Carlsberg A/S (CARLB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Dear shareholders, I'd like to welcome you to Carlsberg's Annual General Meeting, both those of you who are present here today and those who are following the meeting via webcast according. According to Article 23 of the Articles of Association, the General Meeting is presided over by a Chair elected by the Supervisory Board. We have asked Attorney Lars Stubbe Arndal to be Chair of the AGM. Before I give the floor to Anders, please allow me to introduce the people here on stage with me. Next to me, we have the Chairman of the AGM, Anders Stubbe Arndal. Next to him, the company's CEO, Jacob Aarup-Andersen; the CFO, Ulrica Fearn; and Deputy Chair of the Supervisory Board, Majken Schultz. My name is Henrik Poulsen, I'm the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The other Board members are Mikael Aro, Magdi Batato, Lilian Fossum Biner, Richard Burrows, Punita Lal and Søren-Peter Fuchs Olesen. They're all elected by the AGM in 2023. In addition, the employees have elected 5 members, Eva Vilstrup Decker, Erik Lund, Ivan Nielsen, Olayide Oladokun, and Tenna Skov Thorsted. With these words of introduction, I hand the floor to the Chairman of the AGM.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Before we start with the actual agenda, I'd like to provide you with information about security and practical information. In case of fire, the fire alarm will be activated. You'll hear a bell. At the same time, all the guards will be notified by the museum's radio system. There are no fire drills have been planned for today. So if you hear the alarm, please leave the building through the escape routes that are marked and follow the guard's directions. We're going to gather in front of the Glyptoteket at Dante's Square. We'll wait there for the fire brigade's permission to reenter the building. There is a defibrillator in the building, and the staff has first aid training. There are toilets included for disabled persons at the lower floor near the cloak room and the ticket sale and at the entrance to the French paintings at the Henning Larsen building. Now if any shareholders wish to leave the meeting during the AGM, please bring your admission card, if you want to reenter. If you leave before it's over, do not plan to come back, please inform [indiscernible] from Euronext, who is somewhere in the room. She is down there at the back of the room. Please inform [ Gitta ] if you are leaving and not coming back. Carlsberg will be live streaming the AGM on the company's website simultaneously with the AGM being held here. So the AGM is being recorded also for the purpose of the preparation of the minutes of the AGM. If you wish to speak to current on an agenda item, please come up here and said up here on the front row. On the right hand of the room to my left, there's a speaker. There are not so many spaces because some speakers have already taken their seat up there, but write down the name of the speakers analyst, and the names will be given to me, so I can introduce the speakers. And the speakers will be asked to speak here from the [indiscernible] in the middle of the room. If you do not wish to be filmed for the live streaming, please inform Alec. Alec is down here to my left, in the white shirt. Please just stay on your row and speak into the microphone that will be coming. The press, you can take pictures and films after the AGM, but you cannot do it during the AGM. And if you see a photographer in the room, it is because this is Carlsberg's internal photographer. That was it for the practicalities. Now the more formal aspects. But first, task as Chairman of the meeting is to ascertain where the meeting has been lawfully convened and is able to make decisions. The notice of the meeting and the agenda, including the complete proposals have been available on the company's website since the 12th of February '24. Furthermore, shareholders who have requested to receive the notice by e-mail and have registered the e-mail address and the register of shareholders have received the notice by e-mail. So the AGM has been convened with no less than 3 weeks' notice which is required under the Companies Act and the articles and on its website on the fourth of January '24. So that was with the minimum 8 weeks' notice. The company stated the date of the general meeting and the submission date for proposals to the agenda or in accordance with the Danish Companies Act. Furthermore, in accordance with the following information has been available since the 12th of February, the invitation, including information regarding total share, capital voting rights on the date of the invitation, the document is to be presented at the AGM, the agenda and the complete proposals and proxies and personal voting forms. And the Annual Report, the ESG Report, the Human Rights Report and the Remuneration Report for 2023 have been available on the company's website since the seventh of February 2024. The agenda is in accordance with Article 24. It does not require a specific part of the share capital to be represented. That leads you to the conclusion that the general meeting has been lawfully convened and forms a quorum to make decisions. If anyone disagrees, please say so. Now that is not the case. So the AGM has been lawfully convened and forms a quorum. The agenda we have in front of us has number one, reporting activities of the company the past year; 2, a presentation of the audited annual report for approval and resolution of discharge of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board from liability; 3, proposal for distribution of profit for the year, including declaration of dividends; 4, presentation of an advisory vote on the 2023 Remuneration Report. And five, we have 3. Here, we have 5A, adoption of the Amended Remuneration Policy for the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board, 5B is approval for the Supervisory Board for remuneration for '24; and 5C, there is a proposal to reduce the company's share capital for the purpose of canceling treasury shares. We have six, election of members to the Board, Supervisory Board; 7, election of auditor; 8, authorization to the Chair of the meeting. Right. And under -- apart from 5C, we can adopt all proposals with a simple majority. 5C, there we require, at least, 2/3 of the votes cast and 2/3 of the share capital represented at the AGM. And it's for the last reason that please talk to Gitta from Euronext, if you want to leave the AGM before we finish dealing with 5C. So we are ready to start on the agenda. And as in previous years. What we will do is we will deal with items 1 to 4, under 1. And then the floor will be open for a discussion. We will deal with items 1 to 4 jointly, and have the debate, and when we've heard those items. First of all, I give the floor to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Over to you, Henrik.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Anders. First of all, let me once again welcome all of our shareholders to our Annual General Meeting. True to tradition, the AGM is held here in the beautiful setting of the Glyptoteket. On the seventh of February, Carlsberg published its Annual Report, ESG Report and Remuneration Report for 2023. For the first time, Carlsberg also published a separate report about its efforts within the field of human rights. 2023 was a year that saw great changes and continued challenges for Carlsberg. We had to handle significant cost increases, difficult macroeconomic conditions and weakened consumer trust in a number of markets, poor weather in the high season and divestment and following expropriation of the Russian business. In spite of these significant challenges, Carlsberg delivered a solid result. Revenue was DKK 73.6 billion, corresponding to organic growth of 9.2%. This growth was very much a result of the price increases that Carlsberg carried out in order to compensate for the increased costs, but it was also the result of a positive product mix. Operating profits were DKK 11.1 billion, corresponding to organic growth of 5.2%. Annual net profit for the continuing business, that is without Russia, was at DKK 7 billion. Net profits for the total business, including the consequences of the deconsolidation of Russia, was a very big minus of DKK 40.8 billion, primarily as a consequence of the reclassification in the accounts of 20 years of accumulated currency effect on the Russian business. Earnings per share for the continuing business, adjusted for special, items were DKK 54.6. DKK 1 million, which was a decrease of 2% compared to 2022. This decrease can be attributed to weakened currencies in markets like China, Laos, Ukraine and Norway and increased financial items. Group CEO, Jacob Aarup-Andersen will, in his report, take you through this year's financial highlights, including for the individual regions and the effects of the deconsolidation of Russia. In 2023, Carlsberg paid out total dividends of DKK 3.7 billion to the company's shareholders. At the same time, the company carried out a share buyback program of DKK 3.2 billion. That means that the cash dividend for shareholders in 2023 totaled DKK 6.9 billion. Carlsberg's dividend policy stipulates a dividend corresponding to about 50% of annual adjusted net profits. Therefore, this year, the Supervisory Board proposes to the AGM that the dividend is maintained at DKK 27 per share as it corresponds to 49% of adjusted net profits for the continuing business. The total dividend will thus constitute DKK 3.6 billion to be drawn from the company's reserve. As per the 31st of December 2023; the reserves constituted DKK 25.4 billion. When publishing the annual accounts for 2023 on the seventh of February, Carlsberg also launched a new share buyback program of DKK 1 billion, to run for 3 months until the 19th of April. Share buybacks is in accordance with the company's principles for capital allocation. These principles remain unchanged since they were established in 2016. In these principles, the first priority for capital allocation is to ensure that we always invest sufficiently in the business to ensure long-term growth. The second priority is to ensure a balanced capital structure, where interest-bearing debt maximum constitutes twice the company's earnings before depreciation, interest and tax. The third priority is to pay out a dividend corresponding to about 50% of the adjusted net profit, as I just mentioned. Finally, the 2 last priorities are to send any surplus liquidity back to the company shareholders in the form of either share buybacks or extraordinary dividends alternatively through value-creating acquisitions. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had grave consequences for Carlsberg. But it is, of course, nothing in comparison to what the Ukrainian population and Carlsberg's 1,300 local employees in Ukraine still have to endure. Since the breakout of the wall, the safety of our Ukrainian employees has been our highest priority. On behalf of Carlsberg's Supervisory Board, I would like to, again, this year, send great recognition to our employees in Ukraine, who have now for 2 years lived and worked under extreme conditions. You cannot but humbly admire their huge willpower and perseverance. As I'm sure most of you are aware, 2023 was a turbulent year when it comes to Carlsberg's now previous business in Russia. To briefly sum up the course of events. Carlsberg announced on the 23rd of June that the company had entered into a sales agreement with the view to divesting the Russian business. This was the culmination of 15 months of hard work for many employees across our group to separate the Russian company from the rest of the group. After the announcement on the 28th of March 2022, that we put up our Russian business for sale. On the 16th of July 2023, we were then made aware that the Russian government had issued a presidential decree, meaning that the management of our Russian business was taken over by a Russian authority. That de facto means that Carlsberg has lost all control of our business in Russia. As a consequence of this, we have written off Russian business and deconsolidated it so that in the future, it will not be part of the company accounts. This has a number of consequences that Jacob Aarup-Andersen is going to take you through in his report on the annual results. For the sake of good order, I would like to state clearly that Carlsberg continues to take all necessary measures, including legal steps, to protect our assets in and outside of Russia and to help the employees who have been affected by this remarkable and unlawful step from the Russian state. This is part and parcel of Carlsberg's DNA to be a responsible player in the societies in which we operate. This commitment is also reflected in Carlsberg's purpose, brewing for a better today and tomorrow. Therefore, the company's ESG program called Together Towards ZERO and Beyond, which was launched in 2022, is aimed at the most important areas for a company of Carlsberg's character and size. As part of Together Towards ZERO and Beyond, we have set ambitious 2030 and 2040 targets for a number of areas. These include a complete reduction of our CO2 emissions in Carlsberg's value chain; the use of sustainably produced raw materials; increased use of recycled bottles and reusable packaging; a reduction of the company's water consumption, not least in areas with the lack of drinking water; promoting a responsible alcohol culture; and the elimination of work-related accidents. In our ESG report, which was published along with the Annual Report, we follow up on these targets and this general effort. As mentioned in my introduction, Carlsberg published its first separate report on our work with human rights, along with this year's other reports on the seventh of February. This report marks an important milestone in our efforts to create increased transparency and dialogue about this important subject. In the report, we describe our overall approach, our policies and our procedures in this area, including how we ensure compliance with UN guiding principles and current legislation. There can always be dilemmas and challenges when you are active across a number of different geographical areas. And here, it is crucial that we have clear policies and procedures in place to ensure that we can continue to identify and minimize any risks. This is the efforts that we account for in our first human rights report. As we elaborate future reports with further information and initiatives, we hope to be able to contribute to a good and constructive dialogue about Carlsberg's work for human rights standards, all across our value chain. In 2023, we said goodbye to our CEO through the latest 8 years, Cees 't Hart. Already last year, I took the opportunity from this [indiscernible] room to thank Cees 't for his dedicated and impressive contribution to Carlsberg. Nevertheless, I would like to once again recognize the significant results achieved under the management of Cees 't. On the first of September, it was a great pleasure for us to welcome Jacob Aarup-Andersen as our new CEO for Carlsberg. Jacob was chosen after an extensive international search process and on the background of his strong strategic capabilities and international experience, including as the CEO and CFO for listed companies. Furthermore, when it comes to management and culture, Jacob is the right match for Carlsberg on the journey we have ahead of us. In 2023, we also had a new CFO, when Ulrica Fearn took up the post on the first of January. Jacob and Ulrica are a strong team together with the other members of the Executive Board, and they are going to lift Carlsberg's performance and strategic strength to the next level. This journey is going to be guided by our updated strategy, Accelerate SAIL, which was launched along with the annual report on the seventh of February. In his report, Jacob is going to take you through the most important areas of Accelerate SAIL. And therefore, I will just say now that the Supervisory Board is very pleased with the work that gave rise to Accelerate SAIL. The Supervisory Board has had a good and active dialogue with the Executive Board all along, and we fully support the strategic choices and updated financial targets. Let me now change track and touch upon the work we do with corporate governance and the remuneration policy. In Carlsberg, we work actively with corporate governance, and we have just published our statutory report on corporate governance and compliance with the recommendations from the Danish Committee on Corporate Governance. This report can be seen on our website. It appears from the report that Carlsberg complies with all of the committees' 40 recommendations, apart from 2. The first one is the issuance of quarterly reports. Here, Carlsberg for the first and the third quarter, instead issue a so-called trading statement with a focus on our sales development across regions and markets. The other one has to do with our People & Culture Committee and our Remuneration Committee, where the share of so-called independent directors is not above 50% as it states in the recommendation. Among other things, this is due to the fact that the members from the Carlsberg Foundation on the Supervisory Board are not considered to be independent. Each year, the Supervisory Board carries out an evaluation of its work and composition. In 2023, this evaluation was facilitated by an external consultancy firm. The process included a questionnaire and an interview with all of the members of the Supervisory Board. The mapping of the composition of the Supervisory Board and the Board's competencies, a comparison with other boards and peer companies and a review of the Board materials. I have also had evaluation meetings with each member and also with the members of the Executive Board. On this background, we have prepared an evaluation report with a number of proposals for improvements, which has been discussed in the Supervisory Board as well as with the company's Executive Board. And the work implementing these measures has already begun. Again, in 2023, the Board members expressed great satisfaction with the work and the cooperation in the Supervisory Board, and also with the Executive Management's work and results. The Supervisory Board has set a number of targets for diversity when it comes to international experience and gender. When it comes to international experience, the target is that, at least, half of the AGM-elected members of the Board should have significant international management experience, not least due to the fact that about 95% of Carlsberg's business takes place outside of Denmark. And we have achieved that target. When it comes to gender, it is the company's goal that the share of the underrepresented gender should constitute, at least, 40% of the Board members elected by the AGM. On Carlsberg's Supervisory Board, we have 3 women out of 8 AGM-elected members in 2023. This corresponds to 38%, which according to the Danish Business Authority is an equal distribution. Carlsberg has a Supervisory Board with a high degree of diversity when it comes to competencies within fields such as finance, sustainability, production, sales and marketing, management experience, regional and cultural knowledge and knowledge of the consumer goods sector. Later today, the general meeting will be asked to approve the specific remuneration for the Supervisory Board for 2024. Carlsberg's Supervisory Board received a fixed fee and does not take part in any form of incentive pay. According to the proposal from the Remuneration Committee, the Supervisory Board proposes to the AGM that the base fee for the Board members be increased by 3.5% to DKK 470,000. This increase is to be seen in the light of the expected general pay increase in Denmark, and a wish to ensure a fee on par with peer companies. The composition of the remuneration can be seen in the convening notice. The individual elements in the remuneration for the Executive Board were unchanged in 2023, and in accordance with the remuneration policy adopted by the AGM in 2020. The remuneration has been established in accordance with the task of the Executive Board, and as well as the value creation for shareholders and conditions and other comparable international companies. The remuneration consists of 3 components: firstly, a fixed salary; secondly, an annual cash bonus based on the achievement of a number of specific targets; and thirdly, a share-based remuneration based on the achievement of 5 specific goals for a 3-year period. Two out of 3 components in the Executive Board remuneration are thus variable, which means that they are closely aligned with shareholder interests and will only be paid out if Carlsberg delivered on the specified targets. The composition of Executive Board remuneration for 2023 can be seen on Page 7 in the remuneration report, and the total remuneration paid out to the outgoing CEO, the incoming CEO and the CFO can be seen on Page 8. It is the conclusion of the Supervisory Board that we have complied with this remuneration policy for 2023 and the remuneration report, which is Item 4 today is, of course, prepared in accordance with this policy. Pursuant to the Danish Companies Act, the remuneration policy must be adopted by the AGM, at least, every 4 years. That means that Carlsberg's remuneration policy is up for a vote this year, and that will be our agenda Item 5A today. The remuneration policy remains largely unchanged compared to the policy adopted by the AGM in 2023 with the following exceptions. Firstly, the Supervisory Board has changed the reference group, which is used as a benchmark for the salary level in order to attract and retain a strong incompetent management. The new remuneration policy uses major Danish companies as the primary reference point and international breweries and consumer goods companies as the secondary reference point. In the previous remuneration policy, the reference group was based on the countries where the candidates came from, including European brewery and consumer goods companies as well as companies across sectors in the Nordic countries. Secondly, the new remuneration policy includes ESG-related performance indicators, which was previously not the case. Thirdly, the value of the maximum annual allotment under the long-term incentive program have been limited to 250% of the annual salary for the CEO, and 200% of the annual salary for the CFO, down from 300% for both of them. Fourthly, the term of notice for Executive Director contracts has been changed to 12 months instead of previously 18 months. Fifthly, it has now been specified that severance pay can only constitute a maximum of 12 months' salary. And sixthly, and finally, in the updated policy, we have added a section describing when the Supervisory Board can approve the allotment of a onetime bonus or extraordinary incentive pay, which would typically be in connection with recruitment or retainment. This year, the Supervisory Board proposes the election of one new member. Bob Kunze-Concewitz has, for a number of years, been a very successful CEO for Campari Group. Thus, he has extensive global experience from the drinks industry, in particular, within sales and marketing, development of premium brands, innovation and value-creating growth. The Board considers Bob Kunze-Concewitz to be a very strong candidate for the Carlsberg Supervisory Board. The purpose of Carlsberg's products is very much to be a part of good times and happy moments for our consumers, whether it be a beer with your friends, a summer's [indiscernible] sider and a warm summer's evening on the beach, an alcohol-free beer after the bicycle ride or a cola for your popcorn at the cinema. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the millions of consumers all over the world who enjoy our products. I would also like to thank you, our shareholders, the Carlsberg Foundation as well as institutional and private shareholders for your continued support for Carlsberg. Not least in the turbulence of recent years, your support has been very much valued and of great significance. Last but not least, and on behalf of this Advisory Board, I would like to extend a warm thank you to our management, the extensive leadership group and Carlsberg's skilled and highly-engaged employees for their great efforts in 2023. With those words, I would like to pass the floor to our CEO, Jacob Aarup-Andersen, who is going to add to my report and take you through the financial highlights of 2023.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Henrik. Good evening and also from me, welcome to this year's AGM. It's really a pleasure for me to be able to talk to you here for the first time, to you, Carlsberg shareholders. But I have to say that I think it's going to be difficult to find a more impressive room in which to give my speech. So I think I'll be hanging around for a little while if it's okay with you. Okay. I started as a CEO in Carlsberg on the first of September last year, it has already been a fantastic time. Before I take you through the profits for the year, I'd like to share some of my impressions of Carlsberg and talk about the revised strategy that we launched about just over a month ago. As -- I mean, it's the case for everybody here in the room, Carlsberg was also for me, a very special company even before I had my first day of work here. I had great expectations to start my new job, and I've certainly not been disappointed. When you enter a company as the top manager, there are obviously many things you need to understand, to get to know. Even if I've done my homework, for the 6 months, it took from when I was announced as the new CEO until I actually took over. So I've spent a great part of the first 6 months. I've spent visiting our markets nearby, far away, from China and Vietnam, in Asia. I was in Ukraine, France, Denmark, to mention just a few. And I have met colleagues from all corners of Carlsberg. I learned a lot from going around with our committed drivers and salesmen. I have met our skillful brewery workers and our passionate colleagues in sales and marketing. And I've finally been introduced to the art of brewing beer. I'm happy that they're an expert to do that on a daily basis, not me. But anyway, it was very fascinating. And I also met a number of our customers from big retail customers to your small inn around the corner, to increase my understanding of their needs and the way we cooperate and how we can always be relevant for our customers. All these journeys and meetings has left me with a fantastic impression with our organization, which is targeted, ambitious, committed and very proud. But it's also become clear to me that because of the many challenges in recent years, we've become sort of short term in terms of plans and decisions. It's natural. it's natural. But now, fortunately, we're in a situation where we can and should take a more long-term view of our plans and our activities. And that's why in late autumn, we started a strategy process where we reviewed Carlsberg's strategy, the one that's named SAIL'27. It was launched, I think, in February 2022. We analyzed it to try and understand the strategic priorities that we should focus extra on, in the coming years to create growth year in, year out. Now this work resulted in an updated strategy. So we call that Accelerate SAIL, as Henrik mentioned. As the name indicates, our new strategy is based on SAIL'27. It's a continuation of the framework that you've already made -- before our shareholders. It's important for me to say we have a very strong starting point at Carlsberg. Carlsberg is a well-run business. It's a company with strong brands and market positions and is a company with a very strong result and cost-focused culture. Let me briefly explain some of the most important points of Accelerate SAIL. First of all, we have our premium portfolio. Today, it's about 20% of our total volume. We have very strong premium brands, and we are convinced that we can grow this portfolio, if we make sure we support our growth with adequate marketing and sales efforts. Today, there is a smaller part of our volume that comes under what we call Beyond Beer. So Beyond Beer, what is that, it's like cider or hard lemonade. We have 2 brands, in particular, that are dominant at the moment. Somersby, which I hope you all know very well. And then there's Garage, which originally was developed in Denmark, but has now found a strong footing in many Eastern European markets. We have quite big ambitions for these 2 brands. We're going to invest in them and broaden them to different new markets. In the Beyond Beer category, it's possible we can enter into partnerships with local players in our markets. If we can increase the share of beyond beer in our overall portfolio, it will be positive for our revenue and for our earnings. When it comes to nonalcoholic beer, we are going to continue the journey that we're already on. We have great expectations concerning nonalcoholic beer, particularly in the European countries where we've already made a good start. So we'll continue. We'll Accelerate SAIL. We'll continue the many good initiatives in this category. Things are already well underway. Now if we don't look at categories, but look at markets. We have a special focus on creating growth in volume and value in Asia. Particularly, these are the markets, China, Vietnam and India where we believe we can generate more growth. In China, we are already well underway with the growth strategy that covers the big cities. In addition to our strong market positions in Western China, we are now in 91 big cities in the Central and Eastern part of this big country. We will be adjusting a bit this strategy, and we will focus even more on growing in the cities where we already are present rather than entering new cities at the same rate of speed as we've done since 2017. In Vietnam, we have organic, inorganic growth and expansion strategy. It was launched about 2 or 3 years ago. We revisited the strategy in autumn. And we can confirm we are still 100% behind it. We believe we can continue strengthening our Vietnam business in the coming years. In India, well, Here, we are ready to realize the full growth potential of the business. More details, we'll have to wait until we've acquired our local partners share of the company. Now we maintain our sustainability program, Together Towards ZERO and Beyond, that the Chairman of the Board mentioned. We have a number of ambitious goals in CO2, water, farming, packaging, working environment, responsible alcohol consumption and diversity. I'd like to emphasize 2 satisfactory results in CO2 emissions and in diversity presented in 2023. In September, we published the fact that the relative CO2 emissions per hectoliter from all of our value chain have been reduced by 16% from [ 15% to 22% ]. This is 1 percentage point more than our goal. So we are very pleased with that. We have set a goal of zero emissions in 2040, and I promise you, we are fully committed to that. The second result concerns our TTZAB journey, the diversity journey in '23, also 1 year ahead of time. We reached our goal of 20% women in managerial positions. In 2027, we have another goal, we want women to constitute 35%. And in 2030, we want 40%. We have set these goals because it's the best thing for Carlsberg. And for our long-term value creation, it's best to recruit our managers from the biggest possible talent pool and that we have a management team that reflects the world around us. In order to realize our growth ambitions, in Accelerate SAIL, we have identified a number of key competencies, processes and tools that we need to strengthen. This applies in a number of areas, the general, digital area, sales, marketing, supply chain, et cetera. We are already well underway with that, that this work will be continuing in the coming years. But we also need to be able to finance our growth because Accelerate SAIL, well, it requires generally a higher level of investment. So we have launched Funding the Journey 2.0. We will focus on reducing our direct production cost, so we can get back to a level of our gross margin as it was before the pandemic. We will achieve that, for example, by optimizing purchases and processes and standardized packaging and raw materials across markets. In this way, we can both finance our growth initiatives and improve the company's earnings. We can do both at the same time. As a consequence of our increased level of ambition in a number of areas, we have chosen to increase our long-term goal for revenue and earnings growth. This means that based on 2024, we expect an average organic growth in revenue of 4% to 6%; before, we said, 3% to 5%. And we want to deliver average organic growth in primary operations higher than the growth in revenue. I hope with this brief review, that I've given you an insight into the interesting growth journey that -- on which Carlsberg is now embarking. So let me look at the year-end review and take you through the results from 2023. Let me look first at our 3 regions. Our Western European business delivered solid results in the year, though we must characterize this quite challenging. So the volume was under pressure, it fell 2.3%. Despite the fall in volume, marked increases in costs, consumers under pressure in most markets and very poor weather, as you can remember, in the important summer months, July and August. Despite of that, we delivered organic growth in revenue of 8.9%, and a growth of operating result of 3.3%. This was unfortunately offset by weakened currencies in a number of countries outside the Eurozone. So the reported operating result, they have only increased marginally by 0.3%, and the operating margin fell to 13.3%. As I already mentioned, Asia is our growth region. 2023 confirmed that once again. [indiscernible] the macroeconomic conditions are difficult in several of our markets, and particularly in the most important Chinese and Southeast Asian markets, we still achieved a growth in volume of 3.7%. Thanks to this growth in volume, a positive product mix and price increases, our revenue organically went up by 8.4% in Asia. We increased our commercial investments in the region in '23, even with an extra investment in the fourth quarter. Still, our operating result grew organically by 7.9%. Unfortunately, in Asia, we were up against a very negative currency development. In large [ fuel ] markets, it meant that the reported operating result fell by 4.2%. The operating margin of 22.4%, however, we're still strong despite a minor decline from the year before. In Central and Eastern Europe, this was still a difficult year. The war, unfortunately, is still there in our big Ukrainian market. In this context, I'd like to stress once again that the safety and health of our employees comes first, particularly in a country marked by war, where Ukraine is. And apart from the war, there was bad weather in the high season in Western Europe. We had inflation and consumers under pressure. Our volume fell organically by 4% but thanks to price increases and positive product mix, our revenue went up organically by 11.9%, and the operating result went up by 4.1%. Like in the other 2 regions, the reported result was affected negatively by currencies. So operating earnings in Danish kroner fell by 2.6%, and the operating margin fell by 2.3 percentage points to 17.2%. And now for the group's consolidated results. The revenue in '23 was DKK 73.6 billion. Organic growth was 9.2%. Reported growth was 4.7%. And due to the weakened currencies in a number of our important markets, including China, Laos, India, Ukraine, Norway and Sweden. The gross profit was affected positively by higher revenue per hectoliter of 10%, but negatively impacted by increasing production costs. The gross profit went up organically by 7.4%, and in Danish kroner, it was 2.4% increase. The reported operating result was DKK 11.1 billion. This means that the organic growth was 5.2%, unfortunately, we had, again, a negative development in currencies. So the reported growth was minus 3.2%. The operating margin of the group's consolidated results ended up at 15.1%. Special items, net, amounted to a negative amount of DKK 431 million. A number of income, income and expenditure items were a part of special items. There was a reversal of write-downs on the brand in China, the cessation of -- including a loan to [indiscernible] brewers in Russia, reduction of write-down of brands and the business in Cambodia, and costs associated with the discontinuation of the Kronenbourg 1664 license agreement in the U.K. Financial costs were DKK 844 million net. This was higher than the year before because of the higher level of interest rates that you've all noticed, and an increase in interest-bearing debt. Taxes were DKK 1.9 billion. So the effective tax percentage was 18.9%. The tax percentage was affected by nonrecurring items. If we exclude them from the calculation, the tax percentage would have been 21%. The Carlsberg Group's share of the [indiscernible] result for the continuing business was DKK 7 billion. The adjusted net result for the continuing business, regulated for the special items after tax, amounted to DKK 7.4 billion. The reported net result as the Chairman just mentioned, including Russia, was minus DKK 40.8 billion. Yes, this was a very high number. And this is a consequence of our decision to deconsolidate the Russian business. There are -- very complicated accounting rules that apply here. The oversimplified message here this evening is that the big loss in Russia, DKK 47.7 billion, does not really influence the company's cash flow because it's a result of the full write-down of the business in Russia and the hedging and accumulated currency reserve in the period from '04 to '23, that has been integrated in the equity capital. The free cash flow amounted to DKK 4.9 billion, and the net result of cash flow from operations, DKK 11.6 billion, and cash flow from investment was minus DKK 6.7 billion. The net interest-bearing debt at the end of '23 was DKK 22.4 billion, compared with EBITDA. And result before depreciation, interest and tax and debt was 1.47x that. And you -- if you listened to the Chairman, you can understand that our goal is maximum 2x EBITDA. So we are far below that. And now what about 2024? What do we expect in terms of earnings? If you look at the external environment, there's still uncertainty concerning developments in the macroeconomy, but also in consumer confidence. We do expect the inflation to decline. So the increase in our cost is expected to be more moderate compared with the last few years. There's no change in the way we approach increasing costs. We will continue that through higher revenue per hectoliter and strict cost management. It's important for us to ensure we have the right level of investment for Accelerate SAIL, so we can successfully meet our new, more ambitious growth expectations. So it's our plan to increase investments in sales and marketing, actually it's part of the budget for 2024 to increase our marketing investments by more than 10%. The increased investments will be allocated, particularly to our brands and sales organizations in China and Vietnam, our premium portfolio across our markets, and the digital competencies and online sales systems for our customers. Our continued strict focus on costs will mean that total operating costs, excluding marketing investments will be maintained as a percentage of revenue. Based on this match, we expect in 2024 to deliver an organic growth of the primary operating result of 1% to 5%. Before I finish my report, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the Supervisory Board for its support and cooperation over the last 6 months, and at least for its support to our new strategy. Together with my many good and skillful colleagues in Carlsberg, we are really looking forward to this new stage of Carlsberg's growth journey. I'd also like to thank very much, like the Chairman said, I'd really like to thank the employees of the Carlsberg Group. I've been welcomed with enthusiasm, and I'm very grateful about that. With these words, I recommend Carlsberg's Annual Report for 2023 for the approval of the AGM. Thank you for your attention.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. That was Item 1 to 4. And before I open the floor for a debate, I can inform the general meeting that the annual report signed by the Executive Board, Supervisory Board and the company auditors has been presented to me. We have an unqualified Auditor's Report, and it sounds like this: In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements and the parent company financial statements gives a true and fair view of the group's and the parent company's financial position as at 31st of December 2023, and of the results of the group's and the parent company's operations and cash flows for the financial year of 2023, in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU and further requirements in the Danish Financial Statements Act. That leads me to open the debate, and I can inform you that so far, we have 5 speakers on the list. These are ATP by Mark Jensen, the Association of Danish Shareholders; by Mr. Mikael Bak. Then we have Mr. [ Stein Stropp ]; Bjørn Hansen and Frank Aaen, representing critical shareholders, and I will give them the floor in the mentioned order. First of all, Mark Jensen, the floor is yours.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. Thank you for giving me the floor. As you heard, my name is Mark Jensen, and I represent ATP. Thank you to the Chair and the CEO for a good report. I would like to start with a brief comment about Russia. In ATP, we've supported Carlsberg's choice to leave Russia, a choice that has proven to be far more complex than expected and where the costs humanly and business-wise have been huge. It's difficult to find your way around such a complicated process. And today, I would just like to express my respect and gratitude for the enormous efforts by Carlsberg when it comes to navigating in these difficult waters. Looking at 2023. We saw 2 new faces in management. I would like to welcome Ulrica and Jacob. I look forward to our continued cooperation . After a few years with high tide, 2023 was no exception. The waves of cost inflation hit Carlsberg hard, and it's been an active balance to increase the prices accordingly, that put pressure on earnings. In the coming years, the renewed Accelerate SAIL strategy is going to have to catch up on earnings as well as invest in future growth. In that connection, I would like to ask a question. With increased growth targets, I would like to ask how Carlsberg is better positioned today in international competition to create a broader and higher earnings growth across geographies and categories? In particular, in a market where the competitors are also on the move? Looking at ESG. I would like to touch upon biodiversity remuneration, getting a bit ahead of the agenda here, and reporting requirements. Last year, I mentioned here your plans within biodiversity. These days, are the -- big companies are struggling to find their way in this field. In the ESG report, we expect to see concrete steps in this field, and that's very well done. Today, you published a new remuneration report, which is reflecting Danish conditions more and more and that is positive. But you know that we were not very pleased with the old policy, where the variable portion of the remuneration was too high. We see the new policy as a step in the right direction as the bonus share has been adjusted downwards. I would like to thank you for being a role model here. Seeing that you can not only decrease the percentages in beer, but also in your bonus schemes. We don't like to see a very high share of variable pay, and that is still the case. And therefore, we cannot support the remuneration policy. My final point today is reporting requirements. There are many requirements, and they are getting ever more numerous. Now we have a new director from the EU, the CSRD directive and now we already have 300 pages of annual accounts, and this is largely driven by external requirements. So here, I would like to ask whether Carlsberg sees an opportunity to concentrate your messages in the annual report in the future in order to avoid reporting just for the sake of reporting. Finally, let me wish employees and management in Carlsberg, a good 2024. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. I noted a few questions for the management. And I would like to pass the floor to CEO, Jacob Aarup-Andersen.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. I have to be fast to keep up with you. First of all, thank you for the questions, and thank you for the good dialogue that we have had throughout the years. It's much appreciated. ATP is a strong shareholder. And as you say, they have influenced us in a positive way. I will take the first question, and then I would -- will let CFO, Ulrica Fearn, answer the next one. She's much better at that than I am. We're good at delivering on our growth ambitions, and we do that in order to deliver on our overall strategy and in order to create value for our shareholders. And therefore, the growth strategy is the key prerequisite behind Accelerate SAIL. We see a number of growth pillars, which each have a clear investment plan, individual execution plan and is owned by the group management level. These growth pillars are the premium beer category where we have unique brands and where we have shown the ability to create growth in the face of harsh competition, as you mentioned. Then we have the Beyond Beer category where we expand our portfolio, vis-a-vis the traditional portfolio, which gives us new growth opportunities. I briefly mentioned the families surrounding Somersby and Garage, where we see great opportunities when it comes to driving further growth. This is a growing market that we need to be part of, apart from the traditional beer portfolio we have in nonalcoholic beers, which we see as a significant growth driver over a number of years. The geographical pillars. Here, we see Vietnam, India and China as continued growth drivers. Each of these 3 countries is a place where we have a unique positioning in Carlsberg. And we have seen Carlsberg taking market shares, and we see an opportunity to participate in strong markets such as the Indian markets. Each of these 3 markets has their own story, but they all give us unique opportunities for driving growth in the coming years. So it's a combination of strong growth pillars with -- across these categories. And then we also have these geographical growth vectors in China, India and Vietnam. I mentioned in my report that we also look externally in our search for partners. And that will also be an important driver. In the Nordics, we have a cooperation with Bacardi, and this is also the sort of thing we are focusing on, in order to make sure we have the right portfolio. So we share your focus on the importance of growth to create value. Let me pass the floor to Ulrica when it comes to the question about CSRD, and Ulrica is going to speak English, I'm sure.

Apologies for this. But yes, you are right, CSRD. So that's the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which is indeed a big ask. Nevertheless, an important one, and we started to prepare for it already last year. That's how big of a task it is. And we learned a lot in the process. We do share your concern about over reporting. So we put our sustainability team, together with our finance teams. And we will make sure that as we report on that at the end of this year, we will make sure it's focused on our material issues and put it forward in -- as concise and to the point of view as we can, whilst being compliant with the requirement.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Thank you, Jacob, and Ulrica. There does not seem to be any follow-up from ATP. So I'll give the floor to Mikael Bak from the Association of Danish Shareholders and then Mr. Stein [indiscernible], but Mikael first.

[Interpreted] Thank you Jacob and Ulrica. There does not seem to be any follow-up from ATP. So I'll give the floor to Mikael Bak from the Association of Danish Shareholders and then Mr. Stein [indiscernible], but Mikael first.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Yes, I'm Mikael Bak, and I represent the Danish Association of Shareholders. We have about 17,000 members, private investors and a good strong group just like ATP. We're not invited for coffee that often, but maybe we can get invitation, I don't know. Anyway, first of all, thank you to Carlsberg for allowing us to meet in here again this year and also doing it online. Thank you for a good report. to the Supervisory Board, Executive Board. It's a shareholder democracy. We appreciate that. Thank you to the many employees around the world for working hard. Unfortunately, the share price declined about 8% in '23, it hit below the index -- C25 Index. One of the reasons I think was some of the challenges that were met decommissioning the Russian business. This was a huge write-off, perhaps not as a big surprise. And I fully agree with what ATP said, you all did your best. We asked about the risks of the Russian activities also before the war actually because it was in the annual report that you knew there was a risk in Eastern Europe. And last year, we also asked should you decommission quickly, even if it were to cost a big loss. Now again, here we are, no matter if you've done your level best, we have something, a picture that's not very nice. 2 trusted people from the top management are in prison in Russia. There will be court cases. Carlsberg has a serious threat, illegal, parallel imports also to relate to. And against that background, I'd like to ask the new management, how much progress have you made concerning these court cases? Can you recover some of the loss do you think? Is it possible that you can go for compensation? There's frozen -- you can have access to frozen Russian means that are in the West. What else can you do? If there's political unrest elsewhere, for instance, in China. Now to the new management. On behalf of private investors, I'd like to welcome you, Jacob, you're a new man on the bridge. You're coming from ISS. This is a place where you have cleaned after the party, and now you overtake making the party. So that's good. Hopefully, we have a CEO who cannot just clean the room after the party but also make a party for shareholders. That leads me to my second question. Now your revised strategy plan, we support that. You are saying you will increase your growth ambitions, particularly on premium and nonalcoholic products. But when we read the strategies of the other breweries, they are almost the same, you all want to do the same. Can you say why Carlsberg has extra qualifications? Why do you think you can succeed in this tough competition? And can you say whether there will be new innovative initiatives that could give Carlsberg in more of a leading position. So is that going to be just a battle for market shares? It's been said that in his in report in going forward, you will move, I think, India and Nepal to the Eastern European region, if you succeed moving India to Eastern Europe, well, then I think you can do all sorts of things. Anyway, joking aside, joking aside, do you see this relocation of India to the Eastern European region. Do you -- is there a lasting thing? Or are you just adjusting after decommissioning the Russian market? So we'd like to hear whether India will be relocated back to India. India will be relocated back to Asia in the future. Anyway, I'd like to wish Carlsberg and all its employees all the best in 2024. We hope we can meet here again next year with good positive numbers on the bottom line. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Before I give the floor to the next speaker. There were a couple of questions to management. I think Jacob you will have the floor first.

[Interpreted] Right. There you are, Mikael. Thank you to the Danish Association of Shareholders, and thank you to the good dialogue we always have with you. I have noted down a number of questions. I hope I can have time to deal with them all. About the Russian aspect, it's limited how many details we can give concerning what you asked about. We have a number of legal measures and other measures to protect our employees and our assets by 16th of July last year, there was the decree that came out. That nationalized our business, in fact. We will be claiming compensation for our losses. There's no doubt about it, but we cannot give you any details concerning specific measures. I hope you understand that these processes need to be protected and done in the right way. We promised our shareholders that we will cater for the interest of the shareholders, and we'll continue to do that in this process. Now you talked about what have we learned, particularly in the context of China. China is our biggest market. It's important growth motor for Carlsberg. We will continue investing there to grow our international brands, but also our local brands because we know it creates value for us to continue that journey. What we learned from Russia is that we need to make sure we do not have too big exposure to one big market. That's one of the reasons why we're focusing that much on the growth in other geographies to ensure we have a balance in our portfolio and markets. That's why I talked about previously, our focus on expanding our already strong position in India and Vietnam, where we have growth potential to have more of a balanced portfolio. And premium, you talked about, it is true, there are many competitors focusing on that, and they're doing that for a reason, obviously, because this is a growing segment. Consumers in most of our markets, they demand specialized products, to a greater extent, international premium brands, but also local premium brands. So this is an attractive segment, which is growing. We believe we are in good position to benefit from that also compared with many of our competitors. There are a number of reasons for it. First of all, we already have a strong portfolio of premium products, both local and international ones. We have a number of specialized beers that really drive this. We have international brands, 1664 Blanc, Brooklyn, [ Grimbergen ] and here in Denmark, Jacobsen is a local premium brand. So we have a number of good brands. My second point here is that we have a strong financial position. So we have the resources to make further investments. And that is the reason why we will be putting more money towards marketing in 2024. The innovation point you asked about, that's my third point, because our research lab, Carlsberg's Research Lab, we can drive innovation unlike many of our competitors. And that's a good thing I'm saying all of this, but fortunately, we can see that we are winning market shares in premium. We've done that in recent years. India. Well, I recognize the question. We fully understand it might seem a bit confusing how we split our regions. We have not misunderstood the geography of countries. We are not challenging the United Nations or anyone else. No. Our regions are divided according to how they can most appropriately be run in daily operations. We want to make sure we have the right managerial focus. Looking at our very strong regional management in Asia, they're in Hong Kong. We need for them to grow on the growth journeys we have in China and Vietnam. That's why we have moved India and Nepal to Central and Eastern Europe. So we can make sure we have the right focus on India and on our journey in Vietnam and China. In Central and Eastern Europe also already includes our license business, for instance, other countries are involved here in Central and Eastern Europe like Southern Korea, Australia, Canada and the Middle East. So I mean they're used to adding different geographies. Thank you for encouraging me to start a party. We have an interesting journey ahead of us, and I'm sure we can deliver good value for shareholders. And the shareholders association must bear in mind that our core product is an important part of every party in this country. So we are creating parties every day. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Thank you. It doesn't give rise to anything further. So I give the floor to [indiscernible]. And after that, Bjorn Hansen will speak. First, over to Eric [indiscernible].

[Interpreted] Now please lean back because I will break a record for saying the fewest words per minute. I was born in Aalborg in 1939, and people from Jutland are not better people than other people, but they're different. They speak more slowly. They think more slowly and they don't say that much. But I will still say a few words. One of the books that is the easiest to read and that I recommend you read is called Children Write to God, and little son writes, "Now I have done as we agreed, where is the bike?" And what does this have to do with Carlsberg? When I'm out with my friends and I order a Tuborg, my friends will ask for a Hof as it was usually called and they will be given the Carlsberg instead of a Tuborg, and I say, "Why do you put up with that?" And they say, "Well, we get what we want." And yes, but you have to try to help Carlsberg because we're in this world to help each other out. So I contacted Carlsberg, round about 2017. And we negotiated a bit about whether they had branded Hof, it was a good brand. So why did they removed the name Hof from the Carlsberg beer? Yes, there's a lot of nostalgia about that brand, Hof. It's very known in the wider Danish population, you still get a Carlsberg beer if you order a Hof. The same goes for Sweden. So we came to the result that I could take the floor on the AGM in 2019, that is 5 years ago. And I was allowed to have a vote by show of hands. I never tried that before and it was an outright success. Everyone voted in favor of reinstituting the name Hof on the Carlsberg Beer. And now my question is where is the bike? Did you understand the question? I was praised at the general meeting by the Director of the Carlsberg Foundation, I was invited to launch in the companies of the [ sciences ]. And I was really invited to meet with the highest positions. And they brought me so much beer that I could not even drink it and they thanked me for my efforts and my proposal. And then I really, I waited with breadth of it I waited. And then there was this little teeny tiny label on the bottle where it said Hof. And I really expected something better, but nothing happened. Well, then our wonderful Queen had an anniversary, and there was a 1 pager in the national newspaper, where you could see her with the bottle of Hof. So everything speaks to the fact that the Carlsberg beer should be called Hof. Then we got a new King and then there was a full page ad in the same newspaper with the Hof bottle on it as well. So now my question is, how can you just ignore a decision made on the AGM, if and if it was by show of hands? I think it's strange. I would like an answer. And by the way, you also promised us better access conditions for the elderly, so we don't fall off the stage.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. I'm sure that we will take care of that to make sure you have a railing next year. I will give the floor to Henrik Poulsen.

[Interpreted] Thank you for this question, Eric. Let me start by acknowledging that I did not know of that vote in 2019. But, of course, I could go back and follow up on that. Personally, I share your veneration for Hof as a brand, and I'm old enough to have grown up when it was more broadly known. It still exists, I can tell you. And in connection with the crowning procedure of our new King, we issued a new product where the name Hof was part of the branding. And we also carried out a large campaign, and we congratulated his Majesty and the Royal Court as Hof is the name for the Royal Court. But we do feel that the brand is still going strong and that it plays well together with the Carlsberg main brand. So I think I will leave it at that.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. It seems that answer gave rise to a brief follow-up comment.

[Interpreted] I'm not very satisfied with that answer. Couldn't you hear at the AGM, give the shareholders a pen with the brand name Hof, so that we could start spreading the brand name again because otherwise, these are just words. You need to spend some money on this.

[Interpreted] I can't really promise you that we're going to hand out pens at the AGM, but let me restate, and I just checked that the label that we used with the special product that we issued at the crowning, it was very clear that it stated the name Hof on the neck of the bottle. So I really can only tell you that I share your excitement about the brand Hof. And perhaps we should have brought that version of our Carlsberg beer, but it was really specially made for his Royal Highness.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. The next speaker on my list is Mr. Bjorn Hansen. And I will give him the floor. And after Mr. Hansen, it is Mr. Frank Aaen, and we have no further speakers on the list. Now I pass the floor to Mr. Bjorn Hansen.

[Interpreted] All right. Part of your profit went there for a banister, a rail to get people up here. Anyway, thank you, I'm Bjorn Hansen, and I represent private shareholders. This year I have reviewed these said accounts. About 15 years ago, you would hand in your questions to Carlsberg to Mr. Smith. And 10 minutes later, he would call and say, come back. It was about cash flow from Russia back then 15 years ago. These rubles were not worth much. But anyway, and I was worried about the political system, and I proposed India. That was a good question, and that was addressed at the highest level. But in my opinion, they started off a bit wrongly. I've been traveling since 1965. And I've been in most parts of the world, but not in Russia because I worked in the U.S. and there was a big problem. But at the [indiscernible] the manager of Carlsberg's Saint Petersburg Brewery, he said I should come and visit and but then Putin wanted higher and higher charges and costs. He said he had good connections. But then all of a sudden, there was a question of Visa. It turned out that my Visa was $200, not rubles. I couldn't understand that. And then I heard nothing more from that gentleman. I don't know, where he ended up. But anyway, it's always been dangerous to play with Russians. Now Carlsberg has a huge pain, and the way I see it, I don't know if you can recover some of that money, perhaps not in this generation, perhaps not even in the next, but perhaps in 1 year. I would suggest you to go via the European Commission and get the commission to review the situation to ask whether a judgment in the European court could be obtained. If not, there's a long waiting time in Strasbourg at the court there. So don't wait for that. But there was something else I thought. During the time of the Czar, there was a cable, a Nordic cable, laid down a cable, telephone and telegraph cable through the Baltic to St. Petersburg and over to Vladivostok near the Pacific Ocean. The money was recovered when Boris Johnson was there, and there were big problems. But the Minister of Foreign Affairs, they made a good effort. So they were able to recover some money. It was told to me at some point, how much it was. It wasn't a big amount. And there was nothing that influenced the profits, but it was money that came back to the company. So that was a good thing. And something else, maybe you don't know that in management. But we have a man here who is now the CEO, I think he's very, very skillful. He can do things. So I think he could have loans that go beyond the assets and liabilities of the company. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe the Americans can do that. Maybe you could get a 100-year loan or a loan until Putin is gone. It's a hybrid loan. I think you need to look at that because we can't just show. Now we've lost DKK 46.8 billion. It's absolutely crazy. I hope that now we have a person who knows about banks. I don't care. He did not continue with Danske Bank because he's very skillful. Here he can do his great piece. He really can. You can't do that in 2 days. So I do not hope that the Supervisory Board will say that you need to find someone else to work. No, I don't -- this is a person who can do more, even more than we expect, I think. The press seems to be writing, among other things. According to [ Watch Finance ], it says you're losing DKK 40 billion. It says as DKK 40.8 billion, and Carlsberg on Page 16 says [ DKK 40.788 billion ]. This is Page 16 of the Carlsberg annual report, and I believe the auditors have reviewed that and can say, is that a starting amount? Are there more skeletons in the cupboard? It's better to tell us now. But what about the Carlsberg Foundation, has that complained to the European Commission or to the Russian authorities? Have you received any adjustment of the fraudulent documents from the Russian authorities. I know the Russians deal in rubles. And today, I tried to find out what the price of the ruble is, but it's really been sort of removed in Frankfurt now. Here, this is 0.0. But for a long time, until restrictions were introduced, it's at [ EUR 3 to EUR 4 or DKK 0.03 ]. Now, we had made investments, but there were no rubles involved, so good for that. Sometimes, it is worth selling and buying shares at Novo Nordisk, and we did that, and we earned about DKK 4,000, and I think that was very good. You need to calculate your potential loss. He was a former bank manager, I talked with, when I was a young man. Yes. He was cautious. He was conservative. I like his way of doing things. So bear that in mind, please, red and green numbers. Buy when it's red and sell when it's green, as long as it doesn't say rubles. Furthermore, we have heard about Renault, the car manufacturer. They also disappeared overnight. American companies, one of them is McDonald's. We all know that. I'm sure that if you pool up with some of those American companies, you can get money back. You can see the oil foundation in Norway, they have joined forces with the oil foundation in Texas. So they are still in the gas field in Siberia. It is very strange because if Norway was pushed out, then the Americans will be pushed out, and that would not be good because the U.S., that's oil and gas, that's some of their values. You can't do that. So for the more Carlsberg report on Page 16, says here, key figures it says. Very small print, but I can read it. So loss from discounted operations, [ DKK 47.748 ].so DKK 40 billion. Does that mean that the shareholders will take this loss or have we got numbers to support things from the Carlsberg foundation debt. They're also sharing that loss. The Carlsberg Foundation has been working for years to expand Russia. So I think they must share a big part of the responsibility for this event. There's also something that's positive at Carlsberg. I knew that they were very good, but there's something here that's very good in your many branches and divisions. I'd like to emphasize Professor Birgitte Skadhauge, Vice President of Carlsberg Research Laboratories. So she and her researchers, they've discovered a new technology concerning grains for the future. And so she should be elected to Carlsberg's Board and other foundations to ensure we have better growth. If she, with her methods and research teams, can get a field of barley in Denmark to say you can harvest twice a year here. You can make money, particularly on wheat exports. I think we all know that. We're a small country, but it is possible already now. You can see that things are happening. But with their methods, if that's possible, I think this will generate more than beer. Soft drinks will continue to go up, beer will go down. And you need to have the right grains. And I think wheat, barley and maize. I also wonder why the government wants more than DKK 1.5 billion when you have this big loss, whether that comes from earlier year -- previous years, I'd like to ask our CEO or the Chairman of the Supervisory Board to comment on that. I have a small thing here for our professor from the laboratory, I don't know if she is present here today. If not, I wish that the CEO or the Chairman of the Supervisory Board would give her this small present. I had quite a lot to do with the laboratory I've been there. Very skillful. So I wrapped this -- is a cup. It's a cup there's no lead on it. It's authentic. Right. Thank you. Don't take it for yourself. No, no. Birgitte is in the room, she has seen it. So. Okay. Thank you for your attention.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. So I believe there were a couple of questions. Jacob, you have the floor.

[Interpreted] Bjorn, please listen. I'm listening. I'm listening, he says. I've written down a number of things. First of all, your many comments, we'll take on board in our work going forward. I do not think I can reply to all of those thoughts. I will reply to your questions. But as always, it's great to have your input and thank you for your strong interest in Carlsberg. There were a number of questions. One of them was a factual question. What number is the right one, concerning the loss in '23? I confirm that the figure that's in our annual report. This figure is correct. I think the auditors that are in the room will appreciate that I say that, is always the financial statements that we use in this context. You had 2 questions concerning compensation, what do we do legally and so on and so forth. And I cannot give you any details where we've complained and so on and so forth. As I said before, we've taken all legal measures that we can and should do in order to safeguard the interest of our shareholders, protect our assets and very importantly, to protect all of our employees. I cannot give you any details concerning which legal steps we have taken. But I promise you that we are receiving all the necessary advice in this field. We're doing everything we can to safeguard shareholders' values and assets here. I cannot give you any more details, I'm afraid. As regards to the big loss from Russia in the financial statement, the DKK 47.7 billion, the amount that I mentioned concerns both the write-down, that's about the DKK 7 billion in Russia. And the remaining amount is then the hedging and accumulated currency reserve that goes back to 2004. It's been included in equity and is now coming in the income statement. So it's kind of accounting technique here, which means that the number looks the way it does. Finally, on your last comment, First of all, on behalf of Birgitte, thank you for this present and thank you for recognizing our skillful employees. We are very proud of the work carrying out in our research laboratories. A number of innovative interventions are coming out there. So we fully agree that a lot of good work is being done there. We really appreciate that work, and we appreciate obviously, Birgitte's work. So the election of Board members will go the usual way. But anyway, I hope I covered your queries. And as I said, thank you for your good comments.

[Interpreted] Thank you. And as announced previously, the last one on our list of speakers is Frank Aaen from Critical Shareholders. You have the floor.

Last year, we raised the question of your tax payments in Denmark. It is quite modest if you listen closely. And just to put that into perspective, we have tried to compare Carlsberg's tax payments with the second largest brewery, Royal Unibrew. We've done that over a period of 5 years. And over those 5 years, Carlsberg paid DKK 80 million in taxes in Denmark. That is a modest number, you must say. Whereas Royal Unibrew for the same period of time has paid DKK 753 million, 9x more. But you should bear in mind that Carlsberg globally is 5x bigger than Unibrew. In Denmark, they are twice as big as Unibrew. Therefore, it is quite odd that so much smaller brewery pays that much more in taxes. I would like a comment on that. What's the trick? And it's not just the last 5 years that tax payments from Carlsberg are low. I'm picking up on the numbers that we see each year from the tax authority about the real tax payments from Danish companies. And therefore, I could go back in my archives and I could see that for the past 12 years, the company has, on average, paid less than DKK 20 million a year in taxes. I don't think that is a lot from such a big company, I know you pay taxes in other countries and you should. But I think what you pay in Denmark is very little. I'm told that, that's because you have a deficit from previous years. And then you can -- and you have write-downs and all of that. Other companies have that too. For 2022, you could deduct DKK 1.4 billion in your tax base in Denmark, DKK 1.4 billion, and that's before the whole Russia thing. I don't know where these come from, but you have deficits from previous years that you could deduct. I'm sure there are quite legal explanations. I'm not going to level any blame that -- I'm not going to say that you are fraudulent in any way, but I would just like to know where those numbers come from. At last year's AGM, there was a large debate about human rights in the [ Xinjiang ] province in China. And we were told that we would receive an extended report this year about human rights. And I have seen this 15-page report about the work you do concerning human rights, It's all well and good. You've also expanded the number of languages that you include in your whistleblower scheme, but there is not one word about the Xinjiang province. Does that mean that you believe that now human rights in that province which is fiercely suppressed by the Chinese regime, do you think that human rights issues are no longer a thing? Or have you simply just ignored the situation there? I would like to know a bit about how things are going when it comes to human rights in the Xinjiang province.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. I give the floor to CEO, Jacob Aarup-Andersen.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Frank. Let's start with the tax payments. And I would like to start by reminding you, as I said in my report that we paid DKK 1.9 billion in taxes in 2023. Please remember, when we talk about tax payments in Denmark, we have a lot of skillful employees in Denmark who pay their taxes as well. And we have an industry with a lot of levies and particular taxes placed on our industry in general. So we do pay a lot of taxes in Denmark. It's correct, as you described, that our taxable earnings has been reduced by deficits from previous years. These are tax deductions and depreciations. In some years, we have been very negatively affected. And there -- furthermore, it's important to remember that we deduct the taxes that we've already paid abroad to ensure that we avoid double taxation of the earnings we have internationally. And that is, of course, also a factor looking at our tax payments. Then you had a question about human rights in Xinjiang. Working with human rights is a continuing process where we continue to strive to improve. That's no secret. As mentioned, for the first time this year, we've issued a human rights report, where we try to shed more lights on the work that we do in this agenda because we believe, just like you do, that increased transparency is the way to go. And we are among the first companies who issue a separate report on human rights issues, and I think that's important as well. In the future, we are going to issue dedicated human rights report every 2 years, and we are going to continuously develop and set new targets in that field. It's correct that it's been difficult to do external audits in that region that you mentioned. I'm not going to hide that, but that does not mean that we do not continue to look into basic human rights in Xinjiang as well as in other provinces in China. We have not been able to find documentation for the situation described in the media and all of our 1,200 employees in Xinjiang are hired under the same conditions as elsewhere, and our human rights policy describes explicitly how we work with these issues. So this is very much a focus point for us, as I'm sure you know, and we're going to be reporting on it continuously with full transparency. So we appreciate that you focus on this aspect, and it is something we continue to follow up on. Of course, we need to live up to our own standards as well as the UN standards wherever we operate. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. It does not seem that there are any follow-up comments or questions, and that means that we have exhausted the speakers list. And it also means that we are going to move on and pass adoption on Items 1 to 4. That means that, first of all, I would like to conclude that the AGM has taken note of the report and the comments and questions from the shareholders. Item 2 to 4 is something we need to approve. First of all, we take Item 2. And here, I can inform you that Carlsberg seeks to account for the precise vote and the voting results, so we don't have to give a full account. We need to make sure that we know how many votes vote in favor and against. And therefore, I suggest that we do so without a written ballot just like previous years. And in relation to the specific items on the agenda, we may determine the exact result of the vote without a ballot if the general meeting agrees to the following procedure. First, the participants can indicate if they wish to vote against a proposal or to abstain from voting. And if a limited number of shareholders wish to vote against the proposal or to abstain from voting, they must do so using the voting slip to either abstain or vote against. I will then assume that all other participants vote in favor of the proposal and the exact results of the vote can thus be determined, because once the votes of the attending shareholders have been recorded, the votes cast by proxy, including instruction proxies and postal votes may be added. And in this way, the exact result of the vote can be determined. If a large number of shareholders indicate that they wish to vote against the proposal, then a written vote will be held. Are there any comments on this approach? Any objections? That does not seem to be the case. We will then proceed to vote on the adoption of the annual report and the granting of discharge. And as I said that this means that we discharge the members of the Supervisory Board and Executive Board when it comes to the issues included in the annual report. Does anyone wish to vote against or abstain? That does not seem to be the case. I can, therefore, conclude that the AGM approves the annual report and that we grant discharge. It brings us to Item 3 on the agenda. This is the proposal for the distribution of the profit for the year, including declaration of dividends. As you've seen in the convening notice, how the Supervisory Board proposes a dividend of DKK 27 per share. According to the Danish Companies Act, the AGM cannot decide a higher dividend than proposed by the Supervisory Board. Does any shareholder wish to vote against or not vote, abstain? Does not seem to be the case. So the motion has been duly carried. Brings us to Item 4, the presentation of and advisory vote on the remuneration report from 2023. So you can see -- so the company's access that this is an advisory vote, so that if shareholders do not approve, then in 2024, they have to explain how they have taken into account the result. Does anyone wish to vote against or abstain from voting on the remuneration report? One person. Bjorn Hansen is approaching.

[Interpreted] No. I have the following proposal. Those that increase in salary, they should get Russian shares and should be put on break for 3 years.

[Interpreted] Duly noted. I did not hear that you wanted to abstain from voting or vote against, but we have included it. I'm sure it will be in the minutes. I can then say that unless anyone else says that they wish to vote against or abstain, in regards to this advisory vote on the remuneration report for 2023, I hereby see that you have voted in favor. So the remuneration report for 2023 has been duly adopted. That brings us to Item 5 on the agenda. These are the incoming motions and the Board has asked me just briefly to present that 5A is adoption of amendment of the remuneration policy for the Supervisory Board and Executive Board of Carlsberg A/S. The Companies Act says that the remuneration policy needs to be adopted at least every 4 years, the Supervisory Board therefore proposes adoption of the attached draft remuneration policy as a whole, the one that the Chairman reviewed in his report. Does that give rise to any comments from the floor? And I have made note of the intervention from ATP. That is not the case. So can I take this to mean that no shareholder wishes to vote against or abstain from voting, in regard to the remuneration policy presented? Okay. I find that the proposal has been duly adopted. That brings us to Item 5A of the agenda, approval of Supervisory Board remuneration for 2024. Now you can see it also in the convening notice, so the proposal is that the base fee is increased by 3.5% to DKK 470,000. And the Chairman explained why. And it also says here that the proposal for 2024. Now the ordinary member will receive the base fee of DKK 470,000. The Chair receives a fee of 4.5x the base fee and to receive no further remuneration for any committee work. The Deputy Chair shall receive 2x the base fee. The Chair of the Remuneration Committee and the Chair of the People & Culture Committee, previously the Nomination Committee, have received fee of 50% of the base fee. The Chair of the Audit Committee received a fee of 113% of the base fee. Ordinary members of the Remuneration Committee and the People & Culture shall receive a fee per committee of 38% of the base fee. Ordinary members of the Audit Committee shall receive a fee of 50% of the base fee. As you have also seen it in the convening notice. Does that give rise to any questions or comments? It's not the case. So does anyone wish to vote against or abstain from voting? Does not seem to be the case. So I find that the motion has been duly approved. That brings us to Item 5C on the agenda, proposal to reduce the company's share capital for the purpose of canceling treasury shares. So the proposal is that the company's share capital will be reduced by DKK 62 million by cancellation of DKK 3.1 million of the company's holding of owned B shares in accordance with the rules on capital reduction with a view to distribution to the shareholders. The shares have been repurchased as part of the company's share buyback program running in the period from the 27th of April '23 to the 23rd of January '24, for a total amount of DKK 2,946,170,199 corresponding to an average repurchase price per share of DKK 950.4. So the capital reduction is carried out at a price of [ DKK 4,751.88. ] As a consequence of the capital reduction, the share capital will be obtained in Article 4 of the Articles of Association after final implementation of the reduction. So does this question give rise to any comments or queries? It's not the case. So I take it -- can I take it to mean that nobody wishes to vote against or abstain from voting? Please show if you want to? No, that is not the case. So I find that the motion has been duly adopted with all votes. That brings us to Item 7, the election of members of the Board. The Board members are elected for 1 year at a time. This is Item 6 on the agenda. And we propose the reelection of Henrik Poulsen, Majken Schultz, Mikael Aro, Magdi Batato, Lilian Fossum Biner, Richard Burrows, Punita Lal and Søren-Peter Fuchs. And we propose new election of Bob Kunze-Concewitz. According to the Companies Act, prior to the election of Board members, information must be given about the executive functions in other companies prior to the election being held. And with the convening notice, you did receive a short presentation of the candidates and a link to the place on the company's website where you can find more information about the other executive functions of the candidates. So are there any nominations? That is not the case. So the candidates, the 9 candidates listed have all been elected. Congratulations. That leads us to Item 7, election of auditor. And here, the supervisory report in accordance with the Audit Committee's recommendation proposes that PricewaterhouseCoopers be reelected. It is also proposed by the Supervisory Board that this include the issue of an assurance report on the sustainability reporting in the management review. That is due to the fact that the new EU directive means that the general meeting must now elect an auditor both to audit the financial statements and to issue an assurance report on the sustainability reporting. Are there any other proposals? That is not the case, and that means that PricewaterhouseCoopers has been reelected. Congratulations. That leads me to Item 8, which is technicality. But the proposal is that the Chair of General Meeting, which is me, is authorized to register the resolutions passed with the Danish Business Authority and to make such additions there too and amendments therein, including to the Articles of Association as the authority may require for registration. This rarely gives rise to any questions or comments, but let me ask nonetheless, if there are any comments. That is not the case. Thus, anyone wish to vote against or abstain from voting. That is not the case either. And I can, therefore, conclude that the proposal is adopted. That means that we have exhausted our agenda for today. Thank you for good order and for your constructive participation in the AGM, and I give the floor back to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Mr. Henrik Poulsen.

Thank you very much, Anders. All that is left for me is to thank our Chair of the AGM for his competent help today to steer us safely through the AGM. Thank you to all our shareholders. And once again, thank you for your support.