Satisfied shareholders at Krones AG’s annual shareholders’ meeting
Krones AG held its 35th annual shareholders’ meeting in Neutraubling, Germany, today. Representation of the company’s share capital at the meeting came to 83.07 %. All of the resolutions proposed were adopted by a large majority.
Krones continues profitable growth trend
Executive Board Chairman Volker Kronseder and Chief Financial Officer Christoph Klenk reported to the shareholders in attendance on a very successful year 2014 overall. Krones further improved all key financial performance indicators last year and set new records for revenue and earnings. The world’s leading manufacturer of filling and packaging technology has also got the new financial year off to a good start. The Executive Board affirmed its forecast for 2015 at the annual shareholders’ meeting. The company expects revenue to climb by 4%. The EBT margin target (EBT to sales revenue) is 6.8% (previous year: 6.5%).
Shareholders receive dividend of €1.25 per share
The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of Krones proposed to the annual shareholders’ meeting a dividend of €1.25 per share for the 2014 financial year, to distribute an appropriate portion of profits to shareholders. The annual shareholders’ meeting approved the proposal by a large majority. The payout corresponds to 29% of consolidated net income for 2014. Thus, the dividend payout ratio lies at the upper end of the target corridor of 25% to 30% under Krones’ long-term dividend policy. Compared with the previous year’s regular dividend of €1.00 per share, this year’s dividend is up 25%. In the previous year, shareholders had received a one-time special dividend of €1.00 per share on top of the regular dividend, with which Krones shared the proceeds of its sale of treasury shares with stockholders.
Supervisory Board thanks Volker Kronseder for many, successful years
Volker Kronseder, a member of the company’s Executive Board since 1989 and Chairman of the Executive Board since 1996, will retire from the Executive Board at the end of this year as previously announced. Thus, today’s annual shareholders’ meeting was his last as Chief Executive of Krones. Chairman of the Supervisory Board Ernst Baumann expressed his heartfelt appreciation of the retiring Executive Board Chairman and thanked Volker Kronseder on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board for his many, extremely successful years at the company’s helm. The shareholders in attendance affirmed these words of gratitude with thunderous applause.
Volker Kronseder wishes to continue to contribute to the company’s successful development and assume responsibility for Krones AG. For this reason, he will stand for election to the Supervisory Board of Krones AG in the ordinary annual shareholders’ meeting in 2016. The company’s current Chief Financial Officer, Christoph Klenk, will succeed Volker Kronseder as Chairman of the Executive Board effective 1 January 2016. An external candidate who has demonstrated his suitability through his work for another international group of companies will fill the position of Chief Financial Officer. Krones first announced these Executive Board changes in March 2015.
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