Decisions taken by KONE Corporation's Annual General Meeting and Board of Directors
KONE Corporation, stock exchange release, February 25, 2020 at 1.45 p.m. EET
Decisions taken by KONE Corporation's Annual General Meeting and Board of Directors
Matters relating to the Annual General Meeting
KONE Corporation's Annual General Meeting was held in Helsinki on February 25, 2020. The meeting approved the financial statements, considered the Remuneration Policy for governing bodies and discharged the responsible parties from liability for the financial period January 1-December 31, 2019.
The General Meeting approved dividends in line with the Board of Director’s proposal of EUR 1.6975 for each of the 76,208,712 class A shares and EUR 1.70 for each of the outstanding 441,851,042 class B shares. The date of record for dividend distribution is February 27, 2020 and dividends will be payable on March 5, 2020.
The number of Members of the Board of Directors was confirmed as nine. Re-elected as Members of the Board were Matti Alahuhta, Anne Brunila, Antti Herlin, Iiris Herlin, Jussi Herlin, Ravi Kant, Juhani Kaskeala and Sirpa Pietikäinen. Susan Duinhoven was elected as a new member to the Board of Directors.
The General Meeting confirmed an annual compensation of EUR 60,000 for the Chairman of the Board, EUR 50,000 for the Vice Chairman and EUR 45,000 for Board Members. In addition, a compensation of EUR 500 was approved for attendance at Board and Committee meetings but anyhow a fee of EUR 3,000 is paid per Committee meeting for a Chairman of the Committee residing outside of Finland and a fee of EUR 2,000 is paid per Committee meeting for those members residing outside of Finland. Of the annual remuneration, 40 percent will be paid in class B shares of KONE Corporation and the rest in cash.
Authorized public accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy and Jouko Malinen were nominated as auditors for the term 2020. Audit firm Ernst & Young Oy was nominated as the auditor for the term 2021.
Other decisions by the General Meeting
The General Meeting approved the authorization for the Board of Directors to repurchase KONE's own shares. Altogether no more than 52,930,000 shares may be repurchased, of which no more than 7,620,000 may be class A shares and 45,310,000 class B shares. The authorization will be valid until the conclusion of the following annual general meeting, however, at the latest until 30 June 2021.
Furthermore, the General Meeting authorized the Board of Directors to decide on the issuance of shares as well as the issuance of options and other special rights entitling to shares referred to in chapter 10 section 1 of the Finnish Companies Act. The number of shares to be issued based on this authorization shall not exceed 7,620,000 class A shares and 45,310,000 class B shares. The Board of Directors decides on all the conditions of the issuance of shares and of special rights entitling to shares. The authorization concerns both the issuance of new shares as well as the transfer of treasury shares. The issuance of shares and of special rights entitling to shares may be carried out in deviation from the shareholders’ pre-emptive rights (directed issue). The authorization will be valid until the conclusion of the following annual general meeting, however, at the latest until 30 June 2021.
The General Meeting decided to amend the Articles of Association by updating the article concerning the line of business of the company (2 §) and changing the articles concerning the auditing (7§ and 10§).
Decisions by the Board of Directors
At its meeting held after the General Meeting, the Board of Directors elected from among its members Antti Herlin as its Chairman and Jussi Herlin as Vice Chairman.
Ravi Kant was elected as Chairman and Anne Brunila, Antti Herlin and Jussi Herlin as members of the Audit Committee. Anne Brunila and Ravi Kant are independent of both the company and of significant shareholders.
Antti Herlin was elected as Chairman and Matti Alahuhta, Jussi Herlin and Juhani Kaskeala as members of the Nomination and Compensation Committee. Matti Alahuhta and Juhani Kaskeala are independent of both the company and of significant shareholders.
For further information, please contact:
Jukka Ala-Mello, Secretary to the Board, tel. +358 (0)204 75 4226
Sender:
KONE Corporation
Jukka Ala-Mello
Secretary to the Board
Ilkka Hara
CFO
About KONE
At KONE, our mission is to improve the flow of urban life. As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernization to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. Through more effective People Flow®, we make people's journeys safe, convenient and reliable, in taller, smarter buildings. In 2019, KONE had annual sales of EUR 10 billion, and at the end of the year approximately 60,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland.
www.kone.com