OREANDA-NEWS. Merck, a leading science and technology company, announced that at its 21st Annual General Meeting held today in Frankfurt, shareholders approved a dividend increase of EUR 0.05 or 5% to EUR 1.05 per share.

This corresponds to a payout ratio of around 21.6% based on earnings per share pre exceptionals.

The Annual General Meeting approved the actions of the members of the Executive Board and of the Supervisory Board for fiscal 2015 by a significant majority and approved all of the resolutions.

More than 1,000 shareholders took part in the Annual General Meeting. When the resolutions were voted on, 80,024,483 shares were represented, corresponding to 61.9% of the approximately 129.2 million shares issued.