AGM 2021

May 27, 2021

UNIDENTIFIED So it's time for the Annual General Meeting in Telenode ASA. And it is my pleasure to wish you all welcome. My name is Bjorn Erik Ness. And under the PLLC Act Section five twelve and the Articles of Association Article eight first paragraph, it is I who will chair the corporate assembly in the company and who will open and chair the further meeting. With me on the panel here I have Chair of the Board, Gunn Vastend and Group CEO, Sve Brekke and CFO, Thune Heglan Barkke. As you understand, this AGM will in its entirety happen virtually with on logging through the so called Lumi solution of DNB. It's also possible to follow the AGM via webcast in Norwegian and English and a link and information on how to log on has been posted on the Telenor website. The reason why we are doing the AGM virtually this year is as we know the authorities ban on hosting events in Banum, which applied at the time of the notice to the AGM and the temporary COVID loss allowing us to hold the AGM without a physical meeting. Before proceeding on the agenda, I wish to give you some practical information. Items will be opened for voting after we've taken down the registration of represented shares here today. And this will happen in a few minutes. So we have registered everyone who logs into the Lumi solution and not those who follow us on webcast. The possibility to vote on the items will then clearly be seen on the screen. And if you go away from the voting along the way, you can find it again by clicking the bar chart symbol, which will pop up next to the message icon at the top of your screen. We will open up all items on the agenda here at the same time and then you'll choose how to vote by clicking the buttons in favor of against or abstain on each item. You are at liberty to change your votes on each item along the way until each item is closed and counted. We will close the items on the agenda today as each item is dealt with. And in the short time it takes us to close an item, unfortunately you won't have the opportunity to vote for the remaining items. The voting that you have already submitted on the remaining items will of course still be there once the remaining items are reopened for voting. The number of votes will not be read for each item, but will be published along with the minutes after the Annual General Meeting. As for logged on shareholders who've given proxies prior votes or instructions, the way it works is that what you have voted is registered on you, but you will not see any online confirmation of this. If you log on and you don't do anything then what you've previously submitted will be what counts as a vote in each item. And then you can change your previous voting item per item by voting online today. However, I point out to you that if you for instance push cancel voting under the items then you will cancel your previously submitted votes. And if you're in doubt then in any event there will not be a problem that you vote again on the items now when you're logged on. For those shareholders who wish to ask a question or provide comments to the items on the agenda along the way in meeting, you can do this in writing by pushing by clicking on the message symbol. Right where it says ask a question, what you normally would have wanted to say on the rostrum at the Annual General Meeting. We point out that you will be identified by name, but not by shareholding and that your comment will be made visible to all other shareholders who are logged on. There will be a red dot in the message symbol for everyone who's logged on every time there's a new comment published. Shareholders are welcome to submit questions and comments to the items on the agenda whenever they wish and these will be answered when we deal with that item. Please be aware however that we might be able to moderate the questions that are submitted. And if we have a repeated question, we may not publish it and technical questions will not be answered by the meeting. And especially foul language may be moderated away before publishing. Then we will go on to item two of the agenda, which is the registration of attending shareholders hold shareholders and proxies. This is an item where there will be no voting. And the company's shareholder register is now doing a registration of the shareholders presence and their proxies and we will present the list as soon as it exists. And I will make reference to it shortly. But before we get to that, I just want to repeat the agenda. I will make reference to the agenda that was sent to you together with notice of the Annual General Meeting. The Chairman and yours truly have received proxies with instructions or where the voting is left to the proxy, where the voting is left to the Chairman of the Board or myself, we will vote for the proposal of the Board. The proxies will be reflected in the voting results, which will be added as an annex to the minutes. We have now received the list of those present at today's AGM. I will now read to you how many votes and shares are represented. We have the following share or percentage of the share capital 4,086,096 shares are represented by proxy. Euros 63,736,977 shares represented by advance votes, 140,683,005 shares are represented by instructions through the chair of the meeting or the Chairman of the Board and we have 23 shareholders participating online representing 755,259,778 shares. In total, this is 9 and 65,766,756 shares represented, which amounts to 69.01% of the share capital. We have now blocked the logging on of additional shareholders. But if any of you who are now are logged on for some reason were to lose your connection or want to log on from a different unit, it's possible for you to log on again. We will then go on to the individual items of the agenda. And the possibility of voting on these items will now be opened and we'll now go on to the hearing of the first item, which is Item three of the agenda, approval of the notice of the Annual General Meeting and of the agenda. The notice for this year's Annual General Meeting was sent to all shareholders with a known address on the 05/06/2021. This was in line with Section five ten of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act and the articles of association of the company, the notice the other documents referred to in the notice, proposals for resolutions, the proposed agenda and the articles of association are made available on the website of the company in line with Section eight of the articles of association. Please note that the possibility of voting on this item will shortly be closed. So shareholders who have not voted yet or who want to change the voting should do so immediately. For those of you who did not hear the explanation of how to vote, this is also described on the info page you are now logged on to. If you click on the I symbol on the screen, you will return to this information page. We will now wait a little while so that everybody will have the possibility of voting. And please note that at the same time, you are at liberty to vote for the remaining items of the agenda from now and until each individual item has been closed for voting. We will then wait for about half a minute. We cannot see that any comments have been received with regard to the item to be addressed and so we close the voting. Then item three has been adopted and we consider the notice and the agenda to have been approved. We'll now go on to item four, which is the election of a representative to sign the minutes of the Annual General Meeting together with the Chair of the meeting. According to Section five sixteen of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act, the Chair of the meeting at least one other person elected by the AGM shall sign the minutes. We propose this to be the representative of the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Fisheries, Bjorn Ture Sommer. We propose that he signed the minutes together with yours truly. And I cannot see that we have received any questions or comments to this item. So we will shortly close the voting on this item. And all of those who have still not voted should do so now. And we'll also here wait about thirty seconds so that everybody will have the possibility of voting. Well then, now the voting has been closed and the counting of the votes shows that Bjorn Ture Sommer has been appointed. We consider him to have been elected to sign the minutes together with the chair of the meeting. Then we'll go on to item five of the agenda, which is the report by the CEO and by the Chair of the Board, Gunn Verstadt. Any questions may be answered after their introduction. So then I will leave the floor to Gunther Sted, Chair of the Board. Thank you, Bjorn Erik. Dear shareholders, last year about this time we held the Annual General Meeting in Telnuur for the first time as a nearly fully digital AGM with strict corona measures and only very few people present in the room. Back then most of us had no idea that the same would not be necessary twelve months later, but here we are still digitally and with very strict COVID measures. And with this brief introduction, I've also said a lot about what first and foremost has marked the working year of 2020. The Board and not the least the administration, the management have worked hard for the situation not to affect the work or Telenor's operations adversely. And I would say that the handling of the practical consequences of the pandemic has been good. Digital tools work well and most meetings since last year's AGM have been held as video conference meetings. For the Board nothing else has been possible in a situation where several Board members live in other countries and with entry and quarantine restrictions both in Norway and in their country of residence. I am impressed with how the Board has handled the situation. As a Chair of the Board naturally I am not the right person to judge the quality of the Board's work. Nevertheless, I wish to send a signal to you shareholders that we as a Board believe that we have taken care of our duties in a good manner in this period. CEO, Sigve Brekke and CFO, Thulne Heglampakke will in their subsequent information to the AGM give thorough descriptions of the significant activities, operations and results for Telenuid in 2020. So I will limit myself to say that from the Board we are well pleased with the work that has been done both in the first and initial phase of the corona pandemic where the priority was to ensure that all employees could work from home and that communication solutions worked for customers in their new work situation, schools that had to go digital etcetera. And also in the later phases where the running operation needed to work the best as possible while also the more future oriented activities needed to be prioritized. Beyond a continuous follow-up of the company and the administration to ensure that it has the best measures to work during the pandemic for customers, employees and society, the Board has kept a specific focus on six areas. The first one is earnings and organic growth. Creating growth is a significant part of our strategy and has been clearly communicated no later than at the Capital Markets Day in February 2020. There is still potential for growth in certain markets where mobile phones are not yet widely available, But the most significant potential for growth in the time ahead will be in creating new value adding services for customers both in the individual and in the corporate market. We have great expectations to the implementation of five gs both in Norway and in other countries and the opportunities that this provides for new services not the least to the corporate market where in particular services related to the Internet of Things is interesting. Communication service and advanced technology availability is steadily growing and dividing lines between various services and to a certain extent hardware is gradually wiped out. And the difference between telecom companies, IT companies and companies doing system integration is reduced. We will see integrated business models and partnership to a greater extent. The second area are efficient operations And Telenor in recent years has shown that it's possible to streamline operations through the enhancement of processes, digitalization and automatization, something which has given positive result not only in the form of cost reductions and but also higher quality and improved customer satisfaction. Modernization is a critical condition for to capitalize on our growth possibilities in the time ahead and this work must go on. The third area is governance. Telenuud is operating in four Nordic and five Asian markets and with that has two geographical main regions. To create the best possible arena for cooperation and sharing of experience across the geographical main areas, the group is now organized in one Asia hub and one Nordic hub. At the same time that central support functions such as technology, finance, HR, legal, compliance and governance are global functions. It will be interesting to see to which extent the digital quantum leap that both individuals and businesses have partaken in during the pandemic will lead to greater equality in customer needs and customer behavior across various markets. In many areas we see that globalization is now speeding up and the exchange of experiences and learning will be central at any rate. The fourth area is sustainability. Telenuud is making targeted and long term efforts to be a company with high standards for responsible business and taking with corporate social responsibility and sustainable operations. In 2020, Telenor set new ambitious targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the annual dilemma training for all employees will continue as an important part of the work to ensure the maintenance of a high standard for responsible business in all markets. And building our expertise is an important part of our personnel policy. The fifth area is consolidation. There are economies of scale in our industry and we see that scale will be even more important in the time ahead. And this is since size gives power in negotiations as a buyer and it makes us more attractive as a cooperating partner and to hold a number one or number two position in the markets where we operate gives a great advantage. We therefore have great hope of the merger that was announced on the April 8 where our ambition is that our business in Malaysia, Digi will be merged with Malaysian Cellcom and with that create energies and a clear number one position on the Malaysian market. We have spent time on the Board at thorough assessments of the strategic aspects of this merger, which will imply that Telenuid will be a minority owner in the merged company and the largest owner along with Axiata. Our conclusion is that this transaction will create value for shareholders and be positive for customers and staff. And thereby we've opened up for accepting to hold a minority position on certain terms. The Board will also in the time ahead consider the possibilities of contributing to value creating consolidation. The sixth focus area has been and I must say unfortunately Myanmar. In February, we got a reminder that we sometimes refer to as demanding markets suddenly unfortunately became more relevant than we'd ever imagined. The military coup and the military inflection interventions in our business in Myanmar came as a surprise to us. The Board has a close and ongoing dialogue with the administration on the situation and necessary measures. First priority has been to take care of the security of all staff and to the greatest possible extent ensure that our customers in Myanmar receive the services that we have committed to delivering. Extremely demanding to handle and we are following the development closely. As stated in connection with the presentation of our Q1 accounts, we found it necessary to write down the value to zero. The Board will as always seek to protect shareholder values, but I have to emphasize how demanding the situation is. And I would also like to take this opportunity to express great sympathy with all our seven thirty staff and our 18,000,000 customers in Myanmar. We all feel with you and we hope that the situation will be changed for the better. I will end by this introduction by thanking all employees of Telenor for your efforts in this past year and not the least for your great ability and willingness to adapt in the difficult work situation that this pandemic has meant. We know that it's been very demanding to many people, but I'm also convinced that the importance of contributing to keep the wheels turning for all our customers regardless whether it's contact with family and friends digitally or employees and customers in companies working digitally or teachers and schools that all that has made all it's been a source of inspiration and has made all employees feel a particular responsibility for central societal functions. So thank you for your efforts. Now it will be important that the positive, things we've learned from this new situation of work will be brought forward so that we can deliver even better service and provide a better customer experience in the time ahead. Go ahead Sigve. The floor is yours. Thank you, Gunn. Dear shareholders, well hello to everybody. I thought I would take you through in some further detail some of the areas that Gunn addressed to describe the operative situation that we have been through last year. Let me start with this slide. We connect you to what is most important. This is how we build stronger societies and communities. This is our purpose of Telenor that we developed a couple of years back. It consists of three elements. The first is that we connect you. That is we build connectivity. Historically, we've done that to keep people's speech services, now computer and data services. Now we also want to connect to the Internet of Things and all of those sensors and the things that will be connected. The second part is what means the most. While until now we have created growth through connectivity for speech, text messages and data services, the future growth will also come from some additional services on top, also value creating services that the chair talked about. The third part of the vision of this purpose is that we want to be a contributor to building stronger societies, stronger communities. We want to be considered an important instrument in the digitization phase that all our nine countries where we have operations now are facing. We also want to do this by having high standards or raising actually the standards in those markets where we are present. On the right hand of the slide you see the current image of Telenor. We have 10,000,000 customers in our four Nordic markets and 170 in Asia. And we have 170,000,000 clients. So we are one of the big global telecom companies. If you look at revenue, it's about fifty-fifty half in The Nordics and half from Asia. And if we look at profitability that is operating result, we have the same situation. Telenor is a bit different from other European telecom operators. We are different because we are in The Nordics. We are gathered in the Nordic countries. These are very advanced markets digitization wise. They are highly profitable and also have demanding customers. We are not in some of the challenging European markets. We also have a presence in Asia in growth markets. This gives us a combination where we both can build on scale, but we can also learn from what is being done in The Nordics and can be exported to Asia and vice versa. I also need to say a bit about Myanmar. The Chair of the Board also addressed this issue. We had a license in Myanmar in 2013. That was at the point in time where this fantastic country was in the process of opening up in 2013. There was still a regime led by the military in this country. There was a lot of risk there for the business plan we developed. We focused a lot on human rights issues and we also saw an incredibly incredible need for communication services, less than 10% of the population had any kind of communication services, be that mobile or landline. And in the years that have passed since 2013, I'm proud of the solid operation we've built 18,000,000 customers. We are one of the biggest mobile operators in the country. I would dare to say that together with our competitors in Myanmar, we've been part of the great democratization process and the openness process that has taken place in this country. And then we saw what happened on the February 1, the military coup. As a consequence, we find ourselves in a very demanding situation as the chair said. Our number one priority is to take care of the security of our seven thirty staff members. Second priority is to continue offering our 80,000,000 customers services. We do that to the best of our ability. But unfortunately, the current situation is that the data network has been closed for several weeks. Part of it has been reopened, but it's not the way it ought to be. We are also facing some issues with regard to human rights and freedom of speech that we try to handle to the best of our ability on the basis of our values. And it is with this uncertainty like the chair said, we chose to write down our assets in Myanmar, but we're still present. We try as best we can to do the job we came there to do. Then And we will just have to see how things work out in the future. There are many dilemmas that we are trying to handle while we have a demanding operative situation. Now let's look back in time. What actually happened when COVID hit us a bit more than a year ago? If you look at the slide on the left hand side here, this is a slide that we have used now for every quarter, five or six quarters in a row and it shows how the income, the revenue development has been as a result of markets that have been closed down and the spreading of the coronavirus. The blue line shows our Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan are growth markets. Last year, we saw revenue drop substantially. This is when these markets were closed down, but then we also see that they reemerge quite quickly. That is when markets slowly but surely opened again and people got access to communication services again. And then since the summer of last year, things have been going a bit up and down. If you adjust for the situation from Myanmar, we see the dotted line in clear blue. You see that these markets have now come to their prior level. The situation is still demanding, but one cannot close down countries for a long period of time. See Malaysia and Thailand, the yellow line, they had a dip not as strong, though that was also because of government stimulus and we see those markets slowly recouping. And in the second half of the year, we believe that our Asian markets slowly will make the way back through a gradual reopening. And on the right, we see our customers in the Nordic countries, how they have used communication services in the past year, the top graph are mobile data. The mobile data have increased slowly, but surely, not a lot more than what it did before COVID. We have a growth of 25% to 30%, which is has been the annual rate for several years. And below we see the ringing pattern. After COVID came, they started calling more often that is our customers, but that has decreased. And on the board, we decided early on, let's use the investments that you have made in a more digital and more efficient model for in a way adjusting ourselves with regard to our revenue challenges. And last year we managed to compensate for the revenue drop in that we reduced cost even more. That is why the Board also decided that we were to pay a dividend like we will also propose to this AGM. Quite early on last year we sat down and we had a discussion with the Board, what can we learn from what we now have seen after three or four months? And these are the three points where we saw that this is where we can learn, we can do something about it. And these are three areas we believe there will be lasting changes to once we emerge from the COVID crisis. The first is that customers who relate to physical channels, they go to distribution points to buy a mobile phone or a SIM card and they call customer service if they need assistance. And to move the physical contact to digital channels that was done to a large extent last year and this has led to lasting changes. The second thing was that we had to take 18,000 or 18,000 employees almost overnight. We had to move them to home offices and we had to have them operate from home offices. And the investments we had made in making operations more efficient and more digitalized. This was really useful. These were investments made before COVID. And we can also use these investments going forward in 2023. We want to be able to run all of Telenor's operations from a distance. And quite early on, we stated that the work modes that we now see that COVID has forced us to change will be permanently changed. That is a flexible way of working and an increased use of digital tools. These are the three points that we presented to our shareholders at the Capital Market Day in March. It's growth and as the Chair of the Board said, we want to position ourselves within some growth areas. There's a continued modernization and it is responsible business. So let me take you through each of these main areas. First growth, our growth comes from two areas from more customers and from improving our ARPU, which is average revenue per unit or per customer. We still have customer growth in what we call our emerging markets, Bangladesh, Pakistan. Was also Myanmar. We think that the actual penetration that is the percentage of the population that has a mobile phone is still below 60% in these markets. So still millions of people who have no access to basic services in this field. In addition to this, many of those customers only use the basic services and there are still very early users of data services. So this is one field where we're going to focus on customer growth. The second is that it is mainly normal that we have a heavy position within the business to business segment. In other markets, it's private customers, the consumer segment that is our main focus. We now see that we can further develop the B2B segment in other markets based on our experience in Norway. And we want to see whether we can have any value increasing services in addition to only data connectivity. Norway is the first one. We have with great success launched insurance services and security services for our customers in addition to the data services. And this is in demand among our customers and it's important for us to drive increased revenue per customer, increased profitability. We will continue with this. So we are investing quite heavily in modern forward looking networks. We have never invested as much in Norway as we did last year. And this year, we are modernizing our four gs networks. We are investing now in five gs technology in Norway Sweden sorry, Finland and also in Sweden and in Denmark. And then this will also come in other markets. We see a business model for not only some connectivity, but also entering the B2B market with integrated solutions. And as the Chair of the Board said, we also see that the competition landscape is changing now that we have this new technology development. We call it the perfect storm when technology like five gs comes together with artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. As a consequence, we have new business models emerging and new possibilities of revenue. And you cannot compete only with an operational model that is similar to one that has served us well the past twenty years. This is the background why we now are looking at whether we can join our operations to create greater scale in the markets where we are present. And so we announced something a few weeks ago. We said that we will have this merger in Malaysia to create this number one position and to have the possibility of grasping the new possibilities of revenue. When we announced this, said that we are in conversations and we hope to sign an agreement in the course of the second quarter. And after we do this, hopefully, you need a regulatory approval. So the goal is within the first quarter of next year to have this deal finally implemented. And the second circle was modernization of our operations, digitalization of the customer travels. We are investing a lot in that now. And when we can serve a customer digitally, customer satisfaction increases. The customer is if possible even more satisfied with us when he can have a digital simple digital solution being be that filling up a SIM card, buying a SIM card or buying a physical product like a mobile phone. And the same applies to customer service. Going from calling an agent to solving the problem digitally is experienced as something that provides for even greater customer satisfaction. And we're building the modern infrastructure. So I'm quite proud that in Norway two years ago, we made a decision that we were going to go all the way and leave behind the copper wire network that has been our offer for almost one hundred years and to invest in modern infrastructure. Not many other operators have dared make that step fully. Our object is to put our entire copper wire history behind us next year. And then we will have a forward looking network both for mobile services that is wireless and fiber. And we are working in all other countries also with modernization of our networks and new ways of working, more efficient ways are also important. So let me end by what was mentioned also by the chair. In addition to having a good business, we also want to contribute to influencing the societies where we are be that in Bangladesh or in Norway. The three areas we have chosen, it is inclusion, it is online safety and it is the competence of the future. And at the bottom of the slide you see our priority areas as regards inclusion is diversity, like gender, experience, diversity with regard to backgrounds, nationality, but also diversity with regard to including into Telenor those that for some reason have been excluded from the labor market. We have been running programs for a long time now where we accept and help people into the ordinary labor markets. We also do that in some other markets. Health, environment and safety is an increased priority, especially in our Asian markets to increase standards. Human rights are important to us. They have been and not least in some of the emerging markets in Asia. Climate environment is a new priority area to us. We have published our objectives. We want to be carbon neutral in The Nordics by 2030 and we want to have our carbon emissions in Asia by 02/1930. Privacy and security safety, we invest a lot in IT structure and incompetence to be able to keep our own customers protected, but we also find this to be a business area where we can help others in doing the same thing. So with these few words Chair and Chair of the meeting, I will give you the floor again. Thank you, Sigve. It is possible to ask questions to both the Chair of the Board and to the group CEO based on what they have presented so far. But as far as we can see and establish, no questions have been submitted. And, let's interpret that to mean that you have covered it all very well in your presentations, both of you. So with that, I will thank you both for your, presentations. And then we can move on to the next item on the agenda. And that is item number six, which is approval of the financial statements and annual report for Telenor ASA and Telenor Group for the financial year 2020 including the Board of Directors proposal for distribution of a dividend. The financial statements and the annual report for the financial year together with the auditor's report are available on the company website pursuant to the Articles of Association Article eight. To give information under this item, first and foremost CFO, Thulne Henlambake will inform us of selected main items in the financial statements. And next Chair of the Board, Ginvasted will inform us of the Board's proposal of the distribution of the allocation of profits. And then auditor Anders Scherbrule is present, and he can answer any questions after these presentations have been made. So with that, I will first give the floor to you Thulma. You. Dear shareholders, as Sigve just mentioned, we had a Capital Market Day in the 2020. This was just before the pandemic, but we saw that the strategic targets we set then also turned out to be robust through what turned out to be a volatile year. We experienced that the shutdown and the loss of revenue from roaming and cash card activities in Asia made it challenging to deliver growth. But we decided early on to give the strategy extra strength by accelerating three modernizing objectives and at the same time ensure our cash flow. The past year has demonstrated the strength of our governance model and shown our ability to navigate through unknown waters. We delivered solid growth in 2020 in mobile traffic and service revenues in Norway and Finland. And here we also laid the foundation for capitalization on our investments in five gs. Our journey of modernization over a number of years has helped us to handle the challenges in this highly volatile year, while our operating costs dropped by 7%. And this results in delivering an organic growth in EBITDA of 2% despite the reduction in revenue. And in 2020, we deliver a solid total free cash flow of €21,000,000,000 supporting the company's attractive dividend policy. As mentioned initially, modernization is an important focus area for us. And modernization of course, doesn't only mean to reduce costs, but also to streamline operations and to renew the company so that we stay relevant to our customers and keep the flexibility to adapt to changes in market dynamics and needs. The global pandemic has shown that we have this ability and we reduced the operating costs by NOK2.6 billion. Nearly 60% of the drop in this drop is thanks to our structural modernizing program and this helps to position Telenor for future growth possibilities and increases our competitiveness in the coming period. Since our Capital Market Day in 2017, we have systematically worked on simplifying and developing our portfolio. Our goal has been to focus on our core activities within telecom where we have the expertise to create values for our owners and customers. And despite the challenges of 2020, this year marked a continuation of the strategy. And in 2020, we sold Tapad and we divested the portfolio of development properties and we sold our headquarters. In addition, we've also made some minor but strategic transactions such as the purchase of and to strengthen the expansion of the activities within the Internet of Things. As the CEO mentioned, responsible business is a foundation for how Telenor runs its operations and how we have been doing it for a number of years. It's important for us to be a responsible player and to we place great expectations on ourselves, but also from our suppliers and the societies around us. We believe that the way in which we operate especially in Asia helps to influence and raise the standards in these markets. We also see that responsible business keeps rising on the agenda of various stakeholders including authorities and you shareholders. Therefore, we consider on an ongoing basis how we might best visualize or make visible the work that we do through transparent reporting. To the left on the slide, you can see what we have been reporting on up to now. And that is an extensive level of reporting, but at the same time we see that this in itself in the time ahead will not provide sufficient information for our external audience. And that's the reason why we've now chosen to expand our sustainability reporting in the time ahead. We have also joined the science based targets initiative, which means that we will now work to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in line with what research says is necessary as the Chair of the Board mentioned. Then I will go into, the activities and the financial results where the operations, through 2020. We'll start with the revenue. In total for 2020 subscriptions and traffic revenue dropped by 2% equivalent to NOK1.7 billion. This was especially driven by a reduction in revenue from Asia from shut borders and markets. And at the same time, we also experienced of course less traveling in the Nordic region that reduced the so called roaming revenue. Despite this, we had activities which delivered growth and strong results. And I would then like to highlight especially Norway and Finland and also Myanmar. And if we look at the side of costs, then as I mentioned initially the pandemic has shown us what flexibility we have to adapt. And as mentioned we reduced operating costs by billion or 7% disregarding D and A, which was new. Our structural efficiency programs gave considerable effects and led to lower OpEx within most categories compared to 2019. The savings are mainly from key areas where we have our focus within modernization. They're from the structural savings that constituted about billion of which network and IT modernizing constitute about 50% of the reduction. Furthermore, we also see a direct effect from the COVID-nineteen pandemic. This was estimated to million, which is about one third of the cost reduction. And not the least, we also see that we have lower investments and other costs among other things related to energy which lead to a low generally lower cost level. We believe that there is still a potential for further streamlining and we stand by our ambition of 1% to 3% cost reduction until 2022 annually as communicated at the Capital Market Day in 2020. Now if we move on to profitability. In 2020, we had an EBITDA margin of 46% with good profitability in all operations. And despite the pressure on the top line, a steady execution of the structural cost programs led to organic growth in EBITDA of 2%. And we saw the value of our governance model in the unforeseen situations throughout 2020. In our Nordic operations, they proved their robustness despite the loss of roaming revenue. In Asia, we saw that the pressure on the top line also influenced EBITDA and this was especially driven by the loss of revenue in Thailand and Malaysia related especially to the tourists and the migrant segments. And now on to the balance. In 2020 net debt increased by billion mainly driven by the depreciation of the Norwegian kroner and increased lease commitments from the sale and associated lease agreement of the headquarters. To protect the financial flexibility and ensure cost efficient financing, Telenor has aim between to keep a ratio between net debt and EBITDA of between one point eight and two point three. And for 2020, we ended the year with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of two point zero. The last years we've had a rising dividend per share each year. We've also in some years topped this with buybacks. This was done in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In addition, we also distributed an extraordinary dividend of NOK 4.4 per share in 2018. In other words, the four past years we have given about billion back to our shareholders. For 2020, we proposed three percent growth in ordinary dividend per share in line with our ambition of year after year growth in ordinary dividend. This will constitute about NOK 12,600,000,000.0 given back to the shareholders or in total about NOK 85,000,000,000 between 2017 and 2021 a five year period. We now move on to look at the result accounts and the profit and loss accounts. The results after tax to shareholders in Similar Asia for 2020 was NOK17.3 billion, an increase of NOK9.6 billion from 2019. This was mainly a result of a higher EBITDA, but also lower tax and realized profits. Organic EBITDA grew by NOK1 billion and further EBITDA for 2020 was positively affected by the consolidation with D and A that helped us out with NOK2.2 billion. And we also had a foreign currency effect of NOK2.7 billion due to the weakening of the Norwegian kroner. And in addition the sale of Tapad and the sale with a partial leaseback of the headquarter made a positive contribution. And on the line of, divested activities, we find the gain or the profits of €1,700,000,000 from the merger of Canal de Gaetel and Nordic Entertainment Groups net into the jointly controlled Alente. The reduction we saw in payable taxes is mainly due to a decision from tax authorities in Norway in 2019 where they did not allow deductions for the actual loss of guarantees that Telenor ASA incurred in 2013. The net financial result was a loss of billion and this is mainly due to net interest costs of NOK5 billion and also foreign currency profit of NOK1.2 billion which will set off against lower financial revenue. We will now move on to look at the parent company's results. Telenor ASA is a holding company and includes the management the group management, group functions, research and development and the internal bank. Telinore ASA's revenue mainly consists of sales of corporate services to other companies in the group and sales of research and development services and sales of other consultancy services. Telenor ASA also performs large parts of the external financing of the group and gives loans to and receives investments from companies in the group. Net financial items show for 2020 a result of NOK13.2 billion versus NOK21.2 billion in 2019. Both 2019 and 2020 have good financial results. In 2020, this is mainly from a dividend from subsidiaries of NOK16.9 billion of which NOK6 billion are dividend from the subsidiary Telenor Mobile Holding AS in 2020. In 2019, the subsidiary Telenor Mobile Holding contributed with NOK12 billion in dividend. Net income annual results for 2020 ended at about billion for the ASA. And finally, I would also quickly review the parent company's financial position. Telenor ASUS balance shows a recorded value of assets of altogether NOK196 billion. The effect of liquidity of the dividend of billion and the buyback of shares from the state constituted NOK4.2 billion in 2020. And the equity was reduced by about NOK4.5 billion. The 2020 results for the parent company was NOK12 billion and consists mainly of group contribution and dividends from subsidiaries in the group. The proposed dividend for the accounting year 2020 is 9 per share, approximately NOK 12,600,000,000.0. And with this, I say thank you for your attention. I'll give the floor back to the Chair of the meeting. Thank you for your presentation, Thore. There's already been a presentation of the distribution of dividend. I will now give the floor to the Chair of the Board, Gunnar MasTec, who will give a further presentation of the Board's proposal for allocation of the results of the year the profit of the year. Thank you. The profit for Telenor ASA for 2020 was 11,958 million after tax and after reception of group contribution and dividend of NOK 16,877 million. And the Board proposes the following allocation. Other results after tax there should be a transfer of NOK 11,958 million to retained earnings. And after allocation the equity capital Tilner ASA adjusted for share capital will be of NOK9438 million. The Board proposals a total dividend of NOK9 per share, totaling approximately NOK12.6 billion. And we propose this dividend to be paid in two tranches of NOK5 per share and NOK4 per share in June and October 2021 respectively. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation concerning the allocation of the profit for the year. As I mentioned earlier under item six, the auditing company is represented by the auditor in charge under Scherbel. They audited the financial statements for Telenor S. A. And they have provided a clean auditors report without any reservations. If there are any questions to the auditor, it's possible to present those questions. Let me then go on to making reference to the corporate assembly that had a meeting on 03/24/2021. There was a discussion of the Board's proposal for financial accounts and the proposed allocation of the profit for the year. And we have their statement on Page 175 of the annual report. It is of the following wording. The Corporate Assembly recommends that the AGM should approve the Board's proposal for financial statements for 2020 for the group and for Telenor ASA as presented to the Corporate Assembly by transferring NOK 11,058 million to retained earnings and by paying a dividend of NOK 9 per share to be paid in two tranches of NOK 5 per share and NOK 4 per share in June and October 2021 respectively. I cannot see us having received any questions or comments to the presentations that now have been given under Item six of the agenda. And then we will go return to the formal issue of approval of financial statements and report and distribution of dividends. The proposal for a resolution is the following. The Annual General Meeting approved the financial statements and the Annual Report Telenor SA and the Telenor Group for the financial year 2020, including the use of profits and a dividend of in total NOK 9 per share in two tranches, one of NOK 5 and one of NOK 4 to be paid to shareholders registered as of the expiry of 05/31/2021 and 08/2021 respectively. We will now close the voting shortly. Those who have not voted already or who want to vote again should do so now. So we will wait for about thirty seconds so that everybody will have the possibility to vote. Then there are no comments received to this case that need to be discussed and we can now close the voting. We consider the resolution to have been carried. I will now take us on to the next item of the agenda, Item seven, which is the approval of remuneration to the company's external auditor for auditing of the company. I will give the floor to CFO, Thunne Heglenbacher, who will give a brief information on the auditor's remuneration. I have a proposal for a resolution. The fee for the auditor is distributed among statutory auditing and other fees. As for previous years, an overview of the orders fees has been included in the company's annual report in Note 35 to the financial statements. The fees for auditing in Telenor ASA for 2020 was million. The fee for auditing includes a normal fee for statutory revision and a limited review of the quarterly reports for attestation services. A fee of SEK 1,300,000.0 has been paid. This fee is primarily related to attestations as a consequence of legislation. For tax related services, the adjusted fee was SEK 1,000,000. The fee is mainly linked to tax related assistance and presentations of tax rules and consequences thereof for other services. The auditors fee amounted to NOK1.7 million. Other services were primarily related to review of processes, projects and suppliers and financial due diligence in connection with acquisitions, sales and other transactions. Then I thank you for your orientation. And at the same time, I remind you that the only thing that the AGM is to approve is the fee for the auditing of Telenoid ASA not for the subsidiaries. I cannot see there being any questions or comments having been received with regard to this item of the agenda. So I propose the following resolution. The Annual General Meeting the Annual General Meeting approved the auditors remuneration for audit of Telenor ESA of NOK 5,408,000. All of those who have not had the possibility of voting can vote now and we will wait for about thirty seconds for the results of the vote. The voting has now been closed and the resolution has been adopted. Let's go on to next item, item eight of the agenda, which is the Board of Directors report on corporate governance. And I leave the floor to the Chair of the Board Gunn Vasterd and emphasize remind you that there will be no voting on this report unless there are any objections. Then it will be taken down in a minute that the report was taken into consideration by the Annual General Meeting. So please go ahead Gun. Thank you. Telenor has written a report for the principles and practice of the group for corporate governance pursuant to the Accounting Act and the Norwegian Corporate Governance Board and UES. The report is in the annual report and available in Norwegian and English on the Telenor website. As the Chair of the meeting said at this AGM, it's an information item. The Board has reviewed and adopted the corporate governance report at the Board meeting on the March 23. The Board considers good corporate governance as decisive to ensure the greatest possible value creation over time in the best interest of Telenor's shareholders, customers, employees and other stakeholders. Good and sustainable governance corporate governance is a key factor to succeed in a global market marked by strong competitiveness and regulation, constantly changing needs in the clients and technological progress. The Board places great emphasis on maintaining high standards for corporate governance in all parts of the group and in line with both Norwegian and international commonly accepted principles and practices. Telenor's principles and practices for corporate governance are regularly discussed on the Board and formally reviewed once a year by the Board and the Board's People and Governance Committee. Let me give you a brief review. The top body of Telenor is the Annual General Meeting. Here, the shareholders made central decisions for the company such as approval of the financial statements and the determination of the dividend and election of members to the Corporate Assembly and the Nomination Committee. The Corporate Assembly will among other things elect members for the Board and comment on proposals to the financial statements. The administration of the Telenor Group sorts under the Board of Telenor ASA. The Board will ensure a responsible organization of the activities and the Board also employs the Group CEO. The Group CEO is then responsible for the daily management of the business and will ensure that the Group is run and developed according to its articles of association and the corporate assemblies and so on. And the Board further places great emphasis on all parts of the Telenor Group to have a high ethical standard and that Telenor will conduct its responsibility in a good manner. Transparency and trust based collaboration between all parties and stakeholders in the group is a condition for ethnic business and good corporate governance. A robust governance model requires both expedient design and efficient implementation. Telenor has adopted a framework for corporate governance including Telenor's Code of Conduct and the group governing principles and a set of policies manuals and guidelines processes and systems for follow-up and reporting. The terms of reference set a standard to govern all, activities in the business independently of where they take place. The group governing principles were updated and approved in September 2020. There were 11 policy areas which were updated in 2020, mainly minor amendments. And in addition to that one policy was removed. Further details are described on page 36 of the annual report available on the Telenor website. Thank you. You, Gun. I cannot see that there are any questions or objections to this item either. So with that, I will propose that we take down in the minutes the following. The Annual General Meeting reviewed the Board of Directors report on corporate governance and the report was taken into consideration by the Annual General Meeting. Well then we will continue to item nine of the agenda, which is the Board of Directors policy and report on salary and other remuneration to the executive management. Under this agenda item, we shall review item nine-one, which are the guidelines and policy of the Board of Directors on salary and other remuneration to be presented for the approval of the AGM. I will give the floor to the Chair of the Board and of the People and Governance Committee of the Board, Gunnar Stedt, who will provide some information on the Board of Directors of Palsciom determination of remuneration to executive management. Thank you. By way of introduction, I would like to say that the policy for remuneration to executive management and the report on compensation for 2020 is available to all shareholders through the annual report and website. It is the Board's assessment that the policy meets the requirements of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act with effect from the 01/01/2021, which is within the government guidelines that applied at the time the Board was working on the next year's guidelines. As the Chair of the Board, I received a letter four weeks ago from the Minister Yves Hubei, who provided information on new government guidelines. The Board will review and see whether there must be adaptations as a consequence of these new state guidelines. And the ambition of the Board is that Telenor's guidelines and policy for remuneration to executive management should be within the policy of the governments in force at any given time. The Board has in recent years developed the policy on remuneration in order to contribute to greater transparency and better understanding among shareholders and other stakeholders as to how the compensation of management is designed and managed to contribute to the company's goals of and a sustainable value creation for owners. The Board has also worked with the People and Governance Committee, PGC, which is an advisory body to the Board in its work on remuneration of executive management, Development and Governance, PGC is a preparatory and advisory working committee that is headed by the Chair of the Board and two Board members elected by the shareholders and a representative of the employees, the CEO and the Group HR Director and the Director for Sustainability participate always while other representatives may meet in each individual case. I will present the simple parts of the guidelines and We want to fulfill the requirements that apply and describe the policy in a good and complete way. The salary report presented to the AGM this year is a continuation of the report for previous years. The Board will prepare a salary report for 2021 in line with new statutory requirements and presented in connection with the next year's AGM. As a consequence of new statutory requirements and the Board's focus on continuous improvement of policies in such a way that it will give shareholders and other stakeholders a good impression of the salaries executive management of Telenor, the main the following main changes have been made in the policies. This is a description of how the policy will contribute further to business strategy, long term interest and financial sustainability. So it's also an extended description of the variable elements of remuneration, short term incentive, STIs and a bonus plan and long term incentives LTIs. There's also an expanded description of the principles for remuneration and how the concern for moderation is taken due care of. And there's also an additional description of policies and guidelines in some areas that previously have not been included. Now the guidelines, the policy. Overall Telenor's remuneration to executive management has been designed to promote the company's goals and sustainable value creation for owners. Remuneration should contribute to the company's strategy and priorities in short and long term and financial sustainability. Furthermore, it is the Board's goal that the total compensation should be competitive in the respective markets in which the company's managers are employed and operate, but they should not be leading in those markets. The basic salary will be the main element for the total compensation for all managers of Telenor also in those countries where managers generally may have different composition of their total compensation and typically a larger share as a variable salary. The level for each individual is established on the basis of the scope of the role and responsibilities, experience and work and adaptation to local markets. For 2020, the Board chose to freeze salaries for the top management of Telenor in light of the demanding and uncertain situation linked to COVID-nineteen. Telenor operates two incentive plans for the top management that together contribute towards obtaining the company's goals and realizing its long term plans. It provides incentives, behavior that is strategically important to Telenor and it promotes a community of interest for owners and contributes to a sustainable development of the company. The short term incentive, the FTI, may provide a maximum annual accrual of 50% of the basic salary for executive management based on the attainment of certain criteria. The Board reviews and establishes this quantitative criteria on a yearly basis to reflect the strategy of the company and its central priorities at any given time. Telenor for several years has applied a balanced scorecard as a basis for the FTI plan focusing mainly on financial criteria, but also with a clear focus on ESG goals. Customer, employee and sustainability goals amount to 45% of top plan. The second element is a long term incentive, which can provide a maximum accrual of 30% of the basic salary for executive management. The amount after tax is to be invested in Telenor ASA shares at a market price. The LTI allocation is based on the attainment of financial criteria mentioned as mentioned in the guidelines and the Board for 2021 has approved a full allocation based on the goal attainment measured through underlying free cash flow for the group and the development of the total increase total return of Telenor ASA. See in relation to the stocks Europe six hundred Index of a two year period, there is a lockup period of three year for the shares so that the program's total length is of five years. Executive management also like other employees of the company have the possibility of buying Telenor ASA shares for up to 4% of their annual base salary with a rebate of maximum 2,000. If the Telenor ASA share develops better than European Telecommunication Index that is Stacks Europe six hundred over two year period then the participants in the program will be given additional shares based on their own investment. This allotment may as a maximum be three times their own invested amount. This is a taxable benefit and is reported for members of the group management under the item of other benefits in the salary table in the annual report. I also want to inform about the salary and remuneration of the executive management and the CEO. In 2020, the total compensation to executive management was million compared to NOK78.3 million in 2019. The total compensation for the CEO was €14,800,000 to be exact €14,827,000 in 2020 compared to €14,524,000 in 2019. The increase was of 2.1% and is primarily due to somewhat higher variable salary and other benefits as presented for in the salary table to be found in the annual report. As mentioned previously, the Board implemented a freezing of salaries in 2020 that also applied to the CEO so that his base salary is the same as last year. In the assessment of the performance of the CEO linked to STI, the Board in addition to results obtained from the financial operational criteria has also assessed other key priorities established in particular for the CEO and that including the of a clear growth and structural agenda, continuous customer focus and development of management and culture within the company. On this basis, the final STI allotment was of 66.5 percent for 2020 that is all the maximum of 50% resulting in a variable salary of NOK 2,137,000 for 2020. The company's financial results in 2019 and 2020 fulfilled the criteria for the LTI plan and gave the CEO and the other members of the executive management full allotment of LTI shares. Further details on the remuneration for the CEO and the executive management are provided for in the annual report. By way of conclusion, I would like to emphasize that Telenor operates in several markets internationally. And for this reason, the Board must on a continuous basis handle challenges linked to remuneration of executive management. The Board's goal is not to be leading within remuneration, but to secure competitive conditions in order to attract and employ and keep management in Telenor in a competitive and global labor market, while the policies linked to salaries and remuneration from the group's majority shareholder are to be catered to. I believe that the Board in 2020 performed their assessments on this basis in a satisfactory way. And with these words, I give the floor to you, Bjorn Erik. Thank you for that and thank you for your presentation. I cannot see that we have any questions or comments submitted to this item on the agenda. So with that, I will read the proposed approval for the determination of salary and other remunerations to the executive management. The Annual General Meeting approved the Board of Directors compensation policy on determination of salary and other remuneration to the executive management as described in the appendices to the notice. Everyone who has not yet voted will now have the opportunity to do so and we will wait for the indicated 30 for this to be done. So the voting is now closed and the proposed resolution is adopted. And we will move on to the next item which is item 10 on the agenda. And this concerns authorization to acquire own shares to be used in Telenor's incentive program for employees within the group. The Board of Directors of Telenor here proposes that the Annual General Meeting authorizes Board of Directors to acquire company shares in the market to fulfill the company's obligations to employees who participate in the group's long term share incentive program for executive management named LTI and the company's general share program for employees named ESP. The share programs are described in Telenor's annual report for 2020 more precisely in the report on corporate governance in Chapter 12. This authorization that we're asking you for now will apply until the next Annual General Meeting in 2022, but no longer than until the 06/30/2022. A decision to authorize the share buyback requires majority of at least two thirds of both submitted votes and of the share capital represented at the Annual General Meeting. I cannot see that we've had any questions or comments to this item. So the Board of Directors therefore will propose that the Annual General Meeting will pass the following resolution. The Board of Directors is given authorization according to Section nine(four) of the Public Limited Liability Companies Act to acquire up to 10,000,000 owned shares with a nominal value of a total of NOK60 million corresponding to approximately 0.8% of the company's share capital. The authorization may be used in only in connection with the fulfillment of the company's obligations in accordance with the company's LTI program for executive management and in connection with LTE with Telenor's general share program for employees the ESP. The amount that can be paid per share must be a minimum of NOK 50 and a maximum of NOK $2.50. The Board of Directors is at liberty regarding the ways in which shares can be acquired providing it complies with general principles of equal treatment of shareholders. Disposal of own shares acquired under this authorization can only take place as part of the fulfillment of the company's obligations in accordance with the company's program for executive management, the LTI program and in connection with the general share programs for employees, the ESP, the CF item one above. The authorization is valid from the time of registration of the authorization in the Register of Business Enterprises and it is valid until the AGM in 2022, but no longer than until the 06/30/2022. Everyone who still hasn't voted needs to do so now and we will wait a few a little while for everyone to have the opportunity to do so. We will extend the waiting time for to be one minute this time. So that minute has passed and the voting is now closed. And the count shows that this case has been adopted according to the resolution. So with that, we will move on to the next item. That's item 11 on the agenda. Which is the election of shareholder elected members and deputies to the Corporate Assembly. All of the shareholder elected members of to the Corporate Assembly are up for election. The Corporate Assembly has a total of 50 members of which 10 members and three deputies are to be elected by the AGM. Five members and two deputies are to be elected by and from among the employees. The members are elected for a period of two years. See Article seven of the Articles of Association. The nomination committee's recommendation follows Annex three to the notice and it has been available on the website and is considered known to the shareholders. So I will not enter into the details all the backgrounds of the individual candidates. No questions have been received nor any comments to the proposal. So we propose that the AGM should adopt the following resolution. The following persons are elected as members for the Corporate Assembly of Telenor S. A, with effect from the 05/27/2021 for a period of up to two years until the ordinary AGM of twenty twenty three. And I shall read the names: Bernadik Ness, re election John Gordon Bernander, re election Heide Finsgas, re election. Wieder Salbervik, re election. Silvia Serres, re election. Disbet Karin Nare, re election. Tina Sattel Romer, re election. Marianne Bergmann Reuren, re election Molfrid Braat, new election Chetel Hog, new election. And the following persons are elected as deputies for the Corporate Assembly of Telenor S. A. With effect from 05/27/2021 for a period of up to two years until the ordinary AGM of twenty twenty three. First Deputy, Erinn Mirmeljohansen, re election second Deputy, Randy Mariama, also re election and the third Deputy Lars Tronskor, a new election. All of those who have not voted yet have the opportunity to do so now. We shall wait for about thirty seconds. Well, then we have the confirmation. The proposal has been adopted and we will now go on to the next item, Item 12 on the agenda, which is the election of members to the Nomination Committee. The Nomination Committee consists of four members who are elected for a term of up to two years and pursuant to Section nine of the Articles of Association, the Chair of the Corporate Assembly shall also be appointed Chair of the Nomination Committee. The other remaining members will be elected by the general meeting of whom at least one shall be elected among shareholder elected members. One member elected by the general meeting in 2019 is up for election this year. And the nomination committee's recommendation is attached as Appendix three to the notice and has been available on the website of the company and is regarded as known to the shareholders. So I will not go into the candidate's background. And I cannot see that we have any questions or comments in this case either. So therefore, it is proposed that the Annual General Meeting will adopt the following resolution to be elected as Telenor ASA Nomination Committee Member effective as of 05/27/2021 for a period of up to two years until the Annual General Meeting soon 2023. And this concerns Jan Torefosn who is reelected. Those who have not yet voted need to do so now and here too we will wait for about thirty seconds to register the results. So now we can establish that the proposed resolution is adopted and we can then move on to the next item which is item 13 on the agenda. It is the determination of remuneration to the Corporate Assembly and the Nomination Committee. The Nomination Committee's recommendation for remuneration for these two committees, that is the Corporate Assembly and the Nomination Committee, follows from the recommendation provided by the Nomination Committee. The proposal is for the following resolution to be adopted. The Nomination Committee recommends that the AGM should adopt the following resolution to apply from the 05/27/2021. Remuneration for the Chair of the Corporate Assembly NOK 109,300 per year, Vice Chair, 48,700 per year Ordinary member, 38,000 per year and for a Deputy member, 7,800 per meeting. Furthermore, we recommend the following fees for the Nomination Committee from twenty seven May twenty twenty, chair NOK 8,400 per meeting and for the members NOK 6,400 per meeting. As you can see from this table, this means that there is an adjustment of on average a bit more than 3% year on year compared to the 2020 rates. There are no questions or comments to this item and then we will go straight to the voting. Those who have still not voted have thirty minutes, sorry thirty seconds for voting. So we will wait. Well, then we consider the voting to have been closed. And I see on the basis of the voting that the proposal has been adopted Then we're approaching the end of this annual ordinary general meeting. There will be minutes to be prepared that will be signed by Bjorn Thurde Sommer together with yours truly in my capacity as Chair of the meeting. The minutes with the list of shareholders having been represented here today and the results of the votes will be made available on the website of Telenor. And then the only thing that remains on my part is to thank those of you who have participated. And I thus declare this Annual General Meeting as having been brought to an end and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you