The shareholders in Hilbert Group AB (publ), corporate identity number 559105-2948 (“Hilbert Group” or “the company”), are hereby summoned to the Annual General Meeting to be held on Friday, May 24, 2024 at 10.00 AM in the office of Advokatfirman Nerpin, Birger Jarlsgatan 2, 3rd floor in Stockholm.
A. Entitlement to participation and notification
Shareholders who wish to participate in the EGM must: (i) be recorded in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB ("Euroclear") as of Thursday, May 16, 2024, and (ii) notify the company of their intention to participate in the EGM no later than Friday, May 17, 2024. The notice may be done in writing by post to Hilbert Group AB, c/o Advokatfirman Nerpin, Mailbox 545, SE-114 11 Stockholm, or by e-mail to ir@hilbert.group, or by telephone to +46 8 502 353 00. When registering to attend, the shareholder must provide name, personal identity number or registration number, address, and telephone number, as well as the number of any advisors (no more than two).
Shareholders whose shares are nominee-registered must temporarily re-register their shares in their own name in the shareholders’ register maintained by Euroclear in order to participate in the EGM. Voting rights registrations made no later than the second banking day after the record date May 16, 2024 will be taken into account in the preparation of the share register. Shareholders must, in accordance with the respective nominee’s routines, in due time before said date, request their nominee to carry out such voting rights registration.
If the shareholder is represented by a proxy, a written and dated power of attorney, signed by the shareholder, is to be issued to the proxy. The power of attorney or any other documents of authorization, such as a copy of the registration certificate, is to be provided at the EGM. Any power of attorney or other document of authorization should also be enclosed in the notice to attend the EGM. A form of proxy is available on the company’s website, www.hilbert.group.
B. Shareholders’ right to request information
The board of directors and the CEO shall, if any shareholders so requests, and if the board of directors considers that it can be done without significant harm for the company, give information on circumstances that can affect the assessment of an item on the agenda and the company’s relation to other group companies.
Proposed agenda
Motions for resolution
Item 2 - Election of chairman at the Annual General Meeting
The Board of Directors proposes that the Chairman of the Board, Erik Nerpin, be elected Chairman of the Annual General Meeting.
Item 9 - Resolution on dispositions regarding the company's profit according to the approved balance sheet
The Board of Directors proposes that no profit dividend be paid and that disposable profits be capitalized in a new account.
Item 11 - Determination of the number of board members
A group of shareholders who together represent approximately 60 per cent of the voting rights in Hilbert Group (the “Principal Shareholders”) has submitted the proposals outlined under items 11-16 below.
The Principal Shareholders propose that the number of Board members be five.
Item 12 - Determination of the number of auditors and deputy auditors
The Principal Shareholders propose that a registered auditing company without a deputy be appointed as auditor.
Item 13 - Determination of fees to the Board
The Principal Shareholders propose that the yearly fee to the Chairman of the Board shall be SEK 200,000 and that the yearly fee to other Board members elected by the Annual General Meeting who are not employees of the company shall be SEK 125,000 each.
Item 14 - Determination of fees to the auditor
The Principal Shareholders propose that fees to the auditor be paid in accordance with an approved invoice.
Item 15 - Election of board members and chairman of the board
The Principal Shareholders propose re-election of the Board members Erik Nerpin, Frode Foss-Skiftesvik, David Butler, Stuart Connolly and Tim Grant for the period until the end of the next Annual General Meeting. Furthermore, it is proposed that Erik Nerpin be re-elected Chairman of the Board.
Item 16 - Election of auditor and any deputy auditors
The Principal Shareholders propose re-election of the registered auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers AB as auditor for the period until the end of the next Annual General Meeting. The principal auditor will be the authorized public accountant Johan Engstam.
Item 17 - Resolution authorizing the Board of Directors to decide on the issue of shares and/or warrants
The Board of Directors proposes that the Annual General Meeting resolves to authorize the Board of Directors to, on one or more occasions, during the period up to the next Annual General Meeting, decide on the issue of shares and/or warrants with or without preferential rights for shareholders. The Board of Directors may decide that such issues be made with a provision on non-cash, set-off or cash payment.
The purpose of the authorization and the reasons for any deviation from the shareholders' preferential rights is that issues should be able to take place to increase the company's financial flexibility and enable the company to finance any company acquisitions fully or partially by issuing financial instruments, alternatively to raise capital for expansion of the Company’s business.
The Board, or the person appointed by the Board, shall have the right to make the minor adjustments to the AGM's resolutions that may prove necessary in connection with registration with the Swedish Companies Registration Office.
Item 18 –Resolution to amend the Employee Stock Option Plan resolved by the Annual General Meeting 2023
Background
At the 2023 Annual General Meeting, it was resolved to implement an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP 2023) for employees and consultants in Hilbert Group AB (including its subsidiaries).
In summary, under the terms and conditions of ESO 2023 the participants are allotted, free of charge, options to acquire Class B shares in Hilbert Group ("Options"). A maximum of 2,500,000 Options may be allotted to the participants. The subscription price upon exercise of the Warrants is SEK 6.41 per share.
According to the original terms and conditions, the Options shall vest over a three-year period, after which the Options, subject to certain conditions stating that the participant is still employed by Hilbert Group, may be exercised for subscription of shares.
The Board of Directors proposes that the terms and conditions for vesting of the Options be amended so that one third of the number of allotted Options are vested each year during the term of the Options and that the Options can be exercised for subscription of new shares after vesting. The reason for the proposal is to make the Options more competitive in relation to similar option programs in Hilbert Group's competitors. Hilbert Group conducts its business mainly in Malta and has no operations in Sweden. The employees are Hilbert Group's most important asset and the Board of Directors believes that this improvement for the employees is also an advantage for Hilbert Group's shareholders.
The terms and conditions of the Options, including the above proposed amendments to items 5 and 6, are set out below.
Conditions for Options
The following conditions shall apply for the Options.
Item 19 - Resolution to issue warrants and approval of transfer of warrants
In order to ensure the delivery of shares under ESOP 2023, and for hedging of potential social security costs, the Board of Directors proposes that the AGM resolves to issue not more than 3,000,000 warrants (which include 500,000 warrants to potentially hedge social security costs), whereby the company’s share capital could be increased by not more than SEK 150,000.
The right to subscribe for the warrants shall, with deviation from the shareholders’ pre-emptive rights, only be granted a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilbert Group AB. The reason for the deviation from the shareholders’ pre-emptive rights is the implementation of ESOP 2023.
The subsidiary shall be entitled to transfer the warrants to participants or a financial intermediary in connection with exercise.
The Board proposes that the meeting resolves to issue warrants with the terms and conditions stated below. The conditions are essentially identical to the conditions decided at the AGM 2023.
The Board of Directors, or the person appointed by the Board of Directors, shall have the right to make the minor adjustments to the above resolutions that may prove necessary in connection with registration with the Swedish Companies Registration Office.
Item 20 - Resolution on principles for the appointment of a Nomination Committee and instructions for the Nomination Committee
It is proposed that the Annual General Meeting resolves on principles for the appointment of a Nomination Committee and instructions for the Nomination Committee as described below.
The company shall have a nomination committee consisting of a representative for each of the three largest shareholders in the company as of the last banking day in September the year before the AGM. In addition, the Chairman of the Board shall be a member of the Nomination Committee.
The chairman of the Nomination Committee shall, unless the members agree otherwise, be the member who represents the largest shareholder in terms of the number of votes. The Chairman of the Board or another Board member shall not be the Chairman of the Nomination Committee unless the members agree otherwise. Board members may be members of the Nomination Committee but shall not constitute a majority of its members. The CEO or another person from the company management shall not be a member of the Nomination Committee.
The names of the members of the Nomination Committee and the shareholders they have been appointed by shall be published no later than six months before the next Annual General Meeting. The Nomination Committee is appointed for a term of office until a new Nomination Committee is appointed.
The Nomination Committee shall carry out its assignment in accordance with these instructions and applicable rules and prepare proposals in the following matters to be submitted to the Annual General Meeting for decision:
Other information
Number of shares and votes
At the time of issuing this notice, the total number of shares in the company is 60,895,995 divided into 8,500,000 A-shares (carrying ten votes) and 52,395,995 B-shares (carrying one vote). The total number of votes is 137,395,995. The company does not hold any own shares.
Majority requirements
A resolution pursuant to item 17 on the proposed agenda requires for its validity that it is supported by shareholders with at least two-thirds of both the votes cast and the shares represented at the Annual General Meeting.
A resolution pursuant to item 19 on the proposed agenda requires for its validity that it is supported by shareholders with at least nine-tenths of both the votes cast and the shares represented at the Annual General Meeting.
Other resolutions are valid with simple majority.
Available documents
The Annual Report for 2023 will be kept available at the company for at least three weeks before the Annual General Meeting. The Annual Report will also be available on the company's website, www.hilbert.group.
Copies of the above documents are also sent to the shareholders who request it and state their postal address.
Processing of personal data
For information on how your personal data is processed, see https://www.euroclear.com/dam/ESw/Legal/Integritetspolicy-bolagsstammor-svenska.pdf.
HILBERT GROUP AB (publ)
Stockholm, April 2024
Board of Directors
For further information, please contact:
Erik Nerpin
Chairman of the board – Hilbert Group AB
+46 (0)8 122 123 50
erik.nerpin@advokatnerpin.com