| Company Announcement No. 8 2020 |
Copenhagen, 20 March 2020
Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s Annual General Meeting – Precautionary measures in relation to coronavirus (COVID-19)
Scandinavian Tobacco Group intends to conduct its Annual General Meeting on 26 March 2020 at 4.30 pm as scheduled while following the requirements and recommendations from the authorities in light of the coronavirus.
In order to minimise the risk of spreading the virus and to ensure compliance with the requirement by law that at no time will more than ten people be gathered in the same room/group, we have decided to implement certain precautionary measures. We are taking these measures to ensure the safety of all and hope for your understanding.
Change of venue
The venue of the Annual General Meeting has changed, and the meeting will take place at the company’s offices at Sandtoften 9, 2820 Gentofte, Denmark.
Follow the general meeting via webcast
We encourage our shareholders not to attend the general meeting in person.
Instead of attending in person, our shareholders have the opportunity to follow the general meeting via live webcast transmission on the Investor Portal (available on the website http://investor.st-group.com). The general meeting and the webcast will commence on 26 March 2020 at 4.30 pm.
Read the report from the Board of Directors online
The Report of the Board of Directors on the Company’s activities during the past financial year (item 1 of the agenda) will be made available at the Company’s website (http://investor.st-group.com/corporate-governance/annual-meeting-2020) on 23 March 2020. On the same date it will be sent via email to those shareholders who have provided their email address.
The short presentation with the agenda etc. that will be used during the meeting will also be available on the website (http://investor.st-group.com/corporate-governance/annual-meeting-2020) at the day of the meeting.
Vote by post or by proxy
We encourage our shareholders to vote without being physically present at the general meeting either by postal voting or by granting a proxy to the Board of Directors. You do so by accessing the Investor Portal at http://investor.st-group.com.
Due to the exceptional circumstances, we have extended the deadline for granting proxies and for electronic postal voting on the Investor Portal to 26 March 2020 at 12.00 noon. Please see the notice convening the Annual General Meeting for further information.
If you have already ordered an admission card, please note that you are anyhow able to vote by post and to give a proxy to the Board of Directors instead of attending the meeting.
No catering and only few representatives from Scandinavian Tobacco Group
For those who - irrespective of our recommendations - wish to attend in person, we recommend that you attend unaccompanied. Please arrive no later than at 4.15 pm and line up outside the building while keeping 2 meters distance to others.
Please also note that this year we will not have catering at the general meeting.
To reduce the risk of spreading the infection as much as possible, the only representatives of Scandinavian Tobacco Group's Board of Directors and Management will be the Vice-chairman of the Board of Directors Henrik Brandt and CEO Niels Frederiksen. To ensure that no more than 10 people are present in the same room, you may be directed to a separate room and have to follow the general meeting via video from there.
Shareholders attending the general meeting are strongly requested to follow the hygiene instructions from the Danish Health Authority (see www.sst.dk) and WHO: Please keep good hand hygiene (i.e. use a hand sanitizer/wash hands upon arrival) and remember to cough/sneeze into paper tissues or the crook of the elbow.
We are closely following the authorities’ recommendations
We are closely following the authorities’ recommendations and urge all shareholders to follow the instructions of the Danish Health Authority (see www.sst.dk), including the strong recommendation to stay home for 14 days if you have returned from travel abroad (see www.um.dk), if you have been in contact with infected persons or if you experience any of the described symptoms (fever, cough or troubled breathing).
Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S
The Board of Directors
For further information, please contact:
Investors: Torben Sand, Head of Investor Relations,
phone: +45 5084 7222 or torben.sand@st-group.com
Media: Simon Mehl Augustesen, Director of Group Communications,
phone: +1 484-379-8725 or simon.augustesen@st-group.com
About Scandinavian Tobacco Group
Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S is a world leading manufacturer of cigars and pipe tobacco with an annual production of four billion cigars and 5,000 tonnes of pipe and fine-cut tobacco.
The Group holds market-leading positions in several categories and has a portfolio of more than 200 global and local brands.
Scandinavian Tobacco Group has its headquarter in Copenhagen, Denmark – and employs approximately 11,000 people in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. For more information please visit www.st-group.com
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