Dear shareholders, welcome to the annual general meeting of ALK. Thank you for taking the time to be with us, both those of you who are here in Hørsholm and those who are following via the webcast. I am Anders Hedegaard. I'm chair of the ALK's board. I'm sorry I failed to mention that initially. Anyway, the board has been looking forward to telling you about our development and how we see the future. We also look forward to have a dialogue with you insofar as you have any questions or comments that you wish to put to us. Before we get to that point, there are some formalities that need to be dealt with. According to the articles of association, it's the board that appoints the chair of the general meeting.
Once again, we have asked, Mr. Niels Kornerup from law firm Bech-Bruun to act in that capacity. You have the floor.
Thank you very much for appointing me, chair of the AGM of ALK-Abelló. I hope we'll have a good AGM and a good debate. My first task is to ensure that the AGM has been legally convened and is competent for the transaction of the business of the agenda. Prior to the AGM, I made sure that the notice convening the AGM complies with the legislation and the articles of association, and I want to ask if anybody disagrees with me. Otherwise, I will add this to the minutes. It's legally been convened. Before we started at the entrance point, we could see there are 74 people here. 39 have voting rights, and the rest are invited guests, et cetera.
Before we started, I saw that 87% of the votes are represented after deduction of treasury shares, and that makes up 77% of the share capital. The board has received some proxies and postal votes, which make up 99% of the represented capital with voting rights and 99% of the votes. The final numbers will appear from the minutes of this AGM. At previous AGMs, we have gone through the Danish Companies Act, and that requires a complete record of the voting, which would be necessary for each vote and each decision unless the AGM decides not to make use of that complete record. We have looked away from that requirement in previous years, and I look at people if you agree with me to do the same again this year. Thank you.
The people who want the floor, I ask you to contact me with your access card or something else with your name on, and then I will give you the floor. I ask that people come up here to speak from the rostrum. The agenda is on the screen now and has also been sent out. We start with item 1, report on the activities of the company. Item 2, approval of the annual report and resolution to discharge the Board of Directors and the Board of Management. Item 3, resolution on allocation of profits. Item 4, adoption of remuneration report for 2025. Item 5, adoption of the remuneration to the Board for the present year. Item 6, election of the chair of the Board. Election of the vice chairs, item 7. Item 8, election of other members of the Board of Directors.
Item 9, appointment of auditor. Item 10 is a proposal from the Board of Directors. There's only one. That's an update of the remuneration policy. We finish with item 8, any other business. With that, we're ready to dive into the agenda proper, and as usual here in ALK, we'll cover items 1 to 4 as one, and we'll also have the debate for items 1 to 4 as one. Now we are to have the report of the activities, approval of the annual report, resolution of allocation of profits, and remuneration report for 2025. With that, I give the floor to the Chairman of the Board, Anders Hedegaard.
Thank you. Now, before I get too deeply into the year 2025, which in itself was an impressive year, I think it's worthwhile to dwell a little on ALK's development in recent years. It's been nothing short of impressive and provided us with strong growth. In 2018, revenue was below DKK 3 billion and the operating profit was negative. Today, we have revenue upwards of DKK 6 billion and an operating profit of almost DKK 1.7 billion, and this represents an annual revenue growth rate of 12% and an EBIT margin that went from -3% to +26%. 2025 thus became the seventh consecutive year of growth in ALK revenue, and it's not just growth. It represents a fundamental transformation of the company. The impressive numbers are the result of significant investments in research and development, in markets, in production, and in products.
Especially in our tablet portfolio. In other words, we're a fundamentally stronger company today. We have a well-documented ability to grow, we have improved profitability, and we have created value for shareholders. In fact, our market value at the end of 2025 was almost 5x as high as at the end of 2018. This brings me to talk a bit more about 2025, because that year, despite several years of strong growth, was new and trailblazing for us. It surpassed our expectations at the start of the year, and I'd like to focus on three milestones. First of all, we reached 500,000 new patients, which means that 3.1 million people were treated with an ALK product in 2025. That's important. The rise in new patients is a good indicator of future growth.
The second milestone is revenue growth. It came to 15% in local currencies and gave us revenue of DKK 6.3 billion. It's the first time we have passed the DKK 6 billion mark, and it was more than we expected at the beginning of the year, when the target was growth between 9% and 13%. The third milestone is earnings. EBIT increased by as much as 53%, and the EBIT margin, as I mentioned, ended at 26% compared to 20% the year before. This meant that we achieved our long-term ambition of a profit margin of 25%. It's a milestone we've been working towards since 2020 when the margin was as low as 4%, and this is a level that we wish to maintain until 2028 while we continue to invest in growth.
Against this backdrop and our solid position in general, the board proposes to resume paying dividend to shareholders, a total of DKK 355 million for 2025 or DKK 1.6 per share. I'll get back to this later. ALK is present in many parts of the world, and we operate in 3 regions. It's Europe, it's North America, and then we have what we call international markets. We have seen double-digit growth in all regions this year, and we see broad and stable progress, which is not driven by one single country or one single product. Europe remains our largest region. It accounts for 75% of revenue, and this is around DKK 4.5 billion. We grew 18% across the board, including in Germany and France, which are our key markets.
Growth in Europe was mainly contributed by tablets, up 19%, partly from new patients, including children and adolescents, and partly because patients starting treatment previously now make up a larger proportion, and it creates stable growing volume. An important event was that the ACARIZAX tablet against house dust mites and the ITULAZAX tablet against tree pollen were approved for children and launched in a number of markets. This all went far better than we expected. Another important event was that these two tablets were also approved for adoption in the healthcare system in the U.K., The first allergy tablets ever to achieve this backed with reimbursement. We're continuing our efforts to work to make the tablets more accessible in order for us to help even more patients, including children. The tablets will be our primary growth engine for many years to come.
Injection and drop-based treatments also grew, but on a more modest level in Europe by 3%, partly influenced by the conversion to tablets from the drop-based products. In anaphylaxis, acute life-threatening allergic reactions, Jext was the main growth driver. neffy, our new adrenaline nasal spray, which was launched in Germany last summer, produced its first positive results. In North America, which contributes 60% of revenue, we achieved a sales increase of 19%. In the USA, we saw the first signs that allergists and pediatricians are starting to prescribe our tablet treatments for children and adolescents. It takes time to build relationships with a wider range of doctors, but we're getting there. We're seeing the first indications of success there.
Anaphylaxis and other products grew by 34% in North America, partly thanks to the collaborative effort with our partner, ARS Pharma, on marketing neffy. In Canada, there is still strong demand for tablets, and it was supported further by the approval for use in children. In international markets, which account for 13% of revenue, sales grew by 16%. In China, revenue increased as delivery is normalized after the renewal of our import license in late 2024. Partnerships are an important part of our strategy. In China, in the fourth quarter, we transferred the sales and marketing activities for all our products to our new partner, GenSci. We expect a lot from this cooperation, not least after the launch of our house dust mite tablet. In Japan, the timing of delivery, deliveries affected tablet sales, especially in the second half of the year when revenue was slightly down.
Our partner Torii, now part of Shionogi, is seeing strong demand in Japan, so long-term growth prospects remain very good in that country. In short, 2025 was about good execution and clear priorities. Gross profit increased to DKK 4.2 billion, and the gross margin rose by three percentage points to 67% due to higher volumes, a better sales mix, and efficiency improvements in production. In other words, we are seeing clear economies of scale in the business. This gives us room to invest in future growth. Research and development expenses rose by 15%. Other costs grew significantly less than sales did, which meant that the ratio of total costs to turnover fell to 41%. The excellent operating result meant that we reached a net profit of over DKK 1 billion for the first time ever.
For you, our shareholders, it's important for the results to be reflected in the free cash flows. They were positive at DKK 1.4 billion compared to DKK -204 million in 2024. It's this type of cash flow that, together with low debt, allows us to resume paying dividends to shareholders. Our Allergy+ strategy previously launched is now well underway. 2026 is largely about carrying on the good work. In 2025 our focus was clear. We planned to launch tablets for children, and we did this, but it still demands a great deal of commitment across the organization and targeted work with both doctors, patients, and authorities in all countries. The work is bearing fruit. The biggest part of the increase in treated patients, more than 300,000, came from tablets.
Here children and adolescents now make up a larger proportion of the intake of new patients. Late in the year, more than 4,000 doctors in our direct markets had already prescribed one of our tablets for children. Our partnerships, particularly in Japan, have supported this progress. In 2026, we will continue to roll out to children in the markets where we already have a good foothold. We also expect to launch tablets in new markets, so more allergy sufferers have access to our treatments, including children, adolescents, and adults. Within anaphylaxis, we are running the early market rollout of neffy in Europe and in the U.S., and we have collaboration with ARS which helps extend our reach and our insight into the American allergy market.
The task is clear. neffy has to succeed, and it takes a lot of effort to change the ingrained practice of treating anaphylaxis with needle-based adrenaline pens, as was the standard previously. The potential is great, and the initial feedback bodes well for the establishment of neffy in the long term. In food allergy, our peanut tablet is in phase II. We hope to be able to publish results from this in the second quarter of this year, and we hope that they will pave the way for a pivotal phase III study later in 2026. We are also working with other food allergies, including tree nuts and other new disease areas. Urticaria is one of the allergy-related diseases that we are focusing on. It's a skin disease. It causes great discomfort and new treatment options will really be able to make a real difference.
In partnership with ARS, we have a program in phase II, and we look forward with great interest to the clinical results that we expect to see later this year. We also have other strategic priorities in 2026 that will hopefully materialize in future. We're expanding production capacity significantly from around 350 million - 400 million tablets today to upwards of 1 billion after 2030. We're constantly working to improve our infrastructure and our tools, including IT and AI. Finally, we're always looking for opportunities for new partnerships and business development. Overall, we are well on track to achieve our strategic ambitions, and we are on course to help 5 million people a year with allergy by 2030. Sustainability is an integral part of the way we do business, and we delivered good results in 2025 across our five focus areas.
The most important thing is the patients. I've mentioned that in 2025 we've treated 3.1 million patients with our products. Even though we are treating more people, we have also reduced our absolute CO2 emissions by 11% since 2022. The goal remains a reduction of 42% by 2030. Our water consumption has also been reduced by 55% compared to the year before, primarily by the way we rotate crops in our fields that are used for our treatments. We owe a big thank you to our employees here, but I'll return to that. It's important to include all parameters all in the sales, research and development, and sustainability.
To ensure that executive pay is on a par with comparable Danish companies, the board of directors conducts an annual review of the executive board remuneration every year. We look at both the base salary and the total remuneration, and we also assess the balance between fixed and variable pay to ensure that it falls within the bounds of the remuneration policy and the market standards. It's part of our annual review, and of course, we've also done that in 2025. When we see an increase in remuneration, it's very much because in 2025 we firstly looked at our benchmarks in other companies, and there the base salary for our CEO and our CFO increases by 9%. For other members of the executive board, we follow the general increase among ALK employees in Denmark.
Bonuses and long-term incentives are linked to clear goals, financial targets, and sustainability targets. In 2025, where we have such excellent results, there's also a larger payout of variable remuneration. The full remuneration appears from the Remuneration Report, which is available on ALK's website. We'll deal with the Board of Directors under item 5 in the agenda. The Board's activity level was high in 2025. We had a total of 10 Board meetings, one of them being a seminar focusing on ALK's growth strategy that was launched in 2024. There were further 14 meetings in the three committees set up by the Board. Throughout the year, we also had a close dialogue with the committees and the Executive Team.
We're also working on other elements of our business development, including capital structure, cybersecurity, AI, international trade, and international affairs, such as the U.S. and China. The annual self-evaluation of the board confirmed that we have a strong commitment and good cooperation in the board of directors, and when there are need for adjustments, we make these adjustments. When we look at our ambition toward 2028, our activities reflect that we have a very good company that is run well, and we have an ambition to grow the company with at least 10% toward 2028, and we maintain that ambition. We maintain our EBIT margin of around 25% as our goal. If we make more money, we will spend that money on investments in future growth for ALK.
In the capital structure, we want the net interest-bearing debt to be at maximum of two times the EBITDA, and we don't want any excess liquidity on the balance sheet. The strong results gave us something specific in 2025. Strong cash flows and financial flexibility. At the end of the year, we had a net of DKK 800 million in the bank. That's liquid funds with the deduction of debt. Financial discipline is at least as important in tailwinds as in headwinds, so we have three clear priorities for the liquidity. Our first priority is organic growth. It's about investing where the business needs to grow, both when we look at production capacity, R&D, and everything else that's needed to strengthen our market positions. Our second priority is partnerships and business development.
Commercial collaborations, development of partnerships, or acquisitions that can support this strategy. Our third priority is to give something back to shareholders through dividends and/or share buyback programs. Of course, that's when we judge that we cannot create greater value by investing the money in organic growth or other acquisitions. The point is that the increase in cash flows now give us room to invest and develop the business and also reward our shareholders. On this basis, the board proposes a dividend of DKK 355 million for 2025. That's DKK 1.6 per share, or about 30% of the net profit for the year. It's an important marker. The dividend reflects our strength right now and the board's belief that we will continue to create value in the future.
In 2025, the ALK share rose by 44%, which means it's more than doubled over the past two years. This is significantly better than both the C25 and the global healthcare stocks that we normally compare ourselves against. At the end of the year, our market value was around DKK 46 billion, placing ALK among the 20 largest listed companies in Denmark. We see this as a mark of confidence in our strategy from our shareholders. Finally, I would like to say a few words about our expectations for 2026. We believe in solid growth in revenue and earnings in line with our long-term ambitions. Revenue is expected to grow by 11%-15% in local currencies, and the EBIT margin is expected to reach around 25%.
Tablet sales are expected to show double-digit growth again, due mainly to a larger number of patients, including an increasing proportion of children and adolescents. Sales of anaphylaxis are also expected to see double-digit growth, driven especially by our new product, neffy. Injection and drop-based treatments, our legacy products, are expected to grow in single digits based on higher volumes in China and better prices in North America. With moderate growth in Europe, partly due to the switch to tablets that I mentioned earlier. In contrast to 2025, we expect the gross margin to decline slightly in 2026. This is mainly because a larger portion of revenue is coming from partner sales, where the margin is typically lower. Research and development costs will increase, but will remain around 10% of revenue. Sales and marketing costs are also expected to increase.
We expect the ratio of capacity costs to revenue to be unchanged in 2026. This is because we reinvest the gains from economies of scale from our existing platforms to ensure long-term growth. Finally, we expect positive cash flow of up to DKK 1 billion and CapEx investments around DKK 500 million. Overall, we enter 2026 in good shape, and we will continue to make progress while investing massively in the future. Now, this gives me the chance to say a thank you to everyone at ALK, particularly our employees around the world, and also a thank you to our partners and our customers, of course. They helped make 2025 a year of strong execution and high activity. I'm pleased to see that employee engagement has increased further, and it remains in the top five.
In the top 5% in the international healthcare industry. This says something about our culture and the will to make ALK a better company. It's simply about helping people with allergy to live better lives, and that's a goal everyone at ALK works strongly for. With these words, I would like to hand back to the Chair, and I ask you to approve the annual report, the remuneration report, and the allocation of profit, and to discharge the board of directors and the board of management from liability. Thank you.
Thank you for the management's report for 2025, the annual report, the remuneration report, and also the proposal for distribution of profit. I can inform you that both board and management have signed the annual report, and there have been no qualifications from the company's auditor, so it's a clean endorsement. I refer you to page 137 to 140 in the printed version of the annual report. Also, the auditor has produced limited assurance report in relation to sustainability, and that also appears in the annual report. As stated, the board proposes that a total dividend be paid for fiscal 2025 amounting to DKK 355 million or DKK 1.6 per share. With this, I'd like to open the floor. I have two speakers on the list. The first, it represents ATP, one of the major institutional pension funds. Claus Berner , you have the floor, sir.
Thank you. I am Claus Berner Møller . I represent ATP. First of all, I'd like to thank you for the report and the review of the annual report. In 2025, ALK achieved another level of organic growth, 15%, the same as in 2024, and an EBIT margin of 25%. That was the target, and it was achieved. It came as high as 26%. The considerable top-line growth was contributed, among others, by products in the U.S. and in Europe, where now children can receive the tablets in many cases. Also, there was considerable growth of 34%, produced primarily by Jext and neffy, and that bodes well for growth in future years.
It's very satisfactory to see the financial performance, in particular because they have been achieved while also focusing on the long-term value creation. The guidance for next year with organic revenue growth of 11%-15% and also an EBIT margin that is maintained around 25% is witness of a management that thinks in the long term and is ready to invest in commercial activities, business development, and R&D. The wider pipeline is beginning to take shape. In second quarter this year, we will have the phase II results for peanut tablets, and it's going to be interesting to see whether we can move on to phase III.
ARS Pharma gets data from their phase II study in urticaria later this year and ALK has the rights to market neffy in the same areas, and that might be an upside in relation to the positive development that we have already seen the first signs of. When a company grows fast, it's important for the entire organization to be able to hang on and keep in step with the rest of it. In ALK, we have previously seen challenges. I would like to ask you about the production setup in this company. Nine production sites, is that the best possible setup? Do you have the right system in place to increase as you have talked about in your forecast? Last, I'd like to say thank you and congratulations to board and management for the achievements.
Thank you to Claus Berner from ATP. There were a couple of specific questions, and the chair will now answer.
Well, thank you to Claus . Thank you for showing us so much trust. I will hand over to our CEO because he will be able to answer your questions concerning the production setup much better than I am.
Thank you also from me to Claus, and also thank you to the chair for allowing me to answer this question. Well, first of all, it's important for us and in ALK's management to make sure that we have a strong and robust production setup. It's a strong focus area, not only for tablets but for all our facilities. We have a target of doubling tablet production in future. We work together with a partner to ensure that that happens, and we are already looking into 2030, where we will be delivering, according to plan, upwards of 1 billion tablets. The production facilities, well, it's important to say that we are a pharma company, and in a pharma company, we are subject to a number of regulatory requirements that makes it difficult for us to optimize by moving lines about.
Every single day, we have to live up to all the standards and requirements that surround us, so we can take an example. The four facilities that work with tablet production, which is the biggest part of our product portfolio. We have production facilities in the U.S. and Denmark, the U.K. and Spain, and they are all part of the value chain in relation to tablet production. We are working to make sure that that works well, also by expanding our cooperation with Catalent so that we get a new line in the U.K., but possibly also in some of the in another location, in Canada, for instance. We really work to ensure high quality, strong production, and a production system that makes sure that if we get hikes in production requirements, that the things that work as they should.
Stocks. We are always checking our stock levels, and if all of a sudden we have a challenge in our value chain, we have a system in place to take account of that. We are having this in focus. We do everything we can to ensure a stable production and also a growth possibility, also in future. Thank you.
That was a response to ATP from the CEO and the chairman of the board. There's another speaker that has asked for the floor, Mr. Björn Hansson. If anybody else would like the floor, please, signal to me while Björn makes his way up here.
My name is Björn Hansson, and I represent private shareholders both in Denmark and abroad. Thank you for the report. That was a fine report. It was also nice to hear that the CEO knows what's going on in his company. That's certainly my impression. We all know our chairman of the board, chairman of the AGM. He's probably one, the best one in Denmark. You have some very good people here, also a very good deputy chairman of the board. Now, my first question, mainly about the audit, but also for you. Artificial intelligence, what does this cost a year for your company? Secondly, how much does IT cost a year? And now markets, maybe the CEO knows this best. I would actually like to see a few things in Danish.
I don't need 400 pages on climate, but I would like to know a bit about China. I understand there's a partner company, and that's all well and good. As long as we don't leave too much activity out there. I believe firmly in the free trade agreement with India and the EU. Now, the production of the tablets, I think it's important that production is in the EU, and I would propose other than that you start up quickly with production in India after the free trade agreement. India is a large country, but maybe the area of Punjab would be good. I mean, it sounds a bit British, I know, but I think we have good experiences from there, and it would make a good opportunity to enter the Indian market and have production there.
I think India could be the source of enormous growth in future also for ALK. If just one in a thousand would become patients, that would certainly have a large effect on the bottom line for ALK. Again, I would like to see some text in Danish so that we can understand some numbers about the various markets. When it comes to markets other than India, I would like to see something in maybe a newsletter. I don't know whether you have any newsletters we could sign up for. It's certainly a while since I've received anything, but this is a good stable company. You also do a lot of research, and I assume that most of the research takes place here, but I would like to know for certain.
I would like to ask, do you produce anything here in this area, on this location? Is there any production here? Thank you for the floor and all the best for your future endeavors.
Thank you, Mr. Björn Hansson. There were some questions, and our CEO, Peter Halling, will answer those questions.
Thank you very much, Mr. Björn Hansson. I'll try to answer everything. It's a good test of my knowledge of the company. I think there were about six questions, so I'll try to answer them all. Firstly, if we look at AI and also IT. IT, I can give you an overall figure. It's less than 5% of our costs is in administration, and part of that is IT. Then of course we have a continued investments in capacity, and part of that is also IT.
We invest about DKK 500 million a year in both physical facilities but also in IT, cyber infrastructure, including AI. What's important to say about AI is that it's a brand-new world for us. ALK has been on this journey for a number of years with digitalization. We have worked to get the right databases so that we can work with AI, and that means looking at AI now. We have eight projects that we run internally. It's from R&D to marketing, so we work both with the external part of the world and in research. We'll use it in our peanut study among other things, and we use AI to analyze data. Last year, we trained more than 1,200 employees in ChatGPT, which most of you know, and we're continuously working to integrate it in our daily work.
Something that the employees appreciate so that they have time and resources to work with this. AI is also part of our future. The last thing I want to say about that is AI is changing the world. We fully understand that it has a number of implications. We have the size we have as a company, so we depend on good partnerships with others. That means that both our IT department and the rest of the company look at AI daily, both to look for new tools, but also to ensure that the tools available function in our regulatory area because that does set quite clear limits to what we can do. The short answer is AI is here to stay, and we make sure that our employees are trained for the future use of it.
You asked about China and GenSci, but you also mentioned India. Well, India, we are already in that market. We work with Dr. Reddy's, which is an Indian pharma company, and last year we launched ACARIZAX in India. It is rolled out now as part of our partner strategy in Asia and the Middle East, where we work with various partners. We chose Dr. Reddy's in India. It's also a very young market, you might say. Both patients and doctors are not that trained in our products, but we have actually had visits from Indian doctors and work with them to help train them so they can help develop the allergy market in India. We are starting, it's very small numbers now, single digit millions last year, Danish krona. We think the market has a great deal of potential.
As you mentioned, it's a market just as large as the Chinese one, which, where we now have GenSci as a partner. You asked about free trade. Of course, with the EU-India Free Trade Agreement, which of course also includes Denmark, it improves our relationship with India, and we'll continue to work in that direction. We don't expect to invest any differently because we have an Indian partnership. You asked about newsletters. The way we communicate to the market is through press releases. For instance, when we have new opportunities, new approvals, and we have actually mentioned India in one of them. We also have our quarterly reports. Of course, we are obligated to announce major events, such as when we get a readout on our peanut study here, expected in May. You also asked about R&D, where we do it and how.
The short response is it happens not very far away from here, across the street, where we have research facilities and we have very competent researchers. We invest a lot in research. About 10% of our revenue is spent on research, and a lot of it is done here in Denmark. You also asked about production, whether we produce in Denmark. Actually, that's also across the street from here. We have part of our production and very good employees and colleagues there who work to ensure that we have plenty of product also for our tablets to ensure that we can export from Denmark. That was the long answer to all the questions, and I hope I answered them all.
Thank you to the CEO for the reply to the question from the shareholder or the six questions from the shareholder. Any other requests for the floor? That does not seem to be the case. I will then conclude that we have concluded the debate. I will also ask if the AGM will accept that I find that you have now taken note of the report. You've approved the annual report for 2025. You have discharged members of board of management of their responsibilities, approved the remuneration report for 2025, and approved the proposed distribution of profit proposed by the board. That appears to be the case. Thank you very much. I will make sure that this is entered into the protocol. We have now concluded our discussion and debate in relation to items 1 to 4.
We will now embark on item 5, which is adoption of the remuneration to the Board of Directors for the present year. The proposal is that the basic fee to the Board and remuneration to members of, and the Chair of the Audit Committee remain unchanged in relation to the amounts paid in 2025. Which means that Board members for the present year, which is 2026, will receive a basic fee of DKK 400,000. The Vice Chair of the Board will get DKK 800,000 in remuneration, twice the basic fee, and the Chair of the Board will get DKK 1.2 million, i.e. three times the basic fee.
It will also appear from the convening notice that the members of the Remuneration & Nomination Committee and the Scientific Committee will receive a remuneration of DKK 100,000 , which and that corresponds also to the level paid out in 2025. The chair of the Remuneration & Nomination Committee and the Scientific Committee will get DKK 150, 000. That is also the same as in 2025. The Audit Committee, according to the proposal, members will get DKK 140,000, and the chair of the Audit Committee will get DKK 210 ,000. Any comments or questions? That doesn't seem to be the case. I take it then that the proposal has been adopted.
Now we will vote about, or rather we're going to deal with item 6, election of Chair of the Board of Directors. I refer you to the convening notice according to which, there is a complete outline in Annex 1 of the other positions of Mr. Hedegaard, the current Chair. If there are no objections, I take it now that he has been re-elected. There are no objections. Congratulations. Item 7 has to do with electing a Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, and here the proposal is the re-election of the Vice Chair, Lene Skole. You will also find a list in Annex 1 of the convening notice of Lene Skole's other managerial positions, et cetera. Any other candidates or objections? That doesn't seem to be the case. I find then that Lene Skole has been re-elected for a period of one year. Congratulations.
Next item is item 8, election of other members of the board of directors, and I will now hand over the floor to the chair who will explain the candidacies. You have the floor, sir.
Tak. Thank you. According to the articles of association, the members elected by the AGM are up for election every year. You have already re-elected the chair and the vice chair, and on behalf of Lene Skole and myself, I would like to thank you for that. The board also proposes that all other members be re-elected. They are Gitte Aabo, Lars Holmqvist, Jesper Høiland, Bertil Lindmark, and Alan Main. The candidates are presented in the convening notice and in the annual report where you can see their positions, areas of expertise, other directorships, et cetera. We believe the candidates still have the skills needed for the board to represent the interest of the company and our shareholders.
All candidates have international management experience from various industries, with particular insights into management and globalization of research-driven companies. We have seven members elected by the AGM. Five of them are independent, while Lene Skole and Lars Holmqvist are not independent in for corporate governance purposes because they're affiliated with ALK's main shareholder The Lundbeck Foundation. As I said at last year's AGM, 2025 was the first year in which a new Gender Balance Act took effect. The act contains stricter requirements to ensure that there's a balance between men and women on a board of directors.
Today, two out of the seven members elected by the AGM are women. Among the employee elected members, there are three women and one man. According to the act, the two groups have to be assessed separately. After today's election, we still do not meet the target laid down by the legislation for there's to be an equal gender distribution at the latest 30th of June this year. The board of directors will continue its efforts to achieve an equal gender distribution among the members of the board. Among other things, we'll do it by focusing on women to be prioritized when candidates are equally qualified. We'll also strengthen the candidate pipeline and recruitment process when we need to ensure a new candidate pool.
On the agenda, I would like to point out that four employee elected members have been elected for a four-year period. They are Project Director Katja Barnkob, Senior QA Manager Nanna Rassov Carlson, Senior Maintenance Supporter Johan Smedsrud , and Project Director Lise Lund Mærkedahl . The employee representatives make an important contribution and participate with all other members of the board to ensure that the board makes the right decisions and discuss the right subject matters. I would like both for myself and for the rest of the board to thank them warmly for their work. With that, I hand the floor back to the chair of the AGM.
I'd like to hear if there are any other candidates in addition to the four that we already have. That doesn't seem to be the case. I find then that Gitte Aabo, Lars Holmqvist, Jesper Høiland, Bertil Lindmark, and Alan Main have all been re-elected for a period of one year. Congratulations. We've now come to item 9, appointment of auditor. The proposal is that PwC Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab be re-elected. It will appear from a convening notice that this election both has to do with audit services and also the production of reports in relation to sustainability reports from the company.
I also need to inform you that the proposal is in accordance with a recommendation from the audit committee that was not produced without any impact from third parties, and which is not subject to any agreement with a third party which limits the AGM's election of auditor. Are there any other candidates? That is not the case. PwC Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab has been re-elected auditor of the company. We've now reached item 10 on the agenda, proposal from the board, the only one from the board this year, and it has to do with an update of the remuneration policy. The proposal is that the remuneration policy be updated to increasingly be in better keeping with practice in the market. This to enable the business to better attract and retain qualified employees.
There is also a proposal to change the threshold values for the short and long-term incentive program so that the target bonus can account for up to 75% of a manager's base salary rather than 50% as before. According to the remuneration policy, the maximum bonus can amount to twice the amount in the target bonus. The maximum bonus will now be able to go to 150% compared with previous 100%. I'm not saying that this will automatically happen. The board simply wishes to be possible to assign higher target bonuses. The board also proposes to remove the possibility of using share options in the long-term incentive program. In future, the company will only use results-dependent attributions of shares. This is the same model as is operated by other Danish companies.
Generally, I will refer you to the report on the remuneration policy situation which has been available on the company's website before the AGM. Any requests for the floor? That doesn't seem to be the case. I take this to mean that you have approved the updated remuneration policy which will apply for the company going forward. Thank you very much. I'll make sure this is entered in the protocol. Which brings us to the last item on the agenda, which is any other business. Anything's possible here apart from putting forward proposals. Any requests for the floor? There is a request for the floor. Mr. Björn Hansson has requested the floor. You have the floor, sir.
Just one. I think there are one or two Swedes in the board, and when we go to AGMs in Sweden, we get the annual report in Swedish and in English, and we even get it in Finnish in some places. That's a great service, and we would like to see the same here. The information I would like to have is. Oh, I was about to take the microphone home with me, I think. Who has how many shares in the board of directors and the executive board? I'm sure some people have shares, and that's good because I really support that.
I would also like to ask for tax purposes. There are many other older Novo Nordisk employees who received shares, and they thought they were tax-free, and they really have to fight for that now. I hope ALK won't end in that situation. I hope if you get shares, they have to be tax-free. I mean, the tax should be planned differently. Thank you for the floor.
Thank you, Mr. Björn Hansson, and the chairman of the board will answer the questions.
I think there were three questions there. Firstly, that our annual report is in English. Well, our releases and notices are sent out in both Danish and English. The annual report is only in English, and that's because we are an international company. We're very much focused on the external market, and that's also a question of cost. There's another question, which is about how many shares each of us owns. It appears from the annual report. I can't say off the cuff who owns how many shares, but it's in the annual report, both for the board of directors and for the board of management. The shares owned by members of the board have all been acquired normally from the stock exchange. It's not something that has been paid for or supplied by the company.
Now, the last part, I have to refer you to next Tuesday when there's a general election here in Denmark, and I certainly understand your thoughts about the tax system.
Thank you very much for the answer. Any other requests for the floor? That doesn't seem to be the case. Right. Thus, we have now exhausted the items on the agenda. Thank you for good and orderly meeting. I will now resign as chair and hand over the meeting to the Chair of the Board.
Thank you. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank you for attending today. Thank you to shareholders who have turned up. Thank you for the debate, and of course, also thank you to those who have attended via the webcast. I am deeply grateful that the most competent chair of AGMs in Denmark made sure, with his good and competent management strategy, that we dealt with this under an hour. Well done. There will now be light refreshments in the foyer. You can meet members of the board and the executive leadership. We look forward to that, and we look forward to seeing you again next year. Thank you.