CLERMONT-FERRAND, France — Group Michelin will hold its annual meeting as scheduled on June 23 but without shareholders in attendance, the company said recently, in accordance with accepted social distancing measures and restrictions.
Shareholders will be able to follow the meeting via video conference on the corporate website michelin.com, and are being encouraged to vote remotely ahead of the meeting.
Michelin's board of directors also voted recently to reduce the amount of the proposed 2019 dividend to €2 ($2.20), compared with the initially announced €3.85 ($4.23), with payment scheduled for July 3.
Since the beginning of the crisis, Michelin said it has taken all of the initiatives required to "attenuate as much as possible the negative impact" of the COVID-19 pandemic on segment operating income and free cash flow and stressed that it has the "financing sources and mechanisms in place to deal with the uncertainty surrounding the crisis."
Michelin initiated production suspensions March 19 in Europe at plants in countries most affected by the spread of COVID-19 virus and on March 20 at some of its tire plants in Canada and the U.S. due to the broad effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The European suspensions were supposed to be for at least one week and, in North America, for up to two weeks, but the company hasn't commented publicly since on those actions.
In North America, Michelin excluded the production of "vital and critical tires for the country's economic continuity" from the suspension.