Mizuho Financial Group Inc (MFG) 2015 Q4 法說會逐字稿

I'm Yasuhiro Sato, President and Group CEO of Mizuho Financial Group.

I'd like to begin by thanking you for taking the time to be here today. We really do appreciate the warm support and understanding you offer to the Mizuho Group. And I'd like to take this opportunity to express my most sincere gratitude.

Please allow me to move straight into today's presentation. If you could open the materials package to page 4. I'll start by explaining the big picture in FY14.

Consolidated net income was JPY611.9 billion, an achievement rate of 111% against the fiscal year plan of JPY550 billion.

In terms of capital, our Common Equity Tier 1 ratio progressed steadily to 10.46%.

Further, given the outperformance in net income, we decided to increase our dividend per common share from the initial estimate JPY7 up to JPY7.5. This resulted in a dividend increase of JPY1 compared to FY13.

As of the conclusion of FY14, two years of the three-year medium-term business plan have passed. Overall our financial results were excellent, and we have achieved many of our objectives ahead of schedule, including transforming our profit structure centered on the customer groups, and One MIZUHO synergy plan.

I'd like to move on now to look at the FY14 financial results in more detail. Please turn to page 7.

My explanation here is on a two banks' aggregated basis. We achieved a year-on-year increase of JPY78.7 billion in net business profit. Gross profit increased by a total of JPY122.8 billion, JPY61.3 billion of which was in the customer groups, and JPY61.5 billion in the trading and other segment, while general and administrative expenses rose by JPY44 billion.

Credit-related costs were basically in line with our revised plan, despite incurring a slight net cost associated with posting reserves for certain large claims in the second half. As a result of progress in disposition of equity, in accordance with our policy of reducing holdings, we enjoyed net gains related to shares, at a level significantly higher than planned.

Net income at Mizuho Securities was JPY58.6 billion, which is an increase of JPY7.4 billion compared to last fiscal year. As a result, net income on a consolidated basis, was JPY611.9 billion, exceeding the planned figure of JPY550 billion.

Please turn over to page 9. This slide shows our state of progress against the key numerical targets we have set under the medium-term business plan. The column in the middle of the page is our performance in FY14, and you can see that we have made strong progress against each item compared to the objectives we initially raised for the final year of the plan. I am absolutely confident that we will achieve the plan in FY15.

Please move on to page 10. This page shows three key indicators in terms of transforming our profit structure; income from customer groups, the proportion of overseas income, and the proportion of non-interest income.

Against our plan to increase income from customer groups by JPY200 billion over the three years of the medium-term business plan, we have already achieved an increase of JPY210 billion in the first two years.

As shown in the figure on the top right-hand side of the page, we have increased the proportion of overseas profit by approximately 9% over the past two years, and achieved our target of 33%. Likewise, with the proportion of non-interest income, we have achieved the 50% target with an increase of approximately 4%.

As you can see clearly from these results, we are moving steadily toward transforming to a stable and sustainable profit structure, centered on the customer groups, as we said we would in the medium-term business plan.

Please turn to page 11. As you can see, we have achieved the figures that we said we would in terms of One MIZUHO synergy. In fact, compared to our target of JPY90 billion for the three-year period to FY15, we have already achieved it, a full year ahead of schedule, with JPY125 billion in synergy benefits, or a whopping 139% progress against the plan.

Pages 12 and 13 show synergy benefits and a breakdown of collaboration between banking, trust and securities functions. Please feel free to go through this in your own time.

Now if I could ask you to turn to page 19. I'd like to begin here with an explanation of net interest income from customer groups in Japan. As you can see, in the dark blue graph on the left-hand side of the page, the loan balance in the second half of FY14, excluding loans for the Japanese Government, increased by JPY1.2 trillion year on year, and by JPY1.1 trillion compared to the first half.

In addition to lending growth with large corporations, as we have been achieving to date, momentum has also picked up in SMEs lending from the second half. And we are projecting loan demand, including SMEs loan demand, to transition favorably going forward in association with the ongoing recovery of the domestic economy.

Nevertheless, as demonstrated by the graph on the right-hand of the page, loan and deposit rate margins and spreads continue their decline And this has put downward pressure on net interest income.

Please turn over to page 20. The overseas loan balance in the second half of FY14 increased by $16.2 billion year on year, and $10.1 billion compared to the first half, mainly due to lending in the Americas and in Asia.

Loan spreads, however, as you can see in the graph on the right-hand side of the page, declined due to factors including the repayment of certain highly profitable transactions. However, overseas net interest income increased overall due to the increase in the loan balance.

Looking now to the graph on the bottom right-hand side of the page, you can see that we have been achieving strong growth in foreign currency-denominated customer deposits. We intend to secure liquidity going forward through actions such as issuing foreign currency-denominated bonds in addition to increasing and enhancing foreign currency deposits going forward.

Please turn to page 21. Non-interest income, on a two banks' aggregated basis, increased by JPY53.9 billion year on year, to JPY588 billion. Our second consecutive annual increase of over 10%.

We achieved growth in the year before last, however, we achieved further growth last year. We achieved a year-on-year increase of around JPY24 billion in Japan, due to performance, including Mizuho Trust & Banking regaining their number one position in the industry, in terms of real estate-related income; in addition to growth of approximately 15% in fees and commissions from sales of investment trusts, and individual annuities.

We also achieved a year-on-year increase of some JPY30 billion overseas, due to factors including the acquisition of large transactions in the US and Europe.

For your reference, we have included fee income from Mizuho Securities in the chart, on the bottom right-hand side of the page. As you can see, growth is also favorable here.

I firmly believe that the way we are achieving steady increases in non-interest income across all of our entities, serves as clear evidence of the steady benefits of the collaboration between banking, trust and securities' functions, and One MIZUHO Strategy that we have been following to date.

And on that note, please turn to page 22. This slide outlines the situation with net gains and losses on securities, and unrealized gains and losses on other securities.

Net gains and losses related to bonds are shown in the graph on the top left-hand side of the slide. You can see that we have recorded gains of JPY75.8 billion, due to our flexible operations, despite the highly volatile interest rate environment.

The graph directly below this shows net gains and losses related to shares. We posted gains of JPY96.1 billion here, mainly as a result of our efforts to dispose of our stock portfolio. The graph on the right-hand side of the page shows unrealized gains and losses on other securities.

Unrealized gains increased by approximately JPY1.4 trillion, compared to the end of March 2014, to around JPY2.5 trillion. This was mainly due to unrealized gains on our equity holdings. Please move on to page 23.

General and administrative expenses increased by JPY44 billion year on year, on a two banks' aggregated basis, to JPY908.3 billion. The three main factors in this increase were the impact from depreciation of the yen; the impact of the increase in consumption tax; and strategic expenses, such as increased overseas personnel and advertising expenses aimed at future enhancement of gross profit.

Excluding the effects of depreciation of the yen, which came to approximately JPY13 billion, we succeeded in controlling expenses within the scope of the plan. Please turn to page 25.

As shown in the graph on the top left-hand side of the page, net income at Mizuho Securities was JPY58.6 billion, which I think is fair to say, is an excellent result. Mizuho Securities was the only one of the five major securities firms in Japan to achieve increases across all of net operating revenue, ordinary income, and net income.

In addition to the increased commissions and net gains on trading, outlined in the graph on the bottom left-hand side of the page, Mizuho Securities is also making steady progress in increasing assets under management, as shown in the graph on the top right-hand side of the page, which is part of our enhancement strategy for the subsidiary. I'd now like to ask you to turn to page 26.

Our plan for consolidated net income for FY15 is JPY630 billion, which is an increase of JPY18 billion on our result for FY14. We are planning for consolidated net business profit of JPY960 billion, which is JPY83 billion up on last year's result.

Within this figure, we expect customer profit to increase by JPY73 billion, with increases, both domestically and overseas. Our plan for the trading segment is for a slight drop in net business profit.

While we believe there will be aspects of the market environment that will be more difficult than last fiscal year, sales and trading business is steady, as a result of enhanced customer transaction flows. And we are also achieving diversification in investment instruments.

The next page shows a breakdown of plan figures by unit. And we are planning for an overall increase in net business profit.

We are projecting that expenses associated with strengthening overseas businesses will be a factor in higher general and administrative expenses. However, we are planning for only a slight increase overall, as a result of the ongoing development of our cost structure reforms.

The result of this is our projection for consolidated net business profit to increase by JPY83 billion. We have assumed 6 basis points for consolidated credit-related costs, based on average past credit cost trends. And we plan for an expense of JPY60 billion. We are forecasting gains of JPY75 billion related to shares, mainly from the disposal of the stock portfolio. Please turn to page 29.

We conduct robust management of our balance sheet. We have listed the strengths of Mizuho's balance sheet on the right-hand side of the page. And I will go into further detail on each of these items on the following pages. Please turn to page 30.

On this page, I would like to discuss our credit portfolio. I spoke a moment ago regarding credit-related costs. However, while the balance of disclosed claims under the Financial Reconstruction Act rose slightly to JPY1 trillion, the NPL ratio improved, compared to the end of last fiscal year, to 1.2%, and remains at a low level. Please move on to page 31.

Looking, first, to the Japanese Government Bond or JGB portfolio, where the balance declined by JPY4.6 trillion, compared to the end of last fiscal year. And the average remaining maturity is at 2.6 years. As I have also discussed on other occasions, we are continuing to operate with a maturity of less than three years.

The right-hand side of the page shows our stock portfolio. We have continued with actions towards disposition of these stocks, which resulted in sales of JPY60.4 billion in FY14. While by no means a high figure, the proportion against Tier 1 capital has reached 25.5%. And I believe this is an item that will require continued effort, though it moves closer to our promise, under the medium-term business plan, of reducing to 25%.

Please turn to page 32. The left-hand side of the page here shows our efforts towards strengthening the capital base. And you can see that our common equity Tier 1 or CET1 capital ratio, as at the end of March 2015, was 10.46%. This figure was 7.8%, even after deducting net unrealized gains on other securities, and we believe that we are in a position to project a result of above 8% by the end of March 2016.

In terms of target levels for the next fiscal year and beyond, we intend to realize a CET1 ratio that will enable resilience to environmental changes going forward, while paying careful attention to trends in the additional financial regulations that are currently under debate.

The right-hand side of the page discusses steady returns to shareholders, and outlines our ongoing policy of a steady and sustainable dividend payout policy, with a dividend payout ratio of approximately 30% as a guide for our consideration.

Given our net income estimate of JPY630 billion for FY15, we are forecasting an annual cash dividend per share common stock of JPY7.5. We intend to pay JPY3.75 of this as an interim dividend.

Please turn over now to page 33. As I have said on a number of occasions to date, we pursue an inorganic strategy as part of our growth strategy, based on deals we consider to be appropriate in terms of our three key criteria.

Please move forward to page 36. I would like to use this and the next slide to explain regarding our results for business in Japan. Looking to our business with individual customers, where you can see from the four graphs on the page that we are leveraging collaboration between banking, trust and securities functions, to steadily expand income throughout the Group. And we are seeing benefits in terms of increased fee income, as a result of these efforts.

Now, if I could ask you to turn to page 37. Continuing on here to look at corporate business. The trend in lending to SMEs customers turned upward in the second half of last year, as shown on the slide. You can also see from the graph at the bottom of the page that acquisition of new SMEs borrowers is in a growth phase. We were able to maintain these growth trends in FY14 due to the steady success we are achieving in strengthening the customer base through our collaboration between banking, trust and securities functions.

While increasing income, we intend to work towards strengthening this further in FY15.

The right hand side of the page shows some of the key league tables.

Please turn over to page 38. From here onward, I will explain regarding our overseas businesses. As demonstrated by the graph on the left-hand side of the page, we have grown the overseas loan balance by approximately 1.4 times over the four year period from FY11.

At the same time, as you can see in the graph on the top right-hand side of the page, we have grown overseas non-interest income by approximately 1.6 times over the same period.

We have also secured record levels for overseas gross profit and our overseas loan balance for five consecutive years. I believe that this is the result of the way that Mizuho is using our relationships with non-Japanese customers to build a significant track record, including large-scale transactions and successfully connecting this to growth in our non-interest income.

And on that note, I would like to ask you to jump forward three pages to page 42.

I would like to explain regarding our strategy for FY15 from here onwards.

Collaboration between banking, trust and securities functions may be the same kind of strategy as other banks are following. However, Mizuho intends to continue to strengthen our unique collaboration strategy going forward. As I have already explained, Mizuho is achieving results ahead of schedule, in areas including boosting income from customer groups, by JPY200 billion, and achieving the three-year One MIZUHO synergy target in just two years.

I believe the success of our business model, involving collaboration between banking, trust and securities functions, is telling in these results.

We will accelerate our One MIZUHO strategy in a wide range of fields in FY15. A particularly important part of this is investing resources and strengthening our four key focus areas, which I will discuss next. Allow me to go into some more specific detail.

Please turn over to page 43. Our four key focus areas are to establish competitive edge for large corporate customers, enhance integrated approach to both SMEs and their owners; develop the Super 30 strategy; and make asset management the fourth pillar of our business. The overall result of this will be realization of an enhancement in gross profit of JPY60 billion.

Please move on to page 44. First, I'd like to discuss our strategy for large corporations. We have already started work towards selecting approximately 40 super large corporate customers, with whom we will grow market share through relentless business promotion. We will also reorganize coverage functions in Mizuho Securities and strengthen our business promotion capacity.

In terms of large cross-border M&A transactions, we will cooperate with Evercore and our non-Japanese relationship managers, as well as promoting globalization of the industry research division in order to acquire transactions. We will use these initiatives to create a dominant brand with large corporations, and generate a JPY15 billion increase in gross profits.

Please turn to page 45. Next, I'd like to explain regarding our strategy to enhance integrated approach to both SMEs and their owners. I recall that Mizuho was the first bank to take this integrated approach. However, it is now being used throughout the market.

Mizuho's strengths include our dominant numbers of Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Securities joint branches, compared to the other megabanks, and our dominant numbers of offices with integrated approach to both SMEs and their owners.

We also have strengths in our human resources and trust banking functions, and we take further advantage of these in terms of our integrated approach to both SMEs and their owners' strategy. In specific terms, the first key point is the way we fully apply our integrated approach to a segment we call upper-tier medium=sized companies, in addition to SMEs.

Secondly we are strengthening business promotion with high net worth business owners, mainly in non-interest income business, such as businesses without loans that are net depositors.

And thirdly, we are intensively investing quality and volume of human resources into certain areas in the Tokyo Metropolis, where we lag behind competitor banks, to ensure that we win in areas that we are losing.

We are planning to aim for an aggregate increase in gross profit of JPY10 billion across banking, trust and securities functions, as a result of these initiatives.

Please move on to page 46. As I have been explaining to date, our Super 30 strategy is a strategy that involves building relationships at the most senior levels and fattening our transaction pipeline.

We target customers with stable credit, in line with the selection standards shown on the top right-hand side of the page and customers with whom we can expect, not only loans, but multifaceted transactions.

The slide here shows the profitability of Super 30 and Super 50 customers. We are currently working toward expanding our Super 30 strategy out to 50, although Super 50 customers are currently behind Super 30 in terms of profitability.

This is because the degree of progress in our strategy to grow non-interest income, based on loans, is still low. However, we intend to increase profitability with Super 50 customers on a return on risk asset basis going forward.

Because of this, it is important that we strengthen our sector-based approach. We intend to narrow down target industries for banking and securities and use globalization of the industry research division as a weapon as we drive forward with the business.

We will conduct integrated management between banking and securities functions and strengthen, particularly in DCM business, in order to acquire a dominant position. This fiscal year, we are aiming to increase gross profit by JPY30 billion.

I'd now like to move on, to explain regarding our acquisition of North American assets from RBS. Please turn over to page 47.

As recently announced, this deal involved the acquisition of an asset portfolio, including the loan claims of 200 non-Japanese customers in North America.

Naturally, some of the companies in this portfolio are already Mizuho customers. However, it also includes many customers that we have identified as targets but have not yet been able to transact with.

As part of our Super 30 and Super 50 strategy, this acquisition has enabled us to make a significant jump forward in terms of acquiring market presence. It is also noteworthy that approximately 90% of the portfolio is investment grade.

The acquisition enables us to further strengthen our collaboration between banking and securities functions overseas. Based on a simple aggregation of Mizuho and RBS, we can now see a top 10 position in the DCM league table in the US, an achievement that has long been a target for Mizuho.

Acquisition of the asset portfolio in this instance only increased risk-weighted assets by approximately JPY1 trillion and differs from M&A deals in that the impact on capital is limited.

Further still, approximately 100 personnel have joined us from RBS and this number includes many of the best relationship managers in the market.

On a personal note, I'm looking forward to meeting with these new Mizuho employees when I visit the US in July.

Next, I'd like to introduce some examples of the successes we are seeing from Mizuho's Super 30 strategy. Please move on to page 48.

This deal involved arrangement of finance for pharmaceutical company, Actavis, for their acquisition of another pharmaceutical company. As far as I am aware, this the first time that an Asian bank has participated in a deal of this size in North America at joint lead arranger status.

The deal played out on an extremely tight schedule. We received the request for finance on Friday evening, Tokyo time, and needed to make a decision by the opening of business on Monday.

I believe that it is fair to say that the reason we were able to give the green light to a deal this large in only a few days is the fact that we had already built such a strong relationship with the company on a day-to-day basis, as well as the way we have become able to respond quickly across our overall organization.

Further, this deal is an excellent example of how we are collaborating between our banking and securities businesses as shown by our underwriting of DCM and equity business, based on the initial financing.

We intend to keep doing many of these kinds of deals going forward. And on that note, please turn over to page 49.

Next, I will explain regarding our strategy in the asset management field. While our plan to increase gross profit in this area is comparatively small at JPY5 billion, it is a highly important strategy in terms of integrating the Group's asset management functions.

MUFG have also announced a strategy of consolidating Group investment trust companies. However, one of the features of the Mizuho strategy is that we will also consolidate the pension asset management functions of Mizuho Trust & Banking. And on this point, we really are creating a genuinely global asset management firm.

As well as building Japan's first asset management business that integrates investment trusts, investment advisory and trust asset management, we will develop a new business model that meets the needs of our customers through cooperation between both the manufacturing and sales channels. Our endgame objective is to be the number one asset management Company in Japan in terms of assets under management.

In terms of products, our lineup includes passive, active and alternative funds. As well as strengthening each of these, we also intend to improve sophistication in global asset management functions, including non-organic strategy in order to become the top global asset management Company in Asia.

Mizuho launched a project team to consider the next generation of retail banking in April 2013. With a view towards retail banking 10 years into the future, we deployed young personnel to Silicon Valley and to Tokyo University to seek new technologies. We have also established an incubation department based on these technologies.

In terms of specific examples, we are promoting a multitude of initiatives, including the launch of IBM Watson-based artificial intelligence in our call centers, collaboration with LINE Corporation and development of a tablet-based application for investment products.

Further still, we are close to deploying robot-based customer service in our branches.

I believe that we are approaching a very significant revolutionary period in retail banking from here on. I was recently invited by founder, Jack Ma, to visit the head office of Alibaba Group in China. We discussed many matters but with 11,000 of Alibaba's 33,000 employees being systems engineers, it's no mistake to label them as being a systems company.

This company manages all of the big data amassed through e-commerce, and has commenced small scale lending using a scoring system, based on where customers live, what income they have, their preferences, and what payments they make.

JPMorgan also has a number of systems incubation companies within their group. I'm not sure how many years it might take, but I believe it is inevitable that this retail banking revolution will upturn the way we think about retail branches and personnel deployment going forward. And the effects of this will not be limited to retail; they will also spread to our wholesale banking businesses.

I believe that we must prepare for the chances and risks associated with the rise of these technologies this fiscal year, and also work solidly towards the next medium-term business plan.

Please move on to page 51. I've spoken regarding this topic on a number of occasions. However, I'd like to touch on just two points here today.

We have around 20 transactions in progress under our Gulf Japan Food Fund agriculture project in the GCC, which is noted at the bottom right of the left-hand side of the slide here. I hope to be able to report to you soon regarding this project. However, I can say at this stage that it will, without question, lead to funding demand and fee business.

Further, I'd like to introduce our Wellness Point project, which is outlined on the bottom right-hand side of the page. This is a cutting-edge experimental program being led by Mizuho, in terms of creating a health-building incentive system.

I'd like to conclude today by discussing our efforts in terms of corporate governance. Please turn over to page 55. One year has now passed since our transition to a Company with three committees. I'd like to take this opportunity to explain briefly regarding what has changed in this time.

The first point is that we have realized a considerable improvement in the speed of our decision-making, through a significant delegation of authority to the executive side. As I mentioned a moment ago, an example of this is the success we achieved in decision-making on the Actavis and RBS deals, in extremely limited timeframes.

The second change is improvement in our ability to focus on important items. The Board of Directors' meeting has become a forum for robust and thorough debate, spanning over three hours every time, on matters including our vision and growth strategy, and also involves the valuable perceptions of our outside directors.

The third key change is transparency. We require the executive side to commit strongly to achieving the targets in our plans, and this is reflected in the sense of urgency on the front lines. The other side to this relates back to the focus I mentioned a moment ago.

Focusing the executive line on the business generates a commitment to growth and this also leads to a positive cycle of further strengthening of our ability to generate profit.

Further, the Nominating Committee is made up completely of independent external directors. It's fair to say that one of Mizuho's features is the way we conduct operations, by putting the right people in the right place.

The fourth point I'd like to make here, which we announced at the press conference a moment ago, is executive compensation. The executive compensation system that Mizuho has used to date had almost no incentive element. We have now changed to a compensation system that rewards performance and this incentive system also includes a clawback system to ensure its appropriateness.

Finally, I touched on becoming a Company with three committees, and strengthening the functions of the holding company in the transformation of corporate governance last year. To put this strengthening of holding company functions another way, it involves cross-sectional management of each entity and unit.

Strengthening of holding company functions is also something that is being debated in the Financial System Council at the moment. Given this, I think that Mizuho has been groundbreaking in terms of, not only the conversion to a Company with committees, but also in terms of strengthening holding company functions.

Nevertheless, there is still room to improve and we intend to strengthen further going forward.

Please move onto page 56. Next, I would like to speak regarding the Corporate Governance Code. Compliance with the corporate governance code has become a major issue recently. Many of the items in this overlap with the efforts Mizuho has been making to date in terms of governance reform.

We believe that this will contribute to sustainable growth and medium-term improvement in corporate value. And we have decided to comply with all items of the corporate governance code. We are scheduled to publish a Corporate Governance Report in early June this year to respond to this.

As part of this, we intend to include an explicit policy, as required under Principle 1.4, for cross-shareholdings and standards for the exercise of voting rights. Our basic policy is to clearly define the significance of cross-shareholdings, and to dispose of equity holdings with limited significance.

Irrespective of the Governance Code, reducing our cross-shareholdings is one of our most important management challenges, from the perspective of strengthening the CET1 ratio and reducing future volatility risk.

Please turnover to page 59. Looking finally to our next generation systems, while there is much conflicting information circulating, I can confirm to you here today that we are progressing steadily against our plans. We will firmly progress toward completion at the end of 2016.

I'd like to make some personal comments to close today's presentation. Looking back, it is fair to say that we have needed to expend a considerable amount of energy on restructuring and transforming the organization, between when I became the sole leader of the Mizuho Group in 2011 and the end of last year. In other words, and in terms of corporate culture, we have merged what were three securities subsidiaries, made the Trust Bank a wholly owned subsidiary, and moved from a two bank to a one-bank structure.

In terms of governance, we have achieved milestones, including establishing the one-leader structure, migrating to a Company with three committees, the introduction of a full-blown business unit system, and strengthening the functions of the holding company.

Standing here today at the beginning of FY15, and considering the current situation, we have finally completed our structural reforms and established sound management foundations.

I firmly believe that we have laid the foundations to enable us to turn our full energy toward establishing our competitive position, promoting our growth strategy, and above all realizing the vision we have for Mizuho.

This does not simply mean personnel, capital, and expenses as resources. It means tuning the thoughts of each and every executive and employee toward directly facing up to our objectives, having the will to realize these objectives, and gaining the confidence to see these objectives through to realization.

Based on promoting reform in FY15, we will achieve all of the objectives in our medium-term business plan. This is a given. Moreover, I believe that this will be a year in which we must build the robust starting blocks for our next medium-term business plan.

I believe that in many ways, we must compile our next medium-term business plan based on assumptions, including global economic trends, the competitive environment, including other industries, and the technological revolution that is happening at the moment. In other words, I believe that we must be prepared to consider many different elements, to ensure the next stage of sustainable development for Mizuho.

This year, we will achieve our plans without fail. In addition to our results serving as evidence of our strengths, we must also realize the strategy that looks forward to the next step for the finance industry.

I thank you most sincerely for your ongoing support and understanding of the Mizuho Group. This concludes my presentation for today.

Thank you.

Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call. The interpreter was provided by the Company sponsoring this Event.