aside, since François Bayrou is holding his press conference on the conclave, the outcome of the conclave which is not conclusive. So he said he would continue. The issue of arduousness is at stake, and the issue of women as well. And he said it's the first time there has been progress on women's pensions. Does that mean that you think that in your business, you are at the heart of this? It's often women and it's often arduous jobs. How do you react? Do you say it's very good, it's going to cost us too much? What is your reaction?
I think it's a very good step forward. I think we should differentiate the retirement age more based on the arduousness of the work and based on objective criteria of arduousness. Obviously, as you said, we have 82% women in our professions. These are extremely difficult jobs. Did you know that a nursing assistant carries 2 tons per day, that is twice as much as a construction worker? So obviously, that deserves a form of recognition, and I am in favor of it. After that, it also means that if we go in this direction, others will have to retire a bit later, people who are in offices, or me, or you. Yes, I think we could retire a bit later still. The sticking point between the unions and the employers – I don't know if you have time to follow – is that the unions say 'She must have the right to retire.' The employers say 'No, there needs to be training and reclassification.' You, who are a boss but also confronted with this on a daily basis, what is your reaction? Obviously, if we can reclassify at the end of a career, why not? But when you look at the volumes, the volumes are not compatible. So we need to find a path between the two, and they must be able to retire. I understand that also means that conversely, other people will have to retire even later, so my position balances the financial equation.
Would you say, though, when we look at the details, is ethics restored within EMEIS and within nursing homes in general? Because there is Clariane, obviously you are one of the leaders with Clariane, but there are other nursing homes. I won't speak for all nursing homes, but at our place, the work on ethics, training, trying to keep teams as much as possible, has been done, and obviously we are no longer in the situation of 2022 and before. There has been a gigantic amount of work on quality, on benevolence, on training, under the guidance of Professor Emmanuel Hirsch, who holds workshops, provides support when a difficult situation arises somewhere. There is very quick, very direct intervention to resolve problems as quickly as possible. That ties in with your difficult recovery, but it exists, it's there. It's a long journey, but it's underway under the oversight of the Caisse des Dépôts. What more would be needed for the image of nursing homes to improve? It has improved and can improve further. There is still room. It's a really difficult question because in the vast majority of cases, what happens in nursing homes goes well, happens under conditions of benevolence and kindness towards our residents. That is not necessarily the feeling of the French. That's not the feeling because, as usual, a few cases are highlighted that are important and terrible and must be condemned and corrected very quickly, and that's our job. At the same time, I receive letters from families who say they are very grateful. We do a satisfaction survey every year in our nursing homes. 93% of residents in our homes are satisfied and express that satisfaction. There are things to improve, but 93% are satisfied. Yes. That means it's a feeling, perhaps also a form of guilt of the French. So that's where the exercise is complicated for you. When we look at what happened today, you had your general meeting this morning, the stock price closed up 9% on Monday, there was also a slight dip. The recovery is there, but we see that it necessarily goes through an ambitious disposal program. You said 1 billion, 1.5 billion, but even previous years, 2023, were based on that. But when will your core business become profitable?
There are both aspects, meaning you can't do one without the other. We need to both improve the company's results. Our occupancy rate is still a bit low but it is progressing. In the first half, it was up 1.6 points in France when the market was roughly stable, but we are still behind. So there is the operational recovery of the company. We need to move towards 90-92%. That's where we need to reach. Today we are at 85-86. So you see, we still have work to do, but today, on the first quarter in France, we progressed 1.6 points. And then there is the work on the balance sheet that needs to continue to be lightened, which is important. We did 1 billion in disposals between 2022 and the end of the first quarter of this year. We have ongoing discussions for an additional 2 billion. We might not do all of the additional 2 billion because our commitment by year-end is 1.5 billion. Yes, that's it. So we have done two-thirds to date, and we have launched enough projects to be certain of achieving our target by year-end.
Because today, how many facilities do you have? I have the number, but you might as well give it.
