2023 Annual General Meeting
At today’s Annual General Meeting in Zurich Hallenstadion, shareholders agreed all proposals put forward by the Board of Directors. Discharge was granted to the members of the Board of Directors and Group Executive Board for the 2022 financial year.
The 25th Annual General Meeting of Swisscom Ltd took place today in the Hallenstadion in Zurich. 1,170 shareholders represented 74.93% of the voting shares. At the end of March 2023, there were approximately 75,300 registered Swisscom shareholders.
Michael Rechsteiner, Chairman of the Board of Directors, is satisfied with the company’s performance in 2022: ‘In the private customer segment, we were able to stabilise telecoms revenue after many years and even experience further growth in the second half of the year. That is a great achievement. Plus, our customers are less willing to switch provider. So they appreciate our attractive products — especially the blue subscriptions — our service and our excellent infrastructure. We are also successful with our cloud and security products in the business customer sector and with Fastweb in Italy.’
Shareholders approved the management report, consolidated financial statements and annual financial statements for 2022 and followed the Board of Directors' recommendation to set the ordinary gross dividend per share at CHF 22, the same as in the previous year. A net dividend of CHF 14.30 per share, after deducting Swiss withholding tax at 35%, will be paid on 3 April 2023.
Discharge was granted to the members of the Board of Directors and Group Executive Board for the 2022 financial year. In a consultative vote, the meeting unanimously approved the Remuneration Report.
As previously announced, Barbara Frei has waived re-election. On behalf of Swisscom, the Board of Directors would like to thank Barbara Frei for her valuable service. Monique Bourquin has been elected as a new member of the Board of Directors. Monique Bourquin worked at Unilever for a total of 14 years. During this time, she took over responsibility for sales management as CEO at Unilever Switzerland and was most recently CFO of Unilever D-A-CH. Raised in France, she started her career at PwC Switzerland after studying at the University of St. Gallen, then worked in various marketing and sales functions at Knorr, Rivella and Mövenpick. Since 2013, Monique Bourquin has also applied her broad experience of the consumer goods sector, focusing on brand management, sales and finance, to Board of Director committees at Emmi AG, Kambly AG, Weleda AG and W. Kündig & Cie. AG. She also heads the Swiss branded goods association Promarca, as Chairman of the Board.
The one-year terms of office of all the other members of the Board of Directors also expired at the Annual General Meeting. All of the members of the Board of Directors, the Chairman and the members of the Remuneration Committee were individually re-elected at the Annual General Meeting for a term of office of one year.
The outgoing representative of the Swiss Confederation, Renzo Simoni, will be stepping down from the Board of Directors. The Federal Council named Fritz Zurbrügg as his successor on 17 March 2023 for a term of office as state representative until the end of the ordinary Annual General Meeting in 2023. Fritz Zurbrügg's professional experience means that he is ideally prepared to represent the interests of the public sector on Swisscom's Board of Directors. He was a member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank between 2011 and July 2022, serving as Vice-Chairman from 2015. Prior to that, he held various positions at the Federal Finance Administration, most recently as its Director. Fritz Zurbrügg studied economics at the University of Bern and holds a doctorate in economics.
Furthermore, the Annual General Meeting increased the total remuneration of the Executive Board for 2023, approved the total remuneration of the Board of Directors and Executive Board for 2024, re-elected the independent proxy and auditors, and revised the Articles of Incorporation.