Roche Annual General Meeting 2021

• All proposals of the Board of Directors approved
• Christoph Franz re-elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors; all current Board members re-elected
• 34th consecutive dividend increase to CHF 9.10 per share
  
  

Basel, 16 March 2021 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced that its shareholders approved all proposals of the Board of Directors at its ordinary Annual General Meeting (AGM). Owing to the pandemic restrictions, the AGM was held with only those persons required by the Articles of Incorporation in attendance and with no shareholders physically present. Roche shareholders were able to exercise their rights via written or electronically submitted instructions to the independent proxy, Testaris AG. The independent proxy represented 84.58% of the total of 160,000,000 shares. The Management Report, the Annual Financial Statements and the Consolidated Financial Statements for 2020 were approved.

Christoph Franz was confirmed as Chairman of the Board of Directors with 99.73% of the votes. In an address to the shareholders, which was published on the Internet today, he said:

“Considering the extraordinary situation due to the coronavirus crisis, our annual result is very solid. It enables us to raise the dividend for the 34th consecutive time to 9.10 Swiss francs per share. We are proud of the contributions that our Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals Divisions have made to combating the pandemic. We were able to make 16 diagnostic solutions available in record time and are working closely together with partners on developing and producing treatment options for COVID-19. Despite the difficult conditions resulting from the pandemic, we were also able to achieve gratifying progress in our product pipeline. 19 new active ingredients are in the late stage of development – an impressive success contributing to our endeavour to rejuvenate our portfolio.”

Shareholders approved the total amount of the bonuses for the Corporate Executive Committee for 2020 by 99.73% of the votes and the total amount of the bonus of the Chairman of the Board of Directors for 2020 by 99.45%. Furthermore, shareholders authorised the ratification of the Board of Directors’ actions.

Shareholders approved the proposed appropriation of available earnings with 100% of the votes. They also approved an increase in the dividend for the past financial year from 9.00 to 9.10 Swiss francs (gross) per share and non-voting equity security. This is the 34th consecutive dividend increase.

In addition to Christoph Franz, all other Board members were re-elected for a term of one year:

• André Hoffmann
• Julie Brown
• Paul Bulcke
• Professor Hans Clevers
• Dr Jörg Duschmalé
• Dr Patrick Frost
• Anita Hauser
• Professor Richard P. Lifton
• Bernard Poussot
• Dr Severin Schwan
• Dr Claudia Süssmuth Dyckerhoff

The following Board members were re-elected to the Remuneration Committee for a term of one year:

• Dr Christoph Franz
• André Hoffmann
• Professor Richard P. Lifton
• Bernard Poussot

Shareholders also approved the maximum total amount of future remuneration of the Board of Directors, which was confirmed by 99.51% of the votes, and the maximum total amount of future remuneration for the Corporate Executive Committee until the 2022 ordinary Annual General Meeting by 99.41% of the votes.

The Meeting elected Testaris AG as independent proxy until the conclusion of the 2022 ordinary Annual General Meeting and KPMG AG as external auditor for the financial year 2021.