ZURICH, Switzerland – The ordinary Annual General Meeting 2019 of Barry Callebaut AG, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, was held in Zurich-Oerlikon under the chairmanship of Patrick De Maeseneire, Chairman of the Board, and Jakob Baer, Vice-Chairman of the Board. 1,190 shareholders attended the meeting, representing 4,291,910 shares and equaling 78.19% of the issued share capital.
All motions were adopted as proposed by the Board of Directors, including the reelection of Patrick De Maeseneire as Chairman.
Jakob Baer, Vice-Chairman, Board member since 2010 and Chairman of the Audit, Finance, Risk, Quality & Compliance Committee (AFRQCC), and Juergen Steinemann, Board member since 2014 and member of the Nomination & Compensation Committee (NCC), stepped down from their respective functions.
The Board of Directors expressed its sincere gratitude to Jakob Baer for his competent guidance, especially on topics related to accounting, compliance and governance during a phase of steep growth and global expansion for Barry Callebaut, and to Juergen Steinemann for his outstanding contribution to the further development of the company, thanks to his deep industry knowledge combined with a fine sense for people matters.
All other Board members, namely Patrick De Maeseneire, Fernando Aguirre, Suja Chandrasekaran, Angela Wei Dong, Nicolas Jacobs, Elio Leoni Sceti, Timothy Minges and Markus Neuhaus were reelected for another term of office of one year.
The shareholders also approved the proposed payout of a dividend of CHF 26.00 (US$26.5) per share, an increase of +8.3% versus prior year.
The dividend will be paid to shareholders on or around January 8, 2020.
KPMG AG, Zurich, was reelected as auditors of the company for fiscal year 2019/20.
Barry Callebaut’s fiscal year 2018/19 closed on August 31, 2019.
