General Meeting of Shareholders
- Approval of a gross dividend of € 0.90
- Approval of the proposed appointments
Today Bekaert's Annual General Meeting of Shareholders took place, with Mr Bert De Graeve, Chairman of the Board of Directors, in the chair. The following main subjects were considered.
The meeting approved the balance sheet and the income statement as at 31 December 2015, as submitted by the Board of Directors, including the distribution of a gross dividend of € 0.90 per share.
The dividend ex-date is 12 May 2016. The dividend will be payable on 17 May 2016 by the following banks: ING Belgium, Bank Degroof Petercam, BNP Paribas Fortis, KBC Bank and Belfius Bank in Belgium, Société Générale in France, ABN-AMRO Bank in the Netherlands and UBS in Switzerland.
The meeting acknowledged the 2015 annual report of the Board of Directors, and approved the remuneration report for the year 2015. The meeting discharged the Directors and the Statutory Auditor for the performance of their duties during the financial year 2015 and approved the remuneration of the Directors and the Statutory Auditor.
The meeting increased the number of Directors from fourteen to fifteen and accepted the recommendations:
- to appoint Ms Emilie van de Walle de Ghelcke and Messrs Christophe Jacobs van Merlen and Henri Jean Velge as Director for a term of four years, until the Annual General Meeting to be held in 2020;
- to appoint Mses Celia Baxter, Pamela Knapp and Martina Merz as independent Director for a term of four years, until the Annual General Meeting to be held in 2020;
- to re-appoint Deloitte Bedrijfsrevisoren/Réviseurs d'Entreprises as Statutory Auditor for a term of three years, until the Annual General Meeting to be held in 2019.
Lady Barbara Judge and Messrs François de Visscher, Bernard van de Walle de Ghelcke, Baudouin Velge, and Manfred Wennemer were not eligible for or did not seek re-election to the Board.
Related press release: 26 February 2016: Board of Directors
The meeting cancelled - to the extent required - all VVPR strips issued by the company.
Today an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders took place as well. The meeting extended the authorizations granted to the Board of Directors to buy back company shares and to increase the registered capital (authorized capital), and amended the articles of association with respect to the transfer of own shares.