The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Jurgen Kolb - Kepler Cheuvreux, Research Division - Analyst
: Two questions. With the refinancing of your KfW loan, what's your stance in terms of resuming your dividend payments and maybe even the share
buyback program?
And I think, Kasper, you mentioned that this whole online development actually is fundamentally shifting your business. Maybe you can elaborate
a little bit more on what that means really for the entire organization and where this share of online business can go to, given on the current
trajectory that you're seeing in these marketplaces?
Question: Graham Ian Renwick - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst
: Just 2, please. First, on trading. I just wondered to what extent your growth in Q3 may have been constrained by the order cancellations you made
earlier in the crisis, particularly on new product launches, do you find yourself in a position where the consumer demand recovered a lot faster
than you expected and wholesale partners were demanding higher volumes of fresh product that you perhaps weren't able to fully satisfy? I think
Nike flagged constraints in the period, given cancellations earlier in the year and some peers who didn't cancel performed a bit stronger.
And then secondly, on discounts and inventories. I just wanted to square the fact that you have significantly reduced the level of discounting in
Q3, and you're guiding to flat gross margins in Q4, which is positive, but you still have a high inventory levels to clear across Q4. Of the EUR 500
million remaining excess stock, I just wondered how much of that we plan to repurpose and hold into next year to sell at full price?
And of the remaining stock, do you largely expect to clear that all through commercial events such as Singles Day and Black Friday, where you
would have to have build up stock to discount anyway even in a normal year? So I guess, overall, is it fair to say that you're expecting the final EUR
500 million of excess stock to be cleared with much more limited impact to margins and perhaps the first EUR 500 million of excess stock, and that's
what gives you confident in that flat gross margin guidance for Q4?
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