Mercedes Benz Group Ag

Welcome to the annual results press conference call 2023 of Mercedes-Benz. At our customer's request, this conference will be recorded. The replay of the conference call will also be available as an on-demand audio webcast in the investor relations section of the Mercedes-Benz website. The short introduction will be directly followed by a Q&A session. If you have difficulties during this conference, please press zero followed by the hash key on your telephone keypad for operator assistance. If you want to ask a question after the presentation, please press 9 star on your telephone keypad and you will receive a confirmation that you are now in the queue. To remove this question, please press again 9 star on your telephone keypad and you will hear a noise which confirms the removal from this queue. Please note that dialing 9 star a second time during the call will automatically withdraw your question. Please refrain from pressing the key combination multiple times during this call. I would like to remind you that this telephone conference is governed by the safe harbor wording that you will find in our published results documents. Please note that our presentations contain forward-looking statements that reflect management's current views with respect to future events. Such statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties. If the assumptions underlying any of these statements prove incorrect, then actual results may be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements speak only to the date on which they are made. May I now hand over to Steffen Hoffmann, head of Mercedes-Benz Investor Relations and Treasury. Thank you very much.

Good morning, everyone. On behalf of Mercedes-Benz, I'd like to welcome you on both the telephone and the internet to our annual results conference call 2023. I'm very happy to have with me today Ola Kelenius, our CEO, and Harald Wilhelm, our CFO. You probably all joined our presentation right before. Just as a quick reminder, the respective capital market presentation with all 23 figures and the outlook for 24 can be found on our IR website. You may ask your questions now. I will identify the questioner by name. However, please also introduce yourself with the name and the name of the organization that you are representing before asking your questions. A few practical points. Please ask the questions in English and as a matter of fairness, please try to limit the number of questions to a maximum of two. And before we start, as always, the operator will explain the procedure.

Thank you very much. If you want to ask a question, please press nine star on your telephone keypad and you will receive a confirmation that you are now in the queue. To remove this question, please press 9-star on your telephone keypad and you will hear a noise which confirms the removal from this queue. Please note that dialing 9-star a second time during this call will automatically withdraw your question, so please refrain from pressing the key combination multiple times during this call. Again, for a question, please press 9-star on your telephone keypad. If you have difficulties raising a question, please try another conference call telephone number indicated in the invitation you received or press zero and the hash key on your telephone keypad for operator assistance.