NCC:s Annual General Meeting
NCC's Annual General Meeting ' Dividend of SEK 4.00 (2.50) per share ' Extraordinary dividend of SEK 7.00 per share ' Decision to purchase a maximum of 2.5 percent of the Company's shares ' Favorable level of orders received by construction operations during January-February "NCC is on the right track and we hope to attain our profitability objective - a return on equity of at least 12 percent - during 2001. These hopes were further bolstered by results during the first few months of 2000. Orders received by construction operations during January-February were strong, despite weaker demand within the Civil Engineering business area." This is an extract from the address by Jan Sjöqvist, NCC's President and Chief Executive Officer, to the Company's Annual General Meeting, held today. Jan Sjöqvist added that NCC intends to continue to grow outside Sweden and that the focus will remain firmly on generating profitability from the Group's core business. NCC will continue to progressively phase out its managed properties. During his speech, the CEO also emphasized the importance of illuminating NCC's position in the fields of real estate development, R&D and IT. The Meeting approved the Board of Directors' proposal that an ordinary dividend of SEK 4.00 (2.50) per share plus an extraordinary dividend of SEK 7.00 per share be paid. The record date for dividends was set at April 4, 2000. Dividends will be sent to shareholders via VPC (the Swedish Securities Register Center) no later than on April 7, 2000. The Meeting also authorized the Board to acquire prior to the next Annual General Meeting a maximum of 2,710,895 NCC shares, corresponding to a maximum of 2.5 percent of the total number of shares. The stock-market price at the date of purchase is to be paid for the acquired shares, subject to a deviation that does not exceed the registered span in share prices at the particular point in time. One of the reasons for the purchase of NCC shares is to cover allotments of options under the Company's rolling options program for approximately 170 senior executives. In addition, the Meeting voted that 1,253,892 call options be issued, through the purchase of NCC shares, and that a corresponding number of Series B shares be transferred to cover requests for exercise of the options. The sale of shares as part of the options program will not result in any dilution of NCC shareholders' current ownership. Based on this authorization, the Board has decided to purchase a maximum of 2,710,895 NCC shares before the next Annual General Meeting. The Meeting re-elected all the sitting members of the Board. Accordingly, the Board consists of Antonia Ax: son Johnson, Tomas Billing, Hans Larsson, Fredrik Lundberg, Jacob Palmstierna, Carl Wilhelm Ros, Marcus Storch, Per Welin and Jan Sjöqvist. At the statutory meeting of the Board of Directors held directly after the Annual General Meeting, Hans Larsson was re-elected Chairman of the Board. Tomas Billing and Fredrik Lundberg were re-elected Deputy Chairmen. Any questions regarding the above may be directed to: Hans-Olof Karlsson, Senior Vice President-Corporate Communications (Tel: +46-8-6552279), or Annica Gustavsson, Investor Relations Manager (Tel: +46-70-398 42 09) All NCC:s pressreleases can be found on www.ncc.se ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/30/20000330BIT01000/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/30/20000330BIT01000/bit0002.pdf