UCB’s General Meeting of Shareholders 2023
Brussels (Belgium), 27 April 2023 – 18:00 (CEST) (regulated information) – Today, UCB held its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM). The company offered the choice to UCB shareholders to either participate in-person or to cast their vote by proxy. At the AGM, 81,04% of shares entitled to vote were represented.
The message of Mr. Jean-Christophe Tellier, Chief Executive Officer of UCB, published at the occasion of this general meeting, is available on the UCB website.
During his speech, Mr. Tellier commented: “2022 was a challenging year where we faced headwinds but also garnered notable successes. This has enabled us to move into 2023 with a strong pipeline, a record number of potential medicines that are undergoing regulatory review and a string of potential launches to come in numerous indications. We started well into the year 2023 and are aligned with our financial guidance 2023. Looking at UCB today, we have built solid foundations, allowing us to focus on the execution of our strategy and launch the medicines that will sustain our growth in the coming years.”
The AGM approved for the fiscal year 2022 the payment of a gross dividend of € 1.33 per share (net dividend of € 0.931 per share) compared to € 1.30 per share for 2021 (net € 0.91). The ex-dividend date is 28 April 2023, the dividend (coupon no. 26) will be payable as of 03 May 2023.
During the AGM, several renewals of members of the Board composition were approved. The AGM renewed the mandates of Mrs. Jan Berger as independent director for a term of 4 years and the mandate of Mr. Cyril Janssen as director for a term of 4 years. Mrs. Viviane Monges stepped down from the Board of Directors and Audit Committee. To replace her, the AGM approved for a term of 4 years the appointment of Mrs. Maëlys Castella as new independent director. Mrs. Castella is a seasoned finance and business leader in areas including Strategy, Sustainability, Finance and Innovation. Mrs. Maëlys Castella also replaces Mrs. Viviane Monges as member 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 were approved by the shareholders. More information including details of the votes will be available soon on UCB's website.
The Integrated Annual Report 2022 of UCB can be downloaded on UCB's website at https://www.ucb.com/investors/Download-center or is available on the online portal at https://reports.ucb.com/.
The financial results for the first half year 2023 will be published on 27 July 2023.
Next year's General Meeting will be held on 25 April 2024.
For further information, contact UCB:
Investor Relations
Antje Witte
Investor Relations, UCB
T +32.2.559.9414
antje.witte@ucb.com
Global Communications
Laurent Schots
Media Relations, UCB
T+32.2.559.9264
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 approximately 8 700 people in 36 countries, the company generated revenue of € 5.5 billion in 2022. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news
Forward looking statements
This press release contains 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 pandemics (such as COVID-19), wars on territories where UCB has businesses, 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, 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 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 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.
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