Ambu A/S (AMBUB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Good afternoon.

It seems it's about 3:00 p.m. now says the Chair, but now he corrects himself.

[Interpreted] It's 1:00 p.m. here in Copenhagen. Good afternoon. I'm very happy to be able to welcome you all to Ambu's Annual General Meeting. Both welcome to you here in the room and at our headquarters in Ballerup, and a warm welcome to those of you following online. My name is Jorgen Jensen. As Head of Ambu's Board of Directors, I will take you through the AGM today. With me up here on the podium, I have Britt Meelby Jensen, Ambu's CEO; and Niels Kornerup, who will be the Chair of the AGM. It's also a pleasure for me to see all of my Board colleagues here today, specifically Shacey Petrovic; Christian Sagild; Susanne Larsson; Michael Del Prado; and Simon Hesse Hoffmann. We also have our 3 employee representatives, Charlotte Elgaard Bjørnhof, Jesper Bartroff Frederiksen and Thomas Bachgaard Jensen. For Ambu, the financial year 2023, '24 been a year that has been characterized by significant progress. In a moment, our CEO, Britt Meelby Jensen and I, will give our reports of the year, and we're both very much looking forward to that. But first, I'll give the floor to Attorney at Law, Niels Kornerup, who has been appointed Chair of this year's AGM. You have the floor, Niels.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. Thank you for appointing me Chair of the AGM of Ambu A/S. I hope we will have a very good annual general meeting with a good debate. There are shareholders here in the room participating physically and also shareholders participating online via the webcast and the investor portal. Shareholders who want to participate electronically need to remember to log in and follow via the investor portal if they want to ask questions. You cannot ask questions if you are just following via the webcast on the company website. The transmission from the webcast will be saved. So it will be possible to see -- follow the AGM right now and also to review it on the website later. It's my job to ensure that the AGM has been legally convened and is competent for the transaction of business. I've gone through the various requirements beforehand, also in the Articles of Association and the Danish Companies Act, and all rules are complied with. So I will state that the AGM has been legally convened and is competent for the transaction of today's business. Does everyone agree with that? Or does anyone disagree? It seems everyone agrees, and that's written in the minutes. Thank you for that. Before we started, 81.6% of the votes are represented here, which is 59.6 of the share capital. We have received postal votes and proxy votes to the level of 23.9% and 70.46% of represented share capital is here. The A shareholders are represented with 73.42%, and that's 21.64% of the represented share capital. And that means that all the candidates on vote today have solid support. The final numbers will be in the minutes. Like previous years, we also need to go through the rule in the Danish Companies Act Article 101 Section 5 about the full record of votes. That provision states that there has been a [indiscernible] the vote for any decision of the AGM even though the result is quite clear. But we can deviate from that requirement if all shareholders agree. We have done that every year. I've been the Chair of the AGM here and I propose we do the same this year. Do you support that? Thank you very much. Shareholders who follow the AGM via the investor portal can write written questions to the management via the investor portal. There's a system for that in that portal. It's not possible to vote via the investor portal, so we have encouraged people participating via webcast to either cast a postal vote or give a proxy. If there might be any technical issues, please do not use the question function for that. Instead, you can call Euronext Securities on the phone number, 4358-8894, and you can also see that number on the website. Now for the shareholders present here in the room who want the floor, I ask you to contact me by showing me your access card so that I can give you the floor. And I ask people who are in line for the floor to come up to the rostrum. And with that, let's move to the agenda. The agenda has been sent out, and it's here on screen behind me. The first item is the management's review; Item 2 is the annual report and financial statements; Item 3, remuneration report; and Item 4, appropriation of profits; and Item 5 is the remuneration of the Board of Directors for the financial year 2025. Then we have the election of the Chairman of the Board. Item 7 is election of the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors; Item 8, election of other members of the Board of Directors; and Item 9, election of auditor; and then Item 10, authorization to the Chair of the meeting; and finally, Item 11, which is any other business. And with that, we'll jump into today's agenda. And us in Ambu and many other companies, traditionally, we will take Items 1 to 4 as one, so that the management's review of the company's activities; the annual report; the remuneration report; and proposal for appropriation of profits. And that's Jorgen Jensen and Britt Meelby Jensen, who will take us through that. And first, I'll give the floor to the Chair of the Board, Jorgen Jensen. And after that, I'll give the floor to Britt Meelby Jensen, who will go through the financial statements and also say more about Ambu's expectations and strategies for the next financial year. And then I'll lead the debate afterwards. And with that, I give the floor to the Chair of the Board of Directors.

[Interpreted] Thank you for the floor, Niels. I've been looking forward on the past year with you. For Ambu, the financial year 2023, '24 has been a year with solid progress and momentum. Again, this year, our innovative solutions have helped more than 100 million patients all over the world. Ambu was established in 1937 with the purpose of rethinking solutions to save lives and improve patient care. This purpose is still very relevant today. In a high-pressured global health care sector, [ it's essential ] value to have access to groundbreaking solutions that can optimize busy workdays and increase care for the patients. With a sharp focus on the customer, we launched our Zoom In strategy 2 years ago. Thereby, we set the course towards strong profitable growth. And whereas in the strategy's first year, our focus was to reestablish Ambu's financial foundation and launch a transformation, this next phase of our growth journey has been dedicated to accelerating growth and profitability. We can now conclude that we have achieved the goals of our transformation and taken yet another step forward in Ambu. In the past financial year, Ambu could once again report double-digit growth rates. More specifically, we ended the year with an organic revenue growth of 13.8% on the background of 2 upward adjustments during the course of the year: the EBIT margin before special items and which is more than a doubling, nominally speaking; furthermore, we continued to strengthen our free cash flows, which this year generated DKK 524 million, that is DKK 332 million more than the year before. Equally, we saw growth in our 2 business areas. Our business for Endoscopy Solutions grew by 19.7%, while our business for Anesthesia and Patient Monitoring increased by 6.1%. That means that we are on target when it comes to our long-term guidance. In 2027 to '28, we expect organic growth of more than 10% and an EBIT margin of about 20%. And so there could be a possibility that in 3 years' time, Ambu will be 50% bigger than today. These are results that we are very happy with in the Board of Directors, not least seen in the light of the place where we were as a company just 2 years ago. This progress is primarily due to a high level of strategic execution on the path of Ambu's management and employees. And therefore, on behalf of the Board and myself, I would like to extend a big thank you to Britt and all of her strong Ambu team, not least in the light of the continued unstable macroeconomic and geopolitical situation that we're in. Thanks to a focused effort, we have achieved several important milestones in the second year of our Zoom In strategy. We achieved regulatory approvals for a long list of our new Endoscopy Solutions in the U.S. as well as Europe. And that also meant that by the end of the year, we could launch our new ureteroscope, a solution for the treatment of kidney stones. This extends our list of existing solutions within the urinary tract area, and we look forward to following the global launch and continuing our very successful growth journey in this market. We also felt the effect of our transformation program, particularly within the business for Anesthesia and Patient Monitoring. Here, we have introduced price increases in several product areas, and we have increased sales. So our products have proven to be market-leading and competitive. When it comes to sustainability, we also raised the bar. As a global supplier of medical single-use equipment, Ambu has a strong commitment to be a pioneer within sustainability. This is a position that we take very seriously in the Board of Directors because it underpins our entire business and growth. And it also contributes to strengthening Ambu's brand towards our customers and our employees. More specifically, our use of bioplastics plays an important role. Through the past few years, we've been driving a focused effort to implement bioplastics in our products and packaging so that we can help our customers reduce their carbon footprint. And we are proud to say that thanks to an accelerated effort this year, we have implemented bioplastics in the handles of all of our endoscopes. This is an important step forward on an ambitious sustainability journey, where Ambu is driving the development in our sector. So Ambu ended the financial year on a high note. Apart from our strategic milestones, we have created high growth and a strengthened financial position with no debt. If we take a look at the development in the share price since the last AGM and not least in comparison with the Danish C25 Index, we can conclude that it has been beneficial to be an investor in Ambu. Ambu has increased by 23% against the general 7% of the market. And with that comes expectations, of course, and the volatility in the share price does tell us that the market still expects a lot of Ambu. In our growth journey, we are dedicated to creating value for our shareholders. We are committed to open, trusting and transparent communication with our investors in order to drive strong value creation. To ensure the strategic direction and efficient organization and to assist Ambu's management in ensuring continued success is our most important task as a Board of Directors. And in January of 2024, we welcomed Henrik Skak Bender as our new CFO and member of the Executive Board. Henrik has settled into Ambu very quickly and is a valuable addition to our management team. The Board appreciates the close and good cooperation with the management team, which is essential to drive a common and ambitious growth agenda. A pivotal focus point for the Board and Executive Board this year has been the gastrointestinal area. As part of a thorough strategic review of Ambu's Endoscopy business, we reconsidered our estimates of the short-term potential within this market. We concluded that there is a great potential in this market, but that it will take longer to penetrate this market than originally estimated. We still believe in a DKK 1 billion potential in the medium and long term, but we can also conclude that this is a market where we need to work patiently and methodically in the coming years. With another successful year behind us, Ambu now has a solid position to be able to invest in new opportunities. Today, only about 3% of all endoscopy procedures at Ambu's markets are performed with single-use solutions. Therefore, the growth potential is clear. And in the Board and management, we are focused on strengthening our innovation and our organic and inorganic growth in order to fulfill our ambition of strong long-term growth. To ensure that we continue to work with efficiency and focus in the Board, we follow an annual self-evaluation process in accordance with the recommendations for good corporate governance. This process consists of quantitative surveys and qualitative feedback sessions with all of the members. This helps us to qualify our work and competencies going forward. This year, this evaluation has led to a number of conclusions and focus points that we are going to include in our Board work going forward. This year, we proposed a change to the composition of Ambu's Board. On behalf of the Board, I'm pleased to be able to propose David Hale as a coming member of the Board. David is a very competent leader with more than 25 years of experience within pharma and med tech. He's American, and he has spent most of his career in Europe, first at Boston Consulting Group and then at GE HealthCare, where he, through almost 20 years, has had several managerial positions driving strong top line and margin growth. Since 2020, he has been the CEO of the French pharmaceutical company, Guerbet Group, a global leader within diagnostic and therapeutic radiology. Here, David has used his strategic sense, his focus on innovation and his operational and commercial expertise to drive a successful turnaround. This resulted in a significant increase in the share price of the company, and I'm convinced that David is a strong match for Ambu's Board and the overall management of Ambu. The decision to nominate David Hale was made on the background of the wish of Christian Sagild to step back from the Board after 12 years. Christian has been an integral part of the Board since 2012. He has been Vice Chair and a member of the Board ever since then, and I've had the pleasure of working closely with Christian in the Board management and in the broader Board work, and he's been a valued strategic partner. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Christian for his dedication to Ambu for more than a decade. It is my assessment that the Board with this new composition possesses the relevant competencies to support the management in the strategic execution in Ambu. Furthermore, this group represents a broad diversity when it comes to sectors, gender and nationality, which will enrich our perspectives and discussions. And if the proposed changes are adopted, Ambu's Board will continue to consist of 6 AGM-elected members and 3 employee-elected members. Another important task for the Board is to prepare the remuneration report that has been sent out to the shareholders, and it's available on our website. It is the responsibility of the Remuneration Committee to make sure that the remuneration for the Board and management is in line with the goals of the company and our remuneration policy. We believe that the remuneration report gives a detailed and transparent overview of the remuneration and complies with the necessary guidelines. It is also the task of the committee to make sure we have a remuneration policy that can attract and retain skilled leaders at the Board and executive management level. And therefore, the Board proposes to increase the Board fee so that it matches the market standard and becomes more attractive and competitive. Furthermore, as part of the annual report for this year, the Board has proposed to pay out a dividend to our shareholders. I'm pleased to be able to put forward this proposal for the first time in 3 years. In the Board of Directors, we primarily want to drive Ambu's growth. This requires a strong financial position, and therefore, any payout of dividend should take place without weakening our opportunity for investing in growth. More specifically, this year, we propose a payout of DKK 0.38 per share, corresponding to DKK 102 million. This constitutes 43% of Ambu's net profits, and the remaining part of net profits will be carried forward to next year to support Ambu's continued value creation. Furthermore, the Board of Directors has updated our dividend policy with up to 30% instead of around 30% of annual net profits with the opportunity to mix dividends with share buyback programs. Finally, I would like to emphasize that Ambu continues to work with the recommendations for good corporate governance, and I can confirm that we follow the recommendations. On behalf of the Board, I would like to extend a warm thank you to all of our employees for their great efforts and dedication in the past year. And last but not least, I would like to extend a big thank you to our shareholders for your continued support for Ambu's growth journey. We look forward to a new year with handsome progress and strong achievements. I'll now give the floor to Ambu's CEO, Britt Meelby Jensen, and I will do that by playing a short video for you to tell you a bit about Ambu's purpose and our dedication to delivering innovative solutions to simplify and improve processes in the health care industry to the benefit for employees as well as patients. Thank you very much. [Presentation]

Inspired by the customers we serve, we are dedicated to rethinking medical solutions that save lives and improve patient care. We believe that great innovations are born beyond the office desk. They are born at health facilities where needs arise fast, tasks are ever growing and time is a luxury. We are here to make a real difference for those who work tirelessly to better the lives of patients. Across nationalities and specialties, we bring people together to address some of the biggest challenges in health care systems worldwide. We break down conventional barriers by developing smarter and simpler solutions and ways of working for hospitals, clinics and emergency services. Shoulder to shoulder with health care professionals, we uncover in depth, we listen and we learn and we translate those needs into solutions that activate the future. It all started in 1937 with one man's dream to save lives. Building on a strong heritage, our people foster an engaged and inclusive culture, a culture of innovation, curiosity and collaboration. Our DNA remains as strong as ever, and we proudly take it into the future.

[Interpreted] Thank you for the floor, Jorgen, and good afternoon also from my side to all of you. I very much look forward to standing here today to tell you about the past year. And I will talk both about our financial results, our progress in the strategy and also give you an outlook of what we expect of the future. First, I would like to say a bit about what motivates both me and my 5,000 colleagues every day when we come to work. What motivates us is the difference we make for thousands of health care workers and patients globally. As an example, our Endoscopy Solutions mean that for Dr. Bhora, who's pictured here, he has been able to improve the procedures, make them more efficient in a hospital network in the U.S. And thus, he has been able to treat many more patients than he could before. So across our business sectors, as Jorgen mentioned, we have made a difference for more than 100 million patients. But what have we achieved on the business side of things in the past year? We have increased our organic growth and our profitability. We have brought more innovative solutions to market and we have increased development of new products. We have taken steps in our innovation journey, and we have improved our setup for increased scalability and success, and we have achieved sustainability improvements. And I'll go into detail with that throughout my report. But let's first look at our financial results. In the past year, we had a revenue of DKK 5,391 million, which is an organic growth of 13.8%. Our EBIT before special items was DKK 645 million, which is more than double the year before, and that was an EBIT margin of 12%. Our free cash flow was DKK 524 million, and we had a gross margin of 59.4%, which was an increase of 2.8 percentage points on the year before. But let's look at what has driven our revenue growth. Endoscopy Solutions grew by 19.7%. And if you divide it, it's 11.7% in pulmonology, that's upper airways, and 29.6% for the rest of the business, which is urology, ENT and GI combined. Anesthesia and Patient Monitoring also grew. And that means Endoscopy Solutions are now 95% of our business, and Anesthesia and Patient Monitoring, 41%. Geographically, we grew in all our regions. So North America is now 51% of our revenue; Europe, 39%; and the rest of the world, 10%. But let's look at how the development has been over the past few years. Because a few years ago, we were in a difficult situation. We had lower growth. We had much too low revenue. We had several quarters with negative cash flow, which meant an increase in debt. That led to some big and difficult decisions about reducing costs and also laying off some people. Last year, we took a big step in the right direction and created a solid financial foundation. This year, we have taken the step even further and accelerated our growth further, improved our revenue and our free cash flow, so that today, we have no debt. So in just 2 years, we have turned our business around. I'm very, very proud of all our staff who have contributed to this enormous turnaround. It means we are now in a strong position. And let me briefly go through our business model. We have a solid and strong setup today, which means we are ready for the increased uncertainty we see in the world. We are built on a strong DNA in innovation and in deep cooperation with our customers. We work with flexible manufacturing setup with production in the U.S., China, Mexico and Malaysia, where Malaysia now is our primary production site. After the American election, the speculations about trade barriers and tariffs, and we follow that clearly, but we feel we have a setup which gives us a strong foothold even in that uncertainty. But let's look at what we have actually achieved in the past year. Two years ago, we launched the Zoom In strategy, which focuses on the customer, better execution and growth. And let's go through the 4 areas to see what we have achieved, starting with our Innovative Solutions. We'll focus in our Endoscopy portfolio. We have achieved major milestones. In pulmonology, we both increased functionality. And with an AI-based solution, for now only in training settings, but now we can see which parts of the lung have been infected. In GI, we have had 2 new solutions approved, that's Gastro Large, which has a larger work channel, which is suitable for procedures that involve internal bleeding. We have also had our second-generation Duodeno endoscope approved, and here, we work with leading specialists globally in the GI sector. Finally, we have approval of 2 new solutions in urology, where we have strong growth. And with the 2 new solutions, we can meet even more of our customers' needs. So in urology a few months ago, we kickstarted our broad commercial launch of the ureteroscope. It's an endoscopy solution that helps our customers, the health care professionals to improve procedures and efficiency when they treat kidney stones. 5 years ago, nobody in urology knew about Ambu because we had no products in that area. Now we have 3 endoscopes in urology. They have all been designed so you can easily open the packet and connect the endoscope to 1 of our screens so that you also have access to our software platform and functionality. It's the same principle that covers all of our endoscopy portfolio. And if we look more broadly at the portfolio, we are proud that we have the leading but also most extensive single-use portfolio which means that we can cover most needs and challenges for customers, but it also means we have several synergies, both in development, production and sales of our solutions. But our business is more than endoscopies. 41% of our revenue today is in Anesthesia and Patient Monitoring. And here, we have a competitive and market-leading portfolio. And our Anesthesia portfolio covers the Ambu Bag, which has been known by customers for decades as just that, the Ambu Bag. In Patient Monitoring, we produce and sell electrodes both for EKGs, but also for neurology, where they're used to measure brain activity. Now let's look at the next part of the strategy, which is execution across the value chain. And we are staying in Anesthesia and Patient Monitoring because this year, we have been able to have price increases, quite significant in some areas, to ensure we have the right revenue. But we've done that and at the same time, we've increased our volumes. We have had a strong performance across the endoscopy segments. And it's not just because we've been more focused on our approach. We have also focused on investments to support organic growth and at the same time, we improve efficiencies. So we have had strong momentum with a number of improvement initiatives that I would like to go a bit more into detail with. Along with our Zoom In strategy, 2 years ago, we launched a transformation program, which is a multiyear program and the purpose is to ensure long-term scalability. It involves a number of areas across the business, and we have achieved some improvements. But at the same time, for the next few years, we have further measures we can take to strengthen our foundation even further, and we are working very focused on that. So our approach is to always have the right balance between gradual improvement of revenue, but also increasing our growth because we believe to have both those sides covered. But growth is the most important for us in Ambu. Let's look at another important strategic area, which is sustainability. Here, we have also achieved some milestones. Our near-term climate targets have been validated by the Science Based Target initiative. We've made a plan for achieving our goal of net 0 emissions by 2045. We have achieved widespread recognition for our sustainability and ESG efforts, and we have activated the use of bioplastics in our products. And let me just take you on the journey for bioplastics. A year ago, we were the first producer of medical equipment globally to start using bioplastics in our products. And we set the target a year ago to use bioplastics in all of our endoscopy portfolio. And now, 1 year later, we have not just achieved that target, we've also moved on to using it in our Anesthesia portfolio, and we have much more in the pipeline for more climate-friendly materials. And now just a few words about the recognition we have received for our sustainability. It comes from various organizations from the Financial Times to our customers. Here, I mention Premier, Inc. We won their Sustainability Award. They are the second-largest U.S. hospital chain. We also received the Commitment badge from EcoVadis. And from S&P Global, we had a high ESG score. So we have come far, but we won't stop here. And there are 2 reasons for that. Firstly, we think sustainability is a competition point for our business. And secondly, we believe it's important that a company like Ambu takes that responsibility for our climate and our planet. So let's move on to the last part of our strategy, and that's our employee organization because our employees are the ones that help us drive the business and make a difference for our customers. Personally, I'm very proud of the work we've done and how much we've moved on as a team in the past year. It's based on strong values and we are now working more efficiently across geographies and departments. But we've also found a better way of working to make us scalable and efficient. And we don't just see momentum in our financial results. We also see a growing commitment among our employees after a few very difficult years. Finally, I'm very happy to have welcomed 2 new members of the executive leader team, Henrik Skak Bender, new CFO; and Graziela Malucelli, new COO. So that means we now have this leadership team of Henrik Skak Bender and myself, being the Head of the executive team, but we work together as a full team with the entire organization to drive the business onwards. And now I'd like to close by a look a bit to the future. We have had a good start to the new financial year, and we look forward to increased improvements. We still have a strong growth agenda. And I would like to focus on our investment agenda and the 4 points in that. Firstly, it's about ensuring a strong foundation to have the right setup to service our customers and win new customers. Secondly, it's about ensuring we have a solid business where we keep getting better and more efficient so that we optimize our setup and meet the increased risks in the world around us. Thirdly, we are always focused on investing in new solutions and better solutions that solve our customers' issues and create value for them, for instance, through new technology. And finally, we are open to look at both organic growth, and that's our primary focus, but we're also starting to look at possible acquisitions that can help strengthen or accelerate our strategy to make an even greater difference for our patients and for health care workers. Before I finish, I would like to briefly talk about our GI sector. This is an area where we were a bit too optimistic a few years ago, but a lot has happened since then. This area is the largest area in endoscopy as it's 2/3 of all procedures that are done with a scope. Much of what we help our customers move in other areas have parallels to the issues for our customers in GI. We still see a major potential in the GI area. But we have seen that it takes longer than we expected a few years ago. We now have a more stepwise approach where we look more to the medium and long term. And instead, we have focused our investments in other endoscopy areas. But we still think GI is important for Ambu, and we continue to have focus in that area. Now finally, let me look at what the financial targets look like. March of this year, we launched our long-term financial growth, where we expect an annual growth rate towards '27, '28 of at least 10%. We are still very optimistic on delivering on that long-term goal. At the same time, our target for this financial year will be an organic growth between 10% and 13%, and an EBIT margin before special items of 12% to 14%. So let me conclude my report with a bit of a summary. We have a strong growth agenda, and we see a great potential. As Jorgen mentioned, only 3% of all endoscopy procedures globally are done with a single-use endoscope. So there's a lot to be won there. Health care professionals need to get rid of waiting lists, a shortage of staff, et cetera, and our solutions can help solve some of the problems of our customers. We have a scalable business model, which we will continue to optimize. And this is not just because we are the largest but also leading single-use endoscope producer in the world. And finally, I want to say that our sustainability agenda is an important priority. And here, we also work to help our customers so that they can become more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint. Thank you for the floor.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much to the Chair of the Board and the CEO for their report and for presenting the annual report and the remuneration report all for financial year 2023, '24. Before opening the debate, I can inform you that annual report has been signed by the Board and the Executive Board and by the company auditor with no remarks, the so-called unqualified auditor's report, which can be seen on Page 152 to 154 in the annual report. And before opening the debate, I can tell you that the Board of Directors proposes a dividend of DKK 0.38 per share for the financial year '23 to '24, which is a total amount of DKK 102 million, whereas the remaining part of net profits be carried forward. And with those words, I will open the debate.

[Interpreted] We already have 1 speaker on the list, [ Anas Narsco ] from the Association of Danish Shareholders. And while we welcome [ Anas] to the rostrum, please make yourselves known to me if you wish to take the floor. But [ Anas ], the floor is yours.

[Interpreted] As mentioned, my name is [ Anas Narsco ], and I represent the Association of Danish Shareholders, an organization for private investors. I myself, I'm an investor in Ambu, and I have three questions to the management today. And in line with tradition, I have sent my remarks along previously. So the Board and the Executive Board already have seen it. But once again, this year, I would like to congratulate you with a year in which you have again adjusted your expectations upwards and you've presented a very successful financial statement. But I've seen a so-called impairment, which is quite significant. And it is -- as I can read here, it's due to a strategic review of the GI business which has resulted in changed assumptions of the short-term potential based on the conclusion that it will take longer to penetrate this market segment. So in brief, you have perhaps taken your mouths too full. For many years, I've been communicating in English as well. When I was in the Danish Armed Forces, I also communicated in Russian. But even -- so I'm quite linguistically well versed. But even if I translate the statement into Danish, I still can't really comprehend it. And the same goes for the analysts because the share price was adjusted downwards quite significantly after the publishing of this report. It went from DKK 150 to DKK 110. And that does not mean that I suggest that you set your course after the general sentiment on the stock market. On the contrary, please do as you usually do. But on the other hand, I would like to urge you to state more clearly what we can expect from you as investors. So please, clear communication. And could you please give a proper explanation in Danish why you had to depreciate by DKK 334 million, that is 140% of annual net profits. This impairment completely overshadows all of the good things that can be seen from this financial statement. There's a big and growing positive cash flow, double-digit revenue growth and profits. You are considering acquisitions. Net interest-bearing debt is now negative. That is quite amazing. There's a minus of 0.1. When you assess your debt before and your EBITDA has been brought down from 0.7 last year and 6 just a few years ago. I'm a huge fan of Britt Meelby and the achievements that she has made here. But this impairment also overshadows the fact that you are proposing a dividend this year. There was a very positive portrait done by a TV program of Britt Meelby and she was nominated to be CEO of the Year. So there's a lot of positive things to say. But I will leave it at that. ESG is something that takes up a lot of space and attention. You are replacing poisonous substances with less harmful substances. You are taking many good initiatives, and it is a pleasure to see, as an investor, how you are constantly making progress towards sustainability and that you still maintain the status as an ESG market leader. Perhaps we need a bit more statistics and more data because your water consumption increased by more than 5%, so there is an absolute increase here. But of course, as the production has also increased, perhaps, you could show us what the consumption of water is compared to the production so that we can get a real overview as to whether it's going up or down per produced unit. When it comes to work-related accidents, you've mentioned 5 accidents in production and 33 lost working days, whereas in the office, you've lost 90 working days due to accidents. So you might conclude that in Ambu, it's more dangerous to work in the office than in the production line. Hopefully, I'm wrong in that assumption. So I have a question. Are there any specific conditions this year that has affected the number of accidents and made it seem a bit off compared to reality? And lost time incidence is on 0.83, which is way below your target of 2. And when you look at the number of employees you're working with, of course, you would need a microscope in order to even see these figures. Now we have a new president in the U.S. and judging by what he is indicating, we might be looking into some significant changes when it comes to geopolitics as well as tariffs on trade. It doesn't seem like ESG will be high on the agenda in the U.S. for the next year, but production in the U.S. will be. And we are already present there with 1 of your 4 factories and with trade as well. So there will be more American export to come. And on that background, I would like to ask, what is your assessment of Ambu's opportunities in the big and important American market? North America constitutes 59% of the revenue. And what are your expectations when the new Trump administration comes into being in January? And of course, my question is also, are there any grounds for adjusting the Zoom In strategy? Finally, I wish you all good luck in the coming financial year. There are plenty of challenges, and I hope you will continue to take up these challenges with your usual innovative and positive approach.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much to [ Anas Narsco ] from the Association of Danish Shareholders. There were three specific questions. And the Chair of the Board and the very positively acclaimed CEO, Britt Meelby, will also answer.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, [ Anas ]. Thank you for your good questions. And also, thank you for those praising words. First of all, from the Board as well as the Executive Board, we continue to strive for open and transparent communication towards our investors. So there's no doubt that we take due note of your comments. If I should comment on the first two, the one with accidents and the GI business and the impairment that we have carried out in our balance sheet, I touched upon it in my report. But what we do continuously and specifically after a financial year, we've been reviewing our endoscopy business, including the GI area. And with the cost reduction we performed a few years ago, we cut back on our focus on commercial activities in order to move these resources to other areas where we saw a greater growth potential because we wanted to do some product improvements. On that basis and on the basis of the progress we have seen, which has been positive and at the end of the year, we have been reviewing our potential within this area. And we found that we continue to see an attractive potential in the long term, but due to the tendencies and developments in the markets and the resource allocations that we carried out, we had to realize that it will take longer to realize this potential. And looking at the balance sheet, we could see that this was the only, and this was, of course, in a close dialogue with our auditors, that the right thing to do was to do this impairment. Looking at our intangible assets, you can see that the GI area still takes up a significant, actually, 1/3 of the balance sheet, about DKK 600 million. And that's because it continues to be an important focus area and an area that we believe in. So you should not see this impairment as a sign that we don't believe in this market, but our balance sheet should be able to reflect the actual potential that we are expecting and annual revenue growth. So we did try to communicate that clearly, well knowing that this is not easily accessible knowledge to everyone. That said, let me also comment on what you mentioned about accidents. I'm glad that you also focus on this aspect. This is very important to us in our company and in the executive management because every accident is 1 accident too many, and we take this very seriously. Just a brief correction. It is 5 accidents in production and 4 in the offices not the other way around. And when defining offices, in a workplace like Ambu, the office could mean physically at our locations around the world, but it could also be in your car. For many of our sales personnel, they drive around to visit customers and that transportation time is also part of their working hours. And sometimes, going to and from hospitals, they might have an accident on the way. And we have a very sharp focus on safety. We continue to go through our necessary safety checks, and we haven't found any grounds for making any changes here. Again, we are talking about 5 and 4 accidents, respectively. These are 5 and 4 too many, of course, but they have been in certain circumstances. Thank you. And Jorgen, would you like to comment on the final question?

[Interpreted] And I would also like to thank the Association of Danish Shareholders for their praise. We can never get too much praise. And as the speaker mentioned, we do believe it has been a good year and that we can be proud of that, but that we could also build on our progress. The U.S. is by far the biggest potential for Ambu. As the speaker mentioned, more than 50% of our revenue today lies in the U.S. market, and perhaps it's more than 50% of the future potential. So it's very important to us to be well positioned in the American market. We have a strategy for North America, which is part of the Zoom In strategy, which aims to developing and growing the American market across our entire business. And therefore, of course, we have been following the statements very closely from the coming American administration when it comes to customs and tariffs, and their view on production in the U.S. versus outside of the U.S. And we have performed a number of analyses based on this. Any responsible company will have to look into this, of course. And we do believe that our setup when it comes to market access as well as when it comes to production facilities in the U.S., Mexico, Malaysia and China, we believe that this setup is robust and can deal with the changes that might be implemented by a new administration, for instance, in the customs area. We have a unique portfolio, which is also important for the American society, and we are convinced that the new administration will see that, too. On top of that, we have proven to be able to adjust in Ambu also to things that we cannot control, such as tariffs to trade. And the Board of Directors as well as the Executive Board are convinced that we can adjust within the strategic course that we have set with Zoom In. So no, we are not going to make any immediate adjustments to the Zoom In strategy, but of course, we do take the tactical initiatives that are necessary in order to adjust to a changing world. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Thank you to the CEO and the Head of the Board of Directors and to [ Anas Narsco ] from the Danish Shareholders Association. Does anybody else want the floor? [ Mr. Kilbier ] is approaching the rostrum.

[Interpreted] First, I would like to say thank you for the floor and congratulations on the excellent result. Things have been going up and down for a few years, but now it looks like you're back on track. Now that you want to share some of this result with the payout of dividends, there's also the issue of acquiring treasury shares. It's a very dangerous instrument to use to acquire treasury shares. So I would propose that the sum you want to use on dividends and acquisition of treasury shares, that you only use 1/3 of that sum to acquire treasury shares. That's just a suggestion. Another thing I want to mention, when Ambu was a small company that didn't earn a lot of money, we had a nice lunch after the AGM. Now you're a large company, and there's not much of a lunch afterwards. That's sort of a strange correlation isn't it? I mean, couldn't you -- I mean, making so much money, you even have a canteen, so you could invite your shareholders for a really nice lunch. I mean that's basically the only tax-free money we can get as shareholders. And then there's the question of Donald Trump. I've always been a great fan of him. And in years to come, I'm sure you'll all understand why Trump is needed in the U.S. And you'll also see how much corruption there's been in the U.S. and how much it's also affected us, including with COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine and all that mess because it does influence this company also because it influences...

[Interpreted] [Mr. Kilbier ], do you actually have a question?

[Interpreted] Yes, I would like to ask how are you looking at the new coinage, [ NESA ] and [ DESA ]. Yes, coinage systems that the American dollar has been changed into [ NESA ] and [ DESA ]. Is this something the company has looked into? And what Ambu will do when that happens?

[Interpreted] Thank you, [ Kilbier ]. I noted three concrete questions. And the pleasure goes to the Chairman of the Board.

[Interpreted] Well, I may have to ask for help along the way. Thank you, [ Mr. Kilbier ], for the questions. First, about dividends. We have had a dividend policy that said we paid out about 30% in dividends. We have now changed that to up to 30%. And the Board will also consider to do a mix of cash payouts and share buyback programs. I note [ Mr. Kilbier's ] advice on only 1/3 to the share buyback program. But the dividends policy is always decided on the situation in the company and that we need to also focus on growth in the company. And I'm sure we'll find a good mix between money for innovation and growth and paying out dividends to the shareholders either as cash dividends or as share buyback programs. But thank you, we've noted your advice. Now the question of a large lunch instead of a small lunch. That's also duly noted. I'm not quite sure what the refreshments will be, but I'm hoping there'll be cake and coffee. And tax considerations about getting money back to the shareholders through food, I think we'll just stick to dividends and hopefully good coffee. Then there was a third question. And I'm not sure I fully understood, but you mentioned new coinage, [ NESA ] and [ DESA ]. I think they might be crypto-currencies. It's not something we have had long debates about in the Board of Directors or in management. We comply with the rules that govern financial statements and the world we live in, and we don't have any current plans or interest in crypto-currencies at the moment. I hope that answers the question. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much to the Chair of the Board. [ Mr. Kilbier] has a response. And for those of you who are watching online, if you want to ask questions, remember to log in on the investor portal, where you can write questions. Haven't received any yet. [ Mr. Kilbier ]?

[Interpreted] Well, we don't know that much about the new systems yet. But when you follow X22, which is an alternative channel to the U.S., because CNN are just as believable as the old communist newspaper was in Denmark. So if you want the truth, you need to listen to other news channels. And one of the things you can hear there is that there will be a new currency system called [ NESA ], which is national and [ GISARO ], which is global. And this will affect Ambu's business. That's why I ask. It's not just politics, it's something that specifically can affect Ambu. So I can only encourage you to find X22. Now other channels are being censored because we have censorship in Denmark and in Europe. And the final thing is I think you should also send out the financial report in Danish and statements in Danish. We don't have the government that will ask for that because they are just interested in international shareholders. I think we should protect the Danish language and protect our interest because we are losing money by not getting information in Danish. And the demand from the Shareholders' Associations, they're things we don't understand. And it just doesn't do that Danish shareholders don't understand what's going on because then we lose money. So remember that you're Danish, but thank you for the floor.

[Interpreted] Thank you for that response and extra information. I don't know if there are any further comments from the panel here. No. Does anybody else either online or here want the floor? That is not the case, except for [ Elogona Hansen ], who has asked for the floor here in the room.

[Interpreted] Well, I've been an investor for many years, but it's the first time I'm here at the AGM. Britt mentioned something that interests me, and one of the reasons I'm still an investor is the factory in the U.S. You mentioned that the factory in Malaysia is the biggest. And I expected that to have changed because I could see the idea of having a factory in Mexico when you're right next to the U.S. And I thought that was the whole idea of being present in Mexico. So I would expect you to reduce production in Malaysia. Of course, there could be other markets in Asia you could benefit from being present in Malaysia. But wouldn't you rather have a stronger presence in Mexico?

[Interpreted] Thank you very much to [ Elogona Hansen ], and we will get an answer from Britt Meelby Jensen.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much for the floor, and thank you for the good question, and welcome to our Annual General Meeting. It's a very good question, and it's very topical because there's no doubt that Mexico is a growing production site for us. We opened our factory there 2 years ago, as a consequence of the fact that we could see our growth in North America becoming an ever-larger part of our business. And therefore, we saw a greater need for producing more closer to the U.S. market. So that production site will be growing more, and we will be increasing production in Mexico. All the while, we still continue to have a production line in the U.S., which we've had for many years. The fact that Malaysia is our primary production site is due to historical reasons. We've been in Malaysia for 30 years. When we started producing endoscopes as the first producer of single-use endoscopes in the world 15 years ago, we started that production in Malaysia. And that now constitutes 60% of our business. So it was only a natural development to broaden our production where we had the competencies already. And for the same reasons, once other parts of our business grew, then we decided, based on thorough analyses, that we were going to move production to Mexico in order to be close to our U.S. customers so that we can deliver on their demand quicker. And there's also an environmental aspect to that as well, of course, so that we can have a location for our production with the shorter distance to the end user. And our factory in Mexico still has available capacity. So in line with our growth agenda, we will be increasing production in Mexico. So thank you very much for a good question.

[Interpreted] That was the answer for [ Elogona Hansen ]. Does anyone else wish to take the floor? We do not see any indications from the online participants, and there are no further speakers in the room. That ends the debate. And I can now conclude for the minutes that the AGM has taken note of the report from the Board of Directors that you have approved in the annual report for 2023, '24; that the AGM has approved the remuneration report; and the allocation of profits as proposed by the Board. That ends Item 1 to 4 on the agenda. And that leads me to Item 5, which is the approval of the Board of Directors' remuneration for the financial year 2024 to '25. Here, the Board of Directors proposes that the remuneration be increased. And you can read from the convening Notice how they propose to increase the remuneration. For the current financial year, they propose a basic remuneration amounting to DKK 400,000 instead of DKK 360,000. The Chair of the Board should receive 3x the basic remuneration, so that's a proposed fee of DKK 1.2 million. The Vice Chair of the Board receives twice the basic remuneration and thus, the future fee will be DKK 800,000. The remuneration for members of Board committees will be DKK 132,000 instead of DKK 117,000 per committee, and the Chair of the Board Committee will receive DKK 200,000 instead of DKK 175,000. Are there any comments in this respect? Does anyone wish to take the floor under this item? That does not seem to be the case. Then I can conclude, if you agree, that this proposal has been adopted. And that leads me to the next items on the agenda, which is election of Chair of the Board of Directors. And the Board proposes reelection of Jorgen Jensen as Chair of the Board and the information about Jorgen Jensen and his activities appear from Annex 1 of the convening Notice. Are there other candidates for Chair of the Board? That does not seem to be the case. So Jorgen Jensen has been reelected. Congratulations. That brings us to Item 7, which is election of Vice Chair of the Board of Directors. And the Board proposes that Shacey Petrovic is elected as Vice Chair of the Board. And again, you can see her experience from Annex 1 of the convening Notice. Does anybody want the floor in this context? Or is there another candidate? That is not the case. So Shacey Petrovic is also elected as Vice Chair of the Board. Congratulations on your election. That brings us to Item 8, which is the election of other members of the Board of Directors. And the Board proposes reelection of the following members of the Board: Michael del Prado, Susanne Larsson and Simon Hesse Hoffmann. Further, the Board proposes that Mr. David Hale is elected as a new member of the Board. And we are fortunate enough that David Hale is present here today so that we can actually see the man in person. And I would invite Mr. Hale to come up to introduce himself to the AGM.

[Foreign Language] My Danish, with the exception of I had a friend who made me say [Foreign Language] on time, and that's about it. I'm very happy to be here this afternoon. My name is David Hale. I am 56 years old. I am American. I am originally from the Southeast of the United States from Tennessee. I spend about 1/2 my life in the United States, and then I met my French wife and have spent the last 30 years in Europe, in Switzerland, in Germany and now in France. Together, we have 2 daughters. Mary, she's 27, school teacher; and my youngest, who's 23, she's a university student. I have an educational background that is industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Tech in the United States, and an MBA degree from IMD in Lausanne in Switzerland. And after a few years of software development and management consulting at the Boston Consulting Group, I moved into health care, and that's where I've been for the past 20-plus years, specifically in diagnostic imaging and specifically focused on the area of radiology. In terms of business experience, I spent 15 of those years with GE HealthCare, principally leading the health care IT businesses. So it was a $1 billion P&L, first doing the commercial and the services businesses for the United States and for Canada and then doing the global product management for these businesses. And in each of these businesses, together with my teams, we worked very hard to turn it back into a growth business and also back into a profitable business, mainly focusing on 2 things. One was really streamlining the portfolio, but also moving away from products and moving more towards solutions, which required a changing in the way THAT you build a portfolio and a change in the way you drive sales organization. After GE HealthCare, I moved to my current company, which is Guerbet. Guerbet is a family-owned company, but also a publicly listed company. It's a pharmaceutical company. We make contrast media. So if you ever have a CT exam or an MRI exam, sometimes we inject liquid so that we can better diagnose, see cancers, better treat you. That comes from our company. We also do interventional imaging, specifically in the area of liver cancer treatment. And we have a new business that we're working on around AI. Specifically, we have algorithms for liver lesion detection, for prostate detection, for pancreas cancer screening and for bone metastasis detection. So I'm very passionate about health care. I'm very passionate about innovation in health care and I'm very excited to have the opportunity to potentially join Ambu. Ambu has a long history of innovation, starting with the Ambu Bag, as Britt mentioned before, but more recently, within single-use endoscopy, a market which, I understand, Ambu basically single handedly created about 15 years ago. And I believe I can contribute to Ambu's strong track record of innovation, bringing my own experience to the table, both in health care, portfolio management, commercial execution on some of these and innovation and technology. I'm also a big believer that in health care, we have tremendous opportunity with artificial intelligence, both to help our end customers in terms of productivity, not replace our health care professionals, but help them do their job better, but also internally within their company, there's many processes, many parts of our organizations where we can leverage that to be more productive for our customers. So I'm very excited to potentially join Ambu. I like very much the innovative approach. I think Ambu has a very strong potential for the medical device industry, and I would be very honored if I could bring my experience to serve on the Board of Ambu to deliver both short-and long-term results for the company. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you, David Hale. Those are the 4 candidates. And as the Chair also said initially, Christian Sagild, who was the Vice Chair so far decided not to run for reelection. So we have 4 candidates for the Board of Directors apart from the Chair and Vice Chair. Does anybody on the floor propose other candidates? That is not the case. So I can conclude that the 4 candidates have all been elected for 1 year. Congratulations to all 4 of you. This means that the Board is made up of the AGM-elected Board members, Jorgen Jensen, Chair of the Board; Shacey Petrovic, Vice Chair; Michael del Prado; Susanne Larsson; Simon Hesse Hoffmann; and David Hale. But also on the Board, there are 3 employee-elected members, Charlotte Elgaard Bjørnhof, Jesper Bartroff Frederiksen and Thomas Bachgaard Jensen. The employee-elected members have been elected for a period of 4 years, and they all joined at the Ordinary General Meeting in 2021. This brings us to the last election, which is the election of auditor. And the Board proposes reelection of Ernst & Young [Foreign Language ] as the company auditor. The election applies to statutory financial reporting as well as assurance engagements relating to sustainability reporting. The last bit is new. And I can also say that the recommendation from the Board means that the Board has not been influenced by third parties and has not been subject to any agreement with a third party restricting the General Meeting's election. Does anybody want the floor? Or do we have any candidates for auditor? That does not seem to be the case. And that means that Ernst & Young have been reelected as the auditor of the company, both for financial issues and sustainability. That brings us to Item 10, which is authorization to the Chair of the AGM, which means with full right of substitution to be authorized to apply for registration of resolutions, et cetera, and you can see in the convening Notice what the details are. Does anybody want the floor for this rather boring point? That does not seem to be the case. And there are also no comments electronically, so that has also been approved. That brings me to any other business where you can all take the floor to make comments about the company, but you cannot make any proposals because they should have been sent in beforehand. Does anybody want the floor under any other business? That does seem to be the case, which means we have come to the end of the agenda. So I can just thank you for a good AGM. And I can just now stop my work and hand back to the Chair of the Board.

[Interpreted] Well, on behalf of the Board of Directors in Ambu, I would like to round off our AGM by once again thanking our employees for their brilliant efforts this year. Furthermore, I would like to extend a warm thank you to Britt Meelby Jensen, our Executive Board, and my colleagues and the Board of Directors for the good cooperation. Together, we are dedicated to fulfilling Ambu's full potential and to continuing our growth journey to the benefit of our customers, employees and of course, for our shareholders. And not least, I would like to extend a thank you for our shareholders for a good AGM. Thank you to those of you present here in the room, and thank you to those of you who have followed along online. Thank you for your continued support. Next year, our Annual General Meeting will be held on the 3rd of December. And unlike this year, we will begin at 3:00 p.m. next year in order to keep up with our international investor base. Finally, I would like to thank the Chairman of the meeting, Niels Kornerup, who has navigated us safely through the AGM once again this year from our headquarters in Ballerup. Thank you very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]