Zurich shareholders approve dividend of CHF 17 and elect Catherine P. Bessant to the Board of Directors

At today’s Annual General Meeting Zurich’s shareholders approved a dividend of CHF 17.00 and elected Catherine P. Bessant to the Board of Directors. Shareholders approved all agenda items.

At the Annual General Meeting of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd (Zurich) today, shareholders approved an unchanged dividend of CHF 17.00 per registered share for the 2016 financial year. It will be paid partially out of the available earnings for 2016 and partially out of the capital contribution reserve. The portion paid from the capital contribution reserve will be exempt from Swiss withholding tax. The dividend will be paid starting April 4, 2017.

Group CEO Mario Greco commented: "We appreciate the trust and confidence that shareholders have placed in us today. The Group is very strongly capitalized. The additional flexibility provided by the capital proposals will be managed in a responsible manner and, among others, will allow the Group to consider the use of alternative forms of re-financing that are more cost effective and further improve our resilience in times of stress. We have made clear at our Investor Day in November that the Group has many strengths and a strong platform from which to develop our strategy organically and to deliver against our 2017-2019 financial targets, which remain our priority.”

In an advisory vote, 88.76% of shareholders approved the remuneration report 2016. They also approved a maximum total remuneration of the Board of Directors in the amount of CHF 5.0 million for the period until the next Annual General Meeting with 98.37% voting in favor. They also voted in favor of a maximum total remuneration of the Executive Committee of CHF 74.3 million for the financial year 2018 with 92.17% in favor. The remuneration reports will continue to be presented to shareholders in an advisory vote in the years to come.

Shareholders elected Catherine P. Bessant to the Board of Directors with 99.35% in favor. They also re-elected Tom de Swaan as Chairman for a further term of office of one year. All other members of the Board of Directors were also re-elected for another one-year term of office.

Tom de Swaan, Christoph Franz, Fred Kindle and Kishore Mahbubani were re-elected for another one-year term as members of the Remuneration Committee.

PricewaterhouseCoopers AG, Zurich, was re-elected as auditor for the 2017 financial year.

The shareholders also approved an increase in authorized and contingent share capital as proposed by the Board of Directors in its invitation to the Annual General Meeting, dated March 2, 2017, with 81.05 % of the votes and capital represented.

Shareholders at the Annual General Meeting also approved all other agenda items. There were 1,865 shareholders (incl. proxies), representing 70,898,380 registered shares or 66.31% of the shares entitled to vote, at the meeting in Zurich.

Detailed results of all votes will be published on www.zurich.com on March 30, 2017.

In its constituent meeting held after the Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors re-elected Fred Kindle as Vice-Chairman.

The Board of Directors (all CV to be found here) and the committees now consist of the following members:

• Tom de Swaan, Chairman
• Fred Kindle, Vice-Chairman
• Joan Amble
• Catherine P. Bessant
• Susan Bies
• Dame Alison Carnwath
• Christoph Franz
• Jeffrey L. Hayman
• Monica Mächler
• Kishore Mahbubani
• David Nish

Remuneration Committee

• Christoph Franz, Chairperson
• Tom de Swaan
• Fred Kindle
• Kishore Mahbubani

Audit Committee

• Joan Amble, Chairperson
• Catherine P. Bessant
• Susan Bies
• Monica Mächler
• David Nish

Risk and Investment Committee

• Susan Bies, Chairperson
• Joan Amble
• Dame Alison Carnwath
• Jeffrey L. Hayman
• Monica Mächler
• Kishore Mahbubani

Governance, Nominations and Corporate Responsibility Committee

• Tom de Swaan, Chairperson
• Dame Alison Carnwath
• Christoph Franz
• Jeffrey L. Hayman
• Fred Kindle

Further information

More information about corporate governance can be found here.