[Foreign language]
Welcome. Firstly, there are no planned fire drills today. In the event of a fire alarm, you must leave the room immediately and proceed out of the building. Once outside, please go to one of the assembly points. Emergency exits are displayed on the screen behind me, and they're marked in red. If the alarm sounds, please follow the directions given by our staff. The Board of Directors has appointed Attorney at Law Anders Stubbe Arndal as the chair of the meeting, and I will leave the floor to him. Go ahead, Anders.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. As chair of the meeting, my task is to make sure that we comply with the legal requirements of the AGM in accordance with legislation and the articles of association. I also have a few practical remarks. If you want to take the floor during the debate on an item on the agenda, please come up here and take a seat to my left. If you show your access card to Mr. Ulrik Jarlov from the legal department of Ørsted, Ulrik will note down the names of the speakers on a speakers list that he will give to me. I will then introduce the speakers and make sure that everyone gets their turn. Should you need to leave the room during the general meeting, please don't forget to bring your access card if you want to re-enter the room.
If you want to leave the AGM completely before the end of the agenda, please make it known to one of the guards outside so that they can escort you to the exit upstairs. The AGM today is broadcast live via Ørsted's website with video as well as sound from the podium and the rostrum. I ask that the press do not take any photos or record any video during the AGM. If you do see a photographer, it will be the internal photographer of Ørsted. After these practical remarks, my first task is to conclude whether the AGM is lawfully convened and quorate to transact the business on the agenda. I can conclude that the meeting is held in Greater Copenhagen in accordance with the articles of association.
I can also conclude that the notice, including the complete proposals, were sent out on the 17 March via email to those shareholders who had registered their email address or via ordinary mail, and on that same date, it was published on the company's website in accordance with Article 6.5 and 15.3 in the Articles of Association and Section 95 in the Danish Companies Act. The notice with the total number of shares and voting rights and the forms for proxies and postal votes have also been available on the website since the 17 March. That means we are in compliance with the articles of association and the Danish Companies Act. I can therefore conclude that the legal requirements for the AGM and the convening notice have been complied with.
When it comes to the question of quorum, I can tell you that all of the items and proposals on the agenda today can be adopted by a simple majority among the shareholders represented. There is thus no requirement for a certain portion of the share capital to be represented. I can therefore conclude that the AGM is lawfully convened and quorate. If anyone disagrees, please say so now. That is not the case, and I can therefore conclude that the AGM has been lawfully convened and is quorate. Before taking you through the agenda, I can say that 86.5% of the share capital in Ørsted is represented at the AGM today. Now the agenda for today.
Item one is the report from the Board of Directors on the activities of the company and its subsidiaries during the period from the 1st of January until the 31st of December 2025. Item two is the approval of the audited annual report. Item three is the presentation of the remuneration report for advisory vote. Item four is the proposal to discharge the Board and Executive Board. Item five is the appropriation of profit. Item six is an authorization to acquire treasury shares. Item seven, proposals from the Board of Directors. Here we have a proposal to prepare documents for AGMs in English. Item eight is the election of Chair, Deputy Chair, and other members for the Board of Directors. Nine is the remuneration for 2026. 10 is the election of Auditor, and 11 is any other business.
Today, and in accordance with the chair of the board, we will take item one to five as one as per tradition here in Ørsted. That means that we will hear from Lene Skole, who will give us the board's report, present the annual report and the remuneration report, and the proposal for appropriation of profits. After that, we will have a debate under item one to five, and we will adopt the proposals under two to five. With that, I pass the floor to Lene Skole.
Thank you, Anders, for giving me the floor. 2025 has been a defining year for Ørsted. We've made significant progress across our four strategic priorities in our business plan while steadily navigating several external events, primarily in the U.S. market. While we still have a lot of work ahead of us, I'm pleased with the significant steps we've taken to create a stronger, more focused, and more competitive Ørsted. A very important part of this was the rights issue of DKK 60 billion, which we completed in October. I'd like to use the opportunity today to express my gratitude as well as that of the board of directors and all of Ørsted for the commitment and support that you shareholders have shown us. That support has been absolutely vital, and we are fully aware of the responsibility that comes with it.
2025 began with the nomination of Rasmus Errboe as CEO of Ørsted, and we also presented a new business plan with an adjusted strategic direction. We decided to step away from our long-term capacity ambitions and scaled back our investment program. At the same time, we sharpened our technological focus on offshore wind and our geographical focus on Europe and select markets in the Asia Pacific region. In these markets, there's a continued strong focus on the build-out of offshore wind, and also markets where we can leverage our competencies and unique differentiation within developing, construction, and operating offshore wind farms. These choices will help us secure a position as a global market leader in offshore wind. We established four new strategic priorities to ensure a stronger and more competitive Ørsted. Our four priorities are to strengthen our capital structure. To deliver on our 8.2-GW offshore wind construction portfolio.
To ensure a focused and disciplined approach to capital allocation. To improve our competitiveness. In a minute, I'll review the key elements of the progress we've made within the four strategic priorities. Let me first say a few words on how we've strengthened our risk management and project operating model. Based on our learnings in recent years, where we've been impacted by several external events, particularly in the U.S., we've worked intensively on strengthening our risk management on a number of fronts. Let me mention some of the core elements. We've become much more disciplined with respect to capital allocation prior to final investment decisions. At the same time, we've introduced greater flexibility in relation to time schedules, commercial operation dates, and investment planning for the individual projects. This better enables us to reduce risk and ensure value creation.
This was, among other things, reflected in our decision to discontinue the development of Hornsea 4 offshore wind projects in the U.K. in its current form, and to reconfigure the project instead. Through the strengthening of our risk management, we ensure that there were limited financial consequences related to the overall project economics. We've strengthened supplier management in our projects. This includes securing potential reserve capacity, thereby reducing dependence on individual suppliers for project construction. In addition, we follow up more closely on the progress of our projects, and not least on the work of our suppliers. In addition, we've developed our emergency response planning for select projects to ensure rapid handling of possible negative scenarios.
When the U.S. Department of the Interior unexpectedly issued a stop work order in April 2025 to another developer, Equinor, regarding their Empire Wind project, we immediately started preparing for similar scenarios for Ørsted. When a similar stop order was issued to Revolution Wind in August 2025, and when later both Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind in December 2025, along with three other offshore wind projects, received a preliminary suspension order, we could immediately implement our comprehensive internal playbook. That meant that we had a quick and safe shutdown of the construction work and that we immediately initiated the political dialogues and legal processes with the aim of resuming construction work as soon as possible. Finally, both in the board and in the management, we've continued our work on strengthening our risk monitoring and management.
At the board level, we established an asset project committee in 2024, and this committee continues to focus on regular project reviews and risk monitoring. I will now review the most significant steps taken in 2025 towards strengthening our capital structure. As already mentioned, the completion of the rights issue of DKK 60 billion was a key element in ensuring that we continue to have a solid investment-grade credit rating and reinforcing our ability to realize the full value of potential of existing offshore wind portfolios and capture future value-creating opportunities. Moreover, the size of the rights issue factored in the increasing uncertainty about offshore wind in the U.S. and was geared to ensure that we continue to be able to deliver on our business plan, even with potential negative developments in the U.S.
Another part of the updated business plan related to our rights issue was our ambition to engage in partnerships and complete divestments with proceeds to ensure more than DKK 35 billion across 2025 and 2026. With the agreements we've signed in 2025 and early 2026, we expect to receive a total revenue of approximately DKK 46 billion. That result was achieved earlier and with higher than expected proceeds, and we are very pleased with that. As part of the strengthening of our capital structure, we've sharpened our focus on operations. Despite relatively lower wind speeds in 2025, we increased our total power generation in our offshore wind business by 6%. The result was due to a higher availability of our assets, i.e., the time when our offshore wind turbines are operational and thus generating power, as well as ramp-up of generation from the commissioning of Gode Wind 3 in Germany.
Let's move on to a review of the key progress we made last year on our 8.1 GW construction program, which includes 6 offshore wind projects on 3 continents. In Germany, we commissioned Gode Wind 3, and we generated first power from Borkum Riffgrund 3, which is expected to be fully commissioned during this quarter. In Taiwan, we completed the installation of all foundations and wind turbines at Greater Changhua 1, 2B, and 4, and we are currently commissioning the wind turbines individually. This is progressing according to plan, and we expect to commission the entire project in the third quarter of 2026. In the U.K., we have made solid progress on our Hornsea 3 project. We've made progress onshore, and we've been working on preparing the seabed for foundation installation so that we can start offshore installation work in the coming period as planned.
In Poland, we've made significant progress in the manufacture of both foundations and substations, and we've also progressed work onshore. As planned, we expect to commence offshore installation during 2026. In the U.S., despite the three stop work orders and the delays caused by that, we've managed to ensure significant progress for both Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind. For Revolution Wind, project-wide installation is so advanced that the project has delivered the first power to the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut in the past month. We'll continue to work on commissioning the individual wind turbines to ensure that the entire project will be fully commissioned during the second part of this year. For Sunrise Wind, we've also made significant progress. The project has installed more than half of the foundations and wind turbine installation has also commenced.
Once operational as planned in the second half of 2027, this project will consist of 84 offshore wind turbines and will be able to power approximately 600,000 households. During 2025 and early 2026, we've had three stop orders or suspension orders from the U.S. Department of the Interior. Our priority is to continue completing the construction work so that the two projects can be fully commissioned. Since the first order was issued, we have therefore worked to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution. In response to all three orders, we have brought legal actions against the U.S. Department of the Interior and submitted injunctions to the court to lift the orders.
In all three cases, the projects have also pursued a preliminary ruling in order to continue work, and in all three cases, the courts have allowed the projects to resume work while we are waiting for the rulings underlying the lawsuits. Therefore, the projects are still well underway. I'd like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere appreciation to the Ørsted employees in the U.S. and in global functions who have worked tirelessly for months and over the holiday periods to handle a very difficult situation for us. Thank you so much for that. With our focus strategy, our disciplined approach to capital allocation, and our focus on strengthening our competitiveness, we'll be in a strong position to pursue the most value-creating offshore wind opportunities in Europe and select markets in the Asia Pacific region.
By 2030, the International Energy Agency expects that almost half of all global electricity generation comes from renewables. This underscores the future strong demand for renewable energy. Offshore wind is expected to be a key contributor in the energy mix of the future, not least due to favorable market conditions, particularly in Europe, because offshore wind ensures energy that is independent and affordable. For the second time in just five years, we are in a situation that shows how vulnerable the current EU energy mix is. First, there was the Russian attack on Ukraine, and now the situation in the Middle East that causes higher energy costs. These situations emphasize the need for both Denmark and Europe to achieve a greater degree of energy independence and security.
Therefore, the development of renewables, and particularly offshore wind, is so very important, not just for Ørsted and Denmark, but for all of Europe. That's why the North Sea Summit in January this year, where nine European governments signed the Joint Offshore Wind Investment Pact, was really a step in the right direction. Also because the entire industry and governments therefore got together on a common financing framework agreement. This agreement will ensure that we will achieve a European capacity of 300 GW of offshore wind by 2050. The agreement will also chart a path for more evenly distributed offshore build-out across the countries between 2031 and 2040, with up to 15 GW installed capacity per year in Europe.
Part of the agreement is a defining shift towards a robust investment framework for offshore wind by means of corporate power purchasing agreements and the so-called two-sided contracts for difference, i.e. agreements that provide stability for the energy producers while also protecting consumers from overpayments, because gains from high prices are shared with society. This is a necessary step to de-risk investments, which we've argued for at Ørsted for the past years, and which now has broad political support. In Hamburg, Denmark and Germany also signed the groundbreaking agreement on Energy Island Bornholm. In addition to it being a large 3-GW offshore wind project, it's also the first time that two countries make a joint agreement on offshore wind, where the production of power from one country, in this case Denmark, is linked to the demand in another country, Germany.
This model is needed for Europe to connect offshore wind energy to industry and households across national borders in order to realize the potential of offshore wind. In our core markets, we've also seen positive changes in the investment frameworks for offshore wind auctions that support the future build-out. For example, the U.K. has extended the length of the two-way contracts for difference in their tenders. In Denmark, a framework has been introduced for the upcoming auction, which also includes two-way contracts for difference. The Joint Offshore Wind Investment Pact provides more investment predictability. A coordinated build-out plan of up to 15 GW installed offshore per year in Europe is a prerequisite for enabling the offshore wind industry to target a reduction of the overall average costs in installing and generating offshore wind power by 30% by 2040. In 2025, we continued our sustainability efforts.
Being a globally recognized sustainability leader is one of our strategic aspirations, and our work creates value and reduces risk for our customers, our business, and for nature and people. We focus on three areas, decarbonization, biodiversity, and community impact. In terms of decarbonization, we continued our work in 2025, reaching two key milestones that are quite unique to Ørsted. The first milestone relates to us achieving our ambitious target of a 99% share of renewable energy generation in 2025. The second milestone is that we've completed the green transformation of Ørsted that we set out to do in 2006. You'll probably remember that back then we were called DONG Energy, and we were one of the most fossil fuel intensive energy companies in Europe.
We set out to change our business from black to green, so to speak, and we've now delivered on that ambition. More specifically, we've achieved our ambitious target of reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by more than 98% since the beginning of our transformation back in 2006. In doing so, we've become the first energy company to complete a green transformation of our own energy production. I'm proud of the perseverance that we've shown for many years across the entire business, and it's a testament to our ability to stick to and execute our strategy even when we encounter challenges. The next step is a focus on reducing emissions across the full value chain. Here, we aim for net zero by 2040. Within biodiversity, we'll continue developing new methods for measuring biodiversity.
This will ensure transparent measurement and reporting so that we can demonstrate that renewable energy benefits nature. Among other things, we've piloted innovative biodiversity projects in Taiwan, where we're planning to grow corals on offshore wind turbines. At the same time, we've initiated 3D modeling of the seabed environment around selected assets in the U.K. to monitor how projects impact the surrounding environment. As to the impact we have on the local communities where we operate, the most direct impact is that we have created and continue to create local jobs. Furthermore, we're committed to providing training opportunities for local workers, and we're engaging actively in the local community where we're present.
Among several initiatives, we've formed a long-term partnership with the Horizon Youth Zone in Grimsby in the U.K. in order to support local youth and improve their wellbeing in an area close to our East Coast hubs in the U.K. In February, we published an annual report containing sustainability statements in line with EU CSRD and ESRS sustainability standards for the second time. As early as 2023, we were among the first companies to develop sustainability statements as part of the annual report before the statutory requirement came into force in 2024. Since then, the EU regulatory landscape has changed. We support efforts to simplify sustainability reporting while ensuring that reporting has to be of a quality allowing for comparison across companies, thereby ensuring transparency about companies' progress on sustainability.
I will now go through the key financial highlights for the year. Our operating profit before depreciation, amortization, and impairment losses, also called EBITDA, amounted to DKK 22.4 billion for the year. This is lower than in 2024, where there was a positive impact of DKK 7.3 billion in EBITDA as a result of cancellation fees regarding the termination of the Ocean Wind 1 project being lower than originally assumed.
EBITDA, excluding new partnerships and cancellation fees, amounted to DKK 25.1 billion in 2025, which was approximately DKK 300 million higher than in 2024 and in line with our guidance for the year of between DKK 24 billion and DKK 27 billion. Earnings from our offshore wind farms increased by DKK 500 million as a result of ramp-up generation, compensation for delayed installation of the transmission cable at Borkum Riffgrund 3, and higher revenue from both green certificates and inflation-indexed power purchase agreements.
The reported net profit for the year amounted to DKK 3.1 billion. Profit was significantly higher than in 2024, when the result was negatively impacted by impairment losses related to our U.S. offshore wind portfolio. Adjusted for impairments and cancellation fees, our return on capital employed was 8.4% at the end of the year. This is almost two percentage points lower than last year, which is due to the continued high level of investment in our construction projects. Our reported return on capital employed was 5.4% for 2025 and is expected to increase in the coming years, in accordance with our updated target of an average return on capital employed of approximately 11% for the 2026 to 2027 period, as well as an average return of above 13% for the 2028 to 2030 period. Cash flows from operating activities amounted to DKK 23.7 billion during 2025.
This was higher than in 2024, primarily driven by the payment of cancellation fees related to Ocean Wind 1. Our gross investments amounted to DKK 55 billion in 2025. The majority of our investments were related to the build-out of offshore wind projects in Europe, the U.S., and in Taiwan. The remaining part of the investments mainly related to the build-out of battery, solar, and onshore wind projects in the U.S. and Europe. Divestments were DKK 12.4 billion in 2025, which includes proceeds from the divestment of shares in Hornsea 3 and West of Duddon Sands in the U.K., as well as Eleven Mile and Sparta Solar in the U.S. Our interest-bearing net debt amounted to DKK 19 billion at the end of 2025, down DKK 39 billion relative to the year before.
This reduction was mainly due to the gross proceeds of around DKK 60 billion received in connection with the completion of the rights issue. Our credit metric, which is a measure of our ability to generate funds from operations to service our debt, also known as FFO, relative to adjusted interest-bearing net debt, amounted to 42.9% at the end of 2025 compared to 12.7% at the beginning of the year. This increase is due to both the reduction in interest-bearing net debt as a result of the proceeds from the rights issue, as well as an increase in funds from operations. This development is in line with our objective to maintain a strong investment-grade credit rating.
As part of the Capital Markets Update in February 2024, we announced our decision to suspend the dividend distribution for the financial calendar years of 2023 to 2025 to strengthen our capital structure. In line with this, the Board of Directors proposes that no dividends be distributed to the shareholders for the financial year 2025. We still intend to reinstate dividend payments for the financial year 2026. For the financial year 2026, we expect EBITDA excluding new partnerships and cancellation fees to amount to more than DKK 28 billion. Gross investments for 2026 are expected to amount to between DKK 50 billion and DKK 55 billion. I'd also like to highlight a few elements in the Remuneration Report for 2025 for the Board of Directors and the Executive Board. The Remuneration Report for 2025 reflect the changes that we've seen at Executive Board level during the year.
On the 1st of February 2025, Rasmus Errboe was appointed the new Group President and CEO of Ørsted. For the shared KPIs in the short-term incentive scheme, the results varied, utilizing the whole performance span across financial, ESG, and individual targets. The executive board's shared STI score ended at 45.9% of the maximum. This reflects our earnings level, the delivery on our capital planning, and the achievement of our ESG-related targets. In 2025, the executive board received a long-term incentive score of 20%, compared to a maximum of 200% of the previously granted performance share units based on the share price development of Ørsted benchmarked against other comparable energy companies. I'll now touch upon our employees and our continued focus on safety and diversity.
In the past year, we've told our employees that from now and until the end of 2027, we'll be saying goodbye to many skilled and valued colleagues who have contributed greatly to Ørsted. However, this is a necessary consequence of our decision to focus our business and the fact that we'll be finalizing our current large construction portfolio in the coming years, which is why we'll need fewer employees when these projects reach completion. Towards the end of 2027, the organization will be right-sized to ensure that Ørsted is a more flexible and focused company, ready to invest in new value-creating projects. We're well on the way to building a more financially robust and competitive company with solid earnings, which will increase as we complete our projects.
Once we've achieved this, Ørsted will be a significantly stronger, more focused, and more competitive company, and among others, we'll have our skilled employees to thank for this. They continue to be at the core of our business. During the year, we decided to change our ways of assessing employee satisfaction and motivation. Whereas we've previously conducted one comprehensive annual survey, we're now conducting quarterly engagement surveys instead. This will enable us to work continuously on wellbeing and satisfaction to a higher degree. Consequently, we've not included any employee satisfaction results for 2025 in our annual report. The results from our latest quarterly pulse survey show that our overall job satisfaction motivation is approximately 77% compared to an external benchmark of 82%.
That means that even though our employees are satisfied with working at Ørsted, there's still work to be done when it comes to improving satisfaction and motivation even further. In the survey, we're also very pleased to see that safety is the highest scoring topic among our employees. With a favorability above 90%, which is significantly above the external benchmarks, it's encouraging to see that our continued and relentless focus on making safety a top priority has made a substantial difference. In 2025, we reduced our total recordable injury rates, and it's the second year in a row that we see a reduction in this number. Our long-term safety efforts are still successful, and we're pleased with this trend. We'll continue our safety improvement efforts, and for 2026, we've set a target to further reduce our total recordable injury rate.
Unfortunately, a tragic incident at our U.S. onshore wind farm, Plum Creek Wind, resulted in two fatalities involving two external wind technicians in 2025. In cooperation with the external subcontractor, we have increased our focus on and training in safety, and we've also implemented several safety improvement measures in various workflows. We'll continue our efforts to recruit and retain female employees in Ørsted to promote diversity and a more balanced gender distribution across the organization. Across the entire Ørsted workforce, we have an ambition to reach a gender balance of 40% women and 60% men by 2030. Although in 2025 we continued to employ women to a greater extent than their current representation in Ørsted, our total gender balance remained unchanged, and by the end of 2025, 34% of the total workforce were women, and 66% were men.
To achieve our ambition, we focus on talent development to ensure that diversity and equity are part of the ongoing organizational review process. This work is crucial to ensuring that diversity is included in the work on our organizational structure. We've also succeeded in increasing the proportion of female people leaders at our most senior levels. With that, I'll summarize with a few concluding remarks. 2025 was a defining year for Ørsted in which we charted a new strategic direction for the company. We decided to step away from our long-term growth target, scale back our investment program, and establish four strategic priorities, all to ensure a stronger and more competitive Ørsted. We also sharpened our strategy to focus on strengthening our leading position in offshore wind, with an emphasis on our core markets in Europe and select markets in Asia Pacific.
During the year, an unprecedented situation arose in the U.S. offshore wind market. As a result, Ørsted was not able to complete the planned farm down of our Sunrise Wind offshore wind project and associated project financing on terms that would provide the necessary strengthening of Ørsted's capital structure, thereby supporting the company's investment program and business plan. After thorough analyses, we therefore decided to conduct a rights issue. This has provided us with the capital necessary to maintain the full ownership of Sunrise Wind and has enabled us to respond to any regulatory uncertainties we might still face. I'd like to once again emphasize our gratitude for the strong support we've received from our shareholders in relation to the rights issue. Looking beyond the extraordinary situation in the U.S., we have made solid progress on our business plan and four strategic priorities.
This includes strong progress on the delivery of our existing construction portfolio and a solid operating profit in line with our expectations. As I began by saying, I'd like to emphasize that even though we still have a lot of work ahead of us, I'm pleased with the significant steps we've taken to create a stronger, more focused, and more competitive Ørsted. Finally, I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to all of our skilled employees who, throughout a year with many changes, have once again demonstrated their resilience, willingness, and unwavering commitment to continue to drive Ørsted and the energy transition to create a world that runs entirely on green energy. Thank you for your attention, and I'll turn over the floor to the chair of the meeting.
Thank you very much. Before I open the debate on items one to five, I want to mention that we have the auditor's report on pages 210 to 214 in the annual report. The annual report is in English, but I'll now read out a Danish translation of the auditor's report. It's an unqualified opinion. It says: "In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial positions of the group at 31st of December 2025, and of the results of the group's operations and cash flows for the financial year of January to December 2025, in accordance with the IFRS accounting standards as adopted by the EU, and additional requirements in the Danish Financial Statements Act.
It's also our opinion that the parent company financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of the parent company as of 31st December 2025, and the results of the parent company's operations for the financial year, January to December 2025, in accordance with the Danish Financial Statements Act." I will now open the debate for items one to five, and as I mentioned earlier, if you want the floor, please contact Ulrik Jarlov with your access card. I'll also ask the speakers to speak directly into the microphone up here at the rostrum so everyone can hear what you have to say. I can tell you that the pension funds, ATP and AkademikerPension, and the Danish Shareholders Association, have said that they have an intervention, and Mr. Bjarne Hansen has also asked for the floor.
I'll give the floor in that order I just mentioned, and if anybody else wants the floor, as I said, please contact Mr. Ulrik Jarlov to my left. First I give the floor to Claus Wiinblad on behalf of the pension fund, ATP.
Thank you very much. My name is Claus Wiinblad, and I represent ATP. I would like to start by saying thank you for the report and the annual report. As we heard from the report, 2025 was another difficult year for Ørsted. The EBITDA was as expected, but it was affected by amortizations and impairment costs, so lower than expected. We still see a negative development in the U.S., where the U.S. Administration several times tried to stop the development of Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind. That creates a great uncertainty and made it difficult to find the capital for particularly Sunrise Wind.
Therefore, it was necessary to make a rights issue of DKK 60 billion, and there's been divestments as well. I'd like to commend the board and the management for navigating through these very difficult external conditions. I also have to say that this has been quite expensive for us as shareholders. The rights issue has meant that the share price has dropped, and even though we have seen good earnings from divestments, such last divestments in a difficult market isn't always what gives you the best price for what you're divesting. Looking forward, I have two wishes for Ørsted. Firstly, a safe execution of existing projects of more than 8.1 GW, where we keep our fingers crossed that the two American projects can be commissioned as planned.
Our other wish is that Ørsted, after 2028, will be able to ensure continued value-creating growth, and keep the company's front-runner position in offshore wind. In particular, the last thing makes me raise two general questions, one about the market expectations, and one about the financing possibilities. There's no doubt, as we've heard, that if Ørsted is to ensure growth in the long term, Europe has to be a very vital driver. In the current situation, offshore wind should not just play an important part in the green transition, but also in energy security in Europe. As we heard from the report from the chairman of the board, both the EU and the U.K. have sent many positive signals. For instance, in what we heard at the North Sea Summit in January this year.
We have heard these signals many times before, and this makes me ask: Does Ørsted believe that these signals give the right framework conditions for profitable growth in the future for Ørsted? Regarding the possibilities for financing future growth, the most important thing may be is that Ørsted must never end up in a situation again as in 2025. My question here is: What is Ørsted's toolbox like when it comes to future capital opportunities? Do you see opportunities for developing new business models which both create growth and value creation? With that I would like to wish both employees and management all the best for all your work in 2026. Thank you for the floor.
[Foreign language]
Thank you for that. There were two specific questions to the board and management. I think Lene Skole will answer the questions.
Thank you, and thank you for your kind words for 2026. You're quite right, Claus, that the Hamburg Declaration, the North Sea Summit, has meant some significant steps to getting better framework conditions for the offshore wind industry, and we're very pleased about that. Of course, it needs to be implemented, and we need for the auctions to also be realized on the right terms. We're very happy to see that there are now already several of our markets where we see these measures being implemented to strengthen the framework conditions, both in the U.K., Poland, and also Denmark has adopted two-sided contracts for difference. It looks positive, but we are still waiting for the updated framework conditions in some of the other countries that have signed the declaration.
Of course, this will be decisive when it comes to get the stable, coordinated growth we'd like to see. We have a very favorable opinion, and it is what we've worked for at Ørsted for many years. You also said we must never end up in a situation like in 2025, and I fully concur with you. We can still grow. We are in fact growing now, and we will continue to grow, maybe at a lower rate than what we see currently. When we're done with our current construction portfolio, we will have installed 18 GW of offshore wind. Of course, that creates cash flow that will give us the financial strength needed for participating in future opportunities offshore. I mentioned it today, and I also mentioned it at our rights issue, that we have to constantly assess how to create value over volume.
That's how we grow. We need a flexible approach to how to finance. We need to look at value, risk, and capital structure. That, of course, means that we also need to look at several models, including project financing as partial financing partnerships, probably at an earlier stage in the development of a project. We're very aware of this. What we are doing now is creating an Ørsted that's more flexible in adapting to the market. I hope that answered your questions.
[Foreign language]
The next speaker on the list is Anders Schelde from AkademikerPension. Here you go.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. My name is Anders Schelde. I come from AkademikerPension. I'm here on behalf of AkademikerPension and LD Fonde, which is also a Danish foundation. We have invested about DKK 600 million in Ørsted at the current share price. I want to talk about two things. One, the election of the chairman of the board, and the strategy and direction of the company. About the election of the chairman, unfortunately, we are in a situation that we cannot support re-election of the chairman of the board this year because of over-boarding, namely that a person has too many directorships. Being part of a board of directors is much more demanding today, both in the changes in the world around us and locally, that it requires a lot of work.
Our Chairman of the Board, Lene Skole, is not just Chairman of the Board in Ørsted, but also Deputy Chairman in Nordea, in Lundbeck, and ALK-Abelló, and Deputy Chairman in Falck, and now also newly elected Chairman of the Board in FLSmidth, and this is just much more work than we think is defensible. Nobody can be in two places at once, and this was illustrated at FLSmidth's Annual General Meeting a few days ago, because Lene Skole could not participate because at the same time, there was the AGM in Nordea. Maybe that's not the end of the world, but it's still a very specific issue and a very new example of the problem, and we think it's quite serious.
Just six months ago, the company made a very significant rights issue here at Ørsted, so the company is in a very difficult and demanding situation, and all the work in rebuilding the company has just started. The critical question is: Is there enough time and enough resources for all the hats the Chairman of the Board is wearing? What happens if there's an equally serious situation in the other companies she's part of? There can certainly be plenty of issues turning up globally, and we have seen it from one day to the next sometimes. We're also very happy, therefore, that the issue about overboarding is addressed in what the Chairman has just said, that she will step down as CEO in the Lundbeck Foundation. We hope it will enable us to vote for the Chairman of the Board at next year's AGM.
We'll be keeping a watchful eye on how things will develop. The other thing I want to mention is the strategy and direction of the company. Claus Wiinblad already mentioned it. We live in a world that is changing, and the past year has seen a great deal of turbulence, which Ørsted knows better than anyone else. The green transition is not as important as it was a few years ago, and there's even a very negative opinion, certainly in the U.S. We see that climate politics has also become security policies. We have seen a period of time at Ørsted where there was too high a degree of risk, and that does scare us, and it takes time to rebuild trust. It'll require time and hard work to go from this point to a point of strength.
Luckily, the company is aware of that, and we've heard about it today. The strategic measures we've heard about point to downscaling and refocusing. We think that is a sensible approach and necessary. We do miss a more clear narrative of what Ørsted has to do in the future and how you will achieve the direction. What is the new story for Ørsted for developing from a company going a bit downhill to going back uphill? For us, it's vital that Ørsted finds the right balance between growth and risk management, between focus and width. It's important to not be dependent on just a few geographies and technologies. The ambition must be to grow, and I think the business opportunities are there. You certainly think so, not least in Europe. Both risk and return on investment has to be linked at the right level.
We think there's great potential in Ørsted, but achieving the potential means that you rebuild trust, have a clear direction and focus. In closing, I would like to commend the hard work done by all Ørsted's very competent employees. It's clear that there are a lot of changes happening, but there's also an ambition to attract and develop talents, and that's a difficult balance. I wish you all the best with that continued work. We look forward to seeing how things will develop. Thank you.
[Foreign language]
Thank you. I give the floor to Chair of the Board, Lene Skole.
Thank you for your many comments, Anders. Before I go to your questions, I would like to say I'm glad you brought up the overboarding because it gives me an opportunity to address that. Firstly, the transition approaching in the Lundbeck Foundation and me stepping down, that is a planned transition, which we have been planning for a long period of time. Of course, that was an important part of the decision I had to make about whether to take up the role at FLSmidth. Generally, I don't take on any role without being absolutely certain that I have the time and the capacity to deal with those roles.
It does mean that even though there's a time overlap this year, I will be stepping out of Lundbeck and the Lundbeck Foundation, and I will also not be deputy chairman of Lundbeck, ALK-Abelló, and Falck. Your questions about what Ørsted are we looking at, what's our equity story. You talk about, well, getting back to a company in growth. We are actually already a company with strong growth.
You're right, there will be a time where we will have new projects, and we won't grow as quickly as we do now because we are growing very quickly now. We will, of course, ensure that we will be able to create continued growth. Everything we're doing now in focusing on our four main points in the strategy and ensuring that we will be stronger financially, work more flexibly, and be more competitive. That is vital in order to stay in our position and continue to build on our position in offshore wind. We want to keep our position, focusing on Europe and parts of Asia and the Pacific. That is our equity story, so to speak, that we continue to grow, we grow stronger, more competitive, and we also have the flexibility you spoke about. How to make risk and return on investment balance.
Also mention it briefly to Claus Wiinblad, that it's also important that we stay an organization that can adjust itself based on the market developments to create the greatest growth and value, and doing that by working with our already known models and also having divestments, attracting partners early on projects. We'll be working on that, and that is what we are doing now, and I'm convinced it's the right decision, but there's still a very long way ahead of us with a lot of hard work. I hope that answered your questions.
Thank you very much. The next speaker on the list is the Danish Shareholders Association, represented by Mikael Bak, and after that we will hear from Mr. Bjarne Hansen. Go ahead, Mikael.
Thank you very much, and thank you for the floor. As mentioned, my name is Mikael Bak, and I represent private investors on behalf of the Danish Shareholders Association. Many of our members are shareholders here and present here today. Thank you for the annual report. Thank you to your employees and also thank you for those two contributions we just heard. I really think that this is a great introduction to our debate, and therefore, I would like to step away a bit from the script that I sent in beforehand. I really liked the contribution from ATP and from Anders Schelde.
The concept of overboarding, well, I had kind of the opposite thing, in relation to you, Rasmus. I would like to see some more of you up here on the stage. That would be my recommendation to you next year, because that would really show us that competitiveness is your first priority and not your fourth priority. That would be my encouragement to you. Vestas had their AGM yesterday, and well, that was the complete opposite. You had to force the CEO to get away from the rostrum. He wouldn't stop speaking. We represent private investors with mixed emotions. On the one hand, you achieved good results last year, and we have praised the management for that. On the other hand, we also have concerns because the share price continued to decline in 2025.
As you write yourselves, you are doing worse than comparable companies around the world. It's the third year without dividends, and that leads me to my questions, because my first question is perhaps the easiest to answer, but could we hear some more about payments of dividends? Do I understand correctly that we can expect dividends from next year, and at what level, and what do you expect might go wrong if we are not going to see a dividend next year? Dividends is a focus point for our members and shareholders that they would like to learn more about. My second point is about the U.S. that you've touched upon as well. Your two large projects over there, as you've mentioned, they were issued a stop order and then they restarted again.
Could you elaborate on the total financial commitment in these two projects and what the maximum consequences could be if Trump decides to get up one morning and do something unexpected? How are we positioned as shareholders? I know that we've talked about this a lot, but it is indeed a great concern to many shareholders. Another point that's very important to some of our members is salaries and bonus schemes. We have not received dividends for three years. The share price has declined, but nonetheless, you have paid out bonuses to your executives, even though you're performing worse than your peers. It was only 20% bonus shares, but nonetheless.
I would like to ask the chair of the board if you believe that is striking the right balance to pay out bonus shares in a year where you're not delivering on the share price at least, and if you could consider in the future to put together a bonus scheme where you only receive bonus shares after documenting value creation for a number of years.
Finally, with regard to Norwegian Equinor, I understood that they were going to propose a candidate for the board, but then they didn't do it after all. Have you received any explanation for this, and do you expect them to propose a candidate next year, or do you plan to take any other initiatives to align Ørsted and Equinor even more closer together in the future? In closing, on behalf of private investors and taxpayers, it is our hope that you will do well in the coming year. I will wish you all the best. Thank you for the floor.
Thank you very much. I noted down four questions for management, and I give the floor to Lene Skole. Go ahead.
Thank you very much, and thank you for those many questions. I hope to cover all of them in my reply. When it comes to dividend, as I mentioned in my report, it is still the plan that we will pay out dividends from next year with a payout in 2027. For the financial year 2026, and of course, that will come up for approval on next year's AGM. You ask what might stop us from paying out dividends, and of course, we can speculate on that, but what I can say is that currently we do not see anything that might stop us from paying out dividends.
Of course, unexpected things might happen, but currently that is the plan, and we can't see anything that would stop us from doing so. When it comes to the level of dividends, I'm sure it doesn't surprise you that I will have to come back to that next year. You have a question about the U.S. and our large projects and what we've been through over there.
Here, I can tell you that as we have mentioned, the size of the rights issue that we issued last year, well, that size was taking into consideration the regulatory uncertainty that we still face in the U.S. If we look at the expected total investment for Ørsted in those two projects, we're talking about approximately DKK 80 billion, of which DKK 20 billion is related to Revolution Wind, which we own half of, and the DKK 60 billion is in regards to Sunrise Wind, where we have full ownership. As mentioned, these two projects are quite far along, and Revolution Wind is 87% completed, Sunrise Wind around 45% completed, and we expect it to start generating power before the end of the year. The remaining investment amount is around DKK 35 billion.
Of course, as I mentioned, we still focus on completing these projects so that they can deliver power. I can also tell you that we are in a constructive dialogue with the American administration and other stakeholders in order to find an expeditious and durable resolution to this issue. We will not get ahead of ourselves here, but we make sure that we plan and that we have a good preparedness in place should anything arise. We focus on completing our projects. That was about the U.S. You asked about the bonus schemes for Rasmus and the rest of the executive management and these bonus shares. Well, firstly, I would like to, and I'm sure you already know this, if you compare us to other companies on the C25 index, we have quite a low level of variable pay in Ørsted.
I would like to emphasize that right out of the gate. Secondly, this is an objective assessment. There's no subjective assessment of whether we believe Rasmus has been a nice guy in the past year. We have some objective criteria and some very specific targets. That meant that we didn't pay out any bonus shares in 2023 and 2024 because we were at the bottom of the performance list compared to our peers. That was not entirely the case in 2025. We were number 10 out of 11, and that meant that 20% of these bonus shares did vest. I was happy to see that development because that is also a motivating factor for our executive management that they actually benefit from these schemes. Of course, it's not free to participate in these schemes. They have to invest themselves in the company, and Rasmus has done that.
That was by way of explanation when it comes to our bonus payments. You asked about Equinor, and as I recall, you had two questions. One was about the candidate for the board, and the other thing was about any other corporations. I can tell you that we are on the way here. We are getting more flexible, we are looking at creating value, and we are always on the lookout for any potential partnerships or collaborations that might make sense to us. I would like to answer in more general terms here.
When it comes to the board of directors, I'm very happy for the three candidates that we have proposed, and we have been through our usual process in Ørsted to make sure that with these three candidates, we will gain a lot of good experience. We will get back to that later today. I can also see that Equinor did not want to propose a candidate, and I'm glad that Equinor has said that they support the three candidates that we have proposed. I believe that covered all of your questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. The last speaker of the speakers' list, and I will pass the floor to him now, is Mr. Bjarne Hansen, and he is making his way to the rostrum, and we have no further speakers on the list, so this will be the last contribution from the shareholders. Go ahead, Bjarne.
[Foreign language]
My name is Bjarne Hansen. I represent private shareholders, both here and in other Nordic countries. I'd like to kick off with Norway. That's a good country. There's talk of new members of the board from Norway, or new members of the board, and I hear that there are three new members proposed. I don't know whether they're three Norwegians or three Danes or three Americans. But I do hope they have a flair for business, both when it comes to offshore wind, solar power, and it would also be good if they know a bit about fossil fuels. I know it's a bad word here sometimes, but we cannot do without it. We know that day by day, hour by hour. Thank you for your report, Lene, and for going through the accounts and the hurdles. I have a couple of proposals I think you should take up.
You should talk to the European Commission about offshore wind off the coast of Portugal. They have about nine million inhabitants, I think they've had. Then we also have another country that focuses more on offshore wind, which is Sweden. They also have onshore wind. I know Ørsted also owns solar farms. I don't know what the revenue is from that, but what I would like to know, and therefore I would also like to suggest that you actually print the annual report so that we can read it at home. You could also print it in a Danish version. There are people who want it in English, and it's fine that you publish it in English, but also add a Danish version. It's confusing because billions in Danish means something different than billions in American.
I think it would be good if we at least have a translation. I think we should also have the accounts in euros, because that's easier than Danish krone. I think it would be good also if we can get some earnings in US dollars in Ørsted. What about the risk in currency rates? The exchange rate can vary, and that confuses me. The same when it comes to debt. Let's say DKK 20 billion. What does that cost interest-wise, also considering currency rates? Now, artificial intelligence is really progressing now, and if I look at the owner shares, I can see different opinions about who owns Ørsted. I was told today from, I don't know whether it was Ørsted or the Danish Ministry of Finance. I think he said it was 51%, but I was told it was 50.1% that Denmark owns.
I'd like to ask, what are the plans by the Danish Ministry of Finance for Ørsted? Will you sell out a bit? Are you waiting for the next Danish government? I would like to hear from the Ministry of Finance up here at the rostrum so they can tell about their plans, because Ørsted has the potential to do something great. Whether fossil fuels then needs to finance renewables, that is a fact. It will have to do that. You can't have a bicycle without oil because then the chain will just rust. The same with a wind turbine. Now, Lene Skole's career, I think it's very good. I support her fully. She's now stepping down from quite a few functions. But I think she should also add a company to her portfolio, namely NKT, that produce cables.
There's a connection between bread and cheese, and the same between cables and Ørsted. Maybe Rasmus should get involved there. I think we need to have this patchwork where we all work together and know about each other so that we can also apply for EU funding, because there are plenty of opportunities in the EU. I looked at the LIFE Programme recently, and I looked at Denmark. There wasn't a single Danish project under the LIFE Programme in the EU. It's the Norwegians who are most involved there. Well done, Norwegians, but still. Now, in closing, I would like this company to become more of a private company. Without such a large degree of public ownership. It doesn't have to be BlackRock or JP Morgan, but maybe a bit more Nordic private ownership.
Just look at when I go to Saab's AGM, there are five private foundations involved. They own Saab more or less, and of course, the same with some banks. Maybe we could learn from that. They had also printed their annual accounts in Swedish and American English, so let's be inspired by that. Thank you for your attention.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. As I noted it down, there are a few questions about the three proposed candidates for the board. We will get back to that under item eight on the agenda, so we don't have to go into detail with that right now. I can also mention that what is up for debate here today are questions about the annual report and the report on the company's activities, and not so much what other shareholders might be planning or not. With that, I am looking to Lene Skole and Rasmus Errboe, who will start.
Well, I can start by thanking you, Bjarne Hansen, for your many inputs and good ideas. I do believe that I will refrain from taking on another board membership, even in NKT. As mentioned, I will get back to the proposed candidates. You talked about offshore wind in Portugal. Perhaps Rasmus could speak to that.
Yes. Well, we have been looking at all relevant markets in Europe, including Portugal. In Portugal, we primarily have floating offshore wind because they're so deep. We have bottom-fixed offshore as our main priority, where we embed it on the seabed. Currently, we have no focus on initiating projects in Portugal, but of course, we are following the situation very closely and monitoring our markets.
Thank you very much. We have one more shareholder on the speakers list now, and that is Olav Einar Beng, who will now take the floor. Should anyone else wish to take the floor, please make yourselves known now. Otherwise, we will close the speakers list.
[Foreign language]
Olav is my name. I'm a small shareholder, and I have a question about green transition. As I understand, the lifespan for a turbine is 30 years. I would like for you to tell your suppliers that you should increase that lifespan. I think it's a shame to tear a wind turbine down after 30 years, with all of the energy that it takes to produce such a turbine. My other question is about the transmission cables that you have from the turbine to shore.
What's the security of operations like? Because if those cables falter, then of course you will lose money. Could you tell us a bit about operations of these cables? Do you have voltage DC lines, or what sort of cables do you use? How secure are these cables in operations and so on? Could you elaborate on that, please? Thank you very much.
A few questions about increased lifespan and about transmission cables, and I think Rasmus Errboe will answer those questions.
Thank you very much, Olav, for those good questions. Let's start with the lifespan. You are quite right. It is a continuous focus point for us, as well as the entire industry, to extend the lifespan as much as possible on all our components. There is this consensus in the industry that it's 30 years, but let's see once we get there. We're producing a lot of good new technology within offshore wind right now, and it is a clear priority for us, as well as for our suppliers, to make sure that we extend the lifespan of our wind farms as much as possible. You had a question about our operations when it comes to cables, and you're quite right.
This is an important focus point for us as well, to make sure we have resilient cables, and that is what we look at in the cases that we're working with. We have a very large portfolio of offshore wind, and we are installing a lot of offshore wind, and that means that we can be quite flexible when it comes to repairing cables if any issues should arise. We use HVAC cables for shorter and HVDC cables for longer distances. We have both types in our portfolio, and we have experience with both kinds of cables.
Thank you very much. We have no further speakers on the list, and that means that we can conclude the debate on item one to five. I can conclude that the AGM has taken note of the report of the board of directors with the additional remarks that we have heard from shareholders and management. Then we are going to make a decision when it comes to item two to five. As mentioned, all items on the agenda can be adopted with a simple majority.
On the basis of statements from our large shareholders and incoming proxies and postal votes, I can tell you that all proposals on the agenda have the support of a very large majority of the vote represented at the AGM. Under each item, I can inform you how large the majority is, but it is large enough that there is no need for an actual vote under each item.
Of course, you should have the opportunity to vote against a proposal or to abstain, should you wish to do so. According to the Danish Companies Act, any shareholder can ask for a complete account of the votes cast under any given proposal. Therefore, I suggest that if any shareholder would want to vote against or abstain, they can, after the end of the agenda today, hand in their filled-out voting slip at the desk where you entered this morning. And the votes that you hand in that way will, of course, be taken into account once we publish the full account of the results. Under item two, we are going to adopt the annual report for 2025, and here, more than 99% of the votes represented at the AGM are in favor of approving the annual report.
I can therefore conclude that the AGM has approved the annual report for 2025. Under item three about the remuneration report for 2025, we only have an advisory vote, and that means that if the shareholders do not approve the remuneration report, then Ørsted has to explain in next year's report how they have taken this result into account. I can inform you that 97% of the votes are in favor of approving the remuneration report, and it is thereby approved.
That brings us to item four about discharge. Approving discharge means that the AGM grants discharge to the board of directors and the executive board from their liabilities for 2025. I can tell you that 99% of the votes cast support discharge. Discharge has been approved. That brings us to item five, proposal for the appropriation of profits.
As previously communicated, the company has paused dividends for the financial year and consequently, the profits are kept as retained earnings. Almost 100% of the votes cast support this proposal for profit allocation and appropriation. That brings me to item six. The board proposes renewing the existing authorization to acquire treasury shares, and as I agreed with the chairman, I go through it broadly. The full proposal appears from the convening notice. We have a current authorization that runs out in 2026. The board proposes to have a new authorization for the period until the 8th of April 2031 to acquire treasury shares to a maximum aggregate nominal amount corresponding to 10% maximum of the company's share capital.
The company must never go above a total holding of 10% of the total share capital, and the share price may not deviate by more than 10% from the official price at Nasdaq Copenhagen at the time of acquisition. Are there comments or questions regarding this? That does not seem to be the case, and I can say that about 99% of the votes represented today support the authorization to acquire treasury shares. This has also been approved. That brings us to item seven, where there's a proposal about preparing documents for the general meetings in English. The board proposes that documents are prepared in English for general meetings, and I've agreed with the chairman of the board that I'll briefly go through the proposal.
According to the Danish Companies Act, Section 10.6 and 7, documents for AGMs for internal use should be in Danish, unless a simple majority decides they can be prepared in English, and that has to also appear from the articles of association. Today, Danish Ørsted prepares documents in both Danish and English, and in the future it will only be in English. For the benefit of the company's mainly Danish private shareholders, convening notices will still be prepared in Danish, and this, we'll send out to shareholders and in the electronic shareholder portal. Company notices about convening AGMs will still also be in Danish.
I just want to mention that the AGM will also continue to be in Danish in future. If the AGM approves the proposal, we'll have a new text in the articles of association stating documents prepared for and in connection with general meetings, including the convening notices, proxy votes, and postal votes will be prepared in English. Are there comments regarding this? One from Mr. Bjarne Hansen.
[Foreign language]
I just brought a document here from a webpage where I can just switch between Danish and English, but in some companies, they've just switched to English, and I can no longer get a translation. How will it be in this company in future? I think you should continue to prepare document in Danish as well as in English. Just like in Coloplast. It's a Danish company. It's not far from here. Lene Skole knows it.
Even at A.P. Møller - Mærsk, you can get documents in Denmark. How many technologies is a company that all governments know? It's very known by authorities. I'm sure the Ministry of Finance know them as well. They're at 25 million-40 million shares traded per day. I'm not sure if we're at 1,200 here in Ørsted. Rasmus, perhaps he could say?
Well, I didn't get an answer to my question about exchange rates. How do you hedge? Because it's not just 3 million. For a company like yours, it could reach 10%, or would that be a question for you, Trond? You might know that. I would like to know that because you're the CFO, and weren't you previously at Carlsberg? And here you were working with that, and we don't want to pay in rubles one day. We don't want that. Still, I suggest that we continue to prepare documents in Danish or Norwegian. That's also just fine for me.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. A few questions here for Trond, which was not really relevant to this item on the agenda. We might get back to that afterwards. Perhaps you could take an internal dialogue after the AGM. For now, let's stick to this item and the proposal that documents for general meetings should be prepared in English. Here I should repeat, Bjarne Hansen, that the company also states that in consideration of Danish shareholders, documents for the AGM will still be prepared in Danish. This also includes the convening notice, proxies, and postal votes, and the AGM will also continue to take place in Danish. I'm not sure there are any further remarks. Does anyone else wish to take the floor under this item?
That is not the case, and I can inform you that almost 100% of the votes represented at the AGM are in favor of the board's proposals to prepare documents for the general meetings in English. I can therefore conclude that the AGM has approved this proposal, and as mentioned, should you wish to vote against, you can register your vote at the Computershare desk in the reception after the end of today's agenda.
That leads me to item eight in today's agenda about the election of members to the board, and here I can inform you that all AGM elected members are up for election, and all will stand for re-election apart from Annica Bresky and Judith Hartmann. I agreed with the chair of the board that she will motivate the proposal of the candidates, Karen Dyrskjøt Boesen, Karl Johnny Hersvik, and Samuel Leupold. After that, I will go through the other proposals. The floor is yours, Lene.
[Foreign language]
Thank you, Anders. The board of directors recommends three strong candidates for the board of directors. They are Karen Boesen, Karl Johnny Hersvik, and Samuel Leupold. We are pleased to be able to nominate three such strong candidates to Ørsted's board of directors. They all have unique management experience from international groups and the energy industry. Karen Boesen, CFO of DFDS, brings significant financial understanding and has held several management positions in the energy sector during her career. Karl Johnny Hersvik brings expertise from the entire energy sector and the offshore industry and is currently CEO of Aker BP.
Finally, with the nomination of Samuel Leupold, who is, among other things, former CEO of Wind Power at Ørsted, then DONG Energy, we'll gain access to significant expertise in renewable energy, especially the offshore wind sector. The board is therefore convinced that their competencies and experience will be of great value to the board. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank Judith Hartmann and Annica Bresky, who are resigning as board members, for their great service to Ørsted in the past years.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. The details in the board's proposal on election of board members are as follows. Item 8.1 is the election of seven AGM elected board members. Item 8.2 is the re-election of Lene Skole as Chair of the Board. Item 8.3 is the re-election of Andrew Brown as Deputy Chair. Then we have item 8.4, which is the re-election of Julia King, Julian David Waldron, and election of Karen Boesen, Karl Johnny Hersvik, and Samuel Leupold as new board members. In accordance with Section 120 in the Danish Companies Act, information about the other managerial positions of the candidates must be given to the shareholders ahead of the AGM. I can tell you that all the information about the candidates is included in Annex A in the convening notice, where you can read more about them.
As it is also stated in Annex A, Samuel Leupold, since the convening notice, has stepped down as a CEO and board member in Corio Generation Limited. About the chair of the board, Lene Skole, I can tell you additionally that on the 24th of March, she has taken up a position as chair of the board in FLSmidth, and she is also the CEO of her own private investment company, Skole Invest ApS. With that, let me ask if there are any other proposals when it comes to the election of chair, deputy chair, and board members. That does not seem to be the case, and I can therefore conclude that Lene Skole has been elected as chair, Andrew Brown has been elected as deputy chair, and we have elected Julia King, Julian David Waldron, Karen Dyrskjøt Boesen, Karl Johnny Hersvik, and Samuel Leupold. Congratulations.
[Foreign language]
I can just add that the board also has three employee elected members. In March 2026, there were elections among the employees, and the people elected are Benny Gøbel, Pawel Matysiak, and Ruchit Majmudar, and they're elected until 2030. That brings us to item nine, about the remuneration for the board of directors. As appears from the remuneration policy, each member of the board receives a fixed basic fee, which is approved by the AGM every year. The board proposes an unchanged basic fee compared to 2025. Therefore, for 2026, it's proposed, as you see on the screen. The chair receives DKK 1,200,000, the deputy chair DKK 800,000, other members DKK 400,000. The chair of the audit and risk committee, DKK 240,000 extra. Other members of the audit and risk committee, DKK 120,000.
The chair of the nomination remuneration committee gets an added DKK 160,000, and ordinary members of that committee get DKK 100,000. The chair of the project committee, DKK 160,000, and then all other members, DKK 100,000. Are there any questions or comments regarding the remuneration of the board? That is not the case, and almost 100% of the votes or shares represented here at the AGM support the proposal. Therefore, the remuneration has been approved.
That brings us to item 10, appointment of auditor, and in accordance with what is proposed by the audit and risk committee, it is proposed that PricewaterhouseCoopers Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab, PwC, is reappointed as auditor, and that applies both to the financial statements and the sustainability reporting. Are there any other proposed auditors? That is not the case. PwC has been appointed auditor. Congratulations. That brings us to item 11. Any other business? You can say many things here, but we cannot adopt anything. Does anybody want the floor for any other business? Mr. Bjarne Hansen.
[Foreign language]
Now, I'm sure you have found the figure, Rasmus. How much do you pay in exchange rate hedging, and how much did we lose in millions or whatever it might be? There was another suggestion for a new market, and that's Australia. We still have a king and a queen in this country, and our Queen is world-renowned after their visit Down Under recently. That really prepared the ground for new investments. I still propose that you put the U.S. on the shelf until Trump is no longer. Then we have China.
But Australia, t hey're members of NATO and they are also collaborating with the EU, and they have a lot of coastline. Rasmus, I would suggest that you might change your perspectives on Portugal, because it's not all cliff face to the north. Once you get to the south, you have more shallow waters. I know it quite well. There's a large production facility, Danish production facility, from the company, Coloplast. They almost finished their second factory down there. It's a good market and it's within the EU. I think you should look closely at the Portuguese market and then change the numbers to get back in the black. Put the U.S. on hold. Unless Trump says that this is okay, it might be all American by then. Thank you very much.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. Before I look to the board and executive management, I want to see whether anyone else wants to take the floor under any other business. That is not the case, and I therefore give the floor to Lene Skole.
Thank you very much for that good input, Bjarne. I think that the smartest thing would be for you to come up and talk to us afterwards about the exchange rate issue. Thank you also for your suggestions about Australia. I know that Rasmus visited Australia with the King and Queen, but we don't have any news in that respect. Thank you very much.
We don't have any other speakers on the list under item 11, and that means that we have exhausted our agenda for today. I should reiterate that should anyone wish to vote against or abstain from voting under any item on today's agenda, you can register your vote with Computershare at the reception. Of course, if you voted in favor, you don't have to register your vote separately. With that, I will resign as the Chair of the Board and conclude today's general meeting. Thank you very much for your participation, and I give the floor back to Lene Skole for a concluding remark.
Thank you very much, and I would just like to extend a warm thank you to all of you for participating today. For the shareholders present here in the room, and also thank you to the Chairman of the meeting for navigating very competently and in a very nice manner through the proceedings today. Thank you very much, and have a safe trip.