Sulzer appoints Peter Löscher as new Chairman
At Annual General Meeting of Sulzer Ltd, shareholders approved all board proposals besides the revision of the Articles of Association. An unchanged dividend of CHF 3.20 per share will be paid to the shareholders. Peter Löscher was elected as new member and chairman and Matthias Bichsel as new member of the Sulzer Board, the company said in its press release.
The shareholders rejected a proposed revision of the Articles of Association. While 62.6 % of the shareholders approved the board proposal, the statutorily required 2/3 majority was not achieved. The revision to the Articles of Association proposed by the Board of Directors is associated with the Ordinance Against Excessive Compensation in Public Corporations (“Ordinance”) from November 20, 2013, which went into effect as of January 1, 2014. Klaus Sturany, member of the Board of Directors, who led the Annual General Meeting, emphasized, “We will closely analyze the result. We can only imagine that it concerns a few adjustments, which we will actively approach with the shareholders.”
The shareholders approved the Sulzer Annual Report 2013, including the Annual Accounts and Consolidated Financial Statements as well as the appropriation of net profits. For the fourth time, Sulzer’s Board of Directors held a non-binding advisory vote on the Compensation Report, which was approved by the shareholders.
An unchanged dividend of CHF 3.20 per share will be paid out; the ex-dividend date will be March 24, 2014. Discharge was granted to all Members of the Board and the Corporate Executive Management. KPMG was re-elected for a one-year term as auditors. Proxy Voting Services was elected for a one-year term as the independent proxy.
Vladimir Kuznetsov, who has been member of the Sulzer Board of Directors since 2007 and who acted as Chairman of the Board on an interim basis (since January 1, 2014 and until the Annual General Meeting) did not stand for re-election. The Sulzer Board of Directors thanked Vladimir Kuznetsov for his important contributions over the past years.
Thomas Glanzmann, Jill Lee, Marco Musetti, Luciano Respini, and Klaus Sturany were re-elected for another one-year term of office. Peter Löscher, 56, Austrian, was elected as a new member and Chairman of the Board for a one-year term of office. Löscher has broad international experience on an operational leadership level and as the Chairman of Advisory Boards. Matthias Bichsel, 58, Swiss, was also elected as new member of the Board for a one-year term of office. Bichsel has many years of international management experience in an international environment.