DGAP-News: Vonovia SE: Vonovia SE Shareholders approve €1.66 dividend at Annual General Meeting

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT SUITABLE FOR COMPLETE OR PARTIAL PUBLICATION OR DISCLOSURE TO OR WITHIN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN OR OTHER COUNTRIES WHERE SUCH PUBLICATION OR DISCLOSURE WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF APPLICABLE LEGAL PROVISIONS. THIS PUBLICATION IS NEITHER AN OFFER TO BUY OR SELL NOR AN INVITATION TO TENDER AN OFFER TO BUY OR SELL SHARES.

Vonovia SE Shareholders approve €1.66 dividend at Annual General Meeting

- Vonovia holds AGM online

- Renewed offer of a scrip dividend

- Jürgen Fenk and Matthias Hünlein elected to the Supervisory Board

- Jürgen Fitschen: "To master the challenges that lie ahead, we need plenty of strength and courage in finding the right solutions. Vonovia is making its contribution and accepting responsibility."

- Rolf Buch: "Our business model puts us in a good position to respond to changing circumstances."

Bochum, 29 April 2022 - At today's Annual General Meeting, the shareholders of Vonovia SE ("Vonovia") approved all the proposed resolutions submitted by the Supervisory Board and the Management Board with the required majority. They also discharged both bodies for the 2021 financial year with a large majority (Supervisory Board: 98.03% of votes, Management Board: 99.87%).

The dividend proposed by the Supervisory Board and the Management Board was accepted at the AGM by a large majority. Vonovia will be paying out a €1.66 dividend for the 2021 financial year, a dividend that is effectively €0.08 higher than last year due to the larger number of shares resulting from the capital increase. As before, shareholders can opt for receiving a scrip dividend instead of a classic cash dividend.

Macroeconomics and transition to sustainable energies

"After two years of pandemic, we were hoping our lives would gradually return to normal. However, at the end of February, we were suddenly struck by the horrors of war in Ukraine. Millions of people are fleeing to save their lives. The whole of Europe is helping and moving closer together than anyone thought possible," said Jürgen Fitschen, Chairman of the Supervisory Board. "To master the challenges that lie ahead, we need plenty of strength and courage in finding the right solutions. Vonovia is making its contribution and accepting responsibility, as we provide homes that are both affordable and age-appropriate, while also creating additional housing that is so urgently needed."

Rolf Buch, Vonovia's Chief Executive Officer, also expressed his sadness about the war: "We are profoundly concerned about people in Ukraine and the children, women and men who have had to give up their homes. We are doing our best to support them in finding new and safe homes with us."

Buch continued to say: "During times of change, it's important to be flexible, and our business model puts us in a good position to respond to changing circumstances. Our financing structure enables us to operate as a business, and we've got a unique online management platform."


In the current financial year, Vonovia will continue to make progress on social and ecological issues. The company will be offering solutions to the three megatrends of urbanisation, climate protection and demographic change, with the focus on neighbourhoods and their comprehensive development.

"When there's a housing shortage, we create housing. We are also advancing the transition to sustainable energies in our neighbourhoods. The carbon regulations have been translated into our climate roadmap, and we are continually testing hydrogen and heat pumps in our operations. Furthermore, we've been modernising flats to make them barrier-free for the elderly," said Buch.

Changes on the Supervisory Board and contract renewals on the Management Board


Following the proposal of the Supervisory Board, Vonovia SE's shareholders elected Jürgen Fenk and Matthias Hünlein as new members. This change on the Supervisory Board represents another component of the Business Combination Agreement that was concluded between Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen when they merged in May 2021. As announced, the Supervisory Board members Burkhard Ulrich Drescher and Prof. Klaus Rauscher both resigned from their mandates.

In the first quarter of 2022, CEO Rolf Buch's contract was renewed early until 2028. Likewise, the contract of Arnd Fittkau, CRO for the operational business at Vonovia, was extended up to and including May 2027.

Online AGM to ensure protection from Covid


In view of the COVID-19 pandemic Vonovia held its AGM online, the third time in a row. Jürgen Fitschen and Rolf Buch spoke to the shareholders from the studio at the company's headquarters in Bochum. All other Supervisory Board members joined online for part of the time. Key stakeholders expressed their views in video messages. The entire AGM was translated by sign language interpreters.

As previously, the shareholders followed the Annual General Meeting in a live stream. Shareholders were welcome to submit their questions before the meeting, by 27 April - for the first time also in the form of pre-recorded video messages. They were able to exercise their voting rights both in advance and during the AGM, either voting by letter or authorizing the company's proxies. This corresponded to 72.48% of the share capital.

The Supervisory Board of Vonovia SE has the following members: Jürgen Fitschen (Chairman), Prof. Dr. Edgar Ernst (Deputy Chairman), Vitus Eckert, Jürgen Fenk, Dr. Florian Funck, Dr. Ute Geipel-Faber, Matthias Hünlein, Daniel Just, Hildegard Müller, Dr. Ariane Reinhart, Clara-Christina Streit and Christian Ulbrich.

The Management Board of Vonovia SE has the following members: Rolf Buch (CEO), Arnd Fittkau (CRO), Philip Grosse (CFO), Mag. Daniel Riedl (Development and Austria) and Helene von Roeder (CTO).

The detailed voting results of the Annual General Meeting will be published at https://investors.vonovia.de/agm. Supplementary material on the Annual General Meeting is also available at https://presse.vonovia.de/de-de/hauptversammlung.

2022 Financial Calendar:

5 May 2022: Interim Statement for the First Three Months of 2022
3 August 2022: Interim Statement for the First Half of 2022
4 November 2022: Interim Statement for the First Nine Months of 2022

About Vonovia


Vonovia SE is Europe's leading private residential real estate company. Vonovia currently owns around 565,000 residential units in all attractive cities and regions in Germany, Sweden and Austria. It also manages around 71,200 apartments. Its portfolio is worth approximately € 97.8 billion. As a modern service provider, Vonovia focuses on customer orientation and tenant satisfaction. Offering tenants affordable, attractive and livable homes is a prerequisite for the company's successful development. Therefore, Vonovia makes long-term investments in the maintenance, modernization and senior-friendly conversion of its properties. The company is also creating more and more new apartments by realizing infill developments and adding to existing buildings.

The company, which is based in Bochum, has been listed on the stock exchange since 2013. Since September 2015 Vonovia has been a constituent in the DAX 30 (today DAX 40) and since September 2020 in the EURO STOXX 50. Vonovia SE is also a constituent of additional national and international indices, including DAX 50 ESG, Dow Jones Sustainability Index Europe, STOXX Global ESG Leaders, EURO STOXX ESG Leaders 50, STOXX Europe ESG Leaders 50, FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe, and GPR 250 World. Vonovia has a workforce of approximately 16,000 employees.