u-blox Holding AG

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the U-Block School Year 2024 Results Conference Call and Live Webcast. I'm Sandra, the course call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants have been listed on the mode and the conference has been recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Rafael Duarte, Head of Investor Relations at Hublot. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. A warm welcome from my side to the ones joining here in Zurich, as well to the ones participating via webcast. Presenting today is our chairman, Andra Mühle, CEO, Stefan Sitala, and CFO, Camilla Jaipur. Let's go to the agenda quickly. We started with a forward from our chairman on strategy, then we moved to the full year results. And after we address some of the key topics that you have been asking for more clarity for a while. First, Camila will walk us through several topics such as our cost optimization program, R&D capitalization, and cellular phase-outs. Then Stefan will give us a strategy update focused on our locate business, including the new target financial model. Finishing up, we have the outlook and obviously time for Q&A. And now let's start with the chairman.

Thank you, Rafael. Also, welcome from my side. As the chairman, I usually don't speak up in those conferences. I have last done so in November 2023 at the Capital Markets Day. As you might have already realized, this is not a regular result publication. It is almost a mini Capital Markets Day, and that's also why I show up today, as you might have for this special event. You see, in November 2023, we presented to you our new uBlocks under the leadership of Stefan Zittala. Now, 16 months later, we are able to show you how this company actually looks like. And this is why I think it's important for me to be here today. 2024 was a year of execution and it couldn't have been a better time to bring Camilla on board as our new CFO in June. She was an instrumental addition to our uBlocks management team and key to the achievements that we present today. We had to take difficult decisions. We reduced over 20% of our workforce, and we decided to phase out Delaware, which once contributed one-third to our revenue. These are hard decisions, and they were not taken lightly, and they, as an entrepreneur, they are also emotional. I am confident in the near future near and long-term growth potential of the company. To reflect the challenging 2024, the board of directors has actually voluntarily decided to forego 25% of their compensation for 2024. Actually for the chairman is 33%. Going forward, we propose to align the board's compensation with shareholders' interest, lower the cash and adding new share component in the compensation. As it's written here, we are fully convinced in the near and long-term growth potential of uBlock and look forward to create significant value in the future.