ABB Ltd (ABBN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome indeed to our Annual General Meeting here in Zurich Oerlikon. I'm very pleased to see that you have found the way to this historic whole 550. This is a highly significant location for ABB. It still smells of locomotives and generators. In other words, it smells of products of our predecessor companies, BBC; or even earlier, Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon still manufactured in this very hall. Today's ABB products leave less obnoxious scent marks, but they are at least as successful. You will hear more about this later in our meeting. I'd also like to extend and welcome to those of you who are following our meeting on the Internet. Likewise, I am pleased to welcome my colleagues from the Board of Directors. In particular, I would like to welcome Lars Forberg. As you have seen in the invitation document, he has decided not to stand for reelection. So unfortunately, this will be his last Annual General Meeting. Lars has been highly appreciated, an active member of ABB's Board of Directors and of its Governance and Nomination Committee for 8 years. My thanks go to Lars for his outstanding contributions to ABB's successful transformation during these years. I think he deserves a big round of applause. Dear Lars, I wish you very well for your next projects with CEVIAN but also for your private future. At the same time, I'm pleased to welcome the new candidate proposed for election. She is Claudia Nemat. She's in the very first row as well. At the same time, I would like to welcome [ Sebastien Tam, ] who represents [indiscernible] which is ABB's biggest shareholder. And finally, I'd like to welcome the members of our management, our Executive Committee. And already now, I'd like to address my thanks to the entire EC for their commitment and congratulate them on the success they achieved for ABB in 2024. It was, again, a record year. Allow me to say a few words about safety now. In the event of an alarm, please follow precisely the instructions of the personnel identified with either yellow or orange vests. The emergency exits are indicated and located on the right side of the hall from your perspective, over there, in other words and in the entrance area behind you. I would like to make some formal statements now. Shareholders and guests, I shall now open officially our Annual General Meeting with some formal statements. In accordance with Article 14 of our Articles of Incorporation, I, as Chairman of the Board of Directors, shall take the Chair of this AGM. This year, we are experiencing 2 firsts on the podium. For the first time, I welcome Morten Wierod, our new Chief Executive Officer. On the other side, we have Mathias Gaertner or Mathias -- Mathias is our new General Counsel and Secretary of the Board of Directors. Mr. Gaertner also keeps the minutes of today's AGM. Also with us with a lot of podium experience is Timo, our Chief Financial Officer, the Master of Finances. Furthermore, I'd like to welcome the law firm, Zehnder Bolliger & Partner as the independent proxy. They are represented at this meeting by Dr. Hans Zehnder in the first row. May I ask all shareholders wishing to speak during the meeting to now come forward and report to the registration desk at the front to your right. And please give your surname, your first name and your place of residence and have yourself entered into the list of speakers on a particular agenda item. Now I would like to ask you to speak only about the agenda item you have chosen to speak about and to limit your speech to what is necessary. Shareholders, we shall conduct all ballots and elections at today's Annual General Meeting electronically. This complies with Article 17 of our Articles of Incorporation. The voting procedures will be supervised by Mrs. Olivia Feusi, member of the Group Legal Department of ABB whom I hereby appoint as vote counter. KPMG, our auditors, are represented by Achim Wolper and Mohamad Midani, again, they are in the first row. The invitation to the Annual General Meeting was published on the 27th of February 2025 in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce and on our website, complying with the statutory notice period of 20 days. Shareholders entered in the share register were additionally notified of the Annual General Meeting on the 27th of February 2025. I declare that no shareholders requests in accordance with Article 13 of our Articles for Incorporation are on the table for items or other items to be included on the agenda, nor have any deviating motions being submitted relating to the items on the agenda. The complete ABB annual reporting suite has been available on our website since the 27th of February 2025. It includes our integrated -- also includes our integrated report 2024 with the management report, financial statements, consolidated financial statements, proposals by the Board, particularly on the appropriation of available earnings and related reports of the auditors. Attendance recording will be carried out electronically by means of a QR code of the admission card. If you choose to leave the hall during the meeting, we'd like to ask you to take your admission card and your voting keypad with you. The attendance announcement and information about the voting modalities will be made at a later stage in this meeting. I now declare that this Annual General Meeting has been convened and constituted in accordance with the statutory and legal requirements as to form. In other respects, I would like to point out that for the purposes of keeping the minutes, all statements in the meeting are recorded. In addition, today's meeting is being webcast live on the Internet in German and English via ABB's website. After the meeting, the recording as well as the minutes will be available on our website. This brings me to the reporting for financial year 2024. First, I shall make a few remarks from the Board of Directors' point of view. After my comments, our Chief Executive Officer, Morten Wierod will take over and report on the business developments of ABB Group, your company. Dear shareholders, this year, we published our third integrated annual report. And many of you have likely already taken the opportunity to review it closely. Therefore, you already know, 2024 was yet another record year for our company, your company. And as Chairman of the Board of Directors, I am particularly pleased about this. Our CEO, Morten Wierod, will address the past financial year in greater detail in a moment, so I will keep this brief. With an EBITA margin of 18.1%, we are close to the upper end of our target range. We also surpassed our previous record in revenues and made progress on many of our other financial metrics. We are also well on track to meet our sustainability ambitions. Sustainability is a controversial topic in many areas around the world today. At times, this principle is even questioned. But I promise you, we will not lose sight of these goals either because they are crucial for us, our customers and our planet. We want you, ABB's shareholders to reap the rewards of this success. The Board of Directors will be proposing to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of [ CHF 0.90 ] per share, [ CHF 0.90 ], in line with our policy of paying a rising sustainable dividend per share over time. You will have the opportunity to vote on this later in the meeting as usual. Also in this year, we intend to continue our share buyback program, and we plan to spend the total of up to $1.5 billion of this. Another significant milestone was, of course, the transition at the top of our company. I'm pleased to report that this was a smooth and successful process. At this stage -- on this occasion, I'd like to express my gratitude to Bjorn Rosengren for his outstanding work. At the same time, I'd like to congratulate Morten Wierod, who has undoubtedly proven himself as CEO over the past nearly 8 months and delivered exceptional results. His decades of ABB experience, his strong customer focus and his determination to further ABB success are clearly paying off. And this is precisely what we need, ladies and gentlemen, especially in times like this, when we face myriads of geopolitical and technical challenges; war and tensions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia; tariffs and retaliatory tariffs that threaten to escalate into trade wars; technologically innovation such as artificial intelligence, which will transform not only the workplace, but also society at large; and the ongoing climate crisis, which remains unchecked. And finally, we're also facing rapid demographic shifts that will result in a severe shortage of skilled workers, particularly in Europe and parts of Asia. These are enormous challenges. They require agility and the ability to quickly adapt to fast-changing political and economic realities. However, they do not alter our view that given the industrial policies of individual countries, International trade remains essential to ensure consumers have access to the products they desire and that they do so at acceptable prices. Turning specifically to your company. These challenges won't change the fundamental principles of our long-term strategy or our focus on the future-driven topics of electrification and automation. Quite the opposite, in fact, ABB is poised to overcome these challenges and in many cases, even seize them as opportunities. There are 4 reasons for this. First, our purpose and our focus. We enable a more sustainable and resource-efficient future with our technological leadership in electrification and automation. This means we are focused on areas that will benefit from continued long-term growth and significantly contribute to our business success, which, at the same time, makes ABB more resilient. Second, our decentralized operating model or the ABB Way, as we call it. This approach makes us agile, resilient and future-ready or as our new brand positioning clearly states ABB is engineered to outrun. Naturally, this includes our local-for-local strategy, which enables us to respond dynamically to market shifts and helps us mitigate some of the potential tariffs. Even more importantly, however, this approach ensures that we have a presence where our customers operate and allows us to develop a deep understanding of their local needs. I'm referring not only to production but also to service and research and development. All these efforts will help us create long-term value for customers across a wide range of industries. Third, our employees around the world to whom I want to extend special thanks. Without them, our success over the years would not have been possible. We are talking about 110,000 individuals who have passionately implemented our strategy, who have brought our corporate culture to life and have driven ABB's success forward. And the fourth and final reason is our innovative strength. After all, ladies and gentlemen, innovation remains the key to our success. Since 2020, we have increased our investments related to research and development by approximately 40%. And now thanks to generative artificial intelligence, or AI in short, the company has received yet another boost in innovation. Last year, we integrated generative AI into many of our products and processes, enhancing the performance of both ABB and our customers across multiple industry segments. However, innovation and success don't happen in isolation. This brings me to an issue that is close to my heart as Chairman of the Board of Directors of a company with its roots firmly here in Europe. In order to remain competitive in the future as well, we must critically evaluate Europe's business environment. Instead of merely leading in regulation and reporting requirements, we must also ensure that European companies can successfully compete in the global arena. Countries such as the United States, India and China have established clear economic incentives in this respect. Let me make this point very clear. Europe, including Switzerland, must take action now to avoid falling behind in global economic competition. I would like to see a Europe that is more focused on innovation and consequently, becomes more productive, a Europe that demonstrates entrepreneurial spirit and the willingness to take risks supported by a capital market that is better integrated and thus larger allowing both startups and established industries to access suitable financing more easily. This requires practical economic policies and a fair tax structure. It calls for a new way of thinking with people asking what they themselves can contribute to society rather than simply expecting society to support them. It demands the reduction of excessive and overly rigid regulations. The latest proposal from the EU Commission, for example, a European savings and Investment Union as well as various sustainability regulations, these are steps in the right direction, but a lot remains to be done still. Europe urgently needs to shift to a higher gear. Europe's competitiveness must not suffocate on the bureaucracy. Europe and, thus, Switzerland must strike the right balance. Here in Switzerland, this specifically applies to how we shape our future relationship with the European Union. The key will lie in communicating this effectively. We need to be transparent as we explained to our citizens and society at large what is happening and what needs to happen and why? After all, we face another major challenge, a profound crisis of trust affecting governments, the media, civil society and businesses alike. This crisis of trust threatens to divide Western societies, it threatens to undermine democracy and it stifles innovation. As a company and as business leaders we must actively confront this challenge. Doing so is yet another essential part of our sustainability mission. Let me add one more reason for ABB's success, ladies and gentlemen, and that is the valuable support and the strategic advice from all my colleagues on the Board of Directors. Our members bring an extensive and diverse range of industry expertise and experience, all of which are relevant to ABB and our business. My sincere thanks go out to them all. They are all here in the first row. Thank you very much for the excellent cooperation. 2025 will be a year of technological transformation across all industries. ABB will play a leading role in electrification, automation and artificial intelligence. Our leadership in innovation means we are ideally positioned to benefit from these global megatrends. Ladies and gentlemen, ABB stands on a solid foundation. Our strategy is clear. It is what makes our company so resilient and ready and future-facing. Thank you for your continued trust and confidence in us on this successful journey. Thank you very much. Right. Following these remarks from the point of view of the Board, I would now like to call upon the CEO to speak. Morten Wierod, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Peter. Dear shareholders, I would like to start with a heartfelt thank you to all of you for your continued trust in ABB and your -- for your warm welcome in my new role. This is obviously not my first ABB AGM, but it's my first as CEO. And when I look back on my first 8 months into the role, I must say they were intense but also incredibly rewarding. I visited our key markets where I met many of our colleagues, customers and partners. Some I knew very well, but there were also many new faces, and I've been inspired by their passion and dedication. And the new executive team is now complete. I'm pleased to see the high energy and drive to uphold our leading market positions and to find ways to improve even further from the current record operational performance. I also want to say a big thank you to Bjorn Rosengren, his contribution to ABB by implementing the ABB Way operating model was the starting point of the transition towards the high-performing organization. The real power -- the real driver for this company is, of course, our team of 110,000 talented people. I've been at ABB for 27 years now, I've run several business units and 2 business areas, but even today, I'm energized by the passion of our people and how we innovate together to help our customers become leaner and cleaner. And I can only confirm what Peter just said: Innovation continues to be central to what we do, whether it is in the energy transition, the electrification of everything, robotics or automation. At ABB, we are at the forefront of these developments. Whether that's in decarbonization, grids, data centers or artificial intelligence, which we use to accelerate our own efficiency and potential along with that of our customers. In 2024, we achieved solid orders, record level of revenues, operational EBITA profit and margins. At the same time; however, we are facing a rapidly shifting geopolitical environment. We are seeing tariffs and potential trade war. Peter touched on this before. For several years now, we have been applying our local-for-local manufacturing setup. It makes us agile and resilient and allows us to serve our customers close to home. This is one of our strengths, and we will continue to invest and localize further. The ABB brand is another pillar of strength for our company. Perhaps you have noticed already that we have taken steps towards a clearer brand positioning. We have done this to increase familiarity with what ABB does. I am convinced this can open up new commercial opportunities and help us to attract top talents. Our new positioning articulates what we want to be known for in the minds of our customers, and that is that we help industries become leaner and cleaner or as we now say we help them outrun. Let me give you a few examples of how we do that. To support the energy transition, we help our customers expand and strengthen power grids and improve the reliability, availability and sustainability of electrical system. I will start with an area that is being discussed widely these days, data centers. Demand for reliable, scalable data center is strong, driven in part by the rapid rise of generative AI. This is one of our fastest growing market segments and ABB supports data centers with smart energy management solutions, helping our customers improve their CapEx and energy efficiency. Now let's look at an example of how we are helping industries decarbonize; in this case, mining. Last year, we deployed the first fully battery electric trolley truck system on an underground mine test track in Sweden in close collaboration with Boliden and Epiroc. It's a milestone that brings us closer to creating an all-electric mine with sustainable and more productive operations. Finally, I want to mention our AI solutions. In December, we launched GenX CoPilot, a generative AI solution developed together with Microsoft that boost productivity, efficiency and sustainability in industrial operations. GenX CoPilot uses AI to capture and process real-world data from the production environment and it gives human operators the insights they need to instantly improve industrial operations. I would argue that among all the digital technologies for the past 4 decades, AI is the one that is easiest to use. It lowers the barriers to deployment and companies of all sizes can now easily use AI-powered robots in their operations. For instance, our AI-enabled 3D vision solution makes it possible for autonomous mobile robots to navigate safely alongside people and allows inexperienced users to easily create and configure routes and jobs with no programming knowledge needed. In other words, you don't have to be a technology giant to deploy these robots in your warehouse, your fulfillment center or in a manufacturing environment. And we have now a pipeline of more than 250 AI-focused projects and solutions underway at ABB. They are supported by more than 300 ABB developers who are fully dedicated to machine learning and AI. We hold quarterly AI hackathons that bring together the best minds in engineering to develop new AI-powered solutions to industry's biggest challenges. And I have met quite a few of these people, and I have to confess talking to them makes you and teaches you to stay humble. Now let's move on to our performance in 2024. Last year was a record year for us in terms of revenues, operational EBITA and margin. The market was robust for most of our businesses. And despite some of them not yet delivering to their full potential, the operational EBITA was up by 10%. And we took another step towards the high end of our margin target range as we achieved a new record level of 18.1%. Moreover, we delivered on our free cash flow ambition by achieving $3.9 billion for the full year, and that is a step-up from the previous year. Three out of 4 business areas had a stable to positive trading environment. The big growth engine was our electrification business, which accounts for around half of ABB. Its comparable orders were up 10%, and it posted record margin. And it's been a great start for our EL President and my successor, Giampiero Frisio. Our Motion business is the global market leader in drives and electrical motors. They face some challenging markets, and yet revenues were stable and operational EBITA margin reached a new high. Brandon Spencer took on the leadership role in August '24 and is well placed to steer the Motion business, which is firmly in growth mode. Our Process Automation business closed the year with record revenues and operational EBITA margin under Peter Terwiesch leadership, comparable orders were only slightly lower than last year's high comparable and the order backlog is solid. The business area is strongly positioned in the energy and process industries as well as marine and ports and also in measurement and analytics. Finally, robotics and discrete automation led by Sami Atiya, faced a challenging year when customers normalized order patterns after significant pre-buys in the period of component shortages. This was particularly linked to the Machine Automation division. In the robotics division, comparable orders started to improve in the latter half of the year, albeit from a low level. The teams have done well in managing this unusually volatile market. Looking at the overall group performance from a geographical perspective, we saw the strongest underlying market environment in the United States despite a record level large order comparable in 2023. Europe was broadly stable, while China was most challenging as it remained impacted by weak buildings market. Now let's look at our sustainability performance. Last year, the science-based targets initiative validated our emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050. It shows our targets are aligned now with the Paris agreement and a 1.5-degree Celsius target. And we continue to make good progress in reducing emissions. In our own operations, we achieved a 78% reduction of Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions compared to the baseline of 2019. And in 2024, our Scope 3 value chain emissions decreased by 8% compared to our 2022 baseline. We also helped our customers avoid 66 megatons of emissions throughout the life cycles of products that we sold in 2024 translating into a total of 204 megatons since 2022. This contributes to our ambition of supporting customers in avoiding 600 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions from 2022 until 2030. And this is based on all the products that we expect to sell over this period. In addition, we continue to reduce the amount of waste we sent to landfill to a new low of 5.8%. Finally, we continue to improve gender diversity in senior management positions. The proportion of women is now around 21%. We have made progress when it comes to appointing women as functional leader, but we must work even harder to get more women into leadership roles in our businesses. So what does the ABB's future hold? Our ABB Way decentralized operating model focused on transparency, accountability and speed has transformed the company. And let me be very clear, it's here to stay. Our focus is on profitable growth, underpinned by a high-performance, high-integrity culture. And thanks to our strong free cash flow in 2024 we can continue to invest in innovation, in manufacturing and sales expansion as well as in acquisition. And just to give you one example: Earlier this month -- months, we announced investments of $120 million in the United States to strengthen our electrification offering for data centers, utilities and buildings and we have now developed a strong pipeline of acquisition targets. So I'm very confident about the future prospects of ABB with our leading technology and talented people, we are in a strong position to help our customers outturn.

Distinguished shareholders, on behalf of our Executive Committee and all employees of ABB, I would like to thank you for your trust that you've placed in us. Thank you very much.

I assume that in the future, we're going to hear more German, we will make sure that Morten has enough time to get to grips with German. Ladies and gentlemen, after these remarks, we now have the attendance announcement. At today's Annual General Meeting, we have 673 shareholders present. Altogether, we have the following situation: We have, altogether 1,204,514,750 registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 0.12 each and with a total nominal value of CHF 144,547,770 which is equivalent to 64.74% of the share capital with a right to vote. Shareholders wanting to have themselves represented at today's Annual General Meeting were able, prior to the meeting, to appoint another person or the independent proxy Zehnder Bolliger & Partner as their proxy. Mr. Zehnder is representing for them 1,203,213,101 registered shares with a total nominal value of CHF [ 144,385,572.12. ] In accordance with applicable law, the independent proxy informed ABB on the -- last Monday, the 24th of March 2025, about the, yes, no, and abstained votes per agenda items handed in by the individual shareholders represented by them. This data was shared in aggregated format only, so that no conclusions about the voting behavior of individual shareholders would have been possible for us. In the light of the above, I declare that this Annual General Meeting has a quorum with regard to all items included on the agenda. The Annual General Meeting decides on the motions before us today in accordance with the law and Articles of Incorporation with a majority, a simple majority of the represented share votes. Furthermore, the results of all ballots and elections will be recorded in writing by our Secretary. I would like to ask you again to keep your admission card for the duration of the meeting. This is, in case the electronic voting system breaks down and a card ballot or election needs to be held. I would also like to point out that for all of today's ballots and elections, anybody who would like to have their no votes or abstentions recorded can give their surnames, first names, place of residence and the number of no votes or abstentions to the vote counter from your perspective at the front on the left to be available for the minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, we now come to Item 1 on the agenda. Approval of the management report, the consolidated financial statements and the annual financial statements for 2024. The consolidated annual financial statements of the ABB Group. That is to say the group accounts as well as the annual financial statements of ABB Limited can be found in the annual report. KPMG has audited both financials statements. The auditor's report is part of the annual report as well. The auditors represented by Achim Wolper and Mohamad Midani informed me before the Annual General Meeting that they have no further comments to make on either the consolidated financial statements or the annual financial statements for 2024. I hereby open the discussion. The subject for discussion is the management report, the consolidated financial statements and the annual financial statements for 2024. I would like to ask speakers to come forward to the microphone and to give their surnames, first names and place of residence. Now I repeat my request that you can find your comments to the item under discussion. Who would like to take the floor first? Nobody wishes to speak today. All right then. I think that's a good sign, isn't it? It's a good sign for all ABB employees who are responsible for drafting the integrated report and all other reports because it shows that we have presented an insightful and comprehensive presentation of our business. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your trust. Since nobody is asking for the floor, I would like to proceed to the vote on Item 1 straightaway. Ladies and gentlemen, when you pass your vote, please press either the yes button, the green yes button to vote in favor of the resolution; the yellow abstain button if you do not want to cast a vote; or the red no button if you vote against the resolution. If by mistake you press the wrong button, you can correct your vote directly by pressing the button of your choice. Shareholders, are there any questions with regard to the voting procedure? This does not seem to be the case. So let's proceed to the ballot. Should you have any questions, please contact our help desk at the back of the hall. The Board of Directors proposes to approve the management report, the consolidated financial statements and the annual financial statements for 2024. I now call upon you to show your approval, abstention or rejection regarding the motion of the Board of Directors by pressing the appropriate button on your keypad. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. [Voting]

Ladies and gentlemen, in a couple of seconds, I'll close the ballot. I hereby close the ballot, and we now wait together for the result to become available. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have approved the management report, the consolidated financial statements and the annual financial statements for 2024 with 98.42% of yes votes. Thank you very much indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to Item 2 on our agenda, the consultative vote on the compensation report 2024. As in previous Annual General Meetings, we hold separate consultative vote on the company's compensation report. The compensation report specifies the principles governing the compensation paid to the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. It also provides information about the components of such compensation and the amounts which were paid to the members of the Board of Directors of the Executive Committee for 2024. Compensation of the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee was determined by the Board of Directors, taking into account the recommendations by the Compensation Committee. In this context, I wish to highlight that our remuneration programs are closely linked to our sustainability strategy. There was a sustainability KPI for all executive committee members which is assessed with 20% for the long-term incentive plan, the LTIP. Likewise, at least 2 sustainability targets were defined for all executive committee members as part of their individual annual incentive plan component. If you would like to have further information about any points covered in the compensation report, I will now take your questions and hereby open the discussion of the compensation report before we proceed to the vote. Please remember that we will comments and questions on the maximum aggregate compensation of the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee later under agenda items 6.1 and 6.2. I would now like to ask speakers to come forward to the microphone and to give their surnames, first names and place of residence. Does anybody ask for the floor? Again, this doesn't seem to be the case. Okay. Let's proceed to the consultative vote now. The Board of Directors proposes to -- for accepting the compensation report for the -- please cast your vote now, ladies and gentlemen. [Voting]

Ladies and gentlemen, 3 more seconds and then I'll close the ballot. I hereby close the ballot and we now wait for the results to become available. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have accepted the compensation report 2024 with 92.82% yes votes. We thank you for accepting the compensation report and for the confidence that you have thereby expressed in us. Now moving on to Item 3 on the agenda. This is the consultative vote on the sustainability statement 2024. Ladies and gentlemen, by means of our sustainability statement, we inform shareholders about nonfinancial matters. We, however, do not limit ourselves to the information required by law. Rather, our sustainability statement comprehensively informs about ABB's sustainability agenda, its targets and the progress achieved. We present this report now to you for a consultative vote and are looking forward to your feedback. If you'd like to receive further information on the sustainability statement, I am happy to take your questions now, and I hereby open the discussion. Would anyone like to take the floor? That does not seem to be the case. So we can move on directly with the consultative vote. The Board of Directors proposes to accept the sustainability statement 2024. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now and we'll be waiting for the results. 3 more seconds, and I'll be closing the ballot. [Voting]

Ballot is now closed, and we'll have the results shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have accepted the sustainability statement 2024 with 95.77% of the votes, yes votes. We thank you very much for accepting and approving the sustainability statement and for your support on this very important topic. Now moving on to Item 4 on the agenda, discharge of the Board of Directors and the persons entrusted with management. The Board of Directors proposes that all of its members as well as officers entrusted with managing the business be discharged from their responsibilities for the financial year 2024. For the sake of completeness, I'd like to mention that this discharge resolution shall also cover Board members and persons entrusted with management who left or were appointed during 2024. Same question. Would anyone like to take the floor regarding this agenda item? That does not seem to be the case. So we can move on to the ballot. I must point out that members of the Board of Directors and anyone who has participated in any way in managing the business are excluded from voting either with their own shares or with shares represented by them. The votes of the persons concerned will not be taken into account during this ballot. The number of represented votes is reduced accordingly. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your votes. 3 more seconds, and I'll be closing the ballot. [Voting]

I hereby close the ballot and now we'll be expecting the results shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have granted discharge for the financial year 2024 to the Board of Directors and the officers entrusted with management for this business year with 97.7% yes votes, esteemed shareholders. On behalf of the members of the Board of Directors as well as the officers entrusted with the business and business management, I'd like to thank you very much for granting this discharge. Now moving on to Item 5 on the agenda, appropriation of available earnings. Ladies and gentlemen, Earnings are available to the AGM 2025 amounting to CHF 4,234,539,973. The Board of Directors proposes to pay a dividend of CHF 0.90 out of the available earnings for the financial year 2024. This is an increase of CHF 0.03 compared to the previous year. This proposal is in line with the company's dividend policy to pay a rising sustainable dividend over time. The distribution is expected to take place at the beginning of April 2025, and it is subject to Swiss withholding tax in the amount of 35%. The Board of Directors then also proposes to carry forward the remaining amount of available earnings 2024 to the new account. For the sake of completeness, I'd also like to mention that ABB Limited -- so the subsidiary will not be paying dividends on its own shares held by the company and its subsidiaries and on shares that participate in the dividend access facility as per Article 8 of the Articles of Incorporation. Shareholders who are residents in Sweden and participate in the dividend access facility will receive from our subsidiary, ABB Norden Holding AB, an amount in Swedish krona that corresponds to the resolved dividend for each registered share. And this amount is then also subject to taxation according to Swedish law. The auditors confirm in their report that the Board of Directors' proposal relating to the appropriation of the available earnings is in accordance with the law and our articles of incorporation. And once again, the question, would anyone like to take the floor? That does not seem to be the case. Please cast your votes now. 3 more seconds. [Voting]

Three more seconds. I hereby close the ballot, and together, we'll be expecting the results shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have approved the proposal of the Board of Directors relating to the appropriation of available earnings for 2024 with 98.52% of yes votes. Thank you very much. Now moving on to Item 6 on the agenda, approval of the compensation of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. Ladies and gentlemen, pursuant to applicable laws and our articles of incorporation, the Annual General Shareholders meeting shall approve the maximum aggregate amount of compensation of the Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee. The principles of compensation are specified in Article 33 of our Articles of Incorporation. The details on the proposed compensation are specified in the annex to the invitation as well as in the compensation report 2024. We first deal with Item 6.1, approval of the maximum aggregate amount of compensation for the Board of Directors for the next term of office, meaning from the Annual General Meeting 2025 up until conclusion of the AGM 2026. Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes that the shareholders approve the maximum aggregate amount of compensation for the Board of Directors covering the period from the Annual General Meeting 2025 to the AGM 2026 in the amount of CHF 4,300,000. The number of Board of Directors -- of the members, the number of the members as well as the compensation for individual Board members are plans to remain unchanged compared to the previous year. Would anyone like to take the floor on this subject? That does not seem to be the case. So moving on to the ballot, please cast your votes now. [Voting]

Three more seconds, and then I'll close the ballot. It is hereby closed. Now just a little patience until we have the results. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have approved the proposal -- proposed total compensation for the Board of Directors covering the period from the Annual General Meeting 2025 to the AGM 2026 in the amount of CHF 4,300,000 with 97.37% yes votes. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank you for your trust. Now moving on to the second item under this agenda point, Item 6.2, approval of the maximum aggregate amount of compensation for the Executive Committee for the following financial year, meaning 2026. Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes that shareholders approve the maximum aggregate amount of compensation for the Executive Committee for the financial year 2026 in the amount of CHF 44,500,000. The proposed total amount is CHF 1,400,000 lower than the amount approved last year for 2025. And it corresponds exactly to the total amount of compensation actually paid out to the executive committee in 2024. Does anyone want to take the floor on this agenda item? That does not seem to be the case, and we can move on to the ballot. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. [Voting]

Three more seconds and then I'll be closing the ballot. Ballot is hereby closed. And now the waiting begins. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have approved the proposed maximum aggregate amount of compensation for the Executive Committee for the financial year 2026 in the amount of CHF 44,500,000 with 93.97%. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, I would like to thank you for your trust. We now move on to Item 7 on the agenda, elections to the Board of Directors and election of the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Ladies and gentlemen, the date of today's AGM coincides with the end of the term of office of all members of the Board of Directors. As mentioned earlier, Lars Farberg has decided not to stand for reelection. At the same time, the BOD is pleased to propose to you the election of Claudia Nemat as a new member of the Board. Mrs. Nemat not only has extensive management and Board experience, but she's also very familiar with areas that are important to ABB such as digitalization or artificial intelligence. She will perfectly complement ABB's Board of Directors, and I can only recommend the election of Claudia Nemat, in addition to those of our current members standing for reelection. Accordingly, the candidates standing for reelection to the Board of Directors are David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, Johan Forssell, Denise Johnson, Jennifer Lee, Geraldine Matchett, David Meline, Claudia, Nemat, Mats Rahmström and myself, Peter Voser. The election shall be effective for a term of office until the conclusion of the 2026 Annual General Meeting. Considering the number of election matters, may I ask you to bring up your comments on the individual candidates now before we proceed to the actual voting process. Who would like to take the floor? Nobody is asking for the floor. So let's proceed to the elections. Ladies and gentlemen, we will conduct the elections of all members as well as of the Chairman of the Board of Directors individually, but in one run. For that purpose, you will see all candidates individually on your screen. However, the screen cannot display more than 3 candidates at once. So you will have the possibility to scroll forward and backward by using the arrow keys at the bottom or below your display. Again, you can change your vote until the voting time has expired. The election results for agenda Item 7 will be announced together. Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes to elect David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, Johan Forssell, Denise Johnson, Jennifer Lee, Geraldine Matchett, David Meline, Claudia, Nemat, Mats Rahmström and myself, Peter Voser as members of the Board of Directors as well as to elect me, Peter Voser as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your votes now. You've got 30 seconds, a bit longer than before because you've got more work to do. [Voting]

Five more seconds, I'll give you 2 extra seconds. I hereby close the ballot, and we now wait for the result to become available, which is going to take a little bit longer because the computer has a bit of work to do. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have elected David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, Johan Forssell, Denise Johnson, Jennifer Lee, Geraldine Matchett, David Meline, Claudia, Nemat, Mats Rahmström and yours truly, Peter Voser as members of the Board of Directors; and myself, Peter Voser, again, as Chairman of the Board of Directors with a predominant majority. Shareholders, on behalf of the members of the Board of Directors, may I thank you the confidence that you have just expressed in us. And congratulations to Claudia on her election to the Board. Over the next 12 months, we will, as a team, together with Morten, and the Executive Committee, drive ABB forward on its successful path. So thank you very much to all of you for your trust. Right, let's move on to Item 8 on the agenda, elections to the Compensation Committee. Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes to elect the following Board members to the Compensation Committee: David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado and Jennifer Li. The election shall be effective for a term of office until the conclusion of the 2026 Annual General Meeting. We will again conduct the elections of all members of the Compensation Committee individually, but in one run. We will present the election results jointly. If you wish to make any comments on the present agenda item, I now invite you to come forward to the lectern. Nobody wishes to speak. Okay, let's proceed to the election. Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes to elect David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado and Jennifer Li as members of the Compensation Committee. Please cast your vote now. [Voting]

A few more seconds. I hereby close the ballot. We now wait until the result becomes available. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have elected David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado and Jennifer Li as members of the Compensation Committee in each case with an overwhelming majority. Thank you very much for your trust. This takes us to Item 9, that is the election of the independent proxy. Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes to elect Zehnder Bolliger & Partner attorneys-at-law and notary office in Baden as the independent proxy. As mentioned, they are represented here today at our meeting by Dr. Hans Zehnder, and they have confirmed that they're willing to once again accept this mandate. Thank you very much. The election shall be effective for a term of office until conclusion of the AGM 2026. Once again, I ask the question, would anyone like to take the floor? If that's the case, please step up to the lectern. That does not seem to be the case, which is why we'll be moving on to the ballot, so please cast your votes now. [Voting]

Two or three seconds. I hereby close the ballots, and now we'll be seeing the results shortly, I'm sure. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have elected Zehnder Bolliger & Partner with 99.94% of yes votes as independent proxy, thank you. Mr. Zehnder, we are very much looking forward to our continued cooperation. This brings us to Item 10 on the agenda, election of the auditors. Esteemed shareholders, the Board of Directors proposes to elect KPMG AG as auditors for the financial year 2025. KPMG AG has declared itself willing to perform as auditors for the financial year 2025 once more. I'd like to thank the 2 gentlemen who are here today as representatives of KPMG. One more time the question, would anyone like to take the floor? That does not seem to be the case, so please cast your votes now. [Voting]

Okay, the music's over, so the voting is too. I hereby close the ballot, and now a little patience, results will be here shortly. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have elected KPMG AG with 99.32% of yes votes as auditors for the financial year 2025. Thank you very much. And congratulations on the reelection to KPMG. We are very much looking forward to the cooperation. Ladies and gentlemen, we now come to the end of our meeting. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I'd like to take the opportunity and thank the executive committee and all employees of the entire ABB Group from the bottom of my heart for their great commitment, and I'd like to thank you, esteemed shareholders for the trust you are once again placing in us. Today's ballots have reflected this very nicely. The next AGM will be taking place on March 19 of 2026 and it would be a great pleasure to be able to welcome you again next year. Please leave all these electronic devices on your chairs because we will then be collecting them. Your personal data will be deleted and will no longer be accessed or accessible by anyone. I hereby close today's AGM. Esteemed shareholders, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your trust. Thank you so much for having been here in such great numbers in this historic hall of 550, and I would be so happy to be able to welcome you back next year, hopefully, then again, with a very successful AGM. Of course, we have great expectations regarding the results for the business year 2025. And hopefully, those expectations will be met, if not exceeded. I'd like to wish you a safe journey home. And again, I'm very much looking forward to see you again next year. Thank you very much. And now I officially close this AGM. Thank you.