Fuchs SE

Dear ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the full year results 2023 analysts conference call of Fuchs SE. This conference will be recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in a listen only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for the analysts of Fuchs to ask questions. May I now hand over to Lutz Ackermann, head of investor relations at Fuchs SE, who will start the meeting today. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of FUCHS this year, I wish you a very warm welcome to today's conference call on the fiscal year figures. With me on the call today is Stefan Fuchs, our CEO, and Isabel Ardert, our CFO, and both will run you through the presentation in a second. All the relevant documents have been uploaded at 7 a.m. this morning, and you can find them on the RR section of our homepage. Having said that, I would like to hand over to Stefan.

Stefan, please go ahead. Thank you very much, Lutz, and a warm welcome from my side to all of you. I think this is a nice conference call for us because we are really proud of record sales, record profits, and a really super cash flow last year. And Isabel will go in all detail with you through the numbers. But first of all, I want to come back to a press release which we made at the end of last year. And since January 1, 2024, we have a deputy CEO again. We had one before many years. But with Timo Reister, we appointed really a great colleague to become my designated successor. Obviously, this decision will be made by the supervisory board at any appropriate time. Timo is with the Fuchs Group since 15 years. The first five years he spent in the U.S., Then he was two years in China, and now he is in his ninth year as a board member. And I'm really happy for himself, but more happy I am for the company because this is for long-term succession planning. And I'm sure you will all appreciate it out of many reasons. First of all, they have a plan going forward because the one thing always is when someone wants to retire, the other thing is if something happens or the supervisor board is not happy with me any longer, I think it's really good to have all of that, you know, lined out. And, you know, when I look in between Timo and I, for me personally, I would not make such an announcement on my behalf if I would be here for another 10 years. So if people ask me, you know, how long will this take? I always say I'm now 56 and all things being equal, I would really like to retire at the age of 60. Because then I will have been the CEO since 25 years. And I think that will be a good time. However, I also say the company comes first because we also need to plan for Timo's succession in his today's role. I think very important for you is to appreciate that the family, obviously it has got no right, but it also does not ask to be a board member as a family member or to be to run the company. So I think Timo will be since many decades now the first non-Fuchs family member to potentially run the company. I think that's very important. The family itself is very happy with the engagement in Fuchs long term. So I think there's no change to come. And the family has obviously a seat in the supervisory board. And I think they really manage us in a very nice manner through this whole process. And therefore, I just wanted to give you this update and also wanted to give you some background and we can discuss it later on. Now I hand over to Isabel, who will go with you, I think, through a really nice set of figures.