Kitron: Change to dividend proposal

(2020-03-27) The board of Kitron ASA today approved the financial statements for 2019. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the board will no longer propose the planned dividend of NOK 0.50 at the annual general meeting scheduled for 23 April.

Instead, it is proposed that the general meeting grants an authorization to the board to resolve dividends on the basis of the annual account for 2019, based on upcoming market developments and the company’s equity and liquidity. The authorization will cover the period until the annual general meeting in 2021. Additional information regarding the authorization will be provided in the annual general meeting notice.

Kitron has a solid financial platform. As stated in the company’s financial update on 18 March, there is no major disruption to the company’s business, and customer demand is so far not materially affected. Rather, the board’s decision is due to limited visibility and in preparedness of expected volatility in the months to come. In this extraordinary and uncharted situation, the board considers it to be in the best interest of the company and its shareholders to await further market developments before deciding on a potential dividend.

The decision does not entail any changes to the company’s dividend policy, which is to pay out an annual dividend of at least 50 per cent of the company’s consolidated net profit before non-recurring items. When deciding on any dividends pursuant to the proposed authorization the board will take into account the company’s financial position, investment plans as well as the needed financial flexibility to provide for sustainable growth.

Apart from the change in proposed dividend, there are no changes from the preliminary financial figures for 2019 published on 13 February 2020.

For further information, please contact:

Cathrin Nylander, CFO, tel:

E-mail:

Kitron is a leading Scandinavian electronics manufacturing services company for the Defence/Aerospace, Energy/Telecoms, Industry, Medical devices and Offshore/Marine sectors. The company is located in Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, China and the United States. Kitron had revenues of about NOK 3.3 billion in 2019 and has about 1 700 employees.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.