STA, 4 June 2019 - The shareholders of the chemical company Cinkarna Celje agreed at Tuesday's general annual meeting to allocate nearly the entire distributable profit for dividends at EUR 28.27 gross per share, or a total payout of EUR 22.8 million, the company's CEO Tomaž Benčina told the STA.
The shareholders also authorised the board to buy treasury shares in the total amount of up to 10% of the group's share capital, with the authorisation valid for a year. The buyback price was set between EUR 170 and EUR 270.
The shareholders had already authorised the management board to start implementing its buyback strategy last year, setting the price between EUR 250 and EUR 300 as proposed by the biggest shareholder, insurer Modra Zavarovalnica.
The insurer owns 20% of the group's shares, followed by the Bank Assets Management Company (12.83%) and Slovenian Sovereign Holding (11.41%). All of them agreed to amend the group's statute following last year's decrease in share capital.
The shareholders also took note of the resignation of supervisor Urška Podpečan, effective as of 1 April. She will be replaced by lawyer Luka Gaberščik from Ljubljana. The supervisory and management boards were granted a discharge of liability for the past business year.
Cinkarna Celje generated EUR 45.5 million in net sales revenue in the first quarter of 2019, a 13% decrease compared to the same period last year. Its net profit dropped by 64% to EUR 4.6 million. Despite the declines, both figures exceeded the group's expectations.
