The Board of Directors of Leonteq is opposed to an accelerated return of surplus capital to shareholders and recommends rejecting two corresponding shareholder proposals.

Swiss hedge fund manager Rainer-Marc Frey, who holds a 6,20 percent stake in the company, is calling for a share buyback program.

The other proposal comes from Raiffeisen Switzerland. It is demanding a distribution of CHF 3,00 per share, with CHF 1,50 per share to be paid from retained earnings (net profit and profit carried forward) in the form of a dividend and CHF 1,50 per share to be distributed from capital contribution reserves.

Extraordinary General Meeting Proposed

The Board of Directors of Leonteq intends to decide on the amount and method of returning surplus capital to shareholders only once «the implementation of the new, expanded regulatory framework has progressed further,» as stated in a press release on Friday. It has therefore proposed an extraordinary general meeting this year to address this issue. At this meeting, the Board of Directors plans to propose the amount and method of the extraordinary capital return.

For the 2024 financial year, the Board of Directors is advocating a dividend of CHF 0,25 per share.

Two Resignations from the Board of Directors

At the General Meeting on March 27, 2025, shareholders will elect a new member to the Board of Directors. Richard A. Laxer, a board member since 2018, and Sylvie Davidson, a board member since 2021, will not stand for re-election.

In their place, the Board of Directors is proposing Sylvia Steinmann, an expert in business and digital transformation in international financial services and industrial companies, as a new independent member of the Board of Directors. Steinmann is to be elected for a one-year term until the conclusion of the next ordinary General Meeting.