Roche approves dividend hike of 10%

BASEL, Switzerland — Roche’s annual general meeting last March 1 has approved all of the board of directors’ proposals. The 818 shareholders in attendance, representing 142,963,212 or 89.4 percent of a total of 160,000,000 bearer shares, approved the 2010 annual report and financial statements. They also authorized a dividend increase of 10 percent to 6.60 Swiss francs per share and non-voting equity.

In a consultative vote shareholders took note of Roche’s Remuneration Report, approving it with 99.2 percent of the votes represented.

Paul Bulche (CEO of Nestlé SA), Christoph Franz (CEO of Lufthansa AG) and Peter Voser (CEO of Royal Dutch Shell plc) were elected as new members of the board. Bruno Gehrig, Pius Baschera, Lodewijk de Vink and Andreas Oeri were re-elected to the board. Walter Frey (on the board since 2001) and Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer (on the board since 2007) did not stand for re-election. The annual general meeting also voted to reduce the term of office for board members from three to two years.

Franz B. Humer, chairman of the board, said: “Walter Frey and Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer made valuable contributions to Roche’s development during their time on the board. I welcome that with Paul Bulcke, Christoph Franz, and Peter Voser, experienced leaders have been elected to the board.”

Roche Group CEO Severin Schwan commented on the business results for 2010: “Roche once again posted solid results in an increasingly challenging market environment. As the world’s largest biotech company and the leading provider of in-vitro-diagnostics, Roche is well positioned for the future.