The Annual General Meeting 2008 of Allianz SE has increased the dividend by some 45 percent. The shareholders agreed to the proposal made by the Allianz SE board of management and supervisory board concerning the appropriation of net earnings by a majority of 99.98 percent.

Consequently, Allianz will distribute a dividend of 5.50 euros per share on Thursday, May 22. Michael Diekmann commented: "We are increasing the dividend for the fourth year in a row as a part of delivering what we promised. This is a major step towards a payout ratio at peer group level."

For comparison: In 2003, the dividend was 1,50 euros per share – that's an increase by more than 260 percent in five years.

The Annual General Meeting passed all the resolutions with a majority of more than 96 percent votes in favor. A majority of more than 99.80 and 99.77 percent also voted to approve the actions of the members of the board of management and the supervisory board respectively.

According to the recommendation in section no. 5.3.3 of the German Corporate Governance Code, the supervisory board of Allianz SE has formed a Nomination Committee which is composed of three shareholder representatives and which proposes suitable candidates to the supervisory board for recommendation to the General Meeting. The AGM approved by 99.05 percent a change of statutes to clarify that the members of the Nomination Committee are not entitled to a separate remuneration for their activity in the committee.

A total of 40.17 percent of the equity capital in Allianz SE was represented at the voting, partly present in person at the Annual General Meeting held at Munich’s Olympic Center, partly represented by a proxy, in particular by a person appointed by the company to vote on their behalf.

As with all content published on this site, these statements are subject to our Forward Looking Statement disclaimer, provided on the right.