Thomas Olemotz
CEO & Chairman of The Executive Board

Thank you, and welcome to our Bechtle Analyst Conference on the first quarter 2026. I am delighted by your interest. Ladies and gentlemen, today, we are reporting on a strong start to the year for Bechtle AG. We are showing top line and bottom line double-digit growth rates. This is all the more remarkable given that the operating environment remains challenging. Well, with regard to the IT market, I've often said, size matters, and we are seeing this again very clearly now. Bechtle is one of the largest and most important VARs in Europe. Vendors work closely and trustingly with us. And this is paying off, especially in times like these when the IT market is characterized by the so-called memory shortage and the supply chain bottlenecks and clear price increases.

As usual, today's presentation is divided into three main sections. As usual, we start with the essential key financial highlights of the first quarter of the 2026 financial year, which Christian Jehle, our CFO, will present for the first time in the context of the Q1 presentations. Then latest news that is important strategic and developments beyond the figures, and I'm going to present those to you. And also the third part of the presentation, the outlook for 2026, our objectives and the overall economic development, which we expect for the next 3 quarters. But first, let's look at business performance. Mr. Jehle, please.

Marcus Jehle
CFO & Member of the Executive Board

Thank you, Dr. Olemotz. The first quarter was characterized by difficult geopolitical framework conditions, amongst them, the