RWE looks back on a successful financial year. Our earnings showed continued improvement despite the negative effects of the emissions trading scheme and grid regulation. The most important contributor to this success was our German electricity generation business. We increased our operating result by 4 %. Recurrent net income, the yardstick for our dividend, rose by 13 %. We therefore confirmed the forecast we published in February 2008 and paved the way for the highest dividend in RWE history.