Annual General Meeting of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Approves Dividend Increase

• Shareholders approve dividend increase of € 0.15 to € 1.20 (+14%)
  
• Executive Board and Supervisory Board actions approved by asignificant majority
  

Darmstadt, Germany, April 28, 2017 – Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, announced that at its 22nd Annual General Meeting held today in Frankfurt am Main, shareholders approved a dividend increase of € 0.15 or 14% to € 1.20 per share. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, has thus raised the dividend every year since 2011.

The Annual General Meeting approved the actions of the members of the Executive Board and of the Supervisory Board for fiscal 2016 by a significant majority and approved all of the resolutions, with the exception of agenda item 7. This related to the resolution on the approval of the compensation system for the Executive Board. Although as a Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien (corporation with general partners), it is not legally required to do, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, presented the compensation system for Executive Board members, which was adapted with effect from January 1, 2017, to the Annual General Meeting for approval. The company takes feedback from its shareholders seriously and will closely analysis the criticism.

More than 1,100 shareholders took part in the Annual General Meeting. When the resolutions were voted on, approximately 82.8 million shares were represented, corresponding to 64.0 % of the approximately 129.2 million shares issued.