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Stay on Corporate siteMatters relating to the Annual General Meeting
KONE Corporation’s Annual General Meeting was held in Helsinki on March 1, 2010. The meeting approved the financial statements and discharged the responsible parties from liability for the financial period January 1–December 31, 2009.
The General Meeting approved dividends of EUR 1.295 for each of the 38,104,356 class A shares and EUR 1.30 for the 215,633,008 outstanding class B shares. The date of record for dividend distribution is March 4, 2010, and dividends will be payable on March 11, 2010. Further the General Meeting decided to authorize the Board of Directors to grant during year 2010 no more than EUR 3,500,000 to support activities of universities and colleges, and that 100,000 treasury class B shares of KONE Corporation is distributed without compensation to the KONE Corporation Centennial Foundation to be established, and that Board is authorized to grant later no more than EUR 100,000 to the KONE Corporation Centennial Foundation.
The number of Members of the Board of Directors was confirmed as eight and it was decided to elect one deputy Member. Re-elected as Members of the Board were Matti Alahuhta, Anne Brunila, Reino Hanhinen, Antti Herlin, Sirkka Hämäläinen-Lindfors, Juhani Kaskeala, Shunichi Kimura and Sirpa Pietikäinen and as deputy Member Jussi Herlin.
The General Meeting confirmed an annual compensation of EUR 54,000 for the Chairman of the Board, EUR 42,000 for the Vice Chairman, EUR 30,000 for Board Members and EUR 15,000 for the deputy Member. In addition, a compensation of EUR 500 was approved for attendance at Board and Committee meetings.
Authorized public accountants Heikki Lassila and PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy were nominated as auditors.
Authorization to repurchase own shares and to decide on the issuance of shares as well as the issuance of options and other special rights entitling to shares
The General Meeting approved the authorization for the Board of Directors to repurchase KONE’s own shares. Altogether no more than 25,570,000 shares may be repurchased, of which no more than 3,810,000 may be class A shares and 21,760,000 class B shares. The authorization shall remain in effect for a period of one year from the date of decision of the General Meeting.
Further, the General Meeting authorized the Board of Directors to decide on the issuance of shares as well as the issuance of options and other special rights entitling to shares referred to in chapter 10 section 1 of the Finnish Companies Act. The amount of shares to be issued based on this authorization shall not exceed 3,810,000 class A shares and 21,760,000 class B shares. The Board of Directors decides on all the conditions of the issuance of shares and of special rights entitling to shares. The authorization concerns both the issuance of new shares as well as the transfer of treasury shares, and the issuance of shares and of special rights entitling to shares may be carried out in deviation from the shareholders’ pre-emptive rights (directed issue). The authorization shall remain in effect for a period of five years following the date of decision of the General Meeting.
Establishment of the KONE Corporation Centennial Foundation
The General Meeting decided to establish the KONE Corporation Centennial Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to advance and support developmental, educational and cultural activities for children and youth around the world.
Decisions by the Board of Directors
At its meeting held after the General Meeting, the Board of Directors elected from among its members Antti Herlin as its Chair and Sirkka Hämäläinen-Lindfors as Vice Chair.
Antti Herlin was elected as Chairman of the Audit Committee. Sirkka Hämäläinen-Lindfors and Anne Brunila were elected as independent Members of the Audit Committee.
Antti Herlin was elected as Chairman of the Nomination and Compensation Committee. Reino Hanhinen and Juhani Kaskeala were elected as independent Members of the Nomination and Compensation Committee.
About KONE
KONE is one of the global leaders in the elevator and escalator industry. The company has been committed to understanding the needs of its customers for the past century, providing industry-leading elevators, escalators and automatic building doors as well as innovative solutions for modernization and maintenance. The company's objective is to offer the best people flow experience by developing and delivering solutions that enable people to move smoothly, safely, comfortably and without waiting in buildings in an increasingly urbanizing environment. In 2009, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 4.7 billion and approximately 34,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd in Finland. Founded in 1910, KONE celebrates its centennial anniversary in 2010.
For further information, please contact:
Jukka Ala-Mello, Secretary to the Board, tel. +358 (0)204 75 4226
Sender:
KONE Corporation
Jukka Ala-Mello
Secretary to the Board
Anne Korkiakoski
Executive Vice President
Marketing & Communications