Konecranes Plc (KCR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our analyst and press conference. We have some exciting news to share with you today. My name is Kiira Froberg, and I'm the Head of Investor Relations at Konecranes. Here with me today, I have Konecranes Chairman, Christoph Vitzthum; and Konecranes future President and CEO, Anders Svensson. The presentation is followed by Q&A, as always. Please Christoph, the stage is yours.

Thank you very much, Kiira. And a very good afternoon, and welcome to everyone on my behalf as well. As we announced earlier this morning, Anders Svensson has been appointed Konecrane's new President and CEO. Anders joins us from Sandvik, where he currently serves as President of the Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions business area. And he will assume his role at Konecranes at the latest on December 7 this year. Hopefully, earlier than that. The Konecranes Board of Directors initiated quite an extensive international search for a new President and CEO in March, immediately after the canceled merger with Cargotec. Several excellent candidates were evaluated during the process. And today's announcement then marks the culmination of this very careful and, as I said, extensive search. I'm very pleased to announce the appointment of Anders Svensson as Konecranes new President and CEO. Not only does Anders have a very convincing professional track record of profitable growth, he also has worked extensively globally in many positions in Sandvik and elsewhere. And in addition to that, Anders has a very results-driven and engaging approach, a strong customer focus and very good people skills. Therefore, he demonstrates the right mix of competencies, personal qualities and experience that will help Konecranes on a very exciting journey going forward. But before I hand over to Anders, so that he can present himself, I would like to once again congratulate you, Anders, on the appointment and wish you -- welcome to Konecranes and all the rest.

Thank you very much, Christoph. Appreciate that. Hello, everyone, from my side as well, and welcome to this event. So first, before I present myself, I just want to thank Christoph and the Board for getting the opportunity to lead Konecranes going forward in these exciting times. I'm both very honored and excited about this assignment. And if you look at Konecranes, it has a history and heritage, which is over 100 years. So it's a fantastic company with a very strong brand name in industry. So moving into bit about myself. So I'm born in 1975. It means I'm 46 years old. I'm a Swedish citizen. I'm married to my wife, Eva, who is actually half Finish. And we have 2 kids, Alvin and Moa, who are 14 years old, and they are in court defense. So I'm moving in the right direction according to them as well, so. As a degree, I have a Master Science in Chemical Engineering from Lund. And I've had different positions within -- primarily Metso Minerals and Sandvik, all the way from R&D to supply chain, sourcing, business development and sales. And for the last 8 years, I've been leading different profit and loss responsibility areas. The latest one, which I'm heading now is, as Christoph said, President of Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions. And I've been with Sandvik since 2008. And before this position, I was heading up the Crushing and Screening division within Sandwik Mining and Rock Technology. And before that, I was heading up an aftermarket division, which we call then customer services within Sandvik Construction. You mentioned a broad experience from different international business and I think that is one of the key things, which I believe is important in developing one's own leadership, et cetera, working across cultural barriers and with those challenges. So that's something I bring with me into this position with Konecranes as well. So I think that was short about me. Kiira?

Thank you, Anders. Let's now open then the line for the Q&A. But before we do that, I would kindly note that as today's event is about the appointment of Anders as Konecranes new President and CEO. So we won't be taking any questions on Konecrane's current financial performance or operating environment. And now first, I think we could take some questions from the audience, if there are any here. No questions from the audience. So please let's open the line for the questions. Please, operator, go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] So far, we have 1 question on the line. It's from Tomi Railo of DNB.

This is Tomi from DNB. Christoph, first question to you. If you could describe a little bit about the process, whether you had internal, external Finish, Nordic citizenships and so on?

Yes. Thank you, Tomi, for the question. Like I said, it was a very extensive search. We have evaluated a very broad range of potential candidates. And across geographies, across different businesses and as a result of this, we have concluded that Anders Svensson is the best person to lead Konecranes.

And then to Anders, congratulations. [Foreign Language] Where would you see Konecranes strengths and weaknesses at this point before you start with your initial thoughts.

Thank you very much, Tomi. And of course, I can only look from outside, and I see a company with a very long history, strong brand name, excellent people that supports the customers in a good way and also combining that with a unique equipment and service offering and being awarded with having a global leadership position within the industry. So that's where I am currently.

[Operator Instructions]

One question from the chat at the moment. So we can perhaps take that while we wait for potential additional questions from line. So Anders, what would be your main priorities as the new CEO? That is the question from the chat.

Of course, I can't go in and comment about business-related priorities, but my main priority coming into the position will be to meet the people and meet the customers and listen to them. Before I take any -- draw any conclusions on what needs to be done or changed in the future.

Thank you. Do we have any additional questions from line, please?

Currently, there are no further questions from the phone lines.

Thank you. I think we can then well conclude the conference. Once again, congratulations, Anders, and welcome to Konecranes. And I wish everyone a very nice weekend and summer. Thank you, all.

Thank you.