Several Swiss companies which held their general meetings between January and April 2003 proposed to the shareholders that they should waive their right to payment of a dividend in the light of the unsatisfactory results achieved in 2002. ethosfund accepted this proposal in the cases of Schaffner, Georg Fischer, Vögele and Zurich Financial Services, bearing in mind the losses sustained by these companies. At Schindler, the grounds for waiving the dividend were the considerable re-structuring costs. Micronas asked shareholders to waive the dividend because of the relatively uncertain outlook.
With regard to Roche, ethosfund agreed to a dividend being paid in spite of the negative results, since these were due to exceptional provisions in the accounts and not to operating losses.
It should be noted, moreover, that shareholders in Ciba Specialties and Forbo were invited to plough the whole of the profits back into the reserves and to be repaid part of the nominal share value in place of the dividend. ethosfund consented to this proposal in the case of Ciba Specialties, since it was accompanied by a proportional decrease in the nominal amount required for shareholders to be entitled to ask for an item to be included on the Agenda (CHF 600,000 instead of CHF 1,000,000). However, since no such adjustment had been provided for at Forbo, ethosfund declined to agree to the repayment of a part of the nominal value, since henceforth it will now require 2.6% of the capital (instead of 1.5%) to have an item included on the Agenda.
