On 1 April 2004, the Annual General Meeting resolved to authorise the Board to decide on the acquisition of own shares in order to facilitate an effective management of the Group's capital and to hedge the outstanding employee stock options. The acquisitions may take place during the period until the ordinary Annual General Meeting in 2005.
As of December 15, 2004 SEB has repurchased 31,180,000 Class A and 4,078,600 Class C shares increasing its holdings to 5.0044 per cent. Repurchase of shares for effective capital management amounts to 15,858,600 and for employee stock options to 19,400,000 shares.
The SEB Group is a North European financial group for corporate customers, institutions and private individuals, with 670 branch offices around Sweden, Germany, the Baltic States and Poland. SEB has more than 5 million customers, of whom 1.8 million are e-banking customers. On 30 June 2004, the Group's total assets amounted to SEK 1,404bn while its assets under management totalled SEK 858bn. The Group is represented in some 20 countries around the world and has a staff of about 20,000. Read more about SEB at www.sebgroup.com.