Adidas 2002 Annual Report Download - page 28

PROPORTION OF INTERNATIONAL SHAREHOLDERS
GROWS IN 2002 /// Continuing the development of recent
years, adidas-Salomon’s shareholder structure showed
a clear trend towards an increasingly international
shareholder base in 2002. The amount of invitations
to our Annual General Meeting in May 2002 distributed
on our behalf by banks indicates a total number of
around 95,000 shareholders. adidas-Salomon has a free
float of 100%.
According to estimates based on our latest annual
ownership analysis conducted in June 2002, institutional
investors currently account for 76% of the Group’s 45.4
million outstanding shares (2001: 69%). Smaller, un-
disclosed holdings, which mainly include retail investors,
make up 19% of adidas-Salomon’s shares (2001: 21%).
Of the known institutional investors, North Americans
continue to be the largest group. Their share ownership
increased to 31% in 2002 from 27% in 2001. German
institutional investors account for 19% of outstanding
shares versus 16% in the prior year. Other Europeans now
hold 22% of adidas-Salomon’s shares compared to 24% in
2001. Holdings of other international shareholders have
doubled to 4% in 2002 from 2% in 2001. adidas-Salomon
Management, which includes current members of the
Executive and Supervisory Boards, holds less than 5% of
outstanding shares. This compares to less than 10% in
2001.
INVESTOR RELATIONS ACTIVITIES INCREASE /// At
adidas-Salomon, we constantly strive to further improve
communication with both individual and institutional
investors. In the course of 2002, adidas-Salomon’s
Management and the Investor Relations team visited a
large number of investors during road shows in Europe,
North America and Asia. In addition, we frequently
participated in conferences, spoke at retail investor
presentations, held over 400 one-on-one meetings with
institutional investors and also met with shareholders’
representatives on several occasions. In September
2002, we hosted our third annual Investor Day in London
which included presentations from five Executive Board
members. By presenting the latest product innovations
as well as Management’s goals and strategies to
investors and financial analysts, we continue to increase
adidas-Salomon’s visibility within the financial commu-
nity. This supports our efforts to achieve a fair valuation
of the adidas-Salomon share on the stock markets.
26 THE GROUP OUR SHARE
EXTENSIVE AND POSITIVE ANALYST COVERAGE /// The
relevance of our Group within the financial community
is also reflected in the extensive coverage of adidas-
Salomon by numerous financial institutions. In 2002,
more than 35 banks released research reports on
adidas-Salomon on a regular basis. Within the last three
months of the year, more than half of these analysts
(52%) had issued a “buy” recommendation for our share.
Only 8% ranked our share in the “sell” category, while
40% recommended investors “hold” our share.
€ 1.00 DIVIDEND AT TOP END OF GROUP DIVIDEND
RANGE /// After paying a dividend of € 0.92 per share
in each of the last three years, the adidas-Salomon
Executive and Supervisory Boards will recommend a
dividend of € 1.00 for the 2002 fiscal year to our share-
holders at the Annual General Meeting on May 8, 2003.
This increase of 9% versus the prior years amounts to the
highest dividend in the Group’s history and reflects our
philosophy to share our Group’s success with our share-
holders. With a total payout of approximately € 45 million
the proposal represents a payout percentage of 20%.
This is at the top end of our dividend policy, which
recommends a payout ratio of between 15 and 20% of
consolidated net income.