UCB's General Meeting of Shareholders

Brussels (Belgium), 30 April 2020 – 18:00 (CEST) – regulated information -

Today, UCB held its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) and Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). In view of the measures adopted by public authorities to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and following the decision of the Board of Directors to implement the Royal Decree n°4 of 9 April 2020 on various provisions regarding legislation on co-ownership and companies and associations, this meeting was organised “behind closed doors”, as announced by UCB on April 10, 2020.  At the AGM and EGM, 146 404 233 shares (77.34% of shares entitled to vote) were represented. 

The messages of Mrs. Evelyn du Monceau, Chair of the Board of Directors, and of Mr. Jean-Christophe Tellier, Chief Executive Officer of UCB, published at the occasion of this general meeting, are available on the UCB website : https://www.ucb.com/investors/UCB-shareholders/Shareholders-meeting-2020.

The AGM approved for the fiscal year 2019 the payment of a gross dividend of € 1.24 per share (net dividend of € 0.868 per share) compared to € 1.21 per share for 2018 (net € 0.847). The ex-dividend day is 4 May 2020, the dividend (coupon no. 23) will be payable 6 May 2020.

The AGM re-appointed both Mr. Pierre Gurdjian and Mr. Ulf Wiinberg as independent directors and Mr. Charles-Antoine Janssen as director. Following their appointment, Mr. Pierre Gurdjian remains the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors and continues to be a member of the Governance, Remuneration and Nomination Committee (GNCC) and Mr. Ulf Wiinberg and Mr. Charles-Antoine Janssen both continue to be members of the Audit Committee. For the curriculum vitae of the Board members, please visit the UCB website: https://www.ucb.com/investors/UCB-governance. 

All other agenda items put to vote at the AGM as well as all agenda items of the EGM were approved by the shareholders. More information including details of the votes will be available soon on UCB's website: https://www.ucb.com/investors/UCB-shareholders/Shareholders-meeting-2020.

The Integrated Annual Report 2019 of UCB is available on UCB's website: https://www.ucb.com/investors/Download-center. 

The financial results for the first half year 2020 will be published on 27 July 2020. 

Next year's General Meeting will be held on 29 April 2021.

For further information, UCB:

Investor Relations
Antje Witte          
Investor Relations, UCB
T +32.2.559.94.14 antje.witte@ucb.com

Isabelle Ghellynck,
 Investor Relations, UCB
T+32.2.559.9588, isabelle.ghellynck@ucb.com 

Corporate Communications
Laurent Schots 
Media Relations, UCB  
T+32.2.559.92.64  Laurent.schots@ucb.com 

About UCB
UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With 7 500 people in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of € 4.9 billion in 2019. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news.

Forward looking statements UCB

This press release may contain forward-looking statements including, without limitation, statements containing the words “believes”, “anticipates”, “expects”, “intends”, “plans”, “seeks”, “estimates”, “may”, “will”, “continue” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on current plans, estimates and beliefs of management. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial information, expected legal, arbitration, political, regulatory or clinical results or practices and other such estimates and results. By their nature, such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions which might cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of UCB, or industry results, to differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Important factors that could result in such differences include: the global spread and impact of COVID-19, changes in general economic, business and competitive conditions, the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals or to obtain them on acceptable terms or within expected timing, costs associated with research and development, changes in the prospects for products in the pipeline or under development by UCB, effects of future judicial decisions or governmental investigations, safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, product liability claims, challenges to patent protection for products or product candidates, competition from other products including biosimilars, changes in laws or regulations, exchange rate fluctuations, changes or uncertainties in tax laws or the administration of such laws, and hiring and retention of its employees. There is no guarantee that new product candidates will be discovered or identified in the pipeline, will progress to product approval or that new indications for existing products will be developed and approved. Movement from concept to commercial product is uncertain; preclinical results do not guarantee safety and efficacy of product candidates in humans. So far, the complexity of the human body cannot be reproduced in computer models, cell culture systems or animal models. The length of the timing to complete clinical trials and to get regulatory approval for product marketing has varied in the past and UCB expects similar unpredictability going forward. Products or potential products which are the subject of partnerships, joint ventures or licensing collaborations may be subject to differences disputes between the partners or may prove to be not as safe, effective or commercially successful as UCB may have believed at the start of such partnership. UCB’ efforts to acquire other products or companies and to integrate the operations of such acquired companies may not be as successful as UCB may have believed at the moment of acquisition. Also, UCB or others could discover safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with its products and/or devices after they are marketed. The discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of UCB’s products that implicate an entire class of products may have a material adverse effect on sales of the entire class of affected products. Moreover, sales may be impacted by international and domestic trends toward managed care and health care cost containment, including pricing pressure, political and public scrutiny, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, and the reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers as well as legislation affecting biopharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement activities and outcomes. Finally, a breakdown, cyberattack or information security breach could compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of UCB’s data and systems. 

Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on any of such forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products potentially described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labelling in any market, or at any particular time, nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be or will continue to be commercially successful in the future.
UCB is providing this information, including forward-looking statements, only as of the date of this press release and it does not reflect any potential impact from the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, unless indicated otherwise. UCB is following the worldwide developments diligently to assess the financial significance of this pandemic to UCB. UCB expressly disclaims any duty to update any information contained in this press release, either to confirm the actual results or to report or reflect any change in its forward-looking statements with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, unless such statement is required pursuant to applicable laws and regulations.