Merck KGaA Annual General Meeting: Shareholders Approve Dividend of ? 1.00 per Share
Frankfurt am Main/Darmstadt, April 9, 2010 – Merck KGaA shareholders approved a dividend of € 1.00 per share for 2009 at the company’s Annual General Meeting held today at the Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt. This corresponds to a total payout of about € 217 million (based on the theoretical number of shares). In addition, the Annual General Meeting approved the actions of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board for fiscal 2009 and approved all resolutions.
In his speech, the Chairman of the Executive Board, Dr.
Karl-Ludwig Kley, reviewed 2009 and gave shareholders an outlook
for the future. In addition, Kley commented on the recently
announced acquisition of Millipore, looked at the German
health-care policies and described Merck’s special business
model: “Our business model has once again proven its worth.
First of all, we are adhering to our strategic direction: We are a
pharmaceutical and chemical company. We operate in a number of
businesses with different risk profiles. Balancing risk is
essential for us. Secondly, in our Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals
businesses, we will continue to focus on specialty businesses in
the future. Competing on price alone and operating in commodity
markets is not what we do. And thirdly, we will continue to invest
significantly in research and development. That’s because new
products and solutions are the only way we can help our customers
and patients to live a better, and in some cases also a longer,
life. Innovation remains our elixir of life.”
About 1,200 shareholders took part in the Annual General Meeting. A
total of 37,624,121 shares were represented in the voting on the
resolutions. This corresponds to 58.2% of the share capital of
approximately 64.6 million total shares.
The full version of Dr. Kley’s speech is available online at: www.merck.de/agm
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Merck is a global pharmaceutical and chemical company with total
revenues of € 7.7 billion in 2009, a history that began in
1668, and a future shaped by approximately 33,000 employees in 61
countries. Its success is characterized by innovations from
entrepreneurial employees. Merck's operating activities come under
the umbrella of Merck KGaA, in which the Merck family holds an
approximately 70% interest and free shareholders own the remaining
approximately 30%. In 1917 the U.S. subsidiary Merck & Co. was
expropriated and has been an independent company ever since.
Posted: April 2010
