Swisscom AG (SCMN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Dear shareholders, welcome to the Annual General Meeting. We will be ready in a second. But before we start, our Swisscom trainer, Marcel Curien, will give you a brief overview of our wide range of consulting and support services so that you, too, are ready for the network world in your everyday life. Have fun and clear the stage.

Well, I asked AI, they should create an image of me with the Titanic in the haven of -- in the port of Southampton. And that is the result. My name is Marcel. I work in the sustainability report, and I'm glad to welcome you here to the Annual General Meeting of Swisscom. So we have 2 very exciting topics for you. So AI, artificial intelligence, and security on the Internet. So we live in a time where technology, for example, like ChatGPT is not only fascinating, but also becomes more and more important. It changes the way of how we work, how we communicate, and yes, indeed, how we teach. Well, we at Swisscom think that artificial intelligence has huge potential and it can facilitate many things. But with big technologies, there's huge responsibility coming for the society. Security on the Internet or cybersecurity is enormously important. We have to make sure that the digital world is safe and secure, safe and secure for customers, for the children and for everybody that moves in this world. And therefore, I would like to teach you more about cybersecurity. So during this event, we give you some short videos so that you also find a great, safe environment. So we also have our colleagues at the island, of the Advice Island. So there's an AI quiz that you can take. And except for that, we give you the opportunity to experience AI live. So my colleagues and I, we help you with AI to create images, just as you said, to create a letter or also a travel plan for your next vacations. Everything can be printed out and you can take it home as a souvenir. So if you have any other questions with regards to digitization, then you can find them on swisscom.ch/campus. And there you have a report, you find lists, videos and also an online course. So all that is for free, of course. And now I really look forward to a very exciting general meeting. Thank you very much, and enjoy. [Presentation]

Dear shareholders, dear guests and friends of Swisscom. A warm welcome to the Hallenstadion. You may have already used the opportunity to get to know artificial intelligence in a playful way at our Counseling Island. It is just fascinating what you can do with artificial knowledge. But amidst all the enthusiasm, we must not ignore the fact that technology also has its downsides. And that's why it's very important to us that our customers are safe when they are online. More on this -- more in the course of this Annual General Meeting. On behalf of the Board of Directors, the group management and all our colleagues, I would like to extend my warmest greetings to you and want to welcome you to the 26th Annual General Meeting. I also would like to welcome the independent proxy Reber Rechtsanwälte, represented today by Ms. Gschwend and Mr. Hayer; as well as the representatives of the auditors, Ms. Schwick and Mr. Caccia. I would like to introduce the representatives of Swisscom AG on the podium. They are Eugen Stermetz, our CFO; Christoph Aeschlimann, our CEO, and Martin Vogeli, Head of Group Security and Corporate Affairs and member of the Group Executive Board. In this function, he also holds the Office of Secretary to the Board of Directors. The other members of the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board, they are also present, and they have taken the seats in the room as well. The Annual General Meeting will be held in German, with simultaneous translation into French and English. If you would like to wear headsets for the translation, you can get them at the very back of the hall. Dear shareholders, the short introductory film impressively shows that the network world is reality today. It opens up countless opportunities for our economy and society, opportunities that Swisscom is driving and supporting with its innovations. We ensure that our private and business customers can use technologies how and where they want. Our infrastructure makes Swisscom the digital backbone of Switzerland. And this is what we are very proud of, and we want to keep it that way. In recent weeks, the merger of our subsidiary Fastweb with Vodafone Italia has been a talking point. Our commitment in Italy is one of the main topics at today's Annual General Meeting. CEO, Christoph Aeschlimann, and I will explain to you in a moment why we are convinced that this will pay off. But let me start by making a few categorizations. The transaction offers Swisscom the unique opportunity to acquire a leading convergent provider in Italy. We are strengthening our presence in Italy, and Fastweb will significantly improve its competitiveness and become a significant number two. We on the Board of Directors have thoroughly and comprehensively analyzed the opportunities and risks of this transaction. And we are convinced that the opportunities for all parties involved far outweigh the risks, and the decision is in the interest of Swisscom in Switzerland as a whole. And you, our shareholders, esteemed shareholders, will also benefit from a significant increase in the value of a company as a result of the takeover. By utilizing synergies and depending on the development of free cash flow, we intend to further increase the dividend in the future. But let's come back to the past financial year. Swisscom impressed with strong figures and a good market performance. Customers are delighted with our products, the great and excellent service and well-developed infrastructure. And we were also able to build further trust. We are not immune to inflation either. And however, unlike other providers, we have refrained from a general price increase. Our mobile and fixed networks also won all relevant network tests in 2023. Our cloud and security solutions are also very successful in business customers. And our subsidiary Fastweb in Italy has been growing continuously for 10 years now, and further details on business performance can be found in the annual report. I am proud that Swisscom is a pioneer in climate protection. We are focusing on reducing CO2 emissions. And for the third time in a row, we have been recognized as the most sustainable telecommunications company in the world for our commitment. We are leaving behind an intense 2023, with uncertainties such as inflation, rising interest rates and increased geopolitical risks. In these challenging times, our employees are doing an extraordinary job for our customers every day. And at this point, I would like to take this opportunity and thank all employees, the Board of Directors and the Executive Board and especially our CEO, Christoph Aeschlimann, for their many years of loyalties and tireless commitment. Together, we move Swisscom forward. With our technology, our innovations, our experience and our sense of responsibility, we want to inspire our customers anew every day. We would also like to thank you, our shareholders, as team shareholders, for your trust, your loyalty and support. 25 years after its IPO, Swisscom is in an excellent market position, and it is well equipped for the future as well. I would like to come to the formal part of the Annual General Meeting. While you, ladies and gentlemen, took your seats earlier, we showed you some tips from our Swisscom campus, all around security in the digital world. Roll the film for the last tip in this series. [Presentation]

Dear shareholders, I would like to open the Annual General Meeting with a few formal statements. In accordance with the Articles of Association, I take the chair. The Annual General Meeting has been duly convened and has a quorum. The invitation was published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce on the 14th February 2024, together with the 2023 annual report and the financial statements of Swisscom Limited. The shareholders entered in the share register were invited in writing and on request electronically. So no request to add items to the agenda were received. The annual report has also been available on the Swisscom website since the 8th of February 2024. The auditors, PwC, who audited the annual and consolidated financial statements and the remuneration report are represented at the Annual General Meeting today. I appoint Martin Vogeli as secretary, who takes the minutes. I would like to point out that the meeting, including the speakers, will be broadcast live on the Internet in video and audio. The meeting will also be recorded and posted on the Internet after the Annual General Meeting. Votes will be conducted electronically today. During the Annual General Meeting, two scrutineers are present here in the hall and two others are in the accounting office. Among other things, the scrutineers ensure that the electronic system is used correctly. The persons who've been appointed to count the votes are projected onto the screen. I would like to thank Mrs. Langenegger, Mrs. Sudarevic, as well as Mr. Thüring and Mr. Bühler for making themselves available for this task. As always, we will keep a list of speakers to ensure that the Annual General meeting runs smoothly. If you would like to speak, please take your admission ticket to the staff at the speaker's desk. It is located here at the front from your side on the left. You can sign the list of speakers immediately and for as long as the discussion on the respective agenda item continues, I will call on those registered to speak on the respective agenda item. Please keep your comments brief. In view of the numerous items on the agenda, I will limit the speaking time to 5 minutes. If a speaker does not wish their name or vote to be published on the Internet, they must expressly declare this to the employees at the request to speak tent or at the latest, at the lectern at the beginning of the vote. The Annual General Meeting is quorate regardless of the number of shareholders present and shares represented. Resolutions are passed today by a majority of the votes represented today. As already mentioned, the votes will be conducted electronically. During the first vote, Mr. Vogeli will explain how to use the Televote. If you have any questions about the device, please contact the Televote help desk on the left-hand side of the hall. Our guests are not entitled to vote and have not received a voting device. I acknowledge that the independent proxy is here. The agenda items for today's general meeting are projected onto the screen now, and you will also find them in the written invitation. In the meantime, the number of representatives of shareholders have been recognized. Mr. Vogeli will now say them.

Ladies and gentlemen, the number of votes found here. So we have 1,187 shareholders present today and independent proxy. Each share entered in the share register with voting rights entitles the holder to 1 vote. The shareholders, therefore, represent 26,482,336 votes. The independent proxy represents 11,447,841 votes. In total, we have 37,930,177 named shares or registered shares of voting shares with a total nominal value of CHF 37,930,177 represented here. This corresponds to 73.22% of the voting rights shares. Treasury shares are not represented. Attendance will be continuously monitored at the entrance to the assembly hall. I would ask anyone leaving the Hallenstadion early to show their admission ticket and hand in their voting device at the entrance control desk.

On behalf of the independent proxy Reber Rechtsanwälte, I declare the following: the independent proxy, yesterday, on Tuesday morning, gave us an intermediary report on the respective agenda items. The table dated 26th of March on 4:49 a.m. in the morning, they have represented in favor -- I'll show you the votes in favor, against and abstentions as well as the respective percentage points. The data has been communicated in an anonymous way and cannot trace any voting declaration of individual shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to number one, approval of the management report, the consolidated financial statements and the annual financial statements of Swisscom Limited for 2023. The comprehensive report of the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board can be found in the 2023 annual report. The report and the annual financial statements of Swisscom are published on the Swisscom website. The reports of the auditors are printed in the annual report. For the next item on the program on the agenda, I'll be joining Christoph Aeschlimann and Claudia Lässer. And together, we'll take a closer look back at 2023, and we show you what we want to achieve more with Swisscom. [Presentation]

Yes, warm welcome. Dear visitors, here at our Swisscom AGM in Zurich. And I would like to welcome those that watch our live broadcast online. We are more than happy that for the second time, we have the event here in the Hallenstadion as we did it last year. We have decided not to make any long speeches, but rather to offer personal discussions with our guests and give you exciting insights into the world of Swisscom. We will also talk about the exciting acquisition in Italy. And adding to that innovation and trust are also part of Swisscom's vision. And we would like to find out and take a closer look what has been done in the last year. I'm happy that the Chairman, Michael Rechsteiner and the CEO, Christoph Aeschlimann, that you are here next to me. A warm welcome. So you've been gone through just exciting weeks. So how do you feel at this exciting time, Christoph? So did you have some sleepless nights?

Well, no, not sleepless nights, but a lot of work. When the transaction was thoroughly thought, we analyzed it for a long time, and therefore, we are convinced that it's right for the future of the company. So I feel very well today.

Well, that's great. Michael, I think that you polished up your Italian in the last weeks.

Well, yes. Land, people, culture and language, food and drinks, I'm more than happy to be able to deal with those topics.

Well, for you, I think you also speak great Italian. Where does it come from?

Well, I didn't say I speak very well. Just speak a little Italian, I learned it in school. And I basically planned and intend that I have to polish it up for the next couple of years.

We will get to this topic later on because we are at the general meeting. So we also need to take a look at the cause of business. And Michael, you -- I want to give you an easier time. So therefore, we have all figures and summarized them in a compact way.

2023, the net revenue increased by 0.2%, and now it's CHF 11.1 billion. Turnover of Swisscom Switzerland reduced by 0.8% by -- and at Fastweb, it increased by 6.1%. The operative result before EBITDA of CHF 4.6 billion is 4.9% above the result of the previous year. The profit is CHF 1.7 billion, which is a plus of 7%. 2023, Swisscom invested in the maintenance and increase of the IT infrastructure. And CHF 2.3 billion were invested, and CHF 1.7 billion of it were invested in Switzerland. 2023, Swisscom won all important test nets. And the mobile comm had the highest point and is basically now the winner of all categories. The IPO share price for 2023 was quite stable. And with a dividend of CHF 22 per share, the shareholders of Swisscom can have a very good yield.

Christoph, a very good result, basically. So the finances look very good.

Yes, we are very proud of the result. We're very happy. We have a quite solid financial result. All relevant tests were won. So mobile test result was just great. So the best result measured worldwide. Last year, it was great, huge success. And also the outline jobs. We won tests. We have a great brand. Sustainability is huge. We have the ambitious goal, and we validated the goal for 2035. So I say we move forward in all categories and areas, and we are also honored because of our good results.

Does that make you proud? Or what does it make you proud, Michael?

Well, Christoph basically summarized it greatly. Swisscom delivered what it promised. And what is important for me is to have satisfied customers. So I think we have to put that in the focus, but then also the great work of our employees. And because of this great work, it's very great for our loyal shareholders. I think that it's very important for the Board of Directors that we have a great thoroughly thought through corporate governance, that we've worked out a great group strategy together with the Executive Board and also in the successes management. We have some vacant spaces that were filled with excellent people from internal. And we could make the management a bit more diverse. Well, we'll talk about the strategy. So we had a very great successful 2023. 2024 started with a bang, so a few weeks ago, and you mentioned it that we want to take over Vodafone Italia. So the contract was signed just 10 days ago. Purchase price was CHF 8 billion. So a huge, huge deal for Swisscom.

Why is the Board of Directors convinced that the transaction will pay off?

Well, we look at this consolidation activities in Italy. So we've been observing them for years, and we are convinced, and we also have outweighed and checked all the risks and opportunities also because of the current transaction, and we think that the opportunities far outweighed the risks. And therefore, the Board of Directors approved this deal. I think what is very important is that we have 2 great companies. They are complementary to each other. So we bring them together. And that there will be a great #2 in the telecommunication area in Italy. It will be big enough to withstand the competition. But they are best in just offering convergent products to our customers. And therefore, we are convinced that it's a very good deal and that we, the Board of Directors, have thoroughly thought for it. I think all shareholders may ask what their benefit is. So what is that? Well, it's the increase of the company through synergies, the value increase. So that means for the Swisscom Group, the Swisscom AG, more free cash flow, more liquidity. So with that, you can do a bit more. You can also probably increase dividends and yields, as we already announced it, but you can also invest even more in the infrastructure, the networks and the services of Swisscom. But you can also reduce liability. So there's a huge range of opportunities that exist. What we announced though is that in the business year, for the business year 2025, on the Annual General Meeting 2026, the dividend -- the annual dividend of Swisscom will be increased to CHF 26 per share. Well, if everything is, of course, done by the first quarter of next year.

Well, that sounds good. But there was some skeptical voices, just in particular, after the first communication. And somebody asked, well, why do you invest so much money abroad, not in Switzerland?

Well, I think, one thing you have to say is there are always skeptical voices, critical voices. And I think it's just normal if a company does something like that. Some people like it, some people don't like it. That's just the nature of the thing. And in this specific case, what is important to me personally is, Swisscom has been in Italy, operative for 15 years. In the last 10 years, we grew by 50%. So we know the market. We have an existing company that has a turnover of CHF 2.6 billion turnover. We have a great management team there. And now we buy in a new part of the company, integrate it and realize synergies with that savings. And in this sense, the investment, the transaction will create many things. And we think that it will be successful with these prerequisites.

Well, there were also other critical voices, right? That there will have been some investments abroad that were a flop, and nobody has learned a lesson from it. What can you say about that?

Well, I'm sure that we've learned our lessons from previous purchases because this is a basic need and requirement, right? And as I said, the transaction cannot be compared with other transactions where we went to one country for the first time where you usually do not -- where we didn't have synergies, where you just have the first market entrants. And it's totally different in this case. We talk about very big, CHF 600 million per year of savings, just by combining the networks or just bringing landline customers from Vodafone to Fastweb and just migrating Fastweb customers to Vodafone. So you have a better customer experience, everything from one source, and therefore, the transaction cannot be compared whatsoever with Aircom, Divitel or other activities that the company implemented 20 years ago.

Okay. Understandable. So the transaction was also topic with Swiss politicians. So privatization of Swisscom. So what is your statement to that?

Well, this privatization discussions come up once in a while. For us at Swisscom, it's very important that we have a majority shareholder that does not limit our activities, that does not limit our growth plan so that it gives us the opportunity to grow and also to accept risks and take risks and also bear those risks financially at the end. So I think up to now, everything has been worked out quite fine. So if the Parliament thinks that in the future, those risks cannot be borne anymore, and that there needs to be a partial prioritization staff, we, as Swisscom, are more than willing to work on solutions. We have to say though that we cannot support all solutions. So we decline solutions that do not make sense from an economical point of view. We don't like solutions that will limit us in growing in the future or we do not want to have solutions that could basically question the survival of the company. For example, splitting the company into one network company and another part of the company.

I guess what are the next steps? And what does it mean for the organization per se?

Well, the next steps with regards to the transaction is a lot of exchange with local authorities. We roughly need the approval of more than half a dozen authorities. That's a lot of work, in particular, from the point of view of a lawyer. And you also have competition authorities with the regulator and telecommunications sector with the government. All this work will be done in the next weeks and months. And we hope to finalize the transaction in the first quarter of 2025. And only then we are the owner of the company. And only then we will pay the money for it.

It sounds like a lot of work. So we wish you all the best of success for the implementation. The good thing is that you have this new strategy of the company and you've integrated a subsidiary company. What does it mean?

Well, we have one company strategy that gives us the frame on how we implement trust, et cetera, in the digital world so that we have a common frame for Switzerland and Italy because we are convinced that combining innovation and trust is the key for success in a digitized world. And therefore, it was important to us that we move into the same direction together.

Well, trust and innovation, so we will talk about that in a second. So it's basically, all in all, 4 pillars that comprise the strategy. What 4 pillars are those?

Well, the most important pillar is customer satisfaction because there is only satisfied customers that are important because we pay the wages with the bills our customers pay. So that means a successful company needs great and enthusiastic customers saying, I stay with this company. You need great networks. You need great hotlines and great jobs. This is the first part. The second part is innovation for the future. We are working in a market where permanently new things happen, just buzzword cybersecurity or artificial intelligence. So the change is just huge and fast. So that means that we have to invent new products and services because the customer needs change regularly. And we also have to generate new turnover, of course. And the third pillar is that we need to achieve more with less. This also has to do with the customers. Because the products that are great today and people that are willing to pay money for those services, they are not used anymore in for 3 or 4 years because they say I want to have more probably, and I do not want to pay as much as now. And this has been the case in the last 20 years because what you buy today was better in the past and not so expensive. So we have to improve. We have to achieve more with less money so that we are able to reduce the prices. And the last bit is we need great cooperation within the teams between the subsidiaries within the company so that we can achieve the highest performance. Those are the 4 pillars, and I'm convinced that if we do all that simultaneously, we as a company will be successful.

And you also seem to be convinced. So what convinced you of the strategy?

Well, we, as the Board of Directors, we have Christoph and we supported him and also the management and we passed it through. So what was important to us is that it's across company or across group strategy. And then it needed to be simple and clear. And I think I speak on behalf of all of my colleagues on the Board of Directors, it went very, very well. And I think we also made to focus and relate to the strengths of the strategy and to use the lever there and to improve there, and everything worked out quite well. Eventually, the transformation in which the Swisscom is at the moment is what we wanted to support not only when it comes to technology, but also culture. And I think this is covered with pillar number 4 that Christoph said.

Well, it needs both basically. But you also mentioned it several times, Michael, the topic of innovation. It is very, very important for the future as well. So is there anything that Swisscom needs to take up to?

Well, Swisscom is a very innovative company. And it's very known worldwide in the telecommunications sector. The company is basically acknowledged because of its innovation force and all the things that the company develops. For example, prepaid was invented by Swisscom for mobile phones and other topics where the company is working in the provision of new technologies. And this is very important for the future. We work a lot and with a lot of force on this in the future. Well, of course, it's not the same just as we did it with the cable break, so to say, 15 years ago. But there are many novelties. So SME digitization, Swisscom Sign was launched that you can sign contracts in an electronic way. And this year, we also will be publishing new products in order to infuse companies -- sorry, customers with new technologies.

Well, this is just incredibly a lot. So here, we see a few buzzwords, but that's not all of them. So Innovation 2023. So you mentioned some of them. You both said innovation is not necessary -- or is not possible without trust. Michael, do you have any examples for that?

Well, trust. Trust, you need trust for those innovations where probably people have insecurities or are afraid of some things. The best example is cybersecurity today. It is something that can be mentioned here. And we, or Swisscom for our business customers, business clients, open up the business security center there. The customers give us their digital processes. We monitor them. We protect them. And trust is incredibly and infinitely important because the important business process of the customers are taken over by us, and we integrate them. But we also take over the data from our customer.

Let's stay with innovation and artificial intelligence because this was mentioned at the beginning, and you can try it at the Counseling Island. So Christoph, in 2024, CHF 100 million were invested into the topic of AI to get Switzerland ready for this topic. What does that mean?

But, of course, we have to, well, make Swisscom fit because it's about creating a platform for our customers that they can have AI applications in Switzerland, where we have cloud environments for normal applications. And we are building a new platform with NVIDIA, which is thought for AI. This is one step. Together with customers, we also will create models, train the models so that the businesses in Switzerland can use those models and not only have to call an American company to be able to do it. And then, of course, we also need to have artificial intelligence in Swisscom internally, so call center, mobile, stuff like that, everywhere. So we need to have it in use so that a better company experience can be achieved with the lower cost as well. And I think artificial intelligence is a key technology not only for Swisscom, but also for the entire country and also for all the different companies that are located in Switzerland.

Let me allow the question because you also bear the respective responsibility. Many people have a lot of respect, they're also afraid of that. What about you?

Well, it's not scary, or I'm not afraid of it. But I think it beats a lot of chances. And I think at the end, it's the same with every technology. So nuclear plants, basically. Nuclear power, basically, just generates power. And on the other hand, nuclear weapons can destroy everything. And I think that's the same with all other areas. It depends on how you use technology, et cetera. And I think there needs to be a legal or ethical framework on how to use and utilize those technologies so that trust is built that nobody messes around with that or the difficult -- I'm sorry, dangerous things aren't done with it. So I just want to see positive effects, et cetera. And I think if we address this topic like this, we will be successful.

So what about you, Michael, what do you think?

Well, I'm an engineer by profession, right? So I'm not afraid. My goal is that, in 2024, I personally will deal with the topic of AI.

Okay, what does that mean?

Well, for example, the Swisscom went to the WEF. So visited some difficult events. So we led the AI house with some employees, and I heard many, many discussions. So I read a lot about AI. I also bought new gadgets that you can have just to test it out, just to play around, just to practice, and just to learn.

Well, we are almost at the end. Christoph, if you look back to 2024, what do you wish for you in a private life?

Well, I think it's quite easy when it comes to the company. So we want to implement the strategy, and we want to look back to a successful year. And hopefully, the transaction in Italy can also be implemented so it can start to work. So this is basically the business part. And privately, it's a difficult thing, spending time with family and my girlfriend. The business is important. We want to be successful. But at the end of the day, your private life is important and to have fun with others. And, well, it's very important to me, myself.

Well, it speaks for itself, you -- it's your birthday tomorrow. So I hope you have some time for both you and your family tomorrow. How do you celebrate?

Well, I invited some friends to l'apéro. And tomorrow, basically the holiday starts. So that's a great opportunity to start into the holidays.

So I'm not supposed to say happy birthday now because that's bad luck. So now, what about you? Just if you have a look back into 2023, was there a key moment where you say, okay, this is what I'd take into 2024?

Very difficult. Very difficult to just extract one activity. I think the entire 2023 was very, very successful results, so operationally. And also, we've created a dynamism, a flow towards trust and growth, and this creates a momentum, a dynamism within Swisscom per se. So we have great, great employees. So it makes me so proud to be able to work in such a great company. And at this point, I thank you, thank you, thank you so much to all employees. You make an amazing job, but also you, dear shareholders, my warmest thanks goes out to you. Thank you so much for your trust, and thank you for your appreciation.

Great last word. Thank you very much, Michael and Christoph, all the best for the general meeting.

Thanks Claudia.

I would like to state that the auditors, PwC, Swisscom has issued an [ unqualified ] opinion on the consolidated financial statements and in your financial statements and recommends their approval. I would like to thank the auditors for their good and trusting corporation. This brings us to the discussion. I would like to ask [ Mr. Marc Muller ] to come to the microphone to the speaker stand. And at the same time, [indiscernible] as a -- to be ready to speak afterwards. Mr. Muller, the microphone is yours.

Environment. So dear Mr. Aeschlimann, ladies and gentlemen, on the construction fair. That was on the 19th to 26th of January in [ Basel ], Mr. [indiscernible], Professor for physics at the University of Zurich, and 2 young architects. They had a presentation of transformation for climate change. What needs to be done? This is what was shown. So the environment, the economy needs to rethink. And this presentation was the reason that experts said that the construction companies and the industry should not work and continue as up to now. So they should just use different resources, for example, different shindles to clean them and to reuse them. That is also applicable to stones, et cetera. And for new constructions, more money needs to be used. So in the following discussion, I then mentioned that it is high time that not used energy should -- to use that will be the best and that the planning of the energy supply can save up to 80% of energy for apartments. And it can also be safe -- energy can be saved with satellite TV whilst Swisscom is always informed at first that other things can be used. So Swisscom does it for free for architects. But basically, customers and customers need to pay for it. So reception via satellite would be better than as an IP reception, and it would also be free. When we have new construction sites, the end customers are basically punished because receiving programs via satellites in retrospect is very expensive. When you have reception via satellite, you can record things infinitely for free. And if you have satellite reception, you can have disks of more than 4 terabytes for free basically, and they are there for free. And in addition to that, the storage of satellite can be used just infinitely and the providers basically delete everything as soon as there is a termination of a contract. And I would like to ask the following to director Aeschlimann, Swisscom shall basically make the installation of the box such that they also have a the opportunity to attach a 4 or 5 terabyte hard disks. And you can basically get those hard disks for CHF 100. And there would be one big advantage. So that as soon as the device is switched on, everything runs and all the recorded things can be replaced. A lot of energy can be saved. And the Swisscom cloud can also be used in a different way. And just to play this recorded video basically, doesn't need energy. So therefore, I would like to ask Mr. Aeschlimann to enable that, which could save a lot of energy because almost all households have and all -- many people that do not have enough money to live from, they would also be happy for the solution. So this is just one thought. So where does it lead if you basically try to make the most profit in the construction businesses. So it's also applicable to different areas. So no matter whether it's fixed, lights that only in electric connection can be taken place. And the question is what if you did it? So I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak.

Thank you very much, Mr. Muller. I can ensure you that for Swisscom, the saving use of resources are very important, no matter whether it's CO2 reduction or saving energy. It's very important. When it comes to the direct specific question to say from energy, I would like to hand over to Christoph Aeschlimann.

Thank you, Mr. Muller for your proposal for your suggestion. I will take that with me. And talk to the team and discuss with the team that develops the TV product. I think just as [indiscernible] has said it, saving energy is very important to us. We also launched a new TV box that saves 35% of energy. And also the recordings that our customers do. The recordings they do, they are saved in our data center in a very energy-saving way. Well, I think the local hard disk would probably use less energy than the one that we have, but I'm not sure. But we will analyze the topic. And if we have a positive result, we will also implement it. So thank you very, very much for the suggestion.

Thank you very much, Christoph. So I would like to ask [indiscernible] to come to the microphone.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm standing here not only as a shareholder, but also as a representative -- a council representative of a local authority. So the street is what I want to talk about, and one sentence is what came to my eyesight in your invitation. Well, we take care of the means that we have. Well, I don't think so of every time. So whenever there is a sanitation of streets of the local of the municipality, we always ask the companies, whether they want to be part of it, of the sanitation of the reconstruction. Swisscom doesn't always say no. But as soon as there is a new road in place, you ask to tear out the street. So there's one street, for example, that they worked on 6 months now. And tomorrow, Phase 4 is at the end. And 2 weeks ago, Swisscom asked to rip open the street. And in Phase I and III, there was devices to tear off the street that were included. Fiberglass cable was also part of it. And in order to implement that, well, the half village needs to be re-digged basically. We also have a connection to the neighbor village. And well, Swisscom basically rips open the street once every year. And it did it just last month again. In 2 days, after the holes were closed, the company net construction approached the municipality asking to rip open the exact same spot at the exact same street because the company net destruction builds in their -- in that. Please Swisscom, plan midterm, a long term and not short-term ways. And please communicate your planning with all possibly affected institutions. And also on the behalf of our inhabitants and citizens, I thank you for a much more resortful way of handling with your means and our property. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. [Gaba Muller ]. You basically talk from the practice. I understand your question. So Christoph, can you say something about that?

Yes, Ms. [ Gaba Muller ]. It's a wish to say. I understand your concerns. And that's one of the reasons why in the past, we changed our way of planning that because in Switzerland, we didn't have to -- we don't have to dig so deep because of new procedures. And fiberglass installation in Switzerland needs to take place in point-to-point installation. This leads to more costs but it also leads to more concern and anger in municipalities. Well, we know that. We knew that, and we wanted to basically prevent it, but unfortunately because of this new procedure is not possible over time. And now despite of that, the situation is that we have to plan it ideally so that, well, there is an intelligent way of construction for that. We try to do our best in this point. In many cases, we are successful. So if possible, we also ask -- use other activities when the things are ripped open. For example, if you have sewer sanitations. If you have others that need to rip open the street as well, but this is not possible every time. And also in the current situation where we have -- where we change the fiber cable role to point-to-point. Well, I'm sorry that it as this, and we will continue to work on improving it. But unfortunately, because of the mass of the build connections that we do every day, well, we basically install and work in hundreds and hundreds of municipalities every day.

Thank you very much, Christoph. And therefore, I would like to ask Mr. [indiscernible] to the microphone and Mr. [indiscernible] to be ready as the following speaker. Mr. [indiscernible].

Yes. I think it was very interesting, the conversation on stage, and I think it's very good that also the Board of Directors they do not only just talk about everything there. But I have to say and have to ask questions because the content was a bit thin. I wanted to have more in the sense that he probably dig deep dive a bit more, that it's not only about the report. The one thing is, if I ever look at the report, we lose continuously more private customers. So well, we have an increase of the business customers, but a reduction of private customers, and it's also for Fastweb. So why is that the case? Why don't we reach the people anymore? What can we do so that also there is the increase of private customers. Well, all the increase or the growth is nice, but if we lose our customers, well, our net can be -- our network can be best as possible. We need to convince the customers that they want to have the good network because otherwise, it's an investment that does not pay off. The next thing is Italy. Fastweb, Vodafone, I welcome it. I think we are stronger with that. I think we can achieve a bit more. But I would like to know how high are the synergies? Do we have any estimates? Do we have any figures of all those synergies where just the cash flow has increased? Or are there also savings because of the structures with regards to staff, HR, et cetera? So what does it look like? And probably also what the question is, what does it look like with regards to unfortunately, some layoffs that may be necessary? Because at the end of the day, we also want to be Swisscom a very good employer because we want to have better employees and better employees, they basically give us a more yield. So that's the reason why I'm also interested in the employees. In this context, you also said that we will have more cash flow for investments. But if I have a look at the investments on the other hand then the investments as a trend, they're just on a same level or probably are decreasing at the same time, the debts are reduced. So I'm very happy that the debt and the liabilities are reduced because I see increasing interest that are a cost block. We are basically just get the money myself and not giving it back to the loans. And banks, but what is the target planning investments plan to go up or not? So what does it look like? And also when we talk about investments, fiber cable, are there also some empty pipes that are basically laid off. So that all the work can be used in the future that they do not have to dig open or rip open the street. Or do we have only this cable put it in there that we need at this moment, what do you do there? So you also described we are very solid, and this is what I'm very happy about, but at the same time you have to say in times of inflation, a continuous turnover is a reducing or decreasing turnover because of inflation is 5%. And if we have the same turnover effectively, it's only 5% less than what you do in it. So what do you do in this case, in this context? And also together with the question, how do we get the private customers back. Something more ecology technological, I saw that some companies are not owned anymore, for example, Swisscom [ reintroduce ], or the ad unit of global IP action company. So do you want to say anything about that? What they do, why we sold them, why we reduced the share that we have there. So what the goals are with those companies? And then as a last point, I didn't see anything in the annual report. So what about employees shares? Do they have the opportunities to get share -- Swisscom shares with a better price. But I think that every employee that has participated in the company has more commitment for the company. And I also like it if the small person at the counter, basically, that serves me in the -- in the store, also gets some shares. So what does it look like here in this case. This would be very interesting, and that brings me to my last point. I'm very sorry that I deal with that for such a long time. Well, PwC, the revision basically the auditors, they do a quite good work. But I think in the last year, we had more than 50% of the regular auditor wages that were spent for something else. Of course, it's very nice that we have an auditor that councils, that knows about it, but I'm a suave in person. There is always a negative side to it. For example, if some rates for audits and counseling -- well, it's a bit wrong. So 10% of revision or reviewing wages is a bit strange more than it, I will be more than happy to pay a bit more if we have a partner where we've spend a bit more probably. And in particular, we the Germans, basically, we are not that happy with all the review companies in Germany, there, I'm very glad to have Swiss shares. So what does it look like? Thank you very much.

Thank you very much [indiscernible]. Thank you very much not only for your questions, but also that you read the report in a so detailed way. So you asked 7 questions. I would like to work through the questions individually. The first one was loss of private customers in Italy and also at Swisscom. Christoph, can you say something about that?

Mr. [indiscernible], you have to be a bit more differentiated in this way. So we have mobile telecommunications. We win customers. in this area, also private customers. It is true, nevertheless, that on the landline area, we lose some customers in Switzerland a small share. We have network telephoning. So there, the reason is market changes. Fewer and fewer people have a phone at home, and it could -- and we have more than 100,000 -- more than 100,000s of those customers, they terminate the contract. In other areas, we do not have a market participant strategy, but we want to maximize the value of the company. So that means we make a balance of the number of connections and the price of the subscriptions. So that at the end of the day, we have the ideal result from the company's point of view. So we are more than ready to give away some customers to our competitors. So they also want to grow, right? So other market competitors. And if we try to prevent this growth with smaller -- with lower prices, the competitors may become even more aggressive. Second question with regards to Italy. What the synergies are? Whether some dismissals have to take place? But can the CFO say something about that?

Yes, of course. Thank you very much, Mr. [indiscernible] for the question. The synergies of this transaction are substantial. At the end of the integration phase of the 2 companies, we expect synergies on the area of operating cash flow at the value of EUR 600 million. There is specific -- and I would like to invite you that on the Investor Relations home page, you read all the information on the transactions. There is also a presentation where the synergies are explained in detail. And I can also just point out the -- some details. EUR 240 million of the EUR 600 million are in direct cost so the network performance that we buy in on the mobile area from Telecom Italia and from Wind Tre, we will be able to do that ourselves in the future, and we save put it simply, EUR 200 million roughly per year that our investor that are spent to third parties currently. The second big block is EUR 300 million of savings when it comes to the operative costs. So the OpEx, the expenditures divided into areas, 50% of it come from the point that the institutions of -- in Italia will be detached from the Vodafone Group. Not all services from the Vodafone Group are effective in the moment. And from the money that we was saved -- was spent to Vodafone Italia, we plan to save EUR 150 million next year. And the third block of another EUR 150 million of effects of scale in different areas. For example, sales and distribution. On the other hand, general administration and the third point in just bringing together the networks in the IT system. All in all, that EUR 600 million -- so we expect to buy in the cash flow. So just by combining the 2 businesses, we will create an added value.

Okay. So the third question I give it to the CEO. So are there any specific investments planned?

Well, I think the synergies that exist in Italy. And I think it's about just to hold the investment opportunity in a very intense market. So there is all about IT products. We'll invest in those products. And you need some investment capacities. In Switzerland, we hold the investments quite stable, and we have been doing it for several years, and it's the plan to do the next year. So the next thing is the fiber cable rollout where we will have some different millions -- and we will do that for the next couple of years as well.

Okay. The fourth question was also directed to you with regards and in combination with the first question. Our turnover is reducing or is it decreasing? How can we get hold of that in the future?

Well, that's a valid statement. And this applies for Switzerland mainly because in Italy, we have increasing turnovers. So in Switzerland for many, many years, there have been just a smaller -- no inflation at all, and now we have one as well. And therefore, it's very important to bring forward new products and innovations. So that Switzerland can be put back on to a growth course. So that the turnover in Switzerland is growing, so that inflation can be compensated. So this is something we work on. It's a very intense process. so we cannot grow because of market shares. At the same time, prices in the telecommunication market are falling. So that means you really have to enter new services and make them successful to be able to be at the same spot at the end or to be able to grow. And this is what we work on, and it will take some time in the future until we are back on a path track.

Thank you, Christoph. The fifth question is, we invested into Swisscom Re [indiscernible], why did we sell them?

Well, I can say something about that. You can also see it in the report and we always buy some companies that fit in a strategic way that supports us also when it comes to B2B, cybersecurity in Switzerland and Italy. On the other hand, it's also Important to us to say goodbye to companies if they do not fit anymore into our business. And there's also a second case that you mentioned, Swisscom Re is our own reinsurance company. So we basically just moved from Switzerland to Liechtenstein. There was a special case this basically does not fit into the topic of portfolio cleansing, so to say. So the Adunit in the Goldbach direction, they are very, very small companies. Adunit, they have marketing performances for other companies. They do not fit into our own strategy anymore. Therefore, we said goodbye to them.

The sixth question was with regards to employee shares, who gets which?

We do not have any shares that are handed out to our employees. The management nevertheless, needs to get a specific sham in shares.

So the last question with regards to PwC. 50% more fees have been given. So what's the reason for that?

Yes, I can say something about that. Thank you for this point here. It's a very important intention for -- on the side of us and also the Board of Directors that deals with reviews. It's very important to them that the balance is kept between a good relationship between auditors and non-auditors' fees. And on the other hand, for the respective order to have the best provider and find the best provider. So you said 10% is the smallest bit. So internally, we have the limit in the border of 30% to 50%. But you saw it quite rightly that this year, we basically went over the border, so to say. The reason is that, that in big transactions and big projects, you need one of the big 4, for due diligence, et cetera. So one of the big 4 auditors. And of course, typically, you find yourself in a situation where you have your own auditor. But on the other hand, there is another auditor that prepared due diligence, et cetera. And of course, the selection of the Big 4 just is -- one of the -- and then you get back to your own one. And we did that in 2023. And we nevertheless said that this limit will be capped for the next years.

Okay. Thank you very much. I would like to ask Mr. [indiscernible] to the speaker's panel.

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. I will not speak as long as the previous speaker. But nevertheless, I wonder -- I'm quite impressed by him, and [indiscernible], ladies and gentlemen. I would like to see more active shareholders like him that really deal with the report, deal with the business and ask questions if necessary. So I would like to see something like that. So really applause from my side to this speaker. So Mr. [indiscernible], we've been knowing each other since the last AGM. And yes, you are, how shall I say it, you are quite positive in my mind. Because with my vote last year, it was about a credit for my mobile and prepaid, which basically got invalid because I had a different provider. And you, after the AGM, just quite an unbureaucratic way, you paid out this credit. So I think that was great. Yes, that was great. That was superb. So from your own -- from your own pocket, probably, right? But now my topic. So in many AGMs, last year, we voted on the revision of the Articles of Association. And this is also a topic and also the future way of how we conduct this AGM, so hybrid, digital, et cetera. I always said, I am a promoter of this new way. And just recently, First of all, I was a bit shocked, but then I had to say, yes, that's the future. So this company invites to a virtual AGM without physical place and gives me all votes of a shareholder. Well, I am proud that I as a 77-year-old, managed to get registered. So this alone was a point. And you had the opportunity. We had the opportunity to hand in questions in a written way. And I would like to ask Swisscom now. So you broadcast, and I think this is positive, you broadcast this event on the webcast. And now I expect the next step that I can participate or can take part that this AGM virtually at home and can make use of my shareholders rights 100%.

Thank you very much, Mr. [indiscernible]. So first of all, I am more than happy that you remembered me in such a positive way. But I can tell you the money was not coming from me, but from our CFO to my left, but thank you very much for having that in a positive way. With regards to the virtual one, with virtual AGM, well, you are right. It can take place in a hybrid way or in a totally virtual way, all shareholders' rights need to be able to be taken out. We at Swisscom reserve the right that to determine what will happen from year to year. Next year, we -- for next year, we will plan something like this today. And for the years afterwards, we will talk about what will happen. But it's right, all shareholders' rights need to be maintained. But as you know, you can follow this AGM in a live stream, not as a shareholder because -- if you don't want to have shareholders' rights. I hope this answer serves you well. Thank you very much, Mr. [indiscernible]. Okay. Is there anyone that wants to speak? If not -- I state that it's not the case.

Excuse me. Excuse me, I will stay [indiscernible] 3 points. First of all, I always have to be anger -- I have an amount when paying something in. I have to pay a fee. Okay, then I say [indiscernible] Swisscom pay in there. And they do not want to have my money us. So I want to pay and you do not basically accept the money. First of all -- second point. So when will be the time that you have your IT ready that votes can be going through Swisscom, not only in Switzerland, but also for those abroad. So I'm very interested in this point. So when you are able to have a software and hardware ready that you can proceed so that all those people from abroad can also cast their vote. And the third point is how do you finance this takeover in the next [indiscernible] Italia. So will it be liabilities and debts until infinite one. So this would -- this is something I want to know how long does it take to pay off?

Okay, may I ask you for your name.

[indiscernible]

Okay. Great. Mr. [indiscernible]. The first question with regards to the amount for paying in the fact that nobody wants to have your money. Christoph?

No, I think we are happy to those customers that pay. So there are some options to pay your bills without any fees, TWINT, online banking, et cetera. There are some processes though that generate more effort. For example, when you pay your bills in a shop, and that's the reason why it you have some fees if you want to use those channels.

Okay. Thank you, Christoph. The second question regarding our IT, whether it can be updated I can tell you that we have a great IT in place, but this project is not on the radar, basically. So we're not in the current situation to make a casting or voting system worldwide. The next point is the situation with Italy. Can you answer this, please?

Yes. We will finance this transaction through 2 different ways. For one, we have the capital market and have bonds there, so euro bonds and Swiss franc bonds. And the second point is that we have a loan that will be taken up. So the transaction is financed already. We will only refinance it in the way that I just described it. I want to highlight, though, because you mentioned the topic of debt. Swisscom has a very excellent credit rating by the credit rating agencies, and this will be maintained after the transaction. A strong balance sheet is very important to us. You asked when the money will be paid back? According to our expectations, the calculation is clear. EUR 8 billion will be paid. Free cash flows of [ CHF 600 ] are expected. So we have a payback of 12 to 13 years.

Thanks, Eugen. So I would like to ask a last time whether there is anyone who wants to speak, that doesn't seem to be the case. Oh, yes, there is. Okay. Yes.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, it was said and I heard that Swisscom spends EUR 8 billion in Italy. I ask myself what's the task of Swisscom? So did the parliaments give Swisscom a task to get active abroad, to neglect the Swiss market? I had the feeling that if you the 2 gentlemen, Mr. Rechsteiner, Mr. Aeschlimann, when I saw you in the conversation with the beautiful lady that they have acquired. Well, that it's nothing. EUR 8 billion, it's just nothing. Who takes over responsibility? Responsibility for EUR 8 billion is always the same. Because if it doesn't work, it's not the management's fault. If I -- when I listen to you -- it's just simple -- how can you explain it in simple words, what is active? Was this passive -- and if I hear things like that, what you say then. Well, the task was given to the parliament, I don't know whether it's true or not, but the Swiss market is too small. We want to grow. We want to be magnificent but only then we can survive. But the Swiss market will be neglected, and that is what you do not like. And you also -- and what I think is that good is that nobody takes over responsibility, not the Board of Directors, nobody because the Board of Directors, everyone just refrains and says, "No, no, no -- I wasn't in favor of it. They just did it", something like that. I'm a Swisscom fan. So we -- I've always have -- I've always been Swisscom, and I will be Swisscom. And I hope that the Swiss market will not be neglected in the future and responsibility for EUR 8 billion, Well, we see it with the banks what can happen, what happened. So you just get greedy, you want to be bigger. And so I don't know what the first country will be where Swisscom wants to get established and take over responsibility with funds and money from the state and money and funds from you here in the room and then they say, "Hi, and we have a huge responsibility." And then we have the critical voices, "Oh everything is nice, everything is fine." But no. I am convinced that none of those gentlemen says and shows, "Well, I got too much money as wage. I pay something back." And if we heard with the big ones, the big banks that basically just got money. Nobody paid anything back. And then they say, that was him, that was him, that was this person. And this is where I have to say something. Well, the competition paid less. Swisscom paid more. And that's the reason why Swisscom got the deal. And I want to see and hear, the gentleman here if it fails. I think then the management, the Executive Board, they will just everyone say, "no, not our fault." No one will say it didn't work out. I think that to get a commitment like that abroad, so this is quite strange. So this is basically where I say on the Board of Executives. The Executive Board didn't do a good job. And everyone just says, [indiscernible] we see, we see what happens abroad. But the Swiss market, the Swiss market basically is just smaller. Then you buy Italy, synergies, creating synergies and the CFO says, "Oh, yes, we need to create synergies and do this and that" and every big merging the acquisition, they all talk about synergies. And then when you look at the synergies, what happened? Well, nothing happened, but huge money was invested. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Mr. [indiscernible], thank you very much. So we are glad that you're a Swisscom fan, and we take your message seriously because indeed, it's a huge challenge and a huge transaction. Well, coming to your specific questions. So did the parliament give us the order to make this deal. Well, the parliament basically leads Swisscom through strategic goals and the strategic goals can be accessed publicly. I guess that you know it. The responsibility for this deal, the transaction is with the Board of Directors. So I want to answer that with you. Board of Directors has the responsibility for this transaction. For this reason, we analyzed this transaction. We checked in the discussion around on my right-hand side, and we try to point out how intensely and thoroughly this analysis has been done. What competencies we used, internal ones and external ones. And that the Board of our Directors unanimously said yes to the transaction. Regarding your votes that we neglect the Swiss market. This is something I want to contradict clearly. We invest CHF 1.7 billion into the Swiss market. We pushed forward digitization. Most of the time, it's not money, which is basically a showstopper, but resources. But most of the time there, most of the money that is basically gained is put into the Swiss market. Again, this transaction was analyzed by the Board of Directors thoroughly. Thank you much.

Let me just look now to the right-hand side. Thank you very much. Therefore, this point of the agenda is closed, and I would like to thank those that spoke up. This brings us to the votes. But before we proceed to the vote, I would like to ask Mr. [indiscernible] to explain how the use of the voting machine works.

So ladies and gentlemen, you were given a voting device when you entered the room. You can activate the device yourself by touching the screen or pressing the red button on the side of the device. Under the Language icon, you can change the language. And under the My Vote's icon, can you can see how you voted on the individual agenda items from the first vote onwards. Under the Info icon, you can call up the shareholder information stored about you and see how many votes you represent today. A few seconds before a vote, the screen is automatically switched on, and the relevant agenda items displayed. Three colored squares also appear, and you can cast your vote by touching the squares. Green stands for yes, red for no and yellow for abstain or abstention. When you have cast a vote the televote vibrates and the selected squares highlighted. If you have an advertently pressed the wrong button, you can correct your vote during the voting time by touching the correct square. The televote allows several votes to be held in one go. We will use this procedure for the elections to the Board of Directors and the Remuneration Committee. If you have any questions about the voting device, the staff at the televote help desk on the left-hand side of the room, will be happy to help you. Finally, I want to point out that the voting behavior is recorded electronically.

Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately, there's no such thing as 100% security on the internet. But as you have already seen, there are some principles that reduced the risk of attacks. To bridge the time until the results of the votes have been analyzed, we show you in short videos, what is safe and what isn't? So this brings us to the vote. The Board of Directors proposes that the management report, the consolidated financial statements and the annual financial statements of Swisscom Limited for the 2023 financial year be approved. I ask you to cast your vote now. [Voting]

All right, point I note that the Annual General Meeting approved the motion with 98.9% votes in favor. Thank you very much. We now come to agenda point 1.1, to the [indiscernible] and the Remuneration Report. Even though the result of the vote on the Remuneration Report is not legally binding, the result of the vote is an indicator for us, as to whether you agree with the remuneration for the 2023 financial year and in particular with the remuneration system. The remuneration of the CEO was determined by the Board of Directors, taking into account the recommendations of the Remuneration Committee chaired by Monique Bourquin. The remuneration of the other members of the group, executive remuneration of other numbers of the group, Executive Board, was determined by the Remuneration Committee. In a video recording, we inform you about the remuneration of the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board in 2023. The remuneration of the Executive Board has to be fair for all sides. For you as shareholders, but also for the members of the Executive Board and also the group management. With the remuneration system for the Executive Board members, we want to make sure that Swisscom has experienced and competent people. The remuneration to the Board of Executive meetings as the basic fee and also additions to the individual functions such as the Presidency, Vice Presidency, the chairing of a committee, et cetera. In addition to that, Swisscom has the employer shares to the health insurances as well as all other additional performances. The members of the Board of Executive, Board of Directors can get shares. So therefore, they are directly participating in the increase or the growth of it. CHF 2.08 million were paid out to the Board members of the Board of Directors. The entire remuneration 2023 is below the approved overall amount of CHF 2.5 million. For the success of Swisscom, it's important to have highly qualified and motivated members of the management so that we can keep them and that the value of the company has increased. We orient ourselves towards a market similar fees. The variable remuneration does not only consist with regards to the performance but also sustainability points. So future oriented factors such as customer loyalty, availability of networks and also the achievement of goals with regards to sustainability are assessed. To further promote the interests also a share of the variable remuneration is paid out in shares. In addition to that, the management is applied to have a minimum share price or share part of at least one annual payment that they receive in shares. The CEO needs to have 2 annual wages, CHF 8.79 million were remunerated and from the overall remuneration of the Management Board, CHF 1.47 million went to Christoph Aeschlimann. The overall remuneration of the Management Board compared to the previous year, increased by CHF 2.05 million. The increase of the overall increase is because of the expansion of the number of managers from 6 to 9. So 2023, we have a lower than agreed or approved value of CHF 10.4 million. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the auditor, checked the report of the remuneration and also confirmed that it is in accordance with legal regulations. I open the discussion about the Remuneration Report. I note that no voters have joined the list of speakers, which makes us the next step to the vote. So the Board of Directors proposed that the 2023 Remuneration Report be approved in a consultative vote. I ask you to cast your vote now. [Voting]

I note that the question of the Board of Directors was approved with 84.8%. So thank you very much for approval. We get now to the approval of the report of nonfinancial matters. With the introduction of Article 964a of the Swiss Code of Obligations, Swisscom is obliged to prepare a report on nonfinancial matters from the 2023 financial year. The report provides an account of environmental matters or it needs to be submitted to the approval and included in a separate section of the Annual Report. The report provides an account of environmental methods, in particular, CO2 targets, social matters, employee matters, respect for human rights and the fight against corruption. I would like to open the discussion on the report on nonfinancial matters. I note that no voters have joined the list of speakers. So we would like to come to the vote. The Board of Directors proposes that the report on nonfinancial matters 2023 be approved. I ask you to cast your vote now. [Voting]

I note that you've adopted the report on nonfinancial matters with 97.8% votes in favor. This brings us to the appropriation of retained earnings and the determination of the dividend. The unappropriated surplus of CHF 6.966 billion is made up of the profit carried forward from last year, which is CHF 695 million and the net profit of 2023 of CHF 271 million. CHF 1.140 billion of distributable profit will be paid out as a dividend and CHF 5.826 billion will be carried forward to the new account. No dividend will be paid on treasury shares held by Swisscom Limited. As in the previous year, the Board of Directors is therefore proposing a dividend of CHF 22 per share or CHF 14.30 after deduction of withholding tax. We now come to the discussion. And I know that no voters have joined the list of speakers. We now come to the vote. The proposal of the Board of Directors on the appropriation of retained earnings and the determination of the dividend is projected. I ask you to cast your vote now. [Voting]

I note that you've accepted a proposal of the Board of Directors on 99.4% votes in favor. The dividend will be paid out on the fourth of April. The last trading day entitling shareholders to receive the dividend is the 28th of March. The shares will be traded ex-dividend from second of April. We now come to the discharge of the members of the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board for their activities in the 2023 financial year. The discharge applies only to disclosed facts. I'll open the discussion now. I note that there are no comments on this agenda item and have not registered any voters. Let's get to the vote. I note that the members of the Board of Directors and all persons who participated in the management of the company in 2023 financial year are not entitled to vote on the formal approval of the actions of either their own shares or the shares they represent. They ask these persons not to cast a vote. This also applies to any representatives of this person. So the Board of Directors proposes that the members of the Board of Directors and the group executive for the activities are discharged, and I'd like to ask you to cast your votes now. [Voting]

I note that you have discharged the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board with 99.3% votes in favor. And thank you for the trust that you have placed in us. This brings us to the elections of the Board of Directors. As already mentioned in my speech, a new election is due to the following regulation of Alain Carrupt, the other members are standing for reelection. The federal representative will not be elected by the Annual General Meeting, but will be seconded by the Federal Counsel. Federal Counsel has announced that it has appointed Fritz Zurbrügg for a further term of an office of 1 year as federal representative. The Board of Directors and I personally would like to thank Alain Carrupt for his valued contribution to Swisscom's Board of Directors. Dear Alain, you have been associated with Swisscom in one form or another for 46 years without interruption. First, from 1978 to 1994, you worked for PTT operations. Most recently as Head of Administrative Services as the Telecom Director in Sion. You then switched sides and worked for the PTT Union and Syndicom trade union, most recently as Co-President and President of the Staff Association from 2008 to 2016. For many years, Swisscom had a fair and reliable negotiation partner in you, even if the discussions were not always easy. Since April 2016, you've been a staff representative on the Swisscom Board of Directors and on the Strategy and Investment Committee, formerly the Finance Committee. One characteristic, particularly characterized you on the Board of Directors, you always put your heart and soul into champing the interests of employees. At the same time, you always focused on the interest of Swisscom as a company and included them in your considerations, which meant that you also supported difficult decisions, a balancing act that was not -- certainly not always easy. We also appreciated your experience in political issues on which you were able to provide valuable input. After 8 years, you've decided to step down from the Board of Directors. With you, we are losing a highly valued discussion partner. And on behalf of my colleagues, and all the shareholders present here today, I would like to thank you warmly for your many years of service to Swisscom. As a token of friendship and appreciation, I'm more than happy to present you this gift. We now get to the elections. I will be very brief in introducing my colleagues who are standing for reelection. You will find detailed information on this individual in the annual report. You can then take part in the discussion before casting your vote for each candidate individual in the multiple vote. I would like to hand over to Vice President, Frank Esser.

I'm pleased to propose Mr. Rechsteiner for reelection. Mr. Rechsteiner has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2019 and Chairman since 2021. He's a member of the Audit and ESG reporting, strategy and investment and remuneration committees. He also chairs the Nomination Committee, which is formed on an ad hoc basis. Michael Rechsteiner brings a wealth of experience in the Board of Directors from his many years of experience in the global energy market. He's standing for reelection as a member and as Chairman.

Thank you, Frank. We now come to the other members for the Board of Directors. Roland Abt, he's a financial expert and has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2016. He has the Audit and ESG Reporting Committee and is a member of the Remuneration Committee. Monique Bourquin has been a member of the Board of Directors for one year and has the remuneration committee. She has a broad experience in the consumer goods sector with a particular focus on brand management, sales and finance. Guus Dekkers has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2021 and contributes his extensive expertise in IT and technology, in particular to the Board of Directors and the Strategy and Investments Committee. Frank Esser is Vice President, Chairman of the Strategy and Investment Committee and also a member of the Remuneration Committee. Since 2014, he's been contributing his broad experience from the European telecommunications market in particular. Sandra Lathion-Zweifel is a lawyer, specializing in financial and capital market law. She's been staff representative on the Board of Directors and a member of the Audit and ESG Reporting Committee since 2019. Anna Mossberg has been contributing to the Board of Directors and Strategy and Investment Committees in 2018 with her experience in digitization, among other things. Daniel Münger will be proposed as a new member of the Board of Directors. He is very familiar with the telecommunications industry as a trained metal worker. He joined PTT in 1983, where he worked in cable construction and trained as a telecommunication specialist. In 1996, he began his professional career with the Staff Associations. And from 2022, he was part of Communications Union. In 2010, he moved to the central secretariat of the Syndicom trade union, where he was able to successfully contribute in its industry experience and expertise as Central Secretary. In 2015, he took over Head of Logistics sector and became a member of the Syndicom's Executive Board. From 2016, until his resignation in 2023 in June, it was, he led Syndicom as a President. Daniel Münger has broad political experience at cantonal level. With this experience, he actually has the best political experience. And he fulfills the independence criteria of the Swiss code of best practice for corporate governance. We now come to the discussion. And I note that no one has signed in for the list of speakers. So we get to the vote on agenda items 4.1 to 4.8. The Board of Directors proposes the election of Michael Rechsteiner as member and Chairman, Roland Abt, Monique Bourquin, Guus Dekkers, Frank Esser, Sandra Lathion-Zweifel, Anna Mossberg and Daniel Münger for a period up to the conclusion of the next ordinary Annual General Meeting. Since we are conducting a multiple vote, you have 25 seconds instead of 10 seconds to cast your vote. Please cast your votes now. [Voting]

Great. In the meantime, all the results of the elections to the Board of Directors have been determined, I am announcing them in the order in which they were voted on. I know that all persons proposed for election, have been elected as proposed. Myself, with 96.03% votes in favor. Roland Abt, with 99.16% votes in favor. Monique Bourqui, with 98.51% in favor. Guus Dekkers, with 99.51% votes in favor. Frank Esser, with 99.20% votes in favor. Sandra Lathion-Zweifel, with 97.07% votes in favor. Anna Mossberg, with 99.46% votes in favor. Daniel Münger with 99.52% votes in favor. On my own behalf, but also on behalf of my colleagues, I would like to thank you for the trust you've placed in us. We now come to the elections to the Remuneration Committee. If elected by the Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors will reappoint Monique Bourquin as Chair of the Remuneration Committee. The Board of Directors proposes the election of Fritz Zurbrügg to the Remuneration Committee. Fritz Zurbrügg has been a federal representative on the Board of Directors and a member of the Audit and ESG Reporting Committee for one year. As a long-standing member of the Governing Board and Vice Chairman of the Swiss National Bank, Fritz Zurbrügg contributes his broad experience in the area of finance, among other things. We now come to the discussion on the proposals of the Board of Directors under agenda item 5. We then vote on all proposals in a multiple vote. Are there any people? Yes, there is one because of the -- with regards to the previous agenda item, Mr. [indiscernible], I think. I just want to give him the space.

Ladies and gentlemen, it was a bit fast and as I'm from Bern, I have a problem. Well, I don't have anything against Mr. Münger. But I think the least that could be expected from Mr. Münger is that he comes here and introduce himself. I don't know how many people have had concert with Mr. Münger or how many know him. We most shareholders do not know him, and I would like to have Mr. Münger introduce themselves personally.

Well, thank you, Mr. [indiscernible]. Daniel Münger, may I ask you just to briefly come to the microphone and introduce yourself, just very briefly.

Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for the vote and election. But just briefly, 2, 3 sentence about myself. I come from Basel. Well, I live in Münchenstein to be more precise. And for many, many years, I've been connected to Swisscom. Well, I am married. I am the father of 3 adult girls. I have 5 grandchildren. This is basically what I can tell you, and the rest is probably can be seen in the annual report. And in this sense, I look forward to accept this vote and this election, and I'm more than happy that I can basically work for Swisscom and the employees and you as well. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Daniel. We look forward to the cooperation with you. That brings us back to agenda item 5. Let me just check with the desk there, okay, fine. So that brings us to the vote directly. The Board of Directors proposes Roland Abt, Monique Bourquin, Frank Esser, Michael Rechsteiner, without voting rights and Fritz Zurbrügg for the period until the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting, to vote them to the Remuneration Committee. As we also have multiple voting here, you have 15 seconds to cast your vote. Please cast your vote now. [Voting]

In the meantime, the results have been determined. I'm announcing them in the order in which they were voted on. I know that all persons proposed for election have been elected as proposed. Roland Abt, with 99.06% votes in favor. Monique Bourquin with 97.72% votes in favor. Frank Esser, with 99.05% votes in favor. Myself, with 96.4% in favor and Fritz Zurbrügg with 96.55% votes in favor. I would like to thank you also on behalf of my colleagues for the trust you have placed in us. This brings us to the Remuneration 2025 for the members of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is proposing a maximum total amount of CHF 2.5 million. This amount is aimed at the remuneration of 9 members of the Board of Directors and corresponds to the total amount approved by the Annual General Meeting for remuneration in 2024. It is composed as follows: CHF 2.2 million for fixed Board of Directors' fees, 1/3 of which will continue to be paid out in shares as up till now, and CHF 0.3 million in employer contributions to social securities and occupational pension schemes. The chart below shows a comparison of the remuneration from 2022 to 2025. The remuneration paid to the Board of Directors in the last 2 years totaled CHF 2.5 million or CHF 2.4 million, respectively. An amount of CHF 2.5 million has been approved for 2024 and the same amount is proposed for 2025. I hereby open the discussion. Okay, there are no voters that have made them in the list of speakers. So let's get to the vote. The Board of Directors proposes that the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors into 2025 financial year to a maximum total amount of CHF 2.5 million. I ask you to cast your vote now. [Voting]

I note that the maximum total amount for the remuneration of the Board of Directors in 2025 was approved with 98.44% votes in favor. Thank you very much. We now come to the remuneration of the Executive Board. The Board of Directors proposes a maximum amount of CHF 10.9 million for the remuneration of the Group Executive Board in 2025. This amount is geared towards the remuneration of 9 members of the Group Executive Board and corresponds to the total amount approved by the Annual General Meeting for the remuneration in 2024. This amount is expected to be made up as follows: CHF 4.4 million for basic remuneration, CHF 4.4 million for variable performance-related remuneration and CHF 2.1 million for pension supplementary benefits as well as employer contributions to social insurance. The proposed total amount includes the maximum variable remuneration. So you are therefore voting on the amount that would be payable if all members of the executive management were to exceed their targets to the maximum extent. The Board of Directors will define the targets for the 2025 financial year at the end of 2024. Once the annual results are available in February and January, February 2026, it will then determine the targets achievement. This can amount to a maximum of 130%. If 100% of the target is achieved in 2025, the total remuneration is expected to amount to CHF 9.5 million. The targets have never been exceeded to such an extent that the maximum variable component has been reached. As the chart shows, the remuneration paid out in 2022 and 2023 is below the respective maximum total amount and the Board of Directors expects the same for 2025. I hereby open the discussion. And I see that one person requested to speak.

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, just very briefly. Yes, it's a good feeling if I see those figures. When I see this figure yesterday, I went to [indiscernible]. And well, the Board of Directors is higher than the management, just absolutely insane, which is just huge insane. So I have to say that it's a good feeling. It's a balm for soul when I see your figures. But what I experienced yesterday, is just insane. It's just excessively not like this.

Well, thank you very much, Mr. [indiscernible]. So we accept what you say. So I ask again, are there any further requests to speak. It doesn't seem to be the case. So let's get to the vote. The Board of Directors proposes that the remuneration of the Executive Board in the 2025 financial year to amount a maximum total of CHF 10.9 million. I ask you to cast your vote now. [Voting]

I note that the General -- Annual General Meeting approved the maximum total amount of remuneration for the group executives in 2025 at 97.50% votes in favor. We now come to the reelection of the independent proxy. The Board of Directors proposes the election of [indiscernible] Rechtsanwälte in Zurich. [indiscernible] Rechtsanwälte are lawyers who foresee legal requirements and is available for reelection. I hereby open the discussion on this agenda item. I note that there are no voters that want to speak, let's get to the vote. The Board of Directors proposed that the law firm [indiscernible] Rechtsanwälte in Zurich be reelected as independent proxy for the period until the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting. I ask you to cast your vote now. [Voting]

I note that the motion was approved with 99.3% votes in favor. I congratulate [indiscernible] Rechtsanwälte on their election and thank them for accepting the mandate. This brings us to the last item on the agenda for the Annual General meeting, the election of the auditors. The audit firm, PwC, is registered as a state-regulated audit firm, with the federal audit oversight authority and fulfills the legal requirements for independence. PwC is standing for reelection. I hereby open the discussion on this agenda item. I note that no voters have come forward or requested to speak. Let's get to the vote. The Board of Directors declares to vote PwC as a auditor. So please cast your vote now. [Voting]

I note that PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited, has been elected as security auditors for the 2024 financial year with 99% votes in favor. I congratulate PwC on their election and thank them for accepting the mandate. I have received the declaration of acceptance. Dear shareholders, this brings us to the end of the 2024 Annual General Meeting. I would like to thank you for your loyalty with the company and for the trust that you've expressed in the Board of Directors by approving the proposals. You have read it, Swisscom is not giving a shareholder's gift. Together, we can make a larger gift to 2 chartable organizations and achieve more. These are ProCap and the Library for the Blind, visually impaired and reading impaired, which we are supporting with CHF 15,000 each. On behalf of these 2 institutions, I would like to pass on our sincere thanks for the donation. Finally, I would like to thank Martin Vogeli and all employees who have made the smooth running of this Annual General Meeting here in Hallenstadion possible through their great commitment. The 2025 Annual General Meeting will again be held here at the Hallenstadion in Zurich on Wednesday, 26th March 2025. I would now like to invite you to an Aperol apéritif. The members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Board will be happy to meet you in person at the beginning. In the hall, there will not only be an apéritif waiting for you in the hall, but also [indiscernible] and another specialists who will be happy to answer your questions. Take the opportunity. We also invite you to stop by our counseling islands, exciting AI applications await you there, which you can also use in your everyday life. I now wish you a comfortable and cozy end of the day, many pleasant encounters and the safe journey home. Please leave your voting devices at your seats. The 2024 Annual General Meeting is closed.