Bekaert holds Annual and Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders behind closed doors
Bekaert holds Annual and Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders behind closed doors
- Update on attendance and voting instructions relating to the Annual and Extraordinary General Meeting of 13 May 2020
- Implementation of Royal Decree n°4 of 9 April 2020 on various provisions regarding the legislation on co-ownership and companies and associations, in the framework of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic
- Physical presence at the General Meetings is not allowed and votes can only be submitted by correspondence or by proxy
On 9 April 2020, the Royal Decree n° 4 of 9 April 2020 on various provisions regarding legislation on co-ownership and companies and associations, in the framework of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic (the “Royal Decree”) was published in the Belgian Official Gazette. The Royal Decree allows exceptional measures to be taken with respect to general meetings, which have been or must be convened between 1 March 2020 and 3 May 2020.
As announced in the , NV Bekaert SA (“Bekaert”) will use the option offered by the Royal Decree to hold the Annual and Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders on 13 May 2020 (the “General Meetings”) exceptionally behind closed doors. Article 6 of the Royal Decree is implemented as follows:
- The physical presence of shareholders, holders of subscription rights, holders of debentures, holders of convertible debentures, proxyholders or other persons entitled to attend the General Meetings will not be allowed.
- The shareholders can only exercise their voting right by correspondence or by proxy with specific voting instructions to the Company Secretary of the company. A proxy granted to another person than the Company Secretary, which contains precise voting instructions, will also be taken into account. The shareholders can inform the company of the revocation of their proxy if, for whatever reason, they do not wish to grant it to the Company Secretary. In any event, such proxyholder will not be allowed to attend the General Meetings. The (modified) proxy/voting form is available on our . The completed and signed proxy/voting forms must reach Bekaert no later than at 24:00 hours Belgium time on Saturday 9 May 2020 by mail or .
- The shareholders, holders of subscription rights, holders of debentures, holders of convertible debentures can only exercise their right to ask questions to the board of directors and/or the statutory auditor of Bekaert in writing and prior to the General Meetings. The questions must be sent to the company by mail or no later than Saturday 9 May 2020 and will be answered before the voting during the General Meetings, by publishing the answers on our .
- The formalities mentioned in the convening notice must also be complied with, i.e. holders of securities need to provide evidence no later than Saturday 9 May 2020 of the ownership of their securities on the registration date, i.e. at 24:00 hours Belgium time on Wednesday 29 April 2020, by means of a certificate issued by a bank, a recognized account holder or settlement institution for dematerialized securities, or by means of the inscription in the relevant securities register for registered securities.
The original convening notice for the General Meetings, published on Friday 10 April 2020, has been modified accordingly and is available on our .
Financial calendar
| First quarter trading update 2020 | 13 | May | 2020 |
| Annual General Meeting of Shareholders | 13 | May | 2020 |
| Dividend ex-date | 14 | May | 2020 |
| 2020 half year results | 31 | July | 2020 |
| Dividend payment date | 20 | November | 2020 |
| Third quarter trading update 2020 | 20 | November | 2020 |
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