HeidelbergCement – Annual General Meeting

On Thursday, 6 May 2010, in the Portland Forum at the Herrenberg in Leimen.

In his speech to approx. 320 shareholders, the Chairman of the Managing Board, Dr. Bernd Scheifele, reviewed the successful handling of the crisis year 2009 and showed that HeidelbergCement is now well-equipped to profit over-proportionally from the recovery of the economy in the industrial states. Consistent cost-management, long-term financing and targeted investment in new capacities in emerging markets create a good starting position for this. With its changed shareholder structure and the increased free float, HeidelbergCement also is a clear candidate for joining the DAX.

The central topic of the last Annual General Meeting, "reorganisation of the financing structure" was presented in detail. With the refinancing of bank debts in June 2009, the capital increase in September 2009, the subsequent emission of bonds in October 2009 and January 2010 and the new credit line that was negotiated a short time ago, the refinancing of the bank debt, that was started almost a year ago, is mostly completed.

With the approval of the Annual General Meeting, comprehensive new authorised capital was created that opens up extensive flexibility for the company in the future. “The approval of the authorised capital furthermore underlines the confidence of the shareholders in HeidelbergCement and particularly of the institutional investors which we were able to win since the capital increase in September 2009,” explains Dr. Scheifele. “We will use the capital very responsibly and pursue a shareholder-friendly business policy.”

69.97% of the company’s share capital, which amounts to EUR 562.5 million, was represented at the meeting.

Special election of Supervisory Board members
The Annual General Meeting elected Dr.-Ing. Herbert Lütkestratkötter and Alan Murray as members of the Supervisory Board. They had been appointed representatives of the shareholders by the Local Court (Amtsgericht) of Mannheim/Germany in January. They replace the former Supervisory Board members Eduard Schleicher and Gerhard Hirth, who resigned due to the changes in HeidelbergCement's shareholder structure at the end of 2009.