Umicore SA (UMI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Okay, it's 5. So we're going to start on time. Welcome to the shareholders here in the room. All shareholders present here to be viewed online, very warm welcome to those shareholders who will watch us online. So let me start with the more formal part of this meeting. I declare session open and in accordance with Article 21 of the -- Mrs. Géraldine Nolens will act as the Secretary [indiscernible] will sit on the committees in their capacity as scrutineers. Convening in supporting documents are being published in the Belgian Official Gazette, De Standaard and [ Newswire ] on 26th of March 2024. Also on 26 March, the convening notices were sent to the holders of the registered shares as well as to the members of the Supervisory Board and the Statutory Auditor. On the same date, the convening notices were published through a press release and on the website o Umicore, together with [indiscernible] postal voting and proxy forms as well as the annual accounts and the report as mentioned in the agenda. A copy of the above publications, convening letters and notices will be initial and attached to the minutes of the present general meetings. The same is true for the following documents: A consolidated list of the shares and shareholders transmitted by the financial institutions in view of the registration, the postal voting forms and proxies received, the attendance list, the minutes of the plenary meeting. I hereby as the scrutineers to examine an initial these documents. So very welcome to this meeting. I am very happy to have our shareholders here in the room. I do suggest that without further ado we start with the more informative part of this session. And I'm talking here about, I'm going to give the floor rather to Mathias Miedreich, our CEO, who is going to present the results of the past financial year 2023. Mathias?

My pleasure to be here. Welcome, everybody here in our headquarter in Brussels as well as online. So we will guide you now through some of the highlights of 2023. So 2023 was an important year for Umicore to make some very important transformations from a strategy to a reality. So we have been able to put in place several things that have been assumptions before into facts. So we have had a year of putting -- and I will come to that in a second to change actually a plan vision into a concrete plan. On the other hand, 2023 was a year where we had to face significant headwinds on the one side from the precious metal PGM price environment. On the other side, from inflation. One is our CFO, will further elaborate that this was an over EUR 200 million headwind that we have been seen. And in that, despite that, we think that we have delivered very strong margins and especially cash flow last year for Umicore. But before I go deeper into the different business -- units and business groups, we have prepared a short video for you that bring you in 2 minutes the highlights of 1 year. [Presentation]

So I hope this short video gave you a compressed overview on what we think are the achievements for last year. Achievements that brings, as I said before, as we think vision, a strategy into reality. Progress on several fronts of our businesses, not only in the battery material but in general, in the execution of our projects as well as our sustainability road map that is, as you know, very important for us. I hand over now to Wannes to give us more insights on the financials, and then I will come back with more details on the different businesses.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, Mathias. Good afternoon. As Mathias said, we are looking at 2023 as a successful year. It was a difficult market in circumstances. When I look at the price of PGM, palladium price, prices decreased by 40%, rhodium price as well. And also, our turnover went down and impacting our EBITDA. And when you look at our margins, we realized EUR 972 million EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin of 25% and an adjusted EBITDA margin, which is way beyond our internal target of 20%. And we're looking at the different units, we have EBITDA margins beyond 20%. When we look at the return on capital employed, we have 13.5% as a result. Then underlying also very important. We continue to invest in battery materials. We have a number of long-term contracts. And in the current of '23, we increased our investments to support these contracts. Despite these huge investments, when we look at investments more than EUR 800 million, we still have a free operational cash flow of more than EUR 300 million, mainly linked to the strong EBITDA generation but also looking at our working capital required, where we have further optimization, and we could reduce our costs. When looking at our net debt EUR 1.3 billion at the end of '23, which translates in the leverage ratio of 1.3. There we remain within the targets we impose ourselves, the ambition level we impose ourselves of 2.5. When looking at a number of underlying drivers and we look at turnover at EBITDA, well, this bridge shows the transition from '22 to '23 per segment, when looking at the major impact was at the level of revenues came from the one-shot lithium price effect we had in '23 with a big spread between purchase and selling prices. And at the end of '22 and somewhere in '23, we made some adjustments to protects us from exposure from evolutions in the lithium prices. Also, the PGM prices decreased in a significant way and had an impact on prices. When looking at adjusted EBITDA, we noticed that mainly the PGM prices and the decrease of those prices had an impact on the recycling segment. And furthermore, we have the strong cost inflation when looking at energy and in particular, payroll in Belgium. Important to mention is within this context of difficult market circumstances, we remain flexible. We remain agile. We are focused on an efficiency for growth program, which is focusing on cost and efficiency throughout the group, not only the different units but also the supporting services. When looking at this program with different dimensions. Well, we speak about the revenue side, the price positioning, how can we capture more value, how can we improve purchases and expense, how can we create further on leverage, how can we further invest on our central purchase platform to make savings this way. But also looking at our activities our operations, how can we further automate and standardize in our plants in order to generate more flexibility in order to generate cost efficiency and also when looking at admin processes, how can we further standardize and uniform us. What we aim here in '24 is a EBITDA generation contribution of more than EUR 70 million. When looking at '25 and beyond, we target and EBITDA generation of more than EUR 100 million. Furthermore important to mention is that we maintain a strong balance sheet. And there in the current of '23, we invested in our financing portfolio. In '23, we mentioned that the financial needs between '23 and '26, we were able to reduce them to EUR 3.8 million -- EUR 3.8 billion, sorry. And this is mainly driven by, on one hand, subsidies. We could attract over 1 billion of subsidies in our joint venture IONWAY of which EUR 600 million in Canada and EUR 350 million in Poland. Furthermore, we also invested in the financing of our joint venture where we have big confidence that we can finance via project financing, and this way we can limit the contribution. Further we also invested in an improved occupation of our existing capacity in Asia, China and Korea, this is something we include in when closing -- concluding new contracts to use this capacity and this way in stimulate further efficiency. Another element we put focus on is a bigger visibility towards future. As you know we have an exposure on precious metal prices mainly from the Recycling and what we manage past year is to cover more -- to cover in a better way this exposure, especially for iridium at long term in order to get a better visibility towards future cash flow generation and revenues and a better stability. Together with all these elements, we also invested in financial discipline and efficiency and of our financial -- financing needs. And then I would like to pass on the word to Mathias.

I'll now explain to you what were the underlying business dynamics that led to the figures that Wannes has just presented. So let us start with Catalysis. Catalysis is one of our foundation businesses that we are in since many decades and we can say as of day that the Umicore Catalysis activity especially automotive catalysts is the best catalyst supplier in the world measured on profitability and also market share growth. So the strong performance of Catalysis in 2023, again, was a record year, outperforming the previous years. And you can see on the EBITDA trajectory that we have reached a plateau of profitability that has not been there before. And the reasons for that actually are, first, the market share, we are able to gain market share in a market that we know. Secondly, it's the profitability. So it's a step up in efficiencies and also in operational excellence. And finally, it's cash flows that were with very strict working capital management, we are able to unlock additional cash flows that we can use to invest in the future of the group. We have -- we also have the Precious Metal Chemistry business that was -- last year, it was a reduced activity linked base to its leakage to the construction sector and the life science application. And also in this business group, we are housing our fuel cell and stationary catalyst activities where we have seen last year where revenues well up and also a strong increase in revenues with the electrolysis segment, which is the counterpart of the fuel cell producing hydrogen but also needing in the need of catalysts. And then also worth to note -- to mention we have started last year the construction of the kickoff for our PEM fuel cell catalyst plant in China, which is the biggest region for growth for hydrogen mobility, especially in commercial vehicles. So now let's go one step deeper in the reasons for the success of Automotive Catalysts. First of all, it is our positioning in the market. You can see on the right side that we are positioned in what we call the longevity segment of the automotive combustion engine market. Longevity segment means these are the powertrain constellation that will have the longest survival rate even in an age of electrification. And this is, on the one hand, the passenger car gasoline applications that you also might find or will find in everything that is around hybridization. So especially small gasoline engines will be around for some time. And secondly, the heavy-duty diesel. So the long-haul trucks that carry long -- heavy loads cannot be so easy replaced. So you see that 84% of our revenue in 2023 was in those longevity segments. And with the additional market share wins, we will be even able to further increase that. Secondly, you see our geographical split is actually pretty well balanced with 1/3 in Europe, 1/3 in China, a little bit less than 1/3 in the Americas and in the other countries as well. So also we have -- we are not depending on 1 region only but have a quite well spread portfolio, which, of course, makes us also confident that in the future when undoubtedly, the combustion engine will decline, we are in a prime position to harvest this business going forward. But also we are proud of our improvements that we have achieved on the operational side on the footprint consolidations on the operational excellence on bringing digitalization and automation in our plans to bring down our fixed costs, which is one part also for the superior profitability that we have in this business. Let's go now to the E&ST business group that is -- will be reshaped for 2024. I will comment that on the end of my presentation. Let us first look on the probably most prominent part of E&ST, which is the battery materials. You have already seen in the movie that in 2024, we have -- in 2023, we have made significant steps, first of all, to finalize our global footprint with the addition of our Canadian plants that we have started with the addition of our footprint in Europe for IONWAY. I remind IONWAY is our joint venture with PowerCo, Volkswagen, where we have selected as well Poland as a location. We have been pretty successful in acquiring public support -- public grants, government funding of close to EUR 1 billion, 2/3 of that in Canada, 1/3 of that roughly in Europe. Secondly, we have concluded our order book that is 270 gigawatt hours strong, and that we think is something that stands out in the industry but not only the order book but also the technological portfolio that we have, meanwhile, developed. So the battery technologies is not only one technology for the future. We believe in a multitude of technologies that will be there and Umicore has for the short term, midterm and long term as well as for the different segments of electrification as we think the right technologies and we had many exchanges with our customers that confirms that we are on the right track in this direction. Now the performance last year of E&ST. You can see here, especially on the battery materials side, the revenues were down versus 2022. That was one -- first of all, coming from a lithium effect. There was a nonrecurring lithium effect that Wannes had just mentioned, that was also had a revenue impact but also because of the CAM revenues of what we call our legacy contracts were down year-over-year. The earnings on the other side were up -- slightly up versus 2022. That also has to do with one-offs that we had coming from lower mass production test runs but as well from my way that we found to valorize our battery production scrap. If we look to the other side of E&ST, which we're also very proud of that will, in the future, be our Specialty Materials business group. We can see that, first of all, Cobalt & Specialty Materials, that is working for the end markets of 2 materials, industrial, catalysts, pigments, pains and as well hard metals, had the revenues below the record levels of 22% as well as the earnings reflected primarily the dramatically decreased cobalt price versus 2022 but also the affected end markets. The second one, we call Metal Deposition Solutions that is for the end markets of electronics, semiconductors, optics but also partly the jewelry industry, the revenues were stable versus the year before. And we saw quite some good traction in the electronics and especially on the consumer electronics or smartphone segment where there is a special plating technology for smartphone contact systems that we have achieved a good technological breakthrough that gives good confidence for that business forward. And finally, Electro-Optic Materials. This is for the -- as the name already says for the end markets of the optics, telecom and especially also more exotic applications like space power, so solar panel for space applications. Here we saw quite high demand and revenues increased substantially year-over-year, mainly from the space application where a lot of satellite projects are currently worked on as well as infrared solutions. Finally, coming to Recycling that showed last year in 2023, a resilient performance in a context of pretty less favorable PGM, precious metal prices, so the revenues were below 2022 impacted by those low precious metal environment but also indirectly by the less favorable input mix, you know that the availability of PGM-rich input material is decreasing also with a decreased metal price because material because people might hold off and speculate for future times. On the other side, we have made very good progress on cost efficiency through automation and digitalization. So the efficiency for growth projects that Wannes has pointed out, in the Recycling activities, there is a major contribution from that side, which is also important to have a counterweight against this lower metal price environment. On Battery Recycling Solutions, we continue to work to establish what we think the prime technology to address the growing market demand for battery recycling in the near future through battery scraps and in the larger future through the end-of-life batteries. In Jewelry & Industrial Metals, the revenues were down below, so very strong 2022, also here a reflection of the lower PGM and precious metal price environment. And then on the other side, what we call the precious metal management. So our activities to actively manage the metals flows that we have was showing a significantly higher contribution and that's thanks to the favorable trading conditions that allowed the results as they were especially in H1. I want to close my introduction with a statement that we will, going forward, report the results of Umicore in 4 different business groups instead of 3. To remind you, we have Catalysis, Recycling and E&ST. So no change for Catalysis, no change for Recycling but E&ST will be actually split into 2 business groups. One is Battery Materials and the other one Specialty Materials. The reason for that is that we want to give more transparency on the business development, the further profitability development, market share gains, et cetera, on our Battery Material business because as we think that is an important element of our strategy forward. But on the other hand, it will also give us more focus and dedication on the Specialty Materials that are also a very important contributor to our profitability and our return on capital employed. So that will be first time reported with the H1 results 2024 in July of this year. We will report on this new structure, and we will also look back pro forma on the '23 results in a comparable setup. With that, I would then hand over back to you [indiscernible].

No there's still the...

Yes.

Let's go for you. You'll do this or I'll do this.

If you could do this?

[Interpreted] We're going to talk about the sustainability objectives. You know that we use the term Let's go for zero, which means net zero in Scope 1 and 2 for carbon dioxide emissions by 2035, which is an malicious call, 0 harm, 0 inequality in our company. Net 0 by 2035. We do recall here our commitment for 2025, 2030 and 2035. 2035 is still very far. So we want to have intermediate objectives by 2025, 2030, you have them listed here. I am not going to read them through but the objective -- the final objective is to reach net 0 for Scope 1 and 2 of greenhouse gases by 2035. And in technical terms, there is also Scope 3. Scope 3 are the emissions linked to the use of our products or the raw materials that we buy, and we have the science-based target initiative, the SBTI. This is a rigorous standard. We committed to the standard and we will certainly need to work in that direction. We are in minus 41 or we are already at 41% of renewable energy at the global level, 57% at the European level. We still have a difficulty to find renewable electricity and power in Korea, and we have 5 long-term contracts in Poland and Belgium for renewable energy. I would like to recall that for our Polish plan, the French group NG bought a -- or rather a wind farm just for us to make sure that the plant is net zero. You see that we have an increase in absolute trends of the CO2 equivalent. This is the scale that we use, you see that since 2019, since 2021, we have made progress. And we also continue to develop our business. We have increased the level of activity and there with we have also reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 zero harm. We see the underlying trajectory. We have made a lot of progress in that regard, significant progress, shall I say, in 2023, compared to 2022. And so we cannot be satisfied with this result. This is a growth that can happen. This is very unfortunate. The teams made sure that we draw all the lessons for the future but this take our pride and our satisfaction away of all the progress that we have made. Water, air emissions -- there are emissions in our activities, water, air emissions. The monitoring is very strict, obviously, very strict at I repeat. In Hoboken, it's very sensitive, as you can see, the emissions since 2019 and our performances are amazing compared to others. This historical context. We also run indirectly by a zone with homes, which is quite a challenge for us but we're managing the situation with this neighborhood. And we have clear objectives. We've reduced by 50% the emissions in Hoboken. Water wide also we've improved the emissions. Our supply chain also we're looking for 0 prejudice. It's important for this supply chain with raw materials, cobalt combo, you have indeed entities that act in a very accountable way, some in less accountable way. And of course, we'll try to contribute in order to increase the status for the whole of the industry. And we are a founder -- co-founder member of the Global Battery Alliance. Zero inequalities, women, men, equal number of men and women. We wish to reach the subjective of ASAP, as soon as possible. Traditionally, we were a rather man company, 35% of women at the level of our management. That's the objective by 2035. Increase of cultural diversity also is very important for us. Of course, we are a European group with the roots in this company in Germany also and in other European countries, very present also in France. But, nevertheless, the idea, we are a global group, world group, it need to be reflected in our -- the level of our management, and thus, we have precise subjectives of 45 nationalities in group, that's quite remarkable. And higher management 20% non-European managers. The idea is to reduce the wage differences and here I am talking the wages of the executives and bearing in mind the gender question man, women. Governance-wise, monitoring body. As you can see, the picture here taken in the Gardens next door, the Board in 2023. We had 10 meetings on a regular meeting with a very high participation of the Supervisory Board. We had 5 additional meetings linked to the investments -- to investment projects and other products. The -- we didn't have a 100% participation but 95%, not bad, high. the level of the meetings of the committee that everyone was -- has always been present. The supervisory body, the strategy of the group is at the heart of the Supervisory Board. Financial and environmental questions also, analysis, technological analysis, follow up of the market, cyber security, cooperation projects with other partners, investment project, of course, very important. Certain number of decisions were taken last year and also the reports of the committees supporting the Board in its mission. For 2024, this assembly Mario Armero is leaving us. he worked with us with a lot of wisdom. He's been -- he was part of our Board for 4 years, he is stepping down. We suggest 2 new administrators. Mr. Frederic Oudea, Mr. Philip Eykerman. If you elect him today, he'll be part of the Board on the spot. Mr. Eykerman will only be on the 1st of November because he has other commitments. And meaning that it would be better that he joined us on the 1st of November. Mr. Oudea, he's present in the room. Could you please present yourselves to us, take a few seconds, minutes to present yourself. Sorry, no mic. Sorry about that.

[Interpreted] Okay. For those online, I'll resume once again. Dear shareholders, Mr. President, hello. Frederic Oudea, 60 years old, most of my career -- professional career in the banking sector, French banking group, Société Générale, 28 years there, 15 level of the Board. I left the Société Générale last year. I chaired the board of Sanofi, pharmaceutical company. Of course, since 2018, I've been member of the board of Capgemini, and administrator of this board since 2022. Also I joined GBL, the group as Executive Adviser. GBL, it's about the representation of the GBL at the level of the Supervisory Board at Umicore. And thus, I'm asking you to approve my appointment. It would be amazing for me if you trust me, obviously, that I joined the Board. And my commitment will be to add the maximum of added value via the Supervisory Board with my comprehension, understanding of governance question and operational stakes of big international group, and of course, financially speaking, also, my know-how. Thank for your attention.

[Interpreted] Mr. Eykerman, could you also present yourself, please?

[Interpreted] Thank you, Thomas, with all the shareholders here in the room but also online. My name is Philip Eykerman. I'm Belgian from the Antwerp region. Started my career as a chemical engineer and refinery engineer, first working for Fluor, mostly in the Middle East and Central Europe. And then in '97, joint McKinsey, where I stayed for 14 years, working primarily in the chemicals and materials industry on large corporate and multiyear transformations, and 2011 decided to do that from internal and joined DSM at that moment in time in charge for strategy and M&A and performance improvements. And so that's why I'm still doing today. But in the meantime, it's Dsm-Firmenich transformed from a materials and nutrition company to today in nutrition, health and beauty company, and at the same time, leading one of the divisions. So looking very much forward to working with the Umicore team, with the management team, and of course, with the with the rest of the Board from the further shaping of this fantastic company. Thank you very much.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Philip. Thus, you'll to have you'll have to pronounce yourselves regarding these 2 candidates within the few moments. Thank you. I believe these 2 people are going to inject a lot of added value at the level of our Board. So I warm heatedly recommend them, appointing them, in fact. And they are -- they've got great experience, know-how knowledge. And also, they are, of course, very confident. Having said this and before moving on to the vote. Before we vote, I'd like to explain the wage report because I'll have to pronounce ourselves. Remuneration. First of all, of the Management Board, we have offered a great deal of transparency. In the report, you see that were proposed and how we performed regard to the target. As far as the return on capital employed is concerned, the result with regard to the capital that we invested. We have scored beyond our benchmark of 12%, we have the score of 110%. The EBITDA there, we didn't reach the objective that we have proposed at the beginning of the year. We reached at 95%, which was the minimum figures, so there was a score of 0. For safety events, we reached the objectives with regard to security that the goals that we set were achieved or even surpassed and like we said there was a [indiscernible] incident in Hoboken and this is why we attribute a score of 0. And then also the score with regard to the increase of the diversity we only attributed 38% because there was an improvement but not the improvement that we had set ourselves. So this is as far as concerned for the group, we then reached a score of 46% under 100%. And then you also have the individual evaluation score, and you will find all those details in the yearly report with regard to the score of each member of management at present. So -- and here, you have -- I will not read that as in full year we were able to read this in the yearly report, you have the remuneration of the various members of management. You also see the remuneration policies, main constituents and then it is important to underline that in the Board of Directors and in Management, we are all shareholders. We share the situation of the shareholders, as a number shares in the hand of management. And the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors, as you know, our policy. There's a fix path. There are a number of shares that are attributed that have to be held during certain time. So that all the members of the surveillance council and members of management and Board of Directors will remain shareholders as long as they are in function. So you see there's a large part of -- a large number of shares among the members of the Surveillance Board. And this was the explanation with regard to the remuneration report and if you wish to have more details, you will be able to find them in the annual report. And this concludes our presentation. So now we will move on to the questions of shareholders. We didn't receive any questions in writing prior to the general meeting. So it is now the time to ask your questions. I remind you that any questions relating to the agenda of the present meeting will be dealt with the shareholders who wish the wording of their observation statements or reservation to be attached to the minutes, are kindly invited to inform Mrs. Nolens accordingly at the end of the meeting. So now I open the Q&A session. Who wants to ask the first question?

[Interpreted] I'll be speaking French. So the interprets we'll have to interpret. 3 types of questions. One area of questions, then I'll move on to the next area of questions. Firstly, finances. Well, I would have liked -- and it's pity -- I would have liked to have known the results of the first quarter. These results will be published tomorrow before 7 as the -- it would have been important that we received these figures in advance despite just like with [indiscernible] the wait as it's 5:30 p.m. to discuss the matters for the next year because the stock market is closed, so the stock market will be placed tomorrow morning. So Euronext is closed. What's happening here could not have an impact on the shares, it would have been interesting that we be informed here at the level of the general assembly. So I'm talking about the results of the first quarter, it would have been good that to inform us. Then as to the price share. It's amazing. It's come down as we all know. I can't understand why it's gone down so much. It's at its lowest for many years and link to this you've 5 million -- 5.99 million, 2.55% of the shares, given the current state, would it not be interesting to foresee a buyback program given the price and account on dividend, EUR 60 million. So in fact, EUR 50 million, that would be EUR 0.22 less at the level of the dividend right? It's about striking a balance, just a math. The breakdown profits, what do we do? We keep it, maintain it in a kind of reserve? Yes or no? Do we reinvest it with the GBL. As you know, a lot of us are also shareholders at GBL for many years. The GMBL share, the price of the share is not at the right level. So -- and at price what I feel here EUR 20 million, EUR 50 million, 1% of the capital, perhaps it's the opportunity. It could be an opportunity. Those are our financial questions, and I'm awaiting the answers, obviously.

[Interpreted] To start with regarding the results of the first quarter. Firstly, we do not publish results, quarterly results, as you know but we're going to announce tomorrow an update. It's not -- not the results as such but what we call an update of the results. That's what's going to be presented. Indeed there are 2 practices. The one you're referring to, that's what we had done in the previous year, that is during the General Assembly. Negative side of that is that our teams cannot answer the, of course, of all the shareholders. So we decided to discuss the performances first quarter tomorrow morning, we'll do that some more morning. And then something else, why did we modify our habits a lot? Well, put it like this, to the country of what's usually done, we have already given a kind of outlook, I would say, an idea of the results. This time earlier than usual, we used to do during the General Assembly exclusively. We've done it earlier and it's still the case. These are the 2 reasons why we did what we did. So there is positive, there is negative in each system. Tomorrow, you'll probably received some extra information. But what we call guidance, you have heard the guidance earlier than usual, actually, and it was important to mention that also. Now regarding the taking over the shares. It's a decision -- it's up to the Board indeed, Supervisory Board. And of course, we have the investment programs. We're industrial company. We have an industrial project that is important, obviously. In the level of different divisions. The investments -- the important investments in the Battery divisions but not only. Investments need to be done on a yearly basis. Given this investment program, the Board has not felt it would be good to organize such a buyback scheme of the shares. Sorry, Mic, please? Microphone. This dividend equals 4.4% of the capital. It's arbitration indeed, that could be envisaged. I am writing down your suggestion, of course, and moreover, I know that a lot of shareholders are very attached to their dividend also. And if some would appreciate such an arbitration. Others perhaps were not appreciated so much. We have acted in a responsible way and we've maintained our dividend policy, and that's an fact.

I have a question for Mr. Miedreich. I'm a bit confused about the evolution of some of the raw material, essentially those that you use in -- or produced in Hoboken and another one for the batteries, the lithium. As far as I understand the market, lithium has really been crushed the last year, although you make the reference that maybe your contracts were in the opposite direction composed, I do not know. But if I look to the main supplier, Albemarle, the Dutch AMG, share price, cash almost even more than yours. So a new comment and how important is your lithium utilization because I have absolutely not an understanding. And on the other side, I think you produce and you recuperate in Hoboken, palladium and rhodium, 2 years ago, that was a high moment, it was like a gold mine but last year, of course, that was tremendously down. Can you comment now the first quarter, how things are going? So that we can understand your business.

Absolutely. So let me start with the battery materials and then I come to the precious metal Hoboken topic. So for a battery, you need -- for the raw material side, you mean lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt. These are the main elements that you have. We are taking these metals because they have no function as metals and we are processing them to make them functional materials. Our revenue generation, the profit that we make is in that transformation. So to give functions to those materials, we get paid from our customers. Our contracts do not foresee that we are taking the risk, if you want, of the value of those metals. So it's kind of a path to that we are basically have decided because of exactly that point that there is a tremendous opportunity but also risk if you are speculating on the change of metal. So our contracts are, put in such way, that's not for every player in the industries and other regions, other business models are there. But for us, a lower lithium price cannot be translated into the same amount of impact at Umicore. So that's on the one side. On the other side, you are right, in Hoboken, we are refining, recycling input streams and generate precious metals at the end. Rhodium is the most, so I would even say it was more rhodium mine than a gold mine because volume price is even higher than gold. And of course, this business is depending on the price of the raw materials much more than any other business that we have because you're right in a certain sense, we have producers of that materials. There are also different business cases where companies give us their material. We recycle it and give back the material but there are also other business cases where we have kind of material that we sell. So what Wannes has introduced in his section. We have been trying to reduce that volatility on the Hoboken, if you want side, by a change in our hedging strategy forward, where we have increased the hedging, meaning we have been able to fix prices into the future for those materials. And why is the rhodium price and the palladium, platinum price going down. That is also a function of electrification because the main end market for those metals is in automotive catalysts. So if there are less catalyst needs, the price is going down. That's why it is so important for us not only from automotive capitalist that we are kind of in all of those areas on the battery side but also on the combustion engine side.

[Interpreted] But maybe -- and because I think there's one part of your question, which also relates then why did we have the special lithium positive effect last year that one as we heard too, that is because up-to last year, we didn't consider lithium as a metal but more as a chemical that we use because lithium historically has been very stable. And relatively low price. We had done this tremendous lithium spike, which since then collapsed from before the time that we considered lithium hedge metal but more consumables, we had built up a certain stock in the times when the prices were low. And we have been able to valorize that stock and also reference was made to some scraps that we could valorize. So the special lithium effect comes from that historic period from before the time that lithium was hedged.

May I ask a second question?

Yes.

In your business model, I see a kind of contradiction. You well understand what I mean. On one side, you are in the catalyst business but on the other side, you hope to grow and that take business away from the catalyst, of course, in the electric vehicle market. How do you see that your position? Or are you well covered that the catalyst business will stay big enough and that you can live the next 5 years without any problem?

I'm sure that we can live the next 5 years without a problem with the Catalysis business. Because the Catalysis business, for sure, the combustion engine is reduced over time. That's a fact. I would like to say that it's a train that is not stoppable anymore. The speed of that can be debated because you look to the different regions of the world. Europe is the region with the strongest trajectory down because in 2035, there is the legislation that there is a ban of combustion engines in Europe. So there is a trajectory. But you have other countries or other regions like South America, Southeast Asia, India, even China, U.S. where there's a much longer life of the combustion engines. So I think it's more a matter of decades where this is going on. And actually, it is -- I see it as communicating tubes. If you have not the ability to participate on electrification. You only have a business that's going down. So actually, we are -- we could call it self-hedged because we -- the one goes up, we are participating and the other goes up we are participating. Of course, our strategy is focused on the electrification to be the future of propulsion technology because for us as a company, what we call the content per vehicle, so what we can get as revenue and earned per car is higher on electric vehicles than on combustion engines. Today, combustion engines still represent the majority of the market. But over time, when the changes, it's an opportunity for Umicore.

You have made, and I think that plays a very big influence on the share price. You have 2, 3 major investments, which are not yet fully operational. When do you expect to see the first positive signs of that because that's why the market is so nervous, I think.

Absolutely. So it's actually affected in order to make the successful transition into electrification, we have to -- and that's not only true for Umicore, it's true for the whole market. We have to invest significant CapEx because to produce battery materials and also batteries and electric vehicles at the end. It is not an existing industry. It's not there. You cannot just scale up an existing plant. Everything is new. And when you do things the first time, it's especially expensive. So we think that when we had our last what we call greenfield when you start completely from scratch footprint in Canada, we have a complete footprint in the world. So into the future, we will not have to -- or the further progression of expanding capacities will be much more efficient because we can add capacities to those different sites but I also have to say this is not a quick fix transformation. It will take time, it will take time and you see currently that the timing of this going down of the combustion engine and going up of the electrification. There is no doubt that it will happen, but the timing of it is still not sure. The only thing that is sure that we believe that companies that position themselves now to be inside of the market will benefit from probably the strongest growth market that the automobile industry has ever seen when the inflection point is coming.

[Interpreted] I might have asked this question. I think it is the case. Do you have any synergy or do you see the possibility of any synergy between people working on batteries such as Solvay, [ Florian ] and Umicore of course. Second question, if I may, maybe a little bit more sensitive. The more seniors here remember the Union Minière, Union Minière du Haut Katanga, the former name of the company. And when I hear what is happening in Africa's people saying you deprived us from our resources, with all the respect that is due, of course, this is sometimes a bit difficulty here. When the Chinese people have entered the continent. Qatar has also entered the continent, the Qatar through which we have sold the port of Lubumbashi. And they come with all the ores and the gold by sea. So I come to my question, the Democratic Republic of Congo might ask information to Apple, which is going to launch, which is taking all the cobalt in the African countries. And it would be good to have a press release on this saying that the Belgian people, that the Belgian population and companies are not depriving anyone from those resources as you might have put it. So I think it might be interesting to repeat it.

[Interpreted] Indeed, thank you for those 2 questions and those 2 comments. Mathias will complement what I said. Solvay and [ Florian ] are working on other products. As far as Solvay is concerned, they're also working on ion batteries, but we are talking about other kind of batteries with another kind of technology, which is not ours. So my first answer would be no real synergy in that regard, potentially the same customers but not big synergy. Despite of that, our teams are in contact when there are technical projects. We have worked with Solvay on one project, which has been stopped since then on fuel cells. But we knew -- we know them and if we need them, we know where to find them. Regarding cobalt and the DRC, yes, indeed, we have a responsible sourcing policy, which is at the heart of everything we do. I think we're quite sober as far as communications is concerned. I think what we do is -- I do not want to be pretentious here, but I think it's state of the art, is exemplary, might not be to the taste of everyone. But I think we're communicating very clearly about what we do. We're not publicizing this too much, advertising this too much, though it is always on our website, and it is a part of our communication. We try to be responsible with the providers. We're one big customer of responsible mining project in DRC. Hence, we are also contributing to the development of the country.

To the first point, I think independent of the Solvay corporation, this business in battery materials but also battery cycling is a business of partnerships and ecosystems because the task is so big, so you can be sure that we have developed an ecosystem of partners in technology and process that we're working with. Some of them are Belgium. Some of them not. So I would say it's not a-Belgium-specific topic, but it is very much an ecosystem topic, this business, to develop it further.

[Interpreted] Second row. First, the gentleman there at the back and then you can go. Just there on the side.

[Interpreted] I was a driver -- used to be a driver for Umicore. Do we have an idea of the contribution on the turnover of the Canadian plan as of next year?

The plan for the Canadian plant? So we have announced in October last year, the groundbreaking. So -- and I think, Thomas, you have visited our plant just last week. it is currently in construction phase and the construction will take a certain time, where the current trajectory is that the end of '26, the plant will start production and will then ramp up its business. As we said, the business is, at the end of the day, for our customer, BMW, who produces in North America. And the dimension, the capacity is 35 gigawatt hours that we will have there. But you will not see that revenue in the close near future in our revenues. It will start then in '27 and '28 to have an impact.

[Interpreted] I heard '25, sorry.

[Foreign Language]

So I cannot [ give you ] the exact number from the top of my head, but I can tell you that if we compare our patent generation and especially the patent portfolio that we have in the critical areas, which mostly is, today, battery technologies, we have quite a wide range of technologies that we have patented, especially -- not only related to the products that we are currently using but also around that. But I will come back to -- we will come back to that -- to you with the exact number.

[Interpreted] Yes, second part of my question. First, thank you very much because your general assembly or this year, general assembly has more questions than the previous year. So this is a good thing. I'm very happy because this makes it more dynamic, but I'm also very happy because I do not have to ask all my questions on my own because other people are actually asking those. It is reassuring, and I'm not asking all the questions. So that is a good thing. And it also proves that the questions are not only mine. Second part of my question on production. I would like to pick it up on one other question on the non-responsible mines. You saying that you have responsible mines was a sine qua non condition for me to be a shareholder. And I realized that you do not respect the staff of those mines. I would have dropped my shares. And I think that this is a criteria for many people in the hedge funds. Many people who invest in hedge funds, invest in companies have that criteria. So that's for the first part. The battery market, this is a very competitive -- this is a very, very competitive market, and that is a euphemism. You have a contract with VW, which is a good thing because they're the user. You're the producer. So it gives a place in the market, so that is always good. I read in the [ Eco ] of 6th of April that Sweden, that Northvolt is going to build the biggest, greenest battery in the world. Are you in touch with them? And are you involved as a producer. I also read in the [ Eco ] -- I will quote the [ Eco ], but I might have to buy shares in the [ Eco ] in the end. I also read that the GIGA Storage is going to build the biggest battery plant in Limburg and is looking for investors to finance this park for the materials and the infrastructures. So those are my questions. And I also read that China is flooding Europe with dumping, scandalous dumping, all types of products in -- everything that is renewable, be it batteries, [ Eco ] is also referring to this. They are talking about a hurricane for wind farms or everything that is wind. They're talking about the windstorm of the solar panels. I did not -- I do not have the second page, but there is more. What can you do to face this? We know that China is overproducing and does not have the internal market do so. And it's finding there a way to increase its gross product when it is actually dumping. So what can you do to face this?

Let's -- so first of all, Northvolt. Northvolt, of course, we are attached with Northvolt because they are very important partner or, I would say, an important player in the ecosystem of battery and battery technologies. But I cannot disclose any other further details on our order book that we have already done going forward. But for sure, we know them and they know us, which should be the case of 2 leading companies. Now should we -- do we want to invest in a battery factory in Limburg? No, because we have very clearly defined our strategy to go from mine to battery, which excludes mining and excludes battery making. We think our strength is in the processing in the middle, what I just explained, the metal transformation into functional materials. Now a very good point is on China. We see a lot that Chinese electric vehicles are actually, as you say, flooding the European market. And you can see that from several directions. So first of all, if you look at it from a very macro perspective, it is actually good that there are affordable technologically advanced electric vehicles available in Europe because that is fundamentally supporting the [ green ] deal. Now what is the impact on the industry in Europe. First of all, there is an impact on the classical automakers, the carmakers, the OEMs, the VWs, Stellantis of the world. And they will have to face a new competition, but they have faced it also in the past, if you remember the Japanese and Korean car companies that came into Europe once they had good products. And this is the case now. Chinese car companies have very good products, and with that, they find buyers in Europe. It's very important to say that, currently, this is absolutely an export game -- export-import game. And you see in the different ports, the big ships that come with those cars. This is not the future of electric vehicles -- Chinese electric vehicles in Europe because they have already announced that if they sell more than 100,000 cars, it is more economical for Chinese players to produce their cars in Europe. So that's what we have seen with the Japanese and Korean ones as well. So once they are going into Europe, what they will want is a European supply chain for batteries and battery materials. And why can they not just take the batteries from China? Because there is legislation in place. You might have heard about the Critical Raw Material Act and the Net-Zero Industry Act that is requiring 40% of the materials that go in batteries to be processed in Europe, for example, 25% of the materials that are used in batteries to be recycled in Europe. And with that -- and there's also cost, cost, of course, of import, export. They want to have a local supply chain. They want to have local battery producers. And you see already that, that happened already with CATL and others that are producing in Europe. To come to my message, we see that, one, as an opportunity because we are today the only company that has a supply chain that goes from refining, precursor and cathode manufacturing in Europe. So for sure, competition will come, but we have a significant timing advantage. And we think if we can replicate what we have done with the European car OEMs, our very close proximity and partnership that brought us the contract that we have, to do the same with the Chinese OEMs, we have a lot of business with Chinese OEMs on the automotive catalyst side in China. We have also relationship to the pure electric vehicle makers and we want to be kind of their partners. The side effect will also be that their batteries will be much more sustainable because they will have to be under the laws that you have just described and also under the ethical sourcing for the raw materials, et cetera. So overall, I think it's a good news that Chinese car companies come to Europe. It will stimulate competition also with the European ones to bring good products at the market because one thing is pretty clear, that today's consumer does not want any more just an electric vehicle. What they want is a good electric vehicle. Good can be cost competitive with a very good technology or with long-range driving, et cetera. And that's, I think, what the Chinese can bring to the European market.

[Interpreted] Still on production. LECO is producing an article saying that a carbon tax would have an impact on half of the companies of BEL 20. That was a study of [ Accela ], which is based in Paris. There is a small issue with the table. Out of the 20 companies of BEL, there are 18 and Umicore is not in those 18? Are you in gray, red or green?

[Interpreted] But it would be very interesting to look at that report.

[Interpreted] I don't have the figure. Umicore is not in the table that was published in the LECO.

[Interpreted] Sorry, I have not heard about this article.

[Interpreted] I can give you the reference. It would be very interesting for you to read that article.

[Interpreted] Does anyone have a question or shall I move to governance? Okay, someone else.

[Interpreted] On electric cars, on EVs, there is a structural change, quite brutal compared to what we could have imagined in 2023 with a decrease in different changes and the increase of the Chinese manufacturers. We also have seen a certain number of changes for Tesla a couple of days ago. What does that change in your strategy compared to what you said during the Investor Day during 2023? We see that the Chinese use the LFP battery. Does that impact your positioning? And what would you change compared to all these new changes?

Good point. So for us, I want to mention 2 things. The first one is that when we have designed our strategy forward and the way we deployed it, we have looked at 2 things. First of all, we have looked to the fact that we are not betting on one horse only in terms of what we call the battery chemistries. We have a very nice view and you can also download it on our website. We had a debrief on that last autumn, where we have a broad portfolio of battery chemistries that match the different segments that we expect in the electric vehicle market entry segment, mid-segment and the high-end segment that -- differentiating in cost and also in range particularly. So with this in place, we feel well prepared for a market that, I think, nobody knows how it will develop. The only -- the important thing is you have to always stay alert and not bet on one single horse so that you can -- and you -- your case, you talk about LFP, for example. LFP is a technology that is absolutely good because it's low cost, and it helps electric vehicles to be cheaper. We have to understand that this advantage is mainly given for LFP in China for Chinese vehicles in China because to produce LFP in Europe, there is no LFP factory in Europe, for example, and there's total different cost base. I don't go into the details, but there's a total different cost equation to do LFP Europe. We think, on this example, we have better answers to that. We have a technology we call HLM, which is basically replacing nickel with manganese to achieve also very good cost position. So I'm just saying that because, actually, we never believed that we know the one truth. We believe in being alert and flexible in terms of constantly pushing the technology edge with new products. That's number one. Number two, what was also very important is that when we put this very significant amount of CapEx in our production facilities all over the world, it would be absolutely not favorable if any time you change the product, you have to build a new factory. So what we have been doing from the beginning to keep our manufacturing lines as flexible as possible, especially the Nissan Giga factory that we have built and the ones that we are currently building in Canada, has the ability to produce all of the battery materials that we have in our portfolio road map. Of course, there are some changes necessary but not all of the changes. So that means we feel well equipped to react to any kind of change in terms of potential changes in requirements from our customers for the battery material market. Now at the same time, we also have to be vigilant on looking how the future will be. If we have an outlook of 3, 4, 5 years, what can we adapt? What can we do? But also when we mentioned our, what we say, order portfolio, order book, the way that we have structured our contract is also supporting us in this way. So we cannot tell you exactly what is the future. We can only tell you at this point that we feel well prepared to react flexibly on potential changes in the future.

[Interpreted] The governance question? Yes, different questions. That will be a little bit of ping pong or tennis table. I see that Mr. Oudea is a candidate to the Supervisory Board, and he will represent the GBL investor Supervisory Board. Is another member already representing GBL?

[Interpreted] Yes, Mr. Raets.

[Interpreted] He's in the room?

[Interpreted] He's not. He's not in the room. He's not here today. He's not submitted to a vote.

[Interpreted] But there will be 2 representatives of GBL in the Board.

[Interpreted] Yes, but that was already the case with Mr. Armero.

[Interpreted] Okay. I see that the remuneration is submitted to a vote. Is that the same remuneration? Was that increased? I see all the figures. I see no increase compared to last year, and I did not remember all the figures from the previous year.

[Interpreted] The amount was decreased de facto because there is a part in euros that remained unchanged, and there is a fixed amount of shares. And since the action, the stock price has diminished. The Board has received less than last year.

[Interpreted] Yes, but the figures that you submit to a vote, are they fixed figures? So there is a remuneration of the Supervisory Board?

[Interpreted] Yes. But there is also -- we submit to a vote the report of remuneration, but if you're asking about the amount, the value of what the members received, then the value is lower. This is just a fact.

[Interpreted] Okay. Then a suggestion if I may. The general assembly is broadcasted, but it is only reserved for the registered shareholders or is it open?

[Interpreted] I think it's open.

[Interpreted] So anyone can connect to the Umicore website and look at the general assembly without having to be a shareholder. That's a good thing. You are one of the only ones who do it, to my knowledge, in Belgium. But you're the first one. Ahold Delhaize, Total, Engie is also doing it. And it is a great mean for us to broadcast and to advertise Umicore. [Sorry, but there is a problem with the microphone of the speaker.] Sorry. I don't know how we should name it, but there was a little glitch with my microphone. Three other things, but I was saying that was a very good thing. The annual report, I'm not happy, and I'm not the only one. I heard other people complaining about this. It does not exist in French anymore. It is in Dutch and English. You're the only one in the BEL 20 to my knowledge once again and to all the other companies of which I have shares, and I have a very diversified portfolio. I wanted to know why. Why isn't the annual report isn't available in 3 languages? You're based in Brussels.

[Interpreted] That's a choice we made. I understand your points. That was a cost-based decision. We computed the number of readings in all languages, and French was less demanded, less requested. So this is a cost-efficiency measure, though I fully understand your complaint. I note your comment, but this is a decision we made for cost efficiency. And when I'm saying cost efficiency, I'm referring to the use that was made of that annual report. The number of the downloaded version and entries was lower in French. It does not exist -- it does not even exist in French on the website.

[Interpreted] Okay. Okay. I thought it was only the paper, the hard copy that were not available in French, that you were printing out the other 2 languages, but it does not exist in French anymore.

[Interpreted] Yes, and we only print out on request. It was not as before we had thousands and thousands of exemplaries. No, this is not in line with our times.

[Interpreted] What I do before the general assembly, I always say that I want to have the agenda and the printed out annual report because I do have a dumb phone here. There are smart phones, and there are also dumb phones. I don't think phones are smart. But I have a dumb phone, and this is how it's actually sold in the States, and we cannot download anything with that, which is good. Another element, I see you have many festivities. There is absolutely nothing for the shareholders. In other companies, we are talking about the shareholders' club. Solvay has one and for those who knew that, for their 125 years, there was a mega party for the shareholders. I think it was 8 to 10 years ago. We all remember that. There was the Cirque du Soleil who came to Solvay's place in [ Rue de Ransbeek ] and that was quite prestigious. [ Arias ], Engie has the special meetings and special festivities for the shareholders outside of the general assembly. Solvay with Solar Impulse at the National Airport also invited the shareholders to look at that planes that have been sponsoring for quite some time, and that was also very interesting. So just a small suggestion. Why not having a party for the shareholders? It is good for staff. I'm not saying you do not have to do it for staff of course. But think about the shareholders. When we look at the evolution of the stock price, it would be good.

[Interpreted] Thank you. Thank you for that comment, for that suggestion. I will transmit it. I will transfer it to the management. Of course, we could have an info session or also link it with a party for the shareholders. This is something we could think about of course.

I have a very short one for the CFO. If I've seen well or understood well that in your balance sheet, the support that you have received from Poland and Canada as a plus in the balance sheet is that money really received. There are probably some conditions. And is there not something cacheted that you have to pay it eventually back or no?

So looking at the 2 large grants that have been awarded in last year, so we have the 600 million in Canada and the 350 million in Poland. Those are not refundable grants, and those are linked to the capital investments and will be awarded in line with the investments taking place. So today, effectively, you will not see them yet as they have not been fully granted yet. We need to apply for them basically upon the effective investments.

Okay. I think that closes the question round.

[Interpreted] So that's that for the Q&A session. Thus, we can carry on and move on to the votes. You have received the documents. So according to document, it appears that the shareholders' meetings were validly convened and that all the shareholders who participated in this meeting either by personally attending today all through voting forms or by means of proxies have duly complied with the admission formality. So indeed, we have the number of shares, meaning that a certain number of shares means certain power to vote, considering Umicore's presently [ 246,400,000 ] shares in [ insurance ] and Umicore held [ 5,920,783 ] owned shares, representing 2.41% of its capital, more or less, on the registration date, which are not entitled to vote and are therefore not taken into account. We note that the percentage of people that can't vote are here. And here -- these people are here with voting rights of Umicore. I can therefore state that these meetings are valid. To be validly adopted resolutions on items on the agenda of today's ordinary and special general meeting require an ordinary majority of the vote. In all cases, abstention votes will be disregarded when calculating the voting results. And indeed, I remind you of the voting procedures, applicable to today's meeting in order to determine the exact number of votes cast either for, against. When signing the attendance list, the attending shareholders and proxy holders have received a cardboard with an [ individualized ] number. If they wish to vote against the proposed resolution or abstain in relation to such resolution, they are invited to do so by raising their cardboard. First to vote against and next, the shareholders who are abstaining. Please bear in mind that some votes were already cast prior to the general meeting either by a personal voting or by proxy voting. This means that even if there are votes against and/or any abstentions are cast by the person exactly present at today's meeting, the voting results may still show votes against and/or abstention. I will now deal with the various items of the agenda. Advisory Board and the report of the statutory or the annual report of the Supervisory Board, 31st of December 2023. Since copies of the reports on statutory or annual reports were made available to the shareholders prior to the meeting, I propose not to read them out. Here, do any shareholders have any objections? Otherwise, we would be at it for a long time. I hereby note that this proposal has been accepted and thank the meeting accordingly. I can also inform you that the works' council received all the information that were requested from these reports at the plenary meeting on the year's results, which was held on the 16th of April 2024. The proposal for the first resolution. Let's move on to the remuneration report. I would like to ask you not to read that report. I propose that this was adopted. Then we can move on to the [ other 2 ]. For those who are against the resolution, raise their cards. Anyone against the resolution? No one. Are there any abstentions? No, nobody. So taking into account the votes expressed in the vote forms by person and proxies received that this resolution is passed with 131,928,483 votes. So that's more than the ordinary majority required, more than a 91% approval of the -- we will now read the approval of the statutory [indiscernible] annual accounts for the year ending at 31st of December showing a profit for the financial year in the amount of [ EUR 268,439,268.34 ] to approve that. So the profit to be approved, [ EUR 841,923,839.82 ]. We proposed a payment of dividend of EUR 0.80 per share 2023. Considering the interim dividend corresponding to EUR 0.25 at the per share paid out in August '23, a balance amount of EUR 0.55 per share will be paid on Thursday, 2nd of May 2024, the shares held up on the -- held by Umicore are not entitled to a dividend and so the profit to be appropriated, EUR 841 million, will deduce from that amount the EUR 132 million and leaving us with a remainder to be carried for the [ EUR 709,664,000 ]. I propose this to the vote. Is someone against? Yes. Are there abstentions? Given the votes received in advance, this resolution is approved 100% of votes. First time in my life that I see this 100% exactly. First time. But I must say that there are 293 votes against. That's 0.000-something. That's why the machine calculated it 100% at the end of the day. Okay. Consolidated -- communication of consolidated [ council ] financial year ended on 31st of December 2023 as well as the annual report. The annual report on the consolidated accounts as well as the consolidated accounts themselves were made available to the shareholders prior to this meeting and therefore, propose not to read them out here. Is that okay? That's what you all agree? Yes. Thank you. Furthermore, the works' council received all the information 16th of April 2024, this chart from liability to the members of the Supervisory Board for the exercise of the mandate 2023. Against this resolution, raise your cards if you vote against this resolution. Abstentions? No? This resolution is thus approved, 99.67% of votes. Thank you very much. Fourth resolution, the commissioner for the exercise -- social exercise 2023. Votes against here in the room? No. Abstentions? So this resolution is approved, 99.65% of the votes. Thank you very much. Composition -- or Supervisory Board composition. The mandates of myself, Koenraad Debackere, Mark Garrett, Mrs. Birgit Behrendt expire here within the framework of the general assembly. And as indicated, Mr. Mario Armero, whose mandate normally only expires in 2026, has submitted his resignation.

[Interpreted] Mr. Thomas Leysen stands for reelection, and the Supervisory Board, upon recommendation by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee propose to reappoint him as member of the Supervisory Board for an additional term of 3 years expiring at the end of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2027. I put this motion to the vote. Is there someone against? No. Are there any abstentions? I don't think that is the case. And so this resolution passed with 79.85% of the votes. Mr. Koenraad Debackere stands for reelection and the Supervisory Board acting upon recommendation by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee proposes to reappoint him as independent member of the Supervisory Board for an additional term of 3 years expiring at the end of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of '27. The criteria retained to assess his independence are those set forth in Article 3.5 of the 2020 Belgian Code on corporate governance. Are there -- is there anyone against? Are there any abstentions? So this resolution was passed with 95% of the votes. Mr. Garrett stands for reelection for a term of 1 year. And this is also done on the recommendation of Nomination and Remuneration Committee, the criteria retained to assess are the same as I mentioned. Are there people against? Are there abstentions? No. So this was passed with 96.58% of the vote. And Mrs. Birgit Behrendt also stands for reelection recommended by Nomination and Remuneration Committee. Also the -- are there any votes against? Are there abstentions? No? 99.83% adopted. The Supervisory Board acting upon recommendation by Nomination and Remuneration Committee proposes appointment of Frederic Oudea, our new member of Supervisory Board, Mr. Oudea took the floor, presented himself. Votes against? 130, you're voting against. Abstentions? Not -- no abstentions. Can't see any. So the machine is calculating. This resolution is nevertheless adopted, 97.62% of votes. The Supervisory Board acting upon recommendation by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee proposes to appoint Mr. Philip Eykerman as the independent member of the Supervisory Board of Umicore with effective date 1st of November 2024 for -- and he abides by the criteria retained to assess his independence. Against? Anyone against? Anyone against? No. Abstentions? No. Resolution is approved, 99.8%. Thank you. Supervisory Board members' remuneration [ present Article of the Articles of Association ], Supervisory Board proposes to set its remuneration for 2024 as set out in the agenda. Proposed remuneration is unchanged compared to remuneration approved in 2023. For the future [indiscernible] in the sense that the fixed amount is the same number of shares, also is the same. Are there any abstentions? No. So are there any members of the shareholders who would like to read it? No. So okay. I propose this to the vote. Are there votes against? Are there abstentions? Thank you very much. No abstentions, so this passed with 99.53% of the votes. Mandate of the statutory auditor, EY Bedrijfsrevisoren BV, so the mandate of the statutory auditor expires at the end of the present ordinary general meeting. Upon recommendation of Audit Committee and the nomination by the works' council, the Supervisory Board proposes to renew the mandate of EY Bedrijfsrevisoren represented by Mr. Marnix Van Dooren and Mrs. Eef Naessens as statutory auditor for 3 years up to and including the ordinary shareholders' meeting of '27. It is also proposed to fix the annual remuneration of the statutory auditor for the financial years '24 through '26 at EUR 581,000. This amount will be indexed each year on the basis of the evolution of the consumer price index, health index. I hereby put this motion to the vote. Any votes against? No. Abstentions? No. So the resolution is passed with 99.97% of the votes. Assignment regarding the assurance of sustainability information in light of the Corporate Social Responsibility EU Directive of the 14th of December '22, which should be transposed in Belgian not before the 6th of July 2024. We will see whether the legislators succeeds in that, and it is proposed to charge EY Bedrijfsrevisoren also with the assignment regarding the assurance of sustainability information in relation to the financial year 2024 or for any longer duration, which the Belgian law transposing the CSRD may require if applicable. So the sustainability information will also be subjected to an assurance so that the statutory auditor might give assurance that the figures are reliable, that are presented by the [ committee ] the assignment granted to the statutory auditor by this [ paragraph ] shall be considered to be the legal assignment under the Belgian law transposing the CSRD. Once it has been adopted, the remuneration of the statutory auditor for that assignment shall be agreed between the company and the statutory auditor in accordance with the Belgian law transposing a CSRD. Put this forward to the vote. Are there people against? Shareholders, are there any abstentions? No one. So thus approved 100% of votes. 553 votes against. So now special general assembly meeting concerning the approval of change of control provisions. Umicore has a [indiscernible] Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials Canada as recipient and province of Ontario entered into a conditional grant agreement with effective date 23rd of August 2023. One of the provisions of this agreement, clause 10.1 entitles province of Ontario to immediately terminate the grant agreement; b, to be relieved from all obligations to make disbursements under the grant agreement; c, to retain the performance payment and any unpaid carry forward amount under the grant agreement; and d, to avail itself of any available remedies permitted by law, or exercise any right or recourse and/or proceed against the recipient, and two, will cause the total clawback amount, as defined in the agreement, to become immediately due and payable to province of Ontario in the event that a person or 2 or more persons acting jointly or in concert acquires shares in the capital of Umicore resulting in such persons having direct or indirect beneficial ownership of 30% [indiscernible] or more of the outstanding shares of voting shares in the capital of Umicore. The province of Ontario required this. And in line with Article 7:151 of the Code of Companies and Associations, the shareholders' meeting is requested to approve the above contractual changes of control provision. Anyone voting against? It does not seem to be the case. Abstentions? Not the case. So this resolution is passed with 99.91% of the votes. The proposal for second resolution on the 15th of December 2023 and the [indiscernible] agreement on the sustainability -- institutions as lenders -- with different institutions, financial institutions. As we said, one of the provisions of the above agreement, clause 9.2, exempts the lenders from further funding except for a rollover loan and also under certain conditions, entitle them to cancel the revolving facility and to declare all outstanding loans together with accrued interest and rollover amounts accrued under the revolving credit facility immediately to and payable in the event that any person or group of persons acting in concert gains control of -- over Umicore. Once again, this clause -- change of control need to be approved by Umicore. Anyone voting against? Abstentions? This resolution is approved once again, 99.91% of votes. Third resolution, Umicore as borrower has entered on the 7th of February '24 into a finance contract with European Investment Bank as lender. One of the provisions of the above agreement clause 4.3.A(3) entitles the lender to cancel the undisbursed portion of the credit and demand repayment of the loan outstanding together with the accrued interests and all other amounts accrued and outstanding under the finance contract in the event that the change of a control event occurs or is likely to occur in respect of Umicore. Again, this has to be approved as stipulated in the Code of Companies and Associations. Are there people against? Are there any abstentions? So this has been passed with 99.91% of the votes. All the items on the agenda of all the shareholders' meetings have now been dealt with. I propose not to read the minutes of the meeting. Do any shareholders have any objections? No. I hereby request scrutinies and any shareholders who wish to do so to sign the minutes. And I declare the meeting closed at 18:51. I would like to thank our shareholders for their presence and their constructive contribution. And as always, you are now kindly invited to join the traditional post meeting reception, and I look forward to meeting you there on your side of the -- of this meeting room and the other meeting rooms for more cocktail. And please return the headsets as you leave the room, the headphones as you leave the room. Thank you very much, and wish you all the best. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]