Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I hereby open the Annual Shareholders Meeting of Continental AG, and I welcome you all, our shareholders and shareholder representatives, media representatives, and I'd also like to welcome any other interested viewers most cordially. I appreciate you joining our shareholders meeting and your interest in our company. Now, this is the third year in which we are holding a virtual shareholders meeting. The legal basis for this is the COVID-19 Act. It is valid until the end of August 2022. This is why the executive board decided to hold this year's annual shareholders meeting without the physical presence of shareholders or their representatives, and the supervisory board approved this. Mind you, we didn't take this decision lightly, but still, we believe it's right and necessary. Because otherwise, it would not have been possible to hold an in-person shareholders meeting without compromising the orderly conduct of the meeting and the safety of participants. Personally, I very much regret the fact that again, there can be no direct dialogue with you. After all, at Continental, we are keen on learning what you think of our company, and this is why we will try to involve you more closely in our shareholders meeting. This includes, for example, the publication on our website of the key items of our CEO, Nikolai Setzer's speech already last week. This allowed you to early on familiarize yourself with Continental's current points of concern and to also tailor your questions accordingly. Duly registered shareholders and shareholder representatives had the opportunity to submit questions to the Supervisory Board and Executive Board up until one day before today's annual shareholders meeting, i.e. until Wednesday, April 27 at midnight. We will address your questions in detail after the reports by the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board. Also, we have arranged for our duly registered shareholders to be able to submit video messages via the Investor Portal. You may watch the video messages there, and we will also show these messages in the course of the shareholders' meeting. This offering is not based on a legal requirement, and by doing so, as far as possible under the current circumstances, we're getting somewhat closer to a public oral dialogue, which you are used to at in-person meetings. We are happy to announce that two representatives of shareholder associations have made use of this offering and submitted a video message. Thank you very much for that. Now, the past fiscal year again presented us with a lot of challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic persists, and it is still causing human suffering. For companies such as Continental, this is a significant burden indeed. Supply chain disruptions still present a challenge, and particularly so in terms of semiconductors, which are so important for our Automotive sector. Here, I would like to highlight one thing quite clearly. The company struggled a lot to keep up the supply to our customers. I know that at times, this was only possible thanks to the extraordinary commitment shown by individuals, thanks to their flexibility and at times, considerable resourcefulness. For this, the Continental workforce deserves recognition, special recognition. If this were an analog live event, they would also get an applause, of course. Ladies and gentlemen, even without COVID, the situation was and still is challenging. The fundamental transformation the automotive industry is currently going through is asking a lot from all of us because we intend to, and we will emerge from this transformation as winners. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all of our employees for their exceptional work performed during last year to cope with all the crises and challenges that we've seen. Especially seeing that in the current fiscal year, new crises are developing. We are all following the war in Ukraine and developments in Russia with great concern. I think it's fair to say that hardly anybody would have thought such a tragedy possible only months ago. As a company, we usually do not comment on political developments. In this case, however, I would like to make a personal comment. I was born in 1949. At that time, Germany still lay in ruins. It was the year of the Berlin Airlift and the year when NATO was founded. It was the year when the German Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and the new German constitution in the east were approved and not only divided our country, but in fact the whole world. Dictatorships, war, and crimes against humanity cause suffering and harm. Not only at one particular moment in history or for a few years only. Rather, they jeopardize and impact human lives for decades. I am devastated to see that such events should be part of our present at the center of Europe. This is why right after the Russian attack on Ukraine, we responded to the best of our ability. We support and we comply with all the sanctions and legal regulations which were imposed in the wake of the war in Ukraine. We also temporarily stopped production at our Russian location, Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, while we continue to pay wages and salaries. After all, we have a duty of care vis-a-vis our employees in Russia. This duty of care particularly applies now when executives at our Russian location are faced with threats of tough consequences under criminal law unless we serve the local demand. In this situation, we decided that the responsibility for our employees should take precedence, which is why we have temporarily resumed part of the PLT tire production in Kaluga exclusively for the local market and without any profit-making objectives in mind. This step is based on our duty of care for our employees in Russia. Even beyond this direct impact, we are monitoring closely what the consequences of the war in Ukraine for global trade are, and we prepare ourselves as best and as quickly as we can. Nonetheless, we don't lose sight of the wider future. In 2021, we celebrated our anniversary. We reminded ourselves of the fact that for 150 years, the people at Continental have always shown the courage and the innovative power to respond to change and emerge from times of transformation even stronger. It's not least because of this that we are confident that we will also overcome the current phase. Later on in his speech, Nikolai Setzer will explain what the current situation means for Continental, so this is something to look forward to. Ladies and gentlemen, let me now make a few organizational announcements. The venue of this annual shareholders' meeting is Continental Headquarters at Vahrenwalder Straße 9 in Hanover, and I'm speaking to you from here. Similar to last year, the virtual format of this meeting is accompanied by a number of procedural adaptations and adaptations to shareholders' rights. In order to reduce contact risks, we've limited the number of people who are present in this room. The other people present in the meeting room are the Chairman of the Executive Board, Mr. Nikolai Setzer, and two more Executive Board members, namely Dr. Ariane Reinhart, Group Human Relations, and for the first time, Katja Dürrfeld, our new member on the Executive Board responsible for Group Finance, Controlling, and IT. I'd also like to welcome the Notary Public, Dr. Florian Hartl, present in the meeting room too. Dr. Hartl will take care of the minutes of this annual shareholders' meeting. The proxies designated by the company are also present. The other members of the Supervisory Board and the members of the Executive Board are following the live broadcast of the annual shareholders' meeting via live stream, and they may communicate with the board members who are present here today and amongst themselves. I would like to extend a warm welcome to you too, my esteemed colleagues on the Supervisory Board and the other Executive Board members. All those of you who are currently watching our shareholders' meeting online have gained access to the live broadcast via Continental's website. However, I'd like to point out that there is one important difference you need to be aware of. Interested members of the public may watch the live broadcast of the entire shareholders' meeting via the company's website, which is publicly accessible. Please note, however, that it is not possible to exercise shareholders' rights and, more specifically, to vote if you are watching the public broadcast. I would like to ask those shareholders and shareholder representatives who have registered for our shareholders' meeting to go to the Investor Portal to log in to the broadcast. You will find the InvestorP ortal interface above the Public Broadcast button on the company's website. If you wish to log in to the InvestorP ortal, you will need your registration confirmation document, which gives you your so-called registration confirmation number and the Internet access code. Once you are logged in the Investor Portal, you may, as long as the meeting lasts, exercise your voting right either by authorizing and issuing voting instructions to the company proxies electronically or by electronic postal vote. You may exercise your voting rights up until I, as the Chairman of the meeting, announce that the vote on today's agenda items is closed. Additionally, the Investor Portal allows you to raise an objection against resolutions adopted at this annual shareholders meeting for the record, and this feature will be available until the end of the meeting. Therefore, I would like to recommend that all properly registered shareholders log in to the InvestorP ortal, and this also applies to their representatives. Unless you have done so already, so that you may properly exercise your shareholders' rights. Ladies and gentlemen, let me now take care of some matters of form governing this annual shareholders meeting. The executive board published the invitation to this annual shareholders meeting, including the agenda and the proposed resolutions in the Federal Gazette on the 23rd of March 2022. At the same time, the invitation was sent to media outlets for publication all over Europe, and since that day, the invitation has been accessible on the company's website. The notifications required under Section 125 of the German Stock Corporation Act have been made. Since the invitation to this annual shareholders meeting was published on the 23rd of March 2022, documents for shareholders which are subject to a legal disclosure requirement have been available for inspection on the company's premises. Since then, and also during the annual shareholders meeting, these documents have been accessible via the company's website, and they're also available here today. I note that this annual shareholders meeting was convened in due time and form and in compliance with the law and the company's articles of association. At this virtual annual shareholders meeting, too, we will prepare a list of participants which is available for inspection in the meeting room. Given the physical absence of shareholders and shareholder representatives, the list will only include the names of the company proxies and the number of votes they represent. Also, we will show the number of postal votes cast. After I announce the attendance count, I will hand over the list of participants to the notary public and update you on the current attendance count before voting starts. This is the end of my introductory remarks and comments, and we now move on to the agenda. The agenda, including the full text of the proposed resolutions, was published in the German Federal Gazette, Bundesanzeiger, with the invitation to this annual shareholders meeting and made available on the company's website on the 23rd of March 2022. I'm referring to the contents there, and I'd like to begin with item one of the agenda, which is the presentation of the adopted annual financial statements of Continental AG and the consolidated financial statements approved by the supervisory board as at the 31st of December 2021 with the combined management report of Continental AG and the group for the financial year 2021. The proposal of the executive board for the appropriation of net income, as well as the report of the supervisory board and the explanatory report of the executive board on the disclosures pursuant to Section 289a (1) and Section 315a, paragraph 1 of the German Commercial Code, HGB. The statutory auditor, which for the first time this year was PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH, more particularly its Hanover branch, reviewed the annual financial statement and the consolidated financial statement, including the combined management report for Continental AG and the Continental Group, and they issued their unqualified opinions. Both the audit committee and the supervisory board met in the presence of the auditor, and they discussed selected items. At its meeting on the 17th of March 2022, the supervisory board approved the annual financial statement of Continental AG, the consolidated financial statement, including the combined management report based on its own review and based on the review and the recommendation of the audit committee. According to Section 172 of the German Stock Corporation Act, the annual financial statement of Continental AG has thus been adopted. The Audit Committee and the Supervisory Board also examined in detail the report prepared by the Executive Board on relationships with affiliated companies, the so-called dependency report, and its final declaration. The auditor also subjected the dependency report to the audit and issued an unqualified opinion. Having said that, I would like to inform you already now that the executive board and the supervisory board for the fiscal year 2021 are proposing a dividend of EUR 2.20 per share. After no dividend was paid out last year, this is very gratifying indeed. It also shows that we are holding our own despite the major challenges that are currently going on in the market environment. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to move on to my report on the activities of the supervisory board. First of all, I'd like to talk about personnel changes. Elke Volkmann stepped down from her position as an employee representative on the Supervisory Board with effect from the end of the 15th of September 2021. Being employed in the powertrain business area, it was not possible for her to stay on the Continental AG Supervisory Board after the spin-off of Vitesco Technologies for legal reasons. The Hanover Local Court appointed Carmen Löffler as a member of the Supervisory Board with effect from the 16th of September 2021. She's Chairwoman of the General Works Council of Conti Temic microelectronic GmbH, and she's also an employee representative on the Supervisory Board. I'd also like to inform you that Professor Siegfried Wolf stepped down from the Supervisory Board with effect from the 31st of December 2021. Upon request by the Executive Board, the Hanover Local Court appointed Mr. Stefan Buchner to the Supervisory Board with effect from January 1, 2022 until the end of today's annual shareholders' meeting. The Supervisory Board would like to thank Ms. Volkmann and Professor Wolf for their many years of service as members on the Supervisory Board and extends a warm welcome to the new members, Ms. Löffler and Mr. Buchner, once again. Finally, I'd like to tell you that Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann stepped down from the Supervisory Board with effect from the end of today's annual shareholders meeting. As you will have read in the agenda, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board are proposing Dorothea von Boxberg to be elected to the Supervisory Board as shareholder representative. On behalf of all Supervisory Board members, I would like to thank Ms. Schaeffler-Thumann for her many years of Supervisory Board membership and for her constructive contributions to the Board's work. I have known Ms. Schaeffler-Thumann for many years, and during this time, I not only learned what an exceptional entrepreneur she is, but I also learned, and if I may say so, I learned how lucky we've been to know her as a human being. Ms. Schaeffler-Thumann has rendered extraordinary services to Continental, and I'm surely not exaggerating when we state that her leaving also marks the end of an era for Continental for sure, if not for German industrial history as a whole. On behalf of the Supervisory Board and on behalf of the Executive Board, and also in a personal capacity, I wish her all the best for her future. Ms. Schaeffler-Thumann will be succeeded by Dorothea von Boxberg, and I will come back to that later on. As regards the Executive Board, as I already announced at last year's annual shareholders meeting, Philip Nelles took up his position as Head of the ContiTech Group sector on June 1, 2021. Andreas Wolf, former Executive Board member responsible for the powertrain business area, stepped down from the Continental AG Executive Board in the course of the Vitesco spin-off with effect from September 15, 2021 to take over the position of the Chairman of the Executive Board of the new Vitesco Technologies Group AG. The Supervisory Board would like to thank Mr. Wolf for his work on the Executive Board, and particularly for the successful strategic realignment of Vitesco Technologies, and also for his constructive role during the complex spin-off process. Helmut Matschi, as Executive Board member responsible for the former Vehicle Networking and Information business area, and Frank Jourdan, as Executive Board member responsible for the former Autonomous Mobility and Safety business area, stepped down from their respective positions in agreement with the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board would like to thank both gentlemen for their many years of successful work. Their work significantly contributed to the development of Continental into one of the most successful automotive suppliers worldwide. Also, in agreement with the Supervisory Board, Wolfgang Schäfer, responsible for group finance, stepped down from his position on the Executive Board on November 17, 2021 with immediate effect. In its meeting on December 14, 2021, the Supervisory Board appointed Katja Dürrfeld to succeed Mr. Schäfer as new CFO. Katja Dürrfeld is responsible for finance, controlling, and information technology. Ms. Dürrfeld has been a member of the Continental Group since 1997. She served in various operational functions, and starting in 2008, she assumed group management functions in systems and standards, and later on, also in a group audit. Before her current position, Katja Dürrfeld was Head of Finance, Controlling and IT in the ContiTech business area. I would like to extend a very warm welcome to Ms. Dürrfeld as a new member of the Executive Board, and this is her first annual shareholders meeting in this capacity. By way of another resolution passed in the December meeting, the Supervisory Board extended the mandate of our Executive Board member responsible for Group Human Relations, Ariane Reinhart, which would have come to an end in September 2021, by another three years until September 2025. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Ariane Reinhart for her successful work so far, and I'm convinced that under her leadership, together with our workforce, we will manage to actively shape the changes and harness the opportunities that our industries and markets provide going forward. Ladies and gentlemen, the challenging environment of the past year for our company also explains the frequency of meetings of the supervisory board and its committees. Thus, the supervisory board held six meetings in 2021, plus one strategy meeting and one information event. The Audit Committee also met six times, the Chairman's Committee met three times, and the Nomination Committee met once. Both the chairman's committee and the audit committee passed one resolution each by a written procedure. The other resolutions committees had no reason to meet. At each meeting after the plenary session, the executive board informed the supervisory board in detail of the sales results and procurement situation in the Continental Group and the individual business areas, as well as the financial situation of the company. Additional key topics were the status and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply bottlenecks for input products, and particularly the procurement of semiconductors and the consequences for our company. Additionally, we dealt with the ongoing structural change in the automotive industry and, as a result, the need for structural adjustments at group level. In this context, at its meeting on the 13th of September 2021, the supervisory board gave its approval for the reorganization of the corporate and group structure as decided by the executive board, which took effect on the 1st of January 2021. At the strategy meeting held on the 29th of September 2021, the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board extensively discussed the strategic objectives and strategic planning for the Continental Group with a special focus on the HR strategy. Another key item discussed were the areas of action in the Automotive Technologies group sector, with a special emphasis on Autonomous Mobility and vehicle architecture. In connection with specific portfolio measures of the group, the Supervisory Board approved the sale of the specialty tires business in St. Marys in the United States. It also approved the sale of Continental's minority share in QuantumScape. QuantumScape is a battery startup company. As regards acquisitions, the Supervisory Board approved the acquisition of the global printing blanket business of Trelleborg, a move by which the ContiTech group sector aims at expanding its industry business further. In addition, the full board, as well as the audit committee, was informed about the business development of strategic investments and acquisitions of the past few years, and it also received reports on their integration into the respective group sectors. At the extraordinary supervisory board meeting on the 14th of June 2021, the supervisory board received a detailed report by the executive board on the status of the investigative proceedings by public prosecutors against former and current employees and members of the executive board. The particular subject of the investigations is suspected aiding and abetting in a fraud case, and also the question if and to what extent Continental, at the request of certain automotive makers, developed manipulating software, which was later illegally used in diesel engines. At the recommendation of the executive board, the supervisory board resolved at this meeting to carry out a comprehensive and independent investigation with the help of an external law firm. At the same time, the supervisory board formed a non-decision making special committee. This special committee is available to the investigators, the public prosecutor, and the company's defense lawyers as a point of contact, as source of information, and recipient of reports. The special committee regularly reports to the plenary session on the current status of the investigation, and it also prepares any resolutions that are required for the plenary session or the committees. This measure is designed to ensure that in cooperation with the investigating public prosecutor, the issue at hand and any responsibilities are fully and comprehensively investigated. The audit committee was also informed by the executive board in detail and on an ongoing basis about the sales results and employment development in the corporation and individual business areas. In these reporting activities, the executive board is supported by the head of accounting, the head of group controlling, and additionally by the heads of other central functions, in particular by the compliance and group audit departments, who regularly and upon request report to the committee. As a focus of each of its quarterly meetings, the audit committee discussed with the executive board the accounting situation as it stands at the end of each previous quarter and the outlook for the full year, as well as the quarterly statements and the half year financial report prior to their publication. In its meeting on the 30th of June 2021, the audit committee commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH with the review of the interim financial statement. Its Hanover branch, that is, and they discussed this review in its meeting on the 3rd of August 2021. In the same meeting, in the presence of the executive board rather, the audit committee discussed with the auditor the key audit matters. The committee also discussed the auditor's review of the remuneration report and decided to have this report reviewed by the auditor, not only from a formal perspective, but also in terms of its content. This is why the remuneration report for the 2021 financial year, as submitted for approval at today's annual shareholders meeting, also received the auditor's unqualified opinion regarding its content. Additionally, the audit committee was informed on several occasions about the status of the investigations initiated by the public prosecutor, and a particular focus was placed on the formation of risk provisions in this context. Other than that, various meetings were dedicated to the organizational structure of product compliance, how the compliance function could be developed further, and how its effectiveness can be secured for the long term. The committee also received comprehensive reports on the risk situation and risk provisioning in the area of cybersecurity. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes my report on the activities of the supervisory board, in which I've limited my remarks on the key personnel matters and content. Let me point out, however, that the full supervisory board report is available on pages 10 to 14 of the 2021 annual report, and it is accessible to everyone there. Next on the agenda is Dr. Setzer's report with a special focus on agenda item one. Mr. Setzer, you have the floor, and we are looking forward to your speech. Just imagine everything you need under one roof, but in a mobile fashion. A well-thought-through interior with surfaces you like to touch. Everything from sustainable material. A tiny house as a study done by ContiTech, and just recently awarded with a Red Dot award. Thus, we are showing we are in favor of innovation, of sustainability, and from new issues, we create new opportunities. The tiny house stands for more. It shows we at Continental develop innovative solutions under one common roof. This is why we redesigned our company. Together, we use the change as an opportunity. We embark upon new paths in a new time. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome. The issues of our time are so complex, more complex than they have been for many years. The coronavirus is still here, and there are new topics coming up. There is a war being waged in Europe. So far, this has been unthinkable. Now it has become a terrible, horrible reality, and we are shocked by it, deeply shocked by it. We feel deeply for the people affected, and we are making a humanitarian contribution. Ladies and gentlemen, with the new situation, the developments have become even more difficult, so it is especially important today that you hear from us where we currently stand, where we want to get to, and what you can expect from us in the current year. I will answer all three of these questions in the next 30 minutes. Where do we currently stand? 2021 was again an extraordinary year. After the already weak previous year, the market environment failed to pick up. The coronavirus disrupted supply chains, in particular in semiconductors. In addition, there were higher costs for purchasing and logistics, so that was difficult enough. We had to deal with an earthquake in Japan, a fire at a chip manufacturer's, a ship that blocked the Suez Canal, and there were floods in Malaysia. All of this costs energy, and it does cost money. In spite of everything, however, we achieved quite a lot. We laid the foundation for the future of your Continental with a realigned strategy and with an adapted structure that is clearly geared towards our markets, and we also returned to making a profit. On behalf of the entire Executive Board, I would therefore like to say thank you. Thank you to our more than 190,000 employees who made outstanding contributions all around the world. I would also like to thank two members of the executive board, Helmut Matschi and Frank Jourdan, who left the company at the end of 2021. Both have been working successfully for your Continental for decades. They demonstrated a deep commitment to the company and to its values. The same applies to Wolfgang Schäfer, who served as Continental's Chief Financial Officer for long years, for more than a decade. His expertise and dedication was appreciated by all. Many questions remain unanswered in connection with his departure. That is regrettable also for us. For legal reasons, we cannot currently comment on the matter. We hope you understand this. What is clear is that we fully support the investigation. Integrity is a firm and key part of our culture. It is firmly anchored in our day-to-day business and in our code of conduct, which applies worldwide and for all of the employees, and for all businesses. It also applies to our new executive board team, which welcomed Katja Dürrfeld almost five months ago. She has been with our company for a long time and is responsible on the executive board for finance, controlling, and IT. Katja, I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you in the future. Ladies and gentlemen, in the face of change, your Continental performed well. This is shown by our figures, which for the first time exclude Vitesco Technologies. Our sales in 2021 was at EUR 33.8 billion, up 6% year on year. Organically, they improved by 7.4%. We therefore outperformed the market with global automotive production growing by only 3% to 77 million units. In this environment, we achieved a good result. In operating terms and adjusted, it is at EUR 1.9 billion. Our adjusted profit margin rose to 5.6%. Continental continues to have a solid balance sheet structure. Our equity ratio is 35.3%. Our liquidity buffer remains high and amounted to EUR 7.1 billion at the end of the year. At the same time, we underwent a fundamental realignment. We spun off Vitesco Technologies, our powertrain business, which is now an independent company. Your Continental is now divided into three group sectors, Automotive, Tires, and ContiTech. In addition, Automotive is even more market-oriented. Our customers want to know how we can make driving safe, autonomous, more intelligent, and how can we make it sustainable, comfortable, convenient, and connected. We have organized ourselves based on our answers to these questions. We have six areas of focus under one common automotive roof. The results of the three new group sectors varied in 2021. Tires and ContiTech performed quite well. We have reported for both of them under one joint operation. Their sales rose year-over-year by 12.6% to EUR 17.6 billion. Their organic growth came to 13.9%, and their adjusted profit margin was 12.4%, up from 11.3% in the previous year. The adjusted operating result was at EUR 2.2 billion. Given the market conditions, this was once again a very good performance, in particular, if you take into account the market development. Just think of the increased prices for raw materials. It was a different story in the Automotive group sector, which was affected by supply shortages. Particularly semiconductors were scarce again and again. This resulted in increased costs in areas such as logistics. Sales in the group sector amounted to EUR 15.4 billion. Organically, this represented a slight increase of 1.2% compared to the previous year. Nonetheless, the Adjusted EBIT margin, purely operational terms and adjusted, was adjusted for the special effects, it was at -1.3%. This result had consequences for the Continental Group's net income, even though the latter was positive at EUR 1.5 billion. Free cash flow before acquisitions and deposits and carve-out effects amounted to EUR 1.2 billion. We therefore propose to distribute a dividend of 2.20 EUR per share, which corresponds to a total amount of EUR 440 million. This is at the upper end of our announced range of between 15%-30% of net income. Still, ladies and gentlemen, we are not satisfied with this result. We want more, and we know that we can do better. That is why we made adjustments in 2021 by restructuring your Continental and placing three group sectors under one roof. This makes us unique. No other company on the market can offer what we do. Automotive, tires, and ContiTech. These three group sectors cover four important customer markets. Automotive original equipment, business with automotive replacement parts, business with fleet operators, and the business with large industrial and end customers. Thus, we have three advantages. For one, these markets follow different cycles. Downward and upward trends might balance each other depending on what's happening. It makes us rather attractive for employees. This is our broad positioning. Those who join Continental can work on innovative solutions from a range of different perspectives. You may be a tire expert, you may be coming in to us from a software perspective, or you work with new materials. Most of all, we create synergies. Fleet customers, for example, do not only buy tires from us, we also offer digital systems such as ContiConnect 2.0. These can be used to monitor tire pressure, tread depth, or the condition of tires, and all in real time. This can also help fleet operators manage their inventories and reduce their fuel consumption. Same is true for agriculture. Here, we supply tires for tractors. At the same time, ContiTech produces tracks, drive belts, and conveyor belts and shock absorbers. Automotive provides technology to detect the vehicle's surroundings, cameras, radar, lidar, and also screen displays. In addition, Automotive is currently developing a modular agricultural robot. Customers get all this from us from one single source. Just like with a traditional automotive business, where we supply hardware and software alike. Our work continues even when a new car goes into serial production, because we deliver updates. Thus, we open up our full potential. When we form new partnerships, this benefits. This is beneficial to the company as a whole. This is, for example, true with the collaboration with Amazon Web Services, which started in 2021. We are making the exchange of data even faster. Cars can communicate even more efficiently with the infrastructure or with the cloud, and this helps with automated driving, and it makes autonomous driving possible in the first place. With Horizon Robotics, we are developing artificial intelligence. With Kopernikus Automotive, we are making automated parking possible and also maneuvering in factories. Ladies and gentlemen, from all of this, you can see we have three group sectors under one roof. It's not only possible, it is also the right thing to do. It gives us a competitive edge, and it creates added value for everyone, for our customers, for their, for our customers' customers, and for the environment, and for you, ladies and gentlemen. However, it is clear that this effect will not come on its own. We need to properly utilize our strengths, and this must be part of an ambitious strategy. We have such a strategy. Three pillars are crucial in this regard. Enhancing our performance, that's number one. Number two, optimizing our portfolio. Thirdly, seizing our opportunities. Now, what does this mean? Enhancing our performance, that's going to stay one central task. To date, we have made more than one-third of the 23,000 job changes announced worldwide. From 2023 onwards, we will save a gross EUR 850 million annually, exactly as we planned in 2020. At the same time, we are working on our costs. We are negotiating on prices with our partners, and together we find good solutions. We are taking appropriate measures when it comes to semiconductors. We're installing better early warning systems. We're planning our needs even better across the entire value chain. We are communicating better, and we are building up buffer stocks in a more targeted manner than before. Now, number two of our strategy, that's our portfolio. Here, we make a distinction between businesses that are mainly geared towards growth and businesses with stable earnings. We have different types of management for both of them. Our tire business, for example, is highly profitable. Here, we are therefore focusing on optimizing processes, and we are investing, and we are improving from day to day. On the other side, we have topics like automated or autonomous driving. Here, our focus is on innovation, on development, and on testing. For us, it is clear in the midterm, growth must also be profitable there. Because then this hinges on the third point of our strategy. That's the only way we can turn new tasks into new opportunities. In the past, mobility was all about motorized horsepowers. Today, it is about new horsepowers. It's about sustainability, safety, connectivity, and convenience. We are actively shaping this transformation every single day. It starts in our research and development centers. It starts on our test tracks, and we are in the driver's seat. For example, with our high-performance computers, the HPCs. They are being used worldwide. Last year and this year alone, with more than 20 models. From next year onwards, they will be used by E-vehicles in China. As a control center, these computers are in charge of very complex processes. The electronics in the interior, just like assistance systems, or they rule data management in the car. We were the first to produce them on a mass scale, and now we continue to set the pace. For example, with the cross-domain HPC. It controls several systems at the same time, even if they have very different requirements. We are currently developing the first computer of this kind, mainly in China. We are also making similar headway in safe, connected, and autonomous driving. In 2021 alone, we produced more than 28 million cameras, radar, and lidar sensors. Since 1996, we have connected 50 million vehicles already with other vehicles, with the Internet or with the infrastructure. Here, too, we are among the leading suppliers. 42,000 engineers are working on the mobility of tomorrow worldwide and every single day. We are investing in their projects. In 2021 alone, we invested more than EUR 110 million additionally just for assisted and automated driving. EUR 2.6 billion are spent for research as a whole. The result are world firsts, such as our ShyTech display. This is concealed behind a wood or leather surface and appears only when needed, makes the interior less cluttered and helps drivers to focus. Thereby, it also improves safety. Take our new driving planner, which allows drivers to quite literally see into the future because the system recognizes potential hazards several seconds in advance. It knows beforehand what might happen in a minute or in a second, and it reacts at lightning speed, for example, by sending a command to the brake system. Within 150 milliseconds, our MK C2, for instance, builds up brake pressure. Together with our PremiumContact 7 tire, this results in the shortest possible braking distance and maximum safety. For this, we repeatedly receive top ratings in independent tire tests. It is clear in Europe, almost one-third of all new cars are equipped with our tires. Ladies and gentlemen, our technologies not only make mobility more convenient and safer and more connected and autonomous, they also make it more sustainable. For example, thanks to the Conti GreenConcept tire we make by renewable material, and for more than 50%, they can be recycled. For the first time, we are making polyester using polyester from PET bottles and carbon black from scrap tires we will be using because we believe that circular economy is the future. At the same time, we want to obtain natural rubber from dandelions on an industrial scale. Sustainability is a key priority for us. That's why we are striving to create a zero carbon value chain together with our customers. Since 2020, we have only purchased zero carbon electricity worldwide, which has already reduced our very own emissions by around 70%. By 2040, we will be completely zero carbon at all our locations and also beyond power, electrical power. By 2050 at the latest, all stages of the value chain will be completely zero carbon. This is how we work for climate protection together with our customers because their emissions are continuing to fall as well. Now we're also looking at the rest. We are offering to offset CO2 for everything we supply. We get help from our Net|Zero|Now program. This means that customers can buy carbon neutral products, thanks to negative emissions. That's to say, we remove CO2 from the atmosphere, for example, by recreating ecosystems with our partners or by supporting reforestation, always in the framework of certified projects. We are consistently being sustainable with our industrial business. I've already mentioned the new materials from ContiTech. In addition, we are currently moving forward hydrogen filling stations by producing a completely new type of hoses with a partner from China. Because this is also what we mean by creating value, shaping a future worth living in together. Ladies and gentlemen, transformation is in full swing, and we will emerge from this transformation as one of the winners. This is why we are training our employees for their new roles. By the end of the year, we have qualified more than 8,500 participants in Germany alone. In other countries, we are also starting. We offer more, a digital learning platform with more than 130,000 training courses worldwide per month. More than 50,000 employees use this. In our software academy, about 23,000 people are undergoing further training. Today, we have 19,000 software and IT specialists in our company. We are also taking responsibility outside our own company to ensure that the transformation is successful as part of our alliance of opportunities. This represents more than 35 companies and over 1,000,000 employees. The trade unions have joined us, the employers associations are in it. Also key labor market stakeholders. Together, we are working to provide more individualized further training and to ensure a smooth transition from one type of work into another type of work. Ladies and gentlemen, the geopolitical situation is a tense one. COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its toll. This is having effects in production and supply chains, and it has effects on the demand situation. In addition, there is the issue of inflation. We have therefore adjusted our expectations for fiscal year 2022. We expect lower growth in the production of cars and light commercial vehicles, only 4%-6% above the year of 2021. Procurement costs are also increasing, particularly for oil-based raw materials. They're also rising in energy and logistics, especially for tires and for ContiTech. Overall, we expect costs to increase by at least EUR 3.5 billion. Therefore, our expectations for 2022 are with consolidated sales around EUR 38.3 billion-EUR 40.1 billion, and with an Adjusted EBIT margin, it will be around 4.7%-5.7%. For the Automotive group sector, we expect sales of around EUR 17.8 billion-EUR 18.8 billion and an Adjusted EBIT margin of -0.5% to +1%. In Tires, we anticipate sales of around EUR 13.8 billion-EUR 14.2 billion and an Adjusted EBIT margin of around 12%-13%. For ContiTech, we expect sales of around EUR 6.3 billion-EUR 6.5 billion and an Adjusted EBIT margin of around 6%-7%. Capital expenditure is forecast to be around 6% of sales, that is before financial investment. The free cash flow before acquisitions and divestment is expected to be around EUR 0.6 billion and EUR 1 billion. There may be further disruptions if the geopolitical situation remains tense and if the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Depending on the extent, our sales and earnings may be lower than in 2021. That applies to all group sectors. Despite these risks, we are confident that your Continental is on a sure footing. We have a clear strategy, we have the right structure, we have a highly motivated team, and together we are gaining momentum. We are sticking to our medium-term targets and expect Automotive production to grow. Assuming more than 90 million units are produced globally, we anticipate an Adjusted EBIT margin of around 8%-11%, a return on capital employed for around 15%-20%, and a cash conversion ratio of more than 70%. Ladies and gentlemen, we are responding to the issues of our time with innovative technologies and solutions, with the new horsepowers of mobility and with our unique positioning geared towards profitable growth under one common roof. In the last two years, we had some turbulences of historical proportions behind us. We have weathered all of this well. Now, once again, we are seeing a new era dawning, and no one knows what the consequences will be. We know our employees. In 150 years, we have proven that we can do change, and change turns into progress. We know how to create sustainable value. That's something that we can rely on, and you can rely on this, too. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Setzer, for this comprehensive report, for the update on Continental's current situation, and for the information about the goals of the executive board. Now, we need to keep the momentum you mentioned and stay on course. On a global scale, Continental is among the leading suppliers of the automotive industry. The company is a pacemaker and has outstanding opportunities to emerge from this phase of transformation as a winner. The supervisory board will support you and your colleagues on this, on the executive board as best as we can. On behalf of the supervisory board, I would like to thank you for your work and commitment, as I would like to thank all the employees of the Continental Group all over the world for their work and commitment. Ladies and gentlemen, I will now call the remaining items on the agenda, as we would like to deal with all the agenda items together when answering your questions. Item two on the agenda, resolution on the appropriation of net income. The executive board and the supervisory board propose that the net profits of the Continental AG for the fiscal year 2021 in the amount of EUR 2,591,528,167.53 be appropriated to distribute a dividend of EUR 2.20 per share. This amounts to a total dividend payment of EUR 440,013,156. It is further proposed that the remaining profit of EUR 2,151,515,011.53 is carried forward to the new account. Item 3 on the agenda, resolution on the ratification of the actions of the Executive Board members for fiscal 2021. In the resolution on the ratification of the members of the Executive Board, we would like to make a distinction. As I said, the investigations into the diesel issue are still ongoing. Our former CFO of many years, Wolfgang Schäfer, is a subject of these investigations. Therefore, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board suggest to defer the formal approval of Mr. Schäfer's actions until he left the company in fiscal 2021. For all other members of the executive board, the executive board and the supervisory board propose that their actions in the fiscal year 2021 be approved. Please be aware that you can vote individually on the ratification of the actions of each member of the executive board. There will, thus, also be an individual vote on the proposed deferral of Mr. Schäfer's formal approval. Item four on the agenda: resolution on the ratification of the actions of the supervisory board members for fiscal 2021. Again, the executive board and the supervisory board propose that the actions of the members of the supervisory board in office in fiscal 2021 be ratified for this period. Voting procedures will also take place by way of individual vote. Item 5 on the agenda, resolution on the appointment of the auditor and group auditor and of the auditor for the review of interim financial reports for the fiscal year 2021. Based on the well-founded recommendation of the audit committee, the supervisory board proposes to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Hannover, auditor and group auditor for fiscal 2021, and auditor for the review of interim financial reports, if any, to be performed in fiscal 2022. The audit committee stated that its recommendation is free from influence by a third party, and that no clause of the kind referred to in Article 16, paragraph 6 of the EU Audit Regulation has been imposed upon it. Item 6 on the agenda is the resolution on approval of the remuneration report. The executive board and the supervisory board propose that the remuneration report for the fiscal year 2021 drawn up and audited in accordance with Section 162 of the German Stock Corporation Act be approved. Finally, Item 7 on the agenda deals with the resolution on the election of supervisory board member. As I said before, both Mrs. Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann and Professor Siegfried Wolf resigned from the supervisory board. As Mr. Wolf already resigned on December 31, 2021, Mr. Stefan E. Buchner was judicially appointed member of the supervisory board as shareholder representative. This was necessary to ensure that the number of members of the supervisory board, as determined in the articles of association, is complied with. In accordance with the recommendation of the German Corporate Governance Code, the judicial appointment of Mr. Buchner ends at the end of today's AGM. That means that with the end of today's AGM, both Mrs. Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann's and Mr. Stefan E. Buchner's appointment to the supervisory board will end. You will have the opportunity to elect two new members to the supervisory board as shareholder representatives. As laid out in the circular, the supervisory board is composed of 10 members representing the shareholders and 10 members representing the employees in accordance with the applicable regulations in the German Stock Corporation Act and the German Co-Determination Act. Moreover, the supervisory board must comprise at least 30% women and at least 30% men. This quota must be complied with in respect of both shareholder and employee representatives on the board. The supervisory board proposes to elect Mrs. Dorothea von Boxberg, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo AG, and Mr. Stefan E. Buchner, member of various supervisory boards, to be elected as shareholder representatives. I expect that many of you have already watched the video messages of the two candidates that were published on our website on March 23, 2022. Further information is also included in the circular. Mrs. von Boxberg, resident of Darmstadt, is the Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa Cargo AG. Thanks to her many years of experience in different positions in companies of the Lufthansa Group, she is well acquainted with topics concerning mobility and logistics. Thanks to her comprehensive international experience, Mrs. von Boxberg will be of great value to the Supervisory Board. Mr. Buchner, resident of Bietigheim-Bissingen, can look back at a long career at Daimler with positions, among others, in Asia. Until 2020, Mr. Buchner was a member of the executive board of Daimler Truck AG and was responsible for the global Mercedes-Benz division. During his professional career, Mr. Buchner experienced, accompanied, and shaped the development of the entire automotive industry. With this holistic industrial expertise, his experience from one of the world's leading automotive manufacturers, and his many years in leadership, Mr. Buchner will be a great asset to our supervisory board. Shareholders, a general debate is not possible in a virtual AGM. Instead, we would now like to present the video messages we received from you, our shareholders and representatives of shareholder associations prior to the AGM. We are pleased to make your perspective on Continental public for everyone with image and sound. As I said at the beginning, we received two videos, which we would now like to play. Shareholders, executive board, supervisory board. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are once again forced to hold the AGM of Continental AG virtually this year. This is certainly regrettable, but in view of the devastating global economic developments, especially with regards to the conflict in Ukraine, it can be classified as rather insignificant. With this video, I would like to deliver a short message to you all. My name is Christian Laskowski, and I am the spokesman of the Association for the Protection of Capital Investors, SdK. Business development of Continental AG in the past fiscal year was quite satisfactory from the SdK's point of view, taking into account the despite difficult general conditions. I would like to thank all employees for their good work and express my great praise and appreciation. Nevertheless, there are still some issues to be resolved at this year's AGM. The main topics are the involvement of Continental AG in the diesel scandal and its culture of reappraisal, the resumption of production in Kaluga in Russia from an ethical point of view, handling of rising costs, and the problem of passing on costs, the rumors of a split-up, and also the plans of the administration regarding the planning of future general meetings. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you all good health and hope that we can see each other again in person in Hanover next year. Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Fridtjof Schill. I am a self-employed lawyer in Hanover and Managing Director of DSW in Lower Saxony. DSW is the German Association for the Protection of Security Holders based in Düsseldorf. With about 25,000 members, we are the largest shareholder association in Germany. I represent the DSW members among the Continental shareholders unless they represent themselves today. I am pleased to be able to say a few words to you. We at DSW currently see a difficult situation at Continental AG. The past fiscal year 2021 was not entirely easy. Nevertheless, we would like to thank the employees and the administration for their commitment to our company. We think that the factors that had a negative impact on our company were mainly of an external nature. However, the Volkswagen issue and the associated Schäfer personnel matter were rather unpleasant. Mr. Wolfgang Schäfer always made an impression of integrity to me. I can't really imagine that he would have acted in a criminal matter, but I, too, have been wrong before. I therefore think that we should wait for the external and internal investigations to be completed before we pass the baton on Mr. Schäfer or other staff members. We have all seen not only the current annual report, but certainly also the latest company announcement of April 21, 2022. According to this, the forecast for this year had to be adjusted downwards. Above all, cost increases and global uncertainties probably play a role in this. I have submitted my questions on this and on the last financial year to the company in parallel with this video. We largely agree with the agenda issues with one exception. The exception is agenda Item 6, the approval of the remuneration report. Three years ago, we had already rejected the underlying remuneration system as too high and too intransparent. The remuneration report now unfortunate. Now before us, unfortunately reflects precisely these fears. The remuneration report may be formally correct, but it should reflect a minimum of transparency, of comprehensibility. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Therefore, we will abstain on this agenda item. I wish Continental AG all the best for the year 2022. I hope that the operational problems can be brought under control. I think Continental AG is a great company with visionary products, hardworking employees, and also good management. I'm therefore confident that the challenges I have mentioned can be overcome. Good luck with this, and thank you for your attention. Gentlemen, thank you once more for your video messages. Although they cannot entirely replace an in-person event, this way of including your messages is yet another step toward a more lively event. We would now like to answer the questions we received prior to the AGM. All the questions we received on time before midnight on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, will now be answered by the members of the executive board, Mrs. Dürrfeld, Dr. Ariane Reinhart, and Mr. Setzer. I will answer the questions to the supervisory board, whereas the executive board will adopt these answers as their own. Like last year, we will answer all the questions we received, and we bundled questions referring to the same topic. When we answer the questions, we will also give the name of the person asking the question, unless they expressly objected to mentioning their name. I would now like to ask Mr. Setzer to start answering the questions. Thank you, Professor Reitzle. Prior to today's AGM, as we've heard, that was until the deadline on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at midnight. Around 240 questions were sent in by 11 shareholder associations, and about half of the questions were handed in on Wednesday, April 27th, by one shareholder only. When we answer the questions, we will at first answer the questions of shareholder associations. We received questions from SdK, the Shareholder Associations for the Protection of Capital Investors, and DSW, the German Association for the Protection of Security Holders. Afterwards, we will answer the institutional shareholders questions that Deka and DWS Investment GmbH, if those questions have not yet already been answered. Afterwards, we will answer the questions of VIP, the Association of Institutional Private Investors. Finally, we will answer all the remaining questions which we received from individual shareholders. In order to avoid repetitions, we bundled questions from different shareholders or shareholder associations insofar as we have the opportunity to do so within the brief amount of time. I would like to start with the questions from SdK. SdK finds that due to the COVID pandemic, the AGM has to be held in virtual form again this year. It remains unknown what the AGM format will look like in the future. It remains to be seen what the legal requirements are. Nevertheless, SdK would like to know now what the opinion about the Executive Board, as well as the board of the Supervisory Board of Continental AG is regarding the preferred form of future AGMs. Another shareholder who does not want his name disclosed also asks if the 2023 AGM will be in person and how we would decide if we were to decide today. We would like to answer as follows. We will review the form of future AGMs depending on the legal situation, the demands of our shareholders, and the further development of the pandemic. Irrespective of this, we welcome the fact that the legislator is continuing to examine the authorization of holding AGMs virtually, even outside of special situations such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. In times of increasing digitalization, this would, in our view, only be consistent. This virtual format makes participation, for example, international investors easier. Of course it should be ensured that shareholder rights are adequately protected in future virtual AGMs, and that the greatest possible degree of transparency and dialogue is made possible. On to the next question. SdK asks, what is the current impact of COVID-related leaves within the workforce, supply chain bottlenecks, increased transport and logistic costs, as well as increased general material, energy and raw material costs on the operational business within Continental Group? How do you assess the further development of this, in this regard for the group? These generally rising costs are a bigger problem for automotive suppliers than for automotive groups, as they can more easily pass increased prices on to end customers. How do you deal with this problem now and in the future? We would like to comment as follows. The safety and health of our global staff is our top priority. Measures for safety and distancing are monitored in each region all over the world on an ongoing basis and adapted accordingly. They always correspond to local requirements. In general, the situation on commodity markets and in supplies change, the supply chains has been very tense for months. Currently, the situation is getting even worse in light of the sanctions imposed due to the conflict in Eastern Europe and the deteriorating logistics bottlenecks. Currently, the COVID-related lockdown in China is an important factor here. In general, we expect additional costs for energy, logistics and material of EUR 3.5 billion. If the geopolitical situation, particularly in Eastern Europe, remain tense or even get worse, this can cause further long-lasting disturbances for production, supply chains and demand. Negative effects can also arise from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the related supply situation. We're currently negotiating price adaptations with our customers in light of the situation. We're quite optimistic that our good partnerships will lead to sustainable and successful solutions. Next question. We received many questions concerning the war in Ukraine and the corresponding sanctions and the impact of the war on Continental. SdK asks the following question: What is the current situation at the Kaluga plant in Russia? After the Russian government threatened to impose criminal penalties on the employees, production was resumed at a low level. In Kaluga, we mostly produce car tires. Can you track what these tires are used for? And can you ensure that the tires produced by Continental are not used for military purposes in the war in Ukraine? How severely would the Continental Group be hit by an energy embargo from Russia and the energy scarcity in Europe? Another question is, how high is the risk for Conti if we do not stop our business in Russia? Are there any calls for boycotts to no longer buy Conti products, as we've seen with Ritter Sport chocolate just recently? As we said, we can temporarily resume our production of tires in Kaluga, in order to particularly protect our employees in Kaluga and Russia from criminal investigations. We exclusively produce PLT tires in Russia for civil use. We cannot answer the question about the energy embargo in general because the dependency from it really depends on the individual location. Sometimes we use natural gas exclusively, sometimes exclusively for heating, sometimes we need natural gas for our production processes. In general, natural gas is an important factor in the energy mix of Continental. Furthermore, a reliable energy supply is an indispensable basis for our work. That's why we monitor the current situation very clear, very closely and evaluate all the options on the table. Our plants are in direct contact with local energy suppliers. With regards to the reputation risks, we can say that we understand that if the complexity of the situation is unknown to outsiders, and therefore our decisions are hard to understand. The basis for this step is our duty of care for our employees in Russia. The health and safety of our employees is our top priority. In order to answer your question with regards to Bayer, please contact Bayer. Bayer's AGM is also taking place today. In this context, not the Bayer context, but the other context, DWS asks on the impact of the war in Ukraine on the ongoing business year. The raw material markets in general have been very tense for months. Currently, we are seeing that the supply situation with the imposed sanctions and the increasing shortages in logistics are deteriorating. Currently, in the field of energy, logistics, and material, we expect further expenses of EUR 3.5 million, EUR 1 billion. If the situation, particularly in Eastern Europe, should deteriorate, this may have effects on the turnover and the business of Continental. DWS would also like to know, to what extent do you have business activities in Russia, and on what basis could Continental be sanctioned if you stopped your activities here? In this context, they also ask, do you believe that our decisions with regard to the plant in Kaluga can be maintained? If so, why? Continental has around 1,300 employees in Russia. We have a plant for ContiTech and tires in Kaluga and sales offices in Moscow. Furthermore, we are involved in a joint venture for tachograph in Tver, which is currently closed. The business share in Russia of, on the overall turnover of Continental currently is less than one percent of the group turnover. The current situation is very complex for international groups such as Continental. Our employees and managers are threatened by severe criminal charges if we do not continue to do our business as far as we can without violating the sanctions. In order to protect our employees in Russia, we are resuming the production of tires for the local market in Kaluga temporarily. The basis for this step is our duty of care for our employees in Russia. With the temporary resumption of production of the tire plant in Kaluga, we do not aim to make any profit. We are closely monitoring the current situation, and we continuously monitor all the options available. DWS further asks, to what extent do you procure raw materials and energy from Russia? In general, our main demand for energy is in the field of Automotive for Tires and ContiTech for rubber. So far, for example, we imported soot for our rubber products from Russia. But we are seeing that with regards to the sanctions and the deteriorating logistics bottlenecks, the situation is getting worse. That's why we activated emergency plans that include buffer stocks and alternative suppliers. As we said, natural gas has a very important part for the production in Germany. In Germany, and with regards to its source, this gas has the same source as the overall mix in Germany. The VIP handed in the following questions with regards to the war in Ukraine. We have investments and daily business in the war areas in Ukraine and Russia. How high are the active assets in this area, and is there any need for value adjustments, and are parts of them covered by insurances? How high is the turnover affected, and how can you help our employees and on site? Would it be an option for the board of executives to be a role model and drive a Volkswagen Golf for 12 months instead of an S-Class and donate the money they save here to the victims of the war? We would like to comment as follows. In Ukraine, we do not have a location. As I said, we have around 1,300 employees in Russia, mostly in our plant in Kaluga. Last year, we achieved less than 1% of our group turnovers here. The plant was launched in 2013 with an investment of EUR 240 million. Since then, these have been subject to regular write-offs. We continuously monitor the need for regular write-offs. We have, of course, insurances at commercial sensible heights. Any damages in Russia and the covers, the insurance covers will have to be checked individually. We currently do not have any other guarantees for our investments in Russia. We donated EUR 500,000 to the UN, to the United Nations. With this, we would like to quickly help the people in Ukraine. Furthermore, all of the members of the executive board also donated privately. At the same time, the global Continental team supports Ukrainian refugees. Apart from material and financial donations, such as clothes and sanitary provisions, there are also further offers. For example, employees of Continental are helping refugees in Romania and other countries to help find a job. Open posts that do not require language skills are highlighted, particularly in the job portal. We also in Slovakia use our good contact with tire producers to help people on site. Refugees are also given the opportunities to travel on to Germany. In Germany, the company provides company-owned flats for the refugees. There are further questions from SdK about compliance and investigations on the diesel issue. I would like to ask Dr. Reitzle to answer these questions. Thank you, Mr. Setzer. Well, SdK asks if there were any compliance violation within the Continental group that came to the attention of the supervisory board in the past financial year, 2021, and/or in the first months of 2022. The answer is as follows: the head of internal audit and the head of compliance regularly report to the audit committee of the supervisory board on their work. This also includes information on individual cases of compliance violations. Insofar as this results in relevant legal risks for the company, you can find this in the annual report in the chapter Risk and Opportunity Report. With regards to the diesel issue, SdK asks, on November 17, 2021, the supervisory board decided to terminate the appointment of Mr. Wolfgang Schäfer as his CFO. The reason for this is the investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Hanover regarding the use of illegal defeat devices in diesel engines and the defect in the ongoing investigation at Continental AG. Due to the ongoing investigations, he cannot make any further statements. Why was an active involvement of Continental AG in the Volkswagen diesel scandal still categorically ruled out within the internal investigations that Mr. Degenhart had initiated in 2015? Why were the results not brought to light as they are now at the Hanover Public Prosecutor's Office? How could something like this happen? How can you explain that only seven years after the diesel scandal, the Public Prosecutor's Office apparently has findings that seem to incriminate Mr. Degenhart, Mr. Schäfer, and another Senior Manager from the Powertrain division. How can it be ensured that other people within Continental AG were not involved in the diesel scandal? DSW inquires why this is not yet finally clarified. They ask, how has the supervisory board pursued further clarification in this matter since the investigations became known, and in particular, since the termination of the contractual relationship with Mr. Schäfer? What are the findings? How many employees have had to leave the company in relation to this issue? Deka asks, what is the current status of the investigation into the diesel issue? Did the supervisory board take its duty to monitor seriously, and have processes and structures been adapted in the meantime? I would like to answer these questions as follows. The supervisory board is taking its duty to monitor very seriously. Once the new attorneys of Continental could inspect the files of the investigation of the prosecutor's office in Hanover, the executive board informed the supervisory board in June 2021 in detail about the status of the investigation against former and current employees and executives. Because of the suspicion of aiding fraud in the context of using inadmissible software in diesel engines by certain car manufacturers. The supervisory board then decided to launch an independent and comprehensive investigation with the support of an external law firm. The subject matter, scope, and results of the internal investigations conducted by the executive board since 2015 are currently being investigated as part of an independent investigation on behalf of the supervisory board. This investigation by the supervisory board is also still ongoing, just like the investigation of the public prosecutor's office. Therefore, we do not yet have final findings to answer your questions. The amicable termination of the executive board appointment of Chief Financial Officer Wolfgang Schäfer is related to the fact that we have identified deficits in the clarification provided to date in the course of the internal investigation. Continental does not comment on the individual cases in light of the ongoing investigation. The resources responsible for legal and compliance were put under the responsibility, the direct responsibility of our board of executives, and they were restructured. We're also looking at deficits that we were already aware of, and we're trying to improve the situation. The supervisory board takes its duty to monitor and duty of care very seriously. Should the internal investigation show any need to act, the organs will take the corresponding decisions and implement corresponding measures and provide information if legally required. Please understand that in the interest of our employees who are affected, and in the interest of a good investigation of the company, we cannot comment. The investigations of the public prosecutor's office in Hanover and Frankfurt are ongoing, so we cannot provide any details, and we would further like to refer to our information about this in the annual report 2021. There are further questions in this context with regards to the financial effects on the diesel thematic. Mrs. Dürrfeld, over to you. Thank you very much, Professor Reitzle. The DWS would like to know which liability risks still lie with the Continental AG, and which particular liability risks fall under the responsibility of Vitesco Technologies. My reply is the costs and the potential fine for the diesel issue originally have to be paid for by Continental. That is why we set up a provision. Vitesco Technologies, according to the contractual obligations, it is obliged to exempt Continental of all potential costs and liabilities. This is very much in line with the agreement concluded between the parties stipulating that all the opportunities and risks emerging from the business transactions delegated to Vitesco Technologies shall be transferred to Vitesco Technologies. The lease regulations were not taken into account when the provision was drawn up. The DWS also wants to know to which extent have you set up a risk provision for that purpose? Deka wants to know, has the Continental group also set up a provision, or does this responsibility lie with Vitesco only? As you can read in the annual report on page 205, we have set up a provision for potential risks and costs for the investigations of the prosecutors in Hanover and Frankfurt amounting to a double-digit million amount. The DWS wants to know when will this amount be utilized? We think that you would like to know at which particular moment in time a fine notice might be issued against Continental AG in connection with the investigation of the public prosecutors in Frankfurt and Hanover. It is still unclear when a potential fine will be imposed on Continental. Additional questions of SdK deal with strategic questions. Nico, I'd like you to take over. Thank you, Katja. We have received questions concerning potential plans for additional spin-offs and questions concerning the split up of Vitesco Technologies. The SdK would like to know, within the German Automotive sector in recent months, there have been more and more trends towards additional spin-offs in order to become more flexible and gain more room for maneuvering in the face of transformation processes in the Automotive sector. Also at Continental AG, with Vitesco Technologies, we have spun off our powertrain unit. There are other public discussions about a split up into four parts of the Continental Group. Could you please comment on the publicly discussed considerations of the Continental Group to be split up into four units? Deka would like to know, are there any plans to split up additional business units? If so, what are the operational reasons for that? The spin-off of Vitesco Technologies has been completed. How satisfied are you with the development of the spin off and the developments for Vitesco and for Continental? The DWS wants to know, how do you evaluate the implementation of the spin off procedure of Vitesco Technologies? I'd like to say the following. Since December 2020, when our Capital Market Day took place, the Automotive structure was realigned in order to, you know, make it fit much more nicely into our strategy and in order to speed up the transformation process. I made mention of this in the course of my presentation. We want to be more geared to the new trends in the market. On January 1, 2022, this new structure was introduced. The transformation process has thus been accelerated. Transparency has been increased. The most fundamental change is the merger of the former divisions V and I and AMS into the corporate entity, which will now be called Automotive. This is the roof that I refer to. We are very well positioned in order to be able to generate profitable growth. At the current moment in time, this is what we predominantly focus on. We want to go back to profitability, especially in the sector of Automotive. Here and in all the other different areas, we will do our utmost after due consideration in order to carry out portfolio measures, as already introduced at the Capital Market Day. A separation into four units of the Continental Group is not planned. With the divestment of Vitesco Technologies in September 2021, we've laid the foundation for putting our full attention and our capital into those areas which are of core significance. That is why at the beginning of 2022, we adjusted our Automotive structure. As I said before, the spin off of Vitesco Technologies was successfully carried out in the middle of September 2021 in a very difficult market situation. The ongoing scarcity of semiconductors, which leads to the limitation of production of vehicles on the part of the manufacturer, the increase for semiconductors, raw materials, energy and logistics do not only pose a burden on Continental, but all the car suppliers and our former subsidiary, Vitesco Technologies. The fact that this is very well positioned in order to stand firmly in the market and meet the strong demand for electric vehicles is what is also really reflected in the publication of the results of the fiscal year 2021 on the 25th of March 2022. Various analysts also make very positive statements concerning the announced order intake. We wish the management and all the employees of Vitesco Technologies every possible success on their way into the future. The SDK takes a point of criticism according to which Continental focused too much of its time and efforts by focusing on the future. Autonomous driving, future technologies and our daily operations making money are issues that were neglected. The SDK, therefore, would like to know, what do you reply to these critics? We have always managed our portfolio in a very well-balanced manner, and we have always been a good and reliable partner to our customers. In its first pillar, our strategy focuses on strengthening our operational performance, and this is why we want to optimize our existing business activities, increase efficiency, and improve all the cost structures within the group. Our comprehensive transformation program, called Transformation 2019–2029, has led to tangible results and will lead to annual savings worth EUR 850 million from the year 2023 onwards. Apart from that, in the second pillar of our strategy, we assigned all our products in our portfolio to the areas growth and value, and business areas and segments will be managed accordingly. Topics such as autonomous driving and interconnected vehicles provide us with ample growth and future possibilities at Continental, and this is why we want to invest in a targeted manner into the development of, and marketing of these technologies and business fields. This requires upfront investments that we want to jointly organize with our customers and which will be paid off based on future orders. We also focus on segments which continue to grow in the market according to their size, such as Safety and Motion, responsible for brakes, wheel sensors and brakes, but also our tire business in Europe. This makes it necessary for us to focus on the increase of our profitability and the profit contribution for the group. With this very well-balanced strategy, we reach a high level of being fit for the future at Continental while having a very good, stable result on a long-term basis. The SDK would like to know the investments according to regions show that in the rest of Europe, North America, Asia- Pacific region, as well in other countries of the world, more has been invested within the Continental Group than in the year 2020. Only in Germany, the investments in Germany declined compared to the previous year. Is this a one-off effect or part of your strategy? Continental weighs every single investment decision rather carefully with due care. As a whole, we always pursue the strategy which is called in the region for the region, in the market for the market. This is where we really focus on the profitability of the business. The regional distribution of the investment is based on these two factors and is subjected to annual oscillations. Onto the questions of the DSW. The DSW asks, from our viewpoint, the Continental AG has developed a very good strategy for the further development of the corporation. Is the executive board of the same opinion? If not, where should the strategy be revised? We do hold the view that it is difficult for the Continental AG to get going. Does the executive board approve of our position? If not, where we are, or where are we already in full swing according to the position of the Executive Board? Where have we become a market leader in the last three years, and where will we be profitable in this particular segment, or where will we become profitable in particular segments? Why is it difficult for Conti to get going? What are the main problems as viewed by the Executive Board when it comes to implementing its strategy? Our share price went down significantly in recent years. How can that be explained? Now let me summarize as follows. Yes, we believe that our strategy and the realignment associated with it in the Automotive structure is right. Generally speaking, the current situation makes us face new challenges in the entire sector, and this is what we alluded to in the course of previous presentations and statements. Professor Reitzle made mention of this already. At the same time, we are in the middle of a fundamental transformation process in the Automotive sector, calling for higher investments. We spoke about automated driving, for example. This is also reflected in our current performance and constitutes an additional hurdle when it comes to implementing our strategy. But with many measures that have already been implemented, we come to terms with that. We are confident that we will reach our midterm objective in the Automotive sector with our high-performance computer, for example, and we are the first to offer such a product in the market. Our display solutions, we will help to pave the way of the Automotive sector into the future. The corporate units, tires, and ContiTech for many years have generated positive results that we will continue to support and strengthen. We are not fully satisfied with our market evaluation. I mentioned this in the course of my presentation. Because Continental has competencies in the technological area, software, and electronics, which provide us with enormous market potential. We are of the opinion that this is not taking into account adequately by the capital market represented in our evaluation. We are working on this consistently with our realignment, our strategy, and the measures that we're taking to increase efficiency, cut costs, and optimize our portfolio. This will help us improve our profitability, and this will also contribute to strengthening the corporate value. Now, I would like to ask Katja to take over and answer the remaining questions of the DSW on the first quarter and concerning our outlook. Thank you, Nico. The DSW would like to ask the following. On the twenty-first of April 2022, you published the first results for the first quarter 2022. Can you summarize the first quarter in a nutshell? My reply, with our ad hoc announcement on the twenty-first of April, based on preliminary information available to us, we published key figures for the first quarter. The report on the first quarter will be published on May eleventh. The DSW, with regard to our outlook, would like to know, on the twenty-first of April, you had to realign the outlook for the year 2022. What were the three driving forces for this realignment? Can you give us a bit more background information and provide us with the information about the dimensions from an economic viewpoint on the Continental AG? Do further corrections have to be made? If so, in which fields? If not, what makes you so sure? As already announced in our statement on April 21, we had to adjust our outlook for the fiscal year 2022 for the following reasons. Continental expects that the global production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in the year 2022 will end up at a range of 4%-6% above the level of the previous year. The published outlook on March 9, 2022, based on an expected growth rate of 6%-9%. The negative effects of the cost increase for important supplies, especially oil-based raw materials, such as in the energy sector and logistics for tire and ContiTech, have aggravated this development even further. Forecasts concerning the expected global production of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles will influence the orders of our customers and therefore our sales forecast. As already explained in our announcement, our expectation concerning the increase of procurement and logistics costs has thus to be taken into account. Compared to the previous year, we expect an increase of approximately EUR 600 million compared to the EUR 300 million in the area of ContiTech, as well as an increase in the field of tires in comparison to the previous year of approximately EUR 1.9 billion compared to the EUR 1.1 billion before. Due to increasing inflation, we are constructively talking to our customers in order to adjust prices, but from today's perspective, no further adjustments are required, and we continue to observe the developments that might have a further influence on our outlook. Now, the additional questions of the DSW relate to the supervisory audit. Professor Reitzle, will you take over? Yes. Thank you very much. In connection with Mr. Schäfer resigning from the Executive Board, the DSW would like to know the... The Executive Board is a collegial body. Why don't you postpone the approval of the actions of the board completely, but simply the approval of the actions of Mr. Schäfer? Our reply is, apart from Mr. Schäfer, with regards to the other members of the Executive Board who were in office during the last previous year, there are no indication whatsoever that they were involved in the diesel issue. The DSW would like to know the following: Mr. Schäfer resigning from the Supervisory Board, why did that happen? Professor Wolf leaving the Supervisory Board, why did that happen? Mr. Buchner to be elected as a new member of the supervisory board, which additional supervisory boards is he a member of diverse, is what it states in the agreements. What does this mean specifically? Now let me give you a comprehensive answer. Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann, for personal reasons, decided to leave the supervisory board with the end of this AGM. As I already mentioned at the very beginning, this marks an end of an era, and I wish Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann once again, on behalf of the supervisory board, the executive board, and also on a very personal note, I wish her all the best for her future. Professor Siegfried Wolf, as you know, took over the chairmanship of the Supervisory Board of Vitesco Technologies. In this context, and in order to prevent an overboarding from occurring in the sense of the German Corporate Governance Code, Mr. Professor Wolf, on a personal note, decided to leave the supervisory board of Continental AG. Mr. Buchner, apart from his position in the supervisory board of Continental AG, is a member of the supervisory board at thyssenkrupp AG. He is also a member in the control board of MOSOLF SE & Co. KG, and the HÖRMANN Holding GmbH & Co. KG. Now on to the questions that Mr. Schmidt of DWS submitted. I would like to ask Mr. Setzer to answer these particular questions. Thanks very much. The DWS would like to know, according to the current supply situation with semiconductors, we would like to know the following: Do you think that it would be possible for you within the framework of cooperation or partnership to start manufacturing semiconductors? Also, Deka would like to know in this context, how about the semiconductor situation at Continental? How are you going to ensure the supply of semiconductors in the future? Are you going to change procurement logistics? The Deka states that the bottlenecks in the field of semiconductors at Continental and car manufacturers would have encouraged the company to take on responsibility for the production. Which effects will this trend have on the sourcing of the margin of Continental? Will this trend towards individual procurement on the part of the car manufacturers persist, or do you want to bring about a transformation or a turnaround? In a nutshell, I'd like to say that the effects of a scarcity of semiconductors will still continue to have an impact on us in the course of the years, but we expect that the situation will improve in the second half of the year. Ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns in China and supply chain problems and freight forwarders, ships, and trucks constitute an additional problem to us. We assume that the announced capacity increases in production will mean that the increasing demand can be met, but at the same time, we are working on analyzing our demand very specifically at the semiconductor level in close cooperation with our customers for the year 2022 and going beyond it. It will be possible to cover the demand based on placing particular orders. Furthermore, market observers assume that once additional capacities will be made available at the chip manufacturer side, the situation will be remedied significantly only in the year 2023, but this will depend also on the development of other sectors, apart from the Automotive sector, and how the demand will develop. Onto cooperation or partnership agreements. For a long time, we have already proactively cooperated and collaborated with different suppliers of diverse technologies and components in the sector of semiconductor. This is how we managed to gain a good position in the supply chain and access to innovation. Here we do not bank on one single technology only, but we try to reach out much further, so with every field of application, we can offer the best possible solution, but we are also more independent from individual suppliers. Due to the particular market situation for these components, we monitor our position on an ongoing basis and will adjust it if need be. Onto the trend in the field of sourcing. The semiconductor crisis is a worldwide automotive crisis and does not only relate to Continental only. We have introduced several measures in order to mitigate the effects as much as possible. Here, we closely cooperate with our partners and suppliers. The procurement of material, including semiconductors, is still something that Continental is solely responsible for, so we cooperate with our partners and suppliers as best we can. The DWS would like to know about the terms of our delivery contract. It is not possible to make a general statement concerning the terms of delivery contracts because this depends on the different products, and it is also geared towards the requirements of our contracting partners. For example, in the field of procurement of group sector Automotive, we have unlimited skeleton and project-specific contracts. In addition to that, we have annual negotiations on prices and margins. Additional questions of the DWS deal with questions of corporate governance and the work of the supervisory board. I would like to ask Professor Reitzle to take the floor. Thank you very much, Mr. Setzer. In connection with the independence of the supervisory board and the other mandates of the members, DWS has the following question: Over the next twelve months, can we expect to see further mandate reductions of the members concerned? Well, answer as regards multiple mandates, the supervisory board is guided by the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code. The composition of the supervisory board complies with these recommendations. They may well be a reduction of mandates, but this is not planned for the time being. Another question by DWS: When will the supervisory board impose an age limit to take adequate care of the succession process? Answer: As explained in the corporate governance declaration on page 15 in the annual report, the supervisory board has not set a fixed age limit because such a general criterion is not regarded as suitable to assess the qualification of a supervisory board member. Regardless of that, we have a well-working succession process on the supervisory board. Next question, it's about the special committee. How long will it last, and how often did it meet in the fiscal year ended? Answer: The special committee of the supervisory board was set up in the context of the initiation of the investigation in the diesel issue, and we believe that it will exist until the end of this investigation. It met four times in the fiscal year ended. Another question by DWS: Wouldn't it make sense to increase the number of independent members on the supervisory board and also to include the chairman of the audit committee? Answer: It's the assessment of the shareholder representatives on the supervisory board that all shareholder representatives in the meaning of the German Corporate Governance Code are independent from Continental AG and its executive board. Over and above that, seven shareholder representatives, including Professor Dr. Nonnenmacher, are independent of the IHO Group. There are more questions from DWS on executive board remuneration. DWS states that according to the remuneration report 2021, the severance payment paid to Frank Jourdan and Helmut Matschi amount to more than EUR 7.1 million, and DWS would like to know: How could the supervisory board have made better provisions as part of their strategic planning? Well, the supervisory board regularly deals with strategic planning and in 2019 approved the extension of the mandates of Mr. Jourdan and Mr. Matschi based on the then structure. Because of the new organizational structure, which was approved in 2021 for the Continental Group in the Automotive sector, the supervisory board in 2021 also did a review of the composition of the executive board, and in this context, it was decided that the executive board would be scaled down. Regarding changes that have consequences for many members of staff in Germany and worldwide, the supervisory board cannot turn a blind eye to a reassessment of the executive board's composition. Regarding the compensation claims by Mr. Schäfer, DWS has the following question: What are the conditions for a full or partial payment of this compensation? Will the annual shareholders meeting have the opportunity to vote on the ratification of Mr. Schäfer's actions before this payout, and how are these claims managed these days? I would like to comment as follows. As described in the compensation report, this is about the compensation for contractual claims which no longer exist because of the early termination of the employment contract. Based on the termination agreement, Mr. Schäfer is not receiving any additional payments, which would go beyond the amount under the employment contract had it been continued. To safeguard potential claims and rights of the company, the parties agreed that the payments to Mr. Schäfer would be deferred to the point in time when the investigations in the diesel issue will be completed. Regardless of the result of these investigations, the payments may be forfeited altogether. The decision on the payment of the severance payment is a task of the supervisory board, and the supervisory board will make a decision with a view to the contractual regulations and also with a view to the results of the investigations. This decision is legally independent of the decision by the annual shareholders meeting on the ratification of Mr. Schäfer's actions. The supervisory board will inform the annual shareholders meeting in due time, and this will of course also take into account the results of the investigation. Both decisions, however, come with their own separate timelines, and they are not necessarily interdependent from one another. We cannot with a certainty say that the decision on the severance payment will come after the decision on the ratification. The compensation claimed by Mr. Schäfer for the early termination of the employment agreement amounts to an amount which is not due yet, where the payment is dependent on a number of conditions. The payment claim is defined subject to the balance sheet rules. The supervisory board, before the amount is due, will assess whether or not the conditions are met or not, also with a view to the results of the ongoing investigations. The amount of a potential compensation payment for the early termination of the employment contract will be within the realm of the ceiling defined in the remuneration system. The other questions by DWS are on sustainability. I'd like to ask you, Ms. Reinhart, to take these questions, if you may. Happy to do so, Mr. Reitzle. Here are the questions by DWS on sustainability. You are making a case for transparency and the compliance with HSE standards along the supply chain. On page 131 of the annual report, however, you state that only 53% of your suppliers were audited by way of a self-declaration in the fiscal year ended. What is the target figure for 2022 in this respect? Answer. We assess selected suppliers with a view to sustainability by way of self-disclosures. For these selected suppliers, we received self-declarations as per the 31st of December for 53% of them. The coverage of the self-declarations were related to the total number of suppliers, and this is something we don't report. A target figure for 2022 has not been defined. Question: How do you verify the information and the correctness of the information in the self-disclosures? Answer. The self-disclosures by suppliers are obtained by the sustainability platforms, EcoVadis and NQC. These platforms, in turn, have their own string of monitoring and review mechanisms. Next question. We state that in 2021, the share of energy from non-renewable energies has risen. What are your targets in terms of reducing the share of fossil energy? Answer. 46.5% of our own energy demand already comes from renewable energies. By transitioning to green electricity since the fiscal year 2020, we have managed to reduce our own CO₂ emissions compared to 2019 by 70%. We have a group-wide target, which is to become carbon neutral as regards our own production processes by 2040. A key lever to get there is the transition to renewable energies and by using new technologies. Also, according to the annual report on page 132, the water consumption, especially in terms of drinking and groundwater, has increased. That's a question. Now here comes the question rather: What are your targets for the next three years, and how are you going to get there? Answer. The total water consumption in 2021 was reduced by 3.5% year-on-year. The key reason was the stop of water extraction by Vitesco Technologies, measured by group sales. Total water consumption is up by 7.9% year-on-year. This is primarily due to the spin-off of Vitesco Technologies with less water-intensive processes. By 2030, we intend to reduce water interaction in areas with high water risks by 4% on an annual basis and in medium risk areas by 2%, measured by our sales. With a risk-based approach, we are focusing on those regions in the world where water is becoming increasingly scarce, and we're primarily focusing on efficiency projects aimed at avoiding water waste and multiple use of water. Another question. There are several questions on the Conti GreenConcept. DWS has the following question: The Conti GreenConcept is a model which is based on 52% of recyclable and renewable materials. What are we to understand by that exactly? And, what is the current production share, and what is your target in this respect by 2030? Can you still expand the 52% going forward? How can used tires be used for the production of the Conti GreenConcept? Happy to take that answer. The Conti GreenConcept is an innovative conceptual study which sheds some light on a PLT tire, which will be made of fully sustainable materials by 2050 at the latest. This study combines current and future innovative technologies, some of which are already available, others are still developing, for the development and production of sustainable PLT tires. The share of renewable materials in the Conti GreenConcept is at 35%. This, among others, includes silica from the ash of rice husks, several plant-based oils, resins, natural rubber from dandelion, from sustainable production, and a responsibly sourced natural rubber from sustainable and transparent sources. The Conti GreenConcept is made up of 17% of recycled materials. Standard materials such as rubber, carbon black and steel can be replaced by recycled materials. Individual elements of the conceptual study will be transferred into series production shortly. This is true of the use of sustainable polyester yarns made from PET bottles. The successful start of this technology in series production within a matter of only six months was something we reported some time ago. We are proud of that. Other materials, such as vegetable oils and resins, are already in use today, and we will extend their use in future tire products. The reclaim material that is reused rubber that is extracted during retreading of truck tires comes from Hanover, for example. The carbon black that we're using is also extracted from used tires. Additionally, we entered into a cooperation scheme with Pyrum, a specialist for pyrolysis of used tires. Together, we intend to further optimize the recycling of used tires by pyrolysis extended further. In the long term, we are aiming at a circular economy for the recycling of used tires. The development goal is to extend the share of sustainable materials by 2050 by 100%. Here's another question by DWS. How comprehensive is the current cooperation between Conti and the operators of used tire disposal sites, and how are you going to expand this? Continental does not directly cooperate with operators of so-called used tire disposal sites. Via our subsidiary, Reifen-Entsorgungsgesellschaft mbH, and together with the responsible institutions, we are cooperating according to our disposal principles with specialized companies that dispose of used tires professionally. Moreover, we are working together with partners to use pyrolysis for used tires. It is our target to recover valuable materials and high-performance raw materials from used tires at industrial scale. Now moving on to the questions by Deka. Unless they haven't been answered, I'd like to ask you, Nico, to take care of them. Happy to do so, Ariane. Here's a question by Deka. The demand for cars and tires and other components is very high these days. Do you expect that this demand will go down because of increasing interest rates and inflation? What measures are you taking to cope with raw material inflation? We are continually monitoring demand changes in our industry. Our current outlook is still based on 4%-6% growth in 2022. In the period under review, we are expecting additional charges in energy, logistics, and material in the amount of EUR 3.5 billion. As already explained, we are currently negotiating with all of our customers to try and get the price adjustments in the light of the current inflation rate. Another question by Deka. What is the current status as regards the execution of the structural program Transformation 2019-2029? And for how much longer, and in what amount will you have to pay restructuring expenses? Well, as regards the structural program, 2019-2029, we are making good progress, as reported. More than one-third of 23 jobs have already been transformed. Restructuring expenses in the amount of EUR 1.1 billion of the entire term are provided. Restructuring provisions are covering the biggest share of these amounts already. Finally, Deka has the following questions. Since this year, the segments Autonomous Mobility and Safety have been separate segments. What are you hoping to get out of this separation, and has this already materialized? What's the current status of Continental in terms of automated and autonomous driving? The area Autonomous Mobility is very fast-growing, while the price trend for the products by Continental is going down. When do you intend to make this segment profitable, and how are you going to achieve a margin of 6%-8% in the Automotive segment? How do you intend to keep up with the software development? Bosch has 1.5 x as many software engineers as you have. We would like to respond as follows. Safety and Autonomous Mobility need to be looked at in different business contexts. Safety and Motion is a well-established business field, while Autonomous Mobility is on a growth trajectory. By separating both areas, they can focus on their respective, business field. Autonomous mobility has been independent since the first of January, 2022 rather. This means that autonomous mobility will be more visible, will be, better when it comes to responding and adjusting. It becomes more attractive for partnerships and can benefit more strongly from the potentials out there. I've already announced the partnerships, Horizon Robotics, for example. Already today, Continental is supplying hardware and software components in series applications for automated and autonomous driving. With the investment in autonomous mobility, additional fully functional autonomous systems in terms of parking and cruising could be brought to the demonstration stage. According to our strategic plans, we expect a break even to happen in the medium term, assuming annual production of PLT of at least 90 million units. In addition to the well-known transformation project in the group sector Automotive, we are particularly focusing on efficiency gains in R&D, new business models, and more profitable orders. Continental already is a pioneer in software development. To date, more than 1 billion vehicles in the field have been equipped with Continental software. Together with our subsidiary, Elektrobit, we've defined a software and system excellence as a strategic field of action in the area of vehicle software, car OS, and middleware. In the medium term, we intend to become the market leader and with products for high-performance computer, and I mentioned that earlier, and sound controllers. We believe there's a broad range of application allowing us to reach a peak position in terms of the classic and adaptive AUTOSAR products. We'll now continue with responding to the questions by VIP. A range of questions deals with sustainability and HR. Ariane, I'd like to ask you to take the following questions. Thank you, Nico. VIP has the following question: How is decarbonization performing or your carbon footprint last year and in the near future? To what extent are these effects initiated by capital investments, and what is the ratio of those which are non-performing in the meaning of traditional business administration? And where do you have to pay current expenses? To what extent have climate effects been achieved by compensation measures, reforestation and bridging solutions or buying certificates? Answer: Since 2020, Continental has only procured green electricity, reducing own emissions by 70%. By 2040, all of our processes are to be climate neutral, and by 2050, this shall apply to the entire value chain. A part of our decarbonization strategy includes investments in energy efficiency and infrastructure. Systematic reporting on these investments and operating expenses is currently being reviewed with a view to the EU Taxonomy. In 2021, there was no offsetting by compensation or by negative emissions. They were shown separately. Another question by VIP is the following one: The pandemic situation is still ongoing, and it keeps changing the working environment. How do you shape the training of career starters? How do you organize critical paths by multiple employment and idle time, you know, if there's no infection? Have you been able to reduce or halve the existing office space? Do you have equal opportunity offices in all categories, women, men, diverse people, or only women, as required by the Federal Equality Act? We would like to respond as follows. Similar to the working environment, the training environment also changes. As far as possible from an organizational point of view, trainees and dual study students can work in a mobile fashion. The share of digital learning modules and learning contents is increasing all the time. In the practical stages, the trainees and apprentices can learn how working in digital teams works. At the same time, we are trying to make sure that the trainers have close links to the apprentices and dual study students, and we ensure at any time, that's very important, that we meet our special duty of care vis-à-vis the dual study students. Via our existing global protection and hygiene concept, we guarantee high safety standards for our members of staff. It's designed for each and every stage of the pandemic, and we are adjusting our measures on a needs basis. Because of these prevention measures, we didn't see any production downtime because of COVID. COVID-related downtime can never be excluded fully, but we already take that into account when we do our HR planning. Also, during the pandemic, we could rely on our highly skilled staff. If there was a need, our colleagues stepped in, offering extra time, helping to bridge bottlenecks. We know that our members of staff are keen on flexible working conditions, which is something that we introduced years ago already. The free choice of the place of work allows them to balance their work and life. All members of staff, for years now, have been able to work in a mobile fashion insofar as this was compatible with the task at hand. Because of this culture, we only had to make marginal adjustments to our office space. We believe in hybrid working modes. Going forward, members of staff will be working in a mobile fashion, but at the same time, they will want to come back to the office to work together on joint topics, and that's a good thing. Equal opportunity offices in the meaning of the Federal Equality Act, which applies to federal administration and federal courts, does not exist at Continental. We're not covered by that law, so basically, we are all equal opportunity offices. More questions by VIP are on, the CFO realm. Katja Dürrfeld, would you like to take over from here? Of course, I'd like to do that. Thank you very much. VIP, in connection with decarbonization, has the following question: Are you aware of the indirect effect of the behavior of your pension capitals, and what is your policy, regardless of whether it's about membership rights in direct assets of the pension funds or in special funds or only in so-called ETFs or insurance products, direct insurances, et cetera? Do you receive reports on that, and can you report and track any changes? Answer: In terms of selecting external asset fund managers for pension assets in Germany and the U.S., we make sure that the external asset managers have recognized international conventions which focus on sustainable and/or responsible investment processes. This includes, among others, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. However, the asset managers do not limit their investment decisions to decarbonization alone, but also include environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria. The sustainability criteria and the general approach at the level of external assets, fund managers, and at the level of invested funds are continually monitored and included in the investment decisions. There is a clear trend which shows that in terms of investing pension assets, ESG criteria will become more and more important going forward. Furthermore, VIP asked with a view to the pandemic situation which effects have the lack of traveling on, for example, compliance or the growing complexity of IT and networks and on the data and program security. I would like to answer as follows. Due to the global setup of the compliance department and because of the good regional connections as well as due to the continuous expansion of our online systems and a fast and consistent Change of our personal training offers to video conference trainings, even at the beginning of the pandemic. We don't see any immediate effect at the moment because of pandemic-related travel restrictions on our compliance system. As regards to security of the IT systems, we have to say that the increase of complexity in the IT and the growth of general risk of cyberattacks leads to higher security requirements, which Continental lives up to by the implementation of new and updated existing protective measures at the technical and organizational level. Various projects, for example, protection of production sites, securing of maintenance accesses, early recognition of potential attacks, are put in one program and centrally monitored. Cybersecurity is very much focused on by the company and is looked after across divisions. The estimation on the current situation and the risk is based on our internal expert know-how, as well as on external information, like from the information circle of the Federal Office for Information Security and the German Association of the Automotive Industry. In order to guarantee a high level of security, Continental belongs to the role models when implementing TISAX, Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange. VIP asks, "Engine No. 1 seems, albeit only locally, be the only almost professional shareholder representative and seems to have a view, particularly at ETF funds. If this business model seems to be working, the path of BlackRock seems to look like a kindergarten. How do you assess that at the end, not only ISS and Glass Lewis, but also Engine No. 1 will have to be integrated in management decisions like you do it with a German works council? Our answer on this, ISS and Glass Lewis are consultancy company for votes representatives. They give advice to some of our investors and are not directly involved in bodies of Continental. Employee and shareholder representatives are represented on the Supervisory Board. The task of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board and the cooperation of them is explained extensively in the annual report and because of new investors or coming up of new consultancy companies will not generally change. Of course, we want to be constructive in having an exchange with investors and their representatives. The VIP would like to know, "Before, former, AGM meeting was not only be seen as friendly towards shareholders by dividend payers, but now the January seems to be free from AGM. Is that due to the cold weather in January, the policy change and proxy agency or the legal legislative activities between the years?" Answer: With Continental, AGMs have happened for many years end of April. Much earlier date cannot be considered because, the consolidated statement, the group statement needs to be presented to the AGM and the invitation periods for AGMs are to be taken into account. We come to answering questions that were introduced by various shareholders. Nikolai Setzer, would you take over, please? Yes, I'd love to do that, Katja Dürrfeld. Mr. Kurt asks, "For fiscal 2021, a suggested dividend of EUR 2.20 will be paid out to shareholders. Why is that so? But there is no profit bonus or participation to the employees of the group." The answer: Continental, together with the employee representatives, agreed to suspend the success contribution for employees for the years 2020 through to 2023. Background is the ongoing crisis in the automotive industry and the continued volatile market environment. As one of the very few companies, by the way, Continental involves all of the employees worldwide in the company's success. The provisional suspension of bonus payments worldwide is an important contribution to secure cost targets of the company and to strengthen competitive and future capabilities of Continental. Furthermore, Mr. Kurt asks, "At the moment, we see the invasion situation in Ukraine. This, the Russian plant Kaluga was hit particularly hard by sanctions. Wouldn't it be a good idea for the executive board to start rethinking, for example, move production back into your own country so that more is produced in a flexible manner in Germany and dependency of ready-made products from foreign countries can be reduced? Answer: Generally, Continental pursues a strategy to produce as locally as possible in the regions for the respective customers. The imports and exports of our tire products from and to Russia have already been suspended for an indefinite period at the beginning of the war. Production of passenger car tires that were produced in Kaluga and were used for export in other markets is now, as far as it is possible, covered by existing capacities in other sites of our European production site network. A shareholder who does not want to be named asks, with a view to the production of Continental in Russia, "Could Continental spin off the business in such a way as it happened one year ago with Vitesco, then each and every shareholder can decide as to whether they want to be invested in Russia or not?" Answer: Well, to this, we need to say that spin-off and listing of our Russia business comparable with the spin-off of Vitesco for Technology is not being considered at the moment. A shareholder who doesn't want to be named asks, "How will the financial burdens through patent disputes in the area of standard essential patents for telecommunication solutions in cars or telematic appliances estimated for the coming years?" Answer: In the context of ongoing digitalization and connection in the automotive industry, but also moreover, in the Internet of Things, mobile radio standards will be used to a greater extent outside of the classic telecommunications industry. To this end, the use of the so-called standard essential patents is necessary. For the licensing of those, for these industries, practice had to be developed. Initially, this led to legal disputes, in which Continental, just like other companies in the automotive industry, are involved in some cases. However, there is the political endeavor to find a solution across the industry. This is pursued in particular by the European Commission in the framework of the IP Action Plan, which provides for a consultation for an European network for the licensing of standard essential patents. Continental has always declared that it's willing to get licenses in standard essential patents for fair, adequate, and non-discriminating conditions, and is thus involved in political consultations. Because of the measures that were taken in a precautionary way and because of our contractual agreements with customers and suppliers in the current state of legal proceedings, we do not take that there will be much higher burdens financially in the next few years. A further shareholder who doesn't want to be named asked, "Why is being a woman a competence in your grid of competencies if Section 96, German Stock Corporation Act, foresees a minimum share of women anyway?" Our answer, showing a legally valid minimum amount of women in the overview of competence fields and the targets for the supervisory board only serves the purpose to completely and easily capture all criteria to be included when filling supervisory board positions. This shareholder also asks why we form provisions when Vitesco has exempted us contractually. The costs and a potential fine in diesel proceedings originally arise at Continental's. For this, provisions were formed, as Katja Dürrfeld already outlined. There is a contractual exemption vis-à-vis Vitesco, but this must not be netted off against original obligation according to IAS 37. Moreover, the claims from this contractual recourse falls under different valuation and claim criteria according to IAS 37.53. Finally, the shareholder asked as to whether there were any claw back regulations for executive, for former executives. Answer, this is not the case for executives below the executive board level. This is the end of this part of the questions, and we now come to the questions that Mr. Matthias Gäbler from Stuttgart asked. That's going to be a bit of a longer list, which we are going through now, myself, Ms. Dürrfeld, and Ms. Reinhart. Mr. Gäbler asked about the expenses on the AGM, the questions received from the shareholders and the format of the AGM. We would like to answer as follows. At the beginning of today's AGM, around 680 shareholders followed the AGM on the Investor Portal. In last year's AGM, which was also virtual, at peak time, 780 shareholders and other guests joined the online event. In the last in-person AGM in 2019, at the peak time, at 12:22, 672 shareholders and representatives were registered and 57 guests were present. The cost of the AGM in 2022 amount to about EUR 360,000. The largest items are expenses for the preparation, distribution, and sending out the documents with around 30% technical equipment and streaming technology items with around 45%, and costs for hygiene measures and for rooms and safety, measures for the protection of our studio and technology staff with around 15%. We received questions until the end of the legal deadline on Wednesday, April 27 at midnight. As is also the case for in-presence AGMs, we will not provide written answers to the questions. Again, Continental decided to carry out this AGM virtually. Due to the long lead times, we had to assess the pandemic situation at an early stage, and the protection of health for everybody involved was and still is our top priority. We can also see that many DAX companies assessed the pandemic situation as we did and also invited to a virtual AGM. With regards to Mr. Gäbler's questions regarding to the draft bill of possible virtual AGMs, we will answer that our expert divisions will look at all the details of the legal framework conditions for future AGMs, which are currently still in the legislative process. Both boards will finally make a decision based on the passed bill. Mr. Gäbler also asked about the remuneration of the executive board and the detail and audit of the remuneration report. We would like to answer this, and listed as already public knowledge. The Supervisory Board determines the goals for the Executive Board remuneration within the annual targets and determination for the variable remuneration prior to the beginning of a business year. It also monitors the targets and their achievement. The amounts of remuneration are internally defined by the department. The regulations are clearly contractually stipulated, and they are audited by the auditor. The detailed and comprehensive publication of remuneration of both boards is a legal obligation, and it uses other remunerations for board members that are suitable and acceptable. The auditor audited the remuneration report in the context of the normal group and annual audit. Mr. Gäbler also asked about the largest challenges and successes in 2021. We already elaborated on this in great detail before. Mr. Gäbler, in general, asks about what both boards want to improve in the next year and what the major challenges of the company in 2022. I have already mentioned this in my speech. Continental clearly has the goal to emerge from the transformation as a winner. Mr. Gäbler asks about the meaning of the Russia business for Continental and the raw materials procured here and the economic consequences of a commodity shortages, and we also spoke of this already. He asked for supply difficulties of certain products. Currently, semiconductors are the products with the greatest challenges globally for the entire auto and supply industry. Mr. Gäbler asked many questions concerning the success of our products in different markets. The most successful product is tires, both economically as well as in terms of sales volumes in 2020 and 2021. This holds true both in Germany and globally. You will understand that we cannot provide any further details about margin sales and gross margin volumes for the protection of our company. Our most expensive products, looking at unit prices, are, among others, for the field of Automotive, our large electronic displays, that require a high-performance computer. We also have driver workplace modules for trucks. We have high-quality system and product solutions such as premium displays and high-performance computer. For the field of Tires, we have tires for tractors and construction machines. In ContiTech, we, for example, have tailor-made productions for conveyor belts and hoses. Price developments depend strongly on the commodity prices, and we cannot provide detailed prices in order to protect our company and our clients and customers and suppliers. Mr. Gäbler also asked about the selection of the candidates for the supervisory boards. The candidates were suggested to the supervisory board by the nomination committee. The Supervisory Board proposed the candidates to the AGM, and there were preliminary meetings with the members and the responsible nomination committee. The candidates were mostly selected based on their competencies and the targets for the composition of the Supervisory Board. Mr. Gäbler also asks about the whistleblower hotline. Our whistleblower system is an external one. People from within and outside the company can provide information, either anonymously or not anonymously, via a free-of-charge phone line or the Internet. There's also an ombuds office which also receives confidential information, and we take all the leads seriously and check them at the four-eyes principle. For substantiated leads, we will launch an investigation by our investigation unit. Depending on the results, there will be further consequences, and we will pass on the findings in our continuous improvement process, and personal consequences may be drawn or legal proceedings can be initiated. I would now like to ask Katja to continue answering these questions. Thank you very much, Nikolai. Mr. Gäbler has a couple of questions concerning the VAT-related regulations concerning the management bonuses discussed in a letter from the Ministry of Finance from the eighth of July 2021 that I would like to answer. After the publication of the Ministry of Finance letter, all the members of the Supervisory Board were informed about the new legal regulations and accounting, if necessary, was adjusted on the first of January 2022. With regards to the VAT due and legally required in our accounting, we have made the necessary provisions. As long as the Supervisory Board members are still responsible for paying their VAT, we will revise our provisions on a regular basis, and we will take the necessary consequences in accordance with the, in agreement with the Supervisory Board members regarding VAT. Mr. Matthias Gäbler wants to know why the company doesn't pay out a higher dividend and prefers to take the risk for negative interest rates and the respective liquidity and the profit carry forward. How about the amount of the negative interest in 2021? Continental is an international company which does not consider it to be necessary to keep liquidity consistently in the bank's accounts, but manage and use these funds appropriately. That is why negative interest rates were only due to a limited extent. Between the management of the necessary liquidity and the height of the amount of dividends to be paid out, there is no connection. With our dividend policies, we determine our results on the profit of the earnings per share of the fiscal year. On this particular basis, we normally pay out 15%-30%. Based on the earnings per share in the year 2021, with a dividend of EUR 7.28, we come up with a dividend of EUR 2.20, and this is at the upper end. In addition to that, I would like to make that the state of profit carry forward of the Continental AG cannot be compared with held liquidity, and it's therefore no indicator for the level of negative interest rates. Within the group, the challenge of the negative interest rate environment only affects the Continental AG because it concentrates the cash flow within the group in one cash pool. Therefore, in 2021, the Continental AG had to pay negative interest rates amounting to a six-digit sum. On the other hand, the interest rate on Continental had a positive effect because the repayment rates for loans have been associated with low interest rates, and this has led to a positive effect of six digits. With regards to accounting, Mr. Gäbler would like to know about the equity ratio and depreciation rate of the working capital. Capital ratio in the group on the 31st of December amounted to 35.3%, and for Continental, it was 38.5%. The loan ratio in the group on the 31st of December 2021 amounted to 64.7%, and for Continental AG, 61.5%. Value adjustments for inventory were reduced in the fiscal year 2021 by EUR 103 million to EUR 448.2 million. Previous year, EUR 551.2 million. Therefore, we also refer to that in our annual report on page 169. Value adjustments cover inventory risks also due to limited usability or limited storage periods. This does not mean that these products in inventory have to be disposed or be sold at lower prices because they are based on contractual agreements with our customers for spare parts in inventory. Therefore, these products in stock can be sold at regular prices. Now, he asked about sales and procurement volumes in Taiwan and China. We have a sales and procurement ratio for China amounted to 10%, and therefore, this market is of great significance to the entire group. Renouncing the procurement or sales market in China would have a major impact on it. The procurement from Taiwan amounts to a low single-digit percentage point. Therefore, the sales figures here are insignificant. The question concerning the capacity utilization rates in different sites in 2021 in comparison to 2020 and previous measures. In the field of robotic networks, I'd like to say the following: The capacity utilization in 2021 compared to the previous year increased significantly. The capacity utilization in the field of Automotive very much depended on the individual product portfolio and customer-specific and regional demand. Therefore, it is not possible to make a general statement concerning Automotive. Finally, Mr. Gäbler wanted to know about the annual forecast and our explanation concerning the share price. The current forecast and its basic assumptions were comprehensively explained by Mr. Setzer and myself. We are not quite happy with our market evaluation. Continental has competencies in the previous year, 2.1%. In Europe, excluding Germany, it amounted to 6.9%, previous year, 4.6%. In North America, it was at 10.5%, previous year, 6.8%. In Asia, it was at 9.5%, previous year, 5.5%. In all the other countries, it was at 4.7%, previous year, 4.5. Here, the voluntary and age-related fluctuation in Germany in the fiscal year amounted to 3%, previous year, 2.1%, and the remaining figure amounted to 3.3%, previous year, 1.4%. All the previous year's figures include Vitesco Technologies. Next question. We wanted to be provided with information about the number of employees aged 50 or 55 and over in the year 2021. 22,500, which means that 12% of the employees were older than 55 years of age, which means 40,800, which is 21%, were over 50 years old. At the Continental AG, the number of employees over 50 years amounted to approximately 250, equals 27%, and the number of employees over 50 years of age was at 150, which equals 16%. The average seniority of our staff members in the year 2021 amounted to 10.7 years. Onto the remuneration structure, I can provide the information asked for. In 2020, 3,400 employees had a gross income of more than EUR 100,000. In 2021, this figure dropped to 2,900, especially due to the Vitesco Technologies spin-off. Another subdivision into different wage groups is not possible because due to the very low individual numbers, it is not possible to draw conclusions for individual employees. The percentage of employees with an annual income of less than EUR 30,000 per year amounts to 95.5%. The number of full-time employees in Germany whose average income amounts to less than EUR 3,000 amounts to 1,200. We have a low number of domestic employees whose wage amounts to less than EUR 12 per hour, more than 50% of which are so-called mini-jobbers. With regards to the full-time employees that receive less than EUR 12 per hour, their gross wage per hour is in between EUR 10.49 and EUR 11.97. Onto the statistics of parental leave. In the Continental AG, 37 fathers went on parental leave in 2021 in Germany. Throughout in the entire group, it was 1,311. The average parental leave amounted to two months, and the age of the fathers going into parental leave ranged from 20 - 50 years of age. Amongst this 1,311, 13 held a senior position. Onto additional questions dealing with energy supply and sustainability, onto natural gas. The current situation regarding the availability is something that we observe and monitor very closely, and we evaluate all the different options available to us on an ongoing basis. In our plants in Europe, we try to find out whether it is possible to use alternative fuels in case of natural gas scarcity. The energy intensity in kWh per of sales at Continental amounts to 0.27. Based on the base year 2018, we try to reduce our energy intensity by 2030 of 20%. Whether the energy efficiency gains will lead to a reduction of cost depends strongly on our dependency on energy prices, which of course we cannot predict in a reliable manner. On to electricity. The group had an electricity consumption of 4.3 TWh, out of which 0.7 TWh were used in Germany. The electricity costs do not only consist of the electricity consumption, but also grid operation and other items. Therefore, it is not possible to break it down to kWh on average. As already mentioned in the speech of the Chairman of the Executive Board, procurement costs increased by EUR 3.5 billion, especially in the field of energy. Energy efficiency gains help to compensate for that to a limited extent, but they can't offset all the cost increases. The utilization of the different spaces for photovoltaics is something that we review in connection with our decarbonization strategy. Therefore, it is not possible at current moment in time to make any final statements. By way of conclusion on sustainability, our guideline is our ambition with regards to sustainability with four focal areas, 100% climate neutrality, 100% emission-free mobility and emission-free industries, 100% closed resource and product cycles, and 100% responsible procurement based on business partnerships that we want to accomplish at the latest 2050, together with our partners along the supply chain. Let me just make a correction. Of course, it's called terawatt hours. This is the answer to the last question submitted to us by other shareholders. Now let me pass the floor back to Professor Reitzle. We have not received any further questions. I would like to thank all the shareholders and shareholder representatives, the shareholder associations for their questions. Ladies and gentlemen, I note that all the shareholders' questions for the Executive Board and for the Supervisory Board have been answered. I would like to ask the notary public to record this. I will now close the answering of questions. I would now like to announce attendance. I have before me the list of the represented share capital. The share capital of the company amounts to EUR 512,015,316.48 and is split into 200,005,983 no par value shares. The shareholder representatives present here today represent 169,867,754 no par value shares with as many votes. This corresponds to 84.93% of the share capital. Furthermore, 136,850 no par value shares with as many votes are represented through postal vote. This corresponds to 0.07% of the share capital, thus a total of 170,004,569 no par value shares with as many votes. That is 85.0% of the share capital are represented. We will now proceed with the votes on the resolutions on agenda items two through to seven, which I will now call to vote. The votes on agenda items two to seven of this virtual AGM can be exercised, as explained before, by electronic vote and by authorizing the company's voting proxy on the Investor Portal. I will give you sufficient advance notice of the end of the voting period. A call pursuant to Section 20, Paragraph 1 of the Articles of Association, one share accounts for one vote. The resolutions on the agenda Items 2 - 7 each require a simple majority of the votes cast. In order to exercise your voting rights on Items 3 and 4 of the agenda, formal approval of the executive board and of the supervisory board for fiscal 2021, I would like to point out that current and former members of the executive board and the supervisory board, pursuant to Section 136 of the German Stock Corporation Act, are subject to a ban on voting when it comes to the vote of their own approval. This has been pointed out individually to the members of both boards. The shareholders IHO Beteiligungs GmbH and IHO Verwaltungs GmbH have indicated that as a precautionary measure to prevent a debate about a possible ban on voting, they will abstain from voting on the formal approval of the current members of the Supervisory Board, Ms. Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann, Mr. Georg F. W. Schaeffler, and Mr. Klaus Rosenfeld. Ladies and gentlemen, in my capacity as Chair of this meeting, I may determine the voting method. We will again use the addition method this year in order to ascertain the voting results. The addition method counts valid votes cast in favor and against in order to establish the result of the vote and the majorities. Abstentions are not counted as they do not matter for the establishment of the required majority. Dear shareholders, if you want to vote in favor of one, several, or all resolutions, you will have to vote yes for the respective resolution or for all the resolutions. In case you want to vote against one, several, or all of the resolutions, you will have to vote no on the respective resolution or all the resolutions. I would explicitly like to point out that only those shareholders who have already cast their votes prior to or during the AGM, or those who are still casting their votes during the AGM, will participate in the voting procedure. I therefore ask all duly registered shareholders to make sure that they are logged in on the Investor Portal in order to exercise their voting rights as shareholders in due course. If you have already cast your vote or authorized a company's voting proxy prior to the AGM, you can still vote on the Investor Portal. This will revoke and change your previous vote and your proxy. This is also possible in case you already voted electronically on the I nvestor Portal. For the record, I would like to point out that the company's proxy holders will vote according to your instructions on the individual agenda items once released in the system. The votes that were submitted in due time via post or email will also be counted in the procedure. Dear shareholders, I will now call the resolutions on agenda Items 2- 7 to the vote as published in the Federal Gazette. Please cast your votes if you haven't already done so. It is 12:52 P.M. I hereby announce that we will close the vote at 1:02 P.M. That's in 10 minutes' time. Afterwards, it will no longer be possible to exercise your voting right for technical reasons. The vote will not be reopened. Please be aware that a certain delay of the stream of this virtual AGM is unavoidable in technical terms. I would therefore like to ask you to not wait to cast your votes. We will reconvene at 12:02 P.M. or 1:02 P.M. 1:02 P.M. Since 1871, we've been building tires. Small ones, thin ones, fast ones, big ones. But no matter what kind of tire we make, we strive to build the safest possible. Because we believe with our products we build more, something you can't see. But more importantly, something everyone can feel. The feeling of certainty, the reliability that gives you the freedom to focus on what matters most. Your family, your business, and whoever counts on you. That's why we never stand still. Constantly improving. That's why our tires need to circle the world 5,000 times each year to be good enough for your everyday life. Day by day, we reinvent the wheel because we think beyond tires and beyond today. Because the responsibility for our world is up to all of us. Together, we work as one team across departments and across borders, inspired every day to make your mobility safer and more sustainable. Continental. While in some countries we are already working very intensively on autonomous driving with the use of artificial intelligence, there are other areas in the world where so far AI has hardly played any role at all in most people's lives. Dr. Corina Apachiţe is from one of those areas. She was born in rural Romania, and now today, as head of the AI department within Continental Automotive Technologies, she is shaping future mobility. Her story really goes to show that motivation, passion have the power to move mountains. Plus, it gives us some very exciting insights into how AI is going to contribute to a better future. Nach der achten Klasse konnte man sich entscheiden, entweder hier im Dorf zu bleiben und Bauernarbeiten wahrzunehmen oder in eine weiterführende Schule gehen. Die nächstgelegene Schule war in Botoşani, 50 Kilometer von hier entfernt. Es fuhr nur ein Bus pro Tag. Sehr oft habe ich Stunden gewartet, um diese Chance wahrzunehmen und in die weite Welt aufzubrechen. Nach Iaşi zu meinem Studiumort. Das war eine andere Nummer, weil die Fahrt noch länger dauerte und die Motivation entsprechend höher sein musste. Ich hatte sehr abgearbeitete Hände jeden Sommer. Ich war auch sehr stolz, teilweise mich auch geschämt, als ich als Informatikstudentin diese Hände hatte. Meine Vorstellung damals war, dass mit Informatik, mit Rechnen können wir Maschinen programmieren, die uns mehr und mehr Aufgaben abnehmen können. Künstliche Intelligenz ist die Nachahmung des Menschen. Die Erfahrung des Menschen aufbewahren, weitergeben. Durch den Zugang auf weiteren Datenquellen können wir sehr viele Schlüsse ziehen. Dadurch entfacht sich auch die Mächtigkeit der KI im positiven Sinne. Künstliche Intelligenz verbindet sehr viel. Ich sehe nicht Maschinen, die zu Menschen werden, sondern ich sehe eher Menschen, die nicht mehr wie Maschinen arbeiten müssen. Contadino ist ein kleiner Agrarroboter für kleine Aufgaben, italienisch für Landwirt und ist auch ein Team. Mit entsprechenden Algorithmen kann Contadino Unkraut erkennen, ganz gezielt nur diese Pflanze spritzen. Das Team dahinter, die Begeisterung und all diese Träume mindestens genauso spannend und so faszinierend wie Contadino selber. Warum trainiert ein Sportler für die Olympia? Spricht dieser Sportler, Sportlerin am Ende über die, über den Schweiß während des Trainings oder über dieses schönes Gefühl, erfolgreich zu sein als Team, als Einzelsportler. Auch in Berufen wie meins ist das genau eine unglaubliche Motivation, eine tragende Motivation, einen Unterschied zu machen, die Welt zu etwas Besseren machen, zu einem besseren Platz machen, mit seinem Wissen, mit meinem Wissen. Ein sehr schönes Gefühl. At Continental we have set ourselves the goal of advancing the mobility of the future, whether it's on the roads around us or in other areas of our lives, for example, agriculture. Our modular, fully electric and fully autonomous vehicle Contadino is another great step in that direction. This revolutionary agricultural robot is going to make farmers work more efficient and easier. Artificial intelligence is helpful to us humans and machines, we don't compete against each other. AI is simply a new tool that we need to test, we need to understand and refine so we can use it to help us and advance us, just as we would with any other new tool. Together with visionary creators like Dr. Corina Apachiţe, we want to make AI useful for everyday applications, because after all, we consider AI a fantastic opportunity that as many people as possible should benefit from all around the world. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now continue with the annual general meeting. I note that all duly registered shareholders and shareholder representatives have had the opportunity to exercise their voting rights by mail, by mail vote or authorization of a company's voting proxy. I will now close the vote for shareholders online and shareholder representatives online and I request that the possibility to authorize a proxy in the shareholders portal and the possibility to vote that be deactivated in the Investor Portal. I would now like to ask the proxy holders to cast the votes in accordance with their proxies, by using the instructions received by releasing the deposited instruction list. Please inform me, and the notary public orally that you release the votes as deposited in the instruction list. Good. The released votes in favor and against will then be added to those received via the Investor Portal by electronic mail vote or any other admissible way. I note that the proxy holders have cast all the votes to which they held a proxy and according to which they were instructed. I will thus close the vote and ask for the votes to be counted. Please bear with us until the votes are counted. I will interrupt the AGM. The votes will be counted by a data processing system under the supervision of the notary public. Counting of the votes will take approximately 15 minutes. I will announce when we will reconvene the AGM. Again, I would like to point out that till the end of the AGM, objections can be raised to the notary's record via the Investor Portal. I will now pause the AGM. Stetiger Wandel, Digitalisierung und globale Vernetzung sind bereits jetzt Teil unserer Gegenwart. Neue Technologien werden noch mehr Einfluss darauf haben, wie wir in Zukunft arbeiten. Auf diese Zukunft wollen wir dich bestmöglich vorbereiten. Das CITT erarbeitet Konzepte und bietet Zukunftsqualifizierung, um dich fit für das Arbeiten von morgen zu machen. Ob Angelernter, Fachkraft oder Akademiker beim CITT stehen alle Mitarbeitergruppen im Fokus. Passgenaue Qualifizierungsangebote werden gemeinsam ermittelt und von Experten begleitet. Die Angebote sind vielfältig und reichen vom IHK-Berufsabschluss bis zu den Qualifizierungsmöglichkeiten in den Bereichen Software und Robotik. Die Vermittlung von Fertigkeiten und Kenntnissen für die Jobs der Zukunft stehen dabei an oberster Stelle. Damit leisten wir einen Beitrag für die zukünftigen Fachkräfte und Spezialisten der Continental. Nutze deine Chance gemeinsam mit dem CITT. Jedes Jahr sterben in der EU über 7,000 Fußgänger und Fahrradfahrer bei Verkehrsunfällen infolge von Rechtsabbiegemanövern. Ein Fünftel dieser Unfälle wird durch Nutzfahrzeuge verursacht. Mit dem RightViu Abbiegeassistenten hat Continental eine Lösung entwickelt, die für mehr Sicherheit auf den Straßen sorgt und nun auch als nachrüstbares System für Nutzfahrzeuge verfügbar ist. Der tote Winkel wird damit zu einem Problem der Vergangenheit. Über Radartechnologie erkennt das System, wenn sich bewegte Objekte im Sicherheitsbereich des Fahrzeuges befinden und warnt den Fahrer. So können Kollisionen verhindert werden. Speditionen haben durch den nachrüstbaren Abbiegeassistenten die Chance, den Sicherheitsstandard ihrer Flotte deutlich zu verbessern, ohne dafür in neue Fahrzeuge investieren zu müssen. Das überzeugt auch Günter Timsen. Die Vorteile liegen ganz klar darin, dass wir das individuell nachmachen können. Wir können es in unserer eigenen Werkstatt machen, dann, wann wir Zeit haben. Die Vorteile für den Fahrer sind die Sicherheitsaspekte, dass er jederzeit beim Rechtsabbiegen immer auf Nummer sicher ist, dass da keiner von rechts mehr ins Auto reinläuft, in den toten Winkel und wir absolut unseren Fahrer damit Sicherheit geben. Der Einbau des RightViu Abbiegeassistenten ist ohne großen Aufwand in einer Werkstatt möglich. Dabei wird ein Radarsensor in mindestens 2 Metern Höhe am Seitenspiegel angebracht. So ist kein Eingriff in die Fahrzeugkarosserie notwendig. Das Radar erweitert den Sichtbereich des Fahrers auf bis zu 4 Meter nach rechts und 14 Meter nach hinten. Außerdem wird ein Lenkwinkelsensor installiert. Er misst den Einschlag des Lenkrades und gibt diese Information an die Auswerteeinheit weiter. Diese wird in der Fahrerkabine verbaut und analysiert Geschwindigkeit, Lenkwinkel und Blinkerfunktion. So stellt sie fest, ob der Fahrer rechts abbiegen möchte und aktiviert in diesem Fall den Radarsensor. Befindet sich nun ein Fahrradfahrer oder Fußgänger im Sicherheitsbereich, wird der Fahrer durch ein akustisches und ein optisches Signal gewarnt. Dies geschieht über einen Warnsummer und eine Warnleuchte in der Fahrerkabine. Der Fahrer erhält ein eindeutiges Signal, ohne auf einen zusätzlichen Bildschirm achten zu müssen. Es gibt nur ein Gefühl der Sicherheit und, die Aufmerksamkeit wird definitiv gesteigert durch den Warnton beziehungsweise das optische Signal. Das sind die Hauptvorteile für mich. Die Wichtigkeit solcher Nachrüstsysteme sieht auch der Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat. Die direkte Sicht aus einem LKW ist sehr schlecht. Es gibt eine ganze Reihe von toten Winkeln. Es ist so, dass die Spiegel zwar diese toten Winkel abdecken, aber es ist fast unmöglich für einen LKW-Fahrer, alle fünf Spiegel auf einmal zu beobachten und dann auch noch den gesamten Verkehr drumherum. Mit kleinem Aufwand erhalten Nutzfahrzeuge durch die Nachrüstung mit dem RightViu Abbiegeassistenten ein großes Plus an Sicherheit. Die ausgereifte Radartechnologie des Systems macht den Rechtsabbiegeassistenten zu einem verlässlichen Helfer im Straßenverkehr. Sicherheit als Nachrüstlösung. Mit RightViu kommt Continental der Vision Zero ein gutes Stück näher. Social responsibility. Now that is something that is taken very seriously here at Continental. To us, it's not just some empty phrase. It is an integral part of our corporate identity. We believe that a company with global presence also has a global responsibility to fulfill. Our commitment is always based on the individual needs locally, because that way, we can truly make a sustainable, positive change in people's lives. One project that we very passionately support is the Uerê educational project in the favelas around Rio de Janeiro. Here, children and adolescents from disadvantaged social backgrounds are given a true opportunity for a more self-determined future, just like Cibele. Eu ofereço a eles um sonho. Eles sentem que eles vão conseguir. Eu sempre trabalhei nas ruas do Rio com meninos na rua e eu fundei essa escola, Projeto Uerê. Nós estamos num grande complexo de favelas chamado Complexo da Maré. As ruas são esburacadas, cheio de lama, vive com esgoto o tempo todo. As casas também são cheias de buracos por causa do tiro. A vida dessas crianças é uma vida de dificuldades. Quer dizer, são crianças e jovens que vivem num sistema que exclui. Cibele entrou aqui em 2013. Eu tinha 6, 7 anos quando vim para cá. Eu acho que a escola, ela tem que ser um lugar de liberdade, né, onde as crianças possam falar, onde as crianças possam desenvolver suas ideias. Me deu bastante oportunidades. Eu quero ser designer de moda. Há uma coisa que eu queira bastante, isso me faz feliz. Eu quero asas pra voar, pra me levar ao pôr do sol. Ela já tem uma carreira praticamente preparada na moda, porque ela tem aulas de moda de uma pessoa que conhece todo o mundo da moda. Me deu novos conhecimentos e me ajudou a evoluir muito. Nós tentamos fazer com que isso aconteça com todos. Pra continuar, eu preciso de parceiros. Aí depois do Uerê, eu espero que eu continue na carreira de moda e que eu siga os meus sonhos, que dê tudo certo. Que nada me faça desistir dos meus sonhos. Cibele's story goes to show that Uerê can improve things and make a real difference. Dr. Bezerra Gimelo has been so successful with her project that her method has now even been recognized as an official teaching concept. Now, by sharing her knowledge with other teachers from different schools during further training, even more children can be supported on their way towards a brighter future. We at Continental are very proud to support such a successful and promising project. To contribute even more, we offer some of the graduates apprenticeships and training at two of our Continental plants in Latin America. Our goal is to contribute by supporting Uerê in the best possible way, so that even more children like Cibele can not only dream big, but make those big dreams become reality. Ladies and gentlemen, the counting of the votes on agenda Items 2-7 is now closed. We will continue the meeting. For the last time, I would like to point out that till the end of the AGM, objections can be raised to the notary's record via the Investor Portal. If you want to exercise your right to do so, please bear in mind that a certain delay in the transmission of this virtual AGM is unavoidable. After the announcement of the voting results, I will close the AGM. I will now announce the voting results. With a view to the number of resolutions, in particular, the individual approvals of the actions of the members of the executive board and the supervisory board, I will read out the results for items two to seven in a short version. All of the detailed results of the votes will be available in the near future at Continental's website and will be available for everyone's inspection. There was a vote on the proposals to vote for the executive board and supervisory board, or as regards Items 5 and 7, the resolution of the supervisory board as published in the Federal Gazette as of the 23rd of March 2022. For each resolution I state and announce as follows. On Item 2, resolution on the appropriation of net income, the AGM adopted the resolution with the necessary majority. On Item 3, resolution on the ratification of actions of the executive board for fiscal 2021, the annual general meeting has approved of the actions of following members of the executive board with the necessary majority. In name, Mr. Setzer, Mr. Dürrfeld, Mr. Schick, Mr. Jordan, Mr. Kötz, Mr. Matschi, Mr. Nelles, Dr. Reinhart and Mr. Wolf. The annual general meeting has decided with the necessary majority to defer the ratification of the actions of the former executive board member, Wolfgang Schäfer. On item four, resolution on the ratification of the actions of the supervisory board for fiscal 2021, the AGM has approved of the actions of all the members of the supervisory board with the necessary majority. By name, these are Reitzle, Ms. Benner, Mr. Alak, Dr. Dunckel, Mr. Grioli, Mr. Igelhaut, Mr. Kartu, Ms. Knauf, Ms. Neuss, Professor Dr. Nonnenmacher, Mr. Nordmann, Mr. Pfau, Mr. Rosenfeld, Mr. Schaeffler, Ms. Schaeffler-Thumann, Mr. Schönfelder, Mr. Scholz, Ms. Wörgl, Ms. Volkmann and Professor Wolf. On Item 5, resolution on the appointment of the auditor and group auditor for the review and of the auditor for the review of the interim financial reports for fiscal 2022, the AGM has approved of the resolution with the necessary majority. On Item 6, resolution on the approval of the remuneration report, the AGM has approved of the resolution with the necessary majority. On Item 7, on the election of a supervisory board member, the AGM has voted in favor of all the candidates with the necessary majority. Names are Ms. Dorothea von Boxberg and Mr. Stefan E. Buchner. An overview of the number of votes on each item and the full results with all of the numbers according to Section 132, paragraph 2, sentence 2, German Stock Corporation Act will be included in the meeting record. Furthermore, the results of the vote, including the legally required information, will soon be published on our company's website. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of today's regular annual general meeting. I hereby close the annual general meeting. Thank you for participating again online this year. This clearly demonstrates your interest and your loyalty to our company. I would also like to thank, specifically, the many Continental employees and the external service providers who organized this event and who helped to make it a success. The next regular annual general meeting is scheduled to take place on the 27th of April, 2023. Goodbye, and good wishes for all of you.