Nobia's Annual General Meeting 2003

Dividend
The Annual General Meeting has approved a dividend for the 2002 financial year of SEK 2.25 per share. The record date for entitlement to the dividend is 28 April 2003 and it is expected to be paid out through the agency of VPC (Swedish Securities Register Centre) on 2 May 2003.

 

Election of Board members
Bodil Eriksson, Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications at Axfood AB, was elected as a new member of Nobia's Board. Board members Karsten Bomann Jonsen, Hans Larsson, Wilhelm Laurén, Harald Mix, Thomas Nilsson, Gerhard de Geer and Fredrik Cappelen were re-elected. At a statutory Board meeting, Hans Larsson was re-elected as Chairman of the Board.

 

Warrant scheme
The Annual General Meeting approved the warrant scheme proposed by the Board of Directors aimed at around 150 senior executives and key individuals in the Nobia Group who will be given the opportunity to purchase, on market terms, a total maximum of 1,175,000 warrants. The CEO is guaranteed an allocation of 40,000 warrants, other senior executives and key individuals may acquire between 3,000 and 27,000.

In order to facilitate participation in the scheme, Nobia intends to subsidise the warrant premium by paying a cash subsidy in two year's time to the warrant holders still employed by the Company. The subsidy will be equivalent to 40 per cent of the premium paid.

 

The warrant premium and the subscription price will be established during the period 5 - 9 May 2003. The preliminary subscription price, based on a share price of SEK 56 and on other market conditions that existed on 22 April, is SEK 70 and the preliminary warrant premium is around SEK 9.50. Subscription requests for the 1,175,000 new shares can be submitted from 22 May 2005 until 22 May 2008.

 

Nominating Committee
The Annual General Meeting decided that a Nominating Committee will be appointed and that this will be done at a meeting convened by the Chairman of the Board during the third quarter with the Company's five largest shareholders. These shareholders will appoint the members of the Nominating Committee. The composition of the Committee will be announced in the Company's Q3 interim report. The Nominating Committee's assignment is to submit proposals for new Board members and auditors, and propose fees for the Board members and auditors to the Annual General Meeting.

President and CEO Fredrik Cappelen's address to the Annual General Meeting is available at Nobia's website: www.nobia.se.

 

Nobia AB

24 April 2003

 

Further information
Hans Larsson, Chairman of the Board, tel.: +46 (0)8 679 92 04, mobile: +46 (0)70 592 92 55

 

Nobia is Europe's leading kitchen interiors company. The Group operates in a number of European markets under strong brand names. Nobia's own specialist kitchen stores and franchise stores are responsible for most of the Group's sales. Nobia is leading the consolidation of the European kitchen market and creating profitable growth by making efficiency improvements and acquisitions, taking an industrial approach. The Group has sales of approx. SEK 9.6 billion annually and around 5,900 employees. Nobia is listed on the Attract40 section of Stockholmsbörsen's O-list.