Publicis Groupe: Supervisory Board Release
SUPERVISORY BOARD RELEASEMarch 18, 2020 – During an extraordinary meeting on Monday 16, March, the Supervisory Board of Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris: FR0000130577, CAC 40] has been updated by the Management Board on the measures taken and applied immediately by country management teams, on three main areas:1 – As a priority, strong measures aimed at preserving the health of Groupe employees, by making extensive use of remote work from home, suspending travel wherever possible and prioritizing the use of video conference systems, and encouraging employees to work from home, including in regions that are less affected by COVID-19 pandemic. These measures enable the Groupe to ensure continuity in servicing our clients while ensuring the protection of the health of our employees;
2 – Helping our clients through this crisis with an unwavering commitment to their business, by providing strategic, creative, technological and commercial support in every field, at any moment, and devising ad hoc solutions to safeguard their revenues as far as possible;3 – Rigorously managing operating costs, including the postponement of some expenses in order to get through the current situation.The Supervisory Board approved of these measures and fully supports the Management Board. In addition, in view of the next Shareholders’ Meeting (May 27, 2020), the Board has decided to maintain the 2.30 euros dividend per share, corresponding to an 8.5% increase compared to the previous year. The Groupe is maintaining the option for payment in shares, but without any discount. Given the current share price and the robustness of Publicis Groupe’s balance sheet, which has around 4.9 billion Euros of available liquidity, the Board has effectively decided to submit to the shareholders’ vote the choice of a payment in cash and the possibility to elect for payment in shares, but without any discount.If approved by the Shareholders’ Meeting of May 27, 2020, the calendar will be as follows:
– June 16: Last day to acquire shares giving right to dividends (last trading day, right attached)
– June 17 (before stock market opens): Ex-dividend date
– June 18 : Record date
– June 19 – July 3: Exercise period for the option to have the dividend paid in shares
– July 9: Payment date – Listing of newly created shares and payment date of dividend (in cash or in shares).About Publicis Groupe – The Power of One
Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] is a global leader in marketing, communication, and digital transformation, driven through the alchemy of data, creativity, media and technology, uniquely positioned to deliver personalized experience at scale. Publicis Groupe offers its clients a seamless end-to-end service to address all their marketing and transformation challenges. Publicis Groupe is organized across Solutions hubs: Publicis Communications (Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, BBH, Marcel, Fallon, MSL, Prodigious), Publicis Media (Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry, Performics, Digitas), Publicis Sapient and Publicis Health. Epsilon, the data-driven marketing and tech company and its platform Conversant, is positioned at the center of the group fueling all the group’s operations. Present in over 100 countries, Publicis Groupe employs nearly 84,000 professionals.
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