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Stay on Corporate site1. Matters Relating to the Annual General Meeting
KONE Corporation’s Annual General Meeting was held in Helsinki on February 21, 2003. The meeting approved the 2002 financial statements and discharged the responsible parties from liability for the financial year.
The Annual General Meeting approved dividends of EUR 1.48 for each of the 9,526,089 class A shares and EUR 1.50 for the 53,104,052 outstanding class B shares. The date of record for dividend distribution is February 26, 2003, and dividends will be payable on March 5, 2003. The rest of the distributable equity, EUR 760.8 million, will be retained and carried forward.
The number of members of the Board of Directors was confirmed at seven. Pekka Herlin, D.Sc. (Econ.) H.C., was re-elected as chairman of the Board. Re-elected as full members of the Board were KONE CEO Antti Herlin; Gerhard Wendt, Ph.D.; Iiro Viinanen, M.Sc (Tech.); Jean-Pierre Chauvarie, M.Sc (Tech.); and President and Chief Executive Officer of Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corporation, Hiroshi Nishioka. The President of Nokia Mobile Phones, Matti Alahuhta, was elected as a new member of the Board.
Authorized public accountants Mr. Jukka Ala-Mello and PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy were nominated as auditors with authorized public accountants Ms. Niina Raninen and Ms. Barbro Löfqvist as deputies.
2. Authorization to Acquire Own Shares
The Board of Directors’ proposal that the Annual General Meeting authorize the Board of Directors to repurchase KONE’s own shares with assets distributable as profit was approved. The number of shares to be repurchased shall not exceed 3,173,180 shares (maximums: 476,304 class A shares and 2,696,876 class B shares), respecting the provisions of the Companies Act regarding the maximum number of own shares held by the company.
In addition, the Board of Directors’ proposal that the Annual General Meeting authorize the Board of Directors to decide on the distribution of any shares repurchased by the company was approved. The company’s repurchased shares shall be used as compensation in possible acquisitions and other arrangements as well as to develop the company’s capital structure. The Board of Directors is authorized to decide to whom and in which order the repurchased shares will be distributed. The Board of Directors has the right to distribute the repurchased shares in a way that deviates from the existing pre-emptive right of shareholders to purchase the company’s own shares. The shares shall be distributed at no less than the market price quoted for class B shares on the Helsinki Exchanges at the moment of their transfer.
These authorizations shall remain in effect for a period of one year from the date of decision of the Annual General Meeting. Precise information about the authorization to acquire and distribute own shares can be found in the invitation to the Annual General Meeting, which has been published on the KONE website at www.kone.com.
Sender:
KONE Corporation
Tapio Hakakari
Secretary to the Board of Directors
Outi-Maria Liedes
Senior Vice President,
Corporate Communications & IR
For further information, please contact:
Tapio Hakakari, Secretary to the Board, tel. +358 (0)204 75 4226
KONE is a global service and engineering company that specializes in moving people and goods. Annual net sales total EUR 5,500 million, and we employ nearly 36,000 people. KONE's B shares are listed on the Helsinki Exchanges.
www.kone.com