Wärtsilä had approximately 39,200 shareholders at the end of the financial period 2016. Foreign shareholding, including nominee-registered shares, represented 55% (52) at the end of the period, and Finnish retail investors held 18% of the share capital (19). The largest shareholder was Investor AB with 34,866,544 shares or 18% of the share capital.

Further information concerning shareholder base development can be found on the Wärtsilä IR pages at www.wartsila.com/investors.

Changes in ownership – flagging notifications

Under the provisions of the Finnish Securities Markets Act, shareholders of listed companies have an obligation to notify both the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority and the listed company of changes in their holdings. The below table summarises the flagging notifications received by Wärtsilä during 2016, further information can be found on Wärtsilä’s webpage.

Management holdings

The members of the Board of Directors, the CEO, the CEO's deputy, and the corporations under their control, owned altogether 72,776 Wärtsilä Corporation shares at the end of 2016, which represents 0.04% of the stock and voting rights.

Further details on the Board of Directors' and Board of Management’s ownership of shares can be found in the Corporate Governance section.

Authorisations granted to the Board of Directors

The Annual General Meeting, held on 3 March 2016, authorised the Board of Directors to resolve to repurchase a maximum of 19,000,000 of the Company's own shares. The authorisation to repurchase the Company’s own shares shall be valid until the close of the next Annual General Meeting, however no longer than for 18 months from the authorisation of the shareholders’ meeting.

The Board of Directors was authorised to resolve to distribute a maximum of 19,000,000 of the Company’s own shares. The authorisation for the Board of Directors to distribute the Company’s own shares shall be valid for three years from the authorisation of the shareholders’ meeting and it cancels the authorisation given by the General Meeting on 5 March 2015. The Board of Directors is authorised to resolve to whom and in which order the own shares will be distributed. The Board of Directors is authorised to decide on the distribution of the Company’s own shares otherwise than in proportion to the existing pre-emptive right of the shareholders to purchase the Company’s own shares.

The Board of Directors was authorised to resolve on donations of EUR 1,300,000 at the maximum to be made to universities during 2016 and 2017. The most significant recipient of the donations would be Aalto University.

The Board of Directors' dividend proposal

The Board of Directors proposes that a dividend of 1.30 euro per share shall be distributed for the financial period that ended on 31 December 2016. The dividend shall be paid in two equal instalments.