At its meeting held today, the Board of Directors of Orion Corporation has decided to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Shareholders of Orion Corporation on Tuesday, 14 September 2004. The Board of Directors proposes that, in addition to the dividend approved by the Annual General Meeting on 22 March 2004, an additional dividend of EUR 2.14 per share be paid on the basis of the Balance Sheet for the financial year that ended on 31 December 2003.
The Board of Directors emphasises the extraordinary nature of the proposed additional dividend and the fact that the dividend does not mean any change in the dividend policy of the company published by the Board. The proposed additional dividend will reduce the share subscription prices of Orion's stock option plans in accordance with the terms. The proposed additional dividend would be deemed as a special dividend differing from the company's normal dividend policy, as meant in section II.3 of the terms and conditions of the Orion Corporation 2001 Stock Option Plan. Therefore, the share subscription price for stock options 2001C and 2001D would be reduced by the amount of the additional dividend.
If the Extraordinary General Meeting approves the Board of Directors' proposal, the additional dividend will be paid to Orion Corporation shareholders entered in the shareholders' register maintained by the Finnish Central Securities Depository Ltd. on the record date, on 17 September 2004. The date of the dividend payment would be 24 September 2004.
Shareholders being entered in the company's shareholder register maintained by the Finnish Central Securities Depository Ltd. on no later than 3 September 2004 have the right to attend the Extraordinary General Meeting. Also those shareholders whose shares have not been entered in the book-entry securities system shall have the right to attend the Extraordinary General Meeting, provided the conditions set forth in Chapter 3a, Section 4, Paragraph 2 of the Finnish Companies Act have been met.
The English version of the Invitation to the Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting will be available on the Orion Group homepage orion.fi as of Thursday, 12 August 2004.
Orion Corporation
Jukka Viinanen Olli Huotari
President and CEO General Counsel
President and CEO General Counsel
Contact persons:
Jukka Viinanen, President and CEO, phone +358 10 429 3710
Jari Karlson, CFO, phone +358 10 429 2883, gsm +358 50 429 2883
Publisher:
Orion Corporation
Corporate Administration
Orionintie 1A, FIN-02200 Espoo
Homepage: www.orion.fi