DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA (DWS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] We hope to facilitate a focused exchange at the AGM. Follow-up questions are, of course, still possible. You can also ask new questions if they relate to new facts that may have arisen after the line for submitting questions. Just how this will be done and how this works, I will explain in greater detail prior to the start of the general debate. Overall, we are convinced that the further developed interactive format of the AGM is more shareholder and environmentally friendly than a face-to-face event. We also believe it makes sense to try out different formats, each of which is new, and then evaluate them for future AGMs. In order to have the necessary flexibility for the future, we also ask you to approve agenda item 8 to be able to hold the AGM virtually in the next 2 years, if necessary. I will come back to this later. Ladies and gentlemen, before turning to the contents of my speech, let me take you through the formalities required at an AGM. Ladies and gentlemen, the Annual General Meeting was convened in proper form and in due time with the publication of the agenda in the Federal Gazette on 3rd of May 2023. All members of the management of the General Partner are present here today: Stefan Hoops, Claire Peel, Karen Kuder, Angela Maragkopoulou, Manfred Bauer, and Dirk Goergen. I am pleased to be able to welcome all of you in person here today, with the exception of Minoru Kimura, who, unfortunately, cannot be here today, but of course, follows the AGM online. The members of the Supervisory Board are also present here today. For the shareholder representatives, these are my deputy, Ute Wolf, Bernd Leukert, Margret Suckale, Aldo Cardoso Annabelle Bexiga, and Richard Morris. And for the employee representatives, Said Zanjani, Erwin Stengele, Stephan Accorsini, and Angela Meurer. Let me also welcome all of you very warmly here today. Ladies and gentlemen, with the close of today's Annual General Meeting, the appointment period of the shareholder representatives on the Supervisory Board will end, so that a total of 8 shareholder representatives have to be newly elected here today. For its election proposals, the Supervisory Board follows the recommendations of the shareholder representatives and the Nomination Committee. With the close of today's Annual General Meeting, Ms. Bexiga and Mr. Kimura will step down from the Supervisory Board as shareholder representatives. We thank both of them very warmly for their good and constructive cooperation on our Supervisory Board. Mr. Toda and Professor Bannier will shortly introduce themselves as new candidates to the Supervisory Board. Therefore, just some preliminary information at this point. Kazuhide Toda is senior fellow of Nippon Life Insurance Company. He has had leadership positions at Nippon Life for more than 15 years, including the role of Chief Investment Officer. His last function was Managing Executive Officer. Professor Christina Bannier is Professor of Banking and Finance at Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen. Professor Bannier has extensive expertise in sustainable investments and asset management, corporate governance and compliance, as well as data analysis and artificial intelligence. So much in terms of information about the two new nominees at this point. For today's election, the Supervisory Board, therefore, proposes the following persons under the agenda item 7: Ute Wolf, Aldo Cardoso, Bernd Leukert, Richard Morris, Margret Suckale, Kazuhide Toda, Professor Dr. Christina E. Bannier, and myself. Moreover, ladies and gentlemen, our notary public, Dr. Habetha, is sitting on the right-hand side from your perspective. He will be taking notarized minutes of today's Annual General Meeting. The list of participants is currently being drawn up. Once the list has been completed, I will announce the attendance. The tenant area covers Level C to here at the Congress Center of the Frankfurt trade fair grounds, Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage 1 in Frankfurt. This is where the studio and the back office are located. But the technical counting of the votes will take place later today. Moreover, the company's proxy is present here as well. The agenda with the wording of the proposed resolutions is on display here. The notary public also has a copy at hand. You will also find the full wording of the agenda on our website. Today, the entire Annual General Meeting is transmitted live via an audio and video transmission on our website. Our shareholders and the interested public are, therefore, able to follow the webcast. All statements up to the end of the CEO's speech will be retrievable via our website after the close of today's AGM. Ladies and gentlemen, so much for the formalities. Let me now turn to the report of the Supervisory Board on its activities in the completed financial year. The main activities of the Supervisory Board in financial year 2022 are covered on Pages VI to XIII of our Annual Report 2022. Therefore, I would like to highlight that some of the topics will be dealt with at this point. The Supervisory Board and its standing committee had a total of 20 meetings last year. The average attendance rate was more than 96%. The Supervisory Board met 10 times for full meetings. In addition to monitoring day-to-day business operations and addressing the financial performance of DWS, we primarily dealt with business events and transactions of material importance to the company as well as important personnel matters. In addition, we considered issues of corporate management and organization as well as compliance and control topics, and the governance standards implemented by DWS. The key task in reporting here was to support the Executive Board during its strategy review. I will come back to this point separately later on. We also dealt with the multiyear transformation program to replace the existing complex IT infrastructure. Here, the first technical migrations were successfully carried out as part of the ongoing implementation phase. DWS remains on track to build a stand-alone state-of-the-art scalable and efficient operational platform tailored to the needs of its fiduciary business. With regard to ESG, that is sustainability issues, we, as the Supervisory Board, have focused extensively on the continually evolving reporting disclosure standards for our products. In doing so, we have addressed the dynamic environment of regulatory frameworks and client requirements. Besides these ESG business topics, our plenary sessions and the Adhoc Committee formed for this purpose in 2021 also continued to deal with the allegations regarding DWS' ESG reporting, which have preoccupied us since March 2021. The search of DWS' business premises by the Frankfurt public prosecutor in May 2022, once again, increased the public focus on this issue. The task of the Adhoc Committee is to ensure ongoing and efficient monitoring of the Executive Board's handling and management of the ESG matter. In particular, this applies to the request for information from authorities in the U.S. and in Germany. The Adhoc Committee receives regular reports from the Executive Board and the legal advisers retained as required. To date, no matters have arisen from this that would have necessitated a separate examination or any measures to be adopted by the Supervisory Board beyond the investigations carried out in the current or previous reporting period. As also reported last year, the Supervisory Board extended the mandate of the Adhoc Committee in February 2022 in order to include a review of the use of electronic communication systems by the Executive Board. For this purpose, it commissioned an investigation to be carried out by external legal advisors. This investigation was overseen in the Adhoc Committee by Supervisory Board member, Bernd Leukert, and did not reveal any indications of breaches of duties by any members of the Executive Board that would go beyond the use of private electronic communication systems for business purposes contrary to company policies. The following topics were also discussed at Supervisory Board meetings: We received reports on new co-operation opportunities and jointly with the Executive Board analyzed how DWS can further develop strategic partnerships in important business segments. We also received reports on various possible takeover targets and looked at how we could enable DWS to achieve economies of scale, strengthen its product expertise or its global presence. Furthermore, we supervised the implementation of central transformation initiatives and supported them with our advice. As every year, the Supervisory Board also dealt with the Dependency Report, which lists the company's relationships with affiliated companies and thus with Deutsche Bank. This Dependency Report was prepared by the Executive Board and audited by KPMG as auditors. KPMG did not raise any objections and issued an unqualified audit opinion. Its wording can be found on page XII of the Annual Report 2022. The Supervisory Board had no objections during its review of the Dependency Report and the Audit Report by KPMG. Likewise, there were no grounds for objections to the final declarations of the Executive Board. The Audit and Risk Committee met 7 times under the chairmanship of Ms. Wolf. It supported the Supervisory Board in monitoring the accounting processes. I'm sorry. There's just been some technical hiccup. I have to wait for one moment. I'm sorry, I have to apologize, ladies and gentlemen. The video does not seem to work properly, so I can't really see anything at this point, but I hope we will sort this out in a moment. Thank you. The Audit Committee supports the Supervisory Board in monitoring the accounting process and intensively deals with the Annual Financial Statements and Consolidated Financial Statements, as well as the Interim Report and the audit and review reports issued by the independent auditor. The Audit and Risk Committee also monitored the effectiveness of the Group's risk management system, particularly with regard to the internal control system and internal audit. It also considered the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine and DWS' transformation programs. The Committee also reviewed the continuous improvement of the internal risk warning systems. This included integrating sustainability risks into the risk management framework. The Committee also looked at the company's ongoing implementation of the European Union's supervisory framework for investment firms. Another focus of the Committee's work was the ongoing engagement with ESG-related regulatory initiatives. Ladies and gentlemen, the Remuneration Committee, chaired by Ms. Suckale, held two meetings in 2022. It addressed the appropriate design of the remuneration systems for DWS employees and key risk takers. In addition, the Committee continued to monitor the Group's cultural change program. In terms of corporate culture, the Committee discussed the results of corresponding employee surveys in great detail. The Nomination Committee, chaired by myself, met once in 2022. It supported the efficiency review of the Supervisory Board, assessed in particular the results of this evaluation, identified focus areas and recommended possible measures to be adopted to the Supervisory Board. Details on the activities of the Committees are found on pages IX to XI of the Annual Report. Now please allow me to also explain the activities carried out by the Joint Committee in the completed financial year. You can find more detailed information on this starting from page XVI of our Annual Report. The Joint Committee met 3 times in 2022. In accordance with its statutory duties and powers, the Committee discussed variable remuneration and individual targets for the Managing Directors of the General Partner in great detail. The Joint Committee submitted proposals on these topics to the shareholders’ meeting of the General Partner because the shareholders meeting is responsible for defining remuneration for the managing directors and has followed these proposals. In July 2022, the Joint Committee also looked into the Supervisory Board's investigation into the use of electronic communication systems by the Executive Board. Ladies and gentlemen, following these rather formal remarks, let us now move on to the higher-level business issues. Since last year's Annual General Meeting, DWS has made good operational progress. In addition, the company has delivered solid financial results. Let me share a few examples with you. DWS extended the strategic alliance with Nippon Life for another five years and formed a local strategic alliance with KB Asset Management, the asset manager of Korea's largest financial conglomerate. In addition, DWS has set up a new Digital Strategy, Products and Solutions team. Here it pools its activities around digital assets and currencies, digital channels and programming interfaces. The company announced a first strategic alliance in this space a few weeks ago. Besides, DWS agreed and closed the transfer of its Private Equity Solutions business to Brookfield Asset Management. This will allow DWS to focus on new initiatives in the Alternatives business. Furthermore, as announced in October 2021, DWS completed the transfer of its digital investment platform to its strategic partner, BlackFin Capital Partners. In addition, DWS has adapted its sustainability governance and structure to reflect, among other things, the changing approach to sustainability in the asset management industry. DWS' progress in sustainability is also reflected by the CDP rating of the formerly so-called Carbon Disclosure Project, which improved from ”B“ to ”A-“. Ladies and gentlemen, Stefan Hoops will present the strategic progress delivered by DWS in the past 12 months in greater detail in a moment. Let us now turn to the financial results delivered in the completed financial year. The environment for asset managers and thus also for DWS proved to be extremely difficult in 2022. The war in Ukraine and its consequences for energy prices and supply chains, as well as the dramatic rise in inflation and subsequent interest rate hikes, had a major impact on economies and stock markets worldwide. As a result, asset prices fell across almost all asset classes. In this environment, DWS was not able to match the record figures delivered in the previous year and did not fully manage to escape the industry-wide net outflows. However, thanks to its diversified business model and expertise, DWS achieved net inflows in some high-margin products in 2022. Revenues almost matched the record level achieved in the previous year. In terms of management fees, DWS was even able to surpass the high level from the year before. However, increased costs and exceptional items led to a decline in both adjusted profit before tax and net income. But even in the unfavorable environment of 2022, adjusted profit before tax exceeded EUR 1 billion. Based on this overall very solid financial performance, we propose an increased dividend of now EUR 2.05 per share for the fourth consecutive year. Ladies and gentlemen, last year also saw a change at the top of the DWS Executive Board. I already provided an extensive report on this at last year's Annual General Meeting. This was followed by some organizational changes at DWS and further changes in the Executive Board. Karen Kuder joined the Board as Chief Administrative Officer and Angela Maragkopoulou as Chief Operating Officer. They have taken over the duties of Mark Cullen, who left the DWS Executive Board by mutual agreement at the end of 2022. Stefan Kreuzkamp also left DWS at that time, also by mutual agreement. Both former colleagues deserve our sincere and heartfelt thanks for their extraordinary commitment over the past few years. With Mark Cullen, a well-respected leader has left the company. He was instrumental in moving DWS forward during his tenure. In doing so, he placed a special focus on costs and efficiency as well as strengthening of the control functions. He also took the first important steps towards a stand-alone modern asset management technology platform for DWS. Stefan Kreuzkamp too played a decisive role in the success of DWS in recent years, especially since the IPO in 2018. He brought together DWS' outstanding expertise in all asset classes into a powerful Investment Division. Under his leadership as Chief Investment Officer and as Head of the Investment Division, DWS’' portfolio managers have outperformed the competition many times, creating added value for our clients. Moreover, our CFO, Claire Peel, informed us at the end of May that she is planning to resign from her mandate on the DWS Executive Board towards the end of the third quarter of 2023. The shareholders of DWS Management GmbH has since launched a succession process to appoint a new CFO for DWS in a timely manner. This process includes both internal candidates and the search for new external candidates. Claire Peel, who has been CFO of DWS since 2018, will fulfill her role until she leaves to ensure an orderly handover. With Claire, we are losing an excellent CFO who is held in high esteem by the capital markets. She has accompanied DWS through a challenging phase since its IPO and has made a decisive contribution to the further development of our company's reputation in the market. We would like to express our most sincere and heartfelt thanks to her. With Karen Kuder and Angela Maragkopoulou, we have gained two exceptional individuals who have achieved outstanding success in their respective fields. We have therefore strengthened the Executive Board in a selective manner with excellent legal and technological expertise. The 2 of them will strengthen the control functions on the one hand by also driving the transformation towards a modern stand-alone IT platform further ahead on the other. These are two key projects to help DWS on its path to becoming a stand-alone, listed asset manager, both of which will help shape the further development of DWS. Last year, DWS also further refined its strategy. After the change of CEO, Stefan Hoops and the entire Executive Board reviewed the strategic direction of the company and set new priorities. The Supervisory Board closely followed this process in its meetings and at a two-day strategy session. In December 2022, DWS presented its further refined strategy, including its new financial targets, to the public at its Capital Markets Day. Based on the respective competencies and growth prospects in each market segment, we have grouped the strategic projects into four categories: “Reduce”, “Value”, “Growth” and “Build”. Our CEO, Stefan Hoops, will explain to you in a moment what this means in detail, and what DWS' new financial targets are like. The overall goal of this strategy is to harness the full potential of the company and to thereby increase the value for you, our shareholders. In Germany, DWS wants to maintain its leading position and tap into further potential in Europe. In order to do so, it is focusing on building additional partnerships, making greater use of its Xtrackers business and leveraging its capabilities in Alternatives to support the European transformation. DWS is aiming to mobilize up to EUR 20 billion in private capital through a variety of investment opportunities by 2027. By doing so, it aims to help finance the absolutely necessary transformation of Europe as a location of business and enable its clients to invest in the further development of our continent. In the Americas, DWS wants to expand the Xtrackers brand and its Alternatives business. In Asia Pacific, it wants to build on strong strategic partnerships. Ladies and gentlemen, DWS is working at full speed to implement this refined strategy. I already referred to the first progress made earlier. In recent months, there has also been a particular focus on efficiency measures to finance these strategic investments from our own funds as planned. Our return to net inflows in the first quarter of 2023 also shows that DWS is back on track in terms of growth. Accordingly, Assets under Management also increased in the first three months of the year. This was a tough task given the difficult environment, but it reflects the great dedication of the entire DWS team globally. I would like to express my sincere thanks on behalf of the Supervisory Board to the Executive Board and all employees for this hard work delivered. At the same time, we do not expect to see a quick recovery in the environment for asset managers in the current situation. While the peak of inflation seems to have passed and the economic outlook has brightened somewhat, ongoing global tensions continue to cause great uncertainty, so that market volatility remains high. Nevertheless, I am convinced that DWS, with its further refined strategy, its highly motivated employees, and its broad range of products and services, is well-positioned to seize market opportunities and to continue successfully tackling the challenges of the asset management industry. Distinct shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, the further details of our business development in 2022 and the strategy of DWS will now be presented to you by our CEO, Stefan Hoops. Thank you.

Thank you very much dear Karl von Rohr. Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the entire Executive Board, I would like to welcome you to the Fifth Annual General Meeting of the DWS Group. For me, this is the first Annual General Meeting at our company. It also means that I have been able to speak on behalf of DWS for almost exactly one year now. In the special situation that prevailed at the time I joined DWS, my main concern was to ensure stability in the company. To this end, I talked to many colleagues, clients, and also to some of you, dear shareholders. In the end, we were able to prevent that important colleagues and clients turn their backs on DWS. I would like to thank them most sincerely for the trust they have placed in us. Following this first phase, we in the Executive Board looked closely at the changing conditions for asset managers. The main focus was, of course, the challenge of falling asset prices combined with rising inflation-driven costs. In addition, we discussed the fundamental changes in our industry, such as the disruption of business models by FinTechs and digital assets as well as the decoupling of various asset classes. Building on this analysis, we then reviewed and further refined DWS' strategy together with the Supervisory Board in the following months. Ladies and gentlemen, before I present the cornerstones of this strategy and the strategic progress since the last AGM, I would first like to look back with you at our results in the past year and in the first quarter of 2023. 2022 was what I have repeatedly called the “ultimate super bear scenario” for DWS. Globally, all asset classes were under pressure. Since February 2022, we have had to deal with another terrible war in Europe. As a result, we have faced energy supply shortages and related concerns about the German economy. In addition, there were DWS-specific challenges such as the allegations of so-called greenwashing that have been publicly discussed since the summer of 2021. All in all, this was an extremely difficult environment for the entire industry, in which your DWS was particularly challenged for specific reasons. On the subject of greenwashing allegations, I would like to emphasize again today, DWS has been cooperating actively, openly and transparently with the authorities since the beginning of the investigations. The resolution of the allegations and conclusion of the external investigations remain a top priority for the Executive Board. Unfortunately, it is still not possible for us to talk today about potential results or the timeframes of the official investigations. We are dependent on the timing of the authorities here. With regard to our internal reviews, we can reiterate, we continue to stand by our financial disclosures and the prospectuses of our funds. At the same time, we have of course drawn lessons from the ever-changing regulatory framework and our own findings. That is why we continue to improve our sustainability-related governance, processes and controls. More on this later. Ladies and gentlemen, in this extremely challenging environment, DWS generated 2022 net inflows into high-margin Alternatives as well as into Active, Multi-Asset and ESG products thanks to its diversified business model and expertise. Overall, however, DWS was unable to escape the industry-wide net outflows. As a result, net inflows, which had previously been strong for three years, have stalled for the time being. Net outflows were mainly from Fixed Income, Cash and Passive, each of which have relatively lower 2 margins. Across the board, the average management fee margin improved accordingly year-on-year. Assets under management declined to EUR 821 billion, mainly due to market movements. This also corresponds more or less with the decline at our competitors. Yet, in the exceptionally difficult years of 2022, our relentless focus on acting as a fiduciary for our clients paid off. Thanks to the continued support of our clients, the perseverance of our colleagues and the strength of our business model, we were able to keep our adjusted revenues almost stable at EUR 2.7 billion. We even increased our management fees by another 4% compared to the record value of the previous year. Despite inflationary pressures and investments into growth initiatives, adjusted costs only increased slightly by 3% to EUR 1.6 billion, as we continued our strict cost control. The adjusted cost-income ratio was at a good level at 60.6% in 2022, in line with our 2022 guidance of around 60%. Adjusted Profit before tax decreased by 7% in 2022 compared to the record level of 2021. However, at just under EUR 1.1 billion, it was still far above the values of the previous years. The net income decreased by 23% to EUR 599 million in 2022. This was due to a number of special items. Among others, we had to deal with an impairment of non-amortized intangible assets and a planned increase in transformation costs. So despite the challenging environment, your DWS delivered solid results last year. Based on these results, we are proposing to pay a higher dividend at the Annual General Meeting for the fourth year in a row. Specifically, EUR 2.05 per share for the 2022 financial year. Ladies and gentlemen, we also see the 2022 financial results as an indication that DWS is stable and on track. The reason for this is once again our employees, who have worked hard with the highest motivation and a strong sense of responsibility as trustees for the assets of our clients. I would like to thank them for this, also on behalf of my colleagues on the DWS Executive Board. Even in the turbulent market environment of the first quarter of 2023, clients trusted our performance and advice. Thanks to their continued demand, we recorded net inflows again of EUR 8.8 billion, excluding cash. Our strong market position enabled us to record net inflows into Active funds as well as Xtrackers and ESG products from both institutional and retail investors. In addition, our assets under management increased compared to the end of last year to EUR 841 billion at the end of March. The adjusted cost-income ratio stood at 66.3% in the first quarter, well above the 2022 ratio as expected, and we are on track to achieve our guidance of below 65% in 2023, a year in which we will have high transformation-related costs, as announced. This is because we are working on a dual platform in 2023, –both that of Deutsche Bank and our own. We are thus continuing to build up our own capabilities to drive our development towards becoming a stand-alone asset manager. Ladies and gentlemen, this step towards independence is greatly important for our future success. But what I mentioned briefly at the start is equally important. We must regularly review DWS' strategy and adapt it with foresight in order to respond to changes in our environment. This includes trends in the financial industry and changes in client behavior, but also regulatory developments and social challenges. And there has been a lot going on here recently. Therefore, we in the Executive Board carried out a detailed analysis of our business last year and also discussed this intensively with the Supervisory Board. Based on our respective capabilities and growth prospects in each market segment, we have divided our business areas into the following four categories: Value, Growth, Build and Reduce. What do we mean by these? In Value, we are focused on maintaining our leadership position in mature markets. To do this, we want to expand thematic equity offerings and ESG products within our equities business. Equities is hugely important to our business model, especially our retail business. This has always remained one of our focal points. In Multi Asset and SQI, which is the business with multi-asset and systematic and quantitative investments, we want to grow by building a modular investment platform. In Fixed Income, which includes the business with fixed income securities, our focus is on developing multisector strategies. A topic that is particularly close to my heart in relation to Active portfolio management. We will anchor a positive performance culture even more strongly at DWS. It is important to achieve a good risk-adjusted return for our clients through diversified investments. However, it is not enough for us to simply outperform the respective benchmark index. It must be our aim to manage our clients' money better than our competitors. That is why we are working on linking the evaluation and remuneration of our portfolio managers more closely to the excess returns they generate for our clients. Of course, this does not mean achieving success at any price. A positive performance culture is rooted in our fiduciary responsibilities, discipline and integrity. And it goes without saying that it must follow laws and regulations at all times, no ifs, ands or buts. And, of course, we will stand by our managers in dry spells. For certain investment strategies, we sometimes need to have patience and trust in the assumptions and abilities of our colleagues. But it is also clear, if the performance is not right for too long, we have to act. Ultimately, this is like in sports and cannot be different for us either if we want to justify our raison d'être to our clients. Ladies and gentlemen, let us now turn to our second category, Growth. Here we are mainly focused on expanding our core skills. The Growth category includes business areas where we already have strong capabilities and can build on attractive growth rates in the respective market segment. At the same time, it reflects our unwavering global ambitions. For example, we want to continue expanding our Xtrackers and Passive business worldwide. This is because we are firmly convinced of the continued strong growth of Passive products, which are highly profitable given a certain size. In Europe, DWS aims to regain its #2 position in exchange-traded funds and products such as ETFs. Building on our strength in the European ETF market, we are also investing in an ambitious growth plan for the US, which remains the largest market for Passive products worldwide. The focus there will be on customized Passive products. Our goal is to grow total Passive Assets under Management at a compound annual growth rate of more than 12% until 2025. We also want to expand our Alternatives investments business. In the coming years, we see considerable potential for upside here–, despite the subdued start to the year in the asset class globally. On the one hand, the potential is driven by a fundamental growing demand from private investors. On the other hand, we also expect growth to be driven by the increasingly important role of asset managers in lending. Here the keyword is private credit. We have more than 50 years of experience in Alternative investments and a well-established Infrastructure and Real Estate business. On this basis, we have set ourselves the goal of increasing Assets under Management in Alternatives at a compound annual growth rate of more than 10% from 2022 to 2025. One particular growth area where we will leverage our strong capabilities in Alternatives is providing risk capital for the European transformation. By 2027, we aim to mobilize up to EUR 20 billion of private capital to help finance transformation needs in Europe. At the same time, this will enable our clients to invest in and benefit from the continent's further development. We aim to meet the financing needs for the European transformation through a series of investment solutions. We already announced the first of these investment strategies in March. It offers investors and, for the first time, German retail investors, the opportunity to invest in European infrastructure projects. In our third category, “Build”, we want to develop business areas with high potential. To do this, we have primarily looked at long-term trends and identified business areas in which we want to develop capabilities for future growth. These areas will initially receive seed funding, with further tranches of funding only released once tangible progress has been made. On the one hand, we are interested in building so-called API capabilities in order to be able to offer products and services via digital platforms. This is because clients are increasingly choosing their products via third-party platforms. On the other hand, we want to bring products onto the blockchain. We are convinced that the time has come for trusted, regulated market participants to offer services on the blockchain. That is why we are working, for example, on bringing so-called “digital twins” to the market, which make existing funds investable for clients with digital wallets. Furthermore, we are striving to issue a Euro Stablecoin, that is a digital currency that is backed one-to-one by the Euro. In the medium term, our vision is to become a “tokenizer” ourselves, that is to be able to bring real and virtual assets onto the blockchain. We consider this additional service relevant because we believe that more and more assets will be mapped on to the blockchain in the future. This also opens up opportunities for trusted providers like your DWS. As a first important step in this direction, we've already agreed a strategic alliance with Galaxy Digital at the end of April. The aim of this alliance is to develop digital asset management solutions in Europe. Together, we want to drive the development of ETPs–, exchange-traded products, on certain digital assets such as cryptocurrencies in Europe in the future. Hopefully, this will soon allow our clients to have secure access to digital assets through well-known and trusted investment vehicles. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings me to our fourth category: “Reduce”. In order to self-finance the upcoming investments in growth with a total of EUR 70 million by the end of 2024, we are shifting financial resources from other areas of DWS. In doing so, we have identified several levers with which we can save costs on the one hand, but which should not have an undue negative impact on the business on the other hand. The measures include divesting businesses, reducing hierarchies in the organizational structure and basically streamlining the management structure. And this is exactly how we have begun to implement our strategy. Ladies and gentlemen, since the last Annual General Meeting, and especially since we announced our refined strategy in December last year, we have already made some important progress in implementing our strategy. We have already carried out the most significant restructuring activities in the first quarter of 2023. As part of this, we had to part with about 15% of our managers. This was not easy for everyone involved, but it was necessary. We would like to thank all former colleagues for their valuable contribution during their time at DWS. At the same time, we also started the planned strategic divestments. Firstly, we completed the transfer of our digital investment platform to our strategic partner BlackFin. As DWS holds a 30% stake in the new company MorgenFund, we still benefit from our partner's expertise and growth opportunities in the platform market. Secondly, we have transferred our Private Equity Solutions business to Brookfield Asset Management. This transaction also allows us to focus on financing new initiatives. And we will do so in the key areas where we are strong;– in Alternatives, for example, in Real Assets, and in the growing Private Credit segment. With Paul Kelly, our new Global Head of Alternatives, we have gained an excellent professional with many years of experience, including as Chief Operating Officer at the world's largest private credit provider. However, we have not only downsized and restructured in the past 12 months, but we were also able to agree on important strategic partnerships to secure future revenues. First and foremost is the extension of our strategic alliance with Nippon Life for another five years. As part of the strategic alliance, we have agreed with Nippon Life to work on expanding distribution reach and product innovation. We have also formed a local strategic alliance with KB Asset Management, the asset manager of South Korea's largest financial conglomerate, the KB Financial Group. The aim of the alliance is to combine our respective capabilities to jointly identify and best develop business opportunities in the asset management industry in South Korea. We have also made further progress in our transformation into a stand-alone asset manager. For example, over the past 12 months, we have internalized employees who were already providing services for us. Most recently, this involved around 600 employees in India who are now based in DWS entities. We have also made progress in building our own IT infrastructure platform. This is an essential building block for establishing DWS as a stand-alone asset manager and one that is largely independent from Deutsche Bank's IT. For example, we were able to gradually commission new applications that are tailored to the requirements of our fiduciary business. In this context, as already mentioned, we will operate on a dual platform in the current year before we can switch to our own IT system. As I mentioned at the start, we have not only adjusted our organizational setup for sustainability, but we have also defined our sustainability strategy as a whole for the future. First, let me turn to our setup in the area of sustainability. For the new organizational structure, we have taken into account both the changed sustainability approach of the asset management industry and the evolving needs and wishes of our stakeholders, especially our clients. We are pursuing a three-pronged approach. The sustainability strategy is the responsibility of a dedicated team that reports to me. We have transferred responsibility for implementing the strategy to the business units, which make decisions in a Group Sustainability Committee as a committee of the Executive Board. We have also established a Sustainability Oversight Office as a control unit to monitor compliance with sustainability governance throughout the company. These adjustments will help us to continue to consistently implement our sustainability strategy, processes and controls across our organization. Allow me now to outline our sustainability strategy. As a company and also as a trusted partner to our clients, we have a critical role to play in supporting the transition to a more sustainable future. Our newly updated sustainability strategy fleshes out our role, goals and priorities. A particular focus is on climate change. Because, ladies and gentlemen, there is no doubt in scientific terms. Climate change poses one of the greater risks to humanity and also to the global economy. If we want to limit climate change, the global community must take action and change. For DWS, the following applies: We are first and foremost trustees of our clients' assets. We invest the money entrusted to us in line with the goals and interests of our clients. And in doing so, we aim to create long-term assets, taking account of investment risks and opportunities appropriately. This also includes taking into consideration risks from climate change and opportunities from climate protection. At the same time, as one of the largest asset managers in Europe, we have a duty to make our own positive contribution to the transformation towards a more sustainable future. This means that we want to use our market position and influence to drive the necessary process of transformation together with our clients and the companies in which we invest. Along the way, there will be situations where the interests of our stakeholders will conflict. For example, when it comes to the conflict between short-term energy supply security for industry and households versus the necessary decarbonization of our society, as was the case last year. Or when the demand to exclude so-called “brown” companies from the investment universe collides with the approach as active shareholders to move these companies towards a sustainable transformation. We see it as part of our responsibility to enter into dialogue with our clients and the public to address such conflicts with our stakeholders and to find compromises. In the long-term, we want to contribute to a harmonization of perspectives. Our overarching goal is to support our clients in managing sustainable change in the real economy. To this end, we stand by them with our investment expertise and appropriate solutions. To underpin this goal, we have built our sustainability strategy around three priorities. First, we want to make new climate-related investment opportunities accessible to our clients. Second, we want to further strengthen our engagement with businesses and other relevant stakeholders. And third, we want to continue to drive our own business transformation towards a more sustainable future. This is in line with our philosophy as a responsible trustee of our clients' assets. As already mentioned by Karl von Rohr, our sustainability efforts have also been recognized externally. With our improved CDP rating of A-, we now rank in the top 5 of all asset managers. Ladies and gentlemen, with the measures we have initiated and the financial results of the first quarter, we are on track to achieve our goals for the current year. With the announcement of our refined strategy in December last year, we have also set new financial targets until 2025. I already outlined the targeted growth rates in Passive including Xtrackers as well as for our Alternatives business. The most important goal for us is to achieve earnings per share of EUR 4.50 in 2025. By then, the adjusted cost-income ratio should be below 59%. Through gross cost savings and our optimized platform, we expect annual efficiency gains of around EUR 100 million as of the year 2025. We are also aiming for an attractive payout ratio of around 65% by 2025. Furthermore, we expect to propose an extraordinary dividend of up to EUR 1 billion in 2024, subject to capital commitment for organic and inorganic growth initiatives. Dear shareholders, I can promise you one thing with certainty. Together our management team will do everything in its powers to achieve these ambitious goals, so that we can increase the value of the company for you. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you very much, Dr. Stefan Hoops, for your explanations, which should give the shareholders a good overview of the current state of affairs of our company. Ladies and gentlemen, before we enter into the agenda, we want to first commemorate the employees and pensioners of DWS who have passed. I would thus like to ask you to be silent for a moment and raise from your seats. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for raising to commemorate the deceased. We are now to announce the attendance at today's AGM. On the basis of the available data, attendance is as follows. The share capital of the company of EUR 200 million is subdivided into EUR 200 million non-par value shares. 177,985,600 non-par value shares with the same number of votes represented at this AGM, which corresponds to 89% of the share capital. Over and above this, 166,315 ballot votes were received, absentee votes, which results in 178,151,950 non-par value shares being present and represented, which corresponds to 89.08% of the share capital. The attendance list can be inspected in our access protected shareholder portal. Apart from attendance, also participating shareholders and shareholder representatives can be found there. This is true for the entire duration of the AGM, and if necessary, naming the shareholders who have provided a proxy. Shareholders who have registered properly and proven their shareholding can cast the votes via the share portal up until the end or closing of the voting process. Alternatively, you can give proxies and instructions to the proxy holders of the company and also change your instructions. We'll inform you of the exact point in time when the portal will be closed for such entries. If you want to access the portal, please use the access data on your registration confirmation, which you received after having properly registered and provide approval of your shareholding. We will now enter into today's agenda, which comprises 8 items. Item number 1 is the reporting of DWS for the business year 2022. This includes, amongst other things, the established annual financial statements and the Management Board for DWS Group GmbH as approved by the Supervisory Board prepared according to the rules of the German Commercial Code, HGB. Also the approved consolidated financial statements and consolidated management report according to IFRS and report of the Supervisory Board. Ladies and gentlemen, these documents as well as the proposal for the appropriation of distributable profit have been made available on our website since May 3, 2023. This is the day of convocation of the AGM. In addition, to this date we made available for inspection in the business premises. The annual financial statements and the management report as well as the consolidated financial statements and the consolidated management report has been audited by KPMG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, the auditor. This was elected in 2022. Neither the audit through the auditor nor the review of the Supervisory Board, which also included a proposal for the appropriation of the distributed profit, have given rise to any objections. The auditor issued an unqualified auditor's report. The Supervisory Board has approved the annual financial statement and the consolidated financial statement at its meeting on March 13, 2023. Establishment of the annual financial statement is the prerogative of today's AGM. Other than that, I'd like to refer you to my introductory remarks regarding the report of Supervisory Board, which you will find on Pages VI to XIII of the annual report for 2022. The auditors, Mr. Fox and Mr. Anders of KPMG are also present here today in this room. The full text version of the agenda, comprising all the items on the agenda and every detail can be retrieved from our AGM. It comprises item number 2, appropriation of distributable profit. The General Partner at the Supervisory Board proposed to pay out a dividend in the amount of EUR 2.05 from a distributed per share from the distributable profit for 2022. Item number 3 and 4 of the agenda, ratification of the acts of management of the General Partner and the members of the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2022. Item number 5 of the agenda, election of the auditor of the annual financial statements and of the consolidated financial statements for 2023 and potential interim financial reports. The Supervisory Board, based on the recommendation of its Audit and Risk Committee, proposes to elect KPMG Aktiengesellschaft Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft. Ladies and gentlemen, item number 6 of the agenda. This item on the agenda includes the annual resolution on the approval of the compensation report for the business year 2022. Item number 7 of the agenda. Item number 7 is about the elections to the Supervisory Board. The appointment period as members of the Supervisory Board of the shareholder representatives ends scheduled with the conclusion of the general meeting today. So based on the recommendation of the shareholder representatives and the Nomination Committee, the Supervisory Board thus proposes the election of 8 shareholder representatives to the Supervisory Board. This is done by way of individual election. And I'll come back to that later on. Item number 8 of the agenda is about two changes of the articles of association. On one hand, the General Partner and the Supervisory Board propose to authorize the General Partner to allow for virtual meetings without physical presence of the shareholders or their representatives to be held, if appropriate. This is in a virtual format. This authorization has to be valid for a period of 2 years from the point of time of entry of the changes to the Articles of Association in the commercial register. Other than that, Item number 8 also provides for me a change in the wording of the Articles of Association with regard to transmission of the AGM in electronic format over electronic media. Finally, I would also like to make you aware of the fact that 3 counter proposals were published on our website in keeping with the legal requirements according to Section 126 and 127 German Stock Corporation Law. Precondition for this was that we receive these kind of proposals before the end of the 15th day, before today's AGM, and that they require publication. This concludes my explanation on today's agenda. Dear shareholders, as already mentioned, we would now like to give the two new candidates for the Supervisory Board, the opportunity to present themselves in addition to my initial remarks. The other candidates will not introduce themselves again as they are already known to you. May I now ask Professor Bannier and then Mr. Toda to present themselves. And I would like you, Professor Bannier, to start.

Dear shareholders, my name is Christina Bannier, and I'm very happy to be able to present myself to you today in-person. The Supervisory Board of the company has named me as a candidate for election to your Supervisory Board. I live in Bad Nauheim, I'm a German national, and I'm the proud mom of two daughters. Currently, I'm a Professor for Banking and Finance at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. It's also there where I graduated in economics in 1999. After that, I did my Ph.D. at the University of Kassel. And after studies at London School of Economics and San Diego State University, I qualified as a Professor in 2006 here at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. After my graduation, I worked at the University of Hannover and then at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management as a Finance Professor. At the Frankfurt School, I also chaired the Finance Department and headed the Commerzbank Endowed Chair for SME Financing. After that, I took a professorship for Corporate Finance at the Gutenberg University in Mainz. And since 2016, I've been working at the University of Giessen, some years as a Vice Dean of Economics and the Director of one of the Graduate Centers of the University. In the context of my teaching and research activities, I have concentrated more and more on matters such as asset management, corporate governance and sustainability over the last few years. My studies on governance and ESG investing have received various awards and were published in international journals. Apart from academic activity, I've also assumed Supervisory Board mandates for some time now since 2018 with the Clearstream Banking AG, and since last year with Eurex Clearing AG. I'm also a member of the Board of the DVFA, the German Association for Financial Analysis and Asset Management, one of the big 2 asset management associations in Germany. I also am active as a member of various expert advisory boards, amongst other things, on matters such as sustainability, governance and compliance. I take a personal interest in building bridges between the world of academia and the pressing practical questions companies are faced with. I will, thus, be delighted to be permitted to make my expertise available to support the Supervisory Board of DWS Group. Actually, indeed, my first investment I made personally 20 years ago, as a young graduate, was an investment in the DWS Fund. I have this fund still today until this very day. And I would thus be very happy if you were to support my candidacy. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Professor Bannier. I would now like to ask you, dear Mr. Toda, to present yourself to the shareholders.

Dear shareholders, my name is Kazuhide Toda. It is an honor and a pleasure for me to introduce myself to you today personally at the AGM of DWS. The Supervisory Board of the company has nominated me to be elected as a shareholder representative to the Supervisory Board. To give you an idea of my personal and academic background, let me just say the following. I was born in Tokyo and raised in Hamburg. I'm a Japanese citizen. I live in Tokyo. And before starting my professional career, I graduated as a Bachelor of Economics from Sophia University in Tokyo. Now in terms of professional skills and qualifications, let me say that I've been working at Nippon Life Insurance Company for 37 years, holding several senior leadership positions in the investment business and in the Asia Pacific region. I joined Nippon Life Insurance in 1986. I have been able to gather experience in various positions, mainly in capital investment and corporate lending, including the position as a General Manager of Credit and Alternative investments, and I also was in charge of Nippon Life's overseas business, expanding both the life insurance and the asset management business in the region, Asia Pacific. Prior to my current role as Senior Fellow of Global Insurance business, I was a Managing Executive Officer of Nippon Life Insurance Company. Now as part of my current role, I've been a Nonexecutive Director of MLC Limited Australia since July 2021. Aside from my directorship at MLC Limited, I have no other reportable external mandates. Dear shareholders, I kindly ask you to elect me to the Supervisory Board, thereby allowing me to serve you till the end of the Annual General Meeting in 2027. Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you very much, Mr. Toda, for your personal introduction. And ladies and gentlemen, I hope this helps you to gain an immediate impression of the candidates. I will now elaborate on the possibilities of shareholders to participate in and interact at today's AGM. As already explained, the General Partner on the basis of Sections 131 Para 1a in connection with Section 278 Para 3 of the German Stock Corporation Law, decided to use the concept of presubmitted questions and answers. So the evening of the day before yesterday, the company answered your questions and made these answers available on its website. Question and answers will remain available there and remain accessible for the entire duration of the AGM. Up until the deadline, the company received about 140 questions via the channel defined by the General Partner. Ladies and gentlemen, when choosing the format for today's AGM, entering into an exchange with you was of particular importance to us. Unlike in previous years, this is made possible via a live statement now. First, you can basically use the [indiscernible] right as in an in-person meeting. As the Chairman of the AGM, according to Section 131 Para 1f of the German Stock Corporation law, I determined that questions in today's AGM may only be asked in the context of video statements. This is when making use of the right to speak. In today's AGM, we hope to enter into a focused exchange with you. So I'd like to point you to the fact that today only add-on questions pursuant to Section 131 Para 1d and questions on new matters pursuant to Section 131 Para 1e of the German Stock Corporation will be answered. This means that in the course of your statements, if there is a factual connection, you can ask questions and follow-up questions on all and any answers given before and during the meeting. This is irrelevant here and it does not matter as to whether it was your question or a question by another shareholder or if you raised any questions at all. In addition to this, you can also ask questions or matters that have only materialized after the deadline for the pre-submission of questions, that is after June 11, 2023. What is decisive here is that the question could not have been asked before the deadline. Since the beginning of today's AGM in our access protected shareholder portal, you have the possibility to register for the floor, pressing the button, [Foreign Language], request for the floor. After hitting the registration button, a template will open. We would kindly ask you to enter the information on the statement you wish to make. This includes your name, your telephone number and your e-mail address. And in the comments field, we would be grateful if you could provide us with additional information. Speakers will be contacted in an order defined by me -- in a sequence defined by me, and after a functional test was carried out, they will be admitted to the waiting room. In this waiting room, they can continue to follow the AGM up until they will give their own statements. May I kindly ask you to register your request for the floor early, so that we can plan the procedure as well as possible? In this context, I'd also like to ask you to please let us know if you want to speak to particular focus areas or submit proposals, so that I can take this into consideration when defining the sequence of speakers. If you wish to make another contribution after the end of your previous contribution, you would have to register your request for the floor again via the shareholder portal. Now on the basis of the experience from this year's AGM season so far, I do not assume that we will require a hard limitation of speaking time for your statements. However, please bear with me, but I have to serve the right to do so. Irrespective of this, I'd like to ask all speakers to limit themselves to a speaking time of 10 minutes, so that also the next speakers can take the floor within an appropriate time. Before we give speakers the floor now, let me remind you of the fact also that if you have properly registered for the AGM and have proven your shareholding, you can exercise your voting rights via the shareholders' portal. If you decided or decide to make use of absentee voting, you can cast your vote until the end of the voting process. If you gave a proxy and instructions to representatives of the company or if you wish to do so, you can do this until the start of the voting process. Votes cast for absentee votings or instructions already given can also be changed via the shareholders' portal up until the closing or the beginning of the voting process. for accessing the portal, please use the access data provided to you on the registration confirmation sent to you. I will give you more precise information and timing as soon as I can have a better feeling for the length of the statements, but I would like to ask you now to start entering any information to the shareholder portal in a timely fashion, also with an eye to potential transmission disturbances or failures. Before every block of speakers, we will have a short break, so that the speakers do not miss any AGM content during transmission and preparation for contribution. Ladies and gentlemen, we will have the first contributions in a few minutes. We will now have a short break. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have all the speakers in the waiting room, and we can start with the statements. The first speakers are now waiting to take the floor, as already mentioned, and let me briefly remind you again to please stick to speaking time of 10 minutes. Now if you decided against making a contribution that you already registered, we would also be very grateful for a brief note on that. The first speaker would now be Mr. Nieding. Before I give the floor to Mr. Nieding, I would like Mr. Schmidt and then Dr. Vargas to be ready, and then Ms. [ Potts ] and Ms. Rath. Please, ladies and gentlemen, get ready. Good morning, Mr. Nieding, you have the floor.

Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you can hear me well because we did have some problems hearing you during your presentation, Mr. von Rohr. My name is Klaus Nieding. I'm based here in Frankfurt and I'm Chairman of the biggest shareholder representative organization here in Germany. Now let's have a look at the figures, Mr. Hoops. I would say, well, they are so-so, right? It is a decrease of nearly 25% compared to the previous year. The same is true for the income after tax. Also the Assets under Management is EUR 107 million less than in the previous year. Now the reasons that you give us are, amongst other things, of course, that the asset management industry has had a difficult environment. There was a challenge because of the Ukraine war, the disruption of the supply chain, also the interest rate hike to combat inflation. And as you know, all asset managements are hit in the same way by these environments. It is a good situation to compare different asset managers, because everyone can shine when the environment is good, when the climate is good. In addition to this, we had the searches, we had the greenwashing complaints, and then we had a change in the management. And should the complaints be confirmed, this could be the diesel scandal of the asset management industry. You say you learned your lessons from these matters. What were the lessons learned? Which insights did you gain? Is there any substance to those allegations? All we've heard here is some very nondescript statements on this. And what about the official proceedings. Will this be done? Will this come to terms? What will this investigation bring for the company? When can we call the affair closed? And if we look at the position of our annual financial statement, could you please tell us how much of this downturn is because of the market situation and how much is attributable to this affair. Now your proposal for dividend is incomprehensible to me. We 3 shareholders, the free float, would have understood had the dividend not be increased or had there been no payout as well. To increase it is not really understandable. Please don't give us the buzzwords of shareholder trust, et cetera, et cetera. We know all about this. You say that the figures for the year you say means that the company is stable when it comes to the surplus decrease of EUR 107 million and a downturn in the annual results. If you tell me that this is a sign of stability, I don't know what stability is all about. And you also say that apart from Mr. Woehrmann, Mr. Cullen Mr. Kreuzkamp also left the company in 2022. Please give us the reasons for these gentlemen leaving the company and why this was mutual. When it comes to the ESG reporting on the company, are there still legal processes pending with this former Head of ESG, for example, and have they been terminated? What were the costs attached to that? And if the claims were unjustified, can you take recourse? And will it take recourse? Now when it comes to performance of our share, the cumulated share profit of minus 0.3%, DWS was a major -- what do you do in order to help the share price? You want to become one of the world-leading asset managers. Could you tell us where we are compared to our competitors? And in spite of the deterioration in the figures from the previous year, there is one market increase in this year, especially when it comes to remuneration of the CEO. I'm a generous person. I'm happy to spend any amount on the salary of the CEO if and when our shareholders benefit in the same way; however, I would feel quite, I don't know, strange if I were your majority shareholders, looking at the salaries of the CEO and others. Please tell us which benchmarks where the foundation for this and especially what was the foundation of the settlement payment with Mr. Woehrmann. We do approve all items on the agenda or proposals by the administration apart from 8.1, which will not surprise you, because we are very much against the virtual AGMs if there are no special reasons. Additional questions. Can you exclude that the special -- what will be the format? And I'd also like to know this; virtual, hybrid or in presence, did you have meetings with institutional investors, and please give this in percentages? Ladies and gentlemen, to be very clear, if a company is able to meet with institutional investors in one-on-one, in presence, also the free float shareholders should have the same importance. So if in 364 days in the year, you strive to provide excellent investor relations work, this should also be your ambition at your AGM. This canned approach here is actually not helpful if you want the shareholders to identify with the company. And also when it comes to the matters that are to be addressed today, I believe that an in-person meeting would have been much better suited. And I have no understanding for the fact that Mr. Hendrik Schmidt, your proxy shareholder is advocating vehemently against virtual AGMs wherever he goes and you are not having his own advice. At Deutsche Telekom AG, Mr. Schmidt said that it has been proven that in-person AGMs have a much better result than the virtual anonymity of the Internet because it creates too big a distance between the shareholders and the administration. This is what your own person says. This is what your own employee says. Perhaps you might want to read his comments and his remarks and then you might, for example, rethink your proposal for changing our Articles of Association. Ladies and gentlemen, first, I'd like to thank you for the work done in the previous business year. And I wish you all the best of luck, steady cause, and thank you very much for your attention. I spent 1.5 minutes less than I was allotted to.

Thank you very much, Mr. Nieding. Thank you very much for your presentation. And thank you very much for not using all of the time allotted to you. The next speaker would be Mr. Schmidt, who is waiting to take the floor. And after this, this would be Dr. Vargas. So also, please get ready. Mr. Schmidt, good morning. You have the floor.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Dear shareholders, dear guests. My name is Mr. Hendrik Schmidt, and I'm speaking on behalf of [indiscernible], the press society for shareholders. And for the sake of good orders, I hold shares and derivatives of DWS. First of all, a comment on this virtual AGM. I pre-entered my question. I have sent them in and you can read them up on the website. So it would be complete nonsense to repeat them today here. So I can tell you 1 thing. It is a very unfriendly act to your shareholders that we can only ask add-on question and that you choose this particular format. Why do you choose this particular format? There are other companies who do this in a different way and in a better way. I mean you're an asset manager, so you benefit most from a good shareholders' culture. And you of all companies used the worst possible format than one could possibly use. A fully hybrid AGM would have been the appropriate format for you combining the benefits of in-person and virtual. And let me tell you 1 thing. If you have a virtual AGM like this again next year, and if there are no specific reasons to do this, we will not approve ratification of the Management Board or the Supervisory Board. Just to be very clear about this. Now the ESG. I would also join the questions on ESG of the previous speaker, but I have an additional question. So far, have you only excluded one company so far from the investable companies? Is there really only one company that is completely hopeless when it comes to sustainability? Do you really believe that this creates sufficient pressure to bring about changes with the black sheep. Mr. Hoops mentioned it in his speech, you say, you want to use your influence and you do have influence. And then there is only one company that was excluded in 2022 from the investable universe. And also an additional question on the sum paid to Mr. Woehrmann. I'd like to add this, please give us more information what share was mandatory? And what share of the compensation or settlement was paid voluntarily in order to smooth this over. Well, I don't believe that 2022 was a good year. Yes, the environment was difficult. But when it comes to the cost-income ratio, for example, you are far behind expectations. And I believe you also lost market share in nearly every area. I mean the dividend is high. I don't agree with the previous speaker here. But this might also send out a sign of optimism, and this is why we welcome it. An additional question on the cost-income ratio. You're still well above the target of 59%. Mr. Hoops already mentioned it. And also after the answer that you gave to my written questions, I cannot say how you want to achieve this target in the next 2 years? So my question was as to whether it would not be a good idea to have that new CEO or the new management board could come up with more realistic aims? I mean, Mr. Hoops, you have to stick to those aims and objectives. But are you aware of the fact that we will measure you by them, that the yardstick is fairly high and that you have to achieve this? How do you want to achieve this? And how much of that is rather wishful thinking? And there is another question on other answer that did not satisfy me. I had asked actually what does DWS stand for? What is DWS all about? I can understand that when it comes to strategic decisions, it takes a bit more time. But when will we have a clear strategic statement? And as to whether the management will then implement new strategies and ideas or whether this is just on paper? And then also what image are you aspiring to in the future? I'm not clear about it because I don't know. And it is not helpful at all if here at the AGM you give out the impression that Deutsche Bank is leading DWS. It must be very clear that DWS is independent, acts independently, but this AGM gives a completely different impression. So as a suggestion for your image, and Mr. Hoops briefly touched upon it, I would suggest that you might say we take responsibility for your investments for the environment, for society, and dear shareholders, also when it comes to the development of the share price, the share you invested in. This will be very easy. If you were to achieve just that, you would have achieved your targets. Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you very much, Mr. Schmidt, for your statement and for your questions. The next speaker would be Dr. Vargas. And after that, Ms. Potts who I also like to kindly ask to get ready. Mr. Vargas, the floor is all yours. Good morning.

Yes. Good morning. My name is Vargas. I'm speaking on behalf of Greenpeace, Germany here today. I'd like to welcome all of you very warmly, shareholders. And I'd like to basically fully subscribe to what the previous speakers have said. Unlike what Mr. Hoops and you, Mr. von Rohr, have just told us, the situation is such that the last year was the lost year, both for DWS, for you, shareholders, but above all, for people out there. Why is that the case? Well, this actually became clear from your speech, Mr. Hoops. I think I have to say that it is irritating, to say the least, to see where you put your priorities, and it's actually quite alarming to see where you're not setting any priorities. Anybody familiar with the fund business knows that trust, integrity and credibility are 3 key pillars for a sustainable future-oriented business. And I believe, and this has already been said a couple of times here today, that we must not forget that there are many scandals, and the systematic misrepresentations to the public at large have fundamentally jeopardized these key pillars. In the light of this background situation, I'm surprised to hear -- to have to say that you, Mr. Hoops, have not said anything, at least not anything that would support me and that I would consider to be trustworthy regarding how to restore the trust. Your consequence from the greenwashing allegations does not seem to be to try and make an extra effort to win back lost trust. No. On the contrary, the impression I have is that the proclaimed sustainability targets, that you actually also publicly said were responsible, so that you're turning away from this and that you are turning away from what you promised to clients. Repeatedly, also in answering our questions, you referred to alleged restrictions on the fiduciary regulations, as a result of which you were unable allegedly to implement certain climate targets. And my question is, why is that? How can that be? Reputable competitors seem to be able to do so. And the most recent coal policy of DWS has shown that it is possible to carry out climate-related targets. So if you could explain to us why you are finding it difficult to implement climate-related targets in your policies? Then that would help me a lot. Another aspect of your climate strategy, Mr. Hoops, is also quite difficult to understand for me. DWS, yesterday, after the courageous Greenpeace activists actually made all the way up to the roof of Deutsche Bank in the light of the problem for DWS, you said that the necessity for the need of additional policies, including an oil and gas policy is going to be checked. What are you saying, checked? What do you mean to say? Are you saying that climate neutrality may be brought about without impacting the oil and gas sector at all. I don't believe that's going to be the case, because in that case, the outcome would be quite clear. Of course, DWS needs such an investment policy, because without any clear rules for the way to handle fossil fuels, oil and gas, it will be impossible to reach the Paris targets. Please explain to me why there are any doubts. So why it is you may have to check this. The actual question has to be, when will this policy finally be adopted? There's not much time left. And I think there's a lot of agreement here. Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, a lot of things are not doing very well. There does not seem to be light at the end of the tunnel and that is why I'm trying to call upon the Supervisory Board to increase credibility and trust again in terms of business operations at DWS. We have to say that given the existing dire situation in DWS, they must also have been in complete failure by the Supervisory Board because otherwise, how can you explain mismanagement and problems in terms of own and other problems getting awarded in the form of bonus payment. If you take a look at the EUR 14 million page to the greenwashing fraud committed by Asoka Woehrmann, then I'm wondering how are you going to explain this golden handshake to reward fraud to people out there where every single euro counts. And my question is, to what extent does DWS itself call for credible actions from other companies where they are invested if they themselves don't do so as well. So one, in the light of all these problems, and I could have listed more, I'm asking you to finally make sure that these problems will be remedied and DWS will be more future oriented and will put an end to this scandalous situation. And in the speeches of Mr. Hoops and the interviews, it has to be made clear that unlike what they seem to have said in some passages that there is no going back from the policies and from the commitments regarding capital related tasks. So for example, for climate damaging oil and gas companies, something needs to be done. We also have to address the award systems, the bonus systems, so as to make sure that they promote responsible action rather than the opposite, as was the case in the past. So please make sure that compensation is proportionate, that compensation promotes an economically useful and sustainable policy with regard to climate goals. All of this should be taken for granted for a fund manager. And I'm quoting from a past annual report, sustainability is going to be the focus, the focus of your action, this is what you said in the past annual report. That's why I'm asking you, Mr. von Rohr, Supervisory Board members, what went wrong? Why is it that these issues have not been implemented in DWS, though they shouldn't be taken for granted?

Thank you, Dr. Vargas. Thank you for your contribution. The next speaker is Ms. [ Potts ]. And Ms. Rath, if you could please get ready, you'll be the next speaker after her. Ms. [ Potts ] the floor is yours.

Good morning. Thank you. Shareholders, Board members, Supervisory Board members, I'm [indiscernible] Potts. I'm speaking as a Deputy Chair for [indiscernible] Finance. And we are also representing the votes of [indiscernible] shareholders. We are calling for much stricter measures to fight plastics waste and a much stricter way of handling companies such as Coca-Cola. I will read out from a letter for plastic pollution, Uganda. You are invested in companies such as Coca-Cola and these are affected here. Our investigations have shown that 20% of your ESG funds hold shares in Coca-Cola. Therefore, I'm going to explain why it is regarded as a blatant violation of what you're claiming with regard to your funded products. First of all, thank you for answering the questions we had submitted in the run-up to the AGM. Generally, we welcome the fact that you seem to be taking measures against plastic waste. However, we have to criticize the fact that there is no life cycle plastics policy. And based on three reasons, we're going to explain to you why it is you should be having such a policy, not least in the interest of your shareholders. Firstly, about 200 countries have come together now to discuss the details of a legally binding plastics policy. Plastics has a very bad reputation. Politicians try and curb demand. Demand will go down. DWS is now investing in new plants for plastics production. This is money not wisely spent and the plastic pollution resolution will be adopted by the end of 2024. By then, at the latest, DWS should also have an investment policy. So in the interest of shareholders, you should be doing so. Please bear that in mind. Secondly, plastic, as you know, is produced from oil and gas. Therefore, it is part of the climate crisis. In 2019, the production and incineration of plastics emitted so many emissions as 180 coal-fired power stations. And these emissions might rise, once again, by another 50% according to the Center for Environmental Research, which is a conservative organization. Thirdly, plastics is found in the air, in the water, in the ground, in our food, even in the placenta of becoming mothers. Plastics has come to stay. And plastics pollution have prepared a letter, which I'm going to read out to illustrate this. This is witness to people who, unlike you me, are at the forefront of the fight against plastic pollution. Shareholders, Board members, Supervisory Board members, it has been confirmed, plastics exist in our human bodies, in our blood veins. It ends on the rubbish dumps in our societies around the globe. We have carried out 3 big waste collection campaigns and allocated plastic to the manufacturers. The result is that Coca-Cola is the biggest plastic polluter of all the companies. At Lake Victoria and the Pasig River, we found that 20% or 35%, respectively, of plastic waste was directly from this beverage producer. In these times, we urgently need to have measures to fight the plastics crisis. Instead, companies such as Coca-Cola focus on one-sided unrealistic approaches such as the strong focus on recycling. Recycling, which has been propagated, has failed around the world. We can't wait until all our rivers will be inundated with plastics and all the lakes are polluted. One in 5 fish cod in Lake Victoria have plastic parts in their systems. Plastic is also a climate problem, and Uganda is one of the countries who are not resistant enough to be able to cope with the impact of the climate crisis. It's an appeal upon you, DWS, to rethink your investments in Coca-Cola, because otherwise, you are co-responsible for pollution in Uganda and around the world. Therefore, we will have three recommendations for you in terms of what to call from that company. Firstly, Coca-Cola must disclose the amount of disposable plastic units they produce. Secondly, it's time Coca-Cola reduces production. They should commit to reduce disposable plastic products they produce with a well-defined action plan with measurable goals. Thirdly, it is time for Coca-Cola to redesign and change. The company should change its product packaging towards really reusable materials. The company has to commit to these obligations in order for Uganda to lose the state as biggest polluter. Sincerely yours. End plastics production, Uganda. Climate change, environmental pollution are partly caused by the production of plastics, and according to you and HDR, this is one of the main reasons for migration. So therefore, we are all affected by this. Coca-Cola and companies like Coca-Cola should focus on recycling, therefore. Of course, they recycle to some extent, but this is not the central pillar. Coca-Cola should also include governance aspects apart from social and environmental aspects. My question is, therefore, the greenwashing allegations that you are aware of, as you say yourselves, have they ever been discussed with Coca-Cola? How many meetings for Coca-Cola took place last year between DWS and Coca-Cola? You answered our questions by saying that you engaged with many companies around the world, and in some divisions plastics play a big role. Could you please explain what you understand by business division. Does this also include oil, gas and chemical companies? Or are you just talking about disposable plastics products with consumer goods companies. You're also telling us in your answers that you are promoting initiatives to avoid drastic ways? What exactly are you referring to? Does this also include the research and development of chemical plastics. My question is also, would you not want to be a pioneer -- please go ahead and try and invest in disposable products -- in multi-use products for the future. Make sure that greenwashing is avoided and reusable materials will be used for the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Potts. Thank you for your questions. Next, the next speaker will be Ms. Rath. We will then close the first round of questions. Ms. Rath, the floor is all yours.

Mr. Hoops, Board members, Supervisory Board members, shareholders, I'm Nicole Rath. I'm speaking on behalf of Urgewald, the human rights and environmental association. My question is, what do companies have to do in order for DWS not to invest in them? Apart from many other companies, DWS is investing in San Miguel in the Philippines and the oil and gas giant Shell. Shell and San Miguel are currently destroying the Amazon. In the South Philippines, Manila, the Verde Passage is there. This is an area where 60% of all the coastal fish species live there. More than 300 coral types live there. Nowhere in the world is the underwater world more biodiverse than here. And that is why it is also called the Amazon of the oceans. And this vivid underwater world is where Shell is planning to build 1 of a total of 8 liquid gas terminals. And San Miguel is building along this passage as well. 2 million people depend on the Verde Island passage. The Verde Island passage is known all over the world for scuba diving and snorkeling. There are clown fish. There are all kinds of species that you can watch and observe. Thousands of people live on this underwater tourism. People not living on tourism tend to be local fisher families, and they are already beginning to feel the impact of industrial use of the area around the passage. The big ships create high waves and these high waves mean that the small fishes can't get ashore. People have to manually pull them ashore again. And even though this is just the beginning, fish catching has already gone down massively. A few months ago, it became clear what this massive expansion was going to mean as San Miguel oil tanker went down in the Verde Island Passage. The oil has polluted beaches, the water. Mangroves are dying. Fish are dying. Colleagues of [indiscernible], our local partner organization, they tell us that people ignore the ban to fish, to catch fish. They continue to catch fish and they eat the fish which is polluted. People have told us that their skin is oily when they take a shower. So they believe that the oil has reached the groundwater. The government does not act at all or only very slowly. Up until 3 months ago, the Philippines had never seen an oil disaster. Currently, several social groups are the only ones that try and curb these disasters. They clear the mess. They try and obtain advice from experts from the board. All of this should be done by the government. The Philippines not yet have a single LNG terminal. What is going to happen when the first gas accident happens? Will the government, again, fail to take action at all? Or take action far too late in that case? And you, Mr. Hoops, are contributing to this with financing schemes for San Miguel and Shell. You hold USD 922 million worth of investments in these companies. Mr. Hoops, I've got three questions for you. We've been happy to hear that DWS asked questions about the Verde Island Passage at Shell's AGM. What were the answers to your questions? And what do you think of these answers? Were you asking the same questions at San Miguel's AGM two days ago? If not, why not? If so, what were the answers? Even though we welcome the fact that DWS at least asked questions to Shell, we are aware that engagement alone won't do. What are the red lines that San Miguel and Shell will have to cross before you divest from your investments?

Thank you, Ms. Rath. Thank you for your contribution. Thank you for your questions. This takes us to the end of the first round of speakers, and we would interrupt shortly. And I'd like to ask the technicians to use this break to onboard the next three speakers for the second round of questions. Please onboard them to the waiting room. We will continue in a few minutes. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, we now continue with the next round of speakers. And the first one in the second group is Ms. Julia [ Dobslav ], and then the next 2 speakers are [ Klindworth ]. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it, and [ Giebel ]. Ms. [ Dobslav ], you've got the floor.

Thank you very much, Mr. von Rohr. Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, my name is -- as Mr. von Rohr already announced, my name is Julia [ Dobslav ]. I'm also speaking on behalf of the Association of Critical Shareholders, and the environmental and human rights organization, Urgewald. I would like to thank you very much for answering our questions beforehand. That was very helpful. My office is based here in Berlin, and one of the local newspapers is Berlin Courier. And on 7th of June, they titled "Weather Horror-Germany is Going Brown, Shock Forecast." I mean that was not my idea. And they did not refer to political majorities because brown here represents riping, and it was not referred to the fact that Germany only has got brown companies, as Mr. Hoops called them, but rather the quantity of rain. In June, as that article indicated, average precipitation could be 15% lower than the annual average. And I can really confirm this. On 7th of June, it was dry as dusty here in Berlin. Maybe it was the same for you in Frankfurt. As the previous speaker and my colleague, Nicole Rath already indicated in her contribution, DWS is invested in one of the biggest oil and gas groups worldwide, Shell. But unfortunately, it's not Shell alone. DWS holds shares and bonds of other oil and gas companies which, just like Shell, do not show any indication of trying to change their business models in any way that would bring us close to limiting global heating to around 1.5 degrees. At this point, we have already reached global heating of 1.1 degrees, and we are on our way towards 2.8 degrees by the end of this century, and fossil energies are the main driver of this development. And this is not only coal that I'm referring to, but also oil and, of course, also gas, in spite of the disappointing inclusion of gas into the EU taxonomy. Let me emphasize that liquid gas, according to sources close to the industry, produces 30% more emissions in the supply chain than conventional gas. Mr. Vargas had already touched upon it. DWS recently launched its new investment policy on coal, which was a positive development. But actually, that was long overdue. And the key question is, when will you follow up with oil and gas now? Now in your answers to our questions, you state that the 1.5 degrees scenario of the International Energy Agency does not require any exclusion. The net zero scenario of the IEA, of course, does not require a sudden exit from oil and gas, but rather controlled phaseout. However, that phaseout will occur only if no new development of oil and gas resources takes place anymore. Now that does not only mean that all companies which develop new resources or want to develop new resources after '21 or have already started exploration are far away from a climate strategy aiming for 1.5 degrees, but according to the net zero emission based net zero strategy, that is something they clearly contradict and fail to comply with. And based upon your answers, I once again would like to question whether secure energy supplies in Europe can be paid at the price of more thunderstorms and droughts all over the world. Engagement is the buzzword of the moment. Always stay in contact because we want to accompany the economy in their transformation process. Well, my question to you is the following: In your answers, you indicated that in 2022, you held shares of 7,830 companies. With 448 companies, you have had a more or less intense dialogue. That's 6%. What is the significance of that dialogue with companies as part of your ESG strategy? Ladies and gentlemen, now initially, when I quoted the Berlin Courier newspaper, you shrugged your shoulders, but would you think that United Nations are a reliable source, or the United Nations repeatedly emphasized that emissions by 2030 must be cut by 40%. And Stefan Hoops himself also emphasized initially that, scientifically speaking, there's no doubt about the climate change being one of the biggest risks for mankind and the global economy. Now if you want to curb climate change, Mr. Hoops said, then the global community had to change and act. Dear shareholders, how do you view a commitment, an engagement for transformation if DWS at the recent AGM of Shell voted in favor of their transformation plan, although that plan still includes more spending on oil and gas than on renewable energies. Now I think even such a transformation plan by Shell, supporting it certainly cannot be climate compatible. ExxonMobil and Chevron are absolutely late comers in terms of climate protection. They even are sabotaging such plans, but these companies are also in the portfolio of DWS. At the AGMs of these two companies a few days ago, DWS at least voted better in the sense of climate than at the Shell AGM. Unfortunately, however, you were not able to successfully be heard with your position on climate change. Most shareholders continued to support the business strategy of Exxon and Chevron, which leads to destruction of the environment. The management boards of these companies continued kicking the can down the road and the respective critical counter proposals were rejected. Dear Mr. Hoops, there's not sufficient time to rest on the laurels of your coal policy. So how will you continue your engagement strategy with Exxon and Chevron, two particularly brown companies, as you call them, and which DWS has been invested in at least since 2021? Add-on questions to my questions that we have provided before and then your answers. When did you start your engagement with ExxonMobil and Chevron. Aren't the 3 years long over, which you stipulate for an engagement process. You have emphasized that you expect oil and gas companies to have ambitious short, medium-term and long-term oil and gas reduction plans. So what are the expectations for you from oil from Chevron, Shell and oil and gas. Now with the announced meeting with ExxonMobil, are you looking at the basic data of Urgewald. If not, we are willing to provide you with more insights and data. Your voting at the AGM of Exxon and Chevron did not have any impact. Your voice was not heard. Will you remain invested in model to maintain your foot in the door and also to benefit, of course, from the profits of those companies? Or have you finally reached an escalation stage where DWS has to sell the respective shares and bonds to remain credible? One final question. When will a final and ambitious oil and gas policy be launched by your company? Let me remind you that we already have reached a global heating degree of 1.1 degrees. So there's no more time left for excuses.

Thank you very much, Ms. [ Dubslaff ] for your contribution and your questions. The next speaker now is Dr. Ulrich Giebel, Mr. Giebel, you've got the floor.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Giebel. I represent my own shares. I'd like to -- I'm not going to repeat the criticism against the format of this AGM. It is absolutely unfriendly to shareholders and obstructs the dialogue with the owners and shareholders of the company, especially the fact that you force the shareholders to submit their questions beforehand and then only to ask add-on questions is something I reject. So this always forces me always to specify which question my add-on question refers to. I start with my add-on questions on question 6, 90, 114/13. This relates to the payments to management board members. In the year 2022, very high amounts were paid for legal consulting taxes. That means the respective Board members have received consultations on private matters. Otherwise, they would not have to pay any so-called wage tax onto these services. However, these consulting services were covered by the company. If the company pays for such consulting services, then these are cash equivalent benefits. And the company even then pays the wage tax for them. And as this is the case, then taking over the wage taxes once again represents a noncash benefit, which means the company has to pay twice. And here we're talking about amounts of more than EUR 0.25 million. So my first question is why does the company pay the cost for legal consultancy in private matters of the management Board members? Because otherwise, they would not have to pay any wage taxes. With Mr. Hoops, we're talking about EUR 285,000 in this account -- EUR 283,000 and Mr. [indiscernible] EUR 263,000 and Dr. Verman EUR 1.4 million or more specifically speaking, EUR 1,369,000. So these are rather high amounts, especially for a former Management Board Chair, the CEO. Now why does the company cover these costs? And why does it initially also pay the wage taxes for this legal consultancy? As a positive example, I also would like to mention Mr. Goergen with the French benefits. The amount for Mr. Goergen is minus EUR 2,000, which is obviously due to his company bicycle. Please explain to us why by making available a company bicycle which, of course, is very positive in the sense of economy why this results in negative fringe benefits of EUR 2,000, that is minus EUR 2,000. Then I've got an add-on question on my question #13. And I'd like to emphasize at this point that the answers given to my questions submitted, in some cases, are insufficient to mean also arrogant because you simply did not answer them, and that's why you're forcing me to ask my add-on questions here. Question #13 was about the gifts of the company. All in all, the company spent EUR 676,000 on gifts. And in addition, the noncash benefit represents another EUR 139,000. Noncash benefit arises if gifts have a high amount, which is above the tax-exempted limit. And then the company usually also pays the taxes, the gift receivers had to pay. Question, did this occur in this case? And then secondly, if that's the case, why do you also pay the taxes, which the persons have to pay for the gifts that they have received from you? Then please also mention the 5 highest gifts out of the amount of EUR 676,000. I think you've mentioned only the value of the highest or largest gift. The 5 highest ones. And according to the gift, proper name of the product or the service, plus the respective amount, the purpose of the gift, the occasion of the gift and the expected return for that gift. My next question is about your presentation and my question #105. You especially talked about ETFs, but you still have very high fund shares in your portfolio. And these funds are accompanied by fairly high commissions. I think on average, it's 1.4% to 1.5%. And of that, you pay existing commissions to the banks, which hold the respective funds. So if somebody bought a few -- 1 of your funds 20 years ago, which is now in the depot or the account of an online bank, then this online bank receives very high amounts from you. Now, I don't want to mention the amounts in my case. But I can tell you, these are very high amounts anyway. And the bank does not provide -- that online bank doesn't provide any services for that. So my question, why do you still pay existing commissions for holding the funds? And this brings me to your strategy. You talked about ETFs but not about your strategy for the funds business. Based upon the analysis, I conducted myself in literature, there is no single fund which over a longer period generated higher returns than the benchmark. Now, please specify those funds that you have in your portfolio which, over a period of more than 5 years, generated higher returns than the benchmark. And here, it is important to note that the commissions that you paid to the banks, of course, reduce the returns of a fund paid out to the funds or fund share owner. Do you intend to reduce the cost of the funds because other companies do so as well? So from this 1.5% or 1.7%, I don't know how high it goes for you to come down a bit from there. And if you look at ETFs, well, there are already ETFs with 0 commission -- or rather 0 permanent costs. And with the large ETFs, they are at 0.3%, 0.4%. How do you intend to close the gap to your funds? My next question -- add-on question is about initial question, #93, sports sponsoring. And here, I found your answer was entirely inadequate. And therefore, my add-on question is the following. Please specify the 5 largest items of sports sponsoring. You say that due to confidentiality that you have agreed upon, you cannot specify the receivers. But for each of these 5 items, please at least mention the type of sports, the league, the respective consideration you expect and the respective amount. Now you specified the overall amount rather vaguely and therefore, please specify the exact amount that you spend on sports sponsoring because that has been approved by your auditor, so that exact amount is known. And therefore, I think it's really arrogant if you only specify the rough amounts in your answers to shareholders. Then I've got an add-on question on my question #99. And here, you refused to specify the median. It's about the salaries of the employees of DWS. Here, we're talking about an average of 190,000, relatively high amount. And the question had to be about the median. And your answer is that according to the applied practice, you do not specify the median. Please tell me what is that so-called applied practice that you referred to? Is that a standard legal practice? Or is the practice applied by the employees of your company, the standard of your company? Is it a standard defined by the Management Board or head of department? So what do you mean by the phrase, I quote, "According to the current practice?" I mean that is arrogant, that kind of an answer to a shareholder's question. My next add-on question relates to questions 101 and 116 and also your presentation. In your presentation, you said that with this virtual AGM, you want to make it possible for more shareholders to participate in the AGM. Please specify the number of participants of the last in-person AGM in 2019 and also specify the number of participants which at this time, at this moment, have locked on or registered for the AGM. Please also specify the cost of the AGM in 2019, the exact cost, and also the estimated cost of today's AGM and also the exact cost of the AGM last year. And please also specify the cost per participant of the last in-person AGM and of today's AGM. You said that it's in the interest of the shareholders if there are no costs rising. And therefore, I'd like to know how high the overall cost and the cost per participant are because it is your stated goal to make it possible for as many participants, especially from abroad, as possible to participate. And last question, can you also please let us know how many participants from abroad or from a different time zone, whatever you define it, have today logged on to this AGM.

Thank you very much, Dr. Giebel for your contribution, for your questions. I now would like to give the floor to the next speaker, Mr. Klintworth or Mr. Kleinworth. Please forgive me for not exactly knowing how to pronounce your name. And I hand over to you.

Dear members of the Management Board, dear members of the Supervisory Board. My name is [ Emily ] Klintworth from [indiscernible] organization. Today's AGM leaves me puzzled. Now if -- we participated in various AGMs these years of companies of all sizes, and we are aware of the fact that one thing was a recurring topic. This is the virtual AGM. I mean whenever a company decides to go virtual in spite of in-person being available, that's a pity. But you or what you're doing here is more than weak. We had hoped for DWS that shareholder rights are more important for you than just paying lip service. We shareholders do not understand your approach whatsoever. The fact that you do not want to give us the possibility to talk eye to eye is disappointing. As members of the free float, we see -- we don't feel taken seriously, or you simply do not have the courage to face up to your shareholders at an in-person meeting. And especially to shareholders who do not have the possibility to get into direct dialogue with you during the year are put at a disadvantage at such a virtual AGM. This is why we also filed a counter proposal on item #8.1 and will not approve of your proposal, namely, to authorize the general partner to decide on the virtual AGMs. I mean the format of an AGM have a direct effect on basic shareholder rights. So it is not up to the general partner to decide on the future format of AGMs. Over and above this, AGM should also decide on a second option, namely, a hybrid, a hybrid AGM which combines the advantages of an in-person AGM with a virtual format. All in all, it is not, not a matter of good and decent behavior of acting like that. Mr. [indiscernible] you're talking about the virtual format and you say the costs are lower for DWS and our shareholders, this is a benefit. Also, you say that it's easier for foreign investors to participate. My question on that, if a virtual AGM is to be favorable for foreign shareholders, why do you not accept English statements, statements in the English language? This is not fit. This does not go together. Also, we asked in our submitted question as to whether you believe that the shareholder rights are being cut, are being infringed with this virtual AGM, you did not give any proper answer to this. It might also be more conducive if your answers would be better, the answers that you give. Also, it's a limitation of our rights if we can only ask add-on question. And to sell this as an innovative format is just a no-go. Let me come back to our counter proposal on item #3. We proposed not to ratify the acts of the general partner. We believe that you have to take more effective measures when it comes to climate protection. DWS has gone through a challenging year. We heard about the scandals, such as greenwashing, also the excessive settlement of the former CEO, et cetera. Even if DWS tries to put forward a greener image, it is difficult for us to believe this. I mean especially investing in fossil fuel companies cannot be part of an ESG strategy. We are -- and now I'd like to turn to human rights. We are here very much interested in how DWS is using its influence into its portfolio companies, especially when it comes to raw materials. There are often infringements of human rights in the supply chain. What do you do in order to counteract this, to prevent this? And what happens if you establish that there are infringements against human rights? What will you do in the future in order to deal with companies where you find infringements against human rights? So we hope that you will be instrumental in changes and discontinue business as usual. When it comes to your answers on our questions with regard to your transparency and commitment in the area of human rights, you said that you, of course, want to make sure that transparency is increased via engagement activities. Could you give us more details on how you want to achieve this? You also said that potential exclusion -- it's too early to exclude companies because of human rights infringements. Could you give us the number of companies or sectors where you see high risks or where you identified higher risk when it comes to the infringement of human rights and where you already addressed insufficient remediation measures? I mean you should be able to do so when looking into your ESG database. You do -- neither do you publish a list of the invested companies or on deficits or on remediation activities, et cetera. So we are not in a position to actually review your activities and assess them. And this is why we consider you to be in transparent. [indiscernible] is there any engagement with that? If yes, on which method and at which level are you engaging with them? What is the process of engagement?

Klintworth thank you very much for your contribution and your questions. I'd like to point out to the following, ladies and gentlemen. You still have the possibility to register your name on the list of speakers if you want to take the floor. I would suggest that you do this on short notice. Otherwise, I would be closing the list of speakers. We would now take a 20-minute break, approximately 20 minutes, so that we can continue with answering the questions, which we will then do and start to do after the break. Thank you very much. We'll meet again in about 20 minutes. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, we do have a few answers on the questions that were asked today. And I'd hand over the management of the general partner to answer those questions. Stefan, the floor is all yours.

Thank you very much, Karl von Rohr. We start with the questions of Ms. Potts who asked specific questions on the Coca-Cola Company. First of all, we can confirm, you asked about the number of meetings with Coca-Cola. In 2022, there were 2 interactions with Coca-Cola Company. Over and above this, you asked as to whether the green washing accusations against Coca-Cola Company were discussed in these meetings were subject matter. We had already answered those questions. You find this on the website under question #75. but I don't want to be [indiscernible] here. But let me say that since 2022, we've been in the dialogue with Coca-Cola and the use of reusable plastics and reusable packaging, plastics and all are part and parcel of this meeting and this dialogue. Mr. Schmidt. I'm fully aware of the fact that my management Board members and myself are measured by the cost income ratio. And to be very clear about this, the target of having a cost income ratio of below 59% by 2025 was confirmed or was set at the Investors Day and pronounced at the Investors Day by this management. This is including myself. How we want to achieve this was answered in question -- in answer 108. Mr. Schmidt, you also asked as to whether it's only one company that does not fulfill the criteria and was thus excluded from the investment universe. The statement that it was only one company that was excluded from the investment universe for product-specific reasons is not correct. The exclusions are being geared by product exclusions. Further details can be found in the sales prospectuses. You also asked as to whether enough pressure is exerted in order to make companies change their behavior. As already explained, we are convinced that engagement, in particular, engagement on sustainability aspects has a positive impact on the company and future behavior of the company. Further details can be found under #122 with the presubmitted question and answers. Also, Mr. Schmidt, the question -- the answer in your initial question what DWS stands for? We provided a comprehensive answer under 112. But to give you a broader answer. The DWS is a leading European asset manager with a global range and reach. It provides a global product portfolio from alternative funds and extractors of other products, a very, very broad product portfolio, hardly any other asset management can provide. And this portfolio was, again, give an additional profile with the strategy that was announced late in 2022 or the strategy adjustment. I then would like to come to the question of Mr. Vargas. Dr. Vargas, you asked about background and timing of the introduction of further policies, including a gas and oil policy. We had already at least partly answered your question under 019. But on your additional question as to whether there are any doubts that have to be checked or reviewed, let me add the following. DWS is reviewing which procedure, when it comes to the complex transformation of oil and gas, which procedure would be appropriate. About -- apart from a lump-sum policy, there are other measures which could be conducive, such as product, filters or specific voting guidelines. We are trying to always review -- or we are committed to always reviewing those matters. Please bear with us that we cannot give you a precise time line for that. Okay. I also have several answers to your questions, but I would like to make a procedural remark. First of all, you will be aware of the fact that many of the questions that you asked have been submitted before the AGM and where that's also answered before the AGM. I would just also to explicitly state again that your answers are available on the Internet. You might want to refer to those. And with an eye to a speedy procedure here at the AGM, we will not be repeating them specifically. This gets me to a question for Mr. Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt, you asked additional questions on the settlement payments to Dr. Verman. Let me -- the question was as to -- if -- one thing. If the contract is terminated earlier on with a mutual agreement, there is always an entitlement to a settlement. And when this is defined, we always go by the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code whereby a settlement must not be higher than 2 annual remunerations and also taking the residual time of the contract into consideration. It was more than 2 years for Mr. Verman. And in consideration of the cap, we reduced the number of years to 2 years. Dr. Vargas, you also had a question on the settlement of Dr. Verman and also the sustainability of the compensation system. I would like to remind you of the fact that the compensation or remuneration system was approved by the AGM with a majority of nearly 80%. This is 79.6% on the 9th of June last year. This compensation system provides for the following. If a management Board member is terminated prematurely, there is a contractual claim to the -- against the company. And we also, again, follow the recommendation of the German Corporate Governance Code, which means that it's reduced to -- or should be reduced or capped at 2 years. You also, Dr. Vargas, asked about sustainability targets and also the appropriateness of the remuneration of the CEO. Responsible investment and a strong focus on the sustainability aspects of ESG, economic, social and governance, are part of the fiduciary duty and the fiduciary mandate of DWS. So they also have a high strategic priority. The group in the strategic alignment also see sustainability as a clear priority and stands behind that. This is why the sustainability parameters also strongly link to the ESG strategy of DWS, be it for the short-term incentives or compensation and also for the long-term components of the compensation. All in all, the share of ESG targets makes up at least 20% of the performance related to target compensation for every Board member. When it comes to a review of the appropriateness of the total compensation of the CEO, we engaged an independent consultant -- remuneration consultant on the basis of international benchmarks. This means international asset managers who are comparable with regard to the assets under management, the number of employees. And also with regard to the review that have taken place in the previous years, the general partner then decides -- or the Supervisory Board decides then the compensation. Also of the CEO, Mr. Hoops, of course, Mr. Hoops left his previous position at Deutsche Bank, also his previous employment conditions were taken into consideration. If I see this correctly, we still have one request for the floor. We will have a short break -- very short break because we also have to onboard the speaker into the meeting room. So we have very short break, and we'll be back with you in a very short time. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Giebel has been readmitted to the speaker's room once again. Yes. There you are. The floor is all yours once again. Over to you.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I had submitted 2 motions. And I presume we'll have to repeat them here for legal reasons. I move -- I have a motion under [indiscernible].

Thank you, Dr. Giebel. This was very quick. Okay. So let us continue answering the questions submitted here today. Thank you. Yes, I will start with your questions, Dr. Giebel. First of all, you asked about commission. And you referred to our [indiscernible] product. Let me answer as follows. I presume your question relates to the management fees for our active funds. These account for a customary level in our sector and include distribution commission to pay for our commission -- for our distribution partners for their services. Next, you asked about the 5 largest gifts out of this total of EUR 677,000 worth of gifts. The 5 largest ones include 5x EUR 858.09 per person for an invitation of institutional clients to an LA Laker's basketball match. Secondly, 5x EUR 164.84 each per person for a gift to institutional clients who got ceremonial flowers in Japan. We did not expect anything in return for these gifts in any of these cases. Dr. Giebel, you also asked whether we are planning to cut the costs for our funds. Our products have customary prices typically in the sector, and they reflect the products and the services associated with them. Of course, we regularly review our prices and continually adjust our prices. This takes me to you, Ms. Ward. You were asking about the red lines that San Miguel and Shell yet have to step over in order for DWS to revise it's position considering these companies. Currently, as at 30th of April 2023, we do not hold any investment in San Miguel. So at that point in time, 30th of April, we did not hold any stakes. Regarding Shell, we refer to questions 46, 47, 49 and 50 and the relevant answers on our website concerning the Shell company. Information about investments and divestments of the company is always dependent on the policies and the related investment processes for the product taken. This also applies to the Shell company. Next, I'll answer one of the questions asked by you, Dr. Vargas. You asked about reasons why sustainability scenarios have not been sufficiently implemented in DWS [indiscernible]. As one of the early signatories to the PRI supported by the UN in 2008, DWS has been focusing on sustainability for a long time. On that basis, sustainability has explicitly been part of DWS' business strategy since 2019. Ever since then, we have continually been working towards taking into account sustainability factors in our structures and processes. Details regarding the progress delivered in each case can be found in the relevant annual reports. With our most recently updated sustainability strategy described in our CEO, that is me, in the speech given by myself, we outline our path forward into a sustainable future. Our sustainability-related progress is also regularly appreciated by external groups, such as CDP. We are now among the top 20% of all asset managers in terms of the assessment by companies, such as CDP. Thank you. I've got 2 more answers regarding the wage tax or the legal costs. You asked why the company pays the cost, including the legal cost and relevant wage tax for some Board members. As shown on Page 156 of the annual report, cost of an appropriate manner -- of an appropriate level are paid for the relevant members of the Executive Board for the investigations related -- or the general partner, the KJA, also decided that the relevant wage tax is paid. Let me point out that for Mr. Hoops, no costs were incurred in this context. You also had another follow-up question, a more specific one relating to the provision of a company bike and how negative cost of EUR 2,000 were arising from the transactions. Well, it's been nice for us to hear that our colleague, Mr. [indiscernible] has a company bike, which we learned this way. So we think that's excellent. Apart from contributing to the cost of such a company bike, if the cost exceeds other fringe benefits, then this means that a negative balance arises, in this case, for 2020, 2021, and you would find more detailed information on Page 191 of the annual report in the German version. Over to Mr. Hoops for more answers. Yes, another answer for you. Dr. Giebel. As a follow-up to gift and why it is the company is paying for all the tax. Gifts to business associates must not exceed a limit of EUR 35. If you go beyond that level, in accordance with Section 37b of the German Income Tax, DWS chose to pay the relevant tax. Paying tax is customary in cases like these. There's a whole host of other open questions that are currently being processed where we are preparing the answers. So we will break for another 25 to 30 minutes now in order to prepare for the next round of answers to your questions. So we will continue in about 25 to 30 minutes. Thank you. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have 2 more requests for the floor. Two shareholders have requested the floor and have registered as speakers, Dr. Vargas and Ms. Rath. I'd like to start with Dr. Vargas. Okay. Here you are. Over to you, Dr. Vargas, for your questions.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can and see you as well.

I've got 2 follow-up questions regarding the answers I received. Firstly, I think it may have been misunderstood -- misunderstanding with Mr. Hoops. You were saying that you are planning to consider various -- apart from a product policy, you mentioned engagement and product exclusion. Product exclusion and engagement requirements are nothing to do with an investment policy. However, you have to distinguish clearly between this. On the other hand, engagement would be part of an investment policy. So if I understood you correctly, this is a bit irritating because you can't have either an investment policy or something else because this would have to be part of an investment policy if you were to do this correctly and properly. The second question relates to the ESG targets you've mentioned, which are part or are to be part of the compensation structure and which are to ensure that further progress towards sustainability will be delivered. I'd like to make a quick little comment, in particular, with regard to the CDP rating, you seem to be misleading investors and the public at large. CDP is not a rating. Let me say so quite clearly, CDP is not a rating agency. CDP is a project. As the name says, common disclosure project. It is a project aimed at disclosure. So if you look at a score for your disclosure, and unlike a rating agency, here, it is not getting checked and verified whether the information you're providing is actually accurate and true. So my point of criticism with regard to that answer would be that this actually is a wrong approach. You would have to commit to credible targets, such as absolute emissions reductions and you would have to transparently disclose these -- this information. That's my 2 comments.

Thank you, Dr. Vargas. Thank you for your 2 comments. Next, I'd like to give the floor to Ms. Rath. Over to you.

Yes. First of all, thank you for answering my first question. I've got 2 follow-up questions. Firstly, I've been positively surprised by hearing that you have divested your San Miguel stakes. I would like to know what the reasons were and what you also told the company why you're divesting your shares in San Miguel.

Thank you for this question. All these questions, we'll come back to them in a moment. Okay. Let's continue answering questions over to Dr. Hoops.

Yes. I'm happy to start. Thank you, Karl von Rohr. Let me start by answering some of your questions, Dr. Giebel. First of all, you asked about the interpretation of practice with regard to employee issues where we said this is actual practice. Paragraph 162, subparagraph 2 of the stock operation law uses full-time equivalent as the basis for reporting. And that's why we are reporting on the basis of averages, not the median. You asked about attendance at the in-person AGM 2019 and then attendance at today's AGM, the 2023 one. Regarding the in-person AGM in 2019, there were 280 participants. Today at the virtual AGM, there are 487 participants. You then asked about the number of participants from abroad at today's AGM. Unfortunately, we can't give you any details regarding these participants because we lack that information. You asked about the 5 biggest items in our sports sponsorship program. Unfortunately, we said before, the amount of our financial sponsorship is protected by a confidentiality clause in the relevant contract. So we are not able to provide you with any further details regarding our sponsorship schemes. But what we can tell you is that we only have 2 big sponsorships: firstly, with Eintracht Frankfurt [indiscernible] football club; and secondly, the U.S. basketball team, U.S. Lakers playing in the NBA. I will next answer a number of questions regarding environmental issues. I will start with questions asked by you, Ms. Potts. You asked about plastics and what is covered by the business division plastics, whether we also deal with -- we also discuss disposal of plastics with oil and gas and other companies. In 2022, in industrial, we discuss cyclical consumer goods, raw materials, technology and oil and gas. All of this covered plastics. And we also discussed about the cycle economy. An answer for you, Dr. Vargas. You asked about fiduciary restrictions in implementing appropriate climate protection measures. And what -- why we find it difficult to implement credible climate reduction measures in our portfolios. We understand your question as referring back to question 23 in the presubmitted questions and answers that we published before the AGM. And we would like to answer by saying that as trustees for -- with fiduciary duties for our clients, we are aiming to implement environmental measures in our portfolios. Of course, this has to be in line with our fiduciary duties based on our duties vis-a-vis our clients. Ms. Rath. You were asking about what would have to happen for DWS no longer to invest in oil and gas. This was already covered by the answer to question 19. And it incidentally happen to be question 19 again here today. So we had already provided an answer, and we would like to reemphasize that answer. Of course, we want to support our clients in walking down this sustainability path and managing to cut emissions, and we want our clients to invest in projects related to the reform of the energy sector. Ms. [ Dupslaff ] you were asking why we remain invested in ExxonMobil and Chevron or whether we have reached an escalation level or when that's going to be achieved where we are going to divest from these companies in order to remain credible. We believe we've already answered this by answering questions 59 and 62 of the presubmitted questions. Let me add here that the decision about whether or not to exclude a company is based on the investment policy and the related investment processes and of course, the final assessment by the portfolio manager developing product. And this also applies to investments in ExxonMobil and Chevron. Mr. Klintworth, you asked to what extent DWS is active to prevent human rights violations in the supply chain. DWS takes a look at all the factors, including the social factor in terms of human rights and human rights issues as part of our investment approach. This is based on principles such as the UN Global Compact, the guiding principles of the UN Commission for Human Rights and economic rights, the ILO issue regulations regarding labor and the principles of other international companies. Details are found, for example, in our annual report. In addition, we carry out, for example, thematic engagement focusing on human rights with portfolio companies of DWS investment, GMBH DWS Investment SA. Moreover, our ESG filters are applied to our active and passive outgate funds domiciled in the EU where we rule out emitters violating certain principles, including these standards that are internationally recognized. Thank you. I will provide 2 answers to questions asked by Dr. Giebel. Dr. Giebel, you asked about the cost of the last in-person AGM in 2019 and the estimated cost of today's virtual AGM and last year's virtual AGM. And you also asked about the cost per participant at the last in-person AGM heads and at today's virtual AGM. In our answer [indiscernible] 23, 101, we listed the cost of the in-person AGM held in 2019 and the cost for today's virtual AGM. The cost of last year's virtual AGM was about EUR 610,000. The cost per participant at last year's -- at the last in-person AGM held in 2019 were about EUR 3,900 per participant. At today's virtual AGM, the cost is about EUR 1,400 per participant. Let me also make some comments regarding your motions. According to Article 129 section 5 of the German Stock Corporation Act and the second motion relating to Article [ 202 ] of the German Stock Corporation Act, we will send you the relevant information, if you like. We will read out the results of the voting here today, and we will also show it in parallel on the screen. Mr. Klintworth asked 2 questions. Yes, 2 questions that I have to answer. Firstly, you asked whether questions or contributions cannot be held or stated in English to enable foreign investors to participate. Let me answer this as follows. The German -- the language of the AGM is German, and it is not foreseen for us to provide interpretation in any other language. We cannot have that because in that case, every shareholder could ask for translation to their respective language. So I can only ask you to bear with us for deciding to only admit questions and contributions in German, not least with regard to the rights of other shareholders. Then you also referred to agenda Item 8.1, and from what I understood, you wanted that agenda item to be removed from the agenda. This would require an urgent reason which I cannot see based on your contribution. Of course, every shareholder who does not agree to agenda Item 8.1 and the corresponding proposed resolution may well decide to vote against. So I can therefore only ask you for your understanding for not having a vote on your motion to remove Item 8.1 from the agenda. So we would probably have to have another short break of 15 to 20 minutes to be able to answer the remaining about 10 questions. So we will interrupt for another 15 to 20 minutes to prepare the answers to the remaining questions. Thank you. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have got 3 more statements I think these are further add-on questions by Dr. [ Giebel is still slough ] and we also have got Mr. Frank. And Mr. Frank, I'd like to welcome you most coldly and we're starting with you now. We're looking forward to your statement. Thank you very much. Mr. Von Rohr. So yes, my name is Michael Frank and I represent the shares of my mother, Ms. [ Alder Frank. ] And I've got an add-on question, which I'd like to ask you just specified the costs of the AGM, which a shareholder had asked about. And I also read your answer in the comprehensive PDF file. According to that, today's AGM costs amount to about EUR 700,000. Now I'd like to know what the individual items within that overall amount are, so can you give us a breakdown of the costs either in rough amounts or as percentages namely cost of AGM service providers, rental of the room, tech equipment, trade fair equipment, legal, consulting, notary public security, probably you don't have that. And the costs for traveling after respective participants. And maybe you can also tell us where you are located today at all. Maybe you said so, but I haven't heard it. Yes, yes. I already mentioned that, but I can repeat that. Thanks Mr. Von Rohr. Now the background to my question is because the costs seem fairly high to me. Yesterday, I've been to an AGM of another SDAX company, and you're also listed on the SDAX,and that was a in-person AGM with about 150 participants and their costs amounted to about EUR 100,000 all in all. So it seems to me that with 700,000 our virtual AGM is fairly high, although there are some cost items that you do not even incur whereas for an in-person AGM that other company had cost of only EUR 100,000. Thank you, Mr. Frank. And now I'd like to invite Dr. Giebel to ask his add on or follow-up question. There you are Dr. Giebel, yes, we can hear and we can see you. I have got 3 follow-up questions. Now I didn't fully understand your explanations on the company bicycle how can a company bicycle result in negative fringe benefits, reducing the overall compensation of a management member. Maybe you can explain this to us -- and I also looked it up in the compensation report. I cannot understand that explanation either. Does this mean the management board member has got a tax benefit of EUR 2,000 or how can a negative fringe benefit total arise at all? Because that actually would mean that the management board member pays EUR 2,000 to the company. That would be a negative fringe benefit, but I don't expect that he does that -- so I'd like to explain to you how such a negative fringe benefit total can occur in the first place in connection with management board member and a [ merccompany Bigor ] is that a tax benefit actually for the management board member. Then about the sports sponsoring, I also had asked for the consideration. Namely, which consideration do you expect from Eintracht Frankfurt, the Soccer Club or LLA, the basketball team. Dr. Giebel, it seems we lost your image has frozen. Would you be pleased -- well, because we lost you -- so can you please repeat your second question once again regarding sports sponsoring and the consideration. So what we get in turn. Yes. Thank you. No, I had asked for the consideration. So what is the consideration you expect from into Eintracht Frankfurt and the LA Lakers. Are there any advertising banners? Is there your logo on the jersey, the assets are wearing or whatever it is. So what is the consideration? And then you said that there were 5 gifts to the amount of EUR 898.09 [ million ] as part of an invitation to the LA Lakers. Now do you then have to pay for these things in addition? And do you get the seats on the grand stands? Or is there a launch? So what's the consideration you get? You didn't elaborate on this? And then there was a question about the median. Now here, your answer. No. I thought what you stated here is a bit misleading in the section you referred to relates to the compensation report. The question of an average of EUR 190,000 as an average. Now you should be able to see that this is not the average of the compensation for the management Board. So this 100 -- Section 162 too is not a reason to specify the median compensation. If several shareholders raise that question at the AGM, which I subscribe to. Now to be on the safe side, I hereby also find my protest with the notary public if that answer is not provided. Thank you very much, Dr. Giebel. I'd like to once again ask now Ms. [ Dubslavto ] ask her add-on question. Now you're on mute still. All right. It always takes a second until you have unmuted yourself, but now we can hear you. Yes. I mean we're all struggling with Zoom and other platforms. Now even if AGMs are held only virtually, we still get some extra lessons here in terms of how to handle Zoom. Mr. [ Fanor, ] you still didn't answer my question in the first block, you rather refer to your answers to questions 59. And well, that part of the question was unheard because once again, the image was frozen. Now you said that your overall engagement is up to 3 years. Now at the Exxon AGM of the year 2020 and the Chevron AGM of the year 2021, you already had asked climate-related questions. Therefore, for me, it is obvious that at the same time, the engagement dialogue already existed. Therefore, I'm repeating my question at this point. When did you start your engagement with Exxon and Chevron. And let me once again repeat my question. You emphasized that you expect ambitious short-, medium- and long-term reduction targets from oil and gas companies, which specific steps do you request from Exxon, Chevron and also Shell, thank you. Well, thank you very much, Ms. [ Dubslavto. ] I think part of the answers will be included in the answers to be given by Mr. Hoops just a second, if that's not the case, then we will, of course, come back to your questions once again. So with that, we indeed now would like to continue with the answers to your questions. And I hand over to Mr. Hoops. Well, I just rearranged the order of my answer, so I can start with Ms. [ Dubslavto. ] Now initially, you had asked whether in our talks with Exxon, we also use Urgewald data. Now we can answer this as follows. Preparing our engagement dialogues, we use ESG data of various providers, also data of NGOs. And this also includes data of Urgewald. Furthermore, you asked for the significance of the dialogue with companies within our ESG strategy. As I already mentioned in my address, this morning, our sustainability strategy rests on 3 pillars. And one of these 3 pieces or engagement with companies. And here, we prioritize the engagement activities on the basis of several criteria, 2 of which are especially important. On the one hand, scope and volume of the shares that we hold. And secondly, the scope of potential ESG and financial risks. And you had referred to the 6%. Therefore, the sheer number of companies with which we undertake engagement dialogues is not relevant, but rather the shares which these companies represent in our portfolio. And then you also asked whether we want to secure energy supplies in Europe at the expense of thunderstorms and droughts. Let me emphasize that we not only want to support transition and transformation in the real economy, but that we also want to and have to accelerate the energy transition in our portfolio companies. Therefore, let me emphasize that we support companies in exiting their business with fossil fuels in order to push for a real reduction of carbon emissions and to make sure that investments of these companies are directed towards activities related to the energy transition. Furthermore, another question for you, Ms. [ Dubslavto, ] you asked for the further exits and engagement strategies for Exxon, Mobil and Shell. We critically observed the ongoing activities of these 3 companies, and we'll continue to address them in our engagement dialogue. But please understand we cannot specify on any future engagement. Further details on engagement dialogues already held have been made available in our DSW (sic) [ DWS ] active ownership engagement dialogue 2020. And this brings me to a question by you, Mr. [ Pat. ] You asked for which alternative options to one-way plastic DWS supports and I can tell you that as part of our engagement activities in the year 2022, we talk to companies in consumer goods and commodities on the possibilities of chemical recycling and alternative options to one way Plastics. This, for example, includes the innovation of products based upon a circular economy approach. Then we also had questions by you, Ms. Rott. You asked whether at the AGM of Shell, we had received answers to our questions regarding where the island passage. Unfortunately, we didn't get any specific answers to these questions. That's why after the AGM, we once again approached Shell. And in July, we're going to have a meeting with them that is in July 2023. You also asked whether we also asked the same questions to San Miguel. And we had not confirmed yet that we had sold our stake there. So we were not able to ask those questions anymore. However, I can confirm to you and you had asked about the reasons for the sale of our investment. And I can tell you that since April 2023, we do not have any investment in San Miguel anymore and the sale was part of a regular portfolio reallocation also on the basis of current ESG data. Now this brings me to 2 questions. Mr. [ Klintward ]. Now you had asked whether at present we are in a dialogue with Vale, Glencore, Anglo-American and Rio Tinto. And we are -- we can confirm to you that in accordance with our DWS active ownership report 2022, we are in a dialogue with all of the companies mentioned. Now these engagement activities have not been finalized yet, and they cover a wide range of topics, including human rights, industrial safety, questions on waste management, questions on diversity and governance aspects such as the independence of the auditor or the compensation of the management of the company. And then you asked [ Mr. Klintward ] about the number of companies and/or sectors where we have identified high human rights, risks and where we criticized insufficient remediation activities. As part of our activities in year 2022, we specifically raised human rights related questions to more than 40 companies in different sectors. The 3 most important sectors where we see a higher risk of human right risks are consumer goods industrial companies and commodities. Thank you very much, Mr. Hoops. Ladies and gentlemen, we now have to take another break in order to gather the remaining answers and also the answers to the follow-up questions, and we'll be back here in about 20 minutes. [Break]

No, sorry, ladies and gentlemen, it took a bit longer because we had some a bit more complicated questions to answer. And we wanted to make sure that we can now provide all of the open answers to you now block. I hand over to Mr. Hoops once again. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Von Rohr. Now first, -- the question by Mr. Frank. You had asked for a breakdown of the costs for today's virtual AGM. While the cost estimate already specified of about EUR 700,000 is broken down as follows in percentages 45% technical equipment, 18% renting the room legal consultancy and cost of the notary public, 10% for the trade fair service provider and another 6% for security and 7% other services, that adds up to 100%. Now a few answers for you, Dr. Giebel, you had asked for the consideration that we get for our sports sponsoring. Now both partnerships, Eintracht Frankfurt and L.A. Lakers include placement of logos on TV shows, joint social media activities to increase the brand awareness, access to tickets for lounges and grand sense, availability of current and former players for joint PR activities and joint activities also in the area of corporate social responsibility. Furthermore, you had asked whether we have to pay for getting access to the lounges of sponsoring partners because at least in 1 case, we had listed ticket costs the kit prices as costs. Our partnerships also includes tickets. But of course, when we pass on these tickets to third parties, we show the costs, for example, in this case, for a match of L.A Lakers at the cost of EUR 858.90. Then you had asked once again about the median of the compensation. Now the answer is in 2 parts. First, the formal answer and then my informal assessment. Now first, the formal part, you had once again asked for the median of the compensation specified this. The reference to the Stock Corporation Act, referred to Section 162, One sentence 2, #2 of the Stock Corporation Act, now that shows the parameter that we determined and we did not calculate the median. Now that was the formal legal part. Strictly speaking, we do not have that median. We do not calculate it. We haven't done so far. I would estimate, if you look at our population, we have some higher paid portfolio managers, but on the other hand, we also have got the 600 colleagues in India as part of DWS earning less than [ EUR 190,000 ]. So we simply do not have that median, Dr. Giebel, but my estimate is that it would be below [ EUR 190,000 ], probably not too far below [ EUR 190,000 ], but that's my primal guess we do not have to calculate that parameter, and we haven't done so. Furthermore, Dr. Giebel, you have also asked to specify funds in our portfolio, which over 5 years generated a higher return than their benchmark. As of the end of the first quarter 2023, 69% of our assets under management over a period of 5 years exceeded their respective performance index. Now that refers to the performance before cost on a volume-weighted basis of all funds in the active business with the respective minimum age. Now this does not include our products in the alternative segment because there, in many cases, there is no benchmark available. Further details on the performance can be found in our last quarterly report. And if you now take a different perspective and look at the number of products, so not volume weighted, but the number of individual funds, then we have to take into account that high-performance products usually will attract higher volumes. I mean, that's obvious, isn't it? So if you take that other perspective, not volume rated anymore, but the number of products then 63% of the funds mentioned before, over a period of 5 years, beat their respective performance index. Well, no, there's another request for the floor, and I would like to ask our technical staff where they can bring in Ms. [ Dubslavto ] once again. No, that is not possible at the moment. So we first continue answering the questions and take 2 more questions now. And that's also a follow up question by Dr. Giebel on the question of the negative fringe benefits for a company bike that is bicycle. The employers offer to make a company by available to its employees, as we all know, it's also something getting a tax benefit from the government. Now as the bicycle can also be used in leisure time, this results in a noncash benefit and the noncash benefit in this case it said that 0.5% of the purchase price of the vehicle per month the relevant noncash benefit relevant for tax matters is only a small part of the overall value of the vehicle. And the leasing rate to be paid is part of the employees' compensation and the leasing price paid by the employee, in this case, is higher than the actual tax benefit. I hope that this did answer your question and -- well, I'm looking up whether we can now bring in the next add-on question. I think it's quite good to take Mr. [ Dubslavto ] in now. [ Ms. Dubslavto ], may I give you the floor once again, you've got a follow-up question.

Thank you very much, Mr. Von Rohr. One add-on question because I simply do not understand how DWS sees the -- what position you take when it comes to accelerating the transformation of the real economy. I reckon that you know [ GC and the goggles. ] And here, you find the following data. And this is why I do not find -- understand your answers. Exxon and Chevron currently are actively pursuing to actually bring 12 billion barrels of unrealized volume into the production 2020 and 2022, [ USD 2.7 billion U.S. dollars ] are spent every year in the exploration of new oil and gas fields. All Exxon and Chevron, do not publish information on investments in renewable energy. So what type of information do you have that we do not have that you really believe in a compatible transformation environment, competitive transformation of those 2 companies. Well, I don't know what you information have, but we will see as to whether we will be able to come up with an additional answer. Thanks for continue with the question from Mr. [ Frank ] regarding the place, venue of today's AGM. We are here in the concrete center of the trade fair of the Frankfurt method [indiscernible] in Frankfurt a conferences center. Stefan, hand over to you again for the next round. Happy to Mr. [ Klintward ]. You asked how we want to increase the transparency on our engagement activities. Well, we always drive improve transparency on our engagement. Our active ownership report, for example, is to be in large and expanded by mentioning additional anonymized case studies, for example, to provide information on how we go about engagement. Then there is an additional question from you, Dr. Vargas. You asked us again for information on engagement instructions, policies, et cetera. We do have cross-company policies such as the coal policy that define minimum standards. In addition to those minimum standards at the product level, there are certain exclusion criteria. I have 2 answers to Ms. [ Dubslavto ] . First of all, when we started the engagement process with Shell, Exxon and Mobil. Shell 2018, Chevron and Exxon since 2019. In 2022, however, we expand the DWS investment GMBH International, GMBH and DWS Investments age in which we set ourselves a target of 3 years of engagement. And since then, we had deepened engagement dial. We also defined short-term and long-term targets and documented for assessment. Anything over and above these answers with regard to engagements, please refer to our pacific information. You asked as to whether we have concrete information, you might not have. We cannot give this information on individual names. Also, Mr. [ Dubslavto ], you asked about the reduction targets that of oil and gas companies. I'd like to refer you back to the active ownership report, which is really good in which we try to still improve and which is -- which you can find on our website. In 2021 and 2022, -- over and above this, our net zero engagement letters were sent to those portfolio companies, including oil and gas companies with concrete requests and requirements companies that have to -- will be challenged with considerable risks when it comes to in connection with climate change. So we published these letters, and we sent them to these companies. And they were the starting point for our engagement process. We might have to take another break. We will try to keep this brief so that we can -- if you give us 5 minutes, we should be able to be done by. [Break]

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, we're getting close to the final of answering the questions and then also entering into the voting procedure. This is why I'd like to make you aware of the fact that until exactly 1607, 4:07, you have the possibility to give your proxy or instruction to the proxy holders for the company, which will then be recorded for the voting process. And then also the -- also for the ballot the absentee ballots, the portal will then also be closed for entries. There's one clarification that is necessary. On the last question, Mr. [ Dubslavto] your question, you asked -- when your question when I was already in the process of answering and I try to give you an answer off the cuff. Now on the individual names, we know in which dialogue we are when it started, et cetera, et cetera, but we cannot give you a precise information on individual names. So we cannot answer -- unfortunately, we cannot answer the question as to whether we have individual information that you might not have on individual names. Okay. This answers all questions, and I close the general debate. I would like to ask all speakers most codely for their questions and their statements, and I'd like to ask Stefan Hoops for the comprehensive answers, and I hope that we were able to give you all the required answers. Ladies and gentlemen, this leads us to the voting process. The change function of the portal will be closed at 1607 as announced. I would now like to explain the voting procedure. In today's AGM, it is only the proxy holder of the company who votes on the basis of the instructions and proxies he has. The release of the votes, et cetera, but in the system, we move proxy holder up and the instructions and proxies entered before the closing of the portal or changes to these will, of course, be taken into consideration in the accounting system. Of course, also, the absentee ballots are being entered into the accounting system and will, of course, be merged with or added to the votes that are cast -- were cast during today's meeting. The voting takes place as per the addition procedure, which means that the yes votes and the no votes are being counted. Now with regard to the proxies, I have to vote on all items on the agenda for the items 1 to 8 the proposals are put up for a vote as they were published in the Federal Gazette in due time before this meeting. The decision on item #1 is the establishment of the annual financial statement. The general partner and the Supervisory Board propose to -- that the annual financial statements of DWS Group, GmbH & Co. KGaA for fiscal year 2020 to be adopted. For item #2 the general partner and the Supervisory Board proposed to appropriate distributable profit of EUR 632,248,991.61 to distribute a dividend of EUR 2.05 per share for the business year 2022 for eligible non-par value shares. And the remaining amount of EUR 222,248.991.61 to carry this over to new account. Item #3 of the agenda is the ratification of the active management of the general partner for the fiscal year 2022. The general partner in the Supervisory Board propose that the active management of general partner be ratified for the fiscal year 2022. At this vote, the general partner, the management board may not exercise their voting right, neither from their own shares, not from third-party shares. In the same way, no third parties may exercise their voting right, who are in some way owned by the general partner, comes a general partner, et cetera. It was made sure that the prohibitions of using voting rights are being adhered to. There are counterproposals from the [indiscernible] and of Dr. Mauricio Vargas for Greenpeace. They propose not to ratify the acts of the general partner for the fiscal year 2022. Who wants to vote in favor of these counterproposals have to vote no. Item #4 of the agenda is the ratification of the active management and of the members of the Supervisory Board. The general partner the supervisor propose that the act to be ratified. Here, again, members of the super -- rules are not allowed to use their voting rights also on third parties, the Supervisory Board, also the general partner, the management and also the owner of the loud to use their voting rights either from their own shares nor from third-party shares. Also, third parties may not use the voting rights from shares owned by the general partner, the Management Board or the owner of the general partner. The people -- the relevant people make sure that these voting bands and voting prohibitions are being adhered to. There is also a counter proposal from Dr. Vargas for Greenpeace, proposing that Supervisory Board -- the active Supervisory Board are not ratified. If you want to vote in favor of this kind of proposal, you have to vote no here. Also, #5, the supervisory both based on the recommendation of its audit and risk committee proposals to make or mandate -- for as auditor of the annual financial statements and this audit of the consolidated financial statements and potential limited reviews during the year [ 2020-2023, ] that might be drafted before the AGM 2024 to mandate KPMG Aktiengesellschaft Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in Berlin. The general partner, the management and the owner of the general partner may not use their voting rights neither from their own shares nor from shares of third parties. Also third parties may not use the voting rights on the shares that are owned by the general partner, the management or the owner of the general partner. The relevant persons made sure that a prohibition of using the voting rights are being adhered to. Item #6, -- there is a counterproposal to this proposal of the Dr. Vargas and he proposes not to ratify or to approve the compensation report. If you want to follow this conduction of the Supervisory Board, the general partner based on the recommendation of the shareholder representatives of the Nomination Committee proposes that proposes that -- the following people be elected as shareholder representatives until 2026. This is Mr. Karl von Rohr, President and member of the management of Deutsche Banker; Ms. Ute Wolf, to Supervisory Board and Duesseldorf, Germany; Chairman of the Board of Bureau Veritas SA Paris, France. Mr. Bernd Leukert, Chief member of the Management Board of Deutsche Bank AG Karlsruhe, Germany. Mr. Richard I. Morris, London United Kingdom. Ms. Margret Suckale, Supervisory Board member, Tegernsee, Germany; Mr. Kazuhide Toda, Tokyo, Japan; and professor Dr. Christian Bannier, Professor of Banking and Finance, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Bad Nauheim Germany. On Ms. Ute Wolf, I'd like to add the following. I'd like to I'd like to point you to the update on our website. According to this Ms. Wolf, on the 11th May of 2023, she was made a member of the Supervisory Board of the MTU nice even after accepting this position Ms. Wolf, still for sales, the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code and also the actions carried out individually. So we have an individual vote on every individual candidate the general partner, the management and the owners of the general party shares. In the same way, third parties are not allowed to use their voting rights from shares that are owned by the general partner, the management or the owner of the general partner. Also here, the relevant persons to care to make sure that these bands and vision lines are being adhered to. Item #8 of the agenda, the general partner and the Supervisory Board suggest that the Articles of Association are enlarged by Sentence 1 and 2, in order to authorize the general partner to call or convo a virtual meeting without physical presence. This is as a virtual AGM. The authorization is to be given for meetings or virtual meetings for a period of 2 years after the entry of these changes to the Articles of Association into the company Regis Supervisory Board according to Section 24, 3 Sentence 1 after. I suggest that Section 24, one of the articles office changed and according to which general partner is also authorized to decide in respect Electronics transmissions can be used is also to be limited to a virtual meeting. So it can also be this and also to be authorized to open the meeting to the general public, and that this is to apply to every format of the AGM. So we also want to add it by -- Also, we also have a counter proposal of the [indiscernible] on Sentence 1 and 2 who suggest to not approve the proposal of the administration. If you want to follow the counterproposal, you would have to vote no here. Ladies and gentlemen, let me point out that the possibility of absentee voting has ought to change absentee voting has ended and I would now like to ask the proxy holder of the company to start the voting process. I'm waiting for the sign of the proxy. So as to continue. Thank you very much. I just saw that the proxy holder of the company had the opportunity to cast the votes or to initiate the votes in alignment with the instructions that were given to him on all items of the agenda and a thus close the voting process. Let me point out here at this juncture that the shareholding communications can also raise objections against the AGM in electronic format with the notary public. And the invitation, you also received the e-mail address of the notary public was in order to send objections to the notary public. And objections can only be raised during this AGM up until the AGM is closed as the transmission of the Internet, there's always a bit of a delay. I will tell you the point in time at which I will close the AGM the latest any objections that are being raised after that time with the notary public can no longer be taken into consideration. Ladies and gentlemen, counting of the votes will take a bit of time, so we have another break of 15 minutes, and we will then be announcing the results. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, let me now announce the attendance for the working process of the share capital of the company amounting to EUR 200 million, subdivided into 200 million non-par value shares 177,990,201 non-par value shares with the same number of votes are being represented. This corresponds to 89% of the share capital over and above this absentee a ballot for 172,524 non-par value shares were received. This results in a total of 178,162,725 non-par value shares, which corresponds to 89.08% of the share capital. Ladies and gentlemen, I also have received the amounts at the voting results to make it easier to understand the number of yes and no votes and the percentages will also be also be displayed in the video stream. The yes and no votes will be displayed according to the mandatory requirements, but not the abstentions or invalid votes you can blow up the picture, to be able to follow this better. So you will receive the charts. So during that time, you can hear me, but not see me. I now announce the results on Item #1. The voting process result in the follows with 178,159,706 shares, for which valid votes were cast corresponding to 89.08% of the share capital, 178,130,806 yes votes were cast 99.98% and 28,900 no votes corresponding to 0.02%. The AGM on Item #1 of the agenda for the business year 2022, adopted the proposal of the general partner and the Supervisory Board as published in the annual Federal Gazette. This decision requires the approval of the general partner, left up to -- of a general partner. This looking to my left and to my right, this approval is given by the representatives of the general partner. Item #2 on the agenda. I established and announced that with 178,160,408 shares for which valid votes were cast, corresponding to 89.08% of the share capital 178, 28,937 yes votes were cast, which corresponds to 99.93% and 131,471 no votes corresponding to 0.07%. So on item #2 on the agenda. This is the appropriation of distributable profit for the 2022 fiscal year. The proposal by the general partner and the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023 was approved. Item #3 of the agenda, I hereby establish and announce with EUR 6,900,312 shares, which valid votes were cast, corresponding to 8.45% of the share capital, 50,179,688 yes votes were cast corresponding to 89.9 -- 82% and 1,720,624 no votes for cars corresponding to 10.81%. On Item #3, this is ratification of the active management of the general partner for the fiscal year 2022, adopted the proposal by the general partner and the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023, with the required majority of votes. Thus, the counter proposals put forward do not have to be put forward. The item all were rejected. Item #4 of the agenda. I established and announced for 6,95,773 shares, which valid votes were cast, correspond to 8.45% of the share capital, 60, 732 million. Yes, so it's accounts corresponding to 98.78% and 205,431 no votes, which corresponds to 1.22%. Thus, the AGM on item #4, which is the ratification of the acts of the members of the Supervisory Board for the fiscal year 2022 adopted the proposal of the general partner and the Supervisory Board is published on the third of May 2023, with the required majority of votes. On behalf of all the members of the Supervisory Board, I would like to thank you for the trust placed in us. And thus, the counterproposal brought forward was rejected. On the results on Item #5 of the agenda, I established and announced with 800,488,839 shares, which valid votes were cast, which corresponds to 9.24% of share capital, 80, 334, 161million yes votes were cast corresponding to 99.16% and 154,730 no votes, which corresponds to 0.84%. Thus, the AGM on Item #5, which is the election of the auditor and the group auditor and the auditor for the interim accounts approved the proposal as was published on the 3rd of May 2023 in the annual Federal Gazette. Now with deny to time on the ability, the ability to raise objections, I will be closing the AGM at 1647. I'll continue with the votes. Item #6 of the agenda are hereby established and announced with 177,422,660 shares for which valid votes were cost corresponding to 88.71% of the share capital, 173, 856, 854 yes votes are cast, 97.99%, 3,565, 800 no votes were cast, which corresponds to 2.01%. The AGM thus on Item #6 which is the approval of the compensation report, adopted the proposal of the general partner and the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023, which required majority of votes. Thus, the counterproposal put forward was rejected. The results on Item 7.1, Mr. Karl Von Rohr established and announced with 90,154,283 shares for which valid votes were cast corresponding to 9.58% of the share capital 70,555,836 yes votes are cast corresponding to 91.65% and 1,599,447 no votes corresponding to 8.35%. Thus the AGM on item #7 of the agenda. This is the election to the Supervisory Board. Mr. Karl Von Rohr, the proposal of the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023 was adopted with the required majority of votes. Item #7.2, Ms. Ute Wolf, established and announced with 19,160, 922 shares, which value does the cost corresponding to 9.58% of the share capital. 18,500, 927 yes votes were cast corresponding to 96.56% and 659,975 no votes were cast corresponding to 3.4%. The AGM on Item #7.2 of the agenda, election to the Supervisory Board, Ms. Ute Wolf, the proposal of Advisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023 was approved and adopted with the required majority of votes after #7.3 are hereby established and announced with [ 19,156,980 ] shares which valid votes for cast corresponding to 9.58% of the share capital. 18,440,430 yes votes are cast corresponding to 96.26% and 716, 550, no votes were cast 3.74%. The AGM on item numbers #7.3 election to the Supervisory Board, Mr. Aldo Cardoso, the proposal of the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023 was adopted with the required majority of votes. Item #7.4 on the agenda, Mr. Bernd Leukert, here by established and announced with 19,157,153 shares for which valid votes for cast corresponding to 9.58% of the share capital, 19,50,624 yes votes are cast corresponding to 99.44% and 106,529 no votes corresponding to 0.56%. The AGM on Item #7.4 of the agenda, this is election to the Supervisory Board, Mr. Bernd Leukert. The proposal of the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 23 was adopted with the required majority of votes. Item #7.5 of the agenda, Mr. Richard Morris, we established and announced with [ 19,156,395 ] shares, which validates cars corresponding to 9.58% of the share capital, 80,895,821 yes votes corresponding to 98.64% and 260,574 no votes corresponding to 1.36%. The AGM on Item #7.5 of the agenda, election to the Supervisory Board, Mr. Richard Morris, the proposal of the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023 was adopted with the required majority of votes. On Item #7.6. Ms. Margret Suckale, established and announced with [ 19,171,521 ] shares for which valid votes were cost corresponding to 9.59% of the share capital, 80,948,861, yes votes corresponding to 98.4% and 220,660 no votes corresponding to 1.16% and the Annual General Meeting with regard to Item #7.6 of the agenda election to the Supervisory Board, Ms. Margret Suckale, the proposal of the Supervisory Board is published on the 3rd of May 2023 was adopted with the required majority of votes. Item #7.7 Mr. Kazuhide Toda, established and announced with 19,153,545 shares for which valid votes were cast, corresponding to 9.58% of the share capital. [ 19,043,652 ] yes votes accounts corresponding to 99.43% and 109,893 no votes corresponding to 0.57%. The AGM on item #7.7 of the agenda election to the Supervisory Board, Mr. Kazuhide Toda, the proposal of the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023 was adopted with the required majority of votes. Item #7.8, Professor Christina E. Bannier, established and announced with [ 19,160,650 ] shares for which valid votes were cast corresponding to 9.58% of the share capital, [ 19,132, 29 ] yes votes corresponding to 99.85% and 28,621 no votes corresponding to 0.15%. The AGM on Item #7.8 of the agenda, elections to the Supervisory Board, Professor Bannier proposal of the Supervisory Board is published on the third of May 2023 the Federal Gazette was adopted with the required majority of votes. Also, before the elections or candidates declared that in the case of being elected, they will accept the election. And I must tell you, we are very, very happy and look very much forward to cooperating with you. And I'd like to thank you very much on behalf of all the members of the Supervisory Board for the trust placed in us, which was expressed in the election result. Item #8.1 on the agenda, I hereby established and announced with 177,424,968 shares for which valid votes were cast corresponding to 88.7% of the share capital, 174,472,363 yes votes were cast corresponding to 98.34% and 2, 952, 605 no votes corresponding to 1.66%. The AGM on item #8.1 an addition to Article 21 of the articles of association, the accepted the proposal of the general partner with the required majority of votes. This also requires the approval of the general partner according to Section 285 Para 2 and 3 of the Stock Corporation Act, which was already given before the AGM and documented by the notary public, thus the counter proposal on this item of the agenda is rejected. On Item #8.2 of the agenda. I hereby established and declare with 178,148, 178 shares for which valid votes were cast corresponding to 89.07% of the share capital to 177, 999, 337 yes votes, 99.92% and 148,839 no votes were cast, which corresponds to 0.08%. The AGM on Item #8.2 of the agenda. This is a resolution on wording changes with regard to the Articles of Association, the proposal of the general partner and the Supervisory Board as published in the Federal Gazette on the 3rd of May 2023 was adopted with the required majority of votes in capital. Also here, this requires the adoption of the approval of the general partner according to Section 285 Para 2 and 3 of the German Stock Corporation Act, which was already given before this AGM and documented by the notary public and is part of the notary of the official deal handed over to me by the notary public just a second ago. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of today's agenda. I would like to thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your interest in DWS and in today's virtual meeting. I would also like to thank Stefan Hoops for answering the questions. And I'd also like to thank all the employees that were instrumental in preparing and holding this AGM. I hereby close the meeting. We look forward, ladies and gentlemen, to DWS AGM in 2023, which will be held on the 6th of June. All the best to you, and goodbye.