Allianz SE (ALV) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, I hereby open the Annual General Meeting 2022 of Allianz SE. Dear shareholders, on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, I would like to welcome you to our Annual General Meeting, which due to circumstances related to the pandemic at the time of the decision to convene is this year again being held virtually. In order to improve the quality of our dialogue with you, the management Board has made some changes compared to last year's format. For example, video statements could be submitted in advance and these will be played back during the meeting today. There will also be an opportunity to submit follow-up questions on questions submitted in advance, and I will give more details on this later. Before I present my report, I would like to make a few preliminary remarks. We are now in the third year of the pandemic already, and it's been a real roller coaster with hopes for a return to normalcy, followed by disappointments with the arrival of new infection waves. The development of inflation and supply chain disruptions are also worrying. Alongside geopolitical disputes, not only between the United States and China, but also in other parts of the world, we have also seen a global consensus towards climate protection entailing wide-ranging transformational consequences. All of these changes demand huge efforts on the part of the people, companies and politics. The mood of optimism began to spread and then came the aggression by Russia in Eastern Europe, which the West, has to an extent, had to sit and watch somewhat helplessly. The unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has left us shocked and the fate of the many people, who through no fault of their own, have found themselves in desperate circumstances has deeply affected all of us. What we are witnessing in Ukraine is fundamentally adapts with the values of an open and free society, values also shared by your Allianz and which underpin our successful efforts. The Supervisory Board is grateful to the management Board for its commitment to the cause and the swift support lent to Allianz staff in Ukraine and Russia as well as for its active assistance offered by way of rapid financial and material aid to the people affected by the war in Ukraine. Mr. Bate will talk about this in more detail in his report to the Annual General Meeting. You can rest assured that the Supervisory Board in close consultation with the management board is continuously assessing the geopolitical as well as the macroeconomic developments and of course, the effects on Allianz's risk profile. The governmental proceedings and the lawsuits in the U.S. in connection with the Structured Alpha Funds of Allianz Global Investors U.S. also kept us busy in the past financial year. The losses suffered by customers in this regard are significant. The Supervisory Board is closely following the investigation of this incident by the Management Board. In addition to appropriate compensation for customers and cooperation with the authorities, this investigation involves a thorough analysis of the facts and drawing appropriate conclusions so that such an incident cannot happen again. Mr. Bäte will address this issue in more detail in his report to the Annual General Meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, let me now give you some organizational information about today's Annual General Meeting. I can first state that the Annual General Meeting was convened in due time and form on the 17th of March 2022 in the Federal Gazette. The minutes of the AGM will be taken by Notary Public, [ Jens Kirchner ], he's with us in the room here. For our shareholders, we will broadcast the entire AGM live on the Internet. In addition, my introduction and my reports as well as the speech of the Chairman of the Board can also followed by the general public live on the Internet, and those speeches will be made available as recordings after the AGM. Shareholders registered to today's AGM had the opportunity to hand in their questions until day before yesterday on today's agenda through our online service. The Board of Management and myself as in the last year will answer all permissible questions in the framework of dealing with the agenda items and the discretion provided by the legislator to form blocks of topics will only be used wherever this is reasonable and appropriate. You can exercise your voting right in today's AGM only by postal vote or through authorization of the voting proxies appointed by the company. Your postal votes or the instructions to the voting proxies appointed by the company can be changed via the online service until the beginning of the vote. I will inform you about this shortly before we begin the voting process once again. But I would ask you right now to take changes in due time because there can be time delays on the live stream. The assembly room this year, once again, is the auditorium of Allianz SE, Room Munich here at Koeniginstrasse 28, in 80802, Munich, Germany. I will explain the voting process in detail once we've answered all the questions of shareholders by the Management Board. If you want to exercise the shareholders, your voting right by postal vote or by authorizing voting proxy appointed by the company, then you also have the opportunity to object against resolutions of the AGM via the online service. Please note that if you want to file an objection, you have to do so until the end of today's AGM, this will not be possible once the AGM is over. You can find a button for this -- for objections in the online service. And the objection will then be sent directly to the Notary Public through a mailbox, which is administered by the notary public himself. Also here, I would like to ask you in the interest of an ordered AGM that you don't wait with your objections until the very end because as I mentioned before, there could be technical delays on the live stream. All documents required by law for the AGM were made public on the Internet page of Allianz SE under Investor Relations AGM in our documents center. You can access them just as well through the online service as the documents are on available here on site. The list of participants will be drawn up as required during the meeting. And as usual, I will let you know about the attendance figures. Moreover, our shareholders have the opportunity to get information about the attendance in the online service. As the Chairman of this AGM, I would like to inform you that you're not allowed to take any recordings of the online transmission of our AGM. I would like you to bear in mind that this AGM is a meeting of shareholders, which is not meant for the broad public, so much on the organizational remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, also today, not all the members of the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management are present here in this room to minimize health risks for every one of the Supervisory Board. Apart from myself, we only have Mr. Hainer here in the room. He was appointed by the Standing Committee for this year's AGM as my substitute in case I should need a replacement during this AGM. In addition to Mr. Bäte, we have present as members of the Board, Ms. Wagner, responsible for HR, Legal, Compliance and Mergers and Acquisitions. Dr. Thallinger responsible for investments and Head of the Sustainability Board on the level of the Board of Management. Mr. Terzariol, our CFO, the CFO of Alliance Group, and all the other members of the Board and members of the Supervisory Board will follow the AGM just as you do through the online service. Before we enter into the agenda, I would like to inform you about changes on the composition of the Management Board and Supervisory Board of Allianz SE since the previous Annual General Meeting. Since May 2021, there have been 2 changes to the composition of the Management Board. With effect from the 1st of October 2021, Dr. Andreas Wimmer was appointed to the Management Board of Allianz SE. He assumed responsibility for the Asset Management division and for Allianz Life in North America, taken over from Ms. Jacqueline Hunt, who resigned her mandate on September 30, 2021, and is since acting as strategic adviser to the Chairman of the Management Board. The Supervisory Board has expressed its gratitude to Ms. Hunt for her commitment to Allianz. Dr. Wimmer has been with Allianz since 2004, so for almost 20 years. After holding various functions in both the Life and PC segments, Mr. Wimmer was most recently the Chairman of the Management Board of Allianz Leben, Allianz Life in Stuttgart. Ms. Sirma Boshnakova was appointed to the Management Board of Allianz SE as of January 1, 2022. Ms. Boshnakova has been with Allianz since 2015 and after several years in charge of the Allianz SE business division, overseeing operating entities in Southern and Western Europe, she assumed responsibility as Global CEO of Allianz Partners in 2019. On the Management Board of Allianz SE, she oversees the insurance activities in Western and Southern Europe as well as Allianz Direct and Allianz Partners. The 2 members of the Board will present themselves to you quickly. And right now, as we want to keep the number of people present in the room as low as possible, we've taped the presentations as in the past year before the AGM. And I would now ask the technicians to run the clips of Ms. Boshnakova and Dr. Wimmer.

Dear Mr. Diekmann, dear shareholders, I am grateful for the opportunity to introduce myself at this Virtual Annual General Meeting of Allianz SE. I'm a Board member of Allianz SE since January, and I'm humbled by the trust you have placed in me. Digitalization is providing us opportunity to create a unique combination of technology with a human touch to open a seamless and borderless world to consumers and to make their lives safer and simpler. And I'm convinced that Allianz is well placed to play a leading role. I'm Bulgarian. I grew up surrounded by different cultures and backgrounds and have always been passionate about helping people and expanding my horizons. My parents passed on 3 values to me: Be kind, humble and positive, no matter what, act with integrity and walk the talk. If it's worth being done, then it should be done, right. That is why I put a lot of care into everything I do, and I especially care about by 2 children and the legacy relief for the next generation. These values shape my career. So following my master's degree, I held various international leadership positions in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. And I built my experience across the entire insurance value chain. Then in 2015, I joined Allianz as the Head of Business Division for Western and Southern Europe, and helped one of our largest entities to grow profitably. In 2019, I joined the Allianz Partners, a global leader in B2B2C insurance and assistance. As the CEO, I had a crucial mission to invent the business model for sustainable growth. We delivered above and beyond expectations even amid the COVID crisis. We became the micro mobility leader, launched our first travel ecosystem and strengthened our positions in international health. This is a proof that our strategy works. Since January, I am a Board Member of Allianz SE and CEO of Allianz Partners. And we continue driving the rapid development of our customer-facing platforms, and we will soon connect them for a holistic experience in a seamless and borderless world. I thank you once again, members of the Supervisory Board and shareholders for the opportunity to serve you, our employees and our customers. My goal is to deliver on this vision and exceed your expectations. Thank you very much.

[Foreign Language]

Thank you very much Ms. Boshnakova, Dr. Wimmer. The Supervisory Board is delighted about your appointment, and wishes you all the best for your work on the Board of Management of Allianz SE. I would also like to inform you that the Supervisory Board has renewed the Management Board appointments of Ms. Wagner for 5 years and of Dr. Rohler for 4 years when he reaches the regular age limit. The composition of the Supervisory Board has not changed since the last Annual General Meeting in May 2021. And I will go into more detail shortly on the pending elections to the Supervisory Board scheduled under Item 7 of today's agenda in a few minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, at this point, I would like to give you -- inform you about the attendance figures. Currently, we have 43.28% of the share capital -- of the statutory share capital present in our Annual General Meeting. Out of this, 70,906 shareholders are present through authorization with 171,805,600 votes or shares. And in addition, we have postal votes for another 4,964,537, no-par shares that equals 1.22% of the share capital. Dear shareholders, we will now enter into today's agenda. I call upon the agenda Item 1, the presentation of the approved Annual Financial Statements and the approved Consolidated Financial statements as of December 31, 2021, and of the Management Reports for Allianz SE and for the Group, as well as the report of the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2021. First step, I will talk about the presentation of the financial statements. The Annual Financial Statements of Allianz SE and the Group, together with your respective Management Reports, including the nonfinancial statements were audited and confirmed as properly prepared by the auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft. The auditors issued unconditional auditors' opinions for both financial statements. The Management Board and the auditors explained the financial statements in detail both to the Audit Committee and also to the plenary session of the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board approved the annual financial statements after thorough examination, and the annual financial statements of Allianz SE, has therefore, been formally adopted. That takes me to the report of the Supervisory Board, a total of 6 regular meetings and 3 extraordinary meetings of the full Supervisory Board were held during fiscal year 2021. In addition to Supervisory Board committees met for 22 ordinary meetings and the standing committee for 1 extraordinary meeting. The Supervisory Board and its committees furthermore adopted 8 written resolutions in circular motion. As a customer, you will find a detailed account of the work of the Supervisory Board and its committees in the Group annual report starting on Page 5 and following. And I would now, if I may, highlight certain key areas of our activities. In all regular meetings during the fiscal year, the Management Board reported to us on the development of revenues and results of Allianz SE and within the Group as well as business developments in the individual business segments. The Management Board also reported in detail on any deviations in actual business development from the planning. Furthermore, we and the Management Board regularly discuss the capitalization, the solvency ratio and liquidity, as well as the related stress and risk scenarios. In addition to the regular Supervisory Board meetings, we held 3 extraordinary meetings in the second half of the year. The subject of these additional meetings were the lawsuits and regulatory proceedings in connection with the Structured Alpha Funds of Allianz Global Investors in the United States of America. The personnel changes on the Management Board of Allianz SE and the dividend policy as well as the reinsurance transaction of our life insurance entity in the United States, Allianz Life North America. The Supervisory Board assigned the Audit Committee, the task of continuously monitoring the Structured Alpha complex. And it also set up an audit committee working group, which held 4 meetings in fiscal year 2021. I will also come back to this later in more detail. A particular focus of our work in the past fiscal year was the current status and impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the overall economy and the insurance industry as well as on the employees of Allianz. In the past fiscal year, we again maintained a strong focus on addressing strategic issues with the Management Board, including the 3-year plan for the years '22 through '24. The Supervisory Board lent close support to the Management Board in its preparations for the Capital Markets Day on the 3rd of December 2021. In addition, the Supervisory Board dealt at length with the strategy of Allianz France and the developments at Allianz Partners, our industrial insurer AGCS and Allianz Global Investors. The existing activities and strategic options in China were also discussed in detail with the Management Board. Furthermore, as usual, we addressed in detail the consistency of the risk and business strategy of the Management Board. In the plenary sessions of the Supervisory Board as well as on the Technology Committee, we worked intensively on issues relating to cybersecurity and the centralization of IT at Allianz Technology. Another focal area was the implementation and application of the new accounting standards, IFRS 9/17 and their impact on the results of the individual business segments and the Group as well as the significant reinsurance transaction of Allianz Life North America. Furthermore, the Supervisory Board deliberated on the succession planning for the Management Board. The Sustainability Committee, which was newly set up in February 2021 started its work and supported the Management Board closely in the implementation and continued development of Allianz's sustainability strategy. The active cooperation of the Sustainability Committee with the Personnel Committee in setting sustainability targets for the remuneration of the Management Board as well as in the target performance assessment for the fiscal year 2021 deserve special mention. Allow me to turn now to the remuneration of the Management Board and Supervisory Board. Detailed information on this topic is set out in the remuneration report, which starts on Page 28 of the Group annual report. The remuneration system for the Management Board and the Supervisory Board in place for fiscal year 2021 were approved by the Annual General Meeting 2021 and shall remain unchanged. The remuneration report for the fiscal year 2021 will be presented to you for the first time for approval under agenda Item 6. The report describes the structure and the setup of the remuneration system for the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of our company. It explains the application of the respective system in fiscal year 2021 on the basis of detailed and personalized information on the remuneration of the current and former members of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board. This report was jointly prepared by the Management Board and the Supervisory Board, and it takes into account the requirements of the German Stock Corporation Act and the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code. Furthermore, we commissioned our statutory auditor to conduct a full audit of the remuneration report, including its content over and above the legal requirements. The statutory auditor confirmed that the remuneration report for fiscal year 2021, including the related disclosures complies in all material respects with the provisions of the German Stock Corporation Act. In the remuneration report, we've again aimed at providing complete transparency in reporting the compensation of the members of the Management Board. The remuneration report sets out the exact derivation of the calculation of the Group's financial targets and in terms of the individual contribution factor for the assessment of the Management Board members' annual bonus. Regarding this, you will see that the Supervisory Board has again made the greatest possible use of the discretion available for defining this factor, taking account of the performance of each individual management board member. In fiscal year 2021, the financial performance of Allianz's operating business was very strong and solvency was stabilized at a good level. Almost all business segments made positive contributions and some were well above target. The strong overall performance was achieved on a sustainable basis. Customers and employees once again rated the Management Board very highly according to the surveyed indicators, such as the Net Promoter Score, the Well Work (sic) [ Work Well ] Index and the Inclusive Meritocracy Index. These indicators measure progress in the degree to which employees and customers are valued and individual performance is rewarded. The defined environmental target for fiscal year 2021 for the planned CO2 reduction and increase in the share of renewable energy was also well exceeded. In terms of the financial performance, the Iberia and Latin America region and particularly -- in particular, the nonoperating result of the Asset Management segment were the exceptions. The net income at Group level has been explicitly negatively impacted by the Asset Management segment due to the litigation in the United States in connection with the Structured Alpha Funds. The Supervisory Board did not exercise its discretion in calculating these quantitative components. Instead, in addition to the negative impact of the Structured Alpha Complex and variable remuneration, the Supervisory Board applied a flat rate discount of 10 percentage points to the individual contribution factor and agreed this with each member of the Management Board individually. Unfortunately, the Structured Alpha matter will continue to be an issue during the current fiscal year, and Mr. Bäte will provide more details about this in his report to the management -- to the Annual General Meeting. Regarding the remuneration of the Supervisory Board, I can offer the following information here. The remuneration continues to consist of a fixed remuneration amount with varying remunerations for membership committees. Last year, the Annual General Meeting approved the introduction of a 50% committee -- remuneration for the Nomination Committee as well as the remuneration for the newly created Sustainability Committee. The individual breakdown of remuneration of the Supervisory Board numbers can also be found in the remuneration report. Dear shareholders, part of the work of the Supervisory Board is also to monitor standards of good corporate governance. Details on the corporate governance development within the Allianz Group can be found in the Statement On Corporate Management from Page 16 of the Group annual report. In December 2021, the Management Board and Supervisory Board submitted the declaration of conformity with the recommendations of the Corporate Governance Code, which is now permanently available to the shareholders on the company's website. In summary, it can be concluded that Allianz complies with all recommendations of the code in its current version and follows all the suggestions contained therein. Ladies and gentlemen, in the fiscal year 2021, your Allianz again performed well in a difficult environment with the operating business, achieving the best result in its history. In addition to the sustained high level of customer and employee satisfaction, appropriate business activities have been acquired in line with the strategy and innovative solutions for the life insurance portfolios have been developed. One example is the reinsurance agreement for USD 35 billion index-linked annuity portfolio of Allianz Life North America. This transaction is consistent with Allianz's strategy of unlocking value from its Life business by using balance sheet capital more efficiently and driving synergies with asset management. With the successful rollout of the Business Master platform to the first subsidiaries, Allianz has demonstrated its continued commitment to the path of digital transformation. Furthermore, the Management Board successfully maintained capital resources at a strong level. The dividend of EUR 10.80 proposed to you today underlines the excellent operational performance of your Allianz. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board to all employees throughout the Allianz Group. The excellent result achieved in the past year would not have been possible without your efforts and commitment. Despite the continuously challenging environment, not least owing to the pandemic, you were able, together with the Management Board, to meet the high expectations that customers and investors have of Allianz. Thank you very much for that, indeed. Of course, this makes the issues relating to Allianz Global Investors, Structured Alpha Funds in the U.S. all the more painful. The Management Board has initiated extensive efforts to resolve the situation, which are being closely monitored by the Supervisory Board. The responsibility within the Supervisory Board for the ongoing monitoring of the Management Board's proper investigation and handling of the consequences lies primarily with the Audit Committee. The Supervisory Board has also set up a working group within the Audit Committee to focus exclusively on the Structured Alpha Complex. In addition, we have been advised by an independent law firm. The investigative work is currently still ongoing. And I would like to make it clear, however, that at the present time, we have no indications of any breach of duty by active or former members of the Management Board. I can assure you that the Supervisory Board will continue to closely oversee the Management Board's handling of the matter, and it will support the monitor of the Management Board with its own resources. Dear shareholders, allow me now to turn to the election of the new Supervisory Board as scheduled for today under agenda item 7. Upon the conclusion of today's Annual General Meeting, the terms of office of all members of the Supervisory Board shall expire. As you will have noted from Allianz's press release of February 10, Mr. Snabe will not be standing for reelection on the Supervisory Board today. Mr. Snabe's decision was taken in response to concerns expressed by investors regarding overboarding due to the mandates held in various companies at the time of the decision. We have accepted his decision with great regret and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Snabe on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board as well as personally for his tremendous support to Allianz on its path of digital transformation. As Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board and in addition as Chairman of the Technology Committee Mr. Snabe has provided valuable momentum to this process and guided the development of the group-wide standardized Business Master Platform in a critical advisory capacity. Last but not least, the establishment of the Technology Committee is down to Mr. Snabe's initiative, and he has thereby also made a significant contribution to making the work of the Supervisory Board more professional. I would also like to seize this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Sophie Boissard, Christine Bosse, Friedrich Eichiner, and Herbert Hainer, who as shareholder representatives have always made themselves available and carried out the work on the Supervisory Board with responsibility. All 4 have agreed to stand again today as your representatives on the Supervisory Board with varying terms of office. You know all 4 of them well from the work, they've performed to date as members of the Supervisory Board of Allianz SE. I would particularly like to welcome Ms. Rashmy Chatterjee who is standing as the Supervisory Board candidate for the first time today. Ms. Chatterjee is Chairwoman of the ISTARI Global Limited, a company specializing in cyber risk management. With her professional experience, she is well suited for sharing the Technology Committee. Also Ms. Chatterjee wants to present herself through a video message, and I would ask the technicians to run the clip.

Dear Mr. Diekmann, shareholders and shareholder representatives, thank you for giving me an opportunity to introduce myself as a candidate for the Supervisory Board at this virtual Annual General Meeting of Allianz SE. My name is Rashmy Chatterjee, I'm 58 years old, and I have 36 years of professional experience across 3 organizations and 3 continents. I'm an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, and my first job was with the Indian Navy's Design Directorate in New Delhi. I worked there for 10 years eventually leading the CAD/CAM capabilities. I left the Navy to start a 23-year old career with IBM. First, in Hong Kong as part of the team that was setting up the software business for IBM Asia Pacific. After a few roles in marketing, I became the Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific based out of Singapore. I then moved to a General Management role to lead the software business for IBM ASEAN in South Asia and then became VP of channels, partnerships and alliances for IBM Asia Pacific. In 2011, I left Singapore to move to New York as an integration executive for IBM's newly founded Cybersecurity Division. After the integration was complete, I ran sales for cybersecurity for IBM North America. And in 2014, I became the Chief Marketing Officer for IBM North America, just as IBM was transforming from a hardware, software services business to a cloud and cognitive solutions business. After 4 years in my Chief Marketing Officer role, I moved back to sales to lead global sales for IBM Cybersecurity. In 2019, I left IBM to join ISTARI to become the CEO of ISTARI, a global cybersecurity platform established by Temasek and headquartered in London. In my private life, I'm married and a very proud mother of 2 adult children. I'm grateful for the trust placed in me by the Board, and I hope I can count on your vote today. With my technology experience, I will endeavor my best to continue Allianz's growth and success through innovation. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that. I too have decided to stand again for the Supervisory Board, and I would like to ask you for your trust to allow me to serve another term. As mentioned in the invitation to this Annual General Meeting, if elected by today's Annual General Meeting I shall again be proposed for a position of Chair of the Supervisory Board. In this regard, I would like to comment on the age limit of 70 years as a room for members of the Supervisory Board here at Allianz. During the next term of office, the majority of the members of the Supervisory Board will change at different points in time. I myself will be 71 years old on December 23, 2025, and will, therefore, according to the election proposal exceed the standard age limit by 5 months at the end of the term of office. In order to be able to lead the reorganization of the Supervisory Board as Chair, the Supervisory Board has nevertheless asked me to stand for the full term of office. The Supervisory Board considers my exceeding the standard age limit within the tolerance limit. And I'm happy to comply with this request in order to ensure the necessary continuity during the new composition of the Supervisory Board. I also ask you, the shareholders, to support this proposal. To ensure that today's election of the new Supervisory Board properly considers targets for the composition of the Supervisory Board and responsible flexibility to the changing competence requirements, the proposed term of office for certain candidates will not be the regular 4-year term of membership. This is to enable the gradual formation of a staggered board in the future as well. For this reason, we are proposing that Ms. Boissard, Ms. Chatterjee and myself be elected for 4 years, Dr. Eichiner for 3 years and Ms. Bosse and Mr. Hainer for 2 years. With all the candidates proposed today, the Supervisory Board will have a very strong lineup of members in terms of expertise, especially in the insurance and financial services business as well as in accounting and risk management in terms of experience in corporate management as well as in terms of independence, internationality, diversity and the appropriate participation of women. At this point, I would like to state that no personal or business relationship within the meaning of the German Corporate Governance Code exists between any of the proposed candidates and the Allianz Group, the governance -- the governing bodies of Allianz SE or any shareholder with a material interest. The new elections will be held in the form of individual elections. You will find detailed curricular vitae of all candidates and invitation to this Annual General Meeting. And I would kindly ask you once again to support the candidates by casting your vote. I would also like to thank the representatives of the employees and the Supervisory Board. Ms. Burkhardt-Berg has been an excellent sparring partner to me as Deputy Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board; and Jean-Claude Le Goaër, Martina Grundler, Godfrey Hayward, Frank Kirsch and Jurgen Lawrenz have played a very active and constructive role in the work of the Supervisory Board and its various committees. At this point, I would like to extend special thanks to Mr. Hayward personally and also on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board. Mr. Hayward has been a member of the Supervisory Board since May 2017, and he's been a member of the Risk Committee. Due to Brexit, Mr. Hayward, as an employee of Allianz U.K., is required to leave the Supervisory Board as of the end of today, since the statutes of Allianz SE only allow candidates from the European Union to be members of the Supervisory Board as employee representatives. We regret his departure and wish Mr. Hayward, all the best for his future, thanking him for his efforts. In accordance with our statutes, the employee representatives on the Supervisory Board are elected by the SE Works Council of Allianz SE. This election took place on February 9 this year already. And with the exception of Mr. Hayward, all employees and trade union representatives were reelected. This SE Works Council newly elected Mr. Primiano Di Paolo of Allianz Italy as a new member of the Supervisory Board. All employee representatives were elected for the statutory term of office for 4 years. With this, I would like to thank you kindly for your attention. And I will now hand over to Mr. Bäte, the Chairman of the Management Board of Allianz for his report. You have the floor, Mr. Bäte.

Well, thank you, Mr. Diekmann. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Dear shareholders and employees, welcome. Welcome to the third virtual AGM of Allianz. I also would like to welcome you on behalf of our more than 155,000 Allianz colleagues worldwide. This online format continues to be improved. This year, we have enabled our investors to submit video messages. In addition, today, participants will be able to submit follow-up questions. In the past year, Allianz's performance was impressive. It was good. We posted the best operating result ever and can report in 2021, many positive aspects. However, at the start, I would like to begin today by expressing how dismayed I am at the suffering caused by Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine. Cities and towns like in ruins. People have lost their families and their homes. I lost breath by looking at what is happening before our eyes in Europe. It makes me speechless. What concerns us is not the economic impact on Allianz as a company, we have decided not to write any new business in Russia nor are we making any new investments on our own behalf or on behalf of our insurance customers. We are winding down our activities in an orderly yet decisive manner. We are a global organization at Allianz. We follow a clear set of values. We stand firmly by the side of our employees and all the people whose lives are being affected by these events. It, therefore, remains a priority for us to help all those affected and to provide them security. In Germany, for example, we pay any personal liability claims of Ukrainian refugees and their children that our customers have taken in their homes. And as part of a joint initiative by the German Insurance Association, GDV, we cover motor vehicle liability claims caused by uninsured Ukrainian refugee up until May 31, 2022. But for us, this is not enough. We also want to support locally and alleviate misery. This is why only 4 days after the initial attack, we made EUR 12.5 million available for humanitarian aid. In addition, our employees have so far donated until today, EUR 1.1 million. We can offer this help because in 2021, Allianz once again performed very well. And that brings me on to our main topic for this meeting. How did Allianz, your Allianz, perform in the year 2021 on the review? As I mentioned at the beginning, we achieved the best operating results in the history of our company despite new hurdles that we encountered. Let's take a look back together. When we last met, ladies and gentlemen, the second major wave of the pandemic was coming to an end. We slowly emerged from our homes again out of the lockdown. In Germany, this lasted 6 months. Widespread restrictions on social contacts, partly filled offices, closed shops, disrupted supply chains, a ban on traveling to many countries all over the world. During these difficult times, we still have to continue operating our business professionally being there for our customers, inspiring them via screens and over the phone by what Allianz stands for. We also had to take care of our employees by offering services to help them deal with the mental strain. And I am proud of how we coped during this period. We were able to be there for our customers during a difficult time, both personally and digitally. Well, the next shock came in early summer. Terrible natural disasters, floods right on our doorstep, not only in Germany, but also in the west of Germany, but also in the Netherlands and in Belgium, in this neighboring country. People died. Many lost their homes and possessions. We activated all our resources, and we were among the first on the scene. We helped quickly and efficiently despite the pandemic. Within a short time, we have settled more than 20,000 claims. We paid our customers a total of more than EUR 1 billion. But we were able to do more than that, we donated EUR 1 million and supplied more than 2,000 dehumidifiers. We see this response as one already inherent in our brand name, Allianz stems for solidarity. It was the moment of truth. Once again, our customers could feel. I have a strong partner at my side, a partner who keeps its word, a partner who's there for me. Even when, literally, my worst nightmare becomes true. During these events, the pandemic was almost forgotten for a brief period of time. However, it was not over as we were to find out in the autumn. We wanted to do our part to return to new normal, a normality with COVID. To help getting there, we supported vaccination campaigns worldwide. In Germany alone, we vaccinated more than 23,000 employees and their families, a tremendous effort by our company doctors and medical staff. The year 2021 once again demanded a lot from us all. We faced the challenges. We were there for our customers. And for this work, ladies and gentlemen, you need motivated employees. They are essential for this. They are willing to go the extra mile. My colleagues did a superb job in what was a difficult second year of the pandemic. They worked hard -- very hard for our customers. They did so with passion and compassion. I think I can speak on your behalf too, when I say thank you very much to this wonderfully committed global Allianz team. It's a pleasure to work together with such colleagues for our customers. Dear shareholders, 2021 showed that simplicity wins. This is the right approach. You might be familiar with this title. Simplicity wins was the name given to our strategy from 2019 to 2021. In the next 30 minutes, I would like to report on our progress and I would like to address 4 points, 4 aspects. What did we accomplish in 2021? Where do we stand in the proceedings relating to the Structured Alpha Funds? What financial results did we achieve in 2021? And what is our strategy for the future for the next years to come? Well, first of all, I would like to talk about how we are continuously developing and simplifying our business, about how we are deploying our capital efficiently and growing profitably and about how we are working for greater sustainability, especially in terms of climate protection and social issues or important social issues. The Allianz customer model is the core of our strategy. It is the central lever, ladies and gentlemen, for the further development of Allianz. We are never losing sight for our customers, and we are becoming more efficient. And at the same time, we're increasing our productivity continuously. Let me briefly tell you about the idea behind our model. We have -- we had for many hundred years, a thousand of products worldwide. Those products were all structured differently. They belong to different generations of tariffs. They run on different IT systems. All of this led to a great deal of complexity within our IT, not only IT, we made it our mission to change all that. We are introducing so-called master products and master processes to this end, step by step, one at a time. Our new processes are digital. And hopefully, they are they can be understood intuitively. They are products that are truly in demand and processes that provide simple and uncomplicated handling from initiating an insurance contract to processing a claim. These products and processes can be continuously updated. They can be adapted to process large quantities and they can be deployed anywhere in the world. Today, I can proudly say that the Allianz customer model has become part of our DNA. It covers more than 99% of premiums in our Property and Casualty business for retail customers and small businesses. And by the end of the current year, ladies and gentlemen, we will be making noticeable progress especially in our P&C business for large corporate customers in reinsurance and in life and health insurance. The basis for this development is a very precise understanding of our work processes in customer service, and in IT. Not just in the theory, ladies and gentlemen, but also in real time. To achieve this, we systematically trace the customer journey. We identify outliers that deviated from the ideal rule from the customer's point of view, of course, to name just one achievement, our customers in Germany and in Central and Eastern Europe, can now view the current processing state of the claim on our central IT platform online, around the clock at any time. Last but not least, we were able to identify touch points that can be automated or even avoided. This helps us improve customer satisfaction and productivity. Our customers reward us for these efforts with their loyalty. Our benchmark for customer satisfaction is, by the way, the international standardized system of the Net Promoter Score or NPS for short. It shows how likely customers are to recommend Allianz. Over the last 5 years, ladies and gentlemen, our NPS has improved considerably and continuously. The proportion of Allianz businesses with a better score than the NPS average of the domestic market has jumped in the meantime to 84%. This is a record figure. These successes are also reflected in the perception of our brand. Once again, Interbrand rated us as the most valued insurance brand worldwide. And now Brand Finance after Interbrand could also rank as the top insurance brand with a global reach. They ranked us like that. In the future, we must work towards becoming market leaders in customer loyalty in every area of business. We want to systematically leverage the resulting economic benefits. Being the market leader in customer satisfaction, dear shareholders, is the be-all and end-all of any sustainable business success and it is our top priority at Allianz. Last year, we also worked on using our capital, your capital, more profitably. We continue to grow profitably by realigning the existing business and also by making acquisitions. I would like to give you 3 examples. In the USA, Mr. Diekmann, just mentioned it, we externally reinsured annuities worth over USD 35 billion, we were able to unlock EUR 3.6 billion in risk capital as a result. This increased Allianz Life USA's return on equity from 12% to 18% without sacrifice of our customers. The interface to the customers and likewise, the investment of their funds remain in our hands. Secondly, the acquisition of Aviva in Poland and Lithuania made us #2 in Central and Eastern Europe, when you look at revenue. The acquisition of Aviva Italy consolidated our position as the markets -- our position in Italy. And thirdly, we also ensured that major entities are again contributing to profitable growth. Our industrial insurer, Allianz Corporate & Specialty and Allianz Partners, our specialist for global assistance and insurance services, they have achieved with hard work, visible success through their hard work. They have mitigated the pandemic effects. And for us, this is a reason to be proud. I am proud today that I can present to you another success story today. Together with Sanlam, the leading South African insurer, as of today, we are generating the biggest Pan-African insurance group outside of South Africa. There is a huge potential in Africa. Market penetration is low when it comes to insurance, and we are -- we use a lever for this potential. We are consequently implementing our strategy. We are cooperating with the best partners in growing markets to accelerate scale effects to accelerate our performance. Of course, this agreement needs to be approved by the regulatory authorities. And also, we also made real progress in achieving our ESG goals. ESG stands for environment, social and governance. It's about the environmental conservation, climate protection, social issues such as diversity, inclusion and the fight against poverty. And ultimately, it's about the principles of good governance -- good corporate governance. It's about sustainability. Two aspects are particularly important to me here. First of all, we have to make our economy carbon neutral because we're already feeling the consequences of climate change. We have to change course today in order to ensure a livable environment for future generations. This is not just a task for politicians, ladies and gentlemen, it's social responsibility, not only in Germany but worldwide. And not only with reliable promises with measurable results. We are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2025, measured against the year 2019. And by 2030, we want to be carbon neutral. Two key drivers in achieving this, we will only use green electricity throughout the Allianz Group from next year. In addition, we will continue to minimize the number of business trips also after the pandemic, but more is needed. Strong partners who secured the funding for the transformation of our economy. Partners who invest in green alternatives and guide companies on the road to carbon neutrality. Partners who measure the performance of their investment and products not just in terms of returns, but also according to CO2 emissions. Last year, we already told you about the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, abbreviation is AOA. It was initiated by the United Nations. We are a founding member and my colleague, Gunther Thallinger currently has the Chair. So far, we have succeeded in recruiting more than 70 institutions, investors such as pension funds and insurers around the world to join this mission. Collectively, we manage more than USD 10.4 trillion in assets. And we committed ourselves. We intend our own investment portfolios to be free of greenhouse gases by 2050. On the way to achieving this, we are setting binding interim targets. We are leading by example. We have already reduced the emissions of our portfolio by 25% compared to the year 2019. However, this still includes pandemic-related effects. By 2024, the planned real figure without pandemic effect is 25%, at least. We have gained much respect in the political area for this leadership. We had the opportunity to present our strategy at President Biden's, Leader's Summit on Climate, as the only European insurance company. Apart from our commitment to climate protection, we are driving initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion because diversity makes us stronger. It also makes us more creative and more productive. As you might know, the promotion of women is particularly close to my heart. I am pleased that we are already at the forefront here. We are pioneering. Around 30% of our operative profit is managed by female CEOs of our subsidiaries. On the Management Board of Allianz SE, I have the privilege of working closely with 3 female colleagues. This is the 6th year in a row that we have been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, and we are also ranking fifth in the prestigious Refinitiv Diversity and Inclusion Index. And we are the only German company to be ranked in the top 20, and we are the only insurer in the global top 100. We, at Allianz, promote a corporate culture where equal importance is according to the people and their performance. This is also reflected in our Inclusive Meritocracy Index, which remains at an all-time high of 78%. This clearly sets us apart from the market trend in 2021, which showed a significant decline. Our commitment means that we are making a real contribution for the climate and for our employees. We will continue on this path, with all our strength for your Allianz and for us as a society. Of course, I cannot talk about the financial year 2021 without also addressing the subject of Structured Alpha. In my letter to the shareholders in our annual report, we have dealt with the proceedings in United States in connection with the Structured Alpha Funds of global -- Allianz Global Investors U.S. The Structured Alpha Funds faced dramatic losses in value in light of the market turbulences caused by COVID-19 and largely had to be closed. Investors, our customers had sued Allianz Global Investors U.S. for damages of several billion dollars in the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Securities Regulator in the United States, they initiated investigations and proceedings. Let me repeat at this stage. We deeply regret the losses incurred. And we take the matter and the related proceedings very seriously. Unfortunately, our very good results last year was significantly affected by these proceedings. As reported, we have made a provision of EUR 3.7 billion for 2021 in view of the pending settlements with some investors. So we have made provisions and in view of the ongoing discussions with U.S. authorities, this reduced net income by EUR 2.8 billion in the last financial years. We have pointed out that the precise overall financial impact of the Structured Alpha matter could not be reliably measured at the time the 2021 annual financial statements were prepared and that, in our view, additional burdens should be expected before the proceedings of plaintiffs and authorities are completed. Of course, also with exhaustive, comprehensive external support, we're in the process of examining and working through how the losses came about and what possible lessons learned can be taken for us as an organization. Of course, I would like to inform you to give you -- to update you on the proceedings. You want to learn your lessons, this is understandable. We, as Allianz, are standing for transparency. However, these are running proceedings. This is a specific U.S. topic that depends on U.S. authorities, and I need to ask you for patience. We want to briefly conclude this matter and Ms. Wagner will answer your technical questions regarding Structured Alpha. Today, I ask you for your understanding. However, today, we cannot make any final statements on this yet, but we're working hard on this to finalize this topic. We are regretting the situation. We know that it's not satisfactory, but we are working hard on a timely solution of this matter. After the official proceedings, we will inform you with any details. So those are our main working areas in 2021, so much on the key areas of work in 2021. But what did we achieve during the year the review. We generated total revenues of EUR 149 billion. This is an increase of almost 6%. We improved our operating profit by 25% to EUR 13.4 billion. All 3 business segments contributed to this success. The Property-Casualty segment yielded solid revenues of EUR 62.3 billion very solid and an operating profit of EUR 5.7 billion. Although we had to absorb considerable losses from natural disasters as described, we managed to improve our combined ratio by 2.5 points to 93.8%. In the Life & Health segment, our operating profit improved by 15% even to EUR 5 billion. The new business value grew significantly by 45% to EUR 2.5 billion. This shows, ladies and gentlemen, that we have been hugely successful in generating returns for customers and for shareholders. This has enabled us to free ourselves from the negative effects of the ultra-low interest rate policy in the eurozone. In the Asset Management segment, we achieved an operating profit of EUR 3.5 billion, and improved our cost-income ratio by 2.7% points to 58.4%. This is a super value, a brilliant value, even better. The segment achieved a new all-time high with assets under management amounting to EUR 2.6 trillion at the year-end 2021. We also enjoyed strong third-party net cash inflows of EUR 110.1 billion. They came from every region and flowed into every asset class. The net income for shareholders totaled EUR 6.6 billion. Earnings per share amounted to EUR 15.96. We are proposing to increase the dividend per share for the year under review to EUR 10.80. This represents a year-on-year increase of 12.5% compared to the previous year. At this point, I would also like to mention our new dividend strategy. Not only do we deliver a stable dividend to you as investors, we also strive for an annual increase in the dividend per share of at least 5% per year because our business is robust, it is resilient, and it will remain so. The Management Board and our colleagues around the world are working on this nonstop every day. The fiscal year 2021 is history now, ladies and gentlemen, and it's time to look ahead. What's next? In a nutshell, we will take the insights and successes of Simplicity Wins to a new level. Our new strategic cycle is, therefore, called in our corporate language, simplicity at scale. So simplicity everywhere in a nutshell. This strategic cycle spans the years 2022 to 2024. It follows on seamlessly from the strategy of the last 3 years but goes a step further in key areas. We have identified 3 key levers here: first, growth organic growth or growth from selective acquisitions; second, improved margins, the margins of our products risk-adjusted; and thirdly, by using our -- we have shown this with our project and we use our capital even more efficiently with a focus on return. What do we want to do in the next 3 years to advance simplicity at scale? We will bring life and health and asset management closer together. We will serve our customer needs even better in relation to their personal coverage and pension provision. At the same time, we will gradually push forward the transition to a capital-efficient business model. In doing so, we will leverage our strength in the asset management segment more efficiently, effectively. Second, we are reinforcing our leading position in Property and Casualty. Productivity will be increased consistently. And this will enable us to beat the best competitors in each of our markets in the motor insurance sector and our other non-life lines. Third, we will accelerate our growth, particularly by scaling existing platforms and building new platforms for our customers. Fourth, we will vertically we will harmonize, we will verticalize our business model and integrate upstream and downstream parts of our value chain even more closely. This will help us to profit globally from our economies of scale and our capability. Fifth, we are increasing the productivity of our capital and further reinforce our resilience. By improving our risk-reward profile and by reducing extreme risks, we need to do this further. We will also continue to develop our talents and diversity within our company. These initiatives, ladies and gentlemen, will sustainably increase our group value in the coming years. This is what we are working on. We are planning a lot for the next 3 years to come. And I'm confident that we will continue to build on our success. With a strong team behind us and with all of you at our site, thank you for your trust. Stay healthy.

Thank you very much, Mr. Bäte for the report of the management. Ladies and gentlemen, that takes us to the end of the public part of our live broadcast of our Annual General Meeting, so I would like to say goodbye to all our non-shareholders. The remainder of the AGM can only be viewed by those shareholders of Allianz's who've logged in for the broadcast with their shareholders number and their password on the online service. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]