PDF Corporate Governance Report 2014
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Corporate Governance Report Corporate governance practices refer to the decision making systems through which owners, directly or indirectly, govern a company. Investor’s business model of active ownership is to create value in the portfolio companies. Good corporate governance is not only an important matter for Investor’s own organization. It is an important part of Investor’s core business. Below the corporate governance within Investor is described. InvestorValberedning complied with the AktieägareCode during 2014. Investor Annual General Meeting did neither deviate fromgenom the Nasdaq bolagsstämma Stockholm Rule Book The 2015 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Investor will take for Issuers nor from good stock market practice. place on May 12 at the City Conference Centre in Stockholm. Revisor Revisionsutskott ShareholdersIntern kontroll who would like to have a particular matter dis- cussed at the AGM should submit such request to the Nomina- Styrelse Ersättningsutskott Investor is a Swedish limited liability corporation, publicly traded tion CommitteeCompliance before March 17 and to the company before on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, and adheresFinans- to theoch riskutskottSwedish March 24, 2015. Contact information is available on the com- Riskkontroll Code of Corporate Governance (the Code). The Code is pub- pany website. lished on www.bolagsstyrning.se,Verkställande where direktör a description of the Investor always strives to ensure that the Board, the Manage- Swedish Corporate Governance model can be found. ment Group, the Nomination Committee and the auditor are This Corporate Governance Report is submitted in accordance present at the AGM. with the Swedish Annual AccountsLedningsgrupp Act and the Code. It explains Each Investor shareholder entitled to vote may vote for the how Investor has conducted its corporate governance activities entire number of the shares owned and represented by the duringKärn- the 2014 financialFinansiella year. Group Legal, shareholderCorporate without restrictions to the number of votes. investeringar investeringar Finance Corporate Relations This report avoids repeating information in applicableGovernance regula- A-shares andare entitled to one vote and B-shares are entitled to tions and focuses on presenting the specific corporate goverand Compliance- 1/10Communications vote. nance matters for Investor. In addition to applicable law, regarding shareholder’s right The Corporate GovernanceFöretagskulturen Report hasgrundar been sig reviewed på kärnvärdena: by to participate at the AGM, there is a requirement in Investor’s Investor’sCreate auditor, value see / Continuous page 93. improvement / Contribute your view / CareArticles for people of Association of confirming intention to attend within Corporate Governance at Investor Examples of external framework Nomination Committee Shareholders via the AGM for governance at Investor: • Swedish Companies Act. Auditor • Accounting legislation, e.g. Swedish Audit Committee Internal Control Board of Accounting Act, Swedish Annual Remuneration Committee Directors Accounts Act, and IFRS. Compliance Finance and Risk Committee • Nasdaq Stockholm’s Risk Control Rule Book for Issuers. President/CEO • Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. Examples of internal framework for governance at Investor: Management Group • Articles of Association. • Board Instructions, Rules of Procedure. Core Financial Group Legal, Corporate • Policies such as Compliance Policy, Investments Investments Finance Corporate Relations Information Policy, Risk Policy, and Governance and and Compliance Communications Safety Policy. • Process descriptions for each The corporate culture is based on the core values: business area. Create value / Continuous improvement / Contribute your view / Care for people • Ethical guidelines. INVESTOR 2014 ADMINISTRATION REPORT – Corporate Governance Report 27 given time, stated in the notice of the AGM. The shareholder identifying the members. For further information regarding instruc- shall at the same time also inform of any assistant participation. tion for the Nomination Committee, see the company website. The documents from the AGM and the minutes recorded at Up until February 28, 2015, the Nomination Committee had held the AGM are published on the website. four meetings at which the minutes were recorded. They also stayed in contact between these meetings. The AGM documents related to Shares, ownerships and distribution policy the Nomination Committee are published on the website. At year-end 2014, Investor had 140,774 shareholders according to the register of shareholders maintained by Euroclear Sweden. Nomination Committee members 2015 AGM Institutional owners dominate the ownership structure. See page Independent in Independent in 23 for Investor’s largest shareholders and page 83 for Investor’s relation to the relation to the share capital. company and company’s Nomination company major 12/31 2014 Investor’s distribution policy is to distribute a large percent- Committee members Management shareholders % of votes age of the dividends received from listed Core investments, as Hans Wibom, well as to make a distribution from other net assets correspond- Wallenberg Foundations Yes No1) 50.0 ing to a yield in line with the equity market. Investor’s goal is to Peder Hasslev, AMF Yes Yes 7.5 generate a steadily rising annual dividend. Lars Isacsson, SEB Foundation Yes Yes 4.9 The 2014 AGM decided on a dividend payment of SEK 8.00 Ramsay Brufer, Alecta Yes Yes 2.9 per share to shareholders. The Board and President recommend Jacob Wallenberg, to the 2015 AGM a distribution of dividend to shareholders of Chairman of the Board Yes No2) SEK 9.00 per share. The composition of the Nomination Committee was made public on September 19, 2014. The composition meets the independence criteria set forth by the Repurchases of own shares Code. 1) Representing the Wallenberg Foundations. Since year 2000, the Board has requested and been granted a 2) Member of Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. mandate by the AGM to repurchase the company’s shares. The company’s holding of its own shares should not exceed 1/10 of Auditor all shares outstanding in the company. In 2014, no shares were Pursuant to its Articles of Association, Investor must have one or repurchased. However, 496,400 B-shares were transferred. Also, two auditors, and no more than two deputies. A registered firm of for the 2015 AGM, there is a proposal to give authorization to auditors may be appointed as the company’s auditor. The auditor the Board to buy back Investor shares in order to hedge the is appointed by the AGM for a mandate period of one year, as long-term share-based remuneration programs. nothing further is stated in Investor’s Articles of Association. At the 2014 AGM, the registered auditing company, Deloitte AB Number Share of total Trans- was re-elected as auditor for the period until the end of the 2015 shares number of Nominal action AGM. The Authorized Public Accountant Thomas Strömberg is the held by outstanding value, price, 2014 Investor shares, % SEK m. SEK m. auditor in charge for the audit. Opening balance The auditing firm has, besides the audit, conducted a limited B-shares 6,293,360 0.82 39.3 number of other assignments on behalf of Investor. These assign- Repurchased ments mainly consisted of services associated with auditing, such B-shares 0 0 0 as in-depth reviews during audit. By limiting the extent to which Transferred B-shares –496,400 –0.06 –3.1 –61.2 Closing balance 5,796,960 0.76 36.2 the auditor is allowed to perform services other than auditing, it is possible to ensure that the auditor is independent of the company. For details on remuneration to auditors, see note 10, Auditor’s Nomination Committee fees and expenses. According to the current instruction for the Nomination Commit- tee, the Committee shall consist of one representative from each Investor’s auditor: Deloitte AB of the four shareholders or groups of shareholders controlling Auditor-in-charge: Thomas Strömberg, Authorized Public Accountant the largest number of votes that desire to appoint a representa- Born: 1966 tive and the Chairman of the Board. The register of recorded Auditor-in-charge for Investor since 2013 shareholders and shareholder groups from Euroclear Sweden Shares in Investor AB: 0 shares and other reliable shareholder information available to the com- Other auditing assignments: Karolinska Development AB, pany as of the last business day of August serves as the basis for Rezidor Hotel Group AB, Tele2 AB 28 ADMINISTRATION REPORT – Corporate Governance Report INVESTOR 2014 Board The assessment of each Board member’s independence is presented Pursuant to the Articles of Association, the Board must consist of on the table below. no less than three and no more than thirteen Directors, as well as The Chairman of the Board, Jacob Wallenberg, is in addition to no more than four deputies. Since the 2014 AGM, the Board has his active involvement in Investor also involved in a number of other consisted of thirteen members and no deputies. The percentage companies and serves on a number of international organizations. of women on the Board, calculated on non-executive Directors, He has an extensive international network and he participates in is 25. A more detailed presentation of the Board is found on the various policy forums. adjacent table, on page 36 and on the website. New Board members are introduced to Investor’s business Evaluation of the Board and CEO operations by attending