UPPSALA, Sweden, April 28, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- At Biotage's Annual General Meeting held today the following decisions were made:
The following Board members were re-elected: Jeff Bork, Bengt Falk, Staffan Lindstrand, Ove Mattsson, Bjorn Odlander, Bengt Samuelsson and Mathias Uhlen. Borje Ekholm and Anders Rydin were elected as new Board members. Hans Engblom was re-elected as deputy member. Mikael Horal had earlier declined re-election.
It was also decided that the total Board of Directors' fee would be SEK 1.140.000 to be distributed among the Board members elected by the General Meeting who are not employed by Biotage.
The AGM decided that no dividend would be paid for the financial year 2003.
The Board of Directors and the President were discharged of liability.
It was decided that Deloitte & Touche AB would be re-elected auditor until the end of the AGM of 2008. Lars-Gunnar Nilsson will be appointed auditor-in-charge by Deloitte & Touche AB. The AGM decided that fee to the auditor shall be paid in accordance with the approved auditor's invoice.
Furthermore, the AGM decided, in accordance with the Board's proposal, on an amendment of the resolution of a global stock option program by the Annual General Meeting on April 22, 2002 in such way that the company shall be entitled to, during the period until next Annual General Meeting 2005, additionally issue such maximum number of employee stock options which, in accordance with the terms of the global stock option program, may result in a transfer of a maximum of 914,800 shares in the company to employees. This resolution does however not result in that the company at any occasion shall be entitled to have more than a total of 914,800 employee stock options outstanding. The amendment does not lead to any additional dilution for the shareholders of the company in respect to the resolution of the global stock option program taken by the AGM in 2002.
The AGM has further decided, in accordance with the Board's proposal and what was done 2002 and 2003, on an authorization of the Board of Directors to issue debentures together with a maximum of 195,750 detachable warrants entitling their holders a right to subscribe for a maximum of 195,750 newly issued shares in the company. The authorization is partly to secure the company's obligation to deliver shares in accordance with the global stock option program and partly to cover administrative costs and costs for social fees or equivalent taxes that may arise as a result of the program. The authorization applies until the annual general meeting 2005. The right to subscribe for the debentures with detachable warrants shall, with deviation from the shareholders' preferential rights, be conferred on wholly owned companies of the group. By this authorization, all of the company's obligations in relation to the global stock option program will be able to be secured. This does however not result in any additional dilution in relation to the resolution of the global stock option program by the annual general meeting on 22 April 2002.
At the statutory Board meeting following the AGM, Ove Mattsson was elected Chairman of the Board.
Information about new members of the Board: Borje Ekholm is deputy Managing Director of Investor AB and responsible for New Investments and Managing Director for Investor Growth Capital Inc. Boards on which Borje Ekholm presently serves: WM-data AB (publ), B2 Bredband AB, b-business partners bv, AB Chalmerinvest, Paratek Microwave Inc. and Tessera Technologies Inc. Borje Ekholm has an M.S. in electrical engineering from Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan, Sweden and an M.B.A. from Insead, Fontainebleau, France.
Anders Rydin is acting Managing Director of Enskilda Securities AB. He has previously been e.g. deputy Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB. Boards on which Anders Rydin serves: HHS Executive Education AB (Chairman), Cardo AB, NCC AB, AP-Fastigheter AB, SEB Trygg Liv Fondforsakring AB, SEB Kort AB and Enskilda Securities AB. Anders Rydin has a M.B.A from the Handelshogskolan, Stockholm, Sweden.
About Biotage
Biotage is a global company active in life science research with strong technologies, a broad range of operations and a long-term view of the market. The company offers solutions, knowledge and experience in the areas of genetic analysis and medicinal chemistry. Customers include the world's top 30 pharmaceutical companies, 20 largest biotech companies and leading academic institutes. The company is headquartered in Uppsala and has offices in the US, Japan and several European countries. Biotage has approx. 250 employees and had pro forma sales of 362 MSEK in 2003. Biotage is listed on the Stockholm stock exchange. Website: www.biotage.com
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. These may be identified by the use of forward- looking words or phrases such as "believe," "expect," "intend," and "should," among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Biotage's current expectations. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for such forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, Biotage notes that a variety of factors could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations), variability of operating results, the commercial development of the microwave synthesis and flash purification in the drug discovery market, DNA sequencing and genomics market, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or unexpected changes in technologies, fluctuations in demand for Biotage's products (including seasonal fluctuations), difficulties in successfully adapting the Company's products to integrated solutions and producing such products, and the Company's ability to identify and develop new products and to differentiate its products from competitors.
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