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CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France—EssilorLuxottica announced that (Reuters: ESLX.P) its shareholders approved all the resolutions submitted by the company’s board of directors at the 2020 annual shareholders’ meeting, held here yesterday. Among the items approved by shareholders were the company’s 2019 financial statements and the appointment of Paul du Saillant, CEO of Essilor International, as director of EssilorLuxottica. Du Saillant replaced Laurent Vacherot, who retired earlier in the year. In a statement released Thursday, EssilorLuxottica’s board of directors reiterated that they have decided not to submit a dividend distribution for the first half of 2020, a move the board initially announced in April in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The EssilorLuxottica board said it will further assess the state of the company’s business and that a special dividend payment could be proposed before the end of 2020, depending whether the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is solid enough.

In a message to shareholders, Leonardo Del Vecchio, executive chairman of EssilorLuxottica and Hubert Sagnieres, executive vice chairman of EssilorLuxottica, expressed cautious optimism about the current economic situation. “As lockdowns are gradually being lifted across geographies, we have reopened all our factories and most of our stores and we see the first signs of recovery in all the business areas. This confirms the resilience of the demand for our products and brands, as well as the strength, reliability and agility of our supply chain—even in times of crises,” the two leaders said.

Recapping some highlights of 2019, Del Vecchio and Sagnieres noted that EssilorLuxottica generated combined revenues of €17.4 billion last year. Outlining the company’s growth strategy, they pointed to EssilorLuxottica’s plan to acquire GrandVision, which operates more than 7,000 stores across 40 different countries.

“This transaction—which has already received the green light from the competition authorities in the United States, Colombia, Russia and Brazil—would help us grow our retail footprint in key areas, particularly Europe, and help us set a new global standard for the optical retail experience,” they said. They added that EssilorLuxottica continues to move forward on the integration front, “taking the first steps toward an integrated lab network, transitioning Costa into the unified company’s eyewear portfolio and optimizing procurement and other functional areas.”

Del Vecchio and Sagnieres also touted EssilorLuxottica’s strategic vision for the business, which they said will meet the visual needs of all 7.7 billion people worldwide while delivering on the company’s goal to eliminate poor vision. “This vision—brought to life by [Luxottica’s] Francesco Milleri and Paul du Saillant, with the support of our 150,000 employees—is based on an open business model and our unique ability to connect a global network of industry players, including 400,000 opticians, optometrists, labs and wholesale customers, as well as ophthalmologists.”

Details of EssilorLuxottica’s presentation to shareholders, along with answers to the questions sent by shareholders and results of votes are available at EssilorLuxottica.com, on a dedicated webpage.