ZURICH, Switzerland – The ordinary Annual General Meeting 2021 of Barry Callebaut AG, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, was held on December 8, 2021, under the chairmanship of Markus R. Neuhaus, Vice-Chairman of the Board. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Annual General Meeting could not take place in the usual format.
To protect the health of its shareholders and employees, Barry Callebaut decided that voting rights could only be exercised by submitting the voting instructions in writing or electronically to the independent proxy. 5,177 shareholders exercised their votes, representing 4,050,747 shares and equaling 73.8% 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 and the election of Antoine de Saint-Affrique as new Board member.
All Board members, namely Patrick De Maeseneire, Markus R. Neuhaus, Fernando Aguirre, Angela Wei Dong, Nicolas Jacobs, Elio Leoni Sceti, Tim Minges and Yen Yen Tan were reelected for another term of office of one year.
The shareholders also approved the proposed payout of a dividend of CHF 28.00 per share. This represents an increase of +27.3% versus prior year and corresponds to a payout ratio of 40% of the net profit. The dividend will be paid to shareholders on or around January 6, 2022.
KPMG AG, Zurich, was reelected as auditors of the company for fiscal year 2021/22.
Barry Callebaut’s fiscal year 2020/21 closed on August 31, 2021.
