Please be welcome to this press conference at SAS. Shortly, you will hear an announcement from Anko van der Werff, the CEO, and Chairman Carsten Dilling. And after that, we will have some open questions, and then after that, it's time for one-to-one interviews. And if you have not signed up for that, so please do that. But please feel welcome, and we'll soon see Anko and Carsten. Karin, is that you who should begin? I'm Carsten Dilling, Chairman of SAS AB, and I'm joined here by our CEO, President and CEO of SAS, Anko van der Werff. On the back of COVID-19 crisis, and the fatal strike last year, SAS filed for Chapter 11 exactly 15 months ago. Post the pandemic, management has worked hard to successfully sustain and grow our operations, and together with the board, we have continued to implement our SAS Forward program. In the last six months, the equity solicitation process to find new investors and partners has been in our focus. We have today announced a major milestone in our transformation plan and SAS Forward and the Chapter 11 process in the U.S. Allow me to give you five highlights from today's announcement. We have selected the winning consortium of our, of our exit financing solicitation process. It consists of a financial investor, Castlelake, Air France-KLM, and Lind Invest, together with the participation from the Danish state. They are, they are together investing almost $1.2 billion, almost SEK 13 billion, in the reorganized SAS, and remember, our target for the process was SEK 9.5 billion. And on top of that, we see a very good recovery for our Chapter 11 creditors in the level of $325 million. Following the completion of the transaction announced today, these four parties will collectively, collectively become the new owners of the reorganized SAS. The board conducted a broad, very competitive, and thoroughly planned equity solicitation process before concluding in the last hours that the selected bid here is the most favorable for SAS, our creditors, and other stakeholders. By securing this capital, we are fulfilling one of the key pillars in our SAS Forward plan that will provide the company with a strong financial foundation to help drive the airline forward and finance our exit from the Chapter 11 process in the U.S. My second point from today's announcement is that the SAS Forward program has led us to become a new competitive airline and has obviously positioned SAS as an interesting target for the consolidation that is currently going on in the European airline industry. This angle is extremely interesting and is starting a new era for us in SAS and all of us as travelers in Scandinavia. It will longer term lead to significantly better connections in and out of Scandinavia under the SAS umbrella, and we are actually very proud of this step. My third point, as part of this transaction with a new strategic partner. We intend to, in due course, to join the SkyTeam Alliance. This also mean that SAS intends to exit the Star Alliance. This is, of course, subject to negotiations and relevant approvals, and Anko will deep dive this a little in his part of the presentation. Fourth point, we have also announced today that as a consequence of the transaction structure agreed with the new investors, we are likely to file for a company reorganization in Sweden of the listed parent company of the SAS Group, SAS AB, during 2024. A company restructuring is a new option in Sweden and is equivalent to a local Chapter 11 process for SAS AB. Finally, as number five, given that our creditors with a higher priority will not be fully paid in this process, our current shareholders will unfortunately not be allowed to receive anything. This means our current shareholders will lose their shares and that SAS AB is expected to be delisted from the stock exchanges at the end of the restructuring. While this is a very exciting day for us as a company, keep in mind that there will be a number of steps, before this is final. The transaction remains subject to various conditions precedent, a final investor agreement with the new consortium, approval by the U.S. court, and various regulatory authorities, and the implementation of the Swedish restructuring, and other customary conditions. We currently expect to formally emerge from Chapter 11 during the second quarter of 2024, upon conclusion of the reorganization proceedings in Sweden and receipt of all the relevant regulatory approvals. With these words, I will turn it over to you, Anko, as an airline, to give your perspective on the transaction. Thank you very much, Carsten. Do I also use this one? I'm looking quickly at the... Yes, perfect. Thank you. Well, thank you once again, Carsten. Thank you, all of you, for being here on this historic day for us, clearly, as a company. I recognize that today's announcement has several elements to it, so I would like to emphasize at least three points that I think you should walk away with following our press conference here today. First and foremost, this is, of course, terrific news. It's terrific news for our colleagues, many of them that are still here today, for our colleagues, clearly also for our customers, and also for the communities across Scandinavia and really the world. This is an investment of almost SEK 13 billion in the reorganized SAS, and with that, we are securing and definitely have reached a key objective in our SAS Forward plan. Immediately like to call out, really, this is a testament of the hard work of all our colleagues, all our employees, who have worked tirelessly for really those that we serve. Thank you, really, to all of you. Secondly, we have selected a winning proposal for a significant investment in the reorganized SAS from sophisticated and strategic investors. It further demonstrates that a bright future lies ahead for SAS. The investment that we are securing shows that our investors believe in us and what we have built over our more than 75-year history. Lastly, today's announcement sets forth a clear path, a path that will allow us to realize our full potential and ensure that we really are at the forefront and remain at the forefront of the airline industry for years to come. As Carsten mentioned, we intend to join the SkyTeam Alliance in due course. That is, of course, also a transformative step for SAS. Becoming part of something bigger and therewith having a strengthening base for our customers and, of course, also for our own people. We will have access to new destinations, to more flight options, and enhanced service offerings. Most importantly, this means we become an even better partner to our colleagues, our customers, and our communities. In parallel to the transaction, and subject to customary approvals, we will also seek to establish a commercial cooperation with Air France-KLM and the airlines around it to benefit of Scandinavian customers through increased connectivity, something also Carsten already commented on. Like I said, it means that SAS intends to exit the Star Alliance. Star has been a part of us, and we have been a founding airline of Star. We are proud to have been that founding airline. We're grateful to what we have built together with our Star partners over the years, the global relationships that we have built on a personal and professional level with them. It is important to note, and I also say this, of course, to our customers, that we're not making any immediate changes to that today. We remain a member of Star Alliance until further notice, and I will repeat what I said a second ago. Needless to say, we will keep our customers close during this process and really keep them informed along the way. As Carsten mentioned, and I'll be the first to acknowledge that, there is still a lot of work ahead. There is still a lot of regulatory work ahead, and a process that is needed to be completed before everything becomes final. Between now and then, also, once again reassuring, similar to what we have done over the last year, we are operating as normal. This transaction does not in any way, shape, or form affect our operations, and in fact, by this transaction, we clearly strengthen SAS, and we become a robust airline over the years. We look forward to continuing welcoming passengers in Scandinavia today, throughout the holiday season that is coming up, and well into the future as we move forward as an even stronger airline. Additionally, SAS will continue to operate the business and serve its customers as completely usual. The SAS operations, services, customer service, corporate benefits, EuroBonus, et cetera, will all continue in its ordinary course. We will, of course, keep all of our employees, our customers, and all our stakeholders updated about what to expect in the coming months. In conclusion, we have taken a massive step today, a big step forward in our SAS Forward plan. I remain incredibly proud of the way the SAS team has worked throughout this process and appreciate their continued dedication to our airline's future. We're confident that today's announcements are in line with the goal to make SAS a better airline for our customers and, of course, a stronger business partner for many of our communities in the years to come. With that, we would like to open up for questions. Thank you. Jens Eilersen from TV2 in Denmark. Will Denmark and Copenhagen Airport play an even bigger role in SAS under this new ownership? Should I start? You start. I mean, we are Scandinavian Airlines. We are a Scandinavian company. Now we are settling down on an ownership with one state as being part of the consortium. It's very clear that Copenhagen is also, when we count the traffic numbers, a very important hub for us and will continue to be. But it will be Anko and his team that manage where we see the growth. We will still see Stockholm and Oslo being important hubs for us. Yeah, absolutely. Look, a few elements on that. First of all, people are not interested in a part of who we are. People are interested in who we are. We are a Scandinavian airline, 7.5 million EuroBonus members over the three countries. Equally so, I've always said, and it's very clear on where our network design is, that the most logical hub is, for us, the most southern point in our network, right? The direction of travel for most Scandinavians is immediately south because we live so far north, and the most southern point is Kastrup. So for sure, we will also focus very much on Kastrup. Okay. But it's very clear that there is a lot of, for instance, in Stockholm, not only point to point, but also some connecting domestic traffic, which is equally important to us. We will absolutely focus also on those traffic flows. I've said it last year, and I'll probably say this again, when, for instance, the Swedish state took its decision to no longer participate in the, in the equity raise, I said it the following way: "You can take Sweden out of SAS, but you cannot take SAS out of Sweden," and that is absolutely still valid today. And that leads to my second question, 'cause right now we are sitting in the headquarters, and that's in Stockholm. Now, Sweden is no longer a major owner of SAS. Will you consider relocating the headquarters to Copenhagen? I'll go, I'll go first. There is no such requirement, request. There is no such discussion. I think what's very important in that debate, and I've said this already a few times, I will, first of all, not be drawn into some geopolitical, right, decision-making process around that, but let's look at the practicality. We have here a long-term real estate contract. We have hundreds of people working here whose partners, husbands, wives, have a job also in Stockholm. Their kids go to football, hockey, or whatever it may be. It isn't just a, "Hey, let's pick up and head office," and head office is not an abstract thing. It's not a building, right? It is that entire ecosystem that we have built over the years. We will, of course, assess, right, what options are in the future, what is best for the business, as we do with the network, as we do with real estate contracts, as we do with everything. There is absolutely not, and I also talk to our own teams here, there is absolutely nothing at this stage that really requires or leads to any decision around that. Casper Schrøder of Danish National TV. Maybe a question for the chairman, Carsten Dilling. Could you fill us in a little bit about the split between these new owners, and first of all, confirm that the Danish state is out as an owner of SAS? And then elaborate a little bit on your thoughts on the split between the four new owners. Yeah, I cannot confirm that the Danish state is out, because I can say that Castlelake will be the biggest shareholder with 32%, and Denmark will be just around 26%, and Air France KLM will be 19.9%, and Lind Invest will be just below 9%. But it's important to understand that these figures are the shareholdings. Then this transaction is split in two. They are buying shares in the reorganized company, but they are also providing a pretty big $700 million convertible debt position. And since it's convertible, that can become shares at a certain point of time. That depends a little on the mechanisms they have agreed in the consortium, and it will typically be an M&A or, that one party increase the shareholding, or you go IPO again or something like that, that will release that. Okay, and one follow-up on the same theme, the headquarters placement now for the chairman. Could you elaborate a little bit on this topic, too? Wouldn't it make sense to, in due time, move a headquarter to Denmark when the Swedish state doesn't really participate anymore? I would say it hasn't been a topic and a requirement from any side, and I think, as I know, the Danish state, as an owner, they are running things arm's length. They are, they're counting on the board and management to make the right decisions for the company. Personally, I would like our headquarters to be close to an airport. But you know, other than that, this is a very nice building. There's even music in the background, as you can hear. Hi, Jacob from the Norwegian Business Daily. Anko, your DIP lender, Apollo, why aren't they one of your new owners? They could have converted debt to equity. And secondly, are you proud to take SAS back home to the Netherlands? I knew that question would come, Jacob. Someone had to ask it. It had to be you. So first, really, let's be very formal here. We've run a very broad equity solicitation process. Deep, broad, and very extensive. Completely supervised, of course, by the board who hold the decisions. We will not comment on who was in, where were they in, what happened. We have run a very broad, very good process in which in the end, as is customary in Chapter 11, the highest and best bid wins. That is the way it's been set up. This is therefore the highest and best bid. And to your second question, even though of course it was expected, I actually, I don't have an answer because it is I feel so many things always in this industry. It truly is not about someone's passport. I've always found it extremely difficult, when looking at, how some people reacted, to other CEOs of other airline companies. This is very much good news for SAS. This is very clearly something that allows us the stability that we have been looking for, being part of something bigger and being successful in SAS Forward and being able to make that next step. That, of course, is something that all of us, I think, are very happy and proud of. This is the highest and the best, and we're very much looking forward to that future. Question from... If the mic is on. EuroBonus, will it live on, or would you like it to merge or go into Flying Blue in some way? Yeah, well, first of all, let's be clear here again, as Carsten has explained also, this is a 19.9% stake by Air France-KLM, and that means also very practically that there is no controlling stake, at least not for now, right? So we have to be very clear that if there is no controlling stake, we will still be the ones managing also the company. So those decisions would be again made in the right sense for what is the best business decision. Absolutely no medium long-term views. What we're dealing with now is making sure that if we, right, in due course, when we, when we go out of Star Alliance and join SkyTeam, that of course, certainly those EuroBonus members are absolutely taken well care of. I'll finish half with a joke, at least if it's Flying Blue, it is at least a perfect name for us being blue and very much the right color, at least. It would have been a problem if it was Flying Red. Right? Thank you. Yes, hello, this is Roar Valderhaug from Aftenposten. I have a question about the unsecured creditors. You're writing that they will receive a recovery between 5% and 20%, depending on what kind of company, SAS company they have a claim on and so on. But, five to 20% is quite a large range. Where are the majority of the unsecured creditors? Which end of that range will they end up in, 5% or 20%? I think this proves a little how many moving parts we have right now in the process and the steps we have to go through. And one being that we exit the Star Alliance could be a parameter that is changing whether we are in the lower or the higher part of that range. My second question is the governance agreement between the Danish state and the other shareholders of this new SAS. Will that governance agreement be made public, and if so, when? I would say it's natural in a consortium like this that the four players are setting up their shareholder agreement. Part of a shareholder agreement is normally also the governance, how you select the board, and so on. We have not, from the company side yet, been taken into the details of the agreements they have to actually finalize in the consortium, so I cannot answer that question. It sounded like a no. Uh, to? Uh- Will not be made public, the governance agreement. Could be over time, at least, when there is a general meeting and they—if they select a new board, it will certainly be public. Any more questions? Yeah. When did you close this deal? Was it earlier today, just a couple of hours ago, or when in time was it? Can you repeat the question? I couldn't hear it for the music, actually. When today did you close the deal? Was it just a couple of hours ago, or was it earlier today? It was actually half an hour ago, right before we sent out the press release, and it was synchronized board processes in the consortium and SAS. So it was a board meeting we had right before this conference. Okay, then. Then we go ahead with the one-to-one interviews.