SAMPO PLC STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 11.4.2005, at 15:15
SAMPO PLC'S ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING DECIDED TO DISTRIBUTE A DIVIDEND OF EUR 0.20
The Annual General Meeting of Sampo plc held today decided, in accordance with the proposal of the Board of Directors, to pay a dividend of EUR 0.20 per share for 2004. The record date for dividend payment is 14 April 2005 and the dividend will be paid on 21 April, 2005. The Annual General Meeting adopted the financial statements and discharged those accountable from liability.
The Annual General Meeting re-elected the following persons to the company's Board of Directors: Tom Berglund, Anne Brunila, Georg Ehrnrooth, Jyrki Juusela, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Christoffer Taxell, Matti Vuoria and Björn Wahlroos. At its organisational meeting the Board re-elected Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as the Chairman and Jyrki Juusela as the Vice Chairman.
The Annual General Meeting decided that the fees payable to the Board of Directors until the close of the 2006 Annual General Meeting will be as follows: The Chairman of the Board will be paid EUR 4,800 per month, the Vice Chairman EUR 3,850 per month, and the other members of the Board EUR 2,900 per month. In addition, all members of the Board will be paid EUR 480 as a meeting fee for each Board meeting or Board Committee meeting.
Ernst & Young Oy was re-elected as the Auditor.
The Annual General Meeting granted the Board authorisation, valid until 11 April 2006, to decide on buying back Sampo shares. Sampo A shares can be bought back up to an amount equal to 5 percent of the company's share capital or of the number of votes attached to all shares. The shares can be bought back through an offer made to all holders of A shares on uniform terms proportional to the holdings of shareholders and defined by the Board, or through public trading in the Helsinki Stock Exchange, in which case the shares will not be bought in proportion to the holdings of shareholders.
Sampo A shares may be bought back to be cancelled. Cancellation of the shares will require a separate decision of a General Meeting to lower the share capital.
In addition, the Annual General Meeting decided to approve the following amendments to the Articles of Association:
- In accordance with Article 2 of the Articles of Association, Sampo plc's domicile was changed from Turku to Helsinki, where Sampo plc's head office and administrative domicile are already located.
- Paragraph 3 of Article 8 of the Articles of Association and the reference contained therein to the age of Board members at the beginning of their term of office was deleted.
- The reference in Paragraph 2 of Article 17 of the Articles of Association to the publication of a Notice of General Meeting in a newspaper published in Turku was deleted due to the above-mentioned amendment to Article 2 of the Articles of Association.
The above-mentioned proposals of the Board of Directors were published in full in a stock exchange release issued on 17 February 2005 and they were accepted as proposed.
SAMPO PLC
Hannu Vuola
Head of Group Communications
Tel. +358 10 516 0040
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Jarmo Salonen, Head of Investor Relations, tel. +358 10 516 0030
Hannu Vuola, Head of Group Communications, tel. +358 10 516 0040
DISTRIBUTION:
Helsinki Stock Exchange
The principal media
Financial Supervision
www.sampo.com