Eglisau, Switzerland, May 2--At the occasion of the 77th ordinary General Assembly held in Zurich on April 29, 2005, the shareholders of Forbo approved with a clear majority the proposals put forward by the Board of Directors.
Due to the group loss in the past business year, a dividend will not be distributed. The General Assembly did not grant the discharge to the former Board of Directors with the exception of Michael Pieper, This E. Schneider and Karl Janjöri. Some 142 shareholders attended the General Assembly.
The ordinary General Assembly was chaired by the new Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Albert Gnägi. Answering the shareholders’ questions, the Board of Directors informed on the cost of the auctioning process. It is more than CHF 7 million and contains costs for bank services, lawyers, and other services, in addition to CHF 0.8 million claimed by CVC Capital Partners pursuant to the transaction agreement. Besides, the auctioning process burdened the Management Team with about 400 man days. Due to today’s difficult situation, the Board of Directors decided to use its energy for mastering the challenges of the future and not for legally investigating the events of the recent past. The Board is convinced that this serves the shareholders better.
Successful restructuring and returning to an acceptable level of profitability will demand hard measures in the coming months and years. It was announced at the General Assembly that both the Board of Directors and the Executive Board are ready to do the first step and start with themselves. The Board of Directors in office since April 29, 2005 has decided to clearly reduce its emoluments. The Executive Board, in turn, has expressed a voluntary waiver of the transaction bonuses worth CHF 1.8 million that were awarded to its members.
