Valora can look back on a good financial year during which the communicated medium-term objectives were met ahead of schedule. EBIT increased by +9.3% to CHF 79.0 million during the 2017 financial year. The EBIT margin improved by +0.4 percentage points to 3.8%. The gross profit margin improved by +0.5 percentage points to 42.0%. Together with the good operating result, Valora also undertook important investments for the future and continued implementing its long-term financing strategy at better conditions.
At the Annual General Meeting of Valora Holding AG in Basel, the shareholders expressed their trust in the Board of Directors and Group Executive Management. In total, 405 shareholders and representatives were present who, together with the independent proxy, accounted for a total of 2‘128‘770 votes of Valora Holding AG. The Annual General Meeting approved the proposals of the Board of Directors for all the items on the agenda. The detailed voting and election results are published on the website. The most important decisions taken were:
The Annual General Meeting approved the 2017 financial statements and a dividend of CHF 12.50 (gross) per dividend-bearing share. The dividend is distributed exempt of withholding tax from the reserve from capital contributions and is scheduled to be paid on 19 April 2018.
The Annual General Meeting also approved an authorised capital increase by issuing a maximum of 400 000 registered shares with a par value of CHF 1 each. The authorised capital will enable Valora to quickly take advantage of investment and acquisition opportunities or to make capital increases to further optimise its capital structure.
The Annual General Meeting further approved the 2017 Remuneration Report in a consultative vote. In a binding vote, it approved the total remuneration for the Board of Directors (for the period of office from the 2018 AGM until the 2019 AGM) and for the members of Group Executive Management (for the 2019 financial year).
All members of the Board of Directors standing for re-election were confirmed in their office: Franz Julen, Markus Fiechter, Peter Ditsch, Michael Kliger and Cornelia Ritz Bossicard. As announced, Bernhard Heusler did not stand for re-election. His seat on the Board of Directors will temporarily remain vacant. Franz Julen was confirmed in office as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Markus Fiechter, Peter Ditsch and Michael Kliger as members of the Nomination and Compensation Committee.
An optimistic outlook for the future: well-equipped for further growth
Franz Julen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Valora Holding AG, thanks the shareholders, adding that, “2017 was a very important year for Valora in a number of ways. We successfully completed our transformation into a focused convenience and food service provider, while at the same time making important investments in our growth. These include the acquisitions of BackWerk in Germany and Pretzel Baron in the US, as well as the expansion of our pretzel production capacities in both Germany and the US. All these actions were supported by our shareholders by means of an ordinary capital increase in November 2017. We were also successful in further optimising our long-term financing structure and posted a good operating result for the past financial year. We are therefore well-equipped for further growth and can look forward to the future with optimism.”
This press release is available online at www.valora.com/newsroom.