STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 23, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Today's Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ForeningsSparbanken approved a dividend of SEK 5.75 per share. The record date for the dividend was fixed at April 27. The dividend is expected to be paid by VPC (the Swedish Securities Register Center) on April 30, 2004.
The Board of Directors and the President were discharged from liability for the year 2003.
The AGM also resolved to permit the bank, in its securities operations, to continuously acquire its own shares to facilitate such operations. This decision remains effective until the 2005 AGM and means that shares may be acquired at the market price prevailing at the time of such acquisitions. The holding of shares acquired in the bank's securities operations may at no time exceed 2.5 percent of the total shares in the bank.
It was also resolved by the AGM to authorize the Board of Directors of the bank until the 2005 AGM to decide to acquire and transfer the bank's own shares apart from any acquisitions made in the bank's securities operations.
The purpose of the authorization is to facilitate the continued adaptation of the bank's capital structure to existing capital needs and to make it possible for the bank to use its own shares as consideration for possible acquisitions of companies or business activities.
According to the authorization, acquisitions may not raise the bank's total holding of its own shares, including shares acquired in the securities operations, to more than ten percent of the total number of the shares in the bank. Acquisitions may only be made on Stockholmsborsen (the Stockholm Stock Exchange) and only at a price that lies within the interval between the highest buying rate and the lowest selling rate at the time of acquisition.
Transfers of the bank's own shares acquired in accordance with the authorization may be made by way of sale on Stockholmsborsen at a price that lies within the said interval at the time of transfer. To finance acquisitions of all or parts of companies or business activities, transfers may also be made otherwise than through Stockholmsborsen, with the right to diverge from the shareholders' preferential rights and at a price equivalent to assessed market value. In such cases, settlement may be made in another form than through cash consideration, such as contribution in kind, set-off of receivables or otherwise with conditions.
Following the AGM, the Board of Directors consists of nine members. The following members were reelected: Bo Forslund, Ulrika Francke, Thomas Johansson, Goran Johnsson, Birgitta Klasen, Marianne Qvick Stoltz, Carl Eric Stalberg, Lennart Sunden and Anders Sundstrom.
The AGM appointed a Nomination Committee consisting of six members with Thomas Halvorsen, President of the Fourth National Pension Insurance Fund, as Chairman.
At its statutory meeting immediately following the AGM, the Board appointed Carl Eric Stalberg as Chairman, Bo Forslund as First Deputy Chairman, Ulrika Francke as Second Deputy Chairman and Jan Liden as President and CEO. For a list of the Board of Directors and Auditors following the AGM, see the attachment.
On ForeningsSparbanken's website, it will be possible to read or via webcast view Carl Eric Stalberg and Jan Liden's addresses at today's Annual General Meeting. (http://www.foreningssparbanken.se/ir).
For further information, please contact: Carl Eric Stalberg, Chairman, phone +46-8 585 912 96 Jan Liden, President and CEO, phone +46-8 585 922 27 Cecilia Hernqvist, Secretary of the Board, phone +46-8 585 913 23 Henrik Kolga, Head of Communications, phone +46-70 811 13 15
Attachment Board of Directors and Auditors of ForeningsSparbanken AB
Annual General Meeting, April 22, 2004 DIRECTORS ELECTED BY THE Annual General Meeting
Carl Eric Stalberg, Chairman Bo Forslund, First Deputy Chairman Ulrika Francke, Second Deputy Chairman Thomas Johansson Goran Johnsson Birgitta Klasen Marianne Qvick Stoltz Lennart Sunden Anders Sundstrom EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATIVES
Gith Bengtsson Monica Hellstrom DEPUTY DIRECTORS ELECTED BY THE EMPLOYEES
Per Ekstrom Anna-Karin Holst
AUDITORS ELECTED BY THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (in 2003 for the period up to the AGM in 2007)
Registered public accounting firms:
Deloitte & Touche AB
with Authorized Public Accountant Jan Palmqvist as Chief Auditor
Ernst & Young AB
with Authorized Public Accountant Torbjorn Hanson as Chief Auditor Auditor appointed by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority
Authorized Public Accountant Ulf Jarlebro, BDO Feinstein Revision
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The following files are available for download:
http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/04/23/20040423BIT00040/wkr0001.doc
http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/04/23/20040423BIT00040/wkr0002.pdf