Novozymes A/S yesterday held its Annual Meeting of Shareholders, at which the report on the Company’s operations in the last financial year was adopted.
The Meeting of Shareholders further approved the following items:
- The audited annual report, including discharge of the Executive Management and the Board of Directors
- Appropriation of profit in accordance with the adopted financial statements (annual report), with payment of a dividend of DKK 5.00 per A/B share of DKK 10
- General guidelines for the incentive program for the Executive Management of Novozymes. The adopted guidelines are available on the Company’s website www.novozymes.com
- Reelection of the seven members of the Board of Directors elected by the Annual Meeting of Shareholders
- Reelection of PricewaterhouseCoopers Statsautoriseret Revisionsaktieselskab
- Authorization for the Board of Directors, in the period up to the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders, to allow the Company to acquire treasury shares equivalent to 10% of the stock capital at a price not exceeding the market price on the date of acquisition subject to a difference of up to 10%, cf. Section 48 of the Danish Public Companies Act
Henrik Gürtler, Chairman of the Board of Directors, made the following comments in his oral report:
“2007 was the year when nearly everything went Novozymes’ way. Sales grew to a level not seen for many years, and Novozymes delivered the promised financial results, despite major challenges such as rising raw material and energy prices and a falling dollar exchange rate. These are results of which we are very proud, and which give us confidence in the future and in that our focus on acceleration of growth is timely and appropriate.
Novozymes also made progress in 2007 in its work within sustainable development. We achieved virtually all the social and environmental targets we had set for 2007.
The future looks very exciting with a view to higher growth, new competitors and new partnership opportunities which, however could also prove to be less predictable than the Board of Directors, the Executive Management and the shareholders are used to. The Board of Directors believes that this is the right course for Novozymes, and that the time is right to realize a greater proportion of the opportunities which technology offers.”
Composition of the Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is composed as follows:
Henrik Gürtler, CEO of Novo A/S (Chairman)
Kurt Anker Nielsen, Senior Vice President (Vice Chairman)
Paul Petter Aas, Senior Vice President of Yara International ASA (Norway)
Arne Juul Hansen, Operator (employee representative)
Jerker Hartwall, CEO of AarhusKarlshamn AB (Sweden)
Søren Henrik Jepsen, Manager (employee representative)
Ulla Morin, Laboratory Technician (employee representative)
Walther Thygesen, CEO of Thrane & Thrane A/S
Mathias Uhlén, Professor, the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden)
Hans Werdelin, former CEO of Sophus Berendsen A/S