Over to you, Edna.
Okay. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to DBS's third quarter financial results media briefing. To take us through the numbers this quarter, we have our CEO, Piyush Gupta, and our CFO, Chng Sok Hui, on the line. As per past quarters, both Piyush and Sok Hui will go through their presentation deck. After which, we'll be happy to take questions from the media. To follow along in the presentations, you can find the materials on the investor relations website. Without further ado, Sok Hui, please.
Thanks, Edna. Good morning, everyone. Slide two. For those of you who have got the slides in front of you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our results briefing. Third quarter net profit was up 4% on quarter as the economy rebounded from circuit breakers imposed in the quarter before. Total income declined 4% to SGD 3.58 billion. Net interest income was 6% lower as loans were stable and net interest margin tightened 9 basis points. The impact of lower interest rates was softened by a 17% rally in fee income as economic activity resumed. Trading income slowed from a record high in the previous quarter. Total allowances in the first nine months quadrupled to SGD 2.49 billion from the same period the previous year.
They included SGD 1.5 billion of general allowances to fortify the balance sheet against risk arising from the pandemic. The charges increased general provision reserves by 60% from the end of last year to SGD 4.02 billion. General allowance reserves were SGD 1.2 billion above the amount eligible for consideration as Tier 2 capital. This high level of general allowance reserves cushions capital levels against credit losses should the economic environment deteriorate further. The NPL ratio was 0.1 percentage point higher at 1.6%, and NPA rose 3% over the quarter. Allowance coverage was 107%. After taking collateral into account, allowance coverage was 200%. Liquidity remained ample as deposits grew 9% or SGD 38 billion from the start of the year in constant currency terms.
High quality current and savings accounts grew SGD 70 billion over the same period, allowing more expensive fixed deposits to flow out. This improved the CASA ratio by 10 percentage points to 69%. Third quarter liquidity coverage ratio and net stable funding ratio were comfortably above regulatory requirements at 130% and 123% respectively. The CET1 ratio was 13.9%, also well above regulatory requirements and above the group's target operating range of between 12.5% and 13.5%. The board declared a third quarter dividend of SGD 0.18 per share, in line with MAS guidance. Slide three. Third quarter net profit increased 4% from the previous quarter to SGD [audio distortion].30 billion as allowance buildup slowed and economic activity recovered. Profit before allowances declined 9% to SGD 2.04 billion.
Total income was 4% lower at SGD 3.58 billion. Net interest income fell 6% or SGD 132 million - SGD 2.17 billion as loans were stable and net interest margin continued to tighten. The lower net interest income was almost offset by a rebound in fee income as economic activity recovered. Fees rose 17% or SGD 117 million - SGD 798 million. Other income declined 18% or SGD 134 million to SGD 608 million as trading income fell from the record in the previous quarter. Expenses increased 4% or SGD 56 million to SGD 1.54 billion from COVID related support for staff and non-recurring occupancy costs. General allowances of SGD 236 million were set aside during the quarter, compared with SGD 560 million in the previous quarter.
Specific allowances were 10% or SGD 29 million higher at SGD 318 million. This was 31 basis points of loans in line with the first half. Slide four. Profit before tax for nine months increased 5% from a year ago to a new high of SGD 6.75 billion. The record performance enabled significant general allowances of SGD 1.5 billion to be set aside. These were taken to fortify the balance sheet against risks arising from the pandemic. Net interest income fell 3% or SGD 243 million - SGD 6.96 billion. Incremental income from loan growth of 5% was offset by a 23 basis point decline in net interest margin. Fee income was stable at SGD 2.31 billion. Higher Wealth Management, brokerage and loan-related fees were offset by lower card and Investment Banking fees.
Other non-interest income was 31% or SGD 489 million higher at SGD 2.06 billion. This was due to profits realized on investment securities which had appreciated with lower interest rates. Expenses fell 2% or SGD 80 million- SGD 4.58 billion, largely due to job support grants. An increase in base salary costs from higher headcount was offset by lower bonus accruals and lower general expenses, such as for traveling and marketing. General allowances of SGD 1.5 billion was significantly higher than in the same period last year as allowances were front-loaded conservatively. Specific allowances increased SGD 428 million- SGD 990 million, mainly due to the significant NPL in the first quarter. Total allowances of SGD 2.49 billion were built up in the first 2020.
This was against the guidance of SGD 3 billion-SGD 5 billion over two years. nine month net profit declined 24% from a year ago to SGD 3.71 billion. Return on equity for nine months 2020 was 9.7%. Slide five. Third quarter net interest income declined 6% from the previous quarter to SGD 2.17 billion. The decline was due to a 9 basis point fall in net interest margin to 1.53%. This occurred as the impact of interest rate cuts in the first half were felt more fully. nine months net interest income declined 3% from a year ago to SGD 6.96 billion. Net interest margin for the period fell 23 basis points to 1.67% from 1.90%.
This more than offsets the impact of a 5% rise in loans and a 12% growth in deposits from a year ago. A considerably more flush balance sheet also contributed to the decline in net interest margin as excess deposits were deployed into low risk liquid assets. Net interest margin is expected to stabilize between 1.45% and 1.50% in the coming year. Net loans on slide six now. Net loans were stable in the third quarter at SGD 371 billion. Non-trade corporate loans fell SGD 2 billion on quarter. Healthy underlying momentum was marked by repayments as the economic environment stabilized and customers repaid SGD 3 billion of short-term loans drawn earlier in the year. Singapore housing loans dipped as the circuit breaker in the second quarter interrupted transactions.
Third quarter new bookings have rebounded as the social distancing measures eased. Trade loans were stable. From end 2019, loans grew 3% or SGD 11 billion in constant currency terms. Non-trade corporate loans grew 9% or SGD 18 billion. They included short-term facilities drawn by corporates at the onset of the pandemic. The increase was partially offset by trade loans, which were SGD 4 billion lower. Singapore housing loans were slightly lower. Slide seven, deposits grew 1% from the previous quarter in constant currency terms to SGD 447 billion. Current and savings accounts continued to grow, rising 5% or SGD 16 billion to SGD 310 billion. The increase in low-cost funding allowed SGD 13 billion of more expensive fixed deposits to flow out. Since the end of 2019, deposits grew 9% or from flight to quality inflows at the onset of the pandemic.
CASA increased 29% or SGD 70 billion, and SGD 33 billion of more costly fixed deposits were allowed to run off. CASA comprised 69% of deposits at the end of third quarter, three percentage points more than the previous quarter and 10 percentage points more than at the end of 2019. The Liquidity Coverage Ratio of 135% and Net Stable Funding Ratio of 123% were both above regulatory requirements. Slide eight, Fee Income recovered in the third quarter as lockdowns imposed during the previous quarter were eased and economic activity resumed. Net fees rebounded 17% on quarter to SGD 798 million. This made it the third highest quarter on record and in line with pre-COVID levels. The chart shows gross fees, broken down by product. Stronger market sentiments helped Wealth Management to its second-highest quarterly performance.
Wealth Management fees rose 25% to SGD 380 million as investors looked to investment products and insurance policies to improve returns in a low interest rate environment. Cards grew 22% from the previous quarter, and SGD 60 million as lockdowns ease and consumer spending increased. However, they remain 21% lower than a year ago. Investment banking and loan-related fees were higher than the previous quarter. Nine months net interest income and net fee income was unchanged at SGD 2.31 billion. Wealth Management, brokerage and loan-related fees increased but were offset by lower cards and investment banking fees. Slide nine. Nine-month expenses fell 2% to SGD 4.58 billion, largely due to the Jobs Support Scheme. An increase in staff costs from higher headcount and leave accruals was offset by lower bonus accruals and lower general expenses.
With total income up 2% for the nine months, the positive draw of four percentage points improved the nine-month cost-income ratio from 42% a year ago to 40%. Third quarter expenses rose 4% from the previous quarter to SGD 1.54 billion due to COVID-related support for staff as lowering occupancy costs. Slide ten. Asset quality was in line with recent quarterly trends. Non-performing assets rose 3% from the previous quarter to SGD 6.52 billion, as new NPA formation was moderated by repayments and write-offs. In the third quarter, there were a handful of episodic corporate new NPAs from Singapore in the region and across various industries. We expect new NPA formation to trend up in the coming quarters as loan moratoriums taper off. The NPL rate of 1.6% was in line with previous quarters.
Slide 11. Specific allowances in the third quarter increased 10% to SGD 318 million. Specific provisions were 31 basis points of loans in line with the 30 basis points of loans. Specific provisions in the first nine months increased 76% to SGD 990 million or 30 basis points of loans. Slide 12. General allowance reserves rose 6% during the quarter to SGD 4.02 billion. This was 60% higher than the end of 2019. We continue to adopt a conservative stance on provisioning. General provision reserves exceed the MAS minimum requirement by 32%. General provision reserves are also SGD 1.2 billion higher than the amount eligible as Tier 2 capital. This high level of general allowance reserves cushions capital levels against credit losses should the business environment deteriorate.
Should the situation turn out to be more benign, we will be in a position to write back provisions. As at 30th September 2020, total allowance reserves stood at SGD 7 billion. Allowance coverage as a percentage of NPA was 107%. As a percentage of net NPA after taking collateral into account, coverage was 200%. Slide 13. Our capital position continues to be strong. The Common Equity Tier 1 ratio rose 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter to 13.9%. Profits continued to accrete, and the risk-weighted asset base remained stable. The CET1 ratio was above the group's target operating range and considerably above regulatory requirements. The leverage ratio of 6.9% was more than twice the regulatory minimum of 3%.
Slide 14. The board declared a dividend of SGD 0.18 per share for the third quarter. This aligns with MAS guidance on July 29 for local banks to moderate dividends for the 2020 financial year. The scrip dividend scheme will be applicable to the dividends, which will be issued at the average of the closing prices of 12th and 13th November 2020. Based on yesterday's closing share price, the annualized dividend yield is 3.3%. Slide 15. Third quarter performance reflected improving business momentum. Underlying loan growth was healthy, and a rebound in fee income softened the impact of lower rates. We remain vigilant around expenses and leveraged digitalization for efficiency. Our conservative move to front-load allowances this year has fortified the balance sheet. The long-term growth story for Asia, and the bank is well positioned with ample liquidity and healthy capital.
We look forward to doing our part to support our customers and the community, through this period. I'll now hand you over to Piyush Gupta for his observations.
All right. Thank you, Sok Hui . I've only two slides. Let me take you to the first of those. It says business outlook. I just wanted to underline what Sok Hui said. The underlying business momentum obviously improved in the quarter. China, as you can see, there's a very clear V-shaped rebound. Taiwan's looking up. Actually, Hong Kong is also improving. Around the region, we can see the impact of the opening up of economies. The rebound is actually quite general across the region. Underlying loan momentum continued to be good in terms of business as usual. The headline loan number was flat.
As Sok Hui explained, we had a lot of short-term drawdowns in the early part of the year as companies drew down lines of credit just to buffer and create a cushion, liquidity cushion. I think as people are getting more comfortable with the overall liquidity situation, many companies are in a position to pay down their short-term liquidity. We're seeing some of that. We saw some of that in the third quarter. We might see a little bit more in the fourth quarter. You know, after you factor all of that in, our overall loan growth for the year, non-trade loan growth will be some close to SGD 16 billion-SGD 17 billion, which is actually quite strong. The loan momentum's looking decent.
Again, as Sok Hui pointed out, the fee momentum was actually quite striking. Wealth Management fee picked up really well across the spectrum. People are investing in a whole diverse range of products, including insurance, even though it's still slower than last year because there's need for a lot of face-to-face consultation. Even insurance sales came back. I'm actually quite positive about the prospects for that business. Cards came back as well. They haven't recovered to the same levels of the year ago. They're still 20% down, but quarter-on-quarter, the gain was quite meaningful. Again, we're seeing that momentum is likely to continue heading upwards. Just a quick comment on deposits. So k Hui mentioned this too.
As you know, our CASA balances grew SGD 70 billion this year. Now, that's quite extraordinary. Within that, it's about half and half. Half of it is Sing dollar, the other half of it is U.S. dollars, and that just suggests that it is not just flight to quality and government largesse in Singapore is across the board. Our investments over the years in transaction banking, cash management, et cetera, continue to pay off. Off that SGD 70 billion, we had a SGD 15 billion growth in the third quarter. This is again something that is continuing to sustain quite well. The deposits obviously are a double-edged sword because we have so much excess liquidity. We put it to work in very low-risk assets. They're accretive to revenues, they're accretive to return on equity.
They are a drag on NIM, but overall they're good business to do. Looking forward, I think you're going to see a very strong rebound on nominal growth rates across Asia next year. If you look at the IMF forecast, they're forecasting about 5% growth, 5.1% for global world economic growth. They're forecasting close to 7% for Asia, 6.9%. If you look at the key countries that matter to us, China's projecting 8%+, India's projecting 8.5%, Indonesia projecting 6%. Even the mature markets, Singapore and Hong Kong, are looking at between 3%-4% growth rate. Now, this is true, this is off a low base because of the big correction this year.
Nevertheless, from a business momentum standpoint, I think this should be positive and provide us some wind in the sails for our business activities next year. We think a mid-single digit loan growth next year is actually fairly realistic. We should be able to achieve that. We also think double-digit growth in fee income next year is also quite realistic based on the overall momentum that we are seeing. Now, the challenge next year of course will be that NIM will continue to be a headwind, and that is even though market rates are unlikely to get much lower, we already saw SIBOR rates are about 20 basis points. I think HIBOR are about 40 basis points. I don't see them getting much lower.
On the other hand, the fact is that the repricing will continue to filter through our loan books, and that is going to create some incremental squeeze on NIM next year. Chng Sok Hui said, our guidance for next year will probably wind up somewhere between 145 and 150 basis points in terms of NIM for next year. One of the things we're doing on the back of that and making sure we're still efficient in managing our cost-income ratio for this year will probably come in at 43%, which will be flat to last year. We expect to hold our expenses for next year at the same level as they were in 2019.
That obviously requires us to continue to tighten the belt and continue to take structural changes in the nature of our business. That is something that we will continue to do. If you go to the next slide, this is the credit outlook. Now, you know, again, our call on credit and what's happening overall to the portfolio is still pretty consistent with what we guided two quarters ago. Fundamentally it is based on the premise that you will see situation get much worse next year than it is this year across the board, which is why we gave guidance for two years instead of guidance for one year when we said we'd probably take somewhere between SGD 3 billion and SGD 5 billion.
The reason for that, of course, is that the moratoriums this year and the slew of government actions are masking what is happening in the underlying economy. The truth is, at this point in time, we don't know any better, so which is why we're holding our guidance to what we have said some time ago. I think it's quite instructive that in those markets and those segments where the moratoriums are not in effect, we are seeing some episodic corporate stress. In this quarter, we saw, you know, a couple of consumer goods companies in China. We saw an oil bunkering company in Hong Kong. We saw a state-owned enterprise in Indonesia. We saw a company shipping related to an earlier credit we flagged in Singapore. There's no pattern. It's not industry specific. It's not country specific.
The fact is that with the amount of demand destruction that the world has seen this year, it is not unreasonable to expect that there will be some companies which will feel the stress. You see this episodically. My expectation is that as the government relief programs start winding down, you will see that NPA formation next year will increase. If you take a look at our own situation, we have about SGD 13.5 billion of SME loans in moratorium. Now it's only 5% of our book. It's smaller as a percentage than other banks. Nevertheless, it is SGD 13 billion of SME loans. At this point in time, it's very hard to call what is going to happen to these companies once the moratorium gets over.
You could make any case between 10% to 15% to 20% of default rates in this moratorium portfolio. It's very hard to guess if the company does go into default, what is the recovery rate going to be. A lot of this is still quite speculative, which is why at this point in time, we're maintaining our guidance. It's, you know, the SGD 3 billion-SGD 5 billion looks to be a fair number. It could be that we're being conservative. You know, it's interesting to observe that a lot of the global banks said in the third quarter also a little bit more sanguine about the credit environment, and that could be the case. If that is the case, we're just a bit more conservative.
As Sok Hui said, we will have the opportunity to write back. If that is not the case and you do see more stress in the next year, then the fact that we've front-loaded and taken a lot of the provisions early should allow us to be able to negotiate the next few quarters a little bit better. On the consumer side, our moratoriums were unchanged. They're about SGD 5.5 billion. It's mostly Singapore mortgage loans. I'm a lot more comfortable with that book. I doubt that you'll see a lot of pain in that particular book. We also still have about SGD 4 billion of the government support, you know, the Temporary Bridging Loan program.
Again, because they're heavily supported by government guarantees, the actual loss in that book is likely to be relatively manageable. Overall, let me put it this way, I don't think anybody can really forecast and foretell what's going to happen on the credit side over the next 18 months. Frankly, it's anybody's guess. We just try to take a conservative posture and stance and make sure we're well prepared for any eventualities that might arise. I will stop there, and we're happy to take questions.
Aaron, we can take questions now.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Participants with question to pose, please press zero one on your telephone keypad and you'll be placed in the queue. To cancel the queue, please press zero two. Once again, participants with question to pose, please press zero one on your telephone keypad now. Our first question, Chanyaporn Chanjaroen from Bloomberg, please go ahead.
Oh, hello.
Hello.
Good morning, everyone. Yes, sorry. This is Chanyaporn Chanjaroen from Bloomberg. Congratulations on a good set of results. I have three questions. First one, dividend policy. Do you see a resumption back to a full level next year? Second, how are you looking to grow your wealth management franchise business given that it has given you lots of diversification effect so far? Do you expect consolidation in the wealth industry, and how prepared are you for an acquisition? The third one on Ant' s debacle. What does it mean to the company's financial services aspirations, including its application for a digital bank license in Singapore? Thank you.
All right. On our dividend policy, as you know, till the end of the first quarter of next year, we are guided by the MAS in respect of what dividend we can pay out. I think beyond that, one, we will still have to have conversations with the central bank to see if they have any continuing point of view. If you look at central banks in other parts of the world, they continue to be somewhat conservative in terms of letting banks either dividend or do share buybacks. I think many of these conversations will come to a head over the next several months, and I'm certain that our regulator will also keep an eye on what is happening in other parts of the world.
That aside, I do think that if we don't have guidance, our expectations will start taking dividends back up to where we were. Now, we might not get up there in one fell swoop. Again, it depends on the overall assessment of the macroeconomic environment. We said before that we do believe that we have the capacity to pay more dividends than we are paying right now. We'll go back to our normal dividend policy of paying sustainable and steady dividends over time. Unless there is something untoward that happens between now and then, we should expect to see dividends start going back up from the second quarter. On Wealth Management, I guess there are two parts to what we're trying to do.
One, we alluded to before, is we are trying to democratize wealth management. In fact, we are seeing some success at it. What that means is essentially take our wealth management products and make them available to a lower segment of the market, even below mass affluent. We've started seeing quite meaningful success in that in the Singapore business, with you know, our digital portfolios, some robot-assisted portfolios, regular savings plans, budgeting tools into the mass market. Over 1 million people have downloaded our budgeting tool in the course of this year. That is helpful, and we're going to continue to drive that to make sure that we offer wealth management solutions in the mass market space. At the top end of the market, we'll continue to do reasonably well.
You know, AUMs are up at about $180 billion. As we compare around the region, we are at the top end of the market in terms of our growth in AUMs. I think we are being able to hold our own. We obviously benefited. The amount of wealth management in the region opportunity continues to increase, and it is increasing from around the region, North Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia. My own sense is that you will see this increase even more from other parts of the world as we go forward. I do think that the region and Singapore is likely to benefit from a safe haven status, you know, the uncertainty around the world continues to take hold.
We're already seeing a lot more interest from potential clients from the Western Hemisphere. I do think that will continue to give us some momentum as well. Your question on inorganic, we are always open to doing trades. Both the last two trades we did were helpful to us. I do think we have the capacity to take on what we previously called as bolt-on acquisitions. If the right deals were to come along, yes, we would certainly look at them in the Wealth Management space. Your last question with regard to Ant. Well, first of all, you know, we, as you know, are a joint book runner on the deal. Like many of the other people, you know, that's a fee event which disappeared suddenly and overnight.
Joking aside, my own sense is that the Ant will be back in the market over the next few months. I think they need to reconstruct their business models and you know, so the business model projections might change, but I do think they'll be back in the market. I personally don't think it will have many significant material bearings on their business agenda in the other parts of the world. I've said before that Ant's biggest agenda is domestic China, and will continue to be that. I think while they continue to focus on opportunities in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world, as you can see, it's not their principal focus, and I don't think it is going to change that either. I don't think it'll suddenly become their principal focus.
With respect to their aspirations for a license in Singapore, for example, I mean, that's not for me to comment. It's something between them and the regulator. I have to say that, you know, they have a credible platform, and so they will continue to be a credible competitor wherever they operate.
Thank you, Piyush. Operator, can you take the next question?
Any more questions from Bloomberg? Our next question, Alice So from Asian Private Banker. Please go ahead.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Great. Thanks. A follow-up question on the higher end, like the private banking side of the business. Just wanna know, like, can you break down in terms of how the trend is looking like in terms of maybe the transactions, the advisory and the DPM piece, like how each of them are going in this quarter? Another question would be, how's the business looking like on the Hong Kong side?
Well, I don't think this quarter's data is materially different from what we've been seeing so far. As you know, Asia continues to be mostly a transacting market, so a large part of our income still comes from commissions on trades and transactings done. Having said that, the underlying theme about DPM and advisory increasing continues to be the case. Our DPM assets under management are continuing to increase, and the advisory business is improving, but it's still altogether a much smaller part of the business. It's only about 10% of the business overall. The delta in every year is only a few percentage points, so I don't think it's going to change the underlying shape of that business materially over the next couple of years. Your second question was, Hong Kong.
Hong Kong. I think the Hong Kong business for us is doing really well, continues to do well. I was somewhat concerned originally with the, you know, unrest in Hong Kong, as well as the possibility that there might be a lot of flight of money from Hong Kong. We're not seeing that. Our AUMs in Hong Kong are continuing to do relatively well. The business is actually in fairly good condition.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. Our next question, Rebecca from S&P. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you so much for the presentation today. I just wanted to ask about the new bad loan formation in the third quarter. I understand that the first quarter was front-loaded, and you had one big client that sort of bumped up the number, and then it tapered down significantly in Q2. I was wondering what the jump in Q3 was. Thank you.
Well, I alluded to it in my earlier comments. It's actually a handful of clients, and they're quite diverse. As I said, there are a couple of consumer goods companies in China. There's a state-owned enterprise in Indonesia. There is a shipping arm for previously flagged credit in Singapore. It's a few different things. There's not any one big item. Some of these actually, we've taken SPs against. Others are really well secured, so we really don't expect to take too much provisions. We continue to be conservative, both in our recognition of the NPLs and providing for them.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Once again, participants with questions to pose or to follow up your question, please press zero one on the telephone keypad now. Our next question, Vivian from SPH. Please go ahead.
Hi, Piyush. I have two questions. DBS believes there will be a strong economic rebound next year. Also many of the U.S. banks seem to think they have turned the corner when it comes to COVID-19, the damage. Would you say the worst is over for DBS? My second question would relate to the U.S. elections. How are we expecting the results to impact DBS, if it will be? Thank you.
On the first question, I think I'll answer that in two parts. From an income headwind standpoint, the worst is not over because I think NIMs will continue to slide down a little bit more. As a consequence, the headwinds for net interest income next year will be even higher than they were this year. We're gonna have to, you know, rely on fee income and other income, et cetera to make up for that. However, on the cost of credit line, I do think that we will have taken a larger part of what we might have to provide for this year. That's what we're trying to do. We've given the range of three to five. Our hope is to try and cover the lower end of the range this year.
Next year, with a little bit of luck, we don't have to take a heck of a lot more on credit. If we can do that, then the improvement in the credit line should more than compensate for any challenges we might have in the operating profit line on account of the interest rate environment. On the U.S. results, frankly, I don't know what the results are or are going to be. If it is still Trump, then nothing changes. You have the exact situation you have right now with a Democratic House and a Republican Senate and administration. I don't really expect to see any change. If it is Biden, then I do think you'll see some change in style.
In respect of dealing with China, for example, I think, you know, the Biden and the Democrats will try and follow the more conventional ways of, you know, diplomatic engagement and try to build a coalition of other countries and so on. In substance, it might not mean that much change. If you ask me whether they drop tariffs right away, I don't think that will happen. And somewhat more determined, particularly in the context of human rights. I think the rhetoric will be milder, and I think the rhetoric will help. The anxiety and anxiousness that you see, and particularly in the markets in Asia, I think that will level off a little bit if it is a Biden win.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. There are currently no questions in queue. Once again, participants with question to pose, please press zero one on your telephone keypad now. Participants with question to pose or to follow up, please press zero one on your telephone keypad now. As there are no further questions in queue, I will now hand the session back to Edna. Over to you.
Okay. Thank you everyone. Since there are no questions, then I think we'll call this media briefing to an end. We will move to our analyst briefing in five minutes time. Thank you, everyone. We'll drop off now. Thanks, Aaron.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.