Roche Annual General Meeting: dividend raised by 20%

02.03.2010 | from F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG

02.03.2010, Roche's Annual General Meeting, which was held today in Basel, has approved all the Board of Directors' proposals. The 698 shareholders in attendance, representing 143,055,648, or 89.4% of a total of 160,000,000 bearer shares, approved the 2009 Annual Report and financial statements. They also authorised a +20% increase in the dividend to 6.00 Swiss francs per share and non-voting equity. With this increase, the payout ratio rises to 53%, which means that about half of net income will be paid out to shareholders.

Shareholders once again took part in a consultative vote on Roche’s Remuneration Report. The report was approved with 99% of the votes represented.

DeAnne Julius and Beatrice Weder di Mauro were re-elected to the Board for another three- year term. William M. Burns and Arthur D. Levinson were elected as new members of the Board. Peter Brabeck and Horst Teltschik did not stand for re-election to the Board.

Franz B. Humer, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said: “We are grateful to Peter Brabeck and Horst Teltschik for their exceedingly valuable contributions as Board members over the years. With the successful completion of the Genentech transaction and a consistent focus on our two core businesses – Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics – Roche is extremely well placed for the future.”

Severin Schwan said: “I’m delighted that we’ve been able to complete the integration of Genentech rapidly and successfully. We further strengthened our market position in 2009 and are off to a good start this year. Roche has one of the strongest product pipelines in the industry, and we will continue to rely on scientific and research excellence in the future.”

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