In accordance with the measures taken by the Swiss Federal Council to contain the spread of coronavirus, the 20th ordinary General Meeting of Meyer Burger Technology Ltd (SIX Swiss Exchange: MBTN) was held on May 13, 2020 at the company’s headquarters in Thun, without any of the shareholders being physically present. 232’256’247 registered shares were represented by the independent voting proxy, corresponding to about 34% of the share capital entered in the commercial register.
At today’s ordinary General Meeting in Thun, the shareholders of Meyer Burger Technology Ltd approved all proposals of the Board of Directors:
- The General Meeting of Shareholders approved the management report, the annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements for the 2019 financial year. The 2019 remuneration report was approved in a consultative vote.
- The General Meeting of Shareholders approved the appropriation of the net result and granted discharge to the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Board for the 2019 financial year.
- Current Board members Dr. Franz Richter and Andreas R. Herzog were re-elected by the General Meeting. Mark Kerekes and Urs Fähndrich were newly elected to the Board of Directors. Dr. Franz Richter was chosen as the Chairman of the Board of Directors in a separate vote. Andreas R. Herzog and Urs Fähndrich were elected to the Nomination and Compensation Committee.
- PricewaterhouseCoopers AG, Bern, was re-elected as auditor and Mr. André Weber, lic. iur., as independent voting proxy for the company for another year.
- The General Meeting approved the maximum total amounts of remuneration for the Board of Directors and the Executive Board for the 2020 financial year.
- Furthermore, the General Meeting approved the proposal of the Board of Directors regarding modification and adaptation of the existing authorised share capital.
- In accordance with the recommendations of the Board of Directors, the shareholders approved amendments of the Articles of Association that will simplify shareholders’ participation in future General Meetings of the company and allow the ordinary General Meeting to be held sooner after publication of the corresponding annual financial statements.
Strategic realignment
At the occasion of the ordinary General Meeting, Meyer Burger confirmed that, as part of the review of its strategic options, the Company is now focusing primarily on establishing its own cell and module production facilities in Europe (particularly Germany). In connection with this realignment, the Company is in discussions on concrete financing options and intensively works on the next steps towards implementation. The entry into its own, large-scale production should enable Meyer Burger to benefit directly from the technology and cost leadership of its proprietary, patent-protected heterojunction/ smartwire technology in the future. As part of an endeavour to revitalise the solar industry in Europe, the own production is expected to make a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and increasing the efficiency of renewable energies and has already attracted the interest of various stakeholders.
All of the voting results as well as the address by Dr. Remo Lütolf, the departing Chairman of the Board of Directors, are available on the Internet at:
https://www.meyerburger.com/en/investors/annual-general-meeting/
