AGM 2021

May 11, 2021

Ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome, everybody. My name is Mika Elmert, and as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Chair of the meeting, I hereby open the ordinary annual general meeting of Kieren Group AG. Unfortunately, dear shareholders, this year again, because of the COVID-nineteen pandemic, you cannot attend the AGM Live in Frankfurt because of the particular circumstances. According to the new legal provisions, again, once more, we have a virtual AGM this year. We ask you to bear with us for this measure because we decided to proceed this way in order to protect health and safety of everybody, you and everybody attending or participating in the meeting. The virtual AGM, their shareholders and shareholder representatives will be transmitted fully via the online service Up to the beginning of the answers to the questions of shareholders and shareholder representatives, it is also a public transmission that is accessible via the Internet. Now legal representatives and shareholders who want to follow all of the AGM, please use the online service and please make sure on time that you've checked the right that you've used the right medium selected the right medium. Thank you for following the audio and video transmission of the AGM. I'd like to welcome the other members of the supervisory who apart from Mr. Tan, who is excused will participate in this AGM. Mr. Rings, the Deputy Chair, he was appointed such and he observes the AGM from a different room of the building. I should also like to welcome the members of the Executive Board, the CEO, Gordon Driscke and Ms. Anke Rote, right next to me here. The other members of the Board, Doctor. Eike Boom, Hazan Dandeshli, Andreas Kreninger and Jingbong Kuik, do follow the virtual AGM also via the audio and video transmission. Our new Board members Hazan Dandeshli and Andreas Kreninger will introduce themselves later. This also applies to Doctor. Henry Poulk, who will be successor of Doctor. Eikeboom starting in July. I should also like to welcome the notes republic Ronald Gerns, who's present physically in the room and he's taking care of the minutes of today's meeting. I say it for the record that today's ordinary annual shareholder meeting has been called in due form and time and communicated all over Europe by way of publication in the Federal Gazette, Bundesensoegor of 03/30/2021. The National Republic has a document proving the publication. Shareholders' intermediates and shareholder associations were informed of the convocation and the agenda in accordance with Section 125 Stock Corporation Act. The documents to be made accessible were made accessible before the convocation or as of the convocation they've been accessible on the Internet sites of corporation and they're also accessible during the virtual AGM. Additional requests countermeasures of proposed candidates have not been received by the company. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to give an overview of today's meeting. First of all, there's going to be the report of the Supervisory Board delivered by myself. Then Mr. Riske will take care of item number one or rather explain the documents presented there, in particular, statements for the fiscal year 2020. And our new board members will briefly introduce themselves there. In order to go into detail of the reports, Ms. Grothe and Mr. Riske will use an interview format for further information. Then we are going to answer questions that have been handed in by shareholders and shareholders of representatives before the virtual AGM. Then we will come to the proposals of the different items on the agenda and the resolutions. Ladies and gentlemen, you can take part in the voting process during the ATM until we start counting the votes when we vote on the items on the agenda. Using the online service on the Internet, you can issue a change absentee votes. Also issue a change proxies to third parties or proxies appointed by the company. Absentee or mail votes sent by mail, all the decast and time can also be changed via the online service. The same applies to proxies given by postal services, telefax or email to third parties or instructions to the proxy holders appointed by the company. All of the important information concerning the procedure and the possibility to cast votes and oppose to resolutions, or the pertinent information is also available on the Internet's page and the online service on the Internet. Furthermore, I'll also provide some additional information during the AGM. I'd also like to draw your attention to the fact that recordings of the transmission are not permitted. Ladies and gentlemen, let us now start with the agenda. It was published together with the proposed resolutions in the Federal Gazette of 03/30/2021. I'm now calling agenda item number one, presentation of the annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements and the summarized management report and state. The annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements, the summarized management report for Kion Group AG and the group were audited by the auditors and given an unqualified audit opinion. The supervisor report has approved the audit result and the annual financial statements and the consolidated annual financial statements too. This means that the annual financial statements have been adopted. The consolidated financial statements of the summarized management report of Kiong Group AG are printed in the annual report 2020 of the company. The annual report 2020 and the financial statements of Kiong Group AG have been available on the website since the convocation of the AGM and are still available there during the AGM today. Dear shareholders, part of item one of the agenda as in every year, we also have the report of the Supervisory Board for the past fiscal year. The business and economic operation of our group, the economic environment and the local markets were very much characterized and determined last year by the consequences of the COVID-nineteen pandemic. This also applies to the general conditions under which our employees produce products and services for our customers. So it is against this background that we like to express our particular appreciations to everybody who work in the area of preventive health care in our company and who did a great job in the pandemic. Appropriate and effective measures were taken in a particularly prudent way, protecting everybody both inside of Kiong Group AG but also on-site with our customers. I would like to express our particular gratitude to all of our employees who under the lead of the Executive Board were the guarantees of our success in 2020. I stated on behalf of the Supervisory Board, they had to face enormous challenges, but they kept being there for the customers, making sure that our company kept being successful into different regions competing with others. And they created values for you, dear shareholders. They deserve our respect and appreciation. On behalf of the Supervisory Board and also personally, it's a matter close to my heart and an obligation to thank all of the 36,000 staff as well as our Executive Board expressed appreciation and particular gratitude for the hard work and the commitment shown in this year. Our thoughts are in particular with those colleagues and their family members who were taken ill because of the virus and had to suffer through reconvenescence. With sorrow, we do take a moment to remember those who died from the virus or had to suffer the loss of beloved members of their families. As regards the report of the Supervisory Board, I'd like to draw your attention first of all to our annual report and the information given on pages 14 to 20. I'd like to address briefly the most important items of the year. In the very unusual past fiscal year, Kion Group once more proved to be a reliable company. Fiscal year twenty twenty was mainly characterized by two terms: coping with the crisis and shaping the future. The Supervisory Board advised and monitored the Executive Board as it took a prudent but resolute approach to tackling the effect of coronavirus pandemic. When the health risks of coronavirus and the resulting challenges to our business became apparent, the Supervisory Board began receiving weekly updates from the Executive Board and offered its advice and support. Over the course of the year, it became very clear that the ITS business and the SCS business were facing different market conditions. The market for industrial trucks experienced a softening of demand with significant regional variation in various custom markets on the other hand, but also a surge in demand for warehouse trucks at low prices in the Chinese market. By contrast, the SCS business of Thematic was able to tap into the e commerce boom. This provided strong proof that the decision made a few years ago to enter the Automation Solutions business was spot on. It is the objective of our company to grow sustainably and profitably offering products and services in line with the demands of our customers to do proper business. The Supervisory Board supported the Executive Board to not only take the short term measures necessary to protect the business in the ongoing fiscal year, but it was also about mid- and long term structural initiatives that were to be started in order to make sure that the success of the company and the different product markets will be a lasting one. In line with this, we stayed on track with implementing the massive investment approved last year even in the times of difficult economic conditions. The volume of the investment program for the next year was practically not reduced. We are still have we still feel the obligation to invest into the future. And we have no downs in spite of the burden because of the ongoing crisis. Certainly after the coping with the crisis and the then new conditions in the markets, for some elements, there will be strategic developments and adjustments. But as far as the logic and the correctness of the path adopted is concerned, both the supervisor report and the executive board are more than convinced of it. And what is more, despite the pandemic and the economic effects, the correctness and power of the Kian twenty twenty seven strategy have been proven correct in a very impressive way. The financial protection of the company and its plan for the futures were tackled early on by the Executive Board in close cooperation with the Supervisory Board. Measures were adopted and executed quickly. Measures to guarantee the financial safety and stability of the company. In September, a corporate bond program of EUR 3,000,000,000 was started successfully with placing a first charge of EUR 500,000,000, which was oversubscribed several times. The capital increase of December was a strong sign of the support for our company by the shareholders led by our anchor investor, Weichai Power. This trust and confidence expressed by the shareholders by EU is an obligation for all of us to make sure that we have a successful future. Thank you for this, everybody. Another focal point of the work of the Supervisory Board was the organizational further development of the company, strengthening the organizational structure and the executive board. As Kian Group in the past years experienced organic growth and different acquisitions, thus reaching a completely new size and complexity. This triggered an investigation of the organization of the business and based on this the governance of our company. Based on the understanding that the current internal organizational structure had been stretched to its limits, the Executive Board with the support of the Supervisory Board developed a proposal for further strengthening the company and thus presented a new governance model. It's a very clear objective that we got to enable profitable growth for the future as well and better realize synergies within the Keown Group. It was to establish it was about establishing clear responsibilities of the operating units and make responsibilities clearer again. The operating units are now directly connected to the person on the Board, Executive Board in charge. The direct exchange between the Supervisory Board and those in charge of matters at the on the Executive Board strengthens the element of supervision of management, dear shareholders. As a part of the further development of the business organization, two new board posts were created and members appointed to Supervisory Board. In particular, the Executive Committee took a very close look, also asked external advisers when looking at these personal matters. The starting point were the candidates, both male and female, in the company. After a number of personal discussions and talks between the members of the Supervise Report and the candidates and a personal presentation at the Executive Board, Andreas Kreninger and Hassan dem Deschle were appointed on the 12/17/2020 for the 01/01/2021 as Board members, Executive Board members. In parallel with these new appointments and in full agreement with Doctor. Bohm, CTO, it seemed to make sense in this connection to also take a look at the successions to be looked at to do that earlier than planned originally. We're talking about the CTO here. We got Doctor. Henry Poole, a very suitable and qualified internal candidate for this job. The appointment of Doctor. Poole as CTO will be effective as of the 07/01/2021. And on the seventeenth of twenty twenty, the Supervisory Board also voted unanimously in favor of this. As already mentioned at the beginning, all of the new Executive Board members will introduce themselves during the AGM today. I'm very happy that we've been able to have excellent internal candidates that we could appoint to the functions. It's a very good sign of the quality of our leading team, leadership team. Dear Scheheraldus, one part of the one item on the agenda today is the Executive Board remuneration to be approved by the AGM. The review and development of the new remuneration system was another focal point of the work of the Supervisory Board in 2020. Important items there are the inclusion of so called ESG targets, both for the short term and the long term remuneration valuable remuneration of the Executive Board. In future, the company's success and thus the success of the Executive Board will also be measured using non financial targets such as the accident rate of the company, certification of sites according to ISO standards, employee satisfaction and the improvement of the company's sustainability profile. In order to prepare the new pre renovation system, a working group was created by the Supervisory Board. First of all, the Chairman of the Audit Committee Hans Peter Ring and myself, as far as the labor on the bench was concerned, we had the Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Ejnan Panchardi and Ms. Alexandra Shetler. We also had the support of an experienced adviser when working on this matter. The working group had a number of working meetings looking into the new regulatory provisions. The basic characteristics were presented in December 2020 as a plenary for final discussion and resolution. And in March of this year, the remuneration system was resolved on by the supervise report. All of the resolutions were voted unanimously, voted for unanimously. The cooperation of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board has always been open and marked by a trusting dialogue. The Supervisory Board was always fully involved in major decisions affecting the company from an early stage. Between meetings of the Supervisory Board and between those of its committees, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Audit Committee remained in close contact at all times with the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer. There were also regular contacts between the Chairman of the Audit Committee and those responsible for internal and compliance of the company. The Supervisory Board and its committees carried out detailed discussions regarding the Supervisory Board's own obligations in relation to the corporate governance decisions and declarations before adopted unanimously. Here the declaration of conformity as regards to completely revised German corporate governance code deserves special mention. One of the major tasks of the Supervisory Board is to examine the sustainability report that is the group report on non financial targets as well as the report concerning relationships with affiliated entities. The report presented by the Executive Board. The results of the audits of those two reports are explained in detail in the written report of the Supervisory Board. All in all, there were no objections from the Supervisory Board. The written report also contains the information on meetings of the plenary and committees of the Supervisory Board. Let me emphasize in summary that all of the members of the Supervisory Board and the committees of the Supervisory Board spent a lot of time and effort on their tasks. This is also documented by the practically 100% attendance in all meetings. You see this in the written report. Supervisory Board and Executive Board do report on corporate governance and in the written report pages 27 to 42 and you find also this you find this also on the website of Kion Group. Here you also have explanations concerning the measures of the supervisory board in the context of regular self assessment. In the year under report, there were new directions taken in personnel matches in the connection with the introduction of a so called staggered boards, the introduction that is of staggered periods of time of mandates of the shareholders. So the objective of the staggered board is that not all of the shareholder representatives will be elected at the same time at the same AGM. One important reason for this change was that a new election of all of the shareholder representatives at the same time leads to a loss of continuity, experience and expert knowledge in the Supervisory Board. The AGM appointed Zhang Reuterring and Zhu again as shareholder representatives. The term of office ends in 2025. As far as Mr. Bergen, De Bergen, Bergen, Macht and Chan are concerned, their period of office already ends in 2022. So there are elections to the Supervisory Board on the agenda next year. And dear shareholders, I now come to the end of my report concerning the past fiscal year. Of course, it was a particular stress for all stakeholders of the company this past business year. I should like to mention this at this point. The supply chain for primary products and components is still under stress. Essential raw materials have become more expensive since the year end last year, some of them substantially. Growth in some local markets is robust, opening up new opportunities. The Supervisory Board is in a close and trusting dialogue as regards to present situation. With the Executive Board, we do exchange views and opinions on the situations and the markets needs of our customers in the crisis, expectations of our shareholders and demands on our staff. Let me summarize. Last year in the interest of all stakeholders after a very clear analysis of the situation and the resulting challenges very quickly adopted the right measures with prudence and foresight. It is our objective and has been our objective to take our company in spite of this unique crisis to take the company and make progress with it on a path for a successful and sustainable future. Here my colleagues from the Supervisory Board will actually accompany you and help you. We are looking forward to contribute to the company of Eurokeon Group AG in 2021 as well. Thank you very much for your attention. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor now goes to Mr. Rieske for the report of the Executive Board. He will explain the documents on explain the situation of the company and give you an outlook for the present fiscal year. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, dear partners of Keyon Group, what you can see here is the latest development from our subsidiary Linde Material Handling. It's the H30 from the new '12 oh '2 series. And this new generation of vehicles sets completely new standards, extremely powerful, versatile, robust and user friendly and above all digitally networked. And what you see here now is its digital twin, It's virtual image. All vehicle data stored in our Kion Cloud with many advantages for our customers. They can equip their industrial trucks with new additional functions over the period of use. Not a single hardware component needs to be replaced or supplemented. The digital vehicle file continuously documents the use and the condition of the truck and the vehicle can be accessed via remote maintenance. Minor faults can be rectified digitally and the deployment of a service technician can be perfectly prepared. And this development is just one of many with which we help our customers to operate their Intralogistics even more reliably and efficiently. Digitalization and automation, these are the key words of the future of our industry. And for many years now, they have been inextricably linked with your Kion group. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this year's Annual General Meeting. On behalf of our more than 36,000 employees and the whole executive board, I would like to thank you for joining us here on screen today. We are all working our hardest every day to write the next chapter of our success story. As a full service provider with a strong presence on every continent, we were able to capitalize on our opportunities again last year despite the pandemic dominating everything. COVID-nineteen was, of course, a challenge for the Kion Group, too. We had to put a great many measures in place to pandemic also brought tremendous personal challenges and stresses for our employees ranging from the loss of social interaction to suddenly having to cope with the closure of nurseries and schools and all of that on top of their professional responsibilities. And despite the many precautions, some still became ill or even lost loved ones. I am therefore all the more impressed by the extraordinary commitment of our teams. It was an enormous challenge to keep our own supply chains going so that we were able to deliver to our customers. And we're still having to operate in very difficult circumstances when we provide services to our customers and when we install new systems and bring them online. The challenges were and still are immense. And yet, we still managed to increase the value of our order intake by 3.6% year on year to around 9,400,000,000.0 in the year 2020. And that is absolutely a new record for the Kion Group and our employees are rightly very proud of that. Due to the pandemic, consolidated revenue fell by 5.3% compared to 2019, a far smaller drop than many had feared. And as expected, adjusted EBIT was also below the prior year figure at million. And yet, net income remained firmly in positive territory at EUR $211,000,000. As already anticipated during the course of the year, a number of our key performance indicators thus fell below those of the prior year. However, we should remember that 2019 had been the best year in Kian's history so far, and we hope to be back to those levels very soon indeed. Industrial Trucks and Services segment did not perform as well in 2020 as we had hoped following the record year of 2019, which was due to the difficult market conditions caused by the pandemic. The decline in unit sales was mainly due to the challenging conditions in the segment's main sales market, the EMEA region, that is Europe, Middle East and Africa. In the Asia Pacific region, Asia Pacific that is, the segment recorded an increase in unit sales, primarily thanks to particularly strong growth in China where the pandemic was quickly brought under control. Our truly global positioning was thus a stabilizing factor for Kion. Twenty twenty also created opportunities for the Kion Group. A boom in online trade coupled with automation technology and warehouse logistics boosted growth in our supply chain solutions segment. Our software driven solutions for global supply chains proved to be a second important stabilizing factor. Our corporate structure with now two strong operating segments, Industrial Trucks and Services and Supply Chain Solutions has thus proven its worth. While the market for new trucks contracted significantly, particularly here in Europe, the Supply Chain Solutions business segment gained new impetus. We were quick to spot the digitalization and automation trends in our industry and we acted and invested with foresight. And we also took action to protect our finances during the crisis. The corporate bond issue, which was many times oversubscribed and the equally successful capital increase, have further strengthened our financial structure for the long term. Many of you, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders participated in the rights issue. And I would like to thank you for this demonstration of faith. You have thus made it possible for us, amongst others, to continue our research and development activities at a very high level during a year which will remain long in many people's memory as a year of crisis. We also invested in additional production facilities. And with new product launches, we are already offering tomorrow's Intralogistics solutions today. We used 2020 to make sure we were fit and ready for future growth. And with your support, we have made the most of the opportunities that lie in every crisis. We are therefore proposing a dividend of per share. This equates a dividend payout rate of about 25% with earnings per share of We have also made some organizational changes. Since the start of this year, the responsibility for our operating units has been anchored directly within the Executive Board. This step was taken to reflect the size of our group. And we have created the structures for the next stage of our growth. Hassander and Ashley, who has been with Kion for three years, will now have Executive Board responsibility for the Supply Chain Solutions segment, which comprises the global business of DUMATIC. And Andreas Kreninger, who has held a variety of roles at Kion over the past twelve years, most recently Chief Executive Officer at our subsidiary Linde Material Handling, will assume responsibility within the Executive Board for the EMEA business of the Industrial Trucks and Services segment. This comprises the operational business of the Kion Brand Company's Linde Material Handling, STILL, Baoli within the EMEA region. Dear Hassan de Andreas, please briefly introduce yourselves. And Hassan, would you like to go first? Sure. Thank you, Gordon, for allowing me the opportunity to introduce myself to you, the shareholders of Keyon. As Gordon mentioned, I joined Keyon three years ago to lead the Dimatic operating unit. Before coming to Keyon, I spent twenty years with General Electric and fifteen years with Honeywell in many global assignments. I started my career in technology development and then moved on to technology business leadership in many industries, including automation, power generation, oil and gas, and transportation. I was also fortunate in my career to really live as a citizen of the world, taking jobs and assignments in many locations in The United States, in Europe, and The Middle East, and then coming to Keyon. I will attract you to Keyon honestly by the great industry that we serve, our global footprint and the value we bring to our customers worldwide, and the impact we have in actually transforming the material handling industry as we're doing today and we look forward to do in the future. I am very proud of what Keyon has achieved or what Dematic has achieved with Keyon over the last three years. We did drive double digit growth. We strengthened our team globally in all our locations and made transformational shifts to truly improve the execution and the delivery to our customers. As a member of the Executive Board, first, I am honored and humbled that the Supervisory Board asked me to join the Executive Board. I truly look forward to collaborating with all my peers on the Executive Board in order to make sure that we continue to drive the growth for Keyan and our industry and continue to lead in our industry. I do believe that investing in digital technologies, in innovation, in collaboration across Keyan and focusing on the execution for our customers will truly carry Keyan into the next chapter and into the future. And with that, I hand it over to Andreas Schreiner. Thank you, Hassan. Dear shareholders, I have also the pleasure of introducing myself to you briefly. I'm very much looking forward to leading the newly created operating unit, KION Industrial Trucks and Services EMEA or in short, KION ITS EMEA together with the entire team of 21,000 employees after a rather challenging year 2020 and lead it back to profitable growth. How do we plan to achieve that? To do this, we have formed the new operative unit, Kion ITS EMEA, at the beginning of this year. With this, we lift our multiple brand strategy to the next level. Thus, we can offer our customers for any mobile application whether manual or automated and offer them the fitting product and brand even more easy and more efficiently. And for that, we want to take our three strong ITS brands, Linde, Stil and Baoli, and position them in a way that will help us to expand market coverage, thus attract new customers and thus extend our market position in the long run. In this new structure, we plan to further reduce internal redundant work and to use joint platforms such as product modules, IT systems and infrastructure even more comprehensively as in the past. And with that, we will lay the foundations for future and further profitable growth. What is my experience and background for approaching this rather ambitious task? As Gordon Briscoe already said, I've been with the Kion Group for twelve years by now. The various roles and different responsibilities over that long period have made it possible for me to support and lead many areas and segments within the group, most recently as President of the largest brand, Linde, or the further largest operating unit Linde Material Handling within EMEA. Before I became part of the Kian team, I spent about twenty years worldwide in the role of somebody designing and using material flow systems for production operations, picking centers, but also warehouses. So I know from personal experience the customer expectations of manufacturers such as STILL, Linde or also Dimatic. Ladies and gentlemen, it had always been and continues to be our ambition to help our customers to improve their operative performance from incoming goods to goods shipping that is along the entire handling process. And this is a commitment that we will support with all of our energy at Kion ITS EMEA in order to even better serve our customers and to thus contribute to the value growth for our company and thus also for you, our shareholders. Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to this task and would like to now hand back to Gordon Riske. As you know from the statement we made at the start of the year, our CTO, Eike Boem, will be retiring in July. Over the years, with great vision and tenacity, he has created and led a research and development unit that is unparalleled within our sector in terms of its structure and expertise. Eikebem's successor, Henry Poole, has been at Kion for five years now. So this appointment will ensure maximum continuity. Henry Poole, may I ask you to also briefly introduce yourself, please? Thank you very much, Mr. Iske. In the past five years within Keon Group, I was responsible for the STIHL brands business in EMEA. During that time, I introduced the new AREX counterbalance trucks product generations. I started a classic line of new base trucks for warehouse equipment. I successfully implemented a number of mobile automation projects. I innovated our fleet management software as a cloud based customer portal. And I also reoriented our regional sales and service organization towards a new profitable growth strategy. A bit over thirty years ago, I was a young engineering student with a passion for manufacturing technology, production logistics and factory operation. After my graduation from the Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Business Organization at Kaiserslautern, I was able to make my personal contribution to market development, customer acquisition, product innovation and results improvement in a number of industrial companies. I was increasingly trusted with leadership and business management responsibilities in this time, which I fulfilled also in international roles. For twelve of those years, I worked for the two technology drivers in agricultural machinery construction, John Deere and CLAS. And during that time, I extended my interest in energy efficiency, automation of machines and application processes, but also software supported performance improvement. All of these are aspects, after all, that continuously gain importance also for our Intralogistics customers. Since its foundation, the Kian Group has always aimed at actively shaping the future of the industry as a driver of innovation and technology, continuing to do so with our unique product range and helping our customers with specific tailor made solutions. That is what I will try to contribute to together with our global product development, our quality organization and our purchasing and sourcing departments. I'm very much looking forward to this. And with that, back to Gordon Riske. Thank you very much, Hassan, Andreas and Henri. I am delighted that we've been able to fill these positions with experienced managers who know the group and its culture so well and have known it for many years. Ladies and gentlemen, the Keyon Group has remained on course even through the choppy waters of the coronavirus pandemic. Our Keyon twenty twenty seven strategy has proved its worth during the crisis. Our structure is resilient and we operate with a focus on the future. We have also put ourselves on track for sustainable profitable growth as also illustrated by our very good first quarter of this year. I don't think we need to go through these figures in detail here. But you can see at a glance that we have recorded a significant improvement in all key financials compared to last year. We are thus continuing the course for recovery that we set in the previous quarter. Nevertheless, economic conditions are still subject to significant uncertainty. We continue to see risks in relation to changes in the sales markets, commodity prices and the availability of intermediate products such as semiconductors. However, these good first quarter results provide a solid foundation for the remainder of the current financial year. I mentioned earlier that we have already set a course for sustainable profitable growth. But what are the major drivers behind our future growth? Focusing on the growth areas of automation, digitalization and high performance energy systems proved to be successful once again in 2020. We all see it every day. The digital transformation and the increasing degree of automation are the game changers in Intralogistics. The acquisitions of Dimatic back in 2016 and the software company DAI last year have thus been tremendous additions to our business. The trend towards fully automated warehouses gathered further pace in 2020. Rapid, reliable and efficient supply chains create a crucial competitive edge in the web economy, but not just there. New energy systems are also a particular focus of research and development in the Kian Group. From internal combustion engines to electric drives and fuel cells, we offer our customers the full range of DRIVE technologies. Our intelligent trucks, our data management and our automated storage systems keep supply chains running smoothly. Also and especially these coronavirus times. We are making an important contribution to getting the many hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-nineteen vaccines quickly and efficiently to the people who urgently need them, working with the various manufacturers all over the world. The highest standards of hygiene and safety have to be maintained across the entire vaccine supply chain and constant availability has to be ensured. That's why we're using the still and linder material handling electric trucks for the job. We're also very proud to have completed the construction of a new automated distribution center for the Landmark Group in Dubai with Dimatech. Landmark is one of the biggest retailers in The Middle East and in India. From its new distribution center, the Landmark Group stores and distributes garments, furniture, toys, small goods and much more to nearly 1,400 of its retail outlets. This new center covers an area which is the size of 40 four-zero soccer pitches, making it the biggest warehouse Dimatic has ever installed and the fastest too. With this new distribution center, Dimatic has set a logistics benchmark for the entire Middle East. E commerce is rapidly conquering sector after sector and becoming firmly embedded in the supply of everyday goods, bringing with it very high customer expectations. The micro fulfillment system from Kion subsidiary Dimatic provides a completely new approach to online retail in urban areas. Warehouse space is a rarity in heavily built up areas And that is why these new micro fulfillment systems aim to provide optimized and particularly rapid order fulfillment, whether in a car park at the back of the supermarket, in subterranean warehouses or in empty parking garages. They are particularly suitable for small and medium sized retailers. In fact, precisely the kind of business that have been especially hard hit by the coronavirus crisis. Moreover, driverless industrial trucks will also offer huge potential in the future. They already use wherever there are recurring processes. This is a rapidly growing market in which the Kian Group is one of the leaders. Our desire to drive this future focused field forward led us to enter into a strategic partnership with Quicktron last year, a young Chinese manufacturer of autonomous mobile robots for warehouses. Energy efficiency is also becoming an increasingly important issue in material handling. Electric forklift trucks and electric warehouse trucks accounted for 87% of order intake in terms of units in 2020. And in total, we delivered more than 170,000 electrically operated new trucks in 2020. We are also in a strong position when it comes to battery technology. Our new subsidiary, Kion Battery Systems, went into full production of state of the art lithium ion batteries for industrial trucks last autumn. Kion Battery Systems is a joint venture with BMZ Holding, a leading manufacturer of battery systems. As you can see, when we talk about focusing on the growth sectors of automation, digitalization and high performance energy systems, we really mean it. These are not just words. It is our reality and the basis of our success. Ladies and gentlemen, you already know about our successful Kion '20 '20 '7 strategy. The aim of this strategy has always been to further expand our strong competitive position globally. We are therefore investing in the expansion of our global capacities. Fast growing market in China is critical here. And our Chief Asia Pacific Officer, CP Quek, has developed a comprehensive expansion plan for this region, which meant that last summer we began work on building an additional plant for counterbalance trucks in Xianan in China. We're expanding our portfolio of industrial trucks in one of the world's biggest markets for material handling in order to seize our opportunities for growth, particularly in the value segment. We're investing about €100,000,000 and intend to create more than 800 new jobs by 2025. The minority interest of our anchor shareholder WeChat Power also headquartered in the Shandong province ensures that we have a strong local presence in the region. Our second plant in the Xiamen region, where production of warehouse trucks began in 2020, will also help us to unlock further potential in the Chinese market. And at the same time, we want to increase sales and expand our service activities in China and benefit from the trend towards the electrification of industrial trucks in the country. Additional sales partners will help us to penetrate the market even more effectively. We're also expanding in the EMEA region. In 2020, we increased capacities at the Striblo facility in The Czech Republic with the addition of a third production hall where Dimatic manufactures material handling equipment. The construction of the next generation plant for industrial trucks in Kolbaskovo in Poland is nearing completion as well, and the first trucks should shortly be rolling off the line there. Moreover, we are also investing in our plant in Karl in Bavaria and Germany. Over the next few years, we will be spending around €50,000,000 on upgrading the parts warehouse for our industrial trucks. Dimatic moreover has also established manufacturing activities at this site. In total, the group invested around $2.00 5,000,000 in its production facilities around the world in 2020 alone. Total expenditure on Research and Development came to around $235,000,000 last year, which was roughly the same level as the year before. So not only can we see our future, we are actively shaping it. This also includes running our business in a sustainable way. We accept our responsibility for the climate, the environment and society. We continue to develop our sustainability strategy last year. It has three main strands: people, products and processes. We aim to be an employer that people want to work for. Health and safety in the workplace is absolutely fundamental for us. We offer high performance products, solutions and services that do their job efficiently and help to mitigate climate change and increase safety for our customers. We have designed our processes so that we can limit our impact on the climate as far as possible. And of course, we also expect our suppliers to comply with environmental and social standards. We take our responsibility seriously. One illustrative example of this is the renewal at the end of last year of the positive assessment that we received from the International Environmental Organization, CDP. The Keyon Group was awarded a climate change rating of A minus for the first time, which is leadership level, which is also an improvement on the already good B rating of past years. Sustainability is also enshrined within the organization as one of the most important managerial responsibilities and this is reflected also in the remuneration of the Executive Board and all executives. Twenty percent of their variable remuneration will be directly determined by sustainability criteria from this year onward. Sustainability is and remains an integral element of our corporate strategy. The sustainability report for the year 2020 has just been published. You can find it on the Kian Group's website. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, we began in 02/2006 with the structures of a mid sized organization. The Kian Group is now present in more than 100 countries. With our wide portfolio of products and services, we generated revenue of around 8,300,000,000.0 in 2020, which is almost three times as much as about a decade ago. And we want to build on this track record in 2021. With our successful Kion twenty twenty seven strategy, with our great flexibility and ability to respond rapidly to unforeseen events, with our extensive and high performance Intralogistics portfolio, with the integration of the operating units to members of the executive board, which is the solid organizational foundation on which we intend to generate profitable growth going forward with our strength and balance sheet, with our undertaking to operate sustainably and with our more than 36,000 motivated and experienced employees and with you, our strong and reliable owners. Intralogistics remains a highly attractive and fast growing market of the future. And within this market, Kion is a fantastic success story, a story that we aim to carry on writing. And I would like to invite you, our dear shareholders, to please continue being part of this success. Thank you very much. Mr. Riske, thank you very much for your report. Dear shareholders, Mr. Rieske, together with Mrs. Groot, will give us more detailed information on selected topics in an interview with Mr. Hauger, the Head of the Communications Department. Mr. Hauger, may I ask you to begin? Thank you very much, Mr. Riske. You've already mentioned it in your presentation. The corona pandemic also hit companies with force. What was particularly challenging for the Keown Group and what was particularly challenging for you personally about the crisis. Well, indeed, it was a very special year none of us has ever experienced. Certainly, every day was different. And we were lucky that we could profit from the experiences made by our Chinese colleagues already in March. We took some measures and adapted it to the present situation as health and safety of our employees of utmost importance. For us, it was also important to keep the supply chains running. This was a huge challenge. We had to support supplies in maintaining the operations, get them exemptions from the authorities, organizing transport capacities. So all the systems have to be kept alive. We are developing and transporting, for example, medicines, food, health articles. So we were relevant and wanted to make sure that the supply chain was upheld. And I personally had the following takeaway: Stay calm and keep a cool head. This was the most important thing to me personally and learning from the daily changes and making adaptations with the team, staying calm and keeping a cool head. So this was my personal learning. Ms. Groot, Jorn, not only the CFO, but also the Labor Director of Kion Group. What kind of measures were taken at the beginning of the pandemic? Well, we reacted directly. We implemented, for example, hygiene and distance rules and the use of medical mouth to nose protection. We have assessed all workplaces and made them pandemic proof. We have intensively trained our staff, especially in sales and services. And in addition to that, since mid March last year, we have consistently worked in a home office wherever possible, long before this was stipulated by the government. And in this way, we have succeeded in preventing infect or even chains of infections in the working environment. In addition, our occupational health service has been testing the workforce for some time in a very targeted manner, especially where there may be direct personal contact due to the nature of the work. We also offer self tests to the employees. You have mentioned working from home. How did the transition work? Well, from one day to the next, it worked quite brilliantly. We were quite surprised, but it was not necessary to be surprised. Because if we take a look at our board of directors, whose members work out from Asia, Europe, and America, we've been used to work in remote circumstances. And this is also true for our teams. Our IT is extremely modern and efficient and has already stepped up during the crisis. But nevertheless, the Home Office was a big challenge for many and a big change because it was and still is associated with childcare and cramped conditions, sometimes even with loneliness, with illness and maybe also with the loss of dear fellow human beings. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our colleagues, not only to those who work from home, but also to those who give their very best each and every day. We have learned that they are really fighting very hard and it's a difficult time with enormous stress in our private and professional lives. And it's therefore to the credit of our entire workforce worldwide that we function so well as a Kiong group. And Mr. Ryske, I mean, we are very close in these difficult times. We really stand together. Well, this is really unique for the Kiong group and this is something I've been experiencing each and every day. Well, let's talk about politics. Politics have set the framework in this crisis. What is your wish from politics? Well, broad based vaccination campaigns are the only way out of the pandemic that promises lasting success, and some countries are already very successful here. I'm thinking of The U. S, Great Britain or Israel, for example. And here, we have to catch up, but the figures we've seen in the past few weeks are quite encouraging. And I would like to see companies and their company medical services finally being involved in the vaccination campaigns. For many years, we've been vaccinating our workforce very successfully against influenza, for example, but also before international business trips. We've been prepared for weeks to carry out COVID-nineteen vaccinations nationwide very efficiently and quickly. Now we have to get more supplies with vaccines and let's do it. We can do it. It's not only corona that keeps us on our toes. There were also other changes which were quite unique and remarkable. Let's talk about Brexit. What kind of impact did Brexit have on Keil? Well, when it comes to Brexit, we prepared ourselves long and intensively for it. We had extensive discussions on it and we built up a strong rental fleet with which we can meet customers' needs at a very short notice when imports are delayed by complex customs procedures, for example. We've also integrated very early the new customs requirements into our systems. In addition to that, we have ramped up our spare parts stocks and stocked them accordingly. So there are no problems or disadvantages for Kion? Sound so. Well, there are some disadvantages. We have, for example, higher transport costs and unfortunately, we also have more admin work when it comes to customs regulations. But we are very well prepared. Everything works very smoothly and our products are running very smoothly. So we have this increased admin burden, but we're doing a great job. Mr. Riske, let's cross the Atlantic. The presidential election in The U. S. Also tracked a lot of attention last year. So what are your expectations to Joe Biden's presidency? Well, you've already seen that the tone and style has changed in the White House, and we hope that all the bilateral discussions we had so far will result in a better and an improved exchange of goods and services as open markets are key. Creating added value is key. Reaching a broad basis of the population and growing together, this is what comes first. And I believe Joe Biden is somebody who is going to open the doors and pave the way for this. A second topic which is important for us and we've already addressed it previously is climate change. Climate change is a fact and all the environmental movements are back on the negotiating table in The U. S, and this is another important aspect for us in our work. Joe Biden has already made clear that he is going to put the relationship with China back on the agenda, and China is also a very important market for us, but we would like to gain further market share. So how would you like to do it? Well, China is indeed one of the biggest, maybe the biggest market for our products, and we have developed a three aspect strategy. We have, for example, new R and D center. We have new products. We would like to have high value products which are aiming at that market in China, but not only on China but also outside of China. And thirdly, the expansion of our sales network, which means bringing the products to the customers. And we have embarked on new ways. We have established, for example, a new joint venture in the province of Shanxi, and this is where we are getting closer to the customer and these three pillars are promising success. When it comes to our strategy, KION twenty twenty seven, we have already find different kind of aims for the future. Until 2027, for Kion, it seems to be everything clear. Now let's take a look into the future. What do you think? 02/1930, '2 thousand and '30 '5, What is your expectation? How will the world look like and what trends will shape Intralogistics by then? I think a very important topic, which is being addressed by our key accounts time and again, are the lights out warehouses, which means fully automated warehouses in which employees only have to control and monitor the process in control centers. And all the rest is fully automated. And this will have an impact on CO2 neutrality. This is, of course, our joint target. So the Keown group is already successfully active in both areas when it comes to the lights out warehouse, and we're coming closer to the customer as I already said. Now at the end of this short interview, let us go back to the key on strategy 2027. I will give you some key words and you will briefly tell me in a nutshell what comes spontaneously to mind, Mr. Riske. Let me start with you automation. Well, automation, we have wonderful trucks and many of them still require a driver. But in future, we will have a major part of driverless industrial trucks. Just recently, we made an investment in Quicktron, a start up company from China, which is producing autonomous mobile robots for department stores. And that said, driverless transport systems, industrial trucks without a driver autonomously driving, so this will be a trend in automation. Closely connected to that, Mrs. Groot, digitization. Digitization, while my personal opinion is that without any top level research, progress in digitization is not possible, which means Germany must therefore invest in education as we don't want to lag behind in this respect. And Kion wants to support this. And this is why we set up an endowed professorship on AI in Intralogistics at the Technical University of Dortmund. The search for candidates is currently underway. And I assume that we can start in winter semester of twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two. And I love to finance that in my position as the CFO. Okay. We can see you've already made the right steps. And at the end of the process, we will have a lot of innovation, which is the next keyword for you, Mr. Riske. Innovation I mean innovation has to be marketed and sold, otherwise it's getting lost. And here we are working closely together with VDMA on an interface. So how can we make communication possible between driverless transport solutions? I'm talking about the VDA fiftyfifty interface. And try to imagine you have a mobile communication device. We used to have two gs, three gs, four gs, and now it's five gs. But without this standard with interface, a communication is not possible. And we from Kian make that possible with the cooperation with VDMA making sure that the customers are being equipped with the best possible products. And these products, these vehicles can communicate in a warehouse efficiently. We could see that live. This was extremely exciting. Mrs. Growth Energy, this is another important topic, which is part of Q1 twenty twenty seven. Well, a lot comes to my mind, and I have to restrict myself, Mr. Hauge. Well, if we think of that of sustainability, which is of utmost importance for Kian, then I'm thinking of the huge photovoltaic systems that we use to cover almost all the energy needs of our plants in Somerville, U. S. And Pune in India. Then what about the new electric trucks from Linde and Stell, which deliver performance comparable to IC engine powered trucks, which means more than 85% of our trucks are already electrically powered. Then let me mention our joint venture for lithium ion batteries or our fuel cell forklift. They are particularly interesting wherever hydrogen is a byproduct of production. They are locally emission free on the road and the refueling process takes only a few minutes. It's sensationally fast. In our Aschaffenburg plant, we're currently installing our first own hydrogen fill in station, which will start operation in a few months to come. And of course, I'm also thinking of the energy which is provided by all the people working here for Kian. You've mentioned all the people working here and performing excellently. Mr. Risk Performance, it is the last key word. All performance cannot only be measured in euro or dollars, but one performance which comes to mind immediately is the following. This year, the millionth truck recently rolled off the production line in Aschaffenburg. What a success. I mean, we're talking about the millionth truck, a wonderful success. But let me talk about something else which comes to mind. The performance of last year, which can be the basis for the future, the performance of the entire staff. Last year was extremely difficult for everybody. Each and every day, we had to adapt. The forecast changed on a monthly basis and we had to change with it. And now 2020 is over. Now you read everything about it and understand that Kion had the highest order intake ever. We achieved it in this kind of year, and this is a performance which really motivates us and gives us enough power to work on the strategy 2027. Thank you very much. Mrs. Grod, Mr. Rieske, thank you very much for this quite unusual insight you have given in the AGM. And now I would like to pass the floor back to Mr. Maart, who will guide us through the agenda of the AGM. Well, we're coming to the end of the general streaming, and I would like to point out to the viewers who are following our AGM on the Internet that the public part of the broadcast is now ending. I would like to say goodbye to you at this point and thank you very much for your interest in Kion Group AG and in our AGM. From now on, only shareholders and their representatives who have connected via the online service will be able to follow the rest of the meeting.