Good morning, dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen. I hereby open the 26th annual general meeting of Deutsche Post AG. On behalf of the executive board and my colleagues on the supervisory board, would like to extend a very warm welcome to you all. It's a pleasure to welcome so many of you here in- person in Bonn.
As you can tell, I'm not Mr. von Bomhard. My name is Katrin Suder. A year ago, I was elected chair of the supervisory board. It is in this capacity that I'm chairing today's meeting. It's my pleasure and honor to do so. I would also like to welcome those shareholders and their representatives who are following our AGM online, as well as the notary, Dr. Hermann. Immediately following my opening remarks- right now I forgot something. Sorry. Let me go back in my notes.
Well, immediately following my opening remarks, our CEO, Mr. Meyer, will address the meeting then Ms. Kreis will take the opportunity to provide a brief update on our share buyback program. This will be followed by Mr. Meyer's remarks on the carve-down at acquisition agreement, which is before you today for approval under agenda Item 8, as well as the Supervisory Board's report. During the general debate that follows, all shareholders and representatives have the opportunity to ask questions. To this end, I would ask you to submit your request to speak in writing. Forms are available at the registration desk.
In the interest of a smooth and coordinated process, I would ask you to submit your request as early as possible. Once I've called you up, use one of the two lecterns for your remarks. I look forward to your contributions at an interesting meeting. The list of attendees will shortly be available on the screens to the right and left of the registration desk and will be continuously updated. Finally, I would ask you to respect the right of all participants to their own image and words. Audio and video recordings of the AGM are not permitted without their consent.
Further information on the procedure for requesting the floor, on motions, on the voting procedure, the granting of proxies, and on leaving the AGM early can be found in the organizational notes you received upon registration. These notes are binding for today's meeting. You may also obtain the notes throughout the AGM at the speaker's registration desk and at the information desk in the lobby.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the many employees of our company who, together with you, are contributing to the success of today's meeting. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now proceed to the agenda, which can also be seen on the screen behind me. Mr. Meyer, I would first like to ask you to present your report on the past financial year.
Dear shareholders, dear guests, I would also like to welcome you to the World Conference Center in beautiful, yet slightly rainy Bonn today. I'm pleased to see you, and I'd also like to welcome those who are joining us online. Nice to have you with us. As we've just seen in the video, the history of mankind is also a history of trade, and trade has enabled progress and created prosperity. We at DHL Group have been part of this development for over 500 years. When the world is as turbulent as it is today, it is worth taking a look at our roots.
Our first root, the root of the German mail and parcel business, goes back to 1490. Back then, the Holy Roman Emperor had a network of postal stations built, and this was the birth of modern postal services in Europe. In the centuries that followed, there were repeated major upheavals, wars, epidemics, revolutions, but the postal service organization has survived all of this. Our second-oldest root dates back to 1815. Borders in Europe have shifted and there are new tariffs.
During this time, a French officer enters the forwarding business. His name is Louis Danzas, and he takes care of the customs formalities for his customers directly. The freight forwarding company in Alsace becomes a global corporation. Danzas has been part of our company for over 25 years. The expertise is still part of our DHL Global Forwarding division.
Our third root takes us back to the year 1969, in the middle of the Cold War and a few years before the great oil crisis. We're talking here about three founders in the U.S. whose surnames begin with certain letters, and they fly papers for cargo ships ahead by airplane. By the time the ship arrives in port, customs is already completed, and this saves a lot of time and money. The small courier becomes a global express service, and Deutsche Post bought it over 20 years ago and t oday, DHL is our dominant global brand.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are some of the pillars that DHL Group is resting on today. All these stories have one thing in common: people need trade, and things have to get from A to B in good times and bad. This hasn't changed over the centuries, but then t echnology, of course, is advancing. Half a millennium ago, the postal service still had to change horses. Today, we operate a fleet of around 270 modern aircraft, among other modes of transport, and we deliver practically everything that can be delivered in over 220 countries and territories. Each of our aircraft has shipments for an average of around 10,000 customers on board.
Every shipment, needless to say, is supposed to arrive safely and on time. As you can probably imagine, this requires a complex and finely tuned network, and it is precisely this complexity that we, as DHL, master very well. For example, how do we react when something unexpected happens, a severe storm, sudden new tariffs, or even a war and w e need a plan B quickly, and then we see what the company can do.
What you see here in the video is not a movie set. It is the DHL situation center in Brussels. This is where our global network management team works. It controls our global fleet of aircraft and I am delighted that one of our most experienced experts in this field is with us today, and that's Stefanie Lotter. She's been familiar with network planning for over 20 years. Hello, Mrs. Lotter. Hello. Tell me, what is it like to work at the situation center?
In Brussels, we are 40 colleagues, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. You already see what the situation center looks like. There is the world map, where we see the position of our aircraft in real -time, weather maps, but also live news. What makes our work extremely complex are the many levers that we can use but have to take into account as well. Weather is one aspect. It is very important to take weather into account to ensure that aircrafts arrive on time. We've got different sizes of aircrafts, and it's our job to ensure that the available aircraft covers demand but r isks of individual countries must also be taken into account so that we always have a contingency plan.
The past couple of weeks with the war in the Middle East have been very turbulent. What's happening in the situation center in such a case?
The war in the Middle East meant that the situation changed every minute. Some states closed the airspace for civil aviation completely. Far then, we activated contingency plans to be able to use the open air terminals in the region, and from there we delivered goods to customers. In such a situation, you have to be much more spontaneous than normally. Here on the screen, you see that there were only two air corridors left in that time period between Asia and Europe, and these air corridors had to be used by all airlines, which meant that there were traffic jams in the air. Despite all difficulties, we managed to serve our customers in the Middle East despite the war.
In 2025, the changes of U.S. customs policy certainly also had an effect on you, right? What did that look like?
Well, major effects, as a matter of fact. Usually, we plan our capacity six months ahead. We thus collaborate with many colleagues that give us business forecasts, but we've got special computer programs, algorithms that help us to take into account seasonality or things like Black Friday. When the U.S., in April of last year, introduced tariffs, everything was different overnight. Many Chinese companies went ahead and no longer moved their goods from China to the U.S. so w e had capacities that were idle and had to be replanned. On the other hand, we also see new growth markets and growth opportunities, so new trade lanes were opened in the network. One is in the north of Hanoi, in Hanoi, the north of Vietnam, to Europe.
The past year certainly wasn't a boring one for us. If you look across your career, do you think it was the most intense year?
Well, this is very challenging, but COVID was much more intensive for us. We never knew which country would introduce measures tomorrow and how the rest of the world would react. Every day we had to rethink how to utilize the network in the best possible way to meet our customers' demands and to keep the costs as low as possible but o ur team is specializing in these situations and w e know crises better than any normality. If you consider how many crises we have gone through, the financial crisis, the volcano in Europe, then the oil crisis, now COVID, and the war in Ukraine, and the war in Iran, this gives you an idea perhaps how much experience we've got in this area. For us, it means that we believe we can master any crisis.
Thank you very much, Mrs. Lotter, for being with us here today. Say hello to the team in Brussels. Ladies and gentlemen, as you can tell, we do not only have experienced colleagues in Brussels, but all over the world. Teams that, you know, keep their cool even in difficult situations, and that played a major role for the excellent results we achieved in 2025 as DHL Group. Global trade grew only modestly. International tensions and trade conflicts play a role here, of course, as do, does the impact of U.S. tariffs on major trade routes, as we just heard unless w e did meet our forecast. Our revenue in 2025 was slightly below the previous year, yes, but, this was also due to, the strong euro.
DHL Group generates a lot of revenue in other currencies, you see, a stronger euro reduces the contribution of these businesses to our balance sheet but EBIT amounted to EUR 6.1 billion, which was above the previous year, and free cash flow, excluding acquisitions, amounted to EUR 3.2 billion, which was also up on the prior year. Overall, a positive trend in a difficult environment. My thanks for this achievement, above all, goes to our 584,000 employees around the world, be it the delivery person who delivers parcels at -10 degrees, the employees in the letter, mail and parcel centers, in customer service, in transportation, or the planner who finds a new route for our planes under high pressure.
You know, these are the activities that define us as DHL and Deutsche Post, and it is precisely these services with which we gain the trust of our customers, so a big thanks to all our staff for their excellent performance in the past year. What else was crucial for our success? We've kept our global network flexible and consistently adjusted capacities to shipment volumes e specially with the many fluctuations in the past year, that was a very important thing to do. We also had our costs very well under control again, and that pays off. It is reflected in our profit and w e've continued to implement our strategy in a focused manner, m ore about that in a moment.
Before that, let's take a look at our stock and its development over the past year. You can see here DHL Group in yellow. The light gray stands for the transport industry worldwide, and the dark gray represents the German stock index DAX. The diagram shows that we clearly outperformed the global transportation industry last year, and we also left the DAX behind us, which means that the market has recognized that we are successful even in a difficult global situation and t here is good news regarding the dividend, too.
We are able to propose an increase for 2025 to EUR 1.90 per share after EUR 1.85 in the previous three years. This means that we would distribute around 61% of the net profit to you. We also bought back shares worth a total of EUR 1.4 billion last year, and this also benefits you as shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, we initially sought in the management of our aircraft fleet.
In a turbulent world, we have to react especially quickly and flexibly. At the same time, we also need a longer-term compass in this situation, and for us, this is our Strategy 2030. It defines the areas in which we want to grow even more decisively. We presented the Strategy around a year and a half ago, and we've made a lot of progress since. One example is the new energy sector. The world is building solar plants, batteries, and wind farms at a pace that was inconceivable just a few years ago, and we, as DHL, offer the logistics for that. Our transports in this segment are clearly picking up speed.
In 2025, we had a third more revenue in this area than in the year before that. When it comes to new and more sustainable energies, incidentally, we are a particularly credible partner for our customers because we attach great importance to transportation with fewer emissions for all customers across all sectors. This is also an integral part of our strategy. Why are we doing this? Because climate change will not disappear just because it is being discussed less by the politicians at the moment.
With our GoGreen Plus product, customers can book transportation with fewer emissions for an extra charge by airplane, by ship, or by land. Demand for that is increasing, even in markets where the political mood may suggest otherwise and t hat's why we are continuing to expand our offering. Another sector that we are increasingly focusing on is life sciences and healthcare, so pharmaceutical and medical products. More and more new drugs are tailored to individual patients and are very complex.
They often need constant subzero temperatures during transportation. Just one fluctuation, and the goods can be useless. We have decades of experience in healthcare logistics, and we already have a high-performing service range but o ver the next few years, we will be building something that will set new standards, a global logistics network for seamlessly refrigerated transportation along the entire supply chain, from transportation and storage to delivery. Everything from a single source, continuously monitored according to uniform standards and w herever it makes sense, we also acquire outside expertise.
Last year, for example, we took over a special courier that provides supplies for cell and gene therapies, among other things. It's called CRYOPDP. We also acquired a provider for fast pharmaceutical transportation over the last mile, which is called SDS Rx. With the Strategy 2030 is about faster growth, not just in certain sectors, but also in selected countries and regions. We've identified 20 countries that are becoming increasingly important in global trade and also in terms of their geopolitical location. You can see these countries in yellow on the map. They include China and India, for example, but also countries such as Brazil, Poland and South Africa.
These markets benefit from new trade flows and from companies that are establishing new global supply chains. We want to become even more present in these countries, that's why we will continue to invest here over the next few years. For example, that includes around EUR 1 billion in India, EUR 300 million in Africa and over EUR 0.5 billion in the Middle East. Even though the past few months have been stressful for that region, we remain convinced of its prospects.
This is a region that will still be an important growth market for us in the future and a ll of this progress contributes to our Strategy 2030 b ut having a footprint in the market alone is not enough. What counts in the end is the quality the customer receives and how efficiently we can offer it, and here we benefit very much from digitalization. We are constantly testing new digital possibilities and wherever it makes sense, we integrate them into our processes. This especially holds true for artificial intelligence. It already plays an important role today, for instance, in areas such as customs clearance and customer service.
Customs clearance in particular is an exciting example. As a company, we handle many millions of customs transactions every year, and this is often quite tedious for our experts. You know, there are countless rules, regulations, special codes, and different ones apply for each country. There are the customer's documents from the invoice to the delivery note. Our experts have to gather up all these details, which is a lot of work, and often the pieces of the puzzle don't fit together immediately. For example, if the descriptions of the products are not standardized, then you have even more work to do.
Our customers, or our customs experts, excuse me, do an excellent job and display a lot of patience, but it is not always very efficient, nor very inspiring ND t his is where our new customs AI comes into play. You can see images of this in the video. The AI automatically reads the numerous documents, immediately finds the important data, and compares it with the relevant customs regulations of the country concerned. It also carries out checks. Are the products described correctly? Are the documents complete, and does the information match?
As soon as the AI system finds gaps or contradictions, it points them out to our experts. If necessary, it directly formulates a suitable query for the customer. This is a new chapter in our customs work. It'll make us faster, more productive, and better because AI always works with the same precision, even under high pressure, and because it documents every step in a very transparent way. Incidentally, AI is never an autopilot for us. It supports us, it makes suggestions, but it does not replace people. The final decision is always made by our experts.
AI gives our teams time for other tasks, such as processing special cases, improving processes, or advising even more customers, t his makes their work more interesting and even more valuable, both for the company and for our customers. We've been using customs AI in three countries since March after extensive testing, and in the coming years it'll support many of our global customs processes. The topic of robotics is also making further progress. At the previous AGM, I already introduced some robots to you that load parcels, and today I will show you what robots with so-called computer vision can do. Such robots can see, they understand pictures, and can draw conclusions from them.
Needless to say, AI also plays a role here. Here on the stage is one such robot. You can also see it at work in the warehouse in the video. It's called Dexory. What exactly does the robot do? Briefly put, it records the inventories. It, you know, deals with the question of what's located and where. This is to ensure that the IST system is always up to date, and that our teams recognize possible deviations immediately. Dexory therefore moves independently through the aisles and takes stock, i t uses high-resolution cameras. It can record thousands of storage positions per hour, and it even works at great heights. Its tower can be extended up to 14 m high.
Dexory also helps with safety. For example, it can see if a box has shifted and could fall down. We've been using Dexory in three countries since last year, in the U.S., in the U.K., and in the Netherlands. Further European countries will be added over the course of this year. Digitalization also helps us in direct contact with our customers. One example that I like in particular is our new Poststation, or Poststation.
You are already familiar with its older sister, the so-called Packstation. We now operate around 17,000 of these in Germany, you've probably come across a few already. We're now taking the next step with a new Poststation. It is basically a full-fledged retail location. You can not only pick up and drop off parcels there, but also purchase mail and parcel stamps, for example. You can post letters or book additional options such as registered mail. All this can be done 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The station has been very well received by our customers, partly because it's very easy to operate. Let me show you. Now we want to buy something. Now you can see that's dispatched within Germany. Now I'm changing the destination country. Let me do something slightly more complicated. I'm picking Austria, so that's a foreign country and I chose standard letter. Now I may be wondering, how long is it going to take? Let me check. Maybe I can speak to an agent here so y ou select the product. You see, you know, various consulting services are offered to you.
Good morning. My name is Mueller. Good morning, Mr. Mueller. My name is Tobias Meyer. I am at the AGM now. We were asked to pretend that we didn't know upfront that we're talking to each other, but let's be honest here. I just chose a letter for Austria. How long will it take to be delivered? The official transit time for registered mail within Europe is two to five days. Experience shows, however, that letters to Austria usually are dispatched within two to three days. Registered mail, that is but t hat should, you know, only include documents. If you want to send some sort of merchandise or product, you should send it by way of a parcel.
Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. It's not a good idea to send, say, a key in a normal envelope. Where are you based? In Fürth, in Bavaria. Very nice. Thank you very much. Say hello to the team, and all the best, and thanks for supporting our customers with such excellent advice. Thank you, we're saying hello to Bonn. Right. Now I could buy it, I'm afraid I forgot my wallet, let's leave it at that. Why is the new Poststation important, ladies and gentlemen because m ore and more stores are closing, especially in rural areas, and as a result, we then frequently lose our local retail partners and t hen we often can't find a substitute, despite an intensive search.
With the Poststation, we can still supply every location in an efficient and customer-friendly way. What's important here is that the Poststation should be accessible to the entire population, and that's why the latest generation of the station is consistently accessible. We currently operate over 1,000 Poststations throughout Germany. This too is an example of digitalization with real benefits in everyday life.
Ladies and gentlemen, we also want to adjust our group structure as part of Strategy 2030 to ensure that the legal structure is in line with the way we've been running the company for years, as a group with five divisions, plus finance, HR, and other overarching roles. What does that mean? Our listed parent company will be called DHL AG in the future. Below that, our five divisions are each responsible for their own day-to-day business, and we also want to turn P&P Germany into a separate legal entity, and that would be in line with the other DHL divisions.
It is to bear the proven name of Deutsche Post AG as a subsidiary of DHL AG. What's important here is that this will not result in any disadvantages for our employees. Your rights and interests are fully protected, including wages, working hours, and protection rules, and management will not change either. In operational terms, P&P Germany is already an independent division today, and the German postal and parcel business will remain an important part of the company. I will provide more details on this later in the annual general meeting. You will be able to decide on the carve-out today, and I would be delighted if you consent to it.
Let me conclude by once again addressing our day-to-day business and giving you the forecast for the 2026 financial year. We assume that geopolitical tensions and trade conflicts will continue to affect our business, but we believe that we'll be able to still deal with it very well. We expect EBIT to exceed EUR 6.2 billion, t hat would be above the prior year level and w e continue to expect free cash flow, excluding acquisitions, of around EUR 3 billion. We announced the results for the first quarter of 2026 on Thursday last week. Our EBIT grew significantly compared to the same quarter of the previous year, and the margin and free cash flow also improved further compared to the first three months of the past year. We got off to a good start to the year.
Dear shareholders, dear guests, we all want a more stable world, I guess, more predictability, fewer conflicts, less pressure to change. We can't count on that for the time being, I'm afraid. We are living in more strenuous times again, and our employees are not the only ones who are feeling this. All of us, as citizens, are feeling it as well. We are rightly concerned about many developments, but DHL Group has deep roots, leading expertise, and a highly flexible global network, and this enables us to grow even in a difficult environment.
We continue to support our customers in global trade and keep their supply chains stable, even if the world is becoming more complex. We continue to transport things from A to B. This business model has worked for us for centuries, and this won't change. Technologies come and go. Transportation remains because transportation is not a trend, it is a basic need, the foundation for prosperity, participation, and progress. As DHL Group, we want to remain the best in this business. Thank you very much for listening and for placing your trust in us.
Well, thank you very much, Mr. Meyer. A very impressive voyage and I liked you referring to the historical roots and to the modern technology. This is what makes us proud and this ends the public part of the live broadcast.