NEW YORK and STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 12, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Tele2 AB ("Tele2") (Nasdaq:TLTOA) (Nasdaq:TLTOB) (Stockholmsborsen: TEL2A and TEL2B), the leading alternative pan-European telecommunications company, today announced that the company's Annual General Meeting (AGM) of shareholders held today in Stockholm re-elected Marc Beuls, Vigo Carlund, Sven Hagstromer, John Shakeshaft and Cristina Stenbeck as Board Members. Jan Loeber was elected as a new member of the Board of Directors and the accounting firm Deloitte & Touch was elected auditor with Tommy Martensson as auditor in charge.
The AGM decided on a dividend for the fiscal year 2003 of SEK 3 per share. Monday May 17, 2004 was decided as the record date for the dividend. With this record date, it is estimated that the dividend will be sent out from VPC on Friday, May 21, 2004.
The AGM re-elected Marc Beuls, Vigo Carlund, Sven Hagstromer, John Shakeshaft and Cristina Stenbeck as Board Members and elected Jan Loeber as a new member of the Board of Directors. Jan Loeber has broad experience of the telecom industry, having held the positions of CEO of Nokia's North American operations, Deputy Chief Executive of Alcatel Business Services, CEO of Unitel UK (precursor company to Mercury one-2-one) as well as founder and CEO of Hermes Europe Railtel. He is an advisor to the Board of Interxion Holding NV and Chairman of Newfound Communications.
The registered accounting firm Deloitte & Touche AB, with Tommy Martensson as auditor in charge, was elected auditor for a period of four years.
To enable further stock options to be granted under the incentive programme adopted at the AGM held on May 16, 2002, an authorisation was given for the Board of Directors to, on one or several occasions during the period until the next AGM, issue subordinated debentures with no more than 217,300 detachable warrants. The right to subscribe for debentures shall, disregarding the shareholders' preferential rights, be given to wholly owned subsidiaries in the Group.
The AGM decided that holders of Class A shares shall be entitled to reclassify Class A shares into Class B shares, whereby each Class A share shall be reclassified into one Class B share. Request for reclassification can be made commencing on May 17, 2004 and up to and including June 15, 2004 by application on a special form, which will be submitted to the holders of Class A shares no later than May 17, 2004 and which will also be available at the company and on the company's website.
The AGM resolved to approve that Cristina Stenbeck, as Chairman of the nomination group, will chair the procedure for the nomination of Board Directors for the AGM 2005. The nomination group will be created this autumn in consultation with at least three major shareholders and the composition of the group will be communicated in the financial report for the third quarter 2004.
At a statutory Board meeting following the AGM, Sven Hagstromer was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The statutory Board meeting also appointed an audit committee and a remuneration committee. John Shakeshaft was appointed Chairman and Jan Loeber member of the audit committee. Sven Hagstromer was appointed Chairman and John Shakeshaft and Cristina Stenbeck were appointed members of the remuneration committee.
CONTACTS Lars-Johan Jarnheimer President and CEO, Tele2 AB Telephone: + 46 8 562 640 00 Hakan Zadler CFO, Tele2 AB Telephone: + 46 8 562 640 00 Dwayne Taylor, Investor enquiries Telephone: + 44 20 7321 5038 Lena Glader, Investor enquiries Telephone: + 46 70 762 0046 Visit us at our homepage: http://www.Tele2.com
Tele2 is Europe's leading and profitable alternative telecom operator. With our unique values, we provide cheap and simple telecom for all Europeans every day. We have over 23 million customers in 24 countries. We offer products and services in fixed and mobile telephony, Internet access, data networks, cable TV and content services. Our main competitors are the former government monopolies. Tele2 was founded in 1993 by Jan Stenbeck and has been listed on Stockholmsborsen since 1996. The share has also been listed on Nasdaq since 1997. In 2003 we had net sales of SEK 36,911 million and reported a profit of SEK 5,710 million (EBITDA). Tele2 always strives to offer the market's best prices.
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