Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) (ERICB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Those who are following this AGM live via the webcast in these very special circumstances, this is a very special AGM. The people who're normally present are not here in person, but they are participating via this link. So that is the Chair of the Board, Ronnie Leten; and also the President and CEO of the company, Börje Ekholm. So we can link -- hook up with them, as it were, later on, and let's move on now in the agenda. As the Chairman of this AGM, I have asked Maria Larsson to take the minutes at this AGM. And we have certain people here in the room who are not shareholders, representatives from the media, the press sector, we normally welcome them as guests. Can we do so this year as well? Good. Thank you very much. And apart from Ronnie Leten and Börje Ekholm, we also via this link, have our Remuneration Committee Chairman, Jon Fredrik Baksaas; and also our Chief Legal Officer, Xavier Dedullen. Now this means that we have arrived at Item 2, which is the preparation approval of the voting list, and I suggest we do as usual. And what we usually do is that you have received a list with those who have said that they will attend, and the proposal is that we will delete from that list those who haven't arrived. And once we have done that, we will be notified up here, and then I will tell you what names we'll have on the voting list. But until then, we continue with our agenda. And we have arrived at Item 3, where we have approval of the agenda, and we have a proposed agenda that has been included in the notice and it's also been distributed here today. Can the meeting approve that agenda? It has been approved. And here, we have the outcome of that mathematical calculation that I talked about. We have shares represented, which is 1,714,240,371, and that is 51.4% of all shares. And votes represented 397,310,916, and that is 70% of all votes. Can we approve this list as the voting list? It has been approved. And that takes us to Item 4, where we have a determination whether the Annual General Meeting has been properly convened, and that notice has been available on the company website as of 21st of February this year and has also been published in the Swedish Gazette on the 25th of February. And the same day, it was advertised in Dagens Nyhete and Svenska Dagbladet that, that notice had been given. Can the meeting determine that it has been duly convened. Yes. Please go ahead, Thorwald Arvidsson.

[Interpreted] Well, Chair, I see that you haven't given up the ambition to end up in the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest AGM Chair ever. But I have to say that you seem to be very well educated. Thank you for that. And I don't know whether this is something to address at all, but I have done so previously in the various circumstances. We have 3 different AGMs that collide. This is the most important one, but then we also have Bonava and [ Edison ]. And I would like to have been able to attend all 3 of them. But unfortunately, I can't split myself into 3. And this was a strategic mistake, I have to say, that the almighty decided to just have 24 hours -- a 24-hour period. And I don't know whether this is something that you try to remedy, that you have these collisions where we have AGMs colliding. We could have AGMs also on Saturdays and Sundays. I know that maybe it's not all that convenient and maybe it will be more expensive as well. But another possibility would be to have them in the morning or late night. I'm not happy with the fact that it seems as you haven't tried at all to solve this problem with the colliding AGMs.

[Interpreted] That has been duly noted. Can we now determine that the meeting has been duly convened? It has been so decided, and that takes us to Item 5, where we have election of 2 persons to approve the minutes and the proposals are [indiscernible], representing [ SAB Funds ] and also [ Pontus Hjalmarsson ] representing [ Industrivarden ]. Can you raise your hands so that we can see that you're present in the room? Thank you. Are there other proposals? Can the meeting elect these 2 individuals? They have been elected. Right. That brings us to Item 6, which is the presentation of the annual report, the auditor's report, the consolidated accounts and the auditors' report on the consolidated accounts and the auditors' report whether the guidelines for remuneration to group management have been complied with. And these have been available at the company for a number of weeks now and also available here at the AGM and have therefore been produced. The floor now to Bo Hjalmarsson, who is our auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Chair. Shareholders, now the final result of our audit is described in the auditor's report, which you can see on Pages 132 to 136 in the annual report. And there, you can also see that we support the proposals that you're going to -- that are going to be resolved under Item 8 today. Apart from our audit of the annual report and management, we have also examined whether the guidelines with regard to remuneration to leading executives have been complied with. And as can be gleaned from the special statement in the material or the documents for the AGM, the guidelines have been complied with.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Bo Hjalmarsson. Now due to these present circumstances, there will be no addresses made by either by the President and CEO or the Chairman of the Board. And these speeches, these addresses have, in fact, been written and be made available on our website, so they're available in that manner instead. Now we have arrived at an item on the agenda, when normally, where we have a sort of question-and-answer session to the management and the Board of the company, where you can ask general questions about which perhaps are not linked to anything specific on the agenda but something more general. And this year, where we have a sort of minimal, as it were, AGM, we would like to concentrate the questions to matters on the agenda. And now the floor, therefore, goes to [indiscernible]. The floor is yours.

[Interpreted] Thank you. I realize that the best way to keep some distance was to walk up here to the rostrum, so I decided to come up here. And to continue with the literal references, I hope that times will not end. I will be brief here today, and I would like to start by saying that I think it's commendable that Ericsson has decided to have a webcast of the AGM to benefit to those who haven't had a chance participate here in person. And once this step has been taken, what does the Board think about for next year to enable for shareholders to also vote in realtime at a distance? And I do think that the representatives of Euroclear could help you with that in order to promote any specific company. I have another question as well that is more specific to the agenda. Today, we do see a great number of companies with profit warnings. We also see many, many companies who withdrew their proposals for dividends and say that, that will be discussed in the future. But today, we are to resolve on dividend here at the Ericsson AGM. But considering also the fact what the politicians have said, where they have said that companies that will give a dividend cannot count on getting any state aid, in case need be. And considering that, I would like to hear from the Chairman of the Board or another representative. And perhaps we could hear more about your line of reasoning when it comes to dividend and that threat from the politicians.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. So I give the floor to Ronnie Leten, the Chairman of the Board. The first question was whether the Board has thought about organizing hybrid AGMs. Ronnie Leten, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you very much for the question. If you see now also this setup, I would consider it as an experiment, was due to -- and this is due to the corona crisis that we have done that. And that's all -- it all is going well and that the technology stays with us. I'm not against, say, a hybrid general meeting because today, we are also, as Ericsson, a leading innovation company, so we should really also make sure that these things can be done. Also, we have to see what are the guidelines in the law, the underlying law. And if all the voting, what you mentioned, we vertically are -- that we really can manage that. And in that case, I think it's especially -- today it is already a step forward, and I'm sure that if the years goes on, that we will continue to do that. So that's my first answer. On the second one, also thank you for giving me the possibility to answer that. If you know that -- I think if you now go back to 3 years ago, I think we lowered total dividend from -- I think at that time, was SEK 3.5 to SEK 1. So we made a drastic reduction because at that time, we were in a difficult situation. And then since then also, we have invested a lot in R&D to also to win the race of the new 5G, where we believe we are on the -- yes, on the forefront, if we compare with other competitors, not to name some of the Chinese. So they -- I think from a business point of view, from a technology point of view, we are standing strong. Second also, when it comes to the business climate, we know, and I'm living also in this world, we see that many businesses are stopped. What we can say that, that is not the case in our business. We see a much higher increase of network consumption. We all know, as we do year-to-date, that this -- we would have not done. So we see definitely a conversion from traveling to e-meetings, as we do here on webcasts. So that is the second one so that we have a strong underlying demand. And third one, the 5G journey is standing on the beginning, which we also see that all the countries, all the companies, not to name China, but also U.S., Japan, Korea and ultimately also soon Europe is going into the 5G race. So we have -- we experience, lucky, a tailwind business. But then the last one, the total dividend is SEK 5 billion. And when you look to the balance sheet today, I think we have more than SEK 34 billion in net cash. So the Board, given all the circumstance we are in, given also the strong balance sheet we have, we feel that we can still go ahead with the dividend, which we had decided a couple weeks backwards. Then to say, would we ever need some support from the government? I think -- I hope that we not because that means that we are strong. But also, you should know that in Sweden, the majority of our people in Ericsson are R&D people. And if we really go to -- got there, I think it's like shooting in our own foot. So I think, on the other hand, we should hire more people in R&D so that we can speed up the development of 5G and beyond that. And by this, I would stop now.

[Interpreted] Okay. Thank you. Okay. Then do we have more questions?

[Interpreted] Finally, I got some help so that I didn't have to drag my 93-year-old body up to the rostrum. I got the microphone. And this reminds me of something that I've said and thought about that these small languages, like Dutch, Swedish, Danish and other small languages, they're doomed, and they will be replaced by the ubiquitous English language, but that is something completely different. I do have some comments when it comes to what the government has done and said, and then in particular, the Minister [indiscernible], the dividend that we're talking about has to do with 2019. And I have to say that this is -- the government going too far with what they're saying, and I do have a proposal. You could start by reducing the salaries to the ministers, reduce those salaries for the ministers with 5% until the crisis is over. I don't think they would want to agree to that. But to move on to more substantial issues, I have a question about future developments and the Trump, and what Trump is doing against [indiscernible]? What impact will that have? And the competitive situation overall, what is it like? Are we gaining ground? Or are we losing market share? And then gender and ethnicity. There, what successes do you have to report? I know when it comes to ethnicity that you're not allowed to keep statistics as to the ethnic background of coworkers, but maybe you have some sort of idea as to what is happening or rather, maybe, not happening. And I know that an evaluation is done every year, looking at what the Board of Directors and the directors have done. And why is that confidential? Why can we not get to read that? It would be interesting for the shareholders to know. And I also would like to ask about legal disputes and what kind of disputes Ericsson is involved in at the moment? I have understood that you have to pay SEK 10.1 billion to the U.S. treasury, but are there other interesting legal disputes that are topical today? And then finally, the so-called pilot school that directors own shares. Well, we shouldn't be mentioning names, but I can see that there is one person in the senior management team and one Board member who did not have any shares. And I hope that, that will be remedied up until next year's AGM. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. Now for the first question with regard to the situation and market shares, question goes to Börje Ekholm, our CEO, our President.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. Thank you, and thank you very much for the questions as well. I think what we can say is that our strategy that we decided on it in 2017 is based on creating technical leadership by heavily investing in research and development, which is why in the last few years, we have changed the company somewhat, which means that 2017, for example, we had 17% of our employees in R&D. Today, almost every fourth employee works in R&D. And this has been done with -- through cutbacks, of course, in certain areas, whereas while we've recruited many, many engineers in other areas. Now this huge change has meant that we have now a very strong, competitive product portfolio on the one hand and that we also have a strong -- good situation whereas regards costs as well. And together, this means that in the last few years, we've been able to turn the tide when it comes to market share losses. So we went from under 40% to below 25% over a few years. And now -- we have now increased our market shares instead, and we are getting stronger. We see that both when it comes to the network side and the services side as well. We believe that we are competitive, very competitive and have a good position in the market and we are investing further to reinforce that situation further.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. The second question, then, was with regard to gender and ethnicity, and I'll put that question to Börje Ekholm again.

[Interpreted] Now this is a good question and I think this is, in fact, one of our biggest challenges as a company, that is creating greater diversity and having better conditions for women as well to have a career in our company. Because we're not very -- we're not good enough, basically. There's no doubt about it. And we are working in a goal-oriented way to try to have a better balance when it comes to gender, but I would say that we haven't -- we're not there yet, as well. We are making some progress, but not quickly enough, I'd say. These are problems that we share with other companies -- other technology companies. I'm not saying that as an excuse because I don't think it is an excuse. It's not acceptable as such. We need to improve. And we have, in fact, initiated a number of programs. And we have -- for example, for more senior executives, we need to have one from both genders, as it were, as a final candidate. And we think that in the long term, that will, in fact, lead to greater balance. We've got mentor programs as well in place and other leadership development programs. We are working with this, but I would say there's -- more remains to be done. Ethnicity, that's very difficult. I mean we can't sort of map the race, as it were, of people ethnicity. Now in Kista, I would say, that we have more than 100 nationalities working. So I would say when it comes to diversity, when it comes to nationality, that -- there, I would say that we possibly are one of the best companies actually. We have a huge spread. We have in all our country -- in all the countries that we operate, we have people from all over the world. So there, I feel much more positive.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. And then there was the next question, which was regards the evaluation of the Board's work. And the question then, I'll put that to the Chairman of the Board, Ronnie Leten.

I thought the question was about -- on standing legal disputes. Maybe I got it wrong. But when it comes to the Board evaluation, we do every year a Board evaluation, which has also been discussed with the committee -- the Nomination Committee, where we go through. There are different aspects also, I think, which is very open towards the Nomination Committee. But I thought that the question was about legal dispute. And on that one, I would like to give the word to Xavier, our legal counsel.

Thank you, Ronnie, and good afternoon, everyone. In terms of our legal disputes, as you can imagine, a company of our size has quite a few legal disputes ongoing. But the particular question was whether there were any matters that were of relevance to shareholders that they should know about. And for that, I refer you to our quarterly reports and our annual report. And specifically, the 2 matters that we have disclosed is an ongoing investigation by the Chinese competition authorities into our IPR licensing practices in China. And there's also a follow-on investigation by the Swedish prosecutor into the matters that were the subject of the investigation by the DOJ and SEC. Other than that, I will just say that if there is a likelihood of a case that is sufficient -- if there is a case that is sufficiently likely or of a magnitude that would be material, then we have a disclosure requirement and we abide by that.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Those were the 4 questions and the comment about the so-called pilot school, the owning of shares. I guess that was rather a comment and not a question. Are there more questions? No, that's not the case. So thank you very much for those very interesting questions. And that brings us to Item 8. And we'll start with 8.1, where we have adoption of the income statement, the balance sheet, consolidated income statement and the consolidated balance sheet. We've heard from the auditor that he approves adoption. Can the meeting adopt to those documents? They have been adopted. And that takes us to Item 8.2, where we have discharge of liability for the members of the Board of Directors and the President. And the Directors of the Board and the President will not participate in the decision-making. We have heard that the auditor recommends discharge, and discharge has been approved. And that takes us to 8.3, where we have a resolution on the appropriation of results and also the record dates for a dividend. We have a proposal, which is a dividend of SEK 1.50, and that the rest be carried forward. And the record dates that are proposed are that this be divided into 2 installments of equal size, with the first one being paid out with the -- 2nd of April as the record date. And for the second installment, the proposal is 2nd of October this year, and that, that be the record to date. We have heard from the auditors that they recommend approval of this dividend, SEK 1.50 per share, and I ask the meeting if the meeting wants to vote in accordance with that proposal. The answer is yes. Can we also resolve on the record dates? You've heard the proposal. Can we determine those dates to be the record dates? That has been decided as well. Next then, Item 9. Now there are a number of items here 9 to 15, where the Nominations Committee have put forward proposals. And these proposals have included in the notice, and they've been available on our website. And they're also available in the documents that you received here today. Now since the notice was sent out, there's been one change, and that is the Nominations Committee has decided that when it comes to fees to the Board members, that they would have unchanged fees. And that has been included in the material that is available here at the AGM today. Item 9, next, which is the determination of the number of Board members and also deputies. And the proposal, therefore, is that it should consist -- the Board should consist of 10 Board members and no deputies. Can we vote in accordance with that proposal? Yes, I find that is the case. Which brings us to Item #10, which is fees payable to members of the Board. And as I said, unchanged fees compared to last year, you can see the amounts here. Thorwald Arvidsson, the floor is yours.

[Interpreted] Well, here, I did find the microphone finally. I'll get to be brief. Bearing in mind these circumstances and also the crisis that we have, not just in Sweden, but also the whole world, I, therefore, suggest that the fees should be paid what was applied last year minus 50%. And as this is pretty improbable, this is going to be voted for. I would just like to say this at least that I still believe that should be the case.

[Interpreted] So we have 2 proposals. We have the Nominations Committee, unchanged fees and one shareholder's proposal that we should pay out half of that. Are there any other proposals? No. So I'll ask the AGM whether you vote in favor of the AGM's -- the proposal by the Nomination Committee, you say yes, and then Thorwald Arvidsson; and those who are in favor of that proposal, you vote yes; and then I'll say what I believe we've decided on. So firstly, do you vote in favor of the Nominations Committee's proposal or Thorwald Arvidsson's proposal? I find that the AGM has voted in favor of the Nominations Committee's proposal.

[Interpreted] Yes. Well, you are correct in what you said there that, that would be the case.

[Interpreted] That takes us to Item 11, where we have election of the members of the Board of Directors. We have a proposal from the Nominations Committee, and you'll see that on the screen. And you have received in the documentation information about what assignments and tasks these proposed individuals have in other companies, so I refer you to that material. We've heard from the Nominations Committee. Are there other proposals? If not, I'll now ask the meeting for each and every one of these individuals whether the meeting wants to elect that individual. Jon Fredrik Baksaas? Yes. Jan Carlson? Yes. Nora Denzel? Yes. Börje Ekholm? Can the meeting elect Eric A. Elzvik? Yes. Can the meeting elect Kurt Jofs? Answer is yes. Ronnie Leten? Yes. Kristin S. Rinne? Yes. Can the meeting elect Helena Stjernholm? And can the meeting elect Jacob Wallenberg? Yes. I find that the meeting has elected these directors in accordance with the proposal and that the employees' representatives, well they have been appointed by the trade union. And we have [ Torbjorn Nyman ] from LO; Kjell-Ake Soting from PTK; and Roger Svensson from PTK; and the deputies, Per Holmberg from LO; and Anders Ripa from PTK; and Loredana Roslund from PTK as well. And that takes us to the next item on the agenda, which is Item 12, election of a Chairman. And the proposal is the reelection of Ronnie Leten. Are there are other proposals? Can the meeting vote in accordance with that proposal? He has been elected. Item 13 next, so it's the number of auditors. The Nomination Committee says that we should have one auditing company. Any further proposals? Can we agree with this proposal? Good. Item 14, and that is the determination of the fees payable to the auditors. And there, the Nominations Committee, whether it should be approved -- based on approved costs, can we work accordingly? Yes. Next, Item 15, which is the election of auditor. And the Nomination Committee proposes that Deloitte is appointed to be the auditor. Any further proposals? Can we agree to that proposal? Yes. And Deloitte has informed us that if they were -- become the auditor, then they will have -- they'll appoint Thomas Strömberg as their lead auditor. And on behalf of Ronnie Leten and Ericsson, we like to thank PwC, who have been our auditors before. Items 16 to 19 next, and this have to do with guidelines for remuneration to the group management and long-term compensation for management. These proposals have been included in the notice and have also been available on the company website for a couple of weeks and have also been included in the documentation that has been distributed here today. And we start with Item 16. Yes, please.

[Interpreted] Well, I'm not quite sure about how to proceed. But I have a proposal, this is Thorwald Arvidsson, that we should have a pause. This, with the variable components and the LTI, it should be put on hold, on ice until after the corona crisis. And I have another prediction here, which is that you will not get a majority for that proposal. And then I want to have my proposal taken into the minutes, and I would also like to see a photocopy of the minutes with that included. Thank you.

[Interpreted] Well, thank you. And we continue with Item 16, where we have the Board's proposal, guidelines from remuneration to group management. This is one proposal. And then we have the Thorwald Arvidsson proposal, which is that there should be no variable component. And I will first ask if you want to vote in favor of the Board proposal, and then I'll ask about the alternative proposal. But first, this Board's proposal, can you vote accordingly? Or do you want to vote with Thorwald Arvidsson? I find that the Board's proposal has been adopted. And that takes us to Item 17. And we have 17.1, where we have the implementation of an LTV. And that we have the Board's proposal, and we also have Thorwald Arvidsson's proposal. And I will first ask the meeting if the meeting wants to vote in favor, and this will be simple majority. If the meeting wants to vote in favor of the Board's proposal or if the meeting wants to vote in favor of Thorwald Arvidsson's proposal? And I find that the meeting has approved the Board's proposal. We continue with 17.2, which is how to finance that program. And here, we need 90% of votes cast and shares represented at the meeting, which means that we need to use our voting devices. And if you want to vote in favor of the Board's proposal, you press yes; and if you do not, you press no. That's not a big surprise. If you want to abstain, you press [indiscernible]. And once you have made that choice, yes, no or abstain, you also have to press the send button to confirm. Any questions? And then we'll start the vote. The vote is open. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And we'll close the vote in a few seconds. I can see here that the number of votes was not 90%, there -- here represented shares, so that we don't have the majority required. So that brings us to 17.3, which is the shares swapping agreement with third party. Need a simple majority. So do you vote in favor of the Board's proposal? Yes. That brings us to Item 18, which is the transfer of treasury stock for the LTV for the years '18 and '19. And there, we also need the 90% of the votes cast, shares represented. So we need to use the devices once again. And again, here, if you vote in favor of the Board's proposal, yes, and et cetera. So we start the voting now. [Voting]

[Interpreted] A couple of seconds left there. We see the results here on the screen. And here, we can see that we have the required majority to support the Board's proposal for item 18. And that takes us to Item 19. We have the resolution on transfer of treasury stock in relation to the resolution on the long-term variable compensation programs for previous years. And this is a resolution that requires 2/3 majority of votes cast and shares represented, which means that we need voting devices again. And if you want to vote in favor of the Board's proposal, you press yes and so on. The vote is open. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And the vote is about to close. And the vote is closed. And we'll see the outcome of the vote on the screen. And I find that the meeting has voted in favor of the Board's proposal with the required majority. All right. Now we can move on to Item 20, 21, 22. We have proposals from the shareholder, Thorwald Arvidsson, and you are welcome to present all 3 in one go, please.

[Interpreted] Yes, Chair. I think that would possibly be quite practical and sensible. Einar Hellbom, is he present here today? No? No. Okay. Well, anyway, this may seem as we've had this all before. But about 100 years ago, we introduced democracy in Sweden. And we now see a reaction. And the reactionary forces, the king, for example, they had to give way [indiscernible] if he had wanted to, I'm sure he would have been able to abolish the monarchy at that time. But he refrained from doing so. But democracy has not sort of spread into this area. AGMs are 100 years after the political democracy was introduced. So I urge you to support my proposals. I know that in all probability, they will not be voted. You won't vote in favor of that. I want you to vote on each separately, and I want to also note my views to be noted in the minutes, please.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Would anyone else like to say anything at this stage? No. So that's Item 20. So we have the proposal put forward by Thorwald Arvidsson with regard to the amendments to the Articles of Association. These were in the notice and also in the documents here for the AGM. And Thorwald Arvidsson has requested a vote, which means that we need to use our voting devices for this. And if you vote in favor of his proposal, you press yes. If you do not wish to do so, you press no and so on. So let's start the vote now. [Voting]

[Interpreted] Another couple of seconds left. All right. We see the results on the screen here. And we can see that the AGM has decided to reject the proposal under Item 20, bringing us to Item 21. And this is also a proposal from Thorwald Arvidsson with regard to the possibility to have voting power differences abolished. And would anyone else like to say anything here at this stage? No. Let's vote. Again, we need to use the voting devices. And as usual, if you wish to vote in favor of the proposal, you press yes; and if not, no, et cetera. The vote commences now. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And it will end in just a moment. The results will be shown here on the screen. And here, we can see that the AGM has decided to reject Thorwald Arvidsson's proposal under 21.1, which brings us to 21.2. Would anyone like to say anything here? No. Let us vote once again using the voting devices. Let us start voting now. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And in a couple of minutes, we will end the vote. And the AGM has decided to reject the proposal under 21.2, which brings us to Item 22. This is a resolution on the proposal on -- proposal again from shareholder, Thorwald Arvidsson, and a special examiner. And here, there is no decision to be made, actually nothing to resolve, but we just see the support that this proposal can gain. And if the support for this proposal as -- if it's supported by the shareholder is at least 10% of all the shares or 30% present at the AGM, then a shareholder can request a special examiner to be appointed. So what we're doing today is not making a decision per se. No. Instead, we are registering the support for the proposal with regard to a special examiner. Would anyone like to say something? Yes, Thorwald Arvidsson?

[Interpreted] Yes, thank you very much, Chair. Now this does remind me, Richard Nixon and Watergate, where it all -- the rot as it were -- was at the presidential level of the United States of America. And we see in the -- I would say -- really, just like as an industry, the newspaper, that this is something that goes much further, the rot, than just a few intermediate managers who've had their heads chopped off because we've had to pay 10,000 -- so many billion to the -- [ SEK 10,000 billion ]. Well, it's a huge sum of money. And I think that the rot goes up to the management and the Board. And I think it would be a good idea to have this examined now. The majority at this AGM will not support that. And I hope that the Chair here has also noted my reservations here with regard also to the previous 3 items on the agenda.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much. Would anyone else like to say anything at this stage? The floor is open. No. So we need to now see the support that we have for this proposal here at the AGM. So let's use the voting devices. So if you're in favor, press yes; if not, no. The vote commences now. [Voting]

[Interpreted] In a couple of seconds, we will close the vote. And here, this proposal is not supported by 10% of the shares in the company or the 30% of those present at the AGM, and that is duly noted. And that takes us to agenda Item 23, where we have a proposal from the shareholder, Einar Hellbom. So I would like to check again if Einar Hellbom is present here today. Does -- that does not seem to be the case. Someone who wishes to speak? Thorwald Arvidsson?

[Interpreted] Well, my good friend, Einar Hellbom, doesn't seem to be here today. And therefore, I would like to present this proposal as my proposal. And I ask for a vote. And I can say that I also want to enter my reservation against the decision that will be made. And I also say thank you, thank you for having listened to me. And to quote Olof Palme, "That is how the creatures of dictatorships speak."

[Interpreted] Someone else who wishes to speak? That does not seem to be the case, then we'll continue with a vote. This proposal has been included in the notice and has been included in the documents distributed here today. If you want to vote in favor, yes; and if you do not want to vote in favor, you press no. And the vote is open. [Voting]

[Interpreted] And in a few seconds, we'll close the vote. And I find that this proposal presented by Einar Hellbom and Thorwald Arvidsson has been rejected.

[Interpreted] I just want to make sure that all my reservations have been duly noted in the minutes.

[Interpreted] Yes. And then I would like to hand over to the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Ronnie Leten, please.

Thank you. Now we have gone through all the items on the agenda of the Ericsson Annual General Meeting 2020. And I'm very pleased you see that the technology has supported us during the whole meeting. So thank you for all the technical people who have been helping in this. But I also would like to take the opportunity to thank the shareholders for the confidence you have given us and for taking the time to attend this general meeting. But I also would like to propose that we thank the executive team and all the employees for the great work, which they have done during the past year. So thank you very much, and hope to see you next year.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Ronnie Leten. That has taken us just through all the agenda items. And what remains for us to do is to walk outdoors in the spring, this beautiful spring day. And we'll hope for better days and say that there is a day -- will be a day beyond corona. Thank you. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]