2016 Annual General Meeting
- All proposals by the Board of Directors approved
- 15th consecutive dividend increase: 8% increase vs 2015
- Mr Victor Balli elected as new Board member
The Annual General Meeting of Givaudan SA took place on 17 March 2016. It was attended by 344 shareholders or proxies, representing 3,997,570 shares (43.29% of a total of 9,233,586 registered shares).
The Annual General Meeting approved the Annual Report, the annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statement 2015 with 98.80% of votes and discharged the members of the Board of Directors with 97.45% of votes.
With 90.03% of votes, it also approved the Company’s compensation report on a consultative basis.
The Annual General Meeting approved a distribution to the shareholders of CHF 54.00 per share. This is the fifteenth consecutive dividend increase following Givaudan’s listing at the Swiss stock exchange in 2000. An amount of CHF 43.50 will be distributed out of reserves for additional paid-in capital as shown in Givaudan’s equity as at 31 December 2015. The balance of CHF 10.50 will be paid out of available earnings as an ordinary dividend.
Apart from André Hoffmann and Peter Kappeler, who retired at the Annual General Meeting, all other current members of the Board of Directors were re-elected, each for a term of one year until the next Annual General Meeting in 2017, in accordance with the legal requirements and the Givaudan’s Articles of Incorporation:
- Prof. Dr-Ing. Werner Bauer
- Lilian Biner
- Michael Carlos
- Ingrid Deltenre
- Calvin Grieder
- Thomas Rufer
- Dr. Jürg Witmer (who was also elected as Chairman)
In addition, Victor Balli was elected as new Board member also for a term of one year.
The Annual General Meeting elected the following Board members to the Compensation Committee until the next Annual General Meeting:
- Prof. Dr-Ing. Werner Bauer
- Ingrid Deltenre
- Calvin Grieder
Mr Manuel Isler, attorney-at-law, was re-elected as independent shareholder representative until the next Annual General Meeting in 2017 and Deloitte SA was re-elected as auditors for the financial year 2016 with Ms. Karine Szegedi Pingoud replacing Mr. Thierry Aubertin, as lead auditor, partner.
Finally, the Annual General meeting approved the remuneration for the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. In particular, it approved:
- maximum aggregate amount of compensation of the Board of Directors for the term until the 2017 Annual General Meeting of CHF 3,300,000, by 96.16% of the votes,
- aggregate amount of short term variable compensation of the Executive Committee for the fiscal year 2015 of CHF 2,392,716, by 97.55% of the votes and
- maximum aggregate amount of fixed and long-term variable compensation of the Executive Committee for the fiscal year 2016 of CHF 19,800,000, by 93.13% of the votes.
For further information please contact:
Peter Wullschleger, Givaudan Media and Investor Relations
T +41 22 780 9093
E peter_b.wullschleger@givaudan.com