Good day, and welcome to Aegon combines its Dutch operations with ASR. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press Star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your questions, press star one again. For operator assistance throughout the call, please press star zero. Finally, I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd now like to welcome Jan Willem Weidema, Head of Investor Relations, to begin the conference. Jan, over to you.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Aegon conference call for analysts and investors on the combination of Aegon's Dutch business with ASR. Before handing this call over to Lard Friese, CEO of Aegon, I would like to ask you to review our disclaimer on forward-looking statements, which you can find at the back of the presentation. Furthermore, I would like to remind you that we are in close period in relation to our third quarter 2022 results. After a brief presentation, Lard will be joined by our CFO, Matt Rider, and our Chief Transformation Officer, Duncan Russell, for the Q&A session. Let me now give the floor to Lard.
Yes, thanks, Jan Willem Weidema, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. This morning we announced an agreement to combine our Dutch pension life and non-life insurance, banking and mortgage origination activities with ASR. Upon completion of the transaction, we will receive a 29.99% stake in ASR and EUR 2.5 billion in cash. This is strategically and financially compelling transaction. By combining our Dutch business with ASR, we will create a leader in the Dutch insurance market that will be well-placed to serve its current and future customers. This transaction is a catalyst that accelerates our strategy to release capital from our mature businesses and reinvest it in markets where we are well-positioned for growth. We believe that the transaction will create value for our shareholders and all other stakeholders.
We will benefit from substantial synergies through our stake in ASR, and we intend to use the majority of the cash proceeds to return capital to shareholders. In aggregate, we expect this to result in an accretion of our free cash flow per share over time. In our Capital Markets Day in December 2020, we outlined how we wanted to transform Aegon in order to change our performance trajectory and achieve better results. Since then, we have increased the speed of decision-making and delivered on our commitments. The improvements that we have made in our performance, together with the transaction we announced today, allow us to increase our payout ratio and rebase the targeted dividend per share over 2023 from around EUR 0.25 to around EUR 0.30. Turning to slide three. The rationale to combine our Dutch activities with ASR is compelling.
Combining our companies will benefit all our stakeholders. Both Aegon and ASR are deeply rooted in Dutch society and share a long and rich history. Customers and distribution partners of both companies will benefit from a competitive product offering and improved service levels. Employees of the combination will benefit from greater long-term career opportunities within a larger and more diversified Dutch company. The combination will be the number two insurance company in the Netherlands with significant scale across different segments. It will have a leading position in the Dutch pension market, and the combination is well placed to capture the opportunities from the upcoming pension reform, leveraging the expertise of Aegon, the Netherlands. Combining the two companies will result in a strong player in the non-life space, with leading positions in both disability and property and casualty segments. This underscores that this is a highly complementary transaction.
As this is in-market consolidation, we expect significant revenue, cost, and capital synergies. Combining our businesses will lead to enhanced scale in the origination and servicing of Dutch mortgages and stronger distribution activities. What's more, the integration of the two closed individual life portfolios onto one platform will enable these books to be run more efficiently. Finally, Aegon will bring to ASR significant risk management capabilities and accelerate their implementation of a partial internal model for the combination. As part of the transaction, we have entered into a long-term asset management contract with ASR. Aegon Asset Management will manage illiquid assets that are part of the combination's general account, the investments of the Aegon Cappital, our premium pension institution, and ASR's mortgage funds.
This agreement is earnings accretive for Aegon Asset Management and strengthens our position as a provider of fiduciary services, retirement multi-asset solutions, fixed income, and responsible investing. Let's now to turn to slide four. Upon closing of the transaction, we will become a large minority shareholder in ASR, with almost 30% of the shares, irrespective of any equity offering by ASR to finance the transaction. This strategic shareholding in ASR enables us to participate in the benefits that the combination will bring. In addition, the gross cash proceeds amount to EUR 2.5 billion. Given our significant interest in the combination, we have agreed with ASR on certain governance rights. We will have the right to nominate two candidates for ASR Supervisory Board, one independent and one non-independent.
Subject to approval by ASR shareholders, and of course, the approvals of our regulators, I will join their supervisory board as a non-independent member and have an affirmative vote on certain topics reflecting the size of Aegon shareholding. When we turn to slide five, you can see how we plan to deploy the cash proceeds. Our intention is to return EUR 1.5 billion of capital to shareholders. We will maintain a strong balance sheet and plan to use up to EUR 700 million to reduce our leverage. Post-transaction capital return and deleveraging, we expect cash capital as a holding to be around the top end of our operating range of EUR 0.5 billion-EUR 1.5 billion. In the near term, we expect to maintain cash capital at the holding in the upper half of the operating range.
This will allow us to fund management actions to further improve our risk-return profile, as well as initiatives to drive additional sales growth with a focus on Transamerica. We will remain disciplined in our management of capital and any surplus cash that is not used for value-added growth opportunities that will be returned to shareholders over time. Slide six illustrates the impact of the transaction and the use of proceeds on our free cash flow per share. As you can see, we will replace the full ownership of our Dutch businesses with our strategic stake in ASR upon completion of the transaction. This will result in a lower level of free cash flow. We plan to offset this by reducing our share count.
Our free cash flow per share is expected to benefit over time from an increase in dividends from ASR as synergies from the combination emerge. In addition, our funding costs will decrease as we reduce our gross financial leverage. Hence, our free cash flow per share will ultimately reflect the synergy value that is being created in the transaction. Furthermore, we expect that the level of free cash flow will continue to comfortably cover our dividend commitments. As you can see on slide seven, we have been delivering on our commitments to provide attractive capital distributions to our shareholders in the form of sustainable dividends and return of surplus capital. Since the Capital Markets Day in 2020, we have paid or announced EUR 2.5 billion in capital distributions to shareholders, or 39% of our market capitalization at that time.
This includes the EUR 1.5 billion capital return that we have announced today, as well as the payment of a steadily increasing dividend since the end of 2020. The progress that we have made so far on transforming Aegon into a high-performing company provides us with the confidence to increase our payout ratio and raise the targeted dividend by EUR 0.05 to around EUR 0.30 per share over 2023. Slide eight shows our delivery on the commitments that we have made to our shareholders. In less than two years, we have materially improved the performance trajectory of this company, and we have done so by sharpening our strategic focus, by executing on our operational improvement plan, by releasing capital from financial assets, by actively managing our risk and capital positions, and by investing capital in growth opportunities.
More work needs to be done to sustainably grow our business and become a leader in our chosen markets. The transaction that we have announced today is a pivotal step in this respect. Not only does it create a Dutch insurance champion, but it also brings increased focus and resources to better position the company for future growth. We will update you on our growth plans at a Capital Markets Day in the second quarter of 2023. Slide nine` outlines some key process steps. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions, including the regulatory and antitrust approvals, shareholder approvals, and the completion of the works council consultation processes of both Aegon and ASR. Aegon expects to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in due course and request approval for the proposed combination between Aegon Nederland and ASR.
We will also engage with our college of supervisors on the implications that the intended transaction may have for our group supervision. Regardless of the outcome of this engagement, we intend to maintain our head office in the Netherlands. I will now wrap up on slide number 10. The transaction that we have announced today provides unique benefits to all our stakeholders. Customers, business partners, employees and stockholders will benefit from the creation of a leader in the Dutch insurance market. We are excited about this transaction. Not only does it create value for our shareholders, it also strengthens our conviction in achieving our ambition to become a leader in our chosen markets outside the Netherlands. With that, I would like to open the call for a brief Q&A session. In the interest of time, I kindly request you to limit yourself two questions per person.
Operator, please open the Q&A.
At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask the question, press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Lard, your first question comes from the line of Andrew Sinclair. Mr. Sinclair, you may now proceed.
Thank you very much. Morning, everyone, and congratulations on the deal. Two questions for you, please.
Good morning.
First was on the 29.99% stake in ASR and how that effectively is affected by ASR's decision on how much equity to issue. Because it seems like you have 29.99% regardless of how much equity ASR issues. If ASR issues more equity, does that improve the terms for you? Because essentially you're getting 29.99% of a more cash-rich, less levered business. Likewise, if ASR decides to issue no equity and just raise debt, does that reduce the value of the transaction slightly to Aegon? That's my first question.
Secondly, Lard , you mentioned that you're intending to keep your head office in the Netherlands, but following the deal, why is the Netherlands the right country for Aegon to have its primary listing and head office going forward?
Thanks, Andrew, for your questions. The first one will be answered by Matt Rider, and I'll deal with the second one. Matt, over to you.
We had decided on that 29.99% equity stake, and then it's likely that they will need to do an equity issuance here. We are going to maintain our stake. The 29.99%, if you think about the gross proceeds that we're getting in, EUR 2.5 billion, participating in the equity stake, it means that we will be short cash by about EUR 250 million. The balance of it to get to the net proceeds of EUR 2.2 billion is in transaction costs.
Understood. Thanks.
Yeah, on your second question. Well, first and foremost, we have a lot of activities in the Netherlands and we'll continue to have them. The asset management business is a large business that we have here in the Netherlands, which, as part of this transaction, by the way, will strengthen further. This combination that is going to be created, we're gonna be a large strategic and supportive shareholder for that process. That integration process after closing will take quite a number of years to get right to build this Dutch national champion and will require in that sense also a lot of attention.
In addition, you know, we've been used to be a company that has, you know, many businesses across the globe, and we're able to navigate pretty well with our head office in the Netherlands to govern all those. As we said today, you know, we intend to keep our head office in the Netherlands.
Your next question comes from Steven Haywood. Steven, you may now proceed.
Good morning. Thank you very much. Specifically on your foundation, Aegon's foundation in the Netherlands, can you tell us what happens to this foundation, whether it still continues, and what are their thoughts been about this proposal, the transaction? Secondly, on your U.K. business now, is this still core to Aegon, considering now that you are selling off most of your Dutch businesses? Any thoughts going forward about the U.K. business would be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Steven, for your questions, and I'll take both of them. [uncertain] Aegon is a stockholder, as you know, of the company of Aegon NV, and it's supported. The board of the association Aegon has said that they are supportive of what we announced today. They, of course, need to go to their members and present that to their members. But they are supportive of this. They're a stockholder of Aegon NV. What happens? Does it continue? Yes. They're a stockholder of Aegon NV, and are supportive. The board is supportive of the transaction. Is the U.K. b usiness still core? Yes.
It's one of the core markets that we chose. As you may remember at the Capital Markets Day, where we said that our core markets are the U.S., U.K., the Netherlands, our global asset management business and then our growth markets, Spain and Portugal, China and Brazil. That's the core. That's let's say the future of the group that we are spending our attention on, and our objective is to create market-leading businesses in those markets. This transaction today that we announced is in fact, I think, in effect doing that. It's aligned with that strategy. My short answer is yes, it's still core and we're gonna continue to invest in the business and to make sure that we grow our workplace and retail platform there.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Farooq Hanif. Farooq, your line is open.
Hi guys. I'm gonna ask one big question which hopefully accounts for two. I just want to understand group supervision. Will you have a Solvency II entity in the Netherlands post this deal? Within that, you know, how are the capital requirements on your holding in ASR going to be treated under that structure? Then in terms of group supervision, obviously, I mean, will equivalence make any sense anymore if, you know, clearly your by far biggest regulator is going to be the U.S. regulators? You know, does it make sense for you within that to start thinking about dollar reporting, dollar dividend reporting? Thank you.
Yes, Farooq, thank you very much for your questions. It's gonna be a co-production between Matt and myself on answering this. First and foremost, who supervises the group and what the group implications are is something that we are engaging on with our college of supervisors. Obviously, you know, we don't choose who our regulator is. That is something the college of supervisors, and the implications of this transaction, that's something that is the college of supervisors' prerogative. Of course, we're engaging with them, and it's basically too early to tell on what the exact implications are. Now, you asked some technical questions around this, and for those, I'll hand over to Matt. As I always say, technical questions are above my pay grade, so Matt is. It's over to you.
Yeah. Maybe just from a technical standpoint, we will continue to report a Solvency II ratio. We will bring over our proportional share of the own funds in the SCR and just simply report it in that way. One thing that we always say though is if the group solvency ratio is less important for us, we really tend to emphasize the solvency ratios of the main units. We will continue to do that.
As part of that, if I may just follow up, you're gonna have a gigantic equity stake. How does that get treated in the Solvency II ratio?
Yeah. Very, very simple. We just bring over the own funds, 29.99%, and we bring over 29.99% of the SCR.
Okay. You look through it. Okay. Thank you.
Next question comes from Marcus Rivaldi. Marcus, your line is open.
Hey, good morning, everybody. I've just got one question, please. On the debt deleveraging to come, could you just help me out understanding what the baseline, the start point of your debt position from which you're gonna delever from? Obviously you have an existing debt deleveraging target in place. You've moved towards sort of top end of that on an FX-adjusted basis at half year. Were you already intending to take a bit more down and therefore EUR 700 million would have come on top of that? Or do we start from the EUR 5.4 billion FX number? Thank you.
Thanks, Marcus. Yeah, Matt.
The outstanding leverage that we have as of the second quarter was about EUR 5.7 billion. When we did the second quarter results, we said we're stopping at that point. Now the up to EUR 700 million of additional deleveraging comes off of that number.
Right. Very clear. Thank you.
Okay, your next question comes from Nasib Ahmed. Nasib, your line is open.
Thanks. Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. First question on the free cash flow per share and how that's increasing. If I look at the free cash flow numbers in euros, you're losing about EUR 250 million of free cash flow from the Netherlands, gaining about EUR 160 based on the DPS guided to by ASR. And then you're left about EUR 90 million. Is it roughly half and half of the EUR 90 million made up of debt deleveraging and the rest synergies? I'm just trying to understand just kind of the breakdown of the EUR 90 million, the gap. And then secondly, on the EUR 1.5 billion capital returns, I think you're indicating that it's probably gonna be a share count reduction. Is it going to be a share buyback and over what time?
Is the strategic stake in ASR going to be reduced over time as well, leading to further capital returns? Thanks.
Matt.
Maybe starting with the gross amount of the free cash flow and thinking about the math that you just put together. I mean, if you think about it, an indicative free cash flow number for 2022, pre the deal would be about EUR 730 million. Deduct from that about EUR 250 million, which is the free cash flow for the Netherlands. There are going to be some stranded costs, so deduct about EUR 40 million off of that. Then you have it exactly right. Our stake in the ASR dividend is about EUR 160 million. In general, you're looking at a reduction in the free cash flow, relative to the pre-deal of about 15%-20% in the short term. Now, we get that back.
The idea is that over time, we're gonna get synergies, a synergy benefit, and we are gonna get a benefit from reduced funding costs relative to the deleveraging. That means sort of 15%-20% down in the short term, and then we'll go up by 10%-15%, based on the last numbers that I gave. That's on an absolute basis. But then we have the impact of reducing the share count. Net-net, on a free cash flow per share basis, we would expect to see some accretion.
The point on the share buyback and how will that be executed and over what?
Yes. Sorry. Yeah. The share-
I'll do the third one.
Sorry. On the share buyback, yeah, EUR 1.5 billion is a lot to do in capital returns, so it'll be done in a mechanism that is in a big chunk of it will be share buyback. Then there probably be another piece that will resemble a share buyback. It will be done over a reasonable amount of time. This is not something that we want to extend over a long period of time, but it's gonna take time to absorb that.
Finally, I think your third question on the intentions with the ASR stake. We are a strategic shareholder. Our stake in ASR allows us to be supportive of the integration exercise and allows us to benefit from the, of course, unique synergy potential that the combination brings. That's what we have with the intentions to extract the synergies from the combination.
Good. Thanks, guys.
Okay. Next question comes from Michael Huttner. Michael, your line is open.
Fantastic. Thank you. Well done. You're delivering on your over-delivering. Ask three questions. One is the biggest one for me and what are the risks between now and closing if I'm a shareholder in Aegon? I mean, I don't know. Is it going to be worries about interest rates? Is it going to be worries about the Dutch pension reform, about the regulators? I really don't know. It's a bit of an open question, I apologize for that. The second you said there were synergies in asset management, maybe you can give a figure for that. The third one, you talked about resources for investment, but I don't see any resources.
If you get $2.2 billion cash, you give $1.5 billion to shareholders and $100 million to debt holders, there's no extra cash there for investment in Transamerica. I just wondered what, how that works. I did have last one. I'm really sorry. You're going to be on the Supervisory Board. Presumably you'll be on our side. You'll be saying, "Please, more divvy," which is lovely. You do have a leverage, which is this acceleration of the PIM. Can you talk a little bit about that and how that could benefit Aegon? Thanks.
Yeah. Michael, thanks for all your questions. Now with us in the room is also Duncan Russell. Duncan-
Yeah.
Can you please take those questions?
Okay. Michael Huttner, I think your first question is more or less referring to deal certainty, because obviously nothing changes to the business, and we've worked over the last two and a bit years, and I think we've been quite successful in risk managing our Dutch balance sheet, so there's nothing changing there. With deal certainty, it has to go through the regular approvals, regulatory approvals, competition commission, et cetera, et cetera. We don't see anything there which is kind of unusual at all, to be honest. On asset management, yeah, we've done a deal whereby we are managing parts of their businesses, part of their assets and, part of their general account, the illiquid part of the general account.
We will be a strategic partner for ASR in their pension proposition, which is very important for us in the Netherlands. We'll be managing their part of their PPI proposition. In addition, we will be expanding our strength in the mortgage fund, where, as you know, we are one of the leading asset managers in managing mortgages, and that will get strengthened with the ASR fund there. The net-net of that is value positive and accrete earnings will provide an earnings uplift for our asset management business. Now, that's quite small in the context of a EUR 5 billion deal, but at the asset management level, it's important, it's significant and leaves us well placed for the future.
On the resources for investments, what you'll notice is that we are basically distributing all of the cash we receive from the transaction either in the form of a return of capital, as Matt outlined, or up to EUR 700 million of debt reduction. We'll remain with a very healthy holding company cash capital position, which will be at the top end of our range. The reason we wanna be at the top end of the range is indeed to provide us with the resources to ensure we can invest in our businesses, particularly Transamerica. As you know, we have ambitious growth plans there. We continue to aim to manage the balance sheet and take enhanced management actions just as we have done over the last couple of years.
If we're successful in both of the actions, that may require some cash capital, and that's why we wanna be at the top end of the range. That's what we mean by having resources to fulfill that. I didn't catch the question, Lard, I must say.
This was about, I think, Mike, this was more about what can the benefit of a PIM, there's some language about PIM, and he asked a little bit.
I think that's more directed towards for ASR. Aegon has been an active professional user of an internal model for a long period of time. We have great expertise there. We'll bring that with us to ASR, who have been developing their own model. The combination, I think, as I said, will allow them to accelerate the implementation of the PIM for their units as well, and that over time could be a benefit.
Lard, on the dividend, will you be kind of saying 5%-7%, can we have more, please?
Mike, I will join that, provided the shareholders vote me in and provided the regulators find me fit and proper. I will join that board as a member of the supervisory board to ensure that I support the team in the creation of this Dutch champion. That's what my role will be.
Will you be representative of Aegon?
I will be non-independent because I do have some affirmative votes on some particular items, but that's it.
Okay, cool. Thank you.
Question comes from Benoît Pétrarque. Benoît, your line is open.
Yeah. Good morning. Just a few follow-up questions. Sorry because my line has been cut for a couple of times. On the asset management, just could you recall what you said on that? So you will transfer the core fixed income and basically portfolio asset management to ASR, and you will get the management of the mortgage fund. Is that correct? Why are you keeping TLS and management business in the Netherlands given this transaction? I was trying to understand that also. We've seen some big transaction and disposal on the asset management. What is the future of the asset management piece of Aegon in the Netherlands? Just maybe.
I don't know if this question has been asked, but what is the future of Aegon in terms of why are you keeping the holding in the Netherlands? What is the future of the listing in the Netherlands, considering this deal? Thank you.
On asset management, I'd like to hand over to Duncan Russell. Thank you, Benoît.
No, thanks for the question. Benoît, maybe just to outline the philosophy of what we were trying to achieve. Both parties wanted to strengthen their asset management capabilities. They are, ASR is strengthening where they have some good expertise, and we are strengthening areas where we have expertise. For example, we will manage their liquid portfolio. We'll manage a mortgage fund, as I said, and we will be their partner on the PPI investment side. We feel on the back of this that we are strengthening our proposition in the Netherlands and also as part of a global asset manager. That was the base philosophy, is trying to create a win-win situation for both of our companies.
Okay.
Yeah, when it comes to, I think, one of your predecessors asked the same question, but I will quickly answer it again. We have our head office, we've disclosed today that we intend to keep our head office in the Netherlands. We have a lot of activities here. We've got a large asset management presence here, it's not gonna relate to this, number one. Number two, we have just announced this morning a transaction. We want to create a Dutch champion together with ASR, where we have a 30% stake. So that'll to ensure that we extract also the synergistic value of all that. We are used to operate a company with a very large presence in other markets. We are content with our head office here.
Just maybe what could be the long-term holding cost base, let's say in 2025, with kind of reduced activity also, reduced presence in the Netherlands?
That's too early to tell. The corporate center in the Netherlands has two core activities, right? The first role they have is to make sure that we can fulfill all the requirements of a listed group with all its external stakeholders. That's number one. Number two, it's to support the businesses that it has. The corporate center will adapt to whatever the composition of the group is. It always has, and it will do that again, but it's too early to tell what the exact impact of that would be.
Great. Thank you very much, and well done.
Ashik.
Another question comes from Ashik Musaddi. Ashik, your line is open.
Thank you and good morning, Lard, Duncan, and Matt. Just a couple of questions I have. By the way, well done on this deal. Really good one. Just couple of questions. First of all, I mean, is there any relevance of the group solvency ratio anymore, given that your Dutch business is gone? And is there any diversification benefit between U.K., Spain and U.S, and does that matter at all now? That's the first question. I.e., would it prevent you to sell U.K. o r Spain for any reason, et cetera? That's my first question. Second is, I mean, I guess in your cash flow waterfall, you're using EUR 2.2 billion proceeds from the sale. Is that the base case or is that a worst case?
Okay, what if ASR has to raise equity and then in case you have to participate in that? Or would you say, "No, this is the base case that you get EUR 2 billion net cash because ASR will raise equity." That's the second question I'm trying to understand. Thirdly is, the EUR 5 billion net debt you have, I mean, debt less your deleveraging plan, how comfortable are you with that number? Because. The reason I'm asking is, I mean, ultimately you have sold down business worth EUR 5 billion and you're only deleveraging EUR 700 million at the moment. Is it fair to say that you'll deleverage as and when you reduce the stake in ASR? Or how do you think about the EUR 5 billion debt now? Thank you.
Thanks, Ashik. I'm gonna take one question and the remainder will be answered by Matt. You said something about the activities in the U.K. or others. Let's go back to what we said at the 2020, so the Capital Markets Day that we had two and a half years ago. We outlined our strategy, which is that we focus on core markets, which are the U.S.., the U.K., the Netherlands, and then our global asset management business and the growth markets, the Iberian Peninsula, Brazil, and China. That's what we're doing and keep doing. This transaction that we announced today is in line with that strategy. The U.K.., for instance, is core to our group. For the remaining questions, Matt, over to you. About the relevance of the group Solvency II ratio, doesn't matter, the capital or the quality.
On the group Solvency II ratio, we've always said that it has limited meaning even now, given our current construction. We tend to emphasize the solvency ratios of the major business units. Now, the group solvency ratio in a Solvency II context will have even less meaning going forward once we've closed the deal. On the cash flow, again, EUR 2.5 billion gross, EUR 2.2 billion net. We have assumed that they will do a 10% equity offering, and that is within their existing authorization. If it's different than that, then that number could change. On the deleveraging, I mentioned in the earlier question, we have about EUR 5.7 billion of total leverage outstanding now. We intend to bring that down by up to EUR 700 million. Effectively, what you're seeing is about a 12% reduction in the overall leverage. That is really commensurate with the reduction that we will see in free cash flows and earnings. It sort of makes sense to target that.
Okay. That's very clear. Thank you.
Now I'd like to hand back the call to Lard Friese for closing remarks.
Yes. Thank you, operator, and thank you all on the call for your questions. Let me conclude by saying that we are pleased to announce the combination of our Dutch pension, life and non-life insurance, banking and mortgage origination activities with ASR. I am convinced that the combination of our companies is in the best long-term interest of all stakeholders, including our shareholders. It further improves the outlook on the free cash flow per share and enables us to raise our dividend target while maintaining a strong balance sheet. What's more, the increased focus and resources resulting from this transaction will place us in a better position for future growth of the company. On behalf of Matt, Duncan, and the wider team, I would like to thank you very much for your attention and have a good rest of your day.