AB Electrolux (publ) (ELUXB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Honored shareholders, my name is Fredrik Persson, and I am representing the Board of Directors here today. And on behalf of the Board, I would like to wish everyone welcome to this Annual General Meeting of Electrolux. Due to the flu, unfortunately, our Chair, Staffan Bohman, will not be able to participate here today. When we set out the notice convening this meeting in February, the spread of COVID-19 was still significant. And it was important to us to carry out this meeting in a responsible manner. So we decided for the first time ever to have a digital Annual General Meeting so that more shareholders can participate in this meeting. We hope that you feel that this is a positive development. It has also been possible to vote in advance by sending in postal votes. Next to me, I have the CEO, President, Jonas Samuelson; and also the Secretary of the Board of Directors, Chief Legal Counsel, Ulrika Elfving. The Board has asked Ulrika Elfving to take the minutes from today's meeting. Next to me, I also have lawyer, Eva Hägg who is the proposed Chairman of the meeting. And we also have some of the directors from Board of Directors with us here today. I would like to hand over to Eva Hägg who has been asked by the Board of Directors to open today's meeting, please?

Thank you. And then I declare the Annual General Meeting of Electrolux 2022 opened. Before we continue with the agenda as such, I would like to go through some practical information and instructions concerning the carrying out of today's meeting. This meeting will be held in Swedish and will be simultaneously interpreted into English. The broadcast will be automatically by default in Swedish and if you want to hear the simultaneous interpretation into English, you go to the right part of your screen and where you see broadcast, you select English. To enable having this meeting digitally online, the Board has decided allow others and not just the shareholders to follow the proceedings. Shareholders and others have been offered the opportunity to follow the proceedings through the company website, however, without being able to vote or ask questions. There are different functions for digital meeting. You see these on the screen. If you press the document item -- icon you can find the documents. And if you press the message icon, you can ask questions and the voting icon, we will not see until the voting begins. Shareholders have been able to choose to either participate digitally here today or vote in advance using postal voting from the register showing who has given notice that they will participate. We see that we have 47% of the shares and some 62% of the votes represented here today. Out of these votes, more than 90% are postal votes. Postal votes have been registered into the system. Some shareholders who have sent in postal votes will also participate online digitally. But their postal votes have been registered into the system and as long as they do not vote online during the meeting, those postal votes will be valid. If you, during the meeting, decide to vote, then that digital vote will replace the previous postal vote on that specific resolution. We will get to listen to the CEO, Jonas Samuelson, his reflections around the year that has passed and the strategy ahead. Together with Sophie Arnius, in charge of Investor Relations, we will also have a Q&A. And then after that, you will be able to listen to our auditor, Jan Berntsson; and also the Head of the Nominations Committee, Johan Forssell. You're welcome to ask a questions, present proposals and comments by pressing that message icon. The moderator will sort and categorize those questions that have been asked. And you can ask questions about all the agenda items. And you can ask questions from the CEO, the Board, the Nominations Committee or the auditor. And if you know already that you want to ask a question, we ask you to send it in as soon as possible. That opportunity to ask questions will be closed at the same time as we close the vote for today's meeting. You cannot ask questions anonymously, but we will give the name of the person who has asked the question. And the questions will not be visible on the screen, but will be accounted for and answered orally. And please note that only shareholders, proxies and those who represent the shareholders can ask questions and present proposals. Then about the voting. We have 20 items on the proposed agenda. Items 6 or 7 and 20 are not resolutions. Items 5 through 5 on the proposed agenda are procedural manners. And here, we're going to base the outcome on the postal votes that have already been cast. I have already mentioned that shareholders representing more than 90% of all votes already have voted. And I will soon tell you about the outcome when it comes to items 1 through 5. Items 8 through 19 are the resolutions for the meeting. And here, we're going to open up the vote once we have dealt with items 1 through 5 on the agenda. When opening the vote, you'll see the voting icon on your screen, and you will then be able to vote for all of these resolutions. And some of them have sub-items, which means that you will be voting for, in total, 42 items if you want to vote on all these items. The vote will be opened, up until then, we have heard the addresses, and we have finished the Q&A session. Shareholders can vote at any time during this time while the vote is open, and I will remind you to vote before we actually close the vote. And what you do to vote? Well, by clicking that icon on the screen, you'll see the diagram, you'll see the voting function. And there, you'll see the different items, the different resolutions and the alternatives. And you state that you want to vote yes, no or abstain on each item. And you will be able to scroll down to see all these agenda items, and your vote will be sent directly. So you do not need to do anything in addition. If you want to change your vote, if you make a mistake, you just press the alternative that you want to vote. And if you just press on the regret then there will be no vote cast on that specific item. Moving on to the agenda for today's meeting. We will begin with items 1 through to 5. The complete proposals under 1 through to 5 can be found in the convening notice for the meeting. And we have a proposal to elect Carina Silberg of Alecta and Anders Oscarsson of AMF to verify the accuracy of the minutes. They're both present here in the room today. And I ask Carina Silberg and Anders Oscarsson therefore, have you verified and can ascertain the approval of the voting list, which has been established by Euroclear Sweden AB at the request of the company based on the shareholders registered, postal votes received and individuals who have logged in to take part in the meeting online. And I can confirm that Carina Silberg and Anders Oscarsson both answered yes to this question. The convening notice was published in the official gazette on the 28th of February 2022, has been available on the company website as of the 24th of February. Advertisement announcing the issuing of the convening notices were published in Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter newspapers on the 28th of February. Beginning with item 1 on the agenda. It's time to elect the chair for the meeting. And based on the postal votes cast, I find that the meeting has resolved in accordance with the Nomination Committee's proposal electing me to chair today's meeting. Thank you for this confidence. Moving on to Item 2. Based on postal votes cast, the meeting has resolved in accordance with the Board's proposal, Carina Silberg and Anders Oscarsson, therefore, have been elected as minute checkers. Item 3. I find that the Board -- the meeting has approved the voting list. Item 4. I find that the meeting has approved the agenda. Item 5. I find that the meeting considers that it has been duly convened. Then it's time to move on in our agenda. Complete proposals under items 8 through to 19 can be found in the convening notice. I'm not going to go through them here. We will now open the vote under items 8 through 19. You can cast your vote for all these different items. You do not have to wait at any stage. If you prefer to wait, that is also acceptable. But once the voting closes, you must have voted on all items. It will close once we've heard the address of the CEO, Chairman of the Board or the nominations committee and had the Q&A session. And I will give you advanced notice shortly before the vote will close. Then you need to have cast your vote under all items and once we close the vote, it is too late to change. Now the vote is open. Please vote now. The complete proposals from the Board and the nomination Committee can be found in the note, convening notice, the annual report, the auditor report for the parent company and the group, the statement from the auditor. As concerning the guidelines remuneration, remuneration report and other documents required in accordance with the Swedish Companies Act are presented by being kept available on the company's website and with the company at least 3 weeks prior to the AGM. If you press the document icon, you'll also find the documents available on your screens. That means that we've dealt with item 6 on this agenda. It is time to elect the Board. Soon information on the nominees and their assignments -- significant assignments in other companies and the recent opinion from the Nomination Committee can be found on the website of the company and in the documents. And I'd like to inform everyone that as a member of the Board, you may not take part in the vote on the resolution on the granting of discharge for liability. That brings us to Item 7 on the agenda. We're going to hear the President and CEO Jonas Samuelson on his reflections on the year gone by and the strategy moving forward, together with Sophie Arnius, Head of Electrolux Investor Relations. I give the floor to Sophie Arnius.

Well, usually, we begin with looking back at the year that just passed. But considering the developments that we have seen in the last few weeks in Europe, I think we should start there.

Yes, exactly, we're now in the middle of a horrific human tragedy and also something that is in violation of international law and human rights. And our thoughts, of course, go primarily to the Ukrainian people and, not the least, our coworkers at Electrolux in Ukraine. We do have some 400 people working for Electrolux in Ukraine, most of them in our factory in the western parts of Ukraine. And the good news thus far is that all our employees are safe as late as today, we checked this. We have an ongoing contract. And we do everything we can to support our people there with paying out wages in advance, extra support, transport, housing, et cetera, for those amongst our employees who have had to leave their homes. And this, of course, is the most important, most pressing issue for us right now. Since the invasion our factory is closed. We have paused our production, of course. And we have also paused activities in Russia. We have some 150 employees there and there's no production in Russia for the time being. And in total, the sales in Russia and Ukraine represent around 2% of our global sales, which means that it's, well, it's a significant portion, but it's not critical.

And I do know that we also continuously follow developments. Like you say, you have an ongoing dialogue with those who are there. And well, the Annual General Meeting, in a way, it is summing up of the year that has been. So let's look back to 2021. What would you like to highlight?

Well, it's difficult right now to look back to 2021. But of course, we have to. And we're incredibly proud over our result. 2021, we had record sales growth to 14.3% organic. And we beat all our financial objectives, operating margin, EBIT margin 6%. And that has been an objective for a long time. And our return on net assets, 28%, which means that we have a very good solid balance sheet. And we're enormously proud over what we delivered in 2021. And like you've said, well, 6%, that is an important target. And to reach profitable growth, well, we have 2 basic pillars being innovation and high efficiencies in our operations and all those things that we accomplished during 2021.

Having to do with these 2 areas, what makes you the most proud?

Well, I'm proud over everything. Our strategy is now paying off, I guess, you could say, for a number of years, we have been working with getting more efficiencies, looking at automation, consumer-driven innovation. And the last few years by selling more of our more profitable, more innovative products, we've been able improve our results, our quality, so to say, with SEK 1 billion a year. And we continue to deliver new innovative programs with more innovation and products that are produced in a more innovative ways. And we made some investment a few years ago, [ SEK 100 billion ] and where we invested those factories. They are now in that phasing in period that was started in 2021. And this has been very hard work, but things are progressing nicely. And also, not at least what we do with sustainability. We've seen that the last year that we can reduce our own climate impact in our activities. And we are at 78% reduction, which means that we'll beat our objective here as well. Also when it comes to product efficiencies, energy efficiencies where we have said 25% up until 2025, we're already at 20%, which means that we are on our way to deliver not just on financial objectives, but also sustainability objectives.

And the 2021, well, that was the second year of the pandemic. And you touched upon opportunities, but there were challenges as well. And when looking back, what would you like to highlight? What steps did we as a company take to manage that dynamic world around us?

Well, we have a very strong corporate culture, and that is something that has benefited us greatly with people working across the globe that have been very flexible in these very, very unpredictable times that we have seen in the last couple of years. And we could quickly scale down in production and then scale up again when we saw that there was more demand towards the end of last year. And that has led to bottlenecks in the production, difficulties finding components, for example. And we have had to navigate through that. We have also seen increased costs, but we have been able to compensate fully for that during 2021 with price increases. And in order to accomplish this, you need a flexible organization with employees that take responsibility.

And you've already mentioned the record results that were delivered last year. And that takes me to something else, another important area, which was to optimize the capital structure. And what initiatives were carried out on behalf of the Board of Directors within that area?

Well, together with the Board of Directors, we evaluated thoroughly our strategic plans. That was done beginning of 2021 to make sure that we have a capital structure that is strong enough to carry out the investment program that we have and also leaves enough scope for value-creating acquisitions. And at the same time, it has been about increasing return to shareholders. And the Board did take important decisions last year in order to ensure that, that would happen. In July, for example, we adjusted our dividend policy at least 30%, up to 50% of the annual result. And during the fall, we also carried out a buyback of program, SEK 17 per share. And after that, we started this program. And up until that was concluded in beginning of February, we bought back some 9.4 million shares. And the intent is to now cancel these so that we will increase the return per share. So important action that was taken in order to increase our return to shareholders, while at the same time, maintaining a strong balance sheet and opportunities to continue to invest.

And what if we look forward, how do things look?

Well, the Board has announced their intention to continue with the buyback programs in 2022 as well. The intention is to carry out buybacks to the tune of SEK 2.5 billion approximately up until next year's AGM and then continue after that.

Electrolux is currently in the midst of transitioning into becoming an even more consumer-focused company. What does this mean?

Two things in particular. One is that we have a true understanding of our customers' needs, how they develop and that our innovations can help them lead a better life in a more sustainable way. And at the same time, we want to be able to meet their needs throughout the entire ownership of a product with add-ons, with assistance to use their product in a better way, et cetera. And this transition is very high on everyone's agenda here at Electrolux, not least for the Board of Directors. They've launched several initiatives to strengthen the relationship with our consumers. Some example of such investments is in CRM systems and also selective acquisitions in order specifically to strengthen the aftermarket, which is an important strategic area. Other investments can be found in digital platforms to enable digital sales via online facilities.

What else would you like to emphasize?

Well, just as you mentioned, the digital infrastructure is extremely important so that we can interact directly and rapidly with end consumers. It enhances their experience, and we have a better opportunity to avail ourselves of various methods to help them throughout the life cycle of a product. It's better for the consumer and better for Electrolux. But as you mentioned, we also need to accelerate the growth in our growth markets through organic investments and through selective acquisitions. And as we mentioned earlier, we are in the midst of our acceleration program currently to improve our productivity, modernization, enabling us to step up the pace of innovation. So we continue to invest on a broad scale in innovation with automated production facilities, not least. In 2022, we're going to see our most intensive product launch year ever. We have new factories pumping out new products with amazing innovation components.

Excellent. Can you give us some examples of the launches ahead?

Yes, I do have a few examples. Two examples that I'd like to show you to highlight what it is we do. The first one is a new GreenZone maxi space line of refrigerators in Europe from [indiscernible] in the factory in Northern Italy. We have one product architecture for all the different types of these refrigerators in Europe. So this is 75 centimeters wide with lots of innovative features to help our consumers to store their different ingredients in the best possible way, vegetables, meat, fish to be stored in different zones so that they will last longer with one common product architecture as a backbone. And then the cooker is from our factory in Springfield in Tennessee in the U.S. We've already launched our built-in ovens and now we're progressing with our cookers, so that we have a large number of innovations in terms of different ways of cooking. We're talking about 15 ways to cook, 15 different ways to use this oven and the same technology in the cooker as in the ovens, which have already been launched. So we can step up the pace of new product innovation. Introducing new features is very exciting. And as you mentioned, it's also linked to sustainability because the food will last longer.

By way of conclusion, what's your focus now for Electrolux in 2022?

We are in an extremely uncertain times. Our main focus is the health and safety of all our employees being highlighted, not least in the events taking place in Ukraine very recently, but also the pandemic, of course. We also have a complex environment when it comes to cost development, availability of components. We need to raise prices. We need to be flexible in our production. This is something we've truly learned to deal with very well, in fact, over the past years. But we focus a great deal more on this today. Something which is very exciting is that we have more new products that we're launching than ever before. We've stepped up the pace of investment. Now we're reaping the benefit with amazing innovations. And we are certain they will make our customers even more satisfied.

Thank you very much, Jonas, for this conversation. Now we've come to the point where we will have a Q&A session with questions from shareholders. And here's one question from [ Folksam ]. And it's a question from [ Folksam ] and [ Erik Granström ] that was sent in prior to the meeting, and we'll begin with that one. Electrolux is a company with activities across the globe with the different markets, including markets where we have an increased risk that there is crime against human rights taking place. I was reading the annual report from 2021, Page 91. And I've also been reading at your website that you have local consequence assessments surrounding human rights in high-risk countries where you have production facilities. You have carried out 4 of those analysis and the ambition is to have an analysis made of all these 9 countries prior to 2023. And could you tell us a bit about what general lessons you've seen up until today? And what plans do you have for this continued work in 2022? And I'm also wondering whether you have any thoughts of extending this work so that you'll include the 17 high-risk countries where you have suppliers.

Yes, this is absolutely correct that this is particularly important that we focus on these high-risk countries that we have. And as has been mentioned, we carried out 4 such analysis, Egypt Thailand, Ukraine and Romania. And it was mainly about understanding working conditions. That is very important. It's important with the relationship to employee representatives, trade unions that is being done properly, and we have learned a lot, and we will continue in 2022 with South Africa, amongst other countries. And as was said, it's enormously important that this is something that we also bring up through the value chain, not just our direct suppliers, but also their suppliers so that we ensure that we have proper working conditions there as well with particular focus on high-risk countries. Absolutely.

Thank you. And we do not have any additional questions that have been sent in. So I'll hand back to you, Eva.

Thank you. We are then going to listen to the auditor of the company, Jan Berntsson, Deloitte. Please go ahead.

My name is Jan Berntsson, and I represent Deloitte and during the year 2021, I was responsible for the audit of the Electrolux group. We've submitted an unqualified audit report. It can be found on Pages 76 to 78 in the annual report. And before I present our conclusions in the audit report, I thought I'd tell you a few things about some central elements of 2021 and the audit. The audit of the Electrolux Group was led by central team here in Stockholm. We identify risks and decide which areas to focus on. We issue instructions to our audit teams in all the countries where Electrolux has operations and then we receive reports from our teams concerning the audits performed. We have continually, through the year, reported our observations to the senior management of Electrolux and the Audit Committee of the Board. And in January 2022, we also submitted a written and oral report of the outcome of the audit to the Board in its entirety. In our risk assessment, we've mainly focused on 2 areas that are of great relevance to many of the reporting units and subsidiaries of Electrolux, and therefore, they are important to ensure that financial reporting is correct. This is revenue recognition and valuation of inventory and to ensure that all reporting units report these areas correctly. We need clear well-functioning policies and IT systems and a well-functioning structure of internal controls to able to catch any deviations or regularities. And for these areas, our review did not lead to any material observation. We consider that Electrolux does indeed have the policies, procedures and controls required to ensure that the reporting is done correctly. The third particularly important area is accounting for legal proceedings. Electrolux is involved in disputes. It is a normal part of operations, and the more essential ones are outlined in Note 25 in the annual report. In many cases, it is difficult and a complex task indeed to assess the future outcome of various litigations. And it is important, therefore, that the senior management can make well-balanced assessments and considerations of expected outcome in our audit report under the heading Key Audit Matters. We briefly outlined our audit of these 3 areas that I've mentioned. And from the conclusions in our audit report, you can see that we recommend that the General Meeting of Shareholders adopt the income statement and balance sheet from the parent company and the group, that the profit be appropriated in accordance with the proposal in the Statutory Administration report and that the members of the Board of Directors and the Managing Director to be discharged from liability for the financial year. We also reviewed that the remuneration paid to senior executives is in line with the guidelines adopted by the Annual General Meeting. And in our special statement, we have laid out that we have not noted any particular deviations.

Thank you to Jan Berntsson. Do we have any questions for the auditor?

No, we have no additional questions that have been submitted.

Let me then remind you that you need to vote after that we have listened to the Chair of the Nominations Committee, we're going to close the vote and then it will no longer the possible to ask questions here. I would like to hand over to Johan Forssell, who is the Chair of the Nominations Committee. Please, Johan.

Thank you. My name is, as you heard Johan Forssell, and I represent investor, and I've been the Chair of the Nominations Committee leading up to this meeting. Other owner representatives on the Nominations Committee have been Carina Silberg, Alecta; Thomas Risbecker, AMF Insurance and Funds; Marianne Nilsson, Swedbank Robur Funds; and on behalf of the Board of Directors, the Chair Staffan Bohman and the Director Fredrik Persson, also participated. We have different proposals from the Nominations Committee that are included in the notice, and we also have the recent statement that has been made available on the company website. The Nominations Committee proposes that the number of directors that are to be elected by the AGM should be 8 and that no deputies should be elected. The Nominations Committee proposes reelection of all current directors and that Staffan Bohman be reelected as the chairman of the Board of Directors. A presentation of the proposed directors with information about other assignments they have has been available on the company website. The Nominations Committee feels that amongst these directors, we have diversity and when it comes to competencies, experiences, perspectives. And when it comes to the auditor, well, here, we have been assisted by the Electrolux Audit Committee. The process leading up to this meeting included procurement procedure where we had proposals offers presented. And after that, the Audit Committee has decided to recommend election of the auditing company, PwC. PwC has relevant skills and expertise from large multinational listed companies and fulfill the requirements we have when it comes to skills, competencies and tools. PwC also presented the most attractive offer when it comes to time, auditing profile, working methods, local presence and fees. The Nomination Committee has opted for in line with that recommendation from the Audit Committee proposed PwC to be elected as the new auditor up until the end of the AGM 2023. PwC has told us that the chartered accountant, Peter Nyllinge will be the lead auditor if they are elected as auditors. The Nominations Committee proposal for fees, remuneration has also been included in the notice. The Nominations Committee feels that it is an advantage for Electrolux and its shareholders if the directors own shares in the company, and that is why we have this year as well decided to recommend the Board of Directors to acquire and hold Electrolux shares. In accordance with that recommendation, a director after 5 years should have shares that corresponds to one annual remuneration. And to conclude, I would like to say thank you to the members of the Nominations Committee for good cooperation.

Thank you, Johan Forssell. We are going to be closing the vote very soon. Before I do so, I ask if there are any further questions.

No, we've not received any further questions.

Moving on then the voting of items 8 through to 19 will be closed and the results will be compiled. This will take a few moments. It is no longer possible to submit any questions. Now the vote is closed and the summary has been made, and I'm now going to report the outcome for the individual resolutions. You will also be able to see the outcome on your screens. Moving first to Item 8, which is the resolution on adoption of the income statement and the balance sheet as well as the consolidated income statement and the consolidated balance sheet. And you see the outcome on your screens, and I find that the meeting has adopted these documents. Item 9, the resolution on discharge from liability of the directors and the President for 2021, and you'll be able to see the outcome of the vote on 9-1 through to 9-11 on your screens. And then moving on to the 9-11 or rather 9-12 through 9-17. And here, you'll see the outcome for 9-12 through to 9-17. And I find that the meeting has granted discharge from liability for the management of the company in 2021 to the members of the Board of Directors and the President. And we continue with Item 10, where we have resolution on dispositions in respect of the company's profit, adopting the balance sheet and the determination of record dates for dividend. And you see the result of that vote on resolution #10. And I find that the meeting has decided in accordance with the proposal from the Board of Directors. And we continue with Item 11, where we have determination of the number of directors. And you see the outcome of that vote where I find that the meeting has determined that the number of directors should be according to the proposal from the Nominations Committee. And we continue with Item 12, determination of fees to the Board of Directors and the auditor. And you see that outcome of the vote on item 12, where I find that the meeting has resolved when it comes to determination of fees in accordance with the proposal from the Nominations Committee. Moving on to item 13, election of Board of Directors and Chairman of the Board of Directors. And you can see the outcome on the screen for item 13. And I find that the meeting has elected the 8 nominees and the chair nominated by the Nomination Committee. Item 14, election of auditor. And here's the outcome under Item 14. And I find that the meeting has decided to appoint PwC as the company auditor in accordance with the Nomination Committee's proposal. Moving on to item 15, which is the resolution and approval of the remuneration report. And here's the outcome of the vote under 15, and the meeting has approved the remuneration report. And moving on to item 16, where we have resolutions with 3 subitems: a, amendment of the maximum and minimum number of shares in the Articles of Association; 16b, the reduction of the share capital by means of cancellation of repurchased shares; and 16c, increase of the share capital through a bonus issue without issuance of new shares. And 16a, b and c are conditional upon each other, which means that, well, for 16a and b, we also needed 2/3 of the votes cast and the shares represented at the meeting. And under 16c, we need a simple majority. Let's begin with 16a. And you see that result on the screen. And I find that we have the necessary majority for the proposal from the Board of Directors for amendment of the Articles of Association. 16b, we see the result on the screen. And I find that we have the necessary majority for the proposal from the Board of Directors for reduction of the share capital. 16c, and you see the result of that vote, where I find that we have a majority for that proposal from the Board on the bonus issue. And I find that the meeting has decided of a change to the Articles of Association, reduction of the share capital and bonus issue in accordance with the proposal from the Board of Directors of 16 a, b and c. Item 17, this is also a resolution with 3 sub items: 17a, acquisition of own shares; b, transfer of own shares on account of company acquisitions; and c, transfer of own shares on account of the share program for 2020. In order for the decision to be valid under a, b and c, we require at least 2/3 of shareholders and votes represented. Votes cast and shares represented at the meeting need to be voting in favor. 17a, first, you see the outcome with reference to 17a and I find that the meeting with the required majority as a result in accordance with the Board's proposal. 17b, and you can see the outcome of the vote under 17b, and I find that the meeting has resolved with the necessary majority according to the proposal of the Board on the transfer of own shares. 17c, here's the outcome. The vote under 17c, and I find that the meeting with the required majority has resulted on the transfer of shares for the 2020 -- the year 2020 share program in accordance with the Board's proposal. And item 18, where we have resolutions with 2 subitems: 18a, implementation of a performance-based long-term share program for 2022; and 18b, transfer of own shares to the participants in the long-term share program for 2022. And here, under 18a, we need simple majority. And 18b requires that we have at least 9/10th of the votes cast and shares represented in favor of that proposal. Let's just start with 18a where we have the outcome of the vote, where I find that the meeting has resolved an implementation of a share program in the line with the proposal. And 18b, where we have the results of the vote on the screen. I find that we have the necessary majority where we have a resolution on a transfer of own shares to the participants in the long-term share program in accordance with the proposal from the Board of Directors. Item 19, the resolution on amendment of the Articles of Association to allow persons not being shareholders of the company to attend General Meetings of the company, if so resolved by the Board of Directors. Under item 19, require a majority of shareholders representing at least 2/3 of votes and shares for this resolution to be adopted. And here is the outcome of this vote. And I find that the meeting with the required majority has resolved to amend the Articles of Association in accordance with the Board's proposal. And this means that we have dealt with all the items on the agenda. I'd like to thank you all for your participation, and I hereby declare the meeting closed. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]