GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft ($G1A)

ladies and gentlemen, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, I hereby open this year's Annual General Meeting of the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, and in accordance with the Articles of Association, assume the chairmanship. On behalf of Supervisory Board and Executive Board, I warmly welcome you, dear shareholders and shareholder representatives. For the sake of feasibility and ease of speech, we would like to avoid gender-specific language as much as possible during this Annual General Meeting. However, personal designations and terms are, of course, to be regarded as gender neutral in the spirit of [indiscernible]. I would like to take this opportunity to inform our foreign shareholders that the entire AGM will be simultaneously translated into English. However, speeches at the Annual General Meeting are only permitted in German. This year, the meeting will be held as a virtual Annual General Meeting in accordance with Section 17 Subsection 5 of the Articles of Association in conjunction with Section 118a of the German Stock Corporation Act, that means without the physical presence of shareholders or their proxies with the exception of the company's voting representatives who are present here on site. After careful consideration and in consultation with the Supervisory Board, the Executive Board has once again opted for this format. The decisive sectors were the positive experience of recent years as well as the advantages for many shareholders, in particular, the elimination of travel expenses and costs, while at the same time, safeguarding all shareholder rights. Finally, in this way, all of us are contributing to climate protection. I would like to welcome Dr. [indiscernible], who as a notary will perform the certification of the resolutions of this Annual General Meeting as required by the German Stock Corporation Act. I would also like to welcome the members of the Executive Board present here. Chairman of the Executive Board for Stefan Klebert, Dr. Nadine Sterley, Mrs. Kai Becker, Johannes Giloth, Alexander Kocherscheidt, [indiscernible] and Klaus Stojentin. The new members of the Executive Board will introduce themselves to you briefly later on. I would also like to welcome the members of the Supervisory Board. Ladies and gentlemen, GEA looks back on a successful fiscal year 2025 evidence not least, but in particular, in the fact that GEA was admitted to the last year due to its sustained financial strength and profitability. This development of the company is a reflection of a clear strategic focus of responsible corporate governance and the great commitment of the Executive Board and all employees worldwide. They have all consistently and purposefully continued the successful transformation of the recent years and will continue to do so. On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Executive Board and all employees for their achievement, particularly the successes obtained in 2025 in the sustainable development of the GEA Board. Before we proceed to the agenda, I would now like to explain as announced the formalities of today's Annual General Meeting. The meeting will be broadcast live in its entirety for shareholders and the public on the company's website. Through the Investor Portal, shareholders who have registered in a timely manner and their proxy also have the opportunity to follow the meeting, to cast their votes by e-mail, ground proxies and instructions to the company's proxy holders, take the floor here at the meeting and file objections to resolutions or questions recorded as unanswered. With regard to the exercise of the right to information, I hereby state that as already announced in the notice to the Annual General Meeting, this rights may be exercised exclusively via video communication. I will return to this point later. You can access the investor portal using the credential sent to you in the registration confirmation. Dr. [indiscernible] has verified in advance that the technology is functioning properly. Should any transmission issues nevertheless arise, we will, of course, make every effort to resolve them immediately. Please check if necessary, whether your Internet connection is stable and your web browser is up to date. If you have any questions about using the investor portal, please contact our service provider, Computershare. You can find their contact information on the portal homepage under the contact menu item. With the exception of my Deputy Chair of the meeting Prof. Dr. and my colleague, all other members of the Supervisory Board are participating in the Annual General Meeting via video and audio transmission with my consent in accordance with Section 16 Subsection 4 Sentence 2 of the Articles of Association. The Executive Board is fully present. The containing of this Annual General Meeting, including the complete agenda, the management's proposed resolutions on the announced agenda items was published by the Executive Board in the Federal German Gazette on March 13, 2026, in due form and within the prescribed time frame. A supplemental notice regarding the convening of the Annual General Meeting was published in the Federal German Gazette on March 19, 2026. The notice of the meeting was also distributed throughout Europe. In addition to the announcement in the Federal Gazette, the convening of the Annual General Meeting was communicated in due form and time to the group of persons therein and in accordance with Section 125 of the German Stock Corporation Act. The notice convening the Annual General Meeting, the annual financial statements of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft for the fiscal year 2025 and all other mandatory documents pertaining to this Annual General Meeting has been available on the company's website since the notice was issued. The company has not received any motions to amend the agenda, any counter motions regarding the agenda items that are subject to publication or any proposals for the election of Supervisory Board members or auditors within the statutory deadline. Ladies and gentlemen, we are once again maintaining an electronic list of attendees for today's Annual General Meeting. This is available to you on the investor portal under List of Participants. The list of participants for today's virtual Annual General Meeting initially includes those shareholders who are represented by the company's proxy holders. In addition, the list of participants also include all shareholders or their representatives who are connected electronically during the Annual General Meeting. In contrast, shareholders who voted by mail, but are not connected electronically during the AGM are not listed in the list of participants. However, when announcing attendance, I will state the number of mailing votes cast. Please note that only the list visible on the investor portal is valid. Information made available on other websites or by means other than this portal will not be taken into account. Any form of photographing or other reproduction of the list of participants as well as the misuse of the data contained therein is prohibited. Persaunt to Section 19 Subsection 2 of our Articles of Association, I hereby determine the manner and the form of voting as follows: Voting will take place exclusively via the investor portal during this year's meeting. Voting rights exercised in advance of the Annual General Meeting by postal ballot or by proxy and instructions to the company's proxy holders will be taken into account. You can access the investor portal using the log-in credential There, you may also cast postal votes as well as grant, revoke or amend properties and instructions for the proxy holders even during the annual meeting up until the time announced by me as part of the voting process. I will inform you of this in a timely manner. In addition, you may file objections to resolutions for the record and submit other statements via the investor portal. Please follow the relevant instructions in the investor portal if you want to do so. The proxies appointed by the company are Mrs. Johanna Berkman and Dr. Matthias Decker. They will exercise their voting rights elusively in accordance with the instructions you have provided. Those proxies are present here today. We will vote on all agenda items in a single around of vote. For the vote, we will use the accumulation voting method, which I will explain to you before the voting begins. When announcing the voting results, we would display detailed version of the results on the screen. However, I intend to limit my statements to confirming that the required majority has been reached unless this is contested. Ladies and gentlemen, as we did last year, we will once again hold a general debate in a virtual format. The general debate covers all items on the agenda and will take place following speech which you will hear after my remarks as well as the explanations regarding the agenda that followed the speech. We have written a written statement from a shareholder in advance of the meeting, which we have made available on the website. I would like to refer you to it. Request to speak as well as motions regarding procedure and motions regarding the rules of procedure may be submitted via the investor portal during today's meeting. I ask all shareholders and shareholder representatives who wish to speak to register via the investor portal as early as possible. This facilitates a structured conduct of the general debate and contribute to the efficient conduct of the Annual General Meeting in the interest of all shareholders. Please ensure that you enter your contact information correctly. This information is necessary for us to contact you if needed and to explain the further proceedings to you. After registering to speak, you will receive a request to join a virtual waiting rule. You can continue to follow the Annual General Meeting from there. I will then have disconnected to the general discussion via video conference at the appropriate time. Please understand that this process, depending among other things on the number of requests to speak will take some time. As already explained in the notice convening the annual general meeting, we will also conduct a technical check of the video communication system functionality. This is the only way we can ensure the smooth running of the Annual General Meeting in the best interest of all shareholders. At this point, I would also like to draw your attention to the instructions and recommendations for video conferencing, which you can find on our website for your reference. If you wish to submit procedural nations that is motions regarding the rules of procedure, please also submit them via the investor portal. Please include one or more key words regarding your motion to specify its subjects matter. This will allow me to review and determine how to proceed with the motion, particularity particularly, whether proposal should be given priority to speak so that they may present and justify their mention. Here, too, please ensure that you enter your information correctly. This is the only way we can contact you if necessary. And the only way we can ensure that you can be connected to the Annual General Meeting via video conference. Ladies and gentlemen, before we proceed to the agenda, I would first like to announce the current attendance. Of the company's registered share capital in the amount of EUR 520,375,765.57 divided into 162,801,664 no-par value shares, 140,355,318 no-par value shares representing the same number of votes are currently represented at the AGM via proxy and instructions to the company's proxy. This corresponds to an attendance of 70.24% of the registered share capital. In addition, postal ballots 392,815 no-par value shares have been received, corresponding to 0.24% of the registered share capital. Attendance, plus the received postal votes that amounts to 114,748,133 no-par value shares. This corresponds to 70.48% of the registered share capital. The list of participants is available to you on the investor portal under the menu item Attendance List. Ladies and gentlemen, I will now call the agenda Items 1 through 11. With the exception of agenda Item 1 on which no resolution will be passed, the remaining agenda items will be put to a joint vote later. I will now move on to Item 1 on the agenda. Presentation of the adopted annual financial statements of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft and the approved consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2025, the group management report combined with the management report of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft for fiscal year 2025, including the report of the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2025. Ladies and gentlemen, the aforementioned documents also include the Executive Board explanatory report on the disclosures pursuant to Sections 289a and 350a of the German Commercial Code, the corporate governance statement with the corporate governance report as well as the group sustainability report. The annual financial statements and consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2025, as well as the consolidated management report summarized in the management report of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, including the sustainability report fully integrated therein has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftspr fungsgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main, as the auditor elected at the last Annual General Meeting. The sustainability report was prepared on a consolidated basis and meets all requirements for the GEA Group sustainability statement in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards as well as requirements for nonfinancial reporting obligations under Section 315b to 315c of the German Commercial Code, HGB, for the nonfinancial group statements and the requirements of Article 8 of Regulation 2020/852 the so-called EU Taxonomy regulation. The auditor has subjected the sustainability report to a substantive review regarding the required disclosures to obtain limited assurance. As part of this business review, the energy data Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and the total Scope 3 emissions were subject to review with reasonable assurance. The Supervisory Board has thoroughly reviewed the annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements, consolidated management report combined with the management report, including the sustainability report as well as the proposal for the appropriation of net income. Together with the auditor, the audit report was discussed in detail during the Supervisory Board meeting on the 5 March 2026. Neither the audit by the external auditor nor the review by the Audit and Cybersecurity Committee and/or the Supervisory Board gave rise to any objections. The auditor issued the required unqualified audit opinion pursuing the Section 322 of the German Commercial Code on the audit of the consolidated financial statements and the consolidated management report. In addition, the auditor also issued an unqualified audit opinion on the audit of the group sustainability report to obtain limited or reasonable assurance Supervisory Board approved the annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements submitted by the Executive Board at its meeting on 5 March 2026. The annual financial statements are thus adopted in accordance with Section 172 of the German Stock Corporation Act. The Supervisory Board's written report on its activities during the past fiscal year can be found in the annual report starting on Page 256. The focus of the Supervisory Board's activities in the past year was particularly on the corporate and growth strategy, including the continued implementation of the Mission 30 strategy as well as addressing strategic initiatives for the sustainable and profitable further development of the group. Other key topics of the Supervisory Board activities included financial reporting and financial performance, including the effects of inflation, compliance, geopolitical risks and their impact on GEA and the areas of markets, customers and customer satisfaction, competition as well as sustainability. The was significantly supported by the work of the committee. The Executive and Sustainability Committee focused primarily on ongoing M&A projects the strategy and implementation of the Mission 30 strategy with a particular emphasis on sustainability the potential applications of artificial intelligence, succession planning of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board, the definition of the Executive Board's 2026 and the efficiency review of the Supervisory Board. The Audit and Security Committee primarily dealt with regular financial reporting and the nonfinancial group statement. Its activities also focus on topics such as the effectiveness of the internal control risk management and audit systems. The audit of the financial statements and the compliance management system. Finally, the note regarding the adjustment of the company's management structure, which Mr. Klebert will report on in detail in his speech that follows shortly. The previously existing global executive committee has been dissolved. The Executive Board has been extended as of January 2026 to ensure that the divisions are also represented at the executive board level. Currently, the Executive Board consists of 7 members, our Chief Operating Officer, Johannes Giloth, will be leaving GEA at the end of April 2026. On behalf of the Supervisory Board, I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Giloth. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to give the floor to the Executive Board for its presentation of the 2025 financial statements and business performance. Mr. Klebert will explain the key figures for the 2025 fiscal year and will then focus primarily on the near future. Mr. Klebert, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Prof. Kempf. Well, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, anyone who was there on the 30th of September when the bell rang at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange will never forget that moment, the sense of anticipation in the room, the joy, the pride and above all the beaming faces of our colleagues. More than 100 employees from numerous countries and corporate functions shared that moment together. See for yourself. [Presentation]

Well, GEA is in the as the first pure-play mechanical and plant engineering company, historic success, the highlights of a strong financial year. We will look at the figures shortly. But first, let's stay with this particular moment for a second. It means a lot to us because it's the result of hard and disciplined work. GEA no tailwinds, but rather profitable growth driven by our own efforts. Behind all these are the people who made it possible. One of them is here with us today. has been with GEA for many years. She leads a team at our site Actually, he was one of the colleagues you just saw in the video. Well, when you think back to that particular moment, what is your strongest recollection?

All in all, it was a very special day indeed. And early in the morning, you could feel that everybody was euphoric looking forward to what was about to come. And then when we entered this platform of the Frankfurt stock exchange and you land about all this pride came well, something that was sounded there was a jubilation, everybody was happy. So it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me.

Wonderful to hear. You've been with GEA 15 years. What makes the special company?

It's so special because I've grown this company. Over all the years I've continuously further developed and the projects we execute are super interesting, highly demanding, and we are rewarded with our work becoming visible, large plant as the end product, and this is motivating to me and it gives great joy to my everyday work.

Thank you very much, Julia. And well, I would all at this point, also express my sincere thank to all our colleagues worldwide. Together, we have bought GEA into the DAX. To understand what this moment really means to us, it is helpful to take a brief look back. In 2019, 7 years ago, GEA was in a deep crisis. True. We have strong technologies, excellent teams. The foundation was set. But we had created an organization that initiative to centrally controlled little entrepreneurial freedom. The results, 7 profit warnings in a row. We lost trust. We lost talented people. The capital market had almost no faith left in GEA. One analyst verdict at the time was uninvestable stock, uninvestable. That was our starting point back in 2019. We had to act quickly. It was clear that things had to change. So we repositioned GEA more focused, more efficient more entrepreneurial. At the same time, we delegated responsibility to where it belongs to 5 divisions, each accountable for its own results with a freedom to make their own decisions. After all, if you want people to deliver, you must give them autonomy. That clarity is missing today, it is back and with it the entrepreneurial spirit. We divested 7 companies with approximately EUR 300 million in revenue not because they weren't good, but because they no longer fit with our strategic focus, and we tackled many other issues as well. Some of these but the results show they were the right ones. Part of this transformation is also a new performance culture. It can be summed up in 1 sentence that every one of our managers know by heart budget and budget. That sounds simple, but it carries a lot of weight. It means I was hard to finding. No excuses, no surprises. And in particular, no profit warnings. We say what we do and we do what we say. This starts right at the very top. Those who lead to that responsibility. And that's due with this latitude comes with accountability. Every manager will stand behind their target. Anyone who repeatedly fails to deliver in the wrong place at GEA. This is how we regain the trust of the customer market. Step by step, quarter by quarter, year by year. Since 2019, GEA has issued no more profit warnings, not during the pandemic nor during the supply chain crisis nor during the energy crisis. On the contrary, we frequently deliver more than we promised. In 2021, we presented our Mission 26 strategy with ambitious targets. We have achieved those targets in 2026, but in 2024, a full 2 years ahead of time. None of this happened by chance. It is the result of clear principles ownership performance culture and reliability. These principles guide us. They are the reason why we can once again speak of a record year. And this brings us to fiscal year 2025. The economic environment is anything but easy. German industries under press mechanical engineering is contracting, key sectors of struggling against massive headwinds. And GEA, we grew profitably with record margins, bucking the trend one more time. Let's take a look at the figures. Our order intake rose by 9.1% in organic terms to EUR 5.9 billion. In the fourth quarter, organic growth was nearly 18%. That's a strong new signal because today's orders are tomorrow's revenue. Revenue reached EUR 5.5 billion, an organic increase of 3.7%, placing it at the upper end of our guidance range. EBITDA before restructuring expenses was EUR 907 million. The corresponding margin was at 16.5%. And return on capital employed also reached an excellent level in 2025 at 36.2%. I want to emphasize 1 point, in particular, we have raised our guidance in the summer. And at the end of the year, even partially expected it. These results speak for themselves and for the strength of our business model. One major driver is our service business. This now accounts for 40% of our revenue. machine service relationships often span decades. This made force stability, especially in volatile times. And that is why GEA continues to grow profitably. For 2026, we expect accelerated organic revenue growth of 5% to 7%, and EBITDA margin because restructuring expenses of 16.6% to 17.2% and the ROCE between 34% and 38%. This means we are approaching the margin corridor of 17% to 19% as defined in our Mission 30 strategy. Once again, more quickly than expected. GEA is in a strong financial position. What does it mean for you, dear shareholders? Those who believed in us in 2019 how then we've awarded our share price as roughly tripled and dividends have continued to rise. Today, we are again proposing a higher dividend of EUR 1.30 per share, that is EUR 0.15 more than last year, an increase of 13% at the fifth consecutive increase. On average, our dividend has risen by more than 7% a year since 2019. We are paying out a total of EUR 212 million to you. This corresponds to about 50% of net profit. he creates lasting value for our customers, our employees and for you, our shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, figures are important, but I don't want to stop at the numbers. The question is why does GEA deliver so reliably. And even more importantly, what makes us confident it will stay that way. The answer starts with our people. It extends through our technology and all the way to sustainability. These 3 factors belonging together. The most important reason for our success is the people at GEA. When I look back at 2025, I think my many encounters with colleagues worldwide, special energy was palpable everywhere I went, a determination to become better every day, the ambition to understand things from the ground up, tackle problems out their root and to keep working on solutions until they are better anything that came before. This is the spirit that defines our company in development and production and out in the field with our customers. I wanted to experience the first-hand for a day as a service technician at our customer Take a look. [Presentation]

Well, job. It calls for precision, experience, physical effort and a cool head even under pressure. The colleagues who did a day after day have my utmost respect. That capability doesn't come out of nowhere. It needs a foundation and that's why I keep coming back to 1 question. Where will our future talent has come from? Where will we find the skilled workers we need to maintain this level and Germany has great strength in this area. Deeply rooted engineering position that is the envy of the world. The combination of theory and practice in vocational training at universities and in a deep understanding of industrial processes. These strengths will only be preserved if we nuture them as a society. What is elected in education today have a lasting impact. Even if we act now, it will take a generation before we see a turnaround. This must concern all of us. This is both a social and economic imperative. For us at GEA, this means we take responsibility here and now. And at our German sites, we are training around 380 young people in engineering and commercial applications as well as in the dual study view program. And what they accomplish is impressive. Take a look at this model. separator one of our most important machine. Our GEA's largest factory worked and it separates. This small example illustrates what makes GEA stand out on a large scale action for technology precision and the pure joy of creating things. Word is getting around. Interest GEA is growing internationally and in Germany, on average, twice as many people apply for a vacancy in this country today as they did 2 years ago. We are an attractive employer, which the top employees institute also confirmed. At the beginning of 2026, we were recognized once again for the fourth time in a row. Today, we are certified as a top employer in 9 countries on 3 continents. We particularly value feedback from our employees. 80% participated in our global survey this year, 84% of them would recommend GEA as a good employer. Why is that? Because what matters is what you work on. Ultimately, at GEA, we don't just build machines what we develop is fundamental for people, markets and societies. Our technology is often out of site, but it's just part of how we live, it's about basically it's every second be worldwide is with our technology, every processed milk coming from our production systems, every fourth package of every fifth cookie, GEA technology is at work everywhere. And in GEA solutions are Every second for the treatment of cancers produced on GEA equipment. Markets can fluctuate, economies can but people have to eat and drink and they want to stay healthy. Take a look at this. This is milk powder. In many regions, it's a key dietary In Algeria, we are currently building the world's largest fully integrated plant for the production of milk powder for our customer from dairy farming to packaging all from single source, one of the largest single orders in our history. But what matters most to something else. Algeria is still the third largest importer of milk powder worldwide, but that will change. Our plant will go into operation step by step from the end of 2027. The target capacity is around 100,000 metric tons of milk powder per year. This is equivalent to roughly half of the country's demand, roughly 5,000 jobs will be created locally. I personally signed contract in 2025 which was a pleasure. At moments like these you truly see you with industrial technology can achieve. It is about contributing to the full security of an entire country. Here is the second example. In 2025, we opened our technology center for new food and biotechnology in the U.S. We invested EUR 18 million. And by the way, the entire center runs on renewable energy. There, our customers can test and optimize next-generation processes such as precision fermentation and cell cultivation. In other words, egg without chicken and fish without fishing. And they can lose to industrial production. In Jamesville, we validate the relevant processes together with our customers before they go to industrial scale. That is how we help made the decisive step from the lab to production. So we are not just securing nutrition today, we are also shaping the nutrition of tomorrow. At the same time, we are delivering key question, how can our customers set our performance by consuming fewer resources? That is precisely what we mean by sustainability. Plenty of companies talk about this today. But at GEA, sustainability has long been part of our business model. Why? Because our customers are coming under pressure, especially you go to time, energy is becoming more expensive, water scarcer, regulations getting stricter have to come down. Geopolitical attentions are making everything more uncertain. So deficiency is a clear competitive advantage more than ever. We deliver to take machines and processes that produce more and consume less. One case in point, European dairy installed a new GEA system. Gas consumption dropped so sharply that the energy provider got in touch and asked if there was a problem at the site. There wasn't. The plant was running normally, just much more efficiently, 60% less fossil energy, 40% less energy overall. That is exactly what it's about, sustainability that Two years ago, dear shareholders you supported supporting our Climate Transition Plan 2040, with 98.4% approval. The first sales vote on the DAX index family. That was a powerful and I can tell you today, we are on a very good track. Already 45.7% of our revenue come from sustainable solutions. By 2030, this is set to be over 60%. We have reduced green house gas emissions from our own operations, Scopes 1 and 2, faster than planned. By the end of 2025, there were already 62% below their 2019 level. Our interim target for 2026 was 60%. We're also making strides slide in our value chain in Scope 3. Compared to 2019, we have already reduced these emissions by 38%. So here, too, we are well on track. That does not go unnoticed. EcoVardis has once again awarded us with 92 out of 100 points, only 1% of all rated companies worldwide achieved that level, and we, GEA, are 1 of them. sustainability ranking, we presently rent 12 globally and second in Germany. has put GEA on its A list for climate leadership once more. For many customers, sustainability is a key decision-making criteria. This bolsters our market position. But for us, responsibility does not end with the product or at the factory gate. A year ago, I introduced the valuation we promote education, to improve access to basic infrastructure and provide during disaster. [indiscernible] have been with us from the start. Additional partners have joined since then. [indiscernible] Together, we create opportunities for young people from the classroom to the start of their career. 1% of our net profit goes to charitable causes every year. In 2025, that was over EUR 4 million. People, technology, responsibility. This is what our success is built on. That is the heart of GEA. And from this position of strength, we are now shaping our next phase of growth. To take the call, we have adjusted our leadership structure. Instead of 5 divisions, we now have 4. flow processing, nutrition plant engineering, and food applications and farm technology, each with a key focus and full bottom line responsibility. At the same time, we dissolved the 14 member global executive committee. Since the beginning of 2026, it has been replaced by a newly formed Executive Board that will comprise 6 members going forward. It includes colleagues who have played a major part in GEA's success in recent years and who are now taking on the roll of responsibility. Our Chief Operating Officer, Johannes Giloth, will remain part of this team until the end of April, after that, he will leave GEA. We owe a great deal to Johannes Giloth. He and his team fundamentally improved our operational processes. Above all, by consolidating our global procurement activity. In doing so, he was instrumental in enhancing value creation at GEA. And for that, Johannes, I would like to thank you sincerely. The new members of the Executive Board will now introduce themselves, so I would like to hand over to my Executive Board team.

Well, thank you very much, Stefan. Hello. My name is Alexander Kocherscheidt. And since November 2025, I have been the CFO of GEA. And I joined GEA in 2019. At the transformation that Stefan Klebert began Since then, I had financial functions, the division CFO of Plant Engineering of LPT, Nutrition plant engineering. As CFO, I stand for transparency of figures for smart capital allocation as well as for a sustainable success of GEA. Thank you very much.

My name is Nadine Sterley. Sustainable growth starts with strong teams. I'm convinced of that. Since 2016, I have been working with GEA and recently in the function of Chief Sustainability Officer. Now I'm a member of Executive Board, and I'm responsible for human resources, people and more. And I want to move the best talent for GEA and to retain them.

My name is Klaus Stojentin. I'm responsible for the Nutrition Plant Engineering division. I have been working with GEA since 2003, recently responsible for the Separation & Flow Technologies division. Our plant engineering business for the drinks and food industry opens enormous opportunities, which we will use consistently.

Good morning. My name is Kai Becker. I've been working with GEA for 20 years now and during that time among other things, I was responsible for activities in China, Italy and Great Britain. And since the beginning of this year, I have been responsible for the fewer flow processing division. This is a elementally important for our customers and an important wealth lever for GEA.

My name is I come from Belgium, and I've been working with GEA since 2020. I have more than 20 years of international experience in the mechanical engineering business. Today, as a Head of the Pharma and Food Applications division. In particular, in the pharmaceutical area, we find one of our most important dynamic markets, and we bring everything into this business in order to be successful.

Well, thank you very much to all of you. This team knowns GEA. Each and every one of them have long been in a position of responsibility and have shown that they can deliver. I look forward to continuing on our path at the high pace of it and actively shape the generational transition leadership. A key lever for our continued growth is digitalization. Here, too, we just don't talk the talk. We are building a business with quantifiable added value for our customers. In 2025, our revenue from digital solutions stood at around EUR 80 million. By 2030, that figure will be more than EUR 200 million. Today, more than 11,000 machines are connected to the GEA cloud. And by 2030, that number will exceed 35,000. Why is it so important? Because our digital solutions are based on artificial intelligence and AI becomes even more powerful as more data is available. And that's exactly where our advantage lies. We combine our engineering and service data with operating data from the connected machines. The outcome is great higher productivity and lower resource consumption. And AI can do even more. It opens up new possibilities that simply did not exist before. One example is our system. It uses a camera and AI to analyze the gate of their recon automatically day after day. It detects at an early stage. This means faster treatment, healthier animals and higher productivity. Animal welfare any profitability go hand-in-hand. AI doesn't only benefit our customers. It also makes us more efficient ourselves by accelerating processes and increasing our productivity. A casinos our in-house AI solution enables us to digitize complex engineering drawings and analyze them automatically, that saves time, reduces hours and accelerated work on our projects. And this is exactly where one of GEA great strength lies. We can buy new technologies with in-depth process knowledge and data from tens of thousands of machines. This is an advantage that cannot simply be copied. Our competitiveness is not determined in the digital space alone. It is also decided on the ground side by side with our customers. The global economy is becoming increasingly fragmented, trade barriers, tariffs, geopolitical tensions, the rules of the game constantly shifting. As a company with customers in more than 150 countries, it affects us. And let's not kid ourselves, the German success model no longer works. Develop everything here, produce it here, export it to the world and then expect everyone to applaud, that is over, and it won't come back. But we are prepared better than many others because we are were our customers are. We develop there, produce there and provide service there. In a complex world, it's not the most complex organization that wins, it's the most agile one, the 1 closest to the customer. That is why our divisions manage their business globally with seamless responsibility down to country level. This creates clear accountability and sure decision paths. In 2 countries, we are going a step further, in China and India. Their market dynamics and competition are evolving a great This calls for even higher degree of independence at even in greater That is why starting this year, these 2 country organizations report directly to me. China is much more than a large sales market for GEA. We have been present for many years with our own production, our own engineering and now also our own digital solutions. In 2025 alone, we developed over 20 products locally in China. India is also developing at a rapid pace. For us, the country's growth market, the production site and in engineering hub, all in 1 several hundred continuous work in Vadodara and Bangalore. They develop not only for the local market, but for many of our global projects. Today, more than 2,000 people work for GEA in India and China and what is created there has an impact on this region strengthens the entire group. We also have a strong footprint in North America. Our industrial network there includes almost 1,200 employees at 16 locations. Made in the U.S.A. is also a live reality for us. This strategy, local strength, global reach makes us more robust and it makes us a fast reliable partner on the ground. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm often asked, can we maintain this momentum? My answer to that is short and clearer, yes. We look for the future with confidence because we have good reasons to do so. We generate almost 80% of our revenue in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. These are industries with structural demand. The global population is growing. In many countries, the middle class is growing as well. There is increasing pressure to use resources more efficiently. And these are trends driving our success. Our position in these markets is strong and our reputation among customers is excellent. We deliver machines an entire production plants in which many processes interact. Every order is different and also highly demanded. Anyone who can master that complexity is not easy to replace. Add to this strong balance sheet, operational discipline and an outstanding team, and Mission 30, our clear strategic company. All of this makes us robust and ready to respond quickly even in difficult times. Finally, let's return to where we target in Frankfurt to that special moment. Moments like this bring out what we have achieved but they are never the end of the story. They are the beginning of the new chapter. The fact that is in the DAX today is a powerful statement. It sends a strong signal, not just for GEA, but also for Germany as an industrial hub. It shows that engineering is the future, including in Germany, provided that new part, says focus and creates value. Ladies and gentlemen, little piece from the Frankfurt stock exchange floor shows our ticker symbol. Today, there's a place at our new headquarters in It stands for what we have achieved together and everything else we can achieve. My sincere thanks go out to our employees worldwide, to our customers and partners and to you, our shareholders. YOu have stayed the course with us even in difficult times, and you have been rewarded for it. In 2019, hardly anyone would have bet on us. Today, we are in the DAX. Behind us lies year. This is not the finish line, but the next step on our journey. Let us continue on this path together with determination. Thank you very much.

Mr. Klebert, thank you very much for your remarks. I would like to point out that the text of the speech delivered by the Chairman of the Executive Board has already been published on the company's website in advance. Ladies and gentlemen, before we now proceed to the general discussion, I would like to quickly explain the remaining items on the agenda. Agenda Item 2 the association of net retained profits. The executive Board and the Supervisory Board propose the distribution of a dividend of EUR 1.30 per dividend-bearing share. Agenda Item 3 concerns the resolution on the approval of the remuneration report. Agenda Item 4 and 5, concerning the ratification of the acts of the members of the Executive Board and the members of the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2025. Next, Agenda Item 6 deals with the appointment of auditor and auditor as the sustainability report for fiscal year 2026. Under Agenda Item 6.1, the Supervisory Board acting on the recommendation of the Audit and Cybersecurity Committee proposes that a PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftspr fungsgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main be reappointed as the auditor of the company and the group for fiscal year 2026. As well as the auditors will review of the contained financial statements and the interim management report of the half year financial report in fiscal year 2026. Under Agenda Item 6.2, the Supervisory Board are based on the recommendation of the Audit and Cybersecurity Committee proposes to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftspr fungsgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main, as the auditor of the sustainability report of the company and the group for fiscal year 2026. The appointment as auditor entrusted with providing assurance of sustainability reporting will be effective upon entry into of the German law implementing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, that is CSRD and in the event of the German legislator should stipulate the explicit appointment of such auditor the Annual General Meeting. Agenda Item 7 concerns the resolution on the approval of the remuneration system for the Executive Board. Section 120a1 German terms Corporation Act provides that the Annual General Meeting of listed companies were resolved on the approval of the remuneration system for Executive Board members submitted by the Supervisory Board at least every 4 years the company's Annual General Meeting last adopted such a resolution back in 2025. The Supervisory Board has reviewed and adjusted the remuneration system in light of the company position following its inclusion in the DAX and the new organization of the Executive Board. Therefore, the Supervisory Board acting on the recommendation of the and sustainability committee proposes system the remuneration of the members of the Executive Board of the GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft as adopted by the Supervisory Board is available on the company's website be approved. Agenda Item 8 covers my reelection as a member of the Supervisory Board. Since my supervisory tenure is due to expire at the conclusion of today's annual general meeting, I'm standing for reelection today for 1 more year. In doing so, I wish to contribute to the continuation of our trusting cooperation within the Supervisory Board and with the Executive Board during the transition to the new management and organizational structure. Agenda Item 9 concerns an amendment to the articles of appreciation to comply with legal regulations regarding the issuance of electronic shares. No transition to electronic shares is planned for the time being. The amendment to the articles of association is in to open up this possibility for the company in the future. Furthermore, Agenda Item 10 provides for the creation of new authorized capital. This is intended to replace the company existing and now expire authorized capital in their entirety. This is intended to simplify the existing authorization structure outlined in the Articles of Association. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board therefore proposed creating a new authorized capital 2026 with a volume of up to EUR 156 million. Authorization will now end on April 28, 2031. The authorized capital may be increased through the issuance of new no-par value shares in exchange for cash and on past contribution. The shares to be issued to the authorization for capital may be used amongst other things as consideration and business combinations or the acquisition of companies to service employee participation programs or to demand script dividend. Furthermore, the authorization provides for the possibility of a so-called simplified exclusion of subscription for cash contribution pursuant to Section sentence 4 of the German Stock Corporation the possibility of excluding eruptions is, as in the past, limited to a total of 10% of the share capital. Please refer to the detailed information in the notice of the meeting and the Executive Board's report, which is available on the company's website for further details regarding the capital authorization in particular, concerning the exclusion of subscription rights. I come to on the agenda resolution is to be passed here regarding the authorization to issue bonds with conversion or option rights or obligations as well as to create contingent capital to service these bonds. The proposed authorization to exclude subscription to a proportionate amount of the share capital totaling 10%. The background here is also the expiration of the previous authorization. Please allow me to refer once again to the details provided in the notice of the meeting and the Executive Board report. Ladies and gentlemen, I would ask you, even if you wish to speak only on the individual agenda items to do so during the discussion that is about to follow. Please register your request to speak by the investor portal. As mentioned, you will then receive upfront to join a virtual waiting room and our staff will guide you through the technical process. In the virtual waiting room, we will first the functionality of the video communication and provided the test is successful, I will call on you at the appropriate time and have you activated to speak at the annual general meeting. We will then collect your questions as usual and address them in The speaking time is not limited from the however, I would like to ask all speakers to keep the remarks as concise as possible to address all agenda items in a single statement. For the speaking, the elapsed speaking time will be displayed on the investor Board all for a reference. I reserve the right to limit speaking and question time to an appropriate level, be expecting the occasion is been necessary. Please also restrict your remarks to items on the agenda.

I will now call on the speakers. When calling on the speaker, I will already account announce next speakers. Well, I look at my list of speakers at the moment, I requests to speak and I have to Mr. and then Mr. Christopher Mr. you have the floor.

My name indeed is I'm Managing Director of the shareholder association. We used to be neighbors of GEA. Unfortunately, you moved, but it didn't stop your success story. So I can leave with it. Congratulations on your last fiscal year and then my congratulation on your to the DAX. It's not a given well as a gift to you, you have to fight for it, so the thanks and the praise of our shareholders due to all GEA employees, and this is extraordinary. And let me come in with another angle. It's a beneficial thing for the DAX to have GEA on board because GEA is a good company and I recall the period prior to 2019 until then, we were greatly worried and when you look GEA today, it's different company indeed. So thank you very much. It's not done overnight. It's a long path. It's a marathon. And you have wonderfully managed to cover it below 2-hour limit the thank you goes to the employees to the Executive Board and the supervisory Board, we shouldn't forget that body. So congratulations, and welcome to the new members of the Executive Board. We wish you all the best for the future success and that the success story will continue. We are not worried about that, but I've got a few questions to you. You know it, you will anticipate it because we would like to aim more. And I simply go for and make associate with take a look at the order book. How well or how strong that will look at a single project, we had a problem many years ago, things got out of hand. I do not surmise that this is the case, but could you please elaborate on it? Do you have more large projects and more risk? And why is it not a risk? Maybe you could expand on that and tell us everything is fine and why that would be something I would be very grateful for. Then your book-to-bill ratio is 1.08. Wonderful, no doubt about that. But maybe you could also expand on that. From your point of view, is it good? Is it bad? What role does execution speed play, project structure and also margin quality? To give us a little bit more flesh and let us look at your order book, it would be great. If we could do that. So what's your assessment of the midterm perspective of the Farm Technologies segment, also against the backdrop of the intense cyclicity and dependence on the farm, on the agriculture market that you play a role or not? I think Crop Science and so on, Bayer, BASF, and they have to fight with it. Could you tell us, are you dependent on that, too? Or is there no major dependence in your case when you look at the prices for soybeans and the others? Your margin development were, [indiscernible] I take my hat off. You can be highly happy about it. So what's driving your margin? Is it that you -- that you set the prices that you can increase prices? Is it efficiency that you come from 2 -- that these things come together from 2 sides. Could you shed some light on that and tell us why your margin is so significantly and nicely increasing and answer the question whether this will continue. The increase in your service share, you mentioned that during your speech, Mr. Klebert is also an important building block and component of your success. So congrats on my part. But 40%, you mentioned that in your speech. So what is the plan? Is it going to continue? Tailwind was there because you kept fighting, your team kept fighting. But is there more the risk profile of GEA? Could it still be improved that there was more the service? So when you can wonder for you do the trait yourself and work yourself is even better. So what can we expect in terms of the service business? And then, well, in P4, we have cheap a lot. You have a lot. The shareholders are happy. You can -- it's reflected by the stock exchange price to what are the top 3 for achieving your Mission 30 goals. If we talk about opportunities you do, about the efforts, the work behind it. But what are your 3 big building -- well, 3 big things that could put your risk achievement -- put your achievement in general at risk. And then 2 years ago, we moved well, we look at sustainability in a positive way. Sustainability plays a big role in your business model. Your approach was different from other companies, and this is also a positive aspect. And today, again, you pointed out the energy efficiency provides to your customers. I would love to hear from you what about worldwide because sustainability is viewed differently in the individual regions. And we well see it and come face to face with it all the time. So how do you view it worldwide? Or do you move in via energy efficiencies? And then we do not need to talk about sustainability because it's an economic efficiency topic. So the view of the world to sustainability is that a different one and also the way they view GEA. I would love to hear from you whether maybe you see a question mark with your counterparts when you talk to customers. So next, what about geopolitical upheavals, -- to what extent do they impact on your supply chains, then the oil price. And I think that the strength of the market in India and China is something you addressed in your speech. Maybe you could briefly elaborate on the extent you are affected well by that. You act local to local, to what extent are you impacted? Maybe a little bit more. Then M&A somehow as a shareholder, you've got the feeling that there is something you've got and your pockets are deep, and we've been talking about M&A for quite some time. And what we could read is that CVC well had a minority stake, well in [ Syndicon ], they sold to Apollo. You didn't do it. It's not necessarily bad because private equity has got unfavorable prices, and it's sometimes hard not to seize the opportunity. What's your general approach to M&A? Are you going for the risk? Are you risk averse? What could you imagine? Where do you move? When I look at your equity story, you've done your homework wonderfully. I mentioned it before. But of course, we are waiting for the next step to take place. And I think you also have got the right feel for doing it at the right point in time. The right thing has to come along. Simply acquiring something for acquisition purposes is not the right thing to do. But just elaborate. Then China, you were self-confident talking about the topic, China. You can face up to competition what about your competition from China? We do not hear a lot about this. Well, may be you could tell what are the Chinese up to? Are they increasingly coming in? Do you encounter them more frequently in your endeavors? Or are your products so specific that there's no need for you to worry? Then working capital, again, [indiscernible] I take my hat off. You reduced it significantly. I've got a feeling that this is not repeatable because it's always relating to a reference date. But you have issued a range. So why is it such an outlier now? What is it? Just make us understand better what is going to be the path ahead for our new CFO. So welcome. It's an important position for the shareholders. Do we see a countervailing effect in 2026 out of a low working capital level to a high one? Just to know beforehand. So I know next year's question. And then to conclude, what about the new organization structure? Is it bearing fruit already? Well, just elaborate on it, highly exciting. Some companies go for big, some for a smaller Executive Board, others well-abolished committees. But do you already see the benefits and that is really a good thing you've done. And right at the very end, thank you very much again, Professor Kempf. We, of course, will vote for you even for 1 year, but maybe just tell us why only 1 year. I would have voted in favor of you for longer than a year. You would have received a yes for more. What are your plans? I'm also asking for a well, succession process. I'm so well there chairing association, but maybe Professor Kempf tell us more and tell us why it's only 1 year. We would have given you longer than you are. Well, I stayed well within the 10-minute frame. Thanks for your attention. Well, stay the way you are and so wonderfully reliable because this is the currency that count. See you next year. All the best. Thank you.

Well, Mr. [indiscernible] thank you very much for your questions. And of course, thank you for all the praise you lavished upon us. We are going to give extensive answers to your questions. Thanks for keeping within the time frame. And then the next speaker, Christopher Selbach, who will ask his questions. Well, Mr. Selbach.

Well, thank you, Professor Kempf, for my part. Well, dear members of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, my name is Christopher Selbach, and I represent the SDK Shareholder Association. I would like to point out that I personally own shares in this company. So this is something that reflects my trust and confidence from the point of view of the shareholders, the 2025 fiscal year is something that was highly satisfactory. The development of the share price and the proposed dividend increased to EUR 1.30 per share. This sends out a clear signal. Then when these well developments not happen stance, it's the result of wonderful work, which is reflected in the commencing financial figures. And these are positive figures and the shareholders benefit from a very high level of transparency in terms of communication with the investors in the capital market. I personally love this. And well, it doesn't make my task here easy and it doesn't make it easy to find meaningful questions. And so my contribution will be relatively short. It's a good sign, and it's also for the benefit of Mr. Kempf, the CEO. He well reminded us to be short and some questions will overlap Mr. Tungler's questions. Now we are right in a fortunate situation at the moment, a well-deserved fortunate situation that I and Mr. Tungler, other shareholders have no reason what ever to voice any criticism or ask when will we go uphill again? No. The only essential question I can ask is whether we will continue the same way just as favorably and whether the Executive Board in cooperation with the Supervisory Board will make sure that GEA's future will remain successful. And here one more time, let me anticipate this, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board provide answers. They are not resting on their laurels. They're [indiscernible] their shoulders. But even now they set the course for the future. And I refer to the rejuvenation and the streamlining of the organization structure that goes hand-in-hand with the reorganization of the Executive Board and the divisions. And this comes out of a position of strength. And what I'm interested in is maybe you could explain what the tangible reasons on ground for your decision were, where you are expecting benefits and financial impact. well, what we will see there. And then I subscribe to what Mr. Tungler said, the first insights and experiences of the first 4 months after the implementation of this reorganization. Can you report on anything, anything tangible? Then within the framework of this change, a bit surprising, the departure of Mr. Brinker, your former CFO. Maybe you could explain why all of a sudden, it came in out of the blue. I do not want to interfere in any personal things, but maybe you could shed some light on this whole story. Then also in connection with the new organization of the division, the question of goodwill, the balance sheet, well, there it accounts to EUR 1.5 billion. It only amounts to 1/4 of the balance sheet, and it would be a major risk if we had an impairment. So goodwill, the new structure there is to be allocated to 4 well segments. Does it have this recoverable value? Or might there be a need for impairment? And that well, could be highly significant. The further questions I prepared, they do not refer to fiscal year '25. I do not want to look back such a lot that figures were excellent. No, I look ahead into the future. And right there, I would like to ask the Executive Board to answer the following questions, which relate to hands-on tangible plans for the future. It's about the free cash flow in the past fiscal year exceeding EUR 500 million. And in the years ahead, we will have something of this magnitude. And at the same time, we have got high repayment levels for the promissory loan note, which are no longer there. So what do you plan to do with all this money, this cash this additional liquidity shouldn't just lie around, well, without doing anything. And then another point that we will vote on later on. And this is the authorization to issue new shares, then we have them pulled in the new authorized capital 2026. It will be pulled and extended. Are there concrete actual planned mergers and acquisitions, M&A? Are there any plans on your part because that might be the most well immediate use of this money. Then a few questions regarding your forecast, [indiscernible], by 2030, you would like to have EUR 200 million sales, EUR 60 million we saw in fiscal year '25. How there is a gap. There is some potential in there. So maybe you could give us the reasons for delayed revenues and why you stick to your goal of growing up to EUR 400 million by 2030. So we need some explanations as to why you remain optimistic and stick to your goals. And then your guidance report as such. It embraces information until the preparation of the annual report early March, no further escalation of the well Middle East conflict was expected. You could argue about what an escalation is today, 29th of April, the situation still holds. The conflict goes on. Is there any impact on your guidance? Are you affected by the conflict in any way when you look at business figures should we worry? And then one last question on my part. Well, in relation to Mission 2030, your midterm plans, what you tend to do is to, well, reach your goals early 2023. So should we say you accomplish them in 2026, Well, could you maybe elaborate a little bit what is going to come afterwards? Can you tell us what you are expecting for the time past 2030. These are my questions. There's one thing that remains today -- 2 things. Number one, I'm always happy to be here and to represent SDK with GEA. And I would see that it has a great advantage if we look at face-to-face again at another AGM, maybe an in-person one could take place again. And second, to conclude from my point of view, congratulations on this successful year. I wish all the best to the new members of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board. Thanks for listening to my question, and I'm looking forward to your answers.

Thank you. So thank you very much for your inspirations. I would also like to thank you for staying within the time frame. I've got another speaker in the pipeline. And I propose, well, that we do it in a blocks of 3, so to speak. I have Mr. Leonard here online. I would like to ask him to activate.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I do hope that everybody can understand me all right. Well, I want to be very brief. I do not want to focus on the content. Rather, I would like to congratulate you on what you have achieved and express my hope that you can even exceed here in the future. And what my colleagues already expressed is that the organization of the AGM in a virtual form has been mentioned. And I would like to know how many people, that means how many shareholders have logged in today during the AGM. And to compare that, I would like to know about the average number of attendees during the 3 years before the corona time so as to show what is really happening and how these numbers are developing. Normally, we hear that virtual AGMs are much nicer for shareholders. But when you ask for these figures and want to compare the virtual attendees and those who participated in AGMs in former times, so please give me these figures. And that's it as far as my questions are concerned. Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you very much indeed, Mr. [indiscernible] for this question. Right. Now we have dealt with the block of request to speak. Most questions were directed to the Executive Board. So I suggest Mr. Klebert that you start with your answer. Mr. Klebert, the floor is yours.

Well, thank you very much indeed, Professor Kempf. Let me start with the questions by Mr.[indiscernible] The first question concerned the order book, how much that influenced growth and where are the risks? Well, we can say that in 2025, large-scale orders really played a very important role. They accounted for about 10% of order intake. So in other words, this accounts for 90% of the baseload business, and we think that this is very balanced. So we do not see any risks here. Furthermore, during the last few years, we have done many improvement measures in the project business, and we feel very much at ease also with regard to the Baladna project. Another question regarded our prospects in the segment Farm Technologies and whether there is a dependency of prices of soy. And I can say in summary that the prospects for Farm Technologies are very positive. In the business year, we had an order intake, which was 23% -- which grew by 23% -- there is a cyclical -- we do not see a cyclic movement of agricultural market. We have a broad product portfolio. We expect further potential, in particular, when it comes to automatic milking and feeding systems. The next question by Mr. Tungler, concerns the present geopolitical upheavals and supply chain and oil price. Well, we can say that only 3% of our entire business takes place in the Middle Eastern region. That means this is a restricted exposure. We have no production sites. There are no main suppliers. So we have a negligible impact there. And we are not a very energy-intensive company. That's why the energy cost increases do not affect us massively. Of course, there is influence when it comes to supply costs, but we are optimistic that we will be able to pass them on. Moreover, we consider the rising energy costs to be an opportunity for GEA, and I mentioned that in my speech. We have devised many innovations in terms of energy saving, and we are convinced that this creates added value for our customers that we can offer them added value. So the higher the energy prices, the better the effects because we have very energy-intensive customers. And we expect a rising demand for energy-saving solutions, which we offer. Another question by Mr. Tungler was competition from China. China for us is a strategically important market. And that's why we have taken the decision that since the beginning of the year, China and India report directly to the CEO, report directly to me. We have a clear strategy for China. We devise and produce locally. And as a result, I think we have a very strong focus on this market in general. But of course, we have to say that competition from countries outside of Europe is bound to come. But we are active in markets where the quality plays a very important role, where impediments to enter the markets are rather high. So we do not see an immediate threat, and we think that we have the right strategy to produce in these markets. Next question concerns the 40% service share that we have, whether this is the right thing to have and how we will continue in the future. These questions are very often also asked by analysts. When we stop the new machines, we have 100% service. I think 40% is a good figure. And service and the new machine business needs to continue growing. And by 2030, that's part of our mission 30, we want to generate EUR 2.9 billion. Last year, we had EUR 2.2 billion. So 40% is a good and healthy relationship. It's going to fluctuate, but we want to continue growing in both areas. Another question concerns the question for the 3 biggest risks for achieving Mission 30. You know that we are right on track with our guidance. This year, we have already started achieving what we embarked on for 2030. And I think that internally, we are well positioned. There are many initiatives and opportunities to reach our targets. Impossible risks would be external influencing factors such as a pandemic or a war, something which we always managed very well in the past. And what benefits us is that we are in extremely resilient markets. 80% of what we do is food, pharma, beverage. People need to continue to eat and drink. They continue to need medical help. That's why the risks on the path towards Mission 30 are very limited. The next question concerns the new organizational structure, first experience. Well, yes, our first experience is very positive. It's real fun to work with the new colleagues. I enjoy it. We increased our dynamism even more and the organizational levels have been streamlined as a result. We have removed the regional structures in part. We have measurable cost effects, which can be felt to the tune of EUR 15 million this year alone. And this, as I said before, leads to new impetus. Another question concerned M&A. Well, basically, we are, of course, interested in M&A, and we are constantly looking at companies, but our Mission 30 strategy works well. We are going to have growth CAGR, 5% organic growth per year. That means we are not going to do anything crazy. We are not going to do anything that doesn't increase the value. That's why when it comes to M&A, we are very interested. But simultaneously, we wouldn't opt for anything that doesn't generate real value. And that's our point of orientation. And up to now, we haven't really found targets that can be found in this dimension, but we are confident that in the future, the one or other major acquisition might come up, but we have to wait and see. topic concerning sustainability all over the world. I know that you can read a lot in the press that sustainability is decreasing in importance. Let me tell you that when I talk to all the customers also in the United States, they do not have this feeling. My feeling is that there is a difference between reporting by the media and what customers are really doing. Everything that affects sustainability, climate protection, the reduction of CO2 gases is something that continues to be important for companies who deemed that important a couple of years ago. So I think we are continuing on the right course because that's our obligation. We are firmly convinced that it is necessary to act in order to preserve the lovely planet earth and to save it. And on the other hand, we are convinced that it is our business model because our customers are very energy-intensive ones. And as a result, we can make a contribution to energy saving because even those customers who do not believe in climate change, they still believe in their energy bill at the end of the month. And when we are able to reduce it, then that's our valuable contribution. Now let me give the floor to my colleague, Alexander Kocherscheidt, and she will answer a few questions.

Yes. Thank you very much, Stefan. I also want to answer a few questions by Mr. [indiscernible]. The book-to-bill ratio, which last year was at 1.08, whether we consider that to be good and what is our attitude towards it? Well, we think that 1.08 is sustainable and healthy as book-to-bill ratio. We think that it reflects a good balance in terms of our project structure and a good investment speed. We assume that we will continue to have these figures in the future. Looking back, we had also higher but also lower book-to-bill ratios with GEA. But with the 1.08, we feel well positioned. One question referred to the margin development. It was also a question posed by Mr. Tungler. The margin development is very pleasing. What are the driving forces behind it? Is that price fixing efficiency or both? Well, the positive gross margin development is mainly due to improved product and project mix, higher operational efficiency when it comes to implementing projects as well as consistent price fixing. In addition, the further growing share of the profitable service business, which was mentioned before, makes an important contribution to that. Service share, 40% of total revenue contributes to stabilizing margins as well. There was another question dealing with working capital or net working capital. It was addressed directly to me. What is the plan of the new CFO? Well, it was said quite rightly that at the end of 2025, we had 3.25% net working -- 3.2% net working capital. When you look at the average back in 2025 over the 4 quarters, we had a value of 6.6%. And you know that we had a corridor in our guidance of 7% to 9%. And with this corridor, I feel very much at ease. With 6.6%, we were slightly below it. But of course, due to project management and implementation and certain necessities with regard to project procurement and order intake, this may go up a little bit. So in the framework of the Mission 30, the 7% to 9% is something that we and I feel very much at ease with. So these were the questions asked by Mr. Tungler. Let me proceed with the next topic. There was a question by Mr. [indiscernible] concerning free cash flow. Last year, with EUR 500 million, we had a high free cash flow. And in the future, we also expect similar values. simultaneously, we do not have to repay money. And well, what do we intend to do with the cash? Well, first of all, free liquidity that we have offers us the opportunity to strengthen our balance sheet and to engage in profitable organic growth. Furthermore, we stick to our dividend policy with a payment ratio of 50%. And Stefan Klebert said so before. We are still interested in engaging in strategically meaningful acquisitions. Once we state that we cannot find targets in the immediate future in terms of M&A., we will, nevertheless, in the future, look at the topic of share buybacks as a possibility for capital allocation. There was another question by Mr. [indiscernible] on goodwill. We have EUR 1.5 billion goodwill in the balance sheet, a potential risk of an impairment. The question was whether the value of the newly allocated goodwill is also there in the -- after reorganization. Well, the answer is that due to the reorganization on the 1st of January '26, the goodwill and value of the former division Heating & Refrigeration Technologies and the new division PureFlow Processing and Nutrition Plant Engineering, they were allocated to that and the goodwills were subjected to an impairment test. And as a result, for all the divisions affected as per the 31st of December 2025, there were clear obvious differences between what could be achieved and the carrying amount. As a result, the value of the goodwill at the point of the reorganization were confirmed. And presently, there is no indication for a change of this assessment, and that also goes for the divisions that were not affected by the reallocation. Now let me give the floor back to you, Stefan.

Right. So let me answer the 2 questions that were directed to me. First of all, the question by Mr. Tungler concerning the suggestion that I be reelected for just 1 year. Thank you very much, Mr. Tungler for the trust that you implied in your question. But let me, first of all, explain why the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board agreed that in contrary to previous planning, it would make sense that I continue for another year. Well, that has mainly got to do with the organizational changes that we have implemented as per January this year. And together, we are convinced that if shareholders agree, namely that during the initial phase of this new organization with the new team, I can be of help, then I'm very willing to do so for another year. And that leads me to the core of your question, why just for 1 year? Simply, this has got to do with my personal plans, although I've been made up and you probably don't see it. But next year at the AGM I will be 74. And I think this is -- this speaks for itself, and I think that answers your question, Mr. Tungler, doesn't it? The second question was posed by Mr. [indiscernible] namely the question concerning the end of Bernd Brinker's mandate. He left the position and his agreement was dissolved on the 31st of December 2025. That happened in the -- his leaving the company happened in the best of trust and was directly connected to the reorganization of the Executive Board as per the 7 -- so he left on the 7th of October, and this was directly connected to the future management structure of GEA. It was not a reaction to operational or financial topics. It was part of the adjustment to the strategic organizational planning with which GEA wants to streamline its decision-making path, and it created the precondition for the next development phase of the company. And we were able to make for a smooth transition because Alexander Kocherscheidt had already had several financial functions in the company. He said so when he presented himself. So he had already been prepared to be a candidate for the role of the CFO. So that made for a very smooth transition of the function of the CFO. So I do hope that this also answers your question, Mr. [indiscernible], and I give the floor back to Mr. Klebert.

Thank you very much. I continue with the remaining questions posed by Mr. Selbach. Just give us an assessment on further business development, do you expect it to continue just as well? We, as the Executive Board look with a lot of confidence to the years ahead. Post 2030, we know our guidance. This year, we expect organic growth of between 5% to 7%, EBITDA margin between 16.6% and 17.2%. And then in addition, we firmly believe in our Mission 30 based on which we would love to further grow with a minimum of 5% organically speaking per year and an EBITDA margin of between 17% and 19%. We would like to accomplish that at the very latest in 2030. And then Mr. Slebach also asked about the reason for the reorganization. I have answered the question before, partly. We had a global Executive Committee with 14 individuals that work pretty well over the many years, but you always have to think about an organization that you need to change it when it works well and not once it starts working badly. It was the next -- was time for the next step. The matrix organization that has been criticized regarding complexity and so on. Costs were reduced, this complexity was reduced. And well, we put it on a wider basis, had Executive Board where P&L responsibility was exclusively on my shoulders, we well allocated it and spread it on several shoulders and then move into the direction of a succession solution. We consolidated the divisions, reduced them from 5 to 4, creating efficiency. What's important? 2 weeks of communicating this organizational change, we did a spot survey amongst 2,000 managers worldwide, and we are asked, do you believe that we are marching into the right direction with this reorganization, yes or no. And 94% answered in the affirmative, and this gives us great trust. And the first months were good. We started off very well. If great joy working in this. And then Mr. [indiscernible] asked about tangible plans for M&A measures. I think I answered this question at length. We are interested. We are going to pursue these matters, but nothing too risky or too well expensive. We are going to create value. Then the organization, this was another question. Well, it came again. I answered it before. Then Mr. [indiscernible], you asked about new food. We planned to generate EUR 400 million in sales in the new food sector in 2025, we only had EUR 66 million right there. I believe that this is a field which will take a little bit longer than we initially thought well, but we remain optimistic. Why? Because the technology is excellent for the purpose of feeding the world in an efficient resource, efficient and long-term way. We are highly committed in our test centers. We recently opened one in the United States. We've got a high demand. It's a strategically relevant market for us, and we are excellently positioned that we do believe that the development will follow a positive trend. Then Mr. [indiscernible] asked about the conflict in the Middle East. We have -- we report in our forecast, we do not see any change to -- any reason to change our forecast. If there's no further escalation. You could then discuss how you define escalation, but we do not see any major impact. We own -- only generate 3% of our business right there and that were price/cost increases. Well, in this respect, we are confident that we are able to pass them on. We see opportunities to make our contribution to reducing energy in the production of food, pharma and beverage. Then another question, Mr.[indiscernible] what's going to follow well past 2030. You should always think about it when it's time -- well, the right time to do it, and we are well advised now to implement and execute Mission 2030. We are well on track right there. And with a high level of probability, we will touch on the well bottom of this range. We see potential to further evolve in this respect. And let me add, even if I might not be the one who presents the next mission to you in 2030, I can tell you that there is potential in this company. It's not the end. It won't be the end. It's an excellently positioned company in excellent markets with plenty of potential. And now let's turn to Mr. Kunal's question. How many shareholders are locked in? Currently, we are talking about 185 shareholders that have joined us via the investor portal. But we need to take into consideration that in addition, we are all so streaming the AGM live via our homepage and many more people will watch. In the past in-person meetings between 2017 and 2019, we had an average of 73% of the share capital presented. In 2019, we had 275 shareholders on site. And in 2017 and 2018, we had a comparable number. So it's relatively modest, let's put it like that. Well, this capital thing, the contingent capital. There's one question to my CFO. There was Mr. [indiscernible] question on authorized or contingent capital, whether we have real [ qualified ] plans. No. The authorization to create authorized and contingent capital solely serves the purpose of providing entrepreneurial flexibility, and they, well replace authorizations of previous year. At the point, the AGM was convened and now there are no tangible plans for making use of these authorizations. There are no capital increases taken funding measures we have planned. The authorizations in scope and structure correspond to market-based practice of comparable companies, and they allow the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board to act in the interest of the company and the shareholders and act in an efficient way, a potential use as well legally provided would only be done by taking into consideration the subscription rights and other rights. So ladies and gentlemen, currently, there are no further requests for the floor. And so I would like to ask you whether further shareholders or shareholder representatives would request the floor and the 3 gentlemen who in the course of the discussion came in, I would like to ask and check whether the answers given to their questions are sufficient or whether there are any parts that have remained unanswered. I would give you another 3 minutes. And based on my watch here, it would be 11:59, and I then will adjourn the meeting for at least 3 minutes and then welcome back online. [Break]

I come back, I promised to come back after 3 minutes. I do have one additional question by Mr. [indiscernible] You have the floor.

Thank you very much for giving me Well, when I posed my question I will refer to the locked-in shareholders and the in-person attendance, in the 3 years, pre-COVID for everybody, it's clear that the number of shareholders who were present in person prior to COVID were meant. And so the comparison wouldn't make sense. So what about the average number of shareholders who participated in the AGMs in the meeting, not the represented share capital, but the number of shareholders who were there attending in-person.

So I can spontaneously answer that. I believe that -- I read it out, Mr. Klaus. In 2019, we had 275 shareholders who were present in 2017 and '18, we had a comparable number, 275 plus minus a few. So well, a manageable amount we dare say when we talk about attending shareholders. Is that sufficient? Does it suffice or we cannot hear you?

Well, maybe it was due to the fact that I have problems hearing. So this answers my question.

So thank you, Mr. Klaus. So then after looking at the list of request to speak, I find that I have not received any further request to speak, no follow-up questions. And I -- well, after the answer given by the Executive Board, I find that all questions asked have been fully answered. I ask the notary, Mr. [indiscernible] to record this in the minutes, and I hereby close the general debate. And well, this covers Item 1 on the agenda, which is hereby concluded with the determination that the Annual General Meeting has taken note of the adopted annual financial statements, the approved consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2025, and the consolidated management report combined with the management report of GEA Group Atinggestschaft. Ladies and gentlemen, we now come to the votes on the proposed resolutions on our agenda. As already explained, no resolution will be passed on Agenda Item 1, with the exception of the resolutions on Agenda Items 10 and 11. All resolutions on today's agenda will be adopted by a simple majority of the votes cast or of the share capital represented at the time of the resolution. Only for the resolutions on the capital measures and the Agenda Items 10 and 11, 3/4 majority of the share capital represented at the time of the resolution is required in addition to a simple majority of votes due to the authorization to exclude shareholders' subscription rights. Votes may be cast if not already done via the investor portal by postal ballot or by providing instructions to the proxies appointed by the company. I will announce shortly the exact deadlines by which votes may still be cast, changed or revoked. Voting will take place according to the aforementioned accumulation method, meaning only yes votes and the no votes will be counted. Shareholders and shareholder representatives who wish to vote in favor of a proposed resolution, that is vote yes, must click well, yes, under the menu item company proxy or under the menu item postal voting for the respective agenda item. Shareholders and shareholder representatives who wish to vote against a proposed resolution that is to vote no, must click no under the relevant menu item for the respective agenda item. Shareholders who wish to abstain may click abstain under the relevant menu item for the respective agenda item or need not take any action due to the aforementioned accumulation method. So now we proceed to vote on agenda Items 2 through 11. The proposed resolutions are being put to the vote exactly as they were published in the Federal Gazette on the 13th of March 2026. And therefore, I will limit myself to presenting a summary of the individual items. We will begin with Item 2 on the agenda, appropriation of net retained profits. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board proposed that the net retained profits of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft for the 2025 fiscal year be used to pay a dividend of EUR 1.30 per dividend-bearing share and that the remaining net income be carried forward. We now move on to Item 3 on the agenda, approval of the remuneration report. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the remuneration report for the 2025 fiscal year prepared and audited in accordance with Section 162 of the German Stock Corporation Act be approved. The remuneration report, together with the auditor's report is available on the company's website. We now move on to Item 4 on the agenda, ratification of the acts of the members of the Executive Board for the 2025 fiscal year. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the acts of the members of the Executive Board serving in fiscal year 2025 be ratified for that period. Well, Item 5 on the agenda, ratification of the acts of the members of the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2025. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board propose that the acts of the members of the Supervisory Board serving in fiscal year 2025 be ratified for this period. Regarding agenda items 4 and 5, I would like to draw your attention to the existing voting restrictions and bans pursuant to Section 136 of the German Stock Corporation Act. Members of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board may not exercise voting rights, whether from their own shares or from shares held by others when a resolution is passed regarding the discharge. Similarly, third parties may not exercise voting rights on shares owned by the members of the Executive Board or the Supervisory Board. The members of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board have been informed of this exclusion from voting and have been asked to take appropriate precautions in this particular regard. We now move on to Item 6 on the agenda, appointment of the auditor and the auditor of the sustainability report for fiscal year 2026. Under agenda Item 6.1, the Supervisory Board proposes appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Frankfurt am Main as the auditor of the company and the group as well as the auditor for a review of the 2026 interim financial report. Agenda Item 6.2 concerns the appointment of PwC, PricewaterhouseCoopers as the auditor of the sustainability report for the 2026 fiscal year. We now turn to Item 7 on the agenda, approval of the remuneration system for the Executive Board adopted by the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board proposes that the remuneration system for members of the Executive Board of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft was adopted by the Supervisory Board and published on the company's website be approved by way of a consultative resolution. Well, I will now proceed to Item 8 on the agenda, election of a Supervisory Board member. Based on the recommendation of the Nomination Committee, the Supervisory Board proposes well, that I, Dieter Kempf be elected as a member of the Supervisory Board. The election is to be for the period until the Annual General Meeting that resolves on the ratification of the [indiscernible] fiscal year 2026. Okay. We now move to Item 9 on the agenda, amendment to the Articles of Association to align with statutory regulations regarding the issuance of electronic shares. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the provisions of Article 5, Paragraph 2 and 3 of the Articles of Association be consolidated into Article 5, Paragraph 2 in an amended form and reworded. The exact wording of the proposed resolution is set forth in the notice of this Annual General Meeting, which has been provided to you. Let us turn to agenda Item 10 concerning the creation of new authorized capital with the authorization to exclude subscription rights and the corresponding amendment to the Articles of Association. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board propose to cancel the current authorized capitals 1 through 3 to create a new and single authorized capital and to amend the Articles of Association accordingly. In this regard, I refer to the detailed proposals for resolution submitted by the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board in the notice of the meeting. Finally, let's turn to agenda Item 11, authorization to issue convertible warrant bonds, profit participation rights or income bonds with the authorization to exclude subscription rights, creation of contingent capital with simultaneous cancellation of the existing contingent capital and the corresponding amendment to the Articles of Association. Please allow me to refer in this regard to the proposed resolutions of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board submitted in the notice convening the Annual General Meeting you are aware of. Ladies and gentlemen, well, unless you have already cast your votes, I now call for a vote on agenda Items 2 through 11. This can still be done by the investor portal by postal ballot or by granting a proxy and issuing instructions to the proxies appointed by the company. You now have approximately 5 minutes to issue instructions to the company's proxies and cast a postal vote. That is until -- well, based on my watch until well, 12:18 -- well, 18 past 12. And after that, the proxies will cast the votes they represent. Well, in Germany, I've given the wrong time, I've given you the right one. So I'll give you, as we said before, until 12:19. Now we add another minute, I lost by making a mistake, time until 12:19. And after that, the proxies will cast the votes they represent. Voting will then be closed. I will now suspend the annual meeting for this period. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, as promised, I'm back. It's 12:19. The time for both issuing instructions to the proxies and casting postal ballots has expired. The voting options via the investor portal have already been closed. We will now resume the Annual General Meeting. I first note that all shareholders have the opportunity to exercise their voting rights. I ask Mr. [indiscernible], our notary public to record that in the minutes. Until the results of the vote are available, I'm adjourning the Annual General Meeting for approximately 20 minutes. So I assume that by 12:40, we will have counted all the votes. And then I will adjourn the AGM until 12:40. If you intend to object to individual resolutions on the agenda, I would like to point out that you already have the opportunity to do so via the investor portal. well. And now I'm adjourning the Annual General Meeting for the aforementioned 20-minute period. [Break]

Ladies and gentlemen, I now have before me the attendance figures for the voting as well as the results of the votes on agenda items 2 to 11. I will therefore resume the Annual General Meeting, announce the updated attendance figures and now confirm the voting results on the proposed resolutions for agenda items 2 through 11 as follows. Well, in addition, you can see the details of the voting results in the presentation displayed on the screen. We will also publish the detailed information on our website. I would like to point out that the Annual General Meeting will be closed shortly after the resolutions are confirmed. This also marks the end of the opportunity to file an objection to the resolutions of the Annual General Meeting via the Investor portal. Of the company's registered share capital in the amount of 520,375,765.57 divided into 162,801,664 no par value shares 140,358,263 no par value shares, representing the same number of votes were represented at the virtual general meeting through a proxy and instructions of the company's proxy. This corresponds to an attendance of 70.24% of the registered share capital. In addition, postal ballots for 399,062 no par value shares have been received, which corresponds to 0.25% of the registered share capital. The attendance plus the received absentee votes thus amounts to 114,757,325 shares. This corresponds to [ 70.49% ] of the registered share capital. I state and announce as follows for each resolution. The resolutions proposed by the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board or by the Supervisory Board alone as published in the Federal German Gazette on March 13, 2026, were put to the vote. Regarding item -- agenda item 2, appropriation of net retained profits, the Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board with the required majority. Regarding agenda Item 3, approval of the remuneration report, the Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board with the required majority. Regarding agenda Item 4, ratification of the acts of the members of the Executive Board for fiscal year 2025. The Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board with the required majority. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank the Executive Board with all its members for their work over the past fiscal year. Thank you very much also on behalf of the Supervisory Board. Regarding agenda Item 5, ratification of the acts of the members of the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2025. The Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board with the required majority. Regarding agenda Item 6.1, appointment of the auditor and group auditor as well as the auditor for the review of the interim financial report, the Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Supervisory Board with the required majority. Regarding agenda Item 6.2, appointment of the auditor for the sustainability report, the Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Supervisory Board with the required majority. Regarding agenda Item 7, remuneration system for the Executive Board, the Annual General Meeting approved the Supervisory Board's proposal with the required majority. Regarding agenda Item 8, election of a Supervisory Board member, in this case, myself, Hans-Dieter Kempf, the Annual General Meeting approves the Supervisory Board's proposal with the required majority. Thank you very much for the confidence you put in me. Regarding agenda Item 9, amendment of Section 5, Subsection 2 and 3 of the Articles of Association to align with Section 10, Subsection 6 of the German Stock Corporation Act, electronic shares is the keyword here. The Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board with the required majority. Regarding agenda item 10, creation of new authorized capital with the authorization to exclude subscription rights and corresponding amendment to the Articles of Association, the Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board with the required majority. Regarding agenda Item 11, authorization to issue convertible and warrant bonds, profit participation rights or income bonds with the authorization to exclude subscription rights, creation of conditional capital with simultaneous cancellation of the existing conditional capital and corresponding amendment to the Articles of Association, the Annual General Meeting approved the proposal of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board with the required majority. I would like to thank you very much for this vote. And our agenda is now complete. Before I close the Annual General Meeting. And before I say goodbye to you, I would like to thank everyone involved, both on stage and behind the scenes, behind the [indiscernible], the employees of GEA and our service providers. I would like to thank all of you for your support in organizing this Annual General Meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby close the Annual General Meeting of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, and I would like to ask the notary to record this in the minutes. I would like to thank you for your participation, and I would like to say goodbye.