Item 8.3: Discharge of liability for the members of the Board of Directors and the President
Folketrygdfondet exercises particular caution in voting for a discharge of liability when a company has been involved in or is accused of engaging in serious misconduct. Ericsson communicated to the market in early March the US DOJ’s conclusion that 1) the company provided insufficient disclosure about its internal investigation into conduct in Iraq in the period 2011 until 2019 prior to concluding the deferred prosecution agreement (DPA); and 2) that the company breached the DPA by failing to make subsequent disclosure related to the investigation post-DPA. Folketrygdfondet therefore voted against discharge of liability for the board of directors and the CEO.
Item 11.5: Elect CEO Borje E. Ekholm as a board member
Rationale:
Folketrygdfondet opposes the election of the CEO to the board of directors as a matter of principle. One of the board’s main tasks is the supervision of company management, which includes appointment and dismissal of the CEO. Folketrygdfondet considers that board members can only supervise company management adequately if they are not recruited from among management. For this reason, we voted against item 11.5.