ESPOO, FINLAND ( Press Relaese )
The Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) of Nokia Corporation was held on June 16, 2016 and adopted the following resolutions:
Dividend
The AGM resolved to distribute an ordinary dividend of EUR 0.16 per share for financial year 2015. In addition the AGM resolved to distribute a special dividend of EUR 0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is at New York Stock Exchange on June 16, 2016 and at Nasdaq Helsinki and Euronext Paris on June 17, 2016. The dividend record date is on June 20, 2016 and the aggregate dividend is expected be paid on or about July 5, 2016.
Members of the Board of Directors and Board’s Committees elected
The AGM resolved to elect nine members to the Board of Directors of Nokia (“Board”). The following members of the Board were re-elected for a term ending at the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2017: Vivek Badrinath, Bruce Brown, Louis R. Hughes, Jean C. Monty, Elizabeth Nelson, Olivier Piou, Risto Siilasmaa and Kari Stadigh. Carla Smits-Nusteling was elected as new member of the Board for the same term. The résumés of the elected Board members are available at http://company.nokia.com/en/
In an assembly meeting that took place after the AGM, the Board elected Risto Siilasmaa as Chair of the Board, and Olivier Piou as Vice Chair of the Board.
The Board also elected the members of the Board’s committees. Elizabeth Nelson was elected as Chair and Vivek Badrinath, Louis Hughes and Carla Smits-Nusteling as members of the Audit Committee. Bruce Brown was elected as Chair and Jean Monty, Olivier Piou and Kari Stadigh as members of the Personnel Committee. Risto Siilasmaa was elected as Chair and Bruce Brown, Olivier Piou and Kari Stadigh as members of the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee.
The AGM resolved the following annual fees to be paid to the members of the Board for the term ending at the Annual General Meeting in 2017: EUR 440 000 for the Chair of the Board, EUR 185 000 for the Vice Chair of the Board and EUR 160 000 for each Board member. In addition, the AGM resolved that the Chairs of the Audit Committee and the Personnel Committee will each be paid an additional annual fee of EUR 30 000, and other members of the Audit Committee an additional annual fee of EUR 15 000 each. The AGM also resolved to pay a meeting fee of EUR 5 000 per meeting requiring intercontinental travel and EUR 2 000 per meeting requiring continental travel for Board and Committee meetings to all the other Board members except the Chair of the Board. The meeting fee would be paid for a maximum of seven meetings per term.
In addition, the AGM also resolved, in line with company’s Corporate Governance Guidelines, that approximately 40% of the remuneration will be paid in Nokia shares purchased from the market, or alternatively by using treasury shares held by the Company. The Board members shall retain until the end of their directorship such number of shares that corresponds to the number of shares they have received as Board remuneration during their first three years of service in the Board (the net amount received after deducting those shares needed to offset any costs relating to the acquisition of the shares, including taxes).
Other resolutions of the Annual General Meeting
The AGM re-elected PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy as the auditor for Nokia for the fiscal year 2016. The AGM authorized the Board to resolve to repurchase a maximum of 575 million Nokia shares. The shares may be repurchased under the proposed authorization in order to optimize the capital structure of the Company, to finance or carry out acquisitions or other arrangements, to settle the Company’s equity-based incentive plans, or to be transferred for other purposes. The authorization is effective until December 16, 2017 and it terminated the corresponding repurchase authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on May 5, 2015.
The AGM also resolved to authorize the Board to issue a maximum of 1 150 million shares through issuance of shares or special rights entitling to shares in one or more issues. The authorization may be used to develop the Company’s capital structure, diversify the shareholder base, finance or carry out acquisitions or other arrangements, settle the Company’s equity-based incentive plans, or for other purposes resolved by the Board. Under the authorization, the Board may issue new shares or shares held by the Company. The authorization includes the right for the Board to resolve on all the terms and conditions of the issuance of shares and special rights entitling to shares, including issuance of shares or special rights in deviation from the shareholders’ pre-emptive rights within the limits set by law. The authorization is effective until December 16, 2017 and it terminated the corresponding authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on May 5, 2015. The authorization did not terminate the authorization by the Extraordinary General Meeting held on December 2, 2015 granted to the Board for issuance of shares in order to implement the combination of Nokia and Alcatel Lucent.