Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG (NVS) said Friday that its shareholders approved all resolutions proposed by the company's board of directors, including election of all board members who stood for re-election and a 6 percent increase in the dividend for 2014.
Shareholders also approved revisions to the company's articles of incorporation for full implementation of the Swiss rules relating to the "Minder Ordinance" against excessive compensation in listed stock corporations.
Novartis noted that more than 98 percent of its shareholders today followed the board of directors' recommendations for all proposed resolutions at the group's annual general meeting. A total of 1,703 shareholders were present at the company's AGM held in Basel, representing about 61.1 percent of the issued shares of Novartis.
Novartis' shareholders approve the eighteenth consecutive dividend increase per share since the creation of the company in 1996, with a 6 percent increase in the dividend to CHF 2.60 per share for 2014 from CHF 2.45 per share in 2013.
Further, a large majority of the company's shareholders re-elected each member of the board of directors who stood for annual re-election. Dr. Joerg Reinhardt was confirmed by shareholders as the chairman of the company's board of directors for one year.
Shareholders also elected Nancy Andrews as a new member of the board. Meanwhile, Ulrich Lehner decided not to seek another term of office, keeping the board membership to 11 members.
Novartis noted that in line with the board's recommendation, shareholders approved the cancellation of 29.20 million shares repurchased on the second trading line under the sixth share repurchase program in the financial years 2013 and 2014. Accordingly, this will effectively reduce the Novartis share capital to CHF 1.338 billion from CHF 1.353 billion.
Further, shareholders approved revisions to the company's articles of incorporation for full implementation of the Swiss rules relating to the Minder Ordinance.
In 2013 and 2014, Novartis implemented significant changes to its governance system in accordance with the Swiss ordinance against excessive compensation in listed stock corporations, known as the "Minder Ordinance". This includes the adoption of both a new governance structure and a new compensation system.
Novartis added that its shareholders also approved all other proposals of the board, including the 2014 compensation report as well as future Board and ECN compensation.
Dr. Joerg Reinhardt, chairman of the Novartis board of directors said, "The planned focus of our operations on our three divisions - Pharmaceuticals, Alcon and Sandoz, the consolidation of our internal services into a single organization and the revision of our core values and behaviors will strengthen Novartis for the long term...."
NVS closed Thursday's trading at $103.00. In Friday's pre-market activity, the stock is up $0.28 or 0.27 percent to $103.28.
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