Participants in Swedish Match’s annual general meeting on April 27 resolved to pay a dividend of SEK1.86 ($0.19) per share distributed to the shareholders in two equal payments of SEK0.93 per share, the company announced in a press note.
The record date for the right to receive a cash dividend for the first payment is April 29, 2022, and payment through Euroclear Sweden is expected to be made on May 4, 2022. The record date for the second payment is Nov. 14, 2022, and payment through Euroclear Sweden is expected to be made on Nov. 17, 2022.
The board of directors and the CEO were granted discharge for the financial year 2021.
Charles A. Blixt, Jacqueline Hoogerbrugge, Conny Karlsson, Alexander Lacik, Pauline Lindwall and Joakim Westh were reelected as members of Swedish Match’s board of directors. Sanna Suvanto-Harsaae was elected as a new member of the board of directors. Conny Karlsson was reelected as chairman of the board.
The annual general meeting elected Deloitte as auditor until the end of the annual general meeting 2024.
The board of directors’ remuneration report for 2021 was adopted. Furthermore, the annual general meeting approved the board of directors’ proposal that it be authorized to resolve on acquisition of the company’s own shares, on one or several occasions prior to the next annual general meeting, provided the company’s holding does not at any time exceed 10 percent of all shares in the company. The shares shall be acquired on Nasdaq Stockholm at a price within the price interval registered at any given time, i.e., the interval between the highest bid price and the lowest selling price. Swedish Match owns 59,285,810 treasury shares as per April 27, 2022.
In addition, the company’s share capital was reduced by SEK13,559,080.98 by means of withdrawal of 55,000,000 previously repurchased shares held in treasury, with a simultaneous bonus issue, without issuing any new shares, of a corresponding amount to restore the share capital. The shareholders further approved the proposal that the reduction will be allocated to a fund for use pursuant to a resolution adopted by the annual general meeting.
The annual general meeting approved all other proposals made by the board of directors and the nominating committee. The proposals are outlined in the published notice of the annual general meeting.