12 Mar, 2010 12:00 CET
12 March 2010To the shareholders ofWilliam Demant Holding A/SNotice is hereby given of the Annual General Meeting of William Demant HoldingA/S to be held on: Wednesday 7 April 2010 at 4 p.m.at the Company's addressKongebakken 9, DK-2765 SmørumAgenda In accordance with Article 8.2 of the Articles of Association, the agenda is asfollows: 1. The directors' report on the Company's activities during the past financialyear. The Board of Directors recommends that the report be adopted.2. Presentation and adoption of the audited annual report, including theconsolidated financial statements. The Board of Directors recommends that the annual report be adopted.3. Resolution on the appropriation of profit or loss as recorded in the adoptedannual report. The Board of Directors proposes that the profit of DKK 756 million betransferred to the Company's reserves to the effect that no dividend will bepaid. 4.Election of directors.Under Article 11.2 of the Articles of Association, directors elected by thegeneral meeting are elected for one-year terms. At the 2010 annual generalmeeting, all directors stand for re-election. 5.Election of auditor.It is proposed that Deloitte Statsautoriseret Revisionsaktieselskab bere-elected. 6. Any proposal by the Board of Directors or shareholders.The Board of Directors has submitted the following proposals:a) Amendments to the Articles of Association by reason of the new DanishCompanies Act and general updating. b) The Company's acquisition of own shares.c) Capital reduction by way of a reduction of the nominal value of theCompany's own shares. d) Authorisation to the chairman of the general meeting.7. Any other business.Elaboration of the proposalsRe agenda item 4Lars Nørby Johansen, Peter Foss, Niels B. Christiansen, and Thomas Hofman-Bangstand for re-election. Informa-tion on the individual board members and theirmanagerial posts is available on the Company's website, in-cluding the annualreport, page 29. Re agenda item 6aBased on the new Danish Companies Act (selskabsloven) and for general updatingpurposes, the Board of Di-rectors proposes that the Articles of Association beamended as follows: 1. In Article 1.2, "(William Demant Holding A/S)" should be deleted as part ofthe secondary name. 2. In Article 4.3, "Værdipapircentralen" should be replaced by "VP SECURITIESA/S (Central Business Regis-ter (CVR) no. 21599336)". 3. In the Danish versions of Articles 5.1, 5.3 and 5.4, "aktiebog" should bereplaced by "ejerbog". (No such change will be required in the Englishversion). 4. In Article 5.4, "Aktiebog Danmark A/S, Kongevejen 118, DK-2840 Holte" shouldbe replaced by "Com-putershare A/S (Central Business Register (CVR) no.27088899)". 5. In Article 7.3 on shareholders' right to request extraordinary generalmeetings, "1/10" should be re-placed by "5%". 6. Article 7.4 should be amended to read as follows:"General meetings shall be convened by the Board of Directors giving no lessthan three weeks' and no more than five weeks' notice. Notice of the meetingshall be published on the Company's website and in the electronic informationsystem of the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency (Erhvervs- ogSelskabsstyrelsen), and, where requested, notice shall also be provided inwriting to all shareholders registered in the register of shareholders. Thenotice shall set out the agenda of the meeting and the essential contents ofany proposed amendments to these Articles of Association. If any resolutionamending the Articles under sections 77(2), 92(1), 92(5), 107(1) or 107(2) ofthe Danish Companies Act (selskabsloven) is proposed, the notice shall includethe full text of the proposed resolution." 7. Article 7.5 should be amended to read as follows:"All shareholders are entitled to have specific issues considered at the annualgeneral meeting, sub-ject to submitting a written request to such effect to theBoard of Directors no later than six weeks be-fore the date of the meeting. Ifsuch request is made later than six weeks before the general meeting, the Boardof Directors decides whether the issue should be included on the agenda." 8. Article 8.1 should be amended to read as follows:"No later than three weeks before the date of any general meeting, thefollowing documents shall be published on the Company's website: 1) The noticeconvening the general meeting; 2) the total num-ber of shares and voting rightsat the date of the notice; 3) all documents to be submitted to the gen-eralmeeting, including, in the case of the annual general meeting, the auditedannual report; 4) the agenda and the full text of all proposals to be submittedto the meeting; and 5) postal and proxy voting forms." 9. Article 9.2 should be amended to read as follows:"Anyone who is a registered shareholder one week prior to the general meetingor has at such time made a request to such effect that has reached the Companyis entitled to attend and vote at the general meeting. In order to attend thegeneral meeting, shareholders shall also obtain an admission card from theCompany no later than three days prior to the date of the meeting. A ballotpaper will be provided together with the admission card, specifying the numberof votes to which the share-holder is entitled." 10. Article 9.3 should be amended to read as follows:"Shareholders entitled to vote under Article 9.2 may vote by post. Postalvoting forms shall be available on the Company's website no later than threeweeks before the date of the general meeting. Postal votes shall reach theCompany no later than 12 noon one business day before the general meeting." 11. Article 9.4 should be deleted, which gives rise to consequential changes tothe article numbering in Article 9. 12. Article 9.5 (which becomes Article 9.4) should be amended to read asfollows: "All shareholders are entitled to attend general meetings together with anadviser or by proxy. The proxy shall produce a written and dated instrument ofproxy. Proxy instruments issued to the Board of Directors shall be valid onlyfor one particular general meeting for which the agenda is known in advance,and may not be given for more than one year. The Company shall provide theshareholders with a written or electronic proxy form, which may be issued toeither the Board of Directors or a third party." 13. In Article 10.3, the reference to "section 79 of the Public Companies Act"should be replaced by "sec-tion 107 of the Companies Act". 14. In Article 10.6, the following should be inserted as a new second sentence:"The minutes of general meetings and the results of votes shall be madeavailable on the Company's website within two weeks of the date of themeeting." 15. In Article 11.1, "the Public Companies Act" should be replaced by "theCompanies Act". 16. In Article 15.1, "the Danish Public Companies Act" should be replaced by"the Companies Act". Re agenda item 6bIt is proposed that the Board of Directors be authorised until the next annualgeneral meeting to allow the Company to acquire own shares of a nominal valueof up to 10% of the share capital. The bid price of the shares may not differby more than 10% from the price quoted on Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen A/S at the timeof the acquisition. The price quoted on Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen A/S at the timeof the acquisition means the closing price - all transactions at 5 p.m. Re agenda item 6cIt is proposed that the Company's share capital be reduced by nominally DKK606,382 corresponding to the Company's holding of own shares. The Company's ownshares were acquired as part of the Company's share buy-back programme in 2008.The amount of the reduction was paid out to the shareholders in accordance withsection 188 of the Danish Companies Act. The shares were acquired for DKK170,110,124 in total, meaning that DKK 169,503,742 has been paid out inaddition to the nominal value of the reduction amount. As a result of the capital reduction, it is proposed that Article 4.1 of theArticles of Association be amended as follows after expiry of the deadlinestipulated in section 192 of the Danish Companies Act: "The Company's share capital is DKK 58,349,875, divided into shares of DKK 1 orany multiple thereof." Re agenda item 6dIt is proposed that the chairman of the general meeting be authorised to makesuch additions, alterations or amendments to or in the resolutions passed bythe general meeting and the application for registration of the resolutions tothe Danish Commerce and Companies Agency (Erhvervs- og Selskabsstyrelsen) asthe Agency may require for registration. * * * * * *Proposals under agenda item 6a), as far as concerns the proposals required tocomply with the Companies Act including proposals 5, 6, 7, 9 and 12, requiresacceptance by at least one shareholder. The other proposals under agenda item6a) is subject to no less than 51% of the share capital being represented atthe general meeting and the proposal being passed by no less than two thirds ofboth the votes cast and of the voting share capital represented at the meetingas provided by Article 10.3 of the Articles of Association and Article 10.4 onthe convening of a new, extraordinary general meeting. The other proposals maybe passed by a sim-ple majority of votes as provided by Article 10.2 of theArticles of Association. The agenda of the general meeting, the full text of all proposals to besubmitted to the meeting as well as the audited annual report, including the2009 consolidated financial statements, will be made available for inspec-tionby the shareholders at the Company's office at Kongebakken 9, DK-2765 Smørum,no later than on 29 March 2010. The documents will also be sent to anyregistered shareholder upon request. In addition, the following information anddocuments will be made available on the Company's website www.demant.com nolater than on 16 March 2010: 1) The notice convening the general meeting; 2)the total number of shares and voting rights at the date of the notice; 3) alldocuments to be submitted to the general meeting, including the audited annualreport; 4) the agenda and the full text of all proposals to be submitted to themeeting; and 5) proxy voting forms. All shareholders are entitled to attend the general meeting subject to havingobtained an admission card for himself and for any adviser accompanying him tothe meeting by 6 April 2010. A ballot paper will be provided together with theadmission card. Please note that only shareholders having obtained an admissioncard be-fore the general meeting are entitled to attend. All shareholders who are entitled to attend the general meeting and have hadtheir shares registered in the register of shareholders, or have given noticeto the Company of the acquisition of their shares and have es-tablished goodtitle to them, before 12 March 2010, will be entitled to vote at the generalmeeting. A ballot paper will be provided together with the admission card,specifying the number of votes to which the share-holder is entitled. Admission cards and ballot papers will be issued to holders of registeredshares upon receipt of information from the shareholders, in the order form foran admission card or otherwise, on the nominal value of their shares. Admissioncards will be issued to holders of unregistered shares who can produce atranscript no older than five days from VP SECURITIES A/S or from theaccount-holding bank (depositary bank) as evidence of their shareholding. Thetranscript must be accompanied by a written statement that the shares have notbeen and will not be transferred to any third party before the general meeting. Admission cards may be obtained via the Company's websitewww.demant.com/Shareholders' Portal; or from Computershare A/S, Kongevejen 418,DK-2840 Holte (or by fax at +45 4546 0998); or by written request to theCompany's office; or in person at Kongebakken 9, DK-2765 Smørum on weekdaysbetween 10.00 a.m. and 12.00 p.m. Admission cards and ballot papers will thenbe sent by post. If you are prevented from attending the general meeting, the Board of Directorswould be pleased to act as proxy to cast the votes attaching to your shares, inwhich case the proxy form, duly completed and signed, must reach ComputershareA/S, Kongevejen 418, DK-2840 Holte, by 6 April 2010. The proxy form may alsobe found on the Company's website. Proxies may also be appointed electronicallyon www.demant.com/ Shareholders' Portal on or before 6 April 2010. All shareholders may ask questions in writing about the agenda and thedocuments to be submitted to the general meeting. Such questions may be sent bypost or by e-mail to . The questions will be answered inwriting or orally at the general meeting, unless prior to the meeting theanswer is available via a "questions/answers" function on the Company'swebsite, www.demant.com. As per 12 March 2010, the Company's share capital is DKK 58,956,257, dividedinto shares of DKK 1 or any mul-tiple thereof, as provided by Article 4.1 ofthe Articles of Association. Each share of DKK 1 carries one vote as providedby Article 9.1. Before the general meeting, coffee and cake will be served from 3 p.m. Parkingspaces have been reserved at the main entrance, and there will be regular bustransport to and from the nearby Kildedal S-train station between 2.40 and 3.20p.m. The whole general meeting will be transmitted live on the Company'swebsite www.demant.com. From shortly before 4 p.m., you can find live coveragewith audio of the proceedings throughout the meeting. Smørum, 12 March 2010The Board of DirectorsFurther information:Niels Jacobsen, President & CEOPhone +45 39 17 71 00www.demant.com