Südzucker International Finance B. V. Südzucker AG ... - Xetra

Südzucker shareBy converting its 1,500,000 preference shares (13.6 %of share capital) to ordinary shares, AGRANABeteiligungs-AG became eligible for listing on theprime market of the Vienna stock exchange andhence raised AGRANA’s attraction for the capitalmarket. In connection with this conversion,Südzucker and the Austrian shareholders transferredtheir directly-held holdings in the ordinary shares,totaling 86.4 % of the share capital, to Zucker undStärke Holding Aktiengesellschaft, Vienna. Thisenabled AGRANA to have a single class of sharewhilst maintaining existing shareholder relationships.AGRANA shares are listed on the prime market of theVienna stock exchange under ISIN AT 000 060 370 9.Corporate governance*Corporate governance is a management feature ofincreasing interest to financial markets. Corporategovernance mainly concerns the development ofstandards of management, corporate control andtransparency in companies with the aim of achievinglong-term value added in the interest ofshareholders. In Germany, a governmentcommission was formed, resulting in theintroduction of a German corporate governance code.Südzucker has studied the code in depth andsubmitted the declaration as set out in § 161 StockCorporation Law in December 2002.* See also page 54 of the annual report andwww.suedzucker.de/investorrelations/de/governance.Shareholder structureWith the sale of 6.1 % of its shareholding, previouslyreported as totaling 11%, in December 2002, DeutscheBank reduced its shareholding in Südzucker to lessthan 5 %. The free float of Südzucker shares thusrose to 34 %. We were informed by SüddeutscheZuckerrübenverwertungs-Genossenschaft eG (SZVG)that their own shareholding and those shares heldShareholder structureby them on trust for their own shareholdersrepresented a majority holding of 56 %. Other majorowners are our Austrian shareholders, via ZSG NL(Netherlands) B.V., with 10 %.Dividend for 2002/03The satisfactory growth in profitability enables us,the executive board and supervisory board, torecommend an increased dividend to the annualshareholders' meeting on July 31, 2003, up byD 0.03 to D 0.50 (D 0.47) per share. The amountdistributed will thus increase by 6 % to D 87.4 million(D 82.2 million).Growth in dividendsin D million1993/94 35.11994/95 36.51995/96 36.51996/97 42.71997/98 46.21998/99 46.71999/20002000/0147.549.92001/02 82.22002/03 87.4 (Proposed)+72.2 special dividend56 %SZVG10 %ZSG34 %Free float+143.0 special dividendF-56