Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our Annual General Meeting in Zürich Oerlikon. I'm pleased to see that you have found the way to the event, to Halle 550. Our Annual General Meeting once again takes place at this industrial monument, where BBC, a predecessor of ABB, has been manufacturing locomotives, generators for power plants, and similarly robust products until the 1980s. A bit later in our meeting, we will inform you about the products building the basis for the success of today's ABB. May I also extend a welcome to those of you who are following our meeting via the internet. Likewise, I am pleased to welcome my colleagues from the Board of Directors. In particular, I would like to welcome Jacob Wallenberg. As you will have seen from the invitation, Jacob has decided not to stand for re-election. So, unfortunately, this will be Jacob's last AGM.
Jacob has been a member of ABB's Board of Directors for 25 years. Since 2015 also, its Vice Chairman, and during the last years an appreciated member of the Governance and Nomination Committee. My thanks go to Jacob for his outstanding contributions over all these years for the benefit of ABB. The success of today's ABB is also Jacob Wallenberg's credit. My thanks also go to Gunnar Brock. Unfortunately, he cannot be here because his son is getting married down under. That's a good reason for not showing up. But he likewise has decided to step down from ABB's Board of Directors. Gunnar has been a member of the Finance, Audit, and Compliance Committee during the last six years. In this committee, but also in the full board, we were able to benefit from his rich experience. Thank you, Gunnar, for your contributions.
We wish Jacob and Gunnar well for their future. Stay healthy and active. At the same time, I'm pleased to welcome the two candidates proposed for election to replace them, Johan Forssell and Mats Rahmström. Welcome, gentlemen. Furthermore, I would like to welcome Sebastian Tamm as representative of Investor, ABB's biggest shareholder. We also have a school class with us today, namely pupils from the fourth class of the Grammar School of Wettingen, with focus subject economy and law together with their teacher, Damian Ruppen. A warm welcome also to you. I'm pleased that you are interested in the most important form of Swiss corporate law, i.e., the corporation. In addition to learning the theoretical basis at school, you have here with us the opportunity to be part of an important event in the life of a company.
I'm particularly pleased to see a school class from Wettingen because this is where I went to school as well, and I have very fond memories of my time there. So, a warm welcome to you. I finally welcome the members of our Executive Committee. I address already now my thanks to the entire Executive Committee for their commitment and congratulate them on the success they have achieved for ABB in 2023. 2023 has become a record year. Allow me to say a few words about safety. In the event of an alarm, please follow the instructions of the personnel identified with either yellow or orange vests. The emergency exits are indicated and located on the right side of the hall and in the entrance area behind you. Shareholders, guests, ladies and gentlemen, I shall open our Annual General Meeting with some formal statements.
In accordance with Article 14 of our Articles of Incorporation, I, as Chairman of the Board of Directors, shall take the chair at the AGM. Sitting with me on the podium are Björn Rosengren. To my left, our Chief Executive Officer. Then we have Timo Ihamuotila, our Chief Financial Officer, next to him. And to the right, we have Natalia Shehadeh, ABB's General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Directors ad interim. I would like to welcome the three very cordially on stage. Natalia will actually minute today's meeting. And further, I would like to welcome the law firm Zehnder Bolliger & Partner, as the Independent Proxy represented at this meeting by Dr. Hans Zehnder. May I ask all shareholders wishing to speak during the meeting to now come forward? Please report to the registration desk at the front to your right.
Please give your surname, your first name, and your place of residence, and have yourself entered into the list of speakers on a particular agenda item. Now I would like to ask you to confine your comments only to the agenda item we're discussing, and please keep your speech short. Shareholders, we shall conduct all ballots and elections at today's Annual General Meeting in electronic fashion. This is in accordance with Article 17 of our Articles of Incorporation. The voting procedures will be supervised by Olivia Foisy, member of the group legal department of ABB, whom I hereby appoint as vote counter. KPMG, our auditors, are represented by Achim Wolper and Mohammad Nafeie. The two gentlemen are seated to the front right.
The invitation to the Annual General Meeting was published on the 23rd of February, 2024, in the Official Swiss Gazette of Commerce and on our website, complying with a statutory notice period of 20 days. Shareholders entered in the share register were additionally notified of the Annual General Meeting on the 23rd of February, 2024, as well. I declare that no shareholders' requests, in accordance with Article 13 of our Articles of Incorporation, are on the table for items to be included on the agenda, nor have any deviating motions been submitted relating to the items on our agenda. The complete ABB annual reporting suite has been available on our website since the 23rd of February, 2024, which also includes our Integrated Report 2023 with the Management Report.
Financial statements, consolidated financial statements, the proposal by the Board of Directors with regard to the appropriation of available earnings, and related reports of the auditors. Attendance recording will be carried out electronically by means of a QR code on the admission card. If you choose to leave the hall during the meeting, we would like to ask you to take your admission card and your voting keypad with you. The attendance announcement and information about the voting modalities will be made at a later point in time. I now declare that this Annual General Meeting has been convened and constituted in accordance with the statutory and legal requirements as to form. In other respects, I would like to point out that for the purposes of keeping the minutes, all statements and the meeting are recorded.
In addition, today's meeting is being webcast live on the internet in both German and English via ABB's website. After the meeting, the recording as well as the minutes will be available on our corporate website. This brings me to the reporting for the 2023 financial year. I shall first make a few remarks from the perspective of the Board of Directors. After my comments, our CEO, Björn Rosengren, will take over to report on the business developments of ABB Group. Dear shareholders, our world is in a state of flux, for better or for worse. Stability, planning certainty, and predictability, these are all terms that, regrettably, seem to be on the verge of disappearing from our vocabulary, not only in the realm of politics but also across the broader economic landscape. It is hardly surprising, then, that some say that we now are in a state of perma-crisis.
The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has entered its third year. The situation in the Middle East is deeply concerning. Vital shipping routes have been disrupted, and geopolitical tensions show no sign of easing. In short, the macroeconomic and political environment is volatile. It was in the last year, and it is in this year, and it is profoundly uncertain. In times like these, it is essential for businesses to ensure that they are well-positioned strategically. Rather than allowing uncertainty to undermine our ambitions, companies must become resilient to crises as well as more agile and sustainable. This is only possible by making a clear distinction between the two categories of challenges. First, there are risks to which businesses have no alternative but to simply respond, and their response must be as swift and flexible as possible.
The pandemic is a perfect example of this. Second, there are challenges that, while being problematic, can also be viewed as tremendous opportunities. Instead of merely responding, you have the possibility to actively shape the future. The current economic landscape falls into the first category. As the saying goes, we're dealing with numerous known unknowns, a multitude of circumstances with unpredictable outcomes. Is global inflation really under control? Will China's economy continue to weaken? Will Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, continue to underperform? Will economic nationalism lead to new barriers and harm global trade? Here in Switzerland as well, there are unresolved political issues too, such as our relations with major economic blocs. And then we have the second category of challenges. These are problems that can be transformed into opportunities with the right positioning and a strategic focus on the right markets.
ABB has been preparing for both types of challenges for the past four years with the ABB Way. The ABB Way has given us the necessary flexibility and resilience, and with our strong focus on attractive markets. The results of our efforts are evident today. ABB can look back proudly on the achievement it has made over the past fiscal year. We have significantly increased our revenues and achieved an excellent operating EBITDA margin of just under 17%. Our company as a whole is now more productive, efficient, and agile than ever before. We have well-filled order books, our supply chains are running smoothly again, and our businesses are on a clear course for growth. In light of this robust performance, we have established new, ambitious financial and sustainability targets for ABB, as we outlined during our Capital Markets Day last November.
Naturally, we also want you to participate in our successful performance, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. This is why we are proposing raising the dividend by CHF 0.03 per share this year to CHF 0.87 per share. Ladies and gentlemen, the reasons for our success are obvious. Four years ago, we began ABB's transformation, and today I'm proud to say that we have successfully transformed the company. ABB now has two strategic focus areas in which we are a technology leader: electrification and automation. All of our businesses are fully committed to our company purpose. Here at ABB, we are enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future, and we are promoting social progress through our technology leadership.
These two focus areas mean that we are perfectly aligned with today's megatrends, one of which is the energy transition, which has the aim of addressing climate change through sustainability, electrification, energy efficiency, and energy security. And the second, which is automation and digitalization, where our goal is to provide industrial companies with the flexibility they need to meet consumer demand for customized products, to counteract the shortage of skilled workers, and to harness the full potential of the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence. Of course, our strong focus has also led us to divest some parts of our business in recent years. We always made these decisions with a very clear strategic perspective. The decisive factor for us has always been to ensure that our businesses are aligned with our purpose, even in other words, with why we are in business.
That sums up the strategic context behind our company's performance and power. You will hear more about it from Björn. However, ladies and gentlemen, I can give you another 105,000 reasons for our success. I am referring, of course, to all of the people around the globe who work for ABB and have helped bring about our company's transformation. Indeed, everyone who made it possible in the first place. I'd like to use this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to you all. A very special thank you, of course, goes out to our CEO, Björn Rosengren, and his management team. Over the past four years, Björn has propelled ABB's transformation forward with tremendous energy. Dear Björn, over the last few years, you have achieved a tremendous development of ABB through your focused leadership.
And for me personally, it was a pleasure to work together with you to position ABB in the way it is positioned today. I think the world has not made it easy for you. I mean, you started in 2020, and we have thrown at you the Corona, then two wars, inflation, and high interest rates. So whatever you can think of, your political issues, you had it on your table. Despite all of that, Björn, I think on behalf also of my colleagues in the Board, you have achieved a lot with your team because I know you are a leader who always tries to share success with the 105,000 people and the leadership team. But I think you have still two quarters to go, so there's no way you can slow down, and I know you will not do that.
Distinguished shareholders, Björn did a fantastic job for ABB. Please give him a round of applause. Thank you very much. I'm also proud that we've found a competent successor from our own ranks in Morten Wierod, as he's actually here as well in one of the first rows. As you know, Björn will be handing over the management of the company to Morten in the course of the year. Morten is very familiar with ABB and has a deep understanding of our decentralized business model, which he will continue to strengthen. This will allow us to guarantee continuity and ensure that ABB can continue on its successful trajectory. All the best, and I look forward to working with you, Morten. I spoke earlier about the need for us to be resilient in the face of crises.
This also means maintaining short supply chains and direct proximity to our customers. The ABB Way also plays a vital role here, for example, with our Local-for-local strategy. ABB may be a global corporation, but we still need to reduce our dependencies on certain geographies. This is why in the U.S.A., we now produce around 75% of products there. In China, it's approximately 85%, and in Europe, about 95%. The result is more flexibility and resilience. And it's no different with what is likely to be the greatest challenge facing humanity today: climate change. Let me make one thing abundantly clear. The energy transition, the expansion of renewable energy sources, and decarbonization of our economy are not negotiable. We must tackle climate change. We owe it to ourselves and to future generations. But the climate crisis also opens up a plethora of opportunities for ABB.
After all, we have the innovative technologies, products, and solutions that make it possible to stem the tide of climate change. Robotics and automation also play a crucial role here, as they enable enterprises to utilize precious resources more economically. This starts with raw materials and continues all the way to recycling. ABB's digitalization and automation solutions also help our customers work and manufacture their products more effectively and efficiently to support the critical transition to the circular economy and ultimately improve their competitive edge. As ABB, we obviously want to do our part in helping decarbonize our society, which is why we have set ourselves new, even more ambitious targets. Valued shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, many of you have likely experimented with artificial intelligence over the past year. Some of you will already be using AI productively.
I hope that you, like myself, have experienced some genuine aha moments with AI. The capabilities of AI are already truly astonishing today. Some studies predict that generative AI technologies could improve global annual productivity by as much as $2.6 trillion-$4.4 trillion. This is the equivalent of the gross domestic product of the United Kingdom. Naturally, AI solutions that are directly accessible to the general public tend to attract the most attention. Yet frequently overlooked and moving along quietly in the background is an AI development that is at least equal in scope, and that is the one in the industry, here at ABB and among our customers. We are witnessing AI innovations here that will change the infrastructure, the production processes, and entire operating systems of the global economy. What this means, of course, is that AI already plays a central role in our ABB innovations.
We currently have more than 100 AI projects at ABB. The significance of AI extends beyond merely enhancing word processes or executing tasks with greater speed, precision, and autonomy through machine vision. Generative AI is democratizing access to automation and robotics, not just for technologists or software engineers, but for everyone. As long as people think clearly and logically, they can instruct the system on their desired outcomes, thereby unlocking the full potential of AI for every manager and worker alike. Clearly, all of this necessitates the establishment of clear standards to ensure that both we and our customers can leverage the power of AI safely and responsibly. I want to state unequivocally that our society must enact regulations governing the use of AI.
So, to summarize, ABB now finds itself in a technological sweet spot in areas with high growth potential, which is why we are continuing to invest in order to expand our technological leadership. Take the Canton of Aargau, for instance, with our ultra-modern multipurpose building in Untersiggenthal, with the investments in our robotics hub in Västerås in Sweden and in Auburn Hills in the United States. And of course, we are also making sure to tap into promising new markets, with India being the prime example here. Ladies and gentlemen, the future of ABB will be shaped by the collective efforts of many people, from our employees, whether in the office, in the field, or in the factory, to the Board of Directors. We're more than an organization that is fit for the future. We are a company that is actively shaping the future.
There is no longer such a normal thing as the new normal in today's world. Social, economic, and political change, and perhaps even crises, are the new normal. This challenging landscape is notwithstanding. Thanks to our leading positions in electrification and automation, combined with the ABB Way, we are poised not only to meet these challenges but also to transform many of them into significant opportunities for our company. This is why I am so grateful to each and every one of you for your invaluable vote of confidence in the Board of Directors, our management, and all our dedicated employees. Together, we will ensure that 2024 is another year of remarkable success. Thank you very much indeed. After these statements from the board's perspective, I'd like to pass it on to our CEO, Björn Rosengren. The floor is yours, Björn.
Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome also from my side. Despite continued political instabilities and challenges in the world, with multiple wars and increased fragmentation, I'm pleased to see that ABB is delivering record results, mainly benefiting from large projects connected to the energy transition. As a technology leader in electrification and automation, ABB is perfectly positioned to support the global trends of the energy transition and digitalization. By working with our customers to electrify, optimize, and decarbonize their operations, we are enabling a net zero future, for example, in general industry, transportation, smart buildings, and power distribution infrastructure. We are also supporting new technologies like green hydrogen and energy storage. In addition, with our robots and discrete automation, we are addressing another global trend: the aging population and labor shortage. But let me come back to the past year. 2023 was a fantastic year for ABB.
More or less, all of our divisions delivered record performance. Let me walk you through some of the highlights. We continue to see strong demand for electrification and process automation in the market. Orders were up 3%, and revenues rose 14%, both on comparable basis. We achieved a record high operational EBITDA margin of 16.9%, mainly driven by gross margin improvements of 180 basis points to 34.8%. This shows the appreciated value that we are delivering to our customers. In addition to solid financial performance, we made significant progress on the path to achieving our sustainability goals. On safety, which is our number one priority, we reached industry-leading levels. We reduced our greenhouse emissions in our own operation by 32%, and we are helping our customers to avoid 74 megatons of emission.
This actually equals the yearly emission of 25 million combustion engine cars or 18 coal power plants. In 2023, we also announced a new, more ambitious net zero target for 2030 and 2050, covering both our own operation and our value chain. Another achievement in our sustainability efforts that I would like to mention is the increase of women in senior management positions. It reached 21% from 17.8% a year ago. Let's take a look at the performance of our business areas. Our largest business area, electrification, representing about half of ABB, is led by Morten Wierod. Electrification continued to see strong demand in all markets, driven by the electrification of the world. The business grew by 10% and reached a record operational EBITDA margin of 20.1%, a great performance by the teams in all five divisions.
We're happy to see that the acquisition of GEIS in North America, made already in 2018, is now fully integrated and delivers financial performance in line with the rest of the business area. The strongest growth is coming from medium voltage application, for instance, in data centers, in the build-out of renewable infrastructure, but also from the LNG investment as a transitional fuel. Our motion business area, headed by Tarak Mehta, also had a record year in terms of financial performance. The business grew by 15% and increased its operational EBITDA margin to 18.9%. Again, this is a record high level. Motion is all about transforming electricity into movement. Our offering consists of electric motors, drives, converters for trains, but also for off-road vehicles. Also, this business area is driven by the growing number of medium voltage applications in the market.
Electric motors are replacing fossil fuel-driven turbines, but also combustion engines, and thereby helping our customers to decarbonize their operations. Process automation, headed by Peter Terwiesch, who is not here with us because he is visiting customers in the U.S. They grew by 16% and were our strongest growing business area in 2023. Also here, we had a record year of 14.5% EBITDA margin. This was despite negative impact from exiting our very profitable turbocharging division, which we spun off in 2022 under the brand Accelleron. Process automation provides automation and electrification to a broad range of traditional industries, such as mining, shipping, steel, pulp and paper, and oil and gas. We support these industries as they are going through a massive transformation to decarbonize in order to be relevant also in the future.
In addition, we support new industries like green hydrogen and carbon capture and battery manufacturing and also the build-out, of course, of renewables. Lastly, our robotics and discrete automation business area, led by Sami Atiya, saw a sharp decline in orders last year. This was due to a combination of soft markets and inventory adjustments. On the positive side, revenues were up 14%, and the operational EBITDA margin reached 14.7%. This is the strongest year-over-year profitability improvement of our four business areas. Even though we see short-term challenges in the market, we believe in a strong future demand for robots and automation solutions. In sectors like general industry, logistics, automotive, electronics, and healthcare, companies need to manage labor shortages and achieve productivity improvements.
Therefore, we decided to invest in the new robot campus in Västerås, Sweden, which complements the already up and running new robot factory in Shanghai, as well as an expanded one in Michigan, U.S. Looking at our regions in 2023, orders were strongest in the Americas, rising by 7%. Order growth was highest in the United States, Canada, and Chile. In Europe, orders were largely flat, with a higher growth in the Nordic regions and in the United Kingdom, offsetting the decline in Germany. In Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, orders were slightly up. Here, for example, the growth in India and parts of the Middle East more than made up for the decline we saw in China. As the political challenges in the world around us are increasing, our strategy, which we call local for local, helps us to be resilient in our operations.
We strive to be self-sufficient in our businesses in each region. This means that we have a limited amount of products and components being shipped between the regions. We are today 95% self-sufficient in Europe, 85% in China, and 75% in the U.S. We are investing to localize even further. Now let's look at how we are managing our business portfolio. Our goal is to ensure that our divisions are supporting our company purpose and leading within their industries. In 2020, we closed the sales of the Power Conversion division, completing the divisional divestments which we announced in 2020. We give each division a strategic mandate: stability, profitability, or growth, depending on their performance. Today, the majority of our divisions perform in line or better than our peers. Therefore, they now have a mandate to focus on growth, both organic as well as through acquisitions.
You may remember that in 2020, we carved out the E-mobility division as a separately governed business. We also raised fresh capital to invest in the business through private placement. We still intend to separately list the E-mobility business on the stock exchange. The new management is currently focused on improving the performance of the business as well as streamlining the portfolio. We expect to move ahead with the listing when the business is ready and that the financial markets are constructive. Speaking of financial markets, let me say a few words about the delisting of ABB Securities from the New York Stock Exchange. We took the decision to delist because we consider it unnecessary for ABB to have three stock exchange listings, especially since our shares are largely traded on electronic trading platforms.
Our shares are still listed on the SIX and the Nasdaq Stockholm, which reflects our Swiss and Swedish heritage. I want to mention that delisting has had no impact on our business operation. The U.S. is still our largest market, and we continue to invest for growth. To summarize, we have implemented our ABB Way of operating model across the organization. We have delivered on our promises and reshaped the portfolio. We are now a purpose-driven company and well positioned within our electrification and automation focus to benefit from some of those global trends. We raised our ambitions for our financial and sustainability targets at our capital market in November, and we are setting new standards. Our future focus will be on accelerating growth and driving continuous improvement. Looking back at our many achievements, let me take this opportunity to thank our employees across the world.
We have delivered excellent results in a challenging market, a great accomplishment from our great team. In 2024, we have already announced five acquisitions in line with our goal of making 5-10 small to mid-sized bolt-on acquisitions per year. One exciting local acquisition is the ETH spinoff of Sevensense. It's a leader in artificial intelligence-based navigation for autonomous mobile robots. And that brings me to the topic of technology and digital. We continue to create value for our customers through embedded software in our products. Most of our products are already digitally embedded, and the same is true for around half of our service offerings. About 55% of our R&D employees are software engineers. Software and digital remain on the top of our agenda. When it comes to artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, we see tremendous potential for our businesses.
As Peter mentioned, we have more than 100 AI-focused projects across the group, both being part of our products and to drive efficiency in our operations. To confirm that ABB is on the right track and a great place to work, every year we measure the engagement of our employees. We have seen continued improvement here over the past three years. This is in line with my own experience when visiting operations across the world. People are happy to work at ABB and very positive about our future. Let me close by saying a few words about the announcement from the end of February. I will step down from my position as the CEO and hand over to my colleague Morten Wierod at the end of July. It is a good moment for this change. The transformation of ABB is completed, and the company is in good shape.
Morten has been at ABB for more than 25 years and is currently in charge of our electrification business. He has a deep understanding of ABB and has been part of shaping our new decentralized operating model. I have always valued his extensive experience across our key customer segments and his strong track record. He will be a great leader for ABB. It has been an honor for me to lead ABB over the past years. As I said when I started, ABB has a strong foundation with great products and people, and our financial performance is also in line with the best peers. I'm very proud of our achievements. On behalf of the Executive Committee and everyone at ABB, thank you for your trust. We look forward to continuing the journey together in 2024, and I'm convinced that ABB has a bright future. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, after these remarks, we now come to the attendance announcement. At today's Annual General Meeting, we have 623 shareholders present. Altogether, with represented shareholders, we have the following attendance: 1,085,320,625 registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 0.12 each, and with a total nominal value of CHF 130,238,475 are represented. This corresponds to 57.67% of the share capital with a right to vote. Shareholders wanting to have themselves represented at today's Annual General Meeting were able, before the meeting, to appoint another person or the Independent Proxy, Zehnder Bolliger & Partner, as their proxy. Dr. Zehnder is representing for them 1,083,873,926 registered shares with a total nominal value of CHF 130,064,871.12.
In accordance with Article 689C, paragraph 5 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, the Independent Proxy informed ABB on Monday, March 18, 2024, about the yes, no, and abstain votes per agenda items handed in by the shareholders represented by them. The data was shared in aggregated format only so that no conclusions about the voting behavior of individual shareholders were possible. In the light of the above, I declare that this Annual General Meeting has a quorum with regard to all items included on the agenda. The Annual General Meeting decides on the motions before us today in accordance with the law and our articles of incorporation with a majority, a simple majority of the represented share votes. Further, the results of all ballots and elections will be recorded in writing by our secretary.
I would like to ask you to retain your admission card for the duration of the meeting. This is in case the electronic voting system were to break down and a card, ballot, or election needs to be held. I would also like to point out that for all of today's ballots and elections, anybody who would like to have their no votes or abstentions recorded can give their surnames, first names, and place of residence as well as the number of no votes or abstentions to the vote counter to be available for the minutes. The vote counter is, from your perspective, at the front on the left. Ladies and gentlemen, we now come to item one. Item one is the approval of the Management Report, the consolidated financial statements, and the annual financial statements for 2023.
The consolidated statements, so the consolidated financial statements of ABB Ltd and ABB Group, can be found in the business report, and everything has been examined, audited by KPMG, and these reports are also part of the report. Achim Wolper, the representative of the auditors, told us before this AGM that there are no additions they'd like to make to the consolidated financial statements or annual financial statements for 2023. This leads me to opening up the floor to discussion of the Management Report, the consolidated financial statements, and the annual financial statements for 2023. I'd like to ask the speakers to come to the front to state their name, their place of residence, and if possible, I would like to kindly ask them to just speak on the agenda item at hand and as briefly as possible. Thank you very much. Who would like to take the floor?
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Thomas Schrupp. I live in Zürich-Affoltern, which is basically a neighboring municipality here of Oerlikon. I'd like to take advantage of my right to be able to speak here to address you. At last year's AGM, I was also present at the time, over 90% of the votes voted in favor of a share buyback program. A few have voted opposing that program. I was one of them. And I'd like to say something on the matter. If something like that is done, yes, it makes look a group as ABB look good, but the individual shareholder doesn't really benefit. It's difficult to know whether in the future we'll be able to just deal with these things, and this just leads to more capitalization of groups like this, of companies like this, such as ABB. We are talking about CHF billions here.
What I'd like to say, I think it's important to investigate ownership of the funds. We talked about registered shares. Yes, of course, the origin of the shares is ABB. That's clear. But who owns them? And why am I saying this? Well, for one, buying back shares at a large scale seems to be a global phenomenon of our times. It's not just ABB doing this. Other companies do that as well. And the second thing I'd like to say, I mean, how do we even get here? Why is this such a popular thing to do? I was thinking maybe one of the reasons, well, I don't know, but possibly, maybe the share capital has just been laying around for decades.
People didn't show up to vote, and then apparently maybe people start thinking that no one owns that anymore because no one is really voting with their shares anymore. And who knows? Maybe celibacy, war, deadly diseases, AIDS, tropical diseases, maybe. You know, vaccines are less and less effective. Maybe substance abuse, heroin consumption at parties, or maybe, to just put it simply, is that just something that's divided amongst clans, such as the Credit Suisse package, you know, before that big bang of the CHF 7 billion, just one or two people really owning everything. So, for all of these reasons, I was thinking maybe we should proceed with a scientific approach to be able to just define, determine ownership. Maybe we can then display that graphically. Maybe we can do that based on a calculation on a spreadsheet.
What I've seen on the internet is something you can find that on the internet. There are companies that provide that information or make it possible to be displayed in that way. It doesn't have to be something too specific to one company. Well, that was it from my part. Thank you very much. That's it.
Thank you very much, Mr. Schrupp, for your questions. So, I'll try to answer some of your questions, and then I'll just get feedback from you whether I've answered all of your questions. Well, basically, as management and Board of Directors of ABB, there are priorities, of course, for the appropriation of our profits, of the cash, so the funds that we own. First, and Björn has talked about this, is organic growth. We invest in research and development. We invest in sales operations. We try to enter new markets.
The second thing is a dividend that should increase over time. And we will be talking about the increase of dividends by CHF 0.03. So last year we've had that too. So it's a constant, consistent increase. And then Björn has also mentioned that we use money for acquisitions, small acquisitions, medium acquisitions. As I've mentioned, we've already carried out five of them this year. So with those funds, we try to complement organic growth through these acquisitions. And the fourth thing that's part of this toolkit that we have are the share buyback programs. So that's how we distribute the money that we make onto the different areas. Now, when we buy back shares, if I understood correctly, your concern is that you don't know who's behind all of that, like who is investing. Well, we as a company don't know that.
We buy the shares back from the market with the registered shares. Yes, there is a registry, but we are unable to tell whether someone is selling these shares back to ABB within this program, usually via UBS or through other means. We don't know, and we're unable to find out. So it's just a shareholder selling shares, maybe part of their shares, maybe all of them. We have millions and millions of shares in terms of volume every day, and some of them we buy back. But there are legal provisions that stipulate how much we can buy back per day. It's a percentage. If I'm not completely mistaken, I think it's 25%. Yes, 25% per day that we're allowed to buy back. 75% needs to be part of the free float. Then the second thing you addressed, that we don't know who owns these shares.
You mentioned the term clans. I wouldn't say that. I think we're just talking about major shareholders, large shareholders. In our business report, we also list our largest shareholders, and there is also an obligation to report. If someone goes over 3%, 5%, or 10%, that investor has to disclose their purchase, which gives the shareholder certain kind of information so they will know who's represented with which or how many shares. So we have some large ones, BlackRock, for instance. We have Cevian over 3% now. They've gone below that threshold again. So we know what the large ones are, the large investors are. If I'm not completely mistaken, we had 28% in Switzerland, 17% in Sweden, some part in the U.S., the rest in Europe, just the geographical distribution, basically.
Then about your concern that people will not vote and you make use of their vote because things are distributed in a certain fashion. Well, I think we can see today 58% are present. We have an Independent Proxy represented by Mr. Zehnder. These shareholders have the opportunity to do that in a written form before the AGM. You can come here. So usually we are in this range between 50%-70% in terms of votes. So the way I see it, that is an appropriate reflection of what shareholders think of us. I think I've addressed your four or five points that you've made. Is that okay for you now? Are those answered?
Yes, thank you.
Thank you very much for your questions. Are there any more questions regarding agenda item one? That doesn't seem to be the case.
If there are no other requests to speak, we move now on to the voting on agenda item one. Ladies and gentlemen, when you cast your vote, please press on your voting keypad either the green button for yes, so in favor of the resolution, the yellow abstain button to abstain, or the red button for no to vote against the resolution. If you inadvertently press the wrong button, you can directly rectify this by pressing the button you intended to press in the first place. Shareholders, are there any questions regarding the voting procedure? As this does not seem to be the case, let us proceed with the ballot. If there are any questions, you can at any point just address our staff at the help desk in the back part of the hall.
The Board of Directors proposes to approve the Management Report, the consolidated financial statements, and the annual financial statements for 2023. I'd like to ask you to show your approval, abstention, or rejection regarding the motion of the Board of Directors by pressing the appropriate button on your keypad. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. Ladies and gentlemen, I intend to close the ballot shortly. I hereby close the ballot. Now we'll wait until the results are available. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have approved the Management Report, the consolidated financial statements, and the annual financial statements for 2023 with 99.81% of yes votes. Thank you very much for your trust. Ladies and gentlemen, we now move on to agenda item two. That is the consultative vote on the Compensation Report 2023.
As in previous Annual General Meetings, we hold a separate consultative vote on the company's compensation report. The compensation report contains the principles governing the compensation paid to the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. It also informs you about the components of such compensation and the amounts which were paid to the members of these two bodies in 2023. The compensation of the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee was determined by the Board of Directors, taking into account the recommendations of the Compensation Committee. In this context, I'd like to highlight that our remuneration programs are closely linked to our sustainability strategy. For all members of the management, there is a KPI that is weighted by 20% for their long-term incentive plan.
Likewise, at least two sustainability targets are defined for all Executive Committee members as part of their individual annual incentive plan, so short-term and long-term. If you would like to receive further explanation about any of these points covered in the compensation report, I will now take your questions and hereby open the discussion on the compensation report before we proceed. Please remember that we will take comments and questions on the maximum aggregate compensation of the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, respectively, under agenda item 6.1 and 6.2. Would someone like to take the floor regarding this item? If you come to the stage, to the microphone, please state your name and your place of residence. Who'd like to take the floor? If no one wishes to speak, we can move on to the consultative vote on the Compensation Report 2023.
Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now, just according to the same procedure that I just explained beforehand. Ladies and gentlemen, I intend to close the ballot. A couple of seconds. I hereby close the ballot. We will now wait for the results. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have accepted the 2023 Compensation Report with 90.48% yes votes. We thank you for accepting the Compensation Report and for the trust you bestowed upon us by doing so. Now moving on to agenda item three. This is another consultative vote, the first time we are voting on the Sustainability Report. Ladies and gentlemen, at this year's AGM, for the first time, we will conduct a vote on our Sustainability Report. By means of this report, we inform shareholders about non-financial matters as now required by the Swiss Code of Obligations.
However, we do not limit ourselves to the information required by law. Rather, our Sustainability Report comprehensively informs about ABB's sustainability agenda, its targets, and the progress achieved. We present this report to you today for a consultative vote and are looking forward to your feedback. So that means the Swiss Code of Obligations has stipulated certain requirements, but we go beyond that. We give you the full Sustainability Report and everything we do to achieve these goals. If you would like to receive further explanation about the sustainability report, I will now take your questions and hereby open the discussion. There seem to be no requests to take the floor. We now move on to the vote, to the ballot on the Sustainability Report 2023, consultative vote. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. We intend to close the ballot.
A couple of seconds, and I hereby close the ballot. Now we'll wait for the result. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have accepted the Sustainability Report 2023 with 99.32% yes votes. We thank you for accepting the Sustainability Report and for your support that you express regarding this important topic, something that is very dear to my heart. It's a new area in which ABB can have a big impact and wants to also shape the future of our society. Thank you very much. Now moving on to item four, discharge of the Board of Directors and the persons entrusted with management. The Board of Directors proposes that its members, as well as officers entrusted with managing the business, be discharged from their responsibilities for the financial year 2023.
For the sake of completeness, I'd like to mention that this discharge resolution shall also cover Board Members and persons entrusted with management who left or were appointed during 2023. Same question here. Would anyone like to take the floor? That does not seem to be the case, so we can move on to the ballot. I'd like to point out that the members of the Board of Directors and anyone who has participated in any way in managing the business are excluded from voting either with their own shares or with shares represented by them. The votes of the persons concerned will not be taken into account during this ballot. The number of represented votes is correspondingly reduced. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. A few more seconds, and I'll close the ballot. I hereby close the ballot, and we'll just wait for the results.
Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have granted discharge for the financial year 2023 to the Board of Directors and the officers entrusted with management, with managing the business, with 98.68% of yes votes. Shareholders, I'd like to thank you on behalf of the members of the Board of Directors, as well as the officers entrusted with business management, and I'd like to thank you for your trust. We now move on to item five on the agenda, appropriation of available earnings. Ladies and gentlemen, earnings are available to the Annual General Meeting 2024, amounting to CHF 3,982,369,258. The Board of Directors proposes to pay a dividend of CHF 0.87 out of the available earnings for the financial year 2023. This means an increase of CHF 0.03 compared to the previous year.
The proposal is in line with the company's dividend policy to pay a rising, sustainable dividend over time. The distribution is expected to take place in March 2024. The distribution will be subject to Swiss withholding tax in the amount of 35%. The Board of Directors finally proposes to carry forward the remaining amount of the available earnings 2023 to the new account. For the sake of completeness, let me mention that ABB Ltd will not pay dividends on own shares held by the company and its subsidiaries, and on shares that participate in the Dividend Access Facility as per Article 8 of the Articles of Incorporation. Shareholders who are resident in Sweden and who participate in the Dividend Access Facility will receive from our subsidiary, ABB Norden Holding AB, an amount in Swedish krona that corresponds to the resolved dividend.
This amount, however, is subject to taxation according to Swedish law. The auditors confirm in their report that the board's proposal relating to the appropriation of available earnings is in accordance with the law and our Articles of Incorporation. Does anyone wish to comment on this proposal relating to the appropriation of available earnings in 2023? There seem to be no contributions from the floor. We therefore proceed to the vote. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. A few more seconds, and then we'll close the ballot. I hereby close the ballot, and we will now wait until the result is available. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have approved the proposal of the Board of Directors relating to the appropriation of the 2023 total available earnings with 99.81% yes votes. Thank you very much.
We now move on to item six on our agenda, which is the approval of the compensation of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. Ladies and gentlemen, pursuant to Article 698, paragraph 3 of the Swiss Code of Obligations and Article 34 of our Articles of Incorporation, the Annual General Meeting of shareholders shall approve the maximum aggregate amount of compensation of the Board of Directors for the next term of office and of the Executive Committee for the following financial year. The principles of compensation are specified in Article 33 of the Articles of Incorporation. The details on the proposed compensation are described in the annex to the invitation, as well as in the 2023 compensation report.
We now move on to item 6.1, approval of the maximum aggregate amount of compensation of the Board of Directors for the next term of office, that is to say, from the Annual General Meeting 2024, now, today, to the Annual General Meeting 2025. Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes that the shareholders approve the maximum aggregate amount of the compensation of the Board of Directors covering the period from the Annual General Meeting 2024 to the Annual General Meeting 2025 in the amount of CHF 4,400,000. The number of Board Members, as well as compensation for individual Board Members, are planned to remain unchanged over the previous year. Accordingly, the proposed maximum aggregate amount of compensation remains unchanged compared to the previous year. Would anyone like to take the floor on this agenda item 6.1? There are no contributions from the floor.
We can proceed to the vote. Ladies and gentlemen, could I ask you to cast your vote now? A few more seconds, and then we'll close the ballot. I hereby close the ballot, and we'll wait for the result. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have approved the proposed total compensation for the Board of Directors covering the period from the Annual General Meeting 2024 to the Annual General Meeting 2025 in the amount of CHF 4,400,000, with 98.6% yes votes. Ladies and gentlemen, in the name of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank you for your trust. This brings us on to item 6.2. 6.2 is the approval of the maximum aggregate amount of compensation of the Executive Committee for the following financial year. The following financial year, that is to say, 2025. 2024 was resolved last year.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes that shareholders approve the maximum aggregate amount of compensation of the Executive Committee for the 2025 financial year in the amount of CHF 45,900,000. Hence, the proposed amount is CHF 2 million higher than the amount approved for 2024, influenced by the application of the adjusted, more performance-oriented compensation mix for EC entrants and the anticipated costs related to the vesting of the 2022 long-term incentive plan awards. Does anyone wish to take the floor on this agenda item? This does not seem to be the case, so let's proceed to the vote right away. Ladies and gentlemen, I intend. Can I ask you to cast your vote now, please? I intend to close the ballot. A few more seconds. The ballot is closed, and we now wait for the result.
Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have approved the proposed maximum aggregate compensation for the Executive Committee for the financial year 2025 in the amount of CHF 45,900,000, with 93.58% yes votes. In the name of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committees and the Chief Executive Officer, I would like to thank you for your trust. This brings us on to item seven. It's a long item because it's elections, elections to the Board of Directors and the election of the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Ladies and gentlemen, the date of today's AGM coincides with the end of term of office of all members of the Board of Directors. As mentioned already, Jacob Wallenberg and Gunnar Brock have decided not to stand for reelection.
At the same time, the Board of Directors is pleased to propose to you the election of Johan Forssell and Mats Rahmström as new members of the Board. Both candidates have vast experience as seasoned senior leaders and board members, with a particular focus on industrial companies and decentralized operating models. They will perfectly complement ABB's Board of Directors, and I can only recommend the election of Johan Forssell and Mats Rahmström in addition to those of our current members standing for reelections. Accordingly, the candidates standing for election to the Board of Directors are David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, Lars Förberg, Johan Forssell, Denise Johnson, Jennifer Li, Geraldine Matchett, David Meline, Mats Rahmström, and myself, Peter Voser. The election shall be effective for a term of office until the conclusion of the 2025 Annual General Meeting.
Considering the numerous election matters, may I ask you to bring up your comments on the individual candidates now before we move on to the vote? Who would like to take the floor? Does anybody wish to speak on item seven, elections to the Board? Nobody wishes to speak, apparently, so let's move on to the actual elections. Ladies and gentlemen, we will conduct the elections of all members as well as the election of the Chairman of the Board of Directors individually, but in one single run. For that purpose, you will see all candidates individually on the display of your voting device. Since, however, it is possible to show only three candidates per screen page, you will have the possibility to scroll forward and backward by using the arrows at the bottom of the screen. Again, you can rectify any input until the voting time has expired.
The election results on agenda item seven will be announced together. I think we'll have two slides, if I'm not mistaken, at a later stage with all the results. So, ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes to elect David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, Lars Förberg, Johan Forssell, Denise Johnson, Jennifer Li, Geraldine Matchett, David Meline, Mats Rahmström, and myself, Peter Voser, as members of the Board of Directors, as well as to elect me, Peter Voser, as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. You will have more time this time. 30 seconds. Right, a few more seconds, and then time will be up. I think everybody has completed. So let's close the ballot and wait for the result. It will take a little bit longer this time, I suspect.
Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have elected David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, Lars Förberg, Johan Forssell, Denise Johnson, with more than 90% of votes. On the second page, we'll see Jennifer Li, Geraldine Matchett, David Meline, Mats Rahmström, and myself, Peter Voser, again with a predominant majority, more than 90%. Thank you very much for your trust, for your confidence, and to my fellow directors. I look forward to another interesting year, and I would like to congratulate Johan and Mats on their election to the board. 2024 will be another challenging year, but I'm sure as a team, as a Board, together with the Executive management, with Björn for seven months and Morten for five months, we'll manage the 2025 business year as well. Thank you very much. Now item eight, elections to the Compensation Committee.
So shareholders will determine the three members of the Compensation Committee. The Board of Directors proposes to elect the following persons as members of the Compensation Committee. There's no change compared to last year. We have David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, and Jennifer Li. The election shall be effective for a term of office until the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting 2025. Again, these elections will be conducted of all members of the Compensation Committee individually, but in one run. We will present the election results jointly. If you wish to make any comments or have a question on this agenda item, I'd like to ask you to the lectern if you'd like to take the floor. That does not seem to be the case, so we can move on to the elections.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes to elect David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, and Jennifer Li as members of the compensation committee. Please cast your vote now. I intend to close the ballot in a couple of seconds. I don't think anyone is having any issues, so I am hereby closing the ballot. We will now wait for the results. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have elected, in each case with predominant majority, David Constable, Frederico Fleury Curado, and Jennifer Li. Every one of these candidates is over 97%. Thank you very much for your trust expressed here. David, Fred, and we look forward to another interesting year on the compensation side. We are now moving on to item nine, the election of the Independent Proxy.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Board of Directors proposes to elect Zehnder Bolliger & Partner attorneys at law and notary office in Baden as the Independent Proxy. As mentioned, they are being represented here at our meeting by Dr. Hans Zehnder, and they have confirmed their willingness to again accept the mandate. Thank you very much. The election shall be effective for a term of office until conclusion of the Annual General Meeting 2025. Would anyone like to take the floor regarding this agenda item? That does not seem to be the case, so we can directly move on to the ballot. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. I will close the ballot in a few seconds. And I hereby close the ballot. We will now wait for the results.
Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have elected Zehnder & Partner with 98.15% yes votes as Independent Proxy. Thank you very much. Thank you for your trust expressed towards us, but also to the company of Dr. Zehnder. Now we can move on to item 10, election of the auditors. The Board of Directors proposes to elect KPMG AG as auditors for the financial year 2024. KPMG has declared itself willing to perform its duties as auditors also for the financial year 2024. Thank you very much. We are already looking forward to the cooperation. Would anyone like to take the floor regarding this resolution? That does not seem to be the case, so we can move on to the ballot. Ladies and gentlemen, please cast your vote now. A few more seconds. I hereby close the ballot.
The result should come in pretty quickly. Ladies and gentlemen, I declare that you have elected KPMG with 99.41% yes votes as auditors for the financial year 2024. Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, we now come to the end of our meeting. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I'd like to thank the Executive Committee and all employees of the whole ABB Group most warmly for their extraordinary commitment. I'd like to thank you, dear shareholders, for the confidence and the trust that you expressed here today. The next Annual General Meeting will take place on March 27, 2025, and I'd love to be able to welcome you again at that time. Please leave all electronic devices on your chairs, the voting devices. They will be collected by us. Your personal data will be deleted and can no longer be accessed or viewed by anyone.
I hereby conclude today's Annual General Meeting, and I wish you a safe trip home. Thank you very much for coming today, attending this AGM, and all of us would be more than happy to be able to welcome you at our next AGM next year. Thank you very much. I wish you Happy Easter and, again, a safe trip home.