Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to open the 131 to annual general meeting of Edelburgson and AG at 10 o'clock today, time. As always, This year, for the first time, is a so called virtual AGM. As the chairman of the I'm the chairman of the advisory Borrett for certain Hickman, and I'm your chairman. And I'd like to welcome the shareholders who are connected us online today. And I'm very happy that so many people are interested in our proceedings.
We have received such feedback. I'm happy that many business nurse, customers, suppliers, and, employees, and former employees are also with us today. I'd like to welcome the guests who will watch the first part of the ATM via the live stream, which is publicly, accessible. Now before I start with the AGM and the agenda, I'd like to talk about 3 facts that we, look at when we prepared this AGM, the first aspect was this new format. We want to ensure to give you reliable information in an understandable way as you are used to from our, usual AGMs with the people in attendance because of this, both the part myself will speak, extemporaneously in order to make sure that we are, easier to follow.
Also, for those people who are watching us, the internet, there are some formal parts concerning myself. As in earlier use, I've tried to go through these difficult bits, so that we can talk about the contents. The second item that we dealt with was how about the future about the future of Helomics Cement and the industry? This was very much driven by environmental concerns. As you know, from the other years from our report, we are very committed And we want to be a trailblazer in the industry and we want to remain.
So in order to make sure that the that our products are ready for the future, protect the environment, and we're doing so day to day. And Doctor. Production will also speak to this matter. The question about the future is very much characterized by or impacted by the effects of the corona pandemic. The cause of this is outside of anything, that can be captured with our normal forecasting in tremends in gutting as we've heard, schools are being closed in Sweden.
They're discussing whether their approach to corona was correct or not. So there's a great deal of uncertainty, and this is true for us too. The managing board oriented the company together with this advisory board, such way that we provide for our employees in such way that we protect their health. And we want to make sure that throughout the world in all of these complicated international markets, the company can respond and adapt to situation that is very hard to plan for. We believe that with this orientation, we will make it through the crisis and we will be We will continue to be ready for the future.
In spite of all of the uncertainties that will be with us for the foreseeable future. This also goes for our dividend proposal. We had many intensive discussions And finally, the outcome was that in this year, as a one off, hopefully, in this rehab company, we want to reduce the dividend And this has to do with preparing for the future. We want to master all of these uncertainties in a stable situation, and we want to make sure that you, as the investor, will continue to favor our company, and we want to be able or remain able to shape the future. In spite of everything, have no industry, sell our goal, of course, is to make your share and the result with 35% to 40% and we want to have you share in a rising and policy.
And Doctor. Von Acton will speak about this subject matter in his explanations. I will do so 2 in part. But, upfront, I wanted to tell you what we wanted to tell you which topics are particularly important to us today and in the next few months. Our AGM will consist of four parts.
The first one will deal with the information about the formalities. And the part 2 will deal with the individual items on the agenda. And this will include the statement of Doctor. Fonakna, our new CEO, about the ongoing business last year and the outlook. And the 3rd part will be dedicated to the to answering your questions that were handed in on time by 2nd June 2020 4 pm.
And the last block will deal with the voting. Now the consequences, for the corona crisis, are the reason for, postponing the, of AGM that was planned for the 7th May originally. And in order to comply, with the need for AGM, we a new law, to have a virtual, AGM, we try to answer your questions, a real dialogue, of course, not possible as in, a, an AGM where everybody is in attendance, the solutions, so the draft resolutions. So worked on app in the course of the COVID-nineteen act. Now in addition, we decided to shorten the deadlines and to ask the, shareholders to hand in their questions within the, defined, deadline, not all of the, board members are here, in order to protect the health of people, but all of these sort of Azerbaijan members and all of the Managing Board members are press online.
In this room, we have Doctor. Nathan, the, Chairman of the Managing Board, Doctor. Tenlega, Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board and CFO and the Not Republic. And, Eric, next to me, she will take the minute. Of this AGM today.
And I'm here, and I will guide you through today's proceedings. Now in addition, we have the 2 company proxies, and location is the Dom, room, of our new headquarters in Heidelberg at Velina Strasse. Those members of the board not present, those members of the supervisor, but not present here in this room who are connected online are in constant contact with us because of special line that we have set up. And this AGM will be broadcast live to our shareholders on the in the internet. My introductory remarks and the speech of the CEO can also be followed by the public on the life stream.
We also have simultaneous translation into English. And we are very happy that afterwards, we will be able to answer all of the submitted questions with always according to the best judgment And we want to answer those questions to the rest of our judgment. If there are questions that appear trist, we will summarize those questions as you may have gathered from the invitation loading today is only possible by absentee ballot or by authorizing the company's proxies. Now your absentee ballot or your instructions to the company's proxies? Can be, until it can be changed or submitted.
On the internet portal. Until the beginning of the voting, I will inform you when you have a last chance to change or submit your votes. I'd like to point out to you that you should use these voting abilities quickly because there may be delays due to technical reasons. If you want to vote, the Internet portal, you can also launch an objection to the decisions of this AGM. This is only possible, however, in the end of the AGM and not after the AGM, if you want to use that, possibility, please use the button, object of the Internet portal.
And if you click on that, you can enter the text of your objection, and this objection will then be presented to the note Republic directory, which is, Ms. Eirik. And in order to make sure that this really works, safely, don't wait until the very last minute, if you want to launch in, if you want to file your objection because there may always be technical delays in the live stream. Now as far as the formal, subject matter are concerned, the list of put disciplines will be, made available and will be drawn up during the meeting later. I will tell you, about who's in attendance.
No record must be made of the AGM. And the publicly available part will be available afterwards on the website of the company. As in earlier years, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to use this event to a guard a minute's silence for those employees. And for my colleagues who died in the last year, they all deserve to be remembered.
Thank you
for your commemoration. Now ladies and gentlemen, There were some changes in the composition of the Suraj report. I reported on this at end of the AGM 2019. And the new Supervisory Board cooperated very well. And because of the pandemic.
It has come together in a very intensive way. The changes on the management board were announced at last year's AGM and the civil advisory board. Provided the way or paved the way for a change in generations. Doctor. Vanachrani used to be the Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board and took over the, Chairman Ship from Blackfern Chai Labless of the 1st February this year.
We all wish Doctor. Van Afton much success and board have liked him to have, more convenient conditions at the beginning of his tenure, but This is a challenge. And so far, many things have been launched in a very good and proprietary way. After more than 15 years, the board, so Doctor. Schafer left the Managing Board at the end of January.
In 2005, he joined as the chairman of the board and he had a major influence and impact on the company, both on the operating side of things. And also as far as the strategic guidance is concerned, And we can, and this is reflected by the new dimension that HydroGard Cement has, received under his leadership, especially with the big acquisition of Hansen. And with this and, with other instances of rounding off the company, Advair has become more resistant. I believe that in the 3 major areas, the private areas, cement, very much concrete and aggregates, we can now play a leading role all over the world. And with our regional spread, we have a good mix in order to overcome this crisis because crisis spread out all over the world as we can see right now in can respond to that.
Now this geographic orientation, and the focusing of on core activities is something that Doctor. Scheifele did very sustainably in our company, and we will continue to follow this lead. What I liked or What I like very much about Doctor Schaffler was his pragmatism. His, target, orient and his access to employees. Every company has great licenses and great names and great queries, but in the end, it's the company's employees who need to burn for the company and to need to be committed because of this.
So to thank you on behalf of everybody, especially so on behalf of the supplies report. And on my own behalf, for this excellent cooperation, And I'm very happy that after the 2 year cooling off period, Doctor. Schaeffler declared that he will join the Supervisory Board and stand for election as the chairman of the Supervisory Board. Now the supervisory board. Extended the contract for Doctor.
Nager, the current deputy, chairman. And I'm very happy that the Tanega was willing to set because with all of the changes that we have had in the monitoring board's advisory board, continuity until May 20 22 is very important in this important position of the CFO. And currently, Doctor. Niega, we can see how important it is to count on your experience, you know, starting from the consequences of the Neiman crisis and you know every single face of our company. And taking over the chairmanship of the company, Doctor.
Van Afton, has transferred to Western South And Europe to John Emarish John Marsh. We have known John Marsh for a long time. For a long time, he was responsible for the group area North America. And now he has taken over this position in, in Europe, in May. I'd say.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] And Sierra to cover the group areas north, Northern Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Mister. Has been with us since, 1982, and he stands for what doctor Shire was, stood for the site competence of Digelity was very successful in running our Technology Center, and we benefit from this greatly. He used to be very successful as the press responsible for our activities in Poland. At his 30, turned back to Shoya and has retired now.
And, we owe him great things. He was somebody we could use for anything, really. When we caught him in the morning, that we, as I said, to America, then he said, yes, I have to discuss it with my family, but I can already say, yes. And when we said, well, sorry, it has to be Central Asia, he was just a flexible. In addition to this price flexibility, he was the person who was in the lead for our concrete activities.
And many aspects passed over his desks. And he, moved many things forward. We, our graph we are full of gratitude to him, and he leaves a well prepared field to Mr. Yarlato. And so 2019, Chris Ward joined the Managing Board.
And as of February 2020, he took over the group areas in North America taking over from John Barish, who moved on to Europe. And we know Chris Ward, he has been with company since 906 fully in North America. He was responsible for the excited field of aggregates. And, his last position was responsibility was responsibility for Canada. Doctor.
Von Afton will later present the 2 new colleagues personally And I'd like to come back to the formal matters. The invitation to this AGM happened, by using a shortened calling period according to the COVID-nineteen law, and it was published, in the federal bulletin of the Southern May 2020, and the agenda was also published. And a printout is and our North Republic has printout, and this will be added to the minutes of today so that the items on the agenda and the draft resolutions and have been publicized accordingly, state that all of the formalities have been complied with in due form and time in keeping with the loss and or article of association. And, we have not received any other request for additional lives on the agenda. And, we send out the published agenda to all of the Banks And Shareholder Association Shareholders.
And today, we'll deal with the annual report the inter financial statements and the, agenda, these, documents were available. Day of the calling of the AGM that were available and were sent out to, the show's unrequest, as far as the report of the Suvais report, the Copeland governance report are concerned, you will find them in the annual report on pages 8 through 1374 until landing, 7, or as of page after following page 35. So we will today not have motions and requests for the floor. Rather, we will answer the questions that you have submitted already. Because of this special form, kind of proposals and nominations for election cannot be filed today.
And because of this, we will not have to, discuss these But we received a kind of proposal that we published on the web page of the company no nominations, for election have been sent in that would have had to publish under, Section 126127. And the counter proposal that I mentioned was sent to us by the Association of Critical Shareholders in Cologne concerning item 3 on the agenda, following Section 126 of stock operation law. Item 3 deals with the discharge of the Managing Board and the kind of proposal was published on the webpage of our company on the same day. This kind of proposal is against our proposal proposal of the administration, to rent discharge to the managing board amongst other things because of the plan to building up a cement company in Central JAV by our subsidiary, Indocement and with regards to the activities of Simone to be more rock in the area of the Western Sahara and later, the most important, the supplies report will make our statement about this kind of proposal. But there will be no decision.
And now we'll start with the agenda. First item of the agenda deals with the presentation of the established annual financial statement of AdWords met AG.
Also, the approved consolidated financial statements of the group, the combined management report of Heidelberg cement AG and Heidelberg cement group, as well as the report of the supervisory board for the 2019 financial year. These documents are also available on the website of the company. Also, you will find the so called remuneration report, the explanations according to the details, of, the corporate code and the corporate governance code on financial year 2019. On item 1, we will not share a resolution as in all the other years. Because the supervisory board is responsible for approving, the annual financial statements and has thus made them official.
With regards to the supervisory Board report, I'd like to refer you to pages H213 of the annual report. On financial year 2019, you'll have more details later, from Doctor. Fanakton. The supervisory board firm, and let me give you a summary here on the the supervisory board, says that we had a positive development in 2019. Even though the conditions remain challenging once more, even then.
So we have slightly reduced sales volumes, which we're able to even overcompensate thanks to increasing efficiency and, thanks to price increases. On this basis, Heidelberg's amend has been able to increase revenue to 1,000,000,000, almost 1000000000. And, the result was 1,000,000,000. Our net financial debt before IFRS 16, fell by 1,200,000,000 and another important point Heinrichs and Mends once more on the premium on its cost of capital in 2019. IFRS 6 team, as I just mentioned, and I mentioned that last year, Doctor.
Niega explained it to, is a reclassification of, leasing expenses. And, Mr. Nigga will forgive me if I abbreviate, the process, it means, that it's not to regulate expenses under which we book leases, the financial bid goes into financial liabilities. And this is why, the figures are not really comparable unless, you use a bridge to explain them. The supervisory board worked very closely, with the managing board.
After all, it's our job to consult and monitor the managing board. And we supported, the managing board in determining, the general policy, the strategy, and, we also looked into all critical, business transactions. That needed to be scrutinized. We coordinate it closely with the Managing Board and the supervisory Board as of course, met with the board in, the plenary, but also in committees. And once more, we had a strategy meeting, which will play separately.
In all matters of critical importance, the supervisory board was directly involved The supervisory board once more convinced itself that the company has a well functioning, risk management system. And the auditors have confirmed that and also we, confirmed the efficiency of the compliance program, the audit committee were regularly meet those persons responsible and who will meet people from risk and compliance management. All audit relevant, issues were discussed
enforces within this plan?
Within and, outside meetings. And, we also, dealt with matters if necessary. With the auditors. And of course, being the chairman of the supervisory board, I was constantly and regularly in contact with, Doctor. Van Achten outside meetings as well.
Last year, the attendance was high in the supervisory board 98.8 percent. And, in the committee meetings, last year, we had an attendance of 98.75%. There were no conflicts of interest of visory board members in dealing with the subjects on our table. And in the last year, we did not have any consulting service or, work agreements between members of the supervisory board and the company, with the exception of course, with the contract, employee contracts of the employee representatives on the supervisory board. Last year, the supervisory board, focused on the financial decisions that needed to be taken.
The supervisory board agreed, to, the issuance of a bond under the EMTN program. The bond value is 1,000,000, with a maturity in December 20 27 under favorable conditions after all the purpose is to keep our maturity profile smooth, and this helps. The prospectus, was updated last year. And this year, we've already done another update of the terms and conditions. Well, there's corona and there's uncertainty, but despite that, we've been able to issue another bond with a value of 1,000,000 by the end of April 2020, and that once more attests to the trust that the capital markets have in our company.
And that means the financial is is strong for the company, both in the short, medium and long term. We encourage, the managing board, to refinance, financial instruments at favorable terms if they come up and we appreciate very much that the managing board and in particular, the CFO, allow the maturities profile is, as usual, very smooth. So that, we will be able to created by the corona prices, which might make it more difficult. Also, the supervisory board has encouraged the Managing Board will keep the dynamic debt, right, so we can, the target corridor investment grade and, to reach use, that level of debt continues in the future. The last part of my report, for deals with your long term, strategy of the company, which is in constant focus.
In, physical meetings, what we have discussed, critical investment minds, divestitures, portfolio optimization, and so on, with a focus on profitable growth for the company. And, of course, we kept in mind that we'd like keep the balance sheet structure solid wherever possible. Also, the company has a program to continue improving operational excellence. If you've been with us for a while, you'll know that this is an important pillar of our growth, Heidelberg cement, has always insisted that that was the way into the future. In 2019, our focus on strategic activities was digitization, digitization, against the background of internal processes, but also with regard to, customer focus, customer orientation, value chains, and so on.
And another important point for us was, of course, the reduction of carbon emissions in cement production. This environmental orientation is something that Doctor. Van Afton was tells you more about. It is very important for us as citizens of success. It is important, but it is also important as we serve the company Heilenburg cement.
We also dealt with the strategic challenges that come in the free is faced with against the background of, the emissions trading. And also the Metoff digit transformation, and we also studied the opportunities for hydroxychloroquine and to avail itself off venture capital activities. Also, and fundamental strategies were adopted, and we also launched them on our way. Art from this here, the managing board will, address the public, with the use of that in mind. His corporate governance now, and you'll find the statement, the current statement on page 75 of the Azure Receivior.
You will also find our diversity goals there. Diversity goals are important for filling positions the managing board and the supervisory board and all other levels within the company. Will have noticed, that, we are a bit more diverse now on the supervisory board firm and, on the Managing board, We have 5 non German nationals of the 2 Germans, and 1 is based about inverterberg, if I remember correctly. And we are very trying very hard, to diversify membership. Awesome.
It's one of our goals to bring a female colleague on to the manager. This is a challenge. You can check ground that in our industry.
Mainly
mentally found because of the training that they've under 1. And so the managing team will have to pave the way, for the women to find their way, absolutely. Also, there's the field of health and safety that we've been focusing on. In fact, health and safety is now among the goals. So for our management team members.
Often safety has always received a lot of attention at many important level has compliance and sustainability the foundation of the environment and also the sparing use of resources. The remuneration report can be found on pages, 79 to 90 2. And, the new system has been in place since the 1st January 2019. You will find the most current version printed in the remuneration. The set under item or one of the agenda, that the actual statements, have been approved to abide the supervisory board.
And that means that prior that, the supervisory board and the audit committee have a review to the statements carefully with the audit as present. And the supervisory board has been approved, the results of the pre audit. And as the supervisory forward much audited, the financial statements once more. It agreed with the proposal made by the auditors. The Supervisory Board has placed a formally approved.
Did the financial statements, which made them official?
We haven't You didn't see
also the Supervisory board looked into form and content. Of the non financial statement in the management report. It is very important, for us to be very flows and was over the shoulder of the management fee. We did not raise any objections. And you will find a non financial, safe on the pages 47 following of our annual report.
The major challenges, for the economy and for hydroelectric cement in particular, as a consequence of COVID-nineteen of the pandemic is something that I already mentioned. This is something which is on everybody's minds, of course, also explained that there was a high degree of uncertainty, which was why after long discussions, so we do cited to propose a dividend of $0.60 per share. Originally, it happened planned to a proposed dividend of We hope that you'll understand this. Well, we want to keep our financial structure intact and also would like to have you time of the success of the company, in the company, through the dividend, but Doctor. Frohn often will explain it in more detail.
That much on another report on the Supervisory Board in the last year. And with that, I'd like to hand over to our CEO, Doctor. Von Achin.
Liva Heckmann. I have this in.
Yes, Mr. Heckmann, thank you very much. First of all, I want a few things. Thank you. You're addressing a non swathe in to a brand password.
Thank you. For that.
Hats which will call
you, also minor this all from the offices. I'd like to walk him through
the office.
Full managed support. We are very happy about that.
Yes.
So how
do we have an annoying mind,
see in terms of the noise in Illinois health providers in the new had brought us up this 1,000,000,000. Quarters were built. At least on the same side, I've been placing the operating income from the 1950s. We have not fully moved in, but this is, a new milestone for Hyderabad cement, and we're very happy that, We can broadcast, this AGM live to you from R And U Promises. And, of course, we all realized that something is missing.
This is the personal contact that we normally would in the city hall of Vista or maybe in the future, hopefully, right here. Open contact What is missing are the discussions, the personal discussions, the A contact when you listen to us and when will you listen to your questions?
Hopefully,
we are also missing out on a good lunch, but as always, you know, There's also a fresh opportunity in every crisis and cure opportunities. Today has showed us is that you may get even better coffee, either at home or at the office, the opportunity for our customers is that Do you have a chance to use some more production by not having to travel to our of AGM. And the opportunity of power. Right? So you use is to follow us live because in the past, we only have this, opportunity for a few and are very happy about this.
Unfung these are present fuel. At the beginning 4 targets during Agapeness in this
My presentation about the south of last year. Inan. As to our, Move to the view. Here, I'd like to Oh, thank you. Shareholders for your trust?
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:]
I'm mentioned this, as Stefano already mentioned this. It's you who support this company with your decisions, say you make a major contribution for this of the company. So I'd like to thank you on behalf of all of us. And then, of course, it is you as customers who, support us because without you, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be able to work here.
It is you who use our products and to apply our products. And, we are very grateful to you. And it's also our suppliers and service providers cooperating with us in order to achieve the very best for our customers day after day. And please bear with me. Our special things go out to our 55,000 employees.
All over the world. It is because of your loyalty and because of your stream commitment day in, day out, that we can yield results that you as shareholders, expect of us. And, allow me to, emphasize this difficult times. My special things go out to, the, representative of Safari. And for years, we've gone through challenging months and many more challenging months live before us.
And we are very happy that we have a very constructive and always friendly dialogue with our employee representatives leading to the best possible result for Helbert Simmons. So thank you very much to all of you. Mr. Heckman already has said that there have been 2 key changes on the management board. And we even though This is not as easy online, but we would we wanted to introduced the 2 new colleagues on the Vonagee Board.
What's very important to me is that both of these new colleagues represent a lot of experience of the companies start with Ernest, Elito, And that's an English policy. Is the Polish National. Successful for almost, for more than 40 years working for, for, for, cement. And one I note whenever our corporate with Ernest Pilito is that there's a great balance between us. Meeting There are knowledge costs.
Demand. Marked, no Combined with the surprising market know how. That he, showed when he was in the leadership position. That doesn't
make sense. Responsible on note is Europe since July last year. Ernest, you have a degree in chemistry from the University of Science And Technology in Graco. What made you enter the building materials industry? I was fascinated by the construction of 2 high-tech cement plants close to my hometown.
It was a clear sign to me that the building material engineering will develop very fast. You are responsible amongst others for Northern And Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and R&D. What do you consider the most important competencies that are required to see as such a diverse area of responsibilities? First dream, deep knowledge and growth experience. I work in different management position from plan to country manager, and I managed the Heidelbeck Technology Center for 11 years.
As a result, I know where Heidelbeck cement business in every one of my countries very well in terms of assets, staff, markets and stakeholders. Secondly, you have to be creative in terms of business and product development. Change management skills are also important. Thirdly, people motivation by empowerment and the respect of a diversity accrual. What fascinated you most about cement?
I'm fascinated by the manufacturing technology, but it's always covered in volume. Keywords are synchronous automation and digitalization. I'm also excited by our ability to further develop our products in sustainable way. Cement is just a fascinating product that can be used with any construction system. You can beat everything everywhere.
Yes, leave it Ernest Elito?
Well, dear Ernest Elito, much success and And I have a good cooperation between us. And now, Chris Wacheman, introduced him too. I have pleasure on meeting for sport. During my time in North America, I worked with them intensively. And so Mr.
Heck Van mentioned this before Chris Award. Ran our Aggregates business in the Southeast And United States before that this was very important at Helbert Cement. He started taking over the vertically rated region of Canada. Vertical integration is very important for us. And Chris Awards did excellent work there.
And, because of this, I would like to ask Chris Ward to introduce himself personally.
Good morning. I'm Chris Ward, member of the Managing Board responsible for North America. Chris, you've been a member of Heidelberg Cement's Managing Board since last September. What's it like being an American on the board of a company based in Germany? I'd say very energizing to be part of this group and to see the opportunities our teams are working on across the globe.
And at the same time, humbling. To work with such a professional and experienced leadership team. Throughout your career in the building materials industry, you worked in many different areas within North America. What is the biggest challenge for you in managing such a diverse region in 2 very large countries? First off, it's very rewarding to see the development of our leadership teams and the great progress they've made in improving their local businesses.
An ongoing challenge is to encourage local entrepreneurship while still leveraging our proven business systems for execution and efficiency. What do you like most about working in the construction materials industry? The aggregates business in particular? My earliest roles with this company were very hands on in the aggregate operations. I quickly learned and experienced how rewarding it was to lead teams that were so committed, hardworking, and professional.
Local businesses with local employees helping responsibly build our local communities. I can't think of a better industry
Yes, dear, Chris, you are following us from Texas. It's now, I think, 4 o'clock in the morning. Great to have you on the team. I'm really looking forward to working with you very closely, all the best for you as an important part of our management board. Evoxoneira,
Evoxoneira. Dear shareholders before. I continue would be reporting on the past year. There's one thing that I would like to mention? These are difficult times for everybody.
And especially for handbag cement, we are facing major challenges. But as always, in each challenge lies an opportunity, we want to use this opportunity together with our 55,000 employees. And in order to do so, we set ourselves the 4 guidelines that we will take our cue from. And I'd like to, tell you about them first. First of all, continue as the head fund point it out that Heidelberg cement is in a very good wasn't a very good situation.
When it entered the crisis, because of this, a lot of continuity remains along the lines of operational excellence, clear, cost leadership, and a license policy. Very well anchored, performance.
Increase in Italy. I mean,
every crisis or a change for that matter, there is an opportunity because of this change in this regards the way we work with our customers. We want to take or do even more from our customers together with them. We want to further develop our products and services to benefit our customers. Also change refers to simple processes because during these times, we can clearly see that when it becomes simpler, it becomes better. And once processes are simpler, we will have to digitize them in order to be more precise and, faster in communicating with you.
The 3rd element is, has become very clear, which is care. We want to take care of each other and of our customers. This regards health and safety at work. And I'll speak to that in a moment. Then sustainability, which is an item that has been important to us for a long time.
But want to focus even more on this aspects and compliance in all areas. This regards the subject matters where we want to follow a 0 tolerance policy and forward want to CR standards implemented it further developed. And lastly, this is very important to me personally is collaborate keyword.
So we're starting, we are having fulfillment films. We
want to work in teams with 55,000 employees and all of these colleagues can make their important contribution to the success of the company. And this is only possible on the basis of teamwork. At the end of the day, it's about creative solutions because today, we kind of know what will happen tomorrow, COVID, nineteen drove this message home to us. And it is only with teamwork that we will be able to be of creative solutions. And the nice thing is, and we can see this today, right here.
Communication has been reinvented. We have huge opportunities as a big global company to move ahead. And, we have made steps ahead in the past weeks and months, but a lot more as possible. And this is the very important last element. So continue, change, care, and collaborate.
And collaborate.
Yes, it's common beer. So,
And now
which I'll also see.
To the look back on 2019, I want to be brief. Because you have already been informed in detail on the results of the annual report We delivered. That's the summary, basically, revenue and results have improved. And if you're honest, revenues have not improved by as much as we had envisioned. We had hoped to add a lot more.
In Asia Pacific, Australia and India business did not go as foreseen. Well, it doesn't always turn out the way you want it. Sales improved, but not to the extent that we had hoping for. Cash flow was very important for us. It has reached record level at the time, we were not able to know that the crisis wasn't making, but we have nevertheless been able to reduce our net debt And this, strengthens, in times of crisis, we earned a premium on the cost of capital as Mr.
Hakan mentioned, and we've been able to further reduce our CO2 emissions and I'll talk about this in greater detail later. The last important bullet point is, as Mr. Hackman said, we, made sure that we she I'm actually a smooth management team transition. I'd like to thank Doctor Bandler for this. For the past 12 years, I wanted to cooperate with them on the base and trust and to Doctor.
Schatler had moved the company into an excellent position. See, got $19,000,000,000 sales from a midsized soybean companies. So all of us are all in great things. And, I look forward to the future cooperation with them. One c, assumes this new role on this advisory board.
Let me talk about the key figures. I have mentioned revenues which are only slightly improved like for like plus 2 percent. 3 developments in Australia and India. It really, put the brakes on us that we've been able to add a small shovel see, and the result from current operations increased nicely plus 5% on a like for like basis. We are satisfying for this, the same goes for the adjusted earnings per share.
And
upcapital to high negative shift.
On the sale of the Ukraine business, which had no effect on cash, but with 1,000,000 it's, The box. It was not the box.
Last quotation is undoubtedly
And this has been the FDA for the mid plus bioglobulin. And with this, we had an share.
Capital.
And another key figure that we look at is our IC, that is return on invested capital. I mean And the staff mentioned this, we've for what is important here is that this is about the customer, our capital and the cost of capital is 6.6% right now. And, the ROIC was at 6.9% last year. So from our point of view, this is a useful results and development. Now At the beginning of the crisis, the cash flow was good free cash flow reached record levels, almost 1,000,000,000, plus 14%.
And as a result, together with a good increase in earnings, we're already booked use net debt by more than €1,000,000,000. And this also led to reduction of the leverage from 2.7to2.3. All together, I think this is a fairly good financial position as especially prior to entering the crisis in all of our countries and regions, that the shareholders we are overcoming,
from
tears or limits every day. Sometimes in our minds and some times quite physically. So the safest is a picture of the burner based tunnel. Senior. This is a construction site that will go on from other 10 years.
It started in 2015. And by 2028, the construction job will be done. The long as well wait on. We'll be quite easy there. We'll see some work from which is open.
So that you can travel from Berlin to Palermo, on rails much faster than in the past.
Feezing Scholes as
highlighted. And as Hardworksman, we're very proud that we are delivering products to that construction site. And these are very sophisticated products, both in terms of cement as well as with regards to the company that we deliver. And with this, I'd like to talk about our regions, areas of the developments of Western Southern Europe with regards to sales went well. We had a nice nice increase, but the key success in which to hear was the good increase of results, which is a combination of what was a combination of our intensive improvements our margins and the reduction of our costs and both together lead to a significant increase and the result of +30 percent in the Western and Southern European region.
Now Northern Eastern Europe, on the sales side, the business was, difficult, especially due to a reduction in sales in Northern Europe, which has been part of
the
region for us. But as far as the results concerned, we moved ahead This was mainly driven by the strong business in Eastern Europe. And and it's still until together with this team in Poland, but also in other areas, Radpaddicta Shroyer. He did, you know, great job. It does.
And we worked, hard to reduce costs. So we have been able to increase the results. Then talking about North America, we have to see that on the sales side of things, things went well because the market of America was strong generally speaking, as far as the results are concerned, but that satisfied, both in the field of cement and aggregates, the the plan did not always produce or have not been always been able to produce, but we had expected them to produce. So we are aware came hard to improve things. So, we did not produce as smoothly last year.
So the result was not as good as we had intended it to be North America last year. Now Asia Pacific, the results improved significantly, mainly driven by Indonesia, which is an extremely important market for us, but Thailand also lend a hand after a few difficult years, Thailand has moved back on the path towards success. Australia did not develop so successfully. With regards to sales. But as far as the results, these are concerned, Australia had remained stable percent increase in results in Asia Pacific.
Led by Kevin Klaski's main Asia Pacific. Now Africa, you stumbled at Trania. This is now run by Hakan with a slight increase in sales, mainly due to the difficult business environment in Egypt, but the results inside the developments have been stable in spite of the difficulties in Egypt. So the business in Morocco continues to be doing well and also in Sub Saharan Countries where we are active in Ghana Tensania togo. Those are the strong markets for us, and we've been able to stabilize those strong markets.
Then the step to 2020.
I'm at fault in the meeting.
And I think we can call this a success even though it might far behind us. The first quarter, our performance was good in spite of the fact that as of mid March, sales, started going down in individual countries. And because of this result has been, as you can see on this slide, decline in, sales. Well, this looks more dramatic than it is from a point of view minus 8%. Sounds like a lump at 6% of this.
Are solely due to a reduction of the business at HFC trading, which was done on purpose, and without this effect of HCT trading, you know, we would have been fairly stable. You know, that would have had the reduction of minus 2% on the sales side, the situation is not as negative as it looks. The result development is positive. And spite of the decline as of mid March. The same goes for the, results from operations of current operations, like for like plus or minus 4%.
And so altogether, a fairly solid search to 2020. Now keep aligned the foreground for us. Dispatients and insights. And in these days of COVID-nineteen, this becomes very clear. We try to connect people, though.
Trust, as europeans, the COVID 19 crisis started in Italy too. And because of this, we're very happy that right now, our Italian colleagues, our working hard on a fresh Italian departure in, Geneva, where the, All Morandi, bridge collapse in 2018 after 1 year of construction. We can see, this video bridge, in Genoa. And we are proud to be part of this with our subsidiary, Itau Clemente. And we're very happy that 20 percent recycled materials are used in our cement products.
And that the CO2 footprint of this product is much lower than on average in our So our Italian companies have made a clear step ahead, not just for Genoa, but, also for a further product development. So thank you for this to our Italian colleagues. Now COVID-nineteen course means health is, all important. It's not just because we are setting 1 a half meters apart here. So not just that we are holding a virtual AGM, but we are also responsible for making sure that our 55 employees stay healthy and happy.
And, in fact, we've taken steps in the company to guarantee that this is true for our cement plans for our ready mix plans, our aggregates plans, our asphalt plans, and, the prefabricated concrete part, factories. We made sure that we have hygiene action, plans in place everywhere. And so at headquarters, we now use smart working, as we say. That is, we, mainly work from home. Fortunately, we have the technology in place already.
And so we've been able to test everything to the course, carefully now. And, we are pleased to see that it does work, and we been able to keep the good work up, and, that is quite, all the, additional hygiene. Required. Of course, we are no longer shaking hands as we were used to, but in fact, it worked out quite positively for us.
Years. I did agree with you.
But as a downside to the crisis, we need to be careful as a company. We need to sort of weather this storms successfully. This is why the managing board fought very hard about it in order to make sure that we could secured. Well, as always in the crisis, you want to guarantee liquidity, we will not forget earnings, but earnings don't, take top priority at this time. But the main priority was to stabilize the cash situation and to keep the at the very good high level that we had before the crisis.
So up to 1,000,000,000 in cash, was a goal to save. Thanks to our COB, program, which stands for COVID contingency plan execution. In these days, we, need a good name for everything. So we call this our cope program that helps us cope with COVID, and it is to help us, take our costs. And, well, it's not like, that will be a cost reduction forever.
The point is, that we can reduce costs for the time being. Of course, we reviewed, capital expenditure plans and, decided to to save our breath wherever, necessary in the course of the year, we will then take up steam, were required, but we will, by no means, jeopardize the midterm future of the company. Doctor Naga heads up, tax and working capital plans. And, we've done whatever we could so that, we could push out a tax payment where possible and reduce tax payments where that is a possibility by law, for instance, in the United States, and we've also tried to optimize working capital. However, these cash savings, depend a bit on, the business development.
So it's a business bounce back, better than expected or assumed internally. We'd have to, review our plans, revise them, but we are prepared so that, we can, in fact, reduce cash expenditure by 1,000,000,000 should, that should be required. Now let us turn to our COVID clock. In fact, it looks like clock, as you can see. And, we've been watching this clock in the last weeks months It has helped us, to see what the status is for our activities around the world.
So it's just a snapshot which we're showing to you here. Unfortunately, some countries have come out green ones more. They had a, drastic decline in earnings of volume On the left, you see China, India, Bangladesh, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Morocco, these countries are on their way up. They're recovering on ready, first recovery there. There are some countries which are still hard hit, in particular, Malaysia, they are only now waking up from, their lockdown period.
There are other companies, where, sales volumes are still declining. This is true of the United States, but also of Canada, Indonesian, Thailand, and to some extent, is also true of Russia. But fortunately, there are some countries, a way were hardly impacted at all by the crisis, and this is why we feel we have a strong portfolio, hydroglox cement Germany, in fact, proved itself, highly re resilient, and, we're at the same level as before and doing very well. Other countries are also doing well, even though the development might be different, Northern Europe, going strong, Australia, doing nicely, Well, their markets are declining somewhat in Australia, but it has nothing to do with COVID-nineteen. So the world, is still a colorful one and, I just wanted to show you, what our colors are in the car, in the company around the world.
Now, Mr. Heckman, you mentioned
in China.
The dividend, proposal.
This forced on, Sean Evans.
Made by the, Managing Board, and you mentioned what, the supervisory board felt about it. Yeah. Original idea had been, to pay out a dividend of we have reduced that to $0.60 per share. This is our proposal to you, dear shareholders. And, Mister Heckman already said, this idea came up after intensive discussions at board level, at managing board level, but also at the supervisory board level and both boards also discussed the matter once more.
And you can imagine that it was a highly difficult, decision. Well, our idea was to have a progressive dividend policy, which, however, we had to suspend due to the crisis. We did that closively to preserve the excellent financial profile that we went into this crisis with. Doctor. Niega and myself were on board already in 2000 and 8 and 9, when we had a tricky situation before.
And this is why we were unequivocal. We wanted to to try carefully here, and, we wanted to preserve the 1,000,000 in liquidity, that we had in the company. We wanted to keep it for the company. Shareholders, please believe us. Rest assured, that we will use, this money prudently.
It is your money. And we will make sure that we will use it reasonably. Also, we decided that after the crisis, over, we'll return, as Mr. Heckman said, to our progressive dividend policy.
Done.
That's the matter of the future. We want to enable future. We want to make the future possible. And this is a job site in Darmstadt where, we get to deliver a lot of rate. We work together with Dickerhoff, I would say Dickerhoff, in fact.
And, well, this is a particle accelerator at Centra, which is called affair. And, this is, where when the project is completed, some tooth, I mean, about 220 25 more than 3000 scientists will be at work. And it's a complex, which, has more than 20 buildings. As you can see there is a, ring tunnel with a length of 1100 meters. So particles are to be accelerated to light speed, some 300,000 kilometers per second, which is very fast.
And, our product is ideally suited. For that purpose. And also, the walls and ceilings, our radiation prove so once more, an interesting application here of a highly, performing, high performing product that is this combination of cement and concrete, but we do not only want to build the future. We want to also build our own future And, as Mr. Heckman said, this is why sustainability is so important for us.
Well, we're well underway here. We're right on track and we communicated our goals clearly. By 2030, our specific net carbon emissions per ton of cement are to be reduced by 30% compared to, 1990, which is the comparison of the reference line. This was discussed with the science based target initiative, and the initiative has verified those goals. And with us in line with the Paris agreement.
That makes us the 1st cement company in this world to have had reviewed our carbon reduction targets by scientists. At the end of the day, we are also making progress already now. The carbon emissions were reduced by 2% in 1 single year that is between 2018 2019 from 20% to 22%. That is reduction from, 20 to 22%. So we're making headway there and it remains our intended and publish gold to rather try harder and reduce more carbon, than slower efforts down.
At the end of the day, what we want to do is to be carbon neutral with our products. Our vision is that by 2050, we want to able to offer carbon neutral concrete. And that requires a few steps that we're already working on. One step is that we will reduce the cover content in all our products at the dental strategy. The pre product clinker also comes to mind.
In clinker, we will also use carbon, which is not a trivial thing to do, but we're working hard on that. And there's also the matter of recycling of concrete because concrete recycling can help to reduce the carbon footprint massively. And then there's also carbon capturing. That is the carbon that arises during the production processes to be captured so that the carbon can then be reused for something else. And this is what we focus on, the capturing technology so that, as I said, the carbon can recaptured so that it then can be can be stored or be reused?
Well, we find it in important to be as transparent as possible in our efforts, both internally as externally. And this is why we work very closely with rating agencies such as CDP and others. And let's just take the example of CDP, the rating agencies see. And we are in a good rank in the climate change A list from 2019. And while that I suspect shows that we're well underway, we do not only do that to prove that we're doing some thing.
It's also important for us ourselves because we want you to be able to show ourselves clearly that whatever we've started will, produce some positive results. Well, that already takes me, to the subject of digitization. But in our industry, it is not that obvious really or didn't used to be originally, but now in the situation of the COVID-nineteen pandemic, things have changed a bit. We've all grown aware, and that is also something borne out by our customers that digitization in, in fact, offers many an opportunity, an opportunity, even for us, as a relatively traditional industry, And for this reason, our activities will continue definitely continue in this field. I have 4 elements here for you.
That shows you what our efforts are focused on. 1st of all, we need to be come digitally fit in our plans. The plans that we have found out. Can now be reached, remotely. We can remotely control and maintain production sites, kilns, mills, and other units, plant and equipment can be remotely controlled.
We've made headway here, and we'll continue working on that. On the concrete side, we want to be more customer oriented. The concrete mixes, the recipes are to be improved to make things much more efficient. There are many opportunities them. As, we enable our plans, that is, really just one opportunity to be closer to our customer and to communicate much more efficiently with our customers.
And this is why one point in our digitization initiative is about the digital exchange in contract with customers and suppliers. And last but not least, we're also improving our own processes And, the internal workflows are, simplified so that they can be faster that they can be automated and digitized.
So
Here we go. In conclusion, the outlook, we need to be honest, as Mr. Heckman said, It is difficult to for terra what 2020 will bring. Oh, well, we have already 6 months under our belts, but still development remains unpredictable. They are considerable fluctuations.
There's a lot of volatility.
August.
They also fluctuate very much so that we cannot give you any figures for 2020. And it must be clear that the pandemic will has an impact on the results of 2020. We cannot tell you otherwise. The mid and long term prospects, however, remain positive, if not very positive. You will have been reading the newspapers, and, you will have learned that in Europe, with the green deals, with the business development programs.
Funds are beginning to flow. And should there are other discussions in other countries and the United States will have elections in November the question is whether there will be any development programs by then and the UK is also discussing these opportunities in the mid and long term will remain positive if we expect a favorable development. And as we have communicated, despite the pandemic, despite COVID-nineteen, the board of the management has decided, that by mid of December after discussions with the supervisory board, we will review and revise our strategy and then present it to the public. The crisis will not keep us from doing that. As I said, the prices.
Crisis usually also offers many opportunities. Last but not least. I'd like to talk about our focus areas once more that we have identified for 2020. First, foremost, to protect our good financial and balance sheet position. And this is the reason for the co production plan were savings of up to 1,000,000,000 of our cash reserves.
And let me mentioned that the Managing team of Heidelberg Cement and the Supervisory Board of Heidelberg Cement, have decided to make a contribution by forgoing the fixed components of remuneration that is by reducing the fixed component of our pay by 20%. So my thanks to my colleague on the Managing team and through the Supervisory Board members. Business continuity is also important for us. Well, we need to work hand in hand with our customers. We must use the opportunities offered in the local markets, or we will not be success for.
So we need to stay nimble and fasten the feet and on our toes. And this is why business continuity is top priority. And, well, the plan is to focus on sustainable business ustainability is very important and that will remain so and had described the factors that flow into it. And all of that will an end for the time being with a new strategy that will publish in December And I'm sure this is a very solid foundation for us to continue the good development of hydrovac cement in the future. And so I'd like to close with this picture showing that concrete is the most versatile file construction material.
And Mr. Heckmann, that means back over to you.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:]
Thank you, Doctor. Von Afton.
The least and I
mean Oh, for this report and for the results of 2019 and the current financial year, Thank you for the information on
the comment that
That means that we will now end the live stream and the public part of the meeting, only our shareholders will be able to remain with us. Those who have come in through the Internet portal, and, you would have needed your shareholder number and a password. And, those shareholders, who are still on the general live stream will you please switch over to the non public meeting to all others, I'll say thank you and goodbye, and you have a good rest of 2019.