New CEO Dr. Christoph Wolff places emphasis on the expansion of the solar technology portfolio, the strengthening of the project pipeline, the presence in future markets such as North Africa and Asia as well as the devel
Solar Millennium AG (ISIN DE0007218406) held its Annual General Meeting in the Heinrich-Lades Hall in Erlangen. Nearly 400 shareholders, shareholder representatives, journalists and guests participated in this year’s event.
The new Chairman of the Executive Board of Solar Millennium AG, Dr. Christoph Wolff, who was appointed in January 2011, introduced himself to the shareholders and presented the first item on the agenda with information on the past fiscal year. In his presentation, Dr. Wolff also reported on progress made in the current projects Blythe in the US as well as Andasol 3, Ibersol and the new Arenales project in Spain, and presented the strategy for the company’s medium to long-term future.
This mainly includes the strengthening of the product pipeline through many and also smaller projects and the expansion of the market presence in markets of the future such as Northern Africa and Asia. Moreover, Solar Millennium intends to increasingly offer industry solutions such as the hybridization of gas and steam power plants, the combination of solar fields and conventional technology or electricity supplies for mining sites through solar thermal power plants. Dr. Wolff also held out the prospect of expanding the portfolio to include other solar technologies such as the solar tower and photovoltaics in addition to further developing parabolic trough systems. The new Chairman of the Executive Board anticipates that this bundle of measures will leverage synergy effects and stabilize total operating performance and earnings development.
In his glimpse back at the most important events of the lapsed fiscal year, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Helmut Pflaumer, expressed his thanks to the employees of the Solar Millennium Group and summarized the facts regarding the former CEO Prof. Dr. Utz Claassen from the time he took office to his resignation.
In the subsequent general discussion, the questions from shareholder representatives of SdK, DSW and VFA as well as those from some individual shareholders were answered in detail by the Executive Board and Supervisory Board members.
With a presence of some 4.3 million no-par value shares, equaling 34% of the share capital, all items on the agenda requiring a resolution were adopted with a clear majority. In the scope of the second item on the agenda, the proposal by the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board to set aside half of the 2009/2010 net income totaling € 6,555,074.78 in other retained earnings, and to carry forward the other half, was adopted with a 96.9% majority.
The resolution on agenda items 3 and 4 involved a postponement of the exoneration of the members of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board for fiscal year 2009/2010 (90.1% and 77.7%, respectively). The Executive Board and Supervisory Board made this proposal on the grounds that the General Meeting should be offered as much transparency as possible for their decisions on the exoneration of the members of the executive bodies. This is why it was suggested to wait for the results of the special internal audit currently carried out by the internationally renowned law firm Skadden Arps, which specializes in corporate law.
The objective of the special audit is to clarify the accusations made in connection with the legal dispute. Dr. Bernd Mayer, Partner at Skadden Arps, informed the shareholders of the exact assignment and extent of the audit. Dr. Mayer announced the interim result of the audit, stating that the accusations expressed by Prof. Claassen in his lawsuit and the grounds for suspicion had not yet been confirmed. Dr. Mayer also announced that the results of the audit can be expected in August 2011. In the course of the general discussion, the VFA representative filed an application for a special audit pursuant to § 142 of the German Stock Corporation Act (Aktiengesetz), which was not approved with reference to the special audit already under way.
In the bounds of the fifth item on the agenda, the proposal of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board concerning the remuneration of the Supervisory Board in the 2009/2010 fiscal year was accepted with a 74.5% majority.
With regard to agenda item six, the last item on the AGM agenda, 92.0% of the shareholders voted in favor of reappointing the auditing firm Deloitte & Touche GmbH, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Nuremberg branch, for the fiscal year 2010/2011.
Solar Millennium AG, Erlangen, (ISIN DE0007218406) is an international company in the renewable energy sector, with its main focus on solar-thermal power plants. Together with its subsidiaries and associates, the Company specializes in parabolic trough power plants and has managed to take a globally leading position in this field. Solar Millennium strives to further extend its expertise in the area of solar-thermal power plants with the aim of achieving and securing sustainable technology leadership.
As such, the Company covers all important business sectors along the value chain for solar-thermal power plants: from project development and financing to the technology and the turnkey construction and operation of power plants. In Spain, Solar Millennium developed Europe’s first parabolic trough power plants and realized these together with partners. Additional projects are planned around the world with an overall capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts: here the current regional focus is on Spain, the US, the Middle East and North Africa.
Solar-thermal power plants generate electricity by converting solar radiation into heat energy. In a parabolic trough power plant, trough-shaped mirrors concentrate the incidental radiation onto a pipe in the focal line of the collector. Its absorption heats a fluid heat medium in the pipe, generating steam in the power block through a heat exchanger. As in conventional power plants, the steam powers a turbine to generate electricity. By integrating thermal storage, electricity can be supplied on demand, even after sunset.
