Item 5.2: Approval of annual accounts and board of directors’ report for the 2022 financial year for Entra ASA, including the distribution of dividend.
Folketrygdfondet expects the boards to prepare and implement a clear, well-founded long-term strategy for the company that includes financial targets, a dividend policy and a risk profile. The dividend policy should be predictable and be communicated clearly. At the same time, we expect the boards to treat dividend as a residual. This may entail temporary deviations between long-term dividend policy and dividend decisions, for example in situations where the companies’ framework conditions have changed significantly.
In 2022, Entra has seen financial key figures develop in a negative direction. Furthermore, the company has initiated but not completed a sales programme to reduce its loan-to-asset value ratio. In light of this, Folketrygdfondet considers that the distribution of dividend for the second half-year 2022 does not support the company’s value creation potential. For that reason, Folketrygdfondet votes against the distribution of dividend.
Item 6: Authorisation to distribute half-yearly dividend based on approved annual accounts for 2022
We refer to our grounds for voting in Item 5.2, in which we argue that the distribution of dividend does not support the company’s value creation potential. Folketrygdfondet therefore votes against the proposal to authorise the board to distribute a half-yearly dividend based on the approved annual accounts for 2022.