Annual General Meeting of VP Bank: All motions accepted
The 55th ordinary Annual General Meeting of VP Bank was attended by 435 shareholders. The 2017 annual reports of VP Bank Group and of VP Bank AG, Vaduz, as well as the 2017 annual result were approved. The Board of Directors and the Auditors were discharged. Ernst & Young was re-elected for a further one-year period of office as group and company auditor.
Higher dividend distribution
The Annual General Meeting approved the utilisation of profits proposed by the Board of Directors and resolved to distribute a dividend of CHF 5.50 per registered share A and CHF 0.55 per registered share B. The dividends will be paid out on 4 May 2018. The dividend was agreed on the basis of the dividend policy defined by the Board of Directors, whereby VP Bank aims to achieve a consistent dividend performance. The Board of Directors of VP Bank based the dividend proposal for the 2017 financial year on a profit of CHF 65.8 million.
Re-elections and new election to the Board of Directors
Fredy Vogt and Dr Florian Marxer, whose terms of office had expired, were re-elected to the Board of Directors of VP Bank for further three-year terms of office. Fredy Vogt was confirmed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors that was held directly following the Annual General Meeting.
Dr Thomas R. Meier was elected as a new member of the Board of Directors with a three-year period of office. He has more than three decades of international experience within the banking sector, specialising in Asia. By this means, the Board of Directors is further strengthening its own expertise, while safeguarding its long-term succession planning.
Successful 2017 financial year
VP Bank is looking back at a very successful annual result. In conjunction with the measures that have been taken, a 9.8 percent increase in operating earnings, a 13.4 percent rise in group net income and 13 percent growth in client assets under management means that VP Bank has made great progress towards achieving its strategic goals.
The digitalisation strategy, which is scheduled to take three years to complete, proceeded according to plan in 2017. The VP Bank digitalisation strategy entails modernising the communications channels between clients and VP Bank as well as expanding the online services. This will continue to be pursued in 2018 with extensive projects, encompassing inter alia VP Bank’s new e-banking.
VP Bank brand and mission statement
Work was done on numerous elements of the VP Bank brand in 2017. The content level was sharpened, the VP Bank design was refreshed, and the website was given a comprehensive optical and technical makeover.
On the basis of the VP Bank vision, the Board of Directors prepared a mission statement that expresses how VP Bank defines and positions itself as a company. This contains the fields of bank, clients and culture, and is set out in the 2017 annual report under “The VP Bank brand”.
Outlook for 2018
Growth will remain a key topic in the year 2018. Clients and markets are as demanding as ever. For this reason, VP Bank will strengthen the expansion of the international business as well as the further development of digital services.
For VP Bank, growth means further strengthening the quality of client services as well as expanding its experienced teams. For this reason, the acquisition of new expert client advisors is a central task.
In addition, VP Bank is also keen to invest in growth through acquisitions. As before, the bank has a very sound capital base, enabling it to make active use of change within the financial sector.
VP Bank Group’s excellent result demonstrates that its strategic focus is correct. VP Bank will therefore continue to pursue its established strategy of broadly-based growth.