Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome everybody to our WebEx Shareholders Meeting. I do apologize for not being on this live this year, but we all understand with the COVID-nineteen pandemic that we need to be safe for all our shareholders and for all our executives. So I appreciate you joining us this morning. I'm David Farr.
I'm Emerson's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for another 5 days. To my left is Sarah Bosco, Senior Vice President and Secretary and General Counsel of the company, who will serve as the Secretary of this meeting. We're holding this meeting right here in our actual boardroom this year, which is the first time ever. We're pleased to be hosting our virtual meeting, which allows us to reach a large number of our shareholders. I welcome all the shareholders, the guests who are joining us this morning.
Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending via WebEx or telephone is permitted to use any recording device as we go through this process this morning. Now let's get down to business. The 131st Annual Meeting of the Shareholders of Emerson is called to order. This is my 20th as CEO of Emerson and will be my last as the CEO of Emerson as a shareholder as the CEO.
I'd first like to introduce our directors who are also on the line this morning. Mark Glynn, the former Chief Executive Officer and President closed serve corporation. Smedes Boycic, Emerson's Lead Independent Director and Retired Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank. Josh Colton, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Business Roundtable Martin Craighead, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Baker and Hughes William Easter III, Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DCP Mid stream. Gloria Flack, Retired Corporate Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Northrop Grumman Arthur Golden, Senior Counsel, Davis Polk, at Wawa Law Firm Candace Kendall, Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kendall International Laurie Lee, Chief Executive Officer of AT and T Latin America and Global Marketing Officer for AT and T Matt Levitich, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Harley Davidson Jim Turley, Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ernst and Young.
Before I move forward, I would like to thank the Board For their tremendous support, help and guidance throughout this last year, it was a very extraordinary year given the COVID situation, given the events that unfolded across this company. Yet the Board stayed course, worked very hard with management team as we live here in St. Louis and around the world in our offices and work. I also want to thank the Board for their tremendous effort this year in the final year of our succession planning, which has been going on for 5 years. I want to thank the Board for their effort, their support, insights and commitment This is a successful succession for Lal Kharchapam, which is very important for the history of this company.
As many of you know, I'm only the 3rd CEO in 66 years, Lal now is only the 4th in 66. Also in attendance today is Michael Trane, our President here in St. Louis, Michael in the room Frank Dellaquila, Our Chief Financial Officer and Senior Executive Vice President here in the room with me today Steve Pelch, our Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President here in the room here today Mark Valanda, our Senior Vice President of Planning and Development here in the room today Kathy Buttonbell, our Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President, and she's been very busy the last couple of days. Thank you. Welcome here, Kathy.
And several other members of the Emerson senior management team. I'd like also to introduce Emerson's business leaders or platform leaders. Jamie Fotage, Executive President in Commercial Residential Solutions here here in the room today with us. Welcome, Jamie. Jamie was recently in Singapore and he moved his family from Singapore to back to St.
Louis in the last 2 or 3 months. Is Lal Khartsaban, Executive President of Automation Solutions and will become Emerson's new Chief Executive Officer on February 5, later this week. Congratulations, Lal. Congratulations. We also have with us today from KPMG, Craig Ryan, Engagement Partner Matt Erickson, Partner Both Mr.
Ryan and Mr. Erickson are available to answer appropriate questions. They are on the phone. So if you have a question relative to the auditors, We will unmute their phone and we'll let them respond to the question. You can also send them a note.
We'll be glad to get it to them. First, we should deal with some preliminary business matters. The Board of Directors of the company fixed today, February 2021 is the date of this annual meeting. Our shareholders in fixed November 24, 2020 as the record date for the determination of the shareholders You are entitled to receive notice of and to vote at this meeting. Ms.
Bosco, as Secretary will you please report regarding the notice of the meeting and the proof of its mailing?
Mr. Chairman, I have an affidavit from our mailing agent certifying that pursuant to SEC rules, a notice of annual meeting, Proxy statement and form of proxy or a notice of Internet availability of proxy materials was mailed commencing on December 11, 2020, to each shareholder of record as of November 24, 2020, and these materials were also posted on the Internet as required. A copy of the company's 2020 annual report to shareholders was also mailed or otherwise made available to the share of shareholders in accordance with SEC rules. These will be filed as part of the records of the meeting. The shareholder list Shows that 599,468,617 shares of the common stock of The company were issued an outstanding as of the close of business on November 24, 2020.
These shares are entitled to be voted at this meeting. At this time, we have received proxies and ballots of shareholders holding 521,740 This is in excess of 87% of the total number of shares entitled to be voted. Therefore, a quorum is present and this meeting is duly constituted. On the table before me is a copy of the minutes of the last meeting of shareholders held on February 4, 2020, Which minutes are available for inspection by any shareholder.
Thank you, Sarah. Appreciate that. I would now like to turn to the formal business on the agenda. The polls are now open. Any shareholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following instructions there.
Shareholders who have sent in their proxies or voted via telephone or Internet do not want to change their vote are not required to take any action this this day pass. The first item involves the election of 4 directors of the company. Management has solicited proxies for a slate of 4 directors. And at this time, I would like to call for that slate to be placed in the nomination.
Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Board and management of the company, proxies have been solicited for 4 persons to serve as Directors of the company. Live. And I would like to formally put into nomination as Directors of the company, Mark Blinn, Arthur Golden, Candace Kendall and James Turley, Each for a term ending in 2024.
Thank you. We have a nomination for persons to serve as your directors for the term ending in 2024. The second item in the agenda is to ratify the Audit Committee selection of KPMG LLP is the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2021. Mr. Chairman, I move that
the Audit Committee Selection of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021 BRAS side.
Thank you. The 3rd item on our agenda is an advisory vote on the compensation of executives named in the proxy statement for this meeting.
I move that the shareholders vote in favor of the following resolution, which appears in the proxy statement for this meeting. Resolved that the shareholders approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers as described in this proxy statement under disclose the disclosure contained in this proxy statement.
Thank you very much. I would now like to review briefly our 2020 performance and our Q1 results and answer any questions you may have regarding this review. After my presentation, I will announce are preliminary results of the voting on all matters. Clearly, given we're doing WebEx, we're doing this differently today. The charts will be is pushed out so the shareholders can look at them on their screens.
There will be a slight delay, hopefully not too long of a delay as we talk about it. But let's move forward with a review of 2020. So clearly 2020 was a very good year for us. It was clearly focused on prioritizing the safety and the health of our employees and our customers, business continuity and serving our global customers in critical industries. We have a very strong disciplined cost control and position For long term value creation through internal investment and also through acquisitions.
We have managed over 200 facilities around the world from an operational standpoint because Emerson stayed open throughout the COVID crisis starting back in March. We had to deal with the supply chain issues. Very strong performance around both those areas keeping the production going, supply chain and getting the goods to our customers, which they depended on, including the medical industry and obviously life science industry right now with vaccines. We had a strong finish to the year. Operational execution drives around our adjusted EPS, which includes the restructuring, which was underway, was $3.46 for the full year.
It was down slightly, as you'll see in a second versus prior year, but not nearly as much as many, many of our competitors. As we started back in 2019, we initiated some very global cost reductions and resetting actions, which we spent about $304,000,000 in 2020. Obviously, given the fact we started back in 2019 And all of a sudden what happened in 2020, we are well ahead of the curve from a cost standpoint and that clearly came through in our profitability and our cash flow. For the year, our cash flow was actually up. Our free cash flow was up at $2,550,000,000 was up 6% represents a very strong conversion versus our earnings.
Despite the overall uncertainty in challenging markets we faced, Our orders and sales finished in line with the guidance we gave back in August. In fact, as we put out the guidance reviewed with the Board back in April, we stayed slightly ahead of that. And we had very strong momentum going into the 1st of this quarter this year, which we'll show you in a second. And despite the lingering COVID-nineteen macroeconomic uncertainty, We're expecting consolidated sales to turn positive this year, our Q2 of fiscal year 2021. So overall, the company executed in very challenging, unprecedented year and we have a lot of momentum coming into 2021, a perfect time is to turn the reins over to the next generation CEO and leadership team in my perspective.
If you go forward, you can see the actual numbers. You can see our consolidated sales were down 9%, underlying sales were down 8%, currency and divestitures shows our acquisitions impact those two numbers. Our gross profit margins were slightly down. Our EBIT margin adjusted EBIT margin was down slightly. Our cash flow, our free cash flow were up and our GAAP EPS and adjusted EPS were down slightly.
But overall very good results. And the Board made the decision to increase our dividends last year by $0.04 and reflected that in the shareholders, continuing to pay back money to our shareholders, both in dividends and share repurchase, a very strong year from that perspective. If you go into the Q1, which we just announced this morning, you'll quickly see a changing dynamic. Our sales reported were flat. Our underlying sales were only down 2%.
So the curve, the momentum has changed relative is to our performance in the company and we feel very good going to the Q2 and we fundamentally believe that we're going to get close to flat underlying sales or maybe luckily even positive. Our EBIT margins in the Q1 were up significantly. Again, obviously, with the growth and the turnaround in business getting stronger and the fact that our cost reset actions are taking hold. And so we had a very good upward momentum and profitability. Adjusted EBIT, which takes out restructuring, also was up nicely over 2 60 basis points for the quarter.
So basically very good operating performance both by Lal's business and by Jamie's business across the company. This operation is moving quite nicely these days and hope it will have that strong momentum as we go into the Q2 and the second half this year. Our GAAP and adjusted EPS were up very strongly. Obviously, last year, We were down as we went through the process of things weakening as we went into 2020. Our dividends per share is up slightly.
The Board made a decision back in November this year to look at an annual run rate of only $0.02 dividend increase given the uncertainty around 2021. So we raised the dividend slightly, but it did increase it. Very strong operating cash flow and free cash flow in the Q1, A record cash flow for the Q1 numbers, over $800,000,000 of the operating cash flow, won strong earnings And strong execution by both Jamie's side of business and Lal's side of business on dealing with the working capital. So really tremendous performance across the company in the Q1, Really strong performance. Obviously, the market sees that this morning and our stock is up very nicely with the report of these results.
Hopefully that will hold throughout the day. If you go to the next chart, you'll see what we saw underlying sales around the world. We're seeing our European business recover. We're seeing Asia, Middle East and Africa, it's positive, it's recovering. We're still seeing parts of the United States, the Americas not recovered yet, they're still negative.
On Jamie's business, in the commercial residential area, he was up very, very strongly in North America and the U. S. As those businesses recovered around the residential area. On Lal's business, he continues to see negative performance in U. S.
However, we're starting to see signs of what we call green shoots and performance is starting to improve. Overall, pretty good performance and we'd expect this to continue as we move into the second quarter into the second half of the year. The guidance we put out today is around sales around $17,700,000,000 on a reported basis up 4% to 8%, underlying basis will be positive, is somewhere flat to 4%. Our GAAP EPS will be up 2% to 8% in the $3.29 to 3.49 and our adjusted EPS will be at $3.60 to $3.80 up to 4% to 10%. In fact, if we could deliver these results, our adjusted EPS for 2021 will be equal to what we delivered in 2019, but on much lower sales in 2021.
So great operating performance. We've adjusted our operating cash flow up slightly And I want to applaud the effort that business was making both in earnings and also from the standpoint of trade working capital, really good performance. As we move forward, a couple of things happened throughout 2020. We decided to launch a review of our purposes, our And just look at what we stand for as a company. We launched that in January of this year, January 2020.
Kathy and her organization went out to nearly 20,000 Emerson employees around the world to talk about our purpose, to talk about what we believe in, to go with our core values. And out of that came a new purpose statement, we drive innovation that makes the world healthier, safer, smarter and more sustainable. We brought into play 5 causes which we live by within the company, around the planet, humanity, champion, inclusion and future. And it ties very strongly to our core values around integrity, collaboration, safety and quality, continuous improvement, customer focus innovation and supporting our people. A very strong statement that we believe quite strongly across this company and we live by day in, day out.
I think Kathy, you and your team did a phenomenal job and I want to applaud you and I want to thank all the people around the company that participated in this, including myself, but I quickly found out that Kathy had deleted my button, so none of my inputs went into this. I quickly learned that very appropriately. As we look at what happened on this year, despite the challenges of the pandemic, we continue to invest in key technologies, next generation software, our digital transformation, our renewables and transmission and distribution. Even with the tough marketplace We went through. The Board worked with the company, worked with the management team to allow us to move forward and make these investments.
And American government around hydraulic power, very important investment as you look at the future of power generation, a renewable or sustainable power generation. We bought Open Systems in the International, OSI Power, very timely software company that we bought back and we started in the month of February and bought it by the end of the fiscal year around October 1. Progea, an investment that we made in software again around analytics, This is SCADA Technology. And then Innovation, which is an equity investment in German company, very unique company. So we continue to invest both In technology, in the next generation technology as per the company's perspective and also continue to invest in our facilities for safety, for automation, for productivity.
And in Jamie's business, we started investing for capital for growth and market share opportunities. So the company has the opportunity with the cash flow generation this year to invest in both technology, but also invest in the core businesses that we need to invest in. Very, very good year. Important area that we all face today is one that's been core within the company is around ESG, she, environmental, social and governance. This is nothing new to Emerson.
The Board has been working with this company for a long, long time And the highly relevant around Emerson's businesses, our culture and the overall DNA around ESG. It's a very important part of company. And I want to share a little bit more with you on this area, but it's a core part of our operating philosophy and a culture for many, many years. And you will see that as we talk about this. But this is an area that will continue to gain momentum and importance from our shareholders and from the individuals that run this company, our customers and the Board's guidance as we drive through this and drive this across the world and across the world of Emerson.
If you look at our framework, our environmental sustainability framework, we look at it 3 ways. Extremely relevant within the entire portfolio as we drive the future of lower carbon, more efficiencies and a cleaner, safer world. This is a critical Pan Emerson relevant strategy. It's not just one business. We are tied together across all businesses in the two platforms relative to how we're serving our customers and is how the technology is needed to really make an impact to our customers and the industries we serve.
We have the greening up, which means how do we green when inside this company? How do we make how do we produce things? How do we deliver things more efficiently, less carbon, less energy? Very important. All 90,000 employees in the company are focused on this area and will continue to focus on this area.
How do we deliver the products to our customers, the solutions? How do we work with our customers to allow them to decarbonize, how that we allow them to run more efficiently with less emissions, a safer world, a more sustainable world. This is something that we work very close with our customers, both in Jamie's business and Lal's business and actually we share across the whole world in this area, very important. This is the number one topic that we talk to with our customer base day in and day out. We've been living this far more in the commercial residential area for many, many years.
It's now coming very, very fast into our industrial area. Engaging with engaging with our external shareholders relative to our partners relative to how do we have more environmentally sustainable framework and performance across the company. There's a lot of people out there working with you, helping you folks around the health of time. But there are a lot of people out there really focused on this that we're going to work with to make this a better way. Working with the different organizations, the different groups, the different partners will make this a more sustainable approach that will help us as a company, but really help the world in the long term.
But again, a very critical Pan Emerson relevant strategy, the one that we talk about quite clearly. And I'm going to update the Board this morning after we finish shareholders meeting on some of the areas that we're focusing on within the company and the progress we've had. The low carbon economy opportunity will be significant for Amerenst in the near term and longer term. As we look at the clean fuels infrastructure, we are involved with this. In the renewable power, the clean fuels, This is something that we it's core to what we do today.
Our different products, our different solutions, we know how to help our customers do this. We're doing it for ourselves, but also with our customers. The same thing in the brownfield, which basically is upgrading of facilities. How do you make the facilities more efficient, the less emissions, to capture carbon. These are taking current facilities today and make them more sustainable, more friendly and they use a lot less energy, a lot less carbon emission.
Very important, something we know how to do today, let alone talking about the new facilities of the future, which we also work. The market is quite large for us today. We look at today as we see the market, our served market is well north of $8,000,000,000 as we see it. It could be larger over time. But very important, a huge opportunity for us and one that will change over time.
This will not impact is day 1. As we've seen some markets become less relevant for us, new markets will emerge as we've seen over the years. One of these classic examples is hydrogen. We are involved in hydrogen, the hydrogen value chain. How do you develop hydrogen?
How do you move hydrogen? Hydrogen production to us is a large chemical facility. And we have the opportunity both on our control systems, our instrumentations, our solutions, as the world looks at how they take hydrogen and use that versus hydrocarbons. And how do they manage that? A lot of work is going to happen over the next several years.
You can see in this chart, they're talking about major evolution to hydrogen. But a lot of work has to happen between now, 2020, 2030 to make that vision happen out there when you hear about green and blue hydrogen in 2,050. We are going to be involved in this. We're going to be highly involved in this from that standpoint, how you capture this, how you transport it and how you work it and how you do it safely. It's very, very big opportunity for us.
If you look at the next chart, you can see today we're already working with some of this. In the standpoint of green hydrogen production around the Monum production, if you look at our facility today, we're looking at a typical facility around 1 gigawatt of hydrogen, around $15,000,000 of opportunity for us. In systems and software and control work and solutions, consulting, this is something we really know how to do. On the conventional ammonium production, which we're also involved with, you can see we also have today $15,000,000 of product in each of those facilities. So we are a player today, but I think the market, we're going to see a big evolution over the next 5, 10, 15 years as they figure out how to produce hydrogen safer, more efficiently, more greener, as we would say, and then how to move the hydrogen into the network so we can use it for power and energy.
But Emerson has a unique position in this and we're going to continue to invest to make that happen. So I think one thing the company sees today, it's become very relevant, is our customer base is changing. The technology base is changing. The one thing that Emerson has been able to do over the years is to see that, Consult with the Board and make those changes. Not many Boards would stand up and talk to a company about making a $1,600,000,000 position in the middle of a pandemic.
But this Board listened to us. We actually looked at 2 acquisitions, so a total of $6,000,000,000 We decided on the 1 at $1,500,000,000 But the Board understood, they saw the strategic nature of this and we move forward. And I thank the Board for allowing that to happen because it's very important investment for the future of this company. One thing good about the company, we look forward, we take action and we innovate to win. So with that, I want to thank everybody for listening.
I want everyone to stay safe, It's healthy. Hope next year that Lal and the team will be able to have a live in our nice auditorium here. And as a large shareholder, I may attend depending if I get invited. They let me vote. If I get my proxy, they may figure out how not let me have a proxy.
But I want to thank everyone for joining us here today. We're going to take some questions and then we'll go back. But with that, Pete, operator, Any questions you want to have been submitted?
We do have a couple of questions, Mr. Farr. The first comes from a shareholder that asks, You highlighted that the company has been active with acquisitions in 2020. You expect that software and industry diversification This will continue to be areas of focus.
And the answer simple answer is yes, we will continue to do that. As we look at the strategy of the company and the reposition of the company over the years, if you look back in my 20 years, the company has transformed enormously from being a very component player to a solutions player and today close to 13% of our sales in software. Fundamentally, the industries are changing, our customer base is changing and we will continue to change. We will continue to invest to be relevant for our customers. That will include more software.
As Lal and Jamie both know, it's core to where we're going in the future. And I think that this company is Obviously, in tune with that and we'll continue to make those investments. But at the same time, we're not going to walk away from our core technologies around sensing, around The managing around control is also very, very important. So I think it's going to be a balanced investment both in software, control, sensing and instrumentation.
Another shareholder asks, yesterday, the company obviously announced the new CEO. What skills do you and the Board believe the next generation of Emerson leaders need to have to succeed going forward?
1, they have to be good leaders. They are good leaders. 2, they have the business savviness to lead a company as large and complex as Emerson. 3, they're highly in tune to the new generation technology around the software, around sensing. They have both worked around the world.
They're global players. All the leaders here in this company are very global players. They are also in tune to the changing social dynamics that we serve in this company. They're a younger generation. I was born from a my dad was born before the Great Depression.
I come from a different generation background. This next leadership team led by Lal will have a different perspective from the social responsibilities, the ESG responsibilities. And I think the Board saw that for the process over the 5 years we've gone through this process and they made a great choice in choosing Lal. But the team around Lal is critically important as Lal quickly find out this is not a 1 man show. It was never a day far 1 man show.
It was always a team in concert with the Board. And I think the Board made a great choice. With that, we're going to move back to our The voting tabulation from the inspection of election shows the following as the percentage of shares represent shares voted in person or by proxy or by changes. Each director has has been elected directed by the for the term to indicate by a substantial majority of over 93%. I believe this year we have, what 77%, 78% of our shareholders voted this year, John, is that correct?
I'm sorry, 87%, I'll reverse the number, sorry, 87%, which is a very High voting conference this year, very good. Thank you very much shareholders. The proposal to ratify the election of KPMG has been approved by the majority of the approximately 95% in favor. APNG sneaked by, stuck by there this year. The compensation of the company's named executive officer has been is approved by a majority of approximately 93% in favor.
The final tabulations will be disclosed in a report on a Form 8 ks, which will be filed by the company within the next 4 business days. I would expect us to see that out Friday sometime as always has and I would see the follow numbers, but a great turnout in both. Again, I want to thank the shareholders for that. It's very, very important that we have our shareholders input every year and it was great to see us getting back up this year to the 87%, 80 8% level. I understand that Arthur Golden, who is a current Board member, has a few words he wants to share with all of us.
Arthur, I've opened the lines to you, so you can say what you would like to say.
Thanks, David. Good morning, everybody. David said, I'm Arthur Golden. I am the Senior Independent Director, which means the oldest for Emerson. And Clemens Borsegg, our Lead Director, has asked me to speak to you briefly this morning, Both as a Director for the Board, I'm doing it also on a personal basis and as a very long time Emerson shareholder like most of the rest of you, I hope.
As we know and as David has mentioned, this is his last his 20th and final shareholders meeting. He's been our CEO for a little over just over 20 years. October was his 20th anniversary, Which we all know is a very rare accomplishment in modern corporate America for a CEO to be successful for that length of time. He's been with Emerson actually for just this is his 40th year with Emerson, which is also a fabulous accomplishment. But in those 20 years as CEO, what David has done is really outstanding.
He's continued the very strong traditions he inherited from Predecessor Chuck Knight and Bob Pearson is before him. But he's also built on what they did and he took Emerson to new heights. He led us through great change. I mean, this company is nothing like it was or very little like it was in 2000. He's led us through occasional turmoil like the Great Recession, the dotcom bubble and most recently through the virus, the coronavirus pandemic.
And in many respects, he's led us as we have reinvented Emerson to a company that is probably more successful than it's ever been. Speaking as a significant shareholder, which I am, I think we should all be grateful, very grateful for his leadership and accomplishments over these past 20 years. And just to mention a few of them, we don't have enough time to go through all of them. But when David took over in 2000, The market value of Emerson's stock was $13,300,000,000 nothing to sneeze at. Today, as we're speaking, It's hovering around $50,000,000,000 this morning.
That's almost 4 times as much. In addition to that, during the last 20 years, Emerson has paid out to shareholders more than $20,000,000,000 in cash dividends. We've increased The dividend each and every one of those 20 years as it has for the last 64 years, which is a record that Only 3 or 4 other American companies can match. In addition to that, Emerson is another way of returning money to shareholders who invest in it, Has bought back shares for over $15,500,000,000 for a total of about 37.5 $1,000,000,000 And when you add that to the increase in market value, that means in the last 20 years, what David has led Emerson to accomplish for its Shareholders is worth over $70,000,000,000 many, many times what it was worth when he took over. But stepping back from that a minute and thinking of some other things that are not necessarily tangible, but especially in these times, I think equally important.
Most of all, David has combined his business leadership and vision for Emerson with a focus on leading Emerson to do good things, Good things in its many communities, be a good neighbor and very important to support social progress in just about every meaningful way. He's always been a good person. I've known him for the last 40 years as well as an exceptional CEO. So As a Director, I'm very proud to have served with him during the past 20 years. It's been a great ride for him and for me as a passenger, you might say.
And as a shareholder, I want to express my and I really hope your gratitude for what he's done for us and contributed to Corporate America in general. As we all know, he was President of the National Association of Manufacturers. Also, we as the Board are very excited to welcome Lal as David's We are very, very confident he will continue Emerson's pattern of outstanding Chief Executives, But we will miss David, his presence, his thoughtfulness and his leadership. So to end Maybe a little bit on a personal note, David, I hope and I think we all hope you enjoy your next phase with more time for your family and your other interests. But again, thank you for all you've done for Emerson.
Thank you for being my friend for the last many, many years. And I want you to know that we will all miss you. So with that, I'm finished. Thanks. Goodbye, but just for today.
Thank you, Arthur. Thanks, the Board. It's tough to say goodbye. It's been my blood for 40 years. Okay.
Now back to Board. That was very nice, Arthur.
Less than you deserve. This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day.