Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome you very warmly to today's annual general meeting of Telekom Austria, and I hereby call the meeting to order. I'm very pleased to welcome our shareholders and their representatives once again in such large numbers and in person at the company headquarters. We are also broadcasting our AGM via livestream up until the general debate, and I welcome all those following this AGM on the internet. I would also like to welcome all of those who will be instrumental in ensuring the success of this AGM: Mr. Alejandro Plater, CEO of the Management Board, and Mr. Thomas Arnoldner as his deputy, Ms. Sonja Wallner, the CFO in Mr. Plater's team, our notary public, Dr.
Christian Mayr, who will oversee the minutes and the voting process, the auditors from Ernst & Young, and the employees in the backstage area and in the technical department. The members of the supervisory board are either present here in the room or are following the AGM via livestream. I would like to start today's AGM with a highlight. This year, Telekom Austria AG is celebrating its 25th year anniversary on the Vienna Stock Exchange. During this time, the group has evolved from a national telco into a leading international digitalization and technology service provider. Today, the A1 Group is in a strong financial position, with growth outstripping the industry average and a dividend that we have succeeded in doubling in the last seven years.
This, of course, despite a challenging environment, Telekom Austria has presented convincing results last year and once again has demonstrated the resilience of its business model. A significant step in the recent past was the spin-off of the radio towers into EuroTeleSites AG. Since the announcement at the beginning of 2023, the combined market value of Telekom Austria and EuroTeleSites has risen by around EUR 3.3 billion. This corresponds to an increase in value of around 75% in just over two years. This is truly remarkable. Allow me first to highlight our most important developments in 2024. Telekom Austria's success story continued. Group revenue increased by 3% to over EUR 5.4 billion. Thanks to its focus on increasing efficiency and digital transformation, Telekom Austria recorded an EBITDA growth of 5%, and EBITDA exceeded the EUR 2 billion mark for the first time.
In total, this adds up to earnings per share of EUR 0.94. This means that Telekom Austria continues to be one of the leaders in the European telco industry. This also applies to its outstanding credit rating. All three leading rating agencies gave Telekom Austria an excellent rating of AAA or A minus, once again underscoring the Group's financial strength. Another highlight in A1 strategy implementation deserves special mention. The A1 Group is now convergent in all seven of its markets. The expansion of business in Serbia means that mobile fixed network and internet service can now be offered in that country in a one-stop shop. At the same time, the A1 Group has been consistently pursuing its commitment to sustainability. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all areas and along the entire supply chain and to reach net zero by 2040.
The new climate transition plan is paving the way for this to happen. It is in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, as officially validated by the renowned Science Based Targets initiative, SBTI. External assessments also have confirmed our sustainability strategy. Sustainalytics has once again recognized Telekom Austria as "ESG industry top-rated." This puts Telekom Austria in third place among more than 200 telcos worldwide. I am particularly pleased that, again, the Vienna Stock Exchange recently awarded us the Phoenix Sustainability Prize. This positive development is also reflected in our dividend proposal: a dividend of EUR 0.40 per share to be distributed for the 2024 financial year. This is an increase of EUR 0.04, or around 11% year on year. The Management Board will report on the most recent business year in detail in their presentation. Now, I would like to address the agenda for today's AGM.
Allow me to remark that the invitation was published in the Digital Official Gazette of Austria on April 28, 2025, and distributed electronically throughout Europe via EQS and S&P Global. All required documents have been available on the website since May 2025. I note that there are no proposals for additions or amendments to the agenda. We can therefore only discuss and resolve on the agenda items announced in the invitation today. A brief word on how today's AGM will be conducted. We will first present the reports and proposed resolutions on all agenda items in one block. This will be followed by a general debate with requests to speak on all items of the agenda. Once all questions have been answered, we will vote on the proposed resolutions without further interruption.
If you would like to take the floor in the general debate, please complete the request to speak card and hand it to the ushers in the room. If you have already prepared questions in writing, you are also welcome to hand them to the ushers. Please indicate whether you would like to present your questions yourself or whether you would like them to be read out. I would also like to point out that you are invited to partake in a small buffet lunch starting from around 11:30 A.M. The AGM will be simultaneously interpreted. All statements made here in German can be followed in English, and all statements made here in English can also be followed in German via the simultaneous interpretation. Headphones for the interpretation are available in the hall as you enter the room. That will be how today's AGM will be conducted.
Now we come to the agenda. Item one: Presentation of the adopted financial statements, the management report, the consolidated financial statements, along with the group management report, including a sustainability statement, as well as the corporate governance report, the proposal for the appropriation of the net profit, and the Supervisory Board report for the financial year 2024. These documents have been available on our website since May 9, 2025. The annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements were audited by Ernst & Young Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in Vienna, which issued an unqualified audit opinion. The management report and the consolidated management report, including the sustainability statement, are consistent with the annual and consolidated financial statements. As always, I would also like to take this opportunity at this time to inform you about the work of the Supervisory Board.
In the reporting year, the Supervisory Board held a total of seven meetings, including one strategy meeting and a further six meetings of the Audit Committee, and three meetings of the Remuneration Committee were held. The focal points of the meetings were the strategic direction of the Group, particularly with regard to sustainability, the planned investment and financing decisions, and after an in-depth discussion of the strategic opportunities and challenges, as well as the options for action to optimize business, we approved the budget for 2025. In its work in 2024, the Supervisory Board focused in particular on tapping into new growth segments and increasing efficiency. This was done to counter the inflation-induced increase in the cost structure and the ongoing competitive pressure in the markets.
In its six meetings in 2024, the Audit Committee exercised its oversight function, monitoring the effectiveness of the internal control system, the risk management system, and the internal audit, and discussed and examined the 2024 annual financial statements in detail in meetings also attended by the auditors. In the 2024 financial year, the Audit Committee also prepared the appointment of the new auditor of the annual and consolidated financial statements and submitted its recommendation to the Supervisory Board for nomination. The Supervisory Board has undertaken to comply with the Austrian Code of Corporate Governance and with the responsible corporate management and control geared towards sustainable value creation. All 10 shareholder representatives have declared their independence in accordance with C Rule 53 of the Code of Corporate Governance.
Pursuant to Rule 62 of the Code of Corporate Governance, Telekom Austria commissions an external review of its compliance with the provisions of the code and the accuracy of the associated public reporting every three years. The next evaluation is scheduled for the current financial year, 2025, and will take place in the first half of 2026. The composition of the Supervisory Board remained the same as last year, as Peter Hagen and Peter Kohlmann were re-elected to the Supervisory Board at the AGM on June 27, 2024. This was my summary of the Supervisory Board's activities. The Management Board will now report to you in detail on the 2024 financial year. I would first like to ask Thomas Arnoldner to take the floor. Mr. Plater will be giving his presentation in English, and you can avail yourself of the headphones for the interpretation as needed.
Madam Chair, thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, and of course, our esteemed customers. I'm happy to see so many of you present today. On behalf of the Management Board, I would like to welcome you very warmly to our AGM, and I would like to present our activities from 2024. Alejandro Plater will then be giving you an outlook into the future.
If you look at the slides, a great deal will seem familiar to you and maybe a bit disappointing. Last year, we were not particularly creative. In 2023, we were able to announce a record result, and we were hoping to do that in 2024. We did this in 2024. We have never posted revenues at this level, with an increase of 3.1% to EUR 5.4 billion. Of course, this was strongly driven by business in Eastern Europe, outside of Austria.
Never before in the history of the company have we posted such a high level of EBITDA. Here we are over the EUR 2 billion mark, and this corresponds to a growth of 5.1%. We've never had net debt at such a low level, and we have 30 million customers. This is the highest number of customers that we've had. We were able to gain 7.4% more customers for mobile, and we saw an increase in our RGUs as well. Our free cash flow increased by over 60% to nearly EUR 600 million. This, of course, lays the foundation for our dividend payout, as we will propose today. For the seventh time in a row, we will be increasing the dividend. In this case, EUR 0.40 per share. This corresponds to a doubling since 2017.
Of course, our performance is only as good as it appears in comparison, and I think that we have no reason to hide, particularly when you look at our revenues here in comparison with 2020. If you compare 2020 to 2024, you see the average revenue growth with other telco peers in Europe who have a very similar structure. For example, you have Proximus, OTE from Greece, we have Telia in Sweden, Telenor from Norway, and Deutsche Telekom, for example. We have tried to focus primarily on our European business. As you can see, we are very much in the lead with an average revenue growth of 4.4%. If we were to take into account other business activities, we would certainly be even farther ahead. This is something that we are particularly proud of. We've also seen a wonderful evolution in our share price.
As you may recall, in 2023, we posted excellent performance with a share price increase of 58%. In 2024, the share price increased even by 4%. This is slightly below the ATX and slightly below the sector, but since the beginning of 2025, we've seen a surge in performance, and we are up by 23% since the beginning of the year. The company, as of the end of 2024, had 415,159 own shares. This corresponds to EUR 905,461.78 of share capital. There were no transactions with own shares throughout 2024. One aspect that we will not be able to repeat next year, of course, this is our 25-year anniversary of our IPO on the Vienna Stock Exchange. We are extremely proud of this milestone. Many of you will probably be able to remember back to our IPO. The IPO was in November 2000.
In the year 2000, it was one of the most significant capital market transactions in Austria at the time. I think that our track record certainly speaks for itself in your interest, shareholders. On the right-hand side, you can see shareholder return. Mr. Berger, of course, this is the question that you asked just a moment ago. You can see total shareholder return. This is the performance of the share with adjustment of all capital measures and reinvested dividends. You can see EUR 3.9 billion in terms of dividend payments, and there was another EUR 1 billion in share buybacks since 2025. As our Chairwoman said, with the spin-off of our towers in September 2023, you, as shareholders, have been able to acquire additional shares in EuroTeleSites AG.
One EuroTeleSites AG share corresponded to four Telekom Austria AG shares, and this was at a value of 1.2 Telekom Austria AG shares. You can see the total shareholder return in the chart on the left. The gray line represents the shareholder or the share price development, and you see the shareholder return outlined here in red. You see the significant increase in dividend payouts since 2015, 2017 in particular. You can see that at that time, these two curves started to diverge significantly, and this is due to the significant increase in dividend payouts. What we're particularly proud of is that we did not do this to the detriment of our net debt. Just the opposite, in fact. In the last 10 years, we've been able to deleverage significantly in our country.
This is also reflected in our rating, as you can see in the black rectangular line that we have superimposed on this chart. In the meantime, we are at a minus. This is the highest rating that we have in our peer group amongst European telcos. In 2024, we even reduced our net debt significantly from 0.4 to 0.2 as a multiplier of, of course, excluding leases of EBITDA. This corresponds to a net debt of EUR 280 million. Of course, we have been able to invest significantly, about EUR 20 billion since the IPO in total, and more than half, EUR 11 billion in Austria alone. The significant amount of investment is the reason that we are one of the most significant digital investors in Austria with a very central significance for our headquarters. This is basically based on three pillars: the fiber optic network rollout with fiber optics.
We're able to cover around 95% of all municipalities, at least with one fiber optic point. This rollout is the largest in the history of our company. In Austria, we have been able to cover over 900,000 households with fiber optics, particularly in a very difficult environment with significant regulatory measures and costs, etc. You can see that our fiber optic network covers 77,000 km. 5G, of course, is very important in terms of mobile telephony. We have a population coverage of over 85% with 5G. The current focus right now is on expanding capacity in our network so that we will be able to cope with the high levels of data volume as a result of 5G. The third pillar, as we've mentioned in our infrastructure, is our data center performance. This is something that's extremely important, particularly when we look at energy.
We know that the National Defense has sovereignty over our data centers. We are one of the greatest IT service providers in the country and one of the largest providers for data centers. We are excellently positioned as a result. We can provide A1 Private Cloud services, and this is something we do in Austria, and we are very proud of those very important services. This infrastructure, of course, lays the solid foundation for the added value that we offer as a company to Austria. We have been able to outline this and underpin this scientifically. You can see the figures for Austria. Last year, we saw in 2024, EUR 525 million being invested. Our activity in the country has had fiscal effects, a positive effect of EUR 1 billion. This also includes indirect effects on the basis of our supply chain.
You can see that the gross added value comes to EUR 2.4 billion. One out of every 70 euros generated in Austria is due to our company. This has had a very positive impact on employment: 16,000 jobs directly in Austria and 16,000 jobs, including the supply chain effects. Last, but of course not least, we were very proud last year to present our commitment to responsibility. This also encompasses social responsibility and environmental responsibility. Last year, we were able to post significant results on this account. Our Chair has also underscored this. We had a validation of our climate transition plan by SBTI, Science Based Targets initiative, that we are committed to combating climate change. We have developed a climate transition plan as a roadmap, if you will, toward achieving our environmental goals.
have also expressed our commitment to the UN Women's Empowerment Principles for Women and Girls. We published our first sustainability statement according to CSRD. This is the EU legislation on sustainability reporting. It covers 100 data points on sustainability. We have ESG KPIs that we have added to our purchasing criteria. We have updated our ESG strategy as well. This also includes a new target aimed at addressing the gender pay gap. When it comes to digital education, this is a very important issue near and dear to our hearts. We have also made progress on that front. Here at our headquarters, we have a new A1 Digital Campus. This is right around the corner. This is primarily aimed at educating teachers, young people, children, and of course their parents in terms of digital competencies. We have also reached out to schools.
We have had over 1 million participants in 25,000 workshops. We have also benefited from EcoWattis. This is a sustainability prize with regard to our supply chain. Sustainalytics has also given us a top rating. They rate 200 telcos around the world, and we came in third. For the second year in a row, we were able to garner the Phoenix Sustainability Award from the Vienna Stock Exchange, particularly in the sector, consumer and consumer-related goods. So much for the year 2025. Look on 2025 and especially on our strategy going forward.
Thank you. Thank you very much. First, let me apologize once again that I'm going to do this presentation in English. Thomas was reviewing the past. Let me take you a little bit into the future of what Telekom Austria is going to do the coming years. Today, we operate in two different markets.
We operate in a market that is, we call it regulated, that is the traditional connectivity business that you see, basically mobile telephony and fixed broadband services. Over the last couple of years, we have started to develop a new business that we call unregulated, which is very much associated with three areas. I will cover this a little bit more in detail. One is cloud, the other one is software, and the third one that is becoming more and more important lately, and probably you have read more and more everywhere, is about artificial intelligence and how artificial intelligence will change not only the way that we run our business, but the way that the economies around the countries. It is going to be very interesting to see. We in Telekom Austria, we want to be a catalyzer of change driving AI in our footprint.
How are we planning to do that? This year, with colleagues in the company, we have developed this concept of ART, which is anticipating, relevant, and together. Anticipating means our customers, you, are changing needs all the time, which is a big challenge for us because we also need to adapt what we do and how we do it by bringing new and innovative products at better prices. That is what customers want: new, better, and cheaper. Anticipating those needs for us is very important. The second thing is to be relevant, which is a very difficult task. We have to understand what needs you as customers will have in the future, even before you know them, which is a very big challenge for us. How to know what customers will know before they actually know it?
We put a lot of effort and thoughts around that. The third thing, we are together 16,000 colleagues in our company, 6,000 in Austria and 10,000 in the rest of the footprint. How we put our efforts together, because 16 together is much more than the individuals, how we put ourselves together, 16 brains working together to anticipate and to be relevant for customers. There are two areas where we are focusing. One is creating customer journeys. We as consumers, we are interacting on a daily basis with digital platforms all the time. I remember the days where we used to read the newspapers once a day. Probably now we read the newspapers once an hour. This is happening all over the place. We are connected to social networks. We are interfering all the time with different platforms.
Every time we interact with the digital world, it's an opportunity for us to be relevant for customers. That's what we are focusing on. The second thing, and the most important thing that we are focusing on now, is how to drive digitalization in the enterprise segment with these three pillars: software, cloud, and artificial intelligence. You will see that probably next year we will be talking about artificial intelligence only because cloud and software is becoming artificial intelligence as well. You'll probably see next year that the only thing that we talk about is artificial intelligence. You see that this is not something that we will start today. We have been working extensively in developing this strategy.
You see how revenues have been growing in this area from less than EUR 300 million to almost EUR 500 million with an average growth rate of 20%, which is much more, much faster than the traditional connectivity business. We see a connectivity business that is growing very, very slowly. We see these modern services, futuristic services that are growing much, much more faster. Of course, we need to change the way that we work. In order to anticipate, to be relevant, and to do it together, we have decided to change the way that we operate. Instead of having every country doing everything, we have decided to specialize countries into certain areas. Countries in our footprint are specializing in order to gain competence and scale. There we have divided two groups. That is something that we call CDCs.
Let me focus on something that we launched this year that is very important, that is located here in Austria, which is the CDC Digital Services. This is the entity that will drive innovation in our group in all the services related to artificial intelligence. We are creating this competence development center in Austria to develop the most advanced and futuristic services, everything related to AI. Probably you know now, you're reading the newspapers, what is happening with AI. There is a lot of innovation in AI. Nobody knows exactly where this is going to, how it's going to develop. I mean, it's a new world. For sure, in order to have companies being competitive, countries to be competitive, we believe that we in Telekom Austria is a driving force to innovate.
We will do this through our Austrian operation, which will focus on these very important futuristic value-creative jobs and services. To summarize, four things I want to share with you. I will start with the last one. Why is it so important, our concept of ART? You, customers, are changing needs all the time. We in Telekom Austria, we need to adapt ourselves all the time to be able to anticipate what you will request in the future. The only way to be successful is to anticipate customer needs. In order to anticipate, we need to innovate. In order to innovate, we need to change the way that we run the company. That is why our competence delivery center in Austria around digital services is critical for our growth strategy. Of course, we are doing changes, and sometimes changes create disruption.
That is the evolution in companies, it is like that. I want to thank you very much for your support. Thomas and me, we have been running this company. I was doing the calculation now for eight years, you know, and it has been quite a journey. We want to thank you very much for your support. I think we have been delivering pretty good results. With this strategy and looking into the future, we are pretty sure that we will continue to deliver good results for you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Alejandro. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you very much to both of you. That is the point in time where I would like to thank the members of the board for the excellent cooperation. Also, of course, I would like to thank Mrs. Wilner.
Despite the persistently difficult conditions, you have once again achieved an excellent result. Special thanks also go to our customers and suppliers because without you, we would not be successful. I would like to thank you, the shareholders of Telekom Austria, for the trust you have placed in us. I would particularly like to thank all of our employees. They all deserve great appreciation and recognition. I have a special announcement to make. The audit mandate of our auditors, Ernst & Young, ends with the audit of the 2024 financial year. The statutory maximum term of 10 years has been reached. On behalf of A1, I personally too would like to thank the ladies and gentlemen of Ernst & Young for the excellent cooperation with us over the past decade. I would now like to announce the current attendance at today's AGM.
According to the Stock Corporation Act, it is necessary to prepare a list of participants. Four hundred thirty-three shareholders have come here today representing 621,608 and 30 no-par value shares. I have already signed the list of participants and made it available for inspection at the Office of the Notary Public. Dr. Mayr, the AGM has a quorum for all items on the agenda. I would now like to read out the proposed resolutions on agenda items 2 to 8 and make a few comments on them. Agenda item two, resolution on the appropriation of the net profit shown in the financial statements for the financial year 2024. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of Telekom Austria propose to use the net retained profit for the fiscal year 2024 of Telekom Austria in the amount of EUR 626,572,000 as follows.
Distribution of a dividend in the amount of EUR 0.40 per eligible no-par value share. In other words, a total dividend payment of EUR 265,633,936.40. The remaining amount of EUR 360,938,063.60 in total will be carried forward onto a new account. The dividend will be paid out on the 11th of June 2025. Capital gains tax must be paid on the dividend. Onto item three on the agenda, resolution on the approval of the actions of the members of the Management Board for the fiscal year 2024. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the actions of the members of the Management Board in the 2024 fiscal year be approved. Item four, resolution on the approval of the actions of the members of the Supervisory Board for the fiscal year 2024.
The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the actions of the members of the Supervisory Board in the 2024 fiscal year be approved. Item file, resolution on the compensation for the members of the Supervisory Board for the fiscal year 2024. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the remuneration of the elected members of the Supervisory Board for the fiscal year 2024 is to be set unchanged from the previous year as follows. For the Chair, EUR 40,000; for the Deputy Chair, EUR 30,000; for each additional member of the Supervisory Board, EUR 20,000. For the Chair of a committee, EUR 12,000; for each additional committee member, EUR 10,000. The remuneration for committee members is limited to one committee mandate. Accordingly, committee members are only entitled to remuneration once, even if they belong to several committees.
If a member of the supervisory board or a committee has not belonged to the board or the respective committee for the entire fiscal year, the remuneration is paid on a pro rata basis. I would like to add that the employee representatives on the supervisory board perform their function on an honorary basis. The ÖBAG representatives on the supervisory board pass their remuneration onto ÖBAG. Item six, elections to the supervisory board. The terms of office of Ms. Daniela Leicuona Doras, Mr. Alejandro Cantu Jiménez, and Mr. Carlos M. Jarque will end with the conclusion of the current annual general meeting. According to the Articles of Association of Telekom Austria, the supervisory board consists of up to 10 members elected by the AGM. Therefore, three members are to be elected in order to restore the number of 10 elected members.
Based on a separation resolution passed by the supervisory board, the shareholders and employee representatives must fulfill the gender quota individually. The 10 seats of the shareholder representatives are currently held by three women and seven men. Due to the expiration of the mandates of one woman and two men, at least one woman must be elected as member of the supervisory board by the shareholder representative. The gender quota will therefore continue to be met. The supervisory board therefore proposes that the following persons be elected to the supervisory board with effect from the end of this annual general meeting: Ms. Daniela Leicuona Doras, Mr. Alejandro Cantu Jiménez, and Mr. Carlos M. Jarque. In each case, until the end of the annual general meeting, that resolves on the approval of the actions for the 2026 financial year.
The candidates have submitted declarations pursuant to Section 87, Paragraph 2 of the Stock Corporation Act, which have been published on the website together with their CVs. We will vote on each vacancy separately. I would like to state on behalf of the three candidates that they would like to thank you for the trust you have placed in them if they are elected and that they will gladly accept the election. Ms. Daniela Leicuona Doras, Mr. Alejandro Cantu Jiménez, and Mr. Carlos M. Jarque are already known to you as long-standing members of the supervisory board. We can therefore forgo introducing them. Item seven, election of the auditor of the financial statements of the consolidated financial statements and the auditor of the sustainability report for the fiscal year 2025. The supervisory board's proposal has been published on the website and is briefly summarized below.
To appoint Deloitte Audit Wirtschaftsprüfungs GmbH Vienna as the auditor of the annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements for the 2025 financial year and to appoint Deloitte as the auditor of the legally required consolidated sustainability report for the 2025 fiscal year, provided that this report is legally required to be audited by an external auditor. The proposed resolution is conditional as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive has not yet been implemented in Austria. Item eight, resolution on the remuneration report. The remuneration report provides a comprehensive overview of the remuneration granted and owed to the members of the company's bodies in the course of the last financial year. I will summarize the main points. The total remuneration of the Management Board decreased by 31.8% in 2024 compared to 2023. This large decrease is primarily due to the departure of Siegfried Mayrhofer at the end of August 2023.
The individual components are as follows. Now, the fixed remuneration of the incumbent members remained virtually constant. The financial targets for STI 2024, revenue, operating cash flow, working capital, and the expansion of the Austrian fixed line network business were achieved at a total of 114.1%. The ESG target achievement, which is included in the overall target achievement via the modifier, amounted to 102.6%. The overall target achievement for the STI, which is calculated by multiplying the target achievement of the financial targets by the target achievement of the modifier, therefore amounted to 117.1%. The LTI remuneration for the 2024 reporting year shown in the remuneration report is based on the expected target achievement for the 2022 LTI tranche of 117.9%. The actual target achievement will not be known until mid-2025 and will then be published in next year's remuneration report.
The structure and the amount of supervisory board remuneration has remained unchanged. The amounts have already been presented under item five of the agenda. Let me now read out the proposed resolution. The management board and the supervisory board propose that the remuneration report as published on the website be adopted. The vote on the remuneration report is a recommendation. This concludes the presentations of the reports and proposed resolutions on the agenda items, on all agenda items. That is, we are now ending the internet broadcast. I would therefore like to say goodbye to all participants who followed the meeting on the internet. I would like to thank you very much for your interest and attention.