Wienerberger AG (WIE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our conference call regarding the succession of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. I'm pleased to announce the speakers today who will give an overview background of the change, the succession management process which took place over the last month, and future focus points of the Supervisory Board together with the Managing Board. We will not discuss any trading update in this call today. Our speakers are Peter Johnson, the current Chairman of the Board; Peter Steiner, his successor as of January 1; and Heimo Scheuch, our CEO. After their statements, we're ready to take any of your questions. I now hand over to Peter Johnson. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Anna. Hello, everybody. Now I add my thanks to you for joining us today. I took over as a transitional Chair of the Wienerberger Supervisory Board just over a year ago. I had 2 primary tasks. The first was to bring -- begin to bring the structure, practices and behaviors of the Supervisory Board into line with best international practice while still respecting the laws and traditions of its Austrian home. We recently carried out an independent review of the Board and Chair, which confirms that good progress has been made. Those findings and the consultants' recommendations will be presented fully in next year's report and accounts. My second task was to ensure a professional and thorough process was put in place to identify my longer-term successor. The Supervisory Board agreed the experiences, skills and attributes it was looking for as an independent board member that are processed with headhunters based in the U.K. and Germany to identify potential external candidates. The leading candidates were interviewed and evaluated alongside our own colleagues on the Supervisory Board. It was clear to us all that Peter Steiner was the outstanding candidate, not only meeting all the criteria we had established, but having considerable knowledge and understanding of Wienerberger and its markets. We were all delighted when Peter agreed to accept this role. I would like, if I may, to add a personal comment. I worked closely with Peter over the past year. It is not only his experience and skills that have impressed me, he works hard. He's traveled to Vienna regularly through these past rather difficult months. He doesn't think about himself, but is focused on what is right for the company, its shareholders and, indeed, all its stakeholders. And he works well with all his colleagues. I'm delighted to be passing this back on to someone with such integrity and professionalism. And so Peter, over to you.

Peter, thank you very much. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for taking the time. It's not easy to say at all something at this early stage. I have not even taken seat of the Chair of Wienerberger, but I have a couple of remarks to make. First of all, this is not going to be the only opportunity to talk. Of course not. I intend to follow Peter's example to be available to analysts and investors whenever it seems to be appropriate. This is the first remark. Then the second one would be, I'm pleased that my colleagues at the Supervisory Board have come to me and asked me to follow Peter Johnson as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Peter has, in his tenure, shaped the work style and organization of our Board and much improved its efficiency. This is both a burden and an excellent basis to build on. The focus of the Supervisory Board, and then so far my focus as well, for the immediate and medium-term future will be we should support management on any effort to realize organic growth. We support performance enhancement and we also support selective, value-creative acquisitions. The Supervisory Board will closely follow and add as much value as possible to come to best decisions possible. That's about the style which we work on, and we are -- I could almost say, we are now used to work on. We use what our tools -- we use transparent KPIs, and we use agreements and commitments amongst management and supervisory board towards innovations, towards ESG. And also I add that remuneration has been an important topic particularly over the last 12 to 18 months. We worked on that topic a lot, and this is going to remain an important topic to us. The Supervisory Board and I as its Chairman will closely work with Heimo and his team to grow Wienerberger, to make it -- and strengthen its position as leading building material solution provider in Europe and in North America. And again, I'm glad that Peter Johnson has decided to continue to stay on the Supervisory Board for some time. I have enjoyed so much working with him over the last month. And we, together, have helped to move the whole thing really forward. So thanks again, Peter. This is a good opportunity to officially thank you. And on to Heimo. Thank you.

Thank you, both. And from my side, first of all, a big thank you to you, Peter, Peter Johnson, for making this happen. And obviously, the last year was not the most -- the easiest of all the years with COVID and a lot of sort of changes that took place throughout the business world. But again, I think we all showed the strong commitment to Wienerberger and that we also are ready to cope with such extraordinary situations. Well, on the business side, with the performance of Wienerberger in this difficult times, which is great and very satisfactory, but also on the corporate side when it goes with the cooperation between Supervisory Board and managing. We have, in this year, again, established a clear road map for the next 3 years. And I'm glad, obviously, to work together and excited to work together with Peter Steiner, to realize it, to implement it. Because we say independently from any market development, Wienerberger will organically grow again in the next 3 years, focusing, obviously, on optimization, on innovation and also on the implementation of our very ambitious ESG targets. We are dedicated to these targets. We are ready to invest also considerable funds into the different projects and special CapEx, especially. It was about EUR 80 million a year and EUR 60 million into ESG, so an important program that we have put together. And we, as the team, the new team, will make sure that Wienerberger grows throughout this period of time and obviously creates substantial value for its shareholders. And this is, I think, the good message that we have a strong team on the Supervisory Board and also here in the Managing Board to carry Wienerberger forward. And I'm delighted that we have this sort of continuity and strength in the Managing Board on the one side and also on the Supervisory Board on the other side to make Wienerberger very successful in the years to come. Thank you for your attention, and I think we are ready, Anna, to take questions if there are any.

Yes, please. We can go back to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] And the first question is from the line of Xintong Ouyang of On Field Investment Research.

Congratulations, Mr. Steiner. So I have -- actually, a very small question is that when you were at the Board of Xella, when Xella acquired URSA, were you still there? Or actually, it was after your tenure in Xella?

My tendering in Xella actually lasted from early 2014 to early 2017. I was hired by Goldman Sachs and PAI and help them to sell it to Lone Star.