STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Annual General Meeting of Observer AB on Thursday, April 28 approved a dividend of SEK 0.45 (0.45) per share. The record date is May 3 and the dividend is expected to be paid on May 9, 2005.
Board of Directors
The Annual General Meeting reelected Board members Orjan Hakanson, Maria Lilja, Ulf Ivarsson, Pia Gideon, Per-Eric Fylking and Robert Lundberg, and elected as a new member Peter Leifland. Board member Hakan Bryngelson declined reelection. Orjan Hakanson was elected Chairman at the statutory Board meeting.
The Annual General Meeting in 2003 elected the accounting firm Ernst & Young AB as auditor, with Lars Traff as chief auditor, for the period until the Annual General Meeting in 2007.
Authorization for share issue
The Annual General Meeting authorized the Board of Directors, until the company's Annual General Meeting in 2006, to decide on the issue of not more than 4,000,000 new shares in the company. The issue may deviate from the shareholders' preferential rights to subscribe for new shares. The reason for the deviation from the shareholders' preferential rights is that the new shares will be used to acquire operations or companies.
Employee stock options
The Annual General Meeting resolved to introduce a performance-related employee stock option program for around 35 senior executives in the Group.
The stock options can be exercised to acquire shares in the company during the period May 15, 2007 -- March 1, 2010 conditional on a specific increase in earnings per share for the fiscal year 2005 compared with fiscal year 2004.
To ensure its obligation in accordance with the employee stock option program, the company is issuing promissory notes with detachable warrants to subscribe for new shares. If fully exercised, the proposed options would dilute the share capital and votes by approximately 0.9 percent.
Observer AB (publ)
Observer is the world's leading company in media monitoring and communication evaluation. Observer's services enable the clients to identify relevant target groups, distribute information, monitor their coverage and evaluate their communication.
Observer AB is quoted on the Attract 40 section of Stockholmsborsen's O-list and has approximately 24,000 shareholders. The company has around 2,400 employees and a turnover of slightly over SEK 1.6 billion in 2004. Observer operates in the US, UK, Sweden, Canada, Germany, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
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