Reims, Thursday April 2, 2020 - 5:45pm
The LANSON-BCC Group’s Board of Directors met again on April 1, 2020 to reconsider its recommendation for a dividend payment, as well as the conditions for holding its General Meeting.
Dividend proposal withdrawn
With regard to the dividend, although its previous proposal for a dividend of €0.25 per share represented only 18% of 2019 net income, the Board of Directors, following the French Government’s recommendations, has decided to submit a proposal at the General Meeting to cancel the dividend. This is an exceptional decision, and one that has never been taken before in the history of the Group, which pays out 20% to 23% of its income on average. It highlights the long-term commitment of its family shareholders and their support for the management teams and their staff.
The Board of Directors’ decision has resulted in an amendment to the proposed third resolution concerning the “appropriation of income for 2019 and setting of the dividend”, withdrawing the proposal to pay a dividend of €0.25 per share, while proposing to allocate the 2019 income in full to reserves.
General Meeting to be held as a closed session
With regard to the holding of the General Meeting, considering the restrictions on people’s movement and the lockdown measures in force, the Board of Directors has decided that the General Meeting will still be held as planned on April 30, but will be a closed session, with shareholders not attending in person, in accordance with Article 4 of Decree 2020-321 of March 25, 2020.
The Group would encourage its shareholders who had intended to travel to the General Meeting to vote by email or by post or to appoint the General Meeting chairman to represent them. It therefore invites them to use the dedicated forms, available from April 9 on the company’s website www.lanson-bcc.comin the “General Meetings” section, and to communicate electronically when possible by sending emails to actionnaires@lansonbcc.com.
Each shareholder will be able to:
Insofar as possible, LANSON-BCC will receive and address written questions from shareholders relating to this General Meeting until April 27, 2020. The answers to these questions will be presented in the minutes for the General Meeting, which will be published subsequently on its website.
Due to the specific conditions involved with holding the General Meeting as a closed session, shareholders will not be able to propose new resolutions during the General Meeting.
Conference call: shareholders will be able to follow the General Meeting with a conference call. If they would like to do so, they are invited to register on the company’s website www.lanson-bcc.comin the “General Meetings” section. If they have any difficulties, they can contact the company by email at actionnaires@lansonbcc.com. The connection details will be sent out to them by email in due course.
The recording of the General Meeting will be available for shareholders for 15 days on the company’s website: www.lanson-bcc.com.
Availability of preparatory documents
The agenda, the proposed resolutions and the conditions for taking part in and voting at the General Meeting presented in the meeting notice published in the French official gazette (BALO) on March 25, 2020 will be amended accordingly in the meeting notice published in the BALO on April 10, 2020 and in the newspaper “Matôt Braine” on April 13, 2020, and available on the company’s website.
All the preparatory documents for the General Meeting will be available on the company’s website www.lanson-bcc.comon April 9, 2020.
