Hella AGM approves dividend, elects Shareholder Committee and Supervisory Board

At the annual general meeting of Hella GmbH & Co. KGaA at the company’s headquarters in Lippstadt, Germany, shareholders approved all proposals submitted. Around 600 shareholders and guests attended the fifth annual general meeting since flotation on the stock exchange and at the time of the vote, approximately 86 percent of the voting share capital was represented.

As proposed by company management, the annual general meeting approved a special dividend of €2.30 per share for the past fiscal year, in addition to a regular dividend of €1.05 per share (previous year: €1.05 per share). The payment of the special dividend is based on the successful sale of the wholesale business and the strong development of the balance sheet in recent years. In total, the dividend for the 2018/2019 fiscal year therefore amounts to €3.35 per share.

“We performed well in the past fiscal year,” says Hella CEO Dr. Rolf Breidenbach. Hella completed the fiscal year 2018/2019 (1 June 2018 to 31 May 2019) with currency and portfolio-adjusted sales growth of 5 per cent and a 5.9 per cent increase in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to €585 million. “This shows that we can achieve good results even in a challenging market environment,” added Dr. Breidenbach. “We have met our targets for the year and kept our promises. We intend to continue our established dividend policy and allow our shareholders to participate in the success of the company”.

The annual general meeting also approved the proposals for the regular election of the Shareholder Committee and the Supervisory Board. The proposed candidates were elected to the respective committees by a large majority. Carl-Peter Forster (65), previously Chief Production Officer at BMW, Chairman of the Board of Management at Opel, General Motors Europe and Tata Motors, was elected Chairman of the Shareholder Committee at the constituent committee meetings following the annual general meeting. Klaus Kühn (67), former Chief Financial Officer of Bayer AG and already a member of the Hella Shareholder Committee and Supervisory Board, has assumed the chairmanship of the Supervisory Board.

In his speech to the shareholders, Dr. Breidenbach thanked the previous committee members: “The fact that Hella is so well positioned today is not least due to our professional governance structure consisting of the Shareholder Committee and the Supervisory Board.” He expressed special thanks to the long-standing committee chairmen Manfred Wennemer and Prof. Dr. Michael Hoffmann-Becking, who were no longer available for a new election and therefore, resigned from their respective committees as of the annual general meeting.