Identified investors by region
Identified investors by type
Owing to lower investor assessments of Merck’s growth potential, in particular the proportion of GARP investors increased in 2011 (GARP: growth at reasonable price). The proportion of value investors remained at a high level.
As of December 31, 2011, the following shareholders reported their holdings in Merck shares to the company in accordance with the German Securities Trading Act:
| XLS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Number of shares held |
% of free float |
Reported on |
|
Sun Life Financial Inc., Toronto (Canada) |
6,175,369 |
9.56 |
1/21/10 |
|
Templeton Global Advisors Ltd., Nassau (Bahamas) |
3,271,264 |
5.06 |
9/9/10 |
|
Templeton Investment Counsel LLC, Wilmington, DE (USA) |
3,312,537 |
5.13 |
3/30/11 |
|
BlackRock Inc., New York, NY (USA) |
3,270,245 |
5.06 |
4/15/11 |
|
Capital Research and Management Company, Los Angeles, CA (USA) |
3,160,836 |
4.89 |
7/1/11 |
|
Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt (Germany) |
2,894,577 |
4.48 |
4/10/10 |
|
MFS Institutional Advisors Inc., Boston, MA (USA) |
1,955,336 |
3.03 |
11/9/11 |
Around 57% of shares represented at the Annual General Meeting
At the Annual General Meeting on April 8, 2011 in Frankfurt, 56.6% of the share capital was represented. In 2010, the figure was 58.2%. With the exception of agenda item 7, which concerned a resolution on the approval of a compensation system for members of the Executive Board and passed with 70.3% of the votes, more than 99% of the votes were in favor of each of the other five agenda items. Further details can be found on our website at www.merckgroup.com/en/investors.
Dividend
Owing to the good full-year results, the Executive Board will propose the payment of a dividend of € 1.50 for 2011, corresponding to an increase of 20% compared with 2010 and equivalent to a distribution ratio (total dividend payment as a proportion of net income) of 53%. Based on the closing price of Merck shares on December 30, 2011 of € 77.03, this corresponds to a dividend return of 1.95%. An update to our dividend policy is currently being discussed. We plan to present the outcome to the Annual General Meeting.