Tack så mycket och välkomna till EQT:s bolagsstämma! Jag är glad att så många kom idag. Jag vill framför allt hälsa klassen, skolklassen jättevälkommen. Det är kul att ha er här. Nästa år kanske med fler klasser, man får se. Tillsammans med Chris kommer jag att berätta lite om verksamheten i EQT under det gångna året och ge några tankar inför framtiden. Sen kommer Gustav Segelberg att berätta lite grann om Nexus och Margo kommer att berätta om hur vårt incitamentsprogram har strukturerats och utvecklats och fördelats i år, som vi lovade på förra årets bolagsstämma. Och tveka inte att ställa frågor till talarna idag. De är här och jag hoppas att ni har lite punchy lines som vi kan resonera kring. Men innan vi går vidare i programmet så skulle jag vilja dela några reflektioner med er.
I år fyller EQT trettiofem år, och under den relativt korta tid som vi har varit i gång, så har vi utvecklats till en global investerare, som äger företag med global räckvidd inom sektorer, med attraktiva förutsättningar för lönsamhet och tillväxt. Men som också skapar välstånd, inte bara för investerarna vars pengar vi investerar, utan även för de andra intressenter som de jobbar med. Det kan vara anställda, kan vara leverantörer, kan vara kunder. Under den tid som vi varit verksamma, så har det hänt mycket. Kina har utvecklats till en ekonomisk stormakt. De första stapplande åren, då fanns knappast internet. Vi har haft flera globala finanskriser, så att när det är lite stökigt omkring oss och folk är nervösa, då känner vi att vi har väl sett det här någon gång förut, kanske. Så vi vet lite grann hur vi ska spela det.
Vi har nya utmaningar. Vi har akuta klimatkriser som vi verkligen jobbar på det sätt som är möjligt för oss för att hjälpa till att bekämpa och hjälpas åt att balansera. Vi har gjort en börsnotering, och vi börjar bli rätt vana vid att ha börsnoterat bolag efter några stapplande år. Vi upplevde en pandemi då alla trodde att världen skulle come to an end. Jag kan tänka på det ibland när man satt här och man inte kunde resa. Allting var stängt. Man fick inte gå till ICA och handla. Så det har hänt väldigt mycket under de här åren som vi varit verksamma. Nu har vi andra saker att hantera. Vi har fasansfulla krig kring oss, Ukraina och Gaza. Sen har vi saker och ting som ändras samhället i positiv mening.
Digitaliseringen och AI, på det sättet på vilket vi ser hur den kan förändra samhället.
We like the most. EQT has always been in course of constant transformation to constant changes, not because of the things which have happened around us, but we believe that this is fine. It's a good business to develop, to challenge ourselves, so we don't consider changes or transformation as a problem. We consider this to be something positive. Our friends in the Wallenberg family wrote over in 1946 "to change from the old to the new is not a tradition worth nurturing," and this is how we live. We are always to be at the forefront. We try to be around the corner. It's difficult, but when we manage that, we normally achieve very good results. We believe in doing things differently. We believe in challenging ourselves, challenging our surroundings. Why? Because it means change.
Change for us is something very active and very attractive. This is how we think about most of our portfolio company. We want them to change. We want to develop them, not just to be the manager of these companies. We are not asset managers. We don't buy shares. We buy companies. We are owners, we are entrepreneurs. We build companies for the future. This is our mantra. This is our assignment. In a world of constant changes, where things move quicker and quicker, you need a strong culture and strong common value grounds in order to face and to manage the challenges we are seeing. This is the core of EQT, our culture, our set of values. It's central in terms of everything we do. It's central in terms of our decision making. It's central in terms of how we act.
It's central in how we recruit people, how we train people. We develop, we assess our employees annually about how they follow a set of values, how well they fit with our culture, and we develop individual development plans when we believe there are things which can be corrected or improved. But this is a dynamic process. Everything else can be changed, developed, but not our DNA, our set of values, our culture. This is something that is constant. It's part of our culture to take responsibility, being the owner of companies who are part of this society. Society facing large challenges and large opportunities. It's part of our responsibility to take responsibility. Today, we have almost three hundred portfolio companies all over the globe. About seven hundred thousand people are employed in this company. Two hundred fifty billion SEK in...
Assets under management. This results in enormous responsibility, because we are the ones who have the final responsibility for what all those companies do all over the planet. This is a responsibility which we're prepared to assume, and I think we're doing that as well. Sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes there have been bad business. We've made bad decisions, but we have to take the consequences to correct, to amend, but it doesn't make us scared. We try to learn from this. With Christian as CEO, I feel secure that he, together with the management group, will continue to take this responsibility and continues to develop ourselves and the portfolio companies, as we've done historically. I would like to use this opportunity to thank Christian for his extraordinary work during the year which has passed.
A couple of words about the composition of the board. Some of the transformation of EQT applies also to our board. As you've seen, Johan will leave the board today. You'll hear more about this later, and we will also propose to elect Richa Goswami as a new member of the board. Just a couple of words about why Richa is so important and so relevant for us, and so relevant for the challenges we are facing in the future. Richa has had executive positions in branding and marketing for financial services and fast-moving consumer goods in Fidelity International, HSBC, and Johnson & Johnson. She's been working more or less all over the globe, the United States, Europe, Asia. Richa was born in India, studied in Singapore, and lives in Singapore today.
Her energy and her multifaceted background will be a perfect complement to the board and will create better balance in board and like diversity. We have a challenge, the entire financial sector, including EQT. We have a challenge with gender balance, but I think we've been doing this pretty well on the board, and this is something with which the entire organization has to follow. So it's very important to address gender balance for Richa to enter the board, but she's there because of her enormous skills in terms of sales and marketing. We'll be coming back to you and Richa later during the program. Having said that, I pass the floor to Charlotte Levin, who is here today, and she will take us through the day.
Thank you, Conni. Now I start with the formal.
I declare the AGM opened, and before we start, I'd like to present some of the representatives we have here today. Next to me is Conni, and then Christian Sinding, who is EQT CEO. We have a number of members of the board present. It's Margo Cook, Brooks Entwistle, Johan Forssell, Gordon Orr, Diony Lebot, and Marcus Wallenberg. We have also a representative from the management group of EQT. And another colleague from EQT, it's the Group General Counsel of the group, who I ask to keep the minutes. In addition, I'd like to say that there'll be presentations, both Swedish and English, and if you want to listen to translation, there is simultaneous interpretation offered, and you should have received your headphones when you entered the building.
Second item on the agenda is the election of chairperson of the meeting, and the nomination committee has proposed that I am elected as chairman of the meeting. Any further proposals? Can you resolve in accordance with the proposal by the nomination committee? Carried. Thank you for entrusting me with this role. Let me give you some housekeeping issues before we move with the agenda. Phones, all of us have phones. Please make sure that they are in silent mode or in flight mode, so they don't disturb during the AGM. It's also quite common that all audio-video recording of the meeting is prohibited if anyone other than the officials who are documenting the meeting on behalf of the company. This is to make sure that everyone who is here can ask questions or make other statements.
For your information, only this stage will be filmed and not the audience. Can the meeting record resolve in accordance with this? Yes. Thank you. Carried. Just like Conni said, if you want to address the floor, want to ask questions, please do so. Raise your hand, then an officer will come forward to you with a microphone so that everyone here in the room can hear what you'll be saying. I'm also grateful if you, the speakers, can introduce yourselves by saying their name. Digital voting, you received QR codes and possibility to vote digitally. As usually, we will conduct digital voting for the items which require qualified majority, which are 13B, 19, 20, and 21. So voting for these items already open and will close as we proceed with the items on the agenda.
I can inform you that digital voting could be used for other items on the agenda if it's requested by a shareholder. During the AGM, you can ask this to be done, then it will be done. Otherwise, we will continue making decisions here by so-called acclamation, just like I did with it. Now, ask a question, and you answer yes. If there is an emergency, then you will handle them. What are you supposed to do? You shouldn't stay here. You have to get out of this room. The emergency exit, safety first, one there, one there. Please go there and leave the room. Let's get started.
Item three, preparation, approval of the voting list. Advanced voters and present shareholders, and those that have... I will give you some data. The number of represented shares. I will think, it takes a little bit time, the figures, one billion seven hundred... one billion twenty-three million, twenty-seven million four hundred and sixty-four, two hundred and forty-one votes. 95.1% of these shares. One thousand and seventy-seven shareholders represented at this meeting. Is this voting list approved? Yes, thank you. Point four, item four, approval of agenda. The agenda has been included in the notice. Does the meeting approve the proposal to the agenda of today's meeting? I find that is so.
The next person is the next one to person who will approve the minutes. The proposal is that Anders Oscarsson from AMF, who is prepared to approve the minutes. Is that correct? Yes, thank you. Can the meeting resolve to appoint Anders Oscarsson to approve the minutes? Carried. So now we have appointed Anders Oscarsson, who together will approve the minutes of the AGM. Next item is to ensure whether the meeting has been duly convened. I can inform you that the notice has been... This meeting has been done in accordance with the applicable law and the articles of association. Does the meeting find that it's been duly convened? Yes. It's the most interesting point.
Item seven, presentation of the CEO. I now hand over to CEO, Christian Sinding.
Thank you, Charlotte. Hello, everybody. As you remember from last year, I speak Norwegian. I will do my best to speak my best in Swedish, Norwegian. I will start... I always start in all my presentation, both internally and externally, I start with where we came from, where we were established in 1994. We said EQT would be more than finances. We were the best owner of companies that could be thought of. This is exactly the same thing today. We have some modern ways of saying this, that we'll future-proof the companies and make a positive impact for all, both the companies that we own and also from the sustainable perspective, to include all the other elements in society.
We're the first company in Sweden, of public companies, that in our purpose, have included in the... It took some time to get through, so we're committed into our purpose. Our mission is really simply to more return to our customers. We've made this... We've kept to the core that we talked about. We're working active ownership everywhere. We even go into the real estate sector very actively. We not just built on in engineer, financial engineering, we work by developing, transforming companies. This is from the Wallenberg network. We've just built on that. Today, we're one of the biggest in the world in our field, we're number three or four, with a limit of where we're top three in infrastructure, top ten in the real estate, private equity, real estate.
If we look at the context in Sweden, we are the stock exchange, fourth biggest company, twelve hundred institutional owners from all over the world. We're active in twenty-four countries, and we cover 80% of the world's GDP. So we have a great range, a lot of responsibility, but hopefully also a lot of positive impact. When we talk about what's the absolutely most important for EQT, it's about people. We do that in several ways. We work with active ownership in the boards, in the networks, in the management teams, and the companies. We're local. We're in the field. In Sweden, we do with the Swedish team, with global understanding of what that company needs. We work at thematic investments. We find trends in society that are important, and then invest with our local competence.
We have a big network of specialists, CEOs, all around the world that help us, and we think that we have a good governance model, good and clear governance. Not all in our field do have that. We work through the board, and the board works through the management to strengthen the company, and they become stronger and stronger and stronger. Well, of course, our culture is behind all this, and our value-based culture. I want to show a video now that we prepared for an internal purpose. My assistant called different people all around the world and asked: Why do you work at EQT? What do you think about? Why do you work? We prepared a video so that we can show it to you.
What I like about EQT is its ability to be a very flexible, innovative, and millennial organization within a very old school industry.
I like EQT, because I'm given the opportunity to work on matters that are mind-stretching and yet exciting and impactful, and more importantly, the firm's values are aligned with my personal values as well.
I was attracted to EQT because the super fast growth and developing strategies means there's a huge amount of opportunity for young people starting their career, like me.
I had a bunch of colleagues who were able to bring an informal, respectful attitude to what I had originally thought was a formal work environment.
What attracted me to EQT was the brains, the humor, and the reputation for being the industry's nice guys.
What impresses me most about EQT are the people and the culture, working together as a team to drive superior returns.
The reason I joined EQT is that I really liked EQT's focus on its culture and values, which is really differentiated to other private equity firms. I love the team, the global team, the local team, what we have been able to build and accomplish here over these last years.
What excites me constantly about EQT is how we continue to challenge the status quo in everything we do.
People, people, people. That's what I like at EQT. That's what attracted me here and keeps me here.
People, people, people, that's what it's about. Now, if you think about people, what we do when we transform companies, we invest in long-term trends in society. Here we see four: energy conversion, digitalization of society, health and well-being, and logistics. We mean that private equity is very important in this role in this energy transition. We have a lot of investments to support that and electrical car networks, electrical storage, transport sector, which has transformed the whole Nordic ferry transport lines from fossil energy to sustainable energy, et cetera. Very exciting. We also go into digitalization of society. We're a big owner of fiber to get broadband to everybody in society, computer centers and equipment are surrounding this.
We are one of the world's biggest investors in health, and healthcare is very positive because hopefully we create better conditions for people to have a better life. Especially in the real estate sector, we invest in logistics. It's more and more important because in the geopolitical world, with the digitalization society, logistics chains come closer and closer. We need new systems, new networks, and we're building these new networks. We think that is fun. We do this, and we try to measure that we really do it in a good way. We transform companies. We always measure how is this company turnover, the profitability. We prove that we really can improve the companies, develop the companies. This is central. We see that the turnover over several years, between 12% and 17% per year, whereas the profitability has increased even faster. That is...
We want to be the best owners of companies, and to prove that is to differentiate the results in returns, but also this is part of the proof that we really create something in transforming companies. By creating these better companies, we mean it's a very robust strategy that's simple to understand, it's timeless. We create that good return. We see the return figures, what we measure in our field, net IRR to our companies, annual return to the customers in these fields. We're proud of this. This drives us every day. Performance, performance. This is what we deliver to our customers. The customers, these are private individuals, pensioners all over the world, governmental investment funds. It's important that we contribute with our return.
With our return, we contribute to create better pensions for all that have been invested, and this is really interesting and exciting. We want to hear in a little while from Gustav about new products that we are launching, since our field both has good regulation, which creates more transparency, but open regulation, which makes it simpler for everybody. The market over the last few years have been, last year have been better than previously. Purchases, sales of companies, but it's still a bit slow. We have good activities on the purchasing side. We work in the whole field, in the whole business, deliver capital back to the customers, and the cycle, we believe, continues to be better and better, but it also means that the customers have less capital than they usually have in our field.
Fundraising has been difficult. We've gone through this, we've delivered, we've delivered EQT €24 billion, the world's largest fund in this field. This was over our target, which was €20 billion, which is good. At the same time, we invested about €17 billion. We've sold for a little bit less than that, and we want to sell more in the next cycle. What we want to-- If we want to look one target, KPI is important, is the one to the right. All our key funds perform on or above the plan. This is one of the few areas where we talk about the future-- that we can talk about the future. It's very important that we still believe, we're sure that we will continue to deliver to our customers, is super important. Let's think a bit wider.
We also have integrated BPEA, our Asian activities company. It's EQT Asia, it's called now. It's been performing very, very well. We see the potential in Asia. It's even bigger than we thought it would be. Asia represents more than half of the population of the world. The middle class grows two billion people in the middle class in the next eight, nine years in Asia. Through BPEA, we became local. We have become local because we continue to grow there. We're also very active in India. About one quarter of our investments are in India. It's been like that in 25 years, about. It's also positive to see that after that, we became one company. We launched a new fund, Midmarket Growth, it's called, in Asia, and that fund is today...
With €1.6 billion to that fund, €750 million was our goal, so we almost doubled the size of that fund according to our plan. That shows the momentum that we're building in Asia. In the autumn, we'll come into BPEA nine, which builds upon the other eight funds, and we're also very positive about that. In addition, we have started investing in infrastructure in Asia and the real estate area. Conni has challenged us to become number one in Asia, and that's our target. When we think about EQT, we have an expression which is called... If you translate a bit, everything can be improved all the time. Something like that. That's something that Conni has thought up once a day. We can always become better. If something can be very good, it can be super good.
If it can be super good, it can be ultra good. If it can be bad, it can become better. It doesn't mean anything. The important thing is that we move ahead. EQT 30: forward thinking from the start, is the logo. We try to be ahead, test new areas, and to see if there is artificial intelligence. In Norwegian, it's called strange intelligence, but it doesn't work in Swedish. Now, artificial intelligence. Well, it can be strange intelligence, but that's something else. We at least, we already had 2015, we started with artificial intelligence. We have a brain team that you heard about, 40 people, and we're driving this in our companies. Everything is about AI, and there's a lot to do there.
Regarding sustainable field, we'll return to that in a moment, and regarding other dimensions, since we have to deliver solutions to the customers, co-investments or agreements with the customers where many different funds and longer funds, ownership of companies a longer time. So we're developing it organically and also by purchasing. Regarding sustainability, we have a report from our sustainability committee, led by Gordon, who is in the board, Gordon Orr, who is in management. We're also proud, we're really rebuilding sustainability into our strategy of EQT and into the companies that EQT is investing in. Here we see some of the companies. Here's some proof that we're really growing in the right direction. I want to highlight something. BCG has done a bench marketing. We're leading in almost all areas compared to our competitors.
There are some that are better than us in other areas, so we have to be inspired by them. 44% of our companies is our own company, validated science-based targets. The only company in our field that is approved by Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. We have a good progression. We're part of UN Global Compact. We secure our business in a different dimension, in a responsible mode. Looking ahead, of course, it's super important. Maybe it should have been written performance, performance, performance. If it was internally, we would have said it three times. That's so important for us. Investment strategies to continue to expand and develop. We have some new ones that we're... Healthcare growth, growth companies in health, energy transition, which is an energy transformation fund, and increasing our investments in North America.
Asia, we talked about, it's super exciting, both for infrastructure and for real estate in Asia. Regarding customers side, we have new solutions, including to private individuals, and we work very much. Very positive has been that we, on the stock exchange, we've become much better about our platform, not just about reporting, compliance, IT, scalability, creating new products. Really a robust operating platform, which is about half of our employees work with. We've done much more with that and become much, much better. We've come far ahead in this area as well. That feels really good. With that, I would like to finish. First, introduce any questions now? As you wish. Let's introduce Gustav.
Okay, let me introduce my colleague, Gustav Segelberg, who heads our business development department. He's part of our executive department. He's been in EQT for several years, and he will tell us about the products for private individuals called EQT Nexus. Gustav, please welcome on stage.
I will speak a bit about our offer to private individuals and small institutions. Just a starting point why we believe this to be interesting. It's based on quite simple macro analysis. You can see on the slide here, if you look at the global assets or global wealth, the share is more or less equal between the institutional investors and individual investors. But the institutions invest approximately seven times more into private markets, private equity, compared to individual investors. This has been the case for quite a while, and now we're seeing developments where things are changing, and this is driven basically by the fact that there have not been any products which were suitable to private individuals. How come we believe that individual investors want to invest into our world? Well, basically, you could say that there are three big reasons why.
Naturally, the product which we are producing, which we are working with, is about creating returns and looking at the returns on the private market compared to the public market, then there has been clearly a higher returns on that market. Secondly, lower volatility and correlation to the public market. This last factor is that if you look at what it looked like about twenty-five years ago in the States, there were four times as many public companies compared to private companies. If you look at the same snapshot today, it's twice as many PE companies or private companies, compared to publicly owned companies. So it's gone like that. We believe that a lot of this contributes to a higher flow of individual customers to us, who want to invest in the private equity market to create a more diversified portfolio.
As I said earlier, one of the difficulties earlier has been the case of the products which you could invest into were not particularly suitable, and what has happened recently is that more and more products have been developed, what we call evergreen funds. Funds which live forever, and which are more suitable for private, for individual investors, sorry. And why is that? Because the amounts are low. For example, in EQT Nexus, which is our first evergreen product, you can invest an amount of €25,000. Normally, the minimum amount to invest in our funds is €1 to 5 million. Another advantage is the broader diversification which you get. For example, in EQT Nexus, over time, you'll get several hundred different companies which you will be exposed to, compared to a regular fund, where you normally have maybe fifteen, twenty companies.
Three, when we talk about the evergreen funds, we say that they are fully paid in. That is, that they operate in almost the same manner as a regular fund, that you pay the full amount on day one. Therefore, you don't have to do anything while you are invested in the fund, and this simplifies life to an individual investor. And then finally, there's certain liquidity in the fund. It's not full liquidity, but normally, you can make an exit every quarter with certain limitations. So, in general, we believe that the creation of these evergreen funds and EQT Nexus, our first fund, will contribute to creating better opportunities for individual investors to invest in the private equity market. Obviously, there are several things we have to do to scale this up.
One of the issues is to create a bigger sales organization linked to this product, to strengthen our brand in an area where we have not been particularly exposed to individual investors earlier. Our customers used to be our institutions. A lot of this is about training and education of the final customer and the distributors who will be distributing our programs, to make sure how EQT is unique. Some of the things which were mentioned by Christian just a while ago. Finally, the regulatory climate to invest into these types of products requires a lot of solution and country level in order for all of this to work. Having said that, we are very excited in terms of what will come next and how this will be developed.
Looking at EQT Nexus, this our first product, it's been, it was launched about ten months ago, and we have launched a number of initiatives to scale it globally. For example, we are developing in these, in the areas where we already operate. We started, we launched this in the Nordics. Today, we have approximately five distributors who distribute this in the Nordics, and we add another distributor more or less every month. Secondly, we are in the process of launching this in other countries. In the next six months, we plan to launch in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Hong Kong, and Singapore, to mention some. This will create better opportunities in terms of having a global, diversified customer area. And then finally, we are doing a lot of product innovation.
For example, in Sweden, we cooperate together with certain partners in order to launch this product within the occupational pension area. This is an area which we believe has a lot of potential. Additionally, we are in the process of developing new products within this evergreen field. We have just launched EQ RT in the U.S., which focuses on real estate investments, where we believe that we'll acquire new customers quite soon. Additionally, we're developing three more products, which we plan to launch within the upcoming twelve to eighteen months. They are sector-based, but they are also directed at customers on specific geographical areas. Thank you. Back to you, Christian.
Thank you, Gustav. Very exciting area. In that case, I'd like to open the floor to questions from the audience. It could be online, or you could ask questions physically here.
We have runners with microphones, so raise your hand, I'll get one in the middle, please.
Emilie Westholm . I represent Folksam and KPA Pension, and we focus on the areas that we think are especially important. We have chosen corruption or anti-corruption. Corruption decreases the... So for the society, if a company can work against corruption, to increase the possibilities to successful activities for a better world. Many reasons for corruption, sometimes it's said that the risk for corruption increase, the greater the bigger an affair, business is, and the profits, so EQT gives quite high fees to its owners, and the coworkers are driven by earning a lot of money. How do you feel about the risk that coworkers, employees could lead to management, could make wrong decisions? Could you describe your anti-corruption activities in your...
Thank you for the question. It's an important question for society. I agree with everything you say.
I mentioned before that we and all our companies sign UN Global Compact, and you are aware of that. Anti-corruption is - we have training programs for anti-corruption. 100% of all, everyone that works at EQT have to go through that. So we measure digitally online. It's very important. At EQT, there's no connection between a big business and the decision. Our teams have remuneration that goes over a long time. It's on team basis, not individual basis. So from that perspective, there's no connection between our compensation system that create that type of problems. We also handle our value chain. We control that as much as possible, how we work with that, and also, we have a vision at EQT to be the best well-reputed player in this field, in our field.
The most well-reputed investor and owner, that's a high level, so we take it very, very seriously. I don't think we have any problems in that connection. Thank you.
Any further questions, please? All the questions are welcome. Here's there's one here. Larsen.
Lars-Ove Larsson is my name.
Is it on?
Yes.
I was involved from the start when you became public listed.
Good.
I'm very grateful for that. I think I was a bit too stingy back at the time. If I believe that the company has been progressing well. However, I am slightly critical to the following. I'm sorry, I hate this system with annual reports where you have sheets of paper.
Are you talking about the digital annual reports?
No, I get a printed version, and what do I get?
You get a copy, right?
It was the same thing last year. I believe with the figures which you mentioned, the huge numbers, the company of this size should be able to afford to print a traditional annual report. Now, without the words English and English and Swedish, but you have money for that, and it's quite simple. You just print a new copy. But one thing which you have not done properly is that you don't have the page numbers, although you refer to the page numbers in table of contents. But I understand that you are quite a young company in terms of your staff, so maybe members of your staff don't think about that. But we, older people, we need a bit - we ask for a bit more from an annual report. Another thing, Conni said, one of your biggest fans is the Wallenberg family.
During their big show at Shinarp recently, where Jacob Wallenberg was present, they talked about the environment applicable to this. Isn't it correct, Mr. Wallenberg? Oh, he's not answering.
No, it's Marcus.
Okay, sorry. You look quite similar to each other, Mr. Wallenberg. Since I have been working in printing during my entire life, doing this the way you do... This is quite bad for the environment. I'm not voting for the Green Party, but still, printing annual reports conventionally is much better for the environment. So all the things you have said in your presentation, everything can be improved. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
Okay, thank you. Just let me give you, explain as to why we try to be as sustainable as possible, and this is why we deliver this digitally on a tablet. But I understand your point, and we'll keep this in mind until next year's AGM. Next question?
Welcome along.
Thank you. Would you come? My name is Maria De Geer. I represent Aktiespararna at this general meeting. It's very exciting to hear both Conni's inspiring presentation and your Christian. Very nice to hear about, interesting to hear about Nexus, that you hope a lot will grow very strongly. I have a question about Nexus. If I've read properly in the annual report, private equity is about 8% of your capital requirement today, 8, 9%. How great, large share of the private equity should be of the total? When will you, well, will you be satisfied, as you said, to be diverse, have a diversified portfolio? It's a very, very important question and interesting. We don't really know how big it can grow.
We have five different Nexus products that we are creating, and we do believe, if we look at similar companies, eight, nine percent that we have today, that could be closer to 20%, but we're talking about ten years. But if we see further ahead, there's a lot of capital in the world that has to be, should be invested, so it will continue to increase and grow as long as we create more return. The following question, maybe it requires a little bit more clearer reporting and that we're used to, because now you're talking about general public. That's right. To our institutional customers, clients, we sixty days we report, which is in the public market, EQT AB, day ten after a monthly, a monthly basis. We have to finish the reporting within thirty days.
In three years, we've decreased from 60 days to 30 days, and we wish... 2008 or something, we talked about transparency. We were the first company, one of the first companies in the world, in our field, to have an annual report at all. So we were positive about the transparency, and it will grow. You mentioned the problems in capital acquisition. It's difficult today. What is the biggest barrier when you see a turn? If you look globally, there are two barriers. This, the share market decreased and the interest increased. Now, the interest rates have stabilized. The other barrier was that normally, we deliver in our field two times from what we invested on the five-year basis. After this very difficult cycle, the pandemic and the interest, now we invest more as a business than we deliver back to the clients.
This has to be changed so that the fundraising market improves. It consolidates our market, our business. We have global specialists. We have specialists, those that are in the middle, stuck in the middle. It's very difficult for them with the fundraising. When does it change? If we knew, we're working with it, we're working. In the annual report, you mentioned something interesting, patents in automation. What kind of patents? To be honest, I can't explain that patent. I would have to need a professor that works with us. We've patented a part of the process internally that is about reporting. If you imagine, we're creating a more efficient platform. It's part of the platform. We've automated a process through artificial intelligence, and we patented that first in the world. That was great. It's a game changer.
It's not life-changing, but we have our ambition, we're ahead. AQT, as you showed before in your presentation, the stock exchange fourth biggest company. But you have quite 17.7%, a bit less than 18%. The other big companies on the stock exchange are quite a bit bigger. Comment?
We're working systematically from we're being noted, and all there are more and more shares that are sold all the time, turned over all the time, and many of us are not selling our shares. We need more liquid assets. Dow Jones Sustainability and OMX, we're working a lot with communication. Fifteen analysts creates more. The more companies in our field that are being on the stock exchange, the more interest in our field. There are many elements. We're working with this. The trend is very positive, and we hope for that in the future.
Now, I'll give you a difficult question. Thank you.
We need that.
Okay.
Could you please tell us about the three main challenges for AQT and for industry in a slightly longer perspective? Thank you.
What I'm thinking of as the CEO, more than eighteen hundred people, twenty-four countries, it's about keeping our uniqueness. What makes us, AQT, special, our values, our culture. The spirit of entrepreneurship is really important, and it gets more and more difficult the bigger you get, the more bureaucracy, the more red tape there is. Bureaucracies often counteract against moving quickly, creating new opportunities. This is what we work with, and today, we'll be celebrating this quarter, we'll be celebrating our thirty years anniversary, and that's what it's about. As we're getting big, we should maintain the unique culture and the differentiation. This is what I mostly think of as the CEO. Looking at our industries in general, I think this is something which we discussed just a few minutes, just a minute ago.
We will continue to deliver returns, which is great, but we have to get better at becoming a part of this society. I think we're quite good at that already, relatively speaking, but a lot of our competitors are not transparent enough, are not communicating enough, and this creates uncertainties among the other stakeholders in this society. So these are the two. I hopefully will make you happy, or I just have to. Thank you.
Okay, any more questions? Anyone from-
My name is Yon. I'm a student at Viktor Rydberg's high school. My question is, you've mentioned investments and expansion in Asia, Europe, North America. Do you have any investments? Do you plan to expand in Africa, South America? Why? Why not, if you don't have any?
Gradually, slowly but gradually, we're expanding to new markets, and we are in some of the emerging markets, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, I've mentioned already. We haven't developed, started our own strategy in terms of going into even newer markets, and this is because we're already growing a lot in the markets where we're already active. But in the future, our ambition is to become global and to work in the markets which you've mentioned. One of the reasons, several reasons, it's our resources, but also the capital were so big.
The capital markets in these countries have to develop more for us to become an efficient player there. Thank you.
More questions? Anybody online? No. Thank you, Christian.
Let's proceed with the agenda. You might remember that we're on item eight, and this is the presentation of the annual report, as well as the consolidated financial statement and the auditor's report for 2023. The documents have been made available on the company's website, as required by law. They're also available here today. In other words, the documents have been presented, and there was... We will record this in the minutes. Having said that, I will now pass the floor to AQT's auditor in charge, Mr. Håkan Reising, who works with KPMG, who will present the auditor's report, which is so important. Håkan, please go ahead.
Thank you, Charlotte.
Great to see so many people, hear so many young people, because normally at the AGMs which I attend, it's maybe people with slightly gray hair in the audience. But this is good, and this is not bad also, to have white and gray hair, but it's fantastic, and Christian and may they... I don't have any films, but I can say that to be in order audit is fantastic. It's not even to you, young people, even you older people who want to change your careers, all of you are needed. Different experiences are required. And maybe EQT is quite a good example of this. I think I've been working... I'm working with EQT on a daily basis, at least during my working hours.
But the different issues, it could be everything from small details to big general issues, which I discuss with the management team, which is fantastic. In our task, I don't do it myself. There are several teams in KPMG. We audit EQT AB, we audit the funds which are in Luxembourg, in England, Holland, Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.S., where those funds are located. So we talk to our auditing teams there. We also audit a large number of the portfolio companies which EQT owns through its fund, not 100%, but quite a significant part. Even there, the questions come through the system, to me and to my team here, and this is very enjoyable. We look at the corporate governance, that they follow laws and regulations in the different countries where they are operational.
We make certain that their internal controlling systems and processes provide correct financial information. We obviously audit the annual reports, even the ones in paper format, but also the one which is found digitally online. We meet with the boards. We have met with the boards several times during the year, and we have had four auditing meetings with the auditors committee for that. We also met board without the presence of the management, discussing the governance of the company. To summarize, I can say that what we focus upon in the annual report when it comes to financial reporting, this is something called carried interest. The management fees, revenues, and on the cost side, we're focused mainly on personal costs. Then we have the balance sheet.
We have carried interest there, but currently also, after all the acquisitions you've made, we also look at goodwill. This is another item which we assess quite meticulously. Then we also get reports from the auditors of the subsidiaries all over the planet. All together, this takes us to the following conclusion, is that we approve that the AGM approves of the annual reports and the concerning with the balance sheet, and that the profit is allocated per the auditor, and also the year discharge of liability of the board members and also the management of the companies. We have also looked at elimination to the top excesses, that they follow the guidelines from the AGM for last year, and that is the case. So we publish so-called clean audit, and thank you for your attention.
Any questions for Håkan?
Yes, one from Maridia. We'll just get a microphone to you.
I have a question about an especially important area, carried interest. In the writings, there's a double negation in the same sentence, which makes it difficult to understand. But if we talk about redistribution of carried interest, we're talking about substantial redistribution. Carried interest is we follow the IFRS regulation. We estimate how much carried interest we get from the investments we do, and if the result is less than we thought it would be in last quarter, then there's a redistribution of carried interest. And what is substantial? There are different... if we find something in time, we change it. We change it immediately. But if there are other things that balance, it could be $1 million. Thank you.
Any other questions on the basis of Håkan's presentation? Thank you, Håkan. Let's proceed with item nine, which is optional income statement and balance sheet. First is consolidated income statement, balance sheet. And just we've heard, the audit recommends to adopt... Does any shareholder wish for digital voting on this item? Otherwise, let's move on to a resolution. Can the AGM resolve to adopt the income statement balance sheet as well today income statement balance sheet? Yes, carried. This takes us to number ten, and this is about the allocation of IKT's profit in accordance with the adopted balance sheet.
The board's proposal, which is found on page fifty-five of the digital annual report, is that a dividend of 360 SEK per share is proposed to be paid in two installments of 180 each, and the record dates proposed are the twenty-ninth of May and the second of December, 2024, respectively. If you decide in accordance with the proposal, the dividend is expected to be paid out on the third of June and the fifth of December. We've just heard this proposal has been recommended by the company's auditor. Can we resolve in accordance with this proposal? Okay, carried. This takes us to the next one, which is?
Resolution regarding discharge of liability for the board members and the CEO. As we've heard, the company's auditor recommends that the annual general meeting discharges the members of the board of directors and the CEO from liability for the financial year 2023. Can the meeting resolve to discharge the board members and the CEO from liability for the financial year 2023? I find that the meeting has resolved to discharge the board members and the CEO of liability for the financial year 2023. It will be noted in the minutes that the shareholding board members and the CEO did not participate in the resolution. Now, on item twelve. Now we come to the item in the agenda, where the nomination committee has a proposal. Anders Oscarsson will present the nomination.
My name is Anders Oscarsson .
I've been in the IKT nomination committee, not only me. Together with me, Jacob Wallenberg, also have been the chairman of the committee, Harry Klagsbrun , Cynthia Lee, Conni Jonsson. What does this group do? We have some assignments that we try to... We have a meeting chairman. We're happy that Charlotte, so that was our first. Number of board members. Nomination the names and propose a chairman. A reasonable fee, so that the shareholders and the board is happy that there's a good auditor and a fee to the auditor. And also, the nomination committee's instructions, what should that do? That is what we're supposed to do, and how have we managed this?
We have three meetings, we have a number of phone meetings, and we've had some. One of the conditions is that Johan, after nine years, thanks, and ends his position in the board. So how to build the best board so that IKT and Christian really has a good success in the future? Conni has informed us that the board works very well, high rate of attendance, so we really would have liked to continue with this board. But since Johan leaves us, we've searched in the world to find a successor. It wasn't quite that easy. We have to search far out in the world, but we were going to propose seven board members. One is the Chairman, and we propose a re-election.
Rise and shine, I think it was. So, Conni, you can sit there, you can shine. Marcus Wallenberg.
Marcus Wallenberg, Brooks Entwistle, Margo Cook, Dion Lebret , Gordon Orr. Those are the ones that are proposed for re-election. And then we have Richa Goswami, which is a new election. Please join.
But since we're going to elect you, I think it's good that we all have an opportunity to see you. Oh, come. Do you need a microphone?
I've got one.
Oh, you have a phone. You're well equipped. Please.
Thank you. I just want to say it is such an incredible honor to be here today. I just want to say thank you to the nomination committee, to Conni, and for everyone, for the confidence and the trust placed in me. It's a big... It's generally a huge honor, and it's something I don't take lightly. I just want to take a few minutes and just tell you a little bit about myself. I know Conni did a great job giving a bit of an introduction, but I've been working for around twenty-five years, and the twenty-five years has seen me work across the Americas, Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. My last role was the Chief, the Global Chief Marketing and Brand Officer at Fidelity International across twenty-seven markets.
Prior to that, I worked at HSBC as the Global Chief Marketing and Customer Officer, and at Johnson & Johnson as the Global Chief Digital Officer. Why this matters is when I think about EQT, it's very rare to meet a company that has a stated purpose in its articles of association. When I think of what Simon Sinek said, he says that, "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." I think this is a great stance to take, and I think that EQT is genuinely a company that walks the talk every day on that. So with my experience in building brands which have been very iconic, I worked across all kinds of customers, so from retail customers all the way to institutional investors.
I'm really excited to be able to bring that knowledge to continue to work with the incredible EQT team and truly make a positive difference to the world that we live in. So thank you.
Thank you.
for the opportunity.
I hope that these are the proposal by nomination, re-election of six members of the board and a new member, and this takes me to the next point, and this is the remuneration. We decide to propose to you an increase by less than 3%. The chair gets €304,500, member of the board, €133,500, and then we have three committees: auditing, sustainability, and remuneration committee, where the chair of the committee gets €40,000 and the member gets €20,000. Last, but absolutely not least, it's good to have a good auditor, so we propose reelection of KPMG, and that KPMG will get paid in accordance with approved invoice.
However, this is not the proposal by the nomination committee, but KPMG have promised that Hakan will continue as audit in charge if KPMG is elected. Moving on to the principles, the instructions of the nomination committee. These are the proposals, and we are ready to resolve any questions on this, based on the work of the nomination committee or the proposal of the nomination committee. This takes us to twelve. Let's start with the position number of board members and auditors. As we have heard now, the number of board members should be unchanged. That is seven, with no deputies. Furthermore, the nomination committee proposed that the number of auditors shall be one, without deputies. Moving on to a resolution.
Can the AGM resolve in accordance with the nomination committee's proposal? Yes. Carried. Now, this takes us to thirteen B, and this resolution fees to the board members and transfer, and to the auditors, sorry. So on thirteen B, we will use the digital voting system, as I mentioned in the beginning of the AGM. The voting is really open, so you can do your votes, but we'll deal with them one by one to make it easier.
They are... The first point, item is thirteen A, is the fee to the board members. Simple majority. You see the proposal. If there are questions, we will resolve. Can the meeting resolve according to the nomination committee? Yes. Thirteen B, to transfer shares to the board members. So according to law, we need qualified majority, at least nine-tenths of given and represented shares here at the meeting. That's why we use the digital voting. I would like to ask you to... I will open the voting. You use your QR code or the iPad that you've been given when you entered. I would like to ask everybody to vote. You can vote yes, no, or abstain. The voting is open. Now, we'll just in a moment close the voting. The voting is now closed, and we're waiting for the result. Any question?
I'll wait with my question till you're finished. We have the result. As we see, this resolution, more than nine-tenths of the given represented votes at the meeting. Thirteen B has been approved. Thirteen C. I will hand over to Marie, you had a question. According to my understanding, the board member fees will be paid in shares. I think it's wonderful. Well done. Give them an applause. That is really excellent. Thank you, Marie. This will take to the minutes. Thirteen C, the fees to the auditors. Does the meeting resolve according to the nomination committee? Yes. Item fourteen.
Now it's the election of board members. We propose the election of the four board members until the next annual general meeting: Conni Jonsson, Margo Cook, Brooks Entwistle , Daniel Lipow, Costa Roux, and Marcus Wallenberg. The nomination committee also proposed that Richa Goswami is elected as a new member of the board until the end of the next AGM. This election is conditional upon obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals. If not, the board will consist of the six board members, which we just mentioned, which we propose to reelect. The nomination committee also proposes reelection of Conni Jonsson as the chairman of the board. Before the election of the board and directors in a publicly listed company, I, in accordance with the Swedish Companies Act, have to describe the proposed members.
Same as in other companies, this information is included in the annual reports, but also the materials which were published with the notice. Obviously, with the AGM, I will not be reading this out, but I will find that I have fulfilled my duties. Is that okay? Yeah. Thank you. Are there any questions with respect to the proposal to board, the board, chairman of the board? Okay, let's proceed to resolution. Can you resolve in line with the proposal of the nomination committee? Yes. Carried. Congratulations, all of you. This takes us to number fifteen.
Election of auditors and deputy auditors. The nomination proposes reelection of KPMG as auditor. If the meeting resolves in accordance with the proposal, KPMG has announced that Håkan Rysing will be the auditor in charge. Are there any other questions? Does the meeting resolve according to the nomination? Yes. Sixteen, resolution on principles for appointment of the nomination committee. The nomination committee proposes that the annual general meeting resolves on amended principles for the appointment of the nomination committee in accordance with the proposal included in its entirety in the notice. There are just clarifications that should come from you clearly unless something else. Any questions regarding the proposal? If no, can we proceed to voting, to resolve resolution? Can the meeting resolve according to the proposal? Yes.
Moving into number seventeen, position of the board's remuneration report for overall. As we've heard from the auditors earlier, the company's in Swedish complied with the previously established guidelines. Before present to resolution, I would like to welcome Margo Cook. She's a member of the board, and she's the chair in Remuneration Committee for EQT. She's going to present the incentive program in English.
Thanks. Thank you, and good afternoon. I'm not going to attempt to speak in Swedish or Norwegian, because I can't. And thank you for reelecting the board. So I chair the Remuneration Committee and the board. Just a reminder, the board sets the EQT performance criteria, and then our committee sets the compensation framework, and the executive committee approves the compensation. So today I'm going to cover a few areas. First is the strategic importance for EQT to have the right compensation and the right incentive tools, which enable EQT to create a long-term alignment with shareholders, and especially for the future leaders of the firm. We're also going to review the outcome of the equity-based compensation for fiscal year 2023.
We're going to talk about the metrics for 2024, and we're going to talk specifically about a new sustainability target. So there are three areas that are very important to EQT and help us to align the compensation and incentive programs that are strategically important. First is, we're looking to align long-term interests, and we're looking to specifically create alignment with shareholders and clients over this long term. It's especially important for the future leaders of EQT who are not today significant owners of the firm. So it's really important to, quote, unquote, "have skin in the game" and to be considered future owners of the firm. Second, we are a global firm, so in order to attract and retain this global talent, it's really important that we have a material way for our employees to feel connected to the firm.
It's really important in our toolbox to be able to attract the best talent, and so these tools are important in terms of total compensation. The third is that we are looking to reward strong performance and incent and reward that strong performance. Importantly, as you've heard today, Christian talked about teamwork. This really allows us to have a culture of collaboration. There we go. So we're really looking to do this over the short and long term. You can see there are a number of tools in the toolbox. On the short term, over the one-year time horizon, we have salary and bonus, which is normal for a firm like ours. But over the long term, we have introduced share and option programs.
Over the shorter term or, sorry, over the evaluation period, it's a one-year evaluation period, but over the longer term, it's a three-year holding period. It gives us the ability to allow employees to build up meaningful ownership over time. In addition, we allow employees to invest into EQT funds, and that really aligns our ability to think about clients and their time horizon, which is usually around six to ten years. It gives us a number of tools, both the short and long term. The combination of all of these tools then give us a number of ways to align talent, to retain talent. It gives us short-term performance goals and long-term alignment with shareholders and clients. There we go. In 2023, the...
All of the performance goals were met. The performance assessment for the share program is based on a combination of firm and individual performance in relation to EQT's long-term financial goals, and so you can see these goals relate to revenue growth, EBITDA margin, and sustainability. We'll talk a little bit more about sustainability in a minute. In 2023, all of the goals were achieved, and in particular, the growth goal is to outgrow the industry, which we've done. The second around profitability is to achieve a margin of more than 55%, which is a very healthy margin, and we've done that. And on the sustainability basis, based on which we'll look at in a second, EQT's sustainability goals, we achieved all of those goals. The performance assessment for the option side is a little bit different.
These are for what we call our future leaders, and that program is a tool to create both shareholder alignment for the future leaders of the firm and align us with shareholders. But those grants are actually individual grants, and they're subject to a defined framework and processes that are governed by the board, but they follow EQT's annual performance and compensation process. So different than the equity, which is more for mid-tier employees, the option program is for the future leaders or more senior people in the organization. All of that said, we're very aware of dilution, and you can see here that dilution is very minor, and it's very highly watched. And then lastly, looking at sustainability.
It's really important, as you heard, both Conni and Christian talk about, it's really important that we are thinking about sustainability targets. For 2024, we will have the same financial targets that we talked about in 2023, but we're going to apply a new sustainability target. In 2023, the sustainability component of the incentive program was assessed on these seven criteria. In 2024, though, we are introducing a sustainability target that is quantitative, and it's based on science-based targets. The target for 2024 is for 45% of invested equity to have validated science-based targets. Remember, the portfolio is continuously changing, and we're going to be continuously evaluating that number, but for the first time, we will have a quantitative metric to really assess this important target for EQT.
Just to put that into summary, we have a number of ways to align employees with the long-term objectives and goals of both clients and the shareholders, and we think these tools really allow us to do that on behalf of both of those very important stakeholders, client and shareholders. Thank you.
Thank you. Any questions based on the presentation of the remuneration system? Now, if this is not the case, let's continue. We're on seventeen. This is the board's remuneration report for approval. Okay, we are ready to resolve. Can you approve the board's remuneration report 2023? Yes, carried. Now, this takes us to number eighteen, position guidelines for remuneration to executive management, and the proposal is found in the notice, and an adjustment has been made to make sure that appropriate conversations are made in the event of relocation or work in different countries. Any questions regarding this proposal? There's a question. Please go ahead, Marie. Before we move on to decisions resolution, let me just—I want to make sure that AQT and we, what we decide here at AGM, the fee to the members of the board.
In the annual report, you state clearly that you also pay consultancy fees to the members of the board. Our shareholder association is against that. We believe that the AGM should decide on the fees. If you're a member of the board, this is where the decision is made. You shouldn't get both. It doesn't become unclear, it's not transparent. Thank you. Let me... Could you please enter this into the minutes, that we vote against consultancy fees being paid out to the members of the board? Thank you, Christian. Let me just provide a couple of comments. From the management's perspective, it's quite important for us to get access to the correct skill set.
We do it through board meetings, through committee meetings, but there are some areas where we need help, where the people who have the required knowledge, and if they want to spend this extra time for AQT, then they should get compensated for that. From my point of view, or from other points of view of the management and other people in the company, this is important, as an important element to compensate the people for the time they use apart from the work on the board. I agree with you when it comes to work on the board, but I don't agree with you when it comes to the competence we'll need with respect to other issues. Thank you, Christian. This is eighteen, so these are guidelines for remuneration to executive management. Are we prepared to resolve?
Can we resolve the comments with the proposal by the board? Carries.
The reservation we've put to the minutes. Item nineteen, resolution on authorization for the board to issue shares, convertible bonds, and warrants. The proposal in full has been presented in the notice. Any questions regarding the proposal? This requires qualified majority, two-thirds of given votes and those present at the meeting. As we stated before, we will use the digital voting system. The digital voting has been open. We're coming to a resolution, proceeding to resolution. Please give your votes unless you've already done so. We're closing the voting. We're waiting for a result. We have a technical issue. Please, some assistance. Now Axis Bar has been able to give the votes as well. May we close the voting? Anybody? Now the voting is closed. We're waiting for a result.
The meeting has resolved according to the board's decision, in accordance with the proposal. Item twenty, resolution authorizing the board to decide on the repurchase and transfer of own shares. The full text of the proposal had been presented in the notice. Any questions regarding the proposal? If not, we will proceed to a resolution. Also here, we need two-thirds of both votes cast and the share represented at the meeting. Digital voting is used on this item as well. The voting is open. Please give your votes unless you've already done so. Yes, no, or abstain. Voting is now closed. I find that the meeting has resolved in accordance with the proposal, with necessary majority.
Twenty-one is resolution to reduce the capital through cancellation of ordinary shares, and on increase of share capital through a bonus issue. The proposal in its entirety is found in the notes. Unless there are any questions, let's move to decision. Over here, the resolution must be supported by at least two-thirds of the votes and the shares represented. The voting is open for item twenty-one. Yes, no, or abstain. The voting has been concluded. The AGM has voted in accordance with the board's proposal, and this takes us to item twenty-two. This is the last item, but before I bang the gavel for the last time, I pass the floor to you, Conni, again.
Thank you, Charlotte. Well-led AGM.
I would like to start by thanking Johan, who has been a member of the board for nine years, and he's the one, apart from the chair, who's been the longest on the board. But he's contributed a lot with his long-term value creating focus. This was very appreciated by the other members of the board. I want to thank him for his contribution during our first steps as a publicly listed company. Very valuable. Thank you, Johan. And now I would like to give you some flowers. Johan, if you could come on stage with the... And I think a big hand to him for what he's done. Well, I am looking forward to a very exciting year, despite all the challenges.
For us, it's about navigating in a world which is less and less sure to the benefit of our employees, clients, and shareholders. It's also about being responsible ownership with a lot of respect for all the stakeholders. We're part of this society. We're not an isolated financial bubble, and we strive to positively impact everything we do in the long term. This is our fourth... We're entering our fourth decade. We believe there'll be more changes, but we're excited, excited of the challenges and the demands it puts on us. I normally say good business is good business, not just because it's good business, because it provides us with good return, but it gives us the possibility to influence the society in a positive direction.
Our ambition is to deliver the, to impact the society we work in positively, and also to deliver good returns to our shareholders and customers, and to dissipate it through the society. So it's not just doing business to make the money, but there is also good purpose, good intentions. First and foremost, I'd like to thank the shareholders. You understand us, you appreciate us by remaining the shareholders. I'd like to thank our customers, because without customers you don't have a business. The companies will start thinking more about their shareholders than of their customers, this is not maybe a good strategy. So our customers are more important to us, as compared to the shareholders, our industrial consultants, our executives, Chris, the management group. Thank you to the board.
The support we are getting from the board and the work is very, I appreciate it a lot, sorry, as the chairman of the board. So having said that, about... Shall we finish together? Hereby, the AGM is concluded.