AGM Information • Feb 21, 2023
AGM Information
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are hereby invited to attend the Annual General Meeting at 15.00 CET on Tuesday, 28 March 2023, in Vinterträdgården, Grand Hôtel (Royal entrance), Stallgatan 6, Stockholm, Sweden
Shareholders wishing to exercise their voting rights and participate in the AGM must:
Shareholders who are represented by a proxy must issue a written, dated authorisation for the proxy. A proxy form is available at www.holmen.com, and is also available by post on request from shareholders. If the shareholder is a legal entity, proof of registration or other authorisation documents must be enclosed with the postal voting form. Copies of the documents should, to facilitate entrance, be sent in advance to the above-mentioned e-mail address or postal address.
The Annual General Meeting has previously decided to set up a Nomination Committee to make proposals concerning the election of Board members and the Board's fees and, when relevant, the election of auditors and the auditors' fees. As decided by the AGM, the Nomination Committee shall consist of the Chair of the Board and one representative of each of the three largest shareholders by voting rights on 31 August each year. Prior to the 2023 AGM, the Nomination Committee consisted of Mats Guldbrand, L E Lundbergföretagen; Carl Kempe, Kempestiftelserna; Vegard
Torsnes, Norges Bank; and Fredrik Lundberg, Chair of the Board. The Chair of the Nomination Committee is Mats Guldbrand.
The Nomination Committee has submitted the following proposals:
It is proposed that fees be paid to the auditors against an approved invoice.
Item 14 The Nomination Committee proposes that Fredrik Lundberg, Lars Josefsson, Alice Kempe, Louise Lindh, Ulf Lundahl, Fredrik Persson, Henrik Sjölund and Henriette Zeuchner be re-elected to the Board, and that Carina Åkerström be newly elected, to serve until the end of the next Annual General Meeting.
It is proposed that Fredrik Lundberg be elected Chair of the Board of Directors.
Item 15 The Nomination Committee proposes, in accordance with the Audit Committee's recommendation, the re-election of auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers AB as the Company's auditor until the end of the next Annual General Meeting. They have communicated that auditor Magnus Svensson Henryson will be main responsible auditor in case they are re-elected.
The Board proposes that a dividend of SEK 16.00 per share be paid. The Board proposes that the dividend date of record be Thursday, 30 March 2023. Provided the Annual General Meeting resolves in favour of the proposal, the dividend should be distributed by Euroclear Sweden on Tuesday, 4 April 2023.
The Board proposes that the following guidelines be adopted for determining the salary and other remuneration of the CEO and senior executives, i.e. the business area managers and heads of Group staffs reporting directly to the CEO. The guidelines replace the guidelines decided by the annual general meeting in 2020 and must be applied to compensation agreed upon after the guidelines are adopted by the annual general meeting in 2023. The guidelines do not cover compensation decided by the general meeting.
Holmen's strategy is to own and add value to the forest. Holmen's forest holdings form the basis of the business in which the raw material grows and is refined into everything from wood products for climate-smart building to renewable packaging, magazines and books, using energy that largely comes from its own hydro and wind power.
Successful implementation of the company's business strategy, long-term interests and sustainability requires the company to be able to attract the right employees. This guideline is intended to provide Holmen with the conditions to recruit and retain skilled employees and ensure that remuneration and other terms are consistent.
In the company, long-term share-related incentive programs are established from time to time. These are decided by the general meeting and are therefore not covered by these guidelines. For more information on these please refer to www.holmen.com
Remuneration to senior executives must be market-based and competitive in the market in which the executive operates and be related to the executive's responsibilities, authority, and performance. Remuneration may consist of fixed salary, variable remuneration, other benefits, and pension.
Variable remuneration shall aim to motivate and reward value-creating efforts that support the company's business strategy, sustainability, and long-term interests. The variable compensation must be calculated on outcomes in relation to measurable goals and not exceed 50% of the fixed annual salary. Fulfilment of criteria for the payment of variable remuneration must under normal circumstances be possible to measure annually.
Other benefits may include, healthcare insurance, housing benefit and car benefit. Such benefits shall, where they occur, constitute a maximum of 10% of the fixed salary.
The retirement age shall normally be 65 years. The pension benefit paid shall be premium-based and normally amount to 30% of the fixed salary.
The period of notice shall be six months, whether at the initiative of the company or the employee. In the event of notice being given by the company, severance pay can amount to no more than 18 months' salary.
In formulating its proposals for these remuneration guidelines, the Board has taken into account salaries and employment terms of the company's other employees, by including information about employees' total remuneration, the components of such remuneration and the increase in remuneration and the rate of increase over time, which have constituted part of the basis for decisions in evaluating the reasonableness of these guidelines.
The Board has established a remuneration committee. The committee's duties include preparing the Board's decision on proposed remuneration guidelines for senior management. Under Chapter 8, § 51 of the Swedish Companies Act, the Board must propose new guidelines at least every four years and put such proposal to the Annual General Meeting. The remuneration committee shall also monitor and evaluate the application of the guideline and applicable remuneration structures and levels in the company. Members of the remuneration committee must be independent in relation to the company and its senior management. The CEO and other members of senior management do not attend the Board's discussion of and decisions on remuneration-related matters if such matters relate to them.
The Board may decide to temporarily deviate from the guidelines in full or in part if, in an individual case, there are particular reasons for doing so and the deviation is necessary in the long-term interests of the company, including its sustainability, or to ensure the company's financial viability.
In the 2023 review of these guidelines, forms and limitations for variable compensation have been regulated, otherwise no significant changes have been implemented. Shareholders have not submitted comments on the previous version of the guidelines.
The Board proposes that the Annual General Meeting approve the authorisation of the Board to take decisions on the acquisition of the company's own shares as follows.
The Board further proposes that it be mandated by the Annual General Meeting to make decisions between now and the next Annual General Meeting to use the company's holding of its own shares as payment in connection with the acquisition of companies or lines of business or to finance such acquisitions, in which case the shares may also be sold via Nasdaq Stockholm. In other respects, the following conditions shall apply.
The transfer of shares on Nasdaq Stockholm shall take place within the prevailing applicable range of prices (spread). For share transfers outside Nasdaq Stockholm, payment will be possible in cash, with payment in kind or through offset, and the price shall correspond to an assessed market value at the time of such transfer.
The purpose of the mandates for repurchases and transfers of own shares, and the reason for deviation from shareholders' preferential rights, is to give the company the opportunity to use treasury shares to finance or pay for, without delay and in a flexible, cost-effective manner, acquisitions of companies or business operations. The purpose of the mandate to repurchase shares in the company is also to enable the Board to adjust the capital structure, thereby generating a higher value for shareholders.
Approval of the proposal requires shareholders representing a minimum of two-thirds of both votes cast and shares represented at the Annual General Meeting to support the resolution.
If a shareholder so requests, and the Board deems that it can meet the request without causing material damage to the Company, the Board and the CEO shall provide information about any circumstances that might affect the assessment of an item on the agenda and any circumstances that might affect the assessment of the Company's or its subsidiaries' financial position, or the Company's relationship with another Group company.
The annual accounts, the auditors' report, the Board's dividend proposal and the justifications for the proposal, as well as:
will be made available by the company as of Tuesday, 7 March 2023, and shall also be posted on the Company's website at www.holmen.com. Upon request, the documents will be sent to shareholders and will be available at the Annual General Meeting.
When the notice of the Annual General Meeting was issued, Holmen AB had a total of 162,512,324 shares in issue, of which 45,246,468 Class A shares and 117,265,856 Class B shares. Each Class A share carries ten votes and each Class B share one vote. Following previous buybacks, the Company holds 510,646 Class B shares, equal to approximately 0.3 per cent of all the shares, which are not represented at the Meeting. The total number of voting rights in the Company at said time was therefore 569,730,536 (569,219,890 excluding the Company's treasury shares).
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For information about how personal data is processed, please visit https://www.euroclear.com/dam/ESw/Legal/Privacy-notice-bolagsstammorengelska.pdf.
Stockholm, February 2023
The Board of Directors
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