Investor AB (publ) (INVEA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

The time has come. A warm welcome to you all, and I mean every single one of you. I've been just outside speaking to you, some of you waiting in the lines outside and we apologize for the delays. But I think most people have made their way into this hall now. It is a great pleasure indeed to be able to continue with this so-called Investor Dialogue today at the China theater. It's the first time we hold our AGM here. It's a very pleasant premises, and I hope we will -- or you will all agree with me. Johan and I intend to do our very best to answer your questions under the auspices of our Head of Information, our Head of Corporate Communication and Sustainability, Viveka.

A warm welcome to every one of you. We have many shareholders here today. We have shareholders and others who are attending this dialogue digitally as well, that could be good to know. And a special warm welcome to all those of you who are present digitally. We're going to have a Q&A session with Jacob Wallenberg and Johan Forssell for the next 45 minutes or so, and the floor is open to put any question you may wish to any of our speakers. You raise your hand if you'd like to ask a question and please wait while one of our host or officials will bring you a roving microphone. And we'd appreciate if you would begin by introducing yourself and then Jacob or Johan will answer your question. And while you think about the question you would like to put to one or both of them, I'm going to kick start this, and we expect a high degree of activity from the whole audience here. But to you both, first of all, this is a very particular year we leave behind us now, a year where we've had a pandemic over the past few years, a war in our proximity, disruptions in supply chains, inflation for the first time in many years now. Jacob, could you tell us a little bit about your perspective on all of this?

Well, first of all, let me break away from any scripted focus to look directly at the camera because I would like to turn to all those of you who are with us digitally online. We're very pleased to have you involved, and we'll try and bear this in mind throughout the dialogue. But back to your question, two things that cross my mind thinking of the past year or few years. We're currently living in a much more complicated world today than what all of us here today and with us online have become accustomed to, really since the 1950s onwards. Globalization, free trade, which Sweden is so reliant and dependent on. All of this has been encouraged, and it has laid the best possible foundation for entrepreneurship and businesses. And then, we have all of these challenges, combined with geopolitics, not least, of course, and technical developments, artificial intelligence, digitalization, we can enter into all of that a little bit later. But all of this leads to a situation where it's more challenging and more difficult to run a business. And what's really impressed me, if I can just add this straight away, is how the businesses in our portfolio have managed to relate to and deal with all of these rapid changes and continue to deliver good performance, both in terms of sales, in product development and in cost control. That is not something you can be successful in unless you very carefully thought of how you wish to run your business. And myself, and I'm sure Johan as well are very grateful to all of them for that accomplishment.

Johan, turning to you then. From a corporate perspective and a business community and entrepreneurship perspective, should one be pessimist or an optimist? Or how do we interact with all our companies under these circumstances?

Thank you. And as you know, it's a very difficult question to give a straight answer to. But as Jacob mentioned, we have identified many challenges, both Viveka and Jacob have mentioned some of them already. Another major one they didn't mention is the difficult situation that central banks in the world globally find themselves in now. Inflation needs to be converted and brought down while not killing the economy, and it's a difficult balancing act that they need to manage. But a positive angle before we move on to the issue of the future, we do see that it's not just challenges and negative things happening. We see many positives as well, technological developments, Jacob mentioned, for example, opening up many new opportunities. But when we look at the first quarter, for our companies, the supply chains, the disruptions that we've seen over a long period of time are seemingly decreasing in numbers, fewer, smaller disruptions, improving the efficiency of all our companies. And when we look at our fully owned companies in Patricia and our listed companies, we see that, generally speaking, we've reported very strong figures for the first part of this year. So the situation is looking up. But what does this entail when we gaze into the future? I would say that uncertainty -- well, there is always uncertainty, of course, but I would say that uncertainty is probably a lot greater than usual, and I say this because many fear that we will move into a tougher downturn in the business cycle. Whilst at the same time, we have the concerns of over interest rates and over inflation. So it's difficult to know how it's going to all play out. As entrepreneurs, what do we focus on? Well, it's about talking close -- working close to and working with the companies, being humble, saying that we don't know exactly where we're headed in this world, but we need to be prepared for different scenarios. If we see a weakening in the economy, we take one type of action. If we see some other development, we take other actions. So flexibility is a key concept, being very close to the market to monitor what's happening.

I'm trying to look to see if I see any arms raised in the air. Oh, I see several over here, starting with microphone point #1.

My name is and [indiscernible] and a simple question. There is a very annoying spotlight that is shining straight into our eyes. And could it be turned off so that we could enjoy what is happening on stage?

Well, we will try. I'm afraid that maybe we cannot improve the lighting situation. We'll see what we can do. But for now, we move to microphone station #8.

Well, my name is [indiscernible]. Investor has been saying that the active owners in the company is where they are. But Ericsson, for example, I'm not sure about the active ownership because we've had 2 years where the Board has denied discharge and the Nomination Committee. So what is your plan for getting things in proper order in Ericsson because it seems they are doing self-harm nowadays.

We'll start with Jacob and then Johan.

Well, I begin. As many of you know already, I'm on the Ericsson Board, and I've been there for many, many years. And your question is incredibly important, I have to say. I cannot see you because I also have a spotlight shining straight into my eyes, I apologize. But I'm of the opinion that the problems, and we all know that there have been problems linked to Ericsson. And number one, it's not acceptable at all what we have seen. It may not happen in our companies. And this is something that we're working actively with not just in Ericsson, but also other companies as well. But we're talking about things that happened before Borje Ekholm came on Board and that has media decided to forget about. But that is the case. Borje Ekholm and the management team, since he came on Board, they have been working very actively with addressing these types of shortcomings. They've been working with identifying possible problems that have been in the past. And they have submitted that type of information to government agencies so that all rules and regulations are complied with. And I'm not going to go into any detail about the DOJ and that relationship. But I can say that the Department of Justice, those 2 cases that we have had more recently where there have been fines imposed, both of those instances have been noncriminal instances, one where Ericsson did not submit administrative information in a proper manner and in proper time. But it didn't have anything to do with misdoings in Iraq, that goes way back. And to conclude, let me just stress that Ericsson said publicly that the TV show [indiscernible] well, they did a big thing out of this. And they're even saying that there was bribery with money given to IS. But there was an internal report, what was being used by [indiscernible] and Ericsson in that report said it might, might be that there was some bribery. But now for 3 years, they've been working actively and U.S. government agents have also been working actively and no one has been able to find any information that is proving or giving substance to what [indiscernible] has presented as facts. So historic information, Borje Ekholm is not accepting any such behavior. He's doing all he can to develop the company in line with the value foundation that we have within Investor, and this work continues.

And I may add because I'm the Chair of the Nomination Committee of Ericsson and my task is to ensure that Ericsson has the best possible Board of Directors. And I want to say that I've been with Investor for almost 3 decades. And over all these years, I have seen that now and then there is a company that ends up in a difficult situation, ABB asbestos, SEB financial crisis, et cetera, and long-term shareholders as we are, we have to make sure that we can get through turbulent times and continue to develop. And we have -- in these examples that I've mentioned, we have seen that this is something that is profitable for us. And when we are there trying to find the best possible Board of Directors for Ericsson, well, of course, there has to be continuity because there is a lot of skills and competencies with those current directors. And to just toss them out and find new people, we think that would be the wrong thing to do because we need long-term value creation. And we've also worked very hard with finding the next Chair. And now it's Jan Carlson. And we've also worked very hard in order to find people with the right skills and competencies where we feel that, well, the Board needed more of these competencies. For example, Christy Wyatt now been brought onto the Board. And she has been in California working with securities, among other things. And we think that she can truly contribute to what Ericsson is now focusing on. And we need to take all those various aspects into consideration, and we try the best we can all the time to ensure that we have strong Board of Directors, and we feel that we have such a strong Board of Directors within Ericsson. And this is an opinion shared by all 4 major shareholders.

Thank you, and we will then continue with microphone station #5. No? Then we go to #1.

[indiscernible] from Lund. Our family has for decades been shareholders, and we've seen excellent returns. So we'd like to express our depth of gratitude to senior management and Board of Directors. You're very skillful, all of you. And here is a question and does not have to do with Electrolux, rather Stora Enso. Stora Enso is Scandinavia's best forest company. And once it was in Investor's portfolio. Is there anything to suggest that Stora Enso will be returned to Investor's portfolio? And what would be the arguments against it? Stora Enso's business idea is very much moving with the times of business focus on the future. Is there an opening there?

Let me, first of all, say that as of 2001, it is no longer in our portfolio. We've made the assessment that we have a number of areas where we consider in Investor that we have good skills and the necessary network to develop companies further in health, in industrial technology, some other additional tech areas and the financial sector. We have no plans currently to move into pulp and paper and forestry from our perspective. But we have a sibling company, which is very involved in Stora Enso so I think I'll hand over to you.

Yes. Well, we note that Stora Enso is where it is currently, and we do, of course, agree with you. It's a leading company after all, and it has a very interesting idea for the future, not least in the area of sustainability. Today, in fact, they can make almost transparent plastic like materials, although it's wood fiber. And it's extraordinary to be able to develop alternative product options, alternatives to oil-based products using forest raw material, for example. But it's in another company, and I don't think we'll see any business amongst us.

Thank you. Microphone #8 then, up above us.

[indiscernible] is my name. And I have a question about Electrolux. For the last 10 years, the company has deteriorated. And last year was not different. And what will happen? Will you replace the CEO, the Board of Directors?

When it comes to Electrolux, if we take one step back, I have to say that they have made a couple of good strategic decisions, for example, with Husqvarna, when that was spun off, and also Electrolux professionals. And we are major owners in both of these companies. And what we have in Electrolux, the consumer business, well, it is correct that the development we saw last year was not satisfactory. And this has to do with two things, one being demand that was weakened in Europe and in the U.S. alike. The other explanation, which is worse, is that there are some inefficiencies internally. And our focus as an owner is to give support to the management team and support them so that they can get back to profitability because that is priority #1, profitability and cash flow. We talk about stability growth. And that is what it's about. But now it's about profitability in Electrolux. We have to get that back. And what needs to be done? Well, one, if you have shrinking volumes, as they have seen, you have to work on the cost side. And they're working with producing that with some SEK 4 billion, SEK 5 billion. And then next year, they plan to be at a level where they will save some SEK 7 billion. Another important component is that they have built 2 factories in the U.S. It's about automation, modernization of -- manufacturing of new products. And here, we can only say that the beginning of that hasn't been good enough. So it's now about phasing in these new factories in a proper manner. There is a third component as well. If you want to get profitability up, you also have to look at some revenue that would be possible. And here, Electrolux, they have their aftermarket business that is today kind of limited, but it's also a part of the business where they're making a lot more money compared to just selling fridges or stoves. And that is also why they now have a plan to grow that part of the business. And we -- Investor, we are supporting what is being done, and that is what is our focus.

Now station #2.

I'm going to delete a number of questions I had here, and I'm going to put a question to you about Ericsson. In all solemn addresses, we hear that there's an absolute and complete no to bribes. However, as I see it, if you want to operate in some parts of the world, you need to abide by the conditions that exist in reality. That's what it's like to be active -- live in various parts. And what might it cost Ericsson now that they are in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice? And how is Ericsson's profitability likely to develop as a result? And then, of course, also the question concerning the fact that discharge from liability is not granted to the Board of Directors, but then moments later, the Board of Directors are reelected as a whole. Why there are no questions from abroad about this? So I had previously [indiscernible] situation, I remember that [indiscernible] the President and CEO was not granted discharge from liability and still [ Rolf Nordstrom ] immediately reinstated him on the Board of Directors. As opposed to our Chair, [ Rolf Nordstrom ] was possibly not quite as serious in his approach. What's the perspective on all of this? I assume that this is noted with a raised eyebrow at least. A broad question is how high are they raised? And what about the SAS where there's no more interest in pumping 1 million after another into a sinking ship or plane in fact, which is about to crash land. Is it even possible to salvage SAS? What's -- what does the situation look like? It was said that Lufthansa nurtured some plans to place a bid, but that appears -- that interest appears to have dissipated. I have some contacts in aviation, in fact, and I have understood that the overhead costs in SAS are way too high. Attempts should have been made to reduce them a long time ago already. And here, there's a serious case of -- this is a serious case of neglect as I see it.

Thank you. Just 3 brief comments, and then I'm going to hand over to Jacob. First of all, when it comes to unethical behavior and corruption, we're crystal clear from Investor's perspective. We have an absolute zero tolerance level in relation to other companies. SAS, we do not own SAS, so I'm going to pass on that one. And then voting against granting discharge from liability and still voting to reinstate a Board of Directors is counterintuitive to me, too. If you vote somebody on to the Board, you need to also show that you have faith and trust in them.

Ericsson bribes and you asked whether they will -- that you still have to expect to pay somewhere in some places in the world. No, this is entirely unacceptable. And this is international standards today. It mustn't occur. It's based not least in the fact that in the U.S., they've introduced a system where the jurisdiction in the U.S. is applicable to the whole world. So this means that from a U.S. perspective, as soon as you work with the U.S. dollars or you're listed in the U.S. -- your company is listed in the U.S., they may prosecute you as an individual. And it means that you cannot take the risk of committing an error somewhere else in the world because you might get caught and brought to justice in the U.S. as a result. This has had far-reaching consequences and people understand. They realize that it's just not acceptable. And as Johan said, it's an absolutely fundamental value in -- as far as we are concerned. Department of Justice costs are known already. Ericsson has, on the one hand, already paid fines historically for bribery and then they've also paid a smaller fine for the 2 shortcomings, which were of an administrative nature that I mentioned earlier. And to our knowledge, there are no additional outstanding costs relating to Department of Justice. The Ericsson profitability comments have been made by the comment themselves. They are in a downturn currently because U.S. volumes are dropping with -- where we have seen higher margins. And India and other emerging markets are growing, but margins are lower. The company has a very positive outlook on the future. Speaking of Ericsson, I forgot to mention earlier, so take this opportunity now. Everyone in here is the full understanding of -- the impression that Ericsson did not answer questions because that's what we've seen in the press and media everywhere. And in particular, when it comes to Department of Justice back to [indiscernible] question. But here is the situation. The company was not permitted to reply instructed by an Department of Justice. Media knew this, but they chose intentionally to disregard it. I'm quite critical to the way media has dealt with the situation. And this is an excellent opportunity to at least state clearly that the company was not free. They were not at liberty to speak freely and they were not permitted to respond to detail -- questions of detail from media. Questions were highly relevant. No question about that. Everybody wanted an answer to that, but the company was not permitted to reply. Now they can give somewhat more extensive answers, and they do so. SAS, finally, it's not a company owned by Investor. I have been involved there for many years, and I know that the process the company is going through right now, it's an administrative procedure under so-called Chapter 11. And the idea is that when they come out on the other side, it's going to be a company with new balance sheet, new agreements with the employees, laying the basis for competition on equal terms on an equal footing with other companies.

And I believe we have a question at station #6.

[indiscernible] and the last 3 years, I've been living in China. And I'm curious about what challenges and opportunities you see in China for your company?

And perhaps both of you will want to reply.

Well, of course, it differs a lot between companies and sectors. But if we look at the big global companies that we have that have a big presence there, ABB, [indiscernible] et cetera, we see that there has been a recovery after the pandemic when -- well, things have been eased up. And that is what we see in a shorter perspective, but we also see an important structural issue that has to do with how to structure your value chain in a company. And here, I can say that very often, we see that companies will make their activities more regionally based. Companies invest significantly right now. For example, in the United States of America for those customers, but they also invest significant amounts in China. So both those things are being done. And then you may ask what will this mean with the globalization? Have we seen the end of it? And I do not think so. We'll continue to do trade globally. But at the same time, we'll see an increase in regionalization because there is a wish for increased resilience. And I feel that if you're a bit more regional, you also create a better climate footprint, which is better for societies, and that is what we see right now.

And if I now look at this question from another angle, China, that entire issue basically is an issue about the relationship. U.S.A., China, geopolitics, where the U.S. has decided that China is a threat. Security policy, we may leave that aside. But also, financially, where the opinion is that China by being successful financially will become a challenger and will challenge the U.S. leadership in the world, which means that we have a polarity. We have these 2 strong forces today that are opposed to each other. And 2 reflections from me. The EU -- and we are actually dependent on the European Union, so this is very, very important to us in Sweden. The EU has to find its role and how to act towards China. Compared to the U.S., they're moving away from China, but I am of the opinion that we need to find a way to have a dialogue with China. In spite of the shortcomings that are there when it comes to human rights and how foreign companies are being treated. There should be equal conditions compared to Chinese companies. And this is something that, I'd say, is a problem. But EU needs to find a proper role. And what Johan said, well, individual companies, they have to find their way to work. And this is something important. China is becoming the biggest economy in the world, and we're dependent on them, they're dependent on us. And we have to find a way to be able to discuss with each other, have a dialogue with each other. And that will probably mean that we'll treat Eastern Asia in one way, and then we'll have Europe and then the Americas. And we'll have different methods vis-a-vis them depending on cultures, geopolitical aspects, et cetera. But I mentioned beginning here that this is one of the big changes that we see in the world today. And it's also something for companies to address and to think about when working with a forward-looking perspective. And right now, it's something that makes things kind of complex.

We have many questions, and we'll continue with microphone #2.

[indiscernible] is my name. AI and ChatGPT change a lot to -- in the ways we work. I spoke to a programmer the other day. He said he could triple his productivity. As a small business owner, this is quite easy to implement. But what do the bigger companies do to implement all this? And generally, what's your view on AI?

The 2 global trends we see right now are the climate transition and technological transition. And if you start from that perspective, whether it's big or small company, a lot remains to be done. Just managing all the data that companies today can collect is an enormous task. So a lot more can be improved in data management alone. And then the technological opportunities to produce smarter products for customers and connecting these products to improve your service offering is another step. The ChatGPT that you mentioned comes in as the next step. There -- in many industrial companies, they're only at a very early phase, but a lot of different technologies are out there. That is one. But from my perspective, I would say the technology as a sector -- as a segment is an area where a lot remains to be done. Some companies have made some progress, but a lot remains to be done basically for all companies. It's important for us as owners to continue to support our companies, invest a lot of money where needed in this important area.

What we try to do is in line with what Johan one points to in relation to the individual companies. We're talking about future proofing. And those are the two main areas we focus on. Sustainability, it is so very fundamental so that it needs to be a driver for all individual companies and then digitization/AI, artificial intelligence, as the second component. It's important to the individual company to avail themselves of all the existing knowledge, but you need to also do it in relation to competitors who are also learning about this, of course. So the importance of ensuring that individual companies are at the forefront is very important. We do this through general dialogues with companies, with Board representatives. You try to approach the subject, address this. And we have direct dialogues with CEOs and Chairmans of the Boards a few times a year in a more focused manner. And this has become perhaps the single most important issue to discuss in that context. And I'd like to underline, in fact, that sustainability is something we can all take to heart. It's quite tangible, and it has become quite a simple process to get full support and understanding in the companies for the need to do sustainability. But when it comes to digitization and artificial intelligence, it's more complex a task because it is more complicated. Most of us sitting in here are not software programmers. If we'd had a group of 20 year olds, quite a number of them would have been, in fact. Young people's knowledge is high. Those of us who are a little bit older, we know a great deal less. And it's the same in companies, of course, fewer people who know this. And that's why it's more difficult to get the full impact. We all understand the importance, but you have to move from words to deeds to action.

And just in addition, the main focus, as Jacob said, is to drive these issues and awareness in individual companies. But we also have a major advantage in Investor. We have noncompeting businesses. Our businesses do not compete -- we don't own both Epiroc and Sandvik, for example, to take one simple example. And that's a real benefit because it means that we can bring together key individuals in our companies and let them have an exchange of experience in these important areas, be it sustainability, technological transition or for that matter, China. Here, we have quite a number of fora. Viveka, for example, is involved in the sustainability forum, together with all of our companies. Jacob and I invite Chairman twice a year in all our companies, we discuss important areas. China, for example, has been one topic for discussion. We can share experience, discuss important issues. And it's a very crucial part of our business model. We don't know everything at Investor. We realize this, but there are many companies who bring a lot of experience to the table, and we can learn from each other.

Microphone #5.

My name is [indiscernible] and I have a question having to do with something that's kind of unpleasant in developments. We see American advisory services where they encourage big owners who buy stock in Swedish companies and then they're being encouraged to use this to not grant discharge. And this is something that I feel is problematic for the ownership structure, and it's very unpleasant. It gives a very unpleasant feeling because this is one of the preconditions we have here in Sweden. This is why we've been able to develop nice companies. So we've been able to bring capital into companies with -- while maintaining the ownership structure. And do you have any reactions and any plans on how you will react to this very unpleasant development where I feel that this is abusing our legislation with 10% of the votes. You can totally ruin this structure, and it's basically terrorizing the companies by refusing discharge. This is something that is where reasons being very abstract.

Jacob, you address this in the annual report and the letter from the Chair. And perhaps you want to start.

Yes, I can start and then maybe Johan wants to continue about the discharge. But let me take one step back. We have an American organization, ISS, and they give advice to owners, pension funds, et cetera, that are not located in Sweden, and they give advice as to how these administrators are to vote, for example, at the Investor Annual General Meeting. And it said that if the company has Class A and Class B shares, then you should not grant discharge, you shouldn't vote in favor of discharge because ISS, they feel that Class A and Class B shares is something that is bad. And then I say that the reason why we have this differentiation where we have some shares that have 1 vote, others that have 10, well, this is something that has to do with shareholders and the freedom to contract that we have in Sweden, where all shareholders have agreed that we are to have a differentiation between classes of shares where everyone can vote that has been voted on and signed. And this is a basic fundamental principle. And you might want to be able to use it, for example, when you have a company that's started and the entrepreneurs, they want to have the control, but they need to bring in capital. And this we've seen in many different situations in Sweden. And we feel -- Investor, we feel that this is something that is, in principle deplorable, this proposal because we have an agreement that has been entered into. And ISS, they want us to be in breach of that agreement because they do not like a differentiation between different classes of shares, and we are working against it together with other organizations, other investment companies and Swedish business. We're working towards politicians. And this is something that we've been working with for some 20 years now. And now, it has been highlighted again. And that is thanks to the actions of ISS. But Johan and discharge?

Let me stress that this is something that is horrific, unfortunate proposal. And if we talk about discharge, like you said, this is a very important way to protect minorities in the Swedish ownership model if there is a reason to be able to address claims for damages towards the Board of Directors that has misused their position, then you should have that possibility to not grant a discharge. But to talk about in this context, it's ridiculous because there is no basis, no foundation for such claims for damages. And you're holding a Board of Directors hostages when the Board of Directors has nothing they can do because this is a contract between shareholders and it's the shareholders who have that decision-making. So it's a very poor proposal.

Well, we're running out of time, but one more question, station #3.

[indiscernible] is my name. I have a couple of questions. In 2015, actually, I asked questions before 2015, I had a question for you, Johan, for example, on what to do with Electrolux. And now I've understood that things are happening indeed in Electrolux. I had worked in China for a number of years at that point for the furniture companies, beginning with I and ending with A. And I had seen the development they had for their appliances sales. And I think reality was catching up, and it's time to sell off parts of Electrolux and maybe top up the coffers, who knows?

Well, I'll just comment to say that currently, our focus is fully and entirely to work together and support senior management and the Board of Directors to raise value creation, raise the revenue.

We're going to have one final question from speaking point #8, up above.

[indiscernible] from the Shareholders' Association [indiscernible]. Electrolux has been addressed already by many and they've been addressed with rumors 1.5 year for -- well, the last weeks. But Sobi and what happened 1.5 years ago, where you were in favor of that proposal. But no, Sobi, is it a long-term holding? Or are you waiting for a new proposal?

Well, we're very clear back then that you cannot be either or. We said immediately that we'll take the responsibility. We'll be the main owner, we will develop the company and we'll work forcefully in that direction. And I have to say that looking at the developments with the management team now, they have been successful in developing the base activities, hemophilia. At the same time, they've been able to grow other products so that they've been able to develop the product portfolio of the company. And we're happy with what we've seen.

Thank you. Then we will soon begin our Annual General Meeting. And therefore, we now wanted to say thank you for questions, all the different questions. And a few final words for our shareholders.

Thank you. I'd like to say exactly the same as I said when we started. We're pleased to see that so many of you have chosen to join us here today. I very much believe in a more personal contact like this one. And that a shareholding at the level of individuals is something we very much appreciate. We are the company with 540,000 shareholders, the largest number. You are only a fraction of all of those shareholders, of course. But clearly, we have become popular choice as a share to buy. And we're very proud of that with the portfolio of excellent companies that represent Sweden in so many ways. So thank you to all of you.

Thank you, and thank you specifically to those who've attended remotely as well. At 3:00 p.m., the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders will begin. And to those of you who are here, have a look in your paper bags. There might be something to eat and drink in the meantime. Thank you. [Break]

Honored shareholders, yet again, welcome. Welcome to the Investor Annual General Meeting 2023. And I say, yes, again, because many of you who are here in person. You participated in the Investor Dialogue that was conducted before the AGM. Welcome to everyone who has come here since then, and welcome also to everyone who is participating digitally. I think this is great. It's amazing that so many individuals choose to participate digitally if you cannot participate in person. We have discussed a number of issues, and I can only say that there's a short introduction I wrote before the Investor Dialogue. So this might be somewhat of repeating what I've already said. But anyway, a few general reflections on the outlook and the financial situation in the world. It's obvious that we live today in a very fragmented world, a world that is consisting of, well, the United States, Europe, China, different countries, where we historically worked together. But today, that is not as obvious that we continue to do so. We also have a world that is characterized by a horrific war in Ukraine and a world that is now increasingly being described by protectionism where countries think more about themselves and not really about being part of something bigger. And for us doing business, this is something very significant. Geopolitical and geofinancial risks are risks that are today being discussed during Board meetings in a manner that was not the case historically, and that says something about the world. And rapid technological shifts continue as well, challenging our companies and our societies and all of us. And here, we have questions like digitalization, what will happen? Artificial intelligence, AI, how will it impact various companies, our lives as individuals? And what will the future hold? But of course, we can never forget that innovation, research and development is something that is key in developing societies and also in developing individual companies. And of course, we also have to remind ourselves that we cannot lose focus. We have to stop climate change. And all of us, all of us have to become involved in the energy transition and everything having to do with that. And the European Union and the single market is also something that is fundamental for our companies and the development of our companies. And I'm of the opinion that the EU and the single market is something that we should be very grateful for. It's helped developments in our country. It helps us to be a part of the European Union. It's very important that we're there at the table in Brussels, that we participate in making decisions about the future development of the European Union because this is about creating preconditions for us as a country and also for our individual companies so that they can continue to develop because companies after all are offering job opportunities, are helping with the tax base that then can give us the welfare system that we have in this country. So with the thriving companies, we do better in developing those issues. To conclude, 2022 was, relatively speaking, looking at the market, a good year for Investor. And I'm happy that our portfolio companies have continued to deliver nice developments and that they have shown resilience against what we have seen in the last few years with COVID, with supply chains, inflation, higher interest rates, et cetera. So we have gotten through a few very challenging years. But when it comes to 2023 and the next few years, I do believe that they will also be characterized by uncertainties because much of what lies ahead is still something where there's a lot of uncertainties, where we do not have answers, but the companies will have to manage this. We have done okay thus far. And with that being said, I want to say welcome to all of you, and the Investor Annual General Meeting 2023 is hereby open. And the first point on our agenda is election of the Chair of the meeting. And here, I also want to tell you that the Secretary for this meeting is Petra Hedengran, the best legal counsel in Sweden, just received that award, and she will take minutes at today's meeting. And here, we also have, of course, our CEO, President, Johan Forssell. The Nominations Committee has proposed the lawyer, Eva Hagg, to Chair the meeting, and I ask the meeting if the meeting can vote in favor of that proposal. Thank you.

Thank you. And I'd say thank you for the confidence shown in me. Before we continue with the proper agenda items, I have a few formal issues to address. The Board has decided to make the Annual General Meeting more available and that shareholders and others can listen through webcast on the company's website. However, you cannot vote or ask questions. And we also have some other individuals here in the room, but shareholders -- and well, there will be a video recording made but only of the podium and the rostrum. And we will be using voting devices where we have quality majority decision -- qualified majority decisions that have to be made. Then Item 2 is drawing up and approval of the voting list. We have participants here in the premises today. We also have shareholders who have submitted postal votes. We have a list of those who have notified their attendance and have voted via postal vote. And we see that we have around 85% of shares and 95% of the votes in that list of the notifications. And we see from the postal votes and the voting instructions that we have majorities for simple majority decisions and qualified majority decisions here during the AGM, but we will go through the various agenda items. Nevertheless, the shareholders who have submitted postal votes and they have also come here today, well, for those shareholders, the postal vote is still applicable if that shareholder does not participate in the vote here today. And those postal votes have also been entered into the system that we have for voting. The voting list to be approved here has been established by [indiscernible], it's based on the share register, leading up to the AGM and notified shareholders. And the postal votes that have been received, the list has been distributed here today. And those who have come here today have been ticked off. Same thing goes for those who haven't submitted postal votes. And those shareholders who have registered for being here today but have not appeared or have not submitted postal votes, they have been deleted from that list, as it's proposed, that, that list with adjustments will be established to be the voting list for this meeting. And that list tells us that we have about 58% of the total number of shares in the company represented and some 78% of the votes represented in the company here today. And I ask the meeting if the meeting can approve this list as being the voting list that has been approved. That brings us to item 3, which is the approval of the agenda. It has been included in the convening notice. It's been distributed here today. Can we approve the agenda? Carried. Item 4, election of 1 or 2 persons to attest to the accuracy of the minutes. Javiera Ragnartz of SEB Investment Management and [ Maria Nielsen ] of Swedbank Robur Funds has been asked by the Secretary, and they have volunteered to accept this assignment. I've seen that both of them are here. Perhaps I can ask you to please stand up for a moment so that we can all confirm your presence. Thank you. Does the meeting elect these 2 to verify the accuracy of the minutes? Thank you. Item 5, determination of whether the meeting has been duly convened. The convening Notice for the Meeting has been available on the company's website and was made public through a press release on the 24th of March 2023. The notice was also published in the official gazette [indiscernible] information on that publication was published in [indiscernible] newspapers on the 28th of March. Is the meeting of the opinion that it has been duly convened? Carried. That brings us to item 6, which is the presentation of the parent company's annual report and the auditor's report as well as the consolidated financial statements and the auditor's report for the Investor Group. These documents have been printed out and sent to shareholders who have requested to receive them. They've been available at the company on the company website and here at registration today. And the documents are therefore considered has been duly presented. During this item, we will listen first to the address by the auditor, followed by the President and CEO's address. And after these 2 addresses, there will be a possibility for shareholders to ask questions. First, I'm going to give the floor to Chartered public accountant, Jonas Ståhlberg. You have the floor.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jonas Ståhlberg, as you heard. I represent Deloitte, and I am responsible for the audit of Investor. First of all, let me mention that we've submitted a so-called unqualified auditor's report for the financial year 2022. You can find it on Pages 148 to 150 in the annual report. I'm going to return to the conclusions of our audit. But first, I wanted to tell you a little bit more about the audit work that we have put in during the year that has concluded. The audit of Investor is led by a central team here in Stockholm. We also have local teams for each of the subsidiaries owned by Investor. And here, we give instructions to those auditors on the focus of the audit from a group perspective. We are regularly in touch with and are in close contact, in fact, with these various auditing teams. They formally present the result of their review to us. The audit is based on a plan which we presented and discussed with both senior management and, in particular, with the Audit and Risk Committee in April 2022 and was then adopted and has been the basis for the audit work that we have done over the year. The outcome of our review and our audit has been reported continuously to senior management and to the Audit and Risk Committee. On 6 occasions, we've submitted written and oral reports to the Audit and Risk Committee. In connection with the full year accounts, I also met with the entire Board of Directors to present the work in auditing the company. And in connection, I also had a discussion with the Board of Directors without the presence of senior management, all in line with the provisions of the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. Auditing Investor involves covering a large number of areas. Some of the most important ones are outlined in the auditor's report. They cover governance over financial reporting internally, valuation of listed and unlisted investments and valuation of goodwill. When it comes to the first key audit matter, we've reviewed how Investor governs and gives instruction to subsidiaries to ensure that they comply with all the principles adopted by Investor on financial reporting, that there are relevant IT controls for the financial reporting and that there are well-functioning procedures for quality, strengthening and quality assurance. And our assessment is that there are well-functioning procedures within Investor in this area. The second important key area are processes for the valuation of the company's other investments in addition to subsidiaries, both unlisted investments where we review methods supplied and assumptions and estimates made, but it also covers listed investments. And it is our assessment here as well that the company has good procedures in place and that they are applied consistently over time. The third key audit measure outlined specifically is linked to valuation of other assets where Investor will assess the value of goodwill reported in the balance sheet. Here as well, our audit has concluded that based on an evaluation of methods and assumptions, the values can be justified. During the year, you will see that the goodwill valuation went up partly due to acquisitions made in subsidiary companies, but also driven by a currency effect. In addition to those 3 key audit matter areas described in detail in the audit report, over the year, we've also had discussions with senior management and with the Audit and Risk Committee and the Board of Directors as a whole on the new European reporting requirements concerning sustainability information. This is what is usually referred to under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD. These new provisions will be noticeable in the company annual report for 2024 for the first time. But I want to mention already at this stage that this is going to make the annual report a lot more comprehensive and extensive compared to today. We've also reviewed if the company has complied with guidelines for remuneration to senior executives. We've submitted a special statement, and we've noted no deviations from those guidelines. And all in all, we assess that Investor's financial information is of high quality, gives a fair and true picture of the operations and is established in accordance with the existing rules. And we recommend to the general shareholder -- meeting of shareholders to adopt the income statement and balance sheet for the parent company and the group to appropriate the profit in accordance with the proposal and to grant discharge from liability for the members of the Board of Directors and the Managing Directors. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And that takes us to item 7, where I am going to hand over to the CEO and President, Mr. Johan Forssell. Please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Honored shareholders, guests, I as well want to say welcome to this year's Annual General Meeting. It's particularly gratifying to see that so many of you have come here in person today. I will soon tell you about Investor, the developments in 2022 and what lies ahead. But before doing that, I would like to say a few words on the world around us. Last year, we saw a very complex world filled with complexities and challenges. Inflation started to go up, and many central banks had to act with significant interest rate hikes. Disruptions in supply chains continued, and the geopolitical situation deteriorated. I'm thinking primarily about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the enormous suffering that cost, but also the increase in tension between the United States and China. And add to this, climate changes that continued to go in a negative direction. So as we've said before during the Investor dialogue, there is no lack of challenges. But at the same time, there are many positive aspects to keep in mind. The last few months, we have seen fewer disruptions in supply chains, and our companies have, by and large, reported strong results for Q1 2023. And I can only say that there are many things to keep an eye on, and that where the world is headed and where the world economy is headed, well, no one knows. In a rapidly changing world, it's more important than ever to stay flexible, and I'm talking about in both directions. Flexible so that you can quickly adapt costs if demand is weaker than expected, but also that you can turn the engines and make use of opportunities if it turns out that the demand is strong. Our companies have been working hard with ensuring flexibility, and they're well prepared to manage both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. And regardless what happens in the world around us, we, Investor, we have a clear purpose with what we do. We create value for people and society by building strong and sustainable businesses. Allow me to now talk a bit more in depth about Investor. End of Q1 2023, our total assets amounted to SEK 731 billion. And you can see on the slide that listed companies make up 69% of those assets. Whereas Patricia Industries, where we have our wholly owned subsidiaries, they have 21%; and EQT, 9%. Our focus and strategy remains firm. Our overarching target is to generate an attractive total return for you, our beloved shareholders. And to get there, we're focusing on 3 strategic priorities: to grow net asset value; to pay a steadily rising dividend; and last but not least, to deliver on our ESG targets. 2022 was, and Jacob has already mentioned this, a difficult year for the Stockholm Stock Exchange. It dropped with 23%. And of course, we were impacted by that development, but our net asset value resisted and was down only 10%. And if we look at the first quarter this year, it's gratifying to see that the net asset value is up again with 7%. Looking at the last 5 years, the increase on average has been 16% annually, which should be compared to 12% for the stock exchange and our return requirement of 8% to 9%. Our second strategic priority is to pay a steadily rising dividend. The last 10 years, we have successfully increased our dividend every year with the exception of that year when the pandemic started. And this year, the Board proposes a dividend of SEK 4.40, which would mean an increase with 10% compared to last year, fully in line with the average annual increase that we've had over the last 10 years. Our third strategic priority is to deliver on our ESG targets. We have 3 focus areas to ensure the long-term competitiveness for Investor and our companies. And here, we have business ethics and governance, diversity and inclusion and the climate and resource efficiency. For these areas, we have specific objectives that we have follow-up on continuously. And I would like to start with a few examples. Through business ethics and governance, we have zero tolerance against corruption and unethical behaviors, and 96% of our companies carry out regular anticorruption trainings. Diversity and inclusion is another prioritized area because different perspectives will lead to better decision-making, and that means that it's decisive for our companies and their long-term development. In our portfolio, we have a share of women that is still too low in Board of Directors and the management group. It has improved, but a lot remains to be done, and this is still an area that we're working actively with. Climate and resource efficiency is an area that provides significant business opportunities, and here, a lot is happening. For example, Investor's own emissions have decreased significantly since 2016. But what is even more important is that our companies are making great progress within this very important area. If you allow me, I'll give you a few examples. All our companies have targets today in line with the Paris agreement, and we have 57% of our companies -- I think that we have mentioned that before. 57% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions all our companies compared to 2016, which is what is being referred to as Scope 1 and 2, the activities of the companies themselves. Today, 63% percent of our companies also have targets for Scope 3, and there, we are talking about the entire value chain. And I hope that this is clear already that we focus on our 3 strategic priorities to grow net asset value to pay steadily increasing dividend and to deliver on our ESG targets. But what it all boils down to is that we have a vision that this is to generate a total return that is attractive. And what does development look like? The pink line shows total return for the Stockholm Stock Exchange. It's up about 13% on average over the last 20 years, which means that if you invested SEK 100 20 years ago at the Stockholm Stock Exchange, then today, you would have a capital of around SEK 1,100. Investor's total return during the same 20-year period has been just under 19% per year, which means that SEK 100 would have grown to something that is 3x better than index, around SEK 3,100, and history does not provide a guarantee for the future. But I can promise you that we will be working hard to continue to deliver good returns also in the future. And that was a bit about our operational priorities. In other words, what we want to do with our activities. Now I would like to talk about the operational aspect, how to accomplish these. We have 4 such operational priorities: to be an engaged owner; to ensure an attractive portfolio; to operate efficiently; and finally, to maintain good financial flexibility. And let me start with the role as an engaged owner in our companies. We feel that it's important to have a clear distribution of responsibilities between us, owners, the Board of Directors and the management team. And we're working actively in the Boards of our companies, and we always do what we feel is best for the specific company because situations differ, for example, between SEB and Mölnlycke and that is very different from Husqvarna. So it is about what is best for each specific company. We work with value creation plans. That is the foundation for what we do, and we have one value creation plan for each company. But typically, if we look at the focus areas in most of our companies, then it's innovation and new technology, sustainability, acquisitions and company structure, flexibility and efficiencies and finally, succession and talent management that we can attract. And the key -- the right individuals is decisive for us to be successful as long-term owners, and the objective is to future-proof our businesses. In other words, we want to make sure that they're spearheading developments, that they take market share and that they outperform competitors. However, and we've talked about that during the Investor dialogue, there are a couple of areas that are absolutely key for all our companies, and that is climate change and new technologies. And here, development happens very, very rapidly. Now let me give you some examples of involved active ownership in 2022 and in the first part of this year. ABB has carried out an extensive transfer of its portfolio. The company divested businesses which are not part of core business, core operations. And in 2022, they also divested Accelleron and listed it on the stock exchange, which led to a further focus within ABB. At the same time, considerable amounts of money have been invested to strengthen the company's position in important areas, electrification and automation. Atlas Copco are successful in using its very strong technology, both in software and hardware, to actively move their positions forward in sustainable growth areas such as, for example, the manufacturer of semiconductors, solar panels, wind power, battery manufacturer, EVs and several other growth areas. Mölnlycke invested SEK 0.5 billion in a new facility, a factory in Malaysia, in the business area of gloves -- protective gloves used surgeries in hospitals amongst other things. This is to meet an increase in demand, but also to reduce the climate footprint as gloves represent the largest share of CO2 emissions by Mölnlycke. It is a challenge to identify green electricity in many parts of the world, not least in Malaysia. But in the new installation, solar panels have been assembled on the roof, and they've introduced digital solutions to optimize energy consumption. And this is a good example to show that sustainability growth and value creation go hand-in-hand. Our subsidiary, Piab, a leader in automation, recently carried out 2 acquisitions, one in France and one in Germany. The French company, COVAL, has a strong position in important customer segments, such as food, vehicles and packaging. And the German company, IB, strengthens Piab's position in the important growth market additive manufacturing. We invested almost SEK 0.25 billion in support of the acquisition of these 2 companies, and Piab is a good example of how we work to further develop companies. During our ownership in Piab since 2018, the company has more than doubled net sales. As you can see, 2018, it was SEK 1.2 billion, SEK 1.3 billion. And with these recent acquisitions, it's coming close to SEK 3 billion on an annual basis. It's managed -- been managed through organic growth and complementary acquisitions, expanding into new customer segments and growing in important geographical markets, such as China. In fact, China's share of total turnover has doubled since we acquired the company. Piab is a good example of how we work to develop our companies within Patricia. The graph shows earnings development in Patricia. And as you can see, we've had a strong development over many years. During the past 12 months, we've gone to net sales of SEK 57 billion and profit, SEK 13 billion. We also saw strong opening to 2023. And during the first quarter, sales in our subsidiary companies was up by 22%. 11% of that was organic growth, so price and volume. And the earnings growth amounted to as much as 35% compared to previous year. Let me now move over to EQT, our third business area, where we have a number of initiatives to reach and achieve continued growth. There's raising of capital in 2 major funds, EQT X and Infra VI. And in 2022, the acquisition of Baring Private Equity Asia was concluded, and this is going to make for a much stronger position for EQT in the important Asian market. As you can see from this illustration, EQT's managed capital, the assets under management, AUM, has seen very strong growth over the past few years. Let me now say a few words about our second operating priority, ensuring an attractive portfolio. To succeed in this area, our main priority consists of giving support to our businesses in their work in positioning themselves to benefit from long-term trends in the market. I have a few examples that I'd like to mention: the trend towards increased automation, benefiting companies such as ABB, Atlas Copco and Piab; electrification of society, opening up great opportunities for companies such as Epiroc, which is a world leader in drill rigs and other equipment in mining; demographic trends and increased well-being in growth markets, opening up great opportunities for our med tech and pharmaceutical companies. And when it comes to climate change, Husqvarna is a good example, shifting from petrol-fueled to battery-driven products. And finally, as I've already mentioned, we see rapid technological development and digitalization. And these 2 make for opportunities and challenges. So all of our companies need to be in the forefront and invest considerable amounts to be technology leaders. To ensure long-term attractive portfolio investments in Investor, we also now and again need to invest in new companies. When we identify new companies, we have a number of criteria that we would like them to comply with. We look for companies with strong market positions, good growth and profitability, good cash flow generation, companies with sustainable and agile business models and finally, perhaps most importantly, businesses with a strong corporate culture. In summary, we prefer to pay a little bit more for a well-positioned, well-managed company since we know that, that is going to pay off in the long term. Our third operative priority is to operate efficiently in Investor. We're permanently working to improve the efficiency of our processes. It's about implementing new technology, using resources in a wise manner. And at the same time, we also, of course, need -- just like our companies that we own, we need to invest in the organization in order to drive our strategy, be a good owner and also, make the most of opportunities out there. It is always about striking the right balance. All in all, we have a competitive cost level with total costs amounting to just under 0.1% of our adjusted net asset value. And our fourth and final operative priority is to maintain a strong financial position. It's important to be able to support our companies and at the same time, have the financial wherewithal to use opportunities when they arise. We have a low leverage level today of only 1%, which is in the lower part of our target range between 0% and 10%. And at the same time, we have a very strong cash position of over SEK 30 billion. Over many years now, we've also worked proactively with our balance sheet, and we've used the low interest rate situation that has lasted a number of years. We've borrowed SEK 23 billion to a maturity of 14 years with an average fixed interest rate of 1.5%. And as you can see, we have nothing that matures right now, not until 2029 in fact, and we see a great value in having such a strong financial position in today's volatile market. Our strong cash flow generation is yet another sign of our strength, and this enables us to give a steadily growing dividend as well as investing in our companies. And in new companies, since 2015, we've generated a cash flow to the tune of SEK 145 billion with significant contributions from all our 3 business areas. This cash flow we've used to pay dividend to our shareholders, about half. As you can see, we've acquired a number of new companies in Patricia Industries. We've funded additional acquisitions within Patricia, and we've purchased more in a number of our listed companies. During this period, we've been able to reduce our indebtedness thanks to the very healthy cash flow position. Now let me round off and conclude. We have a well-tried and tested owner model, a clear strategic focus. We have a portfolio of leading companies with good potential for profitable growth thanks to considerable exposure to attractive growth trends. Our strong financial position gives us the possibility to support our companies paying good dividend, whilst at the same time, we can act on opportunities when they arise. The world is uncertain. And I am humble in terms of our ability to predict how the business cycle will develop in the future globally. But it is my assessment, nevertheless, that we are in a good place, we're strong, well prepared to deal with those challenges and make the most of opportunities. And now I'd like to take the opportunity to express [ earnest of ] gratitude to you, our esteemed shareholders, for the confidence you've placed in us. And I can assure that we will do our level best to continue to deserve your trust and to generate an attractive total return in the future as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Then we open up for comments and questions from the shareholders. We have people with the roving microphones, and we also have a microphone up here. And please start by telling us who you are, and please go ahead. Questions? Comments? And we continue with microphone #2.

I would like to start by asking [indiscernible] question that might be somewhat mean. [ Fredrik Lundberg ] did not wanted to answer this question at the industry [indiscernible] AGM. If you are going in favor of maintaining the classification of shares with the differentiation in votes, why not say that we should do away with political voting rights and we should just go back to what was before then? Because that was what was said once upon a time where one equated a society with the company where you should have a say on the political arena relative to the financial standing that you had. [ Fredrik Lundberg ], he did not wanted to answer that question. And I do expect that Jacob Wallenberg, you're more talented. So you will be able to come up with an intelligent answer to that question. But I have a second question as well. How come that you do not want to look into the possibility to have some type of representation for smaller shareholders in the Nominations Committee or the Board of Directors could be as an observer or with voting rights, without a right to vote? But the employees, after all, are represented in the Board of Directors. So it would be reasonable and only fair if smaller shareholders could have that same type of position. And most likely, that would also strengthen that feeling of having a shared goal. And I also have a third question. Shouldn't you look into the possibility to introduce some type of performance-based Board fees? I know that there are many, many issues where the Board of Directors really cannot influence what happens with Vladimir Putin, for example. I do not think he would listen to what the Board of Directors of Investor would have to say. But I do think that it should be possible to come up with a formula where you can balance these different factors where the Board has a say. And well, the CEO, to what extent can the CEO influence world economics or Putin? So I don't think that should be impossible. And I would also like to see a comparison between Industrivärden and investor because here, we have the 2 big listed investment companies. And I would like to see a comparison when it comes to their respective developments. Another question, what do you do when it comes to gender and ethnicity and the problem we have there in Swedish trade and industry? And finally, the sanctions that we now see in the world, primarily Russia, the Russian Federation and Iran. But to what extent does this impact Investor and the subsidiaries? And if the Putin regime eventually now falls, I assume that will happen, he's not going to live forever, Putin, will you then be able to retake those positions that you have lost?

Well, Class A and B shares, and if we shouldn't go back to an historical model also with differentiations in political say, well, history, be it what it may. But I've already said this [indiscernible] that shareholders, they have decided on this, all of you shareholders who own Investor. And you -- all of you and those who represent our representatives, we have decided to have this differentiation between classes of shares and voting rights. And this is the freedom we have to enter into agreement. And you're shaking your head no, but that is the case, at least those who are learned in law that I've spoken with, they think so. Shareholders voted in favor of that differentiation, and then you can do away with that differentiation through another vote if you want to. But that is the answer that you will get from me. And it is a contractual agreement with shareholders and companies like Investor. And if I'm to continue with the Nominations Committee and whether one should have small shareholders represented on the Nominations Committee and on the Board of Directors, here as well, it's for the shareholders together to decide who should represent you, represent us. And here, we have agreements about the Board of Directors that we have a Nominations Committee, and the Chair of the Nominations Committee will tell us more about what has been done within Investor. But there, you can present proposals, and you can also vote during an AGM. And maybe it's not self-evident that you have small shareholders being elected into Boards. But the Nominations Committee, well, most companies have made such a decision that it's the 4 largest shareholders. And again, it's looking at majorities. And that is what has been decided on when deciding on procedures for nominations. I think it's both logical and practical because you cannot have too many people in the room discussing this. And performance-based remuneration for the members of the Board of Directors. Well, in Investor, for example, the directors has a principle where the value equating [ one year ] of the remuneration, well, should be invested, which means that you become a part owner, which means that you're financially, to a certain extent, dependent on the developments of the company. So there is a performance requirement so to say. So hopefully, that will mean that the value will increase. So we have that principle for directors as well. And the comparison, I'll hand over to Johan.

Just a short comment. Both in Atlas Copco, where I sit on the Board, we have synthetic shares combined with cash payment; and also in Wärtsilä, where we have shares. So I think this is a good approach to building a long-term incentive. So I have experience of that. When it comes to the development at Investor, I hope we've been able to show that we, touch wood, have seen excellent development in our dividend, both in relation to our total return or dividend requirements and compared to the stock exchange. I regularly give presentations comparing our performance to that of our peers. And I can mention here that, all in all, we've performed really well compared to the ones we're comparing ourselves to. But I don't think I should sit here and comment on Industrivärden specifically. Thank you.

As for gender and ethnicity, as Johan mentioned, this is very much a matter of priority for us. You've asked that question several times before. You know I am very keen to work on those areas, and we do. And in our listed holdings, if you look at the overall picture, we are basically at 40%, in this case, of women. It could be the other way around, of course, as well. And in Patricia, we've seen a significant increase over the past number of years, and the aim is to reach 40% [ throughout ]. So to us, this is an important area. And I'd like to underline, that is not just an important area, the level of Board directorship. I would put it to you that this is even more important still at operational level in the company to get more women included in line positions, in leading positions because that is the group from which you recruit future Board members, I would claim. So this is an urgent matter, and we do focus on it. Sanctions. Russia, suffice it to say that a number of our companies have been affected. And when you consider the sanctions, the EU, for example, has very clear rules on how different companies and different sectors need to comply with sanctions. And we complied with all of those. Ericsson, for example, was criticized because they hadn't pulled out immediately. They have been requested to remain to ensure that their systems were still working. That's not an unessential part in communications from west -- the west into Russia to ensure that they're equivalent to WhatsApp and Facebook work in Russia. That's how you spread information, which is not controlled by government inspectors. And so there was a request to not pull out immediately. That's just one example of why it was in our interest, in fact. And then I think that was it.

Okay. Thank you very much. We have a question from over there, microphone #8.

[ Marcus Itai ] representing the [ Folksam Group ]. We've heard from the President that you have very ambitious work that is being done for sustainability and that you have long-term targets for the portfolios when it comes to emissions, and that is welcome. And a question, have you discussed to link those emission targets or other similar targets to the long-term incentive plan? And if not, could that be something that will be proposed in the future?

Thank you. Well, as you say, this is something that we feel is very important. Sustainability is very important from a moral perspective. And it's also important, we feel, from a business perspective. And we have decided to not -- or let me put it this way. We have a number of targets, net asset value, steadily rising dividend, that we are to deliver on the ESG targets. So here, we have targets, and the ESG component covers this. And we try to include everything. But if we try to list all these subcomponents, it will be too complicated. We feel that this is the best way to catch those targets that we feel are the most important.

And from an operational perspective, I do not think that anyone is feeling that we do not have incentive enough to work with sustainability. It's the opposite. I think we all are convinced that if we're not successful with sustainability, climate transition, technology transition, then we will not have a long-term return because, well, this is something that's quite simply in our interest for many different reasons.

Thank you. Station #2.

[indiscernible] 20 years ago, there was a resounding no to the euro by the Swedish population as [ part of ] the fact that political parties, trade unions and various representatives were in favor. Now it's coming up again, and there's at least one party who have addressed this again. I'm not going to go into pros and cons. I was very divided in my views myself. But did the Investor Board of Directors discussed this at all? And what's your stance if so?

Thank you. The honest answer is no, we haven't. But I do note, in any case, that I understand why this question comes up. The Swedish krona is becoming ever more marginalized in a turbulent environment where major currencies -- the dollar, the euro, the renminbi -- are becoming more and more dominant. And as soon as we're in a turbulent world, people and institutions tend to stick to the large currencies, the ones perceived with the lowest risk. And there, we come into the category of those of higher risk. And so the Swedish krona is often divested. That's well worth reflecting on in a longer perspective. I do note as well that Swedish companies who are mainly operating in Sweden will find it easier to sell when the krona is worth less. Compared to other currencies, it's cheaper to sell abroad. But this is a little bit when we saw recurring devaluations in Sweden back in the days. There's no incentive for the company to work to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing processes. And this is very, very urgent to maintain that focus so that you can keep up your long-term competitiveness. That's lost when the currency is inexpensive. And that's something which is also well worth our while to reflect upon. And as you mentioned, there are pros and cons, and I'm sure we will be revisiting this discussion again because I think we will be living with these conditions for a good while in the future.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who would like to ask a question? #5, go ahead, please.

[indiscernible] And I have a question about goodwill that you have in your balance sheet. You're talking about [ SEK 727 billion, SEK 730 billion ] there. And to what extent do we have goodwill there? And the auditor talked about [indiscernible] through this average year. But what do you think about holdings? Do you need an adjustment in the future that perhaps does not have the valuation that you've had previously?

Well, goodwill amounts to SEK 63 billion, I can say, according to the annual report. But if I'm to explain goodwill and how it usually arises, think about the strategy we have when we acquire companies within Patricia Industries where we have our wholly owned companies. We are looking for companies that have a good growth potential, good growth, profitable companies with good capital efficiencies. And the last part is very important because we do not just want them to be highly profitable. We also want to see good cash flows because that is important component of the development we've had. But that means that when we buy these companies, they have very little equity in their books compared to the price that we're paying for that excellent asset, which means that we often have significant goodwill when buying that type of companies. If we were to buy companies with a lot of equity and lower margins, then goodwill, as a portion of this, would be much lower. But that is a strategy we do not believe in. And the [ total and natural ] assets, when we have an acquisition, it's goodwill and it's also assets that are being written down successfully, and we do that together with the auditors.

Thank you. Other questions? That does not appear to be the case, which means that we continue with agenda item 8, where we have adoption of the income statement and balance sheet for the parent company and the consolidated income statement and balance sheet. The auditor recommends approval and the [ estimating committee ] want us to do so. That is carried. And then item 9, presentation of the Board of Directors' remuneration report. The report has been distributed here today and has also been available at the company website and has been sent to those shareholders who have requested so. Are there questions or comments concerning this report? Can the meeting approve this report? It has been approved. And then agenda item 10, where we have discharge from liability for the Board of Directors and the President, that the auditor recommends discharge. It should be noted that each directors and the CEO will not participate in this resolution. And I ask the meeting if the meeting wants to grant discharge. That is carried. Item 11, which is the disposition of earnings. You've heard the -- seen the proposal and the statement by the Board, to be found on Page 147. The proposal from the Board is to pay a dividend of SEK 4.40 per share divided into 2 payments and that the rest to be carried forward. On the first -- for the first payment, according to this proposal, SEK 3.30 will be paid out per share with the record date to be set at the 5th of May. And the second installment, SEK 1.10, record date, 6th of November 2023. And we've heard that the auditor is in favor. Is the meeting prepared to adopt this proposal? Thank you. That's carried. Now we have a number of items on the agenda where the Nomination Committee have submitted proposal. And before we proceed with the resolutions, I'm going to give the floor to Leif Johansson, Chairman of the Nomination Committee, for presentation of the proposals from the committee. You have the floor.

Esteemed participants, shareholders, the Nomination Committee consist of the Chairman of the Board of Investor, Jacob Wallenberg; Anders Oscarsson, AMF Tjänstepension and AMF Funds; Magnus Carlsson, SEB-Stiftelsen; Carina Silberg, Alecta; and myself, Leif Johansson, and I represent the Wallenberg Foundations. The proposals from the Nomination Committee and the presentation of the work of the committee with the recent statement is part of the material distributed here today. In order to assess the requirements which will be placed on the Board as a result of the company's challenges and future focus, the Nomination Committee has discussed the composition and the number of directors on the Board. We've [ availed ] ourselves of an evaluation of the Board and its work, showing that the work on the Board is functioning well. We've also met some of the Board of Directors and [ availed ourselves ] of the presentations and comments by the Chairman of the Board and the CEO on the company's operations, targets and strategies. The committee also notes that the directors have high level of attendance at meetings, and that they have the requisite time to complete this assignment in a satisfactory good manner. The committee has paid attention to the need to have a well-functioning composition of the Board in relation to diversity, when it comes to different types of skills, competence and perspectives including, amongst other things, gender, nationality and sector-specific experience. The Nomination Committee proposes an unchanged number of directors on the Board level. Furthermore, the Nomination Committee proposes reelection of all the current directors on the Board. You see them all here. We also, in addition, proposes reelection of Jacob Wallenberg as Chairman of the Board. And that brings me to Board fees. The proposal from the Nomination Committee is making the following proposals. You can see on the screen. And similarly to last year, we're also proposing that the Board will adopt a policy under which the shareholding of a Board member after 5 years should correspond to at least one annual fee before tax. And in order to facilitate the -- such a shareholding, we propose that the Board of Directors should continue to be able to receive 50% of the Board fees in the form of synthetic shares. Auditors, as can be seen from the material distributed here today, Investor has carried out a tendering procedure before the election of an auditor. And the Nomination Committee is proposing, in accordance with the recommendation from the Audit and Risk Committee, to elect Deloitte as the company auditor for an additional one year period. Auditor's fees. Furthermore, we propose that fees to the auditors be paid according to approved invoice. And by way of conclusion, I would like to thank all the other members of the Nomination Committee for excellent cooperation. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And there's a question over here. Microphone #2.

That presentation was not entirely clear on one point, namely, whether Board fees will remain unchanged or are -- be increased. If, in fact, the Nomination Committee is proposing an increase of Board fees, I propose that they rather remain unchanged. And I will, needless to say, lose such a vote. And if so, I would like to express my reservation against this decision.

You dealt with everything in the one go. Yes, it is an increase. The total is 3.4% in the proposal from the Nominations Committee.

Well, then I propose unchanged fees. And I have a reservation against the expected outcome of that vote.

We will deal with that when we get to that item. [Says the Chair].

Thank you very much to the committee. We proceed with the resolution under 12a, the decision on the number of members. You've heard the proposal from the Nomination Committee. Are there any questions or comments under this sub-item? Does the meeting resolve in accordance with the committee's proposal? That's carried. And 12b, the number of auditors. We've heard the Nomination Committee's proposal. Does the meeting resolve in accordance with that proposal? That's carried. And we continue with the agenda item 13, where we have compensation paid to Board of Directors and auditors. We'll start with 13a, where we have decision for Board of Directors. We have 2 proposals. We have the proposal from the Nominations Committee and also the proposal from [indiscernible] that compensation remain unchanged. And we'll vote on these 2. Does the meeting want to vote in favor of the Nominations Committee proposal or [indiscernible]? And I find that the meeting has voted in favor of the Nominations Committee proposal. And we continue with 13b, where we have compensation for auditors. We have heard from the Nominations Committee. Does the meeting wanted to resolve accordingly? That is carried. And then we are at agenda item 14, election of members of the Board of Directors. We've heard the proposal from the Nominations Committee. An account of assignments that these proposed directors have in other companies has been distributed here today. And this information has also been available at the company's website and was sent to the shareholders who have requested to have them sent from the company. And we're going to vote on the various nominees in the same order that we have them in the Nomination Committee's proposal. I'm going to ask you about all these proposals. Does the meeting want to elect Gunnar Brock? Does the meeting want to elect Johan Forssell and Magdalena Gerger? Does the meeting want to elect Tom Johnstone, Isabelle Kocher? Does the meeting want to elect Sven Nyman? Does the meeting want to elect Grace Reksten Skaugen? Does the meeting want to elect Hans Stråber? Does the meeting want to elect Jacob Wallenberg? Does the meeting want to elect Marcus Wallenberg? Does the meeting want to elect Sara Öhrvall? And I find that the meeting has resolved in accordance with the proposal we have from the Nominations Committee. And that takes us to agenda item 15, election of the Chair. And the proposal from the Nominations Committee is that Jacob Wallenberg is reelected. Can the meeting resolve accordingly? That is carried. And that takes us to item 16, election of auditors. We have heard the proposal from the Nominations Committee. Does the meeting want to resolve accordingly? That is carried. Item 17, the Board's proposal for a program for long-term variable remuneration with 2 items: 17a and b. The proposal is included in the material distributed today and has also been kept available on the company's website and sent to all shareholders who have requested to receive it from the company. Are there any comments or questions? We'll proceed with 17a. First, does the meeting resolve in accordance with the proposal on the [ extent and the main ] principles for the program for long-term variable remuneration for employees in Investor, excluding Patricia Industries? Carried. Moving on to 17b. Does the meeting resolve in accordance with the proposal on the [ extent and the main ] principles for the program for long-term variable remuneration for employees within Patricia Industries? Carried. And that takes us to 18a and b. We have the proposal from the Board of Directors for acquisition transfer of owned shares. The information has been distributed here today, has been available at the company website and has been sent out to shareholders who also requested. Are there comments or questions? If not, we'll resolve, and we'll start with 18a. And here, we need at least 2/3 of votes cast and shares represented at the company in favor of the proposal, which means that we'll be using the voting devices. So I would like to ask you to find your voting device. And if you're in favor of the Board's proposal, you press 1 for yes. If you're against, press 2 for no. And you can press 3 as well if you want to abstain. And I ask if everyone has understood the voting instructions? If so, the vote is open. I think everything is working then. And we're about to close the vote in a few seconds. [Voting]

And the vote is closed, and we will see the outcome and just see that on the screen. And I find that the meeting has voted in favor of the Board's proposal. And we continue with 18b. And here, we need at least 9/10 of votes cast and shares represented at the meeting, and we will be using the voting devices again. And if you are in favor of the Board's proposal, you press 1, yes. If you're against, 2, no. And you can also abstain by pressing 3. And the vote is open. And we will close the vote in a few seconds. [Voting]

And vote is closed, and we're about to see the results on the screen. And I find that the meeting has voted in favor of the Board's proposal. That brings us to the final item on today's agenda. And before we close, I'd like to give the floor to the Chairman of the Board, Jacob Wallenberg, please.

Esteemed shareholders, as of now, the meeting can be closed. So we can officially conclude and close the books on 2022. And we've heard from our President and CEO that relatively speaking, it was a good year for us shareholders. Clearly, there's a great deal of activity in the businesses within Investor, which enables all of this to develop the way it has. And according to tradition, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who are here today in presence or taking part digitally, remotely, for your involvement in our company, for your interest. And I'd like to also take this opportunity to thank you, Johan, and all of your colleagues and employees at Investor for the extraordinary work you do on behalf of us shareholders. Thank you, and thank you to you all.

And I hereby declare the Investor Annual General Meeting of Shareholders closed. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]