Handelsbanken's Annual General Meeting
At the Annual General Meeting on 24 April 2001, the Board of Handelsbanken was re-elected with the exception of Tom Hedelius and Clas Reuterskiöld, who had declined re-election.
Lars O Grönstedt, Stockholm and Anders Nyrén, Stockholm were elected as new members.
Tom Hedelius has been appointed Honorary Chairman by the Board.
At the subsequent first meeting of the new Board, Arne Mårtensson was appointed Chairman, Bo Rydin and Hans Larsson were appointed Vice Chairmen and Lars O Grönstedt was appointed President of the Bank.
A list of the members of the Board is given on the next page.
Dividend
The Annual General Meeting adopted the Board's recommendation for a dividend of SEK 4.00 per share. The record day for payment will be Friday 27 April 2001. It is expected that the dividend will be sent by the Swedish Central Securities Depository & Clearing Organization (VPC) on Thursday 3 May 2001.
Buyback and divestment of shares
In accordance with the Board's proposal, the Annual General Meeting authorised the Board to repurchase a maximum of 20 million of the Bank's ordinary class A and/or B shares during the period until the next Annual General Meeting. Purchases will be made on the Stockholm Stock Exchange at the market price applying on the purchase dates.
The Annual General Meeting also resolved to authorise the Board, during the period until the Annual General Meeting 2002, to resolve on divestment of a maximum of 45 million ordinary Class A and/or B shares. This divestment shall be permitted a) with the right to deviate from the shareholders' preferential rights, as payment in connection with acquisition of companies or operations and b) with or wíthout shareholders' preferential rights by other means than on a stock exchange, an official market place or some other regulated market, for the purpose of financing acquisitions of companies or operations. If divestment is made by deviating from the shareholders' preferential rights, payment for the sold shares shall be on market terms and may be in a form other than cash.
With the authorisation of the 2000 Annual General Meeting, Handelsbanken has repurchased over 26.9 million shares at an average price of SEK 141.48. Following this, there are 687.8 million outstanding shares
Svenska Handelsbanken
Board members 2001
Arne Mårtensson, Danderyd, Chairman
Bo Rydin, Stockholm, Vice Chairman
Hans Larsson, Stockholm, Vice Chairman
Lars O Grönstedt, Stockholm, President and Group Chief Executive
Pirkko Alitalo, Helsinki
Lotty Bergström, Ekerö
Tommy Bylund, Ljusdal
Göran Ennerfelt, Upplands Väsby
Per-Olof Eriksson, Sandviken
Anders Nyrén, Stockholm
Olle Persson, Östersund
Bengt Samuelsson, Danderyd