18.05.2022
Erste Group’s Annual General Meeting resolves dividend of EUR 1.60 per share
- Dividend payout of EUR 1.60 per share for the 2021 financial year approved
- Discharge granted to members of the Management and Supervisory Boards
- Four new members elected to Supervisory Board, four members re-elected
Erste Group Bank AG’s 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place on 18 May 2022. Shareholders approved the proposal from the Management Board and the Supervisory Board for a dividend payout of EUR 1.60 per share for the 2021 financial year, with 99,89% of the capital stock present voting in favor. The AGM granted discharge for the reports and activities of the Management Board members with a vote of 99,81% of the capital stock present. Similarly, the reports and activities of the Supervisory Board members were approved by a vote of 89,81%.
Supervisory Board elections
Shareholders approved the election of four new members to the Supervisory Board: Christine Catasta (former CEO of ÖBAG, which manages the Republic of Austria’s investments in 11 leading companies), Hikmet Ersek (former CEO of Western Union), Alois Flatz (a start-up and growth investor with a focus on sustainable investments) and Mariana Kühnel (Deputy Secretary General of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber).
Shareholders also approved the re-election of four existing Supervisory Board members: Henrietta Egerth-Stadlhuber, Marion Khüny, Friedrich Rödler und Michèle Florence Sutter-Rüdisser. Following his reappointment today, Friedrich Rödler will serve one more term as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board until the AGM in 2025. Jan Homan’s term as a Supervisory Board member and as First Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board expired with the end of this year’s AGM, while Matthias Bulach and Jordi Gual had resigned from the Supervisory Board as of 31 December 2021. The newly constituted Supervisory Board (when taking into consideration only shareholder representatives) thus now consists of a total of 13 members. The Works Council has delegated seven members to the Supervisory Board as employee representatives.
Additional resolutions and updates
All other resolutions that had been put forward at the AGM were similarly approved by large majorities of the shareholder votes. Moreover, the AGM’s participants were informed about the motivations behind CEO Bernd Spalt’s decision not to seek a renewal of his contract. The Supervisory Board will initiate the process for succession via the newly constituted Nomination Committee. Bernd Spalt will continue to manage the business of Erste Group until further notice.
Full details for the AGM, including the results for the shareholder votes on individual proposals and a video stream of the meeting, will be available on the Erste Group website: https://www.erstegroup.com/en/investors/events/agm/agm2022