Stora Enso's Annual General Meeting and decisions by the Board of Directors
Stora Enso's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 26 March 2008 adopted the accounts
for 2007 and granted the Company's Board of Directors and Chief Executive
Officer discharge from responsibility for the period.
Dividend
The AGM approved a proposal by the Board of Directors that a dividend of EUR
0.45 per share be paid for the financial year 2007. The Company will pay the
dividend on 10 April 2008 to the shareholders entered in the shareholder
registers maintained by the Finnish Central Securities Depository or VPC on the
dividend record date, 31 March 2008. Dividends for VPC-registered shares will be
paid in Swedish krona and dividends for ADR holders will be paid in US dollars.
Members of the Board of Directors
The AGM approved a proposal that the Board of Directors shall have nine members
and that of the present members Gunnar Brock, Claes Dahlbäck, Dominique Hériard
Dubreuil, Birgitta Kantola, Ilkka Niemi, Jan Sjöqvist, Matti Vuoria and Marcus
Wallenberg be re-elected to continue in their office and that Juha Rantanen be
elected as a new member to serve until the end of the following AGM. Lee A.
Chaden was not seeking re-election.
Auditor
The AGM approved a proposal that Authorised Public Accountants Deloitte & Touche
Oy be elected to act as auditor of the Company until the end of the following
AGM.
Remuneration
The AGM approved the proposed annual remuneration for the Board of Directors as
follows:
Chairman EUR 135 000
Vice Chairman EUR 85 000
Members EUR 60 000
The AGM also approved a proposal that 40% of the remuneration shall be paid in
Stora Enso R shares purchased from the market.
The AGM approved the proposed annual remuneration for the Board committees as
follows:
Financial and Audit Committee
Chairman EUR 20 000
Member EUR 14 000
Compensation Committee
Chairman EUR 10 000
Member EUR 6 000
Appointment of Nomination Committee
The AGM approved a proposal to appoint a Nomination Committee to prepare
proposals concerning (a) the number of members of the Board of Directors, (b)
the members of the Board of Directors, (c) the remuneration for the Chairman,
Vice Chairman and members of the Board of Directors and (d) the remuneration for
the Chairman and members of the committees of the Board of Directors. The
Nomination Committee shall consist of four members:
the Chairman of the Board of Directors
the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
two members appointed by the two largest shareholders (one each) according to
the register of shareholders on 1 October 2008.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors shall convene the Nomination Committee
and before 31 January 2009 the Nomination Committee shall present its proposals
for the AGM to be held in 2009. A member of the Board of Directors may not be
appointed as Chairman of the Nomination Committee. Annual remuneration of EUR 3
000 shall be paid to a member of the Nomination Committee who is not a member of
the Board of Directors.
Amendment to the Articles of Association
The AGM approved the proposal to amend the articles of association by reducing
the number of the Auditors to one entity which shall be Certified Public
Accountancy Firm approved by Finnish Central Chamber of Commerce, by removing
references to minimum and maximum capital and maximum number of shares and by
revising the matters to be included on the agenda of the Annual General Meeting.
Furthermore, minor changes of technical nature were approved to be made to the
Articles of Association.
Decisions by the Board of Directors
At its meeting held after the AGM, the Stora Enso Board of Directors elected
from among its members Claes Dahlbäck as its Chairman and Ilkka Niemi as Vice
Chairman.
Jan Sjöqvist (chairman), Claes Dahlbäck, Birgitta Kantola and Ilkka Niemi will
continue as members of the Financial and Audit Committee.
Claes Dahlbäck (chairman), Dominique Hériard Dubreuil, Ilkka Niemi and Matti
Vuoria will continue as members of the Compensation Committee.
For further information, please contact:
Jyrki Kurkinen, Senior Vice President, Legal Services, tel. +358 2046 21217
Kari Vainio, Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications, tel. +44 77
9934 8197
Ulla Paajanen-Sainio, Vice President, Investor Relations and Financial
Communications,
tel. +358 2046 21242
www.storaenso.com
www.storaenso.com/investors
STORA ENSO OYJ
p.p. Jussi Siitonen Jukka Marttila