Nokia Oyj (NOKIA) Earnings Call Transcript

Dear shareholders, [Foreign Language]. Dear fellow shareholders, on behalf of Nokia, Nokia's Board of Directors and management, I warmly welcome you to our Annual General Meeting, which is held for the second time under special arrangements due to the current virus pandemic. Therefore, I'm addressing you by this video. It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of our employees, shareholders and partners, and this is why Nokia's Board of Directors has, like other companies, put in place extraordinary measures for this meeting, following the temporary legislation. To minimize the spread of COVID-19 pandemic also, this year's Annual General Meeting will be held again this year as a rather technical one without the physical presence of shareholders or that of their proxy representatives at the meeting venue. For health and safety reasons, the meeting itself is taking place at our headquarters, ensuring social distancing and with a minimum number of people present. This way, we can hold the meeting in a way that allows equal means for all shareholders to participate while also ensuring compliance with the current restrictions set by the authorities. However, the temporary legislation has ensured that all shareholders have had the opportunity to utilize their shareholder rights in advance. Also, shareholders living outside Finland now have, for the first time, the opportunity to follow the meeting without being physically present. Thank you for your understanding, and apologies for not being able to meet in person today. We hope that it will be possible again next year. Dear shareholders, year 2020 was a year of big changes both for Nokia and for the world. A common denominator for change was the global COVID-19 pandemic, which caused deep concerns but also demonstrated the true value of technology. The past year has highlighted the fact that stable network connections are a critical part or modern society. Throughout the year, our products and solutions have enabled services in society like remote education, health care services as well as transportation and industrial solutions. During 2020 also, the Board Directors of Nokia had to prepare and also take exceptionally significant decisions. At the beginning of March, we appointed as new President and CEO of Nokia Pekka Lundmark. Pekka joined Nokia in August. And towards the end of the year, we announced our refreshed strategy, our new operational model and changes to the management team. These changes were made to secure Nokia's position as a technology leader and improve accountability and also align with customer buying behavior. And Pekka will shortly talk about -- talk to you through these changes and objectives in his speech. Last year also demonstrated the need for seamless collaboration in exceptional times. This year also showed this to be true. That is why I want to give special thanks to Nokia's long-term President and CEO, Rajeev Suri, for his great collaboration and strong commitment over the transition period. We remain in close communication regarding the development of the company's business, and as for forward-looking strategic matters, Pekka was involved as early as possible. I would also want to thank again Nokia's former Chairman of the Board who acted until end of May 2020, Risto Siilasmaa. Thank you for great collaboration. Thank you, Risto. These are interesting times, and the core of our operations, 5G networks and cloud network services, are finally enabling what we have been talking about for the past 20 years, the fourth industrial revolution. If the past 3 decades have seen the rise of computers, smartphones, e-commerce and social media, the coming decade will witness the emergence of more data-driven global economy with digitalization expanding far beyond devices and applications to cyber-physical systems. This is a huge opportunity for Nokia and for societies all around the world. Radio networks delivered by us to our customers already serve about 6.6 billion subscriptions worldwide. And yet, our work is far from being complete, with only 30% of global economies digitalized. By digitalizing the remaining 70% of global economies, we will connect more than 75 billion IoT sensors and devices. The impact on the global economy could be significant. 5G-enabled digitalization is expected to contribute to -- USD 8 trillion to global GDP in the next decade. But even more than the economic benefit, what matters most is the opportunities this creates for humankind. Industrial automation and digitalization are leading to increased demand for high-performance networks, open interfaces, virtualization and also cloud-native software. At the center of this change are critical networks which allow companies and societies to build mission-critical services. Nokia's objective is to be a trusted partner and achieve technology leadership in critical networks. Pekka will shortly address this in his own comments. All in all, we have seen a solid start for 5G era. This is a journey that is only just beginning. During the past decade, Nokia Bell Labs has developed many of the fundamental 5G technologies, and 5G product portfolio of ours is one of the broadest in the industry. It covers all the elements required in 5G era network infrastructure from mobile device access, to fiber to home, to IP routing, optical networks to undersea cables, software and AI-based analytics solutions to cybersecurity. As Pekka has previously stated, we have continued our ambitious investments in R&D. We are already a technology leader in many key areas such as FP4-based products, and last year, Nokia made more than 1,500 new patent filings and also declared more than 3,500 patent families as essential for the 5G standard. And our innovative and also cloud-native 5 core -- 5G core network solutions play a key role as our customers increasingly shift towards network-as-a-service solutions. But while the benefits of 5G are just beginning to unfold, we are already looking to the future and starting to develop the next-generation 6G networks. We are involved in future standardization efforts, for example, in the EU's 5G -- 6G flagship project, Hexa-X, and Next G Alliance as part of it. With digitalization, the importance of networks as part of critical infrastructure in society increases, further highlighting the need for reliable solutions and vendors. Nokia's mission is to remain a trusted global partner that countries, people and organizations have relied on for decades. Transparency and reliability are an integral part of our values, and Nokia has been selected as one of the world's most ethical companies for 4 years in a row. Our operations are guided by a commitment to technology leadership, reliable customer service and sustainable financial value creation. Our talent forms the foundation for this commitment, and I want to show my gratitude and appreciation to the management and all people at Nokia for their good and committed work in many ways during this challenging year. Next, I will give an overview of the activities of our Board of Directors during the last year. The Board held a total of 20 meetings during the last term, and due to COVID-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions, the Board only had 1 physical meeting but 11 meetings were held remotely and 8 meetings in writing. In addition to this, we had an ongoing discussion on company's topical matters. And as the tradition is, in our annual report, we disclosed in great details the matters the Board of Directors and its committees have addressed, illustrated by an annual time line. The committees of the Board are a way to further enhance the activity of the Board. The Board has 4 committees: the Audit Committee, the Nomination Committee, the Personnel Committee and the Technology Committee. These committees assist the Board in its duties pursuant to their respective committee charters. In addition to the Board meetings, we have organized numerous committee meetings remotely to have more detailed discussions on selected topics. And I would like to thank all the committee chairs and members for their dedicated work throughout the year. Dear shareholders, before concluding, I would like to comment briefly on the Board's dividend proposal and the Nomination Committee's proposals to the Annual General Meeting. The Board is satisfied with Nokia's operational performance and strengthened cash position. Its role is to secure adequate investments in Nokia in 5G and in strategic areas to ensure the technology leadership. The Board of Directors does not propose a dividend or dividend authorization for the financial year 2020. After Q4 of 2021, the Board will assess the possibility of proposing a dividend distribution for financial year 2021 based on the updated dividend policy. I want to mention the Nomination Committee's proposal to the Annual General Meeting regarding the remuneration and composition of the Board of Directors. The details of the proposals are described in the committee proposals, which were included in full in the meeting material and on the base of which you voted at this Annual General Meeting. The Board proposes, based on Nomination Committee recommendation, the remuneration for members of Nokia Board of Directors until the end of next Annual General Meeting. These remunerations remain unchanged. And as for Personnel Committee and Technology Committee, for these members, proposal is for an annual fee for the following reasons. Members of these committees are not currently paid separate annual fee for their services, and this policy is not consistent with the remuneration structure used in Nokia's comparators. In addition, the Nomination Committee took into account the growing demands on competence, responsibilities and use of time of the committee members. And accordingly, the Nomination Committee proposed that Personnel Committee members get each EUR 15,000 and Technology Committee members each EUR 10,000 as annual fee. However, no separate annual fee is proposed for members of the Nomination Committee. The Audit Committee members have already been previously paid such annual fee. In addition, the proposal was that there will be 8 members elected to the Nokia's Board of Directors. Elizabeth Nelson announced that she is not available for Nokia's Board of Directors for reelection for near term. So the Board proposed that the current 8 members of the Board, Bruce Brown, Thomas Dannenfeldt, Jeanette Horan, Edward Kozel, Søren Skou, Carla Smits-Nusteling, Kari Stadigh and myself are elected to the Board until the end of next Annual General Meeting. I would like to thank Elizabeth Nelson for her very long, almost a decade-long dedicated work as a member of Nokia's Board of Directors and its several committees as well. It has been a great pleasure to work with her. Thank you, Betsy. As I mentioned earlier, in 2020, all but one of Nokia's Board meetings were held remotely, and that was due to the pandemic. Face-to-face meetings have not been possible. Despite these circumstances, the Board of Directors has worked effectively. And as we are going through major changes and continue to rely on remote connections, this is not the right time to add new members to the Board. The Nomination Committee have consistently -- is working to identify and recruit new Board members, aligning with the demands for expertise and skills for new Board members as set out in the refreshed strategy. Furthermore, the Board of Directors has received from shareholders feedback regarding a Finnish market-specific practice where the election is for the entire Board as a whole as well as feedback regarding the number of Board seats of 1 individual Board member. And we would address the feedback, and we strive to develop our own voting practices and do our best part to develop Finnish market practice towards more international one. In addition, we continue to closely monitor the time commitments of the Board of Directors, members. So as the Chair of the Board myself, I'm very impressed of the commitment by the members to their responsibilities and to Nokia. This commitment was reflected in a nearly 100% attendance rate in the meetings during this last year and a year that was filled with leadership changes, the COVID-19 crisis and Nokia's strategy work. I would therefore want to thank warmly the entire Board for their committed work in achieving our goals and being ready to work hard and also for continuing to both support and also challenge Nokia's management. Dear shareholders, this is the second year our Annual General Meeting has been held under special arrangements. Today, based on the number of registered voters, approximately 66,000 shareholders representing approximately 2.5 billion shares and votes are attending this meeting. This represents over 43% of all of our shares. I'm glad that there are so many of you because, for me, this is a sign of genuine interest in Nokia's future as well as your desire to take a deep dive into our business. I want to thank you for your support and trust and also for continuing to share the Board's and management's trust in Nokia's future and Nokia as an investment. It is important that our shareholders have the best possible information about the company's operations and outlook. Dear shareholders and ladies and gentlemen, once again, welcome to Nokia's Annual General Meeting. We are now going to switch to live stream. And in accordance with the notice of the meeting, I will invite as Chairman of the meeting Attorney-at-law Seppo Kymäläinen. Seppo, the floor is yours.

I want to thank the Chair of the Board for trust and state that Nokia's Annual General Meeting 2021 was thus opened. And also, on my behalf, I want to welcome the audience of the webcast who follow this Annual General Meeting. As the first item of matters of order, I would like to call the Secretary of the Board of Directors, Esa Niinimaki, as secretary of this meeting. I will now explain briefly the procedure followed in the arrangements for the meeting. In order to limit the spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic, the general meeting has been organized in accordance with the provisions of the act concerning temporary deviations from the Finnish companies act, so the company's shareholders and their proxy representatives are not physically present at the meeting venue. The shareholders have been able to participate in the general meeting only by voting in advance and by presenting counterproposals and questions in advance. As the Chair of the Board just said in her opening words, this has been considered necessary for health and safety reasons and for the meeting to be organized in a manner which is equal to shareholders and also to follow the restrictions set by the authorities and recommendations by them. According to the notice, it is possible to follow the Annual General Meeting via live webcast. However, following the Annual General Meeting by webcast is not participation in the Annual General Meeting, and it is not possible to ask questions, speak or vote via the webcast. This meeting will be conducted in Finnish language. And the meeting can be followed through simultaneous translation into English of the webcast, and you can follow the interpretation of the webcast. Language can be switched on the right corner of the webcast window and also the view between video and slides if you're viewing this from mobile device. In Finnish -- the meeting can be followed in English through simultaneous translation over the webcast. Language selection and if the meeting is followed via mobile device, the view between video and slides can be changed from the upper right corner of the webcast window. Proposals of Nokia's Board of Directors to this Annual General Meeting have been published via stock exchange release and also the company's website on the 4th of February. And also, [ a release ] has been published as part of the notice to the Annual General Meeting on the 4th of March. Annual accounts and the remuneration report have been published on the 4th of March via stock exchange release and also on the company's website. By the deadline set for the counterproposals, 9th of March, the company shareholders have not submitted counterproposals for voting on the proposed resolutions on the agenda. And shareholders and [ proxy representatives ] have been able to ask the management questions on matters to be discussed at the meeting until the 19th of March, and these questions have been answered on the company's website on the 24th of March. As it has been possible to participate in the Annual General Meeting only in advance, voting was carried out in each matter on the agenda. In accordance with the temporary act, it has been possible to vote against each proposal on the agenda without making a counterproposal. A summary by Euroclear Finland Oy of votes cast in advanced voting and the voting result will be appended to the minutes. The results of the voting are stated for each item and recorded into the minutes in accordance with the report submitted by Euroclear Finland Oy. A shareholder may have failed to submit a voting instruction on each item. In which case, she or he shall not be deemed to have been represented on the item. As a result, the number of shareholders and the shares represented may not be the same on all items. In addition to the company's act and the temporary act on exceptional procedures, the meeting arrangements have complied with company practices and recommendations by the Advisory Board of listed companies. The company and Euroclear Finland Oy have confirmed that they have not become aware of any technical or other problems or ambiguities related to advanced voting or to meeting procedure and the shareholders' right to participate and the correctness of the vote have been verified in a manner comparable to an ordinary Annual General Meeting, and this will be noted in the minutes. We further state that during the meeting, statements related to the future perspective may be issued by the company's representatives. These statements reflect the company's current expectations and views, and such statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's reach. As a result, actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The company has reported on these risks and uncertainties, for example, in its latest annual report and in documents submitted to the U.S. securities market authorities. We now conclude matters of order and we move on item #3 of the agenda, election of person to confirm the minutes and the person to verify the counting of votes. The person to confirm the minutes and the person to verify the counting of the votes is, as stated in the notice, senior legal counsel, Ulla Nyberg. We now move on to item #4 of the agenda, recording the legal convening of the meeting and quorum. As stated earlier, the notice convening the general meeting was published on company's website and stock exchange release on 4th of March. And according to the notice of the meeting, registration for the meeting and an advanced voting had to take place no later than March 30 by 4 p.m. Nominee-registered shareholders participating in the meeting had to be notified for entry in the company's temporary shareholder register no later than 1st of April by 2 p.m. The company confirms that no views on the legality of the meeting proceedings have been presented to the company. It is stated that the Annual General Meeting has been convened in accordance with the provisions of the articles of association, the companies act and the temporary act to limit the coronavirus pandemic and is therefore legal and constitutes a quorum. The notice of the meeting, which contains the Board's proposals to the Annual General Meeting, will be appended to the minutes. We now move on to item #5 of the agenda, recording the attendance at the meeting and adoption of the list of votes. Euroclear Finland Oy has provided the company with a list of shareholders who have voted in advance, either in person or through an authorized representative during the advanced voting period and who have had the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting in accordance with Chapter 5 Sections 6 and 6a of the companies act. It is noted that a total of 66,329 shareholders have participated in the advanced voting, representing a total of 2,470,438,722 shares and votes. The list of participants and the list of votes of the meeting are confirmed in the form provided by Euroclear Finland Oy and will be attached to the minutes. It is noted furthermore that the following persons are present at the meeting venue: Chair of the Board, Sari Baldauf; CEO, Pekka Lundmark; and Chairman of this meeting; secretary; and the person to confirm the minutes and to verify the counting of votes; and the company's responsible auditor, Marika Nevalainen; and also technical staff needed for the webcast. Next, we move on, on the agenda, point 6, presentation of the annual accounts, the review of the Board of Directors and the auditor's report for the year 2020. Before moving on to this agenda item, we will hear the CEO review by Pekka Lundmark. Pekka, you have the floor.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Nokia's 2021 AGM for my part as well. We have a lot to cover today. I had hoped to meet you in person but it was not yet possible for this year's AGM. The global pandemic has not yet been defeated, but fortunately, we can already see some light at the end of the tunnel. I would like to talk to you about 2 main topics today. First of all, the year 2020. I will start by discussing our performance and some highlights of the year. Then I will briefly describe our plan for the next few years based on the Capital Markets Day event we held in March. Let's begin with 2020. 2020 figures were a mixed bag. There's still room for improvement but we also made some encouraging progress. Group-level net sales dipped by about 6% to just under EUR 21.9 billion, but when you exclude the impact of foreign exchange fluctuation or in constant currency, the drop was 4% year-on-year. This was mainly due to a decrease in Networks net sales and smaller drops in software and technologies net sales. These were offset for instance by our submarine networks where sales increased. Net sales grew slightly in North America and the Middle East and Africa. Europe remained flat. Asia Pacific, Greater China and Latin America, on the other hand, all saw net sales decrease. We cannot be satisfied with this, of course, even though the performance was also affected by factors beyond our control. In particular, in Latin America, for example, the market as a whole decreased due to COVID-19, which also reduced CSP's willingness to invest. However, there were many positive developments in the year: improved profitability, better net cash, improved competitiveness of our 5G products. Our operating profit for the past year was EUR 885 million, an increase of EUR 400 million from 2019. Both our gross margin and operating margin improved by approximately 2 percentage points compared to 2019. In some context, I will also mention adjusted non-IFRS figures, which often better reflect the developments that drive our business. Our non-IFRS gross margin was 39%. That is 2.5 percentage points higher than the previous year. Our non-IFRS operating margin was 9.5 or approximately 1 percentage point higher than the previous year. This increase was driven mainly by improvements in our Networks business, regional shift towards the higher-margin North America region and the improved cost competitiveness of our 5G products. During 2020, we strengthened our cash flow, and our net cash increased to approximately EUR 2.5 billion by the end of the year. Our earnings per share was negative, minus EUR 0.45 while in 2019, it was 0. This was mainly driven by a net negative fluctuation in income taxes related to the approximately EUR 3 billion derecognition of Finnish deferred tax assets. The impact was approximately EUR 0.54 per share. Our shareholders have submitted a few questions about our dividend policy, which we updated in connection with our Capital Markets Day. The updated dividend policy target is recurring, stable and over time, growing ordinary dividend payments, taking into account the previous year's earning as well as the company's financial position and business outlook. As Sari already mentioned, Nokia's Board of Directors did not propose a dividend or dividend authorization for 2020. After Q4 2021, the Board will assess the possibility of proposing a dividend distribution for the financial year 2021 based on the updated dividend policy. Next, I will discuss the performance of the different business groups. We adopted a new operating model at the beginning of this year. I will talk more about this later, but as this meeting focuses on last year's performance, I will discuss the reporting structure that was in place for 2020. First, Networks. This included mobile networks and global services, IP routing and optical and fixed networks. Networks net sales amounted to approximately EUR 16.9 billion last year. They were down 7% or 5% in constant currency from 2019. This was affected by a decrease in network deployment services and legacy radio networks. This was offset by strong growth in 5G products. I am particularly satisfied with the improved profitability of Networks. Operating profit was EUR 935 million in 2020, an increase of 41% on 2019. Operating margin was up on 2019, 5.5% compared to 3.7%. The improved profitability was mainly attributable to the development in mobile networks and related global services, in particular the improved competitiveness of 5G products. It is our priority to achieve the same success in 5G that we achieved in 4G. We will invest whatever it takes to achieve this target. One example of the improved competitiveness is the share of cost-efficient system on chip processor deliveries in our 5G products. We had aimed for increasing their share for our shipment to 35% for 2020 but ended up exceeding that target with the final figure of 30 -- sorry, 43%. This puts us firmly on track to reach our goal of 70% in 2021. We still have work to do but we are ahead of our competitors in many areas. Last year, we started the world's first automated 4G-5G slicing which reduces cost for CSPs and speeds up the delivery of world-class tailored services to businesses. In addition, we achieved the world record 5G speed with our partners and deployed a liquid-cooled 5G base station that cuts energy costs by up to 30% and CO2 emissions by up to 80%. We currently have a total of 200 commercial 5G agreements, including the very important deals with T-Mobile, British Telecom and AT&T. Now moving on to other parts of our old Networks segment. In 2020, our net sales decreased in IP routing and optical networks year-on-year. The decrease in net sales was in comparison to a particularly strong 2019, and in optical networks, that was also driven by temporary supply chain constraints as a result of COVID-19. That being said, IP routing is one of the most profitable parts of our business. Our portfolio based on the FP4 chipset is industry-leading. Looking ahead, we see plenty of opportunities for us in solutions for increasing the efficiency of and optimizing the cost for data centers and base stations. Elsewhere, the fixed networks used in households and workplaces are migrating from copper to fiber. Fiber provides faster and more reliable connectivity than copper, and demand has increased further, following the rise in remote work. This gives us new opportunities because Nokia has a strong position in fiber and in fixed wireless access. We have a leading market position worldwide, and we are the only Western vendor in China. Next, I will discuss Nokia Software. Net sales in 2020 stood at approximately EUR 2.7 billion. They were down 4% or 1% in constant currency from 2019. Operating profit was EUR 507 million, down 14% from 2019. Operating margin was 19.1% compared with 21.3% in 2019. We launched several new cloud-native applications during the year which further strengthened our position in the telco software market, and this strength was further highlighted by Analysys Mason once again ranking Nokia as the top telecom software and services provider by market share. The next segment is Nokia Technologies, with net sales of approximately EUR 1.4 billion. The decrease year-on-year was 6%, and it was primarily due to the brand licensing business. This was in part affected by the global smartphone market decreasing by some 8% due to COVID-19 and some nonrecurring factors. Meanwhile, operating profit was approximately EUR 1.2 billion, a decrease of 6% from 2019. This decrease was primarily due to lower gross profit and higher R&D expenses. Similar to the previous year, operating margin was a healthy 83%, so almost the same as in 2019. This continues to be a highly profitable part of our business, and I am pleased with Nokia's strong intellectual property position. We are one of the world's leading contributors to the development of the 5G standard with over 3,500 patent families declared essential for 5G. Several independent studies have ranked our 5G patent portfolio as world-leading, both based on quantity and quality. Last, our business with enterprise customers, which increased by 11% year-on-year. Last year, we particularly strengthened our leading position in private wireless networks. We already have 260 customers across industries. We also launched the world's first 5G stand-alone private wireless solutions for industry. We continue to work with CSPs in enterprise market. And in 2020, we strengthened partnerships, for instance, with Verizon, AT&T and NTT DOCOMO, among many others. Overall, I am pleased with our development in the enterprise market, and I can see considerable growth potential in this area. Going forward, we will invest strongly in developing the collaboration with businesses, the public sector and the world's leading webscales. Our business groups did some great work as we have seen in the past year, and we took many important steps forward. Our achievements and commitments related to the environment and ethical business were equally important. We committed to cutting emissions by half across both our own operations and products in use, so-called Scope 3 emissions, between 2019 and 2030. This new science-based target is fully aligned with 1.5-degree global warming scenario. We will also continue our work to strengthen ethical business. Therefore, we were delighted that the Ethisphere Institute recognized us again as one of the world's most ethical companies this year. And on culture, we want to prioritize greater inclusion and diversity. Just as one example, we are targeting an increase of female hires in global external recruitments. That covered the year 2020 in brief. Next, a few words on our expectations for going forward. I will start by discussing the 3 trends I described to investors at our Capital Markets Day in March. Each of them will affect not only Nokia but our entire industry in the years to come. First, next-generation access. According to our assessment, the 5G market won't look like 4G which had a steep acceleration to a peak and then a steep fall. 5G will be more stable. We estimate that the peak of the 5G market will last roughly twice as long as the peak of the 4G market. The peak is about to start and will last for much of the decade. This means new opportunities for us in both mobile and fixed 5G networks and transport technologies. 5G fixed wireless access market alone is expected to grow 100% annually on average from 2020 to 2023. The second trend is connected digital enterprise. The addressable market for enterprises and webscales will grow by around 8% annually on average between 2020 and 2023, and it will soon form about 1/5 of our addressable market. This will provide us with opportunities in software, network slicing, automation and security, among others. At the same time, the accelerating digitalization of companies will facilitate new business models for which our business groups are all prepared. The third trend is cost per bit, which refers to the increasing cost pressure on operators. Normally, data traffic grows around 30% a year but this has reached roughly 60% during the pandemic. This has led to operators striving for lower cost per bit. Nokia can support CSPs with advanced software, open interfaces, virtualization and cloud, for example. This trend mean that high-performance network become more and more important to industries, businesses and societies. The more companies rely on these networks, the more important their credibility and reliability is. We believe that these critical networks will provide Nokia with significant opportunities in the years to come. At our Capital Markets Day, I presented our 4 future commitments. First of all, we are our customers' trusted partner for critical networks. Second, we aim for technology leadership in the segments in which we compete. Our customers build their critical networks based on the best-of-breed approach. It is up to us to respond to this. Third, we capture the value shift to cloud and new business models. We see networks evolving and new business models developing. We will position ourselves to capture growth opportunities by investing in ORAN and cloudification and building a winning proposition in security, automation and digitalized operations. And fourth, we create value with long-term research and intellectual property. Sustainable technology leadership requires us to anticipate, shape and invest in the next technology windows. Our innovation and research work and our strong patent portfolio provide us with the foundation required for long-term success. In addition to these commitments, we launched a plan at the Capital Markets Day to secure sustainable profitable growth and technological leadership. First phase is ongoing reset. Then we will accelerate competitiveness and profitability and then scale up to drive growth. The first phase, the reset, has already begun and consists of 6 changes, 5 of which we have launched within the recent months. I would like to say a few words on each now. First, we moved away from the so-called end-to-end model. It is not a cornerstone of our equity story anymore. Of course, we will still provide end-to-end solutions to customers who want them, but for most of our partners, end-to-end simply did not fit how they wanted to buy. Most often, our customers want to buy the different parts of the network separately, and this means each of our business groups have to aim for technology leadership and profitability. Second, we adopted a new significantly simplified operating model on January 1 this year. We now have 4 fully accountable, empowered business groups arranged according to how our customers buy. Each of them owns the resources they need. They are responsible for developing their respective businesses, and they are fully accountable. We report on each business separately. This ensures better visibility to the different parts of our business. I will now say a few words on each business group. First, Mobile Networks, led by Tommi Uitto. It aims for a leading position in 5G networks and the technologies which facilitate a new kind of openness and virtualization in networks called ORAN and vRAN. It will also focus on maintaining scale with operator customers and growing its enterprise-dedicated private wireless networks market share. Second, Network Infrastructure, led by Federico Guillén. The aim of this business group is to accelerate digitalization and create reliable ultrafast connections to homes and workplaces by using our leading technology in IP routing and optical, fixed and undersea networks. Third, Cloud and Network Services, led by Raghav Sahgal. It helps enterprises, webscales and CSPs to address new high-growth areas of value. They are, for example, 5G core networks, analytics and AI-based services, private wireless, automation and security. And finally, Nokia Technologies, led by Jenni Lukander. They will continue to monetize and grow the value of Nokia's intellectual property, the business group licenses to rights to use Nokia's patents, technologies and brand name. In addition, the business groups invest significantly in R&D activities and manages Nokia's industry-leading patent portfolio. Aside from the business groups, the new operating model also includes a customer experience organization led by Ricky Corker. Its aim is to function as the customers' voice within Nokia, help us to react to customers' needs and market trends and further improve our customer relationships. Another addition is the new strategy and technology organization led by Nishant Batra. It combines strategic functions and Nokia Bell Labs, which focuses on long-term research and cooperates closely with the different R&D teams. This ensures that our strategy is based on a strong understanding of the development of technology and the most important trends in our operating environment. The strategy and technology organization is also responsible for digitalizing Nokia's own operations and for its IT structure and venture capital investments. In addition to these new business groups, we have a lean corporate center that supports business groups. The third change is reforming our leadership team. We now have a strong unified leadership in place with the previous 17 members of the group leadership team reduced down to 11, including several fresh faces. Fourth, we will secure full portfolio competitiveness in Mobile Networks. Tommi Uitto and his team have done a good job here for past couple of years. The fifth part is resetting our cost base. On the group level, this is expected to lower the company's cost base by approximately EUR 600 million by the end of 2023. These savings will offset increased investments in R&D, future capabilities and costs related to salary inflation. The sixth step is refreshing our ways of working and our purpose. We promote a culture where our people are open to continuous development, fearless to experiment and question and empowered to act with clear accountability. Given all this change around us, not only Nokia but in the entire world, we also decided it was time to update our purpose because we live longer, healthier and richer lives but the world is facing fundamental challenges. At the same time, pressure on the planet is increasing, productivity is stalling and access to opportunity remains stubbornly unequal. Technology is central to the solution to this challenges. Responding to climate change and decreasing biodiversity through more efficient use and reuse of the world's resources is number one. Second, restoring productivity by digitalizing physical industry and providing more inclusive access to work, health care markets and education via digital platforms. With that in mind, Nokia's new purpose is to create technology that helps the world act together. With our customers, we create the critical networks that bring together the world's people, machines and devices. These 6 actions together comprise our reset phase. Once that is complete, we will begin accelerating our performance. We will identify new growth opportunities, increase the digitalization of our own operations and increase automation and after, accelerating with scale. That means setting our sights on the new value that will emerge from technologies such as next-generation critical networks, cloud-native software and as-a-service business models. I strongly believe that this plan will help us to improve our financials performance. At Capital Markets Day, we said our views on 2021. Comparable operating margin remain unchanged with a forecast of 7% to 10% for this year. At the same time, we said we expect sales of between EUR 20.6 billion to EUR 21.8 billion in 2021 and that we see ourselves growing faster than the market in full year 2023 and achieving a comparable operating margin between 10% to 13% in 2023. That concludes my remarks for today. In summary, 2020 was a challenging year for us but it included many important steps in the right direction. We have put in place a 3-phase plan to deliver sustainable, profitable growth and technology leadership. Many of the changes such as the implementation of a new operating model are already well underway. We believe that Nokia's technology and solutions will have an increasingly important role in tackling global challenges such as climate change, stalling productivity and inadequate access to opportunity. This is also at the heart of our updated purpose. I am proud and honored to be heading Finland's most iconic company. I feel a strong sense of responsibility in my task, and every day, I do my best to fulfill it for our employees, our customers and for you, our investors. I would like to thank our employees for their commitment and the resilience and reliability that Nokia is known for. These qualities were vital last year as COVID-19 hit our day-to-day lives. Finally and above all, I would like to thank our shareholders for their trust and support.

Next, we will move on to point #6, presentation of the annual accounts, review of the Board of Directors and the auditor's report. As the shareholders have only been able to participate in this meeting in advance, the Nokia annual report, Nokia in 2020, as published on the company website on March 4, including the annual accounts, the review of the Board of Directors and the auditor's report are deemed to have been presented to the AGM as published on the website of the company. As for the auditor's report, the auditor has submitted a standardized auditor's report to the AGM, and the auditor did not have any remarks on the annual accounts of the company. The annual accounts, the review of the Board of Directors and the auditor's report shall be attached to the minutes of this meeting. We will move on to item #7 of the agenda, adoption of the annual accounts. I will now go through the distribution of votes. And the vote -- the result of the vote will be recorded in the minutes, according to Euroclear Finland report submitted by them on each item. Now I will go through the main points of each item and the results of the vote. It is recorded that as for adoption of annual accounts, 2,465,129,933 shares and votes, representing about 43.43% of all shares and votes of the company have participated in the vote. And it's recorded that for the adoption, about 99.82% of votes cast have been voted for that and against, 0.80% of the votes cast. The number of votes represented in the agenda item but not abstained for voting was -- or was abstained was 5,242,431. And based on the voting results, the Annual General Meeting has thus adopted the annual accounts for financial year 2020. We now move on to item -- next item on the agenda, which is #8, resolution on the use of profit shown on the balance sheet. The Board of Directors have proposed to the Annual General Meeting that no dividend is to be distributed on the basis of the balance sheet to be adopted for the financial year 2020. The Board proposal is appended to the minutes. And as for the vote, 2,463,240,854 shares and votes, representing about 43.40% of all shares and votes in the company, participated in the vote. And for the proposal, 99.76% of the votes cast and against the proposal, about 0.24% of the votes cast. And the number of votes represented but abstained from voting was 2,631,885. Based on the voting results, the Annual General Meeting has decided, in accordance with the proposal by the Board of Directors, that no dividend will be distributed on the bases on balance sheet for the financial year 2020. We now move on to item #9 of the agenda, resolution on the discharge of members of the Board of Directors and the president and CEO from liability for the financial year 2020. The discharge applies for all persons who have served as members of the Board of Directors and deputies or the President and CEO during the financial year 2020. These members of the Board and the CEOs are presented on the slide shown on the webcast. And it is noted furthermore and recorded that the persons who are concerned by discharge from liability have no right to vote on this item. And it's recorded that 2,404,119,555 shares and votes were represented -- or participated, representing about 43.24% of all shares and votes in the company. And for discharge from liability, 99.20% of votes, approximately, cast and against discharge from liability, 1.8% of votes cast. And as for number of votes represented in the item that abstained, 15,038,096. And based on the voting results, the Annual General Meeting has decided to grant discharge from liabilities to the persons who have been members of the Board of Directors and CEOs during the financial year 2020. We now move on to item #10 of the agenda, addressing the remuneration report. And for this item, as participation in the meeting was possible only in advance, the remuneration report published by the company on stock exchange release on 4th of March, which has been available on the company's website, is deemed to have presented as published to the Annual General Meeting. And the remuneration report will be appended to the minutes. And as for the vote on the remuneration report, the number is 2,400,379,455 shares and votes, representing about 42.96% of all shares and votes in the company. And as for adoption of the report, the in favor was 92.6% approximately of the votes and against the approval, about 7.40% of votes cast. And as for the number of votes represented in the agenda item abstaining from voting was 27,391,936. And according to the result of this vote, the Annual General Meeting has approved the remuneration report, and this decision is advisory. We now move on to item 11, resolution on the remuneration to the members of the Board of Directors. A summary of the fees proposed by the Board of Directors is presented on the slide show in the webcast now. And according to the Board's -- Nomination Committee's recommendation, the Board proposes to keep the fees unchanged for the members with the exception of the Personnel Committee and Technology Committee. The members who have not earlier had a separate annual fee will now get annual fee, for the members in Personnel Committee, EUR 15,000 annually; and Technology Committee members, EUR 10,000 annually. And no additional fee payable to the committee's members is proposed to be paid for Nomination Committee members or the Chair of the Board of Directors for services in any of the Board's committees. It is proposed that approximately 40% of the annual fee be paid in Nokia shares purchased from the market or alternatively, by using treasury shares held by the company. The Board's proposal has been published in a stock exchange release and also described following the notice of the meeting and also on the company's website and will be appended to the minutes. It is stated that for the vote on the item, 2,461,799,640 shares and votes, representing about 43.38% of all shares and votes in the company, participated in the vote. And in favor of the proposal, about 97.40% of the votes cast and against the proposal, about 2.86% of the votes cast. And as for the number of votes represented on the item but abstaining, it was 4,011,806. Based on this voting result, the Annual General Meeting has decided on the remuneration expenses to be paid for the members of Board of Directors in accordance with the Board's proposal. We now move on to item #12 of the agenda, resolution on the number of members of the Board of Directors. And on the recommendation of Board's Nomination Committee, the Board proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the number of Board members is confirmed to be 8. This proposal will be appended to the minutes. And as for the vote -- number of votes, 2,466,143,617 shares and votes participated in the vote, representing about 43.45% of all shares and votes in the company. In favor of the proposal by the Board, 99.04% of the votes and against, about 0.96% of votes cast. And the number of votes represented in the agenda item but abstaining was 3,942,860. And based on these results, the Annual General Meeting has decided to confirm the number of members to be at 8. Next, we move on to point 13 on the agenda, election of members of the Board of Directors. The Board has proposed to the AGM on the recommendation of the Board's Nomination Committee that the following 8 current Board members be reelected members of the Nokia Board of Directors for a term ending at the close of the next AGM: Sari Baldauf, Bruce Brown, Thomas Dannenfeldt, Jeanette Horan, Edward Kozel, Søren Skou, Carla Smits-Nusteling and Kari Stadigh. It is recorded that 2,390,037,593 shares and votes, representing 42.11% of all the shares and votes in the company, participated in the vote. Votes representing 65.92% of the votes cast have voted for the Board's proposal and 34.08% of the votes voted against the Board's proposal. The number of votes represented in the agenda item but abstained from voting was 75,777,521. Based on the result of the vote, the AGM has resolved to elect the members of the Board of Directors as proposed in the proposal of the Board of Directors. As the Chair of the Board of Directors said, the Board of Directors has received feedback regarding the Finnish market-specific practice which includes a joint vote of confidence for the entire Board as well as feedback regarding the number of Board seats of one of the directors. The Chair of the Board said that the Board will strive to develop its voting practices and to develop the Finnish market practice towards a more international one. Next, point 14, resolution on the remuneration of the auditor. On the recommendation of the Board's Audit Committee, the Board of Directors has proposed to the meeting that the auditor to be elected for the financial year 2021 be reimbursed based on the invoice of the auditor and in compliance with the purchase policy approved by the Audit Committee. The proposal of the Board of Directors will be attached to the minutes of this meeting. 2,449,315,462 shares and votes, representing 43.16% of all the shares and votes in the company, participated in the vote. 99.82% of the votes cast have voted for the Board's proposal and 0.18% of the votes cast voted against. The number of votes abstained from voting was 20,762,794. Based on the result of the vote, the AGM has resolved on the reimbursement of the auditor to be elected for the financial year 2021 in accordance with the proposal of the Board of Directors. Next, point 15, election of auditor for the financial year 2021. According to the articles of association of the company, the company shall have 1 primary auditor that shall be an authorized public accountant firm. Since 2019, the Board of Directors has proposed to the AGM that the shareholders would elect the auditor for the financial year commencing next after the election. The Board of Directors has proposed to the meeting on the proposal of the Audit Committee that Deloitte Oy be reelected as the auditor of the company for the financial year 2022. Deloitte has informed the company that authorized public accountant Marika Nevalainen will continue to be the auditor in charge. The proposal of the Board of Directors will be attached to the minutes of the meeting. 2,449,562,757 shares and votes, representing 43.16% of all the shares and votes in the company, participated in the vote. 99.9% of the votes cast voted for the Board of Directors proposal and 0.1% voted against. The number of votes abstained from voting was 20,532,237. Based on the result of the vote, the AGM has resolved that Deloitte Oy is reelected as the auditor of the company for the financial year 2022. Next, point 16, authorization of the Board of Directors to resolve to repurchase the company's own shares. The Board has proposed to the Annual General Meeting that the Board be authorized to resolve on the repurchase of the company's own shares a maximum of 550 million of company's own shares corresponding to less than 10% of the company's total shares. Possible repurchases shall be carried out by using funds in the unrestricted equity on the basis of the current market price on that day. Shares may also be repurchased in a directed manner. This authorization shall be effective until October 7, 2021. This also terminates the former authorization. The proposal in its entirety is included in the notice of this meeting and visible in the company website and will be attached to the minutes of this meeting. 2,468,676,538 shares and votes, representing 43.5% of all the shares and votes in the company, participated in the vote. 99.16% of the votes cast and 99.09% of the shares represented have voted for the Board's proposal, and 0.84% of the votes cast voted against the proposal. The number of votes abstained from voting was 1,672,820/. Based on the result of the vote, the AGM has resolved to authorize the Board of Directors to repurchase the company's own shares in accordance with the Board's proposal. Next, point 17, authorization of the Board of Directors to resolve to issue shares and special rights entitling to shares. The Board has proposed that the Annual General Meeting authorize the Board to resolve to issue in total a maximum of 550 million shares through issuance of shares or special right entitling to shares under Chapter 10 Section 1 of Finnish companies act in one or more issues during the authorization period. This corresponds to less than 10% of the company's total shares at the moment. Shares may be issued also as a directed issue within the limits set by law, and the Board resolves on the conditions of the issuance of shares or special rights entitling to shares. And this also repeals the former authorization and shall be effective until October 7, 2022. The proposal in its entirety is included in the notice of the meeting. And a press release has been published and it's visible on the company's website, and it will be attached to the minutes of this meeting. 2,463,433,487 shares and votes, representing 43.4% of all the shares and votes in the company, participated in the vote. 97.37% of the votes cast and 97.27% of the shares represented have voted for the Board's proposal and 2.63% of the votes cast voted against the proposal. The number of votes abstained from voting was 2,618,506. Based on the result of the vote, the AGM has resolved to authorize the Board of Directors to resolve to issue shares and special rights entitling to shares in accordance with the proposal of the Board. Next, we move on to point #18, closing of the meeting. I can now establish that all the items on the agenda have been dealt with. The minutes of this AGM shall be published on the company website on April 22 at the latest. I declare the Annual General Meeting closed. It is 16:13. I would like to thank the company, the audience of this webcast and most of all, all the shareholders who participated in the advanced voting. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]