Dividend and share buyback programme
Share buyback programme renewed
At the Annual General Meeting on May 16, 2008, the shareholders in MLP AG once again authorised the Executive Board to acquire shares in the company to the value of up to 10 % of the share capital in place at the date of the resolution, i.e. up to a total of 9,799,152 shares, by November 13, 2009. This replaced the authorisation given at the Annual General Meeting in 2007. No use has yet been made of this authorisation. Within the scope of previous share buyback programmes, a total of 10,820,765 shares were bought back and canceled in the years 2005 to 2008.
For further details on this, please refer to www.mlp.de under Investor Relations and the navigation items “Share buyback programme 2007/2008” and “Share buyback programme 2005/2006”.
Some 99.98 % of shareholders present approved an increase of the dividends for the financial year 2007 by one quarter to € 0.50 (€ 0.40) per share. With the 25 % increase in dividends we paid out a total dividend of around € 49 million to our shareholders.
Suggested dividend: € 0.28
MLP is keen to share its success with its shareholders again this year. For the completed financial year, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board suggest to the Annual General Meeting on June 16, 2009, a dividend of € 0.28 per share. In the coming years, shareholders in MLP AG can collect tax-free dividend payouts of around € 350 million. This results from the changed tax treatment of the incorporation of MLP AG subsidiaries into MLP AG and their subsequent sale. This is subject to approval currently being reviewed by the tax authorities.