Result of AGM
ABB Ltd
16 March 2000
ABB LTD HOLDS FIRST ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Zurich, Switzerland, March 16, 2000 - ABB, the global technology company, today
held its first annual general meeting of shareholders since the creation of the
single-class ABB Ltd share.
The meeting was held at two locations in Wettingen, Switzerland, and one in
Vastcras, Sweden. Shareholders in the three locations were linked via satellite
television and an electronic voting system. It was the world's first
cross-border shareholders meeting using a real-time wireless electronic voting
system. All shareholders in each location were equipped with personalised
palm-sized handsets that allowed them to transmit their votes - reflecting the
actual number of shares they hold - into a central display.
The meeting was also broadcast live on the Internet. Multimedia presentations
were delivered in German in Switzerland, and simultaneously translated into
Swedish for shareholders in Sweden, and into English for the global Internet
audience.
A record total of almost 3,300 participants, some 2,000 in Switzerland and about
1,300 in Sweden, took part in the meeting. The shareholders present represented
53.2 percent of the total share capital entitled to vote.
Shareholders approved the proposal of the Board of Directors to increase the
dividend per share to Sfr. 3.00 from Sfr. 2.47 the year before, payable as of
March 23, 2000. Re-elected to the Board were Percy Barnevik, Gerhard Cromme,
Jurgen Dormann, Martin Ebner, Robert Jeker, Goran Lindahl, Agostino Rocca,
Donald Rumsfeld, Edwin Somm, Peter Sutherland and Jacob Wallenberg. The Board
intends to re-elect Barnevik as Chairman and Jeker as Vice Chairman.
Yotaro Kobayashi, Chairman of Fuji Xerox and an ABB Board Member since 1996, did
not stand for re-election.
In his presentation to shareholders, ABB President and CEO Goran Lindahl
reiterated the company's plans, first announced in February, to apply for a U.S.
stock listing.
In 1999, ABB shareholders agreed to replace the previous four-class system of
shares in ABB AG and ABB AB - the former Swiss and Swedish parent companies,
respectively, of the ABB Group - with a single-class share in ABB Ltd. Today's
meeting was ABB Ltd's first annual general meeting of shareholders.
ABB Ltd is the holding company for the ABB Group, serving customers in power
transmission and distribution; automation; oil, gas, and petrochemicals;
building technologies; and in financial services. Power generation customers
are served by ABB ALSTOM POWER. The ABB Group employs about 165,000 people in
more than 100 countries.