Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. I am Francie, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining Audi Q3 2022 Investor Relations conference call and webcast. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one. Please press the star key followed by zero for operator assistance. It's my pleasure, and I would now like to turn the conference over to Robert Schwarzl. Please go ahead, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Audi Investor Relations conference call for the Q3 2022. Thank you for dialing in. I have Jürgen Rittersberger, our CFO, and Christian Bauer, Vice President Sales Planning and Sales Steering with me. After their statement, you will be able to ask your questions. The slide deck is as usual available at the Audi Investor Relations website, alongside our quarterly update and the fact sheet for the Q3. Without further ado, I would hand over to Christian. Christian, it's your stage. Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone, and a warm welcome from my side as well. Yeah, my name is Christian Bauer. Some of you may remember me from the quarter one investor relations meeting. I'm responsible for global sales planning and sales steering for the Audi brand. Now, I would like to elaborate on our sales development over the first nine months of 2022. As you are aware, this year is still heavily impacted by various challenges. This is not only for Audi, but indeed the whole automotive industry across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic, chip shortages, and of course, logistics challenges that continue to influence our global operations. Following the Ukraine crisis and the sanctions imposed on Russia, the energy supply security is an additional challenge that we are facing. Macroeconomic uncertainties and rising inflation are now showing the first effects on consumer sentiment. It goes without saying that we continue to do all that we can to safeguard our Audi operations and profitability in the face of these oppositions. Our steadfast focus remains on prioritizing higher margin cars within Audi, within the premium brand group and the VW Group level. In addition, we have offered customers the opportunity to reduce product specification for items that are currently restricted. With these measures, we have now secured approximately 600,000 vehicles in the year 2022. These initiatives continue to help us to stabilize our operations as far as possible. Even so, we expected supply to improve across the second half of 2022. It is not yet sufficient enough to activate full capacity operations at all of our production plants. However, we have been able to reduce the gap compared to previous year. In the first half year, combined vehicle deliveries from the Audi Group was 20% behind previous year. Month to date, September, shows a reduction of only 10% below the same period in 2021. The key for this recovery is the Audi brand. With 1,194,000 units, the gap for the Audi Group of 20% will close to 10.5% below previous year. Please allow me to give you an update for the other brands as well. Lamborghini was able to further increase deliveries, which are now up by 80% compared to the previous year. The best seller was the Urus with 4,384 units sold, and the fastest-growing model was Huracán with a strong 11% year-over-year sales increase. Bentley's deliveries grew by 3.5%, with the Bentayga and the Continental families making the most significant contribution to this growth. After a decline in the first half year, Ducati deliveries are now back at the previous year level with +0.3%. Looking now at the Audi brand, we saw the first year-on-year performance increase in August, and this trend has continued in September. Higher sales were driven by a slight improvement in the supply situation compared to beginning of the year. Our top sellers worldwide are the Audi Q5, the Audi Q3, as well as the Audi A4. Looking now internationally. In the United States, deliveries decreased by 18.4% to 133,000 units. The decline is driven by the chip shortage and disruptions in the logistics chains. Overall, our European deliveries have also declined, however, by only 8.7%. This, despite the growth of sales across our electric model range. In Germany, the deliveries to customers grow by 8%, which is a result of the high demand for the Q5, the Q3, and the A3 families, and of course, our BEV model range. In contrast, the French market was heavily impacted by the low availability of the PHEV and the BEV models, which led to a year-on-year decline of 20%. Despite recurring COVID lockdowns in China, we saw a quick rebound in demand. As a result, the gap in delivery decline could be reduced from 24% to end of June to 12% at the end of September. The best sellers in China are our Q5 and our A4 families. When we take a closer look beyond the main regions, we see that the overseas markets, who all have extended logistics lead times, have also been significantly affected by the supply chain issues. That said, a business area that continues to deliver very optimistic results and a strong performance is our RS models. The RS sales grew by + 9% to 33,500 units versus previous year. This is further evidence of our focus on higher margin costs within the VW Group. The RS models continue to record a very high demand, which has resulted in an order backlog for some models which now extends to mid-2023. The Audi RS remains here our top seller. In the first nine months, the Audi brand delivered almost 70,000 fully electric vehicles to customers worldwide. This represents a significant year-on-year growth of 45%. In total, our market share of fully electric vehicles has reached 6.5% year to date. This is up from 3.9% versus previous year. Despite our continued prioritization of BEV models, the current supply bottlenecks continue to have a significant impact on the availability of our BEV models. This result is a similar situation as we have within our RS models, with extended order backlogs across our BEV models. For example, while we have almost doubled our Audi Q4 e-tron sales to approximately 30,000 units, the order backlog now extend through to mid-2023. Year to date, the e-tron GT customer deliveries have also increased to approximately 7,400 cars. Overall, the Audi e-tron remains our BEV top seller with more than 36,000 units year to date. The Audi e-tron has been the pioneer of electric mobility at Audi and continues to be a great success story since its launch in 2018. With more than 160,000 units sold in total, the Audi e-tron continues to be the market leader within the premium electric SUV segment. Due to high customer demand, the current model is already sold out. However, good news, the facelift is right around the corner. Starting in quarter one 2023, Audi will launch the Audi e-tron product improvement with very significant upgrades and enhancements in all relevant aspects. While keeping its current strengths, we take the next step in electric performance with the new model. The new exterior design follows the new BEV design language of Audi, including new rim designs, color options, et cetera. An upgraded interior will underline the premium quality of the Audi e-tron and make the car look even more sporty and progressive. The main upgrades have focused on efficiency, which include improved aerodynamics and powertrains. Together with a larger HV battery, this results in a significantly increased electric range. At the same time, the DC charging power of our Audi e-tron, which still sets a benchmark in terms of charging performance, has also been improved. Overall, with the wide range of improved functionality, new product features, increased electric range, and a refined exterior design, the new Audi e-tron sets a new benchmark for the BEV range at Audi. Ladies and gentlemen, the last three months of 2022 will remain challenging. Nevertheless, we continue to have a consistent strong focus on higher margin models to ensure our profitability. In parallel, we are on track with our 2023 planning. We will improve availability, safeguard financial performance, and react to changes in customer demand in time. Electrification will continue to be the center of our growth strategy in 2023. As such, the volume planning will place a clear focus on expanding and securing the BEV ramp up. On this, may I extend my thanks to you for your attention. In closing, I would like to hand over to Jürgen Rittersberger. Thank you, Christian, for your presentation, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining our conference call today. Now that Christian has given you an overview of our sales development, let me walk you through our financials. 2022 so far has been another challenging year. The war in Ukraine, COVID lockdowns in China, semiconductor shortages. Uncertainty regarding energy supply and inflation continues to weigh heavily on material costs. At Audi, we have learned how to deal with these challenges. We leveraged our strengths and benefited from the current seller's market. In the third quarter, we saw the semiconductor shortage ease slightly, and we could benefit from our strong order bank. We now see the effects of rising inflation and growing uncertainty weighing on customer demand. As a premium brand, we are less exposed to this trend, but we will not remain unaffected. Continued focus on cost discipline and our strategy implementation is essential to our continued success moving forward. Looking back at the first nine months, our revenue came in at EUR 44.5 billion, which is 10% above the prior year figure. Please note that Bentley has been consolidated since the first of January and therefore was not included in the prior year figures. Excluding the revenues from Bentley, the figure would come in 4% above 2021, despite the 6% decline. The main driver behind the solid revenue development was improved pricing and reduced incentives. We have also seen strong growth of Lamborghini and Ducati, as well as our original parts business. Our Roadmap E is well on track. BEV revenues increased by 49% in the first nine months. Combined with the revenue from our low emission plug-in hybrids, the revenue conforming with the EU taxonomy amounted to 12.4%. Operating profit in the first nine months of 2022 reached an impressive EUR 6.2 billion with a 14% margin. The sequential decline in profitability from 9.4% in the second quarter to 9% in the third quarter was driven mainly by higher share of vehicles locally produced in China, as well as higher material costs. Despite the seasonal dip in August, we were able to achieve strong profitability in September. Taking a closer look at the drivers behind our operating results, we see a strong positive year-on-year effect from market and pricing of EUR 3.4 billion. While volume declines, our pricing performance remains strong with a year-on-year contribution of around EUR 1 billion. The benefit of a strong used car market contributed further EUR 0.5 billion in residual value effects. Furthermore, we saw a higher contribution from our subsidiaries, Lamborghini and Ducati, as well as from the newly consolidated Bentley brands. Our original parts business also had a positive contribution. The effect of raw material hedges and currencies was volatile during the year. With skyrocketing prices in the first quarter, the effect was extremely positive, but in the following six months, it has partly evened out. The year-to-date effect stands at positive EUR 433 million from raw materials. In a year-on-year comparison, the combined effect from raw material hedges and foreign exchange rates came to a negative EUR 264 million. Our product costs worsened by EUR 0.7 billion compared to the prior year level. This development was mostly driven by higher energy and raw material prices, as well as increased supply risks. We expect this negative effect to be even more pronounced in Q4. The effect of fixed costs and other items amounted to a negative EUR 11 million in a year-on-year comparison. This was mostly driven by the first-time Bentley consolidation. Performance related personnel costs increased due to a higher operating result. Our R&D costs increased despite a higher capitalization rate due to the Bentley consolidation. The operating profit before special items came to EUR 6.3 billion. The corresponding margin was 14.1%. Special items related to the diesel issue came to a negative EUR 32 million. The reported operating margin is therefore 14.0%. A substantial portion of our China business performance is included in our financial results. In the first nine months of this year, profits from our Chinese operations reached EUR 823 million. The year-on-year increase of 6% with a strong rebound in the third quarter was mainly driven by the rapid market recovery following the lockdowns. As you can see, even in challenging conditions, Audi could build on its strong product substance and achieve a very strong performance. Looking at the investment levels, we see that cash R&D increased by 8%. This was mainly driven by the Bentley consolidation and higher BEV-related R&D. The R&D ratio of 7.2% is slightly above our strategic target corridor. The increase from 44%-50% in the R&D capitalization reflects the current status of the product development cycle. At EUR 1.4 billion, CapEx is 54% above the prior year figure, reflecting the scheduled investments in best production capacities for both Changchun and Ingolstadt, where we are ramping up the production of the Q6 e-tron. Bentley consolidation contributed to the CapEx increase as well. CapEx accounts for 3.2% of revenues, which is below the strategic target corridor. In 2022, our capital expenditure will follow the usual seasonal pattern with a higher outlay in the fourth quarter. With a net cash flow of EUR 4.6 billion in the first nine months of 2022, we saw the following effects. A 32% increase in the gross cash flow, driven by a strong operating performance despite higher tax payments. At the same time, working capital increased substantially, which was driven by inventories and trade receivables. The transfer of some sales-related assets within the VW Group took effect with a corresponding cash outflow of EUR 0.5 billion. Accelerated investment in BEV production capacity also burdened our cash flow. A positive effect comes from the first-time Bentley consolidation. The prior year net cash flow was exceptionally strong, influenced by positive working capital effects, prior period cash inflows, as well as significantly lower tax payments. The EUR 4.6 billion net cash flow is a solid figure, and it once again illustrates Audi's strong ability to generate cash. As I mentioned before, we saw an increase in working capital, especially in our inventories, which grew by 25% compared to the extremely low prior year-end level. The balance sheet inventories amounted to EUR 8.8 billion at the end of September. Despite strong demand, and global logistical challenges led to an increase in new car inventories. We also saw our unfinished goods and raw material inventories temporarily increase as well, driven by the ongoing semiconductor shortage. Given our strong order book, we are quite confident that we will reduce our inventories towards the end of the year. Looking at the brands. In the first nine months, Ducati has shown a very strong performance. Ducati delivered almost 50,000 motorcycles in the first nine months. This is a slight increase of 0.3% compared to the prior year level. Revenue grew by 21%, thanks to the improved mix and pricing. With a EUR 109 million operating result, Ducati achieved a record 12.5% return on sales. Lamborghini delivered 7,430 cars in the first nine months of 2022, which is 8% above the prior year level. Revenue grew by an impressive 30% to EUR 1.9 billion. This was due to volume growth, favorable mix, and personalization, as well as positive exchange rate effects. With an operating result of EUR 570 million, the return on sales reached 30% in the first nine months of 2022, which is up by almost 7 percentage points compared to the prior year level. Quarter-over-quarter, return on sales declined, which was driven by a lower wholesale due to August holidays. Because of usual seasonality, we expect a weaker performance in the fourth quarter, but the brand is on course to achieve a record performance in 2022. Bentley has been consolidated within the Audi Group as of first of January. The prior year figures are therefore not included in the Audi Group financials. Bentley deliveries grew by 3% to 11,316 units. The revenue grew by 28%. We see the similar drivers here as at Lamborghini, volume, prices, mix, and exchange rate effects. In the first nine months of 2022, Bentley has achieved its best ever operating result with EUR 575 million, and the corresponding return on sales reached 23.1%. Despite the headwinds we expect in the fourth quarter, Bentley should exceed the target corridor in 2022. Now I will come to the outlook for 2022. Reflecting on this year's performance so far and taking into account better visibility of semiconductor supplies, we are adjusting the full year guidance. As of today, we expect automotive deliveries to customers to be between 1.65-1.75 million cars, including Lamborghini and Bentley. This downward correction is mostly driven by the Audi brand. Despite a slight improved chip supply, shortages are proving to be more persistent than we anticipated. While we still have a strong order book, the effect of the current economic challenges won't leave us entirely unaffected. Following the downward volume adjustment, we now expect revenue to be EUR 60-63 billion. Operating return on sales is now expected to be 11%-13%. This upward adjustment mostly reflects the strong performance so far this year and is based on the assumption that no larger distortions in the raw material markets occur. The implied decline in return on sales in the fourth quarter is due to higher material and energy costs as well as seasonal cost patterns. In the first nine months, we also had various non-recurring effects such as raw material hedge gains and positive impacts from used car prices. We expect the R&D ratio to be slightly above the strategic target corridor of 6%-7%. CapEx ratio is anticipated to be within the strategic target corridor despite the inclusion of Audi FAW NEV Company. CapEx has an especially pronounced seasonal pattern with major outflows in the last quarter. We guide for the net cash flow to be between EUR 4.5 billion and EUR 5.5 billion. The return on investment is expected to come in between 19% and 22% following the higher profitability. As you can see, despite many challenges, Audi has revised the return on sales guidance upwards. We are well on course to deliver a strong result in a very turbulent year. The guidance for 2023 will be published in March next year with the full year results. 2023 will no doubt have its challenges, inflation weighing on demand, increasing material costs, persistent economic uncertainty. We will proactively confront these challenges in a comprehensive manner. So far, so good. Thanks for your attention. Now Christian and me, we are looking forward to your questions. Thanks for listening. Thank you, Christian. Thank you, Jürgen. Now we can proceed to the Q&A, and I ask Francie to start the Q&A session. Francie? Thank you, Robert. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. We have the first question from Stephen Reitman from Societe Generale. Please go ahead. Yes. Good afternoon, and thank you very much for doing the call. I have two questions. First of all, on the margins, Lamborghini and Bentley, if we break out the third quarter, the margin at Lamborghini was 24.4%, so sequentially down on the 33.4% in Q2 and the 30.1% in Q1. If one do the same for Bentley, I get 22.6% in the third quarter compared to 25.5% in the second quarter. I know you mentioned that there's obviously a degree of seasonality on the margins on the earnings of both these companies, but could you comment on what was going on in terms of the sort of cost impact? What should we expect for the fourth quarter? Is this a sort of pattern going forward? Clearly, these companies are well above their sort of like near-term margin guidance ranges that you've set out earlier. My second question is also about sales overall. You mentioned you were quite successful in convincing some customers to take delivery vehicles with some options not without certain options. Obviously, there are some times you have, you make some kind of deal with a customer. How do you deal with the impact that might have on the residual value of the cars if these vehicles then don't have certain functions that are obviously highly desirable maybe when it comes to selling the cars? Thank you. Thanks, Stephen. I will take your first question. For our luxury brands, Bentley and Lamborghini, we see a usual seasonal pattern, and the Q4 was typically not the best quarter in the year. This is due to lower volumes because we have limited production capacities in the fourth quarter, for example, due to the vacation, the holidays at the end of December. We have, on the other hand, fixed costs, higher fixed costs typically in the fourth quarter, especially for our products and our product investments. Okay. Thank you, we'll move to the second question. Maybe I can ask Christian to answer. Yes. The question about delivery, residual value, and opt out from options for the customers. Okay. Mr. Reitman, the options which we have taken out, which I presented in my presentation, we have really deeply analyzed if we could take them out, and what are the effects on the leasing rate and on the residual value. Together with our different finance banks, like the financial service department, for example, we have a kind of pre-assumption found out that the residual value effect is to be said, honestly not so big. In matter of that, we have discussed this with the customers and of course with related to the leasing rates. Everybody can of course step back from his contract, but mainly more or less all the customers have been satisfied with the option take out possibility and perhaps been still bought the car or take the leasing rate in his book. From this understanding, there will be not a huge effect in the residual values. Thank you. Thanks, Stephen. We are relying on good product substance, and we're confident to keep the residual value and also the new car prices on a good level. Francie, we could pick the next questions if it's okay, Stephen. The next question comes from Tim Rokossa from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Yeah, good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I would have three, please. The first ones are on BEVs. What's the latest on PPE? How shall we think about model launches from here? When will there be meaningful numbers? How many models, etc? Secondly, when we think about BEV profitability, obviously Volvo Cars shows this. You in the past were quite vocal talking at least about the contribution margin. When we think about the contribution margin and perhaps even EBIT level today, how does that of the PPE cars will look versus your current ICE lineup? Then as the third question, when we think about the economic development not leaving you entirely unaffected, how should we think about this in the sales strategy? Is this on the pricing side? Do you see it in weaker order intake? Can you put a number behind that? Thank you very much. That's a cool bunch of questions. Thank you, Tim. Maybe we can start with the last one, with the impact of the economic situation on volumes, on prices. Maybe Christian would take this one. Yeah. First of all, thanks to the good performance and the strong product substance we have right now, a really, really solid and strong order bank. So far it records, more or less, worldwide, 570,000 in total. On Audi side, when we talk about our BEV model range, we have around 460,000. Coming to your question, within this order bank, we have around 20% of our BEV models. That gives us a strong performance and a strong outlook for the next weeks and months. Coming to your question as well on the pricing side. Yes, of course, pricing discipline will remain favorable for limited product offer. Of course, we will look at the inflation rates and we'll see what's happening on the pricing side. So far, thanks to our good product substance, we could really increase the prices sequentially sensibly. We have done several pricing increases in the year 2022, as well 2021. For sure, we are going to see some additional price increases in the next year. Please always have in mind, it's not only pricing, it's all about the tacticals as well. We reduced heavily the tacticals, and we always have to see both in a kind of combination. I think that's actually a very good point. When the market thinks about pricing, in contrast to you, we think about a combination of tacticals and list pricing. We actually don't really care too much about list prices. When we think about better pricing next year, is that true for the net number out of tacticals and list prices as well? Are you confident to see an uplift on that side as well, or were you solely referring to list prices? Thank you. Like I said, it's always a combination. In detailed figures, for sure, I cannot answer you right now, but it will be always a combination. Coming from the customer side, the leasing rate is the most important topic, and it can be influenced on both sides. Okay. Coming to your questions regarding our BEVs, our PPE based battery electric vehicles. The SOP for the Q6 e-tron is planned for the end of next year. We are already started the pre-series phase, so everything is on track. We have always emphasized that we want to be profitable with our BEVs, and that we want to close the gap to the ICEs in terms of contribution margins and profitability. Of course, it's also our aim for the upcoming PPE models, starting, as I mentioned before, with the Audi Q6 e-tron in 2023. The highly competitive product substance makes me very confident to achieve this goal. However, we have to take into account that we see substantially higher commodity prices, especially for batteries, and it is not yet clear whether it can be fully priced to the customers. We have a plan to address the battery price challenge. We are working on the technology side, for better battery cells We reduced the complexity for our battery systems. We will see scale effects by using standard cell formats, the so-called unified cell. The vertical integration in the VW Group gives us access to lower cost capacities, for example, for tooling and for raw materials. Thank you. Thank you for your question, Francie. Maybe we pick the next question. The next question is from Anthony Dick from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I just had a quick one on my side, follow-up to the question on luxury margins. Could you please give us the contribution from FX on the different luxury brands? I don't know if they have a particular hedging strategy of these brands or not. Thank you. Please understand, but I can't give you the exact figures regarding the FX effect in the Lamborghini and in the Bentley P&L. The Lambo and also Bentley, they are part of our hedging strategy. They are part of our hedging system. Okay. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one. The next question is from Horst Schneider from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Yes, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. As Jürgen said, put a few smaller follow-ups, actually. The first one is regarding the question from Tim also on pricing, and you say that you continue to increase prices, et cetera. I mean, I see that on a year-on-year basis, but I don't see that this much on a sequential basis. When I look at just revenues per unit, it shows to me that it was more flattish if I exclude the China figure. I look at it from an ex China basis and divide revenues by the deliveries ex China, then there seems to be not that much improvement. On the back of that, my question, are the prices also increasing still sequentially? Should we also expect going forward that the prices continue to increase? My personal answer should be yes, because I think we see more FX tailwinds, so therefore they should usually increase again. Then on these product costs, which was clearly an issue in Q3, I'm hearing you on your statements on raw materials and impact, et cetera, but at the same time, you say all the time that you are hedged for a longer period of time than the other car makers. Nevertheless, now in Q3, basically in the whole group, but also at Audi, basically more product cost increases come through. Why is that? Is that more related to supplier cost pass-through? Is it really just raw materials? Or could you maybe break that up? What is then the split between raw material price increase and supplier cost pass-through? That's all. Okay. Thanks for your question. Maybe we start with the first one with Jürgen. Regarding your questions regarding our hedging strategy and our product costs. First of all, not all our raw materials are hedged. For example, we have no hedges for steel, and you know steel is a very important raw material for our business, and there are also some more materials that are not hedged. Second answer, the results from our raw material hedges are reported in the other operating results, not in the product cost. The positive effects from hedging, you can't see the positive effects from hedging in our product costs. Okay. Mm-hmm. Coming back to the pricing question. Like I already tried to explain, and hopefully I explained in the right manner. Yes, of course, pricing discipline will be in the next months and years for sure, always a topic. We always have to have a clear look, what is the increase in the raw materials. What is the inflation rate. What's coming next to us. To really balance the pricing, of course, with relation to our customer demand. Luckily, so far, the higher pricing has not had such a big effect on the consumer sentiment and affordability, especially in our premium segment. Like you mentioned as well, we are doing it sequentially on each month by month and year by year evaluation, what is the right approach. Like you have mentioned, even without Chinese price increases, we have done a lot of price increases all over the world. Be it in the USA, in North America, or in Europe. Several price steps with a percentage rate of 2%-3%, and even for our BEV models in a higher percentage rate has been done. Maybe I can add one point, we have to take the mix effect also into account. Last year we have a very positive mix, with a higher share of C and D segment cars. This year, the mix is not so good, so to say, because we have to stop the production, for example, at Bratislava, where we produce our C and D SUVs, for a while due to the semiconductor situation. Okay, that's great. Just one follow-up maybe if you allow. Then on these product costs, can you maybe give some indication what's the split between raw material increase and supplier cost pass-through? Since we see in particular now in Q3, the big increase in these product costs, does that mean we see now for the next four quarters, basically in the bridge, an elevated number? It seems to me that the steel contracts have been rolled by you just in summer. In H1, you were still enjoying favorable steel contracts, and that has changed in Q3. Is that the right way of reading or is it something else? What do you have the figures for raw material and suppliers? I'm not sure if we have it on hand. Yeah. We will come back to you, Horst, with some detailed figures. In effect, it's like that. The raw materials are coming more and more into the P&L, and you see them in product costs. We had on the other side a big hedge effect. In the first quarter, you saw them under the column hedges, and they evened out. Now the reality comes into the product costs. That's also not really predictable how the raw material prices, which are not hedged, are developing. We can be looking forward what's gonna happen with that column. All right. Sounds not that clear, but I wish you all the best for the next quarters as well. Okay. Thank you. I see there's one question left, actually in the queue. Maybe, Francie, you can pick the next one. Yes. We have a follow-up question from Anthony Dick on ODDO BHF. Please go ahead. Yes. Thanks for letting me back in. I just had a follow-up on my question on FX 'cause I wasn't able to find your policy. Can you just remind me of your hedging policy? Is it a rolling policy? To what extent do you hedge for the current year usually? You know, just going back to the luxury brands, is it, you know, with these companies producing in Europe and selling throughout the world, is it fair to assume that FX tailwinds played a significant part in the margin increase in 2022? Okay. Please understand that I can't tell you the details of our hedging strategy. What I can say is, we have normally for FX hedging, we have a horizon of, let's say, five to seven years. That's the basis for all our planning. Normally in the earlier years, we have a higher ratio, and in the later years, we have a lower ratio of already hedged currencies. Okay. The second question regarding the luxury brands. Both luxury brands has a high share of volume in the U.S. We expect a strong tailwind for both brands also in the next year. Okay. Thank you very much. We have one more follow-up from Mr. Reitman. Please go ahead. Yes. Thank you very much. Oliver Blume talked about asking all the different brands within the Volkswagen Group to do drills for potential IPO, just as a sort of training exercise. Could you just give some explanation of what that actually means, considering that obviously you have some brands that would obviously, probably, potentially fit in this category? First of all, the equity story is virtual, yeah, meaning there's no intention for further IPOs at this point in time. Capital market criteria with focus on profitability and long-term value creation are, yeah, let's say a universal measure. I think the work on a virtual equity story is a very helpful task for us because it's at the end, we have then more focus on our strategy, more focus on our key deliverables. I think it's for every company, it's really a good challenge. It's a kind of a catalyst. I think it's really a helpful task for us. Thank you. Thank you, Stephen, for your question. There's no question left. Yeah, thanks for all your questions. I hope you enjoyed this session, and thank you for your participation. Should you have any questions to follow up in advance or later, just feel free to contact me. Horst, I'll be getting in touch with you. Meanwhile, we all wish you a nice weekend. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you very much for joining. Have a pleasant day and a nice weekend. Goodbye.