External risks
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prices which affect capital tied up.
Operational risk
The raw materials used in operations are agricultural products, and
availability may therefore vary due to climatic and other external
factors.
Financial risk
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Financial Risk Management.
Corporate Governance Report
The corporate governance report on pages 81–85 is part of the
Directors’ Report. For information on the composition and work,
etc., of the Board of Directors, see the Corporate Governance
Report on page 82.
Sustainability Report
Under Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Swedish Annual Accounts Act,
AAK has decided to prepare its Sustainability Report separately
from the Annual Report. The Sustainability Report was submitted
to the auditor with the Annual Report.
Parent
The Company is the holding company of the AAK Group, and its
activities consist mainly of joint Group functions connected to the
development and management of the Group. The Parent employs
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nancing, accounting, information, marketing, product development,
human resources and IT. The Parent is also responsible for Group
strategy and risk management, and provides legal and tax-related
services to Group companies.
The Parent’s invoicing in 2017 amounted to SEK 97 million (95).
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Interest-bearing liabilities minus cash and cash equivalents and
interest-bearing assets were SEK -1,440 million (-1,301). Investments
41
in intangible non-current assets and property, plant and
equipment amounted to SEK 3 million (9). The Parent had a total
of 36 (31) employees on December 31, 2017.
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period.
Background to and motivation of the proposed dividend
The Board of Directors has proposed that the 2018 Annual Gen-
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shareholders will receive a dividend of SEK 9.75 per share. The
proposed dividend therefore totals SEK 412 million. The objective
is for the dividend in the long term to correspond to 30–50 percent
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instruments valued under Chap. 4, Section 14 a, of the Swedish
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makes the following statement regarding the proposed dividend, in
accordance with Chap. 18, Section 4, of the Swedish Companies
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Important agreements affected by change in control resulting
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that, in certain cases, give the lender the right to request advance
payment if control of AAK changes substantially. Such a substantial
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AAK’s assessment is that it has been necessary to accept these
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wise acceptable.
Guidelines for remuneration of senior executives
Guidelines for the remuneration of the CEO and other senior
executives were adopted by the 2017 Annual General Meeting. No
deviations from these guidelines have been made. The Board of
Directors of AAK proposes that the 2018 Annual General Meeting
resolve that the same guidelines for remuneration of senior executives
be applied in 2018 as in 2017. The present guidelines are
contained in Note 8, Remuneration of the Board of Directors and
Senior Executives.
These guidelines will cover those persons who are in Group
management positions during the period of time in which the guidelines
apply. The guidelines apply to agreements entered into after
a resolution by the Annual General Meeting, and in the event that
changes are made to existing agreements after this point in time.
The Board will be entitled to diverge from the guidelines if there are
particular reasons to do so in an individual case.
Product development
The Group’s product development operations are described in
further detail on pages 12–19.
Environment
The environmental impact from our plants includes emissions of
odorous substances, solvents, smoke and gases into the atmosphere,
as well as discharging fats, oxygen-consuming material,
and nutrients into the water, and also creating organic waste and
noise. We continually review our impact on all levels to further
improve environmental performance at AAK. We operate all our
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operate. In Sweden, the operations in Karlshamn are licensable
under Swedish law.
Employees
The recruitment of skilled and competent personnel is an important
component in maintaining competitiveness for the AAK Group. The
Group therefore has continuous active programs for personnel
development.
Risk management and sensitivity analysis
All business operations involve risks – a controlled approach to
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Risks may depend on events in the operating environment and
may affect a certain sector or market. A risk may also be purely
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management is a continual process which is conducted within
the framework of operational management and forms a natural
part of the day-to-day monitoring of operations.
For more detailed information, please refer to the section on
Risks on pages 24–25 and to Note 3, Financial Risk Management.