Ercros has approved a shareholder remuneration of 21.5 million euros

The shareholders’ annual general meeting (AGM) of Ercros, which was held today in Barcelona, for the first time in person after the pandemic, has approved all the resolution proposals presented by the board of directors.

Among them, the shareholder remuneration charged to the result of 2021 stands out, the total of which amounts to 21.50 million euros, the highest ever accrued by Ercros for this concept and which represents 50% of the 43 million euros of the profit obtained in 2021. The AGM has approved, on the one hand, the payment of a dividend of 0.085 euros per share, which entails a disbursement of 8.2 million euros (19% of profit) and that will be paid on the 22 June; and, on the other hand, the redemption of 4,372,048 treasury shares held by the Company, the purchase of which involved a disbursement of 13.3 million euros (31% of profit).

Once the aforementioned reduction has been made, the share capital will be set at 28.98 million euros and will be represented by 96,599,189 shares with a par value of 0.30 euros each.

The AGM has authorized the board of directors so that, within a period of five years, it may continue to acquire its own shares for the exclusive purposes of their redemption. Likewise, it has ratified the new remuneration policy for directors, which maintains the basic structure of the previous one, with the difference of assigning an additional compensation of 15,000 euros/year to the directors who chair the control committees of the board of directors.

Ercros’s Charmain, Antonio Zabalza, in his speech in front of the AGM, highlighted the excellent results that Ercros obtained in 2021, particularly if the difficult health and economic context of the year is taken into account. The two reasons that explain these good results, according to the Chairman, have been Ercros’ ability to maintain high occupancy rates at its plants and its continuous, active and reliable presence in the market.

With regard to the current financial year, Zabalza explained that "we continue to see the greatest risks in the continuation of the war in Ukraine and in the negative effect of this conflict on energy prices". "Despite these risks and the high level of existing uncertainty -he assured- we confirm the maintenance of a strong demand for most of our products, which, at least in the first half of 2022, should continue to favour a positive evolution of the prices, enough to offset the high cost of energy and raw materials".

Regarding the evolution of the current year as a whole, the Chairman said that: "The dominant trend for 2022 will be positive and will clearly improve the already good results we obtained in 2021. However, we cannot comment on how much it will, due to the lack of visibility that the high level of uncertainty at the moment imposes".

The meeting was attended by 6,056 shareholders holding 73,988,562 shares, representing 73.277% of the subscribed capital and who are entitled to receive an attendance premium of 0.005 euros per share.