GN Store Nord A/S (GN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. My name is Steen Laursen, and I'm the communication boss in GN. Because of the coronavirus, this general meeting will be quite different this year because since February, we have introduced strict restrictions on travel activities and access to offices around the world. We protect our employees, and we're in contact with each other as well we can. The corona has spread very quickly. And of course, we have introduced stricter rules and followed the recommendations. Therefore, we sent a direct message to all shareholders who had obtained access cards, and we ask them to follow the general meeting on our webcast in Danish or English. And we also adhere to stricter rules announced on Friday. However, our technological possibility there is such that you can all follow this. You can all make comments in the same way as if you had been present. Normally, Mr. Per Wold-Olsen, who is Head of the Board, has to participate via a phone line. So he is not introducing this. This also applies to Gitte Aabo, who's not present physically. Per Wold-Olsen will tell you why he is not present. So you have the floor, Per Wold-Olsen.

Thank you very much. As Chairman of the Board of GN, I want to welcome you to the general meeting. But in adherence to general recommendations concerning the coronavirus, I have to do this because in the past 2 weeks, I have been in an area where coronavirus was present. So I have no symptoms. I would have loved to participate today. However, I think it's better to be safe than sorry. We also canceled our usual coffee table and subsequent lunch to reduce the risk of contagion, as recommended by the Danish Prime Minister. Welcome to all shareholders. And of course, we shall try to go through the general meeting to the best of our abilities. I give the floor to the moderator, Klaus Søgaard, who's a lawyer and who will moderate the meeting. Klaus, you have the floor.

Thank you. The meeting has been called legally correctly and, therefore, able to make decisions as a quorum. And the general meeting has to be held before the end of April, but now many companies have to have their general meetings in March or April in the region of Copenhagen. And this was called on the 18th of February, which is correct. We have also looked at the material on the website, and therefore, this has been legally convened and can make decisions. 215 announced they would be present, 151 of them shareholders, but there are only 13 now present, plus representatives of the company. 649 voted via proxies and over -- that means over 50% of votes have been cast in connection with the general meeting. So that's definitely quite okay, although different. And we -- most of the decisions can be adopted by a simple majority. However, with the reduction of the capital and the requirement is 2/3, that's in h.1.4 also, and many items will be submitted as one. Per Wold-Olsen would take the floor first, then Gitte Aabo, then René Svendsen-Tune, who is present here in the hall, and the Chairman of the Board and Gitte Aabo are represented via Skype. And after the Chairman of the Board, I shall take the floor again, and then you can comment on what has been said. However, at that time, you will see a phone number on the webcast. If you had announced that you would be present here, you can call that number, and then we shall attempt to channel questions as best we can. However, in a webcast, there is a certain delay, so bear that in mind. I know that Claus Møller from ATP wants the floor. Claus Berner Møller will have the floor first. If anybody else wants to have the floor, you can call while he is up here at the roster. But we can't sit here and wait for 1 minute. There is a certain delay, so make sure you do call early. And then we will not record anything here from the hallway, but not -- but we won't interrupt the webcast. I give the floor to Per.

Thank you, Klaus. First of all, let me go through development of 2019 and the results and the condition of the company in 2019. This is a period that has just been wound up. First of all, I think that shareholders need to understand our future-oriented strategy in GN. Gitte Aabo and René Svendsen-Tune will go through this strategy and -- now for Hearing and Audio also. And then the -- we will have the expectations for 2020 and subsequent years. Well, the heading of the results is, of course, that we have been delivering on our promises as -- again, and we are delivering on our annual guidance for 2019. We said that from 2017 to '19, we would deliver our promises and targets and our strategy. We did. And we have also had successful product introductions and taken market share consistently. And our business remains right now highly cash generating. We have created significant shareholder value through the share price development, dividends and share buybacks. Last year, GN's revenue went up by 15%. It's DKK 12.6 billion. EBITA increased by 19% to DKK 2.3 billion. And there is a solid cash flow, DKK 1.3 billion. And this has been achieved at the same time as we have invested in infrastructure and future possibilities. Now the results for this past strategy period were quite impressive. From 2017 to '19, the revenue growth was 45%. That's 13% per year; and EBITA by 47%, that's, on average, 14% per year. And the shares grew 51%, that is 15% per year. Here, the shareholders have also enjoyed the share price increase of 114%. And the comparable index increased by 13%. But before the virus came, we had an increase of DKK 410. It's the highest price ever. We have paid, all in all, DKK 4 billion to the shareholders, and I think that, that is pretty acceptable. And in the newspaper, Børsen, Michael Friis Jørgensen said on the 20th of February 2020, "It's super simple. They perform and deliver as they should. They deliver really high growth. And there is really not any other company that delivers as high and stable growth as GN Store Nord is doing right now. It's hard to see arguments against the GN Store Nord stock. They deliver on all fronts." Well, I couldn't have put it in any better way, but maybe it is not super simple. In 2017 to '19, we developed and launched 2 new hearing aid platforms in GN Hearing. And they set new standards in the industry. It's ReSound LiNX 3D, natural sound, seamless connectivity and meant, for the first time, remote fine-tuning via the cloud. That's the first time ever. And in '18, ReSound LiNX Quattro achieved even better sound quality and the world's most advanced rechargeable solution. So that was not simple at all, anything but. And GN Audio grew during those 3 years from being a little brother to being a market leader in this segment of communication because of technology, products and market shares. And during the same period, GN Audio also transformed its Consumer business with products that are ranked as the best again and again on the market. So -- and we have a company that has been totally transformed. It is stronger than ever. There are possibilities of growth also in the coming years. And as soon as we're over this virus, we focus on commercialization and innovation. Our size can be used, and we have shared group functions that benefit our businesses. We have very promising opportunities, further exploiting synergies between GN Hearing and GN Audio. In the future, the consumers will work in individualized products. We call them individualized user experiences. Consumers will demand products that support their personal development and new skills and productivity. We want -- they want products that can help them be active, engaged and in the workforce for a longer time. So therefore, we will focus on innovation with a view to delivering entirely new individualized user experiences. This will be in accordance with GN's promises to our customers. We want to give you individualized customer experiences so that you can experience and hear more than you ever thought. You must Do More, Be More and Hear More. And the core of our strategy in the future will be to develop individual user experiences and hearing aids and hearing sets. We want to be leaders in technological innovation, and we want to prioritize excellent execution. And we also have to focus on ecosystems with Apple, Microsoft, Google. Be they who they are, we think this interaction is our strength in GN. Our development has been created by people, and your engagement is a prerequisite. We want to have the best possibilities, best basis being in the vanguard. We have never had the largest research and development department, but we do develop innovative products. And this innovation culture is guarded by us. So now we want to have a sustainable development of GN with a solid and sound infrastructure with honest business principles which will harm our globe as little as possible. And now you can see how we execute this in the 2 different businesses. First, we have Gitte Aabo. She replaced Jakob Gudbrand in September 2017 (sic) [ 2019 ] because he had to leave us for personal and family reasons. We were so lucky that we got Gitte Aabo who had been a member of the Board for 18 months. She became CEO then. She had been the Chief Executive Officer and President for the past 11 years at Leo Pharma and held various managerial positions, including finance, been in innovation building and transforming a global business with a strong focus on customer needs, growth and digital innovation. Gitte is a strong leader focusing on the needs of the customers. She will strengthen our continued growth. Well, Gitte, you now have the floor. Please tell us about GN Hearing.

Thank you very much, Per, for those kind words. I'm proud and I'm also humbled finding myself in this role today. I'm proud because it's an honor to be at the head of GN Hearing and meeting our shareholders. And I'm also humbled because the results I'm going to present to you today are very impressive, and I cannot take the honor for any of them. And of course, they set a very high set of expectations for what you as shareholders expect from us in the years to come. In 2019, GN Hearing delivered an organic growth in revenue of 7%, leading to revenue of DKK 6.4 billion earnings. EBITA grew by 8% to DKK 1.3 billion. And we generated quite a sound cash flow of DKK 672 billion (sic) [ DKK 672 million ], that is 17% more than the year before. These very strong financial results were absolutely in line with what we'd expected them, what we communicated to our shareholders. GN Hearing has now grown faster than the market and has gained market shares 9 years in a row, which is quite unheard of in the hearing aid business and in most businesses, I believe, really impressive results they are. This requires constant innovation, which in 2019 was why we continued to invest heavily in innovation. We invested 10% actually of our revenue in R&D. 2019 was a strong year for GN Hearing in all 3 sales regions. In North America, we had a solid performance across channels, offset partly by the loss of one large customer in 2018. But in North America, we continue to see strong sales to hospitals treating returned soldiers within the Veterans Affairs system. In Europe, we still see strong growth throughout the region with particularly strong performance in Italy, Spain and the U.K. And in the region called Rest of the World, we delivered solid organic growth throughout the year with strong results especially in China, India and Japan. So we have a broadly based and, thereby, very sound progress across the board. And these excellent results have been created mainly by our main product line, ReSound LiNX Quattro, where in 2019, we continued the global rollout. During the year, we also launched new products in this successful family, the so-called custom hearing aids, which are made especially to be adapted to the ear structure, size and so forth of the individual customer. Also, we have worked on wireless connection, which is one of our points of strength. So we cooperated with Google to develop new products, and we're now able to stream sound from Android telephones and Google Pixel and new Samsung. It's the same thinking, which is behind our long-standing cooperation with Apple and iPhone, and this is now being applied to Android telephone for the first time. And finally, I'd like to mention that ReSound LiNX Quattro was nominated as the best hearing aid by 700 hearing care professionals. And of course, sound was one of the parameters because it is vital that we have the best possible sound experience when using it. And we knew, of course, that we produce the best equipment, but it's nice to see it recognized outside of GN as well. Now I'd like to turn to our forward-looking strategy. This industry for years has had a general problem in the sense that many people who ought to use hearing aids do not use them and many who try them give back the hearing aids. And this is due to many different things. One thing is that people often fail to notice that they have a hearing loss. They only notice so slowly. Also, it's a myth that hearing aids are only for old people, and perhaps the equipment itself requires a lot of fine-tuning to work correctly. People have to visit the hearing specialist many times to get their equipment fitted. So there are lots of hurdles to be overcome before getting the optimum experience. And it is very important to treat one's loss of hearing because we know from studies that reduced hearing leads to a number of follow-on disease, depression and also a heightened risk of dementia. So it's very important. Also, we know that the first 90 days of use are difficult, especially, I think, the first few days. And so it's very important that we contribute to deliver new hearing aids which make it easy for people to use themselves, and users will not give up on our products. We also see that the need for hearing aids increases. The proportion of the population above the age of 65 is expected to grow significantly in the years to come because, fortunately, we all live longer. The large generations born in the 1950s and '60s or baby boomers are now reaching retirement age. And we also see in our societies an increasing level of noise pollution. And we see that more and more people live in big cities, and increasing wealth means that more and more people can afford health. But nevertheless, as we can see from this figure, the use of hearing aids is still not widespread, especially for mild hearing loss. Only 1 person in 5 who might benefit from hearing aids actually uses hearing aids. And as I have mentioned, having an untreated loss of hearing is a serious thing. It affects one's mental health. And it also, of course, means that it reduces people's ability to work, and it affects significantly people's social life. That's a situation which we should not accept without doing something about it. In GN, we feel that we have a duty because of our technology and our insight to do something to fight loss of hearing and to reach many more people across the world. So those are our goals. That is why we go to work every day. And that is why you will see that the core in our future strategy is to create even better and even more individualized solutions made for the specific needs of the individual person. The way we experience sound, the way loss of hearing works, well, all that is individual, and it is as different from person to person as our fingerprint. And we find that one important reason for the limited use, apart from stigmatization, is the fact that it is still very challenging to get used to hearing aids. They are still perceived as unnatural for most new users. Modern hearing aids are quite complex to operate for typical users about the age of 70 and perhaps with other health challenges apart from loss of hearing. With our technology, we want to make sure that every single hearing aid we produce actually helps our customers living a better life and make sure that there'll never be unused hearing aids left in the drawers or the nightstands of frustrated customers. And as we said, as we've heard, we are to Be More, Do More, Hear More. That is what we want people to do. We want to produce technologies specifically for individual customers, not standard products for everybody and, thereby, for nobody. We want to produce hearing aids which people love as much as they love their mobile phones. The challenge we have put ourselves will require continued leadership in the field of innovation, and it will require that we build up stronger and more relationships with hearing aid specialists and partners in ecosystems all over the world. It's a great challenge, but it's also a challenge which we look forward to living up to because it will make it possible for us to help even more people and create further growth in GN Hearing also to the benefit of our shareholders. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Gitte. It's a pleasure for me as well to talk about the result of GN Audio in the past year and also to introduce our future strategy. It's been a great year for GN Audio. In our new strategy, we want to secure that success. In 2019, we saw an organic growth of 26% and the EBITA was 32%, so resulted in DKK 1.2 billion. With those main figure, we generated a cash flow of DKK 849 million. We think that can be approved. And during the year, we had to adjust our organic growth expectations upwards. So we had organic growth of 26%, even larger than in 2018. We think that this is -- we can be quite proud of this. So let's look at the development of our enterprise business section. Enterprise continued to develop in double-digit organic growth rates, and that means that we strengthened our position on the market. If we take it in the individual markets, North America is double-digit organic growth based on our products and execution. Europe is strong, double-digit organic growth across the board. And the Rest of the World, we also delivered strong double-digit organic growth across the board. And if we look at the products that were the other highlights during the year. Jabra Evolve 65e is a wireless earphone certified to work with IT systems that we use today. We have expanded the Jabra Elite product family. We now have the Jabra Elite 85h developing new technologies so that the total experience by the consumer is very good. And we have Jabra Elite 75t, a fourth-generation, genuine wireless earbuds for even smaller ears with even longer battery life. And then Jabra PanaCast, our tool for video communication for companies, it revolutionized the way companies run video meetings, saving money and travel. So we expect a lot from that in the next few years. As the Chairman and Gitte mentioned, we have continued our innovation strategy for individualized user experiences. When we developed Jabra MySound with 45h and 75t, then it's possible for the consumer to tailor his or her own sound that is -- that tallies with the hearing profile of the consumer. We have a basic algorithm developed using GN Hearing's database of 85,000 hearing tests. It's a very good example of how we can exploit competencies across the board in our business, and no competitors can actually match that today. Now what are the favorable megatrends in our markets? We see increased demand for products and services related to communication and media consumption. We communicate more and more. We have open-office landscapes. We cooperate with multinational companies with individual solutions. We also see requirements for sustainability. Also here in GN, we certainly have to be concerned on our footprint on the climate. And we are strongly positioned in an attractive portfolio of markets. We have contact centers where people work all day on the phone, and that puts great demands on the equipment. We have a market share of around 1/4. It doesn't grow very quickly, but we hope we can obtain a larger market share. Then we have general office-based knowledge workers, where we have half of the market globally. And here, we no longer have the desk telephone. Now we have unified open-office landscapes. We have plug-and-play collaboration in huddle rooms where people want solutions which are easy for the individual employee who doesn't want to have access to the IT office all the time. They are individual solutions that grow very quickly. We expect a lot from that market. Then we have the smallest area, it's the sale of headsets to consumers. We no longer have cables or cords. We now have wireless phones in cooperation with Apple. It's about DKK 90 billion, has a double-digit growth. We're small compared to Apple, but we have achieved a basic stand on the market, and we don't really, really have to be #1. We can still hold our own. And our strategy is based on 3 themes. First, we want to offer our customers individualized customer experiences. We want to lead innovation in cooperation with our ecosystem partners. And thirdly, we want to focus on commercial ecosystem excellence. This strategy for 2020 and onwards is based on execution. We execute very well, precisely, and we do that faster and better. We want to invest in next-generation technology and artificial intelligence. As for the future, we try to identify potential new growth areas where we can use our sound expertise. We have the PanaCast category. It fits perfectly with the existing business model. So I hope I have given you an overview of how we intend to carry the business forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, René. Thank you, Gitte. Thank you for presenting the excellent results which we've seen over the past year and the strategy which will lead us onwards on our successful journey. Now let us look at our financial expectations for the long term and for 2020. In the medium term, GN will continue to invest in innovation, as you've heard, in order to deliver 2-digit market growth. And we expect to have a strong EBITA margin at the existing level and ongoing growth in earnings per share. We want to maintain a policy whereby excess liquidity is given back to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. We also have to say that all this, of course, is based on the assumption of a stable market economy, which we cannot see right now. But we also assume that we will have stable exchange rates. And based on that expectation, we will see an EBITA growth of 4%, better volume, 14% for GN Audio and organic growth at the customer level and an EBITA margin of more than 20%. At the same time, our market expects to grow by about 10%. And on that basis, GN Audio will strive for an organic revenue growth above that level and an EBITA margin of more than 20%. We think that these are very ambitious goals, and this is what we reported in February. As shareholders will remember, we also, when we published our annual report on the 5th in February, we talked about our financial expectations for the present year and for 2020. We had a growth in revenue -- an organic revenue growth of more than 6% with an EBITA margin for GN Hearing of above 20%. We had also an organic revenue growth of more than 14% for GN Audio and an EBITA margin above 20%. But as we said, these financial expectations do not take into consideration a possible effect of the breakout of coronavirus, which we heard about only the week before we published our annual report containing our expectations. At that time, we said that based on our knowledge at that time, we expected an impact on the first quarter. But assuming that the situation had resolved itself during February, we'd expect to be able to live up to our expectations for the rest of the year. Now we are approaching the middle of March, and nothing has cleared up yet concerning this virus. Rather, it is becoming clear that the impact on the global economic activities will be much greater than hitherto assumed. And GN as a company will be affected at 3 different levels: our production in China; supplies of components from our subcontractors, just as the entire technology sector is affected; and now also a negative impact on demand when consumers grow more worried and will intend to stay at home. Because of all this, as we see the situation today, GN will experience a minimal or nonexisting growth, organic growth in revenue in the first quarter. And if the coronavirus situation goes on as now, we'll see an impact in the second quarter as well. Having said this, I'd like to add that GN's management has handled the situation in a very professional, very proactive and coherent and responsible way. Our fundamental way of running GN has not been affected and is unchanged. We cannot, as nobody else can, predict how long this coronavirus situation will continue. And we cannot predict to which extent it will continue to affect the supply situation and consumer behavior. We, like everybody else, hope, of course, that spring will come very soon and that we can put the coronavirus behind us so that we can get back to normal conditions with normal visibility and normal financial results, results based on our ability, our own ability to deliver without being affected by conditions which are completely beyond our own control and in order for us, again, to be able to create growth and revenue. GN has a broadly based and diverse management, global experience and expertise within relevant areas, areas which are relevant for GN, that is. We attach importance to our Board having members in management positions and professional Board Members of both genders. This gives us a good equilibrium between knowledge, competence, experience and accessibility for a heavy workload. During the past year, Gitte Aabo, as has been mentioned, stepped down from the Board in order to take over the job as CEO of GN Hearing. And our Vice Chairman, Bill Hoover, leaves the Board today. The other Board members elected by the annual general assembly are proposed for reelection, but we do need to supplement the Board with new members. And I'll get back to that in a very short while. But before I do that, I'd like to thank Bill warmly for 13 years of faithful service for GN. Bill has been with us in the Board since 2007. He has done a vital job for us. He has been Deputy Chairman since 2008. And I think I can say that without Bill's knowledge, without Bill's experience, without Bill's high level of integrity, I am not at all certain that we'd have been where we are today with this model and successful business, which is GN today. Bill, thank you so very much for what you've done for us. So as I said, we need good and competent people in the Board in order to ensure success in the years ahead. And I'm very glad to be able to introduce Jukka Pertola, Montserrat Pascual and Anette Weber, who have all made themselves available for membership of the Board of GN. Jukka is a full-time Board member. He has been the CEO of Siemens in Denmark. He has 20 years of international management experience and experience from Boards in listed and unlisted companies. And Jukka brings along a great experience with technology, research and development. Montserrat, who unfortunately could not be present today, will bring us expertise within sales, branding, business development, digital adjustment and customer experiences. And she has had board -- first in IBERIA Airlines, Cortefiel Group and IKEA. Anette is the former CFO of Ascom Holding and has held leadership jobs in Novartis and Sandoz. Novartis is a pharma company, and then she was also with Sandoz as the CFO. She will bring the Board expertise within finance, digitalization, innovation management and change management. These are 3 very strong candidates for the Board. They all possess competencies needed by the Board to further develop GN. I should also mention that during 2019, the Board has carried out the usual structured self-evaluation, which covers the members' contribution results; cooperation with the executive management; the Chairman's leadership of the Board; the composition of the Board, including both members' competencies and organization; and quality of material submitted to the Board. This year, we have updated GN's remuneration policy and the most -- some important changes have been made in order to make sure that we adhere with new rules by the Danish Companies Act. The purpose of the remuneration is to support GN's strategy of being an innovation-driven, high-growth company with attractive earning margins. The policy still ensures to make sure that remunerations are in line with market practice and that executive management and Board have the same interest as the shareholders. In 2019, the Board's total remuneration was unchanged. It amounted to DKK 7.2 million, plus travel allowances of approximately DKK 900 million (sic) [ DKK 0.9 million ]. The Board in 2019 had quite a high level of meeting activities and quite a lot of preparation work in between meetings. In the light of this and in the light of the fact that remuneration has been unchanged in 2018, the Board proposes to increase the base's fee by approximately 5%. This will ensure that we are in line with the development in other C25 companies and that GN can continue to maintain and attract an internationally qualified Board. The Board also recommends payment of DKK 206 million dividends to the shareholders corresponding to DKK 1.45 per share. It's quite a large increase compared to last year. The Board also asks general meeting to authorize us to be able to buy back our own shares, DKK 1 billion worth, in the coming 12 months, as has been practiced in recent years. So I give the floor back to our moderator, Klaus Søgaard, who will now take over the moderation of this meeting.

Thank you very much. It's possible to ask questions and comment on the reports and all the other items on the agenda presented. And you can also call a bit later -- or rather, you can start calling now, but it will be a subsequent item. If you had asked to participate, you can see the phone number and the PIN code. Claus Berner Møller is present and has asked for the floor. Please, you have the floor.

Thank you very much. My name is Claus Berner Møller. I represent ATP. Thank you very much for your report. Last year, at the general meeting, I praised GN for an organic growth of 13% in 2018. Then 2019, the organic growth was even larger, so that was super. And there was a fantastic achievement in 2019, and the shareholders also were rewarded by price increases in 2019. However, GN Hearing, the organic growth was 7%, and that is certainly to be approved. GN Hearing, it is cited that 2.4-gigahertz technology, which was good and, therefore, came ahead and were in the vanguard, but the competitors are now catching up. You have to concentrate on research and development so that you can continue in the vanguard. GN Audio, on the other hand, over the past year, has obtained leadership in the CC&O and the Unified Communication segment. You can see this clearly in the figures because it grew 26% organic. A sports commentator said, this is a stroke of genius, actually. And we can also expect high growth in 2020. So I'm very pleased that you focus on long-term growth in GN Audio, exemplified by the purchase of Altia Systems, where you obtained access to video conferences, and that can turn out to be a very important part of growth in GN Audio. As for the Beltone network in North America, you attempted a turnaround the past few years, and Beltone obtained new leadership recently. What is the future perspectives of the Beltone network? There have been too many replacements, management, exemplified by welcoming and saying goodbye to Jakob Gudbrand in 2019. I hope that there will be a greater continuity in future. And I hope that the organic growth of 15% is proof that you're able to continue. Today, we elect 3 new Board members with relevant CVs. They will contribute to continued growth in very different areas. So there's one flaw or problem. Jukka Pertola is a member of too many boards. I think it's kind of over-boarding. But I understand that Jukka Pertola's number of board memberships will be adapted, then I can support him. So good luck with the challenges ahead in 2020.

Thank you. Does anybody want the floor here in the room? That's not the case. And we have not received any request for the floor by phone. If you want to have the floor, please call very quickly because otherwise, I will conclude. And it's one -- a, we have adopted the report, and I hope I can go through the rest of the items. First, the report, there is no vote on this. Then we had the submission of the audited annual report for approval. You can vote if you want to. We don't usually, but do you want to request a vote? No. It stands adopted. Then resolution on discharge to the Board of Directors and the Executive Management, that means that you cannot sue the management except for whatever they have hidden in the accounts. So if you have no further comments, I take it that stands adopted. And, d, a decision on the application of profits in accordance with the approved annual report. That's DKK 1.45 for 2019. This can be reduced, but not increased without the acceptance of the Board, and there has been a request for this. And then, e, approval of the remuneration to the Board of Directors for the current financial year. It's about 5%. And the system is the same with basic remuneration plus certain separate emoluments in the subsidiaries. It's been described in detail in the notice convening the general meeting. Okay, that stands adopted. Now election of members to the Board of Directors. You also have a description in the material, and the Chairman has gone through this. William Hoover does not want to stand again. But Per Wold-Olsen, Wolfgang Reim, Hélène Barnekow, Ronica Wang has suggested we elect Jukka Pertola, Montserrat Pascual and Hélène (sic) [ Anette ] should be elected. So I suppose that this can be adopted. Yes, congratulations. And now the election of the state-authorized public accountant, PricewaterhouseCoopers has been proposed. There were no agreements limiting the possibilities of choosing a state-authorized public accountant. So I congratulate you now on achieving another year. And as for any other business, the Board has asked for an authorization to buy back shares. We have a description of what it should be used for. And they want to be authorized in the acquisition of about 10%. So this is standard on the stock exchange, and there is a cap on this. So you can have a maximum of 15%. No comments? Then h.1.2, we have a reduction of the share capital through the buyback program. It's about DKK 17 million. You regulate this by 2.9% of the total share capital. Do you have any questions here? Otherwise, we consider this approved. And there will be an official notice in the official gazette. And if there are no protests, the share capital will be reduced. And then -- and there is the policy of remuneration in accordance with the Danish Companies Act. It has to be approved this year, although it has been approved in principle in previous years. So it has to be adopted again. And there are certain adjustments described in the material sent out. Any other questions? No. We consider that approved. And then h.1.4, proposal from the Board of Directors on the amendment of the company's Articles of Association in order to reflect that it is necessary to have an indicative vote on the report. If you have a policy indicated in the report, you have to live with that and then report on how you actually succeeded in doing so. It has to be submitted to the general meeting. And that's -- do you have any questions to that? No. We consider that, that has also been adopted with 2/3 majority. H.2, proposals from shareholders. There are no proposals. Any other business. No decisions or proposals may be adopted under this item. You can say what you want, but there -- no decisions can be made. Do you want the floor? If not, I give the floor back to the Chairman. And thank you very much. Also, thank you to those who did not call us on the phone.

Thank you very much, Klaus, for those very professional moderation of today's meeting, and thank you also to Claus Berner Møller from ATP. Yes, we are changing Beltone. We're very happy with our management in the very important U.S. market. We're very optimistic with a view to the process in the future. Before we wind up, I'd like to express my hope that shareholders listened to Gitte Aabo, René Svendsen-Tune and my presentation so that you have a good understanding of the company today and the future of the company. And if nothing else, I hope that you will bear in mind that GN's strategic basic -- base is stronger than ever with a focus on innovation within sound processing and selected market segments, with leading positions in attractive markets, with high entry barriers, with focused growth model, dedicated developer, manufacturer and distributor, refraining from vertical integration with this clear strategy underpinned by deep technology expertise and strategic global partnership. And thank you very much to the shareholders. Thank you for the confidence you have shown us, also in the newly elected members of the Board. And I hope that we can lead again next year in the same room safely. And I also want to praise Steen Laursen, our communication manager, and our IT staff because I feel that it was possible to execute this without any hiccups. So thank you to all of those who have done so much for us to be able to execute this general meeting. Thank you. And I hope that we will see each other again 1 year from now. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]