The Board of Directors of Autoliv Inc. (NYSE: ALV and SSE: ALIV sdb) – the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems – today declared a quarterly dividend to shareholders of 50 cents per share for the first quarter of 2013.
The dividend declared today will be payable on Thursday, March 7, 2013 to Autoliv shareholders of record on the close of business on Thursday, February 21, 2013. The ex-date when the shares will trade without the right to the dividend will be Tuesday, February 19.
The dividend paid to shareholders in the fourth quarter of 2012 – on December 6 – was also 50 cents per share. That dividend was an increase of 6% from the dividend of 47 cents per share paid in each of the third and second quarters of 2012, which in turn was 4% higher than the dividend of 45 cents per share paid in the first quarter of 2012.
The total dividend to be paid in the first quarter of 2013 will amount to approximately $48 million, based on the current number of shares outstanding of 95.5 million.
Shareholder AGM
The Board of Directors set Tuesday May 7, 2013 as the date for the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to be held in Chicago, IL, USA.
Only holders of record at the close of business on March 11, 2013 will be entitled to be present and vote at the Meeting. Notice of the General Meeting will be mailed to the holders of record in the last week of March 2013.
Changes in the Board
Also at today’s meeting, Prof. Walter Kunerth, who recently turned 72, offered his resignation from the Board in accordance with Autoliv policy regarding director age limits. The Board accepted his resignation, effective at the conclusion of the Board meeting today, and thanked Prof. Kunerth for his long and distinguished service to the Board since first being elected as a director of Autoliv in 1998.
Under the rules of the New York Stock Exchange, listed companies with staggered boards should, if possible, have classes of equal size. Following Prof. Kunerth’s resignation, Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, whose term as a director would have otherwise expired in 2015, agreed to be reclassified to the class standing for election in 2013. As a result, Autoliv now has three classes of directors, each consisting of three directors.
