Shareholders elect Jens Alder as the new Chairman

286 shareholders attended the 7th Annual General Meeting of Alpiq Holding Ltd. at the Stadthalle Kleinholz in Olten. They represented 89.85 percent of voting rights. The shareholders approved the 2014 consolidated financial statements of the Alpiq Group as well as the 2014 annual report and the annual financial statements of Alpiq Holding Ltd. The General Meeting discharged the members of the Board of Directors of their responsibilities and approved the issuance of a scrip dividend (Wahldividende) out of reserves from capital contribution. Shareholders can elect to an unchanged, cash dividend payment of CHF 2 per share, or to receive newly issued shares. The General Meeting approved a capital increase along with the respective revision to the Articles of Association to enable the issuance of new shares. With the scrip dividend, Alpiq intends to strengthen its capital base and improve the financial flexibility of the Group. The document "Scrip Dividend 2015" can be obtained under www.alpiq.com/scrip-dividend.

Shareholders appointed Heiko Berg, Philipp Büssenschütt and Tilmann Steinhagen as representatives of EDF (EDF Alpes Investissements Sàrl) for a one-year term, in succession of the resigning board members Michael Baumgärtner, Damien Gros and Gérard Roth. Chairman Hans E. Schweickardt (70) no longer stood for re-election. As his successor, the General Meeting elected Jens Alder as Chairman of the Board for a one-year term.

The General Meeting bid the retiring Chairman, Hans E. Schweickardt, a worthy farewell. Since Alpiq was founded in January 2009, Hans E. Schweickardt has decisively shaped the company with his comprehensive knowledge of the electricity market and his extensive national and international network. The merger of the Swiss energy companies Atel and EOS was completed under his leadership. During his time as Chairman, Alpiq has become the largest Swiss energy company with a European reach. In 2012, he engineered a comprehensive restructuring programme, which kicked off the transformation of the group. 

Jens Alder (57), a Swiss citizen, has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the ETH Zurich and an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau. He worked for Alcatel for a total of 14 years, in his last position as the Head of the telecommunications department in Switzerland. He was also a member of the Executive Board of the telecommunications department of Motor-Columbus for two years. In 1998, he began working for Swisscom, where he took on the role of CEO from 1999 to 2006. He led the Danish telecommunications company TDC A/S from 2006 to 2008. Since 2008, Jens Alder has been a professional member of boards of directors. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sanitas Health Insurance (Zurich), BG Consulting Engineers (Lausanne) and the Goldbach Group (Küsnacht), and further sits on the Board of Directors of CA Technologies (New York, USA). From January 2010 to the end of April 2015 Jens Alder was also the Chairman of IWB Industrielle Werke Basel.

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