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| Annual General Meeting: Shareholders approve all proposals by the Board of Directors | 05/11/2006
| All motions proposed by the Board of Directors were approved by a clear majority at the well-attended first public Annual General Meeting of Panalpina World Transport (Holding) Ltd. on 11 May 2006. The shareholders in attendance represented 49.59% of the shares with voting rights. |
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| In his speech, Chairman of the Board Gerhard Fischer declared himself satisfied with the results achieved in 2005 and gave a generally positive report on the business year just ended. He said that Panalpina had been able to reinforce its position among the global leaders of the forwarding and logistics industry, while growth in all its core activities (air freight, ocean freight and supply chain management) clearly outpaced the market. The Chairman stated that this growth was almost exclusively the fruit of the Group's own efforts.
Gerhard Fischer described the successful IPO that took place on 22 September as the highlight of 2005 and reported that the public offering had met with great interest. Fischer was equally pleased with share price gains to date: In the period between the flotation and the day of the General Meeting, PWT registered shares rose by approximately 40%, which was twice as much as the SPI. The share price has increased by about 27% since the beginning of 2006, while the SPI has gone up by only 10% in the same period.
According to Gerhard Fischer, the rising share price shows that investors have great confidence in the Group's potential for growth. This is particularly true of the former sole shareholder, Ernst Göhner Foundation (EGS), which has retained 42.64% of the share capital. EGS has repeatedly affirmed its intention of keeping a substantial capital holding in Panalpina after the flotation. Fischer said that the company welcomed this decision.
The Chairman of the Board also referred to the changes that took place in the Board of Directors during the reporting year. He lauded the achievements of Otto Schmid, Jürg Furger, Heinrich Walti and Heinz Kühnlein, all of whom have now left the Board. The Chairman singled out Otto Schmid, who served on the Board for 23 years and made a key contribution to Panalpina's development. Otto Schmid passed away last August at the age of 75, shortly after his retirement.
Günther Casjens, Rudolf W. Hug, Yuichi Ishimaru and Glen R. Pringle joined the Board of Directors in August 2005. The Board’s new composition reflects a further enhanced professional expertise at its disposal as well as the Company's international outlook, said Gerhard Fischer.
The Chairman reconfirmed his intention of announcing the name of the new CEO in the first half of 2006.
Gerhard Fischer placed particular emphasis on the great confidence that Panalpina’s customers show in the Group. This was again evident in the first quarter of 2006, when once again a large number of important new contracts were acquired. According to COO Jörg Eggenberger, these covered all the industry groups on which Panalpina focuses. He went on to say that it was equally gratifying that the Group enjoys the confidence not only of global accounts but also of small and medium-sized enterprises.
The shareholders approved the annual report, the annual financial statements and the consolidated financial statements for 2005 and followed the recommendation of the Board of Directors to distribute a dividend of CHF 2.00 (gross) per share. This puts the payout ratio at 41.6% of group profit, compared to 40.0% in 2004 (excluding the one-off anniversary dividend).
The AGM formally approved the actions of the members of the Board of Directors in the financial year 2005. It also voted in favor of the recommendation of the Board of Directors to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers as statutory and group auditors for the financial year 2006.
The next Annual General Meeting will take place on 15 May 2007. |
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The Panalpina Group
The Panalpina Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of forwarding and logistics services, specializing in intercontinental air freight and ocean freight shipments and associated supply chain management solutions. Thanks to its in-depth industry know-how and state-of-the-art IT systems, Panalpina provides globally integrated door-to-door forwarding solutions tailored to its customers’ individual needs. The Panalpina Group operates a close-knit network with some 500 branches in 80 countries. In a further 60 countries, it cooperates closely with selected partner companies. Panalpina employs some 13,000 people worldwide. |
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