Dear shareholders, on behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to welcome you to the annual general meeting of Royal Unibrew. My name is Peter Ruzicka, and I'm the Chair of the Board in Royal Unibrew. This year's AGM is, again, a fully virtual AGM. We're convinced that with the virtual general meeting, we can reach a broader circle of our shareholders, including, not least, our international shareholders. Today, our CEO, Lars Jensen, and I will give you a thorough report on the company's activities and development in 2023, how we are faring in the beginning of this year, and what we expect for the rest of the year. We already had to adjust our expectations upwards when we announced our first quarter results, but more about that later. After that, we're going to decide on the proposals on the agenda. If you have any questions during the general meeting, the chair of the meeting will give you instructions as to how to ask your questions in a little while. I would like to make you aware of our very fine website for the use of communication between Royal Unibrew and our shareholders. I hope, I hope that you have benefited from the website and the information that we publish there. And not least, I, of course, hope that in connection with the annual general meeting, you're all aware that all of the relevant information for shareholders is available on the website, including the annual report for 2023 and previous years. I would like to encourage all shareholders to sign up via the investor portal and have communication from Royal Unibrew sent to you electronically. In this connection, I would also like to encourage you to inform us of your email address so that we can communicate directly to you, for instance, when it comes to the annual general meeting. With these words, we will start this year's annual general meeting, and in accordance with the Articles of Association, Article 16, the board has appointed Attorney at Law, Niels Kornerup, as chair of the meeting. Niels, the floor is yours. Thank you for appointing me chair of the AGM of Royal Unibrew A/S. I hope we'll have a good debate at this fully electronic or virtual AGM. Before we start the AGM as such, there are a few formal things we have to ensure, or that I have to ensure, namely, that the AGM has been convened correctly and is competent for the transaction of the business on the agenda. I can conclude that the convening notice was sent out on time in respect of the Articles of Association and the Danish Companies Act. This ordinary general meeting has been legally convened and is quorate, and I hope that the shareholders agree with me on this. If there are any comments, please make them now. There are no comments, so I will add that to the minutes, and with that, we are ready to start. Just before we started, 67% of the votes and the share capital was represented, and that's without any treasury shares. Postal votes and proxies have been given up to 80% of the votes, and this means that there's support for the proposals with more than 80% of the votes. The final numbers will appear from the minutes. As mentioned at earlier AGMs, there is the Danish Companies Act, Section 101, para. 5, which means that you have to have a full record of the votes for any proposal treated at the AGM, even though it's clear what the result will be. I propose that we do as in previous years, that we deviate from that record, because that will make everything go more smoothly. I'll ask the shareholders whether they agree with me on this. That seems to be the case. Thank you very much for that. It is possible to watch the AGM on the company's website, and you can also follow the AGM via the AGM portal. You cannot participate in the debate or ask questions if you log in via the webcast on the company's website. As a shareholder, you need to be registered in the shareholders portal if you want to participate in the debate. We'll now turn to how the debate and the electronic communication will happen during the through the AGM portal. If you want to send a message during the AGM, you can write your intervention in the message function. There's an icon, there's a Send Besked, Send Message, and you then select the item on the agenda in the scrolling menu and fill in Emne and Indlæg. If you follow the AGM through your cell phone, you need to click the menu with three horizontal lines in the top left corner, and then the icon for Send Message, Send Besked. Please send your interventions as quickly as possible, even though we haven't reached that item on the agenda yet. Then I'll make sure to read out the intervention at the relevant item on the agenda... Please write your name first, and then the company you might represent when you send in your intervention. Then we'll present the intervention when we get to that item on the agenda, and you will get your response. In order to have a good AGM, we would appreciate if you do not use this function for anything other than questions or interventions to be read out at the AGM. Please be concise and brief to the greatest extent possible. As there might be several questions or interventions about the same subject, we may pool some of those questions or interventions. If you have any technical issues along the way, Euronext is ready to help you via telephone, and you can contact them under the phone number +45 43 58 88 94 for Denmark. And I repeat, +45 43 58 88 94 for Denmark. That was the opening, so we can move on to the agenda. And yeah, the agenda has been sent with a convening notice and also on a slide here next to me. We'll start with the report on the company's business activities during the year. Secondly, the presentation of the audited annual report. Item 3, resolution to discharge the Board of Directors and the management. Item 4, proposed distribution of profit for the year. And item 5, presentation of the remuneration report for 2023 for approval. Item 6 is approval of remuneration for the Board of Directors for 2024, and then item 7, consideration of proposals submitted by the Board of Directors. There are two proposals this year: 7.1, authorization to acquire treasury shares, and 7.2, authorization to distribute extraordinary dividend. Item 8, election of members of the Board of Directors. Item 9, appointment of state-authorized public auditor, and item 10, any other business. With that, we'll dive into the agenda as such, and we'll start with the first items en bloc, as is typical here at Royal Unibrew. So we'll start by grouping items 1 to 5. So we'll start with the report, the annual report, the resolution to discharge, proposed distribution of profit, and presentation of the remuneration report. And with that, I give the floor to the Chair of the Board first, Mr. Peter Ruzicka. He'll give the first part of the report, and then CEO Lars Jensen, who will cover the last part of the report. And after that, the Chair of the Board will motivate the other items on the agenda. And I give the floor to the Chair of the Board. Thank you, Niels. The year 2023 was another volatile year. Our business continued to be affected by the historic inflation in the world, particularly in Europe. The war in Ukraine continued, and unfortunately, it still affects an unreasonable amount of people every day. In 2023, another war broke out close to Europe, with derived effects for all of us and for Royal Unibrew in the form of uncertainty and increased costs. Finally, our relatively new businesses in Norway and Sweden were strongly negatively affected by the significant declines in the Norwegian and Swedish krona that we saw in the beginning of the year. Through 2021 and 2022, inflation increased our costs with a total of DKK 1.5 billion, but by the second quarter, 2023, we reached a point where we, through price increases and other initiatives, had neutralized this significant cost increase. That meant that from the second quarter of 2023, we could again see a growth in our operating income, a growth that accelerated throughout the year and meant that we started 2024 with a strong momentum for both our business and our earnings. Looking back beyond 2023, in Royal Unibrew, we have expanded our business significantly into new geographies and categories. We have doubled in size in just a matter of a few years, but we are still running our business based on the same basic principles. From being a company with activities in Denmark, Finland, Italy, and the Baltics, Royal Unibrew has developed into a company with strong multi-beverage platforms in the entire Nordic area and a solid presence in Western Europe, with excellent growth prospects. In this period of time, we have seen countless opportunities arise, and we have successfully improved our portfolio of local brands as well as partner brands. We have continued to expand our assortment of drinks to cover our customers' and consumers' need in the majority of situations. In 2023, we carried out three acquisitions. In the beginning of the year, we took over the iconic Danish microbrewery, Nørrebro Bryghus, which has strengthened our position in Copenhagen. Vrumona in Holland had been on our wish list through a number of years before the opportunity arose suddenly in 2023. We strongly believe in the long-term value of our activities in the Netherlands. We have a strong basis for growth in Western Europe, giving us access to more small and medium-sized markets, where we can expand our portfolio of drinks in the next 10 years. The third acquisition in 2023 was the Italian brewery, San Giorgio, which hasn't just expanded our production capacity, but even more importantly, cemented our position on the Italian market, and improved our ability to match the increasing demand for our drinks in Italy. This project was in the pipeline for 2 years before the agreement was signed, and it speaks to the fact that you must be patient when it comes to structural initiatives. We're convinced that with these acquisitions, we will be able to create significant value to our shareholders in the coming years by growing the entire organization in Royal Unibrew, while at the same time, realizing the expected synergies from these acquisitions and ensuring improvements in efficiency. Reflecting on the past year, there's no doubt that it's also been a very significant year when it comes to our sustainability effort. In the second quarter of 2023, Royal Unibrew was acknowledged as an ESG industry top-rated company by Morningstar Sustainalytics. Shortly thereafter, we launched our solar park in Faxe in Denmark, and a biogas facility in Lahti, Finland. Both of these facilities are very important to our sustainability journey. Apart from these energy optimization products, we also received validation of our CO2 reduction targets from the Science Based Targets initiative, which confirms our commitment to decarbonize our company's effect on the environment, and thereby, contribute to a better and more sustainable world for the coming generations. Lars Jensen is going to get back to the entire ESG theme in his report later on. In 2023, net revenue reached a new record high for Royal Unibrew. As I briefly mentioned before, net revenue has doubled since 2020, when we include the full year effects of Vrumona and San Giorgio, that only contributed to net revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023. The year started with a good growth in our Nordic multi-beverage businesses, while activity was low in Italy due to inventory reduction with our wholesale customers. Internationally, we were challenged due to political unrest and macroeconomic challenges in several of our African markets. Our Nordic business continued its solid performance throughout 2023. However, net revenue was negatively affected in the third quarter by a historically bad summer with a lot of rain. All through 2023, revenue in Norway and Sweden was restrained by weakened currency, reducing net revenue when calculated to Danish kroner. In Italy, the market normalized during the course of the second quarter, and since then, we have seen that our sales to the customers has corresponded to what the customers have sold to the end consumers, which towards the end of the year, brought about a very strong growth. International was negatively affected by a lower profitability throughout 2023 due to high transport costs, and the fact that we have had a very high capacity usage of our production facilities, and that meant that we couldn't service all of our markets at a satisfactory level at all times. On that background, net revenue increased in 2023 by 13% and constituted almost DKK 13 billion. Organic development in revenue, that is, the development excluding the effect of acquisition, was 4%. The acquired companies contribute to an increase in net revenue of about 9%. On a segment-by-segment basis, we realized 8% organic revenue growth in Northern Europe on the background of a positive volume growth and price increases. This, in spite of a very poor summer and the weakened currencies in Norway and Sweden, reducing revenue growth with about two percentage points. In Western Europe, net revenue fell organically by 4% due to the aforementioned inventory reduction with our wholesale customers. However, we ended the year with a strong 27% organic growth in the fourth quarter. In the international segment, net revenue fell organically by 14%. As previously mentioned, that was a result of challenged markets in Africa, higher transport prices, and a limitation of goods. As for large parts of the year, we made full use of our production capacity so that we could have sold more goods in our international business. In 2023, Royal Unibrew as a whole, reached a result before financial items and taxes, that is an EBIT, of DKK 1,638 million, which was DKK 122 million, or 8% higher than in 2022. This increase speaks to the momentum that we have built throughout 2023. Looking at the organic growth in our EBIT, it was 7% in 2023, which also covers the fact that it fell 7% in the first quarter, then it increased 3%, then 2%, and it ended up by increasing 29% in the second, third, and fourth quarter, respectively.... Looking at EBIT in relation to net revenue, we can see, the profitability of our business. This ratio, the EBIT margin, fell by a half percentage point from 13.2 to 12 in 2022, to 12.7% in 2023. The decline is negatively affected by the acquisitions that we have realized, because they all have a lower EBIT margin than Royal Unibrew. If we adjust for acquisitions, our EBIT margin for the remaining part of the business increased. The profits for the year were DKK 1,095 million, which is DKK 396 million lower than in 2022. This corresponds to a decline of 27%. However, this significant decline includes the fact that when we took over Hansa Borg in 2022, we already had a share of 25%. Technically, this shareholding was valued at the same price as what we paid for the remaining 75% of the company, which led to an extraordinary accounting benefit of DKK 360 million in 2024, 2022. If we adjust for this fact, annual profits fell by DKK 36 million, corresponding to 3%. Taxes for 2023 were a cost of DKK 311 million, and corresponds to a tax rate of 22.4%. The free cash flow increased in 2023 to DKK 1,143 million, which was an increase of DKK 566 million compared to 2022. It was particularly our working capital that developed positively, among other things, as a result of the falling prices on commodities and packaging materials. The figures on the left-hand side here shows the development in net debt for the past five years. Here we can see that in 2023, it increased by almost DKK 2 billion to DKK 6.4 billion. During the course of the year, we paid out just above DKK 700 million in dividends to our shareholders. Furthermore, we paid almost DKK 2.5 billion for the acquisitions of primarily Vrumona and San Giorgio. These transactions are the primary causes for the increase in our net debt. There's a strong focus on bringing down the size of the debt in relation to earnings, as this ratio is higher than what we find ideal and at a time where interest rates have increased significantly. Solvency, the size of our equity in relation to total assets, fell by 4 percentage points in 2023, and was 32% by the end of the year, compared to 36% by the end of 2022. The reason for the declining solvency, in spite of increasing earnings and a free cash flow, is the increase of activities caused by the acquisitions of Vrumona and San Giorgio. Looking at our total capital structure, our debt and equity by the end of 2022, our financial strength is not where we would like it to be ideally. That is also why we propose to the annual general meeting that we do not find it ideal to pay out an ordinary dividend at present, but that in the board, we would like to ask for a mandate to be able to pay out an extraordinary dividend of up to DKK 14.5 later this year, once we are through the high season, where we normally generate the vast majority of our cash flows. That way, we would be able to pay off our debt as quickly as possible, while we expect to be able to pay out a dividend to our shareholders later this year. We have not launched a new share buyback program as macroeconomic uncertainty is high, and because we would like to bring down the debt multiple before potentially starting to buy back own shares again. After this review of the overall financial development in Royal Unibrew, I would like to comment on the development of our share price. In 2023, share prices were affected by increasing interest rates and the risk of an economic slowdown. That also affected Royal Unibrew. Just like other companies in the drinks business, we were affected by the high inflation, which wasn't fully transferred to the consumers, in combination with the speculation about consumer behavior once the prices started to increase. Finally, many drinks and foods shares were also affected by the development in obesity drugs, as there was a lot of speculation as to the effect on future sales. That meant that our peer group varied a bit back and forth throughout 2023, and performed below the general Danish stock markets, particularly towards the end of the year. As you can see by this figure, the share price in Royal Unibrew developed a bit weaker than the comparable companies and the Danish C25 Index in 2023. By the end of 2023, the price of the Royal Unibrew share was 451.10 DKK, compared to 495 DKK by the end of 2022, corresponding to a fall of 9%. That meant that our market value fell to DKK 23 billion by the end of 2023, compared to DKK 25 billion by the end of 2022. As you can see here, the result of our first quarter caused a significant spike in our share price, so that since the beginning of 2023, we have performed better than comparable companies, and for 2024 alone, even better still. With that, I give the floor to the CEO of Royal Unibrew, Lars Jensen. Thank you, Peter. 2023 was another eventful year for Royal Unibrew. We started the year with price increases to counter the inflation that hit our business from the start of the year, and at the same time, parts of our business were challenged by set bound sales because of political turmoil in Africa and reduction in inventory with some of our customers in the Italian market. But in spite of that, we achieved a reasonable result in 2023, with a result that landed in the middle of the outlook we presented in connection with the annual report for 2022. Aside from these market events, 2023 was also a year where we made some important acquisitions. Of course, I'm talking about Vrumona in the Netherlands and San Giorgio in Italy, that Peter already mentioned. Vrumona is the second largest soft drink company in Holland and became part of Royal Unibrew in September 2023. It has a product portfolio with some strong own brands and partner brands, and make up a new platform for us in Western Europe. It's located near Utrecht and contributes 300 dedicated, competent colleagues. It was the first company in the Netherlands to focus on beverages with no or low sugar and calories, and thus fits in well with its strong market position here in with Royal Unibrew. Through the acquisition of Vrumona, we have also expanded our partnership with PepsiCo, as Vrumona produces, sells, and distributes a complete beverage portfolio of PepsiCo in the Netherlands. The production facilities have surplus capacity, and we are already benefiting from that in other markets. For instance, the products we sell on the border between Denmark and Germany are now produced with Vrumona. Towards the end of 2023, the acquisition of a production facility from Birra Castello was concluded. This brewery is located in San Giorgio di Nogaro in Italy, and the acquisition is a strategic measure to support our growing business in Italy, as well as our international business. The acquisition will ultimately help free production capacity in Denmark for the Danish and international market, and at the same time, it enables us to move our beer production for the Italian market from Denmark to Italy. This contributes to a more optimal and sustainable footprint for Royal Unibrew. The alternative to acquiring the brewery in Italy would have been an investment to expand brewing capacity in Faxe, here in Denmark, but that expansion would not have been optimally positioned as we needed a platform to serve the Italian market and our international markets. The costs for expanding in Faxe would have been at least 2-3 times higher than the amount we paid for the brewery in San Giorgio. Royal Unibrew's position as a strong regional supplier of beverages was strengthened in 2023. Our multi-beverage and multi-need strategies, where we build strong market positions in several beverage categories, continues to deliver satisfactory results. Part of our strategy is to focus on some select categories, which are listed here on the slide. We're talking about energy drinks, premium products, low, no sugar, low, no alcohol, ready-to-drink products, ciders, cocktails, and enhanced waters. All these areas are expected to grow structurally faster than the market for beverages in general. Add to that, that most of the categories have a higher profit margin than our average margin. In 2023, beverages with low or no sugar performed very well, with an organic net growth of 32%. All markets contributed well in this category, and the increase was further supported by the expansion of our partnership with PepsiCo on the border between Denmark and Germany. Energy drinks had an organic net growth of 5% in 2023, driven by strong growth in Denmark, on the border between Denmark and Germany, and in the Baltic States. Because of price increases, the growth in this category was lower in 2023 than in previous years. Products with low or no alcohol continued to grow organically, with a net growth of 4%, while enhanced waters grew with 3%. Premium and cider RTD struggled a bit in 2023 as the weather was bad in the high season, and high-end cocktails in the retail business suffered very strongly after strong growth in COVID, on during COVID, but we are winning market shares. As both Peter and I have mentioned earlier today, Royal Unibrew has developed significantly in recent years. Before our acquisition of Hartwall in Finland in 2013, Royal Unibrew was a Danish company with a small but profitable beer company in Italy, and a larger but not very profitable business in the Baltic. With our expansion of Hartwall, we expanded our business with strong platform in the Nordic countries, and we laid the tracks for a long period of continuous improvement of our market positions and earnings, increasing the bottom line year on year. But our business was also based on few markets, where we had high market shares and where the growth opportunities are more difficult to achieve. We also saw margins on levels that were difficult to improve, and with a capacity usage that was already high and not geared for growth. So we had two options. One, accept a lower EBIT growth rate than historically, and two, try to make the pie larger and aim to continue an EBIT growth that is greater than that of our competitors. We chose option two, and with the acquisitions of the past three years, we have almost doubled our net revenue, and most of that comes from what we call platform acquisitions. Platform acquisitions take longer to achieve synergies compared to other types of acquisitions, as they require investments in equipment, brands, and organization. There's also often a cultural change needed before we see the synergies. As we've said earlier, platform acquisitions create the greatest value in the long term, and these platforms have significant growth opportunities over time by expanding the number of categories and strengthening market positions. By rolling out our business model, we will slowly reap the benefits of stronger market positions, broader portfolios of high quality, and a large-scale production, distribution, and sales sector. It does require investments, both in assets and in organization, to ensure maximum value creation in the long term. In other words, investments are necessary to achieve the needed and expected synergies and the expected improvement of earnings. We're not just talking about investments locally in new markets, because it's also necessary to upgrade the backbone of Royal Unibrew. In the upcoming period, we'll focus on integration processes, including investments, and we will not seek new acquisitions actively, but we will consolidate our business and reap the benefits of our synergies. One thing is the development of our own brands and products, but our commercial success is also built on strong combinations of local power brands, combined with strong global partner brands, because it strengthens our portfolio for the benefit of our customers and in the end, for the pleasure of our consumers. We have expanded our partnership business in recent years. We have taken over PepsiCo's snack portfolio in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and their beverage business on the border between Denmark and Germany. We have also expanded our cooperation agreement with Diageo to include the Norwegian market and with several new partnerships in other areas of beverages. The profitability of these partnerships depend on whether it's only distribution or also production, sales, and marketing. In general, the partnerships, however, do reduce our EBIT margin. On the other hand, the investment we need to make is lower, which makes the return on investment very attractive. It's important to understand that the new platforms we have acquired open new growth opportunities for us, and it has made us a much more attractive partner in our geographical areas. So our world has changed significantly since we originally set out our long-term EBIT margin target of 20%-21%. We have expanded our business size through acquisitions and partnerships, which in the short term, reduce our margins, but our current footprint involves several new platforms with great future growth opportunities. So we're in a position where we can generate significant organic growth in revenue by optimizing our current business and expanding new markets and growing our partnerships. We will continue to build new capacity to ensure that we can continue to reap the benefits of our multi-beverage growth strategy, while also making sure to realize the synergies of the acquisitions we've made, and through stronger market positions and efficiency improvements, achieve those synergies. We have great faith in our strategy to focus on categories that grow faster than the beverage market in general. Focus on organic revenue growth ensure that we make the right decisions in our efforts to achieve our target of maximizing value creation in the long term, and we believe that organic growth and EBIT will deliver higher returns than just focusing on the EBIT margin in and of itself, and we want this to be reflected in our long-term economic targets. So our new long-term target is to increase our EBIT organically by 6%-8% a year. It is still our ambition to increase the EBIT margin, and with the current setup of the business and the current input prices, we expect to increase the EBIT margin organically in the same period. The change in the long-term economic targets from margins to organic growth does not change our capital structure or distribution policy. The goal of our capital structure policy is to ensure flexibility to develop the business in compliance with our strategic priorities. So it's still our goal to have a net interest-bearing debt below 2.5 times the EBITDA, and distribute 40%-60% of the consolidated net result for the year. The transforming journey we are going through at the moment would, of course, not be possible without the hard work of our colleagues. It's in our DNA to be flexible and dedicated, and that has helped us through a year with several challenges. Many are involved in the integration processes, and others work hard to optimize the new and larger business that Royal Unibrew has become. Our colleagues in IT have onboarded new colleagues and strengthened the fundamental infrastructure of Royal Unibrew. Locally, everyone has contributed to ensure that Royal Unibrew is the preferred supplier of beverages in our various markets. I would therefore like to say a great thank you to all our employees. We have come very well through the past year in spite of many challenges, and we are proud of that. As Peter mentioned, in 2023, we have been busy in ESG. We continue our sustainability journey to reduce our footprint and potential effects of the environment around us. We are about to deliver on our overall targets regarding consumers, customers, products, and employees. Volume growth of productions with low or no sugar and calories, or low or no alcohol, surpassed growth in traditional sugar beverages and alcoholic beverages. And also, we have a target of at least 40% of our marketing campaign being towards brands and campaigns with a sustainable growth profile. The total increase in energy use and water was 6% and 5% respectively, owing also to acquisitions. But the absolute CO₂ emissions of production were reduced by 2% in 2023, corresponding to an organic reduction of 9%. So we are seeing the effects of transitioning from fossil fuel to renewable energy. We are well on our way to achieve 100% CO₂ neutrality by 2025 for Scope 1 and 2, excluding logistics. 44% of our energy consumption was based on renewable energy in 2023. We produce and use 100% renewable electricity, and the effects of our new heat pumps, bio-based and electric boilers, and further measures will also reduce our emissions further in 2024. Our decarbonization journey has also been approved by Science Based Targets initiative in 2023, and since then, we have sent our net zero targets for 2040 for approval this year. We are gradually expanding our decarbonization journey for the entire value chain and also have our packaging materials being reduced by 4% in 2024. We achieved 96% recycled, recyclable, or reusable packaging in 2023, so we are well on our way to our target of 100% by 2025. For instance, we also invest in more bottling lines, where carton has replaced plastic-based cling film. We are still challenged in our safety culture, where we have too many lost time events. We focus a great deal on that, and one accident is one accident too many. We have several measures to improve in that area. We are converting our energy consumption to renewable energy sources. We focus on the entire value chain and work with the suppliers to share our values and focus when it comes to green energy. Our total energy consumption dropped by 2% compared to 2022. This drop is in spite of increased volumes and the result of our energy-saving measures, such as our solar park in Denmark and our biogas facility in Finland and installation of new boilers, et cetera. Even though the war in Ukraine resulted in a temporary switch from natural gas to oil in Denmark, Canada, and oil in Norway in the beginning of 2023, our CO₂ per produced volume dropped organically by 9% in 2023, and this drop is one of the effects of our transformation from being fossil-based to being based on renewable energy sources. Water is our most important ingredient, so the quality and protection of water is vital to us. All wastewater is treated to comply with the requirements. Our water consumption in relation to produced quantities dropped organically by 1% in the past year. Measured over a period from 2019 to 2023, the water consumption per produced unit was reduced organically by 6%. As you can see on the graph on the right, our LTIF is too high, and it increased last year. In 2023, the number of accidents per 1 million hours worked increased by 17% compared to the year before. So we continue our behavior-based safety training across the business. I'll now switch to the beginning of 2024. The year has started better than expected, and as I'm sure you've all seen, we made upward adjustments to our outlook in our quarter, quarterly accounts sent out almost two weeks ago. The momentum we created in 2023 has continued in 2024. Our multi-beverage markets in the Nordic countries continue their strong performance, and the Italian and African markets are back to normal. So it was also the fourth quarter in a row with a positive organic EBIT growth, this time by 13%. This revenue growth has been created based on an organic volume growth of 6.6%, driven by high growth in international and Italy. A solid effort from our commercial organizations helped create a price mix gain of 5%, which meant that the net revenue grew organically by 11% in the first quarter. The recent years with first COVID and then inflation meant that focus has been on producing, supplying, and getting the right price for the products, not so much on efficiency improvements. But these improvements have always been an important parameter for us, and with COVID and inflation behind us, it will, of course, gain focus in our work going forward. It has also contributed to the EBIT growth of 13%. When we reported results for 2023 and the outlook for 2024 back in February, there were a number of uncertainties about input prices, procurement contracts, and our ability to increase production, especially related to Vrumona. But we've now reduced these uncertainty factors and adjusted our outlook upwards from previously 5%-15% organic EBIT growth to now 9%-19%, and we now expect a net revenue around DKK 15 billion. As mentioned, our outlook was adjusted upwards recently, and we expect an organic EBIT growth of 9%-19%. We also expect that Vrumona and San Giorgio together will contribute with a further DKK 80 million to EBIT, so the EBIT for 2024 is expected to be in the interval of DKK 1.875 billion-DKK 2.025 billion. We also see good progress in the integration of both Vrumona and San Giorgio. We have not adjusted commercial expectations for the year. We have not seen any changes in consumer behavior, and therefore, we continuously expect a net revenue around DKK 15 billion. Of course, the outlook is based on normal summer weather, and with that, I want to thank you for your attention and give the floor back to Peter. Thank you very much for that report, Lars. With this presentation from our CEO, we end our report on the past year, the result for the first quarter of 2024, and the expectations for our result for 2024. We can now move on to the shareholder-related items. These are the proposals for distribution of profits for the year, including dividends for 2023, remuneration for the board and executive management, and election for the board. First, I'm going to present the board's proposals, and then the chair of the meeting will take us through the decision-making process. First of all, we expect Royal Unibrew to continue to generate a significant liquidity surplus, which will enable us to make an ongoing payout to our shareholders via dividends and potentially also share buybacks. In 2023, the parent company achieved profits of DKK 1,032 million. This is DKK 539 million less than last year, because last year was positively affected by DKK 360 million kroner from the revaluation of the Hansa Borg shares that we already owned at the time of the takeover. Taking into account our financial targets for solidity and leverage, as well as strategic considerations, it is still the intention of Royal Unibrew to pay out 40%-60% of annual consolidated profits as dividends and to launch share buyback programs when it is deemed ideal. The net interest-bearing debt in relation to earnings is currently at 2.9, which is higher than our target of keeping interest-bearing debt below 2.5 times earnings. That is why the board proposes to the annual general meeting that we will not pay out an ordinary dividend, but instead give a mandate to the Board of Directors to pay out an extraordinary dividend of up to DKK 14.5 per share later this year, which should compare to last year's payout of DKK 14.5 per share. The reason for postponing the dividend payout is that the greater part of annual cash flows are generated in the second and third quarter, and that means that financially, it is a better idea to bring down debt to the biggest extent possible, before paying out dividend in order to save interest costs. For the same reason, we do not plan to launch a new share buyback program at present. The Board will continue to assess the need to adjust the capital structure by potential share buybacks, taking into account the financial development and the expectations for the future. And now for the item concerning the Board's fee for the accounting year 2024. In general terms, we aim for a remuneration for the Board to correspond to comparable companies and to reflect the requirements for the board members' competencies, efforts, and the extent of the board work, including the number of meetings. For your information, I can mention that in 2023, we held 11 board meetings, 7 meetings in the Nomination and Remuneration Committee, and 6 meetings in the Audit Committee. Board members receive a fixed fee, which is to be approved once a year by the annual general meeting. The Board does not receive any variable or share-based remuneration. The board proposes that the base fee for the board in 2024 will remain unchanged compared to 2023. That means a base fee of 415,000 DKK per board member. Furthermore, it is proposed that the Chair of the Board, just like in 2023, will receive 3 times the base fee, and that the deputy chair will continue to receive 1.75 times the base fee for their extended duties and obligations. The board has also established a nomination and remuneration committee and an audit committee. It is proposed that board members who also serve on these committees will continue to receive an additional annual fixed fee corresponding to 33% of the base fee per committee, and that the chairs of the committees receive an annual fixed fee corresponding to 50% of the base fee per chairmanship, for their extended duties and obligations. Furthermore, Royal Unibrew will cover the board members' expenses for travel, meetings, accommodations, et cetera, and the company may also pay foreign social charges and similar charges within the EU, charged by foreign authorities in relation to the fees. Finally, in connection with particularly extensive ad hoc work in a committee or the like, a special fee can be determined based on an assessment of the extent of this work. You can see the remuneration for the board on the screen in this overview. I know there's a lot of numbers, but I hope you can gain an overview here. The remuneration is put together according to the principles that I just presented under the item concerning the board's remuneration for 2024. The total increase in remuneration was 3.7% from 2022 to 2023. This leads me to the remuneration for the executive management. This remuneration can consist of three elements. The first element is a fixed pay, reflecting the market level, and aimed at attracting and retaining competent key persons, who can contribute to Royal Unibrew reaching its short- and long-term goals. The second element is a cash bonus, aiming at ensuring that Royal Unibrew's short-term targets are reached. This bonus cannot constitute more than 90% of the fixed pay, and it can be allocated one year at a time, based on the achievement of a number of predetermined financial and non-financial targets. The third element is a long-term bonus consisting of restricted stock units. This bonus cannot constitute more than the fixed pay. It is allocated annually and aims at ensuring the achievement of long-term goals. Furthermore, the executive management have ordinary benefits such as company car, telephone, et cetera. From the table on the screen, you can see the remuneration, and you can also read more about it in the remuneration report. As you can see, the total remuneration for the executive management was DKK 34.3 million in 2023, an increase of DKK 10.4 million compared to 2022, which is the result of higher bonus allocations for the short-term cash bonus and the long-term share bonus. That leads me to a review of the proposed AGM-elected members of the board. In Royal Unibrew, all AGM-elected members are up for election every year. However, Christian Sagild has informed us that he does not stand for re-election. I would like to take this occasion to thank Christian for his many years on the board. Christian joined the board in 2018, and thus, he has been part of Royal Unibrew for six years, and not least, his work on the audit committee has been very appreciated. Thank you, Christian. That means that this year, five members of the board are up for re-election, and the board proposes the election of one new member. The board members proposed for re-election are: Jais Valeur, who is the CEO of Danish Crown and has been a member of the board since 2013. Catharina Stackelberg-Hammarén, who is the co-founder and CEO of Marketing Clinic. Catharina was elected for the board in 2019 and is from Finland. Heidi Kleinbach-Sauter, who's a professional board member. Heidi was elected for the board in 2019 and is from Germany. Torben Carlsen, who is the CEO of DFDS and was elected for the board in 2021. The final person standing for re-election is myself. As you know, my name is Peter Ruzicka, and I'm from Norway. I'm a professional board member, and I was elected for the board in 2021, and I have served as the Chair of the Board since the first of March 2022. As a new member of the board, we propose Lise Mortensen. Lise is a professional board member, and until recently, she was the EVP and Group CFO of Chr. Hansen, up until the merger with Novozymes. The board has nominated Lise on the background of her vast experience within finance, IT, cyber security, ESG, and international management, including change management and transformation, business development, strategy, and M&A. You can read a bit more about all of us in the convening notice for the AGM and in the annual report for 2023, as well as on the company website. Assuming that the proposed board members will be re-elected, the board expects to appoint Jais Valeur as Deputy Chair, and myself as Chair on the first meeting after the general meeting. When it comes to diversity, we focus on ensuring that the organization of the company reflects today's society. A diverse, equal, and inclusive organization creates the best and most dynamic workplace, and it also underpins innovation and long-term value creation to the benefit of our stakeholders. We are particularly aware of the gender distribution at the management levels in the company, and we have a goal of at least 40% of each gender in our international management teams and on the board. If Lise Mortensen is elected for the board and the rest of us are re-elected, the gender distribution among the AGM elected members will be 50/50. As regards to the international management teams, we have seen progress in 2023, in spite of the acquisitions that we have carried out, as the underrepresented gender constituted 32% in 2023, compared to 28% in 2022. Before passing the floor back to Niels Kornerup to take us through the formal decision-making process, I would like to take this occasion to thank my board colleagues, the management, and the employees for their efforts in 2023. The results of last year are satisfactory in the light of the difficult conditions caused by inflation and war, and this is due to a huge common effort from all parts of the group, from production and distribution, sales and marketing, to the administrative functions in our company. In all parts of the organization, we have worked intently on solving the day-to-day tasks and on ensuring the continued development of Royal Unibrew. Lastly, I would, of course, also like to extend a thank you to our shareholders. I can promise you that in Royal Unibrew, we will do everything we can to continue to develop the company through value-creating growth. That means I have reached the end of my report, and our chair of the meeting, Niels Kornerup, will now take us through the remaining proposal and the formal decision making. The floor is yours, Niels. Thank you to the chair and the CEO for the report and for the motivation on the later items on the agenda. Before I open the floor to the debate, I can tell you that the annual report has been signed by the board, the executive board, and the auditor, without any comments, or so-called blank comment, and I refer you to pages 105-108 in the annual report. As the chair and the CEO mentioned, the board proposes that no ordinary dividend be paid out of the profit of DKK 1,095 million of 2023. The board proposes that the board is authorized to pay out extraordinary dividend later in this financial year, and that's under item 7.2, which we'll get to later. With that, I open the debate, and before the AGM, we have received one intervention, and another intervention was received during the first part of the AGM, and I will read out the interventions, and then they will be answered. The intervention we received prior to the AGM comes from Mr. Finn Lorenzen, and he says, "Dear Royal Unibrew, I would like the Board of Directors to answer the following questions at the annual general meeting. Up to 2008, Royal Unibrew made several acquisitions, resulting in high debt and poor financial performance. These acquisitions were again sold off, and a new strategy was formulated. Future acquisitions were limited to companies whose products had a market share in top two. One of the reasons behind this strategy was to avoid price-sensitive products and thereby maintain a high gross margin. In the period 2019 to 2023, Royal Unibrew again made massive acquisitions, also in companies that were not top of the market. The result is net interest-bearing debt is 238% higher than in 2019. Invested capital is 215% higher than in 2019. The gross margin is down from 23.6% to 17.1%, and the result is 4% lower than in 2019. So in spite of massive investments, the profit is failing. This mainly is due to lower gross margins, as Royal Unibrew has not been able to pass price increases on to the consumers. I have two questions. Firstly, why did Royal Unibrew abandon the prior strategy and invest in companies that cannot maintain a high gross margin? And secondly, what rules apply to future acquisitions?" That was a question from Mr. Finn Lorenzen, and Lars Jensen, the CEO, will give you a response. Thank you for the questions, Finn Lorenzen. Let me start by saying that our acquisition strategy has not changed, and when we make platform acquisitions, we still prefer companies that are in top two in the market. And that is the case with Solera and Hansa together as the second-largest beverage company in Norway, where they have a strong platform for growth in the future, and Vrumona is also the second-largest soft drinks company in the Netherlands. So this is completely in line with what we've also done previously. You also state that we have not been able to price pass on price increases to consumers. I don't fully agree. We have actually passed on price increases to consumers, but we've had a time lag in this, but we have had price increases of about DKK 1.5 billion. So towards the second half of 2023, we have closed the gap, so we have passed on those increases. And to answer your specific questions, we have not abandoned our previous strategy when it comes to acquisitions. It's the strategy we've had since 2013, when we acquired Hartwall. But when we see the gross margin dropping, it's factors like inflation and what happens when costs increase, and we also increase our sales prices without changing the market we have, then it waters down the gross margin. And we have acquired businesses that structurally have a lower gross margin, just like we have expanded with partnerships that give a lower gross margin, but increase our opportunities for making much more money over the years to come, and which will then strengthen Royal Unibrew. On your second question about the requirements for return on investment, we have the same requirements as we've had for many years. When we talk about the so-called platform acquisitions, from Hansa, Solera as one, and Vrumona in the Netherlands, the return on invested capital, the so-called ROIC, R-O-I-C, needs to be above the weighted average cost of capital, also called the WACC. And that has to be achieved as quickly as possible and has to be double digit within three years, approximately. That's what we are striving for. Thank you, Lars Jensen, for the response to Finn Lorenzen. The intervention we received during the AGM, it's from Jan Salmand Kresnik, and he states: It's great that the AGM is in Danish, but why do I receive messages in English? And secondly, why don't you pay out dividend as your net revenue is the highest in several years? And the Chair of the Board will answer that. Thank you, Niels. Well, it's nice to also be commended for something, namely that we have the AGM in Danish, and there are not a lot of companies who do that anymore. Now, the question about why our information is in English. Well, we strive to be efficient and reduce costs where we can. And when we looked at the downloads in Danish, there were very few. Most investors speak English, and that's why we have switched to communicating in English in order to simplify and save costs. And then there was a question about why we don't pay out ordinary dividend. As I've already explained, our gearing is higher than what we would like it to be. We have decided not to pay out ordinary dividend this year, but the Board of Directors has asked for a mandate to pay out DKK 14.5 per share later in the year, and we expect to do that in the autumn if things develop as expected, when we have reduced our debt over the summer, and if we have a good summer season with high sales, because summer is our high season. Thank you. Thank you very much to the chairman for this answer to Jan Salmand Kresnik. I do not have any other speakers who wish to take the floor under these five items. If any of you out there would like to contribute, please do so now. This is the last chance. I do not see any indication that anyone wishes to take the floor, and on that basis, I can now close the debate. I have looked at the votes cast beforehand, and based on these votes and the current silence from the shareholders, I can conclude that the AGM has taken note of the report for 2023, has approved the annual report for 2023, has granted discharge to the Board of Directors and the executive board. ... that the general meeting has also approved the distribution of annual profits as proposed by the Board, and approved the remuneration report for 2023. I will make sure that appears from the minutes. Thank you very much. That means that we can conclude item one to five, and move on to item six, which is approval of the remuneration for the Board for 2024. I refer to the report we just heard from the Chairman, and I'm going to briefly sum up that for 2024, Board members will receive a base fee of DKK 415,000. That the Deputy Chair will receive a remuneration of DKK 726,250, which is 1.75 times of base fee. That the Chair of the Board will receive a fee of DKK 1,245,000, which is three times the base fee. The additional fee for the chairs of the board committees are proposed to remain at 50% of the base fee per chairmanship. The additional fee for other members of the committees is also proposed to be retained at 33% of the base fee. In general, I refer you to the convening notice. Does anyone wish to take the floor under this item? I can tell you that the proposal can be adopted by a simple majority. Does anyone wish to take the floor? That does not seem to be the case, and on this basis, and on the basis of the votes cast ahead of the AGM, I will conclude that this proposal has been adopted. That leads me to item 7. This is a recurring item on the agenda, proposals from the Board. This year we have two proposals from the Board. Item 7.1, authorization to acquire treasury shares, and item 7.2, which is the authorization to pay out an extraordinary dividend. Under 7.1, the Board proposes that the AGM authorizes the Board to acquire treasury shares. The acquisition of treasury shares was also on the agenda at last year's AGM, so again, this is a recurring event. This authorization is used in the event of a share buyback program, which was also mentioned by the Chairman. In more concrete terms, this means that the board can acquire shares equivalent to a total of 10% of the company's share capital at the time of the authorization, provided that the total holding of treasury shares at no point exceeds 10% of the company's share capital. The consideration for these treasury shares may not deviate by more than 10% from the official price quoted at Nasdaq Copenhagen at the time of acquisition, and this authorization is valid until the annual general meeting 2025. Does anyone wish to take the floor under this item? And just like the previous item, I can tell you that the adoption of this proposal requires a simple majority. I do not see any shareholders wishing to take the floor, and again, on the basis of the votes cast ahead of the AGM, I can conclude that the proposal has been adopted. That leads us to item 7.2 on the agenda. As mentioned by the chairman, it is proposed that the board is authorized to pay out an extraordinary dividend of 14.5 DKK per share of a nominal value of 2 DKK. This authorization shall be in force until the next annual general meeting. We have heard a lot about this in the report from the chair, and I will ask whether any shareholders wish to take the floor. In the meantime, I can tell you that an adoption of this proposal also requires a simple majority. Does anyone wish to take the floor? That does not seem to be the case. Then again, as under the previous items, I will conclude that this proposal has been adopted. Thank you. That leads us to item 8: election of members of the Board of Directors. In accordance with article 19 in the Articles of Association, the board is elected for 1 year at a time, and the board proposes re-election of Peter Ruzicka, Jais Valeur, Catharina Stackelberg-Hammarén, Heidi Kleinbach-Sauter, and Torben Carlsen. The board also proposes the election of Lise Mortensen as a new member of the board. As you can see from the convening notice, and as was mentioned by the chair, Mr. Christian Sagild is not running for re-election. I refer you to the chair's report about the proposal for candidates, and I can tell you that all candidates and all their other interests appear from Annex 1 to the convening notice, and the information has been available on the company website since the third of April this year, and that complies with the Danish Companies Act. I want to ask if there are any other candidates or anyone who wants the floor? That is not the case. That means that the candidates have all been reelected, respectively, elected for a 1-year period. Congratulations to you all, and all the best in your future endeavors. As the Chair of the Board mentioned, the board will constitute itself with Peter Ruzicka as chair, and Jais Valeur deputy chair after the AGM. And the board is now comprised of Peter Ruzicka, Jais Valeur, Catharina Stackelberg-Hammarén, Heidi Kleinbach-Sauter, Lise Mortensen, and Torben Carlsen. There are also three employee-elected members of the board, and they are Claus Kærgaard, Kenn Barre, and Michael Nielsen. That finishes item eight on the agenda and brings us to item nine, which is appointment of state-authorized public auditor. And the board proposes reappointment of Deloitte Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab, both when it comes to the financial auditing, as well as assurance engagements relating to sustainability reporting. I refer you to the convening notice, and I can also inform you that the proposal is in accordance with a recommendation from the audit committee, which has not been influenced by third parties, nor has it been subject to any contractual obligation restricting the AGM's choice of certain auditors or audit firms. I want to ask if there are any other candidates for auditor? That is not the case, so I will conclude that Deloitte Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab, has been reelected as auditor, both when it comes to financial auditing and sustainability reporting. That brings us to the last item on the agenda: any other business. Now, you can say whatever you want regarding the company, but you cannot make any proposals. Comments, praise, criticism, and I want to ask if anybody wants the floor at this time. I think you need to indicate now, because I'm closing the list, and there are still no indications that anyone wants the floor. With that, I will also close that item on the agenda, and thus, we have come to the end of the agenda. All I need to do is to thank you for an orderly AGM, and I will now resign as chair of the AGM, and I will give the floor back to the Chair of the Board so he can close the AGM. Thank you.