Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Stuart, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the update call on Software AG and Silver Lake's partnership. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, you may press star followed by one on your touch tone telephone. Please press the star key followed by zero for operator assistance. I would now like to turn the conference over to Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations, Robin Colman. Please go ahead. Thank you, Stuart, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Following the release of an ad hoc disclosure yesterday evening, Software AG published that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Silver Lake. Today's call will start with our CEO, Sanjay Brahmawar, followed by our CFO, Dr. Matthias Heiden, to provide a brief overview of the partnership with Silver Lake before taking questions. Before we start, here are some housekeeping remarks. This conference call is being broadcast via the web. You may access the webcast via our investor relations website, and the webcast will also display the presentation slides related to this call, and the same slides are also available for download on our website. The webcast, including the full call with questions, answers, and names of questioners, will be recorded and made available on replay later today. May we remind you of our safe harbor statement, which is shown at the beginning of the slide presentation and is valid for the entire call. Thank you for your patience. I will now hand over to Sanjay. Thank you, Robin. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on a very exciting day for Software AG. Last night, we announced that Silver Lake will be joining us as a major investor and partner in the execution of our future growth plan and would be investing EUR 344 million in our business. In partnering with Silver Lake, we're joining forces with the world's leading technology investor, which has a proven track record of helping companies like ours accelerate their growth. Their endorsement is a testament to the success of our transformation so far and is a validation of the huge opportunity we see ahead of us. Our ability to access that opportunity is founded on three years of hard work in our Helix strategy. We've built a fantastic launchpad for growth. We've shifted our business model to subscription, developed cloud-native market-leading products in growth areas, and we have shown that we can hunt and win in the market. Our success has been brought about by the hard work of our whole team, and I'd really like to thank them all for their efforts today. Importantly, we are adding to that team as part of this new relationship. Last night, we announced that Christian Lucas, a Silver Lake Managing Director and co-head of its activities in Europe, and Jim Whitehurst, the former CEO of Red Hat, will be joining our supervisory board. I'll say more about them shortly, but for now, I'm delighted that we'll be welcoming them both to Software AG. I should also mention that at the end of January, we will be saying goodbye to the current chairman of our supervisory board, Karl-Heinz Streibich. Having been an important part of our history and a great supporter of the Helix strategy, he will be moving on from Software AG on January 31st after more than 15 years of service. We wish him all the very best for his future. Ralf Dieter, the Chair of our Audit Committee, will also be stepping down from the Supervisory Board at the same time. I'd like to thank Ralf for his effort and commitment to our company as well. Based on discussions between Silver Lake, ourselves, and the current supervisory board members, it is expected that Christian will be elected to replace Karl-Heinz as chairman. With the benefit of Silver Lake's expertise and with our EUR 61 billion market opportunity expanding, we believe now is the time to push our growth forward and maximize our full potential. This is what we will now set out to do. Touching briefly on Silver Lake itself, I want to just reiterate the caliber of partner we are joining forces here with. They've made their name investing in innovative tech companies like Dell, VMware, Splunk, and Skype. They are totally focused on growth. Their approach to investing, partnering, and aligning with management teams to maximize opportunity is perfect for our needs, and we are extremely pleased with our choice to join with them. I'd also like to say a little bit more about Christian and Jim, who will both join our supervisory board as soon as possible after Karl-Heinz and Ralf step down. Christian is a Silver Lake managing director and co-heads its activities in EMEA. He has a long track record of successful technology investments with Exact, MIRACL, and Sabre, among others, and has been the head of Morgan Stanley's technology group. Our conversations so far have been fantastic, and I'm very excited to keep building our relationship going forward. Jim, of course, is the former CEO of Red Hat. He grew that business into the first 1 billion open source software company, and his experience in M&A, cloud, and all aspects of digital transformation will be invaluable to us as we move forward. Now, just to touch on our rationale and plan. With the support of our biggest shareholder, Software AG Foundation, and our Supervisory Board, we have chosen this path because we believe we can capture more of the growing market opportunity if we act now. Our total addressable market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16% through 2026. The markets for our products and hybrid integration, IoT and analytics, and business transformation are growing in the mid- to high double digits. To respond to this opportunity, we now have a complete cloud-native product set and a sharpened sales engine, which is increasing its market impact all the time. We also have an established customer success organization, which is showing a good return on investment as we continue to shift to subscription and SaaS. We see the market moving towards us, and we know our business is well set up for success. We have partnered with Silver Lake to make sure we make the most of the growth platform we have built. Crucially, Silver Lake has proven strength in key areas of our growth plan. First, Silver Lake has deep knowledge in our industry and a vast network of relationships, especially in the key markets for us like North America. As part of our next phase of growth, we'll work with them to further strengthen our impact there. Next, it has vast experience of supporting businesses as they grow through transformation. Recent examples of success here include its work with Cegid. Lastly, Silver Lake has software M&A experience, which will help us as we move to complement our organic growth initiatives with acquisitions. M&A will be an important part of our plan going forward. It will enable us to access new market segments, add complementary technology, sharpen our go-to market, and expand our cross-sell opportunities even further. By focusing on these areas together with Silver Lake, we will accelerate our company's growth and make Software AG an even more dynamic, innovative, and diverse company for our people to work in. I'll now pass on to Matthias, who will take us through some of the specifics of the investments. Matthias, over to you. Thank you, Sanjay, and hello, everyone. The first thing to say is that I'm equally proud to see Silver Lake joining us on our transformation journey. As the CFO of the company, I'm also proud we're onboarding Silver Lake via the first PIPE by a U.S. technology investor in a German company. This innovative structure does match our DNA. I'll now make a few short comments on the investment Silver Lake has made and outline its structure. Silver Lake's EUR 344 million investment in Software AG comes in the form of a subordinated convertible bond. The bond matures in 5 years, and its coupon is 2% per annum, paid semiannually. It has a reference price of EUR 38.78 and a conversion price of EUR 46.54. This represents a 20% premium over the reference price. It represents 7.4 million underlying shares in the business or 10% of the current number of shares outstanding. The proceeds from the bond will be used to invest in growth and support our M&A program. The funds will bolster an already strong balance sheet and set it up to move with pace and precision with the right targets. Thanks for your attention. With that, Sanjay, back to you. Thanks, Matthias. I'll wrap up with some thoughts I'd like to leave you before the Q&A. First, this partnership is a powerful endorsement of our strategy and our success with Helix to date. I'd like to thank the Software AG team for everything they've done to bring us to this point. Second, we share with Silver Lake a clear view of our market opportunity, large, growing, and there for the taking if we back ourselves for success now. Third, we're being joined by real technology leaders in Christian Lucas and Jim Whitehurst. This is great news for the future of our company. Lastly, with Silver Lake as part of our team and our foundation and supervisory board behind us, I'm more excited than ever about our company's future. We'll now be happy to take your questions. Thank you. Thanks, Sanjay. Thanks, Thanks, Matthias. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now ask your questions. Please ask only one question at a time. Stuart, please repeat the instructions on how to proceed. Okay. Thank you, Robin. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. In the interest of time, please limit yourself to one question only. In case of more questions, please ask them in a second round or call the investor relations team after the call. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. First question is from the line of Michael Briest from UBS. Please go ahead. Morning. Thank you. Okay, guess just one from me. Can you talk a little bit about the chronology, Sanjay, of what's happened here? I mean, Karl-Heinz came back as chairman in June last year. Ralf Dieter joined the board then. What has changed that means that you feel you need this outside investment? And equally, is there a limit on the number of board members, which is why Ralf Dieter's also leaving, and who will succeed him as chairman of the audit committee? Thank you. Michael, thanks very much for the question. Look, I think, you know, this was very well discussed and aligned with Karl-Heinz Streibich about, you know, bringing on a partner to be able to help us now with the acceleration. It is part of the discussion and the plan. Silver Lake investment is an important milestone for the company, also in Karl-Heinz Streibich's opinion. Therefore, you know, it was the right time and right moment for the change in the chairmanship. For a company of our size, the right size of the board is six. You know, that was a decision from Supervisory Board to keep it to six. Hence, we brought in two experts and agreed to bring in two experts, and hence two of the members decided to step down. That is sort of to explain to you how the decisions were taken in. Can I just ask if there was ever a consideration of a full sale as the press speculated on last month? Look, you know, Michael, we constantly evaluate the best options for the company and its shareholders. We saw the most value in a transaction like this, which is why the management team and the supervisory board are moving forward with it, you know. This outcome presents the best solutions for us, and we are pleased to actually have a blue-chip investor like Silver Lake on board that fully supports our strategy and our ambition to accelerate growth in subscriptions and SaaS, and of course also value creating M&A. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Michael. Next question is from the line of Gautam Pillai from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Great. Thanks for taking my questions. One from me, it's basically whether the partnership announcement changes anything in your current strategy and your announced midterm targets going on to up to 2023? Hey, Gautam. Thanks for the question. Look, there is no change in our strategy, you know. Silver Lake has basically bought into the Helix strategy and now comes in to add their firepower to help us even accelerate the Helix strategy. That is in fact what is excited Christian and Jim Whitehurst to join the team. As far as our, you know, our plans, et cetera, as you know, we are in the budget process. We're gonna complete our budget process. You know, as communicated to you in earlier, we will share with you our plans in our, you know, year-end call as well as our capital markets day. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Knut Woller from Baader Bank. Please go ahead. Thank you. Just quickly, if I remember correctly, you softly committed to expanding margins from next year on. I understand that you're still in the budgeting process, but does this commitment to expand margins despite the investment or the firepower you received from Silver Lake still stand? I mean, look, Knut, we had given the statement at the end of the Q3 about our plans, so, and we also said that, you know, let us finish our budget process, let us finish all the exercise, and then we will share with you our 2022 budget as well as our midterm plan. That's exactly how we are progressing. No change to those plans. Okay. Thank you, Sanjay. Next question is from the line of Florian Treisch from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my question. You talk about the clear endorsement behind the deal from Silver Lake. Talking to kind of first feedback from investors is clearly that they were kind of disappointed by the way of investing into Software AG. Clearly, a strong commitment does not sound like buying into a convertible into an option into Software AG. Why is there no direct investment from Silver Lake into Software AG? Thank you. Maybe I can take that. Good morning, Florian, from my side. First of all, the entire idea around this is a strategic partnership between the two companies. The PIPE investment, the private investment in public equity, is an innovative vehicle, and as I said, it does match our DNA and culture as a software company. If we look at the structure of the bond, I think it's important to highlight the subordination. That actually moves it very close to equity in terms of its risk level, number one. Number two, it does provide the company with the maximum flexibility going forward should we then go and execute on our programmatic M&A. I think we're in for the long-term journey of a strategic partnership here, and the PIPE is a vehicle that is somewhat new or lesser-known in Europe and Germany in particular, but it is a widely accepted and commonly used instrument in the United States. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Next question is from the line of Sven Merkt from Barclays. Please go ahead. Great. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. You had already a quite high net cash position before this deal. My question is, do you believe you can deploy all the cash in the near term, and are you not concerned about inefficiencies on your balance sheet? Thank you. Morning, Sven. I'll take that question. First of all, thanks for the question. I think it goes without saying that we had a robust and strong balance sheet to begin with. That is how you started your question. This has become even stronger now, providing us with a higher level of resiliency and flexibility. I am not concerned about us not being able to deploy the cash in the future. Because I already said in response to Florian's question that it is now time to go execute our programmatic M&A. We have spoken about this to you previously. The strategy is set up, the methodology is in place. We will now need to bring Silver Lake fully on board. We start this now, continue in January. We update you on the targets in the new year, and then we will also shed some light on the way forward with regards to the M&A strategy. I have no concerns on inefficiencies or a lack of opportunities to deploy the capital. Okay, that's clear. Thank you. Thank you. We have a follow-up question from the line of Michael Briest from UBS. Please go ahead. Yes. If I can just sort of round back on Knut's question around the midterm ambitions. Are you repeating the 25%-30% margin target and EUR 1 billion in sales in 2023? Is that still the target today? I believe at the Capital Markets Day, you showed margins expanding beyond 2023. Is that the assumption investors should have? Michael, I'll take that one again because it is the same notion that I included in my closing to Sven's question. Today is not the time to talk about neither 2022 or any mid or long-term ambitions for the company. They are about growth, they are about innovation, but as I just said, we will onboard Silver Lake now. They have done their process. They have looked at the company. They're subscribing to the strategy. They want to take it to the next level of growth with us, but we need to do the onboarding, finish the budgeting process, and then we come back to the capital markets in the new year. If you're talking about faster growth, that normally requires investments and so lower margins. Is that a reasonable assumption? Michael, again, we will come back to this in the new year. Today is not the time to speculate around that. Today, we're happy about the full endorsement of the Helix transformation strategy, and we're fully focused on landing the plane for 2021 first, and then we come back to all future topics. Okay. We will just finish our process, Michael, and then we will definitely come back in the new year. Understood. Sanjay, you were at our conference last week talking about sort of EUR 5 million-EUR 20 million ARR type acquisitions. Has that changed in light of this capital inflow? No, we've actually, very much, shared with Silver Lake during our engagements, our, you know, our string of pearls strategy, and that's something that they really, really like and really subscribe to. Michael, no change really from a perspective of the areas of focus that we shared with you and where we believe, we have built our pipeline very, very well. Thank you. Sure. Next question is from the line of Andreas Wolf from Warburg Research. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. The first and basically the only one is on the size of the acquisitions that you plan. Shall we think of many tuck-ins that will enrich your product portfolio, or shall we rather think of a bigger or maybe two bigger transformative takeovers? Thank you. Yeah, Andreas, what I would say is, you know, when we had shared with you our string of pearls, we said that we're not looking at one big transformative deal. You know, that doesn't change very much. What we are looking at areas that fit very well into our strategy and help us expand our total addressable market to the EUR 61 billion that we shared with you. To be a bit more precise, we are looking very specifically at areas around data integration, data ingestion. These are areas that are very complementary with our hybrid integration API management. The sales motion is very similar, the buyer profile is very similar, and we can bundle it quite nicely with the capabilities we have. The second area is hyperautomation and workflow automation, which ties very nicely to our fast-growing area of ARIS process mining, and that's the area that we have built a pipeline on. In both these cases, we're looking at companies that are anything between, say, you know, 10-20 million ARR. These are companies that are all SaaS subscription. They are growing at a strong double-digit CAGR. Those are the kind of companies that we are looking at. We're not looking at tech tuck-ins. If you think about our portfolio, our portfolio is really strong. One of the feedback from Silver Lake to us was that they were really impressed with the product portfolio. They were really impressed with how much we've achieved over the last 2.5 years in terms of how we've built a fully cloud-native product portfolio and totally transformed the product portfolio. You know, we're not looking at small tech tuck-ins. We're looking at high growth, you know, between 10-20, 20 million ARR companies. Thank you. Sure. Next question is a follow-up from Knut Woller from Baader Bank. Please go ahead. Just focusing on the organic or potential organic impact of this partnership. Can you describe a bit how you expect Silver Lake to open new doors for you also getting new accounts? You mentioned North America, which always used to be a bit more difficult for you to tackle. Can you provide some more insight here, or which tailwind you expect from the partnership in that regard? Thank you. Hey, Knut. Thanks for the question. Look, I mean, you know, this is—we're now partnering with the best of the best when it comes to really focusing on growth strategies and, you know, helping companies, you know, really great companies like Twitter, Motorola, UiPath, Dell Technologies, et cetera, to really build that growth engine. What we will get from Silver Lake is their deep industry expertise, but their phenomenal network and relationships in their portfolio companies. They have a portfolio of $227 billion. 567,000 people in their portfolio. We will get phenomenal amount of exposure to their own portfolio, but most importantly, we get the brand recognition in a market which is, you know, 50% of our TAM, Knut. We often complain that we don't get to enough chances. That's what our challenge, our product set is so good, if we get into the competition, one out of every two battles or three battles, we win. Our win rate is really good. It's about creating that visibility. Silver Lake gives us that opportunity, you know, to obviously, you know, get exposed to their network, but also importantly, get the brand recognition. Then last point, which I will emphasize is, look, we're in the war for talent today, you know. That's just the nature of the situation. This is really helping us attract great talent and also give our talent clear confirmation of what Software AG's strategy is, Helix strategy, and how Silver Lake fully buys into our strategy and also wants to be part of this journey with us. It gives us a fantastic opportunity also to attract and retain talent, which I think in today's current environment is very important too. Thank you, Sanjay. Sure, Knut. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone telephone. Next question is from the line of Alastair Nolan from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Morning. Thank you. Thanks for taking my question. Just a clarification, really. I think you, throughout the year in every release have broadly confirmed the midterm targets, and I note that that's not in the release today. Is it fair to then assume that those midterm targets are at least under review, if not fully confirmed today? Maybe you could just clarify. Thank you. Alastair, I'll probably repeat the thing that I said, which is, you know, look, we're working through our budget process and this is the normal exercise that we go through. As Matthias said, we're gonna bring on board Silver Lake. We'll also have a change of our chairmanship and our supervisory board change, which will happen in January. We're gonna go through that entire process and then in one time, come and share with you our plans to 2022. At this point in time, you know, we're just in the process. It's in flux. It doesn't make any sense to make more comments right now, you know? Alastair, if I may just- Thank you. I'd add just one technical comment to avoid confusion in the audience. Nothing was taken off the plate, I think you say in English, right? Intentionally. Rather, if I may point you to the boilerplate statement in the press release that concludes with the half sentence saying, "With the aim of exceeding EUR 1 billion by 2023." Just to avoid that technical confusion there. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. There are no further questions at this time, and I would like to hand back to Robin Colman for closing comments. Please go ahead. Thank you, Stuart. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your questions today. We look forward to speaking to you in the new year, and we wish you all the very best for the holiday season. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. All the best. Stay safe. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.