Danone: Annual General Meeting of June 26, 2020: Shareholders
unanimously vote for Danone to become the first listed ‘Entreprise
à Mission’
Press release – Paris, June 26,
2020
Annual General Meeting of June 26, 2020
Shareholders unanimously vote for Danone
to become the first listed ‘Entreprise à Mission’
With the support of more than 99% of its
shareholders at its Annual General Meeting, Danone became today the
first listed company to adopt the “Entreprise à Mission” model. Now
officially embedding in its articles of association a purpose and
social, societal and environmental objectives that reflect its
conviction that the health of people and the preservation of the
planet are interdependent, Danone is taking a new step in the
pursuit of a model of sustainable value creation for all its
stakeholders.
Progress towards these objectives will be
overseen by an independent Mission Committee of ten members, whose
names were announced at the Annual General Meeting; it is comprised
of eight highly qualified experts mainly from international
organizations (Sharan Burrow, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Pascal Lamy,
Rose Marcario, Hiromichi Mizuno, David Nabarro, Gabriela Ilian
Ramos, Rajiv Shah) as well as one independent Director (Guido
Barilla) and one employee (Emna Lahmer). Their respective
biographies are available in the appendix to this press
release.
Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and CEO,
said:
“At a time where companies are undisputably
showing every day their contribution to society as a whole, and
with the imperative of collective action, I am thrilled that all
our shareholders decided that Danone would become today the first
listed Entreprise à Mission. I am convinced that the more our
business demonstrates that it is working for all its stakeholders,
the more it will create value and be recognized for that.
My sincere personal gratefulness goes to each of
the members of the newly appointed Mission Committee for having
accepted to bring their expertise to oversee and guide our
company's progress towards its social, societal and environmental
agenda. Never before has this been attempted at the scale at which
we are going to do this together.
And finally and foremost a huge thank you to all
our shareholders, including the dozens of thousands of my Danone
colleagues, who are all also shareholders and voted today, as much
as our individual shareholders and our largest institutional
shareholders, together, for their unanimous support. You broke a
taboo today. And your decision is already a precedent. We are
humbled by your trust over the long term in our ambition to build
the most attractive food and beverage platform of the space, as we
strive to be ahead of our times to meet the expectations of our
brands communities and users, civil society at large and the
business challenges of this century”.
The shareholders’ meeting, which was held
exceptionnally in closed session given the current health context
and to which 63.5% of Danone’s total outstanding share capital was
represented, has approved all other resolutions submitted to a
vote.
Shareholders set the dividend for the 2019
fiscal year at €2.10 per share. The shares will go ex-dividend on
July 14th and the dividend will be paid with effect from July 16th.
They also approved all proposed renewals of terms of office
of the members of the Board of Directors for a three-year period:
Gregg Engles, Gaëlle Olivier, Isabelle Seillier, Jean-Michel
Severino, and Lionel Zinsou-Derlin.
On this occasion, an update on the operational
and financial situation of Danone to date was shared. After China
at the beginning of the year followed by Europe and North America
in March, some other countries have seen since April a
deterioration in their health and economic situations, notably in
Latin America, Indonesia and Africa, impacted by the closure of
proximity stores and the lockdown of consumers. In Europe and
North America, sales are slowing down given the combined impact of
the destocking of the pantry loading made at the end of the first
quarter, notably in Specialized Nutrition, and the full effect on
the second quarter of the closure of out-of-home channels where
sales are down by around -50% and to which is particularly exposed
the Waters business. Waters sales at company level are therefore
expected to decline by around -30% in the second quarter.
The direct extra-costs incurred to ensure
business continuity, estimated at around €100 million in the first
semester (sanitary, industrial and logistics extra-costs directly
linked with COVID-19 pandemic), will impact the recurring operating
margin of the first semester. Actions to preserve cash continue and
the two €800 million bonds issued in the semester at attractive
rates have allowed to further strengthen the balance sheet and the
liquidity position of the company. More information will be
provided when first-half year results are published on July 30th,
2020.
Danone’s medium and long-term outlook remains
robust and the COVID-19 pandemic enhances the relevance of its
health-focused categories, localized food supply chain and
regenerative agriculture strategies.
The presentation made during the AGM is
available on Danone’s corporate website (www.danone.com) where an
overview of the voting results and a video webcast of the full
meeting will be available from tonight.
Members of the Mission
Committee
Guido BARILLA Mr. Guido Barilla
is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Barilla where he
had overseen the international expansion for several years. He
serves since 2008 as an inpedendent member at the Board of
directors of Danone.
Sharan BURROW Ms. Sharan Burrow
was the first woman at the role of General Secretary of the
International Trade Union Confederation, which represents 200
million workers in 163 countries and territories and has 332
national affiliates, a position she has been serving since 2010.
She is also the former President of the Australian Council of Trade
Unions (ACTU, 2000–2010).
Ngozi OKONJO-IWEALAMs.
Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and an expert in international
development. Former Managing Director of the World Bank and Finance
Minister of Nigeria (2003-06 and 2011-15), she is today the African
Union special envoy for COVID-19 matters and Chair of the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.
Emna LAHMER Ms. Emna Lahmer is
an employee at Danone where she is currently stream leader for
indirect purchasing. Between 2016 and 2019, she served as delegate
from the works council at the Board of directors of Danone.
Pascal LAMYFormer Managing
Director of the World Trade Organization from 2005 to 2013 and
previously European Commissioner for Trade, Mr Lamy currently
chairs the Paris Peace Forum and the World Council for Ethics of
Tourism and coordinates the works of the Jacques Delors Institute
in Paris, Berlin, Bruxelles. He also serves as Brunswick Europe
Chair.
Rose MARCARIO (Chair)Ms.
Marcario spent 15 years in private equity before joining in 2008
the outdoor clothing company Patagonia where she served as Chief
Financial Officer until 2013, and then as President and CEO between
2014 and 2020.
Hiromichi MIZUNOMr. Mizuno
currently serves on the board of PRI (Principles for Responsible
Investment) and as Special Adviser to the Japanese government on
green innovation and finance. Until recently he was Executive
Managing Director and CIO of the Japan Government Pension
Investment Fund. On April 2020, he joined the Board of directors of
Tesla. He is a member of CFA Institute Future of Finance advisory
council and WEF Global Future Council. He serves as visiting fellow
of Harvard, Oxford Saïd and Cambridge Judge business schools.
David NABARROMr. David Nabarro
is a medical doctor who has worked as an international civil
servant and a diplomat. He is now Strategic Director of 4SD, a
social enterprise based in Switzerland and Co-Director of the
Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College in the
UK. He previously served as special adviser to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations on the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and Climate Change.
Gabriela Ilian RAMOSAs of July
1st 2020, Ms. Gabriela Ramos will serve as UNESCO Assistant
Director General in charge of Social and Human Sciences. She
currently serves as OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20, in
charge for the contributions of the OECD to the global agenda,
including to the G20, G7, and APEC. She was also in charge of the
Inclusive Growth agenda, and in 2019, contributed to the launch of
the Business for Inclusive Growth (B4IG) platform, endorsed by the
French G7 Presidency.
Rajiv SHAHMr. Rajiv Shah is a
former American government official, physician and health
economist. He currently serves as President of the Rockefeller
Foundation. He was previously the 16th Administrator of the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) between 2010
and 2015.
o o O o o
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains certain
forward-looking statements concerning Danone. In some cases, you
can identify these forward-looking statements by forward-looking
words, such as “estimate”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “project”,
“plan”, “intend”, “objective”, “believe”, “forecast”, “guidance”,
“foresee”, “likely”, “may”, “should”, “goal”, “target”, “might”,
“will”, “could”, “predict”, “continue”, “convinced” and
“confident,” the negative or plural of these words and other
comparable terminology. Forward looking statements in this document
include, but are not limited to, predictions of future activities,
operations, direction, performance and results of Danone.
Although Danone believes its expectations are
based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements
are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause
actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements. For a detailed description of these
risks and uncertainties, please refer to the “Risk Factor” section
of Danone’s Universal Registration Document (the current version of
which is available on www.danone.com).
Subject to regulatory requirements, Danone does
not undertake to publicly update or revise any of these
forward-looking statements. This document does not constitute an
offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy Danone
securities.
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