Milan, April 28, 2009 – The Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting of Il Sole 24 ORE S.p.A., chaired today by Cav. Lav. Dr. Giancarlo Cerutti, approved FY08 financial statements and distribution of a dividend of €0.098 for special-category shares, and €0.0717 for ordinary shares, made payable on May 7, 2009, with coupon detachment on May 4, 2009, to shares outstanding on coupon detachment date.
The Meeting confirmed the previous co-optation and appointed Giampaolo Galli andGiovanni Lettieri as non-executive directors of the Company, replacing Maurizio Beretta and Paolo Zegna, respectively. Upon the date of their appointment, Giampaolo Galli and Giovanni Lettieri held no stakes in Il Sole 24 ORE S.p.A. The CVs of the two new directors can be found in the Governance section of the Company's website
(www.gruppo24ore.com).
The Meeting also confirmed Maria Silvani as Chairman of the Board of Auditors of Il Sole 24 Ore S.p.A.
Finally the Meeting extended the authorisation for the disposal of treasury shares for a further 18 months, to service both the employee stock-granting plan and the
management stock-option plan.
Approval of FY08 financial statements and dividend.
In FY08, 24 ORE Group consolidated revenues amounted to €573 million, in line with the €572.1 million in FY07. EBITDA reached €49.3 million vs. €64.4 million of the previous year. Group profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company came to €16.1 million vs. €27.7 million in 2007.
The Parent Company closed FY08 with a turnover of €486.2 million vs. €512.6 million in FY07. EBITDA amounted to €41.8 million vs. €57.9 million of the previous year. Net profit amounted to €20.9 million, down €16.5 million vs. 2007, which had, however, benefited from the capital gain from the disposal of the entire stake in the London Stock Exchange Group (€13.3 million).
As far as the dividend is concerned, the Meeting passed the proposal to distribute an overall dividend of €10.13 million, of which €3.68 million to the holders of specialcategory shares (€0.098 for each of the 37,521,737 outstanding special-category shares) and €6.45 million to the holders of ordinary shares (€0.0717 for each of the 90,000,000 outstanding ordinary shares). The residual amount of net profit, amounting to €10.8million, was carried forward. The dividend premium payable under Company bylaws to treasury shares was reallocated to the outstanding special-category shares.
For further information:
Gruppo 24 ORE Press Office:
Ginevra Cozzi - Tel. 02/3022.4945 – Mobile. 335/1350144
PMS: Fabio Marando – Mobile. 329/4605000
English translation by CAP Q (Capital Quality Translations) www.cap-q.net