Press release from the Annual General Meeting on March 25, 2020
Extract from President and CEO Henrik Perbeck’s statement at the Annual General Meeting.
“Looking at the economic situation in general, the slowdown at the end of last year also marked the early part of 2020. Added to this is the impact that the coronavirus outbreak has had on countries and markets across the globe. This has also affected Beijer Alma, primarily our operations in China, where production was down for a couple of weeks. The corona pandemic did not have any material negative impact on operations, income and earnings in January and February. It is, however, very difficult to predict developments moving forward and there is a risk that there will be a deterioration in market conditions. Beijer Alma is therefore taking measures to strengthen our preparedness and increase our flexibility.
To summarize, Beijer Alma is on a stable footing. We are financially strong and have a robust business model, which provides an effective diversification of risk and paves the way for future growth opportunities. As I said previously, I would like to emphasis that in our work we are focusing on areas that we can influence and areas where it is important to maintain readiness. This applies even more so now when the focus for the immediate future is on addressing the uncertainty surrounding us.”
RESOLUTIONS PASSED AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The following resolutions were passed at the Annual General Meeting:
- The balance sheets and income statements for 2019 for the Parent Company and Group were adopted.
- In accordance with the Board’s motion, a dividend of SEK 2.50 was approved for 2019. The record date for dividends was set at March 27, 2020. Dividends are expected to be distributed beginning April 1, 2020.
- The members of the Board and the President were discharged from liability for the 2019 financial year.
- A fixed director’s fee of SEK 325,000 is to be paid to each of the regular members of the Board of Directors. A fixed director’s fee of SEK 950,000 was approved for the Chairman of the Board. For the Audit Committee, a fixed fee of SEK 75,000 was approved for each member, except the Chairman of the Committee. A fixed fee of SEK 125,000 was approved for the Chairman of the Committee. This means that the fees remained unchanged compared with the preceding year. Auditors’ fees will be paid according to approved invoices.
- The following directors were re-elected as regular Board members: Johnny Alvarsson, Carina Andersson, Hans Landin, Caroline af Ugglas, Anders Ullberg, Johan Wall and Cecilia Wikström. Oskar Hellström was elected as a new director. Johan Wall was elected as Chairman of the Board.
- KPMG AB was elected as the company’s auditor with a period in office of one year.
- Ahead of the 2021 Annual General Meeting, it was resolved that the company is to apply similar procedures to those applied in the preceding year and that the Annual General Meeting is to appoint the members of the Nomination Committee. This decision entails that the Nomination Committee is to comprise Chairman of the Board Johan Wall, Anders G. Carlberg as representative of the principal owner, and three representatives of the next largest shareholders who have indicated their willingness to participate in the Nomination Committee, namely Henrik Didner (Didner & Gerge Fonder), Elisabet Jamal Bergström (SEB Fonder) and Vegard Søraunet (Odin Fonder). Johan Wall was appointed as Chairman of the Nomination Committee.
- The Board of Directors was authorized to make decisions, on one or more occasions, regarding issues of new Class B shares or convertible debentures carrying the right to new Class B shares for the purpose of carrying out corporate acquisitions, disapplying the shareholders’ preferential rights, but such issues may not cause the company’s registered share capital on the date of the Annual General Meeting to increase by more than a total of 10 percent.
- The Annual General Meeting approved the Board’s proposal concerning guidelines for salaries and other remuneration of the CEO and other members of senior management. The guidelines were adapted to align with amendments to the Swedish Companies Act.
The interim report for the first quarter will be published on April 27, 2020.
BEIJER ALMA AB (publ)
Board of Directors
For more information, please contact:
Henrik Perbeck, President and CEO of Beijer Alma AB, Tel: +46 18 15 71 60
Beijer Alma AB (publ) is an international industrial group focused on component production and industrial trading. The Group includes Lesjöfors, which is one of Europe’s largest spring manufactures, Habia Cable, one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of custom-designed cables, and Beijer Tech, which holds strong positions in industrial trading in the Nordic region. Beijer Alma is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm Mid Cap list.