Ratos: Annual General Meeting 2003
Dividend SEK 6.75
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) approved the proposed dividend of SEK 6.75 per share. The record date will be 14 April and dividend payments through VPC are expected to be made on 17 April. The Ratos share will be traded without right to dividend from today, 10 April.
Board of Directors and auditors
At the Meeting the existing Board members Olof Stenhammar (Chairman), Lars Berg, Peggy Bruzelius, Göran Grosskopf, Arne Karlsson (CEO), Jan Söderberg and Per-Olof Söderberg were re-elected. The chairman also informed the AGM that he had been assigned by Ratos's principal shareholders to form a nomination committee prior to the AGM of 2004. The constitution of the committee will be made public no later than the publishing date for the nine-month interimreport 2003.
Auditor Björn Fernström and deputy auditor Per Hedström were elected for the period until the AGM of 2007 has been held. Auditor Thomas Thiel and deputy auditor Helene Willberg were elected by the AGM of 2002 for the period until the AGM of 2006.
Share buy-back
The meeting decided to authorise the Board, during the period until the next AGM, to decide on buy-back of the company´s shares so that the company's holding at any time does not exceed 7% of all the shares in the company.
Proposal for voluntary reclassification of shares
The Meeting approved that a conversion proviso allowing reclassification of A-shares to B-shares will be added to the Articles of Association. This means that holders of A-shares will have a continuous opportunity to carry out a conversion to B-shares.
Incentive programme
The Meeting also approved to issue a maximum of 510,000 call options on repurchased Ratos shares to be transferred at a market premium to a maximum of 20 key employees at Ratos.
The Söderberg Foundation Journalist Prize
At the conclusion of the Meeting the 2002 Söderberg Journalist Prize of SEK 150,000 was awarded to journalist Christer Åhström working for Swedish Television.
For further information, please contact
Anna-Karin Celsing,
Head of Corporate Communications, +46 8 700 17 49
Financial calendar from Ratos:
Interim Report January-March 2003: 12 May 2003
Interim Report January-June 2003: 27 August 2003
Interim Report January-September 2003: 12 November 2003