Comdirect bank : suspends dividend payment in line with the ECB’s recommendations due to the coronavirus pandemic

Quickborn, 01.04.2020

• Initially planned dividend proposal of €0.35 to the annual general meeting suspended following the European Central Bank's recommendation
• Entirely virtual annual general meeting planned for 5 May 2020

The Board of Managing Directors of comdirect bank AG will recommend to the 2020 annual general meeting that no dividend be paid out for the 2019 financial year. At the annual press conference in January, comdirect had announced a dividend proposal of €0.35 per share to the annual general meeting. By suspending the dividend, comdirect is following the recommendation of the European Central Bank made to banks on 27 March 2020 not to pay a dividend for 2019 and 2020 until at least 1 October 2020 in view of the uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Based on the amendments to German law adopted by the Bundestag last week, comdirect is planning to hold its annual general meeting this year as a purely virtual event. 'We welcome the initiative introduced by the Federal Government to temporarily ease the regulations for holding shareholder meetings which previously had to be attended in person according to German stock corporation law. This means that we are still able to pass the necessary resolutions despite the restrictions on public meetings currently imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. We are currently reviewing all options for the reliable execution of a virtual annual general meeting and we are confident that this will still be possible on the original date of 5 May 2020,' says Frauke Hegemann.

According to the new provision, the virtual annual general meeting must be convened 21 days in advance. This means that comdirect is planning to convene the meeting by 14 April 2020 at the latest.