At the annual general meeting on 25 April 2006, the board of Handelsbanken, with the exception for Mr Arne Mårtensson who had declined re-election, was re-elected. New member elected to the board was Mr Pär Boman, Linköping. Mr Lars O Grönstedt was appointed chairman.

 

At the subsequent first board meeting Hans Larsson and Anders Nyrén were appointed as vice chairmen of the board. Pär Boman was elected president.

 

The board members are listed below.

 

The annual general meeting adopted the board's proposal for a dividend of SEK 7 per share. The record day for dividend is Friday, 28 April 2006. The dividend is expected to be distributed by the VPC on Thursday, 4 May 2006.

 

In accordance with the board's proposal, the annual general meeting authorised the board to resolve on purchase of the Bank's own class A and/or B shares during the period until the annual general meeting in 2007 on the following conditions:

The purchases shall be made on Stockholmsbörsen, the Stockholm stock exchange

The Bank may purchase a total of no more than 40 000 000 class A and/or B shares.

The shares must be acquired at the market price applicable at the time of purchase.

 

At the subsequent first board meeting, the board resolved to utilise its repurchase mandate and assigned to the group chief executive to effect the repurchases when appropriate, for a maximum amount of SEK 6bn.

 

The annual general meeting resolved in accordance with the board's proposal to reduce the share capital by 88 619 560 Swedish kronor through cancellation without repayment of 20 609 200 shares held by the Bank.

 

With the consent of the Finansinspektionen, the share capital can be reduced without the permission of a court of law, if the Bank takes measures so that the Bank's share capital does not decrease as a result of the reduction.

 

The annual general meeting therefore resolved by means of a bonus issue to increase the Bank's share capital by 97 354 839,30 Swedish kronor by transferring this amount from its unrestricted share capital without the issuing of new shares

 

The annual general meeting resolved to make a number of changes to adapt the Articles of Association to the new Companies Act.

 

The annual general meeting mandated the chairman of the board to appoint one representative for each one of the four major shareholders of the Bank, who, with the chairman, form a committee to prepare the next election of board members. No representative for a shareholder with a business in competition with the bank shall be appointed to the nomination committee. The composition of the committee in preparation for the board election in 2007 shall be announced at the latest six months before the annual general meeting in 2007.

 

PIRKKO ALITALO, Helsinki

JON FREDRIK BAKSAAS, Sandvika

ULRIKA BOËTHIUS, Stockholm

PÄR BOMAN, Linköping

Tommy Bylund, Ljusdal

GÖRAN ENNERFELT, Upplands Väsby

LARS O GRÖNSTEDT, Stockholm,

SIGRUN HJELMQUIST, Djursholm

HANS LARSSON, Stockholm

FREDRIK LUNDBERG, Djursholm

SVERKER MARTIN-LÖF, Stockholm

ANDERS NYRÉN, Bromma

BENTE RATHE, Trondheim

 

 

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting will be available at the Bank's website http://www.handelsbanken.se/ireng within two weeks as of today.