Summary of business conducted at the Annual General Meeting of North Media A/S on Friday, 26 March 2021
Announcement no. 15-2021
26 March 2021
The annual general meeting was conducted in accordance with the announced agenda.
The management report was presented and the annual report for 2020 was adopted.
In his report, the Chairman of the Board of Directors noted that the Company had achieved the best operating profit (EBIT) in its 56-year history in 2020.
- Revenue was unchanged at DKK 1,045 million, as double-digit growth rates in North Media Online and Bekey offset the slight drop in FK Distribution’s revenue, which had been expected.
- EBIT before special items amounted to DKK 240 million, a DKK 74 million increase on 2019. The Company maintained its consistent focus on earnings and optimisation, and all companies improved their performance.
- Net profit was up by 49% to DKK 307 million, which included a return on securities of DKK 155 million.
- The capital resources were strengthened, in part due to cash flows from operating activities of DKK 219 million.
The Chairman reviewed the new strategy, under which North Media will be divided into two business areas. The Last Mile business area consists of FK Distribution, a strong and well-run value business with attractive and reasonably predictable earnings. The Digital Services business area currently consists of the growth businesses BoligPortal, Ofir and Bekey, which are expected to grow at a rate of about 20% annually in 2022–2023, while improving their earnings and achieving EBIT margins of 25% in 2023. North Media has allocated up to DKK 200 million for acquiring carefully selected businesses, mainly for Digital Services, intended to accelerate value creation.
The Board of Directors’ ambition, provided the growth and earnings targets are achieved, is to propose dividends of DKK 5 per share for each of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 financial years.
The shareholders voted to adopt a resolution to discharge the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Board from liability and approved the Board’s recommendation for a dividend of DKK 5 per share in respect of the 2020 financial year.
The shareholders adopted the remuneration report presented at the general meeting.
The Board of Directors’ authorisations to increase the share capital one or several times by up to DKK 25,000,000.00 was extended to 25 March 2026, and the Articles of Association were amended accordingly. The proposed amendment to delete the item on the agenda relating to discharging the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Board from liability was adopted by the shareholders.
All incumbent Board members were re-elected: Mads Dahl Møberg Andersen, Richard Bunck, Ulrik Holsted-Sandgreen, Thomas Weikop, Ulrik Falkner Thagesen and Ole Borch. In addition, Ann-Sofie Østberg Bjergby was elected to the Board of Directors.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab was re-appointed as the Company’s auditors as proposed by the Board of Directors.
Immediately following the general meeting, Ole Borch was elected Chairman and Richard Bunck was elected Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Additional information is available from the Chairman of the Board, Ole Borch, who can be reached on tel. .
On behalf of
North Media A/S
Ole Borch
Chairman
